c- . ;

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If

YALE
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By the Same Author.

EVENTS AND EPOCHS IN RELIGIOUS HISTORY.
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SELF-CULTURE.
1 vol. i2mo. Price, $1.50.

1. Man made to grow.
2. Training of the Body.
3. Best Use of Time.
4. Self-Knowledge.
5. Education of the Organs of Observa
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"Twenty-two Lectures full of the ripe experience, profound wisdom, broad
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TIOKNOK AND COMPANY, BOSTON.

THE IDEAS

OF

THE APOSTLE PAUL

TRANSLATED INTO THEIR MODERN
EQUIVALENTS

BY

JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE
AUTHOR OF "SELF-CULTURE," " TEN GREAT RELIGIONS,"
"EVENTS AND EPOCHS IN RELIGIOUS HISTORY,"
"THOMAS DIDYMUS," ETC.

BOSTON
TICKNOR AND COMPANY
1886

Copyright, 1884,
By James R. Osgood and Company.
All rights reserved.

Hmlirnsitj Prrsg :
John Wilson and Son, Cambridgb.

PREFACE.

"¦ I "\HE purpose of this book is not oritical nor exe-
geticaL I do not propose to write another
commentary on the Pauline letters, nor to examine
accurately the different hypotheses in regard to them
whieh have recently occupied so much attention. I
would rather develop the radical convictions which
were the source of Paul's power, and make intelligible
to common readers the pivotal ideas, around which
his thoughts revolved. I wish to translate into the
language of common life the great beliefs of his soul,
which have been so long hidden by an obseure theo
logical phraseology. If I can succeed, even in a
limited extent, in doing this, I shall hope that this
book may find a place in the vast library of works
which have this apostle for their subject.
That the . interest in Paul and his writings is not
diminishing is evident from the many valuable pub
lications of the past few years which have given us
original views of Pauline Christianity. Omitting the

IV PREFACE.
authors who have written from the old stand-point,
I will only refer to the works of Stanley and Jow-
ett, Conybeare and Howson, Canon Farrar, Matthew
' Arnold, and Martineau, in England ; Renan, Pres-
sense, Sabatier, Godet, and others, in France ; Baur,
and the friends and opponents of his school, in
Germany.1 Ample materials for the study of the Pauline ideas
are to be found in those Epistles the authenticity
of which the most destructive criticism has not ques
tioned. The character of Paul, and his ways of
thought are fully shown to us in the Epistles to the
Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians; which are ad
mitted to be genuine even by tbe Tubingen school
of criticism. But it is very possible that the other
writings attributed to Paul in the New Testament, as
well as the Book of Acts, will continue to be regarded
as valid sources of knowledge, after full justice has
been done to the exceptions raised against them by
modern investigation. A reaction against the ex
treme position of Baur has already begun among
those who profess to be to a greater or less extent his
1 "Life and Epistles of St. Paul, &c By Rev. W. J. Conybeare
and Rev. J. S. Howson. 1852." " Epistles of St. Paul to the Corin
thians, &c. By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley. 1855." " The Epistles of
St. Paul, &o. By Benjamin Jowett. 1855." "St. Paul and his
Modern Students. By James Martineau" (in "Studies of Chris
tianity. Boston. 1858"). "St. Paul. Par Ernest Renan. 1869."
"Baur. Paulus, der Apostel, &c," 1845 and 1865. See a fuller
list in the Appendix.

PREFACE. V
disciples. " Out of the thirteen Pauline Epistles, com
monly received by antiquity as genuine, four only
are admitted as unquestionably genuine by Baur." 1
But Pneiderer, classed by Holtzmann (Hilgenfeld's
" Zeitschrift fiir W. Theologie," vol. xxv., page 437,
1882) with those "who have carried out and com
pleted Baur's theory in the same direction, " says ;
" In addition to tbe four undisputed Epistles, I hold
to be genuine, tbe first to the Tbessalonians, tbe Epis
tle to Philemon, and that to tbe Philippians ; as un
qualifiedly spurious, that to the Epbesians and the
three pastoral Epistles ; as spurious with qualifications,
the second, to the Thessalonians, and that to the
Colossians." 2 Renan,3 in addition to these, admits as
genuine tbe second Thessalonians, and as probable
that to the Colossians. Others, like Weiss and R.
Schmidt believe tbe "Letters of the Imprisonment"
(Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Philemon) must
stand or fall together, and that they must all be ac
cepted as genuine.4 Sabatier5 accepts all but the
1 R. "W. Mackay. "The Tubingen School and its Antecedents.
London. 1863." The passionate partisanship of this writer injures
the effect of what would otherwise be a very valuable, as it is a very
thorough, argument for the views of Baur and Zeller.
2 Otto Pneiderer. "Der Panlinismus. 1873." Translated in
"Theolog. Translation Fund," 1877.
3 "Saint Paul. Par Ernest Renan. Paris. 1869."
* Weiss. "Neutest. Theologie."
6 " L'ApStre Paul, &c. Par A. Sabatier. Deuxieme Edition.
Paris. 1881."

VI PREFACE.
Pastoral Epistles, of which he says, "We humbly
confess that a long study, with contradictory results,
has left us in a state of entire indecision in regard to
them." Reuss defends the authenticity of these also.1
Some of Baur's most distinguished followers have ac
cepted many of the Pauline letters which he gave up.
Among these are such eminent scholars as Grimm
and Keim, besides theologians like Bleek, Mangold,
Meyer, Pressens^, Wetzel, Zimmer, and B. Weiss.2
Postponing a further examination of the authen
ticity of our canon till the end of my book, I will
only add here that most of the characteristic ideas of
Paul are to be found in the writings universally ac
cepted as genuine. In these we have ample mate
rials for our study, — far more than enough to occupy
us in this brief survey. I hope that this attempt to
translate some of the principal ideas of Paul into
their modern equivalents will be of service to some
students. If it enables them to see to any extent the
admirable characteristics of this heroic champion of
truth and freedom, I shall be grateful for that result.
1 " Geschichte der Heiligen Schriften des Neuen Testament."
2 See an article "by Holtzmann in the " Zeitschrift fur Wissen-
schaftliche Theologie," edited by Hilgenfeld, I,eipzig, 1882 ; and
many articles in the "Studien und Kritiken," Perthes, Gotha.
I shall resume the further discussion of this question in the
Appendix to this volume.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF PAUL. '
Paul's influence upon the development of Christianity,. 1. — His
peculiar fitness for the work, 2. — His youth and early training,
3. — Different estimates of his character, 4. — His attainments' as
a scholar, 6. — Physical characteristics, 7. — Literary style, 8. —
Renan's estimate of his character and writings, 11. — Jesus as a
man of action, 14. — Inferiority of Paul to Jesus, 18. — Paul
compared with Luther, 20.
CHAPTER II.
SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF PAUL.
Periods in the life of Paul, 22. — Why the Book of Acts ended
abruptly, 23. — Sources of information in regard to Paul, 23. —
Authenticity of Acts and the Epistles touched upon, 24. — Paul
first appears at death of Stephen, 24. — Meaning and purpose of
Stephen's speech, 25. — His death a disaster to the early church,
but it gave Paul to it, 26. — Impression made on his mind by the
death of Stephen, 28  His conversion, 29. — Explanations of
that event, 30. — Paul at Damascus, 32, — Paul's sacrifice' in
becoming a Christian, and how repaid to him; 33. — In Arabia,

viii CONTENTS.
34. — At Jerusalem, 35. — At Antioch, 36. — His missionary
work, 36. — First opponents, 37. — Paul at Athens, 39. — At
Jerusalem again, 40. — Bitterly opposed both by the Jews and the
Jewish Christians, 40. — At Cassarea, 41. — At Rome, 42.

CHAPTER III.
THE INSPIRATION OF PAUL.
Inspiration in general, 45. — Different kinds of inspiration, 47. —
^Christian inspiration not mysticism nor partialism, 48. — Comes
from some common experience in the Apostles, 50. — The pecul
iar qualities of Pauline inspiration, various and complex, inde
pendent and free, 52. — Its breadth, 54. — Its source an inward
^vision of Christ, 55. — A prophetic idealism, 57. — Gives preci
sion to his language, 58. — Equipoise of thought, 59. — His idea
of progress, 60. — Faith in human capacity, 61. — Fulness of
Christ, 62. — Is opposed to modern agnosticism and pantheism,
62. — Not infallibility, 63. — How we distinguish the inspired
part of a writing from that which is not inspired, 64. — Extract
from Goethe, 65. CHAPTER IV.
THE MISSIONARY PERIOD.
Paul's Gospel, 67. — Substance of his preaching, 68. — Jesus as the
Christ, 69. — Why Christianity was so readily accepted by the
Greeks, 69. — Two views of the Messiah, 71. — The present age,
and the age to come, 72. — The Parousia, or coming of Christ,
73. — Not a " second coming,'' 74. — Paul, at first, expects it as
visible and outward, 75. — Jesus foresees the destruction of
Jerusalem, 76. — This involves no miraculous foresight, 7". —
Similar instances in the case of others, 77. — Paul's first writ
ings, — the "Letters to the Thessalonians," 80. —Filled with
the spirit of youth and hope, 81. — The "man of sin," 82. —
The affectionate character of these letters, 84  The objections
to their genuineness of little weight, 85.

CONTENTS. ix
CHAPTER V.
PAUL THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM.
Difficulty in Paul's writings, 87. — Advice of Locke, 89. — Paul's
life in Arabia after his conversion, 91. — Why the Jewish rulers
tolerated the Christian church at Jerusalem, and persecuted
Paul's form of Christianity, 92. — Argument of Judaizing Chris-
. tians, 97. — Its strength, 98. — Paul's method of reply, 100. —
—^•Principles involved in his answer good for all time, 104. — How
faith saves us, 106. — The faith of Jesus in God as a Father,
107. — It produces peace, 108. — Revival of the Jewish bigotry
—Z? in the Christian church, 108. — Paul meets it, and defeats it, 109.
'~p> — He is the real founder of Protestantism, 109. — And of liberal
^ Christianity, 110. — The essence of- liberal Christianity, 110. —
-^ Its three elements, 111. — The principles of freedom laid down
'-^ by Paul, 112. — More than toleration, 114. — Based on faith,
115. — Teaches the relativity of -knowledge, 117. — Peter the head
of the -Roman Church, Paul ofthe Catholic Church, 118. — First
opponents of Paul, 119. — Epistle to the Galatians, 120. — Its
substance, 120. CHAPTER VI.
THE ANTAGONISM OF LAW AND GRACE.
Paul's polemic against the Law of Works, 123. —Illustrations from
ancient and modern bigotry, 124. — Conventional morality, 128.
— Paul's argument that the Moral Law arouses sin examined,
129. — Illustrations, 131. — Why Law alone is no adequate cure
for evil, 132. — Modern teachers of Natural Law face to face with
Paul, 133. — Exceptions taken by some modern thinkers to
prayer, 138. — Their arguments examined.^.138. — The relation
of Law to Grace, 140. —The two attitudes of the soul, —looking
inward for strength, outward to work, 142. — God manifested as
Law in the outward world, as Love in the world within, 143. —
" Justification " and "salvation" in their modern equivalents,
144. — The place of religion, and that of morals, in human life,
144.

X CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING MORAL SIN OR EVIL.
The struggle in Paul's nature with evil, 146. — Paul no saint in the
Catholic sense, 147. — Description in Romans vii. of his inner
conflicts, 147. — The errors of Orthodoxy and of Liberal Chris-
.tianity, 149. — Sin as death, sin as guilt, and sin as disease,
/^150. — Paul's psychology, 155. — Spirit, soul, and body, 156. —
Three conditions corresponding to this, — the carnal mind, the
\\worldly mind, and the spiritual mind, 158. — As to Paul's Cal-
/vinism, 161. — Adam's fall, 162. — Paul's view in relation to it,
163. — Original sin and total depravity, 166. — "Children of
wrath," 167. — The carnal man, the moral man, and the spiritual
man, 167. — A new power of hope imparted to the world by
Jesus, 169. — Tendencies to evil and tendencies to good in all
men, 172. — Resume of differences between the Pauline and Gal-
vinistic theology of sin, 175.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH TRANSLATED
INTO SOME OF ITS MODERN EQUIVALENTS.
Faith- considered on its positive side, 177. — Man's need of coming
into relation with God, 178. — A world without God, 178. —
Faith the power which unites us with God, 180. — Not a belief
in doctrines,, but trust in goodness, 182. — This trust the source
of moral progress, 183. — The object of religion to produce it,
183. — Sacramental religions, 184. — Idolatry, 184. — The danger
of formalism, 185. — Martin Luther, the Quakers, the Methodist
movement, Channing, and Emerson, as modern equivalents of
the principle of Justification by Faith, 188.

CONTENTS. xi
CHAPTER IX.
THE MEANING OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. "
Importance of this Epistle, 198. — Its argument detached from con
troversy, and presented in an abstract form, 199. — Purpose of
the letter, 201. — Nature of the discussion as to how a man shall
become good, 205. — Whether he shall begin by doing right, or
being right, 207. — Paul and James, 207. — The case of Abraham,
208. — Adam's sin, 211. — Imputation, 213. — Objections of
Jews and Greeks answered, 215. — The sinner's struggles, and
his redemption, 217. — Practical advice, 218.
CHAPTER X.
THE PRACTICAL WISDOM OF PAUL.
The church at Corinth, 223. — Its peculiarities, 224, — Need of
practical wisdom in meeting its conditions, 224. — Apollos, 225.
— Paraphrase of the second chapter of the First Epistle to Cor
inth, 227. — Litigation, 229. — Excesses of freedom, 230. —The
lawful and the expedient, 231. — Stay in your place, 234. — The
mystics, 235. — Gift of tongues, 236. — Position of women, 238.
— Inequality of insight in this Epistle, zad. — Some parti highly
inspired, others not at all, 238. — His views regarding marriage,
£40. — The veil, 241. — The Lord's Supper, 242. — One generous
purpose in all this varied discussion, 243.
CHAPTER XI.
THEOLOGY OF PAUL.
Paul believes in evidences of the Divine presence in nature and the
human soul, 246. — Does not try to prove the existence of God,
248. — Differs from Judaism in teaching the immanence of God
in all things, 250. — Differs from pantheism in teaching that
God is above all things, 251. — Taught a living God, more per-

XU CONTENTS.
sonal than any other person, 252. — Opposed to all mechanical
views of Deity, 253. — Taught the everlasting decrees of God, in
the sense of a perpetual providence, 254. — All things are work
ing together for good, 255. — Not a doctrine of necessity, 258. —
The manifestations of God, 259. — Paul does not teach the church
doctrine of the Trinity, but the truth which underlies that doc
trine, 259. — These ideas of God came to Paul by inspiration, and
not from memory, 264. CHAPTER XII.
Paul's ideas concerning christ.
Paul's Christ the ideal Christ rather than the historic Christ, 265.
— Not the Christ of dogma, nor of ritual, 266. — Came to him
through personal experience, 269. — Its power over his soul proves
it something real, 270. — Mediation universal, 273. — Personal
communion with Christ the power in other great men, 274. —
Paul believed in Christ as the life of the Church and the world,
275. — This Christ of Paul is neither an imaginary being nor
an unnatural and exceptional revelation, 280. — Mozoomdar's
account of the personal influence of Jesus upon himself, 281. —
\lr Paul did not regard Christ as God, 284. — Always teaches a
subordination of the Son to the Father, 285. — Baur quoted on
this point, 285. — Progress in Paul's mind in regard to Christ,
286. — The view in the earlier and later Epistles, 287. — Growth
of his inspiration, 289. CHAPTER XIII.
ATONEMENT ; DEATH OF CHRIST ; ITS INFLUENCE.
Calvin's doctrine, 291. — Paul not u. Calvinist, 293. — Does not
teach that Christ was punished to satisfy the Divine Justice, or as
a substitute for the sinner, 293. — Meaning of sacrifice, 299. —
The death of Christ brings us to God, 300. — Power in the death
of Jesus, 301. — A manifestation of Divine Love, not of Divine
Wrath, or Divine Justice, 803. — Redemption, 305. — Propitia-

CONTENTS. xiii
tion, 306. — Expiation, 310. — The three principal theories of
Atonement, 311. — Modern theories, 313. — The death of Jesus
, viearious suffering, but not vicarious punishment, 315. — View
taken in Philippians ii. 1-11, 316. — Substantial truth under all
these theories, 318. .CHAPTER XIV.
THE HEART OF PAUL.
Great men not independent of sympathy, 320. — Paul dependent
on the love of his friends, 321. — His salutations, 322. — His
interest in his converts, 323. — Love for the Thessalonians, 323.
— Courtesy, 325. — Affectionate civility to Philemon, 327. — A
Christian gentleman, 328. — His outburst of feeling to the
Corinthians, 330. • — His Hymn to Love, 331.

CHAPTER XV.
DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES.
Was Paul a teacher of Calvinistic predestination ? 334. — The doc
trine of Calvin stated in his own language, 335. — And in the
Westminster Confession, 336, — Proof texts from Paul, 336. —
The truth in Calvinism, 338. — Temporal predestination true,
eternal predestination false; 339. — The word Predestination,
340. — The word Election, 342. — A Providence in all things,
343. — Illustrations, 344. — How were the Jews a chosen peo
ple ? 345. — Election conditional, 346. — The potter and the clay,
347. - — The Jewish toughness, 348. — Vessels of wrath, 349. — ¦
Pharaoh's hard heart, 353. — Each nation a chosen people, 355.
— Human freedom, 354. — All men elected, 356. — Importance
and truth of this doctrine, 358.

XIV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE LAST THINGS.
" Then, the end! " 362. — Nature of inspired prediction, 363. — The
present age, and the age to come, 365. — The prophecies of Jesus
concerning his coming, 367. -r- Nature of his coming, 368. — The
Judgment, 369. — Paul's doctrine concerning it, 370. — De
mands of conscience, 371. — Tlie Resurrection, 373. — It is an
ascent to a higher life, 374. — The rising up of Jesus, 376. — The
nature ofthe future body, 379. — Paul's account of it a reasonable
one, 382. — Christ finally to conquer all evil, 384, — Paul's belief
in human progress, 386. — His confidence in human nature,
389. -r The Church is the body of Christ, 391. — Conclusion,
392.

APPENDIX.
NOTE A. — The Tendency Theory of Baur and its
Modification by his Successors.  395
NOTE B. — Authorship of the Epistle to the Ephe-
sians  411
NOTE C. — Paul and Seneca  415
NOTE D. — The many Adversaries of Paul . . . 420
NOTE E. — Works on the Pauline Letters . . . 430

INDEX  433

IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.

CHAPTER I.
CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE <JF PAUL.
THE Apostle Paul was one of the most extraor
dinary men who have ever appeared in the
history of the human race. Some men have been
great in thought, others in action ; Paul was equally
distinguished as a thinker and as a man of executive
ability. Christianity, under the guidance of Paul,
took a new departure. It cut loose from Judaism,
and became a religion for mankind. The other apos
tles were so immersed in Jewish convictions and
Jewish prejudices that they were unable to rise to
the idea of a universal religion. Jesus was to them
only the Christ, only the Jewish Redeemer ; not the
Prophet and Teacher of man, as man. Paul lifted the
Gospel to this plane of catholicity and freedom.
Paul was a soul prepared by Providence for this
great work of extending the Gospel to the Gentiles.
To attain this end, it would seem as if a man must
l

2 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
be a Jew and Gentile at the same time, besides
being a Christian. When we consider the immense
force of prejudice, and how powerless genius, piety
and popularity all become when they oppose it, we
must admire the influence that could overcome at
once that double wall of prejudice, the Jewish hatred
for the Gentile, and the Gentile contempt for the Jew.
When Paul began his ministry, there were scarcely
any Christians except those who were also Jews.
His office was to persuade these Jewish Christians to
give their Messiah to the heathen, and to persuade
the heathen Jo accept this Jewish Messiah as their
Saviour and Master. This could be done only by
leading both up out of these prejudices to a higher
ground ; and the man to do this must have felt and
known those prejudices, and have risen above them
himself by a deep spiritual experience ; must have
thoroughly understood the defects and needs of Jew
and Gentile, and, united with this deep insight, must
possess a power of logic by which to convince others.
In fact, he must be both by original endowment and
acquired experience, a universal man ; and such a
universal man was Paul.
He was one sent by Providence for this work
He was a Jew by birth, but with no Jewish mind.
His intellect was at once capacious and energetic,
uniting in its complex nature the most antagonist
tendencies. Strength of intellect is apt to be narrow ;
width of view tends to indifference. But the mind
of Paul had the energy of a mountain torrent and

CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF PAUL. 3
the breadth of an inland lake. He was a theologian,
acute even to subtlety ; a man of the world, practical
even to utilitarianism ; a logician, to whom all truth
seemed to take the shape of an argument ; a spiritual
ist, who would only state his intuitions, not defend
them. How burning a zeal had he, yet how calm,
clear and rational! The pivot of his theology was
the doctrine that we are justified hy faith ; but who
so minute in his practical exhortations to Christian
duty, who so eminently a moral preacher, as Paul ?
His experience was as remarkable as his endow
ment. The Jewish boy was born in a Grecian city,
renowned throughout Asia Minor for its literature
and elegant arts. Thence removed to Jerusalem, he
went through the training of the Pharisees, zealously
observing all their strict forms and minute regula
tions. In the direction of effort, constraint, ascetic
self-denial, the crushing of the appetites, the swathing
of human nature by rigid bands, the attempt to
mould it by external pressure into a given shape —
in this direction no one ever went further than he.
Here he had nothing to learn, for he had tried it to
the utmost and found it insufficient. Meantime,
while this moral training was in progress under the
wise and learned Gamaliel, his intellect received a
thorough culture. Then came his Christian experi
ence, a ray of God's light descending into his stormy
and impetuous mind, God's love at once breaking the
chains of his rigid system, bringing him from form to
freedom, from narrow rules to great principles, from

4 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
the letter to the spirit, and giving him good rea
son to say, "If any man be in Christ, he. is a new
creature'' To many readers, however, Paul is an obscure writer,
and some have inferred that this was because he had
no clear ideas himself. More than this, it is believed
by others that he was a man of narrow prejudices ;
that he was one-sided in his doctrine ; that he was
arrogant and overbearing; that his moral teaching
was imperfect ; that he was a Calvinist, and that he
gave a false direction to the course of Christianity.
In recent times, the German theologian Baur has
thought that he had discovered a bitter opposition
between Paul and Peter. Even Renan, who has
written one of the best books concerning Paul, in his
final estimate of his character puts him in a lower
rank than St. Francis of Assisi, and the author of
the " Imitation of Christ."
Those critics who are usually candid often grow
bitter when they speak of Paul. Mr. Frothingham,
in his book called " The 'Cradle of Christ," makes some
disparaging remarks concerning this apostle, charging
him with low views of God, " anthropomorphic to an
amazing degree," and with a very faulty morality.1
A still more recent writer, Victor Schoelcher, in a
volume entitled " The True St. Paul," accuses him of
being false, vain, overbearing, teaching great errors,
often incomprehensible, giving a false view of God,
and inculcating a very imperfect morality.
1 See Note C at the end of this volume.

CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF PAUL. 5
All this seems to me to indicate a serious misun
derstanding of the apostle. If I, on the other hand,
were asked for my opinion of Paul, I might answer
thus : " He was one of the greatest souls whom the
world has produced, uniting in himself the grandest
qualities of mind and heart. He emancipated Chris
tianity from- its Jewish form ; and, alone among the
apostles, fully understood and carried out the ideas of
Jesus which have made of his religion a gospel for
mankind. He was the founder of Liberal Christian
ity, believing that there might be many members and
yet one body ; teaching that in the Christian Church
there should be both variety and unity, freedom and
order. He was able to be thus wide because he went
down so deep in his experience and up so high in his
aspiration. He was a logical and a spiritual thinker,
possessing both intuitive and dialectic power. His
reasonings are so subtle and close that often, knowing
little of the question in dispute, we find it difficult to
follow the argument. But though possessed of this
intense activity of thought, he placed thought far
below love. He said that belief would change, opin
ion alter, knowledge pass away ; but that faith, hope
and love would abide forever."
Some natures are simple, others complex. And
some complex natures are not fully at harmony with
themselves. Then they are hard to understand ; thus
they are often misjudged. So it was with Paul at
first ; so it has been ever since ; so it is now. He is
a complex soul, and never fully harmonized with

6 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
himself and his surroundings. But he is planned on
large proportions, he is moved by the jdeepest convic
tions, his heart is on fire with the noblest enthusiasm
for a great object. He lives for it and dies for it, and
the result of his life is an era in the history of man.
He gave a fresh impulse to human thought, and
the force of this movement is not yet exhausted.
Augustine, Luther, Pascal, Wesley have each, in turn,
received from the Apostle Paul the mighty influence
which awakened their spiritual natures: His place
in universal history is in the front rank of those who
create a new epoch in civilization and progress.
Paul was filled with a knowledge of the Old Tes
tament Scriptures. He, like Josephus, usually quotes
from the Septuagint ; jret he was not dependent on it,
but sometimes translated directly from the Hebrew,1
— as 1 Cor. xiv. 21; Gal. iii. 11; Rom. ix. 17, —
and often improved on the Septuagint. He quotes
from all parts of the Old Testament and the Apocry
pha, even from Books now lost. He quotes from the
Book of Wisdom, a work written only forty years B. C.
He quotes from one or two Greek authors, and seems
to be acquainted with Philo, an author much discred
ited among the Rabbis at Jerusalem. He was brought
up at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts xxii. 3) in Jerusa
lem. Gamaliel was a mild and liberal teacher, Paul
a fiery zealot; hence the Tendency School thinks
this an invention of the author of Acts to recommend
him to the Jewish Christians. But do aged and
1 Hausrath in Schenkel's Bibel- Lexicon.

CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF PAUL. 7
toild teachers never have ardent young disciples, less
liberal than themselves ?
In person Paul seems to have been rather small'
and weak, not to say insignificant (2 Cor. x. 10).
He was evidently not accounted a great orator. It
was thought he did better as a writer than a speaker.
This, however, was only the opinion of the literary
critics in. Corinth, who, like critics in all times, are
apt to judge speakers by narrow rhetorical standards.
So too at Athens the men of culture do not appear
to have thought much of him, and politely adjourned
the discussion to a more convenient occasion. But
the people at Lystra seem to. have been more im
pressed by his discourse, and called him Hermes, the
God of eloquence. In fact, a mind so full of- matter,
and with such earnest convictions, must have pro
duced a great impression. Several of his speeches
are reported in the Book of Acts, probably not ver
bally, but only in substance. The speech at Athens
has naturally come to us from Paul's own memory,
as communicated by him to Luke. The introduction
is extremely happy and is founded on a broad view
of Religion. " I see," he said in substance, " by your
desire to worship all the Gods, even those who are
unknown to you, that you are a very religious peo
ple." Like a wise teacher, he began his speech by
recognizing the truth which they already believed,
and so leading them up to something higher. In
this speech he has nothing to say of the Jewish Mes
siah, he makes no allusion to the Jewish Scriptures,

8 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
but meets them on the common ground of universal
religious truth.
' Like many other men who have powerfully moved
the world, Paul seems to have suffered much from
bodily weakness and disease (1 Cor. ii. 3 ; GaL iv.
14). He felt his body as a burden (2 Cor. v. 4),
and one which was becoming more of a trial every
day. He also alludes to a special physical trial of
some sort, "a thorn in the flesh" (2 Cor. xii. 7),
supposed by some to have been epilepsy, but which
was possibly stammering. His eyes were peculiarly
weak, so that he usually wrote by an amanuensis.
Very excitable, easily moved by the kindness or ill-
treatment of others, not soon forgetting injuries or
benefits, he may (says Hausrath) " have sometimes
been passionate and even unjust, but on the other
hand was capable of a tender love and devoted
self-sacrifice impossible to colder natures."
The difficulties in understanding the writings of
Paul come from different sources. In part they are
occasioned by the extreme conciseness of his expres
sion, and the rushing rapidity of his thoughts, which
omit many steps of his argument. Partly the ob
scurity comes from our not knowing the arguments
of his opponents to which he replies, — arguments
which he does not think it necessary to state, since
they were familiar to his readers; sometimes from
the necessity of concealment, when touchiuo- on sub
jects which would give deadly offence to Jews or Ro
mans (for example, 2 Thess. ii. 3). Another source of

CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF PAUL. 9
obscurity is the false order of his Epistles in our ver
sion, and the theory of infallible inspiration which
prevents us from finding in some passages the re
mains of old Jewish conceptions not yet eliminated
(perhaps 1 Cor. xv. 45-48 ; Coloss. i. 16) ; and fi
nally, there is the difference between the figurative
methods of Eastern speech and the prosaic thinking
of the West. What can we make of such an argu
ment as that derived from the case of Hagar and
Sarah, symbolized as the Law and the Gospel ? Why
not admit, as Jerome did, that the argument (Gal.
iii. 16) from the singular form of "seed," rests on
a grammatical blunder? — though in Jerome's opin
ion the argument was good enough for " the foolish
Galatians.1 "
Paul's inspiration was not infallibility, and he was
sometimes in error, sometimes also uncertain. He
pretends to no such infallibility. All knowledge,
. he says, including his own, is partial, incomplete, and
finally to disappear. The best statement we can pos
sibly put in words is partial, and must give way to
a larger one ; which in its turn will be fulfilled in
something higher (1 Cor. xiii, 3-12). Criticism,
therefore, is fully justified in examining every article
of Pauline doctrine, and rejecting what cannot be
verified in its last analysis. "Prove all things,"
said Paul himself — "hold fast what is good, abstain
from whatever appears to be evil."
1 But see Lightfoot, ad locum, "Epistle to the Galatians. A
revised text with notes," &c. By J. B. Lightfoot. 1869.

10 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Criticism has -the right to examine and test every
thing; but rashness and recklessness are not crit
icism. Toward the great leaders of thought a little
reverence is due, even by the most advanced thinkers
of our particular year of the Lord. Coleridge's canon
of criticism is always to be kept in mind : " Until
I understand the ignorance of Plato, I had better
conclude myself to be ignorant of his understanding.''
Obscurity in a writer is not always a sign of depth,
but neither is it always the evidence of confused
thought. Plato is obscure, Hegel is obscure, and
Paul is often obscure. But there are questions which
go down so deep that their discussion cannot be made
quite as easy as a child's story-book. In such do
mains of thought even great thinkers must go sound
ing on their dim and perilous way; and so when
Paul attacks the question of God's fore-ordination
and human responsibility, we cannot expect to read
him exactly as we run over the leader of our morn
ing newspaper when we go to the city on an early
train. In regard to the supposed incoherence of Paul,
let us listen to the testimony of John Locke : —
" I think there is not anywhere to be found a more
pertinent, close arguer, who has his eye always on
the mark he drives at. This men would find, if they
would study him as they ought, — with more regard
to the divine authority than to hypotheses of their
own, or to opinions of the season. I do not say that
he is everywhere clear in his expressions to us now,

CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF PAUL. 11
but I do say he is everywhere a coherent, pertinent
writer; and wherever, in his commentators and in
terpreters, any sense is given to his words that dis
joints his discourse, or deviates from his argument
and looks like a wandering thought, it is easy to
know who it is, and whose the impertinence is, — his,
or theirs that father it on him."
So says Locke in his commentary on our Apostle's
writings; and no one will contend that Locke did not
understand the nature of close and clear thinking.
The view taken of our Apostle by Renan is too
striking to be passed by. In the last chapter of what
appears to me to be his greatest work1 he thus sums
up his opinions in regard to him : —
" What place will criticism accord to him ? What
rank will it assign him in the hierarchy of those who
have been servants of the Ideal ?
" We serve the Ideal in doing good, seeking truth,
realizing the beautiful. In front of the sacred pro
cession of humanity walks the good man, — the man
of virtue ; next to him the man of truth, — the wise
man, the philosopher; then the man of the beauti
ful, — the artist, the poet. Jesus appears to us, circled
by his heavenly aureole, as the Ideal of goodness and
beauty. . . . What was Paul ? He was not a saint,
The dominant trait in his character is not goodness
(bonte). He was proud, stiff, determined. He fought
for his rights, was full of self-assertion, used severe
1 " Saint Paul. Par Ernest Renan. Paris. 1869. Chap. xxii.
Coup d'ceil sur l'oeuvre de Paul."

12 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
language against his opponents. He believed he was
certainly right, did not doubt for a moment the cor
rectness of his own views, was in frequent difficulties
and disputes. Nor was he a man of science. In
fact, we may say that he inflicted an injury on science
by his paradoxical contempt for reason, by his eulo-
gium on evident folly, by bis apotheosis of transcen
dental absurdities. Nor was he a poet. His writings,
though works of the highest originaUty, are without
charm; their form is harsh, and usually without
grace. What then was he ?
"He was eminently a man of action, a soul of
strength ; enthusiastic, courageous ; conqueror, mis
sionary, propagandist; all the more ardent because
having displayed his energy first on the opposite side.
Now the man of action, though so noble when con
tending for a high aim, is not as near to God as lie
is who lives in the pure love of the True, the Good
and the Beautiful. An apostle is by his very nature
somewhat contracted in his soul ; he aims at success,
and sacrifices himself for this. The contact with
realities always soils the soul a little. The highest
places in the Kingdom of Heaven are reserved for
those who have been touched by a ray of grace, those
who have adored only the Ideal. The man of action
is always a poor artist, for it is not his only end to
reflect the splendor of the Universe ; he can never be
a man of wisdom, for he forms his opinions in refer- .
ence to public utility ; nor is he even a very virtuous
man, since he can never be irreproachable. The folly

CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF PAUL. 13
and wickedness of men compel him to make compro
mises with them.
" Least of all is he an amiable person ; reserve, the
most charming of virtues, is forbidden him. The
world favors the audacious, those who help them
selves. Paul, so great, so upright, is obliged to insist
on his title of an apostle. Our defects are a part of
our strength, our good qualities are a source Of weak
ness. In fine, the historical character most resem
bling that of Paul, is Luther. In both we find the
same violence of language (see especially Phil. hi.
2, and Luther's ' Captivity of Babylon '), the same
passionate energy, noble independence, and semi-
frantic attachment to a thesis held as if it were
absolute truth.
"I therefore persist in my conclusion that, in
founding Christianity, the work of Paul is far inferior
to that of Jesus. In my view it is even necessary to
rank him below Francis of Assisi, and the author of
the " Imitation of Christ," both of whom saw Jesus
from near by. The Son of God is unique. To ap
pear for a moment, to cast around a radiant light,
sweet and strong,- and to die young — this is the life
of a God. To struggle, battle, dispute, conquer • — this
is the life of a man. After having been, thanks to
Protestant Orthodoxy, the leading Christian theolo
gian, Paul is in our days coming to the end of his
reign. Jesus, on the other hand, is more alive than
ever. The true resume of Christianity is not to
be • found in the Epistle to the Romans, but in the

14 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Sermon on the Mount. The Gospel which will live
forever is in the Evangelists, not in the Epistles of
Paul. The writings of Paul have been a stumbling-
block and a peril ; they have caused the chief defects
in Christian Theology. Paul is the father of the subtle
Augustine, the arid Aquinas, the sombre Calvinist,
the sour Jansenist, and the ferocious theology which
predestines to damnation. Jesus is the father of
those who seek the repose of their souls in the dreams
of the Ideal world. The continued life of Christi
anity is derived from the httle which we know of the
word and the person of Jesus. Only the man of the
Ideal, the divine Poet, the great Artist, defies time and
its revolutions. He alone is seated on the right hand
of God the Father, throughout the years of Eternity."
This brilliant passage is imbued with the spirit of
that Roman Catholic theology, from which the writer
received his early impressions,— impressions which it
is so difficult ever wholly to escape from. " Fling away
human nature with a pitch-fork," says Horace, " and
it will come back again." The habits of early life are
a second nature ; and here, as in " The life of Jesus,"
Renan conceives of the beauty of holiness as consist
ing in rapt contemplation, ecstasies of lonely commu
nion with God, and "looks commercing with the
skies." That the Son is unique we agree ; that he
and not Paul is the true founder of Christianity, we
believe. But Jesus is not unique beoause he sought
the repose of his soul in dreams of nn ideal world.
Jesus also was eminently a man of action. During

CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF PAUL. 15
his whole life he was " about his Father's business,"
and when about to die he said, " I have finished the
work which thou gavest me to do."
In Catholic paintings, Jesus is usually represented
as the type of the passive virtues, — submission, res
ignation, patience and gentle affection ; he bows down
his head like a bulrush. But such is not the Jesus
of the Gospels. He was eminently a man of action,
pursuing a steady aim, that of convincing his nation
that the true Kingdom of Heaven was one of Love,
Truth and Peace ; and seeking to become the Christ,
the King of all, by being the servant of all. So he
hoped to save his nation from destruction, and make
its people the leaders of mankind in the worship and
service of a Universal Father. In this spirit he
acted, taught, went about doing good, held discus
sions with the leaders at Jerusalem, preached the
good news to the poor. He had a distinct, practical
object in it all — to found the true Kingdom of
Heaven, by which the Mosaic law would be fulfilled,
and become the religion of mankind. His virtues
were not those of a recluse ; he lived among men,
the friend of publicans and sinners, teaching the com
mon people by the way side, on the lake shore, in the
courts of the Temple, in the village synagogue, in the
houses of his friends. He was full of human tender
ness, but also capable of righteous indignation. He
was prompt to meet, in open debate, Pharisee or Sad-
ducee, the followers of Herod or the emissaries of the
priesthood. The true portrait of Jesus is yet to be

16 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
painted, — that which shall combine in perfect har
mony the highest expression of wisdom, love and
manly action.
The man of action is not necessarily limited by his
aim, any more than the sage, the saint or the artist.
" Reserve is forbidden him." By no means. Jesus
had his silences, his reserves; and from these he
drew new strength for action. Washington, the man
of action, was eminently reserved ; so much so as to
be almost inaccessible. Washington was essentially
a man of action, — neither sage, artist, nor saint ; but
he stands at the head of all whom this continent has
produced — no one near him, no one second to him.
Franklin, so eminent in science, is far beneath him ;
and what American or European artist or poet or
saint of his time can be compared in majestic great
ness with that solemn form ? Goethe was an incom
parable artist, Wesley a noble saint ; but I think
no one would put either on the same plane with
Washington. It is a mistake, therefore, in Renan's classification,
to draw such a sharp distinction between these three
kinds of greatness, and to arrange them in this order
of precedence.
A man of mere action, who is not impelled by high
convictions toward a great end, and whose heart is not
purified by devotion to supreme beauty, no doubt
illustrates greatness on a low plane. But the man of
mere insight and knowledge, whose knowledge con
sists only in abstract contemplation and study for its

CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF PAUL. 17
own sake, who takes no generous interest in others,
and feels no responsibility to God, certainly stands
no higher. Nor is the saint one whit more noble,
whose saintship consists only in seeking the repose of
his soul in the dreams of the ideal world, and taking
no part in human activities. For he who loves not
his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God
whom he hath not seen? If Francis of Assisi
stands in the front rank of noble souls, it is not
because of his rapt devotion, but because this pro
found piety flowed out in active charity. In every
truly great soul, action, thought, and love must be in
harmonious union, though one or the other may take
the lead.
We cannot therefore admit the proposition that the
man of action is not so near to God as he who lives
in the pure love of the True, the Beautiful and the
Good. This is the theory which in the early and
middle ages diverted the life of the church into
lauras and monasteries ; and in modern times leads to
the pedantry of abstract scholarship, and the egotism
of literary and artistic self-seeking. If a life given
too exclusively to action narrows the soul, a life
given too exclusively to thought chills it, and one of
abstract devotion to beauty ends in selfishness. Can
not a man of action be moved by the deepest reli
gious convictions ? Was not Paul's heart " touched
by a ray of grace," and did not he " adore the Ideal " ?
When he said " The life I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God," did he not adore the

18 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Ideal ? No doubt the man. of action is determined
in the expression of his opinions by his sense of pub
lic need. But the great lake is not the less deep and
full, because the river which issues from it flows with
beneficent course by a narrow ehannel whieh winds
among meadows and farms, carrying its bounty where
it is most needed. M. Renan goes so far as to say
that the man of action cannot live a perfectly pure
life, but must condescend to the baseness which sur
rounds him. " In the world but not of it " is a bet
ter maxim. Jesus at least said of his disciples, " I
pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the
world, but that thou shouldst keep them from eviL"
When Renan depreciates Paul in comparison with
those who live for the Ideal, it is curious that he did
not see that the ideality of Paul was the source of
his reality. Paul himself describes it when he says,
" While we look not at the things that are seen, but at
the things that are not seen ; for the things that are
seen are temporal, but the things not seen are eter
nal." And when Renan ranks the divine poet above
the apostle, he must grant, unless he defines poetry
by its mere form, that no greater poem was ever sung
than the outbursts of heavenly melody which are
found in these letters, written with no literary intent.
What a celestial strain is the Hymn to Love, which
flows from the Apostle's heart in the midst of the
practical details of his letter to the Coriuthians ! The
Theban eagle, "sailing with supreme dominion"
through the depths of the azure heavens, never soared

CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF PAUL. 19
higher than Paul, when he. ascended on mighty pinion
in the. passage (Rom, viii. 31-39) which begins — ¦
'' What then shall we say to these things ? " What
in Milton or Dante is more sublime than the solemn
strain, full of immortal hope, which has been read by
so many thousand graves ; and which lifts us from
the thought of corruption, dishonor, weakness, and.
the outward form, to the sight of iucorruption, glory,
power, and the spiritual house from heaven, when this
mortal shall have put on immortality, and death be
swallowed up in victory 1 What pathos of song more
touching than the passages (2 Cor. iv. 7-18 ; v„ 20-
vi. 10 ; xi. 22-xii. 13) in which, in his. longing for
the sympathy and love of his Corinthian friends, he
pours out his soul to them, telling them of his trials,
forcing himself to speak of his labors and sacrifices,
that he may win back their confidence. Some may
see in these passages only the utterances of a diseased
vanity. But if we "are able, by the exercise of his
toric imagination, to put ourselves into his place, and
read his soul, we shall find in all literature nothing
more touching than this outflow of an irrepressible
longing for human love.
It is certainly true that we do not find in the char
acter of Paul that harmony which makes all human
powers in their fulness to be in perfect accord in the
soul of Jesus. Paul never attained, during his. life,
to this divine peace. All he could say at the end
was, " I have fought a good fight. I have finished
the course. I have kept the faith," But this he had a

20 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
right to say. His whole life was warfare. Jerome
says of him, " When I read the Apostle Paul, I
seem not to hear words, but thunders."
In this respect Renan is right in comparing him
with Luther. Both were men of War from their
youth ; both of them nobly devoted to a great cause
not their own ; both founders of a new form of Chris
tian thought and life. Inwardly, their experiences
were identical. Both Paul and Luther devoted their
early energy to the salvation of their own souls by
religious works — one by the works of the Jewish
Law, the other by the •works of the Roman Catholic
church. Neither of them gained inward satisfaction
thus ; and each of them found it at last by faith in a
God of grace, through the revelation of Jesus Christ
in the soul.
But though Luther was one of the greatest among
those who have made an epoch in history, he was not
as great as Paul. Luther translated the ideas of
Paul into the language of his own time, and expressed
the Pauline thought in its modern equivalents. But
the original poem is greater than the best translation.
It required a genius of the highest order, inspired by
a prophetic vision, to develop the doctrine of Justifi
cation by Faith for the first time, so that it should
continue to be a religious inspiration for all time.
For it must be observed that this doctrine, which
proceeds from a deep spiritual insight, was an origi
nal intuition with our Apostle. It is involved, no
doubt, in the teaching of Jesus, and in his life and

CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF PAUL. 21
death. But it was first evolved, so as to be visible to
the understanding, by the intellectual penetration of
Paul. By .this profound conception he laid the basis
of Christian theology. Augustine, Luther, Calvin,
Wesley, used in turn this massive and powerful
weapon in their several conflicts.
We cannot then agree with Renan's conclusions,
nor accept as final his classification. Paul is greater
than he has ever been stated to be, even by his most
ardent followers. He has also probably made more
mistakes, and fallen into more errors, than have been
seen,even by those most disposed to disparage him.
Neither Ms real greatness, nor his real defects have
ever yet been adequately pointed out. But Time,
which judges the world, men and angels, will finally
give him his true place in the hierarchy of human
benefactors.

CHAPTER H.
SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF PAUL.

THE life of Paul divides itself into three prin
cipal periods, which we may summarize as
follows : — I. Missionary Period.
A.D.3.3  1. Conversion of Paul. — Acts, ix. 1—22 ; xxii. j xxvi.
36. — 2. Residence in Arabia and Damascus. — Gal. i. 17, 18.
37. — 3. First visit to Jerusalem. — GaL i. 18 ; Acts, xi 30.
i. Missions in Syria. — Acts, xi. 25.
5. Missionary journey to Cyprus, Pamphylia, and Galatia.
— Acts, xiii. 1 ; xiv. 28.
51. — 6. Conference at Jerusalem. — Acts, xv. ; Gal. iii.
52.-7. Second missionary journey. — Acts, xv. 36. Crosses to
Europe, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Cor
inth.
55. — Letters to the Thessalonians.
II. Period of Contest with the Jews.
55.-8. Paul returns to Asia, Ephesus, and Antioch. — Acts,
58. xviii. 18, 22. Discussion with Peter.— Gal. ii. 11-
22. Returns to Ephesus, and remains three years. —
Acts, xix. 1-20 ; xx. 31.
Letter to the Galatians.
First Letter to the Corinthians.

SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 23
58.-^9. Sails to Macedonia, Three months in Greece. — Acts,
xx. 1, 2. Returns to Macedonia, and crosses to Asia
Minor. — Acts, xx. 4, 6.
' Letter to the Romans (written from Corinth).
59. — Second Letter to the Corinthians (written from Macedonia),
III. Period of the Captivity.
60. — 10. Paul bids the Ephesians farewell. Sails to Tyre, Ptol-
emais, Csesarea, Jerusalem. — Acts, xx. 17-xxi. 15.
62. — 11. Captivity at Csesarea for two years. — Acts, xxiv. 27.
Letters to the Ephesians, Colossians, and to Philemon.
64. — .12. Two years' captivity in Rome. — Acts, xxviii. 30.
Letter to the Philippians.
The above dates are conjectural, but rest on state
ments in the Book of Acts and the letter to the Gala
tians. The account in Acts closes abruptly, leaving
Paul a prisoner in Rome, but in a light confinement,
dwelling in his own hired house. Why the history
should have stopped at this point we do not know.
Some accident to the writer, or separation from the
Apostle by going elsewhere, was the possible occasion.
The burning of Rome (which took place in this very
year 64, when Luke probably ended his story) fur
nished Nero with a motive for persecuting the Chris
tians, in order to turn from himself the charge of hav
ing set the city on. fire. Paul and Luke may have per
ished together in the terrible massacres of Christians
which Tacitus describes. In that case, the last sen
tence in Acts might have been added by another hand.
Our sources of information for Paul's life and char
acter are the last part of the Book of Acts, and his

24 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
own letters. The authenticity of these writings rests
on the general consent of opinion in the Ghristian
Church as early, at least, as the end of the second
century. Frequent and distinct quotations from the
Book of Acts are made by Irenaeus, before that time.
Only in the latest period has its historic value been
called in question, — and that chiefly in reference to
the first part of the book, before Paul appears promi
nently on the scene. The last part, which describes
the missionary journeys and labors of our Apostle,
has all the stamp of historic truth. ¦ It is evident
that the writer was his companion, and either was a
personal witness of these events, or heard of them
from his own mouth.
The genuineness and veracity of the chief Epistles
of Paul — those to the Romans, Corinthians, and Gal
atians — have never been questioned. The objections
to the Ephesians and Colossians have httle weight
against the unanimous testimony of antiquity to
their authenticity. The Pastoral Epistles give rise to
grave doubt, — but chiefly because they seem directed
against errors and heresies which belong to a later
time. At all events, they throw little additional hght
on the ideas or character of the Apostle.
We first meet with Paul as a fiery zealot, assisting
at the martyrdom of Stephen. How little did he then
think that he was to follow in the precise path whicli
Stephen had opened ! For Stephen was apparently
the first among Christian teachers who saw and an
nounced that Judaism was to pass away. He was

SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 25
accused of blasphemy, for teaching that Jesus would
destroy the Temple and abolish the Mosaic ritual.
His defence (as recorded in Acts vii.) was to show that
the Temple was not essential to true worship, since
Abraham made a covenant with God when there w%s
no temple (vii. 2-8) ; that God was with Joseph in
Egypt when there was no temple (9) ; with Moses
on Mount Sinai, and made that a temple and holy
ground (30—33) ; with the Church in the wilderness ;
in the tabernacle until the days of Solomon; and
even when the Temple was built, declared that he
did not dwell in temples made with hands. There
fore, Stephen argued, the Temple might be destroyed,
and yet God's true worship remain. In reply to the
other charge of blaspheming the law of Moses, he
said that they had rather rebelled against Moses, and
disobeyed him as their fathers had before, by putting
Jesus to death, whom Moses had announced as a
prophet to come after him. All this argument Paul
probably heard, and, if so, it impressed him deeply.
There was a singular power of faith, courage, and
insight in the character of Stephen. We need not
suppose the report of his speech in the Book of Acts
to be literally, accurate. Probably none of these
speeches which Luke records were reported verbatim.
But there can be very little doubt that we have its
substance; and it shows an amazing grasp of thought
and keenness of insight. It gave promise of a splendid
future. It must have' seemed very hard for the body
of Christians, mostly uneducated and untrained, to

26 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
lose such a highly cultivated and devoted mind as
that of Stephen.
Sometimes, when such an one goes, we say, "The loss
is irreparable ; that man cannot be spared. That young
rifother, how can her children do without her ? — that
father, the support of his family ; that statesman, the
tried ruler, the one man in whom all trust, on whom
all lean." So it was when Stephen went. It seemed
as if the church of Christ could not possibly spare
him. So it was, still more, when Jesus went, — the
one being in the world whom the world could not
do without; whose place no one could take. The
good and wise, the pure and generous go ; the souls
of genius, the creatures of a divine inspiration, they
go. And then God raises them up on high, to look
down on us from above, and be our inspiration.
Their great lives and holy examples inspire us to new
effort. The memory of the mother lives in her chil
dren's hearts. When Jesus went away he came
nearer to his friends than he had been before. The
sight of Stephen's death, the sound of Stephen's
voice, his face like that of an angel, his cry of joy
and triumph in the midst of his agony, these were
the first steps in the conversion of Saul.
Paul went away, moody, angry, but with the baTbed
arrow of a new conviction in his soul. He " kicked
against the pricks ; " he became more violent against
the followers of Jesus ; till, at once, to him, too, came
that heavenly vision, that divine face. To him came
those tender words from the Jesus revealed to him

SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 27
inwardly; a sight of God's pardon, grace, love; of a
great opportunity, a noble mission. Aud he rose
from the ground a new man. How far this was an
outward vision and how far an inward, I do not pre
tend to decide. The essential part of it was the in
ward part. In that hour Paul became inwardly a
new creature. Old things had passed away, all things
had become new. Peace had come to his soul through
faith in this divine friend. Jesus, the risen Jesus,
the King of Truth, the Prince of Peace, the manifes
tation of God's universal love to men, was now his
Master. Every past purpose of his life he cast
behind him. All his pride of knowledge, of holiness,
his high position in the Jewish Church, his Jewish
attainments and virtues, he laid down. Now he
was to become the preacher of a small and despised
company, an insignificant sect ; to share their trials,
persecutions and insignificance. He could not fore
see — no one could foresee — that he was in this
very way to become the apostle of the religion of civi
lized man ; that his extempore writings were to be a
part of the Scriptures of mankind; that his argu
ments were to be studied by the most learned men
during centuries ; that a vast literature in all lan
guages was to be devoted to the explanation of his
doctrines ; and that on all the continents of earth his
influence, unweakened by time, undiminished by rev
olutions, reformations, new philosophies and the pro
gress of science, should be still the spiritual mother
¦of myriad souls.

28 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
But the first we hear of Paul was at the martyrdom
of Stephen. " The witnesses threw down their gar
ments at the feet of a young man whose name was
Saul." When a man was to be stoned to death, the
law was that those by whose testimony he was con
victed should be his executioners. The object was to
make them careful in giving their testimony. Now
these witnesses stood in front, close to the criminal ;
and, to throw the stones more easily, they dropped
off their toga or outside cloak. Paul was so near
Stephen that they threw their clothes to him to keep.
So he saw Stephen's face in all its angelic joy, behold
ing Christ coming toward him with open arms and a
smile of welcome. That blaze of heavenly light was
reflected in the rapture of Stephen's countenance. It
eclipsed the brutal murderers and the raging crowd.
He saw only the face of Christ, and Paul saw only his
face. That look went with him wherever he went ;
that peace was something past his comprehension. It
troubled him in his Jewish bigotry ; it drove him, by
a natural recoil, to fiercer persecution ; but the look
was photographed on his heart. And so, when he was
converted and became a Christian, he turned com
pletely round, and from a fierce bigot became emanci
pated from the letter and the form, and passed directly
into the freedom of the Spirit.
Paul could not but ask himself, " Which is God's
true servant, — this man, so blissful in the midst of a
horrid death ; or these, gnashing their teeth with
brutal rage ? — he, praying that they may be forgiven

SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 29
their sin, and commending his spirit to his Master ;
or they, stopping their ears against the heavenly
prayer, and drowning it with their savage cries ? "
Though these events did not convert Paul, yet no
doubt they prepared the way for his conversion.
But a character as strong and deep as Paul's, though
sensitive to every impulse, is not easily or suddenly
changed from its settled purpose ; like a majestic tree,"
whose thousand twigs and multitude of leaves are
moved by the slightest air, but which yet stands firm
against a tempest. Paul, the zealous Pharisee, though
inwardly troubled, doubtful, and wretched, yet went
on in his fixed course, determined to persecute and
put down this heresy so decidedly hostile to the Phar
isee theology, and which was endangering the solemn
institutions and awful rites of Judaism. As though
by a greater outward zeal he would atone to himself
for his inward vacillation, he volunteered to go to
Damascus where the new sect was gaining ground,
to bring every Christian he could fiud to Jerusalem.
On his way occurred that remarkable event, before
alluded to, which led to his conversion. Of this
occurrence we have, in the Book of Acts, three sepa- '
rate accounts, contained in the ninth, twenty-second,
and twenty-fifth chapters.1 This event has been
1 The difference as to details in these three accounts shows con
clusively two things ; first; that there is no literal accuracy in the
New Testament narrative ; secondly, that the narrators make no
attempt to avoid such apparent contradictions. The simplicity and
honesty of the writer becomes evident from such facts as these.

30 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
regarded in different ways. One view has been
brought forward by Rationalism, which assumes, as
we have done, that Paul had received many im
pressions favorable to Christianity, especially in
witnessing the death of Stephen, but had forcibly
repressed them. Yet he could not quite silence
this inward voice. On his way to Damascus, there
occurred a thunder-storm. He was struck by light
ning, and blinded. This he conceived to be an actual
appearance of Christ, and so was led to believe in
Christianity. But such an explanation is evidently superficial.
To mistake a flash of lightning for the appearance of
Christ, and to imagine the subsequent dialogue, would
argue Paul to be an insane man or an idiot, which no
one, I apprehend, supposes. And to make a mistake
like this the cause of his conversion, and of all the
vast labors and immense results which followed it, is
like the Indian hypothesis which supposes the earth
to be supported on the back of a turtle ; or hke that
early geographical theory which gave the current of
the Mississippi river as the cause of the Gulf Stream
in the Atlantic ocean.1
Another view of this event makes it supernatural,
but inward, — -an inward revelation made to Paul's
mind. This is supported by Galatians (i. 16), "It
pleased God to reveal His son in me." But (1 Cor.
ix. 1) he also says, " Have I not seen Christ ? " And
1 See Malte Bran's geography for this curious opinion.

SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 31
again (1 Cor. xv. 8), " Last of all he was seen of me
also, as of one born out of due time."
The true view, perhaps, is that Paul saw Christ
really, but with -the spiritual eye. It was not a vi
sion of Christ, but Christ himself, who appeared to
Paul He was seen not by his outward eye, but by
an inward revelation. This would explain why those
who were with him saw no man, and, according to
one of the accounts, did not even hear the voice
which spoke to Paul.
But no outward miracle can convert the soul.
Jesus himself says of certain persons, " If they hear
not Moses and the Prophets, neither would they be
persuaded though one came from the dead." If
Paul was wholly convinced of the falsehood of the
claim of Jesus to be the Christ, the miracle could not
have convinced him. An outward blinding light
does not give light to the mind. The very words of
Jesus show that he was already inwardly convinced,
and was resisting those convictions. " Saul ! Saul !
why persecutest thou me ? It is hard for thee to kick
against the pricks." As oxen kick against the goad
of their drivers, but only drive it more into their flesh,
so Paul, by resisting the inward voice of his con
science, only made that voice more terrible.
The mighty light which shone around, so that the
dazzling brightness of that terrible desert mid-day
sun was eclipsed by it, was only the external part of
the miracle. Paul saw something else, heard some
thing else, which his companions did not see nor hear.

32 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
He stood face to face with the majestic tenderness of
the transfigured Redeemer ; was told that he, the
bitter persecutor, had been chosen to be an apostle ;
that he, the narrow zealot, was to be the prophet of
the broadest human religion; that he, the bigoted
Jew, was to go far hence among the Gentiles, and
suffer for Jesus, his new master. Trembling, his
eyes dark, his soul full of a new light, he rose and
went to Damascus, and there heard from a Christian
voice the words, " Brother Saul, receive thy sight and
be filled with the Holy Ghost."
So there he became a Christian ; there he was
taught to know Jesus. In that oldest city, perhaps,
of earth — Damascus — an old city in the time of
Abraham, nineteen hundred years before ; the garden
city, loveliest spot which man has chosen, fed by
rushing cool streams from anti-Lebanon, which trav
erse every street and toss themselves into fountains
among thick masses of damask roses in every gar
den — there Paul sat, day by day, a meek scholar,
learning the glad tidings of this new Gospel.
What a fearful resolution was Paul now called
upon to take ! It was to give up everything he had
loved and lived for ; to join the feeble sect he had
been persecuting ; to renounce his Jewish learning
his hardly-earned reputation, his great influence with
the Sauhedrim and people ; to cast it away and count
it nothing ; to begin anew to learn the alphabet of
knowledge from one who had died as a felon, and
instead of his noble and powerful associates to become

SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 33
the companion of illiterate fishermen. Never was a
harder trial laid on man than rested on Paul in that
sweet city of Damascus. Amid the cool sound of its
rushing brooks and tossing fountains, amid the fra
grance of its delicious atmosphere, laden with the
perfume of roses, he gradually gathered strength for
the great resolution. It seemed to be the greatest of
sacrifices, but in reality it was the greatest of bless
ings. Truly in him was fulfilled the saying, " He
who loseth his life for my sake, the same shall find
it." Paul did not know what an access of reputation,
influence and power was to come to him from this
decision. He could not know that he was exchang
ing the narrow sphere and local fame of a Jewish
Rabbi for the vast work of the apostle of a religion
which should embrace the earth ; that he was to
announce to Europe the faith to which the learning
of Athens and power of Rome should equally bow ;
and that century after century his words were to
guide the faith of nations, to be commented on with
years of carefuL study, and that his chance letters
were to stand at the head of the sacred writings of
the human race. Nothing of this could he foresee ; but
all this came. He seemed to be casting all reputation
and influence forever away. But he was willing to lose
them if he could attain that inward peace the out
ward expression of which had rested upon Stephen's
brow ; if he could find a sense of pardon ; if he could
feel that his soul was right with God ; if he could
escape from the galling yoke of sin, — for this he
3

34 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
would be willing to make the sacrifice, " Yea, doubt
less," says he, long afterward, in speaking of his
Jewish attainments thus renounced, "I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things ; I count them as nothing that
I may win Christ and be found in him, not having
on my own righteousness, which is by the law, but
that which is through the faith of Christ, the right
eousness which is of God by faith." This divine
righteousness, this seed of God planted in the heart,
this love of God shed abroad in his soul — it was for
the sake of this that he became a disciple of Jesus.
It was necessary for Paul to have the aid of his fel
low-Christians in passing through this awful crisis of
his being, and Ananias was sent to pray with him.
While he prayed the outward sight returned, and at
the same moment, that inward strength and new life
was given which was to do such a mighty work in
the world. _
Paul felt moved immediately to declare in public
the great change in his convictions, and this imme
diately excited against him the deadly, hostility of
the Pharisaic party. To escape their vengeance he
went into Arabia, and remained three years — how
occupied we are not told ; but it is easy to conjecture.
For an intellect like his it was absolutely necessary
to have time to arrange, make clear, and systema
tize his new views. No doubt he procured all the
information which could be attained conceruino- the

SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 35
life of Jesus and his teachings. In this operation he
doubtless developed his system of Christian theology,
— that first scientific expression to the intellect of
that which all the Apostles held as a conviction and
a life. Those three years, of which nothing is re
corded, were of immense importance to the Christian
church ; for the views which Paul then attained en
abled him to present and explain the gospel in its
relations to Judaism and Heathenism, and to cause it
to satisfy the wants of the intellect, as well as those
of the heart and spirit.
Then he went to Jerusalem and saw the Apostles,
but found they could give him no new light, nor add
anything essentially important to his presen^ knowl
edge. His former friends, the Pharisees, now his most
bitter enemies, soon compelled him to leave Jerusalem.
Praying one day in the Temple, it was borne in upon
his mind that he was to go to the Gentiles and preach
to them. Having been, therefore, only fourteen days
in Jerusalem, he went to Tarsus, his former home,
and spent some years in preaching the Gospel in
that neighborhood. Of these years, also, as of those
spent in Arabia, we have no record ; for in the lives
even of the greatest men, long years of continuous
labor, of silent growth and development, are not
spoken of; only the days are mentioned in which
these years bear a visible fruit. „
During this period, in which, during eight years
from Stephen's death, there was no persecution, the
number of converts to Christianity rapidly increased.

36 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
The conversion of Cornelius, the Roman Centurion,
and his baptism by Peter, tended to prepare the Jews
for the reception of Gentile converts. This first began
to take place numerously in the great city of Antioch,
which became the headquarters of' Gentile Christian
ity, as Jerusalem was that of the Jewish Christians.
Antioch was the metropolis of the East, situated in
the north of Syria, and near the northeast corner of
the Mediterranean Sea. It was governed by its own
laws, and the Christians could there enjoy their wor
ship undisturbed. As soon as these events occurred,
Barnabas, a distinguished teacher, was sent from
Jerusalem to Antioch, and he went directly to Tarsus
to find Spul, and brought him to Antioch to labor
with him there. There they staid a year, teaching ;
and afterwards Paul and Barnabas began the mission
ary work, being sent out by the Church of Antioch
to preach the Gospel. They sailed to the island of
Cyprus, and there had for a disciple the Roman Pro
consul. From Cyprus they sailed to the continent
of Asia Minor and passed through the cities of Perga,
Antioch in Asia Minor, Iconiuin, Lystra and Derbe,
preaching in all these places, first to the Jews and
then to the Greeks. In many of these places they
were ill-treated ; in Lystra they were first worshipped
as gods, and then the fickle people presently stoned
them. In every place they gathered their converts
into churches and taught them to choose elders, as in
the synagogues, and then returned to Antioch. Thus
ended the first missionary journey.

SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 37
But now there began to manifest itself in the Chris
tian Church that spirit of Jewish bigotry with which
Paul was obliged to contend during his whole life.
Some Pharisaic Christians came from Jerusalem, and
declared that every Gentile who became a Christian
must keep the whole Levitical law, or he could not be
saved; i. e., if a Pagan or Roman or Greek became
a Christian, he must become a Jew at the same time,
— he must enter Christianity by the Jewish door.
Paul and Barnabas opposed this doctrine ; and so it
was determined to send to Jerusalem to consult the
Apostles there ; and Paul and Barnabas went up for
that purpose. It was now about twenty years after
Christ's death. The result of this first Christian
council was that the Gentiles need not be circumcised,
but merely conform to a few regulations prescribed
to the proselytes of the gate. The original letter of
this council announcing this decision is preserved in
the Book of Acts, and is the earliest public document
of the Christian Church known to us.1
1 This Apostolic Convention has been the subject of great discussion
among the German critics, especially the followers of Baur. In
fact, their contention that the Book of Acts is a " tendency- writing,"
intended to mediate between the Pauline and Jewish Christians, rests
mainly on the supposed contradiction between this Convention as de
scribed in Acts, and the account given by Paul in the Epistle to the ,
Galatians. The questions, however, discussed in the two are differ
ent. That debated in the Apostolic Council was, whether Gentiles
must be circumcised, in order to be Christians. That to which Paul
refers in Galatians, is, whether having been converted to Chris
tianity, they were to be regarded as holding an inferior position
to the Jews. The charge against Peter, was not that he denied
that they were Christians, but that he refused to eat with them.

38 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
After this it was " borne in " on Paul's mind, as the
Quakers say, — or, to use his own language, " The
Holy Ghost said," — that he should cross from Asia to
Europe. It so happened that he sailed from the site
of Old Troy to invade Europe, as the Greeks, a
thousand years before, had sailed from Europe to
invade Asia.
Next, Paul went from Philippi to Thessalonica,
from Thessalonica to Berea, from Berea to Athens.
He went round by sea. It was near the foot of Mt.
Olympus that he went on board the vessel ; and, as
she gained the open sea, the snowy summits of that
sacred mountain rose behind them in the pure sky.
On the left, Mt. Athos was seen above the waters of
the Thermaic Gulf. They pass the shores of Thes-
saly ; they pass the long island of Eubcea ; the shep
herds on the heights above the vale of Tempe see the
white sail, like a speck, creeping along the sea. They
pass renowned Thermopylae; they pass where the
mountains look on Marathon and Marathon looks on
the sea ; they round the marbled steeps of Sunium,
the lofty promontory crowned with the temple of
Minerva — -a landmark to every vessel approaching
Athens. The islands of iEgina and Salamis come in
view. The top of Hymettus, behind Athens, is seen,
and then the Apostle is landed in the Piraeus and
In fact, Paul's rebuke to Peter rests on the implied assumption
that the latter admitted the Christian character of the. Gentile con
verts. Paul's argument in Galatians implies that some such deci
sion as that recorded in Acts had been made. We shall recur to
this question again.

SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 39
enters Athens; not, as now, a heap of ruins, but still
covered with its innumerable temples, statues, altars,
— " the eye of Greece," — with its great crowd of
splendid buildings, unrivalled in art, and its groups
of statues which the world is never weary of prais
ing. Athens, when Paul entered it, was a great
museum of art, history and religion.
What a moment was that ! It was one of the
turning-points in human history. The old gods of
. Greece, if they could have spoken from their majestic
shrines, might have echoed the words of John the Bap
tist, and when they heard the name of Jesus spoken
from Mars Hill have said : " He must increase, we
must decrease." " Whom ye ignorantly worship, Him
declare I unto you," said the Apostle. " Ignorantly ! "
Athens, which held the wisdom of the world, worship
ping ignorantly ! and to be enlightened by a Jew !
No wonder they turned away, politely hiding their
contempt by the civil remark, " We will hear thee
again of this matter." They did not and could not
know that a greater man than their greatest, a man
who was to influence the world more than Homer, or
Plato, or Socrates, was then standing before them.
There is something tragic in such meetings, where
the vast significance of the hour is known to neither
party ; when such a great starry conjunction ar
rives, and the moment is carelessly dismissed like
any other, as though it might return. But "the
hour of visitation" passes, and comes back never
again.

40 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
After this, Paul returned to Jerusalem, and in
Jerusalem his life was in greater danger among the
Jews, his brethren, than it ever was among the hea
then. It seems from the Book of Acts, that both
classes of Jews, those who were Christians and those
who were not, were equally determined on his destruc
tion. The apostles warned him, as soon as he reached
Jerusalem, of his danger, and tried to help him to es
cape it by temporizing, — an expedient, which, like
most such expedients, utterly failed of its effect.
There were thousands of Jewish Christians in the
city, we are told, all zealots for the Jewish law. They
had consented, very reluctantly, that Gentile Chris
tians need not become Jews ; but their tone and tem
per was such that the moment Paul said that Jesus
had sent him as an apostle to the Gentiles, there was
a universal outcry that he did not deserve to live.
His presence of mind alone saved his life two or three
times from their bitter hostility. The Roman guard
in the Tower of Antonia saved him first, when the
Jews had seized him, and were beating him to death.
Rescued by the soldiers and taken into this fortress,
he was about to be scourged by the governor's orders,
when he saved himself from that cruelty by claiming
his rights as a Roman citizen. Brought the next day
before the Sanhedrim, he escaped being condemned
to death by that body — a sentence which the Romans
would probably have at once executed — by setting the
party of the Pharisees against the Sadducees, declar
ing that the charge against him was for preaching

SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 41
their own doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.
He was again in danger of life from a body of forty
men, who took a solemn vow not to eat nor drink till
they had killed him. Whether they ever ate or
drank again, we do not know ; we know, however,
that they did not kill him, for Paul, hearing of it, and
telling the Roman military City Prefect, was sent
under a guard to Csesarea, to the headquarters of the
governor of the province.
The agents of the Sanhedrim followed him there
and accused him, and had a Roman lawyer with them,
as counsel, to prosecute Paul in Latin. Felix kept
him two years, and then left him with his successor,
Festus. Festus proposed to send him to Jerusalem
to take his trial before the Sanhedrim ; but Paul,
knowing that this would be equivalent to death, ap
pealed, as a Roman citizen, to Caesar, and demanded
to be tried in Rome. If he had not been thus ready
for every emergency, no doubt he would have fallen
a victim to the bitter and malignant hatred of the
Jews, and I am afraid we must add, of the Jewish
Christians too. For the apostle James and thousands
of Christians were living in Jerusalem all this time
undisturbed. Paul's danger was not in being a Chris
tian, but in being a liberal Christian, — one who
demanded that the yoke of the Jewish law should be
entirely broken, declaring the distinction of Jew and
Gentile to be wholly done away in Christianity.
In Rome, the queen of the world, who among the
philosophers, senators and haughty noblemen knew

42 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
what an historical event was occurring when Paul was
brought, a chained prisoner, into her streets ? The
philosopher Seneca, the friend of the Emperor, — what
would he have cared at being told, as he walked in
the gardens of his splendid palace, that the champion
of another obscure Jewish sect had that day arrived in
the city ? Seneca may possibly have seen Paul, for the
latter speaks of an audience in the palace,1 But the
wise Stoic would hardly have deigned to waste a
thought on the man whose words were to prostrate the
whole system of things of which he was a part. Paul,
while a prisoner at Rome, probably wrote the epistle
to the Philippians. In this he speaks of his labors
in preaching the Gospel, and his hopes of being speed
ily released. If we accept an ancient tradition, sup
ported by a passage in Clement of Rome, who may
have been one of Paul's disciples, this hope was
realized ; and he travelled into Spain and other places,
and possibly saw again some of his Grecian churches.
According to this view, he was again imprisoned, and
sent once more to Rome, where he suffered martyr
dom. It was during this second imprisonment that
he was supposed to have written the second letter
to Timothy, in which he declares that the hour of
his departure is at hand: "I have fought' a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown
of righteousness."
1 See the note in the Appendix, on the traditional story of the
meeting of Paul and Seneca.

SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF PAUL. 43
Well might he say so ! As Paul the aged, thinking
of his whole career, might he not well feel that his life
had been thorough, complete and full ? What a cir
cle of experience had he gone through since as a
Jewish boy he studied at the feet of Gamaliel ! He,
in his single person, had lived four lives, either of
which would have been sufficient to render the name
of any man immortal. A life of profound thought,
which had evolved a system of theology which
was to rule the minds of the wisest men through
long centuries. A life of incessant action, full of
labors, journeys, and cares for the increase of the
churches. A life of wonderful spiritual experiences,
such as no other man had known ; caught up into the
third heaven, and enjoying the sight of things unut
terable by mortal tongue. A life of martyrdom, in
labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in
prisons more frequent, in deaths oft ; five times tor
tured by Jewish stripes, thrice beaten with rods, and
once stoned. Such was the life of Paul, so rich, so
full, so various ; full of deep trials, full of solemn
joys ; exemplifying everywhere the power of faith in
the unseen and eternal. Whatever he did was ac
complished by the power of his faith : " The life I
now live, I live by faith in the Son of God. I can do
all things through Christ who strengtheneth me."
Paul's supernatural conversion did not, indeed, create
or destroy any faculty of his nature. The divine
illumination awakened all his powers to full activity.
His inspiration appeared in the increased activity of

44 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
his being ; instead of destroying his nature, it devel
oped it in its minutest traits, and the influence of
a universal faith and a universal spirit gave tenfold
activity to his individual character. But what an
amount of power came to him from this inspira
tion ! It changed the direction of his whole life ;
it infused incalculable energies of hope and will
into his being ; it gave him an aim infinitely precious
to his heart, and inexhaustible power wherewith to
pursue it. In contemplating such a life, must we not
say that the greatest happiness that can befall a man
in this world is to have faith ? — faith in the unseen
and eternal ; faith in God's truth and love ; a faith
like his, which works by love, and purifies both heart
and life, more and more, forever.

CHAPTER III.
THE INSPIRATION OF PAUL.
WE come now to consider the Inspiration of
Paul. This inquiry is necessary before we
can properly examine his writings. If, for example,
we believe that he was so inspired as to be incapable
of error, we must accept all he says, as from God, —
even when he seems to contradict the fundamental
teachings of Jesus, the dictates of sound reaso-n, or
even his own teachings in other places. Our freedom
of inquiry being thus hampered, we lose our interest
in the investigation. But if we regard his inspiration
as an influence which led him up to the loftiest truth,
but which did not destroy the freedom of his mind,
nor obliterate his past opinions, we shall find great
interest in seeing how these new and living convic
tions gradually emancipated him from his old prej
udices, and how, according to the promise of Jesus,
he was "guided into all truth,"
What then do we mean by inspiration ?
There are two ways by which thought and knowl
edge come to us, —-from without, and from within.

46 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
One class of men, and that the largest, gather their
knowledge mostly from without, — by observation,
experience of life, or mingling with men and things.
Thus they grow wise, always acquiring some new
knowledge of nature or of man from the world
around. Another class of men seem to have a fountain of
thought within; ideas flow into their minds from
some hidden source. They are poets, artists, in
ventors, discoverers, seers, prophets. They are often
possessed by an idea which drives them forward,
regardless of outward consequences. Many of this
class fall by the wayside and are trodden down.
They write books which' no one reads, paint pictures
which no one buys, bore their friends with their
hobbies which no one takes an interest in, fight for
impracticable reforms, devote their lives to inven
tions which" never come to anything, preach theories
which no one attends to. These are men of imper
fect inspiration, — a feeble stream which is soon lost
in the sand.
But sometimes men come with an inspiration so
strong that it carries them forward, in spite of all
opposition, till they triumph. These are reformers
like Luther, founders of religions hke Buddha and
Mohammed, discoverers like Columbus, inventors
like Fulton. They follow an inward light, whether
men will hear or forbear, and at last they see the
work of their hands, and are satisfied. So How
ard the philanthrophist finally overcame the dead

THE INSPIRATION OF PAUL. 47
resistance of stupidity, self-interest, and prejudice.
So Garrison conquered the mighty combination which
upheld slavery.
The essential fact of inspiration is the same in all
such men. They all follow an inward light, an idea,
a conviction in their own soul. They did not make
this idea; it came to them. It haunts them when
awake; mingles with their dreams. If they try to
escape from it, it pursues them. If they succeed,
they are called men of genius, heroes, prophets; if
they fail, they are called fanatics, and men say to
them, "Thou art beside thyself; much learning hath
made thee mad."
The kinds and degrees of inspiration are various.
At the summit of all is religious inspiration; and
far above all other kinds of religious inspiration is
Christian inspiration. Mohammed, Buddha, Con
fucius, Zoroaster, were no doubt inspired men ; they
saw in their souls some divine truths. But while
the races and nations taught by these masters have
been imperfectly developed, the best and highest
civilization of mankind has been fed by Christianity.
A few plain men, quite ignorant of everything but
the gospel of love, were able to establish a religion
which in a few centuries overturned Paganism, and
took possession of the Roman empire. For eighteen
centuries this religion has been associated with every
thing progressive and ennobling in the history of our
race ; with all that restrains the tyrant, and consoles
the -wretched.

48 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
The root and essence of this inspiration was the
same in all the disciples and apostles. It was the
idea of Christ, formed in their souls. This was the
common universal inspiration of all Christians.
The doctrine of the spirit and spiritual influence
in Christianity differed greatly from the spiritual
ism of other religions. In the Jewish religion, the
word of the Lord seldom came except to prophets
and seers, who were raised up from time to time.
Among the Hindoos, only the caste of Brahmins are
counted capable of receiving this divine influx The
system of the Buddhists, the Platonists, and other
philosophies and theosophies declares that to com
mune with God one must leave the world, live alone,
and deny the pleasures of sense. But Christianity
limits this heavenly influence to no priestly caste,
to no saintly aristocracy. It is for all who need it,
all who ask for it. The divine ocean of love is ready
to flow into every heart which is open to receive it.
"Ask and receive," said Jesus; "seek, and ye shall
find ; knock and it shall be opened to you."
The influence of the Holy Spirit is not a mystical
influence. It is mysterious only as Nature is mys
terious ; it is mysterious as the human soul is myste
rious, as the life of plants is mysterious. The source
of all life is a mystery; but as soon as hfe begins,
it comes under law, and becomes part of a great order.
Mystery therefore is a part of nature, and to believe
in mystery does not interfere with practice, with pru
dence, with good sense, with outward usefulness; But

THE INSPIRATION OF PAUL. 49
mysticism does interfere with all these. Mysticism
interferes with the conduct of the understanding. It
despises logic ; it antagonizes the reflective intellect.
It lives by intuition alone, never correcting its in
tuitions' by observation and reflection; and thus is
morbid, because leaving important faculties unused.
Now, when we open the Book of Acts we shall
see that the spiritualism of the Apostles was not
mysticism. It did not take them away from life, but
carried them into life. They were no visionaries nor
dreamers ; they were neither monks nor hermits.
They were the most practical men then living in
the Roman empire ; for they had the greatest work
to do, saw most clearly what it was and how it
was to be done, and were doing it with their whole
might. Nor did they undervalue the reason. While
living in the spirit and walking in the spirit, they
were always ready to give an account of their faith,
to defend it by facts and arguments. He was surely
no mystic who defended himself before Felix and
Herod at Jerusalem, who argued with Stoics and
Epicureans at Athens, and pleaded before Caesar at
Rome. In apostolic times, when the whole life of
the church was in the Holy Ghost, nothing could be
more practical and nothing more full of intellectual
activity. No morbid mysticism had in those days
affected it.
This spiritualism in the apostolic church was not
partialism. The Holy spirit came to all, and dwelt
in all. It was not an eminent piety belonging to a
4

50 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
few; it did not make - an oligarchy of saints, but it
made saints of the whole body. The doctrine of
election did not teach that some were chosen to be
holy, and that the others were passed by. It taught
that God had chosen them all — all to whom his
word came — to become his children and to receive
his influence. The Holy Spirit was in every heart,
to make a universal brotherhood, to unite them all
in bonds of sympathy and good will.
In the beginning, this was the inspiration com
mon to all Christians. It gave to all of them faith,
hope, love, courage, patience, submission; it gave
them peace in the midst of storms, joy amid, trials,
life in the hour of death. It was a hfe within the
soul, making all things new.
But this inspiration took a different form in each
man, according to his genius and character. The
inspiration of Paul was unlike that of John. Paul
was more speculative ; John more meditative ; James
more practical ; Peter more of a churchman. These
differences appear in the epistles of each writer.
Agreeing in essentials, each of them loving and
serving Christ, each teaches Christianity in his own
way. The law of spiritual life in Christ Jesus is a
law of freedom; and where the spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. The inspiration of each man
¦is an indwelling life, intensifying all his powers, but
not destroying his individuality.
We may remark here that writings like these
suffer much by being cut up into chapters and verses.

THE INSPIRATION OF PAUL. 51
Take the most brilliant speech or poem of modern
days and divide it thus, and how the life would be
taken out of it ! Put one of Macaulay's reviews
or Carlyle's essays into chapters, and then put each
sentence by itself into a verse, and we should hardly
understand its meaning, much less be moved by its
glowing and pathetic eloquence. An obscure pas
sage of Paul sometimes becomes at once plain if you
read on, regardless of these divisions.
The inspiration of Paul, Peter, or John does not
consist in their saying what has never been said
before. When Socrates was about to die, one of his
friends remarked that the hard thing about it was,
that he should be punished so unjustly ; whereupon
Socrates answered, " What ! would you prefer that I
should suffer deservedly for some crime ? " Peter says
the same thing : " It is better, if the will of God be
so, that ye should suffer for well doing rather than
for evil doing." How happened it that these disci
ples, who had never read Plato nor studied in any
school, untaught fishermen of the lake, should have
been able to utter sayings like those of Socrates,
Epictetus, or Antoninus ? Once in a few hundred
years such men of genius come ; they do not come in
such groups as these. In rare moments, the select
souls of the earth utter words which the world
embalms and preserves in immortal memory. But
here are Peter and James and John, not remarkable
at first, called from their boats to become the teachers
of mankind; and all of them leave some writing

52 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
containing texts of thought, expressions going down
deep into human experience, lofty appeals to what
ever is most noble in the soul. Some remarkable
influence, some common inspiration, must have acted
upon them all to draw from their hearts such sacred
music. This influence, they say, was Christ formed
within them, the hope of glory. Or, as it is else
where expressed, " We all, beholding the glory of
our Master as in a mirror, are changed into the
same image, rising from glory into a still higher
glory by the continued influence of our Master's
spirit" (2 Cor. iii. 18).
There is another remarkable fact about the inspi
ration of the New Testament writers. They teach us
no system ; they have no common creed ; each is
individual, and has his own original way of thinking
and writing; and yet there is a vital harmony of
opinion among them all. Some organizing principle,
working from the centre out, determines the mutual
relation of their thoughts, and brings them into unity.
Their thoughts are harmonized by the unity of the
spirit into a bond of peace. As in a great concert
each instrument gives its own melody, and has its
separate tone, some playing one part and some an
other, and yet none make any discord in their differ
ence, thus these New Testament writers strike separate
notes of Christian truth, but in a vital consent and
final concert of sweetest harmony.
Among them all Paul stands distinct for the afflu
ence of his thought. He overflows with an exuber-

THE INSPIRATION OF PAUL. 53
ance of ideas ; he has an infinite variety. Now he
argues with a compact logic, as in the Epistle to the
Romans ; now he speaks with burning indignation or
sad severity, as in the letter to the Galatians ; again
he bursts into a wild strain of pathetic eloquence, of
tender appeal, of warm affection; then rises into
some vision of the final triumph and glory of Chris
tian truth. From this height he descends again to
give careful advice in practical matters, — about going
to law, about marriage, eating or abstaining from
unclean meats, about divorce, about partaking of the
Lord's supper in the right way, about women wearing
a veil on their heads in praying or preaching. He
gives minute advice as to how long or how often men
should use the gift of tongues; urges the superior
advantage of distinct and clear instruction ; gives
suggestions on the best way of taking up a collection.
Once more, in the midst of all these practical matters,
he suddenly soars upward into the highest heaven of
divine vision, and sings a seraphic hymn to love.
All this in a single letter to Corinth.
Observe also in Paul the rare union of qualities
usually found in opposition to each other, — ardent
enthusiasm with fine discrimination, earnest convic
tion with generous liberality. With the strongest
belief, he is not narrow, not one-sided ; with uncom
promising convictions and inflexible purpose, he is
not intolerant of differences. He endures repeatedly
the cruel torture of the scourge and rod rather than
go a step backward or concede one point of the truth.

54 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Yet in all unessential matters he gives way ; com
mands submission to the Roman Government ; urges
paying taxes and obeying the laws; and this, he says,
should be done not merely from fear of punishment,
but as a religious duty. He says, " Circumcision is
nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing ; " to obey the
commandments of God is everything. " The kingdom
of God is not meat nor drink, but righteousness, peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost." As to the Sabbath, he
who keeps it because he thinks he ought to do so,
does well ; he who disregards the' Sabbath, because he
thinks he ought not to keep it, is equally obedient to
God in this course. He who conscientiously eats
meat offered to idols does right; he who conscien
tiously abstains also does right. We are not to judge
each other. It is not ours to decide between a man's
conscience and his God. We are all standing at every
moment before a higher judgment-seat than that of
man ; we are being judged, while we speak and act,
by God. Thus, what Luther demanded, fifteen cen
turies after, for every soul, — the right of private
judgment, — Paul, following Christ, demanded then :
every soul is to stand alone before God, and must
decide and act for itself.
But Paul teaches no mere individualism. His
doctrine of private judgment and personal freedom
does not- exclude union, brotherly fellowship, and inti
mate, constant co-operation. We are all, he says,
members of one body. If one member suffers, all
suffer ; if one is prosperous, all prosper. God gives

THE INSPIRATION OF PAUL. 55
to each man a separate gift, altogether his own ; yet he
is to use it for the common good. He frequently
returns to this comparison of the Christian commu
nity to a living organization, with various limbs, sen
ses, faculties, all working together for a common
end. In this also we see the balance and equipoise
given by the fulness of his inspiration.
The fountain and essence of this inspiration was an
inward sight of the Christ in his essential character.
It was to see that idea in the mind of Jesus which
made of him the true Christ. This was the inspira
tion of the Spirit which Jesus himself foretold and
promised, according to the Fourth Gospel (John xiv.
16-20, 26, 28 ; xvi. 13-16, &c). He told his disciples
that the Father would send them the Comforter, the
Spirit of Truth which should dwell in them; and then
immediately added that he himself would come 'to
them, and fill them with life, and make them see that
he was, living in them, and that they were living in
him. This spiritual influence would enable them to
remember whatever he had told them. His word
was to abide in them. When the. Spirit of Truth
came he would guide them into all truth, taking the
ideas of Jesus and showing them to his disciples.
The essential inspiration of Christians, therefore, was
to have the gospel of their Master made a living con
viction in their souls, out of which would be unfolded
in due proportion the truths involved in it. It was
to be shovjn to them. It was an inward sight of the
Fatherly love as it was seen by Jesus. It was not

56 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
therefore, the communication of any belief or proposi
tion to the understanding. All inspiration is of this
sort, — an inward sight. Inspiration is not infalli
bility. AVhat we see is limited by our deficiency of
vision, and our report of it obscured by our poverty
of expression. Nor is it stationary, but progressive ;
since we can see more and more of truth, and see it
more deeply and fully. Nor is it pure thought, or ab
straction. It is not dry light ; it is insight, permeated
with affection, and flowing out into action.
The inspiration of Paul, as described by himself,
corresponds with this view. It was Christ revealed
in him: "When it pleased God to reveal His Son
in me " (Gal. i. 15) ; " Christ within, the hope of glory"
(Col. i. 27) ; " Our life is hid with Christ in God "
(Col. iii. 3) ; " The life I now live I live by faith in
the Son of God" (Gal. ii. 20) ; "God hath shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. iv.
6). It was essentially a revelation of the divine love
to all men ; given freely (grace), given to sinners
(forgiveness), and thus creating an answering love to
God, and brotherly love to man.
We shall. see, in the case of Paul, that this inspira
tion by no means interfered with the freest action of
his mind ; did not abolish or change at once his old
opinions ; left in him many traces of his Jewish be
liefs ; and only gradually " transformed hiin by the
renewing of his mind" (Rom. xii. 2). Such a great
spiritual influence stimulates the idiosyncrasy of each

THE INSPIRATION OF PAUL. 57
apostle. It makes Peter, James, John, and Paul, not
more alike, but more different. The lower down
men are, and the less developed they are, the more
alike they are. The law of growth is from the ho
mogeneous, through differentiation, into harmony, —
first similarity, then variety, and at last variety in
unity. This great influence developed the peculiarities of
Paul in many directions. He had a prophetic, far-
reaching vision. He saw Christianity as it was to
be ; not in its then poor beginnings, but in its great
fulfilment. He looked not at the things seen and
temporal, but at the things not seen and eternal
(2 Cor. iv. 18). How full his language is of a
vast hope ! There is nothing small in his concep
tions ; everything is on a large scale. His . state
ments are comprehensive ; not one-sided nor narrow,
but yet full of discrimination. In the ardor and
rush of his ideas, he maintains the equipoise of
his thought. He is not swept away by his excite
ment into vagueness or repetition; but follows his
own rule, that " the spirits of the prophets are sub
ject to the prophets " (1 Cor* xiv. 32). He wishes
first of all, and always, to be intelligible. He asks,
What is the use of your speaking, if you are not
understood ? No doubt it is a great thing to be in
spired ; but Paul says that if the inspired man speaks
in mysterious language so that no one understands
him, he may do himself good, but he does no good
to any one else. You might as well, he suggests,

o

58 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
blow at random through a flute, or run your fin
gers carelessly over a harp. Pray with the under
standing as well as with the spirit ! Sing with the
understanding, as well as with the spirit ! Thus prac
tical was his mind. It were well if our public speakers,
preachers, and singers would study attentively this
fourteenth chapter of Corinthians ; so full is it of
common sense.
But the power of Paul was in his perpetual ideal
ity. What a small affair were these dozen Christian
churches, scattered through Greece and Asia Minor !
But Paul saw in them the seed of the most wonderful
future. His mind lived in that great future, in that
majestic hope.
Notice also the precision of his language. Each
phrase has its own exact meaning ; every word tells ;
he uses no vague generalities. Here are one or two
instances: In one letter he points out the distinction
between the Jewish and Greek character in matters of
religion. The Jews, he says, love power, the Greeks
love truth ; one wishes for marvellous signs, the other
for subtle intellectual statements. But Christ, he
says, brings both (1 Cor. i. 22) ; there is in the Gospel
power to convert the world, and also wisdom to teach
the world. Again, he indicates the place and purpose
of theology. You cannot, he says, find God by
theology. The world by wisdom knew not God. No
philosophy, no logic, no metaphysics, can make us see
God. The pure in heart see God. Simplicity of soul
finds God. There is a divine folly, as men call it,

THE INSPIRATION OF PAUL. 59
wiser than wisdom, stronger than strength. " God
has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound
the wise, and weak things of the world to confound the
mighty, and things that are not to bring to nought
things that are." And yet, when the point is to
meet objections, to reply to arguments, to answer
the questions of those who need clear thought, Paul
throws his whole mind into his reasoning, and leaves
no doctrinal question unexamined, no theological
problem unsolved.
- Here, again, we see the remarkable equipoise in
this exceptional soul of intuition and reason, — of
pure spiritual insight, and unceasing struggle for the
ultimate truth which can be reached by thought
alone. Ardent emotion is joined with cool discretion.
The essence of all truth is seen by a little child in a
single moment; but there are heights of knowledge
to be scaled which years of thought alone can reach.
Paul has entire faith that all truth can be found, all
known, the last end reached, the full insight gained.
There is no agnosticism in Paul. Consider this won
derful prayer which he offers for the humble Christians
in Ephesus, who are still so undeveloped that he is
obliged to exhort them not to steal, not to lie, not to
be drunk, to avoid coarse and licentious conduct, fool
ish tattling, corrupt and corrupting language. Low
down as they were, untaught as they were, he could
yet hope and pray for them in such words as these :
" For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of
our Master, Jesus Christ, that ye may be inwardly

60 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
strengthened mightily by his spirit ; that Christ may
dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted
and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend
what is the length and breadth and depth and height,
and know the love of Christ, which passeth knowl
edge, that ye may be filled with all the fulness of
God"(Eph. iii. 14).
This is his grand idea of the possibility of progress ;
of moral, spiritual, intellectual culture. The root and
ground of all is love — simple, self-forgetting, gener
ous love. That is the seed out of which all shall
grow. If we have this love, then Christ, who is love,
dwells in our hearts. Then the prospect of infinite
progress opens before us. Then we shall be able to
comprehend the Gospel in all its four dimensions of
length, breadth, depth, and height. Its length, — that
is, its far reaching progress, its ever advancing power*
its ever new developments in the human soul, human
history, and the life of the church. Its breadth, —
that is, its comprehensive nature, drawing together
and bringing into harmony man and God, nature and
revelation, reason and faith, this life and the next, time
and eternity, all earthly blessings and all spiritual
hopes. Its depth, — that is, its being able at last to
solve all problems, to discover the final answer to all
questions, to gain a profound apprehension of first
principles, an insight into the roots and sources of all
being. Its height, — that is, the ascent to God, the
communion with divine love, the conquest of good
over evil, the sitting in heavenly places with Christ,

THE INSPIRATION OF PAUL. 61
the communion with the spirits of the just made
perfect, and being filled with all the fulness of
God. What faith the apostle had in the capacity of man
and the power of the Gospel, when he could pray
such a prayer for his disciples ! What a hope for the
whole human race illumined his heart amid the sad
hours of his lonely prison ! In none of his letters
does he reach so lofty a tone, in none does he see
visions of such a triumphant future as in those writ
ten from his prison in Caesarea to the Colossians and
Ephesians, and from his prison in Rome to the Phil
ippians. His faith then becomes prophecy, — a far-
reaching vision of the entire conquest of good over
evil, and the ultimate redemption of every human
soul. As he approached the end of his life, the
galling Roman chain freezing on his stiff limbs, with
hardly a companion or friend near him, the churches
he had founded still full of evils, and new forms of
error springing up in their midst, he became more
certain of the triumph of good over all evil. Lan
guage seemed hardly adequate to furnish him with
expression for this faith. He heaps epithet on epi
thet, as when he speaks of "the abundant grace,"
which "through the thanksgiving of many" should
" redound to the glory of God." So h'e says that the
Ephesians shall have "the spirit of wisdom," and of
"revelation" in "the knowledge of Christ;" their
" minds being filled with light," so as " to know the
hope of God's calling and the riches of his glory, and

62 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
the greatness of his power;" and teaches how God
has set Christ above every power and principality,
every might and dominion in this world and all com
ing worlds ; making him full of the fulness of God,
who is all in all.
He sees in Christ perfect power, a pleroma of truth,
ability to bring all discords into harmony, and to dis
solve by his divine love and goodness the evils and
woes of. all worlds. But, though this conviction be
comes so habitual with Paul in his last days, it was
not new to him. Long before, when writing to Cor
inth from Ephesus, he had declared that Christ must
reign till all things were subject to him ; that is, till
all evil was conquered by good. But then he adds,
still maintaining the supremacy of the Father: "When
all things are subject to him, the Son also himself
shall be, subject to him who did put all things under
him, that God may be all in all." Christianity itself
will come to an end by its very success. For, with
all his devotion to Christ, Paul never for a moment
thought of him as approaching to any equality with
the supreme and infinite Father.
The faith of Paul in regard to the Eternal One
is just as vitally and centrally true for us now as it
was for the narrow Jew and vague Gnostic of his
own day.
At present, the prevailing tendencies of thought are
toward Agnosticism and Pantheism. All the truth
there is in both these theories Paul saw, but saw a
deeper truth below each of them. The Agnostic says

THE INSPIRATION OF PAUL. 63
we cannot know God at all. Paul declares we cannot
know him thoroughly nor comprehend him, and yet
we can know him. " To know," says he, " the love
which surpasses knowledge ; " " God dwells in inac
cessible light ; " " No man hath seen God, nor can see
him." That the finite can never comprehend the
Infinite is a statement which needs no proof. But
that we may know many things we cannot compre-
' hend is also very certain. We not only know God,
but we probably know him more certainly than any
thing else in the universe, since " in him we live and
move and have our being." Nor is there any truth
in Pantheism unstated by Paul. He says: "From
him and through him and to him are all things ; "
"He is the fulness that fills all in all." Yet Paul
never teaches that everything is God, which is the
false Pantheism ; but that he is " above all and
through all and in us all." Paul does not say that
all things are God, but that God is in all things.
Was there ever a spirit, except that of the Master,
which went as deep, and soared as high, and reached
out as far as this ? Yet how near to us all he is
still ; how his words comfort, uphold, and strengthen
us to-day ! How his advice helps us, his sympathy
cheers us ! He who put on the whole armor of God
helps us to hope that one day we may wear the same
perfect panoply. He encourages our hope to share
in our measure that heavenly inspiration which has
made him one of tbe great teachers of the human
race.

64 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
A question which naturally arises here is this:
If the inspiration of Paul did not save him from
error and mistakes, how are we to distinguish be
tween the inspired sight and utterance of truth and
those imperfect or erroneous statements which came
from his old opinions, mistaken reasoning, or failing
memory ? How distinguish the inspired part of his
teaching from the uninspired %
The answer is that no such sharp line can be
drawn. How do we distinguish in a poem that which
is truly poetical from that which is prosaic ? There
is no exact rule by which it can be done. Each
man's own poetic feeling must decide.
We can only recognize inspiration in another by
the same spirit in ourselves. But the best test of
inspiration is that it gives vitality and unity. It pro
duces a coherent whole, and organizes into one living
conviction the various themes of thought. This is
"the unity of the Spirit." The Spirit also quick
ens, makes alive. In all writing there is a living
part and a dead part. The description of love in
1 Cor. xiii. is vital, throbbing with life; the argu
ment about Sarah and Hagar (Galatians iv. 21) is pal
pably from the uninspired part of the apostle's mind,
— a reminiscence of his former Rabbinical doctrine.
Inspired truth is full of vital power. It sinks deep
into the springs of being in the soul. It quickens
understanding, imagination, and love. It brings forth
fruit. It creates character, alters belief, expels preju
dice, builds up communities.

THE INSPIRATION OF PAUL. 65
As Paul preached faith in the living Jesus, the
Son of God and Son of Man, churches were organized,
new morals and manners arrived, a new hope and
energy entered the human heart. The inspired truth
in the teaching of Paul centres around two themes,
— Christ in the heart, and Christ in the life.
Since writing this I have met with the following
sentences in Goethe, which express very nearly the
same idea, and coming from such a source are quite
significant. They are to be found in the 12th Book
of " Aus meinen Leben." He says that in his study
of the Bible, his plan was to find the fundamental
central thought, and to regard that as the key to
the whole.
" In all traditions," he goes on to say, " especially
written traditions, all depends on the inner sense, the
main purpose of the work. This contains the ele
ment which is truly original, divine, effective, im
pregnable, and indestructible. This original central
conviction remains unchanged by time and unaffected
by outward circumstances, just as a fair pure soul is
untouched by the diseases of the body. The body of
a work is its language, dialect, peculiar style and
letter, — and all this is exposed to change and decay,
" It is our business, then, to seek always the inmost
element of a writing, and especially that part which
corresponds to our own inward experience, and which
most entirely vitalizes our own thought and char
acter. The external part we can hand over to the
critic, who, though he may succeed in demolishing
5

66 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
the shell, can never rob us of that central living ker
nel, nor for a single moment cause us to doubt its
worth and reality.
" This principle lies at the foundation of my whole
literary activity, and has been my capital, from which
I have drawn supplies for all my work. This prin
ciple enabled me to understand and enjoy the Bible.
I was no longer perplexed by the differences in these
books. My interest in this volume was too great to
allow me to dispense with the study of it. No mat
ter how free were my criticisms, I never lost sight of
this most wholesome canon : The Evangelists may
contradict each other to any extent, provided the Gospel
never contradicts itself''

CHAPTER IV.
THE MISSIONARY PERIOD.
THE first epoch in Paul's life as a Christian is
the Missionary period. As soon as he was
converted he was seized with the desire of preaching
his new gospel. It was a gospel, that is, good
news; and every one who hears a piece of good
news wishes to tell it. What a pleasure in com
municating that which will make all men happy !
The joy of the message reacts on the bearer, and he
seems to himself and to others glorified in the hap
piness which he imparts. It is not therefore ben
evolence alone which prompts men to announce a
gospel, but even self-love may make them enjoy the
distinction which it gives them. One of my earliest
recollections as a child was of seeing a man on horse
back, riding rapidly up the avenue to the front door of
our house, crying out, " Peace ! Peace ! " and then
riding away to communicate his gospel to others.
He brought to us the news of the Treaty of peace be
tween Great Britain and the United States signed at
Ghent, Dec. 24, 1814, which reached America Feb.

68 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
14, 1815. So true are the words of the prophet:
" How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him
that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace,
that bringeth good tidings of good."
It is always pleasant to bring good news; but
when this good news makes men not only happier
but better, — when it brings a cure for the diseases
of the soul, health to a decaying society, new life
to a dying world, — what joy to be the bearer of such
tidings ! Therefore Paul said, " Woe is me if I preach
not the gospel." It would be to him disaster and
sorrow to give up the work which exposed him to
so much hatred, persecution, toil, and suffering. He
could bear all these — amply recompensed by the
grateful love of his converts, and the consciousness
of doing so much good.
What was the substance of his gospel, and why
was it such good tidings ?
It was that the great Messiah, long-expected King
of Peace and Justice, had at last been born ; that he
had endured the sufferings and death foreseen and
predicted by the prophet; that he had risen from
death into a higher life, and would soon appear as
Son of God and Son of Man. He had sent out his
apostles to call men into his Kingdom, in which
they could find pardon, peace and hope. "Believe
in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and God will
put his spirit into your hearts, by which you will
say, Father! Then you will be safe; safe from all
danger and evil, in the hands of a protecting God."

THE MISSIONARY PERIOD. 69
The long age of force, cruelty, tyranny, was near
its end. The new age of Peace, Purity, Love, was
about to begin. No wonder that those who believed
in this prophecy were filled with joy, and became
subjects of the new King.
But why did they believe it? Why did these
Gentiles, Greeks of Asia and Europe, Romans of
Italy and the provinces — why did they accept a
Jewish Messiah ? For two reasons : first, because it
was an unbelieving age, in which the old faiths
had died out, and left emptiness.1 Such an epoch is
longing for something to believe, and is prepared to
accept anything which gives new vitality to its stag
nant spirit. And the other reason was the strength
of conviction of these Jewish apostles. The man
who believes always has a great influence on the
man who has no belief. Faith produces faith. The
Jews already exercised a power over the Roman
mind because, in an age of unbelief, they were the
one people who believed. To a hopeless world, they
had already communicated something of their own
expectation of a coming Messiah.2 Clinging with a
dogged obstinacy to their law and their traditions,
their Sabbath and Scripture, they seemed the only
nation in the world to whom religion was a reality ;
1 For the unbelief of the first century see Renan, " Les Apotres,"
chap. xvii. "Etat du monde vers le milieu du premier siecle."
Also see Neander, vol. i.
2 Tacitus, Hist. v. 13 ; Suetonius, Life of Vespasian. " An old
and persistent opinion moved the whole East, that, at that time,,
some power proceeding from Judea would possess the whole world. "

70 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
not merely a part of public politics, or of pleasant
literary allusion. The apostle Paul had this strength
of conviction in the highest degree, freed from the
hard shell of Jewish ritual. Wherever he went, men
saw in him one to whom the most lovely faith was
more real than the outside world of fact and law ; to
whom the things seen were fugitive and ephemeral,
the things not seen substantial and eternal. " On
all sides," says Renan,1 " was energetically manifested
the need of a monotheistic religion, founding mo
rality on divine law. It was an epoch in which
naturalistic religions, reduced to utter childishness,
to jugglery and sorcery, could no longer meet the
needs of human society, which longed for a moral
and philosophic religion. In India and Persia this
want was met by Buddhism and the system of Zoro
aster. In the Greek world the Orphic poets and the
Mysteries had tried in vain to satisfy this demand.
At the epoch we have reached, the problem was pro
posed to mankind with a certain solemn unanimity
and an imperial grandeur."
The fundamental statement of Paul, the main
proposition in his preaching, was this : " Jesus of
Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of God."2 What
was the meaning and value of this proposition ?
1 Loc. cit.
2 This appears equally from the Book of Acts and the Pauline
letters. See Acts ix. 20, 22, — where, directly after his conversion,
Paul preaches at Damascus that Jesus is the Son of God, and proves
him to be the Christ; Acts xvii. 2, — at Thessalonica, where he
teaches that the Christ must suffer and rise, and that this Jesus

THE MISSIONARY PERIOD. 71
The Jewish faith in a Messiah, or Christ, was in
One to come who should combine the offices of
prophet, priest, and king. He was the anointed
one, — king and priest.1 He was to be prophet like
Moses, king like David, and priest like Melchiz-
edek. As prophet, he would reveal divine truth ; as
king, govern the world with divine justice ; as priest,
reconcile man to God. Sometimes one, and some
times another of these views was emphasized. Some
times it was Power ; and he was to be a great Ruler,
like David, making the Jewish nation the conquer
ing people, supreme over the Gentiles. Sometimes
it was Priest; and then the Temple and its altar
would be the shrine where the whole world should
come to worship. And sometimes the Prophetic
character was made most prominent, and the Messiah
would then be a revealer of heavenly truth.
When this Messiah comes, the present age will
end, and the new age begin.2. In the present age (iv
tovtco rm alcovi), which is an age of darkness ("tov
ovcotoi/s tov almvo<; tovtov," Eph. vi. 12), Force, Fraud,
and War are the rulers. In the next age, the age to
come (eV toj piWovTi, Matt. xii. 32 ; Heb. vi. 5 ; &c),
is the Christ ; Acts xviii. 5, — at Corinth, where he declares that
Jesus is the Christ.
1 Kings in ancient times were also priests. So Virgil, "Rex idem,
et regi Turno gratissimus augur."
2 The meaning of the New Testament has been much obscured
by the translation of these words in the authorized version " this
world " and "the world to come." The Revised version puts " age"
in the margin.

72 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
divine justice will rule, peace conquer war, evil be
overcome with good. Therefore the coming age is
called the "Kingdom of God," and "Kingdom of
Heaven." The glowing language of the Jewish
prophets described the glories of this approaching
time,1 which would be introduced by the appearance
(irapovcrla) of the Messiah, at the end of the present
age. ("What shall be the sign o? thy coming," —
appearance, manifestation, — " and the end of the
age?" Matt. xxiv. 3.)
This Coming Age was the great hope and expecta
tion of the Jewish people. It was the theme of their
Apocalyptic literature. It pervades the New Testa
ment. It is the main subject of the teaching of
Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount lays down the
laws and spirit of the new age, — the Kingdom of
Heaven. The parables mostly turn on the nature of
the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus fully agreed with
the Jewish teachers tha.t the old age was coming to
an end, that the new age was about to begin, that the
Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, that it was to be in
this world and the present life. The central petition
of the Lord's prayer is, not that our souls may be saved
in the future life, but that God's Kingdom may come
here, and His will be done on earth, making a heaven
below like the heaven above. He differed from the
Jewish leaders only as to the character and methods
1 See Isaiah xi., xxxv., xl., xlix., Hi., Iv., etc., the images of which
came to Virgil through the Sibylline verses, and were reproduced
in his Fourth Eclogue, and afterwards in Pope's Messiah.

THE MISSIONARY PERIOD. 73
of the Kingdom. They believed that it was to be out
ward and political, upheld by miraculous signs, and
divine power. They expected it as a kingdom of force,
. like that of Rome ; only the force would be in the
hands of the Jews and not in that of the Gentiles.
The Jews would- be the masters, and the Romans
slaves. Their principle was exactly the one after
wards carried out by Mohammed, — that other races
must become either converts or subjects to the chosen
people. The temples of the idols would fall, the
religions of idolatry pass away, and the worship of
Jehovah, in His Temple at Jerusalem, be the sacred
centre of the world.
The teaching of Jesus was the exact opposite of
this. The age to come, the Kingdom of Heaven, was
to be the reign of love and truth, not of force and
authority. It would not be established by miracu
lous signs and wonders. " A wicked generation seeks
for a sign." The only sign would be one like that of
Jonah, — apparent defeat and overthrow. His first
words blessed " the poor in spirit," " the meek," " the
pure in heart," " the peace-makers." His " coming,"
or manifestation as King, was not to be outward and
local, but inward and pervasive; it was to be the
power proceeding from his truth and love to convince
and convert the world. It was not to be " Lo, here ! "
or "Lo, there!" but within them, in their midst.
It would not come with observation, but as the rain
and dew from heaven. He told Pilate that he was
King, because he came to bear witness to the truth.

74 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
In his effort to convince the Jewish leaders that the
true Kingdom of God was of this spiritual order, he
went to his death — confident, however, that through
his death, this divine reign would be accomplished.
" I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." *
This was the doctrine preached by the missionaries,
— by Paul'to the Greeks, no less than by Peter to the
Jews. The great age of peace and truth was at hand,
and Jesus, the crucified, was to appear as King of
justice and love. The condition of becoming a mem
ber of this Kingdom was faith in Jesus as the Christ ;
that is, faith that truth and love are to conquer
force, and that he who died for others is to become
master of mankind. It was therefore faith that truth
must conquer error, right overcome wrong, evil be
defeated "by goodness. Therefore all who named the
name of Christ must depart from iniquity ; for not
every one who says to Jesus, Lord ! Lord ! shall enter
into his Kingdom, but those who do the will of his
Heavenly Father. All who have this faith, and will
show it by their works, shall see God as Father and
Friend, lay down the burden of sin, have nothing to
fear in this age or any other, but be safe in the midst
of a despairing epoch and a decaying world.
This Parousia, or coming of Jesus as the Christ, the
Son of God, was not any " Second Coming " as it has
usually been called 1 for there is nothing in the
New Testament about a second coming. During his
life, Jesus had not come as the Christ, the King ; he
1 See " Orthodoxy, its Truths and Errors," chapter xiii.

THE MISSIONARY PERIOD. 75
was to become so through his rising up from the
grave, and being the source of life and power to all
his followers. When he was seen to be Christ, and
acknowledged as such by Jew and Gentile, that
would be his parousia, manifestation, revelation, and
coming. No doubt Paul and the other apostles believed that
this coming would be with observation, — a mag
nificent revelation, accompanied with mighty signs on
earth and in heaven. This is the picture given in the
Apocalypse ascribed to John, and called the Book of
Revelation. This book states that it contains a
description of " the things which must shortly come
to pass ; " and it is a wonderfully poetical and figura
tive description of the overthrow of the Jewish hier
archy and the Roman empire, amid unutterable woes,
and the final establishment of Christianity, or the
Kingdom of Heaven, the New Jerusalem. This great
and terrible consummation, the end of the old age and
the beginning of the new, was soon to come to pass.
The apostles had a right to believe this, for Jesus had
distinctly said, when speaking of his coming, " This
generation shall not pass away till all these things
be fulfilled ; " and again, " There be some standing
here who shall not taste death till they see the King
dom of God." That the apostles also (at least at
first) took in too literal a sense the figures and images
by which their Master had described his Parousia, or
manifestation, is apparent. He had told them he was
coming in the clouds of heaven, with his angels, with

76 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
the sound of a trumpet (Matt. xxiv. 30 ; Mark xiii.
36 ; Luke xxi. 27). Paul, in the first period of his
teaching, seems to have taken this literally (1 Thess.
iv. 16) ; though in his later letters such descrip
tions cease, and instead of speaking of Christ's com
ing, lie desires to depart and be with Christ (Phil.
i. 23), and is already sitting with him in heavenly
places (Eph. ii. 6). That Jesus was misunderstood
in this instance, as in others (John vi. 52 ; Luke
xxii. 38), by the prosaic minds of his hearers, seems
evident from his warning them that his coming
would not be local, but universal (Matt. xxiv. 3, 26,
27 ; Luke xvii. 20, 21) ; that it would not be with
observation ; and comparing its growth to the working
of leaven hidden in the meal.
There is no doubt that in these discourses concern
ing his coming, Jesus is represented as predicting the
wars which ended with the fall of Jerusalem and the
destruction of the Temple. Some critics take for
granted that such predictions could not have been
made by him, and must have been written after the
events so described had taken place. This is assum
ing the impossibility of such foresight, unless by a
wholly supernatural power, which power is declared
incredible and impossible. But why should it be
considered incredible that one endowed with the
marvellous penetration of Jesus, should have been
able to look into the future ? Insight is foresight.
He who sees the present can foresee the future. Theo
dore Parker saw the civil war in the United States

THE MISSIONARY PERIOD. 77
long before it came, and declared that slavery would
end in a bloody struggle between the free and the
slave-holding States. Dr. Channing, long before the
war broke out, predicted exactly what would happen
if the slaveholders attempted to dissolve the Union.
Just before the secession, short-sighted politicians
announced that in a war between the North and
the South, the North would be divided, and the fight
would be carried on in the streets of northern cities.
But Dr. Channing, twenty years earlier, said that if
the South seceded, " there would be no need of anti-
slavery societies to convert the North. The blow
that would sever the Union for this cause [slavery]
would produce an instantaneous explosion to shake
the whole land. The moral sentiment against slavery,
now kept down by the interests and duties which grow
out of union, would burst its fetters, and be reinforced
by the whole strength of the patriotic principle, as
well as by all the prejudices and local passions which
would follow disunion." Dr. Channing thus foretold,
in 1840, that uprising of the people of the North
which took most persons by surprise in 1861. The
thinker, in his closet, could thus predict political
events which were hidden from the wise politicians
and prudent men of the world.
Jesus needed no- miraculous gift of prophecy to
foretell the approaching siege and destruction of Jeru
salem and of its Temple. He only needed that power
of reading the signs of the times which he blamed
the Jews for not using. They asked him for a mirac-

78 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
ulous sign, and he told them that there were natural
signs which they ought to be able to read (Matt. xvi.
1-4). He saw the bitter, malignant spirit of the Jew
ish zealots, their deadly hatred against Rome, their
firm belief that the Messiah was to be a King, armed
with superhuman force, and that Rome would perish
before bis triumphant march. The desperate fanati
cism shown by the Jews under the Maccabees, the
fury of their previous outbreaks against Rome, their
loathing of the power of the Caesars, were evident
signs that unless their Messianic hopes could be
turned into a new channel, the whole nation would at
last rise against Rome ; and this must end in utter
ruin. Rome might be conquered by truth, but in
any struggle of brute force, her thirty legions and
her splendid military discipline must prevail. Jeru
salem would be encircled with armies, and the Tem
ple would be destroyed (Luke xx. 41 ; xxi. 5, 20, 24 ;
xxiii. 28).
The capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of the
Temple brought to an end the' age of Moses, the age
of Law, and introduced the new age, — the Kingdom
of Heaven, the reign of Love. Down to this time the
religion of Moses was the leading faith of the world,
the high- water mark of monotheism, the chief fact in
the religious history of the human race. But with
the ruin of the Temple, with the end of sacrifices, the
Law was replaced by the Gospel. The national reli
gions had come to an end ; the religion of humanity
took their place.

THE MISSIONARY PERIOD. 79
This beginning of the universal religion, — not
hound to temples or altars, not a religion of "Lo here ! "
or " Lo there ! " — was the coming of Jesus as the
Christ — a coming not to the senses but to the soul.
He did not come in the tempest or the fire, but in the
still small voice of inward conviction and happy
faith. He came as the thief in the night, — when
men did not expect him, and were unprepared. His
. coming was preceded by wars and many miseries ; it
was also preceded by the preaching of the gospel to
Asia and Europe. It was a judgment on mankind, —
parting the sheep from the goats, showing who were
lovers of truth and right.
Thus, when the apostles, preached the near coming
of Jesus as the Christ, they were essentially right,
though mistaken as to the outward form and acci
dents of that appearance. When they called on men
to take him for their King, and to believe in him as
able to save their souls, to bring them to God, to give
them peace, they were offering to their time the best
possible gift. It came as a new hope in an hour of
despair. It was, in truth, the beginning of a new age.
' So far as we can see from the Pauline writings, this
was the true explanation of the ready acceptance of
Christianity, and its steady progress. It gave the
human mind, tossed by doubts, a solid foundation on
which to rest, an anchor by which to cling. God,
heretofore a power, a law, a name, a far-off possibility,
became a friend and a father. The Christ, his dear
Son, was near by, behind the veil, an inspiration and

80 Ideas of the: apostle paul.
a comfort, a leader and helper. The world had at
last a Faith !
We are now prepared to read Paul's first writings,
the two missionary epistles addressed to the Thessa
lonians, more intelligently. At Thessalonica the
Jews had excited the rabble against Paul, after he
,had been at least three weeks in the city, and caused
him to be expelled from it. From there he went to
Corinth, having passed through Berea and Athens".
These letters to the Thessalonians were written from
Corinth ; they were quoted by Irenaeus, Clement of
Alexandria, and Tertullian ; and both belong to the
writings universally accepted by the early church. 1
They have in them the glow of youth, an ardent love
for these new converts and friends, an immense desire
to strengthen and encourage them, sadness at being
obliged to leave them too soon, astonishment (which
he certainly did not afterward feel) at the persistent
Jewish bigotry which preferred that the whole Gen
tile world should die in its sins rather than it should
be converted from idolatry to the living God and to a
righteous life in any other way than its own. " They
killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and
drove us out, and please not God, and are contrary to
all men ; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that
they may be saved ; to fill up their sins alway ; but
the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost ; "
1 See De Wette's "Introduction,'' Frothingham's translation.
De Wette considers the objections raised in recent times to their
genuineness to be of little weight.

THE MISSIONARY PERIOD. 81
that is, they are full of the spirit of wrath to the
utmost extent.
No one can understand this desperate bigotry of
the zealots among the Jews, who has not read the
accounts of the siege of Jerusalem, where each sect
was occupied in murdering the other, instead of unit
ing against the common enemy. Stier says1 that,
" in the period between the resurrection and the fall
of Jerusalem, the Jewish nation acted as if possessed
by seven thousand demons. The whole age had upon
it the stamp of the infernal." Before the siege began,
the zealots committed such atrocities in Jerusalem that
many sought the Roman camp for safety. They
introduced the Idumaeans into the city, who mas
sacred and tortured the best citizens. On one awful
night thousands were slaughtered in the Court of the
Gentiles. During the year which preceded the arri
val of Titus, the Jewish factions raged against each
other with fire and sword, till Jerusalem was filled
with death, famine, pestilence and despair. The
wrath had come upon them to the uttermost.
It was this same spirit of bitter zeal and animosity
which pursued Paul wherever he went, trying to put
a stop to his work, rousing the Roman authorities
against him, — men binding themselves by an oath
not to eat or drink till they had killed him. " Of the
Jews, five times I received thirty-nine stripes." They
" urged on the 'devout women of honorable estate "
1 Quoted by Farrar, "Early days of Christianity."
6

82 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
against him ; for blind devotion, and holy simplicity,
and sweet womanly ardor, can be turned by fanat
icism into a cruelty like that of the North American
Indians. " 0 holy simplicity ! " said the martyr Huss,
when he saw an old woman laboriously bringing a
large stick of wood to add to the burning pile. The
Jews stirred up the souls of the Gentiles against
Paul at Iconium ; they stoned him at Lystra till he
lay as dead ; they assaulted . the house of Jason,
where Paul stayed at Thessalonica; they pursued
him to Berea ; at Corinth they brought him before
the judgment-seat of the Proconsul Gallio, the wise
and liberal brother-in-law of Seneca; who however
sent them about their business, telling them it was
no concern of his. They surrounded Paul with plots,
tormented him with false accusations, perverted his
disciples, maltreated his converts, and hated him
with the full bitterness of theological and sectarian
rancor, — the merciless wrath of men who mistake
the wounds of their own egotism and vanity for inju
ries done to the Almighty.
I have dwelt on this spirit of wilful and lawless
rage, this bitter zeal and animosity, as it explains
a passage in these letters to the Thessalonians usu
ally regarded as difficult. In the first letter Paul
had emphasized strongly the speedy revelation of
Jesus as the Christ, in an outward and visible man
ner, — too strongly, as it seems ; for in the second let
ter he corrects himself, and seeks to moderate their
expectations in this regard. He still holds to an out-

THE MISSIONARY PERIOD. 83
ward awful coming of Jesus as Judge (2 Thess. i. 7),
but warns them not to be troubled in mind by
any assurance, even though it was found in his own
letter, that the Day of the Lord is close at hand. It
cannot come, he says, until a certain evil principle,
"the man of sin" or "the man of lawlessness," is
revealed. There is an evil principle at work pri
vately and secretly, which must come out openly.
It is now restrained by another, counteracting power.
It must be revealed and seen, in order to be de
stroyed. This evil principle must pass through
three steps. It is first restrained, then revealed,
lastly destroyed.
Many explanations have been given of this " man
of sin," this " Antichrist." The simplest of all has
been usually passed by. The opposition to Paul at
this time was that of the party of zealots among the
Jews. The Jewish-Christian opposition had not be
gun. But the Jews, so he tells us in his first letter
(ii. 17), "killed the Lord Jesus, and the prophets,
and drove out us, forbidding us to speak to the
Gentiles," &c. He saw in them the spirit of wilful
ness, of lawlessness, of fierce egotism, which had
taken possession of the Jewish Temple service, taking
on itself the authority, and claiming the power, of
Jehovah himself. This spirit of dark, bloodthirsty
pride was now held down and restrained by the
Roman Power ; but as soon as that power was relaxed,
this demoniac spirit would break out ; and when it
broke out it would be destroyed by the- " breath of the

84 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
mouth " of the Lord Jesus. 1 The Roman power had
restrained the Jewish persecutors in several of the
Greek cities. It was not prudent in a written letter
to speak more plainly than this ; but Paul reminded
his readers that he had explained it to them in con
versation. He had no doubt told them that Jeru
salem would be overthrown, the Jewish Temple
destroyed, and the worship of the Christ take its
place. From his using the very images of the dis
course of Jesus (compare 1 Thess. iv. 16 with Matt.
xxiv. 30, 31), it is evident that he was acquainted
with this discourse in which Jesus declared that the
Son of Man would not come until after the destruc
tion of the Temple and of Jerusalem by Roman
armies (Luke xxi. .6, 20, 24, 27). Before that over
throw, the man of sin — that is, the spirit of Jewish
lawlessness — must be revealed to such an extent
as to bring down upon the nation the vengeance of
Caesar. Paul, therefore, in this passage is only re
peating, in a covert form, the prediction of Jesus of
the coming end of Judaism.
The most striking features of these letters is the
warmth of affection contained in them ; of which we
shall speak more fully in the chapter on " The Heart
of Paul." He tasks language to express his love to
these dear disciples. Many incidental references con
nect these letters with the Book of Acts. He speaks of
1 That is, by the power of his word. A reminiscence of Isaiah, —
" He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the
breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked." Isaiah xi. i.

THE MISSIONARY PERIOD. 85
his ill-treatment at Philippi (1 Thess. ii. 2 ; compare
Acts xvi. 23). He names as his companions, Silas and
Timothy (1 Thess. i. 1 ; 2 Thess. i. 1), who we find are
associated with him in the history (see Acts xvi.
19 ; xvii. 10, 14, 15). Silas is named before Timothy
in each case, as the more important person ; which is
the more remarkable as he is scarcely heard of again.
It may also be a slight evidence of the early date of
these letters, written before Paul had reached the full
sense of his independent position, that all the three
names are associated, as in the superscription, as
authors of the letter; while afterward Paul either
gives his own name alone (as in Romans, Galatians,
Ephesians), or adds his own title of Apostle of
Christ before giving the names of his associates
(1st and 2nd Corinthians).
It has been objected to the genuineness of these
letters to the Thessalonians, that too short a time had
passed since the foundation of this church to cause
Paul to. be so anxious to see them, or to allow their
faith to have been heard of so widely, or to have
made it probable that they should have been organ
ized with offieers and rulers (1 Thess. i. 7, 8 ; ii. 17,
18 ; v. 12). But we must remember that Paul was
compelled to quit Thessalonica in the miflst of his
labors, leaving them probably incomplete (Acts xvii.
10) ; that in a small country like Greece it did not
take long to hear in one city what had happened in
another; and that the form of government used in
the synagogue was immediately adopted by each
newly formed Christian church.

86 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
The spirit of Paul is apparent in these letters, — his
ardor, his desire of sympathy, the strength of his con
victions, and his intense interest in his work. But
there is absent from them what appears later, — the
discussion of the relation of the law to the gospel, the
theory of justification, and the more elaborate views
of the work of Christ. The breath of youth and hope
and courage is in each word. The time for mental
struggles has not come.

CHAPTER V.
PAUL THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM.
THE chief difficulty in Paul's writings is to know
what he is trying. to do ; or, as we should say in
our expressive though homely phraseology, what he is
driving at. He argues with immense earnestness
and intensity, with an incomparable fire and elo
quence ; but what for ? What is he trying ' to
prove? Whom is he seeking to convince? Who
are his opponents, and why did they oppose him?
These are the questions which we need to have
answered. The Second Epistle of Peter may, or may not, have
been written by that apostle ; but even if not writ
ten by him, it was ascribed to him at such an early
period that it is evident that it proceeded from his
school, and contained ideas which were supposed
to belong to that school. Now, the direction of
Christian thought which took Peter for its guide
at first, was that which considered Christianity as a
part of Judaism, and an addition to Judaism ; which
claimed that no one could be a Christian who did not

88 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
become a Jewish proselyte at the same time ; which
maintained that all the Jewish law, moral and cere
monial, was to be continued in Christianity. It is
no wonder that this school of thought found the
Epistles of Paul hard to be understood, for his
thoughts were not their thoughts, nor his ideas their
ideas. They considered Paul a dangerous man, and
his writings unsafe to be read by the ignorant and
unstable, who would pervert them to their own de
struction. Their difficulty was, not that the Apostle's
thought was unintelligible, but that they could not
reconcile it with their own system.
That difficulty has continued ever since. Most of
the attempts to interpret the writings of Paul have
been made in the interest of some theological school
or party.
Calvinism, for example, has taken possession of the
Pauline epistles, and attempted to interpret all of
them so as to support the doctrines of Total Deprav
ity, Election, and Vicarious Atonement. It assumes
it to have been the object of Paul to teach those
doctrines. But the difficulty of this view is that Paul does not
teach these doctrines ; he only alludes to such sub
jects, as to something his readers already knew and
were quite familiar with. These favorite proof-texts
of Calvinism occur only here and there in Paul's
writings, and are incidental to his main topics.
Whatever they may prove or disprove they are not
the chief object of the Epistles.

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 89
John Locke, one of the most penetrating minds
which has ever appeared, was the first, I beheve, to
arrive at the true method of finding " The secret of
Paul." He said : " Drop all preconceived opinions.
Go to the Epistles as if you were reading them for
the first time. Read them carefully through, looking
for the principal and leading idea. Read them again,
and again, in the same way — not . seeking to put
your meaning into the Epistles, but to get Paul's
meaning out of them." Following this course, Locke
has left a commentary on. Paul far in advance of any
other of his day, and which, even now, can be read
with great advantage. His main thought is that
Paul was resisting the endeavor of the Jewish Chris
tians to compel the Gentile Christians to conform to
the ceremonies of the Jewish law, and that this is
the key to the meaning of the Epistles.
In this view Locke was right, and he led the
way to a correct' understanding of Paul. But he,
and those who have followed his method, have been
disposed to consider this controversy as a temporary
one, with which we have nothing to do. No one is
trying now to compel us to perform the ceremonies
of the Jewish law. Therefore the argument of Paul
does not concern us or our affairs.
But I beheve, on the contrary, that Paul, of all
the apostles, best understood the Gospel as it lay in
the mind of Jesus, in all its length, breadth, depth
and height. He fully understood the principles
which are to make of it a universal gospel, which

90 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
are to break down and utterly destroy dogmatism
and sectarianism in the Christian Church, and cause
it to be accepted as the religion of mankind. Paul
entered deeply into the mind of Christ, and, by
developing the ideas of Jesus, unfolded Christianity
into a higher form. Peter and the other apostles
were the rock on which the Church was built ; but
Paul was its leader, its chief, and the true Vicar of
Christ. James may have been Bishop of Jerusalem,
Peter Bishop of Antioch or Rome; but Paul was
Universal Bishop, having " the care of all the
churches." We have no evidence from the New Tes
tament, that any one but Paul overlooked the whole
field of Christianity, and took a living and active
interest in the Christians at Jerusalem, the Christians
in Asia Minor, the Christians in Greece, and the
Christians in Italy.
When Paul contended for "justification by faith,
and not by works," he was arguing the cause of Chris
tian liberty for all time ; he was fighting for our lib
erty hera to-day, to worship God according to our
own convictions and our own conscience. When we
understand what he meant by justification by faith,
then we have the secret of Paul.
Let us now return to the commencement of Paul's
Christian life, and see how these views of the Gospel
were evolved out of his previous Judaism.
The first epoch in the life of Paul as a Christian I
have already described. It was his conversion. It

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 91
was the entire change, not only of his outward status,
but of his most vital inward convictions. It was
renouncing the hope of gaining peace by outward
religious acts, and instead of this finding spiritual
life by faith in Jesus as the mediator of God's love to
all his children. This profound experience was at
the root of his subsequent activity, and determined
the labors of his life.
It is not to be supposed that Paul arrived suddenly
at the intellectual results of this principle. After his
conversion, he passed at least three years in Arabia 1
before he went to Jerusalem or saw his fellow-Chris
tians there. How did he spend that time ? There
is one way of explaining his reason for remaining
so long inactive. He was thinking. Paul differed
from the other apostles in this, that he could not
be content with the simple facts of religion. He
needed for his own satisfaction, and to enable him
to preach to others, to have a systematic theory
of religion ; to know the relation between the Jew
ish system and that of Jesus ; in what sense Jesus
was the Christ, and how he was to be preached as
the Christ. In short, he was a theologian, and needed
a theology. During those three years passed in Ara
bia the Pauline theology was probably constructed
which has had such an influence on mankind. He
1 Arabia is a word of large meaning among the ancients. Per
haps it was in the neighborhood of Mount Sinai that Paul remained,
in a sort of religious retreat. He says (Gal. iv. 25), " Mount Sinai
is a mountain in Arabia " (revised text).

92 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
developed in his thought the majestic belief which
changed a Jewish doctrine into a religion for the
whole world.
Then he came to Jerusalem, and saw the apostles.
In what condition did he find the Christian Church at
Jerusalem ? Prosperous, peaceful, not suffering from
persecution. The state of things at the time of Paul's
coming is thus described : " Then had the churches
rest throughout all Judea and Gahlee and Samaria,
and were edified; and walking in the fear of the
Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multi
plied." And yet, at this very time, Paul, who was
disputing publicly " with the Grecians " in Jerusalem,
was in danger of being killed by them. These Gre
cians, or Hellenistic Jews, were the followers of King
Herod, and claimed that he was the real Messiah
of the Jews, because, being the friend of Rome, he-
could protect the Jews and their religion from the
Romans, and give them abundance of peace. Paul
excited their rage by denying that such a worldly
tyrant could possibly be the true spiritual king who
was to come. But after Paul had left Jerusalem,
the churches for some time had no more trouble
with Herod.
This brings up a very interesting question. How
was it that so soon after the death of Jesus, who
was crucified by the Jewish Sanhedrim for claiming
to be the Messiah, his apostles and disciples were
allowed, publicly and privately, to teach that he
was the Christ ? That which this high council put

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 93
him to death for doing, they afterward quietly per
mitted to be done. Some three months later, on
the day of Pentecost, three thousand persons were
baptized in the name of Jesus. No notice seems
to have been taken of this by the Sanhedrim. They
called Peter and John before them, and ordered them
not to preach Jesus as the Christ. Peter replied
that they must obey God, rather than man, and
that they could not but speak the things they had
seen and heard. They did continue to preach and
to make disciples, and were not interfered with.
The reason assigned is, that Gamaliel, an influential
Pharisee,- took their side, and intimated that their
work might be divine, and would prevail, and that
therefore the Council had better let them alone.
This was accordingly done.
Now, the puzzle and problem is, why — when they
had crucified Jesus for calling himself the Christ,
when they were so angry with Stephen and put him
to death, when they were so bitter against Paul that
he had to leave Jerusalem and go as far as Tarsus to
escape being killed — Peter, James and John were
allowed to remain there and build up a church.
The reason no doubt was, that they considered the
church of Peter and John a Jewish sect, believing in
and conforming to the Jewish ritual and ceremonies ;
but in the Christianity of Jesus, and afterward of
Stephen and Paul, they saw a movement which was to
destroy Judaism and substitute another religion in
its place.

94 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
The sectarian is a man who, so long as you belong
to his church, and support it, and conform to its cere
monies, is willing that you should beheve what you
will.1 But if you desert his party, and attack it, he will
oppose you to the death. Peter and James and John
preached Christianity inside of Judaism; Stephen
and Paul stood outside and declared that the Jewish
religion was to come to an end. This therefore, of
itself, explains why the Christianity of Peter was
tolerated, while that of Paul was persecuted.
But there was something more than this. The two
great parties among the Jews were that of the Phari
sees, to which the scribes, doctors and learned men
belonged, and that ofthe Sadducees, to which the High
Priest and rulers belonged. The Pharisees and Sad
ducees were at war concerning the doctrine of the
* resurrection ofthe body and the immortality ofthe soul
Now that Jesus was gone, the Pharisees no longer
feared him, and they welcomed the doctrine of his
resurrection as helping them against the Sadducees.
Therefore in the Sanhedrim, under the lead of Ga
maliel, the Pharisees defended .Peter and John, and
by their powerful influence protected them.
This is confirmed by the language of the Book of
Acts. After the first preaching of the apostles, we are
told that " the priests and captain of the Temple, and
1 The bigot and the sectarian are often confounded. But the bigot
is the man who lays stress on his creed, but not on his ritual or
church. The sectarian cares for his church, but is indifferent about
his creed.

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 95
the Sadducees, came upon them, being grieved that
they taught the people, and preached, through
Jesus, the resurrection of the dead." Their offence
was preaching the resurrection of the dead ; but this
was no offence in the sight of the Pharisees. Paul,
some years later, took advantage of this discord some
what too adroitly, when brought before this same Jew
ish council. " When Paul perceived that one part were
Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in
the council, ' Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the
son of a Pharisee ; of the hope and resurrection of the
dead I am called in question.' " The result was that
these two factions began to contend with each other,
and the Pharisees declared, " We find no evil in this
man; but if a spirit or angel hath spoken to him
[meaning what he had said of his vision of the risen
Jesus], let us not fight against God." When I say
that this was a httle too adroit in Paul, I merely
repeat his own confession afterward, in his examina
tion at Csesarea. He then declared that they could
not blame him for anything he had said in the council,
unless it was his statement that he was being called
in question for teaching the fact of " the resurrec
tion." The real charge against him was that he had
spoken against the Temple, the sacrifices and the
Jewish law. He taught that these were not essential
to religion, and were all to pass away.
In regard to the question of the Jewish ritual, there
were at least three parties in the Christian Church.
In the first place, all admitted — Paul included —

96 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
that those Christians who were Jews, born and edu
cated in Judaism, might very properly continue to
practise the Jewish ceremonies. No doubt the great
majority of the first Christians did so ; and that was
why, as I have before said, they were tolerated by
the Sanhedrim.
But as soon as the Gentiles — that is, the nations
outside of Judea — were converted to Christianity,
the question arose at once how far they were bound
by the Jewish law and the Jewish ritual. There
were three answers to this question. There was a
party of Jewish Christians who called themselves
followers of Peter and James, who maintained that
all Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, must keep
the Jewish law. In Acts xv. 1, we find the first ap
pearance of this party : " Certain men which came
down from Judea [to Antioch] said, ' Except ye be
circumcised, after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be
saved.' "
' Thereupon, after much debate, it was agreed to refer
the question to the apostles and elders at Jerusalem.
Then was held the first council in the Christian
Church. Both sides were represented, — the narrow
side by the Jewish Pharisees who were believers
in Jesus, the broad side by Paul and Barnabas. The
arguments have- not been preserved, but we can easily
conceive what they were.
The whole of Christianity, according to Paul, grew
out of faith in Christ. And by faith he meant a
simple trust in him as a sufficient leader, saviour,

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 97
mediator, and way to God. It was not to beheve any
doctrine about him, but to believe in Jesus himself,
as a personal, ever-present friend. Paul declared it as
a gospel of good news, wherever he went, that Jesus
had been sent by God to save men from their sins
and the consequences of their sins, to purify to him
self a pecuhar people, and make them happy, full
of peace, full of love, full of hope. So those who
beheved Paul's testimony were united together in
mutual fellowship as a Christian church.
But there was another party in the Christian com
munity, who did not agree with Paul ; and they said,
" No ! Paul is wrong. It is not enough to believe in
Christ. That is all very well, but you must also be
come members of the Jewish church. That was
founded by God himself when he selected Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob as its Patriarchs; when he gave
the law to Moses, and continued to speak by in
spired prophets. You want organization as well as
spirit. The Jewish Church has a constitution and
organization, ceremonies and ritual, which even Paul
acknowledges as divine, and which God has never
repealed. In leaving it you are cutting yourselves
off from a magnificent past, a long succession of in
spired teachers, men who worked miracles by the
power of Jehovah, and preserved the faith of one
God in the midst of idolatry and polytheism. Jesus
- has nowhere said that he would abolish this grand
religion of Moses ; on the contrary, he said, ' Think
not that I am come to destroy the law and the
7

98 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
prophets ; there shall not a jot or tittle pass from the
law till all be fulfilled.' Why does Paul dare to do
that which Jesus did not do ? What authority has he ?
He is not one of the twelve apostles. He was not
appointed, as they were, during the hfe Of Jesus. He
never saw or knew Jesus, during his life, as they did.
What is his opinion worth against theirs ? Peter,
whom Jesus said was the rock on which he built his
church, does not teach that it is unnecessary to accept
the Jewish law. On the contrary, it is well known
that, at Antioch, as soon as his attention was called
to it, he refused to eat with the Gentile Christians.
Paul says he rebuked him for doing so; but what
right had Paul to rebuke one to whom Jesus had
said, ' Thou art the rock,' and ' Feed my sheep ' ?
Besides, why not be circumcised, and keep the law ?
If it does not do good it can do no harm. Paul's
church is a new thing, never heard of till yesterday ;
ours is venerable with the authority of fifteen centu
ries, sanctified by direct divine appointment, con
firmed by miracles, and admitted by Paul himself to
have come by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit."
That was the argument which Paul had to meet
I will venture to say that the strongest 'argument
which can be urged to prove any one Christian
church, or any system of Christian doctrine, essential
to Christianity, is not half as strong as this argument
to prove Judaism essential.
Does the Roman Catholic say, " Ours is the oldest
Church " ? The Jew replies, " Ours is older by fifteen

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 99
hundred years." Does the Catholic say, "There
must be an outward, visible church " ? The Jew an
swers, " Yes, and ours is the one divinely appointed
by God, as you yourselves admit." Does the Catholic
say, " Peter, to whom Jesus gave the keys, is the
head of our Church " ? The Jew says, " Peter was a
Jew; all the other apostles were Jews. Paul was
a Jew —7 a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Jesus himself,
your Master and Saviour, was a Jew according to the
flesh, and he himself said that salvation is from the
Jews. Your own Bible, the New Testament, as well
as the Old, was all written by Jews. Your religion
is a Jewish religion in its origin and source. Look
to the rock whence you were hewn ; look to the vine
out of which all your branches have grown, and
remember who said that the branch which abides not
in the vine is withered."
Therefore, I say, when Paul denied and opposed this
Jewish claim that all followers of Jesus must belong
to the Jewish church, he was refuting beforehand
every similar claim that could be made afterward
by any church, sect or party. The greater includes
the less, and when the strongest of all arguments is
defeated, all weaker ones share its fate. If Paul
utterly confuted and silenced those who said, " No
salvation out of the Jewish Church," he at the same
time confuted those who say, " No salvation out of the
Church of Rome," or, " No salvation outside of our
sect, our creed, our baptism, our experience and mode
of conversion."

100 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
If this be so, Paul's secret becomes very interesting
to all of us. This battle, fought long ago, in another
language, in terms and phrases now grown antiquated,
is of intense interest still.
When the Greeks fought at Marathon, they were
defending the whole future of European civilization.
The defeat of the Persians was the salvation of all
those customs, laws, literatures, arts, which have been
since unfolded in Europe. Therefore we go to Mara
thon, and muse on the old mounds of earth which
cover the remains of those who there died for
freedom of spirit.
The Epistle to the Galatians and the Epistle to the
Romans are other battle-fields of thought, where
grand victories were won for humanity, — victories
whose influence shall never cease while the race en
dures. As we look at them we seem to be studying
the half-defaced letters of an inscription in an un
known tongue and forgotten alphabet. But every
such record is being deciphered. Long and patient
toil has enabled us to read the historical events re
corded on the Temples of Egypt, the rocks of Persep-
olis, the ruins of Nineveh. Certainly, as much study
may. be given to the meaning and secret hidden in
the Epistles of the Apostle Paul.
What, then, was his answer to this argument of the
Jewish Christians ? How was he able to resist and
to conquer such an appeal ?
He did it by going down deeper and going up
higher than his opponents. He' overcame their

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 101
demands for ceremonial obedience by demanding a
loftier and larger obedience. He asked for more
religion, not less. He claimed liberty, that men
might become more than ever the sons of God. He
did not ask less for Christ, but more. This is the
nature of all true and lasting reform. It breaks
yokes, and takes off chains, that men may go up
higher. So Paul was not satisfied with any simple reply to
those who troubled the minds of his converts by tell
ing them that they must join the Jewish church \.
that out of that there was no salvation. He did not
answer, as he might -have done, that " Christ never
said, ' Go into the Jewish Church.' Christ never said,
'Be sure and get into the right church.' Christ never
said, " He who is not baptized, or circumcised, who
does not worship in the Temple, or hear mass at the
altar, will be lost.' " He did not even refer to such
words of Christ as these, " The pure in heart shall
see God " ; " Neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jer
usalem shall men worship the Father." He who
worships the Father, anywhere, in Spirit and Truth,
worships the Father aright. Paul might well have
quoted such sayings of Jesus to support his own
views. But he saw the principle beneath all these
statements, and developed it, and so struck the ground
of a Universal Idea. .
• He said substantially this : " No works of any kind
will make God love us. Not our being baptized, nor
being circumcised, nor joining the Jewish church or

102 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
the Christian church, nor praying, nor giving all our
goods to the poor, nor being martyrs for our religion
— nothing — no works of piety, no works of charity,
no works of justice, no sacraments that we partake,
no profession of religion — nothing" will bring to us
the love of God. We can no more make God love us
so, than we can make the sun shine. Open your eyes
and look at the sun ; that is all you can do. Open
your heart, and see God's love ; that is all. He loved
you before you were born, loved* you before the
foundation of the world, loves you when you are near
him, loves you when you are a great way off. Be
lieve it, oh, believe it ! You do not do anything at
all to make God love you. God loves you, and when
you only see that, and feel that, then it will help you
to do everything.
" What did our Father Abraham do to make God
love him, and bring him into the promised land, and
give it to him and his posterity, and make him the
Father of a people filled with the knowledge of Jeho
vah ? How did he win, with what labors, with what
sacrifices, the name of the Friend of God? With
none. He believed in God ; that was all. He trusted
to that divine and perfect love, and went everywhere
surrounded by its heavenly peace.
" What did Jacob do to cause God to make him the
head of the twelve tribes of Israel ? Nothing. He
was no better than Esau — no, not so good. Esau
was nobler, more generous, more manly, more honest,
than Jacob. But God, who has no favorites, but who

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 103
sends his love in a thousand different ways, sent his
love in one way to Esau, in another way to Jacob.
Some men he loves by sending them success ; he
loves others by sending them failure, bereavement,
sorrow heaped upon sorrow, trial deepening into
blacker trial. He loved Ruth one way, and made
her the far-off mother of Christ. He loved Job
another way, and made him a great hero through
disappointment and bereavement. He took Job
when he sat like a king, and cast him down into
the dust, into loneliness, misery and anguish. Abra
ham beheved God, and it was counted to him as
righteousness. Job beheved God, and it was counted
to him as righteousness. He did not crouch, nor
cower, nor lie to God, but said, ' Show me my sin, and
I will confess it.'
" What did Jesus do in order to make God love
him ? Nothing. God chose him to be His son, to
be full of a divine hfe, chose him before all time to
be the central figure in history, and the inspiration of
the human heart ; and when the fulness of the time
was come, sent him into the world. Christ believed
this ; trusted in God who sent this Heaven of Light
and Love into his soul ; opened his heart to it ; took
the hand of God, and was led by him.
"Join a church to make God love you ? Be baptized
or circumcised to enable God to save you ? Obtain
His forgiveness by going through a form, by confess
ing to a priest, or by saying a great many prayers ?
No — a thousand times no ! God is in your mind

104 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
and heart now. His love is waiting to enter your
soul to-day. Only believe it, accept it, and be saved
by it."
Such was the substance of Paul's argument. Is it
not still true — true now, and true always ?
Before all other things the human heart needs love.
To be loved, and to know that we are loved, is the
beginning of all goodness. Therefore, God surrounds
every cradle with an infinite motherly tenderness.
What do infants do to be loved ? God loves them as
soon as they are born, through their mother's lips,
showering kisses ou their wondering eyes. What
works do infants do to be loved? They cry, and
scream and fret ; and the more they cry and fret, the
more does the mother's tenderness envelop them, and
the mother's heart go out to them. At last they be-
gin to see it, and feel it, and believe in it — their
smile begins to respond to that of their mother ; then
their soul begins to live. Till that time only their
body lived. Now their soul is safe. It is not saved
by being baptized once in water, but God saves it
into life by the perpetual daily baptism of a mother's
love. It is to believe in Love, human and divine (for all
love is, in the last analysis, God's love), — it is this
which saves the soul. This is its strength, and joy,
its song, and peace.
To see a universe with nothing in it but force and
law kills the life of the soul out of it, down to its
very roots. To disbelieve in human goodness, to

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 105
believe all men selfish, cunning, false, is to have a
stone in our bosom instead of a 'heart. Only the
sight of love — love in heaven, and love on the earth,
love which hears the eagle scream in the mountain
air, and cares for the mute fish in the depths of the
lake, which fills all nature with life, progress and joy,
— only this gives us courage to do anything, to try
for anything.
God loves us, as I have said, in many ways. He
loved Joseph when he let his brothers sell him for a
slave, and made him in that way viceroy of Egypt.
He loved the wicked brothers in another way, and
blessed them through that brother they had so cruelly
treated, filling them with a healing shame, and a
wholesome repentance. "Howbeit," said Joseph,
"ye meant it for evil, but the Lord meant it for
good." The trust of Nature is blind and passive ; that of
man must be conscious and active. The planets can
not trust God, as we do, but they go on their way,
as if confident that all is right. God blesses Jupiter
in one way, and Saturn in another. He gives Saturn
a ring, but he gives none to Jupiter. He gives the
earth a moon, but he gives none to Venus. But he
cares for them both in these different ways.
If we open our eyes and ears and heart, to see
and believe the infinite blessed love which pours out
orever from the bosom of the perfect One, then we
are safe. Then we begin immediately to; work, and
obey, and our life advances in the paths God has

106 • IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
ordained, as the planets journey, never hasting nor
resting in their unfenced roads through the depths
of space.
Faith, therefore, is that which saves us ; for faith is
the root, works are the branches. A foreigner comes
to this country. He has only known the oppression of
the Old World, the oppression of Church and State.
He is told to send his children to school ; he says he
cannot afford it. " But the schools are free ; you need
not pay anything," " Oh, no ! that is impossible,"
he says, " everything must be paid for ; " and keeps
his children at home. He is told to go to the polls
and vote. " Oh, no ! " he answers, " I am a poor man;
I have nothing to do with the government ; " and stays
in the house. In the evening he sits still and does
nothing. " You can read ; why do you not read ? "
says some one. " But I have no book." " Go to the
public library and get one." " Oh, no ! they would
not let me have a book ; I am a poor man." What
he needs, we see, is faith, — faith in the free and
generous institutions of the land. Until he beheves
in them, he does not act. As soon as he is convinced
of them, he begins to work. He sends his children
to the free schools ; he goes to the polls and votes ;
he gets books from the public library. He raises his
downcast head ; he begins to believe that this world
is made for him too.
When Jesus came, the world believed in gods of
power and of terror. It believed in gods who in
terfered capriciously in human affairs, but usually let

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 107
everything go its own way. The Jews had gone a ht
tle higher; they believed in a divine justice; they
had faith in law. If they did right, they would be
rewarded ; if wrong, punished.
Then Jesus came and said, " My Father." When
good- came, he said, " My Father gives it." When
ill arrived, he said, "My Father sends it." Men
wondered, and said, " Why, he is a Son of God ! "
" Yes," replied others, " The Son of God," the only
son, really, God has ever yet had among men. No
one goes to the Father but by him. See him, and
you see the Father. He seems to dwell in the
bosom of the Father all the time. The law comes by
Moses, but a gracious and heavenly love comes by
Jesus Christ.
" Come and share my faith," said Jesus, " and be
sons too. This is not my religion, which I teach, but
God's. My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent
me. He that sees me, does not see me, but sees the
Father. I am only a mirror to reflect God's truth
and love. Do not think about the mirror — think
about what you see in the mirror."
As when, in the early summer, there come some
warm days, and suddenly all the sleeping life is
stirred in buds and seeds, and a leafy veil begins to
be hung about the trees, and a hue of tender green
steals over the grass, — so, when Jesus came, living
this life of perfect trust in a divine fatherly and
motherly love, there came a new life into human
hearts. Winter was over ; summer had come. The

108 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
birds began to sing. The voices of the blue-bird and
oriole were heard in the land. Peace, deep peace,
descended into the hearts of believers. The multi
tude of those who beheved ate their meat in gladness
and singleness of heart. They were safe in that
childlike trust — safe from doubt, from fear, from the
sins born of desolation and distrust.
In the midst of the glaciers above Chamouni, with
miles of ice and snow and barren rocks around, there
is a httle sheltered spot of green grass and flowers.
Men go to find it, it is so strange to see it there. So
was the early family of Christian believers, amid pov
erty, loneliness, neglect, persecution, hatred. Amid
the icy chill of a world of force and law, they were
full of sunshine and peace, dwelling in the bosom of
the Father. That was why men joined them, at
the risk of the axe and cross, and of wild beasts
tearing them to pieces in the amphitheatre. Peace,
heavenly peace, that was the rich compensation.
" Peace," says Horace, " is what all men cry after, and
few find." These men had found it — found it by
simple faith in Jesus Christ.
But the old Jewish spirit revived in the souls of
the young Jewish converts, and they began to set up
an aristocracy in religion, and said : Jewish Chris
tians are better than Gentile Christians, for all the
old promises and gifts belong to us. Do as we do,
and you will be safer. Then Paul said, No, there is
no difference between Jew and Greek ; " the same Lord
is rich unto all who call on him." Believe in him.

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 109
Faith works by love, not by fear. The only works
good for much are those which flow from grateful,
trusting love. You leave Christ, when you go back
to the rudiments and beginnings- of religion, in cere
mony, ritual, altars, priests, and sacrifices. If you
are circumcised, Christ profits you nothing; for you
abandon the ground of Faith, Hope and Love, when
ever you distrust these, think them not enough,
and try to supplement them by any ceremonies.
" Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has set
you free, and be not subject again to any yoke of
bondage." This is the secret of Paul ; this is the centre, the
inmost fountain of his thought. Paul, more than
any one else, has gone down into the mind of Jesus.
The other apostles were near the heart of Jesus ; he
was also near the mind of Christ. ^ His doctrine, in
the earliest times, turned a Jewish religion into one
adapted to all mankind. It transferred Christianity
from Asia to Europe. It broke down, in the begin
ning, the attempt to narrow it into the dimensions of
a Jewish sect. Ever since, it has been the watch
word of all fighting for freedom of spirit — of Martin
Luther, and of Wesley. Salvation by faith, un-
bought, but given by the infinite grace of God ; safety,
not in ceremonial works, or signing creeds, or par
taking sacraments, but in going at once to God,
becoming his children, having perfect confidence in
him- — this is the universal, everlasting secret of
human salvation.

110 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
When Luther began his Reformation, he at once
appealed to the authority and teaching of Paul ; and
his first blow at Papal authority consisted in translat
ing into German the Epistle to the Galatians. That
Epistle became the text book of the Protestant Re
formation — the manual of the Reformers. Paul
was therefore the real founder of the Lutheran
Reformation. It is equally true that the apostle Paul is the
founder of Liberal Christianity. For what is Liberal
Christianity ? Liberal Christianity does not mean the
liberty to beheve whatever we choose ; liberty to be
heve whatever is pleasant, and ignore what is disa
greeable. We are bound to beheve whatever is true,
be it agreeable or otherwise. Liberal Christianity is not
indifference, nor want of earnestness. It is earnestness
about the substani^ of things, not their form.
Nor does Liberal Christianity mean this or that set
of doctrines, — Unitarianism as opposed to Trinitari-
anism, Arminianism as opposed to Calvinism. Liberal
Christianity means a principle which may be found
associated with very different creeds. I know
many men Orthodox in their opinions, Trinitarian in
their opinions, who belong to the front rank of Liberal
Christians. Such men were Bobertson, Maurice,
Stanley, Arnold, in England, and in this country Dr.
Bushnell and others.
These men I call Liberal Christians, though be
longing to Orthodox churches, and holding Ortho
dox creeds. And this fact helps us to discover the

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. Ill
fundamental principle and essential nature of Liberal
Christianity. For example, we admit on the one
hand that Dr. Channing, the Unitarian, was a Lib
eral Christian ; and on the other hand that Frederic
Robertson, the Trinitarian, was a Liberal Christian.
What then Vas there in common between them
which made them both Liberal Christians ?
These three elementary characters they both had :
Holding earnestly each to his own opinions, his
own church, his own rehgious experience, neither of
them insisted that these were essential to Christianity ;
both of them admitted that men holding different
doctrines might be as good Christians as themselves.
While always ready to oppose what they believed false
and wrong in the opinions of others, they did not
undertake to judge tbe men who held the opinions.
They were not only willing that other men should be
as free as themselves, but also desired it, and were
ready to help to make them so.
These three, then, are the elements- of Liberal
Christianity : —
1. To believe that the essence of Christianity is in
the 'spirit, not in the letter ; which belief will destroy
all bigotry.
2. To believe that Christianity progresses only by
means of freedom, not by constraint; which principle
will put an end to all intolerance.
3. To believe that the end and aim of Christianity
is inward love, and not outside works; which will
abolish sectarianism.

112 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Thus, if we find a Christian who, with strong con
victions of his own, is not a bigot, and with an earnest
desire that others shall become Christians, wishes them
to become so in their own way ; who, loving God as the
universal Father, loves all mankind as God's children ;
and whose Christian sympathy is not limited by sect
or party — we call that man a Liberal Christian.
And now my thesis is that the Apostle Paul was the
first in the Christian Church to hold these principles
and carry them out in this way, and that tiierefore
he was the founder of Liberal Christianity.
It was hot merely his contending for rehgious
freedom in one particular instance that made Paul
the founder of Liberal Christianity, it was the princi
ples he laid down and the arguments he used. These
principles cover the whole ground in dispute.
For instance, he says (Rom. ii. 28) that "He is
not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is circum
cision that which is outward in the flesh ; but he is a
Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that
of the heart, — in the spirit, and not in the letter."
According to Paul a man might be a true Jew who
did not outwardly conform to any Jewish customs.
Now Judaism was largely made up of outward cus
toms, and a precise ritual, all written down in the
Pentateuch. How much more then can we say, " He
is not a Christian who is one outwardly, but one
inwardly ; not one who professes Christianity, not
one who talks about Christianity, but one who is a
Christian in heart and' spirit."

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 113
Then again to maintain his position, Paul fell back
on Abraham. Abraham trusted in God ; that was his
goodness. He was regarded as a good man, because
he trusted in God and did what he believed God
commanded him to do. When was it, says Paul, that
he was called a good man by God ? When he was a
heathen, before he was circumcised. Therefore, argues
Paul, other heathen, that do as Abraham did, can be
justified too. He was the father and head of the Jews
after he was circumcised; the father and head of
the Heathen before; and they can all say, ''Father
Abraham." So Paul opens the* door wide, and lets in all good
men among the heathen ; brings them all up to God,
and gives them all a place in Abraham's bosom.
In Romans iv. 9-13, Paul establishes a principle
which ought to put an end forever to every narrow
doctrine of apostolic succession in the Christian
church. The true descent from Abraham he de
clares to be this, — to walk in his steps. The true
apostolic succession, then, is to walk in the steps of
the apostles. We are the children of Abraham when
we have a faith like his, and can believe that though
dead we shall live, and though without goodness we
shall be made good.
The Epistle to the Galatians is that in which Paul
contends most stoutly against Jewish sectarianism,
and therefore against all subsequent sectarianism.
He does not merely tell the Galatians that they need
not be Jews, — that it is not necessary for them to be
8

114 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
circumcised, — but he tells them that if they are cir
cumcised they lose Christ, and cease to be Christians.
He admits that a Jew may continue a Jew, and yet
be a Christian; but he says that a Greek, or Mace
donian, or Roman, who tries to become a Christian
by becoming a Jew, cannot be a Christian at all.
Why ? Because he begins the wrong way, and
adopts an unchristian principle. "I, Paul, say to
you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit
you nothing. Christ has become of none effect to
you; you are fallen from grace" (Gal. v. 1-6). He
says the same thing in Romans iii. 6 : " The letter
killeth, the spirit giveth life." That which is innocent
in itself becomes a superstition when it is made es
sential. There is only one essential thing, one thing
needful — a heart which is sincerely seeking God.
If you make anything else essential and primary, you
make this secondary. If you make circumcision the
essential thing, you make the heart right with God a
secondary thing. Superstition kills religion.
Paul's liberality, therefore, was not merely toler
ation; he not only allowed people to be free, and
to be themselves, but he insisted that they must be
free — must be themselves. Freedom, to him, was a
vital thing; a real step onward.
Most men who contend for Christian liberty mean
thereby liberty for themselves and their own party
to believe or disbelieve certain doctrines ; to adopt
or reject certain practices. But sometimes we find
a man like the apostle Paul, hke John Milton, like

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 115
Jeremy Taylor, like William Ellery Channing, who
believes in freedom as a principle, not for the sake
of his own particular interest; aad this spirit alone
deserves to be called Liberal Christianity.
This nobler kind of liberality can rest only on a
deep spiritual faith. A man must see spiritual truth
so clearly as to be_able to separate it from the form
and words in which it comes. He must be able to
distinguish the things seen, which are temporal, from
the things not seen, which are eternal. This power
Paul had in the highest degree. It is remarkable
that he, the theologian par excellence, the leader in
Christian theology, the first who brought out dis
tinctly a system of Christian doctrine, should be the
man to declare that all such systems are transient;
that we can know only in part, and that when the
perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be
done away. It is he who says that all intellectual
convictions, all kinds of knowledge are to disappear,
all creeds and all beliefs come to an end ; " whether
there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." And it
is not John, the mystic, the one who preaches always
love, love, love, as Demosthenes taught action, action,
action, — it is not John who chants that magnificent
strain of adorable music to charity or love, but Paul,
the theologian. He it was, who having thought so
much, and studied so much, and said words of wis
dom which will never die while the world lasts, laid
them all down at the feet of Love, and said, " Love
never faileth."

116 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
I say, therefore, that he was the founder of Lib
eral Christianity, because he was not only wilhng
that men should h»free, but ready to help them to
become so ; because he believed in liberty as a prin
ciple, and told men to "stand fast" in it, and not
"be subject to any yoke of bondage;" because he
saw that the essence of religion was inward and not
outward, in the spirit and not the letter; because
he saw that all forms, beliefs, knowledge, were tran
sient and would pass away, but that faith, hope, and
love would endure. Bigotry, intolerance, sectarianism,
have never had, after Christ himself, so deadly a foe
in the worid as the apostle Paul. His labors eman
cipated Christianity from Judaism ; his writings
were the lever with which Martin Luther lifted the
weight of the Roman Papacy from the church ;
and whenever, in any age, men strike a blow for
spiritual freedom, they will be encouraged and
strengthened by the exainple and precept of the
apostle Paul.
In illustration of this, take such sayings as these :
" God has made us able ministers of the New Cov
enant, not of the letter but of the spirit ; for the let
ter killeth, but the spirit giveth life;" "Where
the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty ; " in Christ
"there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor
free, neither male nor female; for ye are all one
in Christ Jesus;" "Stand fast in the liberty where
with Christ has made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage."

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 117
But- it is not merely by such texts as these, so
numerous in his writings, that Paul lays the foun
dation of Liberal Christianity, but by the philosophy
which runs through all he says, and by his action
in all emergencies.
In that wonderful passage where he teaches that
love is greater than faith, he declares both superior
to knowledge. He lays down there the same doc
trine which has since been called " The Relativity of
Knowledge." We know in part and teach in part.
All opinion, all belief, is partial, one-sided, imper
fect ; " but when that which is perfect is come, then
that which is in part shall be done away." Here
the apostle Paul, the great teacher of Christianity,
declares the intellectual form of his own creed tran
sient; his creed will pass away in the larger light
of higher worlds. And yet the modern defenders
of creeds fear lest Christianity will come to an
end if their own favorite form of dogma is a little
modified. Accept the philosophy of Paul, and bigoted at
tachment to any form of opinion, as though it were
final, is impossible. It is only the substance of truth,
the divine spirit, which endures ; the letter, even of
the New Covenant, will pass away.
- Not only in word, but in action, Paul defended
the cause of freedom of spirit. From the Epistle
to the Galatians we learn that, though Peter had
agreed that the Gentiles did -not need to conform to
the Jewish usages, he yet seemed to regard them

118 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
as a lower class of Christians, not to be treated
wholly as brethren in all things. When Peter was
at Antioch, the metropolis of Gentile Christianity,
he declined eating with Gentile Christians. Then
Paul " withstood him to his face," and charged him
with inconsistency. "You have agreed," says he,
" that we all, Jews and Gentiles, are saved by faith
in God's love through Christ. You are backsliding,
then, and making us all sinners, by calling any dis
ciple of Jesus common and unclean. If they are
Christians, they are your brethren and mine, and
ought so to be treated."
We here see why Peter has been taken by the
Roman Church as its head. It is because he was
a ritualist in heart, and never could quite get rid of
the idea that a Jew was a httle nearer to_ God than
a Gentile. Let us thank God that, if the Roman Catholic
Church has the apostle Peter at its head, those who
are Protestants and Liberal Christians, have the
apostle Paul; a larger, deeper, and more divinely
inspired soul; one who, though the first great theo
logian in the church, saw that all theology was tem
porary and provisional, and that only the spirit of
religion was essential and enduring. He fought the
first great battle for freedom in the Christian church ;
freedom from all forms, whether of ritual or dogma.
Unless such a soul of fire and power had been sent
to emancipate Christianity, it is doubtful whether
it could ever have thrown off the swaddling bands

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 119
of Judaism. But Paul, in spite of the most bitter
opposition and persecution, fought this fight for us
all, and made of Christianity a religion for mankind.
It has not yet reached the full development which
Paul foresaw; but, with his ideas and principles,
nothing can prevent its ultimately becoming free
from all narrowness of creed, all constraint of form,
and reahzing what he calls the " glorious liberty of
the sons of God."
The first bitter opposers of Paul, as we learn from
the Book of Acts, and from the Epistles to the Thes
salonians, were the Jews. The next class of oppo
nents were the Jewish Christians. The Jews were
filled with rage that Gentiles should be called on to
accept Jesus as the Jewish Messiah (Acts xiii. 45 ;
xiv. 2, 19 ; 1 Thess. ii. 16), and excited the people
and rulers against Paul. The Jewish-Christians were
willing that Gentiles should become Christians, but
insisted they must enter Christianity through the
door of Judaism (Acts xv. 1 ; Gal. v. 6 ; vi. 15).
They followed Paul everywhere, and where he had
founded churches they contended that his converts
had no claim to the privileges, blessings, and hopes of
Christianity, unless they would adopt Jewish customs,
especially that of circumcision.
These anti-Pauline missionaries appear to have had
the most, success in Galatia, a cluster of provinces in
the north and centre of Asia Minor. The name Ga
latia, or Gallo-Graecia, was derived from the great
invasion of Kelts, who had swept round from Gaul

120 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
through what is now Germany and Greece into the
heart of Asia Minor, and after various fortunes were
finally established in what were called Galatia prima
and Galatia secund.a. The majority of their descend
ants retained their old Keltic language, down to the
fourth century, as we are told by Jerome.
The fierce sectarianism of the Jewish-Christian
party*h'ad determined that Christianity should never
exist except as a form of Judaism. Here then the
first battle must be fought for Christian liberty within
the Christian church. The Epistle to the Galatians
shows the spirit in which Paul met the danger and
overcame it.
This letter is full of fire, and the ardor of convic=
tion. Paul says: The Gospel of Grace and Love
which I preached to you, and which has brought life
to your souls, is the only gospel. If I myself should
bring you another, do not receive it. If an angel
came to you with a different one, reject it. I am
not pleading for myself, or my own opinions. It is
^.not my gospel, it belongs to God.
This is the power which produces goodness, this
power of grace, this love of God in the heart. No
>man can be made good by the ceremonies and rites
of the Jewish ritual. ['By the works of the law
shall no flesh be justified.'] You have trusted your
selves to Jesus the Christ to be made holy and pure
by his influence. These men say you are still sin
ners, — then Christ's influence keeps up the power
of sin. But that is impossible. The dying Christ

THE CHAMPION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 121
has swept away all these works, raised us above them
all. If we still need the law and its works to save
us, what was the use of Christ's death ?
" The promise made to Abraham, ' In thy seed shall
all the families of the earth be blessed,' was made
four hundred and thirty years before the law was
given to Moses. That great promise was fulfilled in
Christ, and carries us up to a higher plane. ./Tbe law
was for the sake of the promise, — not the promise
for the sake of the law\We are children of the prom
ise, and the law is nothing to us. The law met the
needs of sinners until the Faith was given us, which
abolishes in our hearts the sense of guilt. The law is
a teacher, educating men, and fitting them for Christ.
But when we are ready and able to receive Christ, we
need that teacher no more. While we were Jews, we
,were like children at school, preparing for manhood.
'Now we are of age, and enter into our inheritance.
We have the spirit of sons in our heart, and can say
' Our Father ! '
" Brethren ! ye are not slaves, to be put under a
,yoke, and held in chains. Ye are invited to be free,
to walk by the light of God in your souls. Walk in
the spirit, and be free. This is the great reality, —
?the essence of life. Circumcision is nothing, uncir
cumcision is nothing ; glad obedience and a new life
are everything. Was it a delusion, or a reality, that
your hearts were full of the love of God, and that the
Spirit came to you by faith ? Was your religion noth
ing, or something ? Are you now going away from

122 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
God in hopes of finding him ? Take care lest you go
downward instead of upward. Stand fast in the lib
erty of Christ, and do not yield again to any yoke of
bondage." There is something all-powerful in truth spoken in
such a spirit of faith. Sophistry, formalism, bigotry,
quail before the straightforward words of a sincere
man who sees clearly and speaks plainly. The argu
ments, piled up with infinite care and learning; to
defend a sectarian and bigoted position, vanish into
smoke as they are touched by the magic wand of
Reality and Truth.

CHAPTER VI.
ANTAGONISM OF LAW AND GRACE.
IN the last chapter we saw how Paul opposed the
Law of Jewish ceremonial works when it was
made a burden for his Gentile converts. . But we must
examine the underlying principle a httle more fully.
The principle which he lays down goes farther, and
we must .consider its larger applications. Besides
ceremonial works, there are moral works; how far
does this principle bear on them ?
The apostle Paul, in many passages, seems to con
sider all law as either positively injurious in its influ
ence, or, if useful for a time, having only a temporary
value. According to these texts, law, in all its forms,
crushes the spirit, discourages, arouses sinful tenden
cies, stimulates evil desires. Was this an extrav
agance on his part, or has it any foundation in
reality ?
Thus Paul says (Rom. iv. 15), " The law worketh
wrath ; for where there is no law, neither is there
transgression." Again (Rom. vii. 10), " The com-

124 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
mandment which was ordained to life, I found to be
unto death ; " (Romans vii. 7) " I had not known evil
desire, except the law had said, 'Thou shalt not
covet.'" In such passages as these Paul seems to
extend his polemic even to the moral law.
This question we will consider soon. Meantime, let
us see more fully why the indignation of our Apostle
was aroused against those who insisted that Gentile
Christians should keep the Jewish Law, and that
they could not be saved outside of Judaism.
Let us suppose an analogous case. A missionary
with a.large mind and heart concludes to go on a mis
sion, not to Japan or the South Seas, but to the
North End of Boston. He visits the poor, forlorn
sinners there, and finds that what they need is some
sympathy, some encouragement. So he tells them of
God's love, of his readiness to forgive them ; tells
them of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Thus, at
last, they become a little encouraged, and think that
perhaps it is worth while to try to be good. He
takes them out of the vile places where they are, and
encourages them to be sober, to be industrious, to
help each other, to avoid temptation. They are try
ing to do so when there arrives, let us say, a zeal
ous sectarian, who tells them that they can never
become Christians unless they join his church, and
are baptized and confirmed and go to confession.
Our missionary, when he returns, finds his poor con
verts all at sea again, thinking that God does not
love them, and will not help them until they join

ANTAGONISM OF LAW AND GRACE. 125
some ritualistic church and partake of its sacraments.
What does he say ? He says, like Paul, " O foolish
North-enders, who has bewitched you ? What was
it which saved you from your sin and misery ? Was
it not the simple love of God in Jesus Christ ? Did
you not have a new courage and life and a new spirit
when you first caught a glimpse of the infinite ten
derness of your Heavenly Father? And now are
you going back to sacraments, ceremonies, and dead
works ? You have the soul of goodness in you when
you believe in God, in yourselves, and in each other ;
do not go back to the body of goodness in these forms.
When you have the kernel, why care for the shell ?
I tell you that, if you lose your simple trust in God
and Christ, and begin to doubt whether you are right,
and to be anxious about getting into the right church,
Jesus Christ will not be able to help you ; you will
lose all your Christianity."
Take another case. Here are young people, a
girl and boy, who have been brought up to beheve
that God approves of every effort they make to do
right. They are sweet, affectionate children, loving
their father and mother and brothers and sisters, try
ing to correct their faults and improve their char
acters, endeavoring to do their duties as well as they
can. Presently there comes some narrow-minded,
bigoted zealot, who says, " They have never been
converted ; they are not pious ; they do not belong to
the church ; they do not keep the Sabbath in my
way. They are poor, lost souls, and never can be

126 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
saved unless I convert them." So he disturbs the
minds of these dear children with his theories of
theology ; tells them they are impenitent, and that
the wrath of God rests on them, and that God will
send them to hell unless they experience a change of
heart. I think that if you or I found him talking
to these good young people in that way, we should
say to them : " Do not believe a ,word of it. The
Lord loves you now, just as you are, and he does not
wish you to lose your faith in him. You know God,
and are known of him ; do not go back to these beg
garly elements, or come into bondage to such a nar
row view of God and his love. The way of salvation
is through faith, not fear, through love and hope and
courage, and the sense of a divine presence and pro
vidence. Do not go out of this heavenly atmosphere
which now bathes your minds and hearts, to try to
work yourself up into some other kind of religion.
Do not be bound by this man's narrow doctrines, or by
his low views of your Heavenly Father. Stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free,
and be not subject again to any yoke of bondage."
Formalism and ritualism lay down a law — a law
of ceremonies. They make narrow rules, and say,
"No salvation but through this law." Bigotry lays
down another law — a law of belief — and says,
" You can be saved only by believing this creed."
Paul says, " You are saved, not by a law of ceremo
nies, nor by a law of belief, but by faith in the eternal,
infinite, inexhaustible goodness of the Almighty."

ANTAGONISM OF LAW AND GRACE. 127
A law, a rule, a method, may be a very good thing
when it is used as a help and means. When it is
made an end, then it is a very bad thing. The
methods of the Roman Cathohc Church, of the Greek
Church, or the Presbyterian Church, may be very
useful as long as they are used as means, and not
made essential. If you make them essential, then
you make faith in God secondary. There is but one
thing needful — needful now, needful always — and
that is a sincere desire, to do right, or what Jesus
calls being pure in heart. As long as one is honestly
seeking to do right, to see the truth and to love what
is good, he has a right to believe that God loves him ;
and everything else is secondary.
A man is lost in the forest. It is night, and a
storm of wind and snow is raging. Discouraged, half-
frozen, tired so that he can hardly move, he is about
to lie down and die, when he hears a friendly voice
shouting to him. He is filled with new hope ; he
goes to the sound. At last he sees a kind neighbor
who has come out to look for him, and who leads
him home. Just as he arrives, and is about to clasp
his wife and children to his heart, another person
hurries up and says, " You have not come the right
way; you are all wrong; you ought to have come
home by another road, which is the only straight road
to your house ; you must go right back into the forest,
and begin again." I think the other would reply,
" But I am at home now ; that is the essential thing.
I may not have come the shortest or best way, but,

128 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
as I am at home, I have the one thing needful, and
I do not mean to give that up. I shall not go out
in the storm again in order to come back by the right
road." A church is a method of climbing up to God ; a
creed is a method ; tbe Lord's day, preaching, worship,
prayer, the sacraments, these are methods, rules, laws ;
but the end and object of all is to fill the soul with
the sense of God's love. This being accomplished,
the work is done.
To conform to any law of ceremonies is not essen
tial ; to conform to any law of belief is not essential
But is it not essential, it may be said, to conform to
the law of morality ? That depends on what we
mean by the moral law. If we mean by it only an
outside morality, decency, conformity to social cus
toms, not stealing, or committing any gross misbe
havior, we cannot say that this is the one thing
needful. A man may commit no crime against the
law of the land, or what would place him under the
ban of respectable society, and yet he may be hard,
cold, selfish, overbearing, tyrannical to his dependents,
mean, tricky, false at heart. But if by the moral law
we mean the ideal standard of love to God and man,
truth in the inner part, purity of heart, then we come
back to our original statement, that to aim at the
best, trusting in God's help, is the essential thing.
Most of my readers lead, I suppose, decent lives.
We have never been in the State prison or the county
jail. We do the regular work which is expected of

ANTAGONISM OF LAW AND GRACE. 129
us every day, and behave as well as the standard of
good society requires. But why is this ? Because
we come from a decent stock, and have grown up
under good influences. We have good blood in our
veins, and have had a good Christian education.
Shall we then say, " We have the one thing needful,
for we conform to the law of custom and do its works ;
we are as good as the average about us ; we are
not worse than others, and we do not try to be better ;
we expect to be saved by the moral standard which
happens to exist around us, and in the righteousness
of that law we are blameless " ?
I do not think that Paul would admit that this class
of works is much better than the other. I think he
would say, " By the deeds of the law of custom shall
no flesh be justified." We must have something
better than that.
Go and talk with any poor wretch in the jail or the
prison. Go and talk with some poor girl, betrayed
by a man who pretended to love her, and who then
deserted her. You will soon see that these are the
victims of circumstance, of a bad education, of neg
lect, of loneliness, of opportunity. You and I have
been shielded all our lives from the temptations which
caused them to fall. We have obeyed the law of con
ventional morality ; but are we, really, any better than
they ? Can we stand up before God and say, " We
have always kept ourselves out of the jail, 0 Lord ;
we have given a fiftieth part of our income to the
poor; we thank thee that. we are not as other men
9

130 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
are, — not Uke this poor, abandoned girl, not hke
these criminals in Suffolk jail"? No! I think that
neither you nor I would use any such Pharisaic boast.
By the deeds of the law of custom, or the law of the
land, shall no flesh be justified. Unless the Lord
accepts us out of his own love, we cannot expect
any salvation.
That which Paul urges against the Moral Law
consists in the following points : —
1. It cannot justify; that is, cannot produce inward
content and peace, and a sense of God's loving help
(Rom. hi. 20, &c). But faith or reliance on the love
of God does justify; that is, does produce this in
ward peace, and sense of reconciliation with God.
In this statement the Apostle is certainly cor
rect. The Law of Right, as an ideal standard, is and
must always be above our accomplishment. It is
always demanding more than we perform. The more
we do, the more we see that we ought to do. No
conscientious man therefore can have the satisfac
tion with his conduct, and character, that an artist,
a mechanic, or a literary man, may take in his pro
fessional work. These may sometimes feel that they
have done their work as well as it can be done, but
this the best oilmen cannot feel as to his conduct."
They have done enough, but he has not. When
he has done all, he must say, " I am an unprofitable
servant." 2. Paul goes further, and seems to say that the
Law is an additional excitement to sin. This is

ANTAGONISM OF LAW AND GRACE. 131
especially brought out in Rom. vii. 5—12, where he de
clares (ver. 5) that our sinful passions are through
the law; that we should not know covetousness
unless the law said, "Thou shalt not covet;" that
when the commandment comes, sin revives ; that the
commandment intended for life produces death.
The meaning of all this may perhaps be made clear
by an illustration : —
Let us suppose a child walking by itself in a gar
den full of tempting fruit. He has not been told not
to eat it, therefore he gathers and eats as he chooses.
He has no sense of wrong-doing, and no remorse.
The next day his father tells him he may play in the
garden but must not touch the fruit. But the temp
tation is too strong. No one sees him, no one will
know it ; he plucks and eats. Now sin revives ; he is
conscious of wrong-doing ; his innocence is gone ; sin
is aroused and he dies the moral death. Moreover,
having transgressed, he thinks it is of no use to stop.
He feels morally degraded, and this weakens his
power of resistance.' The law was good. It was
a hygienic law, intended to keep him in physical
health ; it was a law of discipline, intended to teach
him self-control. But the result is that it has made
him in purpose and act a sinner.
3. Once more, the Law, which has thus developed
tendencies into actions and produced a sinful condi
tion, is unable to cure it. The command to do right
only shows us how subject we are to the habits
and desires which make us do wrong. The father

132 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
reiterates his commands, but every time the child
disobeys, he is less able to obey than he was before.
But now suppose that the father, discovering the
child's fault, says, " My dear boy, I am sorry that
you were tempted beyond your strength. You did
wrong, but I will forgive you, for I have no doubt
you are sorry. I will try to see if I cannot help you
to conquer this temptation. Whenever you feel your
self in danger of disobeying, run at once into the house
and tell me ; I will give you something else to think
about and to do." The child now feels happy again,
and is justified by faith in his father's forgiving love.
Or take another example from childhood ; for we
must all become as little children in order to enter
the Kingdom of Heaven : —
A little boy at school finds his lesson very hard,
and gets discouraged and does not learn it. The
Law (represented by the schoolmaster) rebukes him,
and orders him to be sure and learn it so as to recite
it in the afternoon, or he will be punished. The child
goes home and looks unhappy. The mother asks the
cause and learns the difficulty, and says : " Come, we
will study it together." So she pleasantly and lovingly
stimulates his intellect, and helps him to conquer the
difficulty. The schoolmaster is the Law ; which is
just and impartial, rewarding or punishing every one
according to his works. The mother is Grace, which
brings pardon, comfort and strength.
This, I think, will show us what the Apostle means
by his polemic against the law. He only omits to

ANTAGONISM OF LAW AND GRACE. 133
point out how the moral law is just as necessary for
human progress as the Gospel. The law awakens the
sense of responsibility and gives us a high aim, which
the Gospel enables us to reach. Without the moral
law to awaken conscience, and arouse the sense
of responsibility, grace would be ineffective. It is
the united action of Law and Gospel which produces
spiritual progress.
But if the Apostle were to come back to us now, I
think he would find another large class of persons,
and an increasing class, who are expecting salvation
from the works of the law. Only, the law in which
they trust is neither the ceremonial law nor the law
of belief, nor the moral law, nor the law of conven
tional good behavior. The law which to them is the
one essential thing is natural law.
They would say to Paul : " All that you tell us
of faith and forgiveness seems empty. What we
have to do is simply to find out the laws of the unir
verse and conform to them. We must obey physical
law, intellectual law, moral law, spiritual law. When
we do that, we rise-; when we disobey these laws, we
fall. We must study the constitution of nature and
the organization of man, for in obeying these laws is
our whole salvation. Retribution is the natural con
sequence of sin; punishment is the result, not of
arbitrary will, but of eternal law, and therefore can
not be escaped. Every man must save himself by .
leaving off doing wrong and beginning to do right.
All salvation by another's goodness or. suffering is

134 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
simply impossible. We are saved by our own works^
and by nothing else. Law," say they, " is rooted
in the very nature of things. God himseK is Law,
is infinite Order. All our knowledge of His uni
verse consists in discovering more and more of law.
If a man is good, he is happy; if bad, he is mis
erable. What he sows, he reaps. If he sows to the
flesh, he reaps corruption; if he sows to the spirit,
he reaps life everlasting. This you tell us yourself, in
one of your letters, and nothing can be more true.
All truth, generosity, purity, is rewarded immediately
by peace of mind, strength of character ; all bad con
duct is immediately punished by a sense of degrada
tion and loss. Neither God nor Christ can repent
for us, or believe for us, or act for us ; we must do it
ourselves, or it will not be done."
This is the doctrine which is taught by the very
able and earnest class of men who believe in what
they sometimes call the Religion of Natural Law.
And no doubt it is all true, and it is most important
truth. It is one of the great discoveries of our age
in religion. But is it the whole truth? Is it the
highest truth ? Do we not need some other truth
to supplement the deficiencies of this doctrine of
natural law ?
Are we saved by obedience to natural law? Is
that the perfect gospel, the best news we can have ?
Obey law, and ascend ; disobey it, and go down. —
Is this the last word of science, of psychology, of
philosophy, of religion ?

ANTAGONISM OF LAW AND GRACE. 135
Come back to us, Paul of Tarsus, and tell these
doctors of natural law what they still need. Come
and meet this new Mr. Legality, who assumes the
form of positive knowledge, of science ; who has with
him the prestige of all the discoveries in the domain
of nature ; come and tell him that there is something
as essential, as divine, as all this.
" I also assert," Paul would say, " that all we need,
in order to rise into an upper world, is to obey the
natural laws, to be always true, pure, generous, and
good. All we need is to love God with all our heart
and our neighbor as ourselves. Love is the fulfilling
of the law. He who does righteousness, he is right
eous. Lov.e, not in name or tongue, but in deed and
truth, and you are saved from all evil, danger, sin, in
this world and all worlds.
"But suppose," continues Paul, "that you do not
obey the natural laws ; suppose you find it hard
to do so ; suppose you find a law of the members
warring against the law of the mind, and bringing
you into captivity to a law of sin in your mem
bers. — 0 ye prophets of the newness ! wliat are ye
to do now ? "
The voice which goes forth from Natural Law is
addressed to those who are whole ; to those who need
no physician ; to those who are set apart from temp
tation ; to those who inherit strength, purity, courage,
in their blood and bones. I think this voice has no
help in it for the discouraged, the disappointed, the
forlorn. I grant all of its truth as a one-sided state-

136 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
ment. I consent to this law that it is good. But
suppose I find another law in my members, bringing
me into captivity to lower habits and desires ; then I
must ask, " Who shall deliver me from the body of
this death ? " Here is something I cannot do myself..
Can it be done for me ?
We need another doctrine besides* that of natural
law. It is perfectly true that as a man sows so shall
he reap. It is perfectly true that the laws of God
are universal and unchanging. It is true that every
day is a day of judgment ; that each man is punished
and rewarded on the spot. It is true that we can
be saved only by working out our salvation faithfully,
steadily, and constantly.
But this doctrine is for those who feel themselves
strong. What for those who feel weak ? How is it
with the sick, the poor in spirit, the discouraged, the
disappointed, those who have stumbled and fallen ?
Is there no hope, no encouragement for them ? And
does not every human being, at times, come under
this category?
The laws of nature never forgive. As_a man sows,
so shall he reap. Is there, then, no forgiveness any
where in God's universe ?
Law tells us what to do. But it does not give us
force by which to do it. You say to me, " Be pure,
be true, be generous." But suppose I have inherited
some bad blood from past generations ; suppose I
have been educated under bad influences ; suppose
I find a law in my members warring against the law

ANTAGONISM OF LAW AND GRACE. 137
of my mind, and making me a slave to some bad
habit ; — what shall I do ? Tell me, 0 Prophets of
the nineteenth century ! tell me, ye advanced think
ers ! tell me, 0 doctrine of natural law ! — what shall
I do? To this, natural law has no reply. All it can say
is, " Do right ! " And if I cry out of the depths and
say, " I need hfe, I need power, I need love ; I am
weak, poor, blind, naked, hungr}', cold ; help me !
save me ! " the doctrine of natural law can only repeat,
"Do right ! Be good ! Do your duty ! Obey law ! "
Natural law comes to good men to make them bet
ter. It teaches the survival of the fittest. It says,
"Love the good and let the bad die out." Not so
Christianity: That takes the opposite course. It
seeks the lost, the fallen, the weak, the sinful, to save
them. It teaches the rescue of the unfit Its first
word is a word of blessing to - the poor in spirit. It
says, " Believe ! only believe ! all things are possible
to those who believe." What natural law cannot do,
what no law can do, God, sending his son to save
sinners, can accomplish. This gospel creates new life
under the ribs of death. It reaches clear down to
the lowest, and lifts them up. It brings the sinner
into the presence of his Dlvine friend, and unites him
in trust and love with his Heavenly Father. Then, a
new tide of moral and spiritual life flows into his soul.
Then he says, " I live by faith in the Son of God.
When I am weak, then I am strong. Those who are
forgiven much love much."

138 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
The doctors of natural law do not understand this.
They do not' see that, while law teaches us what to
do, faith gives us power with which to do it. Thus
I saw, the other day, this objection urged against
prayer : —
" Faith in prayer as a means of obtaining mental,
moral, spiritual, or social gifts, or of averting physical
or other evils, is practically immoral, and immoral in
proportion to the vitality of the faith. No persuasion
could be more fatally disorganizing to a community
than that the best thiDgs can be had for' asking, —
for any asking, even the most sincere and heartfelt.
What if the crying importunities of the poor could
make them rich ? What if the agonizing supplica
tion of the sick could make them well ? What if the
passionate clamor of the stupid could make them
wise ? What if the desperate moaning of the weak
and tempted could make them strong and pure ? The
moral constitution of the world depends on the law
that we shall earn all we possess, and pay for all we
own." 1
But is not prayer, then, a tendency of human na
ture ? Is not prayer and its results an essential part
of the experience of mankind ? Are these facts, so
deep-rooted, so universal, to be set aside as easily as
this? What is prayer, but the longing of the soul toward
the Highest, the communion of the soul with infinite
1 0. B. Frothingham.

ANTAGONISM OF LAW AND GRACE. 139
truth and infinite beauty, the opening of the heart to
receive the divinest influences ?
You say all must be done by work. What work do
I do when I go to see a friend, and in communion
with him receive new life and power for my conduct ?
A discouraged child goes to its father or its mother.
The parent pours thought, love, sympathy, on his
darling. In that atmosphere the child's heart revives,
and he gathers courage ancl is able to conquer his
eviL Is that influence immoral ? Should the father
say to his son, " No, my son, you must work out your
own salvation ; we must earn whatever we possess,
and pay for all we own. I cannot help you."
A poor, forlorn wretch, who has wasted his powers,
thrown away his opportunities, and committed every
folly and imprudence, comes to our friend and says,
" Oh, help me, or I shall die ! " Does he carry out his
own doctrine, and say, " No ! I cannot help you.
That would be immoral. We must earn whatever we
possess " ? Not in the least. He quits his books, gives
up his dear studies, leaves ' his work and gives sym
pathy, thought, advice, to this good-for-nothing fel
low.- He gifes him' new faith in himself; he lifts
him up, by his own courage and trust, until he catches
something of that divine contagion, and is able to go
again to his work with new confidence. We all be
lieve that we have a right to do this for our brother ;
has not God a right to do it for his child ?
No man lives to himself, and no man dies to him
self. By communion with friends, with those who

140 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
love us, with the good and noble, we receive new in
spiration, new hope, new life. That is the prayer of
man to man, and its answer. We depend on each
other every day ; we go to each other for help every
day. Is that immoral ? Why, then, is it immoral to
go, exactly in the same way, to our heavenly Friend,
and to receive a new access of hfe from him ?
Faith and~work are the two sides of human life ;
equally necessary, equally essential. Without faith
it is impossible to work. We must have some cour
age, confidence ; we must rely on the good there is in
the universe, in order to do our work earnestly and
well. Without' work, faith is dead. Faith which-
does not go into action is mere theory, speculation,
dead dogma. So, too, lavi alone, whether it be the
Jewish law of ceremonies, the Catholic law of sacra
ments, the Protestant law of dogma, the public law of
the land, the conventional- law of society, the moral
law of conscience, — law alone, under any of these
forms, only tells us what we ought to do, shows us our
duties, our sins, our faults, our obligations. Strength
to fulfil obligation, to conquer sin, comes from faith,
hope, and love. Therefore it is, that by the works of
the law no flesh can be justified; that is, no one can
feel that he is really good. We only can feel that we
are really good when we see the love of God ; for that
divine influence alone makes us good. If God be for
us, what can be against us ?
A large part of our life is under law ; a still larger
part is under grace. We pay for many things. We

ANTAGONISM OF LAW AND GRACE. 141
buy, with immense struggle, with stern self-denial,
with hard toil, a little knowledge of books and of sci
ence ; a little self-discipline and self-culture-; a posi
tion in society, wealth, fame, or power. We pay the
price for these things, scorning delights, and living
laborious days, instead of " sporting with Amaryllis in
the shade," or "playing with tbe tangles of Neaera's
hair." Meantime, what countless gifts are poured
upon us for which we never pay anything ! The child
learns more in play, from nature, in his first few
years, than by all his schooling afterward. What
have we ever paid for the influences of sky and ocean,
summer and winter, stars and flowers, mountains and
forests ? What do we pay for the love which has
been poured on our childhood and youth, for friendr
ship and affection, for the noble examples which have
gone before us, for the goodness which has kept alive
our faith in human nature ? " We earn all we pos
sess." Is there any possession more blessed than a
mother's love ? " We pay for all we own." If there
is one thing which I am sure of possessing, which I
know will belong to me forever, it is the generous
affection of the noble friends whose good-will has
sweetened and strengthened my life. What did I
ever do to earn it ? Thank God that life is not such
a mere mercantile transaction as this theory repre
sents it to be. Thank God that the best treasures
are freely given us by God and man.
I am inclined to think, quite contrary to this
opinion, that the best things are had for asking.

142 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Experience sometimes confirms the saying of Jesus,
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled." If " prayer
is the soul's sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed,"
if it is "the flight of one alone to the only One,"
if it is a perpetual seeking, knocking, asking in
spirit and in truth, then I think that those who
ask, receive; those who seek, find; to those who
knock, the door is opened. This longing opens the
soul to all higher influences, and makes it a chan
nel for spiritual influx. Emerson says, "No man
ever prayed heartily without learning something;"
and Carlyle tells us that " the checks and balances
of profit and loss have never been the grand agents
with men."
There are two attitudes of the soul, both of which
are essential for all attainment and progress. In one
we turn outward, toward the finite, to work ; in the
other, we turn inward, toward the infinite, to receive.
All work which is not merely mechanical must be
supplied with strength from within. The passionate
longing of the artist for beauty, the waiting of the
poet for his inspiration, the hunger and thirst of the
soul for goodness, these place men in relation with
the infinite fountain of truth and good. We must
stand still, and open the soul inwardly to receive ;
then we can go out and work from that centre of life.
Otherwise, the stream of our life, instead of flowing
from a fountain, is only running from a tank, and will
soon run itself dry.

ANTAGONISM OF LAW AND GRACE. 143
When we work, we must work according to law,
and we are paid our wages according to our energy
and our knowledge. When we are in the attitude of
reception, we receive according to faith. Faith is
trust in the reality of truth, in the supremacy of good,
in the presence of beauty, in the triumph of right.
To work with any energy, for great ends, we must be
inwardly strengthened through this faith. He who
doubts is lost. The moment the seeker for truth
loses his faith in its reality and its nearness, his
power of seeking for it deserts him. When the poet
or artist doubts his inspiration, he becomes an artisan.
Work according to law, alternated with prayer accord
ing to faith, these together, in constant mutual alter
nation, will accomplish great things.
God is manifested in the outward universe as law ;
and when we work according to law, we come into
communion with him in the outward world. But He
is manifested in the soul as love. And love is free,
always free, not bound by law. To believe only in
God as law, and not to believe in God as love, is to
separate ourselves from the inward source of our life.
That way lies moral and spiritual death.
The chfef difficulty with those who think prayer
fruitless is not that it is immoral to ask and to re
ceive what we never worked for. They do not think
there is anything immoral in giving or receiving
humamjgifts. But their idea of God is of a power
bound by law, not as free as man. Man can act
freely, according to choice ; God, they think, cannot.

144 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
The doctrine of Paul is that we are "justified" by
faith, but " saved " by work. Let me translate these
Jewish terms into their modern equivalents. To " be
justified," means to be at peace with God and our own
soul This is the first condition of mental and moral
progress. We must be satisfied that we are on the
right side, — that we are going the right way, that the
infinite truth and the infinite beauty are working
with us, — or all our efforts are palsied by doubt. An
inward self-distrust holds us back. Our labor is
without hope or enthusiasm. We hesitate when we
ought to go forward. No amount of work will give
us this self-content ; we need the self-content in order
to work. We must " work out our salvation," but we
can only work effectually from a centre of peace
within. That peace comes through faith, through
trust in an infinite goodness, an infinite beauty, an
infinite compassion, an infinite tenderness. This
spirit of trust came to Paul and his companions from
their master Jesus. The soul of Jesus was full of
faith in God, and he became thus a son, dwelling
always in the bosom of the Father. We catch faith
from other souls by coming in contact with them.
Virtue goes out from them. So the faith«of Jesus
passed into the hearts and lives of his disciples ; and
the life they lived, they lived from the faith of the
Son of God, making them also sons.
All morality which is good for anything, and all
religion which is good for anything, are inseparably
united. Morality without religion is a tree without

ANTAGONISM OF LAW AND GRACE. 145
roots. Religion without morality is a fruit-tree which
bears no fruit. They both cumber the ground. In
some ages, religion has been made the chief concern,
and human life has been neglected; then religion
has run to ritual, ceremony, dogma, asceticism, for
mal prayer, and its life has gone out of it. At the
present time, the tendency is the other way ; we now
undervalue faith, in the interest of law. The result
of this tendency is toward emptiness of mind and
heart, a loss of interest in life, a loss of courage and
vital power ; a loss of trust, confidence, affection.
Let us unite law and love, action and faith, the sense
of obligation with the sense of dependence, working
out our salvation, because we know that God works
in us to will and to do.

10

CHAPTER VII.
PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN,
OR MORAL EVIL.
ONE of the most striking features in the charac
ter of Paul is the intense conflict in his soul
between his ardent desire for righteousness, holiness,
perfect goodness, on one side, and on the other his pas
sionate nature, which he found it so hard to guide and
control. There are saints who have risen above temp
tation. There are those born with such a love for what
is good, such an abhorrence of whatever is wrong, that
they do not know what it is to be overcome of evil.
They have no such conflict; they are too high up.
There is another class who are too low down. They
simply follow their lower nature and its impulses ;
they have no sense of responsibility calling on them
to do better or be better. Therefore there is no con
flict in their souls. But Paul represents the third
class, whose, life is a_j3erj)etual battle with them
selves ; who find in their souls two natures, one
in diaiBff^erri^M^tlien^h^r~fo~wrong. They are im
petuous, susceptible to every influence, easily moved
from without or within ; with souls aflame, and

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN. 147
imaginations which cover all things with an illusive
glow. What they wish they wish ardently; what
they dislike they dislike vehemently. Their life is
a series of crises and catastrophes, at one time long
ing for goodness as the angels in heaven long for it
and love it ; at other times giving up in despair all
hope of improvement, and letting themselves go wher
ever caprice or the will of the moment directs. They
make a thousand resolutions and break them all.
They struggle sincerely to conquer bad habits and
form good ones ; they surround themselves with in
centives and helps of all kinds. Their whole heaven
is bright, and all the sky serene. Then comes in a
moment an unexpected storm, and all the scaffolding
of their virtue goes down ; so they are left desperate,
reckless, hopeless.
This is the class of persons to which Paul be
longed, and no one has narrated this experience in
more thrilling words than he. Listen to what he
says in the seventh chapter of Romans. How he
describes the awful struggle with evil which he
himself had been through : —
" I was alive without the law once." I was once
innocent, following my childish nature freely, before
I saw any great law of duty. I was a creature of
impulse, and had no sense of sin or evil.
" But when the commandment came, sin revived,
and I died." That is, as soon as my conscience was
roused to see my duty, and I felt a desire to do some
thing good and to become good, I found haw little

148 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
power I had, how often I went wrong, and had no
vital force to accomplish my purpose. The law was
holy, just and good. The law said, " Love God and
love man," and I knew that was right; but how
could I obey it ? The law is spiritual, but I am tied
to my body, the slave of habit, the creature of pas
sionate desire and caprice. I know what is right, and
I do what is wrong. I mean to do right, I long to
be better, but somehow I always drift back into eviL
"For that which I do, I allow not; for what I
would, that do I not ; but what I hate, that I do."
" For the good that I would, I do not ; but the evil
that I would not, that I do."
This is the picture of the terrible battle which
many of us have to fight. For there are few born
angels, and few who have gone wholly above this
struggle. As for those who are in the natural state
of careless impulse, they have this conflict before
them, to come to them in the future. Their con
science sleeps as yet, but one day it must and will
awaken. But then follows a very remarkable statement,
showing the courageous and manly truth of the Apos
tle's mind. He tells us that when we are thus trying
to do right, and find ourselves powerless and helpless,
we are not responsible for the results. It is not
we who do wrong, but the sin which dwells in us.
" If then I do that which I would not, I consent to
the law that it is good. Now, then, it is no more I
that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." " For to

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN. 149
will is present with me, but how to perform that
which I will I find not. For the good that I would,
I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."
That is, sin has ceased to be guilt, and has become
disease. It is no longer a wrong direction of the
will, but a disease in the nature. So long as we are
resisting evil, fighting against it, even though we
have not escaped its power, we are free from its
guilt. We have gone up one step, and that is
the first ascent out of despair into hope. We are
slaves, but not slaves by our own consent. If we
sin, we no longer sin willingly, but unwillingly.
Then it is not we who sifl, but some tendency to
evil hidden in the organization; our body sins, but
not our soul.
At this point modern Orthodoxy and modern Lib
eral Christianity reject, both of them, the doctrine of
Paul, and both of them to their own loss. Orthodoxy
agrees with him in maintaining that there is such a
thing as indwelling sin, sin as a disease, and calls it
natural depravity, inherited evil. But it has not
had the courage to declare that just so far as evil is
inherited by us we are not responsible for it. Just
so far as we abhor, hate, and renounce evil, we are free
from its guilt. Then it is no more our sin, but the
sin of our ancestors ; or of our past, not our present.
Our soul has cast it off and risen above it. That is
the true doctrine, the doctrine of Paul, the doctrine

150 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
also of common sense and reason. All merit, all vir
tue, and all guilt reside in the will, choice, purpose.
If we do right, but do it unwillingly, there is no
virtue in it. If we do wrong, but do it unwillingly,
reluctantly, then, just so far as we resist it with all
our strength, there is no guilt in it.
But though there is no guilt, there is evil, there is
misery. Here Liberal Christianity has differed from
Paul, but also to its loss. It not only places all guilt
and virtue in the will, which is the true doctrine,
but it has usually ignored the evil tendencies in the
nature derived from the past. Thus a man whose
ancestors have been drunkards, is often born with an
appetite for drink. He is not to blame for the appe
tite, but he is to blame so far as he willingly yields
to it. A woman in New York, who was a profligate
and criminal, had among her descendants in the third
and fourth generation seventy or eighty criminals.
Is it not evident that these criminals inherited from
this ancestor strong tendencies to evil ; and that there
fore they were less guilty in doing wrong than you
and I should be if we did wrong ?
But though this kind of sin, this indwelling, inher
ited evil, may not be guilt, it is misery. It is slavery.
" Whoso commits sin is the slave of sin." " Know
ye not that to whomsoever ye yield to obey, his ser
vants ye are whom ye obey, whether of sin unto
death or righteousness unto life." Sin, whether it be
guilt or not, is death. All wrong-doing is death,
death to the nobler element in man, death to his

Pauus ideas concerning sin. 151
purity, his honor, his truth, his generosity, his aspira
tion. Wrong-doing makes us mean, poor, miserable.
It takes our manliness out of us, and degrades us. It
robs us of self-respect, courage, hope. Here is Paul's
description of it : —
" I consent unto the law, that it is good. But I
find another law in my members, warring against the
law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin in my members.- Oh, wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of
this death ? " — or, " this dead body to which I am
fastened." This is the description which Paul gives of his own
experience of the power and misery of evil; and it
is the experience of thousands. Some fortunate na
tures escape it, or nearly escape it. They have inher
ited good tendencies in their blood, and are lifted
above the power of evil. Let them bless God for this,
but not condemn too severely the children of misfor
tune in whose soul the scale turns the other way.
We have thus far seen two points in the view of
sin taken by Paul. The first is the fact that there
is in mankind a tendency to wrong doing, and this
tendency so strong as often to conquer the efforts of
those who do their best to oppose it. The second
fact is that this tendency to evil, unless overcome,
results in that decay and ruin of the nobler nature
which Paul calls " death."
In this view of sin Paul is supported by modern
science. Science now universally admits "a law of

152 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAul.
heredity," by which the ancestral qualities and defects
are inherited by descendants. It also shows us that
the result of ancestral crime is depravity of constitu
tion, diseased blood, leading to new vice and crime.
And science also holds that such sinful tendencies are
diseases, not necessarily involving guilt. They do
not deserve punishment, but rather an appropriate
medical treatment.
Modern scientific speculation has gone much farther
than this, often so far as to dispense altogether with
the notion of guilt, and to regard all wrong-doing as
the result of disease. It has been disposed to attribute
so much influence to organization and circumstance
as to derive the whole character from these two sour
ces. Human will has been reduced to a minimum, and
all real freedom denied to man. Remorse is identi
fied with regret, and conscience has no function ex
cept to make us sorry for our mistakes as virtual
misfortunes. If conscience says " ought " and "ought
not," it means only to suggest what will be useful
or injurious. Guilt in the sight of God disappears
in such an analysis as this, and " repentance " and
"pardon" become words with very little meaning
attached to them.
Such however is not the view of our Apostle. Be
sides considering sin as disease, he also recognizes it
as guilt. And with this couception, the other notions
of repentance and pardon become important elements
of moral progress. While (in Romans vii. 7-25) he
fully recognizes sin as a disease which enslaves us,

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN. 153
in other important passages he treats it as something
which involves divine anger, and which deserves pun
ishment. The passage in which this form of moral
evil is most fully treated is Romans i. 18 to ii. 16,
where it is described as having its root in free choice.
Men are spoken of as "holding the truth in unright
eousness ; " that is, as sinning against light ; as being
" without excuse," because they had a knowledge of
God and his will ; as " refusing to have God in their
knowledge ; " as " changing his truth into a lie." In
order to show that the Greeks and Romans needed to
be justified (or forgiven) no less than the Jews, Paul
finds it necessary to explain that they have an inherent *
knowledge of God and of his law, and that they have
also the power to obey or disobey. He fully admits
that many do in fact obey this law, and therefore
their conscience excuses them. Thus he recognizes a
form of moral evil which is not disease, but wilful
disobedience; and which is therefore guilt. The
consequence of this is not called '' death," but being
exposed to "the wrath of God" (Rom. i. 18), or the
divine displeasure. The moral consequences of this
deliberate disobedience, he considers as punishment
(Rom. i. 24, 26, 28). The sense of divine displeas
ure comes when the conscience is aroused, which is
called " the day of wrath." It is the revelation to the
soul of the righteous judgment of God (Rom. ii. 5).
Another consequence of this wilful disobedience is
"alienation," or "enmity," between man and God.
But since Paul distinctly teaches (for example, Rom.

154 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
v : 8) that God loves us while we are in our sins, and
before we are justified, and that this love is the source
of our justification, it follows that " the wrath of God "
cannot mean actual auger on his part, but the feeling
on our side that we deserve his displeasure. Nor
can God actually be alienated from us, but rather we
are alienated from him. Thus it is never said by
Paul that God is reconciled to man, but always that
man is reconciled to God.
With this understanding we may now sum up the
views of Paul thus : —
There are two kinds of moral evil, —
(1) The wilful disobedience of a being possessing
moral freedom, to a law of right and wrong which he
knows, either as positive law (the Jew) or as a reve
lation in the conscience (the Gentile). The result of
this is a sense of divine displeasure, which causes the
sinner to avoid the thought of God ; which avoidance
results in a further abandonment to sin. The cure
for this is faith in the reality of pardon (justifica
tion) ; which produces grateful love, and thus supplies
a new motive for right doing.
(2) Sin may be also regarded as a depraved habit,
arising from past misconduct, or from inherited evil
and the power of circumstances. The consequence is
death in sin, slavery, or moral inability to do right
even when we wish to do so. The cure is redemp
tion, which comes from that faith in the divine
help through Christ which creates hope and a new

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIA. 155
(3) The first kind of moral evil is guilt, the second
kind is 'depravity. So far as it is guilt, it is not de
pravity ; so far as it is depravity, it is not guilt. But
willing disobedience finally produces depravity, and
depravity again increases the disposition to disobey.
(4) The moral law is unable to cure this evil,
because it only commands right doing, but does not
give power to do right in opposition to depraved
desire. (" What the law could not do because it was
weak through the flesh," &c, — Rom. viii. 3.) The
cure for both forms of evil is found in a new revela
tion of divine love in Christ (Rom. viii. 3).
To understand fully the language of Paul on this
subject, we must also consider his psychology, or
philosophy of human nature. It is our habit to dis
tinguish soul and body as the two elements in man
kind. But the ancients considered the constituent
elements of human nature to be spirit,, soul and
body. This view Paul followed, as appears for exam
ple in 1 Thess. v. 23 : "I pray God your whole
spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless." It
also comes to light in 1 Cor. xv. 44-49 : " It is sown
a soul-body" (o-ai/ta tjtvxikov), "it is raised a spirit-
body " (cratfia Trvevfiamcov). He adds in explanation,
" If there is a soul-body there is also a spirit-body." 1
According to this distribution of the human facul
ties, the Soul (yjrv-)(ri) is that centre of personality,
the man himself, in which resides the unity of con
sciousness. This is what we mean when we say " I."
1 Revised version.

156 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
This Ego is finite and hmited, but possesses in itself
intelligence, affection, will. The Ego thinks, loves,
and acts. It stands between body and spirit, — the
natural master of the one, the natural servant of the
other. The Body, the next element (a&fia), is the organ
ized material form, located in time and space. By
it the soul is fastened to one point of space, and one
moment of time. By means of bodily organization,
the soul comes into communion with the outward
universe and with other souls. The present body is
called the " soul-body " (crapa ^vxnc6v, 1 Cor. xx.
44), because the principle of its organization is the
soul. The material organized is flesh (crap!;), which';
is always seeking to draw down the soul, and so to-
produce the carnal mind. When the soul turns down
ward and minds the flesh, it is carnal-mindeaVXRom.
viii. 5, 6) ; when it turns upward and minds the spirit,
it is spirit-minded.
The Spirit (irvsv/jia), the third element in man, is
the presence of the indwelling God. It is that by
which man comes into communion with the infinite
and eternal, as with the body he communes with the
finite and temporal. The soul, being free, though
limited, is able to turn downward to the body, or
turn upward to the spirit. When subject to the body
it becomes carnal ; when subject to the spirit it be
comes spiritual ; when subject to neither it remains
the natural or soul-man. Through the spirit we
receive the life of God ; through the body we receive

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN. 157
the Ufe of the race ; in the soul we possess the in
communicable Ufe of the individual.
The ground of this "trichotomy," as it has been
called, or three-fold distinction, is that spirit, soul, and
body are essentially distinct Super-sensual ideas, as
Time, Space, Cause, Right, are derived from Spirit, and
aU that flows from it cannot be conceived of as having
beginning or end. The soul is finite, dependent ; does
not have its cause in itself ; has begun to be, and may
therefore cease to be. So it differs from spirit. But
it is also essentially different from body, as being a
perfect unit. Body is divisible, but soul is not only
indivisible, but we cannot imagine its division. Body
has parts, an upper side and a lower, inside and out
side. Such terms cannot be applied to the soul.
Although this personal unit has different functions,
and various manifestations, yet the whole personality
enters into each of them. The Ego may sometimes
think, at other times feel, and then act It may
remember, imagine, hope, fear, suffer, be glad. But
the whole Ego is in each of these varied and succes
sive activities; it is not one part which feels, and
another part which thinks.
This psychological view has an important bearing
on the Pauline view of sin, as on the whole Pauline
theology. Orthodox theology has usually divided men
into two classes, — the converted and the unconverted,
regenerate and unregenerate, penitent and impeni
tent. But Paul recognizes three conditions, in either
of which men can be found ; conditions in which one

158 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
or another of these elements is supreme. There is
the carnal man, in whom the lower nature rules ;
there is the spiritual man, in whom the higher nature
rules ; and then there is the psychical man (translated
in our version "natural man"), in whom neither
flesh nor spirit is supreme, who neither serves the
lower nature nor obeys the higher, but who Uves
the temporal hfe of humanity, — the man of his
time, in whom the habits and instincts of society
around him are incarnated. We may call him "a
man of the world " — not meaning, however, " a
worldly man," but simply the man whose motives
come from the milieu in which he lives. His life
does not flow down from above, nor come up from
below, but pours in from around. This is Paul's
soul-man, or psychical man.
When writing to the Romans, Paul dwells mostly
on the distinction between flesh and spirit. He was -
speaking to those who were living in the midst of that
frightful corruption which made imperial Rome a
horror ; in which reckless sensuality and awful cru
elty walked hand in hand. Those to whom he wrote
had around them examples of a people who seemed to
have been abandoned by God to a reprobate mind —
" filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covet
ousness, -maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, strife,
deceit, malignity ; insolent, haughty; boastful, inven
tors of new vices, without natural affections, unmerci
ful." It was natural that in writing to them, he
should speak of sin in its lowest forms — telling

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN. 159
them that " minding the flesh is death ; " that " the
mind of the flesh is enmity to God;" that if they
'• live after the flesh, they shall die " (Rom. viii. 6,
7, 8, 13). But even here, he is careful to guard against
the inference that he means to attribute this depravity
to the whole of human nature. " I know that in me —
that is in my flesh — dwelleth no good thing " (Rom.
vii. 18). It is not the soul which is without goodness,
but the flesh. And even of this he only says that no
good thing dwelleth (oltcel) in it ; its goodness, what
ever it has, is but a transient impulse, not an abiding
principle. But when Paul writes to the Corinthians, he is
addressing a different class, — those who were educa
ted, cultivated, proud of their knowledge. In them
not the body, but the soul ruled ; but the soul as yet
unspiritualized. They were Christians, but "babes
in Christ" (1 Cor. iii. 1). Being in Christ, they were
yet so imperfect in the spiritual life as to drop down
sometimes into the carnal state of jealousy and
strife (1 Cor. iii. 3). It is very noticeable that Paul
should declare them in the same sentence to be " car
nal " and yet to be " babes in Christ." This shows
that the " carnal " state may be habitual or occasional,
a permanent condition or a temporary relapse. The
permanent condition of these disciples was not that
of the " carnal man," but of the " soul-man." This we
discover from the fact that Paul does not contrast
flesh and spirit, but soul and spirit. It is evident
that among the Corinthian disciples were those into

ICO IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
whose minds the surrounding wisdom of their period
had fully come. They were familiar, no doubt, with
the dialectic of Aristotle and the ideal insights of
Plato. Therefore he urges the impossibility of find
ing God by this exercise of reason ; tells them that
" the world by wisdom knew not God," — that " God
made foolish the wisdom of this world ; " and that
though the preaching of a teacher crucified as a
slave seemed to the world foolishness, yet that God's
foolishness is wiser than man's wisdom (1 Cor. L 18-
25), and that Jesus the Christ is God's " wisdom and
sanctification, redemption and righteousness." Be
cause they were too much inclined to lay stress on
this worldly wisdom, he says that he had avoided in
his preaching logic and dialectic, and confined himself
to the simple facts of the death and resurrection of
Jesus (" We preach Christ crucified "). There is how
ever, he adds, an inspired insight which shows to the
intellect truths far deeper than those reached by
merely logical processes, — the very deep things of
God (1 Cor. ii. 6-15). But these insights, he main
tains, are only seen by those in a spiritual state, by
the spirit-man, not the psychical man. " The psych
ical man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God,
and he cannot know them, because they are spirit
ually discerned." The word which I have translated,
after the Greek, "psychical (or soul-) man," is in the
common version rendered, "the natural man;" and
this is the proof-text of the doctrine of those who
assert that a man must be converted before he can

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN. 161
understand the truths of Christianity. The passage
certainly does not teach this ; for these Corinthians
had been converted, since they were " babes in Christ"
Yet they were not yet spiritual, and Paul could not
address them as such (1 Cor. ui. 1). They were
neither those who "mind the flesh" nor those who
"mind the spirit." They were in the intermediate
state Of those whose life was yet the simple soul-life,
fed no£ from beneath, nor from above, but from the
world around.
The writings of Paul have been appealed to in sup
port of the Calvinistic doctrines of Total Depravity
and Original Sin. We now begin to see how far
he is from teaching those doctrines*
Calvinists have always asserted that their es
sential doctrines, namely, of Original Sin, Vicarious
Atonement, and Election, are taught explicitly by
Paul. And many who reject these doctrines with
horror, are nevertheless too ready to admit and be
lieve that Paul is responsible for them.
For my Own part, after many years of careful
study of the Pauline epistles, I am satisfied that
Paul was hot a Calvinist, and that he never taught
the doctrines since known as Calvinisni. Of these
three, we shall now consider only the first — the
Calvinistic doctrine of sin.
The fundamental dogma of Calvinism is tb# Fall
of Man. This is taught by Calvin himself in his
Institutes; by the Assembly's Confession (which is
the creed to-day of all the Presbyterian .churches in
11

162 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
the United States) ; by the Cambridge Platform
(which has been the creed of the Orthodox Congre--
gationaUsts of New England) ; and it was embodied
(as milk for babes) in the New England Primer —
" In Adam's fall
We sinned all."
Calvin, in his Institutes, has passages like these :
"Consider the nature of Adam's sin, which kindled
the dreadful flame of divine wrath against the whole
human race." 1 " It is not surprising that he ruined
his posterity by his defection, which has perverted
the whole order of nature in heaven and earth."2
"It is certain that Adam is the root of mankind,
and all the race vitiated by his corruption." 3 " By
this corruption we are justly condemned in the sight
of God." "Infants bring their condemnation into
the world with them, for their whole nature is a seed
of sin."4 So far Calvin.
The Assembly's Confession states it thus (chap.
6, "Confession") : "Our first parents sinned in eat
ing the forbidden fruit ; " " They thus became dead
in sin, and defiled in all the faculties and parts of
soul and body;" "They being the root of all man
kind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and the
same death in sin conveyed to all their posterity."
This is one of the essential points of Calvinism,
and, so far from. being an obsolete doctrine, is the
1 Calvin, Institutes, Book ii. c. 1, § 4. 2 Ibid. ii. c. 1, § 5.
8 Ibid. ii. c. 1, § 6. * Ibid. ii. c. 1, § 8.

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN. 163
professed creed to-day of probably seven or eight
thousand churches in the United States.
The question, therefore, before us is, " Did Paul
teach this doctrine ? "
There are two places in Paul's epistles where
Adam is spoken of in connection with human sin
and redemption, — one in the fifth chapter of Ro
mans, the other in the fifteenth chapter of First
Corinthians. The passage in Romans is this : " Wherefore as by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin ; and so death passed on all men because all have
sinned [then a long parenthesis], even so by the
righteousness of one man justification and life have
come to aU."
In order to understand any argument, we must
know what it is about — what is its object, its occa
sion, its purpose.
The object of Paul, here, was not to teach any
thing about Adam, but to teach something about
Christ. He uses a fact which they all knew in re
gard to Adam, to prove something or illustrate some
thing in regard to Christ.
What the Jewish Christians in Rome objected to,
probably was that human salvation should come
through an individual, and not through the whole
Jewish nation. The Jewish nation was appointed
to be the mediator of the true religion to mankind.
The world must be redeemed by the life transmitted
through the whole Jewish people; and not by any life

164 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
which could come through one man. " Such a great
gift," said they, "could not come by any single
individual." Paul replies, "If sin entered into the world by
one man, why should not Ufe enter by one man?
And if the evil influence proceeding from this first
sinner has gone on and extended itself over the
whole race, why should not the good influence pro
ceeding from one pure soul go on and extend itself
over the whole race ? "
Paul therefore, is not teaching anything about
Adam's sin or its consequences. He takes these for
granted in order to teach something about Christ.
Every one knows that sin entered into the world by
the first man who sinned ; and . every one knows
that a certain decay and habit of evil followed as a
natural consequence of the sin. Men began to die,
morally and spiritually, as soon as they began to
sin. But he does not say they began to die because
Adam sinned; he says, "Death passed On ah men
because all have sinned." They began to die be
cause they themselves sinned.
His argument is this : " Why should you deny
that life may enter the world by one man, when you
know that death entered the world by one man ?
When Adam sinned, the human race began to go
down ; when Jesus lived a holy life, men began to
go up. The influence of one man's sin has extended
itself over all men ; why should not the influence of
one man's goodness extend over all men ? "

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN. 165
This is Paul's argument; but this is not Calvin
ism. Calvin says that "Adam's sin kindled the
flame of divine wrath against the whole human
race." But Paul says nothing of the kind. Calvin
says that the whole human race was ruined and the
order of nature perverted by the offence of the first
man. Paul simply says that sin and spiritual death
entered the world with the first man.
Calvin and the Assembly's Catechism teach that
the guilt of Adam's sin is imputed to his posterity,
and that we are condemned by God, and justly pun
ished, on account of the corrupt nature derived from
Adam. Paul does not say this, but, as we shaU
presently see, he says the exact opposite.
Paul's conclusion is simply and only this, — that
as by one man's disobedience many were led into
sin, so by one man's obedience many shall be led
into righteousness.
In the other passage (in 1 Cor. xv.) Paul says : " As
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive." He does not say that " all sin in Adam," or
that "all are made guilty by Adam's sin," or that
"because of Adam's sin all bring into the world a
corrupt nature, which exposes them to the wrath of
God." These are Calvinistic statements, but not
Pauline statements. He says that all die in Adam,
and all are made alive in Christ. By this he means
that as men, partakers of a common humanity, we are
mortal; but as Christians, partakers of Christ's Ufe,
we have within us the germ of immortality.

166 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Thus Paul meets and answers the objection of
those Jews who said, " The Jewish nation, and not
any single Jew, has been appointed to redeem the
race. How can any one man have enough moral
power in him to be the mediator of life to mankind ?"
He answers, " Since death, moral death, entered the
world by the disobedience of a single man, and has
spread itself over the race, why should hot Ufe —
moral life — enter the world by another single man,
and also spread over the race ? "
We must not, however, make the mistake of at
tributing to Paul our modern doctrine of pure indi
vidualism. He was too wise not to see that moral
good and evil are propagated through races and
communities ; that we all have a common life as
well as an individual life. No man lives to himself
or dies to himself. We have already seen that we
inherit tendencies to good or evil, or to both, from
those who have lived before us. We are inevitably
influenced by those who surround us. This influence,
however, is not irresistible, *nor is it total. It is
universal, but not total. The truth in the Calvinistic
doctrine of hereditary evil is this : that moral evil is
contagious, and that moral evil is propagated. It is
like a malarial poison which goes into the blood.
But the falsehood of Calvinism is in calling these
evil influences total and irresistible. They are not
total, for there is good in every man, as well as evil ;
they are not irresistible, for we all have reason,
conscience and freedom by which to resist them.

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN. 167
Moreover, good influences also are contagious, good
influences also are inherited. And falsest of all is
the Calvinistic doctrine that God will hold us guilty,
or be angry with us, because of the evil we inherit
without any action of our own.
There is one passage, I know, in Paul's letter to
the Ephesians, which seems, at first sight, to teach
a more Calvinistic view. It is where he tells the
Jews that they "were by nature children of wrath,
even as others ; " that is, even as the Gentiles. But,
whatever that may mean, it cannot mean that they
had by nature no power of doing good, for in an
other passage he says that " the Gentiles who have
not the law do by nature the things contained in the
law." He adds that they thus show that they have
another law — "a law written in their hearts."
In this last passage the words " by nature " children
of wrath might be rendered " by our race," — the
meaning being this, that by their position in the
midst of a carnal race the life of that race flowed into
them, so that they were also estranged from God, and
alienated from him, and under a sense of divine
wrath. Let us now look again at the man in the second con
dition, in which not body but soul is dominant. The
transition to this state from the first is by means of
law. The law of God, whether positive or intuitive, —
whether coming through the lips of Moses and amid
the thunders of Sinai, or as it afterward came to Elijah
on the same mountain, in a stiU small voice of awak-

168 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
ened conscience^ — or whether it be the law of society,
the law of custom, produces what we may call the
moral state. It is a period of effort, often conscien
tious effort, to do the wiU of God. This was the state
of good men among the Jews and Gentiles before
Christ. Sometimes, indeed, they went higher, and
through prophetic vision or pure aspiration, attained
the upper plane of spiritual life, and walked by faith
in things unseen, and called God their friend.
But often the condition of the moral man under
the law was that described by Paul in the seventh
chapter of Romans. The law of the mind, the law of
conscience, he deliberately chose to obey ; but he found
another law, — that is, not an occasional temptation,
but a constant tendency towards sin, — in his body. He
was thus distracted, divided ; with his mind serving
the law of God, with his flesh the law of sin ; resolv
ing to do right, yet actually doing wrong ; with a
good, but ineffectual purpose ; making no progress,
no advancement ; an intolerable condition, Uke a
living man chained to a dead body, with no inward
harmony, no peace, no hope, — the law constantly
commanding and stimulating to feeble, ineffectual
efforts; the sense of duty a burden; obligation and
responsibility a heavy chain.
This is the state of the psychical man (called in
our translation the natural man). He is one who is
attempting to draw his life from law, from ethical ,
rules jnd moral principles. As the carnal man draws
his life (which is only a seeming Ufe) through his body

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN. 169
from the Ufe of past generations, as the spiritual man
draws his Ufe through his spirit from God, so the
moral man seeks to draw life through efforts of will
from the law of conscience — the sense of duty.
But conscience only commands, it does not impel. It
gives direction, but not energy. And so it tends to
bring on despair, and the law of duty ordained for
life becomes death.
But this sense of burden, bondage and need is the
point of transition, by which the moral man passes
into the spiritual man. His sense of want is the sub
jective condition of redemption ; the Gospel of Christ
the objective.
The spiritual man is one who has passed from the
law to the Gospel, from effort to impulse, from duty
to love. In him the Spirit is supreme. He lives
near to God, he calls him Father, he feels that God is
a friend. The sense of sin is taken away, and the
sense of pardon is imparted through faith in Christ's
redeeming power. As the mind of the carnal man is
toward the world, so the mind of the spiritual man
is toward God. He has faith in goodness, faith that
God is good, faith that Christ is a helper and friend.
He looks up, and not down ; forward, not backward.
He lives by hope, not fear ; by trust, and not doubt.
When Jesus came he gave this new principle to
the human race. He gave an impulse to mankind
in the direction of faith and hope. He imparted a
new life of trust, expectation, immortal anticipation,
to humanity. This was the leaven mingled in the

o

170 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
meal till all should be leavened. All who live under
Christian influences are partakers of this life. We are
all lifted above that condition of hopelessness which
oppressed the best men of the Roman empire in the
first century. We can hardly imagine the stagnation
of soul, the helpless gloom of that period. The world
seemed to have come to an end. There was nothing
to live for, nothing to expect. This was the case
with that admirable man, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus,
whom Niebuhr pronounces one of the best men who
ever lived, but also one of the most unhappy. He
saw no hope anywhere, no prospect of any improve
ment. The hope of Christians seemed to him a mere
fanaticism, and all life was to him dark and empty.
How different are Christian lands to-day ! If
there is one thing which gives character to our age,
it is hope. We are looking for something new and
better every day. We are expecting new inventions
in art, new discoveries in science, improvements in
legislation, reforms in society, temperance reforms,
civil service reforms, sanitary reforms, theological
reforms, church reforms.
When Christ came the ' tendency seemed to be
downward. Now the tendency is upward. If we
study history we shall find on the whole a steady
upward movement in Christendom since the first
century, and it was never more apparent than it is
to-day. How much of this change is due to the impulse
given by this one soul, and his faith in God as an

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN. 171
infinite friend, is a matter not for dogmatizing, but for
careful study. There is the same disposition to-day
that there was at first, to doubt whether one man
could do so much. People still say, as the Jewish
Christians said to Paul, " God sends such influences
not by any one man, but by race forces, national
forces, powers inherent in humanity." Men are still
slow to believe in the marvellous power wrapped up
in a single soul, for good or evil. And yet we wit
ness this power every day. A Washington is born,
and a purer patriotism enters the world with him.
A Channing is born, and a nobler theology arrives.
A Napoleon is born, and the reign of physical force,
of low ambition, of national demoralization, comes
back into the world with new power. All men liv
ing feel these influences for good or evil. By no fault
of their own they are drawn down together to a lower
level ; by no merit of their own they are raised to a
higher. In Adam all die, and in Christ all are made
alive. Every influence which goes to make body
supreme over soul draws the world downward ; every
influence which makes spirit the master of the soul
draws it upward.
Meantime, the soul of man stands in the midst,
armed with freedom, called on to choose between
these opposing influences. Influences come to us
from below and from above ; it is ours to choose the
good and refuse the evil. We may become servants
of God by obedience to what is highest ; servants of
evil by following what is lowest. We have in us

172 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
the seeds of death and of Ufe. We are all dying in
Adam, and aU being made alive in Christ. But it is
for us to say to which opposing influence we will
yield. Original sin, according to Paul, is a tendency to
evil which is in aU men. It is less than a necessity,
for it can be resisted ; it is more than a possibility,
for it is constant, a "law of the members.' It. is a
proclivity to evil in the organization, coming by the
law of heredity from all past evil. It is not guUt,
but evil ; not a fault, but a misfortune. But God has
given a stronger impulse to mankind, through the life
of Christ and of all good men, in the opposite direc
tion, — which also enters the very organization and
works by the same law of heredity. We inherit
good as well as evil from the past. From thousands
of ancestors, the tides of life pour through us all.
The soul of each man stands in the midst to yield to
these influences, or resist them, or to choose between
them as it will.
All our virtue and all our guilt consists in the
choice we make between these opposing tendencies.
It is by no guilt of ours that evil comes to us ; it is by
no merit of ours that Christ and Christian influences
meet us. Many a poor soul may be swept away
toward wrong while struggling against it, — a baffled
swimmer, for whom the tide is too strong. But let
him never despair, never yield. As long as he re
sists he is not responsible; .when he yields to evil,
then he becomes guilty. And let him be sure that

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN. 173
there is a stronger influence which can save him if
he wiU trust to it ; that where sin abounds grace wiU
yet more abound.
Original sin, then, as taught by Paul, is a tendency
to sin, not a necessity of sinning. It belongs to the
body, not to the soul ; stiU less to the spirit. But
the tendency is so strong that it requires to be con
stantly resisted. To oppose a permanent tendency by
constant efforts of the will, by a never-ending series of
volitions, is a superhuman task. We need to oppose
this tendency by another. This counteracting ten
dency was introduced by Christ As the tendency to
evil, originating with the first man, draws the soul
downward through the senses, so the tendency to
good, originating with Christ, draws the soul upward
through the spirit.
Christ introduces a tendency to good by making
God, duty, and immortality realities to the soul.
Philosophy gives them to us as probabilities for the
thought , Christianity introduces them into our life.
Philosophy and theology theorize; religion realizes.
Those rest on speculation, this on experience. By
inward intuition, inward experience, — call it what
you will, — Christ came in contact with truth, saw
it, felt it, knew it. Christianity and science rest
on the same basis — experience. Christianity is a
perpetually new demonstration of the reality of God,
duty, and immortality, in each generation, in eaeh
soul. Accordingly, to the religious man, God is as
real as the world; laws of duty as absolute as the

174 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
laws of nature ; immortality, or eternal life, or spirit
ual existence, flowing from God, now and always,
as real as bodily life, or temporal existence, flowing
from the outward world through the senses.
To sum up what has been said. The carnal man
dislikes and shuns God ; the moral man fears and
obeys him ; the spiritual man loves him, and lives from
him. The carnal man is his enemy ; the moral man
his servant ; the spiritual man his friend. The carnal
man is led by animal desires ; the moral man by con
science ; the spiritual man by love. The carnal man
is moving downward toward death ; the spiritual man
upward, toward life and peace ; the moral man, even
when standing still, is looking in the right direction.
In the carnal man there is no conflict; he is at har
mony with himself, for his higher nature sleeps, and
his soul obeys his lower nature. In the spiritual
man, again, there is no conflict, but a higher and truer
harmony of all his powers ; for body serves the soul,
and soul the spirit. But in the moral man there is a
constant struggle and conflict ; for the flesh and spirit
are both active, "and the flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are
opposite one to another, so that ye cannot do the
things ye would."
The common theory of orthodox preachers, which
divides all men into saints and sinners, penitent and
impenitent, carnal and spiritual, is equally opposed to
Paul's doctrine and the facts of the case. Men faU
into three classes, not into two. Or, if you choose to

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING SIN. 175
make two classes only, you must put the moral and
spiritual together ; because the man who is trying to
do right is oh the right way, going toward God, how
ever slowly. The only danger is that he will be dis
couraged and give up ; and so he needs the great hope
of the Gospel to cheer him, needs to know that God,
Christ, the angels, and aU good men are on his side,
and that God's spirit is ready to help him whenever
he will.
The doctrine of Paul concerning inherited evil and
sin differs, then, from that of Calvinism in these es
sential points :—
1. Calvinism asserts that inherited evil, found in
our nature, is guilt. Paul explicitly denies this.
Sinful conduct, so far as it results from inherited
depravity, he says is not done by us, but by sin that
dweUeth in us.
2. Calvinism teaches that this corruption of nature
is total. Paul teaches that there is a power for good
as well as evil in every man, and that even those
without law may do by nature the things commanded
by the law.
3. Calvinism declares that we sin in Adam. This
statement is not found in Paul. We do not sin in
Adam (or as men) ; but as men, descendants from
Adam, we share in a common inheritance of degen
eracy and decay.
4. Calvinism teaches the doctrine of inabiUty. It
denies freedom in man to choose and do right before
conversion. This, again, is nowhere taught by Paul.

176 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
When he asserted that the Gentiles outside of all law
and gospel, " do by nature the things contained in the
law," and " are a law unto themselves," he asserted
moral freedom in the unconverted. The same doc
trine is plainly taught by Jesus in his account of the
day of judgment, where the Gentiles who have done
good works are surprised to find that they have been
serving Christ unconsciously.
Thus we see the truth of Paul's saying, " We are
saved by hope," and how it is connected with his
whole system of thought. It is a hope full of im
mortal life. Hope gives courage, and helps us for
ward. The great gift of hope came to the world
chiefly through Christ. He taught mankind to see
an infinite Love surrounding all being, guiding all
events, inspiring aU hearts, and leading aU things on
toward an infinite and perfect good. With this hope
in our souls we can face evil and conquer it. Evil is
real, it is in us, it is around us, but it is not supreme.
Good is higher and stronger. Sin may abound, but
grace abounds still more.

CHAPTER VIII.
PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH,
TRANSLATED INTO SOME OF ITS MODERN EQUIV
ALENTS.
WE have already considered Paul's doctrine
concerning Faith on its negative side, as the
power to overcome all kinds of narrow, formal, and
intolerant religion. I now propose to speak of it on
its positive side, as the chief motive power in life.
And in thus speaking of it, I shall endeavor to trans
late the ancient and sacred formula out of its Scrip
tural language into its various modern equivalents.
It is often desirable to do this, — to quit, for a time
at least, the old language, which has become rigid and
formal, and try some more elastic phraseology, some
thing more in accordance with our modern habits of
thought. So only does it become really intelligible.
There is only one way in which men and women
can have perfect peace, satisfaction, content ; and that
is by being brought into intimate, inward, happy
communion with God. To come near to God, to live
near to God, to live from God, with God, to God, —
that alone is enough for us.
12

178 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
The reason of this is that God only is infinite, per
manent and real ; everything else is transient, unreal,
apparent. Away from God, outside of God, aU things
seem in perpetual flux and change. The flower de
cays, the leaves fall, the grass withers, man dies, and
his expectations perish.
A world without God is a world without hope. What
motive is there in it for exertion ? All things are
coming from nowhere, and journeying toward nothing.
Chaotic forces, struggling together, have, after a thou
sand million failures, accidentally succeeded in creat
ing these worlds. The order of the universe is an
accident. The succession of day and night, sum
mer and winter, are accidents. All the beautiful and
majestic order of the advancing year, with its hosts
of grasses, flowers, budding and blossoming trees,
is a chance ; there is no wisdom, no love in it. It
was all worked out by accidental laws, with no
inteUigence behhid them. It was evolved acciden
tally ; it will end so. Everything goes round in a
circle. The thing which has been is that which shall
be. This is the atheist's theory of the universe.
A picture of this desolate, desperate state of mind
is painted for us in the sombre colors of the book of
Ecclesiastes. " The thing which has been is that
which shall be," it says. There is no progress, only
change. " All things are full of labor, man cannot
utter it." Blackness, like that of the catacombs,
where millions of graves rest in perpetual darkness,
drops its dreary veil over natural joy, quenches

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 179
courage, takes the spring out of Ufe. With won
derful wisdom the Scripture says : " Without God,
without hope in the world."
I do not mean to say that all atheists are hopeless
and desperate. Among them are active, conscien
tious, cheerful, and good men. Once, as I have heard,
Robert Collyer was talking with such a man, and the
man said, " Mr. Collyer, I have no religion ; I believe
in Nature, not in God. But ami not as good as
most Christians ? Am I dishonest ? Am I selfish ?
Don't you come to me if you want help for the poor ?
— and do I refuse ? Why find fault, then, with my
atheism ? "
" Certainly," Robert replied; "you are not only as
good as most Christians, but better. But you seem
to me to be like a man who, having inherited an
estate from his ancestors, is spending, not his income
only, but also his capital. You have inherited a
stock of goodness from the faith of your fathers ; but
what have you got. to leave to your children ? The
faith of those who went before you has become a
part of your brain and heart, and it moves you still
unconsciously. But your children will not have this
habit of faith, and habit of hope, and habit of justice,
which has come to you. You are using up the capi
tal, and they will begin life with no such inherited
faith, but only your dreary maxims of doubt and
denial. How will it be with them ? "
When the engineer turns off the steam from the
driving-wheels of the locomotive, it continues to run

180 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL:
a good while by its momentum. A person looking at
it might say, " What is the use of steam ? The. train
seems to run just as weU without it." But, before
long, it must stop.
>• If you should kill out the faith of this generation,
close all the churches, put an end to prayer, and,
instead of the word of God preached from our pul
pits every Sunday, devote them to lectures on matter
and motion, the effect would not immediately appear.
This generation would run on, from its momentum,
for a good while. People would stiU be honest, and'
kind, and happy. But graduaUy a gloom would settle
down on life ; gradually the springs of existence would
be weakened ; hope would die out of the human heart,
and the question, "What is the use of anything!"
would be answered, in the sad words of Ecclesiastes,
" All things are vanity, and vexation of spirit. He
who increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Then
I set my heart to despair of aU the labor I had
taken under the sun."
Faith is the spring of all hope, aU action, all joy
in life, — faith in things unseen ; faith in an infinite
wisdom and love, before all things, above all things ;
faith in a God of infinite intelligence, who never
makes a mistake ; of infinite power, whose plans can
never miscarry because of sin or Satan; of infinite
love, which does not mean that any should perish,
but means that all shall be saved. This faith is to the
world of soul what the sun is to the world of nature.
When it rises, day comes. While it shines, all things

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 1*81
Uve and grow. When it disappears, we are left in
cold and darkness. When ecUpsed by doubt or
superstition, a chiU comes over us; the grass turns
gray, the glory leaves the flower.
Therefore, in aU ages and lands, men have sought
to take hold of something higher than themselves, —
something supernatural, superhuman, unchanging.
In this ever-roUing sea of time, they drop their an
chor, hoping to strike something solid beneath which
will hold them firm. It strikes' a sacrament, and
holds by that a little while ; and then comes a storm,
and it breaks away. It catches to a saint, and holds
by him ; to an inspired prophet and apostle, and
holds by him. But these also give way, and at
length it strikes the rock, — the rocky basis of all
behef, — and takes hold of the Infinite Being himself.
There it holds, and holds forever. *
The Roman Catholic goes to church, and as he
looks at the altar, believing that the Deity is really
present there in visible form, he is brought near to
God. A sense of awe, of gratitude, of trust, comes
over him. The altar is a way to God, and so he
thinks it is the only way, and says, " Out of the church
there is no salvation."
Another man, tormented by his sins, is told that
Christ has made an atonement, and now he can come
at once to God. So he goes, and he finds peace and
pardon in God, and joy in believing. Then he says,
" There is no way to God but by beheving in the
atonement."

10*2 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
But every way which brings us to God is the right
way, and no way is right for us unless it brings us
to God.
This faith is not a bhnd behef in doctrines. It
is not belief in doctrines at aU. To believe the
Apostles' Creed, to accept the thirty-nine articles of
the Church of England, to give an intellectual assent
to the doctrines of Rome, of Calvin, of Channing, of
Theodore Parker, is .not faith at all. A doctrine can
never be the object of faith; the object of faith is al-
kways a person. We believe a creed, but we have
faith in a friend. We assent to a proposition, but we
trust our father and mother. Faith always has good
ness, wisdom and strength, for its object.
It is faith which saves the soul ; belief never did,
never can, save the soul. No speculative behef,
whether orthodox or rational, necessarily makes a
man better. Good men have bad creeds, bad men
have good creeds. Theological creeds influence con
duct, but only indirectly; but faith influences us at
once and always.
The object of faith, I said, is always a person, not
a doctrine. I go further, and say, that the object of
faith is always personal goodness. Only good men
inspire faith. Badness inspires fear ; if accompanied
with power, it may. strike awe ; but in order to make
us trust it, it must pretend to be good. We never
have faith in the devil, unless he disguise himself as
an angel of light.
Faith casts out fear, just as love does. When we

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 183
are afraid of God, we have no faith in him ; when we
have faith in him, we are not afraid of him.
A Uttle child is all faith and trust ; so it is afraid of
no one. It goes up to a stranger in the street, and
says, "See my ball — see my doll," having full con
fidence in the sympathy every one must feel in its
affairs. A great evil of sin is, that it casts out faith ; it
makes us doubt others, and also doubt ourselves.
We are afraid to trust others," because we have been
deceived. We are afraid to trust our own good im
pulses, for fear they should not endure. We are
afraid to trust God, because we think we are not fit
to go to him, not fit to pray to him, not good enough
to come near him. So sin kills out the faith of
the human heart, and takes away its life, courage,
and hope.
The rehgions of the world have all endeavored
to meet this difficulty. They said, "Yes, you are
not good enough to come near God ; but we will ap
point priests, holy men, who can offer prayers for
you, intercede for you, make sacrifices for you. You
may kneel in the outer courts, while they go into
the Holy of Holies and bring back to you the
answer of God."
This was something. This was better than nothing.
This gave men a sort of faith at second hand. Sacra
mental religion, priestly religion, is very well as a
step to something higher. If you cannot believe
directly in God, it is weU to believe in him through

184 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
your priest If you do not dare to pray yourself, it
is well to look on while your priest is offering his
prayers at the altar. This is a step — the first step
— out of no religion to religion.
This sacramental religion has been almost uni
versal outside of Christianity, both in ancient and
modern times. , In ancient days, Greeks, Romans,
Egyptians, had their temples, sacrifices and -priest
hood ; in our times, Brahmins and Buddhists, Pagans
and Indians, have their holy men, their monks, their
magicians and prophets, through whom the people
approach God.
Judaism was in part a sacramental, and in part a
rational religion. It had magnificent ceremonies and
a pure doctrine. The priest administered the sacra
ments ; the prophet taught religion and moraUty.
But there is always a tendency in sacraments to
take the place of faith. Instituted to help men in
to God, they put themselves in the place of God, and
so hinder the ascent of the soul. This is idolatry.
Everything is an idol which stops worship half way.
A sacrament is an idol, if we worship it, instead of
passing through it to God. A priest or preacher is
an idol, if we look on him as holy and sacred, instead
of considering him as a friend who can help us to the
unseen sacredness beyond. The Bible becomes an
idol, if we worship its letter, instead of its spirit.
For' "the letter," says Paul, "killeth, but the spirit
giveth life." A creed is an idol, if we think there is
any merit in believing it, and hope to be saved by

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 185"
that behef. Sabbath-keeping, and church-going, and
prayer, may all become idols in the same way. To
substitute the symbol for that which it symbolizes —
to worship the mediatorial form which brings us to
God, instead of worshipping God himself — is idolatry.
And this is just as bad as atheism, — perhaps worse,
for it gives us a symbol to worship, instead of a
living God. Atheism leaves the soul empty of faith ;
but superstition substitutes a dead formalism in its
place, and so makes faith more difficult.
The object of all great reformers and reforms has
been to break up this frozen crust of ceremony, and
bring men directly into the presence of the living God.
When Jesus came, he found that the Jewish priest
had silenced the Jewish prophet. No prophet had
appeared in Judea for four hundred years, but the
sacraments, sacrifices, and temple worship went on
as before. These services had stiffened into a life
less form ; so the first time that Jesus entered the
Temple, he drove out the money changers, and said :
" You have made my Father's house a den of thieves."
They had made an idol of the Temple ; he said that
every stone of it should be pulled down. They had
made an idol of the Sabbath ; he said, " The Sabbath
is made for man." They had made an idol of the
sacrificial offerings ; he said, " God will have mercy,
and not sacrifice." They had made an idol of solemn
public prayers ; he said, " When thou prayest, go
into thy closet." He denounced the Scribes and
Pharisees, who, for a pretence, made long prayers, and

186 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
by their cold, formal hypocrisy shut up the kingdom
of heaven against men. He said that the pure in
heart saw God, face to face, and that the true wor
shippers did not worship the Father in this place or
that, but in spirit and truth. He awakened a Uving
faith in God as a father and friend, and showed them
how to become sdns of God. The mighty tide of
love in his soul overflowed aU the ceremonies and
forms of Judaism, and lifted his disciples into happy,
intimate communion with their heavenly Father.
In the midst of persecution and suffering they were
fuU of joy. "The multitude of them that beheved
were of one heart and one soul ; they ate their meat
daily in gladness and singleness of heart, praising
God, and having favor with all the people."
I mentioned, in a former chapter, that the Jew
ish Christians fell back on their ceremonies. They
missed the grand ritual of the Temple, its daily
sacrifices, its priesthood. Their new faith was too
simple, too bare, too cold. So they said, " Let us
have both, — the new faith, and the old ritual too.
Man has a body, as well as a soul ; why should not
religion have a body also, as well as a soul ? "
Then Paul opposed himself to this tendency, de
claring: "All very well for you who have always
been Jews. Keep the old ceremonies, if you hke. A
man is no worse for them, if he is no better. But do
not say they are essential ; nothing is essential but
faith in God. If we can come to God, and trust in
him, it is no matter how we come."

JUSTIFICA TION B Y FAITH. 187
This is the principle of justification by faith. It
means immediate access to God in simple trust. It
is trust in the instincts of the soul, which prove
themselves to be true. It is trust in the omnipotence
of love, which wiU fill with eternal life all who come
into communion with it. Faith itself is the evidence
of things not seen. Do not go back of it, to ask if
you have a right to have it. Do not demand a proof
that you have a right to love God. Love is an
unerring light, and joy in God is its own security.
The immense ardor and ability of the Apostle tri
umphed over aU opposition, and Christianity was
emancipated from Jewish ceremonies.
But ever, as the winter of unbehef comes, and
the river of faith sinks back into its channel, the ice
of forms accumulates along its shores. So, when the
ardor of faith ceased, there grew up in the church
another system of ceremonies. The form, once more,
took the place of the substance; sacraments were
substituted for love. Then arose Martin Luther, and
again declared that we were justified by faith, not
by works. "Trust in God," said he, "that is all."
In a thousand ways he urged this truth, and so there
came a great inspiration into men's souls. It roused
all hearts to know that God was so near to them;
that he was really present, not in the eucharist on
the altar, but in the soul that came to him in trust
and love. Once more the world was lifted into im
mediate communion with God, and in this lay the
spiritual force of the Lutheran Reformation.

188 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
But the ideas of Luther and his friends, which
flashed out of them like rays of Uving Ught, were
taken up by the Protestant theologians of the next
century, made into creeds, and then worshipped. As
the Roman Catholics put ceremonies between the
soul of man and God, so the Protestant divines put
dogmas and doctrines between the soul of man and
God. Now we were to be saved, not by sacraments,
indeed, but by believing a creed. This idolatry took
the place of the former ones. So, once more, men
had to be taught that we are justified by faith; that
God will forgive us when we can believe in his for
giving love ; that what we need is not a creed nor a
doctrine, but immediate communion with the Father.
I will mention four Protestant movements, aU of
which have had this for their object, and all of which
have brought men back into direct communion with
the Infinite Spirit. These four are : Quakerism,
Methodism, Unitarianism as taught by Dr. Channing,
and the Transcendentahsm of Theodore Parker and
Mr. Emerson.
The Quaker movement in the 17th century, and
the Methodist movement in the 18th century, I will
not describe particularly. But the central idea of
Quakerism was faith in the Inner Light, or God's
voice in tbe soul. The Friends believed that in every
soul there is an open door to God, and that if we are
quiet that voice will speak, and tell us what to think
and do. Truth comes immediately from God, not
from tradition or through the senses. " Each person,"

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 189
says Penn, "knows God from an infaUible demon
stration in himself. The instinct of a Deity is so
natural to man, that he cannot be without it, and be.
The Spirit of God teaches all things to the waiting,
patient soul." In this faith the Quakers went forth,
giving their testimony against war, against slavery,
against oaths, rejecting sacraments and priests, having
no baptism, nor Lord's Supper, nor paid ministers, —
taking care of each other, eating their meat in singleness
of heart " They are a people," said CromweU, " whom
I cannot win by gifts, honors, offices or places."
The Quaker movement meant "going directly to
God." It was "justification by faith" in a modern
equivalent. So also was the great movement of
Wesley. Wesley was at first what we call a ritualist,
seeking' to save his soul and the souls of others by
sacraments, sacrifices, self-denial, and charity. But
the Methodist movement began only when he dropped
all this, and accepted simple faith as sufficient for his
own salvation and that of the world. By faith he,
also, meant direct access to God. Read the Methodist
hymns in their Hymn Book — for the hymns of any
community are the surest signs of their central faith.
See how close they come to God, with what childlike
familiarity they depend on him ! Most hymns adore a
distant God; the authors of these feel God talking with
their heart. " Talk with us, Lord, thyself reveal,
While here o'er earth we rove ;
Speak to our hearts, and let us feel
The kindling of thy love."

190 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Such hymns remind one of Rafaelle's picture of
St. Cecilia, who has ceased from her own song, and
dropped her instrument, to Usten to the angels singing
above, far off, yet close to her ear and heart.
The Unitarian movement, in the mind of Dr. Chan
ning, had the same purpose. He sought for a simpler
faith than the doctrines of his day offered. His faith
was that man was the child of God, and that God's
love came near to every human heart. He, too, taught
salvation by faith, — he taught us to trust always
in the omnipotence of Love, and in the sufficiency of
human capacity and human power to find its way di
rect to the Father. So he led men up from the for-
maf piety and mere outside morality which prevailed
in his day, to an enthusiasm for a Uving and loving
God, for human freedom, progress, perpetual develop-
rment. The strength of his teachings was that he
made salvation to have its root in a perfect trust in
God and man.
Lastly came the Transcendental movement, which
once more put aside all rehgious works and ceremo
nies, and substituted for them a profound trust in the
undying and immortal instincts of the soul, and in a
God so infinitely perfect as to be incapable of any
change, whom all nature and all life must obey, — a
God moving in aU things, an inspiration in aU
hearts, the all in all. Emerson is the prophet of this
faith, and thus he expresses it : —
" Ever fresh, the broad creation,
A divine improvisation,

* JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 191
From the heart of God proceeds,
A single will, a million deeds.
He is the axis of the star ;
He is the sparkle of the spar ;
He is the heart of every creature ;
He is the meaning of each feature ;
And his mind is as the sky,
Than all it holds more deep, more high."
This may be pantheism, but aU true rehgion grazes
close to pantheism. Pantheism says everything is
God. Christianity says God is in everything.
These four doctrines are all, it will be seen, modern
equivalents for Paul's doctrine of justification by
faith. They all mean direct access to the peace,
love, and light coming from God, — access without
intervention of priest, book or creed, church or cere
mony. The Quaker says, "We can receive the illu
mination of the Inward Light as soon as we believe in
it." The Methodist says, "We can receive the influ
ence of the grace of God into our hearts as soon as we
beheve in it." The Unitarian says, " Man, made in
God's image, who has never lost that likeness, is still
God's child, and can go direct "to his Heavenly Father,
without waiting for any special conversion, as soon as
he believes in his Father's love." The Transcenden-
tahst says, " Man, by nature divine, is able to have
and do all divine things as soon as he believes this."
The immediate effect of all this teaching is the same.
It is to make rehgion seem natural and near, instead
of unnatural and remote. Have faith, as a grain of
mustard-seed, in God, in Man, in Divine Goodness

192 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
and Grace, in human capacity and destiny, and you
rise at once to strength and peace. When you pray
for any good thing, believe that you shaU receive it,
and you have it. When you desire to do any good
thing, believe that you can do it, and you can. Peace
and pardon are not hidden, or afar off. They do not
need to be translated out of Hebrew or Sanskrit, or
to be brought down from Heaven by an angel.
As soon as this is seen, a revival of spiritual Ufe
sets in. The Quaker movement revived the spiritual
life of England ; so did the Methodist movement. A
revival of interest in rehgious truth followed the
teaching of Channing; another revival, that of Em
erson and Parker. In all these cases the outsiders,
before indifferent, were awakened. This doctrine al
ways goes to find the one sheep gone astray — the
heretic, the infidel, the sceptic. It leaves the ninety
and nine religious people who need no repentance,
and goes to seek and save the lost. Those satisfied
with Judaism did not go to Paul. They said, "He
means well, but he preaches a very odd doctrine, and
one easily abused." The good Catholics did not want
Luther; they thought him a very dangerous innovator,
with his Solifidian theories. The good Church of
England people did not Uke Wesley ; he was turning
the world upside down, — putting bakers and butchers
into the pulpit, and preaching in the street instead of
the church. He did not do anything " decently and
in order." The high and dry Orthodox people thought
Dr. Channing a very mischievous person. All the

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 193
accepted churches, Orthodox or Unitarian, including
some persons who now recognize his worth, disliked
Theodore Parker. But the common people heard all
these teachers gladly. The door to God, before closed,
seemed to open. The way to heaven, before hard
to find, now became plain. " This is something we
can understand," men said. " This seems like com
mon sense — how simple it is ! " The kingdom of
God was preached, and aU men hastened into it
Thus we see the truth of the Apostle's saying —
" Differences of administration, but the same Lord ;
diversities of operation, but the same God that work-
eth all in all." Just as pure carbon appears in allo-
tropic forms, — sometimes as charcoal, at other times
as plumbago, and again as a sparkling diamond, — so
one and the same doctrine will reappear in history in
many Protean shapes. It has equivalents often unsus
pected. The metaphysician talks of the categorical^
imperative, the Quaker of the inward light, and the
mystic of a God-consciousness; but all mean the
same as Paul meant when he said, "We are justified
by faith." They all mean that we are to take truth/
at first hand, and go direct to God.
These are the different forms taken by this doc
trine in different minds and different ages. In every
mind and in every age, it means direct access to God.
Whenever taught afresh, it awakens a new religious
life, gives new hope to man, creates wonderful expec
tations, and strengthens the moral nature to do nobly
and to bear patiently. 13

194 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
We need this living faith to-day. We are half
dead without it. We need confidence in God as one
with whom we can talk face to face, — more tender
to us than the tenderest mother, yet strong to guide,
discipline, warn, and restrain us, — the one unerring
teacher and unfaihng friend. We need to have a
continual living sense of God in nature, as law be
hind law, as the force back of all other forces. We
need to feel him near us in our Uves, guiding aU
things well, in the darkest agony and midnight of
sorrow as in the brightest sunshine of triumphant joy.
All mediators, prophets, bibles, rehgions, are for this
end — to make us at last like little children ; for it is
only by being converted again to the simplicity and
trust of little children that we can see the kingdom
of God.
The one thing we need to give us new life and
new power, to give peace, strength, joy, is faith ; faith
in God as infinite love. The work of Jesus is to
bring us to God, his Father and ours. When he has
done this, he has done all.
If, then, there are any who are loDging for inward
peace, who are seeking to be lifted above weakness,
doubt, fear, to be in harmony with themselves, to
them I say, " You need what Paul needed and found ;
what Luther needed and found ; what Wesley needed
and found ; what all souls need and such multitudes
have found, — a life hid with Christ in God. You
need to become again the little children of your
Heavenly Father, living in his presence and his smile,

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 195
and being sure that he is your best friend, here and
everywhere. His love will bring to you new peace
and strength every day; wiU quiet your struggles,
pacify your unrest, be sunshine in your heart, comfort
in your trials, companionship in your loneliness. This
is what Jesus meant when he said: "Peace I leave
with you, my peace I give unto you ; not as the world
giveth, give I unto you."
This faith in God is not contrary to reason, 'for it
is not credulity. If a father says to his son going
from home, " My son, if you are in any trouble, come
to me; trust in me; I will help you;" that is not
asking him to indulge in blind credulity. We believe
in God ; let us act as if we did, — that is faith. To
profess to believe in an all-wise and all-good being,
who knows all our wants, and then to live as if there
were no such being, that is what is contrary to reason.
To have faith in God is to act as we believe. As
soon as we begin thus to act, thus to trust, thus to
walk with God, our faith in him increases. We find
that he really is near us. We are lifted into a higher
atmosphere, where the sun always shines, where we
are above the low-lying mists of doubt and fear. We
feel free, able to act, able to endure.
When Paul says, " We are made just by faith," he
means, that by trusting God we come to love him, to
do his wiU. We trust him with our weakness and
our sin, and feel that he will forgive us and show us
how to rise above them. We trust him with our fears
and doubt and unbelief, and find strength to see things

196 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
more clearly. We trust him with our coldness of
heart, our poverty of soul, our weakness of temper,
and find ourselves growing up into something more
large and more loving. This is being justified and
saved by faith. And this great principle which Paul
derived from Jesus, and which gave him so much
power, he has transmitted to us through the ages,
and it is just as good for us aU to-day as it was for
him. ' No one is so high up as to be above it; no one
is so low down as to be beneath it. Like the air of
heaven, it visits the chamber of the king, the hut of
the savage, the dungeon of the prisoner, and is the
breath of Ufe to them aU.

CHAPTER IX.
THE MEANING OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.
THE same doctrine of Justification by Faith,
which we saw first developed in the Epistle to
the Galatians, and which we have considered already
in so many ways, reappears in its largest form in the
Epistle to the Romans. It is now detached from
practical issues, the heats of controversy and personal
feeling. It is a statement of one of the deepest and
broadest principles of universal religion. It is a dis
cussion, the purpose of which is, " to understand what
is the length, breadth, depth, and height of the love
of God, which passeth knowledge."
If only we also were able to disengage our study of
this epistle from modern theological and anti-theolog
ical prepossessions and prejudices ! In this wonder
ful treatise we ascend a mount of vision, from which
we look over a vast plain of thought reaching to a
distant horizon where earthly speculation fades into
the aU-surrounding heavens. We see, far below us,
the lower heights of transient debate, — Augustin-
ianism and Pelagianism, Calvinism and Arminianism,

198 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
New School and Old School, Orthodoxy and Liberal
Christianity. We stand face tp face with the eternal
problems of human inquiry. We breathe the upper
air of pure speculation, where the noisy sounds of
earthly life come up mellowed and softened from
the low -lying valleys and villages. Here is serene
peace, and only the noble struggle of reason in
its attempts to sound tbe depths of everlasting
law. This letter is the most important of aU Paul's
works; it is one of the greatest efforts of human
genius. It is full of the inspiration of a heavenly
love, and compact with the most intense effort of
concentrated thought. In it Paul grapples with his
opponents, and pours out his heart, soul, strength, in
his endeavor to convince, persuade, instruct, and con
vert them. The result is that, written for an imme
diate object, and with no thought of any future fame,
it has become one of the great monuments of human
intelligence, which will be studied and commented
upon when the Pyramids have crumbled into the
sand of the desert1
One difficulty in understanding this epistle comes
from the fact that Paul is here arguing with those
whose opinions we do not know, and answering objec-
1 Coleridge calls the Epistle to the Romans "the profoundest
book in existence." Luther says, " This Epistle is the chief book of
the New Testament." Melanchthon copied it twice with his own
hand. Chrysostom had it read to him twice a week. Tholuck calls
it the "Christian philosophy of Universal History." See Godet
and Farrar.

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 199
tions of which we have never heard. As he and his
hearers both understood the objections, he does not
take the trouble to state them. We must discover
who the objectors were from his answers. We find
that they were chiefly of two classes, the Christian
Jews and the Christian Greeks. Curiously enough,
there seem to have been very few Latin or Roman
Christians in the Roman church. The names men
tioned are Greek and Jewish, not Latin. AU the
early Christian writers in the Roman church wrote in
Greek, as Paul does here. There was a vast multi
tude of Jews in Rome at this time. Augustus Caesar,
who was their friend, gave them a portion of the
city in which to live, which stiU remains the Jewish
quarter, or Ghetto, in Rome. Eight thousand Jews
appeared in Rome in a procession to offer a petition
to Augustus. The Greeks, too, swarmed in Rome, so
that Juvenal complains that Rome is a Greek city ;
just as it is said that Boston is an Irish city, and that
Chicago is a German city.
The Christian community in Rome had existed
for a long time when Paul wrote this letter. Their
" faith had been spoken of in the whole world " (i. 8).
Paul had often proposed to come to them (i. 13). If
this church had been founded by Peter, or if Peter
were its bishop, Paul would certainly have mentioned
his name, which he has not done. Nor was it his
custom to " build on another man's foundation " (Roni.
xv. 20). The origin of the Roman church is un
known. It was made up of Christian Jews and

200 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Christian Greeks. The Greeks were Broad Church,
the Jews Narrow Church. Since Jesus was a Jew, and
became the Jewish Christ, the question was, How
far must Christians be Jews, and keep the Jewish
Sabbath, feasts, and ritual?
The Christian Jews said, " Christianity is the Jew
ish religion improved, carried forward, developed ; but
it is Judaism still. The Law is just as necessary as
the Gospel. Therefore aU who are Christians must be
Christian Jews, as we are."
These Jewish Christians, or Christian Jews, re
garded Jesus as essentially the Jewish Messiah, who
was to be the king of the world, and would help them
also to be kings, and to rule the world. They longed
for power. Trampled on often, despised by tbe Roman
patricians, they were hoping for the glorious coming
of Jesus in royal majesty, to set them above their
present masters. So that the Jews in Rome were
more Jewish than elsewhere, — probably more so
than those at Jerusalem, — just as Roman Catholics
in America are often more Papal than the Pope him
self. These Christian Jews shared the same intensely
Judaizing spirit; and this was what Paul must meet
and conquer, if Christianity was really to become
a religion for the world — a human and universal
religion. Paul saw that it would be hopeless to
attempt to make Jews out of the Greeks and Romans ;
but he could lift them all to a higher point of view,
where their differences would disappear, and aU
would become one in Christ Jesus.

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 201
To this work he addresses himself, and begins by
asking, What is rehgion for ? What is all religion
for ? What is the Pagan religion, the Jewish religion,
the Christian rehgion for ? 1
By asking this question he goes behind the contro
versies existing at Rome between these two parties.
His purpose was to unite the Greek and Jewish
Christians in a larger faith than either already pos
sessed, — to carry them up to a position which over
looked both sides. The Romans thought they did not
need Judaism ; the Jews thought the Romans ought
to accept their law: Paul shows them that they both
need goodness ; and the root of goodness he declares to
be the Gospel which is revealed by Jesus Christ.
Paul's theme (Rom. i. 17) is that " goodness lives
by faith." This is " the righteousness of God ; " that
is, righteousness as God looks at it, not as men see
it. It is not outward, but inward ; not in appearance,
1 Very different views are taken of the object of this Epistle. Locke
says, "to persuade them to a steady perseverance in the profession
of Christianity, by convincing them that God is the God of the Gen
tiles as well as of the^Jews." Olshausen sees in it " a purely objec
tive statement of the nature of the Gospel." Baur and others
suppose that Paul intended by this letter " to refute Jewish par
ticularism so radically that it should remain like an uprooted tree."
"The absolute nullity of every claim founded on particularism,
such is the fundamental idea of the Epistle." Others consider it
his special purpose to conciliate the Jewish and Gentile Christians.
So Hilgenfeld and Holsten, who consider it a letter of peace and
union.- A large number of commentators (including Origen, Calvin,
Grotius) regard it as having a simply didactic purpose. Reuss says
that Paul " is addressing an ideal public. " Renan considers it a
risumA of his teaching.

202 IDEAS OF THE. APOSTLE PAUL.
but in reality: This is " the righteousness of Gad,"
which comes out of faith as its root, and grows up
into a good life as trunk and branches, making a
living and fruitful tree.
" And do we not need it ? " he asks. " Do not aU
need it ? Do not aU — Jew and Greek and Roman —
know that they are not what they ought to be ? Is
there not a sense of divine displeasure hanging over
the human mind and heart, in aU lands and times ?
Are not aU men conscious of sin, therefore of dis
content, unrest, misery ? Is not the human race
drifting away from. God? Look at the vice which
is eating out the heart of the people of Rome, the
people of Greece. What can your philosophy do
against it ? Unbridled luxury, joined with terrible
cruelty, is all around you ; the old Roman, virtues
dying out ; a sense of helplessness in you all Oh,
Romans ! Oh, Greeks ! — children of glorious an
cestors ! do you not need some new and higher influ
ence to stay this corruption, and give you a new
power of growing upright, just, pure, true, in the
sight of God?"1
Having thus shown what the Greeks and Romans
need, Paul turns to the Jewish Christians (Rom. ii. •
1-29), and devotes a long paragraph to proving to
them that they had not the least right to judge and
1 This passage (Rom. i. 18-32), in which Paul describes the
gross depravity of the Greek and Roman world of his time, is
meant to show that the one thing needful was some power which
should cure these terrible moral evils — some new principle of
goodness.

THE. EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 203
condemn the Gentiles, since, though they had the law,
they did not obey it. He virtually says to them : — 1
" Do you propose to cure this inveterate evil among
the Romans and Greeks by inviting them to become
Jews, and to go through your ritual and keep your
fasts and feasts ? Have these made you so much
better that you can promise that they will cure the
sin of others ? You think yourselves sent to be the
teachers of the moral law to mankind. Why do you
not keep it, then ? You teach them sedulously the
Ten Commandments — ' Thou shalt not steal,' ' Thou
shalt not covet' Do you never steal, never covet ?
Your law does not promise, ' Whoever sayeth these
things shall live by them,' but, ' Whoever doeth these
things shall live by them.' The Gentiles neither say
1 "It cannot be sufficiently admired bow skilfully, to avoid
offending those of his own nation, St. Paul here enters into an
argument so uupleasing to the Jews as this of persuading them
that the Gentiles had as good a title to be taken in to be the peo
ple of God, under the Messias, as they themselves, — which is the
main design of this Epistle.
' ' This may be seen if one carefully attends to the particulars
that he mentions relating to the Jews and Gentiles ; and observes
how what he says of the Jews, in the second chapter, answers to
what he had charged on the Gentiles in the first. For there is a
secret comparison of them, one with another, runs through these
two chapters, which, as soon as it comes to be minded, gives such a
light and lustre to St. Paul's discourse that one cannot but admire
the skilful turn of it, and look on it as the most soft, the most
beautiful, and most pressing argumentation that one shall any where
meet with altogether ; since it leaves the Jews nothing to say for
themselves, why they should have the privilege continued to them,
under the Gospel, of being alone the people of God." — Locke, on
the Epistles of Paul.

204 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
them nor do them. You say them, but how often do
you do them ? " (Rom. iii. 1.)
And now speaks a Jewish Christian in reply : " If
keeping the law of God and all the works it commands
does us no good, then why was the law given ? If
the Sabbath and sacrifices and Synagogue worship
make us no better than the Romans, why did
God, through Moses, command us to do . all this ?
Answer that, if thou canst, thou Gentile Apostle ! "
This is an amplification of a single line, but no
doubt it was often said to Paul by his Jewish oppo
nents. Paul had closed his appeal to the Jew by
making the bold assertion that " He is not a Jew who
is one outwardly, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly."
The reply to this was, " What good then does this
outward law do, and why was it given ? "
The first reply of Paul to this is, " You have the
great honor of being the teachers to mankind of God's
unity and his moral law. For though many of you
have been faithless to your high mission, this does
not impair the glory which God has given to your
nation (Rom. iii. 2)."
If we may amplify still more the answer of Paul,
by bringing together what be has said in several other
places, we can put it in this form : —
" The law does you good, because it prepares you
for something better. It creates in you a desire for
goodness which it does not satisfy. The Gentiles are
not conscious of their degradation ; you are, and that is
something. The law does not make you alive, but it

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 205
shows you that you are dead. It rouses your con
science, awakens a sense of responsibility, and thus
prepares you, before aU others, for that higher revela
tion which shall unite your hearts with God in faith
and trust.
"But," continues Paul, "you can become good,
really good — inwardly and outwardly — only by
faith ; that is, by trusting in God as you trust in a
friend, and thus learning to love him. Faith- in God
as pure goodness is what we all need, and it is the only
thing that can make us better. Only when we love
God can we obey him with our whole heart, and we
cannot love till we beUeve iii him as infinite, perfect
goodness. So Christ reveals him. Trust in Christ as
able to reveal the true God, and you have a seed
of goodness planted in your heart ; which is the one
thing needful, both for Jew and Greek.
" You cannot love any one unless you have faith in
his goodness ; you cannot love God unless you have
faith in his goodness. You cannot love God from a
sense of duty, nor because you have determined to
love him, nor because he commands you to love him,
nor because you are afraid you will be punished if you
do not love him. You can only love him when he
seems lovely, when you see in him a never-tiring
desire to bless and help his creatures, a longing for
their good, readiness to forgive, inspire, guide, help,
and save his feeble, imperfect, and sinful children.
When you see these characters in God you can love
him.

206 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
" Jesus comes to show us just these qualities in
God. He teaches his impartial love, which lets his
sun shine on the evil and the good, and sends his
rain on the just and unjust. He teaches the provi
dential love of God, which numbers every hair on our
heads, and to which we may safely trust in aU needs.
He teaches the pitying love of God towards the sinner
who has wandered into a far country, and which rejoices
when he returns. He teaches the pardoning love of
God, by which we have peace in our souls when we
repent of our sin. He teaches the saving love of God,
which saves to the uttermost all who come to him in
this faith." 1
In chapter iv. the question concerning Abraham
is raised. Was he justified (made just in the sight of
God) by faith or by works. The Epistle of James
(the expression of the Jerusalem -Christian church)
says decidedly, " by works" (James ii. 21). Paul says,
" by faith." The Epistle of James no doubt has Paul's
doctrine in view. James wished to guard that doc
trine from its abuse. He does not distinctly con
tradict Paul, but says that works must be included
with faith as a condition of becoming just before
God. (" By works is faith made perfect.") He adds the
illustration, " for, as the body without the spirit is
1 The important and difficult passage (Rom. iii. 23-27) 1 shall
have occasion to explain in a subsequent chapter. The distinction
(ver. 30. ) indicated by the two prepositions <?« and Sia is probably
this, that justification will come to the Jews from God's faith in
keeping his promise, and to the Gentiles through their faith in the
divine love.

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. £ 07
dead, so faith without works is also dead." Paul
would have reversed it, and said, "Faith is the
spirit, and works are the body ; and works without
faith are a body without life."
Paul would have agreed with James, that works
of love are such a natural and necessary outflow from
genuine faith, that they may be considered a part of it.
Only he would have said, " Have faith, in order to be
able to work."
To the question, " How shall a man become really
good — good in the sight of God ? " — there are these
two answers : "Be good in order to do -good," and "Bo
good in order to be good." The first was Paul's
answer, the second was that of James ; and ever since,
these two answers have been given by opposing par
ties in the church. The Roman Catholics follow
James, and say, " To be right before God you must
do what the church commands, — accept its authority,
receive its sacraments, keep in its outward visible
communion by regular confession and absolution.
All this wiU work inwardly upon your heart and
soul, and keep them pure." The Protestants com
monly follow Paul, and say, " Your works are dead
works, the mere letter of morality, unless inspired
by the right motives. Begin, then, with the inward
life. Be born again. Live in the right spirit, a
spirit of generous love, of trust and hope, and then
you will naturally and easily do right actions. Make
the tree good, and the fruit will be good ; for a good
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit"

208 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
It is easy to see that there is truth in both of these
views. The effort to do right actions will improve
and elevate the motives. If a selfish man does a
generous deed, his deed will react on his heart, and he
will be more likely to do it again. A good action,
done from any motive except a bad one, tends in it
self to make one better. So far the Roman Catholic
theory, and that of James, is sound. Those who lead
good and pure lives are more likely, in the long run,
to rise into the love of God and be influenced by it,
than those who lead bad lives.
On the other hand, it is equally plain that the
Pauline doctrine is profoundly true. Only the works
which are full of love have a savor of life, and these
spring from faith in goodness. The more of faith
in all good that we have, the more of good we shall
be able to do.
It is evident, then, that it is not wise to neglect
either method. We must not wait before we do right
until we are sure that we have the right motive.
This is the mischievous extreme which Calvinism
reached, wheu it declared that all good works done
before conversion were odious to God, and were
merely "splendid vices." On the other hand, we must
not neglect the influences which lift the soul nearer
to God, and inspire it with love for noble things.
Paul's statement concerning Abraham (Rom. iv.
1-25) may be thus paraphrased: —
" What shall we say concerning our Father Abra
ham ? Did he reach his position of Father of the

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 209
Faithful, by works ? Certainly not. All that man
can judge by is what he sees of the outward conduct.
But God sees the heart, and the inward motive. [' He
hath whereof to glory, but not toward God ' (ver. 2).]
Abraham's trust in God made him fit to be the Fa
ther of the Faithful ['it was counted for righteous
ness ' (ver. 3)].1 When he was selected for his work,
it was not any right which he had earned, it was
simply a favor. If it were given him in consequence
of his works, he might have thought that he had
earned it. When God pardons the sinner, it is the
same. It is pure favor. The sinner has not earned
a right to be pardoned. He only trusts in his Father's
goodness (ver. 4 and 5). [Then Paul quotes from a
Psalm in proof of this (ver. 6 to 8).]
"Now this divine favor came to Abraham before
he was ritually a Jew. The ritual ceremony had' not
taken place when he received the promise. He was
accepted while a heathen, on account of his faith.
He is therefore the Father of the heathen who have
a like faith, and God will accept and pardon them
also (iv. 10-11). And the true descent from Abra-
¦ 1 The same Greek word is translated in this chapter by three
English words, "counted," "imputed," and "reckoned." The
revised version has only the word ' ' reckoned " in all these cases.
We might use the word "considered," as making a better sense..
The faith of Abraham was considered the same thing as action —
because it showed how he would act when the occasion came. It
was taken as a proof that he was fit for the work given him to do.
He might be depended on. And this is the whole meaning of the
expression from which has resulted the famous doctrine of "im
puted righteousness." 14

210 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
ham is to walk in his steps (ver. 12). When it was
said to him that ' through his descendants all the famr
ihes of the earth should be blessed,' this was meant
for the spiritual descendants who possess his faith.
His bodily descendants, the Jews, are under the law,
and the blessing promised does not come by the law.
For the law merely rouses the sense of sin, and faith
alone gives the sense of pardon and safety (ver. 13-15).1
Therefore we are the children of Abraham when we
have a faith like his, and can believe that though
we are dead we can be made alive, and though
without goodness we can be made good (ver. 16 to
the end)."
In the fifth chapter we are told that the results of
this method of reaching goodness through faith, are
peace and hope — peace in the present, hope in the
future : —
" This faith in God's love creates an answering love.
We love much because we are forgiven much. Where
sin abounds grace yet more abounds. We love God
because he first loved us. God seems always near,
a heavenly friend ; it is easy to pray to him, and lay
all our wants before him ; and in the strength of this
love we can do infinitely more than we can from a
sense of duty, or from any mere effort of wiU. We
are justified by this faith, — that is, made good by it;
and we have peace with God through Jesus Christ.
Love fulfils the law, resists temptation, works right-
1 The discussion as to the relation of the law to sin will be
found elsewhere in this volume.

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 211
eousness, and rejoices in the hope of the glory of
God (Rom. v. 1).
" We can even find pome joy in our trials. They
teach us patience, and when we can patiently endure
trial we become sure of ourselves [' patience worketh
experience '], and when we are sure of ourselves, we
have hope of something better, which drives out of
our soul remorse and self-distrust [' hope makes us not
to be ashamed ']. This is through the love of God, shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Christ gave
himself willingly to death to help all men to become
good before God. He did not come to help us after
we had made ourselves good, but tp help the bad to be
come good. If God loved us so much when we knew
nothing of him and cared nothing about him, will he
not certainly continue to help us, now that we have
come to know him ? If the death of Christ brought
us to God, his heavenly Ufe which we now know and
love will at last give us full salvation " (ver. 3—11)-
Here follows the difficult passage (ver. 12-21) in
relation to Adam and Christ, which we have already
discussed in chapter vii. but which we will again
examine here, x
iThis passsage (ver. 12-21) is a curious illustration of the way in
which Paul's thoughts became entangled and involved by the rushing
velocity of his mental action ; and in which he preserves the se
quence of his argument through all. If we disentangle the ideas
we shall see that he is making a contrast in which every thing said
of Adam is set against something said of Christ.
1. By the offence of one (ver. 12), 1. Byther.ighteousnessofone>er.l8),
2. Sin entered the world (vev. 12). 2. Canje justification to life 'ver. IS).
3. Death came, through Bin (ver.1-2). 3. Life came hy righteousness (ver. 18).

212 -IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
It is no doubt an answer to an objection which had
been urged from the point of view of Greek thought
The objection itself is not given, but it might have
taken some such form as this: "What you say, 0
Paul, is reasonable in the principle. I perceive that
whatever makes us love God wiU enable us better to
obey him. We can do no work well that we merely
do with our hands and not with our heart. No one
can become a poet or artist by wilhng it, or from a
sense of duty. He must love his work, to do it well
But why has the infinite and almighty God waited tiU
now to teach us this, and taught us this truth, so es
sential to our peace, by the voice of one man, born in
Syria ? Does God's truth come into the world by any
one man ? Does he not give it to all men ? "
The substance of Paul's reply is this : " If one man
introduces sin into the world, why should not one man
introduce goodness into the world ? The first man
who sinned and set an example of evil, and poisoned
the blood of his race, has drawn every one of us down
to a lower plane, and made us more Uable to yield to
temptation. Every single man who does wrong
spreads an evil influence over aU the human race who
4. Death passed on all (ver. 12), 4. Life came to all (ver. 18),
5. Even on those who had broken no 6. Even to those who had done noth-
positive law, like Adam (ver. 14). ing to deserve it (ver. 15).
6. By the trespass of one man, 6. By the grace of one man (ver. 15),
7. Many are dead (ver. 15). 7. Life abounds to many.
8. By the offence of one, 8. By the righteousness of one,
9. All are condemned (ver. 16). 9. All are justified (ver. 17).
10. Byoneman'sdisobedience (ver. 19), 10. By the obedience of one (ver. 19),
11. Many become sinners (ver. 19). 11. Many are made righteous (ver. 19).
12. By the romincc of the law, more 12. But where more guilt, there is
guilt (ver. 20). mora grace (ver. 20).

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 213
come after. Every single man who does right makes
it easier for aU other men to do right. If death enters
the world by one man, why shaU not Ufe enter the
world by one man, since through one it will reach all ?
Spiritual death, you must admit, had its beginning in
one man's sin. Why shall not spiritual life have its
beginning in one man's perfect virtue ? "
This is the real meaning of the passage which has
been made the foundation of that strange doctrine, the
imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity. The pur
pose of Paul was not to teach anything about Adam,
but to show that Christ might be the beginning of a
new order of spiritual life. So also in the other pas
sage in which he draws a parallel between Adam and
Christ, in the 15th chapter of First Corinthians :
" As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be
made aUve." There is nothing there about our sin
ning in Adam. The meaning is, " We die as men, we
Uve as Christians." Death, beginning with Adam,
passes to the whole race ; a new life, beginning with
- Christ, also passes on to the whole race.
Paul, with his large philosophy, saw and accepted
the facts which have since been formulated under the
phrase " the sohdarity of race." Knowing and teach
ing the personal freedom and personal responsibility
of each separate soul, as every sane man must know
it, maintaining thus the inviolable private conscience,
and the sacred law of responsibility, he taught no
crude" individualism. As every bud in the tree has a
life of its own, and yet partakes of the life of the

214 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
tree, so every soul has its own solitude of personal
responsibility, which no other being can penetrate.
Every man must bear his own burden, do his own
dirty, go alone to judgment Yet we must all bear
each others' burdens. No man Jiveth to himself nor
dieth to himself. We are many members, yet one
body. The life of the race flows into us ; the charac
ters of our ancestors are reproduced in us; we take
inevitably the tone of our surroundings ; we are fed
with the same intellectual and moral food as those
among whom we live, We are many members, but
one body.
Paul accepts the fact which we all know, — that ten
dencies to evil are in our blood, and descend from our
ancestors, just as tendencies to good are inherited.
But we are not responsible for them ; we are respon
sible only for what we do ourselves.
In this passage appears Paul's view of the organic
unity of the human race, which we shall have occasion
to meet again, more than once. If one suffer, all
suffer ; if one rejoices all are happy. Thrills of hfe
and of death run through humanity. Each man
gives his impulse to the whole life of mankind.
In this passage also Paul indicates his theory of the
final cause of sin. God permits sin to enter the world,
because by his pardoning love a much greater amount
of grateful affection blossoms out in the human heart
Sin furnishes the occasion for the manifestation of
that wonderful grace which would have all men to be
Saved. Moreover, the good which comes to us from

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 215
Christ far outweighs the evil which ' comes from
Adam. Where sin abounds grace abounds still more.
Evil is transformed by faith into a higher good. The
worse we are, the more we feel the goodness of God
and Christ in ,our redemption.
The speculative Greek mind immediately seized on
this statement, and formulated another objection : " If
we love much because we are forgiven much, if we
see God's love in his forgiving sin, is it not a good
thing to sin, since it produces such gratitude when
our sin is forgiven? Shall we not continue in sin
that grace may abound ? " (Rom. vi. 1.)
Paul answers this in a word : " The sense of God's
love kills in our souls all wish to sin, and creates a
love for goodness. It makes it impossible for us to
wish to sin (vi, 2)." If Paul had thought it worth
while to continue the argument, he might have added
this illustration : " In proportion to our ignorance we
enjoy and are delighted with new knowledge. But
ypu would not say, ' Let us continue ignorant, in order
that our delight in knowledge shall be greater.' " The
answer to these logical difficulties is that every step
upward" makes us more averse to the lower life, and
more in love with all good things.
"What," continues Paul, "is the meaning of bap
tism ? It means passing through a change like death
into a higher life, as Christ passed through death to
his higher life. We are dead to evil and alive to
good ; companions with Christ in his death and res
urrection. But as the heavenly Ufe of Christ will

216 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
continue, and he cannot die again, so our new Ufe of
faith and love must continue. We must refuse to
submit to sin, and not let it master us again
(vi. 3-14). I thank God that this service to sin is
over, since now our heart goes into our obedience
(ver. 17). When you were servants of sin, the only
fruit ^you had consisted in those things of which you
are now ashamed (ver. 21)."
In the seventh chapter, the Apostle goes into a pro
found analysis of the influence of law, or pure com
mand, or mere authority, on the character. The
law, appealing to conscience, commands and takes no
excuse. It is what Kant calls " the categorical im
perative." Paul contends that we have passed up from
this domain of law, through faith in Christ, into that
of Love. He even identifies the power of the law
over us with the power of sin (vii. 1-6), in the illus
tration of the freedom of a wife to marry, after the
death of her husband. There is a little confusion in
the statement, for he does not like to say that the
law is sin (ver. 7), or that the law is dead. His idea
is that the soul was bound to sin by the law ; but by
dying to sin, it is delivered from the bondage of the
law and the control of sin, and enters into the glorious
freedom of the sons of God. 1
1 The same idea is expressed by Wordsworth, in his " Ode to
Duty," who, however, limits it more cautiously :
" Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy will our nature be,
When Love is an unerring light.
And joy its own security.

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 217
The remaining part of this chapter (vii. 7—25)
describes the struggle of the soul to obey the law
of duty, when the lower nature is drawing it the
other way. This very striking passage, which goes
down into the depths of human experience, we have
considered elsewhere. It ends in the deliverance of
the soul from this bondage, by the sight of the for
giving love of God in Jesus Christ.
But forgiveness is not the highest gift of the Gos
pel ; there is something higher which comes after it.
And in the chapter which follows this argument, the
Apostle rises into a noble strain of exulting adoration.
When we come to see and feel that God is love, when
we enter into his peace, then all our thoughts turn
into a new channel. We think no longer of sin and
death, but only of life and peace. We are no more.
anxious about our souls ; we trust our souls to God.
We dwell in the spirit of God, and the spirit of
God dweUs in us. We are not led downward, but
upward ; we do not think of evil things, but of
good things. Before, religion was a very solemn
duty — not attractive, but necessary. But now it
means being in the presence of all goodness, loving
everything true and noble, feeling sure that God is
our Father, and that we are his children; sure that
the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to
be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us ;
And blest are they, who, in the main,
This faith, even now, do entertain ;
Live in the spirit of this creed,
Tet have that other strength, according to their need."

218 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
sure that all things work for good while we love God.
For it is no accident that we are to be saved, but
this is what God has always intended.. When he
created us he foresaw all that we should be; he
meant that we should be at last formed into the
image of Jesus. And all that has happened since has
been by the providence of God, — that we have heard
of Jesus, Ustened to his words, been brought by him
to say Our Father, been made sensible of the heav
enly compassion. All this ought to show us that
God is loving us, and that he means to do more for
us ; that we shall never be separated from his love ;
that no temptation, no misfortune, no sorrow, wiU
be allowed to take us away from him ; that neither
death, nor life, nor all the powers of darkness, nor
anything which can happen in this world or the next,
neither the inflexible laws of nature, nor the relent
less order of the universe, shall take us away from
his divine love, which Christ has given us to see and
to know (Rom. viii. 28-39).
After this strain of celestial music, and after an
expression of intense love and sympathy for the.
future of his own nation, 1 Paul passes on to the
most admirable advice in regard to Christian conduct
and character. He begs his disciples to devote their
lives to all good things, to be faithful in every duty,
to feel that they all belong to tbe same body, and that
1 The passage (Romans ix., x., xi.) which discusses the present
and future condition of the Jewish nation, will -be considered in
chapter xv., in examining Paul's view of Predestination.

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 219
all need each other. What especially strikes us in his
exhortation is its fine discrimination. There are no
vague generalities about being good, but the happiest
distinctions flow spontaneously from his mind. The
man who gives must avoid ostentation ; let him give
"with simpUeity." He who forgives a fault ought
not to do it as though the forgiveness was dragged
out of him, but should forgive " cheerfully." Let our
love for each other be natural, unpretending, " with
out dissimulation." He advises no impracticable vir
tue: " If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, Uve
peaceably with aU men." As it takes two to make a
quarrel, so it takes two to make peace. A modern
critic objects to this that " it lets down the authority
of moral ohhgation, implying that peace is not always
possible, and not always to be expected." I do not
think that peace is always possible. All that we can
do, Paul requires, and no more, and I praise his
judgment in this. He shows more insight than his
eritic. "As much as Ueth in you',' he says, "live
peaceably with aU men." I do not see how we can
be- properly asked to do more than all that lieth in us
to do. And Paul adds that " if our enemy hunger
we should feed him, and if he thirst give him drink,
for, in so doing, we shaU heap coals of fire on his
head." This being quoted once in a discussion, a
very Uteral man objected to it, as though Paul told
us that we must burn our enemy up. " No," was the
reply, " but melt him down." It is a figurative ex
pression, derived from the method, probably the same

220 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
in ancient times as now, of smelting ore. If you have
seen an iron-furnace, you know that the fuel is put in
at the top, with the ore and Ume-stone or other flux.
But the critic, before referred to, imagines that Paul's
purpose was to inflict tenfold more agony on his enemy
by showing him kindness." So prosaic is criticism,
and so disposed to hteralness. It does not see that
the whole tone and temper of the Apostle breathes
a spirit of forgiving love. It fails to notice that the
very next verse tells us to overcome evil with good.
Nor does it observe that in the next chapter Paul sums
up all duty in love. AU the other commandments
are comprised, fulfilled, and briefly comprehended in
this, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
The Jews were always disposed to revolt against
the Roman power. Paul expects the Jewish Chris
tians in Rome to be obedient to the government and
to pay their taxes, because the chief object of govern
ment is to maintain order and put down crime. The
emperors, with all their vices, did protect the prov
inces from extortion. The emperor at this time was
Nero, — but Nero in his early reign, when he was yet
a modest and just ruler.
The next chapter gives a lesson to the Jewish and
Gentile members of the church, and it would be weU
if it had been more heeded. " Respect each other's
conscientious differences," he says. If a man is
conscientious, even though his conscience is too scru
pulous, respect his honesty. He tells the Broad-
Churchman, the Liberal Christian, " not to despise "

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 221
the narrow zealot; and he teUs the narrow zealot,
not " to judge " the Liberal Christian. In this choice
of words, the keen penetration of the Apostle is
again shown. The narrow-minded bigot judges and
condemns with intolerance the man whose views are
broader than his own. He caUs him infidel, atheist,
enemy of God, who is sure to inherit eternal dam
nation. On the other hand, the Liberal Christian
despises the narrower zealot, and treats him with
contempt. How happy, then, is Paul's selection of
language : " Let not the emancipated Christian, who
sees no sin in eating and drinking all things, despise
the man who is more contracted. And let not the
man who thinks himself bound to some special obe
dience, undertake to judge and sentence the other
who does not agree with him."
The temptation of liberality is always to despise
Uliberality ; the temptation of illiberality is always
to judge and condemn liberality. Paul, in his admi
rable argument against both extremes, says to one
party, " If thy brother is weak and too scrupulous,
do not outrage his honest scruples, but treat him ten
derly. If he is weak, bear his infirmities, and give
up a little of your own liberty, so as not to wound
his feeUngs." To the other he says, " Why judge a
man for honestly forming his own opinion ? You are
not his master. You think the Sabbath ought to be
kept in a certain way. He does not. He, then, is
serving God in not keeping it, just as you are serving
God in keeping it."

222 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
I have thus attempted to sketch, in brief outlines,
the purpose of the apostle Paul in this Epistle. When
Horace published his odes,, confident of his future
fame, he said, " I have erected a monument which
will outlast, those of stone and bronze." And Horace
was right ; such immortality has sweet song. Paul
did not foretell for himself such an earthly immor
tality, — probably did not forsee it; for he was not
thinking of himself, but of the good of those to whom
he wrote. But God suffers no true word, which man
needs, to fall to the ground. Thus, over the ruins of
empires, the destruction of old religions and institu
tions, floating on the deluge which has overwhelmed
creeds and nations, this little treatise of Paul has
drifted down to our day, and is still profitable for
warning, rebuke, consolation and instruction.

CHAPTER X.
THE PRACTICAL WISDOM OF PAUL.
THE subject of this chapter is the Practical Good
Sense of the Apostle Paul, especiaUy as shown
in his advice to the Christians in Corinth.
We should hardly expect beforehand to find this
quahty in our Apostle. We think of him chiefly as
a man of extreme zeal and ardent enthusiasm ; and
zeal and enthusiasm are often deficient in practical
judgment We also think of him as deeply inter
ested in certain speculative doctrines concerning the
relations of Judaism to Christianity. Those who
care a great deal for speculation do not often en
gage with success in practical operations. But Paul
was conspicuous in all three of these directions,
— in ardent religious zeal, clear reasoning, and wise
conduct. What, then, constitutes practical wisdom ? I think
that two elements go to compose it, — first, a clear
view of the end ; and, secondly, a wise adaptation of
the means to the end thus seen.
The end of the gospel is to create love to God and
man. Many Christians lose sight of this object, and

224 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.,
endeavor to build up a sect or party, to diffuse a
creed, to put down heretics, or to keep things in
the old routine. Others, again, devote themselves to
speculation,- to developing new systems and seek
ing for new truths. A truly practical Christian is
one who never loses sight of the aim ; which is to get
good and do good, to bring men to God and heaven.
For this end he adopts all judicious means; if one
method does not do, he tries another, and so, at last
he will probably succeed.
In dealing with the church in Corinth it was very
necessary to use this kind of practical wisdom. It
was a difficult community to guide. In the first
place, it was a large and heterogeneous body, contain
ing narrow-minded Jews, free-thinking Gentiles, rich
and poor, philosophers and slaves, Greeks, Romans,
Egyptians, Barbarians. Some received Christianity
as a new system of philosophy, which was to take the
place of the schools of Plato and Zeno. To others it
was a supernatural power which was to put down
imperial Rome and make Christians masters of the
world. Besides this, the new converts from heathen
dom had brought with them into Christianity habits
of vice and self-indulgence. All these tendencies
were hidden, at first, in the immense enthusiasm of
new converts. While Paul stayed with them, which
was more than eighteen months, his influence guided
and restrained them. The Christian body grew larger
every clay, and had in it the power of numbers, wealth,
and high philosophic culture. But Paul went away,

THE PRACTICAL WISDOM OF PAUL. 225
and while he was laboring in Ephesus, beyond the
iEgean Sea, the seeds of discord ripened, sects were
formed, parties sprang up, luxury and selfishness came
in. One of these parties professed to be emanci
pated from all moral restraint, and called this, " free
dom of the spirit." They said, "To a Christian
everything is lawful. We are dead to the law of
works." This party professed to be followers of Paul
himself, and quoted his doctrine of justification by
faith in their defence. The speculative Christians
followed Apollos, a Jew of Alexandria, probably a dis
ciple of Philo. The Jewish party said they believed
as the apostle Peter believed, and that the Jewish law
ought to be obeyed. Then there was a fourth body,
of those who said they followed no apostle, but the
Messiah himself, and claimed to know him by pro
phetic power, and to speak in tongues in an ecstasy
of inspiration. To them there was no resurrection of
the dead ; they were risen already, and were with
Christ now, and he with them. So there were four
parties in Corinth, — the Philosophical Christians,
followers of Apollos ; the Emancipated Christians,
followers of Paul ; the Judaizing Christians, followers
of Peter; and the Mystics, who claimed to belong
only to the risen Messiah.
Let us see the judgment which Paul showed in
treating this divided church.
1. He begins by giving them credit for what was
good in their body, before condemning their errors.
He thanks God that they are rich " in utterance and
15

226 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
knowledge." They were highly gifted in eloquent
language and keen insight. That was their merit.
It always shows good sense, if you have to find fault
with any one, that you should first recognize what
ever he does weU. Then he sees that you mean to
do him justice, that you are not prejudiced against
him, and he will be more willing to listen to your
subsequent criticism. This Corinthian church stood
at the head of all others for intelligence, culture and
activity of mind.
From this came the evil. They laid too much
stress on theoretic knowledge. They made Christ
ianity too much a matter of intellectual speculation.
Then they broke up into parties. Beginning with
dogmatism, they ended in sectarianism. Thus began
in the Christian Church those two great evils, which
have not yet ceased.
2. All laid too much stress on doctrine ; but the
party of Apollos went the furthest in this direction.
Apollos was a powerful reasoner, and had converted
many Jews to Christianity by his arguments and his
eloquence. But he did not perceive the danger of
making speculation so prominent among a people
already prone to debate and discussion. Paul had
seen this danger, and here is another instance of his
good sense. He says to them, When I came among
you, I came not with excellency of speech nor of
wisdom. My gospel was neither logic nor rhetoric,
theory nor abstraction ; but a statement of facts. I
fed you with milk, and not meat ; I merely told you

THE PRACTICAL WISDOM OF PAUL. 227
the story of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. If
I had thought it best, I could have gone into the
deepest truths ever revealed to man. But you were
not able to bear them then, nor are you able to bear
them now. There is something better than specula
tion and argument, for the world never found God by
the way of pure inteUect The world by wisdom
knew not God. God is to be seen spiritually, by the
insight of the heart rather than of the head. With
the loving heart man believes unto righteousness.
Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. Every
object has its own organ by which it is perceived ;
outward objects by the senses, logical arguments by
the reason, and spiritual things by the spirit. The
experience of a loving heart and a pure soul -goes
deeper than words or thought.
The second chapter may be thus paraphrased : —
"When I came to you, I used neither rhetoric
nor logic. I made no oration. I merely stated facts.
I was determined to tell you about Jesus, and nothing
else, including his death of cruelty and ignominy.
I was anxious, depressed, and timid, and seemed to
have lost my courage. All the power in my words
came from God ; and so your faith was not founded
on an argument or logical demonstration, the work of
human intelligence, but a personal conviction coming
to you from a divine influence.
" It is true we exercise our reason, and that we,
your Apostles, have a system of religious thought ;
but it is not the kind of philosophy which this age re-

228 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
ceives and loves, nor which its leading minds [' princes
of this world'] teach. But to those who are prepared
for it, we teach a Divine Wisdom ; which is as yet
undeveloped [' in a mystery '], and not come to con
sciousness in human thought, but which by God's
providence will be the philosophy of future ages.
None of the ruling intellects of this age have seen it,
for if they had, could they have crucified the Master
Spirit of our time [Lord of Glory] ? For, as Isaiah
says, ' The things which God hath prepared for loving
hearts are not seen with the outward eye, or heard
with the ear. But God shows them to us by his inner
illumination ; for inspiration, the intuitive faculty in
man, looks into the deepest truths of God. As in
every man's soul are things known only to himself,
and which he must tell us, else we do not know them,
so there are divine truths, not seen outwardly in na
ture, but only to be known by the light of inspiration.
The spirit which speaks to us is not of the outward
cosmos [koct/mov. Before this, the word translated
" world " has been al&v], but of inflowing grace, teach
ing us of the free gifts of God. And this we teach,
in language corresponding to the theme; not in
the vocabulary of science, but in words prompted by
the spirit — explaining spiritual facts in spiritual
language." He returns to this theme again in the thirteenth
chapter, when he says that only faith, hope, and love
are lasting; that eloquence however subtle, knowl
edge however keen, without love, have nothing solid

THE PRACTICAL WISDOM OF PAUL. 229
in them. He thus goes to the root of the matter.
He does not attempt to prove either party wrong in
its opinions ; but says that, no matter how right they
are, if they have ceased to love each other, all their
correct opinions are of no value.
3. This contentious habit of mind produced dis
putes which, it seems, often ended in litigation. They
carried their quarrels before the Roman courts. This,
necessarily, checked the progress of Christianity. As
long as the Romans said, " See how these Christians
love one another ! " the gospel attracted human hearts
toward itself. When they said, " See ! How these
Christians quarrel together ! " the influence of Christ's
Ufe was arrested. It is so even now. When a church
has a dispute, and carries it before a court of law,
it is taken to mean that Christianity in that church
has not enough power to produce peace. How the
Roman judges must have sneered at the new religion,
which had to ask their aid to reconcile and settle
its disputes in business matters and money questions !
Paul suggests that they adopt the method of arbitra
tion ; that they appoint arbitrators from among them
selves ; the most ignorant of their number, he says,
ought to be able to settle such questions as these.
Have they no one among them wise enough to decide
such mere money disputes, when by the very na
ture of the gospel they were to judge the world, to
settle questions between men and angels ? Here is
seen the profound faith of Paul in the great hope of
the gospel. No matter how low down was the actual

230 IDEAS OF TffE APOSTLE PAUL.
Ufe of these Christians, he holds 'firmly to the grand
ideal "You have in you the principle," he says,
" which is to judge mankind, which is to triumph
over the hostilities of nations, to put an end to all
earthly war, and yet you cannot decide a matter of a
few sestertii without calling a Roman judge to help
you. Better suffer yourselves to be defrauded, better
submit to wrong, than thus make your rehgion a sub
ject of contempt among the heathen."
4. The next illustration of Paul's wisdom is his
method of dealing with those who exaggerated his
own doctrine of Christian freedom. These men said,
" Christianity is freedom. We are not bound to any
Jewish rules about Sabbath-keeping, nor bound to
avoid aU contact with idol worship. The Jewish
party tells us it is wrong to go near an idol feast,
to be seen in the streets where a procession in honor
of Aphrodite or Zeus is passing by, even to buy a
piece of meat which has made part of an animal
sacrificed to idols. But such scruples as these are
absurd. An idol is a mere piece of stone. What
harm can it do us ? It does not make the meat any
worse, that it has been a part of an offering in a
heathen temple. We have a right to follow our own
conscience in all such matters."
Paul was, as we have seen, the great champion of
Christian freedom. He defended the rights .of the
Gentiles against all attempts to impose on them the
yoke of the Jewish law. But he said here, " Though
we must maintain our rights against all efforts to

THE PRACTICAL WISDOM OF PAUL. 231
coerce and compel us, yet we may voluntarily ab
stain from using them, Out of tenderness to the
scruples of others. AU things are lawful to me,"
says he, "but aU things are not expedient Be ten
der toward weak consciences. I know that no meat
is unclean in itself, no innocent action irreligious;
I know that an idol is nothing ; I have a right to
buy in the market anything that is sold there, just
as if no idol worship existed. But if it hurts the
feelings of my brethren, if it wounds their consciences
to see me do it, I will abstain. It is not my duty
to eat the meat from an idol's altar; I can abstain
out of love to my brethren."
This distinction is one which will never be use
less. We need to apply it every day. As long as
there are good men and women who are narrow and
prejudiced,- it is wrong needlessly to wound their
prejudices, when no principle is involved. If we live
in a village where the people have been taught to
think it wrong to have any amusement on Sunday,
we should say, " There is no harm in itself in playing
on the violin, or taking a drive with one's family on
Sunday;- but if it hurts our neighbor's feelings we will
abstain. AU things are lawful, but aU things are
not expedient."
He returns to this subject afterward, and appeals
to those emancipated Christians who despised the
narrow prejudices of the Jewish party. "You think,"
says he, " you have larger knowledge than they. You
are advanced thinkers, rational and liberal Christians,

232 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
no slaves to the letter. That is true. You are right
in your principle. In knowledge you are higher
than these brethren. But love is more than knowl
edge. Knowledge regards the form of things. Love
alone makes life solid, real, substantial Knowledge
puffs up ; love builds up. If you love your brethren
you wiU sacrifice some of your rights, so as not to
wound their consciences. What is right to you would
be wrong for them. Every man has his own gift
from the Lord, some after this fashion, others after
that. It may be good and right for you to foUow
these high convictions, but it. may be better still to
sacrifice your right to do it, out of tenderness to a
weak brother. For if some things are good, others
are better; and love, which bears, and is patient,
and tender, and gentle, — that is the best of ah."
One more argument he uses with these Pauline
Christians, his own followers : " Am not / an apostle ?
Am not / free ? These notions of freedom, this
broad Christianity, you have learned from me. But
do I claim all my rights ? I have the right to a
support, but I give it up. I work with my hands.
I do not wish to run the risk of being thought to
preach for a living. In some places I am wiUing
to be helped ; not here. In this city of luxury and
self-indulgence I am bound to show that a Christian
can make sacrifices of his own ease and comfort.
I sacrifice my rights for your good. My one aim is
to advance the cause of Christ. Whatever wiU help
this, I do. From what may hinder it, I abstain.

THE PRACTICAL WISDOM OF PAUL. 233
ShaU not I do as much for Christ as your gladiators
do in your Corinthian theatres ? Their object is to
conquer, and for this end they train themselves, deny
their appetites, go through an incredible amount of
exercise and labor. They fight, not merely to fight,
but to win. They do not say, ' I have satisfied my
conscience ; I have acted up to my standard of duty.'
No, they run the race, meaning to win it. My object
is to save souls, not merely to do my duty; not
merely to say what I think true ; not simply to do
what I think right. If I strike, it is to hit, not to
beat the air. If I run, it is to win. This is the
superiority of love to knowledge, that it is not satisfied
until it has really blessed and helped its fellow-man."
It is in this place that he makes the statement,
often misconstrued and misunderstood, that he be
came "all things to all men." "To the Jew," he
says, "I became a Jew; to the Gentile, a Gentile;
to the weak, I became weak ; that I might win some,
that I might gain the weak, that I might bring all
to the gospel."
No doubt there is a danger here. We may pre
tend to be what we are not, in order to make a good
impression. We may assume the aspect of liberality
to please liberal people, and the aspect of orthodoxy
to win orthodox people. This is Jesuitical and false.
But there is a true way of becoming aU things to
all men. It is to put yourselves in their place ; try
to see through their eyes ; do justice to what is good
in their faith or methods, that they, seeing that you

234 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
are candid and just to their opinions, may be candid
and just to yours. There is not the least insincerity
here, but it is the simple wish to know and accept
aU truths from aU sides, in order to get aU the good
and do all the good you can.
5. Another piece of practical wisdom is the adviee
he gives to his new converts to be content with their
condition, whatever it is. If you are a Jew when
you are converted, remain one ; if a Gentile, remain
one. If you are a slave, try to bear your condition
as a slave patiently, though, if freedom is attainable,
secure it. If you are married to a heathen man or
woman, do not leave your husband or wife, but try
to show them how faithful and true and loving
Christianity makes you. Do not say, " We are
incompatible, we must separate." Love wiU "bear
aU things, believe aU things, hope all things, endure
all things." The root of all peace and content is
within ; no change of outward circumstances wiU
help you. Do not put your mind on these outward
trials. Do not worry about them.
Filled with the strong desire for a spirit of broth
erhood in the church, Paul shows them how depen
dent they are on each other; how every one needs
the rest; that no man is so good, wise, great, free
as to be able to stand alone. He teaches, by the
similitude of " many members and one body," that
while they differ in tastes, faculty, power, there is a
common life to aU. If one suffer, all wiU suffer;
if one is happy, aU are happier. He opposes thus

THE PRACTICAL WISDOM OF PAUL 235
the tendency to individualism, which is the danger
attending aU progress and development Variety is
necessary and good.; separation and isolation are bad.
Each man has his own gift, but he ought to use it
for the good of all. You may think yourselves strong,
able to go alone, needing no help. But let him that
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. We are
all open to temptation, at every stage of our progress.
I, Paul, am myself sensible of my danger. I do not
feel safe. I am obhged to keep under my body, and
bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached
to others, I myself might become a castaway.
6. EquaUy wise is his advice to those at the other
extreme, whose danger was not from too much spec
ulation, but from caring too little about reason. The
mystics in the church rejoiced in the mysterious gift
of tongues. It seems that, in the fervor, of that relig
ious movement, some of those strange phenomena
occurred which have been reproduced at every period
of Christian history. In the great religious revivals
which occurred early in this century, in Kentucky
and Tennessee, extraordinary nervous affections took
place. Men fell down in trances, and lay for days
as if dead. Others were seized with violent con
vulsions, and spoke in strange languages. "All this
was believed to be the direct work of the Holy Ghost1
1 Dean Stanley (Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinth
ians) refers to an account given by Tertullian of a sister in the
church who had received revelations; to the paroxysms which at
tended the preaching of Wesley; to the strange conditions of ecstasy
in the " Prophets of Cevennes; " and especially to the gift of tongues

236 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
The phenomena in Corinth, caUed speaking with
tongues, seem something of this sort. Men went
into a high state of religious ecstasy, and uttered
wonderful and often unintelligible words. Paul does
not deny that this is a genuine result of a high relig
ious enthusiasm, and when used rationaUy is good.
But, so far as it is irrational and unintelligible, eh
thinks it of no value. Every manifestation of spirit
ual life is " to profit withal ; " is for use. A man who
utters plain advice, who gives comfort and instruction,
is greater than he who speaks in this mysterious lan
guage. AU things should be make intelligible, and
become orderly. "Even if you play on a wooden
pipe, you must have some clear distinction and
among the followers of Irving. The persons affected among the
Irvingites spoke in a very rich and melodious tone of voice, uttering
strange words with au astonishing sweetness and power of expres
sion; sometimes with very great rapidity, but with perfect distinct
ness. The voice became so powerful as to be heard to a great
distance, and yet the speaker was tranquil and composed in mind
and body. One witness describes the overpowering effect on the
minds of the hearers of the commanding utterance and intense force
of expression in the speakers. He says he was himself seized upon
by this power while listening to others, and though struggling
against it, was compelled by some irresistible influence to cry out
and confess his sins. Afterward, when sitting at home, he was
moved by a great impulse to speak, and he uttered sentences in lan
guages he did not himself understand, but which his wife told
him were Spanish and Italian. Sometimes he had words and sen
tences given him to speak in French and Latin, which languages he
understood. All these curious phenomena show that under great spiritual ex
citement the mind will act automatically and bring up, perhaps
from the memory, words which the speaker himself does not under
stand.

THE PRACTICAL WISDOM OF PAUL. 237
method, or who cares for it ? Unless you make
yourselves understood, you are speaking into the
air. I, Paul, can speak with tongues, and more than
any of you ; but I had rather say- five words with
. my understanding, so as to do -some good to others,
than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the
understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I
wiU sing with the understanding also. Brethren, be
not chUdren in understanding. Be children in malice,
but be men in understanding. The true prophet is
not tiie man who talks wildly and at random, but he
who controls and directs his speech, that aU things
may be done decently, peacefully and in order."
There seems to have been great freedom of discussion
and debate in this Church of Corinth. Apparently
they often became much excited, and two or three
would speak at once. It also happened there, as else
where, that a few good speakers would monopolize the
meeting, and wish to do aU the talking. Men were as
fond of hearing themselves speak then as they are now.
Paul therefore advised, first, that only one should speak
at a time, and secondly, that every one should have
a chance. " If anything be revealed to another that
sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. Let aU teach,
one by one, that aU may learn, and aU be comforted."
Then he adds : " Let the spiritualists among you,
who claim to be inspired by truth, follow this advice,
and speak in order to do good (xiv. 37). If any are
ignorant of these higher experiences, allow them to be

238 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
ignorant Do not trouble them (ver. 38). On the one
hand, let the spiritualists aim to teach ; and on the other,
let not the anti-spiritualists forbid the speaking with
tongues. But let everything be done with system
and method, and in an orderly way (ver. 40).
The passage (xiv. 34) in which Paul forbids women
to speak, is a proof that the Gospel had already given
women great freedom. It found these women, accord
ing to Greek customs (see Potter's Greek Antiquities),
shut up in entire seclusion, and not allowed to take
part in any public meeting. It brought them at once
into the church, and placed them on such a basis of
equality with men that they began to preach, and to
discuss all questions. Their previous ignorance of pub
lic life was probably a source of disorder. Therefore
Paul told them not to speak in the church ; though
from chapter xi. 5 it would seem that they were
allowed to pray and prophesy, provided they wore
a veil. In the First Epistle, to the Corinthians there is more
inequality in the Pauline thought than in any other
of his writings. The tone rises and falls, going from
the lofty inspiration of the Hymn to Love (chapter 13),
and the solemn prophetic insight of the chapter on the
resurrection, to passages in which not only the inspi
ration disappears, but even the usual common-sense of
the Apostle is at fault. Most of these cases are those
in which he falls back on some Rabbinical analogy,
like those of the Talmud and Philo. Take the
following instances : —

THE PRACTICAL WISDOM OF PAUL. 239
1 Cor. x. 1—4. Paul here draws a parallel between
Jews and Christians in respect to their privileges.
The baptism of the IsraeUtes was their going through
the Red Sea, and being under the overshadowing
cloud. The miraculous manna, and water from Horeb,
was their Lord's Supper. The Rock which attended
them .was their Christ. The Rabbinical tradition as
serted that a well of water was formed inside of a rock,
and rolled along with the camp for forty years ; and
that the water burst from it every day, when the El
ders said, Spring up, 0 weU ! (See Stanley, ad locum.)
This rock, Paul says, was their Christ, or Messiah.
Paul does not mean to say that Jesus was the rock,
but that just as Jesus is our Christ, the rock was
their Christ. This, which seems puerile to us, was to
Paul part of his inherited instruction ; a style of
argument which he had not wholly outgrown. It
belonged to the lower level of his mind.
A similar falling from inspiration into memory is
the argument in Galatians ( 4. 22), that Abraham's
wife Sarah means Jerusalem, and his other wife,
Hagar, means Mount Sinai ; that Sinai, again, stands
for the Law of Moses, which is a law of slavery,
and that Jerusalem from above is the Gospel, which
is free. Of this argument Luther said, " Der Beweis
sey zu schwach zum stich," — "This proof is too
weak to hold;" which Tholuck says (Bergpredigt)
would have been too bold a word for the seventeenth
century, but certainly ought not to be too bold for
the nineteenth.

240 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Again (1 Cor. vii.), in his position concerning
marriage, Paul takes a low and purely negative view,
by no means worthy of the Christian idea. His
points are, —
1. Celibacy is, on the whole, a beautiful thing, and
desirable if one has a gift for it, but not otherwise
(ver. 1, 7, 8, 32, 33).
2. Marriage is good as a remedy, and to prevent
vicious desires, — permissible but not commanded
(ver. 2. 9).
3. Ascetic self-denial is not desirable or right
(ver: 3-5).
4. Divorce is not allowable, but is forbidden by
Christ (ver. 10) to both parties (11). Those who
separate ought not to marry again.
5. Separation is sometimes allowable (11, 15), but to
be avoided as far as possible. Incompatibility of belief
or sentiment is no adequate ground for separation.
This view of marriage is certainly lower than that
of Jesus, who made it a divine institution, appointed
by God by his creative act, laying its foundation in
mutual adaptations of mind, heart and character.
This ideal view of marriage, implying a merging of
separate personalities into one, is far higher than that
which Paul gives here. But for that very reason his
tone is in this place peculiarly undecided, as though
he felt he did not see all the truth on this subject.
He conscientiously distinguishes the sources of his
judgment in each case. Some things he permits,
others he commands (ver. 6). Some things he says

THE PRACTICAL WISDOM OF PAUL. 241
on the authority of Jesus (ver. 10 ), some on his own
(ver. 12). As to some matters he only expresses an
opinion (ver. 25). And, finaUy, in regard to other
things, he believes, but is not sure, that he has the
Spirit of God (vii. 40).
Again (1 Cor. xi.), when Paul discusses the equal
ity and subordination of women, he uses arguments
of very unequal value, and seems sometimes incon
sistent with himself.
He had said (Gal. in. 28) that in Christ there
was no distinction of sex, but that all were one in
him. Alarmed by the evUs in Corinth proceeding
from the emancipation of women, he tells them that
man is the head of the woman (xi. 3) ; that woman
is the glory of the man, as the man is the
glory of God (ver. 7) ; that the woman was created
for the man, not the man for the woman (ver. 9). All
this seems certainly inconsistent with the statement
in Galatians. Then what he says about the veil is be
low his usua^solidity of argument. No doubt he was
right in wishing Christian women to do, not merely
what was lawful, but also what was expedient ; and
not needlessly to violate the customs of their time
and place.1 But instead of using this argument
1 It was the custom of the Jews and Eomans to cover the head
with a veil during sacrifice. See Virgil, iEneid, iii. 407. In the
East, to wear a veil was the distinction between modest and im
modest women. In the Hindu play, "The Toy-Cart," written
some hundred years before Christ, the courtesan Vasantasena has a
veil, to show that she has returned to the ranks of modest women.
See Wilson's "Hindu Theatre." 16

242 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
from expediency, which would have been here very
appropriate, Paul argues that the woman should
wear the veil, because she was created for the man ;
because nature in giving her long hair showed that
her head should be covered ; and because the angels
who might be present would either be displeased
or too much pleased to see her without it. If the
women were as acute then as they are now, they
perhaps answered that if their long hair was given
them for a covering, as Paul said (ver. 15), they did not
need any other ; and if their hair was given them as a
covering, they ought not to cover it with a veil In
fact, our Apostle does not seem very sure of his ground,
for he closes his argument (ver. 16) by saying that if
any one wishes' to argue the point for the sake of
victory, he wUl decline to contend, for neither he nor"
the churches have any fixed rule about the matter.
In the discussion which foUows concerning the
Lord's Supper, we have, a glimpse into the peculiar
composition of this church at Corinth, and the habits
of the early church in regard to the Communion. It
was a cheerful feast, a supper where gayety prevailed,
a social and festive gathering. At Corinth this fes
tival was sometimes carried into an orgy, where
some would be intoxicated,1 while others would not
have enough to appease their hunger. For as, in
1 The Greek word neSiet used here (ver. 21) commonly means in
toxicated, and the word is derived from the heathen habit of drinking
a great deal of wine after their sacrifices (i^rct to 8Aeiv, " after the
sacrifice"). This heathen custom explains why he said that the
Lord's table was not like the table of demons (x. 21).

THE PRACTICAL WISDOM OF PAUL. 243
Palestine and elsewhere, the Christian church, as to
its form, was a continuation of the Jewish Synagogue ;
so in Corinth, the Christian community adopted the
methods of the Greek Clubs. In these the practice
was for each guest to eat that which he brought with
him in his own basket (Athenaeus, viii. 17). Socrates1
recommended that, to avoid disorder, they should not
begin to eat until the contents of each basket was
placed on the table; To correct the abuses arising out
of the false distinctions and selfish divisions among
the Christians, Paul calls their attention to the idea
of the Lord's Supper. It was a feast of communion
with Christ, in his suffering and his strength (x. 16).
Its purpose was to unite them into one body (x. 17).
It was to show the Lord's death till he should come, —
a perpetual reminder of his devoted love and sacrifice
(xi. 26). To eat and drink unworthily, in a selfish
and exclusive spirit, was not to partake in the spirit
of Jesus, but in that of the Jews who killed him
(xi. 27). And he who eats and drinks in this un
worthy way, merely for self-indulgence, condemns
himself by this action, showing how far he is from
the spirit of Jesus.2
In all these details, there appears one motive, one
purpose and aim. That purpose and aim is the good
of all ; that motive is love to all. If the real purpose
1 Xenophon, Memorabilia, — quoted by Stanley.
2 Perhaps no more unfortunate mistranslation is to be found in
the common version than where the word " damnation " is used in
1 Cor. xi. 29.

244 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
is to do good, a man wiU try the best methods, and
not be satisfied till he has done the work. Nothing
is so practical as love. It never runs uncertainly,
but always keeps in sight the end. It runs in order
to obtain. Love develops the understanding, leads to
insight, cultivates inteUigible utterance, wishes to
make itself understood, is wUling to bear wrong
rather than cause harm to others ; does not quarrel
with it's surroundings and circumstances ; is able to
sympathize with those differing from one's self ; puts
itself in the place of others, in order to understand
them. Love thus becomes aU things to all men, will
often sacrifice its rights, not insist on having every
thing which belongs to it, and it knows how to dis
criminate between the essential and unessential
It is often thought that worldly and selfish men
are the most practical, and that generous people are
not practical. Selfishness is practical so far as this,
that it has one aim, namely, its own good ; and that
it uses all means to reach it. But it is unpractical in
this, that the good it seeks is so poor and low that
after it has obtained it, it remains unsatisfied. Gen
erosity may often seem at first visionary and unsuc
cessful, but in the long run it wins the highest prize.
Probably many of Paul's companions in Jerusalem
thought him unwise to relinquish his promising
position among the Pharisees, to join the humble sect
which followed Jesus. He had the prospect of
ultimately becoming High Priest ; or, at any rate, a
distinguished Rabbi. His words might then have

THE PRACTICAL WISDOM OF PAUL. 245
been recorded in the Talmud. But he chose to be
one of the- persecuted, instead of a persecutor. He
became an outcast from his people, hated and despised ;
he was beaten, he was poor, he was imprisoned, he en
countered many hardships and labors. But he was no
visionary. He had a distinct aim, and he pursued it
steadily by the wisest means. He won success ; he
planted Christianity in Europe ; he made of it a relig
ion for mankind. His writings are not in the Talmud,
but they arein the New Testament. He did not become
a Jewish Rabbi, but he is the great Apostle of Jesus
Christ. He fought a good fight, he finished his course,
he kept the faith. His sufferings are long since
ended ; his joy and triumph will have no end. Was
he not a practical man ? Was not this the best exam
ple of good sense ? The highest wisdom is to choose
that which is generous as an end, and to pursue it by
the best means, prudently, faithfully, and without
being weary of well-doing.

CHAPTER XI.
THEOLOGY OF PAUL.
I SHALL now speak of Paul's theology; meaning
by this, theology proper, or the doctrine concern
ing the Deity.
1. Paul's view of the Divine presence in Nature
and the Soul.
Paul nowhere undertakes to prove the existence of
the Deity. To him religion rests, not upon a behef
in the Divine existence, founded on argument and
evidence, but on a knowledge of God seen in nature,
or seen in the soul. This knowledge of God is clear
in proportion as man is spiritual ; obscure and faint
in proportion as man is sinful. He, therefore, merely
states the way in which men know, or may know,
God ; not the proofs, on the strength of which they
may believe in his existence. This way of knowing
God is described as twofold: first, by seeing him
in outward nature ; second, by seeing him in the
soul itself.
(Acts xiv. 15.) At Lystra, where the people were
about to worship Paul and Barnabas, taking them

THEOLOGY OF PAUL. 247
to be Jupiter and Mercury, Paul tells them : " We are
your fellow-mortals, and preach to you to turn from .
these vanities [or emptinesses, or nothings], to serve
the Uving God, which made heaven, and earth, and the
sea, and all the things that are therein. Who in times
past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.
Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, in
that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and
fruitful seasons, filhng our hearts with food and
gladness." Here he speaks of God showing himself to all men
outwardly in nature and the course of providence.
(Acts xvii. 23-29.) In Paul's address to the people
of Athens, he speaks of God as making the world and
all things in it, and giving to all creatures life and
breath and all things ; and as if, through these mani
festations, they might feel after and find him.
(Remans i. 19-20.) Paul declares that the .eternal
power and divine attributes of God are clearly seen
in the works of creation, and that God has thus man
ifested to the Gentiles all that may be known of
himself. In the passage last quoted there is also a reference
to the inward revelation of God, where he says :
" That which may be known of God is manifest within
them ; " and a like allusion may be found in the ad
dress to the Athenians, where, after speaking of God
as the author of the whole outward universe, and to
be discovered therein by those who search for him,
he adds that he is not far from any one of us;

248 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
for that out inward Ufe and being is itself rooted
in God.
Thus far, Paul speaks of the knowledge which all
men can have of the being, power and attributes of
God, as seen in nature or in their own souls. But he
also speaks of a much more clear and intimate knowl
edge of God, which belongs to the Christian and to
the spiritually-minded man. He says to the Corin
thians (1 Cor. ii. 10), that as man's spirit is conscious of
man's thoughts and purposes, so is God's spirit con
scious of God's thoughts and purposes ; and that this
Divine Spirit dweUing in man, makes man also con
scious of God's will and character. The natural man,
he adds (that is, the unspiritual man), whose aims are
merely temporal and worldly, cannot receive the things
of God's spirit, for they seem foolish to him; and
he cannot know them, because they must be known
spirituaUy. This view is constant throughout Saul's
epistles. He everywhere asserts that the Spirit
in the heart gives us an intimate feeling of God's
presence and love. And so Jesus tells us that
the pure in heart shall see God ; and the apostle
John says that the Light which lightens every man
who comes into the world shines in darkness, and is
not comprehended or understood where the mind is
obscured by sin.
Paul, therefore, was not guilty of the folly of trying
to prove the existence of God. First, because the
people to whom he preached believed it already, and
secondly, because, if they did not, they could not be

THEOLOGY OF PAUL. 249
made to beheve it by an argument, but only by look
ing for God around them and within them. He was
preaching to Jews who believed in one God ; to Jew
ish proselytes -who had the same belief ; and to Gen
tiles who, though they beheved in many gods, had
always a more or less distinct idea of one Supreme
Being. 2. Paul's idea of God.
All opinions concerning the Deity fall into two
classes, which are atheism and theism. Theists, again,
are divided into three classes, — polytheists, mono-
theists, and pantheists. Polytheism and pantheism
are the two opposite extremes of theism. Polytheists,
such as- the Greeks, believed in an immense num
ber of deities, — in a sort of democratic Pantheon,
which contained some thirty thousand gods. Poly
theism is not necessarily idolatry; for we can conceive
of a man's worshipping a hundred gods, and yet wor
shipping them as spirits without any visible form.
But polytheism tends continually to idolatry; for,
except this multitude of gods appear in some visible
body, they can hardly be kept distinct in the mind ;
and so, as a matter of fact, polytheism, in separating
and dividing God into a thousand different beings,
has always ended in idolatry. The opposite extreme
is pantheism ; which, instead of dividing the essence
of God into a multitude of spirits, confounds to
gether God and the World. Between these two
was the monotheism of the Jews ; in which God was
above the world, distinct from it, and governing it.

250 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Now Paul was a monotheist, believing in one God
who was not only supreme, but alone.
(1 Corinthians, viii. 6.) Paul speaking of idols
says: — -"We know that an idol is nothing in the
world, and there is none other God but one ; for
though there be that are called gods, whether in
heaven or in earth, as there are many gods and many
lords, but to us there is but one God, — the Father,
from whom are aU things and we to [or into] him."
The Christian monotheism, as taught by Paul, differed
from the Jewish monotheism in this respect, — that
it did not separate God from the world or from man,
as did the other. The Jewish monotheism taught
that God was above the world ; pantheism, that God
was. the world; and polytheism, that by the agency
of the gods all events occurred. But Paul declares
that God is above all, and through aU, and in us
all (Eph. iv. 6); thus combining in one grand view
the essential truths of these three systems. Pan
theism asserts that God is the only substance,
— the substance of matter and of spirit; and that
there is nothing out of him but unsubstantial form.
Polytheism teaches that, the motives and guiding
forces of. the world are each a separate deity, —
that there is a god in every tree to make it grow,
in every brook to make it run, in every disease and
in every process of cure. But the doctrine of Paul
is, that in God we live, and move, and have our
being. It is our life, our being, our motion ; but
sustained by God, dependent on him, and holding

THEOLOGY OF PAUL. 251
itself by his being, as the tree holds to the solid earth
by its roots. He assumes that we and all other things
come from God, from his creative intelligence ; that
we act and exist through God, through his sustaining
power ; and that we tend to God, to be received into
the boundless ocean of his love and joy, so that God
may be all in all (1 Cor. xv. 28). This last expres
sion, however, we must observe, does not imply pan
theistic absorption, but conscious union of individual
souls with the supreme Spirit. Paul does not say
that God may be all (which would be pantheism),
but that God may be all in all; which, while it im
plies a perfect union and communion of God with his
creatures, preserves the individual existence of the
latter. Thus Paul finds God everywhere, — immanent
in the universe, not far from the human soul, con
stantly creating all things anew ; and yet he never
confounds the Deity with the world or with his
creatures. So nature becomes divine and filled with
God. Thus the soul of man becomes a temple in
which God dwells. If we look in, and contemplate
our own mind, we find God there. If we look out,
and regard the face of nature, we find God there.
If we look up, we find God above all, as a Ruler. If
we consider the inward substance of things, we find
God beneath all, as a Sustainer. If we look back we
see all things flowing, from the first, from the design
ing intelligence of the Creator. If we look forward,
DO- *
we find all things flowing toward God ; to his love,
to his joy, as the end and Receiver of all.

252 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
But Paul's idea of the Deity was especially of the
Living God. He did not regard him as abstract
power or intelligence, — not as the mere order or
law of the universe ; but as actively and lovingly
present with all his creatures, to help, to comfort, to
strengthen, to warn, to rebuke and punish, chasten
and heal. He is present as the witness of human
eonduct ; pleased with every right act and purpose,
displeased with every wrong one. The expression
" living God " is 'used some twelve times in the
Epistles and Book of Acts, and the Pauline Epistle
to the Hebrews. This makes the chief distinc
tion between the God of religion and the God of
metaphysics. The God of metaphysics, the logi
cal Deity, has every divine attribute, except those of
life and freedom ; but of ' these he has less than even
man himself. He must neither feel pleasure nor
pain ; he must not be pleased with good nor dis
pleased with evil. He- cannot enjoy the beauty of
his own universe ; and even his love is a mere ab
stract benevolence, directed to general ends, and
bound fast by inflexible laws. This logical deity can
do nothing but maintain the order of the universe.
No new creative acts are allowed to flow from his
infinite fulness ; no new movements to commence
with his overflowing love. He must not come to his
creatures before they call for him. He must not give
them anything because they ask it. He must not
send his love into their heart or his thoughts into
their mind to create a new life. All this man can do

THEOLOGY OF PAUL. 253
for his friend, and the earthly father for his child ; but
not the heavenly Father. Man can forgive, but the
God of logic must be only just, not merciful; and
must strictly enforce the iron mechanism of most
fatal law. Man may love and serve individual souls,
but the God of metaphysics must love only whole
races, and things in general. 1
Not such is the living God of Paul ; not such the
God and Father of Jesus Christ. He not only cares
for the world, but for every separate soul. His joy is
increased by our goodness ; his heaven grows darker
through our shame. Nothing is too insignificant to be
noticed by him, — not the hairs of our head, nor the
falling sparrows. His holiness separates him from
our sin ; his mercy draws us away from it. Nearer
than the nearest, he inspires the prayer which he
1 This modern view of the Deity, which is so strongly opposed
to the " personality" of God, is singularly unphilosophical. All we
know of personality is in ourselves. Personality in man is the highest
power in the universe with which we are acquainted. The human ego,
which unites knowledge, affection and will, and thus knows how to do
what it desires, and can concentrate its faculties on a fixed end, is the
power which gives man the ascendency over nature. But any defini
tion of Deity which denies to him the highest element of which we
have any knowledge involves a contradiction in terms. The personal
unity of the Deitymay and must be vastly superior to that of man,
but it cannot be inferior. God must be more personal than we are,
not less. In personality also is the only perfect unity we know. For
we can conceive of everything else as divided into parts ; but the ego
cannot be imagined as divisible into upper and lower, inner and outer.
Without personality, ' ' A power, not ourselves, which works for right
eousness " is an equally faulty definition; for righteousness is incon
ceivable apart from personality. The forces of nature may work for
the good of man, but cannot distinguish in favor of righteousness.

254 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
* hears and answers. He gives the thought which
leads us to himself.1
3. The Divine Decrees.
Of the doctrine of Divine Decrees I shall speak at
length in chapter xv., and therefore wUl here treat
of it only as it bears on the moral relation- which
God sustains toward his creatures. Because Paul
regarded the Deity as a " Uving God," and not
merely as a supreme order, he must ascribe to him
a constant agency and causal activity in human de
velopment, — and especially in the steps of religious
experience. We will therefore examine here at more
length than in chapter xv. this creative influence of
God in the human life, which is particularly de
scribed in Romans viii. 28-30. " And we know that
all things work together for good to them that love
O O O
God, to them who are the called according to his pur
pose ; for whom he did foreknow, he also did predes
tinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
O '
he might be the first-born among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also
called ; and whom he called, them he also justified ;
and whom he justified, them he also glorified." 2
1 Take as examples of this faith in the benign providence of God
toward individuals, such passages as 2 Cor. i. 3-4 ; iv. 6 ; v. 20 ;
Rom. viii. 39 ; Ephesians i. passim.
2 A better translation would be, " Whom he has foreknown, he
also has predestinated; whom he has predestinated, he has called ;
whom he has called, he has justified ; whom he has justified, he has
glorified." We should then not be thinking of God's past activity
only, or of God in the past ; but of a present God, who has done all
this for us.

THEOLOGY OF PAUL. 255
Paul here gives the steps of man's redemption and
human development from the side of God's activity ;
showing how much God does for each of us, all the
way through. He says nothing here of those who
fail, for his object is to describe the process in those
who succeed. He says nothing here of what man
does himself, for his object is to describe what Godr
does for him. What then are these steps of man's
salvation ?
1. God's foreknowledge. Not his foreknowledge
of our goodness, but simply his previous knowledge
of our special nature and individual capacity, which
he gave us in its germ, — his creative knowledge of
every man's separate possibility.
2. God's predestination or arrangement of our des
tiny, of our outward circumstances, opportunities, in
fluences, determined especially for each one of us in
the divine order, so that each man is born just when
and where he ought to be, and surrounded by just such
circumstances as he ought to have, and receives just
such influences as he needs to bring out that which
- God intends should be brought out then and there.
3. God's call or invitation ; that is, his seilding us
the knowledge of himself, of his law, and of the Gos
pel of Christ, which comes to each man according to
the divine order.
4. Justification, pardon, forgiveness of sin, the sense
of God's love in the heart, a deep and permanent ^con
viction that God is the Father of our souls, our best
Friend, who wiU keep us safe in time and eternity.

256 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
5. Glory, or full redemption from all evil, full suc
cessful activity for all good, happy obedience, the
deep peace of fuU action, the rest of unhindered,
Uving, joyful labor.
Now, each of these five movements of the spiritual
life is wholly from God. He gave to each one of us
his special mental and moral organization. We did
not procure it for ourselves. He surrounded us each
with these particular circumstances. We did not
choose for ourselves in what century or in what coun
try to be born. He sends us our knowledge of truth.
We cannot call on him of whom we have not heard.
We cannot ask for knowledge of whose existence we
are ignorant. Every truth which comes to awaken
our soul, comes from God. And so, too, his pardon
ing love is not obtained by any efforts of ours. It is
given on the condition that we should wish to have
it, and believe in it ; and if we are able to believe in
it, that, also, is because God has sent Christ to con
vince us of its reality. And so, finally, though we
must work out our salvation, we could not accomplish
that but by the constant helps and influences which
God sends to us, and which he is always ready to
send to all who look for them.
All this is told, not in order to discourage, but in
order to encourage. If a man is called upon to
make a voyage round the world, it is no discourage
ment to tell him that the whole voyage has been
planned and arranged beforehand, the vessel provided,
the crew engaged, proper officers and charts secured,

THEOLOGY OF PAUL. 257
his passage taken and paid for, and his state-room
furnished. If a man is caUed upon to build a rail
road a thousand miles long, it is no discouragement to
be told that a charter has been obtained, stock sub
scribed, the surveys made, and all his feUow-engineers
and laborers obtained. And in like manner, it is no
discouragement to us, when called upon to be perfect
as God is perfect, to love him with all our heart and
our neighbor as ourselves, and to labor for the redemp
tion of the whole world from sin and evil, to be told
that God has arranged everything beforehand for this
purpose, and determined the whole order, and provided
help for every step of the way. And if any one chooses
to argue that because God has done all this, man has
nothing to do, — that because all things work together
for good to them that love God, we are not to work
with aU things, — he will reason illogically.
But there is another !side to this subject. There are
those who are not elected, nor caUed. There are those
who seem to be excluded by inevitable circumstances,
inevitable ignorance, from every opportunity of knowl
edge and of goodness ; and here, it may be said, lies
the real difficulty. Still we may remark that the
difficulty, as regards Paul's doctrine, is only the same
difficulty which lies in the facts themselves. The
largest part of the human race are, as a matter of fact,
excluded from any good opportunity, not only of be
coming Christians, but of becoming thoroughly virtu
ous and happy men. It is not a man's own fault
that he is born in Africa, New Holland, or New Zea-
17

258 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
land ; and if he is so born he must, of necessity, be in
some respects an ignorant and depraved man. It is no
merit of ours that we are, every one of us, less savage,
less sensual, more conscientious than he ; it is simply
the election of God which put us here, and put him
there. This election was irrespective of our worth or his.
It w'as wholly arbitrary, as far as any merit is concerned.
But what is this election ? Evidently, to privileges
and opportunities; and there comes a day of judg
ment, in which we are to answer for the use made of
them. God makes of the same lump — that is, of
those equally good, one no better than the other — of
the same lump, one vessel for higher and nobler uses,
another for more ignoble ones. No one has a right
to complain of this, for the object of this order and
gradation is the good of the whole, and therefore the
good of each. For a time, one may seem to be sacri
ficed to another ; but in the long run each wiU find
sufficient opportunities and a suitable place. He who
is faithful in a few things will be made ruler over
many things ; and each one will be judged according
to his opportunities and bis fidelity.1
This view of the living presence of God in all events
and transactions produces, on the one hand, patience
and submission, and, on the other, the energy of hope
and confidence. It is no doctrine of Necessity nor of
Fate. It does not lead us to acquiesce in the evils of
the world as inevitable, nor with our own sins as
compelled by a dark destiny. It is a view eminently
1 See the further discussion of this point in chapter xv.

THEOLOGY OF PAUL. 259
adapted to inspire courage, and to sustain our faith in
the darkest hour, — assuring us that neither height
nor depth, nor any other creature shaU be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
4. The Divine Manifestations.
We have seen that Paul's view of God varied
somewhat from the Jewish monotheism ; and that
he accepted the truths which had been mixed with
the errors of pantheism and polytheism. He saw that
God revealed himself continually in the face of na
ture, and that the Divine life was flowing evermore
through all things. But God reveals himself, not only
in nature and providence, but also in Christ and in
the Spirit. This triple manifestation of God is the
original truth which was afterwards worked out by
degrees into the doctrine of the Trinity. The error
of that doctrine arises from changing a living, practi
cal truth into a dead formula, unintelligible and self-
contradictpry. This dead doctrine of the Trinity has
been placed in a splendid mausoleum and worshipped
in the place of the living God. The worst is, that it
too often hides from the eyes both of its advocates
and its opponents the real truth which lies behind.
What is this truth ?
According to Paul, there is but one God, the Father.
This he states over and over again. For example :
1 Corinthians viii. 6 : "To us there is but one God )
the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him ; and I
one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and/
we by him."

260 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
1 Timothy ii. 5 : " For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men — the man. Christ
Jesus." The inferiority nr subordination of Christ, and con
sequently the sole Deity of the Father, appears most
strikingly from those very passages in which the
highest rank is ascribed to Jesus ; as in Col i. 15—19,
where Christ is caUed "the image of the invisible
God, the first-born of every creature ; " where it is
said that " all things were created by him and for
him ; " that he " is before aU things," and that all
things "are established in him;" for even here it
is added that this was owing to the pleasure of the
Father ; and it is apparent that here, even, where the
highest position is ascribed to him, he is still but the
image of God, and the first, or chief, of the creatures
of God. So too, 1 Cor. xv. 24-28. In this passage
it is said that Christ will overcome all enemies, and
conquer every principle which opposes him ; but then
it is added that this he does, not by his own power, but
by the power of God who puts all things under him ;
and that then the Son also himself shall be subject to
him that did put all things under him, that God may
be all in all. Here Christ in his highest capacity, as
the Son; is expressly made subordinate to God.
But while Paul teaches that there is but one God,
he also teaches that there are different and distinct
manifestations or revelations of this one God.
We have seen that according to Paul, God mani
fests himself in nature and history ; that he is the

THEOLOGY OF PAUL. 261
substance in which all other beingsj and all other
things are rooted: that he is the source whence aU
living creatures draw their life ; that he is the end
toward which aU move. Nature, then, is not dead,
but living. It is alive with God. It manifests him
from age to age. The heavens declare his glory in
their sublime revolutions. Day speaks to day in its
infinite multitude of phenomena, full of the wisest
adaptations. Here, then, is one manifestation of God.
But_again,, he manifests himself in_Christ; who,
according to Paul, is " the image of the invisible God "
(Col. i. 15) ; or more clearly in the Epistle to the
Hebrews (which, though not Paul's, is yet Pauline),
" who is the brightness of his glory, and express image
of his person." The_personality of God appears in
Christ. In nature we see abstract wisdom, power,
and goodness, — a Deity who is a system of laws. In
Christ we see personal wisdom and goodness, — a
Deity who is love to the individual ; one who can
be loved as a friend and a father ; one who can for
give the violation of law ; one who can answer
prayer ; one who can approach the soul inwardly as
well as from without ; one who can not only main
tain the ancient order of things, but can commence a .
new order. Now this is a wholly distinct manifesta
tion of God. It is not the same view which we have
of God in nature, but another. It may be summed
up in this word, — that in the Son we see the Father ;
which exactly corresponds to what Jesus says of
himself.

262 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
But yet there is a third form of Divine manifesta
tion which is distinguished as the Holy Spirit. It
is a revelation of God in the depths of the soul, — a
revelation by which alone we know him as Spirit.
In outward nature we see God manifested as law;
in Christ we see him manifested as personal love ; in
the soul itself we see him manifested as Spirit. AU
the ideas clustered under that word, as Infinity, Eter
nity, perfect Holiness, absolute Being, absolute Cau
sation, come to us from within, and are written on the
soul by the finger of God. We do not get them by
any process of effort or reflection. They are given us
in the texture of the mind itself. And by means of
these we are capable of receiving those other divine
influences by which God creates in the heart love,
penitence, holy resolve, and a new power of life.
Here is no trinity, but yet a triplicity, or three
fold manifestation. We find it indicated in several
places: Thus, Eph. ii. 18, — "Through him [that is,
Christ] we both [that is, Jew and Gentile] have an
access by one Spirit unto the Father." And again
(ver. 20-22),. the church is compared to a build
ing, of which Christ is the corner-stone, and which is
a habitation for God, through the Spirit. So in the
apostolic benediction (2 Cor. xiii. 14), — " The grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and tbe love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost be wifli you aU." So
far from Deity being ascribed to Christ here, he is
distinguished altogether from God ; and we can only
argue, from the three being named together, that

THEOLOGY OF PAUL. 263
there is some relation existing between them, but not
what it is.
_We therefore sum up Paul's' views of God thus:
He did not believe that the existence..c£^Gxidas_tp be
proved logically, but rather tiiat jtjs Ja_ be .known
experimentaDy. He believed that any earnest man
could knowl^methinjj of God, could findlomelraces
ofjiispresenceanci adequate assurance of his_Godhead,
in the world without and the world within. He
beheved God not transiently but permanently present
in both; informing both the outward universe and
the inwjxd" soul. He differs in his idea of God from
atheists "in— thus perceiving the presence of God in
all things. He differs from polytheists in believing
that God~is one and alone, and "that there is none
other but he. He differs from pantheists in believing
that God is a person, capable of love, of creative
intelligence, of free activity; and that the world and
mankind are distinct existences, though dependent ex
istences. He differs from the monotheism of the
Jews in believing that God is not only above all
things as King, but also- through all things as a pres
ence, and in us all as a constant spiritual friend. He
differs from modern philosophers and scientific Deists
by believing in God as a living God, free, and not
bound by his own laws, capable of affection and an
active interest in all that befalls his creatures. And
finally, he differs from church creeds and church
orthodoxy in this, that he nowhere teaches any doctrine.
of the Trinity, but always subordinates Christ to the

264 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Father, and makes the Father supreme and only God.
But he differs from Unitarians too, so far as Unitari
ans have merely 'reproduced the Jewish monotheism,
and so far as they do not recognize these various man
ifestations of God in nature and the soul ; which are
the eternal facts, perverted into errors of orthodoxy on
one side, and errors of pantheism on the other.
If we test these views of God in the mind of the
Apostle by our principle of inspiration, we shaU find
that they all belong to the living and growing part of
his mind, and come out of the central Christ-Idea.
They are not forced up mechanically from his mem
ory, but are evolved naturally out of his fundamental
insights. Once conceiving of Christ as the image of
the unseen God, and as. a manifestation of tbe infinite
tenderness of the Father toward his creatures, ah the
rest foUows. God is not outside of the world, but with
in it. He is revealed in the order and adaptation of
nature, and in the divine elements of the human soul.
He is in intimate communion with his chUdren, ready
to aid and sympathize with them in all things. AU
may possess this heavenly friendship. He is the
Providence too, which prepares all the movements of
time and events of individual life, from the foundation
of the world. The great conception of a Being from
whom are all things, through whom are all things,
and to whom are all things, is the necessary outcome
of the conception of the Ideal Christ.

CHAPTER XII.
PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING CHRIST.
THE subject of this chapter is the Idea of Christ
as it lay in the mind of Paul.
Every careful reader of the New Testament must
have been struck with the original view- of Christ,
and peculiar quality of faith in Christ, which is un
folded in the Pauline epistles. The Christ of his
tory, as represented in the four gospels, scarcely
appears therein. There is nothing in these epistles
concerning the birth of Jesus ; nothing about his
preaching in Galilee; nothing about his parables or
miracles ; and, except as regards his death and res
urrection, the gospel events might never have taken
place, and Paul's writings would remain the same.
Of the earthly Jesus he has almost nothing to say,
except that he was crucified and rose from the dead.
He does not mention the Sermon on the Mount, the
Lord's Prayer, the parable of the Prodigal Son or
the Good Samaritan, the raising of Lazarus from the
dead. These facts, stories and teachings from the life
of Jesus probably made up the substance of the

266 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
preaching of the twelve apostles. But it is evident
that Paul's preaching as a missionary was something
quite different. He mentions, incidentally, the in
stitution of the Lord's Supper by Jesus, and adds
one sentence from those divine lips which the four
Evangelists had failed to record, "Remember the
words which the Lord Jesus said, that ' It is more
blessed to give than to receive.' " But this is nearly
all. Of the historic Christ Paul tells us nothing.
One reason is that he had no personal knowledge of
Jesus while on earth. But, referring to this fact,
Paul says that " if he had known Christ according to
the flesh, yet now he would know him no more."
He would not care to remember the earthly Christ,
he was in such intimate communion with the risen
and heavenly Christ.
It may seem strange, perhaps, if I add that Paul
has as little to teach concerning the Christ of dogma
as about the Christ of history. Still, this is true.
Dogmas and creeds concerning Christ have been built
up on texts taken from Paul's writings. But Paul
himself nowhere lays down any system of doctrine
in regard to the person of Christ, his place in the
Trinity, his divine and human natures, and all else
that theologians have since so much discussed under
the head of Christology. Except in one or two
extremely doubtful passages, Paul says nothing from
which it can be inferred that he believed Christ to
be God. CHe teUs us that Jesus was " the image of
the invisible God ; " that he was " the first-born " —

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING CHRIST. 267
that is, the highest and noblest — "of every creature," '
or rather of the whole creation. Jesus was " declared
to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the
dead." He is made to be " our wisdom, righteousness,
justification, and redemption." We have the "gift
of eternal life through him." He has been made
"Lord of the dead and the living." "All things
are put under his feet." We see " the light of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." In
such passages Paul celebrates the grandeur of
Christ. But all this glory is something given to
Jesus by his Father. It is God who puts all things
under his feet. If Paul calls him "the image of
the invisible God," it shows that he does not con
sider him that being of whom he is the image.
If he caUs him the " first-born of every creature,"
or the whole creation, it is evident that he regards
him as a part of the creation, not as the Creator.
When he teaches that "all things are to be put
under the feet of Christ," as if by some inspired
foresight of the future doctrine of the deity of
Christ, and wishing to show beforehand its mani
fest error, he adds, "But when all things are put
under him, it is manifest that He is excepted who
did put all things under him; and when all things
are put under him, then shall the Son1 also him
self be subject to him who did put all things under
1 " The Son " cannot be understood of the human nature of Christ,
as distinguished from his divine. " The Son " in the new Testa
ment language always denotes Christ in his highest character.

268 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL
him, that God may be aU in aU." But Paul has
little interest in these speculations concerning the
abstract nature of Christ. His interest was not in
the Christ of dogma, but the living, acting Christ,
ever present with his church, with his people, with
every Christian heart and soul, to inspire, animate,
bless and save.
It is unnecessary to add that Paul has nothing
to teach, concerning the Christ of ritual or ceremony,
the church Christ, who can only be approached
through sacraments, the Christ who is supposed to
have established a new priesthood Uke that of Aaron,
and who is to be offered again every day in sacrifice
to God in the eucharist AU this system Paul de
clares to have been taken away. The death of
Jesus is a sacrifice only in this sense, that it does,
once for all, what the sacrifices of the law did only
imperfectly. When he says that " Christ is our
Passover, sacrificed for us," that "he is the holy
lamb without blemish or spot," that we are "re
deemed by his precious blood," he adds that we
are crucified with him, and that so the world is
crucified to us, and we to the world. We are to die,
as Christ died, a death of self-surrender, self-denial,
self-renunciation, else the cross of Christ is of none
effect The sacrifice of Christ, according to Paul,
was not to appease or reconcile God; but it was
to exercise a moral influence on man, — " God
was in Christ reconciling the world to himself."
He does not say that Christ reconciled God to

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING CHRIST. 269
the world. The object of his death was that we
should not live henceforth to ourselves, but to him
who died for us. AU the sacrifices and ritual of
the law are taken up and transfigured into a divine
influence of love, giving us the sense of a pardon
ing God, and putting a new and generous spirit into
our hearts. It is certain that Paul taught no sacra
mental Christ.
The whole idea and teaching of Paul concerning
Jesus was derived from his own personal experience.
It was a " Christ formed within, the hope of glory."
He says, speaking of his conversion, " When it pleased
God to reveal his son in me." "God, who com
manded Ught to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." " I
live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ; and the
Ufe I now Uve in the flesh I live by faith in the Son
of God." He prays for the Ephesian Christians " that
Christ may dwell in their hearts by love." He tells
the Colossians that " Christ is in them, the hope of
glory ; " and, again, that " their life is hid with Christ
in God."
From such passages it is evident that Paul's
fundamental conception of Jesus was of a living,
ever-present master, friend, helper; one who is
always spiritually near ; who has not left the
world, M9b is in it still, to carry on the great work
of putting an end to all evil and sin, and that
his presence is known by giving us peace, a sense

270 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
of pardon, a living faith, an active hope, a gener
ous love, and enabling us to see in God our father
and friend.
If we would sum it up in one word, we might say
that Paul beheved in Christ as a mighty power of
spiritual life. Christ is, first, the life in every
Christian soul; next, the Ufe of the church; then,
the life of the world. It is a life which is to
increase till it conquers sin, abolishes the fear of
death, and brings all mankind into a unity of peace
and love.
Perhaps you will say, "A beautiful faith, but an
Ulusion. Paul was mistaken. He was deceived by
his own visions and hopes. He was deluded by his
imagination, just as many enthusiasts have been
before and since."
That is a possible explanation, no doubt ; but let
us examine it and see if it wiU bear the test of
criticism. If Paul's faith was. an illusion, it must have begun
at a time when he had no personal knowledge of
Jesus, but believed him an impostor. We are to sup
pose, then, that this illusion came suddenly into his
mind, without any outward or inward occasion ; that
this baseless illusion caused him to renounce at once
his position, reputation, influence, and join the very
body of people whom he had just before despised
and persecuted. We must also suppose4,that the
self-blinded enthusiast became, by means of this
empty vision, the great missionary of the noblest

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING CHRIST. 271
religion the world knows; that it gave him power
to lead a hfe of immense labor, self-denial, suffering ;
that it brought triumphant success ; that it enabled
him to give Christianity to Europe ; that it created
in him profound insight, admirable eloquence, and
all the best qualities of mind and heart. Is the cause
sufficient for this effect? Do men gather grapes of
thorns ? Can a great religion be built on the sand ?
Which is the most improbable, that the world should
have been made new by a madman's dream, or that
Paul should reaUy have had a revelation in his soul,
showing him the risen Jesus, and teaching him the
central, vital truths of the gospel ? If every great
effect must have a cause adequate to produce it, if
only reality can create reality, if large movements
among men cannot be accomplished by illusions, but
only by the power of truth and fact, then we are
compelled to believe that there was something real
behind the vision of Paul. And we must be very
deeply steeped in materialism if we cannot conceive
it possible that a spirit like that of Christ may be
able to communicate from the other side of the veil
" which stoops, low-hung," between this Ufe and the
next. When Paul makes the resurrection of Jesus the
all-important fact in Christianity, he is not speaking
of any physical return of the body from the grave,
for of that he had no personal knowledge. The_
resurrection of Jesus was to him the knowledge of
his risen master: communion and intercourse with
r ¦  '  '—*  " -¦ " ""

272 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
that risen master; his deriving strength, comfort,
hope, from that risen master ; being brought into the
love of God by that heavenly influence. This was
the fundamental conviction of Paul concerning Christ,
that he was not a dead Christ, but a living ever-
present and ever life-giving, or, as he caUed him,
a risen master.
This ever-living master brings us also to God,
and brings God to us. The Infinite Being, as we
see him in nature, in its subUme laws, its vast
order, its immensity and eternity, is adored and wor
shipped. But he bedomes a personal friend when
seen through the love and life of Jesus. So God
comes very near to our hearts; God in Christ rec
onciles us to himself, helps us to pray, comforts us
in sorrow, is a forgiving and merciful Father when
we are conscious of sin. "God hath shined in our
hearts, to give us a knowledge of his glory in the
face of Jesus Christ." Thus Christ becomes the life
of every soul.
Perhaps it may be said, " Is it not better to go
directly to God than to go to him thus by a mediator ? "
I answer that it is the object of Christ to bring us to
God, and to teach us to go directly to him. If,
then, we are able to go directly to God, the work of
Christ is done, and we are doing just what he wishes
us to do. But if there are hours in which the
heavens seem clouded, in which our sins darken the
sky, in which we cannot find the eternal goodness,
then we may perhaps be able to hear our human

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING CHRIST. 273
brother, the Son of Man, who says, "Come to me,
aU ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I wUl
give you rest." " Peace I leave with you : my peace
I give unto you; not as the world giveth give 1 unto
you." Is not this law of mediation universal ? Do we
not climb up by steps toward heaven ? As Christ
mediates God, so the apostles mediate Christ to our
minds and hearts. Paul is a mediator by whom
Christ comes to us. AU the great teachers, proph
ets, poets, who have said and sung the eternal veri
ties of heaven, are also mediators of divine truth.
Every good man and woman, every wise father, every
tender mother, mediates the divine holiness and the
divine love. Jesus says to them aU, " As the Father
has sent me, so send I you." The divine mind, no
doubt, reaches ours by some immediate influence.
He descends - directly into our souls by the great
truths of being which he has made intuitions of
every intellect. By these he lightens every man
who comes into the world. We are aU held directly
to God by the instinctive ideas of the infinite,
the eternal, absolute right, cause, freedom, beauty,
love. By means of these we dwell in the bosom
of the Father. But beside these intuitions there
are innumerable mediating influences through which
the Spirit of God reaches our hearts. According
to Paul, Christ, who is at once Son of God and
Son of Man, a human brother and a child of
heaven, the image pf the invisible God and the
18

274 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
highest of all creatures, is the chief channel
through whom these blessed streams of Ufe con
tinually flow to every soul that has been led by
faith in him.
And this has been the strength of the greatest he
roes of faith, from Paul's time to ours. Such cham
pions of truth as Augustine, Bernard, Savonarola,
Luther, Wesley, have not only felt the immediate
presence of God in their souls, but also th at Christ, their
heavenly brother, was in sympathy with their efforts.
Nor does the broadest and freest rationalism exclude
this loyalty to Jesus. Who felt it more than Chan
ning, the modern prophet of freedom in rehgion?
Especially in his two discourses on " Love to Christ,"
he shows that love has for its object goodness, not
power; that it is drawn forth by the generosity of
Jesus. " Others," he says, " may love Christ for mys
terious attributes ; I love him for the rectitude of his
soul and life. I love him for that benevolence which
went through Judea, instructing the ignorant, healing
the sick, giving sight to the blind. I love him for the
universal charity which comprehended the despised
publican, the hated Samaritan, the benighted heath
en. I love him for that gentle spirit which no insult
could overpower ; for that magnanimity with which
he devoted himself to the work God gave him to do.
I love him for his moral exceUence. I know nothing
else to love." And so, too, Theodore Parker, the great
modern iconoclast, bowed in love before Jesus, and
said to him :

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING CHRIST. 275
"Yes, thou art still the life ; thou art^the way
The holiest know ; light, life and way of.heaven.
And they who dearest hope and deepest pray,
Toil by the truth, life, way that thou hast given." *
If it be that Jesus can still know our thoughts;
that he, can be with us always, even to the end of the
world ; that we can have him not only as a past teacher,
but as a present friend, mediator, and helper, — then
this is a great blessing ; and this requires no opinion
about his rank, no belief concerning his nature, but
only faith and gratitude, reliance and love.
But Paul not only beUeved Christ to be the life of
every Christian soul, but also, the Ufe of the church.
He constantly uses the comparison of the head and the
body. As the brain directs and inspires the members,
so Christ inspires the church. " Let us grow up,". he
says, "in aU things into him who is the head, even
Christ, from whom the whole body, fitly joined to
gether, and compacted by that which every joint
supplieth, maketh increase of the body unto the buUd-
ing of itself up in love." And again, " Holding the
head, from which all the body, by joints and bands
having nourishment ministered, and knit together,
increaseth with the increase of God."
Paul believed the spirit of Jesus held together the
1 Those who are not acquainted with Unitarian writers would, I
think, be somewhat surprised, and perhaps pleased, with the evidence
given by many of them of a strong personal attachment to Jesus.
Among these are such authors as William H. Furness, F. W. P-
Greenwood, John Hamilton Thorn, E. H. Sears, and Henry W. Bel
lows. The same trait is to be found in many Unitarian hymns.

276 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
church, — gave it freedom, power, purity ; enabled it
to go forward, and unfold into aU things noble
and useful. As Christ was and is the Ufe of the soul,
so he is the life of the church. The church is held
together, not by any doctrine about Christ, but by his
spirit. If his spirit dwells in it, making it generous,
pure, peaceable, free, active, then it grows and becomes
strong. Then it is a live church, it helps society, it
sympathizes with all good things, helps every good
enterprise, and makes the world better by its
presence. Thus, according to Paul, Christ is not only the life
of the soul and of the church, but is to be the life of
the world. The presence of his truth and goodness is
to be the salt of the earth, and will redeem men from
slavery, superstition and crime. There are passages
in which he rises into prophetic visions of coming
peace and joy, like those of Isaiah. He dips into the
future as. far as human eye can see, and beholds a new
heaven and a new earth. He beholds Christ seated
" at the right hand of God, in heavenly places, far
above all principality and power and might and
dominion, and every name that is named, not only in
this world, but also in that which is to come." He
sees " that God hath put all things under his feet,
and given him to be the head over all things to the
church, which is his body, the 'fulness of him that
filleth all in all." " For it pleased the Father that in
him should all fulness dwell ; and by him to recon
cile aU things to himself, whether things in earth or

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING CHRIST. 277
things in heaven. " Thus, " God hath highly exalted
him, and given him a name above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of
things in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." This was
the supreme hope of Paul, his unfaltering optimism ;
he did not beUeve in an eternal hell,, nor that evil
was to forever share the sovereignty of the universe
with God; he believed that God would overcome
evU with good ; that Jesus would reign tiU aU things
should be subject to him ; that sorrow, remorse, sin,
should at last disappear; in short, that there is a
power in Christ which can redeem man from all evil.
Christ, to him, was not only the life of the soul and
the life of the church, but also the life of the world.
These were " the unsearchable riches of God " which
Paul preached among the Gentiles. This was the
" mystery hid in God from the foundation of the
world." From the beginning to the end of the Epistles,
Paul thus regards Christ as the great moral and
spiritual power to redeem souls from sin and evil.
He reigns as Son of God, not over the outward uni
verse, but over the human heart. There are one or
two passages which seem to be exceptions to this.
In them Paul appears to teach that Christ was the ,
creator of the outward world ; though still, not as
God, but as God's agent and instrument. If so,
this is wholly different from the rest of Paul's teach-

278 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
ing ; it differs from his method of regarding Christ.
One of these texts is in Colossians : " For by him
were aU things created that are in heaven and in
earth, visible and invisible ; whether they be thrones
or dominions, or principaUties or powers ; all things
were created by him and for him, and he is before all
things, and by him aU things consist, and he is the
head of the body, the church, the beginning, the first
born from the dead, that in all things he might have
the pre-eminence; for it pleased the Father that in
him should all fulness dweU."
In the first place, there is a mistranslation here.
Instead of " by him were all things created," it
should be " in him were all things created." Sec
ondly, we notice that these things, thus created in
Christ, are all moral powers, not physical or mate
rial. They are specified as "thrones, dominions,
principalities and powers;" that is, spiritual forces.
The passage, therefore, does not refer to the creation
of the outward universe, but to the new spiritual uni
verse of truth and love, which proceeds from him,
and in him has its consistency, its unity, and its ruler.
So John says, " Of his fulness have we all received." x
The poets often are the best interpreters of Scrip
ture, and this passage finds its most natural expla-
1 Rev. C. A. Eow, Prebendary of St. Paul's, London, in his
recent work, " Revelation and Modern Theology contrasted," speak
ing of the Greek words aXiv and alwves, says that the true mean
ing is not " the world " or " worlds," but " ages " or " dispensations."
He adds that " the Jewish mind troubled itself but little about the
past or the future history of the material globe j but that with

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING CHRIST. 279
nation in those lines of Tennyson which speak of
Christ's kingdom as —
" One far-off, divine event,
To which the whole creation moves."
Paul regards the whole creation as tending towards
Christ, and meant to be ultimately redeemed by the
fulness of his love. This is the highest flight of the
divine muse, which lifted this apostle into the celes
tial hope of a universal redemption.
If we ask how Paul knew and saw all this, we
shaU not be able to answer till we know more
of the mysteries of spiritual insight and foresight.
There is a prophetic power in the human soul, which
allies it to God and eternity. How it acts, we cannot
say. But there are those who have been caught up
into the third heaven, and have beard wonderful
words, which it is not lawful to utter. Such an one
was Paul.
It will be well for Christianity when this view of
Christ, taken by Paul, shaU displace and replace the
dogmatic and ecclesiastical views which have so
long prevailed. This is the -truly evangelical belief
in Christ. It regards him as an ever-flowing foun
tain of spiritual and moral life ; divine, because the
image of the unseen God; divine, because bringing
which it was deeply concerned was a number of periods in the di
vine government, which it designated ' ages ' or ' dispensations.'
The idea of ' worlds ' in our modern sense of the term, meaning «
system of suns with their attendant planets, never entered into
their thoughts." Page. 175.

280 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
God to us, and bringing us to him. It makes him
the ever-living, ever-present head of the church, the
human brother, as well as the celestial master. It
gives our hearts the dearest object of love, next to
God; it supplies us with a friendship which earth
cannot give nor take away. In this view of Christ,
is progress, growth, sincerity, union, and peace. This
is the master and friend whom we need; who says
to us always, " Abide in me and I in you."
"The letter fails, and systems fall,
And every symbol wanes ;
The Spirit, over-brooding all,
Eternal Love remains."
The ideal Christ of Paul, with whom he lived in
intimate communion, must not be conceived on the
one hand as a creature of the imagination, or as an
abstraction separated from the personal Jesus ; nor
on the other hand as an exceptional, miraculous, or
supernatural manifestation, given to Paul alone.
That his Christ was not an imaginary being appears
from all of Paul's language, from the power which he
derived from this intercourse, and from the words of
Christ in the gospels, in which he promised to come
nearer to his disciples after death than he had been
before. Paul was a man of good sense, of sound prac
tical judgment, and a clear mind. He was not a
dreamer or a mystic. Yet it is certain that he
believed himself inspired and guided by an interior
communion with the risen master. But this need
not be regarded as miraculous or supernatural, in the

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING CHRIST. 281
sense of a preternatural exception to the laws of
human thought. The same faith has been cherished
in all ages. Read the Methodist hymns, and see
what a constant inward communion they suppose,
not only with God, but with the personal Jesus.
Is there anything unnatural in such communion ? If
we believe that Jesus is the living and ascended
master, and that he is still interested in the work
of his kingdom, why is not such intercourse nat
ural? Paul, and all those subsequent to him who
have had this faith, have not regarded themselves
in communion with the Supreme Being when they
talk with Christ. Practically, he is a spiritual
friend, quite distinct from God.
A book lately published, written by Protab Mo-
zoomdar, a Hindu theist, shows how a soul seeking
strength and peace can come \ into this personal
relation with Jesus, just as Paul did, apart from
Christian teaching, and without becoming "a member
of the Christian church. Mozoomdar does not even
profess to be a Christian, yet how much .deeper is his
faith in Christ than that of many orthodox Chris
tians ! This extract is from a work, called " The
Oriental Christ," published by Geo. H. Ellis, Boston.
"Nearly twenty years ago my studies, troubles,
and circumstances, forced upon me the question of
personal relationship to Christ. Though for a short
time taught in a Government College in Calcutta,
where no moral or religious instruction is ever given,
and where, on the contrary, a good deal of the

282 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
opposite influence is directly or indirectly imbibed,
I was early awakened to a sense of deep inner un-
worthiness. Placed in youth by the side of a very
pure and powerful character, whose external con
ditions were very similar to my own, I was helped
to feel, in the freshness of my susceptibUities, by the
law of contrast, that I was painfully imperfect, and
needed very much the grace of a saving God. In
the Brahmo Somaj this consciousness of imperfec
tion soon developed into a strong sense of sin. The
doctrine of original corruption never occupied my
boyhood or youth ; the fear of eternal punishment
never biassed my thought or aspiration. I was never
taught to feel any undue leaning toward the Chris
tian Scriptures, or the Christian religion. Mine was
a strong, unforced consciousness of natural and
acquired un worthiness. Definite recollection or con
scious analysis does not- give, me any clue into, it or
why it was. But this I do very clearly remember,
that as the sense of sin grew upon me, and with it a
deep, miserable restlessness, and a necesshy of recon
ciliation between aspiration and practice, I was mys
teriously led to feel a personal affinity to the Spirit of
Christ. The whole subject of the life and death of
Christ had to me a marvellous sweetness and fasci
nation. I repeat, I can never account for this. Un
taught by any one, not sympathized with even by the
best of my friends, often discouraged "and ridiculed,
I persisted in according to Christ a tenderness of
honor which arose in my heart unbidden.

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING CHRIST. 283
"About the year 1867 a painful period of spiritual
isolation overtook me. . . . My inward trials had
reached a crisis. It was a week-day evening in the
summer. The gloomy and haunted shades had
thickened into darkness. I sat near a large lake in
the Hindu College grounds. Near me rose the
giant mass of a grim old tree. A sobbing, gusty
wind swam over the water's surface; the ripples
sounded on the grassy brook. I was meditating on
the state of my soul and the cure of spiritual wretch
edness. ... I prayed and besought Heaven. Sud
denly it seemed to me — let me say it was revealed
to me — that close to me there was a holier, more
blessed, more loving personality, upon which I might
repose my troubled head. Jesus lay discovered in
my heart as a' strange human kindred love, as a
repose, a sympathetic consolation, an unpurchased
treasure, to which I was freely invited. The response
of my nature was unhesitating and immediate. Jesus,
from that day, became to me a reality on whom I
might lean. It was an impulse then, a flood of light,
love, and consolation. It is no longer an impulse
now. It is a faith and principle, an experience ver
ified by a thousand trials. . . . Jesus is to me a
holy, sacrificed, exalted self, whom I recognize as the
true Son of God."
I have quoted at length this very touching and
interesting statement, as it seems to me in the high
est degree suggestive. It is a testimony to the power
of the living Jesus, the Uving Christ, from the heart

284 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
of Asia. It is the independent testimony of one not
converted by any missionary, who does not profess
to be a Christian, who stiU remains a Hindoo Theist.
You cannot say that this experience was the result
of Christian preaching or teaching; it was not the
outcome of prejudice or habit. The prejudices and
habits were the other way. It shows the power
that there was, and still is, in the character of
Jesus. It shows that Jesus is living, and is alive
forevermore. It is a fulfilment of his promise, " Lo !
I am with you always, even to the end of the
age!" This experience is also singularly like that of the
apostle Paul. It is that of an outsider, converted
and made a friend ; it is a conversion brought about
by an inward revelation of Christ himself to the
souL Paul did not join the Christian church at
Jerusalem when he became a Christian. Mozoom-
dar did not join the Christian church in India.
But both could say, " The Ufe I now Uve, I Uve by
faith in the Son of God."
This Christ, like that of Paul, is the ideal Christ,
the Christ in whom are contained the ideas of the
grace of God, forgiveness through faith in God's
love, and the unity of aspiring and ascending
souls. That Paul never regarded Christ as God, is the
opinion of the leading scholars of the Continent,
who study his writings with the perfect impartiality
of emancipated critics. To such students it would not

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING CHRIST. 285
make the sUghtest difference in their own belief
whether Paul considered Christ to be God, or not.
Their testimony is the more valuable on this account, as
they have no theological bias in either direction; their
sole interest as critical scholars is to see the actual
facts. Baur, for instance, says,1 " It is certainly high
time for interpreters to agree that Christ is not called
God in Romans ix. 5. When we consider how deeply
the rehgious consciousness of the Apostle was pene
trated with the idea of God as the Absolute Being,
and how constantly and distinctly he recognizes the
relation of Christ to God as one of subordination, it
cannot be beheved that in this one particular passage
he has caUed Christ the absolute God, exalted over
all." Baur goes on to argue this at some length, and
then proceeds to consider other passages in which it
it claimed that Christ is caUed God. Of 1 Cor. viii. 6,
where it is said of Christ, " through whom are all things
and we through him," Baur points out that Christ is
here plainly distinguished from God, and, comparing
the passage with 2 Cor. v. 17, concludes that " all
things " here refer to the things belonging to the new
spiritual kingdom of redemption which comes from
God through Christ.
Considering carefuUy other passages, in which pre-
existence is supposed to be ascribed to Christ, Baur
rejects that interpretation. Christ is "the second
man, the Lord from heaven." "What does the
1 "Paulus," &c., first edition, 1845. Also compare the English
translation of Zeller's edition, 1875.

286 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Apostle mean by such statements as these, but that
Christ was essentially man, man like Adam, only
man in a higher sense ? All that is left for us to ask is,
. . . What is the higher principle which we are to con
nect with this human nature of Christ ? This higher
principle the Apostle designates as the heavenly and
spiritual element in him; not in the sense of some
divine principle different from human nature added
to it, but as the purer form of human nature itself.
Ghrist is the Lord from heaven, the heavenly master,
as being the typical man, not existing in a purely
ideal form, but that which man essentially and really
is in the inmost essence of his being. Adam repre
sents the earthly and lower nature, Christ the spir
itual and higher element in humanity." 1 Dean
Stanley also,2 commenting on 1 Cor. xv. 28, says,
"This final subordination of the Son to the Father
is apparently the object of this digression ; " and
adds that Paul here " points our thoughts to a time
when the reign of all intermediate objects, even of
Christ himself, shall cease, and God fill aU the
universe." If we examine the writings of Paul in reference
to the development of his opinions and faith in regard
to Christ, we cannot fail to see a distinct progress,
from the beginning. In the earliest Epistles (those to
the Thessalonians) Jesus is regarded chiefly as " The
1 "Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi." Drittes Theil, achtes
Kapitel. Stuttgart. 184-5.
2 The Epistles of St. Paul to the Corinthians, third edition, 1865.

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING CHRIST. 287
Christ',' or King, who died and rose, and is soon to
appear as the real king of the world ; he thinks of
the Christ within him as to come outwardly in power
and glory. But in the Epistle to the Galatians,
Christ becomes the principle of spiritual freedom, the
Uving guide and inspiration of his foUowers. He
is to be formed within them (Gal iv. 19) ; they
are to adopt his spirit and be clothed with his char
acter (Gal. in. 27) ; and by his cross are to be cruci
fied to the world (Gal. vi. 14). In the Epistle to the
Romans, Christ is looked upon as the Divine Son, de
clared such by his Resurrection (Rom. i. 4), who brings
pardon and peace to the soul (Rom. iii. 22) by the
power of faith (Rom. v. 1), and plants within the
principle of eternal Ufe (Rom. vi. 23 ; viii. 2). His
love in the heart is the principle of power and life
(Rom. vni. 10, 35), and so he becomes the Lord and
Master of the dead and the living (Rom. xiv. 9). Thus
we see that Christ has now become to Paul the
principle of inward Ufe, peace, and power to each
individual soul.
But from this point the Apostle goes forward, and
finds Christ not merely the Saviour of the individual
from sin and death, but the unity of life among
aU who love him. Freedom alone, as it is taught
in the Epistle to the Galatians, tends to atomism.
When men seek only the salvation of their own soul,
the tendency is to selfish separation. But Paul,
especially in the Epistles to the Corinthians, finds in
the love of Christ a power of organized life, putting

288 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
an end to sectarianism, and uniting aU good men
and women into one body. Christ now becomes the
head of the household of faith, the principle of divine
love in the hearts of his foUowers, the unity of the
Spirit, and the bond of peace. He is wisdom, righteous
ness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. i. 30) ; the
foundation on which the whole church rests (1 Gor.
iii. 11), and by which all the members are united into
one body (1 Cor. xii. 27).
If we now pass to the Epistles of the Imprisonment
(Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians), we discover
another step of progress in Paul's view of Christ. He
is not only the principle of life in the individual soul,
the conquering master of the world, the organizing
spirit of union in the church ; but he is the culmination
of history, the end toward which aU events are being
providentially led, the mysterious secret which is to
explain the confusion of the world, the ideal truth
and beauty for the sake of which all things were made.
(Eph. i. 4, 10, 21, 23 ; Phil. xi. 10 ; Col. i. 15.) The
Epistle to the Ephesians is perhaps the loftiest flight
ever taken by spiritual inspiration. It is a magni
ficent symphony, in which the theme is repeated
in various forms. It is a Pindaric ode, in which
with each strophe, the idea returns again and again,
mounting higher and higher in its divine flight If
Paul did not write this Epistle, then there must have
been a second Paul, an unknown, 'unnamed apostle,
Uke the first, but even greater than he. It has Paul's
rushing earnestness of thought, his compact, sharp

PAUL'S IDEAS CONCERNING CHRIST. 289
expression, his condensed fire, and all of his glowing
love for Christ. And tO this is added a certain
abstract, contemplative immersion in the highest spir
itual ideas, — such as might be unfolded in the mind
of a prisoner, cut off from his work, and left to
soUtary communion with his own soul and with
God.1 In this steady development of the idea of Christ in
Paul's mind, we see an example of the principle of
inspiration laid down in an earlier chapter. Every
kind of inspiration, that of the poet, artist, discoverer,
or prophet, is like a seed, which springs up and un
folds into all that logicaUy belongs to it, — according
to Christ's saying, "first the blade, then the ear,
afterward the fuU corn in the ear." The fact that
" every seed has its own body," that an acorn must
develop into an oak, with the woody fibre of an oak,
the bark, leaves, blossom, fruit of an oak, is just as
wonderful and incomprehensible as that an idea should
develop into its correlated thoughts, beliefs, and
resultant actions. The growth of an acorn may be
crippled by bad soil, distorted by accidents, impeded
by injurious conditions ; but if it grows, it must
grow into an oak, in which aU parts are correlated by
1 Those who deny the Pauline authorship of Ephesians and.
Colossians, suppose them to have been written in the second century
against the Gnostics. Why, then, is there no trace in Ephesians of
this polemic purpose ? ~&o one in reading it would imagine any
such controversial intention. This theory assumes that an epistle
was forged in the name of Paul, to put down Gnostic speculations by
his authority, and that these speculations are scarcely referred to.
19

290 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
some unseen, inexplicable, but certain law. So each
living and inspired idea must grow, if not impeded
and hindered, into a special cycle of definite results.
And this harmony of thought, according to Bacon, is
the best proof of the truth of any system.
A like harmony of parts, determined by the idea of
the whole, we find in every great work of art. The
very principle of art is this unity in variety. Every
great picture or poem or architectural work has this
mark of excellence. If the details have not been
harmonized into unity by the controUing idea, we are
sensible of the discord. Every character of Shake
speare has its unity of life, and whatever each of his
" personse " says, from first to last, is in harmony
with himself. In our dreams, when imagination is
particularly active, we unconsciously make the per
sons we create speak and act in character. The
idea, when fully apprehended, rules the development
of thought. Thus the Idea of Christ in the mind of
Paul gradually unfolded itself, under the action of
thought and experience, into a systematic whole.
There are, no doubt, dead opinions in his memory,
the fossil remains of his old beUef, not yet eliminated.
But the living and growing part of his faith, that
which he lived from and loved, belongs to the new
creation, of which he said, " If any man is in Christ
he is a new creation."

CHAPTER XIII.
PAUL'S IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT; OR,
INFLUENCE OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST.
THE question we have next to ask is this : " What
did Paul teach concerning the influence of the
death of Christ on salvation ? Did he teadh, as has often
been supposed, the doctrine of Vicarious Atonement,
as held by Calvin and his followers ?
What is this doctrine, as it has been taught by
Calvin and Calvinists ?
The doctrine is essentially this : That while the
mercy of God made him wish to forgive the sins of
penitent sinners, his justice made it impossible to do
so tUl some atonement had been made, some suffering
inflicted, some expression of the divine wrath against
sin pubUcly manifested. This atonement was made
by the death of Christ, who offered himself as a sac
rifice to. God for our sins, was punished in our place,
satisfied the justice of God, appeased his wrath, and
reconciled him to us. The essence of the doctrine is
that Christ, by his death, did something which made
it possible for God to forgive human sin, which other
wise he could not have done.

292 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Calvin, in his Institutes, says, " God was an enemy
to men, till, by the death of Christ, they were restored
to his favor;" that Christ has received and suffered
in his own person the punishment which, by the
righteous judgment of God, impended over aU sinners ;
that by his blood he has expiated those crimes which
rendered them odious to God ; that by this expiation
God the Father has been satisfied and duly atoned ;
that by this intercessor his wrath has been appeased.
" It was necessary," he says, " that Christ should feel
the severity of the divine vengeance, in order to
appease the wrath of God and satisfy his justice."
"He was made a substitute for transgressors, to
sustain all the punishments which would have been
inflicted on them," J
The Assembly's Catechism teaches that Christ "hath,
by his death, fully satisfied the justice of God, and
purchased reconciUation for us." It adds (chapter xi.
3), " Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully dis
charge the debt of aU who are justified, and did make
a proper, real, and fuU satisfaction to his Father's
justice in their behalf."
The doctrine of Vicarious Atonement, then, accord
ing to Calvinism, teaches —
1. That God was an enemy to man until Christ
died. 2. That Christ satisfied the justice of God, and
paid bur debt.
1 Calvin's Institutes, Book ii., c. 16, §§ 2, 10.

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT. 293
3. That he was a substitute, to be punished in our
place, and was so punished, and suffered God's wrath,
and all the punishment due to sinners.
4. That he has thus reconcUed God to man, and
made it possible for God to forgive our sins, which
he could not have done otherwise, even though man
repented. Did Paul teach either of these four doctrines ?
1. Did he teach that God was an enemy to man
till Christ died ?
Paul always teaches that sin makes man an enemy
to God, estranges and alienates him ; but never that
it makes God an enemy to man. He says : " If when
we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the
death of his son, much more, being reconciled, we shaU
be saved by his life." He does not say : " If, when
God was our enemy he was reconciled to us by the
death of his son," — which is what Calvin teaches.
Paul also says distinctly that God did not need to be
reconcUed to men, since he loved them while they
were sinners, and before Christ died. "God coin-
mended his love toward us in that, while we were
sinners, Christ died for us." And to the Ephesians
Paul says : " God, who is rich in mercy, for his great
love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ
and saved us by free grace."
Paul, therefore, does not teach the first of these
Calvinistic doctrines in regard to the Atonement,
namely, that God was an enemy to man till Christ

294 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
died, but the precise opposite, — that is, that the death
of Christ was the result of the love of God, who
sent him to give his life and his death for a sinful
world. 2. Next, we ask whether Paul teaches that Jesus
satisfied the justice of God, and paid the debt due to
the Almighty by mankind ?
If this doctrine is found anywhere, it is found in
the words "ransom" and "redemption." Ransom
was the money paid to redeem those taken captive
and enslaved. It was the custom, in antiquity, to
enslave prisoners taken in war. Then their friends
would raise sums of money to redeem them from
the hands of their enemy. Debtors, also, who could
not pay, were sold as slaves, among tbe Romans and
other nations. They also might be redeemed by
friends paying the debt or ransom. It is certainly
said that " Christ gave his Ufe a ransom for many,"
and that "we are redeemed by the precious blood
of Christ ; but it is nowhere said that the debt was
paid to God, or that God was the stern creditor who
held us enslaved tUl the full ransom was paid to
him. On the contrary, the saints in heaven, accord
ing to the Book of Revelation, praise the Lamb, be
cause he has " redeemed them to God by his blood."
Sin is the slaveholder, Sin the cruel tyrant from
whose service we are redeemed. Paul teUs the
Corinthians that they must shun all vices, all in
temperance and wickedness, because they are bought
with a price, and now belong not to sin, but to God,

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT. 295
who has redeemed them by the death of his son from
the power of evU.
The world, in the days of Paul, was full of slaves,
— either prisoners of war or enslaved for debt. The
most benevolent action that men could then perform
was to redeem such persons by paying a ransom for
them. Men, in like manner, who committed sin,
were the slaves of sin ; and it was a natural figure, to
say that Christ gave his life" and his death to redeem
men from the slavery of sin and evil. But it is
never taught that Christ redeemed men from the
justice of the Almighty. Whatever debt we owe to
God, he freely forgives us, the condition being only
this, — that we, trusting in his love, shall -repent of
our sin, and forgive others their debt to us. Our
daily prayer says, " Forgive us our debts, as we for
give our debtors ; " not, " Forgive us our debts, be
cause Christ has paid them." The parable teaches
that when the servants who owed their lord had
nothing to pay, " he frankly forgave them both." In
fact, if the debt due to God was paid by Christ, for
giveness would be impossible. If Christ fully atoned
and made satisfaction to God for human sin, there
would be no place left for the divine mercy./:
3. StiU less does Paul teach that Christ was pun
ished in the place of man, or that he bore the wrath
of God in our place. No such theological figment as
this is anywhere taught by Paul. Jesus himself
declares that he bore the love of God in his heart,
not the wrath of God, when he gave his life. " There-

296 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
fore doth my father love me, because I lay down my
life." It is not necessary to dweU longer on these theories,
for they are fast passing away. Probably there is
not left a single genuine, thorough-going Calvinist
to-day in aU New England. Orthodox men continue
to speak of the atonement, of Christ's sacrificial death,
of his vicarious suffering. But when you ask what
aU this means, it is hard to find out. A revivalist
may stiU talk about the saving efficacy of " blood,"
and compare the blood of Christ to a raUway ticket,
which wiU pass us through to heaven when we be
Ueve in it. But such statements are very rare.
Another may think he has improved the theory by
changing "punishment'' into "chastisement" and
saying that Christ consented to be chastised in our
place. But this makes little difference. Dr. Bush-
nell tells us that wlnle Orthodoxy uses the old words
about sacrifice and atonement, there is no agreement
at all as to their meaning.
Nevertheless, it is true that a great deal is said by
Paul concerning the influence of the death of Jesus
in connection with the forgiveness of sin. Let us
look at some of his expressions* " Christ died for the
ungodly." " We were reconciled to God by the death
of his Son." " God hath set forth Jesus Christ to be
a propitiation [a mercy -seat] through faith in his
blood." "God was in Christ, reconciling the world
to himself." "Having made peace by the blood of
his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself."

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT. 297
" Christ gave himself for our sins." " He redeemed
us from the curse of the law." " We have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of our sins."
" He gave himself a ransom for all." " Christ, our
passover, is sacrificed for us."
It is no wonder that when .we meet such phrases
as these in the New Testament, which have been
quoted again and again in support of some Calvin
istic theory, we should imagine that they really teach
that theory, and that Paul taught some doctrine of
vicarious atonement. But a little consideration will
show us what he meant by this language, and why he
used it.
When Jesus came, the religious worship of Jews,
Greeks, and Romans was chiefly by means of sacri
fices. Every day in the Jewish temple, victims were
sacrificed from morning till evening, on the great
altar which stood before the Holy Place. In Athens,
in Corinth, in Rome, in Antioch, in Alexandria, it
was the same. This was almost the only public
worship which men knew. With the coming of
Christianity aU this passed away. It has passed away
so entirely that we can hardly understand the feeling
that prompted it. But that feeling was sincere.
Mankind prayed by sacrifice; they confessed their
sins by sacrifice; they sought pardon by sacrifice;
they felt nearer to God, and more at peace in their
hearts, when they had offered a sacrifice. By sacri
fices they thanked God for his mercy, adored his
power, bowed before his holiness, sought his pardon

298 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
for their sins, asked his blessings on their enterprises
and undertakings.
This whole system disappeared with Christianity.
Must not the world have been amazed at a religion
without a temple, an altar, or a victim ? " How can
one approach God? ".they cried; "how obtain his_
pardon by your religion ? It is empty of any wor
ship ; it is desolate and cold. Where is the splendid
ritual, the grand services, the hecatombs of victims,
the clouds of incense, the generous sacrifice of our
wealth to God?"
Paul and the other apostles answer : " Christ is our
sacrifice. Through him we aU have access to God.
Whatever the sacrifices of the old religion have done
for you is now done by him. He is the great victim.
He brings us to God. He is our lamb, slain from the
foundation of the world ; our passover, sacrificed for
us. By his stripes we are healed. His pure blood,
so generously given, is a proof to us of God's perpet
ual love. It is not the wrath of God, but the love of
God, which appears in Christ's death. God so loved
the world that he gave his dearest child to die for us.
God commended his love towards us, in that while we
were sinners Christ died for us. Whatever the sacri
fices were, whatever they did, Jesus has done. The
one object of all the sacrifices was to bring men to
God. This is what Christ has done. He is ransom,
redemption, propitiation, intercession."
It is certain that, as a mere matter of fact, the
death of Christ was not a sacrifice. A sacrifice is a

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT. 299
sacred offering slain as an act of worship. Christ was
killed by his enemies out of hatred. Those who
killed him had no idea of worshipping by that act.
He was not Uterally, but spiritually a sacrifice ; a
victim offering himself to do God's will and help
mankind. One writer in the New Testament, says.:
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who,
through the Eternal Spirit, offered himself, a blame
less victim to God, purge your consciences." It is
the Eternal Spirit which purifies,.the soul, the eternal
spirit of generosity and goodness, — not physical
blood, but divine self-sacrifice. That is the power in
the death of Jesus.
Sacrifices are so foreign from our way of thinking
and feeling that we do not realize that men actually
did worship God in that way. They did come near
to him by these gifts that they brought him. They
did try to show their love in this way, and were
happier and better for doing it.
The great object of all worship is to come near to
God. He seems so far away, so high above us, so
different from ourselves, that we do not feel free to
talk to him as a friend talks with a friend. When
we know we have done many wrong things, we are
afraid on that account to come ; we think he must be
displeased and estranged, and that we have no right
to come near him until something is done to appease
him. In ancient times, when a king was offended,
his subjects brought presents to placate him. In
the naive simpUcity of antiquity, men did the same

300 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
to God. They gave him the best gifts they had,
— oxen, sheep, or even their children. But the
work of Christ was to make God seem so near to
man, and man to God, as to show that no propi
tiation was necessary. This was the blessing that
he conferred on the world. His death put an
end to the whole feehng which caused sacrifices
to be offered. His heavenly devotion showed what
God's love was; and so Christ Uved and died to
reconcile man to God once for all. It is not God
who is turned away from us, it is we who are
turned away from him. It is not God who needs
to be reconciled to man, it is man who needs to be
reconciled to him.
All these theories, therefore, which assume that
anything is needed to be done to feconcUe God and
appease his anger, or make his justice and mercy at
one, belong to a Pagan conception of the Deity.
They are not only ante-Christian, but anti-Christian.
It is because we cannot forgive others without some
atonement that we fancy God needs some atonement.
It is because we are hard and unforgiving to men
that we think God will be hard and unforgiving to
us. The moment that we are able freely and gener
ously to forgive others, we are able to see that God
can also freely forgive us. That is why Jesus said,
" If ye forgive not others, God will not forgive you."
It is because we cannot believe that he can forgive us
while we are implacable. To the pure he shows him
self pure, to the merciful man he shows himself

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT. 301
merciful, and to the unmerciful man he necessarily
seems unmerciful.
The harm of the Calvinistic doctrine of Vicarious
Atonement is that it prevents us from seeing this
unbought mercy, this ever-present benign love of the
Heavenly Father. It teaches that it was impossible
for God to forgive tUl he was propitiated by some
sacrifice ; that his justice needed to be appeased. If
so, why ought not an atonement to be made to our
justice before we forgive ? If God, being justly
offended, needed to be propitiated; then we, being
justly offended, have a right to demand a similar
propitiation. The hard view of God makes us hard
toward each other. But the apostle Paul teaches
that God needs no propitiation ; he himself offers a
propitiation to man. " God has set forth Jesus as a
propitiation." God does not demand a propitiation,
but he gives one, — the outflow and affluence of his
tenderness to man; he shows that his justice is only
another name for his love ; that he can be just, and
justly forgive those who see his love in the face of
his Son. According to the old system, men brought
their victims to propitiate God ; according to Chris
tianity, God lets his Son devote himself as a victim
to propitiate the world.
StiU, we must ask what there was especially in the
death of Christ which brings men to God.
There has always been a great power in the death
of Jesus to touch the human heart. We cannot read
the story, often as we have read it, without a new

302 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
sense of the divine mystery of that holy sacrifice.
AU the Gospel culminates there. It is not merely
the fact of death which touches us thus nearly. Men
are dying around us every day. It is not self-inflicted
or bravely-encountered death which touches us. The
duellist, the soldier, the suicide, go of their own ac
cord to meet death, and we remain unmoved. It is
the nobility of soul which glorifies the victim. The
death of the three hundred at Thermopylae; of Soc
rates, taking the poison ; of Gustavus Adolphus, dying
on the field of Lutzen for freedom of spirit; of the
martyrs for truth and God who have gone cheerfuhy
to death, rather than deny the truth; Sir Thomas
More, the Catholic; Latimer, Ridley, Rogers, the
Protestants ; the exiles, who have left their native
land rather than accept the rule of the oppressor;
Abraham Lincoln, and the brave men who died in the
war for freedom and union, — this noble army of
martyrs, in every age, lift us nearer to God by show
ing that he can support the soul by his presence, and
raise it above mortal agony in the sweet sense of his
love. It is the greatness of the cause and greatness
of the soul which gives power to sacrifice. Jesus, the
greatest soul on earth, gave his life to the greatest
cause of all, and so he brings the whole world nearer
to God. But it was by " the Eternal Spirit " that he
gave it, — the Spirit which works from everlasting
to everlasting in every loving soul throughout all
worlds. The great fact is, that God's love works through

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT. 303
human love to convert and save men. The only
power to make men better is goodness. Fear and
force can prevent them from becoming worse ; these
can prevent the outbreak of crime ; but only gener
ous love can make mankind better. All generous
self-sacrifice uplifts the world. Consider the story
of Livingstone, dying among his negroes in Central
Africa, and these poor fellows wrapping up his body,
and carrying it on their shoulders through tbe wilder
ness to the sea, that it might be given to his friends.
Such an influence had his'generous life made on their
savage hearts. I heard, the other day, the story of
some of the most savage and cruel Indians, who were
taken to a Florida fort to be imprisoned, and were
there treated with such kindness by the officer,
Captain Brooks, that they were changed from bar
barity to gentleness, and went of their own accord to
the school at Hampton.
The death of Jesus was not, then, an exceptional
event, bnt the highest manifestation of the eternal
law of love. It was through the Eternal Spirit that
he offered himself to God in the service of man.
All theories of the Atonement fall into two classes,
— mythological and spiritual. The mythological
theory teaches that it was some transaction in the
supernatural world; some work done to satisfy the
divine justice, or to make peace between the un
reconciled attributes of God, — in short, to make it
possible for God to forgive his penitent child.
The other theories are spiritual. They teach that

304 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Christ died to manifest the eternal love of God ; not
to create it, but to make it known ; and that his death
is the supreme example of a power which comes down
from heaven into human hearts to purify, redeem,
and save the world. It teaches that we aU can Uve
and act in this same spirit, all be mediators of this
divine life, all can unite with Jesus in reconciling
men to God and to each other.
Paul said that he rejoiced in his sufferings, which
enabled him "to fill up that which was behind in
the sufferings of Christ" (Col. i. 24). This text has
much perplexed the theologians, whose theories de
clare that Christ's sufferings were a full and perfect
satisfaction for the sins of all mankind. Paul seems
to say that his own sufferings supplied that which
was deficient in those of Christ. The truth is that
human self-sacrifice carries on the work of Christ.
All sufferings, generously endured for the sake of our
brothers, partake of the nature of Christ's sufferings,
and do the same atoning work. They make it easier
to believe in a Divine Love, because we have seen the
same love in man. If men forgive us, we believe God
can forgive us. Man's love, therefore, like that of
Christ, reconciles the world to God ; and the blood of
martyrs has a similar redeeming power to that of
Jesus. It is sometimes asked, " Shall we think that the
death of Jesus was only that of a martyr ? " It is
certain that Jesus himself declared that he came to
be a martyr to the truth. " To this end was I born,

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT. 305
and for this cause came I into the world, that I
might be a martyr [iW fiapTvp-qaot] to the truth "
(John xviii. 37). He also said that he " came to give
his Ufe a ransom [Xvrpov] for many " (Matt. xx. 28).
The words "ransom" and "redemption," however;
when applied to the death of Jesus, certainly cannot
be taken literally. " Ransom " Uterally means some
thing valuable paid to the slave-holder, to deliver his
victim from his hands. But the death of Christ was
not paid to any slave-holder ; it was an offering made
to God and to man by the heavenly love of Jesus,
willingly given in his efforts to convince his feUow-
men of the truth of his divine Gospel. That which
his life could not do, his death accomplished. It
touched the hearts of multitudes, and filled them with
penitence and faith. So it redeemed them, by deUv-
ering them from the slavery of sin. It was a ransom
only as it produced the same result as a ransom,
in breaking the chains of sin, and delivering the
captive from its power. "Fop whoever commits sin,
is the slave of sin" (John vin. 34; compare Rom.
vi. 16).
It is a curious fact that the attempt to take these
words " ransom " and " redemption " literally, pro
duced a theory of the Atonement, which, though now
almost forgotten, was the orthodox behef in the Cath
olic Church for a thousand years. It was argued that
if Christ's death was a ransom paid to redeem us
from slavery, it must have been paid to some enemy
who held us captive. This enemy was not God, for
20

306 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
God is the sinner's friend, but could only be the Devil
The Devil had a right to hold us as slaves, in conse
quence of our sins. The rights of the Devil must
be respected, even by the Deity, and some equivalent
must be paid to the Devil if we are to be made free.
This equivalent was found in Christ, over whom, being
innocent, the Devil had no claims ; and whose death,
he being divine, was an equivalent for the sins of aU
mankind. When therefore tbe DevU prompted the
Jews to put Jesus to death, he committed a blunder ;
the consequence of which was that he lost his right to
hold any sinners in bondage whose freedom Christ
should demand. This theory, which was orthodox
doctrine to the time of Anselm, shows what errors
may come from taking the figurative language of the
Scriptures literally.
Another phrase applied to the death of Jesus, in its
relation to man's salvation, is "propitiation." We find
it used by Paul (Romans iii. 25) : "Whom God has set
forth to be a propitiation [or mercy-seat — tkacrT^-
ptov],1 through faith in his blood," etc. Paul here
refers to the sin-offering of the Jews (Lev. iv. and vi.),
and to the annual sprinkling of blood on the lid of the
Ark on the day of Atonement. But when it is said
that Christ is this propitiation, or mercy-seat, or sacri
fice for sin, this also cannot be taken literally. First,
because the Levitical sacrifices are condemned by the
prophets, and by Christ himself, as incapable of doing
1 Canon Farrar says that this term always means "mercy-seat"
in the Old Testament.

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE A TONEMENT. 307
away with sin. " Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst
not," says the Psalmist. " To what purpose the mul
titude of your sacrifices unto me ? saith the Lord.
I am weary to bear them " (Isaiah i. 11.) " I desired
mercy and not sacrifice " (Hosea vi. 6, — quoted by
Jesus). So Micah (vi. 6-8), who says that God desires
of his people not sacrifices, but to do justly, and love
mercy, and walk humbly. So (Hebrews xiii. 16) it is
said, " To do good and communicate forget not, for with
such sacrifices God is well pleased." A ritual service
thus discredited by the prophets and by Jesus cannot be
that which Christ came to fulfil. And, secondly, Paul
cannot mean that Christ is a propitiatory sacrifice)
since God does not need to be propitiated, according
to the Apostle. The whole of Christ's action and
suffering was a manifestation of divine love. He was
not an offering to God, but God manifest in the
flesh. It is therefore evident that the word tkacnripiov
means here what it everywhere means in the Old
TestamenJ;, the mercy-seat of the Ark of the Cove
nant. ( See the passages under the word in Schleus-
ner, "Lexicon in LXX. aut Novus Thesaurus in
LXX.") In the First Temple, the Ark contained
the stone tables of the law. Once a year, on the Day
of Atonement the High Priest entered the Holy
Place to purify it, and sprinkled the blood of the sac
rifice either on or near the mercy-seat. He carried
in with him a censer of incense, to make a smoke
above the mercy-seat In that cloud of incense Jeho
vah was beheved to manifest himself as meeting and

308 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
communing with his people, above the mercy-seat
(Ex. xxv. 22). When, therefore, Jesus is compared
with the mercy-seat, sprinkled with his own blood,
the idea naturaUy conveyed to the Jewish mind
would be that through him God meets with us, for
giving our sins, and communing with us. We enter
into union with God, through Christ.
Paul means to say to his Jewish hearers, accustomed
to their sin offerings and propitiations : " When you
have seen the blood of your victim sprinkled on the
altar, or when the High Priest on the Day of Atone
ment sprinkles the blood on the mercy-seat, this
means to you that God wUl have mercy on you, and
accept your repentance. Now, instead of asking you
for a victim to make him propitious, God has himself
set forth this victim, Jesus, as a mercy-seat, where he
will meet you ; as he says [Exodus xxv. 22], ' There
will I meet with thee, and commune with thee, from
above the mercy-seat' God has made Jesus such a
mercy seat, where man can commune with» him by
faith. The old mercy-seat was hidden in the Holy of
Holies, only to be seen by the High Priest. But God
has set forth this mercy-seat of communion, where all
may come. It is a manifestation of his present, imme
diate love. It shows that God is just, as well as
merciful, in forgiving our sins ; because his forgiveness
takes them away, and leaves them in the past"1
This is the probable meaning of this passage (Rom.
1 So 1 John i. 9. " If we confess our sins, God is faithful and
just [not merely merciful] to forgive us our sins."

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT. 309
in. 25, 26) which has been such a battle-ground for
theologians. The way in which the death of Christ brings to us
pardon may be thus explained : When we are con
scious of our imperfection and sin, we shrink from the
Divine presence, just as we avoid the presence of
any man whom we have injured, and who, we sup
pose, is offended with us. We have a sense of Di
vine displeasure resting on us, not because God is
reaUy angry, but because he seems to us to be offended.
We think he ought to be offended, our conscience
thus taking sides against us ; and this feeling is so
painful that, to escape it, we turn away from the
thought of God, and try to forget him. But our only
strength for improvement must come to us from faith
in God's presence and love. That is the real inspira
tion of goodness. Thus conscience, instead of making
us better may make us worse, by discouraging us, and
causing us to feel that God must be displeased with
us. So " the strength of sin is the law ; " and " that
which was ordained to be life, becomes death." Christ
meets and removes this difficulty by revealing to us,
in his own character, the infinite love of God to his
sinful children. As a holy being, pure and sin
less, Jesus represents the holiness of God ; as ready to
forgive and love the penitent sinner, he represents
the mercy of God. By this combined influence he
reconciles to our mind the Divine justice and
mercy ; and shows not only that the justice of God
allows him to be merciful to those who have faith in

310 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
him, but that justice obliges him to be merciful;
since through faith in Christ and God our sins are
taken out of us, and a pure love substituted in its
place. This is the thought which we find pervading the
writings of Paul. He sees in faith a power which so
purifies the soul as to make forgiveness an act of God
in which mercy and truth meet together, righteousness
and peace kiss each other. It takes away our fear
that we cannot be forgiven without some expiation or
offering to the Divine justice. Christ, says Paul,
takes the place of all offering and propitiation. He
becomes our reconciliation and atonement. He reveals
the Divine love and truth as perfectly at one in the
forgiveness of our sin. He died to complete this
great manifestation of heavenly grace. AU sacrifices
are fulfilled in him. He who sees him, sees the
Father, of whom he is the image.
Theologians are very fond of such expressions as
expiation, expiatory sacrifice, expiatory victim, vi
carious sacrifice, vicarious atonement, — none of
which terms are in the New Testament. The doc
trine of Paul, summed up in a word is this, — that
Christ is such a revelation of the Divine love to sin
ners that all who penitently trust in that love are
forgiven their past sin, are reconciled to God, and are
placed in communion with him as their Father and
Friend. The object of Christ's death, therefore, was not to
reconcile God to man, but to reconcUe man to God.

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT. 311
This is everywhere the doctrine of Paul. In no one
place does he speak of God's being reconciled to
man. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to
himself, " — not himself to the world (2 Cor. v. 19).
"When we were enemies, we were reconciled to. God
by the death of his Son," — not God reconciled to us
(Rom. v. 10).- It is "we who-were afar off," and "are
made nigh by the blood of Christ," — not God who was
afar off, and has been brought nigh (Eph. ii. 13).
"It pleased the Father, having made peace by the
blood of the cross, by him to reconcile all things to
himself," — not himself to all things (Col. i. 10).
Every theory of the atonement, therefore, which
supposes that. the death of Christ made God more
ready to forgive, breaks down before the constant
statement of Scripture to the. contrary. Three of
these theories have passed in succession over the
Christian church, each, in its day, the orthodox theory
of the Atonement. The first came in those early
ages, when captives taken in war were reduced to
slavery, but might be redeemed if their ransom was
paid to their owner. This theory seized on the words
"ransom" and "redemption" and interpreted them
literally, assuming that the ransom was paid to the
Devil, the slaveholder of sinners. This may be called
" The Warlike Theory of the Atonement." The
second was the theory of Anselm, which originated
at a time when the great Roman jurists had made the
rules of law famihar to the mind of Europe. It may
be caUed " The Legal Theory of the Atonement."

312 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
According to Anselm, the Devil had no right except
to be punished, and the atonement was not made to
the Devil, but to the Divine justice, which demanded-
of all men either perfect obedience, or an equivalent.
To maintain the honor of God, satisfaction must be
made to it, and the death of Christ,' the God-man, is
adequate satisfaction.1
This theory of Anselm remained the orthodox
doctrine in the church for about five hundred years,
when, being discredited by the attacks of the Polish
Brethren, it was replaced by another, of which the
great publicist, Hugo Grotiiis was the author. Pro
fessedly writing in reply to tbe Socinians, who had
demolished the theory of Anselm, he abandoned
all defence of that system, and substituted for it that
which goes by the name of "The Governmental
Theory of the Atonement." This rests on the
proposition that God, as moral ruler of the universe,
cannot forgive sin without an act of exemplary
punishment. The influence of Christ's death, there
fore, does not relate to the past, but to the future.
The guilt of past sin is destroyed by an immediate
act of divine love; the example of punishment be
ing necessary to prevent future sin. The principal
power of Christ's death is, its moral influence on
mankind. The most serious defect of this theory, in
the light of orthodoxy, is, that it has no support from
1See these theories fully stated in Baur, "Die Christliche Lehre
von der Versohnung. " See also my article in the Christian Exam
iner, July, 1845.

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT. 313
Scripture. The Old Testament, in fact, explicitly
declares (Ezekiel xviU.) that " when the wicked man
turns from the wickedness that he has committed and
doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his
soul alive." Nothing is said about punishment,
exemplary or otherwise. The prophet, therefore,
declares God ready to do what this theory asserts
that he is unable to do. In the New Testament,
forgiveness is promised on the condition that we, also,
are ready to forgive, — on the condition of repentance
and confession, of repentance and conversion, — no
word being said of the Grotian condition of exemplary
punishment. It has also been necessary for the
advocates of this theory to maintain that if God
should forgive sin on the simple condition of repent
ance, his moral government would be seriously en
dangered. To which the reply is easy ; that in no
way could the moral law be more highly honored than
by aU the sinners in the universe repenting and sub
mitting to the Divine wUl. Moreover, according to
this theory, the expiatory death of Christ is not
- founded on the basis of eternal justice, but of legal
expediency. It is something done for effect, to
make an impression, and has in it too much of a
scenic element.
Godet, in his recent Commentary on Romans, gives
a brief sketch of some other opinions on this sub
ject among leading theologians of the present day.
Hausrath says that the death of Christ was not an
isolated fact, but has an ideal and eternal value.

314 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Pfleiderer considers it a manifestation of divine love,
— "The ray of love is the real saviour of mankind."
Sabatier says that the texts in Rom. vi. and 2 Cor. v.
place the value of Christ's death in its being the
culminating point of self-consecration to the good of
mankind. M. de Pressense takes essentiaUy the same
view. Hofrnann, Ritschl, and others consider the
death of Jesus as the moral resurrection of humanity.
That is, it creates a new element of self-sacrificing.
love, which destroys sin in the heart, and places
there a principle which will produce moral perfection.
For the sake of that which is to be, God pardons what
has been.
If we may be allowed to add another form to these
theories of the atoning or reconciling influence of the
death of Christ, we should take, as its foundation, the
saying of Jesus, " There is joy in the presence -of the
angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." It is
evident from this that, if the sinner really repents,
the evil of sin is gone. But repentance includes not
only the sense of the misery of wrong-doing, but also
faith that we can conquer it. To have this faith, we
must beUeve in the divine pardon and help. The
difficulty to be removed is in the conscience, which
forever argues that we have no right to the love of
God, that we are not worthy of the love of God, that
God certainly cannot love us until we make ourselves
better by our solitary efforts. Jesus, a ray of perfect
goodness, shining out of the very heaven of heavens,
shows us God's love for sinners by his own self-

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT. 315
sacrificing love. This gives us hope «nd courage. If
Jesus, this divinely beautiful apparition, is willing to
die in his work of helping wretched, sinful men, is
not God infinitely more ready to help them ? If
Jesus sees something in them worth saving, then God
sees it too. If God wishes to save us, we have faith
that we can be saved. Thus Jesus' death implies
vicarious suffering, but not vicarious punishment.
The power of this vicarious suffering we see illus
trated in all generous self-sacrifice for human good.
The death of Jesus, like his whole life, is not excep
tional, but representative. The power of his death
consists in its being the noblest illustration of the
good done by every good man's loving sacrifices on
behalf of his brethren. Only by the sight of such
sacrifices are men persuaded of the reality of unselfish
love. When we are convinced that man can thus
love his brother-man, we are enabled to believe that
God, also, can love us. Thus all vicarious suffering
of man for man tends to bring men to God. When
we have faith in any unselfish love, the principle is
placed within the soul which must sooner or later
cast out all sin ; and' thus God, who sees the fruit in
the flower, the flower in the bud, and the bud and
plant in the seed, accepts us as we are to be here
after, and not merely as we are now.
We may see, then, that it is a universal law, that
without the vicarious suffering of man for man, the
world could never be carried upward into the love of
God. As Christ suffered for us, and on account of

316 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
our sin's, so we aaust be willing to suffer for others, and
on account of their sins. The best expression of this
whole theory is in the striking passage in Philippians
ii. 1-11, which may be thus paraphrased : —
" If I may appeal to you at all in the name of
Christ, if my love for you carries any persuasion with
it, if there is any spiritual sympathy between us, if
you have any tenderness towards me, or any pity for
me, — then I beg of you to make my joy complete by
having among yourselves one mind, one heart, one
perfect union of soul with soul. Have no small vanities,
no narrow personal aims, no petty pride, but go down
deep into that modesty which sees all that is good in
others, and forgets what is good in itself. Be Uke
Jesus ; have his spirit in you. He was the manifes
tation of God's glory in the world, the image of the
unseen beauty, wisdom, and power; but he laid no
claim to it, took no pride in it, seemed not to notice
it. What he thought of was the need of his brethren.
He laid aside his masterly authority as the Son of
God, went among men as the servant of the lowest,
wished to be only a human brother to aU mankind,
and pursued the path of obedience till he came to his
death — the death of the cross. Wherefore God has
highly exalted him, and given him a name above every
other name, power above all other power, — power to
subdue every mind and heart by his heavenly good
ness ; to become the object of reverence to the
spirits of holiness above, to human inteUigences on
earth, and to the perverted spirits below, who have

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT. 317
turned away from God. They, too, must at last be
conquered by this sublime generosity, and unite with
the rest in saying, 'This is my Master;' and so
bring to God the only glory he wishes for, — the glory
of being seen by his children as their Father."
What can expiate sin ? The answer of the Pagan
world was, and is: "We can expiate our sins by
sacrifices, self-denials, self-torture, done to placate
God. We can humble ourselves before him, and
offer him the best things we have; bringing to his
temples our wealth, our happiness, our hfe." This
Pagan answer is repeated in Christian lands, when
men think that God demands sacrifices, and cannot
forgive unless some one suffers to propitiate him.
The Christian answer, and tbe answer of Paul is :
" We can give nothing to God ; God must give every
thing to us. The best and noblest of our race has
shown us God's image in his own disinterested sacri
fices to save his fellow-men from the power and guilt
of sin. The only expiation of sin consists in putting
it away, and trusting in that majestic affection which
looks down through the ranks of angels and arch
angels, and sees with an infinite pity the sorrows and
sins of poor humanity on earth. God needs no pro
pitiation, wishes for no sacrifice. For the sacrifices of
God are a broken spirit — a broken and a contrite
heart, 0 Lord, thou wilt not despise. He who spared
not his own son, but delivered him for us all, how_
shall he not with him freely give us all tilings?
For ye know the munificence of our Lord Jesus

318 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Clirist, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that ye, through his^ poverty might
become rich [2 Cor. viii. 9]. Scarcely for a just man
would one die, though possibly, for one who was
good enough to inspire love as well as respect, one
might even be wilhng to die. But God showed us the
greatness of his love, in that Christ died for us whUe
we were yet sinners [Romans v. 7, 8]." So far is
Paul from teaching that God had to be propitiated
before he could forgive. It was "while we were
sinners " that he loved us. It was before the recon
ciling death of Jesus, before this vicarious sacrifice,
that God had mercy on the world. This is the state
ment which refutes every theory which teaches the
necessity of some expiation to be made to God, to
enable him to forgive.
StiU, beneath all these theories, there remains this
substantial truth, - — that in the human mind there is
a permanent antagonism between the ideas of justice
and mercy ; that we transfer to God this antagonism,
and that this is an obstacle to our being forgiven,
because it prevents us from believing in forgiveness.
And this obstacle, according to all these theories, is
overcome by the death of Christ. Each theory first
attaches the real difficulty to a theoretical difficulty,
and seeks to remove both by explaining how the last
may be removed. Thus, the first and oldest theory
said to the man who felt that somehow the justice of
God would prevent the possibility of his being par
doned: "Yes, you are right in thinking that the

IDEAS IN REGARD TO THE ATONEMENT. 319
Divine justice is to be satisfied. God's justice de
mands that the Devil shall be paid a due ransom
before he releases you. But now Christ has paid this
ransom by his death. Justice is therefore satisfied,
and you can trust in the Divine mercy." The second
theory said: "Yes, you are right in thinking that
the Divine justice must be satisfied before you can
be forgiven. God's justice requires that the whole
debt shall be paid. But Christ has paid all this debt
by his precious blood. Justice, therefore, is satisfied,
and you can now trust in the Divine mercy." The
third theory said: "Yes, you are right in thinking that
something must be done, before you can be forgiven,
to remedy the evil your sin has caused to the moral
government of God. But Christ's death has done
this ; and you may now be forgiven." Each of these
theoretical difficulties was thus confounded in men's
minds with the real difficulty, and both were removed
together. The false one being taken out, the true
one went out with it.

CHAPTER XIV.
THE HEART OF PAUL.
I COME next to speak of the heart of Paul I
wish to show that this heroic soul, this inspired
teacher, this clear-headed thinker, this man of im
mense practical energy, was also a man of tender
affections, warm sympathies, and very dependent on
the love of his friends.
It is often supposed that great men are independent
of earthly sympathy; that they live in a sphere so
high above human interests as to be insensible to the
charities of common life. They live for knowledge,
or for ambition ; or they are devoted to some vast
philanthropy, some important pursuit in art, science
or politics ; and so have no time for daUy human love.
If there are these persons, I think their brain will
usually grow weak and their hand feeble, as their
heart grows cold. Napoleon and Byron were prob
ably such men, — gifted with wonderful genius, but
egotists and selfish. And the result was that their
lives " tapered the wrong way," and that both ended
in failure. But I think that the great men who have

THE HEART OF PAUL. 321
gone steadily onward and upward have had, with an
indomitable wUl and a comprehensive intelligence,
also much largeness of heart. Such men were Au
gustine and Pascal, Luther and Abraham Lincoln.
Luther under a rough exterior hid a most loving heart
And so Paul, who was in constant warfare and strug
gle, could hardly have borne it or gone through with
it but for the warm affection of a few friends, on whom
he leaned, and with whom he felt himself at home.
A Greek sage tells us that " dry light is best." I
have my doubts whether thought, divorced from feel
ing, is not narrowed as well as chilled. Such dry
Ught has lost, at any rate, much of its magnetic power,
and creates httle vital interest.
Paul was a man of warm sympathies by nature.
He depended on the love of his friends. He could
meet and endure all trials ; he was ready to die for
the truth. He was beaten with stripes five times;
with rods three times; stoned once; shipwrecked
three times ; worn out by constant journeys ; in dan
ger on every hand ; in perils in the city, in perils in
the wilderness, in perils at sea, in perils among false
brethren ; in weariness and painfulness ; in watchings
often ; in hunger and thirst ; in fastings often ; in cold
and nakedness. He could bear all this ; but one thing
was harder to bear, — the coldness and the desertion
of his friends. In his last imprisonment at Rome he
writes an earnest letter to his spiritual son, " my own
Timothy," begging him to come to him. " Do come ;
do come ! Demas has forsaken me ; he has gone to
21

322 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia ; Titus to
Dalmatia. All in Asia have turned away from me,
among them Phygellus and Hermogenes. On my
first appearance in court to be tried, no man stood
with me, but all forsook me. But do thy diligence,
Timothy, to come to me ; do come before winter.
Bring the cloak I left at Troas with Carpus, and the
books, but especially the parchments." 2 Winter was
coming, and Paul was in a cold Roman prison, and
was prematurely old from excessive labors and many
sufferings. This rough travelling-cloak might give
him a little comfort, — and the books, perhaps the
old papyrus rolls of Isaiah and Ezekiel, which he had
studied in the school of Gamaliel. Let us trust that
Timothy arrived before winter, and brought the cloak
and the parchments, and with them his warm-hearted
sympathy and devoted reverence to cheer the lonely
prisoner. The heart of Paul also appears in his gratitude for
every kindness shown to him. " The Lord have mercy
unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed
me, and was not ashamed of my chain ; but when he
was in -Rome he sought me out diligently, and found
me. And in how many things he ministered unto me
in Ephesus thou knowest very weU. The Lord "grant
unto him mercy."
The heart of Paul is also apparent in the saluta
tions and kind messages sent to each of his individual
1 Such details confirm the probability that this letter was writ
ten by Paul.

THE HEART OF PAUL. 323
friends at the close of his letters. " Greet PrisciUa
and'Aquila, my helpers, who have for my life laid
down their own neck. Salute my well-beloved Epce-
netus, who is the first fruits of Christ in Asia. Greet
Mary, who bestowed much labor on me. Salute An-
dronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and fellow-prisoners."
And he gives some special message of affectionate
remembrance to Ampliatus and Urbane and Stachys
and Apelles, to the family of Aristobulus, to Herodion
and Narcissus, to Tryphoena and Tryphosa, to Persis,
Rufus, Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Her
nias, Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and
Olympas. All these he mentions in a single letter.
What an intense interest he felt in the spiritual
growth and improvement of his converts ! The care
of all the churches rested on him day by day, and this
perpetual anxiety concerning them was a heavier bur
den, be tells us, than Jewish stripes or Roman prisons.
"Now I live," he says, "when ye stand fast in the
Lord." " I thank God that your faith is spoken of
throughout the whole world." He blesses God for
the strong faith of the Romans ; for the many bril
liant gifts of the Corinthians ; for the love shown to
all the saints by the Ephesians; for the steadfast,
immovable firmness of the Philippians, who shone as
lights in the world, holding forth the word of life;
and for the progress in good works by the Colossians.
But I think his heart warmed most toward the
Thessalonians, in those letters which he wrote to them
within a few months after that first visit in which he

324 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
had founded their church. He teUs them he never
forgets their faithful work and loving labors and pa
tient hope; and how willingly and cheerfully they
bore persecution ; and how their faith in Christ was
heard of all around; and how they listened to his
gospel, not as to a human word, but as to the very
word of God. He tells them how much he was com
forted by what Timothy told him about their faith
and charity, and their loving remembrance of himself.
He cannot think of thanks warm enough to offer to
God for aU the joy this news had given him, and he
prays that God may keep them unblamable forever.
He reminds them of his own ardent affection for them,
" cherishing them as a nurse cherishes her children,"
and willing to " give them his very soul because they
were so dear to him."
This interest in the spiritual welfare of all his dis
ciples, and also in those fellow-Christians whose faces
he had never seen, leads him into an intense realism
in his utterance. Most persons, in expressing their
good will, confine themselves to large and often vague
generalities. Paul gives his friends advice, counsel,
encouragement, warning, in regard to every relation
and every conjuncture of their lives. He advises
husbands and wives, parents and children, masters
and servants how to treat each other according to this
new and divine spirit of which all were partakers.
He begs and implores them to leave far behind
all their old heathen habits of speech and action ; to
have among them no foolish tattling and jesting, no

THE HEART OF PAUL. 325
covetousness or uncleanness, no strife or vain-glory ;
to be moderate in all things ; to rejoice and be glad
in the Lord always, and to keep their minds fixed on
everything that is pure, lovely, honest, just, true and
praiseworthy. He tells them to put away anger,
mahce, blasphemy, falsehood ; to forgive each other ;
to continue in prayer; to sing psalms and hymns
with each other, with love to God in their hearts.
And yet, with aU this earnestness of exhortation
and advice, his courtesy is equally apparent. The
word "courtesy" came from "court," for it has been
supposed to flourish best in the courts of kings.
Manners there are courtly, no doubt, but the highest
courtesy is not a thing of birth or breeding, but
comes from a generous, loving heart. High breeding
produces outward refinement and good manners. Its
voice is not abrupt, but modulated ; it is dignified and
urbane, self-controlled and calm. But love makes us
think of others and forget ourselves ; it gives us really
what good manners simulate ; that is, a desire to make
others happy, and an interest in all they do and feel.
Politeness assumes to be interested in others ; love
is really interested in them. Politeness avoids
whatever would hurt the feelings of others ; but love
cannot offend, because its sympathy with others is real.
Paul was full of this kind of courtesy. His manners
were not so much genteel as gentle. We should
not call him a genteel man, but he was in the highest
sense a gentleman, with no mere outside politeness,
but inwardly careful of the feelings of all. We see

326 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
this sometimes in little turns of speech. For ex
ample, when he says to the Romans, " I long to see
you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift,
to the end that you may be established, — - " " that is,"
he adds, " that I may be comforted together with you
by the mutual faith both of you and me." He sub
stitutes here for instruction, mutual instruction;
they can help him no less than he may help them.
So, afterward, in the same letter, when he has had
occasion to give them some very plain lessons, he
says, that though he thus warns them, he knows that
they are able to teach and warn each other. "I my
self am persuaded of you, brethren, that you are fuU
of goodness, filled with knowledge, able to admonish
each other." He urges those who are freed from
scruples and superstitions to be tender to those who
have not got as far as themselves ; which is also a part
of true courtesy. " We that are strong ought to bear
the infirmities of the weak, and not to please our
selves." But what has often been remarked as the most
striking example of high bred courtesy is the little
letter to Philemon, which has happily been preserved
for us, though it might easily have been lost. To a
careless eye it might hardly seem worth preserving
as a part of the Christian Scripture. Philemon was
a prominent man in the church at Colossse, whose
slave, Onesimus, had run away and gone to Csesarea.
There Paul met him, and converted him to Christ.
Paul knew that there was no respect of persons with

THE HEART OF PAUL. 327
God. He had learned to call no man common or un
clean. So this run-away slave, who had stolen from
his master, and who belonged to the class despised
by the Jewish Rabbis, and considered by the Romans
as mere tools, chattels, implements, was dear to the
generous heart of Paul. He had made of the slave
a Christian, a brother beloved, a child of God, a dis
ciple of Christ. And now he persuaded him to go
back to his master. If that master had been a hea
then he would go back to be crucified. But Phile
mon was a Christian, a spiritual child of Paul. Paul
had confidence that he would forgive him, and that
this would be best both for. the slave and his master.
J. S. Buckminster, in a very striking discourse on
this Epistle to Philemon, says : —
" There is a mixture of tenderness and authority,
of affection and politeness, in this short letter; an
earnestness of intercession united with a care not to
offend even by a word ; a choice of phrases the least
obnoxious, of arguments the most honorable, of mo
tives the most penetrating, which show the writer to
have been a man of great address, as well as of strong
affections, and master of a persuasion not easily re
sisted. He crowds together in a few words a multi
tude of motives, reminding Philemon of his repu
tation for kindness, his friendship for the writer, of
his respect for character, and especially for age, and
for Paul's bonds, and lets fall a suggestion that some
deference is perhaps also due to his wishes as an
apostie."

328 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
In the old times of American slavery this letter to
Philemon used to be triumphantly quoted in defence
of the fugitive slave law. A Southern gentleman
who once visited me said, "I wonder, Mr. Clarke,
you can read the letter to Philemon and not admit
that Christianity sanctions slavery ! " I answered
simply by saying, " Let us read it together, . and see
if it be so. Let us suppose that this epistle was ad
dressed to you, and that Paul was sending back to
you one of the fugitives from your plantation. ' I
beseech thee for my son, Onesimus, whom I in my
prison have converted to Christ, who was of little
use to thee before, but now can be of great use to
thee and to me. Receive him as though he were my
child, a part of my heart. I would gladly have kept
him to be my comfort and help in my chains, but I
would do nothing without thine assent and judgment.
I do not wish to force thee to do anything. I wish
thee to do all willingly, and to receive him again, not
as a slave, but better than a slave, even as a beloved
brother, — my brother and thine. Receive him as
thou would'st receive myself. I write this knowing
that thou wilt gladly do even more than I ask.'"
Having read this, I turned to my slaveholding friend,
and asked him if he still thought that it meant that it
was a duty to return slaves, as slaves, to their owners.
He frankly admitted that there was not much to sup
port slave-holding in that epistle.
But what I wish to notice is the tone and spirit of
this letter. It is that of a Christian gentleman, of

THE HEART OF PAUL. 329
high principles, of exquisite tact, of delicate feeling.
Onesimus had stolen money or something else from
PhUemon, and this offence was not to be overlooked
because he had become a Christian. He ought to go
back and confess his fault and his penitence to his
master. Paul himself willingly agreed to repay what
ever Onesimus had taken. This sentence he added
in his own autograph : " I, Paul, will repay whatever
Onesimus took," the rest of the letter being written
as usual by an amanuensis. Paul seemed to suffer
from a disease of the eyes, which prevented him from
writing much with his own hand. He reminds PhUe
mon that he is Paul, the old man, and a prisoner, and
he knows that he might command Philemon to do
this act as a dutj', but prefers to ask it of him as
a favor : " Let me have this joy of thee, my brother ;
refresh my heart in Christ." He does not even say
distinctly what he wishes Philemon to do, but leaves
him to find that out from the whole spirit and tone.
" Not now as a slave, but better, a brother " — that
is all.This ardent affection for every Christian soul, this
undying longing that each might grow up into all
Christian graces, had its deep root in Paul's own
grateful and devoted love to the Master who had
brought him into the love of God. He could forgive
because he had himself been forgiven. He loved
much, because he had received- so much love. This
great current of love sweeps on through his letters,
making them unique in all literature. The letters of

330 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Cicero and Pliny are stately and highly polished. As
models of composition, many, no doubt, are superior
to Paul's. It is sometimes hard to make out the
grammatical construction of these Pauline epistles;
as difficult as to give the geometrical forms of the
surface of a tumultuous torrent. It is said of Father
Taylor that once in his preaching he suddenly stopped
in the midst of a long sentence and said: "Brethren,
my nominative has lost its verb ; but I am bound to
the kingdom of heaven all the same." Thus in
tricate were Paul's sentences, in the fiery rush of
his impetuous desire to warn, comfort, advise and
strengthen his dear friends. But what is the chaff
to the wheat ? Where, in all human Uterature, can
be found writings so vital, so glowing with the fires
of the soul, so filled by every gale from heaven, unit
ing such tenderness, judgment, conscience, trust, hope,
generous devotion, interest, sympathy ! Here is one
wonderful paragraph, in which he pours forth his
whole heart, with an eloquence which seems to me
to have no parallel in any other human writing : —
"In all things approving ourselves as God's ser
vants; in much patience, in our afflictions, in our
necessities, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, in -tu
mults, in labors, in watehings, in fastings; by pure-
ness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness,
by the Holy Spirit, by love unfeigned, by the word
of truth, by the power of God; by the armor of
righteousness on our right side and our left; by
honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report .;

THE HEART OF PAUL. 331
as deceivers, and yet true ; as unknown and yet well
known ; as dying, and behold we live ; as chastened,
and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;
as poor, yet making many rich ; as having, nothing,
and yet possessing all things." Paul seems to have
been a little astonished at his own eloquence, for he
adds : " 0 Corinthians ! our mouth is open unto you,
our heart is enlarged ! "
Though the fire and flow of the paragraph just
quoted is unequalled, yet there is another strain of
a yet higher mood ; one chapter in which wonderful
insight is united with perfect utterance. I speak of
the description of love, which I have called a hymn,
and which might be called a Pindaric ode, were it not
so self-possessed and so rational ; which might be
called a philosophical summary of the whole Gospel,
were it not too spiritual and too sublime for such a
cold designation. In this description, Paul, most
eloquent of men, declares all eloquence, human or
angelic, to be a hollow sound, if not inspired by-love ;
Paul, the man of insight, the close, compact reasoner,
the profound theologian, the acute disputant, says that
the mightiest intelligence is but an empty shell, if love
is not there to give it substance ; Paul, who teaches
with such fervor that we are justified by faith, here
looks down from a summit higher than faith, asserting
that every degree of faith, without love, is a vain
illusion ; and Paul, the man of practical religion, who
fills his epistles with exhortations to good works,
now says, in face of the teaching of the whole church,

332 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
past and future, that we may give aU we have to the
poor, and die the death of a martyr to the truth, in
devouring flame, but that without love these sacrifices
are dead and useless.
Next, he describes love in its manifestations : show
ing how it takes the place and does the work of every
virtue. It operates as patience, "suffering long,"
and continuing " kind " in the face of provocation.
It works as humility, " not envying, not vaunting it
self, not puffed up " with conceit or vanity. It pro
duces good behavior, " not behaving itself unseemly."
It is calmness and self-possession amid insults, " not
easUy provoked." It is candor and generosity in judg
ment, " thinking no evil " of others. It is love of
truth, it is hope, it is endurance, "rejoicing in the.
truth, bearing aU things, believing all things, hoping
all things, enduring all things." Thus, he who loves
fulfils the whole law.
Dr. Franklin, wishing to cultivate good habits and
educate himself to virtue, made out a list of faults
which he desired to correct, and virtues he wished to
acquire, and took them up one by one. That was
well ; but he found it difficult. An easier as well as
a more satisfactory way is once for aU to give the
heart to God. and man in love, and then all virtues
grow out of this affection as the parts of a plant grow
out of the seed. When you have the seed of a rose,
you have potentially the stalk of a rose, the leaf of a
rose, the blossom' and fruit of a rose. So, whenever
we are living in a spirit of love to God and man, we

THE HEART OF PAUL. 333
have in us the rudiments and germs of whatever else
is true, noble and good.
And one more pre-eminence Paul assigns to love
over knowledge, eloquence and prophecy. AU these
change and pass. All thought is relative, all opinion
is for a time,,aU the beliefs of man alter with the ad
vancing years. We see nothing now as our ancestors
looked at it; nothing as we saw it ourselves when
we were chUdren. But, amidst this flux and flow
of things, where all is so fleeting, where everything
comes and goes and our life seems like a dream or a
brief tale, some things within us are more immovable
than the unmoving stars. If we have love in our
heart, that shall endure when the pyramids are worn
into sand, when the stars shall cease to shine, and
this green earth becomes a dead mass like the cold
moon above it. Trust in God will never die ; hope
for a great good will never fail ; and, above all, love,
which is God's own immortal essence ; this, greatest
of aU, shall endure from eternity to eternity.
Thus speaks the prophetic heart of the great Apostle,
and thus he lifts all our spirits into communion with
his own.

CHAPTER XV.
PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES.
OUR next question is — Did Paul teach the Cal
vinistic doctrine of Divine Decrees ?
The central doctrine of Calvinism, the root out of
which the rest came, is that of the absolute sovereignty
of God. God is supreme will ; his will governs aU
events ; his will is the law of the universe. He is
just, in the way he chooses to be just. He does what
he chooses to do, and what he chooses to do is right.
He does not choose to do anything because it is right,
but it is right because he chooses to do it. Man's
duty is to adore, accept, submit and obey. What
seems to us wrong may be right to God. There is
nothing common between his goodness and ours;
goodness, justice, truth, right, are nothing in them
selves ; they are not rooted in the nature of the uni
verse, nor even in the nature of God, but only in the
will of God. If he should choose to make wrong
right he could do so, or else his power would be
limited by his character. He would be unable to do
what he pleased, if he were obliged to obey a law,
even a law of his own nature.

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES. 335
Thus Calvin says : x " The Divine Will is the cause of
everything that exists. . . . The will of God is the
highest rule of justice ; so that what he wills must be
considered just, for this very reason, because he wills it.
When it is asked ' why the Lord did so,' the answer
must be, ' Because he wUled it' " Calvin, indeed,
denies that God's will is an arbitrary one, but still
maintains that God owes nothing to man, and that man
has no right to object to anything that God may do, no
matter how unjust it seems. From this fundamental
principle of God's absolute sovereignty, Calvin logi
cally proceeds to the conclusion that God has from the
beginning predestined and ordained some angels and
men to eternal Ufe, and has ordained others to eternal
death ; and this without regard to goodness or char
acter. He admits that it is a " horrible decree,"
but claims that it is taught in the Word of God, and
that we must accept it as right, no matter how unjust
it may seem. The sum of it is that before God created
the world he decreed the fall of Adam and of all his
posterity, and of this mass, so corrupt by birth and
without any choice of their own, he determined
some, before they were born, to hell, and some to
heaven. In other words, he created some men to be
damned, and others to be saved. The Assembly's
Catechism, the creed of the Presbyterian churches
in Great Britain and America, foUows Calvin in this.
With its usual frankness, it states the doctrine in seven
articles, of which this is one : —
1 Institutes, Book iii, c. 22, § 2.

336 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
"By the decree of God, for the manifestation of
His glory, some men and angels are predestinated
unto everlasting life, and others foreordained unto
everlasting death." The articles go on to say that
those whom God determined to save, out of his mere
grace, without foresight of faith, or good works, or
any goodness of theirs, he proceeds to caU, justify,
and save. The rest of mankind he is pleased to pass
by, and ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their
sin, to the praise of his glorious justice.
The question is, whether any such doctrine is taught
in the New Testament. If taught anywhere, it is
taught by Paul. If taught by him anywhere, it is to
be found in the eighth and ninth chapters of Romans.
Let us, then, see what Paul really says.
When we first read these chapters, coming to
them with our minds full of the Calvinistic doctrine
of election, as just stated, there- is no doubt that
they seem to teach that doctrine. For example,
Paul says : —
" For the children being not yet born, neither hav
ing done any good or evil, — that the purpose of God
according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth, — it was said unto Rebecca, The
elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated." (Rom. ix. 11-13.)
" For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom
I will have mercy,, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OP DIVINE DECREES. 337
that sheweth mercy. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised
thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and
that my name might be declared throughout aU the
earth. Therefore hath he mercy ou whom he will
have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth."
(Rom. ix. 15-18.)
" Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the
same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another
unto dishonor ? What if God, wilhng to show his
wrath, and to make his power known, endured with
much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to de
struction ; and that he might make known the riches
of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had
afore prepared unto glory." (Rom. ix. 21-23.)
Here Paul plainly teaches that God has chosen, be
fore they were born, certain persons for good, and
others for evil; that he has mercy on some, and
hardens others ; that he loved Jacob, and hated Esau ;
that it is not what the man himself chooses or wills,
^out what God gives him, that enables him to fulfil his
calling and election.
All this, you will say, looks very much like the Cal
vinistic doctrine of election ; and, if that is what Paul
meant, let us admit it.
So also say I. I do not wish to force his language
to mean what I believe. But before we decide that
Paul was a Calvinist before Calvin, let us be sure of
one point, namely, Was he here speaking of a temporal,
or an eternal election ; of a choice for this life, or for
22

338 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
the future life ; of temporal privilege and opportunity,
or eternal rewards and punishment ? This is the main
question to be settled.
And before we ask whether Paul taught that " hor
rible doctrine," let us first consider whether there is
any truth mixed with the falsehood, and if so, what
part of the doctrine is true and what part false.
To say that God created some men to be damned,
without regard to their conduct, is not only contrary
to the instincts of justice which he himself has
planted in our souls, but also contrary to the most
essential and vital teachings of Christ. The Gospel
teaches that God " will have all men to be saved ; "
that he loves his enemies and seeks to bless them ;
that Christ died for all. Now, it is a contradiction
to say that God wishes to save those whom he has
created to be damned; that he asks men to do good
and be good, who have no power of being so and
doing so ; that he punishes men for sins which they
cannot help; that he rewards them for goodness
which is not theirs. All this would make a mockery
of the largest part of the New Testament. It is
therefore certain that the law of God in the heart,
and the word of God in the Gospel, equally declare
this doctrine of Election and Reprobation to be false,
and if Paul teaches it, he teaches what is not true.
But, though the doctrine thus stated is false, there
is also a true doctrine of Divine Foreordination to .
good and to evil. It is ordination to privileges and
opportunities in this life — not to eternal bliss or

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES. 339
ruin. The doctrine of Temporal Predestination is
one thing ; the doctrine of Eternal Predestination is
quite another. Men are not equaUy free to be and
do what they will. They cannot determine where
they shall be born ; God determines that. They
cannot determine what kind of an organization,
physical, mental, moral, they shall bring into the
world ; God determines that. S.ome men are born
to great opportunities, others to few. But every
one is to be judged according to what he has, not
what he has not. To whom much is given, of him
will much be required ; to whom little is given, of
him will little be asked. To all this we can sub
mit, knowing that God will, in his own good time,
make it all right. This kind of predestination
makes the variety of the world, the gradations and
order of existence, in which every man has big sep
arate place and work, but each necessary to the
perfect whole.
The question, then, is, " What doctrine of Predesti-
' nation did Paul teach — temporal or eternal ? ordina
tion to opportunities here, or to everlasting bliss and
to everlasting misery hereafter ? " I answer that it
can be easily shown that Paul taught Election and
Predestination for time — not for eternity.
The principal place where Paul teaches the doc
trine of Predestination is in Romans viii.-x. But
neither in this place nor in any other does he teach
the doctrine laid down by Calvin and the Assembly's
Catechism, that God has "predestined some men

340 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
to everlasting life, and foreordained some to ever
lasting death."
The word translated "predestinate" (Trpoopifa)
occurs in four places only in Paul's writings.
1. Romans viii. 29, 30 : " Whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the first-born of many
brethren." Paul does not here say, we observe, " Whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to eternal hfe here
after ; " but, " to be conformed to the image of his
Son" here. The purpose of God was that those whom
he knew to be fitted for it and ready for it should
become like Christ, and have something of Christ's
spirit in them.
2. The second place where this word is used is in
1 Cor. U. 7, where Paul says : " We speak a divine
wisdom, even the hidden wisdom which God fore
ordained before the ages . . . which God revealed
to us by his spirit." This, also, is not anything fore
ordained for eternity, but foreordained to be revealed
in time.
3. The third passage is Eph. i. 5. Here Paul de
clares that " the God and Father of Jesus Christ has
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places with Christ, having chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, to be holy and without
blame before him, having in love predestinated us
unto the adoption of children in Jesus Christ, ac
cording to the good pleasure of his will."

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES. 341
This, we must perceive again, is not any predesti
nation to eternal life hereafter, but to spiritual bless
ings here.
4. The fourth passage is in the same chapter, and
simply states that " according to God's good pleasure,
which he purposed in himself, to gather. in one all
things in Christ, we have also obtained an inherit
ance, being predestinated by him who works all things
according to the counsel of his own will, to be to the
praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ, and
were sealed by the spirit which Jesus promised."
This, also, was something predestined to take place
here, and not in any future life.
From this it appears that, so far as the use of this
word " predestinate," or " foreordain," is concerned, it
in every instance is applied to what takes place in
this world, and not in the other.
Let us see how it is with the words " elect,"
"election," or "chosen," (e'/cXe/cTo?, itcXoy-rj).
These words- were first used in regard to the Is
raelites, who were God's " chosen " or " elect " people.
They were chosen for a work, — to be the teachers of
the divine law to the world; to be teachers of the
unity of God. They were not elected' to an everlast
ing heaven in another world, but for duties and ser
vice and privileges here. This word " chosen " is
applied a multitude of times in tbe Old Testament to
the Jews as a nation : " I have made a covenant
with my chosen." " 0 ye seed of Abraham, ye chil
dren of Israel, his chosen." Moses told the Israelites,

342 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
" Thou art a holy people unto the Lord ; the Lord
hath chosen thee a special people unto himself above
all people." " Jacob, my servant, and Israel, mine
elect." The use of tbe word "chosen," or "elect," began
at this time. It is used throughout the Old Testa
ment to mean God's choice of the Jews to be bis
elect people in this wOrld, and certainly has nothing
to do with a future life.
Down to the coming of Christ the Jews were the
chosen nation ; after that, all who became Christians,
whether Jews or Gentiles, were the chosen people.
But it does not follow that aU who were chosen were
faithful to the end, or that all would be chosen in
the other world. Jesus said, "Have I not chosen
you twelve, and one of you is a devil ? " Judas was
one of the elect till he fell. To be chosen was not
enough ; it was necessary, to " give diligence to make
one's calling and election sure."
• " Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate."
Nations and men are predestined to a certain work,
and those are predestined to that work whom God
knows beforehand to be fit for it. They are elected
not to rewards, but to duties. The Israelites were
elected to the duty of preaching a pure faith to
mankind. When, instead of that, they became hard
ened in ritual and ceremonies, Sabbath-keeping and
sacrifices, so as to reject Jesus, the most .divine
teacher of truth, then they lost their election as a
people — all except those of them who were fitted

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES. 343
and ready to accept this larger religion, this higher
gospel. Paul saw a providence in aU things ; to him noth
ing was accidental, nothing unforeseen. Everything
served God's purpose, 'and sooner or later fulfiUed
his end, — if not in one way, then in another. When
the Jews ceased to be God's special people, then their
fall opened the way for all the other nations to
become God's people. When Pharaoh was obstinate,
and would not let the ChUdren of Israel go, then he
served God by his obstinacy. If he had allowed
them to go and worship in the wilderness, they
would have come back to Egypt and bee'n slaves
again; but by his breaking his promises they were
freed from their obligations, and escaped altogether.
According to Paul, God foresaw that Pharaoh would
be obstinate, and so selected him to be king of Egypt
at that time. " God hardened his heart." That is
true, since the primal quahties of our organization
come to us under the direction of Providence. Every
man is born with special advantages and disadvan
tages ; he has good qualities, and he has the defects
of those qualities. If he is firm, he is apt to be
obstinate; if he is good-natured, he is apt to be too
yielding. God governs the world by the faults and
vices of men, no less than by their virtues. But all
this belongs to the present life, not to the future.
Pharaoh's hard heart served a good purpose here ;
but it is nowhere said that Pharaoh was to be pun
ished for it hereafter.

'344 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Here are two brothers ; we will caU them Esau
Brown and Jacob Brown. When they were boys,
Esau was careless, generous, brave ; he did not learn
his lessons very well, but he was a great favorite with
the other boys. He often got them into scrapes, but
he never betrayed them. He honestly owned up, and
took the punishment himself. He was a great plague
at home, and his mother did not love him as much
as she loved Jacob. Jacob was always ready to help
her about the house ; he was thoughtful and careful
He brought his mother little presents on her birth
day; but Esau, though he loved her, never remem
bered to do anything of the sort. Jacob used to
trade with his companions, and had a money-box full
of half-dollars and dimes. At last, as they grew -to
be young men, Esau got into a serious scrape, and
his father scolded him severely. Then he concluded
to go West, but had no money to go with, and Jacob
offered to give him two hundred dollars if Esau
would sign away his share in their father's property ;
and he did so.
Jacob Brown went into business, and became a
prosperous man, and when he died, left half a mil
lion dollars to the Hospital for Women and Children.
Esau Brown moved from Ohio to Iowa, from Iowa to
California, and from California to Oregon, and never
seemed to accomplish much in any place; and when
he died, he left his widow and children to the care of
his brother, who, I am glad to say, made them com
fortable. Then people said, " What a mysterious

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES. 345
Providence, that the Lord should have done so much
better for Jacob Brown than for Esau Brown, when,
really, Esau was as good-hearted a man as you ever
saw, and Jacob was a little close." And Rev. Moses
Gilead, preaching the funeral sermon, took his text
from the first chapter of Malachi, second verse, " Was
not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord; yet I
loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his heritage
waste." But the real truth of the matter was that
Jacob Brown was prosperous, not because he -was
good, but because he was prudent, industrious, eco
nomical, and had good business habits. The Lord
did not reaUy love him more than he loved his
brother. The Lord did not elect him to everlasting
life in the other world, but he elected him to be the
man to endow the Women's Hospital in this world;
and to be able to do that was something.
Just so the Lord elected the Patriarch Jacob and
his descendants, the Jews, to establish the doctrine
of monotheism in the world. He elected them to
teach mankind faith in God, as a Ruler, Judge, and
Personal Providence. The Jews were like their
father, Jacob. They inherited from him his un-
doubting faith in one God, his God, and the God of
his children. They inherited his pacific habit, his
tendency to trade rather than to war, his tenacity to
his convictions, his -sagacity and knowledge of men.
Therefore they were the right people to receive and
preserve the Mosaic Law, and that has been their
business in the world. They were the chosen people;

346 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
chosen for that because their character fitted them for
that. They were not chosen to possess an exclusive
heaven hereafter, but to do a special work here.
They were chosen, elected, predestinated for this
work when they were born, and before they were
born. They were chosen when they were so con
stituted as to be the right persons to do the work
When the Lord made them so, he chose them. Their
election and calling was written in their organization,
in the fibre of their brains, and the temper of their
characters. The whole argument of Paul about election and
predestination in the ninth and tenth chapters of
Romans refers to this world and the present life.
The Jews had been trained up by their prophets
and teachers to believe that they were God's chosen
people, — elect according to the foreknowledge of
God. "How, then, if we were elected," said they,
"could God set us aside, and choose a people from
among all nations ? " That was the argument that
Paul had to meet.
You perceive that if election were an uncondi
tional and absolute thing, Paul could not have an
swered" it ; the question would be unanswerable.
According to the Calvinistic view of election there
was no reply. But according to the true view the
answer was easy. Those whom God foresees to be
fitted for a work, he elects or chooses to do it. If they
are willing to do it, they make their election sure.
Then he helps them with all the power they need.

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES. 347
He fills their soul with faith; he causes them to
triumph over all obstacles; he brings them from
grace to glory. But if they refuse to do the work
they are set aside. It was no merit of theirs that
they were chosen, so they have no right to complain.
" Here is a lump of clay," says Paul. " The potter
can make of it what he wiU. He takes a part of it,
no better than the rest, and makes a finely wrought
cup or plate, carefuUy finished, which will be long
preserved, and used on great occasions. That is a
vessel of honor, fitted for preservation. He takes
another part, of the lump, no worse than the first,
and makes of it a coarse mug or dish, sure to be
broken in a short time. That is a vessel fitted for
destruction. But each is necessary. In a great
house there must be vessels of honor and of dishonor.
This is a great house in which we live ; so some men
are chosen for high places and great offices, and
others for common ones. What of that ? If God
chooses us for any work, however humble, shall we
complain? In whatever place we are we can be
doing God's work."
And here I think we can see the explanation of
one difficult passage (Romans ix. 22) : " What if God,"
says Paul, " wilhng to show his wrath, and to make
his power known, endured with much long-suffering
the vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction, and to make
known the riches of his glory to the vessels of mercy
prepared for glory, called from both Jews and Gen
tiles ? " That this word " wrath " does not imply

348 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
anger in any common sense, appears from the fact
that God is said "to show his wrath by enduring,
with much long-suffering, the vessels of wrath, only
fit to be destroyed." God's showing his wrath means
letting, the evil consequences of sin be made known.
" You Jews,'' Paul means to say, " consider the Gen
tiles to be vessels of wrath, fit to be destroyed. What
if God has guarded and kept them by his long-suffer
ing providence to show that when you, the Jews,
refuse to accept Christ, he may show his power over
the lump by choosing the obedient, both of Jews and
Gentiles, to be vessels of honor in his house, and
show that he punishes evU, by degrading the disobe
dient Jews from their high position?" StiU, here,
as before, it is election and reprobation to opportuni
ties and privileges in this world, not to any rewards
or punishments hereafter.
It may be. observed that when Nature has any
important work to do, she always adds a httle sur
plus force, more than is actually necessary, so allow
ing for loss by friction or waste. In making the
Jewish race, she gave them a little too much tenac
ity. She put into them such immobility, such indif
ference to the opinions and habits of those around,
such calm satisfaction with their own, that it became
at last national pride and contempt for the outside
world. They thought the Lord cared for no other na
tion but themselves ; they were his favorites ; the rest
of the world were outcasts and aliens. Wherever they
went, throughout the Roman Empire, they carried

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES. 349
this proud and calm self-confidence. " We have
Abraham to our father," said they. " Jehovah is our
God, and he is the only true God. The Gods of the
Gentiles are idols, and will be dasBted in pieces like
a potter's vessel." These poor Jews stood in the
Roman Forum looking at the magnificent temple of
the Capitoline Jupiter, and laughed with contempt
at its worship. In Athens, they gazed at the Par
thenon, ascending in its perfect beauty, and their lan
guage and Ups betrayed the supreme scorn with
which they regarded this idolatry. They repaid the
contempt of the nations among whom they lived
with a contempt more lofty than their own.
The Jewish Christians brought into Christianity
this same feeUng of superiority, this sense of their
own exclusive rights. Their religion was still steeped
in this Jewish bigotry. Their Christianity, with all
the Mosaic rites continued,, with its Jewish Sab
bath, circumcision and law, was the only true church
founded by God ; out of that there was no salvation.
Christianity, with them, was only Judaism further
developed and unfolded, with a Jewish Messiah at its
head. "No one can be saved," said they, "but by
becoming a Jew. Out of the Jewish church, no
salvation." This was the exclusive spirit with which Paul had
to fight all his life, and which sometimes -almost
broke him down. We have seen him as the great
preacher of liberal Christianity, — the mighty fore
runner of Martin Luther and Calvin and Knox, of

350 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Savonarola and Wickliffe, of Channing and Theodore
Parker. He founded the Broad Church, and when
men wish to battle with bigotry and ecclesiastical
pretension, with *>riesteraft and churchism, they wUl
find half their work done for them by the apostle
Paul. And now we see how he used this doctrine of elec
tion in his battle for freedom of spirit, and what a
weapon it was in his hands for beating down the
strongholds of Jewish bigotry.
The fundamental religious conviction in the Jew
ish mind was this : " The Lord reigns." Neither
chance nor fate, neither blind force, dead law, nor hu
man wiU governs the world. " The Lord reigns."
Therefore justice, wisdom, and love reign ; then aU
things are working together for good. The events of
time proceed according to a divine plan, the working
of which man may delay, but cannot prevent.
The Jewish Christians said to Paul, "Is not our
nation the elect nation, the chosen people ? And
will God cast us off? "
Paul met them on their own ground, and appealed
to their own faith in Providence. " Yes," replied he,
" the Jews are a chosen nation, elected from all man
kind for a work by which all men are to be blessed.
We were not chosen for our own sake or for Abra
ham's sake, but for the sake of mankind. When we
do our work, then we are God's chosen people, not
otherwise. Though perhaps we may even still be
doing God's work, when in our obstinacy we refuse

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES. 351
to do it ; as Pharaoh did God's work indirectly, when
he refused to let the people go. If you refuse to
receive the universal church, in» which there are
neither Jews nor Greeks, then you cease to be the
children of Israel, and become like the Egyptians,
and are persecuting God's people. Can not God do
as he will, and 'call those his people who were not
his people, and those his beloved who were not his
beloved ? ' The Jewish people are Uke a lump of
clay in the hands of the potter; of those who are
willing to follow God's divine methods and join this
universal church, he makes vessels of honor ; of those
who resist it, he makes vessels of dishonor. You say,
' We are the children of Abraham, therefore we are
all God's favorites ; he loves us and hates the Gen
tiles.' But of Abraham's children only Isaac was
chosen to be the father of the holy people ; and of
Isaac's children only Jacob, not Esau. Was not
Esau a child of Abraham ? and yet is written, ' Esau
have I hated.'
" Has not God a right to have mercy on the Gentiles,
and have compassion on Greeks and Romans, and
bring them all into the universal church, where there
is neither Jew nor Greek ? Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob were chosen and raised up, not for their own
sake, nor for your sake, but for the sake of this uni
versal church which has been called out of darkness
into light. Do you think there is no providence in
all this ? Is it an accident that all these Greeks and
Romans have given up Jupiter and Pallas- Athene,

352 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
and -now worship Jehovah through his son, Jesus of
Nazareth ? Yes, the Lord's parable has been fulfilled ;
you Jews refused #> come to this great marriage feast
of the nations, this festival of the whole world, and
the Lord has sent out into the byways and hedges
and compelled the Gentiles to come in, that his house
might be filled. This was God's plan and purpose
from the beginning. When he made chaos, he put
into it fhe seeds of this mighty future."
The doctrine of election, then, does not refer to the
other world at aU, except indirectly. It refers to
this world, and we can see how true it is. If we be
lieve in God at all, we must believe in his provi
dence ; and if we believe in his providence at aU, we
must believe that he elects and chooses us, each and
all, for some work, some purpose, some end. Our life
means something to God and to the race, as weU as to
ourselves. We are called and chosen, and we must
give diligence to make our calling and election sure.
We serve God either way, by doing our work or by
refusing to do it Only, in the one case we become
vessels of honor; in the other, vessels of dishonor.
In the one case we are Moses ; in the other, Pharaoh ;
but Moses and Pharaoh both served the Lord.
People say, " God does not interfere ; he governs
the world by laws. There is no special providence
at all." God governs by laws, but he governs. It is
a law of God's government, that when a man has ab
solute power, like Pharaoh, and uses it only for his
own purposes, his heart at last becomes so proud

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES. 353
and obstinate that he cannot do what he knows he
ought to do. By the working of that law God
hardened Pharaoh's heart, and the hard heart of
Pharaoh did infinite good. If he had been a kind
and just ruler, and had allowed the Israelites to got
out and worship, they would have remained the
serfs of the Egyptians, and Palestine would never
have come into history. But Pharaoh's obstinacy
was the cause of their emancipation. Just so. God
hardened the hearts of the slaveholders. By the
working of the same law, their self-indulgence in
the use of absolute power made it at last impossi
ble for them to give up any of it to save the rest-
They could not accept the situation. They could not
consent to be second where they had been first. If
they had accepted gracefully the Presidency of Lin
coln, and allowed slavery to be excluded from the
territories, slavery might then have continued in the
States for another hundred years. But the laws of
human nature made this course impossible, and the
operation of these laws hardened their hearts. So too,
by the working of the laws of trade the North resisted
emancipation. Both North and South refused to
serve the Lord directly, by helping the cause of eman
cipation and freedom ; so they served him by their
obstinacy, and helped the cause indirectly, by refusing
to emancipate. God, by his laws, hardened their
heart, just as he hardened the heart of Pharaoh.
In this consists our freedom, and only in this. We
cannot resist the Divine purpose, or prevent God's
23

354 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
plans from being accompUshed for the progress of
mankind. We must serve God, directly or indirectly.
If we serve him directly, by our obedience, then we
are like the clay which the potter takes from the
Jump, out of it to make a beautiful vase, a vessel of
honor, with which to adorn the mansion of its owner.
If we refuse to obey, then we are like the clay out of
which he makes the vessels for baser purposes ; which,
when used, are broken and thrown away, vessels of
wrath, fitted for destruction.
Our freedom, however, seems to go further. By
resisting God's will, and refusing to obey his truth in
our conscience, we can postpone for a long time the
result which he intends. God endures, with much
long-suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted for destruc
tion. He allows us plenty of time. He is not im
patient. He possesses eternity; time he aUots to
human freedom.
Thus, if the Jews had accepted Jesus as their Mes
siah, the world would have been saved centuries of
misery. They would have become God's missionaries
to mankind, teaching peacefuUy to Greeks and Ro
mans the doctrines of universal love. If Jesus had
lived thirty years longer, with the whole educated
force of his nation as his disciples, making the Temple
at Jerusalem the centre and radiant focus of the wor
ship of truth and love, then he might in person have
inaugurated the reign of peace on the earth. But they
put him to death at the very beginning of his great
ministry, and his work was left in the hands of a few

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES. 355
disciples, — good men, but not comprehending their
master ; and so centuries must pass before his gospel
could be fuUy known and obeyed.
The common notion of Election, then, is false. God
does not elect men to everlasting happiness here
after, but to usefulness here. He elects us to oppor
tunities. He elects us to privUeges, which we may
use or neglect to use. To some men he gives five
talents, to others two, to others one ; their business
is to use the talents given to them.
God loved Jacob by giving him an opportunity, not
because he was better than Esau, but because he was
different, having the qualities necessary for his work.
He loved the Jews in the same way, by giving them
opportunities. They had the oracles of God com
mitted to their care. They had the covenants, and the
law, and tbe promises, and the fathers, and, most of
all, among them appeared that wonder of the world,
Jesus of Nazareth. The human race flowered out into
¦its choicest blossom among their Syrian hills. They
were the guardians of monotheism in its bud ; they
were to possess the fragrance of the opening flower.
The Greeks were also a chosen people, — chosen to
develop Beauty, in art, in literature, in sculpture,
and in song. As the Jews were chosen to develop
the highest type of human religion for the benefit of
mankind, so the Greeks were chosen to develop
Beauty, the Romans to develop Law. While nations
do their appropriate work, they thrive ; when they
leave it for something else, they fail.

356 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
Every Christian denomination has its own work, for
which it was ordained by God : but this is for the
benefit of all. When it becomes denominational and
exclusive, and thinks to absorb aU others into itself,
then it ceases to make its calling and election sure.
As parties and sects do their work, they attract love
and sympathy to that, and they grow strong. Then
they are apt to forget their duty, and seek their own
glory ; aud thus they come to an end.
The Roman Catholic Church, to-day, is repeating
the error of the Jews. It claims to be the only true
church of God, just as the Jews claimed to be. The
Jewish nation was scattered and destroyed because of
this intolerance. Unless the Catholic Church consents
to be Uberalized and enlarged, it also must be fulfilled
in something higher.
As God elects nations, so he elects individuals, each
for his own work. God elected Columbus to dis
cover America ; he elected Milton to write Paradise
Lost ; he elected Newton to discover the laws of the
universe, and Washington to create a nation If
Washington had devoted himself to writing sonnets,
if Newton had sailed to discover the North Pole, if
Milton had gone into trade, they would not have made
their calling and election sure. But they were wiser,
and each abode in the calling to which he was called.
Napoleon was sent to organize liberty in Europe ; had
he devoted his immense ability to that, "Europe would
have free institutions} to-day. But he sought, egotis
tically, to build up his own dynasty ; so he came to a
disgraceful end.

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES. 357
God has chosen us all for a work-; he has elected
us and predestined us, before the foundation of the
world, to have a share in the advancement of human
ity. If we cease from our selfishness and egotism,
and consent to do the work for which he has made us,
then we make our election sure.
' And if we all have our mission, a mission determined
by the nature and the powers God has given to each
of us, how much more evident must it be that Jesus
was appointed and raised up for a great and special
work ; that God sent his son into the world that the
world through him might be saved ! And yet his
obedience was not passive or mechanical, but free.
He said, " I have finished the work thou gavest me
to do."
God calls us each in his providence to different
works and duties. Every calling of God is true and
noble. There are three steps in this calling. We are
chosen, first, to Christian usefulness ; secondly, to
Christian goodness ; thirdly, to Christian glory.
The substance and meaning, therefore, of Paul's
doctrine of Election is this : The births of time, the
events of history, the great religions of the world, do
not come accidentally, but by a Divine providence.
But what God gives to each man, to each nation, to
each church, to each party, is not for its own use and
glory, but for the good of all. When it monopolizes
its privileges and keeps them for itself, it will lose
them. If it buries its talent in the earth, instead of
using it for the general good, the talent will be taken

358 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
away. The marf, the church, the party, which exalts
itself, shall be abased. Meantime, while this doctrine
of Election, as used by Paul, strikes down bigotry
and exclusiveness on one side or the other, it encour--
ages and uplifts the humble and the discouraged. It
says to them, " God has chosen the weak things of this
world to confound the mighty, and the ignorant things'
of this earth to confound the wise, and base things of
this earth hath God chosen. Yea, and things that are
not, to confound things that are." It says to them, as
Paul said to the Ephesians, " God has chosen you in
Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy
and without blame before him in love'.' He has pre
destined you to become his children by faith in Jesus
Christ. He has not chosen you, or elected you to a
passive happiness hereafter, but to an active goodness
here, " to be holy and without blame," to live as his
children, to be to the praise of his glory, to belong to
his universal church, when " he shaU gather together
all things in Christ, both things on earth and things
in heaven," when " every knee shall bow, and every
tongue confess that Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father."
This doctrine, so looked at, is one which applies
to all time, and is good for all time. It teaches us
patiently to bear our trials, and not to murmur at
the inequalities of life. God knows best, and it is
for him to choose what we are to be and do here.
If others have better opportunities than we, or
higher privileges, it is not that God loves them

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES. 359
better, but that he has chosen them for one work
and us for another. If the life of one is aU sunshine,
and that of another all storms, it is not that God is
partial, or that one is his favorite. He knows what
is in us aU ; he foresees what is best for us all ; he
chooses me for this low office, he chooses you for
that high one ; but we are aU equaUy dear to him.
If we do well the work he gives us to do, if we bear
patiently the trials he sends to us, then we shall at
last see what he means. He has predestined us aU
to be conformed to the image of his Son; that is
the universal election. Some will be conformed to
the image of Christ on the glad and sunny and sweet
side of his character and career, the Christ who
walked with his disciples over the grassy plains of
GalUee during the long, happy days, when all was
prosperous and hopeful. Some will be conformed to
the image of Christ by sharing his hard labors, by
descending with him into the bitterness of disap
pointment, the gloomy hour of loneliness when all
forsook him; by feeling with him the crown of
thorns and the sharp nails of the cross.
Let us read the heroic and glowing words with
which Paul sets forth this high argument: "We
know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose." All who love God have been
called by him. Love, trust, hope, are the marks of
their divine election; and whUe we love God, all
things wiU concur in good for us, " For whom he

360 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son, that he might be the first
born among many brethren." Christ does not de
sire to go up alone into a solitary glory ; he wishes
only to be the first-born of many brethren, aU
having his likeness and image. God intends to
make as many of us to be like Christ as are willing,
and so to be his brethren and sisters. That is
predestination. "Whom he did predestinate, them he has also
called." This was something that had already hap
pened. To those who had been taught the. gospel,
and heard about Jesus, this message came as a
divine call to grow up with him, to become like him.
Let us see it in the same way. Every time we
behold the beauty, of holiness in the Master, his ten
der, patient love, his unfaltering trust, let us hear in
our heart the low call of God's spirit saying, " Be ye
also like him ! "
" And whom he has called them also he has justi
fied." With this sense of heavenly invitation comes
the sense of pardon and peace. If God caUs us, his
pardon comes in the very call. That is pardon,
that God wishes us to become like Christ.
"And whom. he has justified them he has also
glorified." But this also is something which has
already been given to them; therefore it is not a
future heavenly glory, but a present heavenly glory.
It is the glory of those who let the Ught of their
good works shine before men ; it is the glory- which

PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES. 361
the vine has in bearing its grapes, which the faith
ful servant has in doing his work well. It is not
earthly, but heavenly glory; not the glory of out
ward fame and distinction, but it is giving out hght,
warmth, perfume, comfort, from a soul made rich in
these gifts.
This, then, is the doctrine of election according to
Paul. It is being chosen by God for some good
work, chosen to an opportunity, chosen to be his
child, and the friend and brother of Jesus Christ.
To this we are aU elected, predestinated, . called.
Let us give dUigence to make this caUing and
election sure.

CHAPTER XVI.
THE LAST THINGS.
IN 1 Cor. xv. 24, after arguing for the ascent of
all souls into a higher life, the conquest of aU
evil here, and the overthrow of the last enemy, Death,
Paul cries out, " Then, the end ! "
The translators of our Testament have here inserted
the word " cometh," which rather weakens the force
of the words. " Then, the end " expresses better the
Apostle's awe before the great panorama of future
events which slowly rose before his mind. These
events are called, in theological language, V The iast
Things;" and the doctrine concerning th<^rn is "The
Doctrine of the Last Things," or, " EsclMtology."
The old view of prophecy assumed 1rfjlat x* was a
miraculous violation of the laws of tfcfe human mind,
by which a knowledge of future earth]/ events wp,s
communicated. Prophecy was regardjed\as so foreign
from natural human experience thai, ta^-^iSleient
of the prediction proves that God must have directly
interposed to put this foreign knowledge into the
mind, as a gardener may put the scion of a pear-tree
on the stock of a quince, or a plum on an apricot.

THE LAST THINGS. 363
But the new view of prophecy assumes that it is
no violation of the laws of the intellect, but an in
tense activity of powers usually latent or imperfectly
developed. It is insight of the present, which gives
foresight of the future. He who sees deeply into
principles can foresee their unfolding into that which
is to be. Jesus sometimes used the phrase, " The
hour cometh, and now is." This is the key to proph
ecy. The future is in the present, as the oak is in
the acorn ; therefore he who really knows the " hour
which now is " can predict " the hour which cometh."
Thus Columbus, being familiar with the geography
of the Eastern Hemisphere, foresaw that by going
west he would come to that continent again. In a
previous chapter, in considering Christ's foresight of
the fall of Jerusalem, we illustrated his. prophetic gift
by a similar insight in Dr. Channing, who foresaw
that in case of Southern secession, the whole North
would be united to put it down. In like manner, he
predicted the actual danger which attended emanci
pation. He said, " I do not believe that the emanci
pated slaves will assassinate their masters, as many
•predict, for they are by nature too affectionate and
too submissive a race for this ; but I foresee that the
masters will refuse to give them equal rights as
fellow-citizens, which will be an evil to both races."
Thus the seer, a man who looks into the present,
becomes a prophet, and is able to look into the future.
" Is prophecy, then," some may ask, " only the ex
ercise of common sagacity ? " No ; but of uncommon

364 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
sagacity. It is a human sagacity made divine by
a heavenly influence. Inspiration does not create
the faculty- of foresight, but develops it in a high
degree. The prophet, under the influence of this
divine power, foresees what to others is unseen.
Therefore the prophet is often disliked and hated,
stoned and persecuted, because he announces com
ing woes and punishments. He is called a fanatic
and a madman; he "troubles Israel;" he disturbs
the slumbers and the comforts of those who only care
for the present. When he speaks of the judgment to
come, Felix trembles, and says, " At a more conven
ient season I will listen to thee."
The "last things," according to Paul, are "the
coming of Christ," " the resurrection," the "judgment
to come," and the " final complete triumph of good
over evil."
The apostle Paul's inspiration led him to foresee
the coming of Jesus as the Christ, to make a new
heaven and a new earth. In that he foresaw the
truth ; for Christ has come, is coming, and wiU come
more and more. From the hour of his resurrectiou,
he began to come as king over the hearts and souls
of men, and every age has made the brightness of
Christianity more divine. Jesus is more the Christ
to-day than he ever was before.1
1 William Henry Channing, writing to me from London, said
that he attended a. communion service in a Protestant church in
London where, in the course of tho forenoon, fifteen hundred per
sons-partook of the sacrament; that Farrar's "Life of Christ"

THE LAST THINGS. 365
The apostle Paul was right in foreseeing the
coming manifestation (parousia) of Jesus as the
Christ. But in his earliest letters written to the
Thessalonians he looked for an outward, visible com
ing in the air, with audible sounds and accompanying
marvels. Afterward, he dismissed these expectations,
and speaks of sitting in heavenly places now with
Christ Jesus ; speaks of being already, risen with him ;
speaks of Christ within, the hope of glory. His in
spiration, which enabled him to foresee the essential
truth, did not preserve him, for a time, from unessen
tial error.
We have already mentioned that the Jewish belief
concerning the coming of the Messiah divided time
into two great periods, the age of Moses, and the age
of Christ. The first they called the age which is now ;
the other, the age which is to come. These two ages,
or aeons, were both temporal, existing here on the
earth. Very often we miss the meaning of a passage
in the New Testament by not noticing this. When
we read of " this world and the world to come," we
imagine it to mean " this life and the future life ; "
but very often it simply means the present time and
the time of the Messiah. " Be not conformed to this
world" means " Be not conformed to the spirit of the
present age." " The rulers of the darkness of this
had reached the thirtieth edition, and Geikie's the twentieth.
"And yet," he added, "our advanced young friends think that
the Christian religion is in its ' afterglow ; ' but to me it appears
that the real glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is just
beginning to shine in its full splendor."

366 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
world " means " the principles which govern in this
unenlightened period, before Jesus comes to reign over
the mind." " The God of this world has bUnded the
minds " would be more intelligibly read, " The gods
men worship in this age of darkness have blinded
their minds." "That he might dehver us from the
present evil world " would be better, " this present
evil period." Other passages which are obscure
become clear when thus read. For example, what is
the sense of this, " These things are written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world have
come " ? But translate, " We who have arrived at
the termination of the first, or Mosaic, age." " Now
once, in the end of the world [this age], he hath
appeared to put away sin." It has been inferred
from such passages that the writers supposed that the
outward, visible, physical world was soon to be de
stroyed, and that therefore they were in error;
whereas what was said in the last case was, " Now.
at the end of the first age, he hath appeared to put
away sin." Similar passages are : " Manifest in these
last times ; " " In the last days perUous times shaU
come ; " " Hath in these last days spoken unto us by
his Son." .
It has not only been supposed that the apostles
were deceived in believing the end of the world very
near, but that Jesus shared their mistake. A great
many critics base their arguments against Chris
tianity on this supposed error of Jesus and his apos
tles, in believing that the world was to come to an

THE LAST THINGS. 367
end very soon ; and so it might seem according to
the present translation.
It is reported by Matthew that Jesus, before his
death, sitting on the Mount of Olives, was asked by
his disciples, " What shall be the signs of thy com
ing and the end of the world ? " He answers by
giving a description of great suffering and misery,
and says distinctly, " This generation shaU not pass
away till all this shall be fulfilled." According to
this, it is argued that Christ evidently believed his
coming and- the end of the world close at hand ; there
fore he was mistaken. But simply substitute for the
question these words, " What are the signs of thy
Messianic manifestation and the end of this age ? "
and the whole objection falls to the ground. Jesus
was manifested as Christ before that generation had
passed away. He did come in power and glory ; he
did come to judge mankind ; he did divide the Gen
tiles into sheep and goats, setting the sheep on the
right and the goats on the left ; attracting to himself
the good and pure among Jews and Gentiles, and
repelling the selfish and self-willed.' He did come,
amid the miseries of the Jewish rebellion, the horrors
of captured Jerusalem, the dispersion of the Jews.
When the age of Moses came to an end, then the
kingdom of Christ began. Down to that time, Moses
was the great religious leader of the human race.
Since the faU of Jerusalem, Jesus has been the relig
ious leader of mankind. That generation did not
pass away till all was fulfilled. Thus the truth or

368 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
faUacy of a whole argument may depend on the right
translation of a single word.
The coming of Jesus means not his outward,
visible appearance, but his inward, invisible, mani'
festation to the souls of men. That is the only way in
which Jesus ever comes, or can come ; the only way
in which he was ever manifested, or can be mani
fested. AU else is figure, dress, outward form.
The visible angels, the trumpet, the clouds of heaven,
— these have nothing to do with the Christianity of
Jesus. Christianity is in its essence an inward
revelation ;- its outward form is fugitive and change
able. It is Christ formed within us the hope of
glory. The end of the world is the end of false
doctrines", low conceptions of God, a merely- outside
religion of forms and ceremonies, sacrifices, Sabbaths,
meats, washings, and a fixed mode of ritual. That
ended with the destruction of Jerusalem. The old
age terminated then. The new age of spiritual wor
ship then began, when the true worshipper should
worship the Father neither in Gerizim nor m
Jerusalem, but everywhere, in spirit and in truth.
The next event, in " the last things," is the Judg
ment. That was to take place at the coming of Christ.
Therefore, whenever Jesus comes to reign, in the soul,
in the community, in human life, he comes to judge
the world, to separate the sheep from the goats. This
is the office of truth. Truth always judges, and
separates right from wrong, good from evU.
¦There however arise new difficulties, according to

THE LAST THINGS. 369
the old view ; which supposes an outward judgment,
— a day of judgment ; all men collected after death
in the other world. This theatrical assemblage of all
men in one place and at one time is not in accordance
with the new dispensation. " We have not come to
the mount which burned with fire, nor to blackness,
nor darkness, nor tempest." Jesus has two opposite
statements about the judgment. He speaks of him
self as the judge of men, and again he denies that he
is to judge men. " I am not sent," he says, " to judge
the world, but to save the world. If any man does
not obey me, I judge him not ; the word which I
have spoken shall judge him at the last day." This
last day, a day of judgment, is the day when Christ's
word shaU judge the secrets of men. The last day,
the day of judgment to each of us, is the day when
we cease to deceive ourselves, when we lay bare our
souls to the truth, when we see ourselves as we are,
and see God as he is. This day may come in. this life
or the next, but it must come to all, sooner or later.
We all must be judged, because we all need to., be
judged; because there is no peace, nor progress,. nor
heaven possible to us until we see the truth, and
see ourselves in the hght of that truth. Jesus
teaches this judgment in tSat wonderful parable
where he represents himself as sitting on the throne,
and parting the sheep from the goats ; showing the
self-deceivers who had said Lord, Lord, but had been
hard-hearted and cold to their brethren, that they
were goats, not sheep ; showing the Gentiles, those

370 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
who had never professed anything nor believed in
him at all, that they were his real servants whenever
they were unselfishly good. That is the essential
thing in judgment ; all else is the accidental perish
ing form. What we need is to know ourselves, and
judge ourselves by the truth. Whenever we do this,
the Son of Man comes to judgment in our souls.
Then our day of judgment arrives.
Paul taught this judgment to come. He said,
" We must aU appear before the judgment seat of
Christ, that every one may receive the things done
in the body, whether they be good or bad ; " " In the
day when God will judge the secrets of men;" "The
Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness,
and make manifest the counsels of the hearts/'
Whether Paul believed or not in an outward, visible
judgment, is of little consequence. The central, vital
fact of judgment is just what he states it to be,
making manifest the counsels of the hearts. I think
it probable that Paul, at first, did take in a literal
sense the sayings of Jesus concerning his sitting on a
throne to judge the world, but that afterward he
accepted the other word of Jesus, " I judge no man ;
the word that I have spoken shall judge him at the
last day."
This judgment is the source of future rewards and
punishments. What reward do the saints ask or
need, except to know that God loves them ; to see
that they have been faithful in their few things ; to
know that in helping others they have helped Christ

THE LAST THINGS. 371
and his cause ? That is the heavenly reward ; not
sitting on thrones, not being in an outward heaven of
glory. It is a mean and unworthy view which seeks
any higher heaven than the sense of God's infinite
love, and the consciousness of doing and being what is
right. And this comes from spiritual inward insight
of the truth ; this necessarily follows the day of
judgment in each soul. In the parable of Jesus we
read that " these shall go away into everlasting punish
ment, and the righteous into hfe eternal." It is the
same word, "eternal," in both cases in the original.
And eternal here means spiritual. The translation
should be, " These shall go away into the sufferings
of the eternal or spiritual world, and the righteous
into the life of the spiritual or eternal world."
It is often said, and said truly, that our conscience
requires that wickedness should be punished and that
righteousness should be rewarded. But what kind
of punishment and reward does the conscience re
quire ? Only this, I think, — that there shall be a
righteous judgment ; that all shams shall be exposed,
all hypocrisy detected, all formalists and pretenders
unmasked ; that truth shaU be vindicated ; that cruel,
worldly, selfish, mean men, who have passed them
selves off for patriots or saints, shall be exposed, and
made to see themselves as they are. Do we wish
any other punishment for them than that ? Is not
that enough ? Exposure in this world often causes
death ; makes men commit suicide. It is a dreadful
thing to be brought to judgment when we have been

372 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
leading a false life, and have hardened ourselves in
falsehood. But it is a necessaiy, wholesome, and be
nign punishment, in which we can beUeve, because it is
for the good of those who are punished. It comes
from God's love to the wicked man, because it is the
best possible thing for him. It is* "tribulation and
anguish " for a time, but it is a wholesome tribulation
and a healing anguish.
If you ask when this reward and punishment shall
come, whether in this world or the next, I answer " in
both." Christianity is one kingdom, here and here
after. Its laws are the same in both worlds, its
judgments and rewards the same. Those who are
not judged here will be judged there. The Apostle
says, " If we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged,"
— a very significant text, showing that he did not
believe any outward, visible judgment necessary or
essential. The one essential thing is that we shaU
. see the truth, here and elsewhere. Somewhere we
must see it ; it is best to see it now, and to judge
ourselves now.
The next point in Paul's teachings concerning
"the last things" relates to the resurrection and the
spiritual body. He asks (1 Cor. xv. 35), "How
are the dead raised up, and in what body do they
come ? " This question is answered in tbe New
Testament only by the apostle Paul, and by him
only in one passage. The doctrine of the resurrec
tion is taught throughout the New Testament ; it is
taught by Jesus, and by all the apostles; but the

THE LAST THINGS. 373
resurrection of the body is only distinctly declared
by Paul in this fifteenth chapter of Corinthians,
though plainly referred to once or twice elsewhere.
In order to comprehend this remarkable chapter,
— a chapter read so often, heard so often, and yet
probably not always weU understood* -=- let us first
ask what is meant by " resurrection."
The Jews, in the time of Christ, differed from the
Greeks and Romans in this, that the majority of the
Jews beheved in a resurrection of the dead, — that is,
in a going up, — whUe the Greeks and Romans be
lieved in a going down. According to the Greeks
and Romans, the shades of the dead were collected
in an underground region, or Hades* where all
wandered around, aimlessly and hopelessly, in a
world so devoid of interest that Homer makes
Achilles say that the lot of a ploughboy on earth is
better than that of a king in that subterranean
world. But the Jews beheved in an ascent to a
higher state, and this they called the "resurrection."
So Martha, "I know that my brother wUl rise in
the resurrection." The words translated " resurrec
tion/' " rising again," and the Uke, all mean, in the
original, ascent, or rising up to a higher world.
Instead of the dark and dismal underground world .
of the Pagan mythology, the Jewish rehgion — a
religion of hope throughout, a religion which looked
forward to a better Ufe here and hereafter — this
Jewish religion, in its orthodox form, as held by the
Pharisees, taught a progress and rising up of the

374 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
human being after death. This is alluded to by
Paul in his speech before the Sanhedrim, when he
took advantage of this dispute between the Phari
sees and Sadducees, and said: "Of the hope and
resurrection of the dead I am called in question
this day." And again, before FeUx, he declared his
" hope toward God, which his opponents also aUowed,
that there should be a resurrection of the dead, both
the just and unjust." The Jewish view of the
hereafter was one of hope ; that of the Gentiles one
of fear.
It is very unfortunate that this word "resurrec
tion " should have come to mean so generaUy only a
coming back again to bodily life. Thus the resur
rection of Jesus is supposed by most Christians to
have been his coming back to his former bodily Ufe,
instead of his ascent into a higher one. Many
passages in the New Testament show that the " res
urrection of the dead " signifies their rising up into
a better world than this.
Thus the Sadducees, who denied this doctrine of
a higher life, asked Jesus (Matt. xxii. 23) concerning
the woman who had seven husbands, "In the resur
rection, whose wife shall she be ? " — meauing,
evidently, " In that higher Ufe of which you speak,
whose wife shall she be ? " Jesus replied, " In the
resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in
marriage, but are as the angels of God." The "res
urrection " here evidently does not mean merely the
return of man from his grave into his former body,

THE LAST THINGS. 375
but it means the higher condition both of soul and
body hereafter.
So, too, in Luke (xx. 35), Jesus says, " They that
shall be accounted worthy to attain that world, and
the resurrection of the dead, are the children of the
resurrection," — that is, belong by their character to
that higher world.
It is also here intimated, as elsewhere, that the
resurrection is a condition of degrees; that though
there is a resurrection, or ascent, for all, both the
just and unjust, yet that those who have done good
go up into higher spiritual life, and those who have
done evil into spiritual judgment The good, so
far as they have done good, see and know the love of
God which dwells in them ; the evil, so far as they
have done evil, see and know the higher truth which
judges them. We all shall rise into life, as far as
we have done good; into judgment, as far as we
have done evil. It is an ascent, for the bad, to
go where he can see and know the truth, even
though it condemns him. For the sight of truth
Ufts us to a higher plane, fills 113 with a fuUer life,
and is therefore resurrection and life. That is why
Jesus said, " / am the resurrection and the life ; he
who believes in me " — that is, who has my faith —
" does not die," — does not know death, but ascends
into a higher life.
It is only in this sense that we can understand
the saying of the Apostle, "If ye, then, be risen
with Christ, seek those things that are above"

376 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
(Col. iii. 1). He regards aU Christians as already
partaking of the resurrection, as already having
ascended with Christ into a higher world, where
Jesus sits on the right hand of God, — that is, in the
full sense of divine love. So, also, Paul tells the
Ephesians (U. 6) that God "had raised them up
and made them sit in heavenly places with Jesus."
This, also, is what was meant by " the power of the
resurrection" (PhU. Ui. 10), "That I may know
him, and the power of his resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable
unto his death, if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead." He evidently
implies by " resurrection of the dead," not merely a
continued existence after death, but a higher life, in
communion with Christ here and hereafter, — a
higher life born out of suffering and death.
Paul, as we know, did not allude to the miracles of
Jesus ; but he yet laid much stress on his resurrec
tion, — so much that he said, " If Christ be not risen,
our teaching is vain, and your faith is vain ; ye are
yet in your sins." But surely he did not thus value
it merely as a display of power, or as a logical proof
of a future life. " Christ is risen," he elsewhere says,
" for our justification," — that is, to make us just, to
give us the sense of God's pardoning love, to Uft us
into communion with himself and his truth. The
knowledge that Jesus had not gone down into an
under world, but had gone up into a higher existence,
from which he could send truth, joy, and peace into

THE LAST THINGS. 377
i the hearts of his disciples, —that he was near them
j stiU, loving them stiU, though so high above them, —
| this was the power of the resurrection; and this is
I the real power of the resurrection of Christ to-day <
j We stUl think of him as the ascended Master, who is
yet near to us all, our friend, our helper, our dear
brother. The joy of Easter morning is this, that he
aboUshes death by his ever-present spiritual life, by
bis continuing with his church, so that we can sit in
heavenly places with him while we are yet in the"
earthly life, and hear his voice, " Lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age."
In this wonderful chapter on the future life, Paul
begins with the historic faets of the death of Jesus,
his burial, and his rising on the third day. He men
tions the testimony of Peter,' who saw him ; of the
twelve, who saw him; pf five hundred others who.
saw him in GaUlee; then of James, then of aU the
apostles again, and finally of Paul himself Paul as
sociates himself with those who saw the risen Master;
but he certainly did not see him in his earthly body.
/Paul saw him in his ascended state, yet he classes
^himself with the witnesses to the resurrection. The
'I ascended state then was the resurrection.
After recounting these facts, so well attested, of
intercourse held with the risen Master, Paul says,
" If this then is the universal testimony of the apos
tolic preaching, how can there be those among you
in the Christian church who say that there is no
such ascent of the dead into a higher life ? For if

378 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
not, then Christ has not gone up ; and if he has not,
gone up, then all our preaching is founded on error.
We have no Master above, who is in heaven, and
with God, but only a Master who has gone into the
under world with the shades of the departed, with
no power to help or save. But this is not so.
Christ has gone up, the first of the vast Christian
company who are to follow him and be with him.
All die in Adam. As mortal men we must aU die,
but as those whom Christ has made alive, we shall go
up with him, and be with him above." Those who
said there was no resurrection did not probably deny
immortality. If they had been unbelievers in that,
they could hardly have become Christians. But
they were Greeks, who could not beUeve in the
resurrection, — that is, of soul and body, both going
up into a higher life.
Then follows the passage in which Paul declares
that the power of the Gospel shall at last conquer aU
sin, all evil, all unbelief, and that Jesus shaU reign,
as the Christ of truth and love, over all minds and
hearts. And then, as if he foresaw that great heresy
which would afterward make Christ equal with the
Eternal and Infinite Power, he adds : " It is evident
that God must remain supreme, and that the Son
himself must be subject to him who did put aU
things under him, that God may be all in all."
Next comes the question of the body. What body
shall souls have in the future life ? On this point
Paul is very clear.

THE LAST THINGS. 379
1. First, in the future life we are not to be disem
bodied spirits, for this would be equivalent to being
absorbed into the omnipresence of God. It is our
bodily organization which makes us distinct and
separate beings. By body we are located on a par
ticular point of space and in a particular moment of
time. We are in this place, not in all places; in this
time, not in all time. We must be either some
where, everywhere or nowhere. If we are nowhere,
we do not exist at all ; if we are everywhere, we are
absorbed into God, and have no separate existence.
To exist somewhere, so far as we can now under
stand, we must exist in connection with some bodily
organization. 2. But this future body, according to Paul, is not
the same sort of a body as that we now have, but a
higher kind. He compares the body which we lay
aside to a seed ; the body with which we rise, to the
plant which has grown out of the seed. We sow
not the body which shaU be, he says. We do not
sow the oak, but the acorn ; not the spreading vine,
with its shoots and tendrils and clusters of grapes,
but only a seed. As the seed is to the plant, so is
the present body to that which is to come.
3. Yet in one sense it is the same body, for the
principle of organization is the same. The principle
of life in the seed is identical with that in the plant.
Each seed has its own body. We cannot see the
connection between the acorn and the oak, but we
know that there is an unchanging law which binds

380 IDEAS OP THE APOSTLE PAUL.
one to the other, so that by no possibility can an
acorn produce an elm, or an apple seed unfold into
a palm-tree. This principle is . not material ; no
material tests can discover it. No chemistry can
analyze the seed of wheat and detect the potency
which makes it sure that it wUl not evolve into In
dian corn, or barley, or oats. There is also an invis
ible, immaterial principle which organizes the human
body, and constitutes bochly identity. This wiU Uve
on, and organize the future higher body, making it
with all its difference identical with this. The resur
rection of the body, therefore, is not that the same
particles of matter are coUeGted again out of the
grave ; for the identity of the body does not consist
in its having the same material particles, but in its
having the same organic principle.
4. Paul then proceeds to show the difference be
tween the present and the future body. FoUowing
the distinction which makes man consist, not of two
parts, soul and body, but of threei spirit, soul and
body, he tells us that the present body is that in
which soul rules, but the future wiU be one in which
the spirit shall be supreme. The spirit is the highest
power in man, which Connects him with God and
eternity, as the soul connects him with nature and
the outward universe. Now, nature is more real to
us than God ; the finite more certain than the infi
nite. Hereafter, this wiU be reversed. In the fu
ture body, God will seem . nearer than the outward
world, just as he now seems nearer when we rise

THE LAST THINGS. 381
into a spiritual state. When we are risen" with
Christ, we already are Uving in the spiritual body
for that is now a part of man, only less developed
than the soul But there are moments in this Ufe,
high, heroic moments, hours of rapt devotion, hours
of generous love and seU--forgetfulness, when the
spiritual body shines through its veU of flesh. It is
this spiritual organization which supports the martyr
at the stake, so that he does not seem to feel the
flame ; which enables the young man to die for his
country; which looks from the eye in moments of
adoring devotion ; which thrills in the voice of that
sublime eloquence before which all earthly resist
ance gives way. Then the spirit shows itself, and its
bright features shine as through a crystal covering.
Jesus was known to Mary by his Voice of heavenly
love; he was known to his disciples at Emmaus
when he blessed the bread, because in similar mo
ments before, when in bid earthly body, this spir
itual power had manifested itself. They remem
bered the Master's look and tone in the highest
moments of his former life, and so recognized him
again. 5. Paul then specifies more particularly the dif*
ference between the future body and the present
It is —
(a.) " Incorruptible," while this is corruptible'. " It
is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption."
This body is liable to disease, weakness, decay, death;
the future body will be free from these limitations.

382 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
(b.) " It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory."
The present human body has degenerated from its
type. It has lost the grace, grandeur, beauty, which
belong to it ; such majesty and loveUness as we see
in the Greek statues. But in the future life it wiU
unfold into that radiant expression of energy and
beauty which is its normal type.
(c.) " It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power."
Man's body is, in many ways, weaker than that of the
animals around him. He cannot fly like the bird,
nor swim like the fish, nor endure cold and heat as
other animals; many creatures have keener senses;
many are fleeter and stronger than he. But, here
after, he may unfold higher powers, put forth new
faculties, develop other senses ; senses by which to
perceive the nature of things, as he now perceives
their phenomena ; senses by which to penetrate into
unknown worlds of beauty, wonder, and joy.
(d.) " It is sown a natural body, it is raised a
spiritual body." The natural body (or soul body) is
that in which soul rules ; the spiritual body, that in
which spirit is supreme. Here, we try to do right
and often do wrong. The corruptible body weighs
down the soul. Habits which are too strong for
us, temptations addressed to tendencies which come
from a corrupt past, often sweep us away. But there,
the spirit shall rule, and the body gladly and sweetly
serve it in all things.
This doctrine of the resurrection, as taught by Paul,
seems to me more reasonable than to suppose, on the

THE LAST THINGS. 383
one hand, that we are to return into the same material
body we have had here, or, on the other hand, that
we are to become at once disembodied spirits. It is
in accordance with all modern science, which teaches
that abrupt transitions are not the rule of nature, but
rather gradual development. The soul of man may
be developed more and more by passing through
various forms, and as each body has done its work
it drops from the soul, and then a higher organiza
tion is unfolded from within. So we climb, higher
and higher, through endless reaches of creation, ever
learning more of God and of his universe, ever
communing more intimately with the Divine Spirit
and the spirits of the good and great. .All this
is probable, and. accords weU with reason and with
Scripture. This view of the spiritual body will satisfy the
feehngs of those who cling so closely to the notion of
a revival of the same material body we now have.
That feeling is simply a dislike to the notion of dis
embodied spirits, with no means of communicating
with nature or with other human beings, cut off
from the wonders and varieties of the universe. This
feeling is natural, and is expressed by Paul (2 Cor.
v. 2), where he says, we "do not wish to be un
clothed, but clothed upon ; " not to be without body,
but to have a higher body. " If the earthly house,"
he says, is dissolved, " we have a divine building to
dweU in, eternal in the heavens ; not a shifting tent,
but an enduring home."

384 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
AU this, it may be said, is only a theory, True ;
but if we inquire at all into the nature of the future
life, we must choose one of two theories. In the
future state we must either be disembodied spirits or
embodied spirits. The objection to the first hypothe
sis is that, so far as we know, it would put an end to
all communion with the outward universe, and be
equivalent to absorption in God. There only re
mains the other alternative of a future body ; that is,
some organization by which we can come into com
munion with nature and other souls. But it is in
accordance with aU our experience, to anticipate that
such an organization wiU be higher, richer, more
powerful .than this ; and such is what we mean by a
spiritual body.
"Then, the end!" After all are judged, after
Christ has come to every soul, after every human
heart has submitted itself to the divine truth and
love, in this world or in some other world, "then,
the end ! " — the end of the Christian dispensation,
when Christ gives up the kingdom to God the
Father; when we aU come to our Father, Uve
with our Father; and Christ, our brother and our
friend, is by our side, one with us, and we one
with hiin.
That Christ shall " reign tiU he hath subdued aU
things under him," was the firm belief of the Apos
tle. That " every knee should bow, and every
tongue confess Christ to be Lord, to the glory of
God the Father," — this was his plain declaration.

THE LAST THINGS. 385
That all evU should be ultimately swallowed up in
good, was the distinctly proclaimed optimism of
this great Apostle, who had seen more and suffered
more of the misery and wretchedness of the world
than most men ever dreamed.
AU the suffering, all the sin, all the misery of
time and eternity never made him doubt for a mo
ment the ultimate and entire triumph of truth and
love. Persecuted on every side, he was never for
saken by this hope; cast down, this faith always
sustained him.
Oh, divine vision of a perfect time ! Oh, heavenly
glory of an hour when all sin and shame shall cease,
aU tears be wiped away, all wrongs redressed, and
the myriads of human souls, redeemed, purified, ele
vated, shall be like the multitudinous stars of heaven ;
one star differing from another star in glory, but each
star raying out its own light, pure white, rich
golden, deep blue, or burning crimson, each star
moving on its God-given way, without haste or
rest. With such a hope in his heart, the great Apos
tle could bear aU things, believe aU things, hope all
things, endure all things.
In his far-reaching vision he saw a time when
"at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of
things in heaven, and things on earth, and things
under the earth ; " when " in the dispensation of the
fulness of time, God should gather together in one
aU things in Christ ; " when all who died with Adam
in sin and misery, should be made alive in Christ,
25

386 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
in peace and love. Nothing less than this could
satisfy the desire of that large heart. There was
no place in his imagination for an eternal hell, ex
isting forever as a foul blot in the universe of God ;
no place in his reason for a world forever faUing
into relapses of evil and woe ; no place in his faith
for two thrones, one in Heaven where God should
reign over a part of the universe, the other in Hell,
where Satan should rule, a perpetual rival power.
i]No, sooner or later, in some far-off era perhaps, but
Jstill sure, the time of a universal salvation would
come.
1 The church has not reached this faith ; it still be
lieves in the future of a universe eternaUy divided
between sin and goodness, between misery and joy.
It stiU disbelieves that God can be aU in aU, that
good will ever overcome evil, or that Christ's redeem
ing power will be ever sufficient to save aU God's
children. Hence the weakness of the church ; hence
the attacks of unbelief. It has lost the great hope
of the Apostle. When that hope is born again into
the church, it wiU renew its youth ; it will see a
new heaven and a new earth, and begin once more
the course of a united and blessed body having one
heart and one soul.
Paul believes fully, and with his whole soul, in
human progress, — personal progress for the indi
vidual, and the development of a happy and pure
society. Mr. Emerson once spoke of himself as " a

THE LAST THINGS. 387
perpetual seeker, with no past behind him." He
was only repeating what Paul said of himself, " Not
as though I had already attained, or were already
perfect. ... I count not myself to have appre
hended, but this one thing I do; forgetting those
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto
those things which are before, I press toward tbe
mark for the prize of God's great invitation in Jesus
Christ " (PhU. iv. 13).
The wisest thinker of modern times declared it
to be the great object of life, and the chief duty of
man, "to grow." Paul had long before urged his
disciples to constant growth. " Be not hke children,"
said he, — vacillating from one belief to another, car
ried about like a weathercock with every wind of
doctrine, — " but grow up in all things into him who
is the bead, even Christ" (Eph. iv. 14). And by
this he does not mean individual growth alone, but
social progress — growth of the whole community.
He compares the whole society of Christian believers
to the human body, which grows by the interaction
of every part, — nerves, heart, lungs, and all other
organs doing their work ; " by the effectual working
of every part, making increase of the body" (Eph.
iv. 16). So the Christian body is built up of a like
mutual help and common sympathy. In the Chris
tian community every man was to do his part; to
one was given the word of wisdom, to another the
word of knowledge, to another faith, to another a
gift of healing. Each was to use his gift for the good

388. IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
of the whole,, and what one had, he had for the use
of all.
Every man was to. buUd — so he taught in another
f place* changing the figure (1 Cor, Ui. 12) — on the
i one foundation, which was Jesus Christ On that
.[foundation let each one bund. But let him be care-
S ful as to what material he uses. If he buud with
; gold, or silver, or precious stones, his work will last.
If he build with wood, hay or stubble, his work wiU
be destroyed. But every one ought to build.
Thus Paul had an idea of the steady outward
progress of the whole Christian community. AU
rested on one deep principle, — faith in Jesus as the
[Christ. It would not come — this growth — from
j science or philosophy, from conscience or reason,
(from circumstances or environment; it would only
pome from faith, in this divine ideal, — Christ, the
illness of the manifestation of God.
It was by faith in this ideal Jesus that Paul Uved
and worked. All his hope for human progress
flowed from this faith. " Speaking the truth in
love," said he, " let us grow up in all things into him
who is our bead^even Jesus Christ." "TU1 we all
come, in the oneness of faith, and the knowledge; of
the Son of God, unto a perfect man, into the measure
of the stature, of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. iv. 13.
15)., It was not any abstract philosophic truth which
Paul trusted in as the source of human progress, but
truth made real in the life of Jesus ; truth become a

THE LAST THINGS. 389
part of human experience ; truth shown to be possi
ble by one great example. This is the difference
between speculative truth, which only moves the
reason, and Uving truth, which awakens the whole
soul. Such a difference appears, in this very striking and
important fact. The noblest and purest philosophies
never aim at reaching the mass of men ; they only
hope to convince the select souls, the serious thinkers,
the conscientious, devoted scholars. But Paul had a
hope to raise, purify and bring to perfection aU man
kind. He made no distinction. He had faith that
this divine spark of Christian faith could kindle a
flame in the most ignorant and debased souls. We
do not enough consider, in reading his glowing ap
peals to the Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, in
which he urges them all to aim at being perfect in
Christ Jesus, that these were not Senecas, rich in
knowledge ; not Catos of stern integrity ; but the
humble converts, taken out of the common people ;
those that had before practised no self-discipUne ;
those who had no culture ; those to whom he was
obliged to say, " You must not steal any more, now
you are Christ's ; you must not lie any more ; you
must not get drunk any more" (Eph. iv. 25, 27).
It was such as these that he expected to climb the
heights of every virtue ; to put on the whole panoply
of God ; to become perfect men and women in Christ
Jesus ; to think of whatsoever things are true, hon
est, just, pure, lovely ; to think of these things, and aim

390 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
at them. It was such as these that he exhorted
to "walk in the Spirit," to be "led by the Spirit,"
and to " bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, — love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance."
He is our best friend in this world who shows us
that he believes in us; that he has confidence in
our capacity to become something noble and good;
who has faith in us that we are capable of heavenly
aspiration, and devoting ourselves to all things true
and right. Such a noble friend was Paul to his
disciples; the lowly, unknown, half-developed men
and women of Colossse and Ephesus. He exhorted
them to a virtue nobler than that which the wisest
sage had ever dreamed of. He invited them to
go up with him to a height of purity of which no
fStoic or Platonist had ever had a_ conception. "The
perfect man in Christ Jesus," — this was the heav-
bnly vision which moved before him always. By
means of this great hope he roused and Ufted the
world. Such was his hope for individuals. What were
his expectations for the race? The great problem
in regard to social progress has been how to com
bine freedom with union, individual progress with
organic life. The Roman Catholic church has ob
tained union by the sacrifice of freedom; the Pro
testant churches have saved freedom, but have lost
the power which comes from a compact and well
disciplined organization.

THE LAST THINGS. 391
The Protestant churches become disintegrated, di
vided ; they run into sects and parties ; they ever
tend toward a helpless individuaUsm. The Catholic
church has its own perUs; it has unity, but loses
variety ; it clings to a dead past ; it loses its hold on
the advancing age; it is at war with the spirit of
progress and the soul of the future. This is its
peril. But observe how entirely Paul avoids these two
extremes, — how he joins freedom and union, indi
vidual development and social action. In the Epistle
to the Romans he urges those who are ascetic in
their temperament not to judge their liberal brethren,
and teUs the liberals not to despise the stricter party.
He demands freedom of conscience for all. He
claims that no one shall be judged for his conformity
or nonconformity in the matter of meats and Sab
baths, holy times and sacred customs. "Who art
thou that judgeth another man's servant ; to his own
master he standeth or falleth." These broad declar
ations ought to have prevented the persecution and
intolerance of the Christian church in all ages.
What a noble view he had of the Christian
church ! It was the body of Christ, — his visible,
outward means of acting on the world. It was his
hands, by which to touch and heal every. wounded
spirit ; his mouth, by which he should teach divine
truths to all minds ; his eyes, by which he could look
tenderly into every soul ; his feet, by which he could
go about doing good. Every man in the church

392 IDEAS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
could do something for this heavenly master.
Having gifts, differing according to the grace given to
us, as teachers let us teach a well-balanced doctrine ;
let us exhort, advise, comfort, warn, cure, according
to each man's abiUty (Rom. xii. 4-8). "Many
members, but one body, " — this was his idea of the
church. But above all, his faith was in the ever-present
Spirit of God, ready to strengthen, teach, pardon,
and comfort all souls. The hour had come when
i God's spirit should be shed, abroad on all flesh, and
not given only to a few prophets and seers ; when
all might know God, from the least to the greatest y
when the law should be written in every heart;
when by one spirit all should be baptized into one
body, whether Greek or Jew, man or woman ; when
God should put his spirit into every soul, teaching
it to say " Abba, Father ! "
Can the church do better now than to return to
this idea of Paul ? Amid the conflict of creeds and
sects, amid the struggle with hard bigotry on the
one side and hopeless materialism on the other, is
there any better cure for the evils of the time than a
revival of the church of the apostle Paul, in which
shall be combined individual freedom and spiritual
union? — that kingdom of God which is not meat
nor drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghost.
In an age full of tendencies to materialism^ and
yet full of the spirit of enterprise and progress, what

THE LAST THINGS. 393
is needed but a new influx of faith in a Divine
Spirit, — not miraculous and arbitrary, but like an
ocean of love, in which aU are borne along, and
which wUl flow into every heart and mind which
opens to receive it ? In a day which is fuU of
inteUectual activity, what better than to add the joy
of faith and hope, the sight of a divine future ? In
an age of humanity and philanthropy, what is needed
but a heavenly love to be joined with earthly sym
pathy, a divine impulse to bear us on toward human
charity ? In an age when this life is growing happier,
, when the old wrongs • and abuses are disappearing,
i what is more needed than the sight of immortality, of
the world to come, a continuation of aU that is best in
I this, a place of reunion of loving hearts, of greater
'peace and joy, where there shall be higher tastes,
( Imore generous love, keener insight, and where we
| ishall see and know more of the great Master, the
dear Friend, Jesus Christ? Such are the ideas of
Paul. Can we find any better than these ?

APPENDIX.

NOTE A.
THE TENDENCY-THEORY OF BAUR AND ITS
MODIFICATION BY HIS SUCCESSORS.
'HPHE peculiarity of the critical movement initiated by
-*- Baur is this, that it has substituted for the mythi
cal theory (which had been pushed to its extreme by
Strauss) that of "tendency." This means that the
writers of the New Testament wrote with a tendency in
their mind toward certain beliefs ; which tendency acted
like a purpose, leading them to modify facts to suit their
aim. The purpose may have been a good one,- and may
have sometimes swayed them unconsciously. Oftener,
however, it led them to work in the fashion of those who
thought it no harm to invent the numerous false gospels
and epistles of the second century. Origen says : " Not
only four gospels, but many more have been written, from
which those which we have were selected, and have been
handed down to the churches. The Church has four gos
pels, the heretics many, of which one is called the Gospel
according to the Egyptians, another the Gospel of the
twelve Apostles. Basilides dared' to write a gospel, and

396 APPENDIX.
give it his own name. I know one called The Gospel
according to Thomas ;. another, The Gospel according to
Matthias ; and we read of many others." 1 So also testify
Irenaeus, Jerome and Ambrose.2
Two principal events, it is said, gave rise at first to this
tendency to create sacred scriptures. The first was the
controversy between Pauline and Judaic Christianity, the
second that between the -Catholic Church and Gnosticism.
AU the historic books of the New Testament are supposed
by Baur to show the influence of the first of these contro
versies ; and to he, so far, not historic works, hut theolog
ical. Thus, Mackay summarizes the Baur hypothesis by.
telling us that it makes the fourth Gospel purely ideal ; and
he says of the others that each has " a specific tendency, a
more or less determinate purpose, a disposition to neutral
ize existing varieties of opinion, and to pave the way for
Catholic establishment. In every case the writer's theory,
or policy, exercises of course a modifying influence upon
his narrative. Matthew is supposed to represent especially
the Judaical tradition, but with intermingling Catholic con
cession; Luke is a conciliatory aggregate of Judaical
notions and narratives, superadded to a Pauline basis,
which, next to the genuine Pauline epistles, may be con
sidered as the purest and most important document of
Paulinism." s
This " tendency-theory " reaches its full development"
in its treatment of the Book of Acts. Of this Zeller says,
" The view that the Acts has a purely historical aim, that
1 Origen, first sermon on Luke, — quoted by De Wette.
2 See Baring-Gould, " Lost and Hostile Gospels."
» "The Tubingen School and its Antecedents." By R. W.
Mackay. 1863.

NOTE A. 397
is, that it narrates the facts it contains for their own sakes
must be described as now discarded." '
Those who deny the authenticity of the Book of Acts,
base their objections on these grounds : First, the im
probability of the facts recorded, — such as the deaths of
Ananias and Sapphira, the phenomena ot the day of Pen
tecost, and the profuse miracles ascribed to Peter and Paul.
Next, the divergence of the account given in Acts of
the relation of Paul to Peter, from that contained in the
Epistle to. the Galatians. " The Paul of Acts," says Baur,2
" is manifestly quite a different person from the Paul of
the Epistles." Third, the different account of the council
at Jerusalem in Acts and Galatians. According to Over-
beck,8 the book has insoluble difficulties of" exaggeration,"
"incorrectness," "ambiguity,'' "insufficiency," "igno
rance." Zeller 4 considers it quite impossible that Luke
or any companion of Paul should have written in good
faith the account of the miracles (Acts xvi. 26 et seq. ; xxviii.
7-10), or described Paul as doing what he could not
possibly have done (Acts xxi. 20 ; xxiii. 6). But Pflei
derer, who also makes the Book of Acts a tendency-
writing, does not see the force of some of these objections.^
According to Baur, Swegler, and ZeUer, Paul in the Book
of Acts becomes a Judaizing Christian, while Peter and
James are converted into Pauline Christians ; and the Acts
is regarded as a work written with the express purpose of
1 Zeller, "Contents and Origin of the Acts," etc. By Dr. Edward
Zeller. Translated by Joseph Dare. 1875. But since Zeller said
this, there has been a reaction in favor of Acts.
2 Baur, " Paulus," Introduction.
8 Introduction to Zeller on Acts.
4 Ui supra, ii. 264 (English translation).
6 Pfleiderer, "Paulinism," ii. 242 (English translation).

398 APPENDIX.
reconciling the two parties, by making mutual concessions.1
In it Paul is Petrefied and Peter is Paulified.2 It is con
sidered by Baur a systematic attempt to gloss over the
differences between the Pauline and Judaizing Christians,
judiciously blending fact and fiction, so as to cool the heated
memory of former strife.8 Zeller calls the Book of Acts
" the draft of a proposal for peace, presented to the Judaists
by the Pauline party." 4
We may admit that there is a certain grain of truth in
these views. We must not undervalue the grea,t service
done to the church by the labors of Baur and his succes
sors. They have called attention to many points hitherto
unnoticed. They have roused a remarkable ardor of
inquiry into the condition of the early church. They
have caused every part of the New Testament to be exam
ined and discussed as never before. It is curious that
critics, who regard most of the books of the New Testa
ment as unhisfcoric, and as coming from unknown writers,
should t be the authors of a vast series of monographs on
single books and single passages of these writings, seeking
to find the exact truth concerning them. This, of itself
shows that their work is not mainly destructive. The
work of destruction soon wearies. Such writers as Strauss
and Froude tire of it, and turning to some other field of
1 Meyer, " Commentary on Acts," i. 11 (English translation).
2 Sorley, " Jewish Christians and Judaism. A Study in the His
tory of the First Two Centuries." By W. R. Sorley, Cambridge,
1881. 8 Sorley (ut supra).
4 Quoted by Overbeck. Int. to Acts, i. 18. (English transla
tion of Zeller). The school of Baur derives from Hegel a deep inter
est in the study of History, considered as showing the development
of ideas. It is not a body of individual critics, but a qritical-his-
toric school, which is itself in a state of development.

NOTE A. 399
literature, become historians, dramatists or novelists. But
the vast productivity of the Tubingen school shows that it
is not seeking to destroy but to create and discover. It
has pointed out the fact that the bitter opposition to Paul
by the Judaizing Christians was only an extreme tendency
of the Jewish-Christian party at Jerusalem. There is no
evidence that the Jewish apostles opposed Paul ; but the
course of Peter at Antioch, rebuked by Paul, makes it
probable that when the Jewish Christians were together,
they felt little interest in Paul's universalism. Since Peter
withdrew from the Gentiles at Antioch, as soon as the
Jewish Christians came from James at Jerusalem, it is
plain that the church at Jerusalem considered Gentile
Christians as their inferiors. Just as the whites in this
country have recognized the rights of the colored people in
theory, but practically have often regarded them as a
lower race, so the Jewish Christians felt toward the
Gentiles. But the critics are mistaken who see anything
essentiaUy" unhistoric in the account of Peter's course
toward Cornelius (Acts x.), or his speech at the council,
(Acts xv.). For this is singularly in harmony with his
character as given in the gospels ; which is that of a man
very liable to be influenced by his surroundings. Phreno-
logically speaking, Peter had a large organ of the love of
admiration, large sympathy, and little caution. He acted
on the impulse of the moment. He could not bear the
ridicule of the maid servant and the solfliers, and so
denied his master, whom he had just before been ready to
defend at the risk of his life. First of all the disciples, he
could see the Christ, the mighty king and deliverer, in his
Galilean master. First of them all, he saw that in every
nation those who feared God and did right might become
followers of the Christ. In both cases he could see the

400 APPENDIX.
principle ; in both cases he found it hard to practise it.
The "very rebuke addressed to him by Paul (Galatians ii.
14) assumes that Peter accepted in principle the same uni
versalism as Paul himself. Paul charges Peter with incon
sistency, dissimulation, and with not acting up to his
principles, — thus taking it for granted, as well known,
that Peter agreed with himself that it was right to treat the
Gentiles as fellow-Christians. Therefore this passage in
Garlatians is in fall agreement with Acts xi. 17, 18, and
Acts xv.. 7-11.
Nor is there any inconsistency between Paul's course
(Acts xvi. 3 ; Acts xxi. 26) and his declarations (Galatians
ii. 3 ; v. 2). Even Pfleiderer points out this (ii. 234), —
showing that the cases of Timothy and Titus were wholly
different, one being a half Jew by birth, the other wholly
a Gentile. Paul willingly admitted that it was right for
Jews to keep their law ; but he denied that any such
demand should be made on the Gentiles. A Congregar
tibnal minister might be perfectly willing to immerse a
man brought up as a Baptist, to whom this seemed the
true form of baptism ; while he would utterly deny the
claim that only those thus baptized were members of the
Christian church. So Paul admitted that Jewish1* rites
were good ¦and useful for the Jews, but denied that they
were necessary for salvation to any Gentile who believed
in Christ. If Gentiles who already believed in Christ
were led to l!hink it necessary for their salvation to be
circumcised, they were 'then denying that they could be
saved by faith in Christ alone, and were thus virtually
made to deny his redeeming power. Paul's principle was
that " neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncir
cumcision, but a new creation of faith and love." (GaL
vi. 15).

NOTE A. 401
That the Book of Acts was written after the bitterness
of the conflict was over, " as a draft of a proposition of
peace presented to the Judaizers by the Pauline party,"
is one of the strangest of all suggestions. Let us try to
imagine such a transaction. The Pauline party is sup
posed to say to the other : " We will agree to falsify history
and to represent the hostile apostles as in full agreement.
We know, and the churches know, that Peter and James
refused to acknowledge uncircumcised Gentiles as Chris
tians. But we will invent a story about Peter's having
had a vision, and in consequence of this, of his baptizing
a Roman centurion and his family. We will also imagine
a council at Jerusalem which shall be assumed to decide
that the Gentiles need not be circumcised. Allow this,
and we wiU in turn concede to you as history the state
ment that Paul conformed to Jewish customs, and deferred
to the opinions of the Jewish apostles. We will then
both agree to accept this compromise as the history of the
early church, and wholly to ignore henceforth the true
story." So said, so done. Not a whisper transpired of
this ingenious transaction. Every church, from Egypt to
Gaul, accepted this invention as the true historic account.
The great scholars in the church at the end of the second
century, Irenaeus, Origen, Tertullian, never suspected the
fabrication ; and it was reserved for the ingenuity of Ger
man scholars in the nineteenth century, to discover the
real history of this astonishing compromise.
Such a theory as this could only have occurred to men
who have been so devoted to the critical study of theology
as to have lost the historic imagination which puts itself
into the spirit of a period. Still, there is a basis of truth
in all this. We can easily see a difference between the
historic value of the first and last part of the Book of Acts.
26

402 APPENDIX.
Critics of aU schools agree that the author of the third
Gospel and that of the Book of Acts is the same person.
The most ancient tradition in the church ascribes both
works' to Luke, and the lecent objections to this tradition
are not of much weight. If the object of the Book of
Acts had been to modify the belief of the church, it would
not have been ascribed to such an obscure author, but to
Silas, Timothy, Titus, or to Paul himself. If the " we "
passages (those in which the writer associates himself with
Paul) were not written by an actual companion, and were
contrived by a falsifying and later author to give a con
temporaneous aspect to the narrative, why was not the
name of the travelling companion inserted 1 If it was a
subsequent forgery of Pauline Christianity in the second
century, intended to reconcile itself with the Jewish Chris
tians, why did it not insert an account of a meeting of
Peter and Paul in Rome, and of their common martyrdom
there ? Why did it leave off so abruptly, and in an unfin
ished state 1 And why close this effort to reconcile the
Jews to Paul with an account of his denouncing the Jews
as incorrigible 1
All such difficulties which beset the tendency-hypoth
esis are removed, if we suppose antiquity right in attrib
uting the Acts to Luke, referred to as "the beloved
physician" (Col. iv. 14.) He was probably a Greek, and
as his language shows, not well acquainted with Jewish
customs. He was a follower and friend of Paul (Phil
emon 24; 2 Timothy iv. 11), probably of Asia Minor,
and crossing with Paul from Troas to Europe. For the
"we" begins at this point, — and continues, with inter
ruptions, to the end. It shows the writer to have been
Paul's companion in Greece, Asia Minor, at Jerusalem, and
on his voyage to Rome.

, NOTE A. 403
This view accounts for the more unhistorical character
of the first part of the book, which refers to that period
of the church of which Luke could have had no personal
knowledge. He probably found his material for this, as
well as for the incidents of the life of Jesus, during his
long residence at Jerusalem and in the vicinity, in the two
years and more of the Apostle's imprisonment at Caesarea.
For the " we " pronoun ceases on the arrival of Paul and
his companions at Jerusalem (Acts xxi. 18), and begins
again (Acts xxvii. 1) when they set sail for Italy. The
phrase used in the last passage seems to show that the
writer was one of the party of Paul, and under restraint
with him. At all events, he had the opportunity, during
these two years, of obtaining material for the first part of
the work. It gives such details in regard to Paul's
speeches as show that he was probably present as a spec
tator and hearer, as he would naturally have wished to be.
(See Acts xxi. 26, 27, 30, 33, 34, 40 ; xxii. 22, 23 ;
xxiii. 1 ; xxiv. 1, 2, &c.) Some of Paul's speeches he
may have learned from himself, during the voyage. The
abrupt conclusion of the work is best explained by the
probable intention of the writer to make a continuation,
which he was prevented from doing, possibly by his own
sudden death. The book is so far written with a tendency,
that it shows the natural feeling of partiality for Paul
which must have been felt by a friend and companion.
It is so far a book to conciliate the Jews as it comes from
an educated man, with the historic animus of impartiality.
From such a writer you would hardly look for a polemic
against the Judaizers, like that of Galatians ; since no
such polemic appears in Paul's other writings, not even in
Romans or Corinthians. But if the book was written in
the second century with the purpose of inventing a history

404 APPENDIX.
about Paul and his opponents, it is incredible that the
adroit writer should have made no use of Paul's epistles,
in order to give local color to his story. I see unanswer
able objections, then, to the theory that the Book of Acts
is "a quasi-historical romance," or "a well-meant effort
of a later period to heal party differences by exhibiting the
two great party-leaders in friendly co-operation." To make
out such a theory, Baur and his successors have been
obliged to force their assumptions upon their facts. When
the documents describe Peter and Paul as agreeing with
each other, then the accounts are «aUed forgeries written
for that purpose ; when they bring out any instance of dis
agreement, then they are not considered to be forgeries
but accepted as reliable statements. When either of the
documents omits a fact mentioned by the other, it is sup
posed to prove the writer to have been ignorant of what
he ought to have known ; but when both mention it, it
becomes plain that one must have copied from the other.
By such a process anything can be proved, and anything
disproved. This may be criticism, "but it is not impartial
inquiry. Zeller, to show that the Book of Acts is a tendency-
work, tells us that there is a remarkable harmony between
the first part, which is devoted to Peter and the older
apostles, and the last part, which gives the career of
Paul. Both apostles perform similar miracles, endure
like sufferings, and are compensated by similar triumphs.
As Cornelius worships Peter, the people of Lystra wor
ship Paul. As Peter punishes Ananias and Sapphira, so
the demoniac (Acts xix. 16) punishes the false exoreists.
Zeller, however, meets with this difficulty : Why does the
book suspend its narrative before telling ofthe martyrdom
of Paul, — when the elder apostles James and Stephen

NOTE A. 405
attained this high glory? And why does it omit the
. trials and sufferings which Paul himself relates (2 Cor.
xi. 23, &c.) ] Because, says Zeller, this would cause the
merits of Paul to outweigh too greatly those of Peter and
his companions, and the writer's purpose was to keep
them exactly even. This sort of criticism is evidently
too ingenious. When there is a parallel between the
labors and sufferings of the leaders of the two great parties,
it is supposed to show a purpose of keeping up the equil
ibrium. But when the martyrdom on the one side is told,
and that on the other studiously suppressed, (for ZeUer
is certain that the writer of Acts knew of the death of
Paul *) then this indicates the same purpose of keeping
up an equilibrium. But how impossible to believe the wri
ter of such an artless story to he ingeniously balancing in
his own mind the amount of fictitious merits which he shaU
invent for each of the two parties. Imagine him saying,
" I will conceal the martyrdom of Paul, for that would tend
to eclipse the glory of Peter ! " A critic who can push
his theory so far, in order to prove a book to be " a ten
dency-writing," shows that his own work, at least, must
be regarded as written with a tendency.
According to the hypothesis of Baur and his followers,
most of the books of the New Testament, with the excep
tion of Paul's four chief epistles, belong to the class of
"tendency-writings." They therefore were written in a
period far later than the time of the apostles, — a period
when wholesale falsification seemed natural and proper.
There may not have been any deliberate intention to
deceive ; these pseudonymous writings were possibly in
nocent fictions, produced for purposes of edification. An
immense amount of ingenious study has been expended
1 He concludes this from Acts xx. 24, 25.

406 APPENDJX.
on this hypothesis ; and by such labor and learning it has
been made plausible, at least to those who already accept
the theory. So that, at last, some writers (like the Dutch
authors of " The Bible for Learners ") assume that the
proposition is proved, and teach it dogmatically, as a
universally admitted fact.
But before any such critical assumption can be regarded
as established, we must look not only at the arguments in
its favor, but also at the objections to it. We may sum
up the doctrine of Baur and his foUowers thus : The
books of the New Testament, with the exception of the
four chief Pauline epistles and the Apocalypse, are ficti
tious productions belonging to some period in the second
century, having for their object to reconcile the Petrine
and Pauline Christians. They were written, not by the
authors whose names they bear, but by some other, un
known persons. The facts which they narrate and to
which they refer are not historic, though they may rest
on some historic foundation. What this foundation is,
we can never ascertain with certainty. All the miraculous
part must, of course, be set aside as pure invention. The
resurrection of Jesus was based on mere imagination, and
the belief in it came from the depressed and nervous con
dition of the disciples after the crucifixion of their master.
The wish was father to the thought ; the thought grew
into a belief ; the belief became a certainty ; and this
was the rock on which the church was built.
The difficulties to be encountered by those who main
tain this view, are such as these : —
The whole Christian church at the end of the second
century had accepted the books now contained in our
canon, as -coming from the authors whose names they
bear. This happened by the law of selection, and

NOTE A. 407
the survival of the fittest. The New Testament was
not put together by the authority of any church synod,
but by the conviction of the whole church that these
books "were authentic and genuine. Nor did this take
place because of the absence of a critical sense, or from
unreasoning acquiescence. The books of the New Testa
ment remained in the belief of Christians as authentic, out
of a great mass of apocryphal gQspels and epistles, many
of which are still extant. They were divided into two
classes, those generally accepted by the church, and those
doubtful ; while the books not in our canon were reck
oned, says Eusehius, as spurious.
There were great critics and scholars in the second and
third centuries, perfectly able to examine and test the
quality of an alleged sacred writing, who yet accepted
our present Scriptures.
Again, the questions which intensely interested all
Christians at the end of the second century, such as
Christ's Mission to the underworld, and the sharp con
flicts of Christianity with Gnosticism, scarcely come to
light in the books of the New Testament.1
The numerous coincidences, which were evidently un
designed, because unapparent, and the contradictions which
are apparent, and on the surface, both show that the
writers were not framing fictitious gospels and epistles.
If artless, how could they so skilfully interweave hundreds
of historic facts and illusions ; and if artful, why did they
leave so many discrepancies and contradictions ?
O. B. Frothingham 2 tells us that it is " as plain as any
1 See two important monographs on this subject by Prof. F.
Huidekoper, of Meadville, Penn. "Works of Frederic Huidekoper."
David G. Francis. New York, 1883.
2 Cradle of Christ, p. 96.

408 APPENDIX.
point of literary criticism can be that tbe Acts of the Apos-
les is not to be relied on for information concerning the
life and opinions of Paul." " This must henceforth be
regarded as one of the points established." "The un
known author romances." Mr. Frothingham follows Baur
and Zeller in saying that the book is intended to mediate
between the Pauline and Petrine view.
But the more recent criticism, as represented in the
learned theological reviews of Germany, has essentially
modified the conclusions of Baur, and by no means agrees
with those of Mr. Frothingham, nor with " The Bible for
Learners " 1 in depreciating the historic value of the Book
of Acts. Thus Pfleiderer 2 who is classed by Holtzmann 8
as one who has followed in the direction of the Tiibingen
school, but with alterations and improvements, speaks
thus — after describing the view which makes the Book
of Acts a deliberate attempt at modifying history for the
sake of conciliation : —
" There are considerations of the greatest importance
adverse to this view. In the first place, a stand-point of
this kind is wholly without example in the history of
Paulinism." After showing this, Pfleiderer says, " It is
much more probable that the author, possessed with the
consciousness of his own time, . . . understood and hon
estly made use of his sources of information concerning
it." Pfleiderer then adds that the author of Luke's Gos-
1 " We clearly perceive that this book (Acts) contains an in
correct account, and that this inaccuracy is not the result of acci
dent or ignorance, but is a deliberate design. ... to hide in some
degree the actual course of events." " Bible for Learners," iii. 25.
Roberts. Boston.
2 Paulinism, ii. 229.
8 Article in Hilgenfeld's "Zeitschrif t fur wissenschaftlichen The
ologie." 1882.

NOTE A. 409
pel, and of the Book of Acts, laid down a critical and
historic method for his gospel and " undeniably carried
it out." He made use of " all the sources of information
accessible to him, whether written or traditional,'-' with
" careful comparison, testing, and conscientious use of them,
for the purpose of accurately ascertaining and setting
forth the actual facts that occurred." Pfleiderer believes
the author of Luke's Gospel to have occupied a Pauline
standpoint, but says that this " indicates the more forcibly
the honest endeavor of the historian to give an impartial
consideration to his various sources of information ; so that
he has not hesitated' to admit passages of the most decided
Ebionitish character, . . . which his conscience did not
allow him, as a historian, to leave out." This being his
course in the Gospel, it is in the last degree improbable
that he took an exactly opposite course in the Book of
Acts. As to the Apostolic Council, in regard to which the
school of Baur considers the Acts in direct opposition to
Galatians, Pfleiderer says that the difference is of such
a kind as not to justify the assumption of intentional
misrepresentation. He considers that the essential facts
are correctly stated in the Book of Acts.
Nor does he see any reason to believe that the account
of the course of Paul in regard to the circumcision of Tim
othy (Acts xxvi. 3) is unhistorical ; since his case, differed
essentially from that of Titus (Gal. ii. 3), — Timothy being
half a Jew, and Titus a Gentile ; and the ceremony in
Paul's mind being a matter of indifference, and inno
cent, unless when insisted on as a duty for Gentile Chris
tians. Holsten -is another follower of Baur. But in a recent
work x be takes the ground that anything unhistoric in the
1 Das Evangelium des Paulus. 1880.

410 APPENDIX.
Book of Acts has crept in unconsciously. And, though a
disciple of the strictest sect of the Tubingen school, he con
siders the Book of Acts as an important historic source,
being next in value to the four great Pauline Epistles.
William Grimm is another eminent theologian of the
scientific school, who tells us that l " thoughtful criticism
will show that much is genuine and authentic which the
school of Baur has hastily rejected."
A striking article by Holtzmann 2 -gives a careful survey
of the present state of opinion in the great critical schools
of Germany in regard to the historic value of the Book of
Acts. He puts the theologians into three classes : first,
those who take the view of Baur ; then, those who have
largely modified it ; and lastly, those who fuUy defend the
historic character of the Book of Acts. In the second class,
he places Beuss, Oster, Sabatier, Renan, Aube, Keim, W.
Grimm, Lekebusch and Oertel. In the third class are
Neander, Olshausen, Ebrard, Ewald, Ritschl, Lechler,
Bleek, Mangold, Trip, Baumgarten, Hofmann, Meyer,
Wendt, Sieffert, Thiersch, Pressense, Wetzel, Friedrich,
Weiss, Schenkel, -K. Schmidt, and F. Zimmer. So far,
therefore, from the unhistoric character of the Book of Acts
being a finally settled point of the results of criticism, it
is plain that the latest, freest, and most exact criticism
tends strongly to a belief in the value of the Book of Acts,
as a reliable source of knowledge in regard to the history
of the apostle Paul.
In the present work I have so regarded it, though
holding it secondary to the Pauline writings. After a full
and careful examination of the objections urged against
the authenticity of Ephesians, Colossians and 2nd Thess
alonians, I can see no adequate grounds for supposing
1 Hilgenfeld, " Zeitschrift." 1882. 2 Ibid.

NOTE B. 411
them to be fabrications of a later author. The Pastoral
Epistles are more doubtfid ; but this is less important for
our purpose, as they contain little to modify our knowledge
of the Apostle drawn from the other sources.

NOTE B.
AUTHORSHIP OF THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.
"\ \ 7E will here consider the objections to the Pauline
* ' authorship of the Epistle to the Ephesians ; first
suggested by Schleiermacher and Usteri, afterwards em
phasized by De Wette, and finally treated as conclusively
proved by the school of Baur. That this letter could
not have been sent to Ephesus is argued from the fact
that some of the older manuscripts omit that address
(so Marcion, Tertullian, and the old manuscripts in Basil) ,
but chiefly because it seems written to those who were
personaUy unknown to Paul (i. 15 ; iii. 1-4; iv. 21), and
contains no friendly salutations, though Paul was in
Ephesus more than three years (Acts xx. 31). What
ever may be the explanation of this omission, it is not
so much an objection to the authorship of Paul, as to
the opposite hypothesis, that the epistle was composed
at a later period by one falsely assuming the name of
the Apostle. Any one able to imitate the style and
spirit of Paul as weU as is done in this epistle,1 would
1 Erasmus says of it, " Idem in hac epistolft Pauli fervor, eadem
profunditas, idem omnino spiritus et pectus."

412 APPENDIX.
certainly have been able to add the local color and details
which are here wanting. An impostor in the second
century, trying to imitate a letter of Paul to Ephesus,
would have filled it with personal allusions, recoUections,
and salutations.
A second reason assigned for supposing it a later
fabrication is that it has many expressions and thoughts
like those in the Epistle to the Colossians. These are
collected by De Wette.1 It -is asked whether a man- of
so much fertility of thought and richness of expression
would have condescended to copy himself. Certainly
not, supposing Paul's purpose in writing had been to ac
quire a literary reputation. But this was the last thing
in his mind. His letters were written for immediate
practical objects; and if the same truths were needed
by two neighboring churches, and would do them good,
he would not hesitate to repeat to the second what he
had just said to the other. His mind was fuU of strong
emotions and convictions, and they flowed forth in
similar forms of utterance. To object to this is the
very pedantry of criticism.2 Paul himself says, "To
write the same thing again does me no harm, and is safer
for you " (Phil. iii. 1).
Another reason, of more weight, for doubting the
authenticity of this letter to the Ephesians is derived
from its contents ; which are said not to be Pauline.
Baur describes them as referring to "the transcendental
regions of the world of spirits," and as considering
1 "De Wette's Introduction to the New Testament. Transla
ted1 from the fifth, improved and enlai'ged edition. By Frederick
Frothingham. Boston. 1858."
2 Pfleiderer says that the Epistle to the Ephesians is "the
most developed form of Paulinism, and the richest in dogma."

NOTE B. 413
Christ as the absolute principle of being, and the centre
of the spirit-realm. " We thus find ourselves," says this
critic, "in a circle of ideas belonging to a much later
period than that of Paul, namely, that of the Gnostics.
The work of Christ is to restore the unity of the worlds.
We find here the Gnostic idea of nki\(ta>\ta, or fulness;
of yv&o-is, or knowledge j of a pvorqptov, etc." These aUu-
sions to Gnosticism are certainly very slight, if they
exist at aU. And though the Gnostic ideas were not
developed systems in the time of Paul, they surely were
there as tendencies of thought. It is natural that he
should refer to what was in the air, though it had not
yet taken any distinct form. The true explanation of
the difference between the thoughts in Paul's earlier
writings and those contained in the Epistles of the
Captivity (Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Phil
emon), is to be found in the progress and unfolding
of his own ideas. This is fully shown by Sabatier, in
the excellent work already referred to, in which he de
scribes the development of the mind of Paul. Begin
ning with the earliest letters — those to the Thessalon
ians — -he finds in them the spirit and thoughts of a
missionary. They take their place very natmally in the
account in the Book of Acts of the second missionary
journey. The references fo what occurred at Philippi
and Thessalonica coincide with those in Acts, Full of
life and energy, fuU of touching affection for the first
Gentile believers, there is little of doetrine in these early
letters. Much emphasis is laid on the coming of Christ,
which in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians is be
lieved to be near. But in the Second Epistle Paul cor
rects the impression he may have given, of a very speedy
manifestation of the Master. Before that coming, he

414 APPENDIX.
says, some evil principle in the church or the world,
which was then restrained, must be revealed in order to
be destroyed. Things must grow worse before they can
grow better. In this period of his Ufe the question of
Law and Gospel, Faith and Works, had not taken pos
session of the Apostle's mind. His main thought was
of his "Gospel," — the good news of spiritual salvation
through Christ, which he preached to Jew and Gentile,
and which he saw producing such happy results.
Then came the struggle with the Judaizing- Christians.
The heat of this .battle appears in the Epistle to the
Galatians ; but the profound ideas which it developed
in the mind of Paul are more fully unfolded in the
Epistle to the Romans. In this treatise are brought
into clear light the truths which transformed Christianity
from a Jewish sect into a religion for mankind.
In the Epistles to the Corinthians we find a further
development of thought. The churches which have
been founded are now to be organized. These letters
contain the methods and principle of church organization.
Existing difficulties are wisely and kindly removed; ex
citing questions are treated with a strong yet tender hand.
Rebuke and warning are combined with consolation and
hope. If in the Epistles to the Thessalonians Paul ap
pears as a missionary and preacher ; if, in the Epistle to
the Galatians he is a powerful opposer of error; if, in
the Romans he becomes a philosophic teacher of large
doctrines ; in the letters to the Corinthians, he is the
church father, guiding, warning, explaining, comforting,
with long-suffering and gentle wisdom. Lastly, there
came another stage in the steadily unfolding mind of one
who • was ever " forgetting the things behind, and reach
ing forward to those before." In his two years' captivity

NOTE C. 415
at Caesarea, his thoughts took a higher flight. History,
past and to come, unroUed before his eyes. He saw how aU
things had been working together, in the providence of
God, for the coming of Christ; how aU things had
been made for him ; how the gospel of Christ was the ful
ness of him who fills aU in aU. In the heavenly world, the
world of divine truth and love, Christ sits on the right
hand of God ; far above aU other prophets, teachers,
leaders of mankind. They are aU dominated by his
superior thought, — whether thrones, dominions or powers.
The discords of life are to be harmonized in him ; the
wars of Jew and Gentile opinion, the vast beliefs of Orien
tal, Egyptian, and Gnostic speculation, wiU be resolved
and attuned to concord by the great Master. Paul has
now left behind his crude expectation of an outward com
ing of Jesus as the King of the world. He sees his
reign as a mighty spiritual influence, which shaU subject
aU things to himself.

NOTE C.
PAUL AND SENECA.
LEGEND existed in the early church concerning a
friendly intercourse which was believed to exist
between the apostle Paul and Seneca, during the impris
onment of the former in Rome. There is nothing impos
sible, nor indeed very improbable, in such a • relation.
They were of about the same age, Seneca having been born

A

416 APPENDIX.
A. d. 3. The brother of Seneca, GaUio, was proconsul
of Achaia when Paul was at Corinth, and delivered Paul
from the hands of his persecutors, the Jews. As Seneca
and his brother were much attached to each other, it is
not unlikely that Gallio wrote to Seneca about Paul.
A prisoner in Rome, Paul was under the control of Bur-
rhus, praetorian prefect, the intimate friend of Seneca;
and this prefect was favorable to Paul, allowing him to
, occupy a separate dwelling, with a soldier for his guard.
Paul mentions it as a favorable opportunity for the spread
of the Gospel, that his imprisonment had brought him to
the knowledge of many in the praetor's court (Phil
i. 13). Beside this, it would be natural "for Seneca, a
man of an active and inquiring mind, and interested in
monotheism, to find much agreement between Paul's
views and his own. FinaUy, a correspondence exists
between Paul and Seneca, consisting of fourteen letters,
eight of which are from Seneca to Paul, and six from
Paul to Seneca. This correspondence is referred to, with
out any expressions of doubt as to its authenticity, by
Saint Jerome in the fourth century, and probably also by
Saint Augustine.
These facts appear to furnish a sufficient historic foun
dation for the legend; but a more careful investigation
diminishes their value.
To begin with the correspondence. We must admit
that if these letters were the production of a later period,
they were not written with any dogmatic or partisan
purpose. On tbe other hand, they bear no trace of the
mind either of Seneca or of Paul. . They have not the epi
grammatic acuteness of the first, nor the impetuous ardor
of the other. They are polite letters, full of mutual com
pliments, more in the style , of Cicero than of Seneca.

'note c. 417
Nor do they seem to have been known to the church
Fathers, with the exception of the two above referred to.
And, at aU events, the internal evidence goes far to show
that they are not authentic.
That the theology and ethics of Seneca resembled in
many respects those of Paul, is undeniable. But this was
because Stoicism was largely in sympathy with the best
Jewish thought, as Professor Huidekoper has shown.1
Both believed in one Supreme Being : that the heathen
Gods were to perish ; that heathen temples were to be
avoided ; that the Divine nature could not be represented
by material images ; that there would be a resurrection,
and a final conflagration of the world. Jews and Stoics
both laid great stress on moral conduct, and character.
Both taught a -wpovoia, or Providence, using the same
Greek word to express it. Both laid stress on wisdom,
as the basis of character. The Stoics, like the Jews,
spoke of the Law.2 On account of such resemblances
as these, and for other reasons, Prof. Huidekoper con
siders the views of the Stoics to have originated under
Jewish influence. At aU events, as these resemblances
existed before the coming of Christ, the fact that we find
like analogies in Seneca is no proof of his having been
influenced by the teaching of Paul.
The theologians of the Middle Ages regarded Seneca
as a Christian, and placed him in heaven with Trajan,
Aristotle, Socrates, Virgil, and Cicero. But these mediae-
1 Judaism at Rome, c. iii. §1.
2 Aubertin (Seneque et Saint Paul) mentions, as the chief resem
blance between the Doctrine ofthe Porch and the Gospel, that they
agree in teaching the superiority of the soul to the body, and spirit
to matter, in insisting on the renunciation of perishable things,
in exercising austere virtues, and loving the things unseen and
eternal. 27

418 APPENDIX.
val doctors were merciful and liberal They felt quite
sure that Socrates was a Christian, as indeed Ambrose,
Chrysostom and Augustine had declared before them.
They could not imagine that Seneca could have been so
near to Paul without being converted. And it was an
honor to the church to have such a disciple. Seneca was
filled with a moral enthusiasm for goodness ; and was
a scholar who was acquainted with all the knowledge of
his time. An orator, philosopher, poet, geographer, histo
rian, naturalist, his intellect excelled in all directions.
And many passages in his writings seem to indicate a
very lofty religious faith. No doubt, like other Stoics, he
was a pantheist in his theology; but his pantheism was
consistent with , views much like those of monotheism.
He distinguishes God from the matter out of which he
made the world. " This great Artist," he says, " who is
Universal Reason, in forming the world made use of a
pre-existent matter. Evil, then, does not come from God,
the active cause of all things, hut from matter, which
is the passive cause.1 Seneca' teaches that aU events are
unalterably fixed, but takes care to say that God is not
subject to fate, but its author. " God submits to destiny,
or rather God is destiny. The volitions of God are in
scrutable laws, which he himself obeys. He commands
once, and obeys always; This does not destroy either
his liberty or his power, for he only obeys himself." 2
The point where Seneca comes nearest to the teachings
of Paul is in his doctrine of the communion of man with
God. " Reason is common to the Gods and to men ; in
the Gods it is consummate, in man capable of becoming
so. Why then should we doubt that there is something
1 De Providentia, v., — quoted by Aubertin.
2 Aubertin, p. 186.

NOTE C 419
divine in man? All this world in which we are con
tained is one and divine ; thus we are companions of
God and members of him. God is near thee, is with
thee, is within thee. Therefore I say that a sacred Spirit
sits within us, observing our good and our evil, — our
guardian ; and as we treat it, so it treats us. Do you
wonder that men go to the Gods? God comes to man ;
yes, what is more, he comes into man. There can be
no goodness in the human mind apart from God. Divine
seeds are scattered in human bodies. If these are rightly
cultivated, they grow up to resemble that from which
they came ; if not, they are like the seeds which faU into
a sterile or marshy soil, which destroys them." 1
This analogy between Seneca and Paul is, however,
more apparent than real. God, with Seneca, is the causal
Spirit of the universe, acting by invariable law. This
Spirit is necessarily in all things, therefore in man.
According as we treat it, it' treats us, because it obeys
unchanging laws. This, however, is very far from the
Holy Spirit of tender love and Fatherly influence in
which Paul believed. The- doctrines of Seneca and the
Stoics were very noble ; but they were not those of the
Gospel. iEpistolae, xcii. §§25, 28 ; xli.; kxiii.

420 APPENDIX.

NOTE D.
THE "MANY ADVERSARIES" OF PAUL.
A MAN of such decided views as Paul, and of his ener-
-^¦*- getic character, could not fail to have enemies. A
great reformer bent on changing the faith and practice of
mankind, might expect to encounter the bitter animosity
both of Jew and Gentile. The world allows a man to be
a saint, provided he is satisfied with saving his own soul,
and does not wish to save the souls of others. But all re
formers have been hated and persecuted by those whom
they desired to reform.
The first opposers of Paul were, as we have seen, the
Pharisaic party among the Jews. Though, on one occa
sion, by an adroit appeal to their prejudices, he induced
them to take his side, yet their emissaries opposed him
and his work wherever he went. The next opposers of
the Apostle were the Judaizing Christians. These were
the followers of James and Peter, and the Epistle to the
Galatians was directed against their attacks upon him.
This controversy we have also considered. Baur and his
school have shown how much more serious this opposition
to Paul was than had been hitherto believed. Neither
Peter, James, nor John attack Paul by name. But there
are evident allusions to his teaching, or to that of his fol
lowers, in the Epistle of James. In two or three passages
there is almost a verbal contradiction between the two
apostles. James asks, " Was not our father Abraham jus-

NOTE D. 421
titled by works when he had offered his son Isaac on the
altar?" (James ii. 21.) Paul says, "If Abraham were
justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not
toward God " (Rom. iv. 2). Jamfs demands, " What
doth it profit that a man say he hath faith, and have not
works ; can faith save him t " (James ii. 14.) Paul de
clares, " By grace ye are saved through faith . . . not of
works" (Eph. ii. 8). James concludes, "Ye see then
how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith
only" (James ii. 24). Meantime Paul asserts, "There
fore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without
the works of the law " (Rom. iii. 28).
Certainly there is no real contradiction between the
" faith " of Paul and the " works " of James. But it is
evident that James is opposing some doctrine which he be
lieved to be taught among Christians. And who empha^-
sized faith as against works as much as Paul did 1 It is
therefore highly probable that James here means to
confute either Paul's supposed doctrine or some abuse of
it. The Book of " Revelation of Jesus Christ " was written
a. D, 68, and meant to encourage Jewish Christians, in
the calamities of that dreadful time, with the hope of a
speedy coming of Christ, to make Jerusalem a new Jerusa
lem, the centre of the worship of the world. It predicts
the downfall and destruction of' Rome, and the end of Ju
daism. But it is written in the spirit of Jewish Christi
anity. In the historic introduction, addressed to the
Christian churches, where no symbolic veil was needed to
hide its meaning from his too powerful enemies, the
writer opposes what he evidently regards as Pauline doc
trine. Paul is not named indeed, but his teaching or
that of his followers is indicated. The writer speaks with

422 APPENDIX.
great anger of those who teach that Christians may eat meat
offered to idols (Rev. ii. 14, 15, 20). Paul had dis
cussed this question (^Cor. viii.), and had taken the broad
ground that eating meat would not make men worse or
better, but on account of weak consciences he advised
them to abstain. This would seem very lax doctrine to
the Jewish Christians. The writer also speaks of those
who call themselves apostles, and are not ; and who caU
themselves Jews, and are not. He praises the Ephesians
for having tried those who called themselves apostles, and
found them false. The seven churches here praised for
having rejected false doctrines are all in the Province of
Asia, in Lydia, or close to it, and the writer of 2nd Tim
othy makes Paul say, "All in Asia are turned away from
me." Hence it is probable that the author of the Book of
" Revelation " was one of those Jewish Christians who dis
liked Paul and his doctrine, though it is hardly possible
that this book was written by an apostle.
However this may be, there is reason to believe that
the opposition to Paul and his doctrine among the Jewish
Christians continued a hundred years later, tiU the middle
or latter half of the second century. The Clementine
Homilies and Recognitions, supposed to be written be
tween A. D. 150 and A. D. 170,1 are evidently the work
of a Jewish opposer of Paul. In these, Peter and not
Paul, is called the apostle to the Gentiles. Peter is called
" the first of the apostles," but the apostle James is spo
ken of as his superior in dignity, and as " the Head of the
church," " Chief Bishop," " Bishop of Bishops, ruling all
the churcnes;" The allusions to Paul are very frequent
and apparent, though he is not mentioned by name.
Some one' is spoken of who misrepresented Peter, saying
1 Herzog, "Real Encyklopadie. "

NOTE D. 423
that Peter believed with the Gentiles, but did not dare to
say so openly. This person is called an enemy, who received
letters from the High Prieste to persecute Christians at
Damascus. Paul is evidently described as Simon Magus.
It is said that this Simon (Paul) preceded Peter to the
Gentiles and Peter foUowed him, " as light follows dark
ness ; '-' Simon is called " a deceiver ; " he is said to have
obtained all his knowledge of Christ in a vision, which
Peter argues is far inferior to his own personal intercourse
with Jesus. Peter also rebukes Simon (Paul) for having
opposed him, the Rock, the foundation of the church,
and " withstood " him openly, and having said that Peter
was " self-condemned." The same Greek words used by
Paul in Galatians " withstood him to his face, because he
was to be blamed," (Gal. ii. 11.), are here put into the
mouth of Simon Magus. That the name of Paul is omit
ted, while the allusions to him «are so plain, shows that
this hostility was veiled in order not to give too much
offence to the Pauline Christians.
With the fall of Jerusalem the unity of the ancient -
Jewish Christian church was gradually lost. When Augus
tine came, his powerful influence placed Pauline Chris
tianity in the front of Christian teaching as the type of true
orthodoxy. And it so remained, undisturbed, down to
the Reformation. It is true that many of the leading
teachers in the Western church varied very widely from
the fundamental Pauline views, but they never openly
dissented from Paul himself.
At the time of the Reformation, the two chief Prot
estant teachers, Luther and Calvin, made Paul's doctrines
the basis of their faith. They did not always understand
-him, they exaggerated his ideas ; but the result was that
the authority of this apostle stood higher than ever before.

424 APPENDIX.
Still, the old opposition to Paul often reappeared, in
some form of Pelagianism in the Roman Catholic Church,
and often as a mystical tendency elsewhere. Perhaps it
never was more marked than in Swedenhorg, who, re
pelled by the hard orthodoxy of the Lutheran churches of
his time, attributed to Paul the souTce of the doctrines
which he disliked. His followers are not fond of -admit
ting this, and are inclined to conceal his bitter hostility to
our Apostle. But there is no doubt of the fact. In his
diary, Oct. 28, 1748, he makes Paul ask him if he was not
speaking ill of him. July 10, 1749, he tells us that
Paul wished to be the companion of a devil, so that they
might go together and make themselves Gods. Sweden-
borg accused Paul of tempting him to sin, and said that
Paul's nefarious character was thus made known to him.
"Paul," he declares, "is among the worst of the apostles,
as has been made know^n to me by a large experience.
The love of self whereby he was governed before he
preached the Gospel, continued to rule him afterwards;
and from that love he had a passion for scenes of contro
versy and tumult. He did all things with the end of
being the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven. That such
is Paul's character is manifest from very much experience,
for I have spoken with him more than with others. The
rest of the apostles in the other life rejected him from
their society and refused to recognize him. He associated
himself with one of the worst devils. He wished to form
a Heaven in which he should be the dispenser of pleas
ures. He wished to have hypocrites about him. There
were hypocrites around me for many days, as 7" knew by
the aching of my teeth. I perceived that their pressure
upon me was from Paul. He hates the interna^ sense of
the Word. . . . Spoke with Paul. He wished to be an

'. NOTE D. 425
introducer to Heaven, and that the Lord would receive
those whom he would pass. ... He said he wished to
take the office from Peter, as he had done greater service.
Paul utterly dislikes Peter," &c.
Swedenborg rejected the Epistles of Paul, and declared
that they made no part of Sacred Scripture. He says of
them, " It is known in the other life that Paul's Epistles
have no internal sense. Paul was not aUowed to take a
single parable or doctrine from the Lord." l
The reason why Swedenborg felt this antipathy for
Paul probably was that he believed him the author of
Calvinism, especially of predestination, which to Sweden
borg was very odious. He makes Calvin live in a cave
with those who had confirmed themselves in- the execrable
doctrine of Predestination, and where the delight of their
lives was to do each other harm.1
The apostle Paul has also been vigorously attacked by
some modern writers, often by those who have the
strongest tendency to rationalism.
In his book called " The Cradle of Christ " Mr. Froth
ingham has made some remarks concerning the apostle
Paul which deserve a brief examination. Mr. Frothing
ham represents a certain class of thinkers, and it is in this
representative character that I propose to consider his
statements. In page 83, he says that " the Messianic impulse, out
lined in the earliest literature of the New Testament
would have spent itself and not founded a church, but
for Paul, who brought forward a liew conception of
Jesus." 1 These quotations from Swedenborg are from " Emanuel
Swedenborg. By William White. Second Edition. London,
1868."

426 APPENDIX.
As Mr. Frothingham, with all other scholars, regards
the writings of Paul as constituting the earliest literature
of the New Testament, it must be by a slip of. the pen
that he uses this expression in regard to the gospels. Page
50, he speaks of " the earliest writings of the New Testa
ment, the genuine letters of Paul." How he has dis
covered that the impulse given by Jesus to the world
woulcLhave died out, had it not been for Paul, does not
appear. We have seen that Renan takes a diametri
cally opposite view. Paul gave a direction to the great
movement which originated in Jesus, but he himself traced
back all his strength of conviction to fjhe influence of his
Master. Paul's "religious belief," says Mr. Frothingham
(page 85), " remained essentially, even incidentally, unal
tered. A Pharisee he was born, and a Pharisee he con
tinued." No one was born a Pharisee, for this was not an order
like the priesthood, received as a birthright, but one into
which men entered by a voluntary act. If his reUgious
belief was that of the Pharisees, and continued unaltered,
why was he persecuted by the Jewish zealots, who waged
no such war against the Jewish apostles ?
"His conception of God," says our author, "was the
ordinary conception, unqualified, unmitigated, uncompro-
mised." The reason given for this statement is that Paul
continued to teach the divine sovereignty. But all theists
believe in the divine sovereignty ; this, therefore, was no
Jewish peculiarity. He is surprised at Paul's "tre
mendous assertion of the absolute supremacy of God "
(page 35). But surely we all believe that God is abso
lutely supreme !
Read 1 Cor. xv. 24-29. The old-fashioned Jewish
conception «is expressed in language simply revolting, froijx

NOTE D. 427
its bold inhumanity. The views of divine Providence set
forth in some of these sentences are anthropomorphic to a
degree that is amazing in an intellectual man of his age
and race." x
The passage referred to is that which begins "Then the
end! when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to
God, even the Father; " and ends, "that God may be all in
all." I think it is evident that by this statement Paul
means that Jesus is to conquer all the evils and sins of
the world by the power of his truth, and that then Chris
tianity, as a separate system, distinguished from universal
religion, wiU cease. When all mankind are brought to
the Father, his special work of bringing them to the
Father will, of course, be ended.
This writer goes on to say of Paul, that his discussions
of- fate and freewill are dogmatic and stern ; that his no
tion of history is narrow; and his ethics taken from the
law of Moses. He asserts that "the grandest ethical chap
ter Paul ever wrote, the twelfth of Romans, contains no
less than three instances of grave infidelity to the highest
standard of morality in his own scriptures." One of the
passages Which he finds so objectionable is that in
which Paul says, " If it be possible, as much as lieth in
you, live peaceably with all men," " implying clearly,"
says Mr. Frothingham, '"-that it might not always be possi-
ble, and in such cases was not to be expected." But if
we live peaceably as far as we are able, one would think
no more would be required. If our friend, in reading the
verse, had laid the emphasis on " you," I think he would
hardly have found it necessary to bring this charge against
Paul. " If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live
peaceably with aU men." Men may refuse to live peace-
1 The Cradle of Christ, p. 86.

428 APPENDIX.
ably with us ; that we cannot prevent. But, as far as we
are concerned, we can live peaceably with them.
Mr. Frothingham quotes passages from the Talmud,
which he conceives to teach a higher morality than that of
Paul. As far as I can see, these Talmudic sentences are
more vague and less noble than those of the Apostle.
But however that may be, what does our writer mean by
the following, sentences 1
" Paul's acquaintance with the Talmud is evidenced by his
writings. The use of allegory, &c. . . . betray his familiarity
with that curious literature. He found a mine of precious
material in the mythical Adam Caedmon.''
The Talmud, as Mr. Frothingham must know, was cer
tainly not committed to writing until about a. d. 200,
when the Mischna was arranged by Rabbi Yehudah. It
is the opinion of scholars that it was transmitted till long
after that time only in the form of oral tradition. To
speak of Paul's acquaintance with " that curious litera
ture" is therefore, to say the least, a singular use of lan
guage. But still more remarkable is the supposition that
Paul was acquainted with " the mythical Adam Caedmon."
This personage, Adam Casdruon, is not in the Talmud, but
was imagined by the later Cabbalists. Now the peculiar sys
tem of theosophy called the Cabbala (or Kabbalah), was
not developed among the Jews until the tenth century
of the Christian era ; and the Adam Casdmon was not known
until that time. There is no evidence .that the Rabbis who
made the revision of the Talmud, had ever heard of him.
Again, our writer says, " Paul, a student of the Tal
mud," and, "From the Talmud and other Rabbinical
writings, Paul derived a complete angelology." But, as
we have said, the Talmud was not written till long after
the days of Paul.

NOTE D. 429
Once more, he says tlrat Paul probably obtained his idea
of the Messiah from the Talmud, and its Metathron, a
king of the angels ; and adds, "In his amplification on
this theme Paul shows little originality, and adds noth
ing important to the material lying ready to his hand."
If Paul had so little originality, how happened he to be
able to convert the world with this second-hand Jewish
theology ?
Again, he teUs us that a large part of the Epistle to the
Romans " is intellectuaUy arid, and devoid of human in
terest. The same may be said of the letter to the Gala
tians." This is hardly the way of treating two books which
have probably influenced mankind more than most others,
having had a large share in producing the Lutheran Refor
mation, and the Methodist movement in England, to say
nothing of Puritanism and all that has grown out of it.
Our critic concludes that " Paul's genius was disastrously
circumscribed within Hebrew limits ; that he was not a
phUosopher, a theologian, a metaphysician, or a psycholo
gist ; that the problems he discussed were formal, not
vital, and his leading thoughts borrowed, and not original."
But notwithstanding these limitations, he believes that
Christianity would have had no prolonged life, but would
have perished as an incidental phase of Judaism, had it not
been for Paul's work. According to this view, a man with
no originality, and who dealt with formal statements, not
vital truths, was the founder of a religion for mankind,
and converted the civilized world to the Christian faith.
When we read such criticisms as these we are led to
think that the " personal equation " must be very largely
responsible for them. As some persons are born Platon
ists, and others Aristotelians, so some seem to be born to
dislike Paul, and others to reverence and admire him.

430 APPENDIX.
NOTE E.
WORKS ON THE PAULINE LETTERS.
[The following are a few of the more important works upon Paul
and his writings.']
Paul, &c, By Ferdinand C. Baur, second edition, edited
by Zeller. Translated into English by Rev. A. Menzies.
Theological Translation Fund Library. London, 1875.
Acts of the Apostles, theib Contents and Origin
CRITICALLY INVESTIGATED BY Db. EdWARD ZeLLER.
With Overbeck's Introduction to the Acts. Translated
by Joseph Dare. Theological Translation' Fund, 1876.
The Tubingen School and its Antecedents. By
R. W. Mackay. 1863.
Jewish Christians and Judaism. A Study in the
New Testament. By W. R. Sorley, Cambridge,
England. 1881.
L'Apotre Paul. Equisse d'une histoire de sa pensee.
Par A. Sabatier, Deuxieme Edition, revue et aug
mented. 1883.
Holsten. Das Evangelium des Paulus. 1880.
Saint Paul. Par Ernest Renan, membre de l'lnstitut.
Paris, 1869.
The Life and Work of Paul. By F. W. Farrar, D. D.,
&c. London and New York.

NOTE E. 431
A Paraphrase and Notes- on the Epistles of St. Paul,
to which is prefixed an essay on understanding of St.
Paul's. Epistles by consulting St. Paul himself. By
John Locke.
Life and Epistles of St. Paul. By Conybeare and
Howson.
Histoire de la Theologie Chretienne au Siecle
Apostolique. Par-Edward Reuss. 1874.
Commentabies on The Epistles of Paul. By Tholuck
(Romans) ; De Wette, Meyer, Olshausen, Jowett
{Thessaloniaus, Romans and Galatians) ; Stanley (1st
and 2d Corinthians) ; Lightfoot (Galatians)-; Zimmer
(" Galaterbrief und Apostelgeschichte, 1882 ") ; Hilgen-
feld (" Der Galaterbrief, 1852 " ); (" Einleitung in das
N. T., 1875 ") ; Moses Stuart (" Commentary on the
Romans ") ; and Commentaries on Paul's Epistles in
Lange (by Lange, Kling, Braune, Lechler, Gerok, &c.) ;
Philippi (" Commentary on the Romans ") , F. Godet
(" Commentary on Romans," 1882. In T. and T. Clark's
Foreign Theological Library, 1881); Meyer's " Commen
tary on the New Testament." Ph. Schaff (Romans).
Introductions to the New Testament. Home, De
Wette, Reuss, Bleek (edited by Mongold, 1875).
Histories. Neander (" Planting and Training of the
Apostolic ¦ Church ") ; Pressense (" Histoire des trois
premiers Siecles de Christianisme " ) ; Ritschl, (" Ent-
stehung der altkatolischen Kirche, 1857,"); Ewald,
(" Geschichte des Volkes Israel, vol. vi.") ; Keim
("Aus dem urchristenthum. 1878"); Aube- ("His
toire des persecutions de l'Eglise jusqu' a la fin des
Antonins. 1875.")

432 APPENDIX.
Some interesting monographs connected with the subject
are : —
Lost and Hostile Gospels. By S. Baring Gould. 1874.
Seneque et St. Paul. Par Charles Aubertin. Paris, 1869.
Entwickelung des Paulinischen Lehrbegriffes. Von
Leonhard TJsteri. Zurich, 1834.
Paul and Protestantism. By Matthew Arnold.
Lectures on the Epistles to the Corinthians. By
Fred. W. Robertson.
Articles on Paul, in Smith's "Dictionary to the Bible,"
Schenkel's " Bibel-Lexicon," Encyclopaedia by Mc-
Clintock and Strong.

INDEX OF TEXTS CITED.

A.
Acts. page
xxii. 3  6
ix. 1-22; xi. 25, 30; xiii.l;
xiv. 28 ; xv. 36; xviii. 18,
22; xix. 1-20; xx. 1,2,4,
6, 17, 31; xxi. 15; xxiv.
27; xxviii. 30 ... . 22
vii. 2-S, 30-33  25
ix. 20, 22; xvii. 2; xviii. -.
2, 5  70re
xvi. 19, 23 ; xvii. 10, 14, 15 85
xv. 1  96
xiii.-45; xiv. 2, 19; xv. 1 . 119
xiv. 15  246
xvii. 23-29  247
xvi. 26 et seq. ; xxviii. 7-
10; xxi. 20; xxiii. 6. . 397
x.; xv  399
xi. 17, 18 ; xv. 7-11; xvi. 3;
xxi. 26  400
xxi. 18, 26, 27, 30, 33, 34,
' 40; xxii. 22,23; xxiii. 1;
xxiv. 1, 2, &c. ; xxvii. 1 . 403
xix. 16  404
xxvi. 3 ...'.... 409
xx. 31  411
C.
Colossians. i. 16  9
i. 27; iii. 3  56

Colossians {continued) • PAOE
i. 15-19  260
i. 15  261, 288
i. 24  304
i. 10  311
iii. 1  376
iv. 14  402
1 GOKINTHIANS. xiv. 21  6
ii. 3  8
xv. 45-48; xiii. 3-12 . . 9
ix. 1  30
xv. 8  31
xiv. 32  57
i. 22  58
xiii  64
xv. 44-49  155
xx. 44  156
iii. 1, 3  159
i. 18-25; ii. 6-15 .... 160
iii. i  161
xv  163, 165, 213
xiv. 37 ....... 237
xi. 5 -r xiv. 34, 38, 40 . . 238
x. 1-4 .  239
vii  240
xi  241
x. 21; xi. 21  242k
x.16, 17;xi. 26, 27; . . . 243
xi. 29  243»
ii. 10  248

434

INDEX OF TEXTS CITED.

1 Cobinthians (continued). P-«»B
viii. 6  250
xv. 28  251
viii. 6  259
xv. 24-28  260
viii. 6 ........ 285
xv. 28  286
i. 30; iii. 11; xii. 27 . . . 288
ii. 7  340
xv. 24  362
xv. 35  372
iii. 12  388
viii  422
xv. 24-29  426
2 Corinthians. x. 10 . .  7
v. 4; xii. 7  8
iv. 7-18; v. 20; vi. 10; xi.
22; xii. 13  19
iii. 18. .-  52
iv. 6  56
iv. 18  57
i. 3^4; iv. 6; V. 20 . . . 254ra
xiii, 14  262
v, 17  285
v. IS  311
v. . ,  314
viii. 9  318
v. 2 .,...,.. 383
xi. 23, &c. ..... . 405
E.
Ephesians, iii. 14  '60
vi. 12  71
id. 6  76
iv.6  250
i. passim  254«
ii. 18, 20-22  262
i. 4, 10, 21, 23  288
ii. 13  311
i. 5  340
ii. 6  376
iv. 14, 16  387

Ephesians (continued). ?lq*
iv. 13, 15  388
iv. 25, 27  389
i. 15 ; iii. 1-4; iv. 21 . . 411
ii. 8 ........ 421
Exodus. xxv. 22  308
EZEKLEL. xviii  313
G.
Galatians. iii. 11  6
iv. 14  8
iii. 16  . 9
i. 17, 18; ii. 11-22 ; iii. . . 22
i.16  30
i. 15; ii. 20  56
iv. 21  64
iv. 25  91»
v. 1-6  114
v. 6 ; vi. 15  119
iv. 22  239
iii. 28 ~.  241
iii. 27; iv. 19; vi. 14 . . 287
ii. 3, 14; v. 2; vi. 15 . . 400
ii. 3  . 409
ii. 11  423

H.
Hebrews. vi. 5  71
xiii. 16  307
Hosea. ,
vi. 6  307

I.
Isaiah. xi., xxxv., xl., xlix., Iii.,
Iv. &c  72

INDEX OF TEXTS CITED.

435

Isaiah (continued).
xi. 4 ' . . . .
i. 11 . . . .

307

J.
James. ii. 21  206
ii. 14, 21, 24  421
John. xiv. 16-20, 26, 28; xvi. 13-
16, &c  55
vi. 52  76
viii. 34; xviii. 37 .... 305
i. 9  S08n

L.
Leviticus. iv; vi.  306
Luke.
xvii, 20, 21; xxi. 27; xxii.
'38;  76
xx. 41 ; xxi. 5, 20, 24 ; xxiii.
28  78
xxi. 6, 20, 24, 27 . . . . 84
xx. 35  375
M.
Matthew.
xii. 32  71
xxiv. 3  72
xxiv. 3, 26, 30 . . . . . 76
xvi. 1-4  78
xxiv. 30, 31  84
xx. 28  305
xxii. 23  374
Mark.
xiii. 36  76
Micah. vi. 6-8  307

P.
Philippians. Taos
iii. 2  13
i. 23  76
xi. 10  288
ii. 1-11 . .'  316
iii. 10  376
iv. 13  387
iii. 1  412
i. 13  416
Philemon. 24  402
R.
Romans.' ix. 17  .17
viii. 31-39.  19
xii. 2 ....... . 56
ii. 28  112
iv.9-13  113
iii. 6  114
iv. 15; vii. 10  123
vii. 7  124
iii. 20, &c  130
vii. 5-12  131
vii. .  147
vii. 7-25  152
i. 18-ii. 16; i. 18, 24, 26, 28;
ii. 5; v. 8  153
viii. 3  155
viii. 5, 6  156
vii. 18; viii. 6, 7, 8, 13 . . 159
v:  163
vii  168
i. 8; i. 13; xv. 20 . . . . 199
i. 17  201
ii. 1-29  ,.202
i. 18-32  202re
iii. 1, 2  204
iii. 23-27,-30; iv. . . . . 206
iv. 1-25  208-210
v. 1, 3-11, 12-21 . . 211, 21 In
vi. 1, 2  215
vi. 3-14, 17, 21; vii. 1-6, 7 216

436

INDEX OF TEXTS CITED.

Romans (continued). p*<je
vii. 7-25  217
viii. 28-39  218
ix., x., xi., xv  218«
i. 19-20  247
viii. 28-30  254
viii. 39  254»
ix. 5  285
i. 4; iii. 22; v. 1; vi. 23; '
viii. 2, 10,35; xiv. 9 . . 287
vi. 16  305
iii. 25  306
iii. 25, 26  309
v. 10  311
vi  314
v. 7, 8  318
ix. 11-13  336
ix. 15-18 ; ix. 21-23 ... 337
viii.-x  339
viii. 29, 30  340
ix. 22  347
xii. 4-8  392
iv. 2 ; iii. 28  421

Revelation. .
ii. 14, 15, 20

Page 422

T.
1 Thessalonians. iv. 16  76
ii. 17  83
iv. 16  84
i. 1,7, 8; ii. 2, 17,18; v. 12 85
ii. 16  119
\. 23  155
2 Thessalonians. ii. 3  8
i. 7  83
1 Timothy.
ii. 5  260
2 Timothy.
iv. 11  «2

University Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge.

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