I LIFE OF 
 
 HHBE38HHI 
 
 !E5ITH
 
 mm : '
 
 . THE 
 
 LIFE OF FAITH 
 
 AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE EXAMPLE OF 
 
 THE APOSTLE PAUL. 
 
 WITH 
 
 A BRIEF NOTICE 
 
 OF ONE OF 
 
 THE GROUNDS OF FAITH. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN THOMSON, D. D., 
 
 PAISLEY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE DOMESTIC CIRCLE." 
 
 " The just shall live by his faith." HAB. ii. 4. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 
 JOHNSTONE, HUNTER, & CO. 
 
 LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. 
 
 1876.
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 
 PRINTED BY M*FARLANE AND ERSKINE, 
 ST JAMES SQUARE.
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 HILE the title of this volume expresses with 
 perhaps sufficient clearness the object which 
 the Author had in view in preparing it, yet 
 it may be desirable to explain that it is specially de- 
 signed for the young, and more particularly for that 
 important and interesting class of them who form the 
 rising hope of the country and of the Church viz., 
 our Young Men. The subjects treated of were em- 
 ployed by the Author in a winter course of instruction 
 to the young men of his own congregation ; and the 
 interest awakened in them encouraged the hope that 
 they might prove useful in a wider sphere. Accord- 
 ingly the substance of them appeared in a series of 
 articles which were published in that excellent period- 
 ical The Christian Treasury ; and at the suggestion 
 of several brethren, they are now presented to the 
 public in this more permanent form, the preparation 
 of which has been a source of great pleasure to the 
 Author during a period of rest and relaxation from 
 active duty. And though the volume makes no pre- 
 tensions to originality, yet he trusts that if accompanied 
 by the needed blessing, it may not be uninteresting 
 or unprofitable to those for whom it is specially de- 
 signed. 
 
 It may also be stated that the leading thought 
 
 1C8C833
 
 iv Preface. 
 
 which is intended to run through the volume is that 
 expressed by the prophet, and frequently referred to 
 by the apostle Paul, "The just shall live by his 
 faith." It is important to show our young men that 
 they cannot either begin to live, or continue to live to 
 God, without faith in Him who is both the Author and 
 Sustainer of the new life in the soul ; but that having 
 this faith abiding in them and constantly exercised, the 
 new life becomes a necessity, as well as a source of 
 peace and strength and hope. 
 
 It will also be observed that the life of Paul, ex- 
 hibited in his writings and actings, is specially referred 
 to, and presented as a model to the young. His 
 many-sided character is analysed, and the various 
 graces with which it was so remarkably adorned are 
 set forth in combination, in order to show that in him 
 faith produced not only a great but a well-balanced 
 mind, a symmetrical character, and a consistent life. 
 
 In the supplementary part of the volume on the 
 " Grounds of Faith," a specimen is given of one of 
 the branches of Christian evidence, which may not be 
 without use in this age of unsettled opinion and pre- 
 judiced doubt, and which may tend to lead our young 
 men to study those other branches of the Christian 
 evidence that demonstrate that the Bible is no cun- 
 ningly devised fable, but the inspired Word of God. 
 The substance of this part of the volume formed a 
 series of articles in the Christian Evidence Journal, 
 which has rendered such good service to the cause of 
 Apologetics.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 fife rjf f ai 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION, i 
 
 1. Christian Fidelity, ...... 4 
 
 2. Christian Patience, ...... 7 
 
 3. Personal Piety, 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE COMBINATION OF GRACES, 16 
 
 1. Christian Humility, . . . . . .18 
 
 2. Moral Dignity, . . . . . -27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1. LARGE-HKARTEDNESS, 33 
 
 (l.) In a noble aim, ...... 36 
 
 (2.) In an ardent pursuit of it, 39 
 
 . (3.) In forgiveness of injuries, .... 44 
 
 2. TENDER-HEARTEDNESS . -47 
 
 (i.) In tears of suffering, ..... 49 
 (2.) In tears of sympathy, ..... 50 
 (3.) In tears of solicitude for others, ... 50 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 i. UNSELFISHNESS, . . . \ . . -54 
 
 (i.) In renouncing worldly prospects, . . -57 
 
 (2.) In refusing worldly advantages, . . -59 
 
 (3.) In seeking the good of others, ... 66
 
 vi Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 2. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS, . ... 68 
 (i.) Honesty in money matters, .... 70 
 (2.) Fidelity to the Master, 72 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1. CHRISTIAN COURAGE, 74 
 
 (i.) In resisting enemies, ..... 78 
 (2.) In opposing friends, ..... 79 
 (3.) Qualifications of a good soldier of Christ, . 84 
 
 2. HABITUAL PRAYERFULNESS, 87 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GROWTH IN GRACE, 94 
 
 Sunset of life, ....... 97 
 
 Fruit in old age, ....... 99 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE NEAR PROSPECT OF DEATH, no 
 
 Hope in death, 113 
 
 Support in affliction, . . . . . .115 
 
 Faithful to the end, 118 
 
 Crossing the Jordan, . . . . . .122 
 
 Victory over death, . . . . . -125 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 INNER SOURCE OF THE LIFE OF FAITH, . . . 131 
 
 1. Life from Christ, . . . . . .138 
 
 2. Life by Christ, ...... 140 
 
 3. Life for Christ, . . . . . .142 
 
 4. The power of faith, ...... 145 
 
 (i.) Faith gives new meaning to life, . . 146 
 (2.) Faith supplies a new motive, . . . 148 
 (3.) Faith imparts new strength, . . .150
 
 Contents. vii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 FAITH IN ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS, .... 153 
 
 1. Steadfastness of faith, ..... 156 
 
 2. Immovableness of hope, 159 
 
 3. Active service, . . . . . .161 
 
 4. Motives to it, . . . . . . .166 
 
 THE QUESTION AS TO THE REALITY OF MIRACLES STATED, 1 75 
 
 CHAP. I. The Possibility of a Miracle, . . .178 
 
 ,, II. The Probability of Miracles, . . .180 
 
 ,, III. Value of Miracles as Evidences, . . 182 
 
 ,, IV. How Miracles can prove Doctrines, . . 184 
 
 ,, V. Infidel objections refuted, .... 188 
 
 ,, VI. Illustration of the Argument, . . . 199 
 
 The reality of the Miracles of Moses shown 
 
 1. From his personal character, . .201 
 
 2. From the acknowledgment by the 
 
 nation at the time, . . . 203 
 
 3. From the impossibility of obtaining 
 
 the nation's belief in the miracles in 
 anysubsequent age, unless they were 
 real, 206
 
 " ' Live while ye live, ' the sensualist may say, 
 And catch the pleasures of the passing day. 
 ' Live while ye live,' the holy man replies, 
 And give to God each moment as it flies. 
 Lord, in my life let both united be, 
 t live in pleasure, when I live to Thee." 
 
 COWPER.
 
 THE LIFE OF FAITH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Not I, but the grace of God which was with me." 
 
 i COR. xv. 10. 
 
 HE Bible is, to a certain extent, a book of 
 biographies. It contains not only the doc- 
 trines of a divine creed, and the precepts of 
 a divine law, but also numerous and graphic narratives 
 of the sayings and doings of "the excellent of the 
 earth." It teaches us by examples, and shows how its 
 heavenly doctrines have been embodied in personal 
 character, and its holy precepts exemplified in living 
 action. Among these Bible biographies, the only 
 perfect one is, of course, the life of Christ, as portrayed 
 by the four Evangelists. In their simple and truthful 
 narratives we have, as it were, four distinct photo-
 
 2 The Life of Faith. 
 
 graphic views of Him, who was " fairer than the 
 children of men," and of whom the infidel Rousseau 
 declared, in an involuntary burst of admiration, " that 
 the inventor of such a character would be more won- 
 derful than the hero." 
 
 But while Christ himself is the only perfect pattern 
 of moral excellence, yet we may learn much from a 
 careful study of the biographies of eminent saints, 
 with which Scripture abounds. Though our chief 
 aim must be to follow Christ, in that spotless example 
 which He has left for our imitation, yet we ought also 
 to be "followers of those who, through faith and 
 patience, inherit the promises ; " and though their 
 failings and mistakes should be beacons of warning to 
 us, yet the graces which adorned their character, and 
 the virtues which ennobled their lives, should stimulate 
 and encourage us to exemplify, in our own conduct, 
 the power of a living Christianity. 
 
 It will readily be admitted that, in that bright 
 " cloud of witnesses " with which we are compassed 
 about, none stands forth more conspicuous and illus- 
 trious than the great Apostle of the Gentiles ; and 
 that, in his many-sided character, none can be more 
 advantageously held forth as a model for young men. 
 Most truly could Paul say that he had laboured in the 
 cause of Christ " more abundantly " than any of his 
 fellow-apostles. And yet for these abundant labours, 
 as well as for his distinguished attainments, he never
 
 Introduction, 3 
 
 imagined that any merit or credit was due to himself. 
 On the contrary, he accounted himself " the least of the 
 apostles," yea, " less than the least of all saints." He 
 felt deeply that nothing which he did was, strictly 
 speaking, his own doing, but rather the doing of the 
 Lord by his feeble instrumentality. In his outward 
 aspect there was nothing to command attention or to 
 enforce submission, for his enemies said of him that 
 his "bodily presence was weak, and his speech con- 
 temptible." And though this, in their lips, may have 
 been the language of exaggeration, yet, probably, he 
 had a weakly frame and an ungainly address, which 
 nothing could have overcome but the force of his 
 intellect, and the fervour of his spirit, and, above all, 
 the omnipotent grace of God. And yet this man, 
 with his sickly body but courageous soul, with his 
 thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet 
 him, but with the grace of God made sufficient for 
 him ; this man achieved the noblest triumphs over 
 pagan idolatry and vice, and planted the standard of 
 the Cross in the chief centres of power, throughout 
 the vast Roman empire, and was the main instrument 
 in accomplishing a moral revolution, such as the world 
 has never seen before nor since. The other apostles, 
 indeed, were not idle ; but of the great Apostle of the 
 Gentiles it may be truly said, " Many have done 
 virtuously, but thou excellest them all." And need 
 we be told that the same grace which made him what
 
 4 The Life of Faith. 
 
 he was, can make us like him ; and that the heights 
 of piety, and virtue, and usefulness, to which he rose, 
 are not inaccessible to us; for " with God is the residue 
 of the Spirit." 
 
 We purpose, therefore, to analyse the character of 
 the apostle Paul, and to exhibit it as an example of 
 living Christianity, or the life of faith, and especially as 
 a model for young men. They are the rising hope of our 
 country and of the Church. Many of them have shared 
 richly in the blessings of a time of revival, and have re- 
 solved to devote themselves to the work to which Paul's 
 whole life was consecrated ; and it may be useful to 
 them to fix their attention on his character and labours, 
 and to learn from them those lessons of wisdom which 
 they are fitted and designed to teach ; and it may be 
 useful to others, by inducing them to devote their 
 energies to the cause of Christ, and to the extension 
 of His kingdom in the world. 
 
 In this introductory chapter we shall endeavour to 
 present merely a general view of Paul's character in 
 three leading aspects ; and in subsequent chapters we 
 shall enter more into detail, and exhibit, specifically, 
 the more prominent features of his character. 
 
 I. His FAITHFULNESS AS A PREACHER OF CHRIST. 
 
 There are many, in the present day, who under- 
 value, and even despise, the preaching of the Gospel 
 and who regard it as foolish and fanatical to expect
 
 Fidelity. 5 
 
 that the words, spoken by a fellow-mortal from the 
 pulpit, will reform men's lives, and renovate their 
 hearts. But they forget that the preaching of the 
 Gospel is an ordinance of Christ ; and that, however 
 feeble or defective the instrument in itself may be, yet it 
 becomes "mighty through God." Whenever His Word 
 is preached simply, faithfully, and earnestly, it will not 
 return to Him void : and "it hath pleased God, by the 
 foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe." 
 
 But while this notion is entertained by the sceptical, 
 it is strange that a similar notion is entertained also 
 by the superstitious. For instance, the Romanist and 
 the Ritualist undervalue public preaching, and attach 
 far greater importance to baptism and other external 
 rites. But that was not the opinion of the apostle 
 Paul ; for he says, " Christ sent me, not to baptize, 
 but to preach the Gospel," plainly intimating that no 
 outward observances can for a moment be put in com- 
 parison with a full and faithful proclamation of the 
 Gospel. It was for this end mainly that he was 
 converted to the faith of Christ, and it was to this 
 that he consecrated all the energies of his gifted 
 mind, and all the activities of his busy life. " Neces- 
 sity is laid upon me," he said, " yea, woe is unto me, 
 if I preach not the Gospel." In this he was never 
 idle, but he went from house to house, from city to 
 city, and from one country to another, preaching, in 
 season and out of season, the glad tidings which were
 
 6 The Life of Faith. 
 
 proclaimed on the plains of Bethlehem by the angelic 
 host, " Unto you is born a Saviour, who is Christ the 
 Lord." Accordingly, we find that the whole substance 
 of his preaching is summed up in such words as these: 
 " I determined not to know anything among you save 
 Jesus Christ and Him crucified;" "I am not ashamed 
 of the Gospel of Christ;" " God forbid that I should 
 glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 From all this, it is clear that, as a herald of salva- 
 tion, his trumpet gave no uncertain sound, and that 
 he left no one in doubt as to the meaning of the 
 message which he brought. His teaching was uni- 
 formly clear and definite, simple and decided. Every- 
 where he proclaimed ruin by sin, and redemption by 
 grace ; the guilt of the sinner and the glory of the 
 Saviour ; the depravity of the human heart, and the 
 sanctifying power of the Spirit; the helplessness of 
 man and the sovereign grace of God ; the inefficacy 
 of good works to justify us, and yet the absolute ne- 
 cessity of good works to prove that we have been 
 justified. These are some of the leading topics which 
 formed the essence of Paul's preaching, and on which 
 he never ceased to enlarge with glowing fervour. 
 And these vital truths are the only leVer power by 
 which man can be lifted up out of the depths of his 
 guilt, and misery, and moral degradation, and restored 
 to the favour and image of God, and made meet for the 
 inheritance of the saints in light. It is not by moral
 
 Patience. 7 
 
 essays, or misty statements, or ritual observances, 
 that man can be extricated from the horrible pit, and 
 set upon the Rock ; but it is only by the simple story 
 of the Cross, by the truth as it is in Jesus, preached 
 with apostolic fervour, and impressed upon the heart 
 by Divine grace. And the more closely the preaching 
 of modern times comes to resemble the preaching of 
 Paul in its simplicity and faithfulness, in its directness 
 and fervour, in its lucid statements of doctrine, and in 
 its warm appeals to the conscience and the heart, the 
 more confidently may we expect similar results in the 
 conversion of sinners, and the consecration of saints 
 to the service of Christ. Let young men, then, prize 
 the simple Gospel, and seek to profit by the preaching 
 of it. Let them beware of itching ears, and a craving 
 after novelty and mere excitement ; and, " as new-born 
 babes, let them desire the sincere milk of the Word, 
 that they may grow thereby." 
 
 II. His PATIENCE AS A SUFFERER FOR CHRIST. 
 
 "I will show him" (said Christ to Ananias at 
 Damascus) " how great things he must suffer for my 
 name's sake ; " as if one main purpose for which he 
 was converted had been to endure suffering. These 
 sufferings began as soon as he was known to be a 
 Christian. Then he " suffered the loss of all things " 
 for Christ. He forfeited the good opinion of his 
 former friends, and the high esteem in which he was
 
 8 The Life of Faith. 
 
 held by his Jewish brethren, and all his dazzling pros- 
 pects of worldly advancement. But what things were 
 gain to him, these he counted loss for Christ ; and he 
 willingly parted with all, in order that he might " win 
 Christ, and be found in Him." No sooner did he 
 open his mouth at Damascus to preach Christ in the 
 synagogues, than "the Jews watched the gates day 
 and night to kill him." And all through the thirty- 
 two years of his public ministry, he met with similar 
 treatment both from Jews and Gentiles. At Lystra, 
 he was nearly stoned to death. At Philippi, he was 
 scourged with rods, and cast into prison, and fettered 
 in the stocks. At Thessalonica, the mob assaulted 
 the house of Jason where he lodged, and compelled 
 him to flee for his life. At Corinth, he was dragged 
 before the judgment-seat of Gallic, but for whose pro- 
 tection he would have been subjected to indignity 
 and cruelty. At Ephesus, the whole city was thrown 
 into an uproar, raised by the silversmiths ; and if the 
 mob could have seized him, they would have torn 
 him to pieces. At Jerusalem, the rulers plotted 
 against him, and the people beat him in the very 
 temple, and went about to kill him. These, however, 
 were but a few of his sufferings, and many have been 
 left unrecorded, except incidentally in his own epistles. 
 It was literally true that in every city bonds and afflic- 
 tions awaited him. Read the affecting account which 
 he gives of his sufferings, not in the language of boast-
 
 Patience. 9 
 
 ing, but in self-defence against those false teachers, 
 who sought to weaken his authority, and to mar his 
 usefulness 2 Cor. xi. 23, 25: "Are they ministers 
 of Christ? (I speak as a fool), I am more : in labours 
 more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons 
 more frequent, in deaths oft. Thrice was I beaten 
 with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered ship- 
 wreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep." 
 These words were written about twelve years before 
 his martyrdom ; and we might have expected that his 
 lofty heroism and warm benevolence would thence- 
 forth turn aside the hatred and hostility even of his 
 bitterest enemies. But no ; for, even to the last, he 
 was subjected to great sorrow and suffering, and was 
 the object of relentless persecution. The world hated, 
 and hunted to death, one of its greatest benefactors, 
 and requited his love with ever deepening malignity 
 and cruelty, till at length it robbed him of his life, and 
 sent him home to obtain the martyr's crown. 
 
 But, amid all these protracted and intense sufferings, 
 the apostle possessed his soul in patience. They did 
 not sour his spirit, nor quench his zeal, nor dry up the 
 gushing fountains of his love to man. The more 
 bitterly they hated him, the more actively did he 
 labour, and the more fervently did he pray, for their 
 salvation. Here truly was "another spirit" from 
 that which is natural to man. Mere flesh and blood 
 would have shrunk back from such sufferings. In
 
 io The Life of Faith. 
 
 such a sea of trouble foaming around him, any man, 
 if unaided by heavenly grace, would have been en- 
 gulfed. Manifestly, it was the power of Christ resting 
 upon him, and the love of Christ constraining him, 
 and the hope of glory inspiring him, that enabled the 
 apostle to endure such trials, not only with calm 
 tranquillity, but even with exulting triumph. "We 
 glory," he says, "in tribulations also, knowing that 
 tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, 
 and experience hope ; and hope maketh not ashamed, 
 because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts 
 by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." Thus, 
 patience in him had its perfect work ; for he could 
 bear his trials without murmuring, and perform his 
 duties without discouragement, and wait for the pro- 
 mised blessings without despondency. 
 
 Here then is a pattern for the imitation of young 
 men. If they are faithful to Christ, they must lay 
 their account with self-denial, and suffering, and the 
 world's hatred. If indeed they are content to walk 
 according to the course of this world, they will escape 
 that hostility, which is the lot of all who will live 
 godly in Christ Jesus. But surely it is better to suffer 
 than to sin ; better to endure the world's hatred than 
 God's displeasure ; better to regulate our conduct by 
 strict Christian principle than to be driven hither and 
 thither by every wind that blows, amid the ever-shift- 
 ing currents of human opinion. By conforming to
 
 Personal Piety. 1 1 
 
 the world, in its pleasures and maxims, in its aims 
 and spirit, we may gain its favour and applause ; but 
 what will that profit us, if in so doing we displease 
 God? We cannot both be lovers of pleasure and 
 lovers of God. The combination is impossible, and 
 the compromise is vain. When Christ calls us to 
 follow Him, He plainly tells us that we must deny 
 ourselves, and take up our cross daily. But then He 
 makes the burden light to those who trust in His pro- 
 mised grace ; and He tells us too, that the cross will 
 soon be exchanged for the crown, and the sword of 
 conflict for the palm of victory. 
 
 III. His PIETY AS A GENUINE DISCIPLE OF CHRIST. 
 
 This was the true secret of Paul's success as a 
 preacher of Christ, and of his patience as a sufferer 
 for Christ. His activity in labouring, and his patience 
 in enduring, proceeded from his personal experience 
 of an inward work of grace, without which his labours 
 would soon have ceased, and his trials would have 
 overwhelmed him. It is said of the insincere man, 
 "Will he always call upon God?" No! for his 
 interest in spiritual things will decay, and his love will 
 wax cold, and his zeal will evaporate, like the morn- 
 ing cloud when chased by the hurricane. But on the 
 other hand, "the righteous shall hold on his way, 
 and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and 
 stronger."
 
 1 2 The Life of Faith. 
 
 Such was the apostle Paul; and all that he wrote, and 
 did, shows that he was a deeply exercised Christian. 
 In reading his epistles, we can read his inmost soul, 
 and we can see that his religion was deeply rooted 
 there, and that all the fair blossoms and rich fruit 
 which his outer life exhibited grew out necessarily 
 from the inner life that he had derived from his per- 
 sonal union to Christ. He knew full well that a man 
 might preach eloquently to others, and yet be himself 
 a castaway ; and therefore he was careful to keep his 
 body in subjection, and to mortify the flesh with all 
 its affections and lusts. He knew that a man might 
 have eminent gifts, splendid talents, and a fair out- 
 ward profession, and yet be destitute of saving grace, 
 and a stranger to the power of godliness ; and there- 
 fore, in watching for the souls of others, he did not 
 forget to watch for his own soul with scrupulous care, 
 lest Satan should gain an advantage over him, and 
 lest sin should resume its former ascendency over 
 him. He knew that a man might point out to others 
 the way to heaven, like a finger-post fixed on the 
 roadside, while, like it, he never moves one step him- 
 self in that direction; and therefore he continually 
 exercised himself to maintain " a conscience void of 
 offence toward God and man," that so, with an unen- 
 cumbered step, and an unburdened conscience, he 
 might go on, from strength to strength, in the way to 
 Zion.
 
 Personal Piety. 1 3 
 
 Those who know what Christian experience is, cannot 
 fail to trace unmistakable evidence in Paul's epistles, 
 that he was a deeply exercised Christian, and that the 
 gushing streams of warm affection and generous 
 action, which appeared in his outer life, welled forth 
 from a living fountain within. Not only does he 
 describe the experience of other Christians, but he 
 describes his own, in language of great simplicity, but 
 of deepest pathos and singular power. He knew 
 what it was to be pressed down under the burden of 
 conscious guilt and the load of indwelling sin. He 
 knew what it was to realise and feel the inward con- 
 flict, between grace and nature, between the Spirit and 
 the flesh, between the new man and the old. And 
 he knew what it was to come as the chief of sinners 
 to the loving Saviour, and to trust in His atoning 
 blood for pardon, and to rely on His promised grace 
 for sanctification. And then, how touchingly does he 
 speak of his faith in the mercy of God and in the 
 merits of Christ ; and of his gratitude for the blessings 
 of salvation; and of his love to Him who gave Himself 
 for us ; and of his intense desire for deliverance from 
 sin, and for perfect conformity to God's will ; and of 
 his ever brightening hope of the coming glory. And 
 yet, with all that bright array of Christian graces which 
 adorned his character, how deep was his humility, how 
 dissatisfied was he with all that he had yet attained, 
 and how earnestly did he press forward to higher
 
 14 The Life of Faith. 
 
 attainments and holier services. " Not" (he says) "as 
 though I had already attained, either were already 
 perfect ; but forgetting those things which are behind, 
 and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 
 I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high 
 calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
 
 Let all then, and especially let the young, seek to 
 imitate Paul in his deep Christian experience. Though 
 few can hope to emulate him, either as a powerful 
 preacher, or as a patient sufferer, yet all may, and all 
 must, imitate him as a devoted and deeply exercised 
 Christian, otherwise their hopes of heaven can never be 
 realised. Let us, like Paul, seek to have a quickened 
 conscience, a simple faith in Christ, a sincere love to 
 Him, and an earnest determination to walk in His holy 
 footsteps. Let us always be on our guard against the 
 evil that is within us, as well as against the temptations 
 that are without. And while cherishing a growing 
 sense of imperfection and shortcoming, let us also 
 cherish a growing desire for clearer light, for warmer 
 love, and more devoted obedience. And whatever 
 attainments we may make in the divine life, and what- 
 ever services we may render to Christ, let us ever 
 say, in all lowliness and meekness, " Not I, but the 
 grace of God which was with me." 
 
 In the next chapter we shall endeavour to analyse 
 the character of the apostle, and to point out in 
 detail some of its leading features, and their remark-
 
 Personal Piety. 1 5 
 
 able combination. More especially we shall speak of 
 these "two, viz., his deep humility, combined with high 
 moral dignity.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE COMBINATION OF GRACES. 
 
 " Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this 
 grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the un- 
 searchable riches of Christ. " EPH. Hi. 8. 
 
 AVING already presented, in the former chap- 
 ter, a general outline of the character of Paul, 
 as a preacher, as a sufferer, and as a true 
 believer, we come now to analyse his character more 
 minutely, and to exhibit its more prominent features 
 in detail. Many of these features have been often 
 and fully described by able and eloquent writers, such 
 as the late Dr M'Crie and the Rev. Adolph Monod, 
 whose keen sagacity and power of discrimination 
 cannot be surpassed by any attempt to treat of the 
 same subject, and who have furnished ample and 
 valuable materials, for attaining a clear and just per- 
 ception of the many-sided character of the great 
 apostle. But while taking ad vantage of these materials, 
 we propose to adopt a somewhat different method. In- 
 stead of considering the qualities of Paul's gifted mind
 
 The Combination of Graces. 1 7 
 
 singly and separately, we propose to consider them 
 in combination, with the view of showing how appar- 
 ently opposite qualities were harmonised in his 
 wonderful character, so as to produce, as the result, 
 not only a great, but a thoroughly well-balanced 
 mind. There have often been great and good men, 
 who were distinguished by one or more remarkable 
 excellences ; but whose moral power was weakened 
 or destroyed by glaring defects, which were only 
 rendered more conspicuous in the light of their ac- 
 knowledged excellences. Superior genius, as in Lord 
 Byron, has often been allied with a low morality. 
 High intellectual power has often been combined with 
 what is disreputable and base. And even true piety and 
 strict integrity have often been combined with want 
 of judgment and flagrant folly. Of the distinguished 
 founder of the inductive philosophy, Lord Bacon, it 
 has been truly said, that while he was the greatest 
 and wisest, he was also " the meanest of mankind." 
 
 But no such want of symmetry or harmony can be 
 detected in the character of Paul. While he was 
 possessed of the noblest qualities, in the highest state 
 of development, yet they are all of a piece, beautifully 
 blended, and harmoniously adjusted, so as to give 
 the impression of singular power and commanding 
 influence. In this respect, therefore, the apostle's 
 character is an almost perfect model for young men : 
 and it well deserves their attentive study and close
 
 1 8 The Life of Faith . 
 
 imitation. Even on the mere surface of his character, 
 the most cursory reader can scarcely fail to observe a 
 singular combination, of the highest argumentative 
 power with the most stirring and thrilling eloquence, 
 of the most intrepid courage with the most winning 
 tenderness, of the strongest resolution with meekness 
 and gentleness, and of burning zeal and enthusiasm 
 with profound wisdom and rare sagacity; all show- 
 ing that he shines as a star of the first magnitude in 
 the Church's firmament ; while, at the same time, he 
 humbly acknowledged that he shone by a borrowed 
 light, for which he was wholly indebted to the glorious 
 Sun of Righteousness. 
 
 Following out, then, the plan now indicated, of 
 presenting the leading characteristics of Paul in com- 
 bination, we select the two following, viz. : His deep 
 humility combined with high moral dignity. 
 
 I. CHRISTIAN HUMILITY. " Unto me " (he said), 
 " who am less than the least of all saints, is this 
 grace given." 
 
 The importance of this grace as an essential element 
 of Christian character, can scarcely be over-esti- 
 mated. As man fell by pride, so he can only rise 
 again by humility. Pride goes before destruction; 
 but before honour is humility ; or as our Lord him- 
 self has strongly and tersely expressed it, " He that 
 exalteth himself shall be abased ; but he that hum-
 
 Christian Humility. 19 
 
 bleth himself shall be exalted." And we are plainly 
 told that there is no admission into Christ's kingdom, 
 except for those who are made in some degree " meek 
 and lowly in heart," as Christ himself was ; " for 
 except ye be converted, and become as little children, 
 ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
 Our very first steps heavenward must be, the entire 
 renunciation of every idea of personal merit, and the 
 cordial acceptance of salvation as the gift of free and 
 sovereign grace ; for " God resisteth the proud, but 
 He giveth grace to the humble." 
 
 But though man, as a dependent and sinful being, 
 has every reason to clothe himself with humility, yet 
 this grace is not natural to any man. Guilty and 
 polluted though he be, yet how ready is he to be 
 puffed up with pride and self-conceit, and to fancy 
 that he " is rich and increased with goods, and has 
 need of nothing," while in reality he is " wretched, 
 and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked ! " 
 That this is the universal tendency of fallen humanity, 
 is evident from the fact, that no traces of this virtue 
 of humility are to be found in the code of heathen 
 morality. The ancient Romans admired and praised 
 other virtues, but they had not even a word in their 
 language to express this virtue. By their word, 
 humilitas, they meant utter baseness and cringing 
 servility. To tell a proud Roman that he ought to 
 be humble (humilis) in his own esteem, would have
 
 2O The Life of Faith. 
 
 been resented by him as a gross personal insult. Not 
 only, however, among the heathen, but also among 
 the chosen people, true humility was scarcely known 
 and seldom practised. The Pharisees, to whom Paul 
 once belonged, were notorious for their arrogance and 
 self-assumption, for their complacent self-righteousness, 
 and their haughty contempt of other men. The 
 apostle thus expresses the sentiments which he once 
 cherished, and of which he was accustomed to boast, 
 in his former state of ignorance and unbelief : " Cir- 
 cumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of 
 the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews ; 
 as touching the law, a Pharisee ; concerning zeal, per- 
 secuting the Church ; touching the righteousness which 
 is in the law, blameless ; " but then he adds, " What 
 things were gain to me, those I counted loss for 
 Christ; yea doubtless, and 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." 
 
 Here, then, was one fruit, and indeed the first 
 fruit of his conversion ; even a genuine, unaffected, 
 and profound humility, which was manifested by 
 renouncing his own merits as a ground of hope, and 
 distrusting his own strength as a means of sanctifica- 
 tion ; and by relying on the Saviour's precious blood 
 alone for pardon, and on His promised grace for 
 purity of heart and devotedness of life. And then
 
 Christian Hiimility. 2 1 
 
 Paul's humility was not an occasional or transient 
 feeling, but it was deeply ingrained in his whole 
 character, and it tinged his whole life; and it grew 
 with his growth in grace. When he wrote the words, 
 " Unto me, the least of all saints, is this grace given" 
 he had held the office of an apostle for nearly thirty 
 years. That office he habitually recognised as a grace, 
 not merited by himself, but freely granted to him by 
 God : while he felt also that all his eminent qualifica- 
 tions for the office must be ascribed, not to his own 
 wisdom or power, but to the power of Divine grace 
 working mightily in his soul. Sometimes he was 
 compelled in self-defence to recount his manifold 
 labours for Christ ; but when he does so, he is careful 
 to add, " Not I, but the grace of God which was with 
 me ! " And so also when he is forced to speak of his 
 marvellous success in preaching the Gospel, and the 
 evident and abundant seals of his apostleship, he 
 takes no credit or merit to himself, but his language 
 is, " I have planted, Apollos watered ; but God gave 
 the increase. So then neither is he that planteth 
 anything, neither he that watereth ; but God that 
 giveth the increase ! " And yet more, when he speaks 
 of his sufferings for Christ, which were often severe 
 and almost overwhelming, he plainly intimates that he 
 was not sustained by any power in himself; but he 
 says, " I can do all things through Christ strengthen- 
 ing me ! " And even when he was compelled to
 
 22 The Life of Faith. 
 
 speak of himself in the language of commendation, 
 because his enemies had maligned him, in order to 
 injure through him the cause of his Divine Master, he 
 employs language of this kind with evident reluctance 
 and pain. We have an instance of this in 2 Cor. xii. 
 n, where, in giving proofs of his apostleship, not only 
 from "the signs and wonders and mighty deeds" which 
 he had wrought, but also from the sufferings which he 
 had endured for Christ, and from the visions and 
 revelations vouchsafed to him, when he was " caught 
 up into paradise," he adds, but " I am become a 
 fool in glorying ; ye have compelled me : for I ought 
 to have been commended of you ; for in nothing am I 
 behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing" 
 This irrepressible burst of wounded feeling reveals the 
 deep-toned humility of his spirit, and the pain and 
 distress which it gave him to be compelled to speak 
 of himself or of his own doings at all. Like a father 
 speaking to his beloved children, he gently reproves 
 his children in the faith for allowing him to be put 
 into such a position, by their neglecting to speak in 
 his defence, and leaving to him the irksome task of 
 self-vindication. But lest, even in doing so, he should 
 be misunderstood, he " begins by acknowledging that 
 he had spoken as a fool, and ends by saying that he 
 was nothing ! " 
 
 Nor is it difficult to perceive why the apostle was 
 kept so humble, even amid his greatest success. One
 
 Christian Humility. 23 
 
 reason of it was the remembrance of his former 
 enmity to the Saviour, and of the injury he had done 
 to His cause and people. Many were the bitter tears 
 he had shed, and the pangs of self-reproach which he 
 had felt, in reflecting on his former conduct, when he 
 had stifled his convictions, and done many things 
 contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and 
 breathed out threatenings and slaughter against His 
 disciples ; and he could truly say, like the Psalmist, 
 even after his sin was pardoned, " My sin is ever 
 before me." It was this that made him, and kept 
 him, humble in his own estimation. Accordingly, 
 whenever he was compelled to speak of his own 
 attainments or services, he was careful to cast this 
 dark shadow over the brilliancy of his past career; 
 and thus, in writing to the Ephesians, he magnifies 
 that grace of God which was given to him, by calling 
 himself " less than the least of all saints." And in 
 writing to the Corinthians, and referring to his abun- 
 dant labours, he indulges in the same strain of self- 
 depreciation, saying, " For I am the least of the 
 apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, 
 because I persecuted the Church of God !" And just 
 before his martyrdom, in one of the last epistles he 
 ever wrote, he addresses his beloved Timothy in these 
 remarkable words: " I was before a blasphemer, and a 
 persecutor, and injurious : but I obtained mercy, be- 
 cause I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace
 
 24 The Life of Faith. 
 
 of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and 
 love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful 
 saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
 Jesus came into the world to save sinners ; of whom I 
 am chief." What a touching exhibition of deep humil- 
 ity is presented in words like these, from the lips of 
 one so highly gifted, and so eminently useful, as the 
 great apostle was. Even at the very close of his labor- 
 ious life, he confessed that he was " the chief of sin- 
 ners," and that the only ground of his confidence was 
 that Christ is mighty to save. 
 
 But while his humility was deepened by the re- 
 collection of his former sins, it was deepened still more 
 by the consciousness of his remaining deficiencies and 
 imperfections. This feeling is very strongly expressed 
 in these well-known words, uttered within a few years 
 of his death Phil. iii. 12 "Not as though I had 
 already attained, either were already perfect; but I 
 follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which 
 also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." High as 
 his attainments in Christian excellence unquestion- 
 ably were, and eminent as his services had been 
 during his laborious life, yet he still felt that he was 
 very far short of perfection, and that everything he 
 did was mixed and marred with sin. Though his 
 character would bear a comparison with that of any 
 other man, yet when he weighed his actions and 
 motives in the balance of the sanctuary, and con-
 
 Christian Humility. 25 
 
 trasted them with the perfect example of his Master, 
 he felt and confessed that he needed Divine mercy 
 and grace no less than others. Realising the holiness 
 of Him who cannot tolerate sin, and the strictness of 
 that law which demands a perfect obedience, he felt 
 that he had no ground for boasting, but much cause 
 for humiliation and shame. 
 
 Now this painful consciousness of remaining imper- 
 fection is one of the surest evidences of living Chris- 
 tianity. Though it may seem paradoxical, yet it is 
 nevertheless true, that the most advanced Christian 
 is always the most humble in his own estimation. 
 And the reason is, not because he is worse than other 
 men, but because he knows his own heart better than 
 other men know theirs ; and because he tries himself 
 by a higher and purer standard than they do ; and 
 that standard is God's unchangeable law. As he 
 grows in grace, and advances in the divine life, his 
 conscience becomes more tender, and his knowledge 
 of God's law and of his own heart becomes clearer, 
 deeper, and more extensive, so that he discovers sin 
 where he never saw it before. Thus the holier he 
 becomes, the more deeply sensible is he of his re- 
 maining defects. As in climbing a hill the prospect 
 becomes more and more extensive ; so the higher the 
 Christian ascends in his heavenward path, the wider 
 does the range of his vision become. Thus his past 
 attainments dwindle into insignificance when con-
 
 26 The Life of Faith. 
 
 trasted with those which he has still to make, just as 
 the hillocks, which looked large when we stood beside 
 them on the plain, seem very small when viewed from 
 the mountain's summit. 
 
 Here then is a model for the imitation of young 
 men ; and the closer they approach it, the nearer will 
 they come to perfection, the more stable will their 
 character be, the greater their personal influence, and 
 the more extensive their usefulness. If even Paul 
 was humble, much more ought they to be. The 
 remembrance of what they were by nature, and the 
 consciousness of their remaining imperfections, should 
 abase that spirit of pride and self-confidence which is 
 so natural to us all, and should clothe them with that 
 " ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the 
 sight of God is of great price." 
 
 Still, however, the consciousness of our deficiencies 
 should not produce either a sluggish feeling of listless 
 indolence, or a morbid feeling of despair. Instead of 
 paralysing the energies of the great apostle, it roused 
 and stimulated him to greater activity, in prosecuting 
 his labours, and in " pressing toward the mark for the 
 prize of his high calling." He did not make his felt 
 imperfections an excuse for resting satisfied with low 
 attainments in Christian excellence ; but he rightly 
 judged that, in proportion to the extent of these im- 
 perfections, ought to be the measure of his diligence 
 in " reaching forth unto those things which were
 
 Moral Dignity. 2 7 
 
 before." And so must we aim at a high standard of 
 excellence, and aspire after perfect holiness in heart and 
 life. We cannot stand still in the journey to heaven, 
 but we must either advance or recede ; and if we are 
 not making progress, we must be losing ground. We 
 are like a man who is rowing' a boat against the strong 
 current of a rapid river. If he lie upon his oars, 
 instead of plying them vigorously, then he can make 
 no upward progress, but will be swept helplessly 
 down the stream. All our natural tendencies are 
 downward, and we must resist them, and strive 
 against them, otherwise they will drive us down to the 
 chambers of death. 
 
 II. MORAL DIGNITY. 
 
 It is not often that humility and dignity are com- 
 bined, in an equal degree, in the same character. 
 When the former predominates, the character is apt 
 to be soft, timid, and yielding ; and when the latter 
 predominates, it is apt to be stern, imperious, and 
 overbearing. But when these two qualities are com- 
 bined in equal strength, they form a character which 
 is both attractive and venerable, and which awakens 
 both ardent love and profound esteem. 
 
 Such, in no ordinary degree, was the character of 
 the apostle Paul, as his whole history shows. While 
 his deep humility led him to regard himself as " less 
 than the least of all saints ; " yet that humility was
 
 28 The Life of Faith. 
 
 combined with a high sense of the dignity of his office 
 and work, as an ambassador of heaven who was 
 appointed to "preach among the Gentiles the un- 
 searchable riches of Christ." But though he regarded 
 himself as a humble " servant of Christ," and " the 
 servant of his people for Jesus' sake," yet he would 
 never stoop to be " the servant of men," by humouring 
 their prejudices, or flattering their passions, or em- 
 ploying unworthy means to gain their favour or 
 applause. When assailed by his enemies, he displayed 
 a dignity of bearing, a calmness of spirit, and a resol- 
 ute assertion of his rights, which showed that he did 
 not fear the face of man^and that he would not submit 
 to be trampled upon, or treated with injustice. Thus, 
 for instance, at Philippi, after he had been cruelly 
 beaten and thrust into the prison, and when the 
 magistrates found out next morning that they had 
 committed a great wrong, and sent to tell him that he 
 might depart, Paul stood firmly upon his rights as a 
 Roman citizen, and said, " They have beaten us 
 openly uncondernned, being Romans; and now do 
 they thrust us out privily ? nay verily ; but let them 
 come themselves and fetch us out." Again, when he 
 was put upon his trial before Festus at Caesarea, and 
 when the governor, instead of declaring him innocent 
 of the charge, as he believed him to be, urged him to 
 undergo a new trial before his enemies at Jerusalem, 
 the apostle replied, with calm dignity, " I stand at
 
 Moral Dignity. 29 
 
 Caesar's judgment-seat, where I ought to be judged : 
 to the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well 
 knowest. For if I be an offender, or have committed 
 anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die : but if 
 there be none of these things whereof these accuse 
 me, no man may deliver me unto them. / appeal 
 unto Ccesar." Nor can we forget his dignified bearing 
 in the presence of Felix, when the apostle " reasoned 
 of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come," 
 with such thrilling eloquence and power, that the 
 judge " trembled " before his prisoner. Such calm 
 self-possession and bold independence indicated not 
 only conscious innocence, but also the highest moral 
 dignity. 
 
 Then, also, this high elevation of character appears 
 in his utter indifference to human applause. Though 
 he sought to commend himself, or rather his message, 
 to every man's conscience in the sight of God, and to 
 please every man for his good to edification and 
 though he was not insensible to the favourable opinion 
 of the wise and good yet he was entirely free from 
 that thirst for notoriety and that love of applause, 
 which are characteristic of small and vulgar minds. 
 He never shunned to declare the whole counsel of 
 God, from the fear of giving offence to gainsayers. 
 Nor did he spare even his best friends, when their 
 conduct was worthy of blame, but he rebuked them 
 sharply. A remarkable instance of this occurred at
 
 3O The Life of Faith. 
 
 Antioch, where he withstood even the apostle Peter 
 to the face, because he had " not walked uprightly, 
 according to the truth of the Gospel," by giving 
 countenance to those who attached undue importance 
 to ceremonial observances. And when the Galatians 
 took offence, because he had reproved them for their 
 ritualism, he refused to made any concession or 
 apology ; and he repeated his rebuke in the strongest 
 terms, saying, " Am I, therefore, become your enemy, 
 because I tell you the truth ? " Similar to this was 
 that noble and touching appeal which he made to the 
 Thessalonians, and which reveals so clearly the high 
 motives which uniformly influenced his whole conduct : 
 "As we were allowed to be put in trust with the Gos- 
 pel, so we speak ; not as pleasing men, but God, who 
 trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flat- 
 tering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness ; 
 God is witness ! nor of men sought we glory, neither 
 of you, nor yet of others." As an eloquent writer 
 has said, " He must be fond of applause indeed, who 
 sighs for that which has been lavishly sprinkled on the 
 most worthless, who is willing to be made a king to-day 
 at the expense of being stoned to-morrow, who glories 
 in being now saluted as a god, at the risk of being 
 anon devoured by the worms that worship him." From 
 such weakness and meanness Paul's noble and inde- 
 pendent spirit was entirely free. He would not stoop 
 to curry favour with any ; and he regarded with utter
 
 Moral Dignity. 3 1 
 
 indifference the empty applause of the fickle multitude, 
 as well as their groundless censure. 
 
 As another illustration of the moral dignity of his 
 character, we may notice his entire freedom from sel- 
 fish and sordid motives. He could truly say to all 
 the churches he had planted, " I seek not yours, but 
 you : " "I have coveted no man's silver, or grid, or 
 apparel." He insisted indeed upon his right to tem- 
 poral support from those to whom he had imparted 
 spiritual things ; but when he learned that some in the 
 Corinthian church, were so mean spirited as to grudge 
 their " carnal things," he scorned to receive their gifts, 
 and chose rather to work with his own hands for his 
 subsistence, and to accept that aid from the Mace- 
 donian churches which ought to have been given by 
 those to whom he was ministering at the time. To 
 show them how groundless their suspicions were, he 
 said, " I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, 
 to do you service." There was no robbery in the 
 case, for these other churches, especially that of 
 Philippi, sent their gifts to him spontaneously and 
 cheerfully, otherwise he would not have received them 
 at all. His meaning evidently was, that he accepted 
 from these other churches the contributions which 
 ought, in right and justice, to have been given by the 
 Corinthians, as a small token of their gratitude for the 
 spiritual blessings which he had been the means of 
 imparting to them, as their spiritual father. But he
 
 32 The Life of Faith. 
 
 scorned to take a farthing from them, because they 
 basely suspected his motives ; and because he wished 
 still " to do them service? as a preacher of the Gospel, 
 by disarming them of their groundless prejudices 
 against him and his teaching. 
 
 Such, then, was the apostle Paul ; and in this 
 combination of deep humility with high moral dignity, 
 we have an instance of the power of living Christianity 
 which has never been surpassed, and rarely if ever 
 equalled, by any mere man. May such instances be 
 multiplied in the Church of these latter days, and 
 especially among our young men. What an increase 
 of moral power and beneficial influence would thus be 
 secured in the Church ! and what blessed results 
 might be expected to flow from her efforts to subdue 
 the world to Christ ! and how truly might the words 
 of the venerable apostle John be applied to those 
 who are soon to supply the vacant places of the 
 fathers of the Church, "I have written unto you, 
 young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of 
 God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the 
 Wicked One."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LARGE- HEARTEDNESS AND TENDER-HEARTEDNESS. 
 
 " O ye Corinthians, . 
 
 our heart is enlarged." 
 
 2 COR. vi. ii. 
 
 HESE words of the apostle suggest two addi- 
 tional and prominent features of his char- 
 acter, to the illustration of which we propose 
 to devote this chapter, viz., his large-heartedness, com- 
 bined with warm or tender heartedness. 
 
 At the time when he wrote these words, there was 
 considerable coldness, and even alienation of affection 
 from him, on the part of many in the Corinthian 
 church; caused, however, not by any evil he had 
 done to them, but by his ministerial faithfulness in 
 reproving their errors and sins. They took offence 
 at his plainness of speech, and his just severity of 
 rebuke ; and they counted him their enemy, because 
 he had told them the truth, from a sincere desire to 
 benefit their souls. This led him to fear lest, after 
 all the labour he had bestowed upon them, and all 
 the instructions he had given them, they should " re-
 
 34 The Life of Faith. 
 
 ceive the grace of God in vain." Accordingly, after 
 recounting some of the trials which he had endured 
 for their sakes, and the spiritual blessings which he 
 had been instrumental in imparting to them, " mak- 
 ing many rich," he proceeded to assure them, that 
 however cold their affection to him might be, yet his 
 affection to them was not in the least diminished ; 
 and that all the " straitening " in their mutual inter- 
 course existed, not in him, but in themselves. With 
 a heart full of unabated love, and unquenchable zeal 
 for their highest interests, he said, " O ye Corinthians, 
 our mouth is open unto you," to tell you your faults, 
 and turn you from sin, and restore you to the paths 
 of righteousness ; but it is more in sorrow than in 
 anger that we thus speak. Ye are my spiritual chil- 
 dren, and though, as a father, I have been compelled 
 to correct and chasten you, yet it is the very depth 
 and warmth of my affection for you that have led me 
 to use the rod ; for " our heart is enlarged" with an 
 intense desire for your spiritual good. 
 
 Let us then contemplate the character of Paul in 
 the two aspects we have indicated. 
 
 I. LARGE-HEARTEDNESS. 
 
 There are many good and kind-hearted men who 
 cannot be considered as great or large hearted ; but 
 Paul was distinguished by both of these qualities ; 
 and he exhibited especially a moral greatness and
 
 Large-Heartedness. 35 
 
 elevation of soul, which raised him far above every- 
 thing that was mean, or envious, or narrow-minded. 
 Not that he was puffed. up with pride or self-conceit ; 
 for these are the vices of men who have small minds 
 and slender attainments. Great though he was, he 
 bore himself like one who was quite unconscious of 
 his greatness, and who did not care what the world 
 thought of him. With his unaffected humility and 
 unobtrusive modesty, there was combined a nobility 
 of soul, a lofty magnanimity, which rendered him in- 
 capable of an unworthy action, and inspired him with 
 the most generous emotions, and urged him to great 
 and heroic deeds. It has been truly said, that when 
 the anointing oil was poured on the head of the first 
 king of Israel, a remarkable change was wrought upon 
 his character. Samuel said to him, " The Spirit of 
 the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt pro- 
 phesy with them, and shalt be turned into another 
 man," and then, it is added, " it was so, when he had 
 turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him 
 another heart" that is a large, generous, heroic spirit, 
 to qualify him for his kingly office. Thus, when God 
 calls any one to do a great work, He endows His 
 chosen servant with the needed qualifications; and 
 this was still more emphatically true of Saul of Tarsus. 
 When the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, in the 
 plenitude not only of miraculous gifts, but of saving 
 grace, God gave him also another heart; and endowed
 
 36 The Life of Faith. 
 
 him with high capacities, inspired him with noble aims, 
 and fired him with a generous ambition to devote his 
 energies, not only to the salvation of his own country- 
 men, but to the evangelisation of the world. " I am 
 a debtor," he said, "both to the Greeks and to the 
 Barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise." Truly, 
 his " heart was enlarged." 
 
 But to come more to particulars, his large-hearted- 
 ness appears : 
 
 i. In forming tJie noblest aims and purposes. His 
 enlarged heart panted for the salvation of every human 
 being, and embraced all the world in the wide circle 
 of its generous sympathy. No distinction of sect or 
 party, of class or colour, checked the outflow of his 
 gushing benevolence, or chilled the fervour of his 
 glowing zeal. He rose superior to the narrow pre- 
 judices of the Jew, and to the intense bigotry of the 
 Pharisee. His fellow-countrymen, with scarcely an 
 exception, vainly imagined that they were the ex- 
 clusive favourites of Heaven ; and they could not 
 endure that their peculiar privileges, as the chosen 
 people, should be shared or enjoyed by the other 
 nations of the world. Misunderstanding the numerous 
 predictions of their own prophets, in which the con- 
 version of the Gentile nations is so clearly foretold, 
 they accounted the Gentiles as hopeless outcasts from 
 the favour of God, and considered them to be as un- 
 worthy of the children's bread as the dogs under the
 
 A noble Aim. 37 
 
 master's table. Now, in these narrow and deep- 
 rooted prejudices, Paul himself had been educated at 
 the feet of Gamaliel, as well as under the roof of his 
 parents : and of this, if he could ever forget it, he 
 could not fail to be forcibly reminded on one special 
 and trying occasion, in Jerusalem itself. When he 
 stood on the stairs of the fortress of Antonia, and 
 made his defence before the Jewish people, who had 
 driven him out of the temple, and would have put 
 him to death, unless the Roman officer had rescued 
 him, they listened patiently to his touching appeal, 
 until he spoke of his mission to the Gentiles. Then, 
 however, their pent-up wrath burst forth in a torrent 
 of violence and abuse ; and " they cried out, and cast 
 off their clothes, and threw dust into the air," shout- 
 ing, " Away with such a fellow from the earth ; for it 
 is not fit that he should live." Such, in the days of 
 his own ignorance and unbelief, had been his own 
 feeling, when he reckoned the admission of an un- 
 circumcised Gentile as a foul profanation of the 
 Church of God. 
 
 How great then in this respect was the change 
 which had been wrought upon him by Divine grace. 
 Now he gloried in being the "Apostle of the Gentiles;" 
 and his whole soul was devoted to their salvation. 
 " Unto me," he said, " who am less than the least of 
 all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach 
 among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."
 
 38 The Life of Faith. 
 
 Never did the love of fame impel the statesman more 
 powerfully to self-sacrificing toil, nor the love of country 
 impel the patriot to deeds of heroism, nor the love of 
 glory impel the soldier to fight on the battle-field, nor 
 the love of science impel the student to spend labor- 
 ious days and sleepless nights in quest of some new 
 discovery, than the love of souls impelled the apostle 
 to turn them from darkness to light, and to win them 
 to Christ. We justly admire the old patriots and 
 heroes of Greece and Rome, although with their love 
 of country there was mingled, in no small degree, the 
 love of distinction and the thirst for earthly glory and 
 human applause. But the " Apostle of the Gentiles " 
 was fired with a far nobler and purer ambition 
 the ambition of turning many to righteousness, and 
 making them jewels in the Redeemer's crown ; and 
 of him it might truly be said, that he was "above 
 ambition great." His greatness consisted, not in 
 desiring to be thought great, but in his intense love 
 of that which is truly great and essentially noble and 
 excellent. He was free from all selfish aims ; and 
 what he chiefly sought was, not his own things, but 
 the things of others, and especially " the things which 
 are Jesus Christ's," and the advancement of His 
 glory in the salvation of men. Truly his " heart was 
 enlarged " to all the world : and rapid as his move- 
 ments were from place to place, yet they were far 
 " outrun by the celerity of his desires." The key to
 
 An ardent pursuit of it. 39 
 
 this part of his character is thus furnished by himself: 
 " Though I be free from all men, yet have I made 
 myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. 
 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain 
 the Jews. To them that are without law, as without 
 law, that I might gain them that are without law. To 
 the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak : 
 I am made all things to all men, that I might by all 
 means save some. And this I do for the Gospel's sake." 
 Here then is a model for young men, which they would 
 do well to copy closely, by cherishing lofty aims and 
 purposes, by honouring all men, and doing good to all 
 as they have opportunity. In thus feeling and acting, in 
 rising above self and sense and time, and in devoting 
 their energies to the welfare of souls, they will know by 
 experience the truth of those words of the Lord Jesus 
 " It is more blessed to give than to receive." 
 
 2. In prosecuting his labours for more than thirty 
 years amid formidable difficulties and dangers. Many 
 begin to run well who never reach the mark or win 
 the prize ; or to use a homely expression, " Many put 
 on their spurs who never ride." Many have com- 
 menced a good work or a noble enterprise with san- 
 guine hope, and even with high enthusiasm ; but when 
 difficulties met them in the way, when strenuous op- 
 position was to be encountered, and painful sacrifices 
 were to be endured, they soon lost heart, and fled 
 from the post of duty in despair. How often, alas !
 
 4O The Life of Faith. 
 
 have the promising blossoms of early piety been 
 withered into dust, by worldly companionship, and the 
 bitter blasts of temptation. How often have promis- 
 ing young men been tossed about by every wind of 
 doctrine, and every wave of passion, instead of stand- 
 ing " faithful among the faithless," like a rock that 
 resists the fury of the storm. Many have begun to 
 build, but not counting the cost, were not able to 
 finish. Many have put on, or seemed to put on, 
 the Christian armour, who have suffered an inglorious 
 defeat in the battle with sin. And to such the caution 
 of the King of Israel is most appropriate, " Let not him 
 that girdeth on his harness boast himself, as he that 
 putteth it off." To persevere in the path of duty, and 
 in the walk of Christian benevolence amid opposition 
 and obloquy, amid hardship and sacrifice, amid danger 
 and death this requires no ordinary strength of 
 principle, and no small measure of enlargement and 
 devotion of soul. 
 
 A very striking parallel has been drawn, by one of 
 our greatest preachers, between the position of a 
 modern missionary, and the position of the apostle 
 Paul, in going forth to convert the nations. We can- 
 not but admire the large-heartedness of those, in modern 
 times, who leave their home and their friends to dwell 
 among savages, and who take, as it were, their lives 
 in their hand to extend the peaceful triumphs of the 
 Cross, in the dark places of the earth. And yet,
 
 A n ardent pursuit of it. 4 1 
 
 painful as are the sacrifices which they are required 
 to make, and formidable as are the difficulties which 
 they must encounter, they can scarcely be compared, 
 except in a few rare instances, with those of the great 
 apostle. One of the most striking of these .exceptions 
 is, perhaps, the illustrious Livingstone, who in his 
 large-heartedness, seems to approach nearest to the 
 high standard of Paul. Among his last words, as 
 recorded in his journal, is this memorable utterance : 
 " The spirit of missions is the spirit of our Master 
 the very genius of His religion. A diffusive philan- 
 thropy is Christianity itself. It requires perpetual 
 propagation to attest its genuineness." And how im- 
 pressive and touching are the words, which he wrote, 
 in reference to slavery, a year before his death, and 
 which are now inscribed on the tablet erected to his 
 memory beside his grave: "All I can add in my 
 loneliness is, may Heaven's rich blessing come down 
 on every one, American, English, or Turk, who will 
 help to heal the open sore of the world." This was 
 genuine largeness of heart, and it well deserves our 
 highest admiration. But, excepting cases like these, 
 the average missionary in modern times, when he goes 
 forth among the heathen, leaves behind him many 
 Christian friends' who are deeply interested in his 
 progress and success, who sustain him with their 
 counsel and prayers, and who will gladly welcome him 
 on his return. Such encouragements, however, were
 
 42 The Life of Faith. 
 
 in a great measure denied to Paul ; and he was often 
 left alone in his arduous struggles. When a prisoner 
 at Rome, " Demas," he said, " hath forsaken me, 
 having loved this present world." And when he was 
 brought before the emperor, to be tried for his life, he 
 had reason to say, " At my first answer, no man stood 
 with me ; but all men forsook me." Even his own 
 countrymen were his greatest enemies ; and he found 
 them, in every city he visited, to be the ringleaders in 
 almost every persecution which he endured. There 
 was no earthly protector to whom he could look, and 
 the Saviour, whom he preached, was " a stumbling- 
 block to the Jews," and " foolishness to the Greeks." 
 The obstacles which he had to contend with, in the 
 jealousy of despotic rulers, in the pride of self-suffic- 
 ient philosophers, in the bigotry of interested priests, 
 and in the ignorance and superstition of a licentious 
 and bloodthirsty populace, were such as would have 
 made an ordinary man's courage quail, and caused 
 the most hopeful to renounce his calling in despair. 
 What elevation of soul, then, must he have possessed, 
 to enable him to bear up, and persevere, amid such 
 overwhelming difficulties. As has been truly said 
 by the preacher just referred to, " it required a soul 
 raised to a high pitch, not by sudden impressions and 
 the force of a heated imagination, but by enlightened 
 and steady principles ; a soul wound up in all its 
 faculties, intellectual and moral ; regulated, balanced,
 
 An ardent pursuit of it. 43 
 
 sustained, and furnished with a spring which could 
 bear the severest pressure, which would not wear itself 
 away by its own motion, nor suffer derangement from 
 the changes of external circumstances ; a soul exalted 
 above the world, and all those worldly motives by which 
 men are ordinarily actuated, attracted, or impelled ; and 
 disengaged from all selfishness, effeminacy, envy,illiber- 
 ality, and those narrow prejudices which are founded 
 on the distinction of nations, classes, and conditions 
 in life ; a soul filled with supreme love to God, and 
 ardent love to man, fired with heavenly ambition to 
 advance the Divine glory in the highest, and promote 
 the eternal welfare of mankind ; and which, in pur- 
 suing this noble object, was prepared to make all 
 sacrifices, sustain all fatigues, run all hazards, endure 
 all sufferings. And such was the soul of Paul. At 
 the call of God, he went forth into the world, bearing 
 (it was all his armour) the name of the Lord Jesus, 
 not knowing whither he went, but prepared to go 
 wherever Providence pointed the way, to the north, 
 the south, the east, or the west ; and not knowing 
 what would befall him, nor moved by the warnings 
 which he received, in every city, that bonds and im- 
 prisonments awaited him. His heart was enlarged to 
 all the world, and he trusted to his Master to open 
 before him the door of faith, and to preserve him as 
 long as He had services for him to perform." What a 
 noble model is this for our young men ! teaching them
 
 44 The Life of Faith. 
 
 not only to begin great and good works, but to go 
 through with them, and to do them with all their 
 might. Instead of growing weary in well-doing, let 
 them be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in 
 the work of the Lord. For " no man having put his 
 hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the 
 kingdom of God ; " but " the righteous shall hold on 
 his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger 
 and stronger." 
 
 3. hi his generous treatment of offenders. Of this 
 we have one remarkable proof, in that fervent un- 
 quenchable love, which he bore towards his own 
 unbelieving countrymen, notwithstanding their per- 
 sistent enmity to him, and their repeated attempts 
 upon his life. It is hard to love our bitterest enemies, 
 and harder still to return good for evil ; and nothing 
 but grace, in a large measure, can enable any man to 
 do it. But Paul did it, even to the last, heaping coals 
 of fire upon their heads, and repaying their curses 
 with blessings, and their persecutions with prayers. 
 He had "great heaviness and continual sorrow in his 
 heart," on account of the sad spiritual condition of 
 Israel ; and he could even have wished himself to be 
 "separated from Christ," if that would have saved 
 his brethren ; so that he could say, as in the sight of 
 the great Searcher of hearts, " My heart's desire and 
 prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved." 
 
 But not to dwell upon this obvious proof of his
 
 Forgiveness of Injuries. 45 
 
 large-heartedness, look at his generous treatment of 
 offenders in the Christian Church. His large heart 
 could take in the concerns of " all the churches which 
 he had planted." "Who is weak," he said, "and I 
 am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?" 
 Read his two epistles to the Corinthian church, which 
 owed its existence, under God, to his ministry, and 
 which was indebted to him for all its Christian privi- 
 leges and hopes ; but which, yielding to the influence 
 of false teachers, was soon estranged from its bene- 
 factor, and embracing fatal errors and falling into 
 gross sins, required the rod of painful discipline, and 
 sharp rebuke, to heal their backslidings. But in all 
 his rebukes of their sins, how tender and intense was 
 his love to their souls. And when his rebukes had 
 produced the designed effect of leading them to 
 repentance, how readily and frankly did he forgive 
 them for all their unkind thoughts, and ungenerous 
 suspicions of himself; and how completely and joy- 
 fully did he take them back into his friendship and 
 confidence. During the interval between his first and 
 second epistles, he purposely remained for a time at 
 Ephesus, on the opposite shore of the Egean Sea, lest 
 his personal presence at that time should add fuel to 
 the flame of contention at Corinth. At length, in his 
 perplexity and anxiety, he moved northward to Troas, 
 hoping to meet Titus there, and to hear tidings of the 
 Corinthian church. But though " a door was opened
 
 4$ The Life of Faith. 
 
 to him of the Lord" at Troas, he had no heart to 
 preach, and he says, "I had no rest in ray spirit, 
 because I found not Titus my brother ; but taking 
 my leave of them, I went from thence into Mace- 
 donia." There, at last, the wished-for tidings reached 
 him that the Corinthians had repented of their sin, 
 and returned to their first love; and he gave utter- 
 ance to his exuberant joy, in these words of generous 
 affection and all-embracing charity, " O ye Corin- 
 thians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is en- 
 larged." No cold constraint, no distance, nor reserve, 
 nor alienation now. The ice has melted under the 
 genial heat, and there are now gushing streams of 
 affection, and welling fountains of gladness. "Great," 
 he said, " is my boldness of speech towards you, great 
 is my glorying of you : I am filled with comfort, I am 
 exceeding joyful in all our tribulation." Yes, it is the 
 glory of a Christian to pass over an offence, and 
 frankly to forgive injuries and insults. It is the glory 
 of a man of the world to resent injuries, and return 
 evil for evil, to harbour secret grudges, and never to 
 forget an insult. But, if our hearts are "enlarged" 
 with a sense of God's forgiving love, we shall be 
 constrained to treat even our enemies, as God has 
 treated us. Let all, and especially young men, 
 imitate Paul in his large-heartedness, by laying aside 
 all narrow prejudices, all ungenerous suspicions and 
 uncharitable judgments, and by manifesting in their
 
 Tender- Hear 'tedness. 47 
 
 whole conduct the elevating and expansive power of 
 a living Christianity. 
 
 II. WARM OR TENDER HEARTEDNESS. 
 
 The combination, in a high degree, of the two 
 qualities of the great and the gentle, of the lofty and 
 the tender, constitutes the highest moral excellence. ' 
 But the combination of both in the same person, in 
 equal strength, is comparatively rare. On the one 
 hand, large-heartedness or elevation of soul, if possessed 
 alone, has a tendency to isolate a man from his 
 fellows, and to alienate their sympathies, even while 
 kindling their admiration ; as we admire at a distance 
 a magnificent mountain, whose summit is covered 
 with perpetual snow. And on the other hand, tender- 
 heartedness^ if possessed alone, has a tendency to 
 degenerate into moral weakness and lachrymose 
 sentimentalism. .But when the two qualities are 
 combined in a high degree of strength, their possessor, 
 though towering like a mountain above the clouds, 
 sends down, even from the diadem of snow, gushing 
 streams of melting sympathy and love, to refresh the 
 thirsty valleys, and clothe them with verdure and 
 gladness. 
 
 In the apostle Paul, the two qualities were admir- 
 ably combined. He had not only a large but a loving 
 heart. While it was large enough to embrace the 
 world, it was sympathetic enough to feel for every
 
 48 The Life of Faith. 
 
 woe, and to identify itself with every child of sorrow. 
 He could truly say to his converts, " We were gentle 
 among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children ; 
 so, being affectionately desirous of you, we were 
 willing to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of 
 God only, but also our own souls, because ye were 
 dear unto us." 
 
 There is a sermon by one of the greatest of modern 
 preachers upon " the tears of St Paul ; " and he 
 notices the fact that, in his farewell address at Miletus 
 to the elders of the Ephesian church, the apostle 
 refers to his tears no less than three times. First, he 
 had shed tears of suffering; as when he says that, 
 while he was with them, he had " served the Lord 
 with all humility of mind, and with many tears and 
 temptations." Then he had shed tears of sympathy ; 
 as when it is said that, at the final parting on the sea- 
 shore, after he had prayed, " they all wept sore." 
 And further, he shed tears of pastoral solicitude; as 
 when he says that, " by the space of three years I 
 ceased not to warn every one, day and night, with 
 tears" This tender-heartedness showed how closely 
 Paul was conformed to his Divine Master; for He 
 too shed tears of suffering in Gethsemane, when He 
 " offered up prayers and supplications with strong 
 crying and tears ; " and He shed tears of sympathy 
 with the sorrowing sisters of Bethany at their brother's 
 grave ; and He also shed tears of pastoral solicitude,
 
 Tender- H ear tedness. 49 
 
 when He wept over Jerusalem's guilt, and impenitence, 
 and impending ruin. Let us then turn our thoughts 
 for a little to these evidences of Paul's warm or tender 
 heartedness. 
 
 i. There were tears of suffering. He was not like 
 the proud Stoic, who thought it a meritorious thing 
 to suppress natural feeling or painful emotion; and he 
 did not affect to be cold and impassive under his mani- 
 fold afflictions, nor attempt to "stifle the expressions 
 of a grief which he could not help feeling, and which 
 he could not conceal without dissimulation." Nor 
 was he a man of robust frame or of iron mould ; but 
 he had a sickly body and a sensitive spirit ; and he 
 had " a thorn in the flesh," which caused him great 
 suffering, and for the removal of which he besought 
 the Lord thrice. And though he had high moral 
 courage, yet he was not remarkable for mere physical 
 courage. Like his Master, he naturally and instinct- 
 ively shrank from pain, and was often cast down by 
 fear, greatly depressed in spirit, and much grieved by 
 the ingratitude and desertion of his friends. " I was 
 with you," he says, "in weakness, and in fear, and in 
 much trembling ;" and again, "without were fightings, 
 within were fears." Yes, it cost Paul much to be a 
 Christian ; and he had to bear a heavy cross of suffer- 
 ing ; and many were the tears he shed not tears of 
 impatience or fretfulness, but tears of anguish and 
 
 sore affliction. 
 
 D
 
 5 o The Life of Faith . 
 
 2. There were tears of sympathy. In almost every 
 page of his epistles, he expresses his strong affection 
 for his friends and fellow-labourers, and the great en- 
 joyment which he experienced in their society, and 
 the sorrow which he felt in their absence ; and espe- 
 cially when any of them, like Demas, turned their 
 backs upon him. For the comfort, and even for the 
 prejudices of his convjerts, he showed the tenderest 
 consideration ; and treated them with a uniform 
 courtesy and kindliness, which betokened a peculiarly 
 warm and loving heart. His tender attachment to 
 " Luke, the beloved physician," to Timothy, his " own 
 son in the faith," and to Titus his other son; and 
 his mention by name of so many of those who had 
 ministered to his wants, and helped him in his 
 labours; and his cordial greetings of them at the 
 close of his epistles all this indicates the warmth 
 of his friendship, and the tenderness and depth of 
 his sympathetic love to his brethren and sisters in the 
 Lord. 
 
 3. There were also tears of pastoral solicitude. Day 
 and night he had warned the Ephesian church " with 
 tears" against prevailing errors and sins. And in 
 reminding the Philippians of those " enemies of the 
 Cross of Christ," " whose god was their belly, and 
 whose glory was in their shame," he says, " I now tell 
 you, even weeping." Then to the Thessalonians he 
 says, "As ye know how we exhorted and comforted,
 
 Tender- Hear tedness. 5 1 
 
 and charged every one of you (as a father doth his 
 children), that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath 
 called you unto His kingdom and glory." And then 
 when he received "good tidings of their faith and 
 charity," and of their earnest " desire to see him, as 
 we also to see you," he was filled with comfort and 
 joy; "for now," says he, "we live if ye stand fast in 
 the Lord," as if his very existence depended upon 
 their steadfastness in the faith and holiness of the 
 Gospel. Such also, as we have seen, was his warm 
 affection for the Corinthian church, and his earnest 
 pastoral solicitude for their spiritual welfare. And 
 does not this show, that while his " heart was en- 
 larged " to all the world, yet it was also a most tender, 
 kind, and loving heart? 
 
 In all this, then, what a bright pattern is exhibited 
 for the imitation of young men ! Their future com- 
 fort and welfare depend much upon their setting 
 before them a lofty aim or ideal, and then resolutely 
 following it out, and striving to realise it, in their 
 personal character and conduct. In the admirable 
 address of the Moderator,* at the close of the Free 
 Church Assembly, it was truly said, " Every man 
 becomes like the object of his strongest love and 
 highest admiration, and if a man admires, and trusts, 
 and loves his own vile self, he becomes in every 
 way vile. The one absolutely beautiful object ever 
 * Dr Moody Stuart in 1875.
 
 52 The Life of Faith. 
 
 disclosed on this earth of ours, is Jesus Christ, 
 wholly admirable from His cradle to His cross, and 
 even those who are not His friends admire His peer- 
 less beauty." We must, however, not only admire, 
 but imitate Him ; and though we cannot hope in this 
 life to reach His high standard of moral perfection, 
 yet in looking to those, such as Paul, who were made 
 like Him, we are encouraged to hope that what grace 
 did for them, it can do for us. Let us never forget 
 that the Gospel is designed, not only to give peace and 
 comfort to the troubled conscience, and rest to the 
 weary soul, but also to elevate and ennoble our whole 
 character, and so to " enlarge our hearts," as that we 
 shall " run in the way of God's commandments," even 
 amid trials and temptations, and in danger and death. 
 And let us not forget that true happiness consists, not 
 only in having real fellowship with God, but also in 
 the exercise of holy love, in the interchange of pure 
 affection, and in the doing of generous deeds. It con- 
 sists, to no small extent, in large-heartedness and kind- 
 heartedness toward all men. When we are invited, 
 as sinners, to come to Christ, it is not only for the 
 purpose of being saved ourselves, but also for the pur- 
 pose of becoming blessings to others, and seeking 
 their salvation. Who ever heard of a deist or infidel 
 weeping because his doctrine was rejected ? But Paul 
 wept when his doctrine was rejected by some and 
 perverted by others. It grieved him to the heart, and
 
 Tender-Hear 'tedness. 5 3 
 
 his grief found vent in bitter tears of sorrow. Such is 
 living Christianity, for it leads us to look not merely 
 on our own things, but also on the things of others. 
 
 ' ' Wherever in the world I am, 
 
 In whatsoe'er estate, 
 I have a fellowship with hearts 
 
 To keep and cultivate ; 
 And a work of lowly love to do 
 
 For the Lord on whom I wait. "
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 UNSELFISHNESS AND CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 
 "I seek not yours, but you." 2 COR. xii. 14. 
 
 |HESE words of the apostle suggest two addi- 
 tional features in his character, which we pro- 
 pose to consider in combination, according 
 to the plan already indicated, viz., his transparent un- 
 selfishness united with unswerving conscientiousness. He 
 was entirely free from selfish and sordid motives; and no 
 one could ever say or imagine that he sought to make a 
 gain of godliness. If any one, and especially if a min- 
 ister, were to seek merely his own profit and pleasure, 
 he would soon lose all his moral weight, and destroy 
 his ministerial influence. No doubt he is entitled to 
 his temporal support from those to whom he ministers ; 
 and this, not as a matter of charity, but as a matter of 
 right, for " the labourer is worthy of his hire ;" and it 
 is for their own interest to make such arrangements, 
 as will relieve him from the burden of worldly cares 
 and anxieties, and enable him, as far as they can, to 
 devote himself wholly to his proper work. But still
 
 Unselfishness. 55 
 
 his main object must be the spiritual good of those 
 committed to his charge, their personal union to Christ, 
 and their progressive advancement in all Christian 
 excellence ; so that he may be enabled truly to say to 
 them, without the fear of contradiction, " / seek not 
 yours, but you" 
 
 I. UNSELFISHNESS. 
 
 The spirit of selfishness is deeply imbedded in our 
 fallen nature ; it forms the very essence of our moral 
 depravity, and is the prolific source of almost every 
 sin. When the love of God, that cardinal and con- 
 trolling principle, was expelled from the human heart, 
 the love of self rushed in to occupy the void ; and 
 hence it is, that self-conceit, self-righteousness, self- 
 reliance, and self-indulgence, have become the pro- 
 minent characteristics of fallen humanity. Instead of 
 giving glory to God, man naturally strives to be a god 
 to himself, and to make his own interests, and designs, 
 and wishes, his chief good and the great end of his 
 existence. The main questions, which occupy his 
 mind, and call forth his energies, are not, How shall I 
 honour Christ ? or glorify God ? or benefit my fellow- 
 men ? but rather, What shall I eat ? what shall I 
 drink ? wherewithal shall I be clothed ? how shall I 
 gain wealth, or secure the greatest amount of pleasure, 
 or make to myself a name in the world ? 
 
 Now, wherever this selfishness predominates in the
 
 56 The Life of Faith. 
 
 soul, it causes unspeakable misery to its victim, and 
 great injury to society. It makes a man restless, dis- 
 satisfied, and unhappy; and it sets him against his 
 brother, and produces a callous indifference to his 
 rights and interests. It is the spirit of him who said, 
 " Am I my brother's keeper ? " and if this spirit were 
 indulged universally and without restraint, it would 
 change the world into a pandemonium of lawless lust 
 and ruthless violence. Even in good men, the mani- 
 festations of this spirit are not always nor entirely sup- 
 pressed ; and how many humbling discoveries of it 
 have been seen in their actions. When they do a 
 right thing, how often is it done to be seen of men, to 
 magnify self, and to gain the world's favour or flattery? 
 Many have done generous deeds, and conferred signal 
 benefits on their fellow-creatures, especially in our own 
 day; and we ought to be thankful for this, and give them 
 full credit for the best of motives. But in so far as 
 they have been enabled to " do good by stealth, and 
 blush to find it fame," they themselves would be the 
 first to acknowledge that it was not nature, but grace, 
 that had brought them up to this high standard. Paul 
 himself had frequent and sad experience of selfishness, 
 in the conduct even of his own friends ; for when re- 
 questing his beloved Timothy to be sent to him, he 
 said, " I have no man like-minded ; for all seek their 
 own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." And 
 even yet, the same spirit prevails in the Church to a
 
 Unselfishness. 5 7 
 
 melancholy extent ; for doth not the Spirit say ex- 
 pressly, that " in the last days perilous times shall come; 
 for men shall be lovers of their own selves ?" 
 
 We may be sure, therefore, that if Paul himself 
 manifested a spirit of unselfishness, this was not natu- 
 ral to him, but was acquired by grace, and was the 
 fruit of the operation of the Holy Spirit in his heart. 
 Having received the Spirit of Christ, he had also, in 
 no ordinary degree, the mind of Christ. In respect 
 of disinterestedness, the Master, of course, stands pre- 
 eminent and alone ; and none could ever say, with the 
 same degree of truth, " I seek not mine own glory," 
 and " I seek not mine own will, but the will of Him 
 who hath sent me." Let us see then how far the servant 
 resembled his Master, in his freedom from selfishness, 
 and from all worldly designs and interests. 
 
 i. Paul's unselfishness appears in renouncing all his 
 worldly advantages and prospects for Christ. In 
 embracing a religion which was everywhere spoken 
 against, he had nothing of a worldly kind to gain, but 
 he had everything to lose. He had to give up all his 
 early friendships, and all the respect and reputation 
 which he had won by his superior gifts and attainments, 
 and all the alluring prospects of worldly advancement 
 and honour, which were held out to him, as a disciple 
 in the school of Gamaliel, as an adherent of those in 
 power, and as one who had " profited in the Jews' 
 religion above many his equals." And not only so,
 
 58 The Life of Faith. 
 
 but as we have already seen, he had to enter upon a 
 life of intense suffering, of incessant -self-denial, of 
 imminent peril, and appalling persecution. All this 
 he knew full well, for he had been forewarned of it ; 
 but he did not for an instant shrink from the sacrifice. 
 Having counted the cost, he was willing to pay it, and 
 he did pay it to the full, as long as he lived. Like 
 the other apostles, he " forsook all, and followed 
 Christ," during his whole lifetime ; in the storm, as 
 well as in the calm ; in gloom, as well as in sunshine ; 
 through bad report, as well as through good report. 
 " None of these things,"" he said, " move me, neither 
 count I my life dear unto myself, so that I 'might finish 
 my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have 
 received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the 
 grace of God." " What things were gain to me, those 
 I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and 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." These are noble utterances, 
 breathing a spirit of the highest disinterestedness ; 
 and they are made not boastfully, but most humbly 
 and truthfully. Such is the spirit of living Chris- 
 tianity ; and wherever it is felt in its power, it can- 
 not but expel the spirit of selfishness, and constrain 
 us to look not merely on our own things, but also 
 upon the things of others, and to sacrifice our time, 
 and ease, and comfort, for their spiritual benefit
 
 Unselfishness. 59 
 
 2. Paul's unselfishness appears in refusing his tem- 
 poral support from niggardly churches. One of these 
 was the church of Corinth, which had been planted 
 by himself. In his second epistle, he tells them, that 
 during his former visit, he had not been " burdensome 
 to them ; " and he tells them, further, that though he 
 was about to visit them again, yet he was determined 
 to act on the same principle. " I will not," he says, 
 "be burdensome to you; for I seek not yours, but 
 you." The reason why he acted thus was, because 
 certain false teachers had persuaded many of his con- 
 verts that he was influenced by mercenary motives, 
 and that he wished to make money by preaching the 
 Gospel. At that time there was a number of itinerant 
 teachers, who went about the cities of Greece to 
 lecture " for filthy lucre's sake ; " teaching erroneous 
 doctrines, poisoning the minds of the converts, causing 
 divisions in the Church, and striving to undermine 
 the apostle's influence over his spiritual children. 
 These false teachers, whose only object was to enrich 
 themselves, by flattering the prejudices and pandering 
 to the low tastes and passions of their hearers, sought 
 to impute the same base design to the apostle ; and 
 strange to say, they often succeeded in gaining for a 
 time a greater ascendency over the minds of some, 
 than Paul himself obtained. Accordingly, in a strain of 
 severe but friendly irony, he reproved the Corinthians 
 for allowing themselves to become the silly dupes of
 
 60 The Life of Faith. 
 
 these selfish and designing men, " who made a gain 
 of godliness." " For," he says, " ye suffer fools gladly, 
 seeing ye yourselves are wise. For ye suffer, if a man 
 bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a 
 man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man 
 smite you on the face" (2 Cor. xi. 19, 20). Thus 
 these false teachers were far more popular at Corinth 
 than Paul himself was. He was too strict and un- 
 compromising, in his principles and conduct, to suit 
 the taste or gain the applause of weakly and low-set 
 believers. He would not stoop to their low level, or 
 minister to their carnal pride and self-conceit ; but as 
 the false teachers willingly did so, they gained great 
 influence over vulgar minds, and got large sums of 
 money. 
 
 Now, it was in these circumstances that Paul refused 
 to take anything from the Corinthians for his temporal 
 support ; because he knew that if he did, his motives 
 would be misunderstood and misrepresented. There- 
 fore he wrought with his own hands at the trade of 
 tent-making, in order that he might preserve his in- 
 dependence and authority as a servant of Christ, and 
 let all men see that he was not influenced by selfish or 
 sordid motives, in preaching the Gospel to them, and 
 that he sought not theirs but them ; not their money, 
 but their souls ; their salvation from sin, and their high- 
 est spiritual advantage. Hence that noble appeal : 
 "Have I committed an offence in abasing myself, that
 
 Unselfishness. 6 1 
 
 ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you 
 the Gospel of God freely ? I robbed other churches, 
 taking wages of them, to do you service. And when 
 I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable 
 to no man : for that which was lacking to me the 
 brethren who came from Macedonia supplied ; and in 
 all things I have kept myself from being burdensome 
 unto you, and so will I keep myself. As the truth of 
 Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting 
 in the regions of Achaia. Wherefore ? because I love 
 you not ? God knoweth. But what I do, that I will 
 do, that I may cut off occasion from them which de- 
 sire occasion ; that wherein they glory, they may be 
 found even as we. For such are false apostles, deceit- 
 ful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles 
 of Christ" (2 Cor. xi. 7-13). 
 
 Such then was the unselfishness of the great apostle 
 in the matter of money ; and he could confidently 
 appeal to all the churches, as he did to the elders of 
 the Ephesian church, in these memorable words : " I 
 have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. 
 Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have minis- 
 tered unto my necessities, and to them that were with 
 me." Rather than allow his usefulness to be marred, 
 and the progress of the Gospel to be hindered, he 
 positively refused to take one farthing for his temporal 
 support from niggardly churches, although it was their 
 duty to give it, and his right to receive it. But surely
 
 62 The L ife of Fa ith. 
 
 it said little for them, that they should have been so 
 suspicious of his motives, as to compel him to have 
 recourse to exhausting manual labour, and to work as 
 a common tradesman for his daily bread. Had these 
 churches been more generous in contributing to his 
 support, they might have had more of his time devoted 
 to their instruction than it was possible for him to 
 give; and they would have spared his loving heart 
 many a bitter pang on account of their churlishness, 
 and would have encouraged and cheered him in his 
 arduous and manifold labours for their spiritual and 
 eternal welfare. Niggardliness in supporting and 
 spreading the Gospel is both a selfish and a short- 
 sighted policy. It brings a blight upon the soul, and 
 a curse upon our worldly possessions. It secularises 
 and degrades a man, and prevents him from receiving 
 much benefit from the means of grace. It sears the 
 conscience, and hardens the heart, like the simoom of 
 the desert, where little rain ever falls, and where, when 
 it does fall, it is at once absorbed in the sand, and 
 never sends forth even a tiny rill to water and refresh 
 the thirsty ground. " There is that scattereth, and 
 yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more 
 than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The 
 liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that water- 
 eth shall be watered also himself." Let young 
 men especially cultivate and practically manifest a 
 liberal and generous spirit ; and in doing so they will
 
 Unselfishness. 63 
 
 open up sources of enduring happiness to themselves, 
 and be the instruments of extensive blessing to others. 
 God is always giving, and never needs anything from 
 us. He opens His liberal hand, and satisfies the de- 
 sire of every living thing. It is God-like to give ; and 
 let us "be followers of God, as dear children;" "re- 
 membering the words of the Lord Jesus, how He 
 said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." 
 
 It should here be noticed, however, that while Paul 
 refused, in certain cases, to receive his temporal sup- 
 port from those to whom he ministered, yet he asserted 
 very strongly his right to that support. He did not 
 hold up his example, in this respect, as one that all 
 other ministers must imitate ; and neither did he 
 think that it is any degradation to them to receive 
 temporal things, in return for spiritual things. On 
 the contrary, he plainly declared, " So hath the Lord 
 ordained, that they who preach the Gospel should 
 live of the Gospel." And still more expressly he 
 said, " Let him that is taught in the Word communi- 
 cate to him that teacheth, in all good things." The 
 teacher may waive his right to this,- on grounds of 
 Christian expediency; but the right itself is sacred 
 and unchallengeable. It would be well therefore if 
 professing Christians would remember, what many 
 are prone to forget, that the adequate support of 
 a Gospel ministry is not a matter of charity or per- 
 sonal favour, but a matter of simple justice. It is not
 
 64 The Life of Faith. 
 
 a boon conferred, or a deed of generosity done ; but 
 a debt paid, for service rendered and received. " If," 
 said the apostle, "we have sown unto you spiritual 
 things, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things?" 
 And those who have received the greatest spiritual 
 benefit from the ministry of the Word, will be the last 
 to imagine that their debt is fully discharged by their 
 most munificent contributions. 
 
 It may be further noticed here, that while Paul 
 refused to receive his temporal support in certain 
 cases, yet in other cases he did accept it gladly and 
 gratefully ; especially when it was offered voluntarily, 
 and given cheerfully, and not as the price of his inde- 
 pendence. Though he refused the gifts of the Corin- 
 thian church, yet he willingly received them from the 
 churches of Macedonia, and particularly from the 
 church at Philippi, which appears to have been 
 largely blessed with a loving heart and a liberal spirit. 
 That church, the first fruits of his labours in Europe, 
 was peculiarly dear to him ; and the love was reci- 
 procal, and very ardent on both sides. How touching 
 are the words he wrote to them, in acknowledging the 
 generous gift which they had sent to him at Rome, 
 by a special messenger: "I rejoiced in the Lord 
 greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath 
 flourished again ; wherein ye were also careful, but ye 
 lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of 
 want : for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am,
 
 Unselfishness. 65 
 
 therewith to be content. I know both how to be 
 abased, and I know how to abound : everywhere, and 
 in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be 
 hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do 
 all things through Christ who strengthened me. Not- 
 withstanding ye have well done that ye did communi- 
 cate with my affliction. . . . Not because I desire a 
 gift; but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. 
 But I have all, and abound : I am full, having received 
 of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, 
 an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well- 
 pleasing to God. But my God shall supply all your 
 need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" 
 (Phil. iv. 10-19). These words of heartfelt gratitude 
 and touching tenderness, show how cordially the 
 apostle welcomed such love-tokens from the Philip- 
 pian church. Not only were they " acceptable " to 
 himself, but they were "well-pleasing to God;" and 
 to Him he devoted them as " sacrifices " on His altar, 
 or as sweet incense, the fragrance of which, as it 
 ascended to heaven, refreshed his own spirit ; while 
 along with it, he offered up the incense of his own in- 
 tercession for spiritual blessings, sufficient to " supply 
 all their need." Would that such blessed interchanges 
 of feeling and desire were multiplied in all the 
 churches pastors dealing out spiritual things faith- 
 fully to their flocks, and their flocks dealing out 
 temporal things faithfully to them ; and thus mani-
 
 66 The Life of Faith. 
 
 Testing a happy co-operation, and a holy harmony, in 
 works of faith and labours of love for the spread of 
 the Gospel. " But this I say" (these are the apostle's 
 words), "He who soweth sparingly shall reap also spar- 
 ingly ; and he who soweth bountifully shall reap also 
 bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth 
 in his heart, so let him give ; not grudgingly, or of 
 necessity : for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God 
 is able to make all grace abound toward you ; that ye, 
 always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound 
 to every good work." 
 
 3. Paul's unselfishness appears also in his deep con- 
 cern for the salvation of his fellow-men. To all, he 
 could truly say, " I seek not yours, but you." For this, 
 he was ready to sacrifice his own ease and comfort, 
 his health and strength, his good name, and life itself. 
 To save souls, and promote the spiritual welfare of 
 his converts, he counted no risk too great, and no 
 labour too severe ; and even the ingratitude and 
 alienation of those whom he sought to bless, could 
 not quench the ardour of his love to them, or diminish 
 the intensity of his zeal for their good. " I will very 
 gladly," he said, " spend and be spent for you; though 
 the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved." 
 
 How different is all this from the natural tendencies 
 of man ! and how nobly superior to his innate selfish- 
 ness ! Even sinners can love those who love them, 
 or who shower favours upon them ; but to return
 
 Unselfishness. 67 
 
 good for evil, and requite hatred with love, is a rare 
 achievement. And there is a kind of religious selfish- 
 ness (if we may use the expression) in which even true 
 Christians indulge, and which prompts them to care 
 solely for their own spiritual welfare, and to feel little 
 concern for the salvation of others, or for the advance- 
 ment of the Redeemer's kingdom. Their religion, 
 such as it is, is confined chiefly to their own breast ; 
 and their main object, in waiting on religious ordin- 
 ances, is merely to get comfort to their own minds, 
 and not to be stimulated to zeal and active effort on 
 behalf of others. Such is not the benevolent and 
 expansive spirit of the Gospel. It certainly was not 
 the spirit of the great apostle, whose love to souls 
 constrained him to put forth all his energies for their 
 spiritual good, and to impart to them the blessings 
 with which he himself had been enriched and glad- 
 dened. Here, then, is a model for young men. Let 
 them put their hands to some good work, and live 
 and labour, not for themselves only, but for the bene- 
 fit of others. Let them study to be useful in their 
 day and generation ; and seize opportunities of doing 
 good in the sphere allotted to them, and among their 
 friends and companions ; saying, like Moses to his 
 father-in-law, " We are journeying unto the place of 
 which the Lord said, I will give it you : come thou 
 with us, and we will do thee good ; for the Lord 
 hath spoken good concerning Israel." Thus it will
 
 68 The Life of Faith. 
 
 be manifest that their souls are prospering ; and they 
 will be far happier, in giving their time, or their means, 
 or their energies, to works of piety and charity, than 
 the man who grasps all, and grudges every effort and 
 sacrifice in the service of Christ. " They that be wise 
 shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and 
 they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for 
 ever and ever." 
 
 II. UNSWERVING CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 
 
 The apostle was not only generous, but he was also 
 just. His unselfishness was tempered and regulated by 
 a conscientious regard to principle and duty, especially 
 in fulfilling the charge which Christ had laid upon 
 him, so that he could say to all, " / seek you" There 
 are many men who are unselfish and generous, lavish 
 in their expenditure, and ready even to give away 
 what is not their own, but who are not so remark- 
 able for strict conscientiousness. Many sad and 
 humbling illustrations of this have been furnished in 
 the records of mercantile affairs for many years past. 
 
 But in the apostle Paul, transparent unselfishness 
 was combined with unswerving conscientiousness. 
 " Herein," he said, " do I exercise myself, to have 
 always a conscience void of offence toward God and 
 toward men." This was the " exercise " or self-discip- 
 line which he continually practised, the moral training 
 to which he subjected himself. Whatever his con-
 
 Conscientiousness. 69 
 
 science condemned, he strenuously fought against, 
 and sought grace to subdue. Even while he was 
 unconverted, he honestly strove to obey the dictates 
 of his conscience, though it was then unenlightened ; 
 so that he really thought he was doing God service 
 in putting the Christians to dea"th. Even then, his 
 conduct was outwardly irreproachable, and entirely 
 free from gross vices. He was not a profligate, but 
 his conscience had power to restrain him from open 
 sin. 
 
 But when he was converted, and when his con- 
 science was quickened and enlightened by Divine grace 
 and truth, he aimed at reaching, and he actually 
 attained, a far higher standard of morality than he 
 had ever imagined before : and there ran, through the 
 whole texture of his subsequent life, " the one golden 
 thread of an honest and tender conscience." In all 
 his epistles, and especially in those to Timothy and 
 Titus, he manifests this ruling principle of his char- 
 acter, and shows how highly he valued the blessing 
 of a pure and good conscience. Thus he says, that 
 " the end of the commandment is charity, out of a 
 pure heart, and of a good conscience," that is a paci- 
 fied and self-approving conscience : and solemnly he 
 charges his beloved son to hold fast " a good con- 
 science ; which some having put away, concerning 
 faith have made shipwreck." The importance and 
 the blessedness of maintaining a good conscience, by
 
 70 The Life of Faith. 
 
 doing whatever we know to be right, and by shunning 
 whatever we know to be wrong, it is impossible to 
 exaggerate. The neglect of known duty and the wilful 
 indulgence of known sin produce a terribly demoral- 
 ising influence upon character, by lowering the moral 
 tone, blunting the finer sensibilities of the heart, dis- 
 turbing and perverting the instincts of conscience, 
 darkening the intellect, and confusing its perceptions 
 of the difference between right and wrong, and leading 
 men to call evil good, and good evil. Young men, 
 especially, should beware of doing violence to con- 
 science, and of acting contrary to its dictates and 
 warnings; otherwise, they will blight even their 
 worldly prospects, and still more, endanger or destroy 
 their eternal interests. It has been truly said by 
 an eminent writer, " I am convinced that open 
 vice among us would be repressed with a firmer 
 hand and a clearer judgment, if there were not 
 among men of high social influence, some whose past 
 lives have left a hollow consciousness of guilt, and 
 therefore a secret faltering, and a weakness, which 
 dare not rise to the Christian standard." 
 
 Paul's thorough conscientiousness appears especially 
 in his high and quick sense of honour, with regard to 
 money affairs. When he was the prisoner of Felix at 
 Csesarea, he might easily have obtained his liberty, if 
 he could have stooped to bribe the governor with the 
 expected gift of money. And his delicacy of con-
 
 Conscientiousness. 7 1 
 
 science appears in offering to pay his friend Philemon 
 all the loss he had sustained by the dishonesty of his 
 runaway slave Onesimus. And still more it appears 
 in the scrupulous exactness with which he managed 
 all the business connected with the collecting of the 
 contributions of the churches for the poor saints at 
 Jerusalem. He refused to take the sole charge of the 
 money collected, lest he should expose himself to 
 unworthy suspicions ; but he insisted that the churches 
 themselves should choose commissioners of their own 
 to accompany him on his errand of charity; thus 
 acting upon his own rule, to " provide things honest, 
 not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight 
 of men." 
 
 In all this, what a noble pattern is presented to 
 young men ! How careful should they be to be 
 strictly honest, and conscientious in all pecuniary 
 transactions ; and how earnestly should they beware 
 of getting into debt, for it will soon get them into 
 disgrace, and bring them to shame and ruin. Nothing 
 tends more to degrade the character of a man, and to 
 take off the fine edge of conscience, and to make him 
 the helpless victim of the world's temptations, than 
 running wilfully into debt, and failing to pay his 
 accounts with scrupulous exactness. The sum at first 
 may be small ; but " he that is unfaithful in that which 
 is least, will be unfaithful also in much." And not 
 less injurious to character, and blinding to conscience,
 
 72 The Life of Faith. 
 
 and destructive of confidence, is every kind of dis- 
 honesty and fraud in the transactions of trade. Ill- 
 gotten gains are usually soon lost ; and even when 
 retained, they are a curse to their possessor, by de- 
 basing his character, blunting his conscience, and 
 driving him to shifts and subterfuges which not only 
 blight his worldly prospects, but deaden his own 
 moral feelings, and make him an easy prey to Satan's 
 subtle wiles. " Keep thy heart with all diligence, for 
 out of it are the issues of life." " By what means 
 shall a young man cleanse his way?" "By taking 
 heed thereto, according to Thy Word." 
 
 Finally, Paul's conscientiousness appears in his 
 faithful preaching of the Gospel, and his earnest 
 efforts to win souls to Christ No mere man could 
 ever more truly say, than he could, to all his hearers, 
 " I seek not yours, but you." His great aim was to 
 rouse them from the sleep of spiritual death, to probe 
 their consciences to the quick, to pierce them with 
 saving convictions of sin ; and then to draw them to 
 the Saviour of sinners, in order to be washed in His 
 precious and peace-speaking blood, and renewed in- 
 wardly by His Holy Spirit, and so made meet for His 
 glorious presence in heaven. In aiming at this, he 
 did not use flattering words, but he used great " plain- 
 ness of speech," and sharpness of reproof. And 
 though many counted him their enemy " because he 
 told them the truth," yet his conscience would not let
 
 Conscientiousness. 73 
 
 him be silent, or allow him to keep back any part of 
 the counsel of God, or tempt him to dilute or alter 
 his Master's message, in order to make it more palat- 
 able to the carnal mind. And this, under the Divine 
 blessing, was the great secret of that wonderful success 
 which crowned his labours in the Lord's vineyard. 
 " Necessity is laid upon me," he said ; " yea, woe is 
 unto me, if I preach not the Gospel ! " " But though 
 we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel 
 unto you than that which we have preached unto you, 
 let him be accursed." 
 
 Here, then, is a model for young men, which they 
 would do well to copy, by striving to do good, and by 
 using as their instrument and lever power that Gospel 
 of the grace of God, which in its simplicity and purity 
 is " the power of God unto salvation to every one that 
 believeth." Let them therefore never be ashamed of 
 the Gospel of Christ in these days of abounding error, 
 and let it produce its full effect upon their own hearts 
 and lives ; so that like Paul, they may become living 
 epistles of Christ, known and read of all men, by com- 
 bining a spirit of transparent unselfishness with a spirit 
 of unswerving conscientiousness. 
 
 In the next chapter, we shall refer to Paul's high 
 moral courage combined with habitual prayerfulness.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 COURAGE AND PRAYERKULNESS. 
 
 " I can do all things through Christ who strength eneth me." 
 
 PHIL. iv. 13. 
 
 CORRECT and complete idea of the whole 
 is best obtained by the study of its various 
 parts, viewed not only separately and in 
 detail, but also in their several relations and adjust- 
 ments to each other. In examining a work of art, 
 such as a statue or a picture, we do not pronounce it 
 to be a masterpiece of genius, however accurate it 
 may be in its details, unless its various parts are well 
 proportioned and harmoniously adjusted to each other, 
 so as to produce, by their combination, symmetry in 
 form and beauty in colouring. And so with human 
 character. There may be great mental and moral 
 excellences, but if these are combined with glaring 
 faults or defects, we must withhold our admiration. 
 When, however, the noblest qualities are exhibited in 
 happy combination, and harmonious adjustment and
 
 Courage and Pray erf ulness. 75 
 
 operation, we pronounce their possessor to be truly 
 great and good. 
 
 It is on this principle that we have endeavoured to 
 proceed in analysing the many-sided character of the 
 apostle Paul. In its general aspect, it stands out as 
 that of an eminent preacher, a great sufferer, and a 
 deeply exercised Christian. And in considering the 
 features of his character in detail, we have seen that 
 he was distinguished by unaffected humility, combined 
 with high moral dignify; by transparent unselfishness, 
 combined with strict conscientiousness ; and by large- 
 heartedness, combined with tender-heartedness. These 
 qualities, viewed in combination, present to us one of 
 the noblest ideals of human character that the world 
 has ever seen, always excepting the unrivalled char- 
 acter of the Perfect Man, Christ Jesus, who is " alto- 
 gether lovely," and the " chiefest among ten thousand." 
 Eminent as Paul himself was in Christian grace and 
 excellence, yet none felt more deeply than he did, 
 how far short he came of that high standard of spot- 
 less virtue, and none laboured more strenuously than 
 he to reach " the measure of the stature of the fulness 
 of Christ." And this, let us never forget, must be the 
 constant aim of every true Christian, viz., to become 
 more like Christ, and to have the same mind that was 
 in Him. Still, while He is to be our chief model, 
 yet it will greatly assist us in our aspirations and 
 efforts, to study the character of His most faithful
 
 76 The Life of Faith. 
 
 followers, and to know how mightily His grace wrought 
 in them, so that we may be encouraged and stimulated 
 to " follow those who, through faith and patience, in- 
 herit the promises." 
 
 But our analysis of Paul's character would be very 
 incomplete, without adverting to two additional fea- 
 tures by which he was eminently distinguished, viz., 
 his intrepid courage, combined with habitual prayerfiil- 
 ness. Both of these qualities are obviously essential to 
 enable us to fight successfully the good fight of faith, 
 and to exhibit in our daily conduct the reality and 
 power of the Life of Faith. We need courage to resist 
 and overcome the world, and the devil, and the flesh, 
 in their various seductive forms of temptation ; and 
 we need pray erf illness to bring down to our help that 
 Divine power and grace, without which we can do 
 nothing. Every true Christian is most deeply sensible 
 of his own utter weakness, and his total inability to 
 discharge duty faithfully, to bear trial patiently, to 
 encounter danger boldly, or to resist temptation 
 successfully. But then he knows also where the 
 needed strength is to be found ; for he can say, Weak 
 and helpless though I be in myself, yet " I CAN DO ALL 
 
 THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENETH ME." 
 
 I. INTREPID COURAGE. 
 
 When the apostle said, " I can do all things," this in 
 his lips was not a mere empty boast, but it was a gen-
 
 Courage. 77 
 
 uine expression of the whole tone and temper of his 
 mind. From no duties, however difficult, and from no 
 sacrifices, however painful, did he ever shrink, but as 
 a true and brave soldier of Christ, he was ready to 
 go anywhere, and to incur any hazard, and fight any 
 battle, to which his marching orders called him. Great 
 as his sufferings, and perils, and persecutions were, he 
 met and bore them all, not only with unruffled tran- 
 quillity, but even with holy triumph. He was so 
 elevated above the world by the principles he pro- 
 fessed, that he seemed to move in a lofty region, 
 where danger could not reach him, and fear could 
 not disturb his mind ; just as a man, on the summit 
 of a lofty mountain, is raised far above the clouds, 
 and can see the storm raging, and the lightning 
 flashing far below, while he himself breathes a calm 
 and pure atmosphere. Having committed the keep- 
 ing of his soul to Christ, the apostle never had any 
 apprehensions as to his personal safety; and being 
 embarked in the noblest enterprise, and devoted to 
 the service of the best of masters, he counted it a 
 high honour to suffer shame for His sake. Dangers 
 intensified his courage, and death had no terrors for 
 him ; but like Nehemiah, he could truly say, " Should 
 such a man as I flee " from the post of duty and 
 danger ? 
 
 And all this is the more wonderful when we con- 
 sider that Paul does not seem to have been remarkable
 
 78 The Life of Faith. 
 
 for mere physical courage. With his sickly body and 
 his sensitive spirit, it is evident, from the way in which 
 he speaks of his sufferings, that he felt them most 
 acutely, and that he naturally shrank from them, like 
 any other man ; as when he besought the Lord thrice 
 to remove his "thorn in the flesh." His was not the 
 brute courage of the war-horse which rushes impetu- 
 ously into the thickest of the battle ; nor the mere 
 animal courage of the soldier, who is so carried away 
 by the excitement of the combat, as to be insensible, 
 for the time, to fear. But Paul's courage had no in- 
 termixture of rashness or fool-hardiness. He never 
 courted persecution, or put himself needlessly in the 
 way of danger ; but when they could be honourably 
 avoided, he never scrupled to do so. His intrepid 
 courage was tempered with consummate prudence. It 
 was moral courage of the noblest type, springing from 
 a strong sense of duty to Christ, inspired by love and 
 gratitude to Christ for His great salvation, and sustained 
 by the promise and the power of that grace which rested 
 upon him, and was made sufficient for him. There 
 are two aspects in which his courage may be regarded. 
 First In resisting his enemies. His boldness at 
 Damascus has been already noticed. No sooner was 
 he converted, than immediately (without losing a day), 
 " he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the 
 Son of God." In the face of obloquy and persecution, 
 he "conferred not with flesh and blood;" but he
 
 Courage. 79 
 
 publicly avowed the change that had been wrought 
 upon him, and braved all consequences, rather than 
 deny his Lord, of cease to proclaim the great salva- 
 tion. Then after his three years' solitude in Arabia, 
 he went up to Jerusalem ; where " he spake boldly in 
 the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the 
 Grecians : but they went about to slay him." Nor 
 would he have left Jerusalem at all at this time, unless 
 Jesus himself had appeared to him, as he was praying 
 in the temple, and commanded him to make haste, 
 and depart to the Gentiles (Acts xxii. 21). But so 
 anxious was Paul to continue his labours there, and 
 so convinced was he that his brethren would be sure 
 to receive his testimony, that he ventured to remon- 
 strate with his Lord, and entreated permission to 
 remain in that den of murderers ; and it was not till 
 the command was repeated a second time, that he felt 
 constrained to obey. What indomitable courage too 
 did he exhibit amid the perils and persecutions which 
 he endured in Asia Minor, as at Lystra and Ephesus ; 
 and subsequently in Europe, especially at Philippi ; 
 and how signally did he prove his readiness to endure 
 hardships, "as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 
 
 Secondly Paul's moral courage appears in oppos- 
 ing his friends, when they were in the wrong. Here 
 we do not refer merely to his stern denunciations of 
 those pretended Christians, those Judaising teachers, 
 who sought to undermine his influence, and who at-
 
 8o The Life of Faith. 
 
 tempted to sow dissension in the churches, and to 
 unsettle their faith, and corrupt their principles. To 
 these men he would not yield subjection ; no, not for 
 an hour, nor even by a hair's breadth; but he plainly told 
 them, " If any man preach any other Gospel unto you 
 than that ye have received, let him be accursed." 
 That was not the language of a time-server, or a 
 popularity hunter : but it was the language of one, who 
 had courage to follow the right at all hazards, and who, 
 having the fear of God, was not troubled with any 
 other fear. 
 
 But his moral courage appears still more conspicu- 
 ously in his faithful dealing even with friends to whom 
 he was warmly attached. When they fell into error 
 and sin, he never hesitated to rebuke them sharply and 
 yet lovingly. This is a far more difficult thing to do 
 than to resist our avowed enemies. We all like to be 
 on the best of terms with our friends, and we are 
 prone to overlook their errors and faults, and to refrain 
 from telling them our mind openly and frankly. The 
 young are particularly liable to yield to this tendency. 
 They are prone to sail with the stream, and to conform 
 to the wishes and opinions and practices of their 
 friends and companions ; and they often lack courage 
 to tell a brother his faults, and to warn him of their 
 consequences, when truth demands plain speaking and 
 stern reproof. But Paul was of a totally different 
 stamp. Those whom he loved best he reproved the
 
 Courage. 8 1 
 
 most severely, when their conduct deserved it. Thus, 
 when the Galatian church was corrupted by false 
 teaching, and seduced from the simplicity of faith, he 
 faithfully reproved them, saying, " Am I therefore be- 
 come your enemy because I tell you the truth ? " 
 Even with his beloved friend Barnabas he had a 
 " sharp contention," because the latter desired to take 
 his nephew, Mark, with him on their missionary jour- 
 ney, after the young man had abandoned the work of 
 the Lord for a time. But Paul was resolved to teach 
 the young missionary a useful lesson, and to make him 
 feel that he could only regain lost confidence by steady 
 and consistent conduct ; and therefore he denied even 
 the earnest request of Barnabas, who had been such a 
 warm friend to himself; and "the contention was so 
 sharp between them, that they departed asunder, the 
 one from the other." Still, there was no ill-will or 
 grudge in Paul's mind, for when afterwards Mark 
 proved himself worthy to be trusted, he became one 
 of the apostle's most cherished friends ; as he tells us, 
 in writing to Timothy from Rome, a short time before 
 his martyrdom, " Take Mark, and bring him with thee, 
 for he is profitable to me for the ministry." 
 
 Another proof of Paul's fearless courage was given 
 at Antioch, when he withstood his fellow-apostle 
 Peter " to the face, because he was to be blamed " 
 for giving countenance by his conduct to the false 
 doctrine that the observance of the ceremonial law
 
 82 The Life of Faith. 
 
 ought to be imposed upon the Gentiles as needful to 
 salvation. It must have been a sore trial to him to 
 be compelled to rebuke, before the whole church, one 
 whom he so highly esteemed as a "pillar" in the 
 house of God. But his fidelity and courage caused 
 no estrangement between them, for Peter speaks sub- 
 sequently of his " beloved brother Paul," and of the 
 " wisdom given unto him." Good men may differ in 
 opinion ; but if they are really good men, their love 
 will be without dissimulation, and their rebukes will 
 be without bitterness or enmity; and they will be 
 ready to say, " Let the righteous smite me, it shall be 
 a kindness ; and let him reprove me, it shall be an 
 excellent oil, which shall not break my head," but 
 which shall heal wounds and soften asperity. 
 
 From all this it is evident that Paul was not a man 
 of compromise or lax principle in any question of 
 vital importance, but that he was bold and fearless in 
 standing up for the truth as it is in Jesus. None was 
 more yielding and accommodating in matters of in- 
 difference; but none was more firm and inflexible 
 than he in the great questions of Christian doctrine 
 and duty such questions as that of justification by 
 faith alone, and that of the necessity of personal 
 sanctification. 
 
 Now, such courage as this must appear very re- 
 markable to any one who is capable of appreciating 
 it. We cannot but admire the courage of a skilful
 
 Courage. 83 
 
 and brave general on the field of battle when he puts 
 his enemies to flight ; but how little could he do if he 
 stood alone, and if he were not backed by the ardour 
 and enthusiasm of his faithful and valiant troops ! 
 And yet Paul stood in a great measure alone, in that 
 life-long conflict which he waged with human passions 
 and with the rulers of this world, and with spiritual 
 wickedness in high places. In his most trying and 
 difficult positions he had occasion to say, " At my 
 first answer " (before Nero) " no man stood with me, 
 but all men forsook me : I pray God that it may 
 not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the 
 Lord stood with me, and strengthened me." There- 
 fore even when alone, and destitute of all human 
 help, his courage never failed and his resolution never 
 faltered ; and at length his struggles were crowned 
 with victory and his labours with success. And the 
 source of all his courage was his simple faith in Christ, 
 and his realising sense of his Master's gracious pre- 
 sence with him. Having hold of Christ's almighty 
 arm, he was held up amid all his trials and tempta- 
 tions, and was made strong in his conscious weak- 
 ness ; and therefore he could truly say, " I can do all 
 things through Christ who strengtheneth me." 
 
 A few years ago, when our country was supposed 
 to be threatened with an invasion from France, 
 thousands of our young men, influenced by loyalty 
 and patriotism, volunteered their services in defence
 
 84 The Life of Faith. 
 
 of our homes and altars; and their noble deed 
 averted the threatened evil, and secured for us the 
 blessings of peace. But there is a still nobler war- 
 fare, which the Captain of salvation summons them to 
 wage. What is living Christianity but a constant 
 war with evil, without and within a war of defence 
 against sin and Satan, and a war that is waged with 
 the view of ultimate peace? It is called a "great 
 fight of afflictions," and the "good fight of faith," and 
 a " wrestling," not only with flesh and blood, but also 
 with " principalities and powers." To secure the 
 victory, we must be " clothed with the whole armour 
 of God," with the breastplate of righteousness, the 
 shield of faith, and the " sword of the Spirit, which is 
 the Word of God." There is no exemption, and no 
 " discharge in that war " with evil, so long as we 
 remain on earth, for either we must overcome sin, or 
 sin will overcome us ; and if we refuse to fight along 
 with Christ, we must perish along with Satan. Should 
 it not, then, be the highest ambition of every young 
 man, not only to enlist under the banner of the Cross, 
 but also to prove, by his strenuous resistance to sin, 
 by fidelity to the great Captain, and by deeds of 
 Christian valour, that he is not only a soldier, but a 
 "good soldier of Jesus Christ ? " 
 
 The first duty of a soldier is to give implicit obedi- 
 ence to the orders of his chief. He must not please 
 himself, nor follow his own inclination, but he must be
 
 Courage. 85 
 
 ready to obey his general, in the face of danger and 
 death. His motto must be to do or die. So the 
 Christian must obey his " marching orders ; " and his 
 constant inquiry must be, " Lord, what wilt thou have 
 me to do?" and having learned from His written 
 instructions in the Bible what the will of the Lord is, 
 his simple duty is to obey without question or cavil. 
 Then he must be ready to " endure hardness " in the 
 Master's service, to encounter difficulties fearlessly, to 
 bear trials patiently, and to resist temptations cour- 
 ageously. He is engaged in a life-and-death struggle, 
 with corruption within, with an ungodly world without, 
 and with the wicked one both within and without ; 
 and the only alternative is defeat or victory. 
 
 Taking Paul, then, as his model, let every young 
 man aim at being a good soldier of Christ. What are 
 the qualifications of a "good soldier?" One is that 
 he must not be a craven or coward, who flees from 
 the battle or yields to the foe, but a man of true 
 courage, of unquestionable valour, and unshrinking re- 
 solution in contending for the right. Such was the 
 apostle Paul, and such must we be, and such shall we 
 be if we know the power of a living Christianity. 
 
 Another qualification of a " good soldier " is love to 
 his general, combined with confidence in his military 
 skill. We are told that the first Napoleon had a 
 singular power of winning the affections of his armies, 
 and that this was the grand secret of his wonderful
 
 86 The Life of Faith. 
 
 success. " Cut deeper," said a dying soldier to the 
 surgeon when extracting a ball from his breast, " cut 
 deeper, and you will find the Emperor in my heart." 
 So every true Christian has Christ dwelling in his 
 heart, as the object of his supreme love ; and true 
 love makes all his labour light, and all his service 
 pleasant, and all his fighting easy. 
 
 Another qualification of a good soldier is readiness 
 for active service. " No man that warreth," says Paul, 
 " entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that 
 he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a 
 soldier." Instead of allowing his mind and energy to 
 be frittered away with frivolous and alien pursuits, 
 with self-indulgence or engrossing worldly business, 
 the Christian must be ever on the watch, and mind 
 the one business for which he was placed in the ranks, 
 and be always ready to do and to dare whatever his 
 great Captain prescribes to him. Such was the readi- 
 ness of Lord Clyde, to go forth on a day's notice to 
 India to quell the mutiny, and rescue our besieged 
 soldiers in Lucknow; and the readiness also of the 
 apostolic William Burns, when, on being appointed to 
 go as a missionary to China, and being asked when 
 he would be ready, he said, " To-morrow." And so, 
 without bidding farewell to his parents, he immediately 
 embarked, landed in China, and did a great and good 
 work there, and thus proved himself to be a "good 
 soldier of Jesus Christ" Let young men therefore
 
 Pray erf illness. 8 7 
 
 do likewise. Let them be strong and of a good 
 courage in the service of the best of masters ; and 
 instead of being " entangled with the affairs of this 
 life," with its pleasures or business, let them mind the 
 one great business of life, which is to conquer sin in 
 their own hearts, to do all the good they can, to 
 prepare for a holy heaven, and bring as many as 
 possible along with them to that better land. Thus, 
 being always ready for active service, they will mani- 
 fest the power of a living Christianity. And when 
 their hearts are ready to faint, let them be encour- 
 aged by the thought that the victory has been 
 won for them by the great Captain, and that He has 
 promised abundant grace to help them, and has 
 given the prospect of a crown of glory which fadeth 
 not away. 
 
 II. HABITUAL PRAYERFULNESS. 
 
 Many are courageous from mere self-reliance, and 
 their boldness has little or no element of dependence 
 on God. They plan and propose to do this or that, 
 in utter forgetfulness that it is God who disposes, and 
 that without Him they can do nothing. Their lan- 
 guage is, " By the strength of my hand I have done 
 it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent.' 5 But Paul's 
 heroic courage was as far as possible removed from 
 self-confidence. Bold and fearless though he was, 
 yet he was also deeply humble and habitually prayer-
 
 88 The Life of Faith. 
 
 ful. Though, like our own great Reformer, he " never 
 feared the face of man;" yet the reason of this was 
 that he feared God, and depended implicitly upon 
 Him for every good thought, and design, and deed. 
 " Not," he said, " as though we were sufficient of 
 ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our 
 sufficiency is of God." This was the real secret of 
 his strength, and the true source of his courage, and 
 of all those other graces which adorned his character. 
 His life throughout was not one of self-reliance, but of 
 conscious weakness and constant dependence on Christ. 
 His prevailing sentiments were, " I am crucified with 
 Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth 
 in me : and the life which I now live in the flesh I 
 live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, 
 and gave Himself for me." He never for a moment 
 imagined that he could do anything of himself, either 
 in the way of subduing the evil in his own heart, or 
 of benefiting his fellow-men, or of advancing in the 
 divine life, or of glorifying his Master; but all his 
 services and attainments he ascribed entirely to that 
 grace of God which was given to him in answer to 
 prayer. " I can do all things," not of myself or by 
 my own power, but only " through Christ who strength- 
 eneth me." 
 
 In tracing his Christian experience, it is very evi- 
 dent that he was habitually given to prayer. One of 
 his first utterances after his conversion was a prayer
 
 Prayerfulness. 89 
 
 for Divine guidance "Lord, what wilt Thou have me 
 to do?" Then, during the three days of his blindness 
 and soul conflict at Damascus, described in Rom. vii. 
 7-12, he was so wholly given to earnest supplication, 
 that this was told to Ananias as the evidence of his 
 conversion " Behold, he prayeth." Often before, he 
 had said " long prayers," like the Pharisees, but never 
 till now had he really prayed from his heart, as a 
 sinner thirsting for salvation. This prayerfulness was 
 the key-note of all his subsequent career; and his 
 whole history, as recorded in the Acts and in his own 
 epistles, shows that he lived and moved in an atmo- 
 sphere of prayer. It was such a marked feature in his 
 character, that it is needless to specify instances. It 
 may be noticed, however, that almost every prayer he 
 offered up for blessings desired was blended with 
 thanksgivings for blessings bestowed. He not only 
 " continued in prayer," but he " watched in the same 
 with thanksgiving." He did not pray as one who 
 beat the air, and who had no hope of success, but as 
 one who expected and obtained answers, to furnish 
 matter of praise. The union of prayer with thanks- 
 giving appears in many of his addresses, both to 
 individuals and to churches, a few examples of which 
 may be seen in Phile. 4-6 ; 2 Tim. i. 3-4 ; Rom. i. 
 8-1 1 ; Phil. i. 3-6; Col. i. 3-6. 
 
 All this evidently shows that Paul combined, with 
 his intrepid courage, a spirit of true devotion, and
 
 9O The Life of Faith. 
 
 that he spent much of his time in secret prayer, and 
 personal communion with God ; and that he regarded 
 this not only as an incumbent duty, but as a most 
 precious and profitable privilege. In all this, the 
 apostle closely resembled his Divine Master, who 
 spent whole nights in prayer on the mountain top. So 
 Paul prayed " night and day " for that Divine strength 
 which he felt that he so greatly needed to uphold 
 him, and to render his labours successful. Nor was 
 his prayer a mere cry of distress or a groan of anguish ; 
 but its union with thanksgiving shows that it was a 
 prayer of faith, which was graciously answered. 
 Prayer granted gave him ground of praise ; and praise 
 for mercies received led to renewed prayer for more. 
 Thus his religion was not a gloomy but a gladsome 
 religion ; far removed from that of the monk's cloister 
 or the hermit's cell, and making his heart glad with 
 the sunshine of God's reconciled countenance, and 
 the peace of a good conscience, and the hope of 
 eternal bliss. 
 
 Here, then, is a model for young men. With 
 moral courage in resisting evil and standing up boldly 
 for truth, let them combine habitual prayerfulness, for 
 this is the very life of the soul the secret of its power 
 and the source of its comfort and joy. To live with- 
 out prayer is to live without God, and without hope 
 in the world. In restraining or neglecting prayer we 
 can neither be furnished for our present duty nor
 
 Pray erf ulness. 9 1 
 
 fitted for our future destiny. As prayer is essential 
 in the beginning of the work of grace, so it is no less 
 essential to the subsequent progress and the ultimate 
 completion of that work. Prayer brings down to our 
 help the mighty power of God. It is that master-key 
 which unlocks the treasury of heaven's grace. It is 
 that electric chain which, piercing the skies, sends 
 flashes of celestial light into the dark soul, and re- 
 freshes God's weary heritage with copious showers of 
 blessing. It is mighty through God, for it moves the 
 hand which moves the world ; and there is no moun- 
 tain of guilt which it cannot throw down, no corrup- 
 tion which it cannot subdue, no sorrow which it can- 
 not soothe, and no spiritual blessing which it cannot 
 secure. "Verily, verily," says Christ, " whatsoever 
 ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it 
 you." If, then, we desire to be freed from the burden 
 of sin, or to bear patiently the trials of life, or to 
 overcome its temptations, or to surmount its diffi- 
 culties and dangers, we must let our requests be made 
 known to God; and then, receiving power from on 
 high, we shall be enabled boldly to say, like Paul, " I 
 can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth 
 me." 
 
 And let us learn from this subject the great lesson, 
 that our salvation, though impossible with men, is 
 possible with God. No doubt there are great ob- 
 stacles in the way, and the greatest of them are to be
 
 92 The Life of Faith. 
 
 found in ourselves ; in our pride of heart, in our self- 
 righteousness, and in our love of sin ; and these we 
 have no power to overcome. We cannot subdue our 
 pride, so as to make ourselves willing to be saved by 
 free and sovereign grace. Neither can we renounce 
 our self-righteousness, so as to constrain us to rely 
 on Christ's righteousness alone for our .justification. 
 Nor can we overcome our inveterate love of sin, so as 
 to devote our hearts and lives to the service and glory 
 of God ; but all these things we shall be able easily 
 to do " through Christ strengthening us." Let no 
 one say, as the apostles once said, when they were 
 told of the difficulty of a rich man entering into the 
 kingdom of God, " Who then can be saved ? " For 
 Christ says, Every one who comes to me shall be 
 saved. And if you ask, How can I come, for I am 
 weak and helpless? the answer is, You can come, 
 through the power of the promised Spirit, who is 
 given to all that ask Him. Great as the difficulties 
 are (and the more that we face them and realise 
 them so much the better), still, " is anything too hard 
 for the Lord?" If any man really wishes to be 
 saved, let him offer up in sincerity such a prayer as' 
 this : " O Lord, I cannot save myself, but Thou canst 
 do it, and Thou hast said that Thou art most willing 
 to do it, by the blood of atonement and by the 
 baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire. Lord, I 
 believe, help Thou mine unbelief; draw me, and I
 
 Prayerfulness. 
 
 93 
 
 will run after Thee ; turn me, and I shall be turned ; 
 save me, and I shall be saved." 
 
 In our next chapter we shall speak of " Paul the 
 aged," and the continued evidence which he gave, in 
 the closing years of his life, of his possession of those 
 graces by which, as we have seen, he was so eminently 
 distinguished, "They shall still bring forth fruit in 
 old age."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GROWTH IN GRACE. 
 
 " Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ." 
 
 PHILE. 9. 
 
 E have endeavoured to analyse the character of 
 Paul, and to present in combination its more 
 prominent features, as these are exhibited 
 incidentally in his own epistles, and partly, also, in 
 the history of his life, contained in the Acts of the 
 Apostles. That history, however, terminates about 
 five years before his martyrdom in the year 68 ; and 
 we naturally wish to know, not only what he said and 
 did afterwards, but also whether he maintained the 
 same high character to the close of his life. Not a 
 few who have long borne a Christian character have 
 subsequently fallen away. Having put their hand to 
 the plough, they looked back, and drew back; 
 having apparently begun the Christian race, they 
 stopped short and missed the prize. Was Paul then 
 one of these? Did his faith fail, and his love wax 
 cold, and his zeal decay, in the winter of old age ?
 
 Growth in Grace. 95 
 
 Or did he realise the beautiful description of the 
 Psalmist, " The righteous shall flourish like the palm 
 tree ; they shall still bring forth fruit in old age ? " 
 
 The answer to these questions we hope to furnish 
 in this and a subsequent chapter. But have we any 
 reliable materials to enable us to do so ? There are 
 many to whom his history, after his first imprisonment 
 in Rome, is almost an utter blank; and there are 
 others whose knowledge of it is very imperfect and 
 confused ; and yet that history, though not recorded 
 in the Acts of the Apostles, is, in some respects, the 
 most interesting and instructive chapter in his eventful 
 life. It shows us that, amid the growing infirmities of 
 old age, and the rigours and solitude of imprisonment, 
 and in the immediate prospect of a bloody death, he 
 " held fast the beginning of his confidence, steadfast 
 unto the end." It shows that his gracious Master did 
 not forsake him, when his heart and flesh were fainting 
 and failing; but that, through abounding grace, his 
 Christian excellences shone with increasing splendour, 
 and that, like the sun, he was most glorious at his 
 setting. 
 
 We propose, therefore, to endeavour to fill up the 
 gap in his history between the years 63 and 68 ; and 
 the materials, for enabling us to do so, are to be found 
 in those of his own epistles which were written during 
 that period. On this subject, much light has been 
 thrown by Paley in his " Hora3 Paulinae," in which
 
 96 The Life of Faith. 
 
 a very impressive argument, in favour of the authen- 
 ticity of Scripture, has been drawn from the undesigned 
 coincidences between the historical statements of Luke, 
 and the casual allusions made to them in Paul's own 
 writings. More recently, a valuable contribution to 
 the elucidation of the " Life and Epistles of St Paul," 
 has been made by the admirable work of Conybeare 
 and Howson. 
 
 Such, then, are some of the sources from which we 
 have to draw the materials of our present chapter ; in 
 which we shall have occasion to refer to the apostle's 
 position and occupation during his first imprisonment 
 at Rome, in the years 63 and 64. In these painful 
 circumstances, instead of being idle, fretful, or despond- 
 ing, he was active, energetic, and hopeful. Though 
 he expected no mercy at the hands of the cruel tyrant 
 before whom he was to be brought, yet he diligently 
 improved every opportunity afforded to him, of preach- 
 ing the Gospel, and of sending precious letters to the 
 churches which he had planted, and which were now 
 beyond the reach of his voice. His enforced leisure 
 was employed in winning souls to Christ, and con- 
 firming those who had already believed. He reminds 
 us of Luther when, at a critical period in the history 
 of the Reformation, he was snatched from his perse- 
 cutors and shut up in the Castle of the Wartburg, where 
 his leisure was employed in translating the Word of 
 God for the benefit of the common people, and in
 
 Sunset of Life. 97 
 
 sending forth his withering exposures of the papal 
 Antichrist. So Paul, on whom devolved the " care of 
 all the churches," was not prevented by his growing 
 infirmities, or his imminent danger, from doing his 
 Master's work with all his might. In him, young 
 men may see what they might do for Christ in the 
 most adverse circumstances; and they may also learn, 
 that if they give themselves to Christ in their youth, 
 as Paul did, He will not forsake them in old age, but 
 will make their latter end better and happier than 
 their beginning. 
 
 When the apostle was brought to Rome, he was 
 handed over by Julius, the centurion, to the com- 
 mander of the 'imperial guard. Instead, however, of 
 being shut up in the common prison, he was allowed 
 to reside in the house of one of his Christian friends, 
 probably that of Aquila and Priscilla. Considerable 
 liberty, therefore, was at this time granted to him, and 
 the only restraint that he was subjected to was, that he 
 was chained by his right arm to a Roman soldier. All 
 his friends had free access to him, and many inquirers 
 came to him to be taught the way of salvation. Thus 
 the Gospel came to be well known in Rome, and even 
 in the imperial palace itself; and many converts to 
 the Christian faith were to be found in " Caesar's 
 household," as we shall afterwards see. So great was 
 the concourse of inquirers that the accommodation of 
 his " lodging " became inadequate, and he was obliged
 
 9 8 The Life of Faith. 
 
 to rent a house of his own, where "he dwelt two 
 whole years, and received all that came in unto him." 
 
 It was not, therefore, till about the close of these 
 two years, that the appeal, which Paul had taken to 
 the emperor at Caesarea, was heard and ultimately 
 sustained. This delay was probably caused by the 
 circumstance, that his accusers were long in reaching 
 Rome, so that the trial could not proceed without 
 them ; and no doubt their arrival might be delayed 
 by their laborious efforts to collect evidence of Paul's 
 alleged seditious tendencies, and to bring witnesses 
 in support of their various charges against him. Be- 
 sides, the proceedings in the Roman courts were often 
 very dilatory, especially when the accused was tried 
 on more charges than one, because it was the custom 
 to pronounce sentence upon the first charge, before 
 the second was entered upon. 
 
 How then was Paul occupied during these two 
 years? One occupation, as Luke informs us, was 
 daily preaching, often "from morning till evening." 
 He " preached the kingdom of God, and taught those 
 things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all 
 confidence." And how impressive and touching must 
 have been the glowing eloquence of that " ambassador 
 in bonds ! " What force would be given to his argu- 
 ments, and what pathos to his appeals, when he raised 
 his chained hand to implore sinners, in Christ's stead, 
 to be reconciled to God ! and when the harsh clank-
 
 Fruit in Old Age. 99 
 
 ing of his chain accompanied the sound of his solemn 
 and persuasive voice, who could doubt his thorough 
 sincerity, or fail to admire his high moral courage, 
 and his burning zeal for the honour of Christ, and for 
 the salvation of his fellow-men? 
 
 But besides daily preaching during these two years, 
 his time was also much occupied with the care of all 
 the churches. To some of them he had already 
 written various epistles, such as those to the Thes- 
 salonians about the year 54, and that to the Galatians 
 about the year 58, and those to the Corinthians about 
 the years 59 and 60, and that to the Romans about 
 the year 60. These are all which he had yet written, 
 and it was necessary now to write the Acts of the 
 Apostles, which was done by Luke under Paul's 
 direction, and also various other epistles, which were 
 soon to form part of the inspired record. 
 
 To these, therefore, let us now direct our attention, 
 not for the purpose of expounding them fully, but 
 simply for the purpose of bringing out the incidental 
 notices which they give us of Paul's personal history, 
 and of the state of his mind in the prospect of a 
 sentence of death at Caesar's tribunal. It will be 
 interesting also to observe who were his companions 
 and fellow-labourers at this time in Rome. 
 
 (i .) Of these epistles, the first was that addressed to 
 Philemon, which seems to have been written about a 
 year after Paul's arrival, that is in the year 64. From
 
 I oo The Life of Faith. 
 
 the salutation in the last verse, it appears that Timothy, 
 his beloved son in the faith, was now at his side to 
 cheer him with his sympathy, and to help him in the 
 work of the Lord. Philemon was a man of high 
 social position at Colosse, and a member of the 
 Christian church which Paul had planted there. He 
 was one of the fruits of Paul's apostolic labours, 
 having been brought through his instrumentality to a 
 saving knowledge of the truth. This Philemon had 
 a slave called Onesimus, who had robbed his master, 
 and run away from his house, and fled to Rome. 
 Wandering about the streets there, Onesimus was 
 brought by some means within the reach of Paul's 
 influence, and was converted to the Christian faith ; 
 for he calls him "my son Onesimus, whom I have 
 begotten in my bonds." When this runaway slave 
 was converted, he gave such evidence of superior 
 gifts and grace, that Paul would gladly have retained 
 him at Rome, and employed him in the service of the 
 Gospel. But he would do nothing without the leave 
 of his master Philemon, and therefore he wrote to him 
 beseeching him to forgive his robbery and flight, and 
 to receive him now, not as a slave, but as a " brother 
 beloved." From this brief epistle, so remarkable for 
 its tact and politeness and Christian feeling, we see 
 how living Christianity operates upon the relation of 
 master and slave. It seeks to emancipate the slave, 
 not by violent means or bloody wars, but by leavening
 
 Fruit in Old Age. 101 
 
 society with the holy and benevolent spirit of that 
 Gospel, which proclaims the equality of all men in the 
 sight of God, and which denounces every attempt to 
 deprive a brother of his liberty. In this epistle there 
 is a happy blending of Christian wisdom with Christian 
 tenderness. 
 
 (2.) The second of the epistles, written at this time, 
 is that addressed to the Colossians, a church of 
 Phrygia in Asia Minor. This district had been 
 visited by Paul on two different occasions (Acts xvi. 
 6, xviii. 23), although it is not expressly stated that, 
 on either, he had visited the town of Colosse. 
 Probably the church there was founded by Epaphras, 
 who was at this time in Rome with the apostle \ for 
 he says (i. 7) that they had learned the Gospel " of 
 Epaphras, our dear fellow-servant, who is for you a 
 faithful minister of Christ." Then, this epistle was 
 sent to the Colossians by Tychicus, whom he calls " a 
 beloved brother and a faithful minister" (iv. 7-9). Paul's 
 object, in writing this epistle, was to warn the Colos- 
 sians against various errors and sinful practices, into 
 which they had fallen, especially the errors of a false 
 philosophy, and the worship of angels, and certain 
 Judaising customs. In opposition to these, he incul- 
 cates upon them the simple truth of the Gospel, and 
 the pure morality of the Christian life. From the 
 conclusion of the epistle, we learn that Paul's fellow- 
 labourers at this time, besides Timothy, Tychicus, and
 
 IO2 The Life of Faith. 
 
 Epaphras, were Aristarchus, the companion of his 
 voyage and shipwreck, and Mark, whom he had for- 
 merly distrusted, but to whom he was now reconciled, 
 and Justus ; also Luke, the beloved physician and in- 
 spired historian, and Demas, who as yet was faithful, 
 but who afterwards " forsook him, having loved this 
 present world" (iv. 10-14). It is peculiarly interesting 
 to read these notices of that small but devoted mis- 
 sionary band, who were now grappling, in the strength 
 of the Lord of Hosts, with the idolatry and profli- 
 gacy of imperial Rome ; and whose doctrines, though 
 proclaimed by humble prisoners, were destined to 
 overthrow the empire of the Caesars, and to revolu- 
 tionise the world. At the head of this band, Paul 
 himself stood, strong in faith and undaunted in spirit, 
 and full of confidence in the ultimate triumph of the 
 Gospel over all opposition. 
 
 (3.) The third of the epistles, written at this time, 
 was that to the church of Ephesus, the chief of the 
 seven churches of Asia. In this epistle, which was 
 sent by Tychicus, at the same time as the former (vi. 
 21, 22), Paul sets forth, in glowing language, the high 
 privileges which the Gospel had conferred upon the 
 Gentiles, and their consequent obligation to walk 
 worthy of these privileges, and to adorn their Christian 
 profession by a holy life and conversation. 
 
 (4.) But there was a fourth epistle, written shortly 
 after this time, viz., that to the Philippians : and it
 
 Fruit in Old Age. 103 
 
 demands our special notice on account of the numer- 
 ous allusions which it contains to Paul's state, and 
 feelings, and prospects, during his first imprisonment 
 at Rome. 
 
 It is very evident that the apostle cherished a 
 peculiarly strong affection for his converts at Philippi, 
 while their reciprocal affection for him, as their spirit- 
 ual father, was scarcely less strong. The Philippian 
 church was the first-fruits of his labours in Europe ; 
 and it included the converted jailer and his family, 
 and also Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened, 
 and who entertained him hospitably in her house. 
 And though the members of that church were gener- 
 ally poor in outward estate, yet they were distinguished, 
 more perhaps than those of any other, by their large- 
 hearted liberality, especially in ministering repeat- 
 edly to the apostle's temporal wants. Previous to 
 this time, they had on various occasions sent liberal 
 contributions for his support; and as soon as they 
 heard of his imprisonment at Rome, they resolved to 
 send a special messenger there, to declare their heart- 
 felt sympathy with him in his affliction, and to give 
 tangible proof of it by ministering to the necessities 
 of their beloved teacher. That messenger was 
 Epaphroditus, who seems to have been a leading 
 presbyter in the Philippian church, and who cheer- 
 fully undertook this long voyage to Rome at the 
 call of that church (ii. 25, 30). It appears, how-
 
 IO4 The Life of Faith. 
 
 ever, that he had been exposed to great danger on 
 the way, and had risked his life to render this service 
 to the apostle. It was by him also, that Paul sent the 
 epistle to the Philippians, soon after the other three 
 already mentioned, about the year 64 or 65. It is 
 touching to observe how grateful Paul was for their 
 considerate kindness, and how highly he appreciated 
 their spontaneous gifts (read chap. iv. 10-19). 
 
 In this affectionate epistle, we have several very 
 interesting and suggestive notices of the results of 
 Paul's labours in Rome, showing his unabated zeal 
 and untiring assiduity in his Master's service, as, for 
 instance, in chap, i., verses 12-14. From these verses 
 it appears that his patience and courage as an "am- 
 bassador in bonds," and as one expecting to be tried 
 for his life, had tended greatly to the furtherance of 
 the Gospel, and had emboldened even the timid to 
 speak the Word fearlessly. Even in the "palace" 
 itself, that is, in the prcztorium, the residence of the 
 imperial guard, his case was well known, and his 
 preaching had produced a powerful effect. The 
 pratorium was situated in the very centre of the city, 
 on that Palatine Hill which was " at once the birth- 
 place of the infant city, and the abode of its rulers 
 during its days of greatest splendour, where the reed- 
 thatched cottage of Romulus was still preserved in 
 the midst of the gorgeous structures of Caligula and 
 Nero." It was there that the Emperor Augustus was
 
 Fruit in Old Age. 105 
 
 born, and this hill was at that time "the most con- 
 spicuous spot on the earth, not merely for crime, but 
 for splendour and power." And yet even there, 
 among the imperial guards of Nero, the preaching of 
 the apostle was " the power of God unto salvation." 
 Nay, in the household of Nero himself, not a few con- 
 verts to the faith were to be found ; for at the close 
 of the epistle, the apostle says, " All the saints salute 
 you, chiefly they that are of Cesar's household'' 
 
 Still further, we learn from this epistle that Paul's 
 position had now become far more critical, and that 
 his prospect of being set at liberty was growing darker. 
 To this he refers in chap, ii., verses 17-23. One rea- 
 son probably why he apprehended an unfavourable 
 result, in his approaching trial, was the marriage of 
 Nero about this time to the infamous Poppaea, who 
 had become a proselyte to Judaism, and whose in- 
 fluence with the emperor would certainly be employed 
 in favour of Paul's accusers. This abandoned woman 
 had persuaded Nero, not only to divorce his young 
 wife Octavia, but also to put her to death. Her 
 impiety was so flagrant that when she gave birth to a 
 daughter, she had temples erected to herself and her 
 infant, and divine honours paid to them both. We 
 are told by Josephus that she employed her influence 
 with Nero in favour of the Jews ; and no doubt it 
 would be exerted against Paul, when brought before 
 the emperor's judgment-seat.
 
 1 06 The Life of Faith. 
 
 And yet, in these circumstances of distress and 
 danger, the apostle possessed his soul in patience, and 
 prosecuted his labours with unabated activity and un- 
 interrupted success. Even the rough soldiers, who 
 guarded him, were struck with amazement in witness- 
 ing his calm self-possession, his heroic courage, and 
 his untiring diligence in preaching the Gospel of the 
 grace of God. While their profligate master was run- 
 ning a career of almost unexampled wickedness, and 
 fast filling up the measure of his iniquity, yet not a 
 few of his servants were persuaded to renounce their 
 idols and their vices, and to become good soldiers of 
 Jesus Christ 
 
 It has been justly remarked that " history has few 
 stranger contrasts than that, on the one hand, of the 
 impious and profligate Nero seated on the throne of 
 the Caesars, and satiating his lust and cruelty without 
 fear or restraint ; and on the other hand, that of Paul 
 the prisoner, chained in Nero's pratorium, keeping 
 his body in subjection, calmly waiting his impending 
 sentence, and labouring all day long to proclaim the 
 glad tidings of salvation to all who would come to his 
 house." At this time, " there were but two religions 
 in the Roman world; the worship of the emperor, 
 and the worship of the Saviour. The old supersti- 
 tions had been long worn out ; they had lost all hold 
 on educated minds. There remained, to civilised 
 heathens, no other worship possible but the worship
 
 Fruit in Old Age. 107 
 
 of power ; and the incarnation of power which they 
 chose was, very naturally, the sovereign of the world. 
 These, then, were the ultimate results of the noble 
 intuitions of Plato, the methodical reasoning of Aris- 
 totle, the pure morality of Socrates. All had failed 
 for want of external sanction and Divine authority. 
 There was left nothing but the sensual philosophy of 
 Epicurus, and the debasing religion of Nero-worship. 
 But a new doctrine had now been taught in Rome, 
 and was believed even on the Palatine Hill. Over 
 against the altars of Nero and Poppsea, the voice of a 
 prisoner was daily heard for two whole years, and 
 daily woke up in dead souls the consciousness of 
 their Divine origin, and of their high duty and destiny 
 as immortal beings. Men listened to him, and learned 
 the way of salvation; and they came to know that 
 self-sacrifice was better than self-indulgence, and that 
 to suffer was nobler than to reign. They felt that the 
 only religion which satisfied the needs of man was 
 the religion of godly sorrow, the religion of self-devo- 
 tion, the religion of the cross" ("Life and Epistles of 
 St Paul," p. 533). 
 
 This lesson the world still needs to learn. Even 
 yet, in the full blaze of Gospel light, there is a strong 
 tendency in many minds to walk in the sparks of their 
 own kindling, and to revive the exploded philosophies 
 of ancient times. Men, professing themselves to be 
 wise, have become fools. How humbling to find, in
 
 io8 The Life of Faith. 
 
 this nineteenth century, that men of high scientific 
 attainments, in endeavouring to explain the creation 
 of the world, and deny its Creator, have dragged 
 forth from its grave the theory of a heathen philo- 
 sopher, and ascribed the origin of all things to a 
 "fortuitous concourse of atoms." Modern science 
 and philosophy are set up as far superior to God's 
 revelation of His will, and far better suited to an age 
 of progress and mental development. Many are 
 losing their hold of Gospel truth, and are tossed on a 
 sea of uncertainty as to its simplest principles. It 
 has been truly remarked that this backward tendency 
 " might well surprise us did we not know that the 
 progress of human reason, in the path of ethical or 
 moral discovery, is merely the progress of a man in a 
 treadmill, doomed for ever to retrace his own steps." 
 True progress can only be realised by holding fast the 
 truth as it is in Jesus, and taking His Word as a lamp 
 to our feet and a light to our path. The Gospel 
 which Paul preached has lost none of its power in the 
 lapse of ages. It is the " everlasting Gospel," which 
 shall yet be preached to all nations, and by which all 
 nations shall yet be blessed. It is still as much suited 
 to man's deepest wants, as it was in the days of Paul, 
 and it is mighty, through God, in casting down the 
 strongholds of sin and Satan in the human heart, and 
 in bringing all its thoughts and affections into capti- 
 vity to the obedience of Christ.
 
 Fruit in Old Age. 109 
 
 Let young men, therefore, prize this glorious Gospel, 
 and never be ashamed of its precious and saving truths. 
 Let them beware of being led away by prevailing 
 errors, and of substituting the dim light of human 
 reason for the clear and blessed light of revelation. 
 Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel, and why? "Be- 
 cause it is the power of God unto salvation to every 
 one that believeth ; to the Jew first, and also to the 
 Greek." Let every young man embrace the Gospel 
 with his whole heart for his personal salvation, and 
 let him strive to maintain a life and conversation be- 
 coming the Gospel, and thus exhibit, in all his actings, 
 the practical power of a living Christianity. And 
 in imitation of the apostolic zeal and fervent devoted- 
 ness of Paul, let all strive to diffuse the Gospel by 
 works of faith and deeds of self-denial ; and hasten 
 the time when Christ's parting charge to his Church 
 shall be fulfilled : " Preach the Gospel to every 
 creature ; and lo ! I am with you alway, even unto 
 the end of the world." 
 
 In the next chapter, we shall refer to the labours of 
 the apostle in the three closing years of his life, and 
 to his martyrdom at Rome.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE NEAR PROSPECT OF DEATH. 
 
 "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my 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. " 2 TIM. iv. 6-8. 
 
 |T has been truly said that. " as a man lives, so 
 he dies." If during life he walks by faith, 
 we may be sure that he will die in faith. 
 Or if he lives in sin and unbelief, it is but too prob- 
 able that he will die without God, and without hope. 
 The grace of God no doubt is omnipotent, and it can 
 save to the uttermost, and even at the latest hour of 
 existence. But a deathbed repentance is a rare occur- 
 rence. There is only one instance of it recorded in 
 Scripture that of the thief upon the cross ; and while 
 it teaches us that none should despair, it also teaches 
 us that none should presume, of reckon too confidently 
 on receiving at last that Divine mercy, which had been 
 repeatedly offered, and as often refused. Now is the 
 only " accepted time " that we can count upon ; " now
 
 The Near Prospect of Death. 1 1 1 
 
 is the day of salvation." We must become righteous, 
 and must live the life of the righteous, if we desire to 
 have a sure hope that our " latter end will be like 
 his." This is one great lesson which the life of the 
 apostle Paul teaches us. For about thirty years he 
 had now been an eminent, faithful, and devoted ser- 
 vant of Christ ; and his Master did not forsake him in 
 old age, or in the near prospect of death. While his 
 outward man decayed, the inward man was renewed 
 day by day. " The righteous shall flourish like the 
 palm-tree : he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 
 Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall 
 flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still 
 bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and 
 flourishing ; to show that the Lord is upright." The 
 truth of all this, with reference to the great apostle, 
 it will be our object to show in the present chapter, in 
 order that young men may learn the advantage of early 
 piety, and the blessedness of early consecration to Him 
 who says, " I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." 
 In endeavouring to trace the life and labours of the 
 apostle Paul, we have now reached the close of his 
 first imprisonment and trial at Rome. This, it is 
 generally thought, took place about the year 64 or 65 
 of the Christian era ; and seeing that he was put to 
 death in the year that Nero died, that is in the year 
 68, there still remained for him three or four years of 
 active labour in the service of his Divine Lord. It
 
 1 1 2 The Life of Faith. 
 
 may not, therefore, be uninteresting or uninstructive, 
 to endeavour to trace his course during that period, in 
 so far as it is possible to do so. But as to this part 
 of his history, the " Acts of the Apostles " are silent ; 
 and the notices given of his subsequent labours, even 
 in his own epistles, are very brief and fragmentary. 
 Still, by comparing one passage with another, as has 
 been done so well by Paley in his " Horae Paulinae," 
 and by Conybeare and Howson, we may obtain a 
 tolerably correct idea of the apostle's spirit, and man- 
 ner of life, during these closing years, and of his hopes 
 and prospects at the hour of death. In giving us 
 these fragmentary notices, instead of a detailed his- 
 tory, there was evidently a wise Providential design. 
 For, as has been truly said, " the wall of separation, 
 which for ever cuts off the apostolic age from that 
 which followed it, was built by God. That age of 
 miracles was not to be revealed to us as passing, by 
 any gradual transition, into the common life of the 
 Church; but it was intentionally isolated from all 
 succeeding time, that we might learn to appreciate 
 more fully its extraordinary character, and see by the 
 sharpness of the abruptest contrast, the difference 
 between the Divine and the human." 
 
 It is necessary, however, first to advert to the 
 grounds on which we have reason to believe that Paul 
 lived and laboured for at least three years after the 
 close of his first imprisonment. One of these grounds
 
 Hope in Death. 113 
 
 is, that there are various allusions made in his sub- 
 sequent epistles to his personal history, which can 
 only be explained on this supposition. Then, too, it 
 was the universal belief of the ancient Church that his 
 appeal to Caesar was sustained, that he was acquitted 
 of the charges preferred against him in Judaea, and 
 that he spent several years in active labour before he 
 was again imprisoned and put to death. As to this, 
 there is one emphatic testimony borne by a very 
 competent witness, viz., Clement, one of his own 
 disciples and fellow-labourers, of whom Paul says that 
 " his name was in the book of life " (Phil. iv. 3). This 
 Clement was a resident at Rome after the death of 
 the apostle, and in an epistle of his, which is still 
 extant, he says, " Paul, having been a herald" (of the 
 Gospel) "in the east and in the west, enjoyed the dis- 
 tinguished celebrity due to his faith; and having 
 taught righteousness to the whole world " (that is, the 
 Roman empire), " even to the furtfiest extremity of the 
 west, and having testified before princes, he thus de- 
 parted from the world." This expression "the 
 furthest extremity of the west " as used by an in- 
 habitant of Rome, could only mean the western part 
 of Europe, probably Spain. We know that Paul had 
 long cherished a desire to preach the Gospel in that 
 country, and that he had resolved to go there as soon 
 as he should visit Rome ; for in his Epistle to the 
 Romans (xv. 23, 24), he says, " Now having no more
 
 H4 The Life of Faith, 
 
 place in these parts, and having a great desire these 
 many years to come unto you ; whensoever I take my 
 journey into Spain, I will come to you." And to 
 show how much his heart was set upon this, he adds 
 (verse 28), "I will come by you" (Romans) "into 
 Spain." Many similar testimonies, by Christian 
 writers of a later date, such as Eusebius and Chrysos- 
 tom, might be adduced to show that Paul, after his 
 release, went forth again to preach the Gospel and 
 visit the churches, and that he reached Spain, and came 
 back a second time to Rome, and that there he suffered 
 a martyr's death, under the reign of the Emperor Nero. 
 In order to fill up this gap in Paul's history, and 
 show how he was occupied during the closing years 
 of his life, there are three things to be considered, viz. 
 his first trial and release at Rome, his subsequent 
 labours, and his second trial and martyrdom. 
 
 I. His FIRST TRIAL AND RELEASE AT ROME. 
 
 This trial, as we have said, came on about the year 
 65, before the emperor himself, who was assisted by 
 a council of twenty assessors, including the two consuls 
 and a number of senators, and others of the highest 
 rank. Such trials before the emperor were conducted 
 in the imperial palace, which stood on the Palatine 
 Hill, and the ruins of which are still to be seen there. 
 At such a tribunal, the most august in the world, the 
 apostle could expect little justice and less mercy;
 
 Support in Affliction. 1 1 5 
 
 though doubtless he rejoiced in the opportunity of pro- 
 claiming, before such an audience, the unsearchable 
 riches of Christ. The power of life and death was in 
 the hands of an unprincipled profligate and cruel 
 despot, whose character and crimes were a disgrace 
 to the lowest type of humanity. But Paul knew well 
 that his life was not in the hands of Nero ; and that 
 he could suffer no injury so long as his Master had 
 anything for him to do in this world. " The servant 
 of God is immortal till his work is done." Nor had 
 Paul any fear of death ; but he was quite willing and 
 ready to "depart and be with Christ, which is far 
 better." What his feelings were, in the prospect of 
 appearing before Caesar to be tried for his life, we 
 may learn from the epistle which he had just sent 
 away to the Philippians by Epaphroditus. There he 
 says, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 
 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour : 
 yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a 
 strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be 
 with Christ ; which is far better : nevertheless to abide 
 in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this 
 confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue 
 with you all, for your furtherance and joy of faith " 
 (Phil. i. 21-25). From this we see that his mind 
 was uncertain, not only as to what his sentence 
 would be, but also as to whether he ought to desire 
 to remain on earth, or to depart to his eternal rest
 
 116 The Life of Faith. 
 
 above. But whatever the result might be, he possessed 
 his soul in patience and submission to the Divine will. 
 Now, though we have no formal account of this 
 important trial, yet we know what was the nature of 
 the charges preferred against the apostle. They were 
 these sedition, heresy, and sacrilege. To prove 
 these against him, his Jewish prosecutors again ap- 
 peared at Caesar's judgment-seat, as they had done at 
 the tribunal of Felix and Festus before ; and they en- 
 deavoured to show that Paul was guilty of these crimes, 
 and worthy of death. And we can also conceive what 
 the line of Paul's defence would be in proving his inno- 
 cence ; and no doubt he would electrify that august 
 audience, as he had done before those who heard him 
 at Caesarea in the presence of King Agrippa, by his 
 simple statement of the facts of the case, by his 
 powerful arguments, and by his eloquent appeals to 
 his just rights as a Roman citizen. As to that charge, 
 which would be regarded at Rome as the most serious 
 of all viz., sedition he would be able to show con- 
 clusively that, so far from encouraging disorder or 
 disloyalty, he had uniformly inculcated submission to 
 the powers that be, not merely " for wrath, but for 
 conscience sake." Most probably too, he would again 
 " reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgment 
 to come," and speak " concerning the faith in Christ," 
 as he had done before Felix. At all events, we may 
 be sure that he would not lose the opportunity of
 
 Siipport in Affliction. 117 
 
 making known the Gospel of the grace of God even 
 to that cruel despot, that unjust judge, who " neither 
 feared God nor regarded man," and who then ruled the 
 world. And though Nero resisted every appeal to in- 
 duce him to embrace the Saviour, yet doubtless even he 
 trembled, like Felix, at the apostle's denunciations of sin, 
 and felt the excruciating pangs of a guilty conscience. 
 Why such a man as Nero should have pronounced 
 sentence in the apostle's favour, it is not easy to 
 explain. Probably, even his seared conscience was 
 roused for the moment from its long and deep slumber, 
 and compelled him for once at least to execute right- 
 eous judgment. No doubt also he had heard the 
 favourable report of Paul which had been given by 
 his own soldiers, and the " saints of Caesar's house- 
 hold" who had become converts to the faith of Christ; 
 for as Paul himself says, " the things which happened 
 unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of 
 the Gospel ; so that my bonds in Christ are manifest 
 in all the palace." But whatever Nero's motive may 
 have been, there is no doubt that Paul's appeal to 
 Caesar was now sustained, and that he was declared 
 to be innocent of any charge, and was restored to 
 liberty. Yes, the " Lord knoweth how to deliver the 
 godly out of temptation." " If God be for us, who 
 can be against us ? " " He will keep the feet of His 
 saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness ; for 
 by strength shall no man prevail." What a lesson to
 
 1 1 8 The Life of Faith. 
 
 young men to fear God, and to banish every other 
 fear. Let them adhere strictly to principle, and follow 
 resolutely the path of duty, and commit their way to 
 the Lord : and who is he that will harm you, if ye be 
 followers of that which is good ? " But if ye suffer for 
 righteousness' sake, happy are ye." 
 
 II. PAUL'S SUBSEQUENT LABOURS. 
 
 Here the first thing to be noticed is, that the apostle, 
 after his liberation, seems to have spent some time in 
 Italy ; and that, during this period, he wrote the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews. At the close of that epistle, 
 he says, " They of Italy salute you ; " while he also 
 mentions that his son Timothy, who had been appre- 
 hended and imprisoned, was now, like himself, " set 
 at liberty." The epistle is addressed to those Hebrews 
 who had been converted to the faith of Christ, but 
 who were disposed to cling to the ceremonial institu- 
 tions of Moses. It is very probable that it was ad- 
 dressed, in the first instance, to those converted Jews, 
 who, when banished from Rome, had taken refuge at 
 Corinth. The grounds of this opinion are very ably 
 stated in an article which appeared recently in the 
 British and Foreign Evangelical Review. But the 
 epistle was evidently designed for all, in every place, 
 who had been converted from Judaism to Christian- 
 ity ; and the main object of it was to prepare their 
 minds for the approaching overthrow of the temple at
 
 Faithful to the End. 119 
 
 Jerusalem, and the consequent abrogation of the 
 Levitical ceremonies, by showing them that all that 
 had been typified by these was now fulfilled by Christ 
 in His priestly sacrifice and intercession. Another 
 object of this epistle was to warn the Hebrew converts 
 against apostasy from the faith, and to support their 
 minds, and secure their steadfastness, under the 
 sufferings and persecutions to which they were ex- 
 posed, at the hands of their unbelieving brethren. 
 There seems to be no doubt that this epistle was 
 written from Italy about the year 65, or five years 
 before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. 
 
 After leaving Italy, the apostle seems to have paid 
 a hurried visit to Macedonia and Asia Minor, as he 
 had intimated his intention to do, in the epistles he 
 had just written to the Philippians, and to Philemon 
 of Colosse. In these quarters, various errors had 
 sprung up, which it required his personal presence 
 and vigorous hand to expose and drive out of the 
 Church. Then, he appears to have paid his long in- 
 tended visit to Spain, where it is supposed that he 
 spent at least a whole year, in preaching the Gospel, and 
 organising Christian churches. Next, in the year 66, 
 he appears to have returned to Asia Minor, in order 
 to silence various heretics, such as " Hymenaeus and 
 Philetus," and Alexander, who had been sowing there 
 the seeds of dangerous error. Then, he seems to 
 have gone to Macedonia, and afterwards to the island
 
 1 2 o The Life of Fa ith. 
 
 of Crete; and returning to Ephesus, he at length finally, 
 left it, and proceeded, by way of Corinth, to spend 
 the winter at Nicopolis ; where, however, he was again 
 apprehended, and sent a prisoner to Rome about the 
 year 68. All this will appear more evident from the 
 notices given in his epistles to Timothy and Titus ; 
 and it shows how active and unwearied Paul was in 
 his Master's service to the very last ; and how true it 
 is that he " brought forth fruit even in old age." 
 
 1. The First Epistle to Timothy appears to have been 
 written from Macedonia in the year 66, and probably 
 about the end of that year. From the opening verses 
 of that epistle, we learn that Paul had left Timothy be- 
 hind him at Ephesus, in order to oppose and defeat 
 the efforts of the false teachers, who had been labour- 
 ing to subvert the faith and hope of the Church 
 (i. 1-4). These Judaising teachers laid great stress 
 upon the ceremonies of the Mosaic law, and denied 
 the doctrine of justification by faith alone ; and 
 Timothy was furnished in this epistle with ample 
 authority to denounce and condemn these ritualists, 
 and prevent the contagion of their destructive heresy 
 from spreading throughout the Church. It appears 
 also that Paul, at this time, expected soon to see 
 Timothy himself at Ephesus (iii. 14). 
 
 2. Shortly after this, the Epistle to Titus was written, 
 probably from Nicopolis, a town of Ephesus, in the 
 west of Macedonia, where Paul had determined to
 
 Faithful to the End. 1 2 1 
 
 spend the winter. After joining Timothy at Ephesus, 
 it appears that Paul went south to the island of Crete, 
 along with Titus, in order to oppose the false teachers 
 there, and confirm the minds of the disciples. But as 
 his time was limited, he left Titus at Crete, as his 
 representative, to refute prevailing errors, to appoint 
 qualified ministers, with the " laying on of the hands 
 of the presbytery," and to promote the order and 
 organisation of the churches. As great disorders 
 had evidently prevailed, it required a firm and strong 
 hand to repress them (i. 1-5). On leaving Crete, 
 Paul seems to have proceeded to Corinth, and then, 
 as we have said, to Nicopolis, where he- intended to 
 winter, and to employ his time in spreading " round 
 about unto Illyricum " the glad tidings of salvation. 
 His route at this time is indicated in Titus iii. 12, 13 ; 
 and also in 2 Tim. iv. 20, 21. 
 
 3. Some time after the apostle reached his winter 
 quarters at Nicopolis, his enemies lodged a complaint 
 or charge against him, so that he was again apprehended 
 and brought as a prisoner to Rome in the year 67 or 
 68. The word Nicopolis means the " City of Vic- 
 tory." It was built by Augustus Caesar, in commemo- 
 ration of the celebrated and decisive battle of Actium. 
 There then it was that the apostle, after his numerous 
 victories over heathen idolatry and Jewish unbelief, 
 spent the last of his time on earth in freedom, and 
 closed his public labours as a preacher of the everlast-
 
 122 The Life of Faith. 
 
 ing Gospel. At this trying time, there were few who 
 had courage to stand by him. Demas, terrified at his 
 arrest, forsook him now, " having loved this present 
 world : " and none but Luke seems to have cast in his 
 lot with the aged apostle, and accompanied him to 
 Rome. Where then was Peter, whom the Papists re- 
 gard as the first Bishop or Pope of Rome ? Certainly 
 he was not there at this time ; and there is no sure 
 ground for believing that he ever was there at all. If 
 he had been there, it is not likely that Paul, in his 
 last imprisonment, would have had cause to say, 
 " Only Luke is with me." All the points now referred 
 to are noticed in 2 Tim. iv. 9-15. 
 
 III. PAUL'S SECOND TRIAL AND MARTYRDOM. 
 
 The Second Epistle to Timothy was evidently written 
 from his prison at Rome, and shortly before his martyr- 
 dom. This second imprisonment was much more try- 
 ing and severe than the first. Paul was not only 
 chained to a soldier now, but he was closely confined 
 in a dungeon, and subjected to many hardships and 
 privations. Hence probably the reason why he asked 
 Timothy to bring to him " the cloak which he left at 
 Troas," to protect him from the cold of his damp and 
 dreary cell. " I suffer trouble, as an evil-doer " (he 
 pathetically says), " even unto bonds ; but the Word 
 of God is not bound " (ii. 9). The charges pre- 
 ferred against him seem to have been, not only that
 
 Crossing the Jordan. 123 
 
 he sought to introduce a new religion, but that he had 
 taken part in instigating the burning of Rome, a few 
 years before ; for which a great multitude of Christians, 
 as Tacitus informs us, had already suffered death there ; 
 although, as that historian also relates, the guilty party 
 was strongly suspected to be Nero himself. It is sup- 
 posed that it was " Alexander the coppersmith " who 
 had falsely accused the apostle of this crime (2 Tim. 
 iv. 14). The apostle was now to be tried, not by the 
 emperor, but by the city magistrates, from whom no 
 mercy could be expected, on account of the popular 
 hatred which was then turned against all who professed 
 the Christian faith. 
 
 When Paul was arraigned before the Roman court, 
 he had none to stand by him and plead his cause ; 
 but he had a powerful though invisible Advocate at 
 his side, who, though He did not deliver him from 
 death, strengthened him to meet death calmly and 
 fearlessly. " At my first answer " (he says) " no man 
 stood with me, but all men forsook me : I pray God 
 that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstand- 
 ing the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me ; 
 that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that 
 all the Gentiles might hear : and I was delivered out 
 of the mouth of the lion" (2 Tim. iv. 16, 1 7). From these 
 words it appears that the charges made against the apos- 
 tle at this time were not substantiated. He was not 
 therefore condemned to death, but he was remanded to
 
 124 The Life of Faith. 
 
 his dungeon to await a second examination and trial. 
 Meanwhile, in the interval, he wrote to his beloved 
 Timothy to " do his diligence to come to him shortly;" 
 which, it is to be hoped, he was enabled to do, in 
 order to comfort and cheer the aged apostle's heart in 
 his last hours on earth. 
 
 The ancient Church universally believed that Paul 
 suffered martyrdom at Rome in the reign of Nero ; 
 and as that emperor died in June of the year 68, the 
 apostle's death probably took place a short time before 
 that. His Roman citizenship exempted him from the 
 fearful tortures which were usually inflicted upon the 
 Christians, in that age of inhuman cruelty ; and the 
 apostle was condemned to be beheaded with the 
 sword. He was led out to execution beyond the city 
 walls, on the road to Ostia, the seaport of Rome, and 
 near to the spot where the Protestant burying-ground 
 now is. There, guarded by a body of soldiers, and 
 passing through the crowded streets, Paul suffered, 
 like his Lord, " without the gate." But death had no 
 terrors for him ; and he could now take up his own 
 sublime song of triumph, "O death, where is thy sting? 
 O grave, where is thy victory ? " For mark his own 
 emphatic words to Timothy, while he was yet shut up 
 in his dark dungeon, and was daily expecting a sen- 
 tence of death : " I am now ready to be offered, and 
 the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought 
 a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept
 
 Victory over Death. 125 
 
 the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me a crown 
 of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
 shall give me at that day ; and not to me only, but 
 unto all them also that love his appearing" (2 Tim. 
 iv. 6-8). 
 
 Thus died the great apostle in perfect peace, and 
 in the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrec- 
 tion and an eternal reward. It matters little where, 
 or when, or how, the Christian dies. Though he may 
 die a martyr's death amid indignity and cruelty, and 
 be buried in a felon's grave ; yet, sustained by Divine 
 grace, and by the prospect of future glory, he can 
 encounter the king of terrors with holy tranquillity 
 and exulting triumph. Though, like Elijah, he may 
 be taken away as in a whirlwind and a chariot of fire, 
 yet they will bring him safely to that better country 
 where "the wicked cease from troubling, and the 
 weary are at rest." " Blessed are the dead who die 
 in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit, 
 that they may rest from their labours ; and their works 
 do follow them." In their case it is literally true that 
 "the day of death is better than the day of one's 
 birth." It is not so indeed to all, for to an ungodly 
 man it is better to be born into this world, where 
 salvation is within his reach, than to pass unsaved 
 into the eternal world. But it is quite different in 
 the case of the righteous ; for the day of his birth was 
 the beginning of many sore trials, and heavy sorrows,
 
 126 The Life of Faith. 
 
 and anxious conflicts with sin and Satan. But the 
 day of his death puts a final end to all sorrow and 
 suffering, and introduces him to endless bliss. As to 
 him to live was Christ, so to die is gain. When a 
 child is born into the world, the parents and friends 
 naturally rejoice ; but if that child is born to a life of 
 pain and sorrow, and if, when it dies, it passes into 
 an eternity of woe, such a birth, if we could foresee 
 all its subsequent misery, would produce not joy but 
 grief unutterable. But the righteous hath hope in his 
 death the hope of a crown of glory ; and therefore 
 the day of his death is far better than the day of his 
 birth. " 
 
 It is not improbable that the apostle's body was 
 buried in the celebrated catacombs of Rome, those 
 vast subterranean labyrinths, where, through many 
 ages of persecution, the suffering Church ''found a 
 refuge for the living, and a sepulchre for the dead." 
 These catacombs are immense excavations beneath 
 the city, and were first made about a hundred 
 years before this time, in order to obtain a kind of 
 earth or sand, which was employed in making the 
 Roman cement. We are told that this sand was 
 worked out in galleries, about two yards in height, 
 and one yard in breadth, and many miles in length ; 
 while at intervals there were larger spaces, which were 
 used as chambers for the workmen to rest in. To 
 these galleries and chambers the primitive Christians
 
 The Christians Hope. 127 
 
 fled for shelter from the persecutor's fury. Recently, 
 entire skeletons have been discovered there, and there 
 is no doubt that these are the mortal remains of Chris- 
 tians, because the heathens of Rome did not usually 
 bury the bodies of the dead, but burned them in the 
 fire, and preserved their ashes in urns. The Christians, 
 however, buried their dead, because they cherished 
 the hope of the resurrection of the body. 
 
 On these tombs, the inscriptions, which are still to 
 be found, bear ample and striking testimony to the 
 faith and hope of the early Roman Church. These 
 inscriptions are very numerous, and are characterised 
 by great simplicity and beauty. One of them runs in 
 these terms : " Laurence to his son Severus, borne 
 away by angels on the seventh Ides of January." 
 Another, of the year 161, is as follows: "In Christ, 
 Alexander is not dead, but lives beyond the stars, 
 and his body rests in this tomb. . O sad 
 
 times ! in which sacred rites and prayers, even in 
 caverns, afford no protection to us. When they could 
 not be buried by friends and relations, at length they 
 sparkle in heaven. He has scarcely lived who has 
 lived in Christian times." It was, then, in these cata- 
 combs, that the early Christians found a refuge from 
 the storm of persecution. There they might remain 
 for months and years, as numerous wells and springs 
 of water have been discovered in them. There also, 
 in these " dens and caves of the earth," Christian wor-
 
 128 The Life of Faith. 
 
 ship was celebrated by prayers, and praises, and 
 Scripture teaching. And it is worthy of notice that 
 all the inscriptions on the tombs of these early be- 
 lievers and Christian martyrs, bear the fullest testimony 
 to the scriptural simplicity and purity of the Church's 
 faith in these primitive times. In none of them can 
 any trace be found of papal supremacy, or of the 
 worship of Mary, or of purgatory, or of prayers for 
 the dead. There, in these solemn recesses, as has 
 been eloquently said, we "meet with none but Christ; 
 Him first, Him last, Him midst, Him without end. 
 And thus, beneath Rome herself, there is the strongest 
 testimony given against her corruptions of Christianity. 
 The faith of the early martyrs was not the faith of the 
 Papacy, but the faith of Paul, the faith of holy Scrip- 
 ture, the faith of Christ. Yes, Rome herself has, in 
 the catacombs, evidence clear and unambiguous, of 
 her departure from the early faith; and she bears 
 within herself the memorial of a pure Christian wor- 
 ship, graven on the tombs of the first Christians with 
 an iron pen, in the rock for ever." 
 
 Thither it was, in all probability, that the lifeless body 
 of Paul'was conveyed by his mourning fellow-disciples, 
 to be laid in its last earthly resting-place; and thence 
 he will come forth, on the resurrection morn, with his 
 numerous spiritual offspring, to say in the presence of 
 the Lord, " Behold me, and the children whom Thou 
 hast given me." Then he will no longer be weary
 
 The Christians Hope. 129 
 
 and worn, oppressed and persecuted, hated and re- 
 viled, and hunted like a beast of prey ; but all tears 
 will be wiped away, all sorrow will cease, all danger 
 will vanish, and death itself shall die. Who would not 
 wish to stand in Paul's lot at the end of the days? 
 Who would not prefer, to all earthly pleasures and 
 treasures, that crown of glory which adorns the apostle's 
 brow? Young men, after Christ, take Paul as your 
 model, and seek that promised grace which made him 
 what he was, and which can make you like him, in 
 all those moral excellences and virtues which ennobled 
 his character, and made him a burning and shining 
 light. But let no one hope to die the death of the 
 righteous, unless he lives the life of the righteous, and 
 becomes personally righteous by the justifying merits 
 of Christ, and the sanctifying grace of His Holy 
 Spirit In the state in which death leaves us, in that 
 same state eternity will find us ; " for as the tree 
 falleth, so must it lie." He that soweth to the flesh 
 here, shall of the flesh reap corruption there ; but he 
 that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life 
 everlasting. Let us then make sure of salvation by 
 accepting Christ as our only Saviour, and trusting in 
 His precious blood to wash our guilt away, and relying 
 on His promised grace to make us what we ought to 
 be, and what God would have us to be. 
 
 " Hark ! universal nature shook and groaned, 
 'Tis the last trumpet see the Judge enthroned ! 
 I
 
 130 The Life of Faith. 
 
 Rouse all your courage at your utmost need, 
 Now summon every virtue, stand and plead. 
 What ! Silent ? Is your boasting heard no more ? 
 That self-renouncing wisdom, learned before, 
 Had shed immortal glories on your brow, 
 Which all your virtues cannot purchase now. 
 All joy to the believer ! He can speak 
 Trembling yet happy, confident yet meek : 
 ' Since the dear hour (O Saviour) that brought me to Thy 
 
 foot, 
 
 And cut up all my follies by the root, 
 I never trusted in an arm but Thine, 
 Nor hoped but in Thy righteousness divine ; 
 My prayers and alms, imperfect and defiled, 
 Were but the feeble efforts of a child ; 
 Howe'er performed, it was their brightest part, 
 That they proceeded from a grateful heart. 
 Cleansed in Thine own all-purifying blood, 
 Forgive their evil, and accept their good ; 
 I cast them at Thy feet my only plea 
 Is, what it was, dependence upon Thee ; 
 While struggling in the vale of tears below, 
 That never failed, nor shall it fail me now. ' 
 
 Angelic gratulations rend the skies, 
 Pride falls unpitied, never more to rise ; 
 Humility is crowned, and faith receives the prize. " 
 
 COWPER.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 INNER SOURCE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 "To me to live is Christ." PHIL. i. 21. 
 
 j]UR remarks on the Life of Faith would be 
 ver y incomplete without some reference to 
 that inward root, that hidden source, from 
 which it proceeds, viz., the life of God in the soul. We 
 have endeavoured to present the leading features of 
 Paul's character, in which seeming opposites are com- 
 bined; such as humility with dignity, large-heartedness 
 with tender-heartedness, unselfishness with conscien- 
 tiousness, and courage with prayerfulness. And we 
 have seen also how remarkably these high moral 
 qualities were exhibited in the closing years of his 
 life, and in the immediate prospect of a violent death. 
 It is a rare spectacle, and a noble specimen of the 
 power of living Christianity. What then was the 
 hidden root from which these holy and abundant fruits 
 were produced ? What was that " well of living water " 
 within him which continued to spring up so copiously
 
 132 The Life of Faith. 
 
 unto everlasting life, and which poured forth rich, pure, 
 refreshing, and fertilising streams on the moral wilder- 
 ness around him? To these questions he himself 
 furnishes the answer in the words, " To me to live is 
 Christ ; " and therefore he could add, " to die is gain" 
 These words will appear the more remarkable if we 
 consider attentively the circumstances in which he 
 uttered them. It was during his first imprisonment 
 at Rome : when, as we have seen, though he was 
 bound with a chain, he had considerable freedom 
 allowed to him, and had the privilege of meeting with 
 his Christian friends, and even of preaching the Gospel 
 to great numbers of people ; and when his preaching 
 was so successful in winning souls to Christ, " that his 
 bonds in Christ were manifest in all the palace " of the 
 Casars, while " many of his brethren in the Lord " 
 were so stimulated by his zeal and success, that they 
 " were much more bold to speak the Word without 
 fear." That very success, however, had raised up 
 against him many enemies in the Church itself; and 
 more especially, it had brought upon him the enmity 
 and opposition of the Judaising teachers, who insisted 
 that the Gentile converts should submit to the bur- 
 densome yoke of the Levitical law. These men 
 " preached Christ of envy and strife," in a spirit of 
 sectarian exclusiveness and bitterness, and caused 
 division in the Church by imposing terms of com- 
 munion, which were inconsistent with the broad and
 
 Inner Source of the New Life. 133 
 
 expansive spirit of the Gospel. Thus, they sought to 
 " add affliction to his bonds," and no doubt they added 
 greatly to that burden of care, and anxiety, and grief, 
 which pressed so heavily upon his mind. Then, too, 
 the apostle was soon to be arraigned before the 
 tribunal of Nero, to whom he had appealed against 
 the unjust treatment of Festus at Caesarea, and he could 
 have little hope of mercy at the hands of an emperor, 
 whose profligate life and bitter hatred of Christianity, 
 and cruel persecution of the Christians, had made him 
 the terror of his subjects. At all events, Paul, at this 
 time, was quite uncertain whether his life was soon to 
 be cut short by a bloody martyrdom, or whether he 
 was still to be spared for further service in the cause 
 of Christ and His Gospel. 
 
 It was in these circumstances, then, that he said, 
 " To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." His 
 mind was alternating between fear and hope, as he 
 looked forward to the future. At one time, he hoped 
 that a favourable sentence would be pronounced upon 
 him by the supreme court of the empire ; and that it 
 would still be possible for him to revisit the churches 
 which he had planted, and especially his beloved 
 brethren in the church of Philippi. Then "again, at 
 another time, the thought of a cruel and bloody death, 
 to terminate all his earthly labours, would rise up be- 
 fore his mind, as more than probable. And yet, in 
 this state of painful uncertainty and suspense, he was
 
 1 34 The Life of Faith. 
 
 neither unduly depressed by fear, nor unduly elevated 
 by hope; but he "possessed his soul in patience," 
 and calmly acquiesced in the will of God, whatever 
 that might be ; and he was firmly assured that he 
 would be borne triumphantly, through all his trials and 
 conflicts, to a happy issue and a glorious reward. He 
 was quite willing either to live or die, as the Lord 
 might be pleased to appoint. "His confidence rested 
 on a foundation firm as a rock, independent of the 
 alternation of events, and unshaken by any waves or 
 storms." No doubt, he had an earnest longing to 
 depart from the trials and troubles of time to the 
 pleasures and rewards of eternity, and to enjoy close 
 and uninterrupted communion with his God, in the 
 land of promised and perfect rest. But then, on the 
 other hand, when he thought of his beloved converts, 
 left as sheep without their earthly shepherd, he was 
 quite willing for their sakes to continue longer in this 
 world, in order to help forward their spiritual progress, 
 and advance their meetness for heaven. Thus he was 
 " in a strait betwixt two," between his desire to " de- 
 part and be with Christ," which was far better for 
 himself, and his desire to "abide in the flesh," as 
 being more needful for the Church. But instead of 
 deciding which of the two was best, he left the deci- 
 sion entirely to the all-wise Disposer of his lot, in the 
 firm belief that whatever that decision might be, all 
 that could happen to himself would redound to the
 
 Inner Source of the New Life. 135 
 
 glory of God, and promote the wider diffusion of the 
 Gospel, and the highest welfare of the Church. In 
 so far as he himself was concerned, he felt that it 
 mattered not whether he was to live or to die ; and 
 he tells us what was the secret of his wonderful calm- 
 ness, and of his profound submission to the Divine 
 will, when he says, " To me to live is Christ, and to 
 die is gain." 
 
 Let us then consider the real nature and the inner 
 source of the apostle's life, and how this life enabled 
 him to contemplate death, not only with calm tran- 
 quillity, but also with hope and joy. In other words, 
 let us consider the secret source, or the hidden root, 
 of living Christianity. "The kingdom of God cometh 
 not with observation : for behold the kingdom of God 
 is within you" It does not consist in outward forms 
 or professions ; but it has its seat in the heart : it 
 rules in the inner man, and brings every thought and 
 desire into captivity to the obedience of Christ. " The 
 kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteous- 
 ness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." It 
 comes with power when the conscience is quickened 
 to a true sense of the evil of sin, and pacified by the 
 application of Christ's precious blood ; when the 
 heart is drawn out to Christ, in simple trust and sin- 
 cere love ; when the will is subjected to Christ's 
 authority, and inclined to honour and serve Him ; 
 and when the whole inner man is brought into con-
 
 136 The Life of Faith. 
 
 formity to the mind of Christ, and consecrated to 
 works of faith and labours of love. Such is living 
 Christianity; and let young men especially consider 
 attentively what is its true source, or its hidden root, 
 and let them not stop short of realising a personal 
 possession of it in themselves ; taking Paul as their 
 Model, and striving faithfully to copy it. 
 
 When the apostle says, " To me to live is Christ," 
 he means to tell us that Christ was his LIFE, his true 
 life. This true life he plainly distinguishes from his 
 life in the flesh, or his mortal life here : for in the next 
 verse he refers to his ''living in the flesh" that is, his 
 remaining on earth. Here, however, he speaks of a 
 far higher life than this a life which had its source or 
 root in Christ himself, and which was manifested by 
 his living and labouring for Christ, in the face of 
 difficulties and dangers, and even death itself. He 
 does not speak merely of life in general, or bare 
 existence, but he speaks of that higher, purer, nobler 
 life, which every Christian has in his soul, and which 
 is truly the life of Christ himself ; so that, as a living 
 power in him, it moves and constrains him to think 
 of Christ highly, to love Christ fervently, and to serve 
 Him devotedly and unweariedly. Life, in the widest 
 sense of the word, is of various kinds ; and though it 
 is a mysterious principle, yet wherever life of any kind 
 exists, it always implies activity, or the power of pro- 
 ducing certain results. For instance, vegetable life,
 
 Inner Source of the New Life. 137 
 
 in a plant or tree, is manifested by the unfolding buds, 
 and the luxuriant blossoms of spring, and the rich 
 and ripe fruits of summer. Then, animal life is 
 manifested by the circulation of the blood, by the 
 breathing of the lungs, and the other movements and 
 activities of the body. Further, intellectual life is 
 manifested by a wide and profound acquaintance with 
 the mysteries of science, or the speculations of philo- 
 sophy, or the letter of orthodoxy. Then, also, the 
 natural life of fallen humanity is manifested by the 
 love of the world, and the lusts of the flesh, and the 
 practice of sin. 
 
 It is not, however, of any of these kinds of life that 
 we are called at present to speak : but it is of life in 
 the soul, or spiritual life, that " new life " which every 
 true Christian has, and which he manifests more or 
 less, by living not for time but for eternity, not to 
 himself but to God; a life productive of all those fruits 
 of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the 
 praise and glory of God. This life, therefore, is an 
 inner life, a " life hid with Christ in God ; " but still, 
 just as the living tree, which is full of sap within, sends 
 forth branches, and yields fruits, which are patent to 
 the senses, so the living Christian, who has the new 
 life in his soul within, abounds in holy fruits that 
 is, in pure affections, and generous deeds. He is 
 " like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bring- 
 eth forth his fruit in his season : his leaf also shall not
 
 1 3 8 The Life of Faith. 
 
 wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Or, 
 like a well of living water, this new life springs up in 
 the soul, and sends forth copious streams of right feel- 
 ing and right action, and so makes us holy in ourselves, 
 and blessings to others. " He that believeth on me," 
 said Christ, " out of his heart shall flow rivers of living 
 water." What then is the nature, the source, and the 
 aim of that new life, which is possessed by all who 
 have a living faith in Christ, but by them alone ? To 
 me (said the apostle), not to every one, but to all who 
 like me have found Christ, to them to live is Christ. 
 What then does this mean? 
 
 i. First it means that the Christians life is from 
 Christ. That is to say, Christ is the source and giver 
 of this new life. This was very plainly taught by our 
 Lord himself, when He said to the unbelieving Jews, 
 " I am that Bread of Life ; " that is, I am that bread 
 from which life comes to the dead soul ; " for the 
 Bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, 
 and giveth life unto the world." Common bread sus- 
 tains the life of our bodies. Not only, however, does 
 Christ sustain the life of the soul, but He originates 
 that life in souls, which are naturally " dead in tres- 
 passes and sins." In short, He is the giver of all 
 spiritual life, and the only Author of eternal salvation. 
 And then He plainly tells us, that all the life which 
 He gives to sinners, comes from His atoning death ; 
 for He said, " The bread that I will give is my flesh,
 
 Life from Christ. 139 
 
 which I will give for the life of the world." All this 
 evidently means that, as Christ came to save the 
 world, so the way in which He saves the world is by 
 giving His life for our life, or by devoting Himself to 
 death as a propitiatory sacrifice, and substitutionary 
 victim, in the room of the guilty. " The wages of sin 
 is death." That is the penalty which we have all in- 
 curred by transgressing the law of God. This penalty, 
 however, has been inflicted, not as yet upon the sinner 
 himself, but upon the sinner's substitute ; and hence it 
 is that " the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord." 
 
 Thus, our new life comes from Christ's atoning 
 death ; and it comes to us individually by a personal 
 trust in His great sacrifice, and a vital union to Him 
 who is pre-eminently "THE LIFE," as well as "the 
 Way, and the Truth." Through this union, the be- 
 liever dwells in Christ by faith ; and he is so completely 
 identified with Christ, that all his sins are imputed to 
 the Saviour, and the Saviour's righteousness is imputed 
 to him. For, as Christ identified Himself with His 
 people, in paying their debts, bearing their punish- 
 ment, and dying their death, so His people by faith, 
 are identified with Christ; and thus they are treated by 
 God, not as they deserve but as He deserved, and as 
 if they had personally done and suffered what Christ 
 did and suffered for them, " the Just for the unjust." 
 What less than this can be meant by such utterances
 
 140 The Life of Faith. 
 
 as these of the great apostle, " If we be dead with 
 Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him ; " 
 " I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet 
 not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which 
 I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son 
 of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." 
 
 Such then is the beginning of that new life, which is 
 the root and source of living Christianity. It begins 
 in a personal union to Christ, and in the consequent 
 enjoyment of complete pardon, and of true peace with 
 God. And then the power, which unites the believer 
 to Christ, is the quickening energy of His Spirit, which 
 is put forth to rouse the torpid conscience, to subdue 
 the proud will, to enlighten the dark mind, and to in- 
 cline the perverse heart to receive and rest upon 
 Christ alone for salvation. " You hath He quickened, 
 who were dead in trespasses and sins." Once the be- 
 liever was dead, under the curse of the broken law ; 
 but now he is alive in Christ, and therefore is freed 
 from the curse, and reconciled to God ; so that death 
 has no more dominion over him, because his sins are 
 fully atoned for, and all the penalties due to sin are 
 for ever taken away by the shedding and sprinkling 
 of Christ's atoning blood. Thus the Christian's life is 
 from Christ, in its source. 
 
 2. But again, we remark that the Christian's life is 
 by Christ. That is to say, his new life is sustained by 
 the Saviour's grace continually imparted to him. To
 
 Life by Christ. 141 
 
 all the living branches of the true vine, the Master 
 says, " I in you." As the sap, which rises from the 
 root of a tree, passes through the trunk into every 
 branch, and thus sustains the life of all the branches, 
 so Christ, by His indwelling Spirit, causes the streams 
 of His grace to flow into the believer's soul, to sustain 
 its life, and make it pure and fruitful. It is by no 
 power in himself that this new life is maintained, amid 
 the storms of trial, and the bitter blasts of temptation. 
 " Not I, but Christ liveth in me." He is our daily 
 bread, the bread of the soul, without which the new life 
 would decay and die ; but by which the believer gets 
 power to do what otherwise would be impossible for 
 him. The secret of his power over sin and Satan 
 and the world is, that Christ lives in him. Once, he 
 was led captive by Satan at his will, and it was a hard 
 struggle to conquer sin, and it was distasteful to him 
 to give himself to prayer and to holy exercises, and to 
 deeds of piety and charity. But all this he now finds 
 to be easy and pleasant ; and why ? Because Christ 
 is in him by His Spirit, to strengthen him with all 
 might, to fortify him against temptation, to change the 
 whole current of his affections, and to enable him to 
 abound in all good works. Therefore, conscious of 
 his own inherent weakness, and contrasting what he 
 once was with what he now is, he is forced to say, "It 
 can't be I, but it must be Christ, who has wrought this 
 blessed change in my soul, and who has given me such
 
 142 The Life of Faith. 
 
 a dread of sin, such a tender conscience, such warm 
 love to Him, and such an intense desire to do all the 
 good I can, for the glory of God, and for the benefit 
 of my fellow-creatures." All this he knows to be 
 the very opposite of what he once felt and did ; 
 and the only explanation he can give of the change 
 is, that his new life is sustained by Christ ; and there- 
 fore, from what Christ has already done for him 
 and in him, he is confident that " He who hath 
 begun a good work in him, will perform it until the 
 day of Jesus Christ." 
 
 3. Further, we remark that the Christian's life is for 
 Christ. That is to say, his life is devoted to the service 
 of Christ. 
 
 This living for Christ is the grand distinguishing 
 feature in the character of all His true followers ; and 
 in none of them has it ever been more conspicuous 
 than in the life of the apostle Paul. The great theme 
 of his preaching was " Jesus Christ and Him crucified;" 
 and his ruling aim was to bring sinners to the Saviour, 
 and to persuade believers to walk after His holy 
 example. "We preach," he said, "not ourselves, but 
 Christ Jesus the Lord." 
 
 His entire devotedness to the service of Christ is 
 very manifest from what he says in Phil. i. 21-24. 
 From these verses, to which we have already referred, 
 we see that much as he longed for the peace and rest 
 of heaven, yet he was quite willing to remain at his
 
 Life for Christ. 143 
 
 post of duty and danger, for the sake of the Church. 
 Now as to this, there are two very common errors, or 
 two opposite extremes of error, into which even the 
 true Christian is prone to fall. 
 
 The one extreme is, when he allows himself to 
 become so engrossed and entangled with his worldly 
 affairs, or even with his Christian duties, as to lose in a 
 great measure that earnest longing for heaven, which 
 he ought ever to cherish. " He so labours, as if his 
 work on earth, which is but the commencement of 
 higher energies destined for eternity, were to attain 
 perfection here, or as if it were already the work of 
 eternity." And so, forgetting that nothing here is 
 perfect, and that this present life is a season of pre- 
 paration for a better and higher life, he becomes so 
 engrossed with the round of his daily duties, or it may 
 be with his worldly concerns, that when death comes 
 to call him home, it takes him by surprise, and finds 
 him sadly unprepared. 
 
 But the other extreme, a very common one, is when 
 the Christian's longing for heaven so possesses his 
 soul as to make him grow weary in well-doing^slothful 
 in his Master's service, and impatient to escape from 
 the toils of conflict to the rewards of victory. He 
 forgets, however, that when the Master comes, He 
 expects to find His servants watching and working for 
 Him, attending to every duty, and doing it thoroughly. 
 Under the influence of this error many have retired
 
 144 The Life of Faith. 
 
 from the world, abandoned their post of duty and 
 honour, in the vain belief that they could better pre- 
 pare for heaven in solitude and seclusion. 
 
 Now from both of these extremes of error the apostle 
 Paul was entirely free. On the one hand, his untiring 
 diligence, in serving Christ on earth, did not diminish 
 his intense longing for the joys of heaven. And on 
 the other hand, his intense longing for heaven did not 
 impair his diligence in serving Christ on earth. Much 
 as he desired to be with Christ, and to escape from 
 all his earthly troubles and conflicts, yet he crucified 
 this desire, and was willing to remain, for the sake of 
 his brethren, and for the benefit of the Church. How 
 truly then could he say that " to him to live was Christ." 
 While he lived from Christ, and by Christ, he also 
 lived for Christ, and he was ready to labour in His 
 service till his latest breath, while at the same time 
 he never lost sight of the glorious recompence of 
 reward. Such then is the nature and the source of 
 living Christianity. It is a new life derived from 
 Christ, sustained by Christ, and devoted to Christ. 
 And in so far as we possess this life, it will constrain 
 us both to work and to wait to work in the Lord's 
 service, and to wait for the Lord's coming. " Blessed 
 are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, 
 shall find so doing." While our longing for heaven 
 should not make us slothful in the Lord's work here, 
 neither should our diligence in that work, nor any
 
 The Power of Faith. 145 
 
 worldly enticement, diminish our longing to reach the 
 better country, that is the heavenly. 
 
 From all that has been said, it is evident that, as the 
 Christian's new life commences with the exercise of 
 that faith which unites him to Christ, so this life is 
 maintained by the continual exercise of the same 
 faith ; for " it is written, the just shall live by his 
 faith ; " that is, by his simple trust in the crucified and 
 exalted Saviour. His faith is the living bond which 
 unites him vitally, not merely to a dead Saviour, but 
 to a living Saviour ; and as, by this faith, he received 
 righteousness from Christ at first to justify him, so by 
 the same faith continually exercised he receives con- 
 tinual supplies of grace from Christ, day by day, to 
 sanctify him, and prepare him for heaven. This faith 
 alone can enable us truly to live to God, to live a life 
 of holiness and a life of active usefulness. It alone 
 can enable us to endure the trials of the world, or 
 overcome its temptations, or meet undismayed the 
 King of Terrors ; for " this is the victory which over- 
 cometh the world, even our faith." A few years ago 
 a man of great mental power was laid on his death- 
 bed, and his friends, when they saw his end approach- 
 ing, expressed to him the hope that his acute and 
 powerful mind supported him in that solemn hour. 
 " Oh no ! " he said, " it is not my strong mind that 
 supports me now; but it is simple faith, childlike trust 
 
 in the Divine Saviour. But for this faith," he added, 
 K
 
 146 The Life of Faith. 
 
 " I would sink utterly in the deep waters through 
 which I am passing, in the dark valley." 
 
 Yes, " the just shall live by his faith ; " for he is 
 "kept by the power of God through faith unto salva- 
 tion." To many, and especially to the young, all this 
 seems very mysterious, and even fanatical. But the 
 " secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and 
 He will show them His covenant." And yet it is not 
 so mysterious after all, as many imagine. How then 
 does faith enable the Christian to live to God, and to 
 outlive all trials and dangers, and to conquer the last 
 enemy ? In answer to this, let me ask young men to 
 weigh the following considerations : 
 
 i. Faith in Christ enables us to live to God, by 
 giving a new meaning to our life here. What is the 
 real meaning of that brief span of existence which 
 God allots to us in this world ? and how does He in- 
 tend that we should spend it ? Does He mean that 
 we should act on the infidel maxim, " Let us eat and 
 drink, for to-morrow we die ? " Many, alas ! seem to 
 think so, from the manner in which their earthly life 
 is spent, by " making provision for the flesh to fulfil 
 the lusts thereof," by living only for themselves, by 
 seeking their happiness in the polluted pleasures of 
 sin, and shutting out from their minds all serious 
 thoughts of God and of the coming eternity. They 
 act as if they thought that man was made to eat and 
 drink, to toil and sleep, to sing and dance, to weep
 
 Faith gives new meaning to our life. 147 
 
 and die. And our great national poet has said, that 
 " man was made to mourn," as if his life here were 
 intended to be a burden, rather than a blessing to 
 him. 
 
 But faith in Christ gives a new meaning to life. It 
 shows us, from God's testimony in the Word of Truth, 
 that man was not made to mourn, but that he was 
 made to serve and glorify God, and to increase the sum 
 of human happiness, by works of faith and labours of 
 love. Man has made himself to mourn by forsaking 
 God, and following after vanity and lies ; and he can 
 never truly live, as a rational and responsible being, 
 until he has returned to God, and devoted his heart 
 and life to His service. Faith in Christ shows us 
 that true life consists in the conquest of sin, in the 
 suppression of selfishness and of all evil passions, in 
 the practice of virtue, in the imitation of Christ, in 
 promoting the temporal and spiritual welfare of our 
 fellow-creatures, and in extending the "kingdom of 
 righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." 
 These are objects worth living for, and they are worth 
 dying for, and it is only in so far as we make these 
 the main objects of life, that we can be said truly to 
 live. " She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she 
 liveth." Those who idolise and pamper self, who 
 seek only their personal gratification, who ignore their 
 obligations to a redeeming God and Saviour, who 
 seldom or never put their hand to any good work,
 
 148 The Life of Faith. 
 
 and who make no earnest preparation for the eternal 
 future, are utterly " dead in trespasses and sins ; " and 
 though they exist, yet they do not live in the true 
 sense of the word. It is no better than the life of a 
 vegetable or an animal, and it is just as useless for 
 any good or holy purpose ; nay, it is far worse than 
 that; for their rational, accountable, and immortal 
 nature stamps, upon their worthless and unprofitable 
 life, high criminality in the sight of the unerring 
 Judge, and exposes them to terrible retribution. But 
 on the other hand, faith in Christ lifts a man out of 
 self, out of sense, and out of the things of time ; and 
 gives him-purer tastes, nobler aims, and loftier aspira- 
 tions. It sets his affections on things above ; it con- 
 strains him to use this present life as a preparation 
 for a higher life, and to lay up treasures in heaven, 
 which can neither be corrupted nor lost. " He that 
 soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, 
 but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap 
 life everlasting." Yes, according to the sowing here, 
 will be the reaping hereafter. Faith in Christ, then, 
 gives a new meaning to our life here. 
 
 2. But it also supplies a new motive. The motive 
 is a sincere and fervent love to Christ. Every true 
 believer can say, "Whom having not seen we love ;" 
 and " We love Him because He first loved us." Who 
 can comprehend the "height" of that love to sinners 
 which fills the heart of God's eternal Son, or the
 
 Faith supplies a new Motive. 149 
 
 " depth " of that love which led Him to stoop so low 
 and suffer so much for our sakes and for our salva- 
 tion, or the "length" of that love which extends from 
 everlasting to everlasting, or the " breadth " of that 
 love which embraces in its ample fold men of every 
 colour and condition and character ? But though we 
 cannot fully comprehend Christ's love, yet the be- 
 liever feels its constraining power in his own heart. 
 Being forgiven much, he loves Christ much ; and this 
 love impels him to live for Christ, and to keep His 
 holy commandments, in " the keeping of which there 
 is a great reward." 
 
 " Talk of morality ! Thou bleeding Lamb, 
 The best morality is love to Thee." 
 
 That love has a constraining power, an impulsive 
 energy which nothing else has, or can have. Has it 
 not enabled multitudes to fight resolutely against sin, 
 and to meet death, in its most appalling forms, with 
 patient tranquillity and triumphant hope ? Has it not 
 enabled them to subdue their own passions, to resist 
 manifold temptations, and to " rule their own spirit," 
 which is a far more difficult achievement than " the 
 taking of a city?" Has it not enabled them to adhere 
 steadfastly to the line of their duty, and to persevere 
 in well-doing, amid obloquy and persecution, and 
 even when there was no eye to witness their patience 
 and constancy, but the eye of that Saviour, whom 
 they loved so well ? Listen to the testimony of one,
 
 150 The Life of Faith. 
 
 who was once a daring blasphemer, but who became, 
 through grace, a humble and devoted Christian : 
 
 " The proudest heart that ever beat 
 
 Has been subdued in me : 
 The wildest will that ever rose, 
 To scorn Thy cause, and aid Thy foes, 
 
 Is quelled, my God, by Thee ! 
 
 " Thy will, and not my will, be done, 
 
 My heart be ever Thine ! 
 Confessing Thee, the Mighty Word, 
 1 hail Thee, Christ, my God, my Lord, 
 
 And make Thy Name my Sign." 
 
 3. Again, faith in Christ imparts new strength for 
 enabling us to live to God. The difficulties of a truly 
 Christian life are unquestionably very great, and it 
 would be wrong, as well as foolish, to conceal or ignore 
 them. It is no easy matter, in a world of temptation, 
 to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, " to 
 crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts," to 
 cherish sincere love to our fellow-men, to do them 
 good always, and to glorify God in our bodies and 
 spirits, which are His. It must be the Christian's 
 daily aim to reach perfection ; and though he will 
 never actually reach it till he dies (notwithstanding 
 the vain imagination of certain modern dreamers, who 
 fancy, that they are already perfect), yet he must strive 
 to be always coming nearer to perfection. It is a hard 
 struggle ; but it is not a hopeless struggle. For it is 
 made easy to the just who " lives by his faith." By
 
 Faith imparts new Strength. 151 
 
 faith he brings Divine power to his help ; for by this 
 key, he can unlock the treasury of heavenly grace, 
 and appropriate its riches. By faith he realises the 
 Saviour as very present, and near to all who call 
 upon Him in truth ; and it makes the Christian strong 
 in His strength, and victorious by the power of His 
 Spirit.* 
 
 What then is the chief lesson which young men 
 should learn from all this ? Should it not be their 
 first concern to get that precious faith, which is the 
 very life of the soul, and without which it is impossible 
 either to please God or to live to God ? Faith in 
 Christ is the turning-point of a man's salvation, and 
 the crisis of his spiritual history. It is the window by 
 which the light of heavenly truth enters into the dark 
 soul, and it is the living bond which binds the soul 
 for ever to Him who is mighty to save. " He that 
 believeth on the Son hath everlasting life : and he 
 that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but 
 the wrath of God abideth on him." Faith is the gift 
 of God, and the fruit of the operation of the Holy 
 Spirit, who not only convinces of sin, but who also 
 enables the sinner to embrace the offered Saviour, as 
 his own and his only Refuge. " Believe on the Lord 
 
 * For various suggestions in the four preceding pages, the 
 author thankfully acknowledges his indebtedness to an admirable 
 discourse, which he had the privilege of hearing some years ago 
 from his esteemed friend, the Rev. Alexander Cusin of Lady 
 Glenorchy's Free Church.
 
 152 The Life of Faith. 
 
 Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." And continue 
 to believe and trust in Him, and " according to your 
 faith so shall it be done unto you, for all things are 
 possible to him that believeth." 
 
 " True Piety is cheerful as the day, 
 Will weep, indeed, and heave a pitying groan 
 For others' woes, but smiles upon his own. 
 The free-born Christian has no chains, 
 Or if a chain, the golden one of Love. 
 No fear attends to quench his glowing fires ; 
 What fear he feels his gratitude inspires. 
 Thought, word, and deed his liberty evince, 
 His freedom is the freedom of a prince." 
 
 COWPER.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE LIFE OF FAITH IN ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS. 
 
 "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immov- 
 able, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye 
 know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." I COR. xv. 
 58. 
 
 N every part of the Bible, and more especially 
 in the writings of Paul, doctrine is insepar- 
 ably connected with practice, or life with 
 action. In his various epistles, the vital doctrines of 
 the Gospel are first of all clearly stated and power- 
 fully enforced ; and then the practical effects of the 
 belief of these doctrines upon the temper of our 
 minds and the tenor of our daily lives, are faithfully 
 and minutely delineated. While inculcating the 
 absolute necessity of a living faith in Christ, as the 
 turning-point of our salvation, the apostle insists no 
 less upon the necessity of proving our faith to be 
 genuine by the practice of good works ; and he shows 
 that true faith "works by love" and "purifies the
 
 154 The Life of Faith. 
 
 heart," and is productive of all the peaceable fruits of 
 righteousness. 
 
 Thus, for example, after expounding the doctrine 
 of the resurrection in his First Epistle to the Corin- 
 thians, chap, xv., he concludes with the following 
 practical exhortation, verse 58, "Therefore, my be- 
 loved brethren, be ye steadfast, immovable, always 
 abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye 
 know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." 
 
 To this exhortation and the motive presented for 
 complying with it, we may now direct our attention 
 in the concluding chapter, in order to see what the 
 Life of Faith is in its practical results. 
 
 I. The exhortation : " Therefore, my beloved 
 brethren, be ye steadfast, immovable, always abound- 
 ing in the work of the Lord." 
 
 The word tJierefore shows that this exhortation is 
 not only connected with the preceding context, but 
 that it is a logical conclusion drawn from the apostle's 
 previous argument. The scope or design of that 
 argument was, to show the reality of Christ's resurrec- 
 tion from the dead, and the consequent certainty of the 
 resurrection of the just to eternal life. And, having con- 
 clusively demonstrated this, he virtually says, "Seeing 
 that Christ not only died to atone for our sins, but also 
 rose again from the dead to make us partakers of His 
 own endless life, therefore, be ye steadfast in the faith 
 of these great facts, and immovable in the hope which
 
 Practical Results. 155 
 
 they inspire ; and let this steadfast faith, and this 
 immovable hope, stimulate you to abound always in 
 the work of the Lord." 
 
 But to whom is the exhortation addressed? Not to 
 all indiscriminately, but only to the people of God, or to 
 those whom the apostle calls his " beloved brethren." 
 For none but true Christians can feel the force of the 
 arguments and motives, which are here urged, to a 
 holy activity in the work of the Lord. Evidently, a 
 man must live before he can be moved to action. 
 There must be spiritual life in the soul, before that 
 soul can be moved or drawn toward God, or impelled 
 to energetic action in doing God's work and will. 
 And yet mere life is not enough, but the life must be 
 healthy and vigorous life. Even the true Christian, 
 though quickened by the Holy Spirit, may become 
 languid and listless in doing the Lord's work. And, 
 therefore, he needs at one time, to be warned, by the 
 terrors of the Lord, against besetting sins, and secret 
 backsliding, and worldly conformity, lest after all he 
 should be a castaway. And he needs, at another 
 time, to be encouraged and stimulated, by the mercies 
 of the Lord, to persevere in faith, and hope, and 
 holiness, in order to reach the mark, and win the 
 immortal prize. And this is what the apostle does in 
 our text. 
 
 Now, the exhortation is obviously a very compre- 
 hensive one, and much more so than we might suppose
 
 1 56 The Life of Faith. 
 
 at the first glance. It is comprehensive at once of the 
 whole system of Christian doctrine, and the whole 
 range of Christian experience, and the whole circle of 
 Christian duty. It calls us to the sustained and 
 vigorous exercise of these three cardinal graces, viz., 
 Faith, Hope, and Holiness : Faith in Jesus Christ, as 
 one who was not only dead, but who has also risen 
 again ; also, Hope of His coming glory, as it will be 
 manifested on the resurrection morning ; and further, 
 personal Holiness, as the fruit and evidence of a true 
 faith, and as the earnest and foretaste of future glory. 
 Our faith is to be steadfast, and our hope is to be im- 
 movable ; and if so, then our holiness will be exhibited 
 by "abounding always in the work of the Lord." 
 
 i. " Be ye steadfast" in the faith of Christ. Now 
 the word for steadfast signifies settled or seated firmly 
 on a sure foundation. We say of a house that it is 
 steadfast, when it is so compactly built on the solid 
 rock, that neither external force, nor internal decay, can 
 bring it down. And such ought the Christian's faith to 
 be, not hesitating, or mixed with doubt; but firm, and 
 strong, and steadfast. Many, however, deny that it is 
 possible to attain such steadfastness in the faith as this, 
 or that any one can feel perfectly sure of the great facts 
 and doctrines of the Gospel ; and they even make a 
 merit of giving way to unbelieving doubts. But this is 
 a strange and pernicious delusion ; for why should we 
 not feel as sure of the truth of God's Word, as we do
 
 A Steadfast Faith. 157 
 
 every day of the truth of a fellow-creature's word. 
 People now-a-days speak of " honest doubts ; " but in 
 most cases, it would be more correct to call them sin- 
 ful doubts. If we believe the testimony of man, surely 
 the testimony of God is greater and infinitely more 
 reliable. Men may err or deceive, and philosophical 
 speculations may lead us astray, but God's Word is 
 infallible, and can never mislead us; and if we take 
 that Word, simply and submissively, as our guide, we 
 not only may be, but we shall be. steadfast in faith. 
 God's Word is a sure light to our feet, and a steady 
 lamp to our path ; and it is always shining, even in 
 hours of deepest darkness, if only we would open our 
 eyes to see its light. Wanderers as we are on a dark 
 and stormy sea, and tossed often from wave to wave, 
 we can never hope to reach the haven of rest, if we 
 follow human opinions, or trust to the flickering light 
 of human science ; but we shall never be at any loss 
 if we take God's Word as our guide, and give a 
 whole faith to a whole testimony. That Word is 
 infallibly sure and certain, a bright and steady light 
 shining in a dark place. " He that followeth me," 
 says Christ, " shall not walk in darkness," nor in doubt 
 or uncertainty, but he " shall have the light of life." 
 
 Let us therefore be steadfast in the faith of Christ, 
 and especially in the faith of His resurrection from the 
 dead, and let us cherish a firm and unwavering con- 
 fidence in Him who was once crucified, but who is now
 
 1 5 8 The Life of Faith. 
 
 risen and exalted. Instead of being tossed by doubts 
 as to the facts and doctrines of the Gospel, like a reed 
 shaken with the wind, or like a wave of the sea driven 
 about by every wind of false doctrine, or by every gust 
 of sinful passion, let us seek to have a faith which 
 is firm, and strong, and steadfast, like a house built 
 upon a rock, so that no storm of trial will shake it, and 
 no torrents of temptation will overthrow it. Realise 
 the resurrection of Christ as a literal fact, and a most 
 precious truth, and the very corner-stone of Chris- 
 tianity; and do not regard it as a doubtful speculation 
 or a dream of the imagination. " If Christ be not 
 risen, then we are yet in our sins : " for in that case, 
 no atonement has been made for them, and there is 
 no possibility of ever getting rid of them, but they 
 must hang about us eternally, to sink us deeper and 
 deeper in the abyss of woe. And is any one prepared 
 for such a dread alternative ? Better surely to get sin 
 put away, and thus to be at peace with God by faith 
 in Christ's atoning blood. Try to realise the bearing 
 of this great fact, this vital and central truth the 
 resurrection of Christ both upon your present peace 
 of mind and upon your future prospects. Why should 
 it not make our hearts glad, as it gladdened the 
 hearts of the primitive Christians who, when they met 
 each other in the street, were wont to salute each 
 other with the words, "Christ is risen?" Why should 
 we not seek to be as steadfast in the faith as they
 
 An Immovable Hope. 159 
 
 were? and why should we not regard His risen life as 
 the pledge of our present reconciliation, and of our 
 future blessedness ? Does He not say to all who 
 trust in Him, " Because I live, ye shall live also ? " 
 for " if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from 
 the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from 
 the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by His 
 Spirit that dwelleth in you." Be strong, therefore, in 
 faith, giving glory to God. And the more " steadfast" 
 you are in faith, the greater will be your peace, the 
 brighter your hope, and the more abundant your joy 
 in the Lord. 
 
 2. The second part of the exhortation is, be " im- 
 movable " in hope. This immovableness is opposed 
 to wavering, or fluctuating between fear and hope, or 
 vacillating between doubt and confidence. Now, 
 hope is one of the fruits of faith, and it is inseparably 
 connected with faith, and in some respects almost 
 identical with it. The distinction seems to be this, 
 that faith realises the unseen, while hope anticipates 
 the future. Faith is the parent or source, for " faith 
 is the evidence of things not seen, and the substance 
 of things hoped for." The stronger, therefore, our 
 faith is, the brighter also will our hope be ; or, in 
 other words, the more firmly we trust in Christ's pro- 
 mises, the more confidently shall we look for their 
 fulfilment. And, besides, since faith has respect to 
 Christ's resurrection, as the root of all vital religion,
 
 1 60 The Life of Faith. 
 
 so hope has respect to our own resurrection, as the 
 fruit or result of Christ's rising from the dead. There- 
 fore, if I have a steadfast faith in the risen and ex- 
 alted Saviour, as one who is now at God's right 
 hand, then I must also have an immovable hope that, 
 being vitally united to Him, I shall yet rise and reign 
 with Him in glory. 
 
 But how seldom is it that such a hope as this glows 
 in the Christian's breast, to illuminate his path in this 
 dark and dreary world ! How often does his hope 
 flicker and fail, like a candle burnt down to the very 
 socket, instead of brightening the surrounding dark- 
 ness with the rays of celestial glory ! And why is it so ? 
 Why is it, that, while we are so powerfully influenced 
 by worldly hopes, and stimulated to activity and energy 
 by them, we are so little influenced by the powers of 
 the world to come ? The reason of it is, the want of 
 faith, or, at least, the weakness of faith ; for if we had 
 a steadfast faith in Christ's death and resurrection, as 
 the two great poles of a living Christianity, then we 
 would also have an immovable hope of the glory which 
 is soon to be revealed ; and this hope in Christ would 
 constrain us " to purify ourselves, even as Christ is 
 pure." 
 
 It must be admitted indeed that it is no easy mat- 
 ter to maintain this hope immovably, amid the trials 
 and temptations of this present evil world. There is 
 much in our daily history, and in our earthly surround-
 
 An Immovable Hope. 161 
 
 ings, much in our intercourse with the world, and in 
 the corruptions of our own hearts, that is fitted to 
 weaken and even destroy our hope of heaven. And, 
 therefore, we should see to it, that our hope is really 
 built on the only sure foundation, and sustained by 
 constant supplies of grace from above. Let us not 
 then be like the foolish man who built his house upon 
 the sand, but like the wise man who built upon the 
 rock. That Rock is Christ, and if we build upon Him, 
 then our hope will be immovable, and His grace will 
 strengthen our hope, and enable us "to read our title 
 clear to mansions in the skies." And this hope will 
 be an "anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, 
 and which entereth into that within the vail ; whither 
 the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an 
 High Priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek." 
 
 3. The third part of the exhortation is, " Be ye al- 
 ways abounding in the work of the Lord." That is, 
 be active and unwearied in serving the Lord, by doing 
 His work thoroughly, and doing good to all continually; 
 and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as unto the Lord, 
 and not unto men. Do all as under the eye of the 
 Lord, so as to please and glorify Him. 
 
 Now, it is evident that this course of holy activity, 
 in the work of the Lord, is the necessary result of a 
 steadfast faith and an immovable hope : or, in other 
 words, faith and hope are the mainsprings of holiness ; 
 for faith works by love, and hope stimulates to active
 
 1 6 2 The Life of Faith. 
 
 exertion. The hope of wealth stimulates the merchant, 
 and the hope of victory nerves the soldier with cour- 
 age on the battle-field. And this faith and hope in 
 exercise constitute what may be called the Christian's 
 inner life, or the secret springs of a holy obedience ; 
 and then this holy obedience, in speech and conduct, 
 constitutes \i\s outer life, or the manifestation to those 
 around him of his personal interest in Christ. As to 
 this, we may quote a few words from one of Mr Moody's 
 addresses. He said, " Christian people often ask me, 
 What is the work I am called upon to do ? Now the 
 first work of all is to believe on Him whom God hath 
 sent. First of all, we must be saved by faith in Christ, 
 and then we must work not for salvation, but from 
 salvation." And we may add that this is just what our 
 Lord himself said to the Jews, when they asked Him, 
 " What shall we do, that we might work the works of 
 God ? " in other words, how can we be brought into a 
 right state of mind for serving Christ, and how can we 
 get the requisite strength for doing the Lord's work ? 
 And what was our Lord's reply to the question ? He 
 said, " This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him 
 whom He hath sent." This is our first duty, to be- 
 lieve in Christ ; for " they that are in the flesh (carnal 
 and unconverted) cannot please God." But by be- 
 lieving in Christ, as our atoning sacrifice, we get relief 
 from that heavy burden of guilt which fetters our 
 energies, and unfits us for serving God. And by the
 
 Active Service. 163 
 
 same faith also, exercised from day to day, we get 
 continued supplies of grace, to maintain our energies 
 in vigorous operation, and to enable us both to delight 
 and to abound in the work of the Lord. And let it 
 be observed that this is not a work only for ministers, 
 but it is a work for every one who has found salvation. 
 All are not obliged to become ministers, or mission- 
 aries, for all are not qualified for these offices. But 
 every believer in Christ can find something to do for 
 Christ, and he will find it, if only he is thoroughly in 
 earnest, and is ready to do the work to which God 
 calls him. God not only gives to every man some 
 work to do, but He gives each man his own special 
 and peculiar work. 
 
 But the apostle speaks of the " work of the Lord." 
 And what is that ? It is just the same kind of work 
 as our Lord himself did on the earth. Not indeed His 
 work of atonement ; for in this He stood alone, and 
 this no one can ever share with Him. In this respect, 
 therefore, we cannot imitate the Lord ; for His work 
 of atonement is perfect, and it needs no supplement 
 nor addition from us. But still we can, and we must, 
 imitate the Lord in His work of holy obedience, in 
 His service of loyalty to God and love to men. It 
 was His very meat and drink to do His Father's will 
 and to finish His work ; and to this He gave Himself 
 with unflagging zeal and untiring diligence. We can 
 never forget how deep and tender was His compassion
 
 1 64 The Life of Faith. 
 
 for the sick and sorrowful, and what kind and gentle 
 words He spoke to the broken-hearted, and what 
 generous deeds He did to all who applied to Him for 
 help, and what meekness and patience He manifested 
 toward His enemies, and how true it is that He "went 
 about doing good." This then is " the work of the 
 Lord " in which we ought to abound. That is to say, 
 we must do the things which the Lord himself did, and 
 we must do them in the spirit which animated Him. 
 Well, then, we should ask ourselves whether we are 
 really doing this work of the Lord from day to day ? 
 How is our precious time occupied ? how stands our 
 account with pleasure, or with business, or with God ? 
 What plans of usefulness are we forming or carrying 
 out ? what acts of kindness are we doing ? what loving 
 words are we speaking in our daily intercourse with 
 others? Do we seize opportunities of doing good 
 and of glorifying God? Let us ask ourselves such 
 questions as these : and if we do so, it will show us 
 how little we have yet done of the work of the Lord 
 Jesus, and how much we have done to please ourselves, 
 and promote our own honour, or profit, or selfish enjoy- 
 ment ; and this may well humble us, and constrain us 
 to begin a new life, a life of faith upon the Son of 
 God, and a life like that of Christ himself. 
 
 And then further, it is not enough to do the work 
 of the Lord in a cold, careless, heartless way, but we 
 must abound in it, or, as the word means, we must
 
 Active Service. 165 
 
 surpass or excel in it. We must strive to surpass 
 ourselves, and to excel all our previous attainments, by 
 aiming at the highest standard of Christian excellence, 
 and the largest amount of service to the Lord. Nor 
 must this work of the Lord be done only occasionally, 
 or by fits and starts ; but it must be done " always" that 
 is, steadily and at all times, continually and habitually ; 
 " always abounding," and not merely now and then. 
 In fact, this " work of the Lord " must be the grand 
 business of life, always in our thoughts, constantly in 
 our hearts, and never long out of our hands. Like 
 the Lord Jesus himself, we must ever be " about our 
 Father's business." As we can never go beyond what 
 we owe to the Lord, so we must be striving always to 
 do more, and yet more and more, for His glory ; by 
 abounding in deeds of mercy, and words of brotherly 
 kindness, and gifts of Christian liberality ; by sparing 
 no pains, and grudging no sacrifices, to honour Christ 
 and do good to all ; and by putting forth every energy, 
 and exercising every kind of holy influence, to advance 
 the cause of truth and righteousness in the world. 
 
 But who, we may ask, is sufficient for these things ? 
 No one is sufficient in himself, but " through Christ 
 strengthening us, we shall be able to do all things." 
 Let us then not be scared by difficulties, nor even by 
 dangers. If we look at all at difficulties, let us look 
 with the determination to overcome them ; and let us 
 look more at our duties than at our difficulties, more
 
 1 6 6 The Life of Faith. 
 
 at our obligations than at our hindrances and discour- 
 agements. A few years ago, a merchant ship was 
 driven by a storm on the shores of Ireland, and 
 stranded on the rocky beach. It was fast going to 
 pieces, and the crew, seven in number, clung to the 
 rigging of the sinking ship and shouted for help. The 
 fury of the storm made it almost impossible even for 
 the lifeboat to reach them, and none"were disposed to 
 risk their lives to rescue the sailors, till one man, more 
 brave and generous than the rest, volunteered to go 
 out alone to the foundering vessel. His friends sought 
 to dissuade him, and said, " Don't you see the break- 
 ers dashing in foam and fury;" but he nobly replied, 
 " I don't see the breakers, I see only the seven men 
 on the rigging of the ship : " and so he went out and 
 saved them all. It is in that spirit that we must do 
 the work of the Lord. Let us not look at difficulties, 
 but let us look at duties, and faithfully do them at all 
 hazards, " always abounding thus in the work of the 
 Lord." 
 
 II. The motive, or encouragement to comply with 
 the exhortation : " Forasmuch as ye know that your 
 labour is not in vain in the Lord." 
 
 "Ye know this" says the apostle; but how did they 
 know it ? They knew it chiefly from the testimony 
 of God, but partly also from their own experience as 
 Christians. For it holds universally true that virtue 
 is its own reward, and that those who labour for the
 
 Motives to Active Service. 167 
 
 Lord, never labour in vain, and never have cause to 
 rue their pains. 
 
 i. As to this, observe, first, "that labour in the Lord 
 is not in vain, because it yields great present enjoyment. 
 It is not so with the labour that is expended on 
 worldly pursuits, or lavished on sinful pleasures. 
 When a mere man of the world has spent laborious 
 days in realising a fortune, does his success make him 
 a happy man ! On the contrary, he is restless and 
 dissatisfied, and still he craves for more. And though 
 the votary of pleasure, or the victim of intemperance, 
 may seem to be happy and jovial in the midst of his 
 boon companions, yet conscience often troubles him, 
 and makes him turn pale with its terrible warnings of 
 coming woe. Listen to the testimony, which Solomon 
 gave, as the result of his dear-bought and bitter ex- 
 perience, when he lived in folly : " All is vanity and 
 vexation of spirit ; yea, I hated all my labour which I 
 had laboured under the sun. For what hath man of 
 all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, where- 
 in he hath laboured under the sun ? " What is it, in 
 short, but labour lost, labour in vain, labour for that 
 which satisfieth not ? But it is not so with labour in 
 the Lord, and for His glory. This is labour for that 
 which is above the sun : it is labour for that which 
 endureth unto everlasting life : it is labour of love, 
 and work done for Christ. Such labour alone is 
 worthy of an immortal being : it exercises his noblest
 
 1 6 8 The Life of Faith. 
 
 faculties, and develops his best energies : and in 
 devoting ourselves to such labour, we shall find a 
 great reward, in the testimony of an approving con- 
 science, in the luxury of doing good, and in the glad- 
 ness which springs from a sense of God's favour and 
 blessing. 
 
 2. Then secondly, such labour is not in vain, be- 
 cause it makes not only ourselves happy, but it makes 
 others happy too. When you sow the seed of Divine 
 truth in the young, or speak to others about Christ 
 and His salvation, and scatter friendly hints and kind 
 counsel, you may be sure that the seed will spring up 
 again, though it may be after many days. You may 
 not live to see the fruit of your labour, but you may 
 be sure that the fruit will appear either here or here- 
 after, on the shores, it may be, of another continent, 
 but certainly on the shores of another world. At a 
 meeting of the Social Science Association, the late 
 Sir Richard Phillimore uttered these striking words, 
 and not more striking than true. Speaking of the 
 man who strives to diffuse the seed of truth, he said, 
 " The seed which he sows may be long in the earth 
 before it ripens, and he may never behold the fruit of 
 his labour. The outward man perisheth, but the 
 thought which he has uttered for the benefit of his 
 fellow-creatures survives : the Lamp which he has 
 kindled is not extinguished, but passed on to other 
 hands, for the future welfare of mankind." Yes, "he
 
 Motives to Active Service. 169 
 
 that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, 
 shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing 
 his sheaves with him." 
 
 3. Lastly, I observe that labour in the Lord is not 
 in vain, because it prepares us for heaven's eternal bliss. 
 Those who labour here in the service of sin, and who 
 do the works of the devil, or who mind earthly things, 
 shall eat the fruit of their own doings, and be filled 
 with their own devices, in the gloomy abodes of 
 misery and despair. But those who labour in the 
 service of the Lord, and who abound in doing His 
 work, are employed in what will constitute heaven's 
 chief employment, and the chief source of its unspeak- 
 able felicity. By works of faith and labours of love 
 for Christ, they are acquiring that character, and 
 forming those habits, which will fit them for associat- 
 ing with holy angels and redeemed saints, who "serve 
 God day and night in His temple." There is no 
 idleness or sloth in heaven, but unceasing praise, and 
 unwearied activity in doing God's commandments. 
 In order then to prepare for heaven, " be ye therefore 
 steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work 
 of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour 
 is not in vain in the Lord." 
 
 And now, brethren, " we commend you to God and 
 to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you 
 up and to give you an inheritance among all them 
 who are sanctified." To the young we would say,
 
 1 70 The Life of Faith. 
 
 Remember your Creator, and give your hearts to the 
 Saviour, in the days of your youth, and follow closely 
 the Great and Good Shepherd, who gathers the lambs 
 with His arm, and carries them in His bosom. To 
 those of middle age we would say, Love not the world, 
 neither the things of the world : lay up treasure in 
 heaven, and choose the good part which will not be 
 taken from you. And to those who are far advanced 
 in life we would say, Go up through the wilderness lean- 
 ing upon the Beloved ; and when the eye grows dim, 
 may the eye of faith grow brighter ; when the natural 
 force is abated, may you be strong in the Lord and 
 in the power of His might. To those who are still 
 strangers to the covenant of promise, and far from the 
 kingdom, we would say, Seek ye first the kingdom of 
 God, and make sure of a personal and saving interest 
 in Christ. To those who are seeking the way to 
 peace, we would say, Follow on to know the Lord, 
 trust simply and exclusively in Christ's precious blood, 
 and prevailing intercession, and powerful grace ; and 
 thus the heart of every one will rejoice that seeks the 
 Lord. To God's children we would say, Grow in grace 
 and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ ; cleave closely to Him, follow Him fully, and 
 adorn His doctrine by a life and conversation becom- 
 ing the Gospel. And, finally, to those who are 
 parents, let us say, Cherish a deep and growing sense 
 of your responsibility for the godly upbringing of your
 
 Conclusion. 171 
 
 children ; and strive by precept, by example, and by 
 prayer, to train them in the nurture and admonition 
 of the Lord, so that, being grounded in the faith, 
 constrained by the love of Christ, and animated by 
 the hope of His glory, they may become blessings 
 to yourselves, useful in their day and generation, 
 ornaments of the Church on earth, and members of 
 the Church of the first-born in heaven. Be ye there- 
 fore steadfast in faith, immovable in hope, and always 
 abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye 
 know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 
 
 And " now the God of peace, that brought again 
 from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of 
 the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting cove- 
 nant, make you perfect in every good work to do His 
 will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in 
 His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for 
 ever and ever. Amen."
 
 GROUNDS OF FAITH; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE REALITY OF THE BIBLE MIRACLES.
 
 " Yon cottager, who weaves at her own door, 
 Pillow and bobbins all her little store, 
 Receives no praise, but (though her lot be such 
 Toilsome and indigent) she renders much ; 
 Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true, 
 A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew ; 
 And in that charter reads with sparkling eyes, 
 Her title to a mansion in the skies. 
 O happy peasant ! O unhappy bard ! 
 His the mere tinsel, hers the rich reward : 
 He praised perhaps for ages yet to come, 
 She never heard of half-a-mile from home ; 
 He lost in errors his vain heart prefers, 
 She safe in the simplicity of hers." 
 
 COWPER.
 
 GROUNDS OF FAITH; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE REALITY OF THE BIBLE MIRACLES. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE QUESTION STATED. 
 
 N this age of unsettled opinion, the question 
 is often asked, especially by men of science, 
 Is the Bible a revelation from God to man ; 
 and can sufficient evidence be adduced to show that 
 it is? 
 
 Now these, it will readily be acknowledged, are 
 questions of supreme importance, on which momentous 
 issues depend; and they are obviously deserving of the 
 most careful and serious consideration. And it is not 
 less obvious that the Bible itself makes an authori- 
 tative claim, not merely to our reverent attention, but 
 also to our implicit obedience. Moreover, the Bible
 
 176 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 professes to furnish ample evidence in proof of its 
 Divine origin. Instead of demanding from any one a 
 blind and unreasoning assent, it invites the most free 
 inquiry, and courts the fullest investigation, into the 
 nature and grounds of that evidence. Its language is, 
 " Be ready always to give an answer, to every one that 
 asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you." 
 
 Unquestionably, one of the most important evi- 
 dences in support of the Divine authority of the Bible 
 is the working of miracles, such as no man could have 
 wrought unless God had been with him. This, indeed, 
 has been questioned by some professed defenders of 
 the faith, who have assigned an inferior place to 
 miracles among the evidences of Christianity. It is 
 true that this is not the only kind of proof that is 
 placed within our reach ; for there are others, both 
 internal and external, such as the prediction of future 
 events which no human sagacity could have foreseen, 
 and the self-evidencing power of the Bible, which, like 
 the sun, shines by its own light, and many more ; and 
 to these no small weight is due. But still, the evidence 
 of miracles, if found to be valid, is obviously entitled 
 to a high place in our regard, particularly as the Bible 
 itself attaches special importance to it. " If I had 
 not done among them," says Christ, " the works which 
 none other man did, they had not had sin." When a 
 king issues a proclamation to his rebellious subjects, 
 declaring his royal will and pleasure, and offering to
 
 The qwstion stated. 177 
 
 grant them an amnesty, he is naturally expected to 
 take suitable means for satisfying them that the pro- 
 clamation is not a forgery, but a genuine and authentic 
 document Accordingly, he subscribes it with his own 
 signature, and affixes to it his official seal, to show 
 that it has really come from him. The question then 
 is, Have miracles, the broad seal of Heaven, been 
 affixed to that proclamation of Divine love and grace, 
 which the Bible professes to contain ? If the alleged 
 miracles were never performed at all, then it would 
 follow that the Bible is " a cunningly devised fable." 
 But if the miracles were really performed, then it 
 necessarily follows that the Bible is true, and that it 
 is entitled to be received by all as an express revela- 
 tion from God. 
 
 This latter position it will be our object to establish 
 to the satisfaction of candid minds. The field is 
 obviously so extensive that we shall only attempt to 
 give a bare outline, or what may be termed the mere 
 osteology ', of the subject. It may be remarked, how- 
 ever, at the outset, that there are three different words 
 employed in Scripture to express what in our language 
 is termed a miracle. These are mighty works, indicat- 
 ing supernatural powers ; also wonders, causing aston- 
 ishment in the spectators ; and signs, proving Divine 
 interposition.
 
 178 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE POSSIBILITY OF A MIRACLE. 
 
 JiT is well known that some have affirmed that 
 miracles are in their very nature impossible. 
 And if this could be proved, there would be 
 no need for any further discussion. But this daring 
 assertion can easily be shown to be entirely without 
 foundation. For it is obvious that our knowledge of 
 God's existence and providence is derived primarily 
 from the works which He has made. From the marks 
 of design exhibited in the structure of the world, and 
 in the adaptations of its various parts to each other, we 
 naturally and properly infer that there is an Almighty 
 Designer, a great First Cause. And not only so, but 
 from the regular and uniform operations and processes 
 of nature, we also infer that there are certain laws 
 according to which the government of the world is 
 conducted. And though our knowledge of the " laws 
 of nature " is even yet comparatively limited and im- 
 perfect, yet we know enough to convince us that there 
 is an established course in nature a fixed order and 
 regular succession in its various evolutions. But then, 
 while all this is true, yet it does not follow that the 
 uniformity of the course of nature must necessarily 
 exclude the interposition of the Author of Nature, or 
 prevent Him from altering that course if He should
 
 Possibility of a Miracle. 179 
 
 see good and wise reasons for doing so. " The laws 
 of nature," as we call them, are nothing more than 
 the rule or method, according to which God usually 
 works ; but these " laws " can never fetter or restrain 
 His Almighty hand, or prevent Him from departing, 
 when He sees fit, from His usual course of procedure. 
 Nay, such departures from the " laws of Nature " as 
 are implied in a miracle may have been predetermined 
 by God in His eternal counsels, however strange or ex- 
 ceptional they may appear to our limited and clouded 
 perceptions ; and their very strangeness may have 
 been designed to serve important moral purposes 
 which could not have been accomplished in any other 
 way. Even from the beginning, God may have so 
 " ordered the constitution of the world, as to leave 
 room for the exercise of those miraculous powers which 
 He foresaw would at a certain time be exercised, just 
 as He has left room for the free exercise, within 
 narrower limits, of the human will " (" Aids to Faith," 
 p. 21). 
 
 At all events, to assert that it is impossible for God 
 to suspend or alter the laws of nature is manifestly 
 unwarrantable and presumptuous. He who set the 
 wheels of nature in motion at first, must surely have 
 the power, at any time, to retard them or to stop them 
 altogether. The denial of this would be equivalent 
 to the denial of a Personal God, who governs the 
 world which He has created ; and it would lead to
 
 180 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 dreary atheism and pantheism. But, believing that 
 there is a God, as nature through all her works pro- 
 claims, a God of infinite intelligence and glorious 
 perfection, by whom the heavens and the earth were 
 created, we cannot doubt that He can, if He please, 
 alter or modify the laws which He himself has estab- 
 lished. As Dr Paley truly says, " Once believe that 
 there is a God, and miracles are not incredible," or 
 impossible. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PROBABILITY OF MIRACLES. 
 
 jjS to this, it may be asked, Can any one affirm 
 or prove that circumstances could never 
 arise, under the government of God, to 
 render it both expedient and desirable that He should 
 give His fallen but responsible creatures an extra- 
 ordinary revelation of His will? Is there anything 
 incredible in the supposition, that, when a great and 
 disastrous crisis in their history has occurred, God 
 should make a direct communication to these crea- 
 tures, in order to rectify their errors, and remove 
 their sins, and guide them to peace and happiness ? 
 Man's urgent need of a Divine revelation has been
 
 Probability of Miracles. 1 8 1 
 
 conclusively proved by Dr Leland in his well-known 
 work on the deplorable state of the ancient heathen 
 world, when gross darkness covered the nations. So 
 deeply sensible was Socrates, the illustrious Greek 
 philosopher, of his own ignorance, that he expressed 
 the earnest wish that a messenger could be sent from 
 heaven to teach the world. And if such a messenger 
 has really been sent down, is it wonderful that He 
 should be endowed with miraculous powers to arrest 
 men's attention, and to convince them that His mes- 
 sage is Divine ? And is it not expedient and desirable 
 that " He who came as the conqueror of sin and death, 
 and who had power to lay down His life, and power 
 to take it again, should come also as the Lord of the 
 Body and the Lord of the Spirit, having power over 
 the elements of matter, and over the thoughts of men's 
 minds ? " An eminent modern philosopher has truly 
 said that "the universe is governed, not only by 
 physical, but by moral laws." " If, then, the spiritual 
 restoration of mankind has in any degree been pro- 
 moted by means of a religion professing to have been 
 introduced by the aid of miracles, and whose whole 
 truth is involved in the truth of that profession, we 
 have a sufficient reason for the miraculous interposi- 
 tion, superior to any that can be urged for or against 
 it, from considerations derived from the material 
 world" (Mansel, p. 29).
 
 1 82 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE VALUE OF MIRACLES AS EVIDENCES. 
 
 RANTING, then, that a revelation from God 
 to man is both possible and desirable, the 
 question presents itself, To how many persons 
 ought such a revelation to be directly made ? Should 
 it be given to every individual in all the world and in 
 every age ? Or should it be given to a few persons, 
 selected and commissioned to instruct the rest ? Now, 
 as to the first of these modes, it would, no doubt, be 
 possible for God to reveal His will to every person 
 separately. But we should feel greater difficulty in 
 establishing the consistency of this mode, either with 
 the wisdom of God, or with the free agency of man. 
 Besides, such frequent revelations would soon lose 
 their impression and their designed effect, and might 
 come to be confounded with the ordinary light of 
 reason and conscience. Obviously, therefore, the 
 preferable mode would be to impart the revelation to 
 a few persons, selected and accredited to be God's 
 messengers to the rest of the world. 
 
 Here, hpwever, another question arises, viz., How 
 can the rest of the world be assured that these few 
 are really commissioned by God, and that they are 
 not giving forth merely their own fallible opinions ? 
 Now, while it would be presumptuous in us to assert
 
 Value of Miracles as Evidences. 183 
 
 that God might not have proved, in some other way 
 than by miracles, the Divine commission of His ser- 
 vants ; yet we may safely assert that there is no other 
 conceivable way which would be more simple, more 
 direct, and more convincing than the power of altering 
 the course of nature by a word, such as that of divid- 
 ing the sea, or bringing down bread from heaven, or 
 raising the dead to life. None can deny, that "power" 
 like this " belongeth unto God " alone, and therefore 
 if He should accompany the message of His servants 
 with such an exertion of almighty power, He would 
 give the clearest possible testimony to the truth of 
 their message, and "set to His seal" that it really 
 comes from Himself. As no creature can arrest the 
 working of His omnipotent arm, so every interruption 
 in the established course of nature can only take 
 place by His appointment, or by His permission. If 
 the " laws of nature " were at first established by the 
 great Creator, and if a human being is seen to accom- 
 plish such an alteration or suspension of those laws, 
 as could neither be effected by human power nor 
 foreseen by human intelligence, while that human 
 being appeals to the miracle in proof of his Divine 
 commission, is it not clear, beyond all controversy, 
 that the miracle was wrought by the power of God, 
 and that it bears most satisfying testimony to the truth 
 of the message which he brings ? Such, then, is the 
 value of miracles as attestations of a Divine revelation.
 
 184 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TO WHAT EXTENT MIRACLES CAN PROVE DOCTRINES. 
 
 |AVING endeavoured to show, first, that mir- 
 acles are possible ; secondly, that they are 
 expedient and desirable ; and thirdly, what 
 is their proper value as evidences of a Divine revela- 
 tion, we come now to notice some of the leading 
 objections of modern infidels to the reality of the 
 Bible miracles. 
 
 But before doing so, there is another preliminary 
 question on which it is necessary to make a few re- 
 marks, viz., How, and to what extent, miracles can 
 prove doctrines to be divinely true? As to this, a 
 difficulty has sometimes been felt, which, however, is 
 more of a speculative than of a practical kind. The 
 question has been asked, Can a miracle be wrought 
 by evil spirits, or can it only proceed from the direct 
 agency of God ? And if it can be wrought by the 
 former, how, in such a case, can the miracle prove 
 the doctrine to be true ? Now, though this question, 
 viewed as one of pure speculation, or as a theme 
 for metaphysical ingenuity, is attended with some 
 difficulty, yet, as we shall endeavour to show, there is 
 no serious practical difficulty involved in it. Instead, 
 however, of dogmatising confidently on the theoretical 
 question, let it be admitted, for the sake of argument,
 
 How Miracles can prove Doctrines. 185 
 
 that it is possible for an evil spirit to work what may 
 appear to be a miracle. 
 
 But if an apparent miracle may be wrought by an 
 evil spirit, the question naturally arises, How can any 
 miracle be a conclusive evidence of " the finger of 
 God ? " In answer to this, and in explanation of the 
 difficulty, let it be observed that there are three con- 
 ceivable cases in which a professed revelation may be 
 given to man. 
 
 1. The first supposable case is that, in which a pro- 
 fessed revelation bears, on the very face of it, obvious 
 falsehoods, or contradictions, or immoralities; as in 
 the instance of the Koran of Mahomet, or the lying 
 wonders of paganism and Popery. Now, as to all these, 
 it may be safely affirmed that not even an undoubted 
 miracle, if it should ever be wrought, could prove 
 such a revelation to have come from the God of truth 
 and holiness ; but it ought to be summarily rejected, 
 as coming, not " from above," but from beneath. 
 
 2. The second supposable case is that, in which a 
 professed revelation contains pure doctrines and cor- 
 rect morals. Now, in such a case, miracles would be 
 sufficient to prove that God is its Author. If it give 
 just and worthy conceptions of the Divine character, 
 and if its morality be perfectly pure and faultless, then 
 there can be no doubt that it could only proceed from 
 the God of truth and righteousness. 
 
 3. But there is a third supposable case (and it is
 
 1 86 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 actually, to a great extent, the case of our Bible), in 
 which the subject-matter of the revelation is merely 
 above our previous knowledge, by revealing new facts, 
 or doctrines, of which we were not previously cognis- 
 ant. Now, in such a case as this, miracles, we affirm, 
 would be sufficient to prove the truth of the revelation, 
 and to show that it really comes from God. For it 
 cannot be believed that the all-perfect God would 
 permit His power of working miracles to be employed 
 by any being to deceive His creatures in a case where 
 they have no means of judging as to the source whence 
 the revelation proceeds. While no miracles could 
 render it our duty to believe an obvious absurdity, or 
 to practise a flagrant immorality, yet, in this third 
 case, it would clearly be our duty to bow implicitly 
 to the authority of the miracles alone, apart from all 
 reasonings or imaginings of our own. 
 
 Nor, in arguing thus, can we be justly charged with 
 " reasoning in a circle ; " that is, with first making the 
 doctrine prove the miracle, and then, making the mir- 
 acle prove the doctrine ; as the advocates of the 
 Papacy do, in arguing that the truth of the Bible rests 
 on the authority of the Church, and that the authority 
 of the Church is derived from the Bible. Such reason- 
 ing in a circle can prove nothing, except its own 
 fallaciousness. But the case with regard- to miracles, 
 as proving the truth of doctrines, is totally different. 
 What we affirm is, that if the doctrines of a professed
 
 How Miracles can prove Doctrines. 187 
 
 revelation are self-contradictory, or its precepts im- 
 moral, then such a revelation cannot be proved by 
 any miracles to be Divine. And further, we affirm 
 that, in showing that the doctrines of the Bible are 
 not self-contradictory, and that its precepts are not im- 
 moral, we do not necessarily prove them to be divinely 
 true, but we merely render them capable of being 
 proved to be so by suitable and sufficient evidence. 
 We do not build a direct argument in favour of the 
 Divine authority of the Bible upon the absence of 
 contradictions or immoral teachings from its pages, 
 but we merely clear the ground in order to lay the 
 foundation for such an argument. And when we have 
 got this length, when we have shown, as can easily be, 
 and as has been shown to demonstration, that there 
 is no real contradiction or immorality in the Bible, 
 then the proof furnished by miracles is conclusive in 
 favour of its Divine authority. Beyond all question, 
 the Bible, in its every page, breathes a pure and lofty 
 morality which, if universally practised, would change 
 this sin-burdened world into a paradise of holiness and 
 peace a morality which, instead of thwarting or 
 counteracting the force of the miracles, only superadds 
 one miracle to another. And still more, the Bible, 
 though composed in different ages, and by various 
 writers, under the direction of One Spirit, is so self- 
 consistent and harmonious in all its teachings, as to 
 show incontrovertibly that these teachings have all
 
 1 88 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 come from one source, and that this source is Divine. 
 Is it not, then, evidently true, that in so far as the 
 case of the Bible is concerned, there is no practical 
 difficulty whatever in applying the argument from mir- 
 acles ; but, on the contrary, as has been eloquently 
 said, that " the miracles and the morality of the Bible 
 stand side by side, and conspire together in showing 
 that it comes from Him who unites the highest power 
 with the highest holiness ? " 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 INFIDEL OBJECTIONS. 
 
 ET us now consider some of the leading 
 objections of modern infidels to the reality 
 of the Bible miracles. Here we are called 
 to notice chiefly the well-known argument of David 
 Hume, in his celebrated " Essay on Miracles " an 
 argument which has been employed by many other 
 opponents of the Bible, and which has been substan- 
 tially adopted by the late Professor Powell, in his 
 essay "On the Study of the Evidences of Christian- 
 ity ; " although with this difference, that the Oxford 
 professor went much beyond the avowed infidel in his 
 opposition to miracles. The substance of Hume's
 
 Infidel Objections. 1 89 
 
 argument is stated in the following words : "A miracle 
 is a violation of the laws of nature ; and as a firm and 
 unalterable experience has established these laws, the 
 proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the 
 fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can 
 possibly be imagined" (Essays, vol. ii., sect. 10). To 
 the same effect Strauss says, "We summarily reject 
 all miracles, prophecies, narratives of angels or de- 
 mons, and the like, as simply impossible, and irrecon- 
 cilable with the known and universal laws which 
 govern the course of events." The argument of 
 Hume seems to amount to this : Our experience of 
 the uniformity of nature's laws has never deceived 
 us, but the testimony of our fellow-creatures has 
 often deceived us ; and therefore he concludes that 
 their testimony, except in certain cases, can never 
 prove that there has been a "violation" of the laws of 
 nature. He admits, indeed, with strange inconsis- 
 tency, that human testimony might in some cases 
 prove a miracle ; but he maintains that if the miracle 
 be intended to support religion, then no proof can 
 establish its reality. That is to say, suppose that 
 God should resolve to reveal His will directly to the 
 human race, in order to remove their miseries and 
 sins, and should think fit to convince them by miracles 
 that He has really done so, then Hume would at once 
 deny the reality of these miracles, and discredit the 
 strongest testimony in their favour. Though the
 
 1 90 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 miracles might, in certain circumstances, be received 
 as facts, yet they must be rejected as fictions, pro- 
 vided that they are designed to support a religion. 
 In his estimation, a religious motive vitiates and 
 evacuates the evidence furnished by miracles. 
 
 Such is Hume's argument; but if we closely examine 
 it, it will not be difficult to show that it contains a 
 double fallacy; first, in regard to experience, and 
 second, in regard to testimony. 
 
 First, as to our experience of tfie uniformity of 
 nature's laws. No doubt this experience may inform 
 us as to past events, but it can give us no certain 
 or infallible information as to future events. For 
 instance, experience tells us that the sun has risen 
 and set daily during the last six thousand years ; 
 but experience cannot make us perfectly sure that 
 the sun will continue to rise and set for ever. Nay, 
 if the observations of astronomers and the calcu- 
 lations of mathematicians are to be relied upon, it 
 can be demonstrated that the solar system, as at 
 present constituted, cannot last for ever, but that it 
 contains within itself the elements of its own destruc- 
 tion. Again, suppose that the extinct animals which 
 have been found imbedded in the rocks, and which 
 belong to an era far anterior to the creation of man, 
 had been capable of reasoning, they might have said, 
 like Hume, "Our experience for many centuries shows 
 that the laws of nature have never been violated ;
 
 A Miracle not a "Violation " of Law. 191 
 
 and this, therefore, proves that these laws never will 
 or can be violated." But the lifeless remains of these 
 animals in the rocks show that their reasoning would 
 have been as false as Hume's is, and that God did 
 work a miracle to destroy them from the face of the 
 earth. It is, therefore, nothing to the purpose to 
 assert that a miracle is contrary to past experience. 
 The only relevant question is, whether the evidence 
 adduced in proof of the miracle, as a fact, be valid and 
 sufficient or not ? Neither is it true to affirm that " a 
 miracle is a violation of the laws of nature," in any 
 sense in which such a violation is regarded as impos- 
 sible or inconceivable. For, as has been shown by Dr 
 Brown, in his work on " Cause and Effect," a miracle 
 is simply the introduction of a new cause, with new 
 powers ; and it cannot, therefore, be reduced to the 
 rules suggested by a past experience, but its reality 
 must be determined upon independent evidence of its 
 own. For example, by the law of gravitation, all 
 bodies left free fall necessarily to the earth ; but by 
 the will and power of man, aided by science, these 
 bodies, such as a cannon ball, can be forced upwards 
 in an opposite direction. This, however, is not a 
 violation of a law of nature, but it is merely the intro- 
 duction of a new force. If, then, man's will can pro- 
 duce such results, may not God's will produce greater? 
 And why, in such a case, should our limited " experi- 
 ence " lead us to deny a fact ?
 
 192 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 This has been well illustrated, in a recent work, 
 with reference to that mysterious principle of life 
 " which seems to have the power, during its continu- 
 ance, of ' violating ' all the laws of nature. By that 
 principle, the chemical elements which enter into the 
 composition of the oak are detached from their natural 
 connections, as they are found in the air, the earth, 
 and the waters ; the chemical laws which held them 
 in these connections are suspended ; they enter, under 
 the new principle of life, into new combinations, con- 
 stituting now the component parts of a tree the 
 organic structure, the fibre, the bark, the branch, the 
 leaf, the fruit, and they are held together, by that 
 principle of life, with all the power needful to lift up 
 the enormous mass from the earth, despite the law of 
 gravitation, and to keep it steadfast against the influ- 
 ence of storms and tempests, century after century, 
 until that principle of life shall lose its grasp, and be- 
 come extinct ; and then, not before, the chemical 
 laws resume their power, and the old oak returns to 
 gases and to earth, under the resumed operation of 
 these laws. ... All over the earth, therefore, on the 
 land, in the waters, in the air, nothing is more common 
 than that what are called the 'fixed and uniform 
 laws of nature' are in fact suspended, 'violated,' held 
 in check and abeyance, by this principle of life, where 
 life is the only antecedent in the result. That a higher 
 power than life the Life itself, GOD may not sus-
 
 Reliableness of Human Testimony. 193 
 
 pend them ; that that higher Power may not suspend 
 the laws which regulate life itself, or restore it, has 
 not as yet been established by a firm and unalterable 
 experietice" (Barnes, "Evidences of Christianity," 
 pp. 171, 172). 
 
 Second, as to the reliableness of human testimony in 
 favour of miracles. Now, as to this, it must be admit- 
 ted that some testimonies do deceive us; but then 
 there is a kind of testimony which never deceives us, 
 and the falsehood of which would imply as great a 
 miracle as any recorded in the Bible. For example, 
 as we shall endeavour to show in our next and con- 
 cluding chapter, the testimony of the whole Jewish 
 nation to the miracles of Moses, both at the time when 
 they were wrought and in succeeding ages, cannot be 
 reasonably accounted for, unless it was perfectly true. 
 And so, the testimony of the apostles and others to 
 the miracles of Christ, and the testimony of the primi- 
 tive Church to the miracles of the first preachers of 
 Christianity miracles wrought publicly and repeatedly, 
 appealed to as proofs of a Divine commission, and 
 accredited by the losses and sufferings of those who 
 performed and witnessed them such testimony as 
 this has a force and verisimilitude and conclusiveness 
 which it is not easy to see how any fair reasoner can 
 resist or gainsay. Those who bear testimony to these 
 miracles could not be themselves deceived in plain 
 matters of fact which they had seen with their eyes ;
 
 194 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 and neither could they have any conceivable motive 
 to deceive others, as their proved integrity and per- 
 sonal sufferings am ply demonstrate. Why, then, we ask, 
 should such testimony, so truthlike and so consistent, 
 be discredited or rejected, merely because the mir- 
 acles which it attests were performed " in support of 
 religion ? " And yet Hume asserts that such testimony 
 should be " rejected without further examination," 
 merely because the miracles are the foundation of a 
 system of religion, and because pretended miracles, 
 or lying wonders, have been adduced in support of 
 false religions, such as Popery. His argument just 
 amounts to this : Some testimonies regarding religion 
 deceive us ; therefore all such testimonies deceive us, 
 and none can be trustworthy. That is to say, because 
 counterfeit money has sometimes been circulated, 
 therefore we must reject all money as of the same 
 . stamp ; whereas the counterfeit only proves the true. 
 To assert that, because some testimonies are false, all 
 must necessarily be so; or that, because some religions 
 have been impostures, all must be the same, is equi- 
 valent to the monstrous assertion that because there 
 is hypocrisy in the world, therefore there is no real 
 virtue or integrity. Hume's argument is simply this : 
 " Some men are liars, and therefore, all men are liars." 
 King David said this in his haste ; but he never said 
 it, as the infidel does, in his calm and deliberate 
 judgment
 
 Professor PoweWs Objections. 195 
 
 We have already said that Professor Powell not 
 only adopted the fallacious argument of Hume, but 
 even went far beyond him, in his opposition to mir- 
 acles. Hume candidly admitted that human testi- 
 mony might prove a miracle, if " the testimony be of 
 such a kind that its falsehood would be more miracu- 
 lous than the fact which it endeavours to establish," 
 unless indeed it were wrought " in support of re- 
 ligion ! " And he admitted further that he would be- 
 lieve a miracle if he had seen it with his own eyes, 
 and had been able to satisfy himself, by personal 
 examination, that no deception was practised. Pro- 
 fessor Powell, however, made no such admissions; but, 
 on the contrary, he asserted that no kind of testimony 
 whatever can prove a miracle : and he declared that 
 he would not believe in one, although it were wrought 
 before his very eyes. His own words were, " Testi- 
 mony, after all, is but a second-hand assurance; it is 
 but a blind guide; testimony can avail nothing against 
 reason. The essential question of miracles stands 
 quite apart from any consideration of testimony ; the 
 question would remain the same, if we had the evidence 
 of our own senses to an alleged miracle 11 (" Essays and 
 Reviews," p. 141). Such is the melancholy conclusion 
 to which the so-called " reasoning " of modern infidel- 
 ity is helplessly driven. This reductio ad absurdum 
 is a suggestive commentary on the apostle's words, 
 " Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."
 
 196 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 And the absurdity becomes all the more glaring in 
 the light of this strange fact, viz., that while the 
 doubting professor regarded all the miracles of the 
 Bible as attributable either to mistake or deception, 
 yet he professed considerable respect for the intelli- 
 gence and moral character of those who, consciously 
 or unconsciously, were guilty of these "pious frauds;" 
 and that he professed also no small admiration of 
 many of the truths which these miracle-workers 
 taught and inculcated ! Like Strauss and Renan, he 
 thought that he could deny the reality of the Bible 
 miracles without impeaching the honesty, either of 
 those who pretended to work them, or of those who 
 attested the reality of them with their blood. 
 
 Such, then, is the position which is taken up by the 
 modern impugners of the Bible miracles. They en- 
 deavour to draw a distinction between the facts and 
 the teachings of the Bible ; and while they profess to 
 respect the teachings or some of them, they utterly 
 deny the facts, or miracles, on which these teachings 
 depend for their truth and value as divinely inspired. 
 But is it not clear to every candid mind that the facts 
 and the teachings must stand or fall together ? If a 
 man professes to teach certain religious doctrines on 
 Divine authority, and appeals to miracles in proof of 
 his claim ; and if I come to be convinced that he was 
 " merely employing his superior knowledge of natural 
 laws to produce a false appearance of supernatural
 
 Integrity of the Witnesses. 197 
 
 power," I would at once reject his doctrines as an 
 imposition. In attempting to explain away the mir- 
 acles, and to ascribe them to natural causes or speci- 
 ous appearances, the infidel " deals a deathblow to 
 the moral character of the teacher, no less than to the 
 sensible evidence of his mission." For instance, if 
 Christ professed to do many mighty works, and if 
 His apostles professed to have seen Him and talked 
 with Him after He rose from the dead, and if nothing 
 of all this ever took place, but if it were a mere fiction 
 or fancy, then how could we regard them as honest 
 or veracious in teaching anything whatever ? What 
 confidence could we place in their truthfulness and 
 integrity, seeing that they must have known whether 
 the miracles were matters of fact or not ? How could 
 we believe in the moral honesty of men who attempt 
 to palm doctrines upon the world by means, of what 
 must be regarded as, on their part, a wilful deception? 
 Such conduct could only be defended on the principle 
 of the Jesuits, viz., that " the end sanctifies the 
 means," or as Paul expresses it, " Let us do evil that 
 good may come," adding the significant and terrible 
 words, "Whose damnation is just." It is at least a 
 consistent position on the part of the infidel to deny 
 the doctrines of Christianity because he denies the 
 miracles ; but what must be thought of his position in 
 denying the miracles and regarding them as deliber- 
 ate frauds, while yet professing to believe, or at least
 
 198 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 to admire, the doctrines which these miracles prove 
 to be divinely true ? As an eloquent writer has 
 truly said, " If the miracles are false or fabulous, the 
 sayings of Jesus, which rest on them, lose all author- 
 ity. It is vain to attempt a dubious explanation, 
 which attributes to Jesus a half-designed, half-involun- 
 tary connivance in the superstitious ideas of His age. 
 . . . This explanation shatters itself on the rock 
 of an inevitable contradiction ; for if Jesus was Him- 
 self deceived as to the line of demarcation between 
 the natural and supernatural order of things, He was 
 under no necessity to practise the convenient system 
 of pious frauds. . . . Upon the second point 
 that veiled imputation of imposture, so much the 
 more perfidious that it assumes the garb of eulogy 
 we can enter into no discussion. The spirit which 
 confesses in Jesus, the Holy One of God, the great 
 and solemn Witness of the Truth, repels with indigna- 
 tion the charge, and still more the apology. The 
 moral sense is not different in the east and the west ; 
 under every sky it condemns falsehood, and cannot 
 endure, without a shudder, the casting of such a 
 blemish on the PUREST MORAL IMAGE THE WORLD 
 HAS EVER SEEN " (" Jesus Christ : His Times, Life, 
 and Work," by Dr De Pressense, pp. 307, 308). 
 
 From all this, are we not warranted to conclude 
 that the reality of the Bible miracles stands on an 
 impregnable basis, which cannot be shaken or over-
 
 Illustration of the Argument. 199 
 
 thrown? We cannot deny impossibility of a miracle 
 without denying God's omnipotence, nor its probability 
 without denying His moral attributes of love and 
 mercy. Neither can we deny the value of miracles as 
 attestations of a Divine commission, without denying 
 the instinctive convictions of every ingenuous and 
 candid mind, that He who could raise the dead ought 
 to be welcomed as a messenger from God. Nor can 
 the truth and certainty of the Bible miracles be denied 
 without destroying the very foundations of all human 
 testimony. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION OF THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 [HE most strenuous attempts have been made 
 by modern infidels to disprove the reality of 
 the miracles of Moses, in the hope that, if 
 successful, they would shake our confidence in the 
 truth of Christianity itself; seeing that the Old and 
 New Testaments must stand or fall together. Each 
 indeed has independent evidence of its own ; but 
 still, if one of these parts of Scripture could be proved 
 to be false, the other could not hold such a strong
 
 2OO Grounds of Faith. 
 
 position as it does. We propose, then, to show that 
 the reality of the miracles of Moses rests upon an 
 impregnable basis. 
 
 In considering the nature of those miracles which 
 are ascribed to Moses, when he was in Egypt, at the 
 Red Sea, and in the wilderness, it is impossible to 
 deny that, if these miracles were really performed, 
 they demonstrate the Divine origin of the Jewish 
 economy. Any one can see at a glance that " these 
 things were not done in a corner ; " and also that 
 they were of such a kind that no man could have 
 done such things unless " God had been with him." 
 There was no possibility of deception in the case ; 
 and if any had been attempted, it could easily have 
 been detected. For the miracles were objects of 
 universal, minute, and continuous attention on the 
 part of the people, and they were patent to the senses, 
 and exposed to the inspection of multitudes, during 
 a long series of years. The deliverance of six hun- 
 dred thousand men, besides women and children, 
 from the bondage of Egypt, with a high hand and 
 an outstretched arm ; the dividing of the Red Sea 
 at the lifting up of Moses' rod; the safe passage 
 of the Israelites in the dry bed of the sea, with the 
 walls of water on either hand ; and the destruction of 
 Pharaoh and his host by the returning waves : then 
 the thunderings and lightnings of Mount Sinai, at the 
 giving of the Moral Law with an audible voice from
 
 High Moral Character of Moses. 201 
 
 heaven ; the daily supply of manna in the desert 
 during the space of forty years, and the gushing forth 
 of streams of water from the smitten rock ; all these 
 were miracles of such a kind as to exclude the pos- 
 sibility of mistake or deception, and to leave no doubt 
 on the minds of spectators, that they could only have 
 been wrought by the mighty power of God. 
 
 But then the question presents itself, Do the 
 miracles of Moses afford evidence as conclusive to us 
 as to those who saw them ? Have we reasonable 
 and sufficient grounds for believing that they are not 
 fancies or fictions, but veritable facts ? In answer to 
 this, and in proof of the reality of the miracles of 
 Moses, various reasons might be adduced; but of 
 these we shall select the three following : 
 
 I. The high moral character of Moses himself. 
 
 As to this, numerous testimonies are borne both by 
 Jewish and heathen writers ; all of whom concur in 
 declaring that Moses was a man of high moral worth, 
 of transparent truthfulness and incorruptible integrity, 
 as well as of great mental power and superior accom- 
 plishments. But besides these external testimonies, 
 which are so well known that they need not be speci- 
 fied, his own writings clearly reveal his true character, 
 and show that he was utterly incapable of fraud or 
 deception. No one can read candidly the five books 
 of Moses, without coming to the conclusion that he
 
 2O2 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 was a man who feared God, who entertained the 
 most exalted conceptions of the Divine majesty and 
 purity, who recognised God's omniscience, and revered 
 His glorious holiness. And then, the great object of 
 his life and labours evidently was to inspire all his 
 brethren with the same lofty sentiments, and to per- 
 suade them to honour, love, and obey God, with all 
 their heart, and soul, and strength, and mind. Still 
 more, Moses was distinguished by the purest dis- 
 interestedness, by the most unaffected humility and 
 meekness, by the warmest affection for his brethren, 
 and the most devoted zeal for their welfare. With 
 the great influence which he possessed and merited, 
 he might easily have aggrandised his own house and 
 family; but, on the contrary, he secured for them 
 neither power, nor rank, nor worldly possessions, in 
 that nation of which he was so long the acknowledged 
 leader and lawgiver. Moses belonged to the tribe of 
 Levi ; but this tribe, instead of being exalted above 
 the other tribes, had no share with them in the parti- 
 tion of Canaan, and was left in a great measure 
 dependent upon their contributions. Besides, he 
 assigned the high priesthood to the family of his 
 brother Aaron, and thus prevented the possibility of 
 his own children ever attaining it. And not only 
 were his sons excluded from that spiritual office, but 
 they were also denied the right of succession to him 
 in his civil capacity ; for he nominated Joshua, the
 
 Miracles acknowledged at the time. 203 
 
 son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, to succeed him 
 as the chief ruler and leader of Israel. In all this, 
 then, we perceive a greatness of mind, a disinterested- 
 ness of feeling, and a purity of motive, which have 
 rarely been equalled. Evidently he had no selfish 
 ends in view, but his simple aim was to fulfil faithfully 
 the high commission of Him whose servant he was. 
 And who can read his dying testimony and parting 
 charge to the people, without being convinced that 
 such a man was incapable of deception or imposture ? 
 May we not confidently affirm that the infidel, .who 
 believes the contrary, manifests far greater credulity 
 than that which he ascribes to those who believe that 
 Moses was a man of God, and a messenger of heaven, 
 and that he was proved to be so by " signs, and won- 
 ders, and mighty deeds ? " 
 
 II. The acknowledgment qftfie miracles by the Israelites 
 at the time. 
 
 The books of Moses abound with appeals addressed 
 to the people, as to the reality of the miracles which 
 they witnessed. These appeals not only prove the 
 firm belief of Moses himself that they were real 
 miracles, but they also imply a solemn attestation on 
 the part of the people to the same effect. Frequently 
 he had occasion to rebuke them sharply for their 
 murmuring and idolatry and rebellion against God ; 
 but he never rebuked them for doubting or denying
 
 2O4 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 the miracles which they had seen. On the contrary, 
 he employed these miracles of power and mercy as 
 arguments and motives to induce them to love and 
 obey God, who had shown them such distinguishing 
 favour. Not only did the whole Jewish nation ac- 
 knowledge the miracles as true, but it was expressly 
 on that ground that they were persuaded to submit 
 to the authority and guidance of Moses, to adopt 
 the new institutions which he set up among them, 
 and to conform to the burdensome religious rites 
 which he enjoined. They were "a stiff-necked and 
 rebellious people," as he often told them : they were 
 most reluctant to abandon " the flesh-pots of Egypt," 
 and were ever prone to break out into murmurs and 
 complaints amid the privations and hardships of the 
 wilderness ; and many a time they would have been 
 glad to find out that Moses was an impostor; and 
 they would easily have found it out, if he had been 
 so. But no suspicion ever crossed any of their minds 
 that the miracles were a deception ; and it was re- 
 served for the rationalists of Germany, and their 
 humble imitators in England and America, to dis- 
 cover and suggest this "rational" hypothesis! It 
 cannot be denied that the contemporaries of Moses, 
 that is, the whole Jewish nation, received the miracles 
 as true and certain, that they handed down the record 
 of them to their children as a reliable record, and 
 still more, that they cherished the greatest respect
 
 Acknowledgment of the Miracles. 205 
 
 for Moses during his life, and the profoundest venera- 
 tion for his memory after his death. 
 
 Beyond all question, they regarded Moses as a 
 chosen instrument, in the hand of God, to work out 
 for them a great national deliverance; and on the 
 ground of those miracles, which were performed before 
 their eyes, they accepted the law which he prescribed 
 to them, and submitted to that heavy yoke of ritualism 
 which he laid upon them. And thus, in addition to 
 the testimony given by the personal character of the 
 lawgiver, we have the testimony of the whole nation 
 to the reality of the miracles, which Moses performed 
 by the mighty power of God. 
 
 It has been truly remarked, by a well-known author, 
 that the history of God's dealings with Israel, espe- 
 cially at the Red Sea, was interwoven with the whole 
 religious literature of the nation. "Living as they 
 did apart from all maritime pursuits, yet their poetry, 
 their devotion, abounds with expressions which can 
 be traced back only to this beginning of ttieir national 
 history. They had been literally 'baptized unto 
 Moses, in the cloud and in the sea.' . . . Even 
 in the dry inland valleys of Palestine, danger and 
 deliverance were always expressed by the visions of 
 sea and storm. ' All Thy waves and billows are gone 
 over me.' ' The springs of waters were seen, and the 
 foundations of the round world were discovered, at 
 Thy chiding, O Lord, at the blasting of the breath of
 
 206 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 Thy displeasure.' 'They drew me out of many 
 waters.' Their whole national existence was a thanks- 
 giving, a votive tablet, for their deliverance in, and 
 from, and through the Red Sea" ("History of the 
 Jewish Church," by A. P. Stanley, D.D., pp. 123- 
 128). 
 
 III. The impossibility of persuading the Jewish nation, 
 in any subsequent age, to receive the miracles as true, if 
 they had been false. 
 
 To illustrate the force of this part of the argument, 
 let it be supposed that some learned pundit had re- 
 cently composed and published a " History of Scot- 
 land," professing to give a true narrative of the doings 
 and exploits of our Scottish forefathers during the last 
 ten or fifteen hundred years. Suppose that he com- 
 menced his " history " by informing us that, at some 
 remote period, our forefathers had come originally 
 from France, numbering half a million of men, besides 
 women and children, and a "mixed multitude" of 
 strangers ; and that they were under the direction of 
 a great leader, who conducted them across the Straits 
 of Dover on dry land, and who afterwards led them 
 round, among the hills and dales of England, for forty 
 years, by a pillar of cloud and fire ; and that during 
 all that time he gave them bread from heaven, and 
 water from the rocks ; and that he sent fiery serpents 
 among them to punish their insubordination, and
 
 Historical Aspect of the Question. 207 
 
 made the earth open her mouth and swallow up alive 
 all those who disputed his authority. Suppose, further, 
 that this historian, or romancer, informed us that, at 
 the end of the forty years, our forefathers crossed the 
 Tweed in a body on dryland, and then took possession 
 of Scotland. And suppose, still more, that he also 
 informed us that, ever since that time, the Scottish 
 nation, at the request of the said leader, had offered 
 up sacrifices, and kept solemn festivals every year to 
 commemorate their ancient exploits, and observed a 
 jubilee every fiftieth year, and a great many other 
 ceremonies, which he described as being still the 
 usages of Scotland. Well, would he be likely to 
 succeed in persuading the nation that all this was 
 true ? Possibly there might be some credulous indi- 
 viduals who would believe it all ; for in these days of 
 Mormonism and spirit-rapping, there is nothing too 
 absurd for some men to swallow. But would any man 
 of common sense believe such a "history?" Would 
 the whole nation believe it? Would they not say, 
 " We never heard of such things before ; our fathers 
 never told us of them, and we find no such usages or 
 customs prevailing amongst us?" And would not 
 the almost universal verdict upon the learned pundit 
 be, " Either he is a fool, or he takes us to be fools? " 
 This illustration may serve to show the utter impos- 
 sibility of persuading the Jewish nation, at any period 
 subsequent to the time of Moses, that the miracles
 
 208 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 were really performed by him, if they never were. To 
 persuade them of this would require and imply at least 
 as great a miracle as any of those which the infidel 
 denies. For, passing from illustration to proof, let it 
 be observed how the case actually stands. To indicate 
 this, we may briefly advert to the historical aspect of 
 the question, 
 
 Now every one knows that, at this moment, the 
 Jewish people are dispersed among all the nations of 
 the earth ; not mixed with any, but separate from all, 
 and still " a peculiar people." But go where you will, 
 you find that every Jew not only glories in his ancestry, 
 but reveres Moses, and receives his books as true, 
 and regards them as " the oracles of God." This the 
 nation has done, as all history testifies, during at least 
 the last eighteen hundred years. During all that time 
 they have generally, if not universally, read the law of 
 Moses in their synagogues every Sabbath day; and 
 the fathers have taught their children what they them- 
 selves had received from preceding generations. It 
 may be said indeed that recently, infidelity has been 
 making progress among the Jews, in some quarters. 
 This, however, only proves the influence exerted upon 
 them by their contact with those habits of thinking 
 which happen to prevail in the particular land of their 
 adoption. But it is something wholly strange and 
 novel, as well as exceptional ; and it can in no degree 
 invalidate the harmonious testimony of the nation
 
 Historical Aspect of the Question. 209 
 
 during the eighteen centuries which have elapsed, 
 since they were in possession of a country which they 
 could call their own. 
 
 We can, however, go much further back than the 
 time of Christ, and trace the existence, and the recog- 
 nition by the nation, of the five books of Moses, 
 through all the preceding fourteen centuries up to 
 the very time of Moses himself. For not only did 
 Josephus write a history of the Jews, which embodies 
 the leading facts recorded in the Old Testament, 
 and the traditions which were current among the 
 Jews previous to the destruction of Jerusalem; but 
 about 280 years before Christ, the Old Testament 
 itself (at the very least the Pentateuch), was translated 
 from Hebrew into Greek by learned Jews in Egypt; and 
 this Septuagint version made Jewish history familiar 
 to the most civilised nations of antiquity, long before 
 Christ was born. 
 
 Then, about five hundred years before Christ, being 
 the period of the Babylonish captivity, we find that the 
 books of Moses were not only in existence, but were 
 well known and highly revered by the whole nation. 
 For Zerubbabel, and Ezra, and Nehemiah, who at three 
 different times led many of the people back to Jeru- 
 salem, rebuilt the temple, restored the worship of God, 
 and regulated all the institutions of the nation, ex- 
 pressly "according to tJie law of Moses;" and they 
 made pointed and solemn appeals to that law as their
 
 2 1 o Grounds of Faith. 
 
 authority and rule, to which the people readily and 
 heartily submitted. 
 
 Moreover, at a period still further back, or about 
 seven hundred years before Christ, we find that the 
 Samaritans, who occupied the places of the ten tribes 
 after these had been carried away into Assyria, and 
 who corrupted the worship of God by idolatry, revered 
 the five books of Moses, and regarded them as Divine. 
 And as there was bitter and constant enmity between 
 the Jews and the Samaritans, the one would be a 
 check upon the other, so as to prevent the reception 
 of any spurious writings. Even at this day, on and 
 around Mount Gerizim, there are those claiming to 
 be descendants of the ancient Samaritans, who possess 
 the Pentateuch, and who observe many of the customs 
 and ceremonies enjoined by Moses. 
 
 Here also we may notice the remarkable confirma- 
 tions of the truth of this part of the Bible history, 
 which have been furnished by the explorations of 
 Layard, Smith, and others at Nineveh, and more 
 particularly by the recent discovery of the " Moabite 
 Stone." This stone, or rather this triumphal tablet, 
 the diction and spirit of which are thoroughly biblical, 
 appears to have been erected by King Mesha to 
 Chemosh, the national deity of the Moabites, in grati- 
 tude for the victories which he enabled them to obtain 
 over the Israelites under Ahab (circa B.C. 896). The 
 inscription on the stone, which is written in almost
 
 Historical Aspect of the Question. 211 
 
 pure Hebrew, and which occupies thirty-four lines, both 
 supplements and completes the record of the expedi- 
 tion by the three allied kings of Judah, Israel, and 
 Edom, contained in ad Kings, chap. iii. 
 
 Pursuing the same line along the course of history, 
 we would refer to the contentions between the king- 
 doms of Israel and Judah, reaching back to the time 
 of Rehoboam, or nearly one thousand years before 
 Christ ; and we would fix special attention upon the 
 undoubted fact that both kingdoms, though frequently 
 at war with each other, agreed in acknowledging the 
 Divine authority of the books of Moses, as they had 
 received them from their fathers ; and, further, that in 
 both kingdoms prophets were raised up, who in in- 
 structing the people and rebuking them for their 
 idolatry, made their appeal to the Law of Moacs as 
 their authoritative rule and guide. Time would fail 
 us if we were to notice in detail the numerous refer- 
 ences by David, in the book of Psalms, to "the 
 mighty works " which God had wrought by the hands 
 of Moses, and which the sweet singer of Israel recounts 
 as reasons for deep and abiding national gratitude. 
 
 This, then, brings us to three or four hundred 
 years after the death of Moses. Now, at that 
 period, what do we find ? We find that Samuel the 
 prophet, after Saul was anointed to be king, delivered 
 an address to the assembled nation, in which he 
 narrated God's gracious dealings with their fathers, in
 
 212 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 having " brought them out of the land of Egypt " by 
 the hand of Moses and Aaron ; and also " reasoned 
 with them before the Lord of all the righteous acts of 
 the Lord, which He did to them and to their fathers." 
 Then further back, we find that, "when there was no 
 king in Israel," but judges, whose authority was often 
 limited to one or more of the tribes, it would have 
 been impossible to get the whole nation, in its then 
 divided state, to receive a false account of the events 
 witnessed by their fathers ; the more especially as all 
 the books of the law were read in the audience of 
 the people when they went to Shiloh to worship, and 
 also as copies of the law were written out by the 
 Levites and distributed among the people. And let 
 it be specially observed that, during these four hun- 
 dred years, the nation frequently forsook the law of 
 Moses, and conformed to idolatry, for which God 
 visited them with His judgments ; but when they re- 
 pented and returned, He sent judges to deliver them. 
 But to what did they return ? They returned to the 
 observance of the law of Moses. But this they never 
 would have done, unless they had been thoroughly 
 convinced that Moses had been proved, by his mir- 
 acles, to be a messenger from God ; and unless it had 
 been literally true, as the royal psalmist declares, 
 that God " made known His ways unto Moses : His 
 acts unto the children of Israel." 
 Such being the historical aspect of the case, may it
 
 Historical Aspect of the Question. 213 
 
 not be confidently affirmed that we have far stronger 
 evidence to prove that Moses performed the miracles, 
 and wrote the books ascribed to him, than we have 
 for any past event recorded in ancient history ? All 
 antiquity, with one consent, and without one dissen- 
 tient voice, bears testimony to the truth of his books 
 and to the reality of his miracles. These books ot 
 the great lawgiver of Israel are quoted, or referred to, 
 in various writings succeeding one another, from the 
 earliest to the latest periods of Jewish history ; and 
 they are quoted, not merely as authentic, but as 
 authoritative and inspired records of the laws and 
 history of the nation. For instance, Joshua, the im- 
 mediate successor of Moses, informs us in the book 
 which he wrote, that he "read all the words of the 
 law to the people. There was not a word of all that 
 Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all 
 the congregation of Israel." And similar references 
 will also be found in nearly all the other books of the 
 Old Testament. Who can forget the solemn and 
 affecting injunction which David gave, at the close 
 of his life, to Solomon his son, "Keep the charge 
 of the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, to keep 
 His statutes and His commandments, and His judg- 
 ments and His testimonies, as it is written in the law 
 of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou 
 doest." But such quotations might be multiplied al- 
 most indefinitely ; for, in truth, the entire Old Testa-
 
 2 1 4 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 ment grew out of the book of the Law of Moses, as 
 the branches grow out of the root or the seed. And 
 to deny the existence of the law from the beginning, 
 and to assign to it a later date, would make the whole 
 history and literature of the chosen people an inex- 
 plicable riddle, a tangled mass of confusion ; and 
 would create greater difficulties than the infidel has 
 ever adduced or imagined. On such a principle the 
 truest history would be treated as a fable, and a field 
 for indulging in the wildest conjectures of a disordered 
 fancy. 
 
 But enough has been said to convince any candid 
 mind, that on no other principle can the reverence of 
 the Jewish nation for the books of Moses, during more 
 than three thousand years, be rationally accounted 
 for, except on the principle that the events did really 
 occur, that the miracles were actually performed, and 
 therefore that his mission was truly Divine. That 
 mission bears upon it the manifest and unmistakable 
 impress of Heaven's seal ; and it is therefore entitled 
 to that reverence and submission which are due to a 
 revelation from God. These emphatic words of the 
 ancient Jewish Church are most literally true : " We 
 have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have 
 told us, what work Thou didst in their days, in the 
 times of old. How Thou didst drive out the heathen 
 with Thy hand, and plantedst them ; how Thou didst 
 afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got
 
 Conclusion. 215 
 
 not the land in possession by their own sword, neither 
 did their own arm save them : but Thy right hand, 
 and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, be- 
 cause Thou hadst a favour unto them." 
 
 We conclude with a single remark, and a short 
 appeal. While, on the one hand, we cannot but esti- 
 mate highly the value of miracles as attestations of a 
 Divine revelation, yet, on the other hand, we would 
 not unduly exaggerate their importance, or ascribe to 
 them a power which they do not possess. Some who 
 are wavering between faith and doubt, may be ready 
 to imagine that, if they could only have seen a miracle 
 with their own eyes, all their doubts as to the truth of 
 the Bible would disappear. But even miracles, if 
 frequently repeated, would soon lose their designed 
 effect, and cease to make any impression. It was so 
 with Israel in the wilderness; for though their whole 
 history was a history of miracles, yet " they soon for- 
 got His works," and "turned back," and "tempted 
 God," and "limited the Holy One of Israel." No 
 miracle ever yet changed a human heart ; for though 
 it affords clear evidence that God is speaking to us 
 from heaven, yet it cannot compel us to believe the 
 unpalatable truth which God declares to us. The 
 great hindrance to the sinner's salvation is a moral 
 hindrance ; not the want of evidence without, but the 
 want of will within, or what Scripture calls the " evil 
 heart of unbelief." What we all need, therefore, is
 
 2 1 6 Grounds of Faith. 
 
 not more miracles, but more honesty of mind, more 
 simplicity of heart, and more " power from on high," 
 to bring us into a right moral state. 
 
 While, therefore, we give due attention to the cre- 
 dentials of Revelation, we must not neglect to study 
 its contents patiently and prayerfully; and if we do 
 search the Scriptures, we shall know that " unto the 
 upright there ariseth light in the darkness ; " for " if 
 thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of 
 light." And let us not forget, in dealing with such 
 vital questions, the momentous interests which are in- 
 volved in them. Surely it is the plain duty and the 
 obvious interest of every intelligent and immortal 
 being, to listen attentively and devoutly to Him, to 
 whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, gave wit- 
 ness, and whose mighty and loving voice is still sound- 
 ing through the ages, "I am the WAY, and the TRUTH, 
 and the LIFE; and HIM THAT COMETH UNTO ME I 
 
 WILL IN NO WISE CAST OUT."
 
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 EDINBURGH!.
 
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 24 THREE LITTLE GIRLS IN RED. And other Tales.
 
 6 List of Works Published by 
 
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 Professor Gaussen. 
 
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 Gauasen.
 
 List of Works Published by 
 
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 10 List of Works Published by 
 
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 Hymns for the Use of Sabbath Schools and Bible Classes. 
 
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 Johnstone, Hunter, & Co., Edinburgh. 15 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 The Treasury Hymnal. A Selection of Part Music, in the Ordinary 
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 The Whole Work complete. Cloth, lettered, - - - 1 6 
 
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 A Graduated Course of Elementary Instruction in Singing en 
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 The Pupil's Handbook : Being the Exercises contained in the fore- 
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 Arranged progressively, and forming a complete Course of Practice 
 in Vocal Music. In Twenty Parts each - . -004
 
 16 
 
 List of Works Johnstone, Hunter, & Co. 
 
 THE TREASURY HYMNAL: 
 
 A Selection of Part Music, in the Ordinary Notation, with Instrumental Accompani- 
 ment: the Hymns selected from Dr Bonar's " Hymns of Faith and Hope." The 
 Letter-Note Method of Musical Notation is added as a help to young singers. 
 Twenty-four Numbers. Super-royal 8vo. One Penny each. 
 
 1. FORWARD, ..... 
 A BETHLEHEM HYMN, - 
 
 2. THE FRIEND, .... 
 LOST BUT FOUND, - 
 
 3. A LITTLE WHILE, ... 
 A STRANGER HEEE, ... 
 
 4. THE BLANK, ..... 
 THE NIGHT AND THE MORNINO, - 
 
 5. THE CLODDLESS, - 
 THE SUBSTITUTE, - 
 
 6. THY WAY, NOT MINK, - 
 
 KEST YONDER, .... 
 
 7. EVER NEAR, - 
 
 Qois SEPARABIT, .... 
 
 8. ALL WELL, ..... 
 DISAPPOINTMENT, .... 
 CHILD'S PRAYBR, .... 
 
 9. GOD'S ISRAEL, .... 
 THE F.LDER BROTHER, ... 
 DAY SPRING,- - 
 
 10. THE NIGHT COMETH, - 
 
 How LONG, - - - - - 
 
 11. THE Two ERAS, - - - - 
 TUB SHEPHERD'S PLAIN, 
 
 12. BRIGHT FEET OF MAY, 
 HEAVES AT LAST, ... 
 
 13. No NIGHT DESCEND ON THEE, - 
 THE VOICB FROM GALILEE, 
 
 14. THE FIRST AND THB LAST, - 
 ECCE HOMO, - 
 
 15. A CHILD OF DAY, ... 
 THE SUADOW OF THE CROSS, 
 
 16. THE SLEEP OF THE BELOVED, 
 STRENGTH BY TUB WAY, 
 
 17. THK BATTLE SONG OF THE CHURCH, 
 THE DAT AFTER ARMAGEDDON, - 
 
 18. SABBATH HYMN, .... 
 MARTYR'S HYMN, .... 
 
 19. HE is COMING, .... 
 
 LIVE, ..--.-. Handel. 
 
 20. SUMMRR GLADNESS, .... German Melody. 
 LINKS, ------- Spohr. 
 
 21. USB MB, ...... Anonymous. 
 
 Old Melody. 
 
 Arranged from Mozart. 
 
 Haydn. 
 
 Pleyel. 
 
 A daptedfrom Mendelssohn, 
 
 Pleyel. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Adapted from Rode. 
 Haydn. 
 
 Do. 
 
 A Her ed from Pleyel. 
 Steibdt. 
 
 German Melody. 
 Beethoven. 
 Haydn. 
 
 Do. 
 Weber. 
 A tterliury. 
 Beethoven. 
 German Melody. 
 Venetian Melody. 
 Mendelssohn. 
 Spohr. 
 Whitaker. 
 
 Do. 
 
 dementi. 
 Graun. 
 Kirmair. 
 Schubert. 
 Mozart. 
 Spohr. 
 Haydn. 
 Polish Melody. 
 Weber. 
 Cnlville. 
 Hummel. 
 Dr Miller. 
 
 Hindostanee Melody 
 Himmel. 
 
 SMOOTH EVERY WAVE, 
 
 22. BEGIX WITH GOD, 
 HOMEWARDS, 
 
 23. THE DSSERT JOURNEY, 
 LA us DEO, - - - 
 
 24. THINGS HOPED FOR, 
 
 Hering. 
 
 A nonymota. 
 
 Mozart. 
 
 Hastings. 
 
 Bost. 
 
 Pleyel. 
 
 U LIVETH LONG WHO LIVKTH WELL, Beethoven.

 
 A 000 087 507 o