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PAUL OF TARSUS.
PAUL OF TAESUS
BY A GRADUATE
MACMILLAN AND CO
1872
All rights reserrnl
PRINTED BV ROBERT MACLEHOSE, AYR.
PREFACE.
THE author of the following pages has for some time
past attempted, out of the materials which were at his
disposal, to construct for himself a sketch of the times
in which St. Paul lived, of the religious systems with
which he was brought in contact, of the doctrine
which he taught, and of the work which he ultimately
achieved. It seemed that some interest might be felt
by others in these researches, and they have therefore
been published.
The influence which St. Paul has exercised over the
Christianity which completely leavens modern civilisa-
tion, is wider and more lasting than that which has
20002 JO
vi PREFACE.
been wielded by any other man. One other person,
St. Augustine of Hippo, has had a similar, but a
far less energetic authority. If the contents of this
book enable the reader to realise more adequately
what was the social and religious condition of the
world in which St. Paul lived, and what it was
that he sought to teach, the immediate purpose of
the publication will be satisfied.
The writer has taken for granted that the writings
ascribed to St. Paul are genuine. The evidence w r hich
has been alleged against the authenticity of the
Pastoral Epistles, and of some among the other
letters, does not seem strong enough to render these
writings suspicious. On the other hand, the Epistle
to the Hebrews could not have come from St. Paul.
These epistles are the principal, almost indeed the
only, source from which to construct the Pauline
theology.
Among the Scriptures of the New Testament is a
work which gives an account of the doings of some
among the Apostles, and particularly of Peter and
PREFACE. vii
John, Barnabas and Paul. It seems that this book
is either a collection of extracts from some very
copious archives, or that it contains the fragments of
a comprehensive work. Such a compilation may
have been made because only portions of the original
survived, or the book may be an ancient Eirenicon,
intended to prove a substantive harmony between
the tenets of the Jewish Christians, and those of
the Gentiles to whom Paul imparted his gospel.
The latter opinion seems to be confirmed by the
manifest parallelism between the recorded doings
and sayings of Peter and of Paul. It does not
indeed follow, because the facts are selected, that
the narrative is not to be depended on. But if
any one wishes to get an insight into the causes of
that strife which was waged between the Apostle of
the Gentiles and the heads of Jewish Christianity,
he will examine the Epistles to the Galatians and to
the Romans, rather than the history of the controversy
in the Acts of the Apostles.
It has been found necessary, in giving quotations
viii PREFACE.
from the Pauline epistles, to deviate from the words
of the authorised version. It is well known that the
translation of this part of the New Testament is
frequently unsatisfactory, and is sometimes unin-
telligible. It is hoped that these deviations from the
words of a version which is justly regarded as one of
the noblest exemplars of the English language, will
be justified by the assistance which they give the
reader in comprehending the scope of St. Paul's
words.
It will be found that the writings of St. Paul are
treated as human compositions only. It may be the
case, as popular Christianity avers, that the religious
sentiments of the writers whose works are contained
in the Scriptures are too exalted for the unassisted
powers of man, and that the manifestation of this
peculiar genius was confined to a few favoured
individuals. Such an opinion, partly dictated by
the reverence which is naturally felt towards the
founders of a religion, partly due to the energy with
which controversy has hallowed the authorities from
PREFACE. ix
which it draws its arguments, is not countenanced by
the language of the New Testament. However
transcendent may be the value of these writings, it
must at least be admitted, that neither the Jewish
nor the Christian Scriptures speak with the egotism
of the Koran.
Whatever may be the power which guided the
writers of the New Testament, the student of
Primitive Christianity must needs, unless he merely
intends to declaim on a foregone conclusion, free
himself from preconceived opinions and traditions,
and strive to look on the teaching of such an
Apostle as Paul from the standpoint of a listener
at Thessalonica, Athens, or Corinth, and to whom
the message of the new religion has come for the
first time. He must not merely take a layman's
view of Christianity, or, in other words, consider his
subject as one does who has no professional sympath-
ies, and no professional antipathies ; but he must, if
possible, divest himself of those habits and associa-
tions which pervert a critical judgment. It is not
x PREFACE.
too much to say, that the defence of popular Chris-
tianity is constantly irrational and inconsistent, while
the attack on it is as frequently peevish and angry.
If the contents of this volume are written in a
different spirit, the author hopes to have given some
assistance towards the solution of that far larger
question, By what means, and under what pressure,
have the dogmas of later Christianity been developed
from the Pauline original ?
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER L, 1
CHAPTER II., 38
CHAPTER III., 77
CHAPTER IV., 116
CHAPTER V., 153
CHAPTER VI 191
CHAPTER VII. , 231
CHAPTER VIII. , 269
CHAPTER IX., . .305
CHAPTER X., .... 340
PAUL OF TARSUS.
CHAPTER I.
JUDAISM was the cradle of Christianity, and Judaism
very nearly became its grave. The first teachers of
Christianity were all Jews, and were deeply imbued
by the traditions and observances with which the
restored Israelites had overlaid the generous teaching
of the great prophets. These refinements were partly
glosses on the Law, partly additions to those tenets
which constituted the Judaism of the monarchy.
From such traditions and observances many of the
Jewish converts tore themselves with infinite diffi-
culty and pain, while not a few of them were willing
to sacrifice the last command of Christ to the urgent
claims of the Mosaic ritual. From so serious a peril
one man saved Christianity ; and this at a time
when the words and acts of Christ had been recorded
in no written gospel. The career of no man has
ever produced such lasting effects on the world's
history as that of St. Paul. But, in attempting
to estimate the work which he did, it is essential
A
2 PAUL OF TARSUS.
that we should know what was the material with
which he had to deal, and what were the agencies
which assisted and thwarted him. And, first, for his
countrymen.
About a century before that memorable day on
which Paul of Tarsus was making a journey to Damas-
cus, and was just in sight of the city whose antiquity
was such that even the great ancestor of the Hebrews
had visited it, a trial was going on at Rome. The
person inculpated was a member of that distinguished
family which appears in the earliest recorded memories
of the Republic, and which is said to have been con-
tinued to within a century of the present time. A
proconsul of the Roman province of Asia had been
accused of extortion. He had been praetor of the
city during Cicero's consulship and the maturity of
Catiline's conspiracy, and had given great assistance
towards detecting and frustrating the plot. He had
obtained his province in order to recruit his for-
tunes, for Rome rewarded her officials by lucrative
provincial appointments. The power of these gover-
nors was almost absolute. In order, however, to
provide a check against the wrongs which power com-
mits when a ruler is hard and greedy, the central
government at Rome made these officials liable to a
trial for extortion, and, on conviction, inflicted the
severest penalties which the Roman law had enacted
against the misdemeanors of its aristocracy.
Lucius Valerius Flaccus was acquitted, as we are
informed, through the eloquence and interest of Cicero.
The charge of extortion was seldom brought home to
the accused, even when the guilt of the governor was
THE TRIAL OF A ROMAN PROCONSUL. 3
notorious. The luxury and waste of the Roman
nobles were sustained by the spoils of the provinces.
In course of time these nobles employed their ill-gotten
gains in civil war, and were divided into hostile camps.
At last, and of necessity, " the settled world," as men
called it, came under the despotism of a single ruler,
who was garrisoned by an imperial guard. The settled
world found that its material interests were benefited
by the change, for the rule of a single despot is more
tolerable than that of a legion of despots. But the
moral interests of the world suffered utter havoc, while
the two remedies of moral evil, resistance and patience,
were seeking for their opportunities. Resistance was
hopeless, and patience at length created a new society
on the ruins of the old. But this reconstruction was
effected four centuries after the trial of Flaccus.
Among t^e charges brought against the proconsul,
was that of his having forbidden the exportation of
certain moneys which had been collected by the
Asiatic Jews on behalf of their metropolis Jerusalem.
Those among the Jews who had settled outside the
Land of Promise, held themselves bound to regularly
transmit their first-fruits to the Temple, as well as to
obey the ceremonial law of Moses. This voluntary
tribute, paid by many votaries, was the source of
these sacred treasures which Poinpey spared, and
Crassus pillaged. There is no doubt that the wealth
of the Jewish hierarchy was great. It is probable
that much of that opulence for which Herod the Great
was conspicuous, and which he employed in conciliat-
ing leading men at Rome, and in constructing fortifi-
cations throughout Judea, was derived from the
4 PAVL OF TARSUS.
spontaneous revenue which was paid by the ex-
patriated Jews.
As proconsul of Asia, Flaccus had impounded this
gold of the Jews, had probably appropriated it. The
act had given great offence to the Jewish race, espe-
cially to those at Rome ; for Cicero even accuses the
prosecutor of having designedly selected the court for
holding the trial. It was erected, he says, in a quarter
of the city where the compatriots of these Asiatic
Jews could make themselves felt by their clamour, and
baffle the defenders of the inculpated satrap. This
region, we are told by Philo, was on the left bank of
the Tiber, and near those gardens of Caesar which
were bestowed by the great dictator on the Roman
people. It was reckoned to contain a colony of 8,000
Jews in the time of Augustus. But Cicero appeals
to what was deemed policy in those days, and for
many a century after. " The conduct of Flaccus, " he
says, "in prohibiting the exportation of the precious
metals is patriotic, is admirable. It is a policy which
I have often recommended to the senate, and which
the senate has adopted at my recommendation. These
Jews collect treasure from all parts of the empire,
from Italy itself, and pour it into Jerusalem." The
notion that money is wealth, was a maxim with
Roman statesmen.
The trivial and ordinary parts of human society, at
any epoch of its history, attract no attention, find no
record. The annalist merely narrates that which
strikes his imagination, rouses his curiosity, is unlike
his ordinary experience. To us, however, that which
a Roman of Cicero's day found commonplace would
JEWS OF THE DISPERSION. 5
be, if we could recall it, profoundly interesting : that
which he thought worthy of record is only that which
history is eternally repeating the ambition of great
men, and the means and acts by which that ambition
is satisfied or disappointed. What if we could repro-
duce precisely, the social condition of that Rome in
which Cicero was speaking, and the Asia which
Flaccus had pillaged and provoked ! The fancy of
Eastern nations is always dreaming of some city which
has been suddenly crystallised into a perpetual sleep,
and in which the traveller, if he could onlv reach it,
V
would see what were the doings of those primeval
races whose empire has long since passed away. And
yet the East changes slowly. The Damascus of to-
day does not perhaps differ much from the Damascus
which Abraham visited, differs hardly at all, except
in its magnitude and prosperity, from the city where
Paul lodged in the street which is called Straight,
which was in the principal boulevard of the town.
We in the Western world, who exult in change, and
progress, and growth, are very far removed from those
facts, the knowledge of which would allow us to
reconstruct the social state which constituted the
cradle of our faith. The East is the best school in
which to study the outline of that civilisation which
is still an antiquarian puzzle, but the interest in which
is perennial, the historical reconstruction of which is
a necessaiy condition to the comprehension of the
Christian Origines.
The Ghetto of Republican Rome helped to swell
the noisy crowd at the Aurelian ascent, where, the
orator tells us, the clamour was such that the accused
6 PAUL OF TARSUS.
person was placed at a great disadvantage. On this
occasion the Roman Jews collected in great numbers,
in order to support the charge against the rapacious
proconsul who had forbidden them to send their pious
offerings to the temple at Jerusalem ; and they exhi-
bited a formidable organization.
The Roman nobles treated native religions with
toleration, even with favour. This attitude was
partly due to the contempt with which a conquering
race viewed the faith of the vanquished, whose super-
stition was beneath the notice of an irresistible power,
whose gods had become the subjects of the Capitoline
Jove, when the nation had submitted to the senate
and people of Rome. It was partly due to that habit
which the Romans had of identifying the theocracy
of foreign nations with their own, and by which, for
example, they acknowledged Jehovah Sabaoth, under
the name of Jupiter Sabazius. But it was still more
due to policy. Rome wished to make subjects, not to
collect converts. Occupied with the business of con-
structing an empire, the Roman statesman would have
considered it a mere waste of force to combat the
religious opinions of the dependencies, when his
primary business was to ensure their political sub-
jection. If, indeed, religious fanaticism was enlisted
on the side of the combatant, the Roman showed no
more mercy to the religious than he did to the poli-
tical sentiment. But, during the growth of that em-
pire, Rome only once had to fight with fanatics, and
then she found the struggle fierce enough to task her
greatest energies. It was only a fragment of the
Jewish race which fought against Vespasian and Titus.
THEIR HABITS. 7
Even this portion was split up into bitter factions,
and was disorganised by furious enmities. The
effect, however, of the last Jewish war was prodigious,
and the conquerors marked their sense of the impulses
which gave force to the struggle, by razing the site of
the Holy City, by proscribing the sacred Name, and
by rigorously banishing the Jews from Palestine.
The slight sketch of Jewish nationality which Cicero
gives us is reproduced several generations later by
Tacitus, and hinted at by Juvenal. The historian ex-
plains the extraordinary vitality and growth of the race
by the intense home sentiment of the Jews. To be
childless was a reproach in Israel, and few Jews
were unmarried. As is the manner of Roman writers,
when they comment on races whom they despise
or dislike, Tacitus speaks coarsely of the Jewish tem-
perament and creed, while he admits the loyalty of the
race to the metropolis of its nation, notes its abhor-
rence of any anthropomorphic religion, and refers to the
sedulous care with which the Jew fenced off his domes-
tic life from any intercourse with the people among
which he sojourned.
The Jews of antiquity, like their modern descen-
dants, always dwelt in cities, forming a separate com-
munity in some well-defined locality or ghetto. This
was and is inevitable. It was only in Palestine that
they were agriculturists. Their law forbade the use
of certain kinds of animal food. Even that flesh
which was permitted them had to be carefully pre-
pared, and had to be legally healthy. Under certain
restrictions and limitations, their great Lawgiver per-
mitted mixed marriages, and the practice of the an-
8 PAUL OF TARSUS.
cient Jews was even less rigid than the rule of the
Mosaic code. The tenderest narrative in the Old
Testament, after the story of Joseph and his brethren,
is the Eastern idyll of Ruth. This pastoral tells us
how a daughter of the accursed Moab of a race
which was to be perpetually excluded from the con-
gregation married into the first family of the tribe
of Judah, after having claimed the right of a widow
against her husband's next of kin. The great King
of Israel married the daughters of Canaanite chief-
tains. The harem of his magnificent son was filled
with women who worshipped strange gods. The Song
of Songs is reputed to be, in its primary meaning, an
epithalamium on the marriage of Solomon with an
Egyptian princess. In the story of Esther, a Jewish
maiden is taken into the seraglio of the Persian
monarch, and advanced to the post of principal wife,
without any demur on the part of her nearest male
relative and guardian. But after the captivity a more
rigorous rule prevailed. In the days of Ezra and
Nehemiah the Puritans of Jewish history we read
that all mixed marriages were proscribed, that those
who contracted them were excommunicated, and that
the offspring of these marriages were deprived of civil
rights. At the beginning of our era, the Jew would
marry no woman who was not of his own race. It
seems that Jewish women did occasionally contract
marriage with Gentiles. Paul vouches for the piety
of Eunice and Lois the mother and grandmother of
Timothy ; but the father of this disciple was a Greek ;
and it is plain that these pious women did not think
the ceremonial law, represented by its most obligatory
THE JEWS OF ALEXANDRIA. 9
and universal rite, binding on the child whom they so
carefully instructed in the Jewish scriptures.
The most important colony of Jews was that of
Alexandria. It dates from the commencement of the
voluntary dispersion, and is co-eval with the foundation
of the city. We are told that, after the destruction
of Tyre, the Macedonian conqueror marched on Jeru-
salem, that he was welcomed by the high priest, and
informed of the success which the prophet Daniel
had predicted for Greek valour and discipline. It is
added that Alexander treated high priest and temple
with scrupulous respect. There were Jews who ac-
companied his army, who refused to pollute their
hands with the work of rebuilding the temple of
Belus, who were instruments in the vengeance which
the captive Psalmist imprecated on the daughters of
Babylon. So Jews were enrolled among the colonists
of Alexandria.
The successors of Alexander continued the favour
which he showed to the Jews. Seleucus gave them
the freedom of citizens in Antioch and Seleucia, and
favoured those banking establishments which they set
up in the principal towns of Asia Minor. But the
Lagid dynasty established in Egypt treated them with
the greatest confidence. The corn trade of Alexandria
fell almost entirely into their hands at a very early
period. Two Jews were the captains of the household
troops under Philadelphus, and another Jew farmed
its revenues under Evergetes. The armies of Philo-
metor were led by Jewish generals. The settlers were
wealthy, and, as was to be expected from the callings
which they followed, unpopular. Hence the later
10 PAUL OF TARSUS.
monarchs of the dynasty occasionally sacrificed them
to the anger or alarm of the Alexandrian mob.
These Jews followed and were faithful to the
fortunes of Caesar, who rewarded them by confirming
them in all their rights and privileges, and by allowing
them to elect a ruler or chief magistrate over them-
selves, under the title of Alabarch. In the same
way, according to Benjamin of Tudela, the Abassid
Caliphs of Bagdad permitted the Jews of Central
Asia, in the twelfth century, to elect a chief of their
own race, under the title of the Prince of the Cap-
tivity. The nation throve, and in the days of Tiberius
it was reckoned, according to Philo, that Alexandria
contained 200,000 out of the million Jewish settlers
in Egypt. The same authority informs us, that
two out of the five wards into which the city was
divided were entirely occupied by Jews.
Many troubles fell on the Alexandrian Jewry
during the reign of Tiberius, and under the adminis-
tration of Sejanus, the father of the notorious minister
whom Tiberius trusted, detected and destroyed. This
Sejanus was succeeded by Flaccus Avillius, who fol-
lowed the policy of his predecessor, and encouraged
the Alexandrian mob in acts of violence on the
Jewish quarters. For a time, the seclusion, the
sufferance, the patience, the profound humility of
this people, enabled them to avoid the hostility which
they could not disarm. " The race," says Cicero, " is
slavish to the core." There was, however, a limit
to this submission there was an act of tyranny
which could rouse this people to enthusiastic resistance.
They might be insulted, plundered, tortured, and
CALIGULA AND THE JEWS. 11
they would fawn on the wrong-doer. But they
were stung to frenzy if any insult was offered to
their God, and to His temple.
Caligula resolved to be worshipped as a god. The
empire was prostrate before the majesty of the Csesar.
It began by worshipping his fortunes, and it at last
reached the inconceivable meanness of adoring the
man. This baseness was not unknown in the days of
Augustus, it grew during the reign of Tiberius. But
the degradation was voluntary, was confined to places
and individuals. Caligula strove to make it compul-
sory, and to extend it over the whole empire.
The promulgation of this new religion gave an
opportunity of which the enemies of the Alexandrian
Jews availed themselves, in order to satisfy the malig-
nity of their perpetual feud. Flaccus secretly encour-
aged every excess against Israelites, every outrage
which could be committed. The Jewish quarters
suffered all the horrors of a sacked city. At last
Flaccus was recalled, it was a satisfaction to the pious
Jew to know that the enemy of his nation was ruined,
disgraced, and finally banished to an island in the
Egean. Here, as he bemoaned his fate, Caligula
remembered him. This emperor suffered from one of
the common symptoms of madness, continual want of
sleep. In an hour of this watchfulness, he bethought
himself of the numerous exiles who were confined
in their insular prisons, and among them of Flaccus,
and despatched his executioners after him. Philo
again exults over the horrible circumstances which
attended the legate's slaughter.
Still the troubles of the Jews were not ended.
12 PAUL OF TARSUS.
Petronius was charged in Judea with the duty of
setting up the statue of the emperor in the temple,
and the Alexandrian Jews were harassed because they
did not worship Caesar. So they resolved to send an
embassy to Caligula, with the view of deprecating his
wrath, and of pleading their inability to fulfil his
command. The leader of this forlorn hope was Philo.
This eminent person has given an account of his inter-
view with the madman who was ruling the world, and
of the danger which the deputation ran in the attempt
to conciliate him. Fortunately for the embassy,
Caligula was not in one of his savage moods, and
merely amused himself with his trembling petitioners.
He was occupied in decorating a palace, and had no
present appetite for blood. So he dismissed Philo and
his companions for a time, observing that they were
rather to be pitied than blamed for their unwillingness
to worship him.
The Jews of Alexandria were distinguished for their
culture as well as for their wealth. They founded a
school of philosophy, or at least amalgamated the
speculations of the great Greek thinkers with their
own theosophy. Many of them were thoroughly
versed in the literature of Greece, and Philo in
particular quotes largely from the most famous poets.
The system which they constructed was eclectic.
They adopted the mystic theory of numbers which
characterised the tenets of the Pythagoreans, incorpor-
ated the Platonic ideas, and accepted the Aristotelian
logic, as the vehicle of their formularies, and as a
support to their allegories.
The doctors of the Jews recognised under the name
THE THE080PIIY OF PHILO. 13
of Memra, a Word or Reason of God, whom they
called the son of God, the mediator between God
and man. The same conception is traceable in the
Apocryphal book of wisdom, which is supposed to
have been the work of an Alexandrian Jew. But in
Philo, the Word is the true High Priest, the legate
of the Most High, the archetypal exemplar, the creative
power, the perpetual Mediator. This conception,
enlarged, exalted, and identified with Christ, is the
central figure in the fourth gospel, the form under
which Jesus the Prophet, the Teacher, the Redeemer,
the King, the Mediator, the Judge of humanity, is
exhibited as the eternal Son, the Sharer in the creative
power of the Almighty.
To our modern habit of thought, the allegories of
O * O
Philo would seem childish and forced. With this
author, for example, the story of the Patriarchs was
not only a narrative of Israel's childhood, but a mine
from which the treasures of Divine truth might be
extracted, the profound verities of religion might be
illustrated or demonstrated. St. Paul himself has not
disdained to use this method of exposition in his
parallel between the Law and the Gospel, the son of
Hagar and the son of Sarah ; and again in his contrast
between the heavenly bread and miraculous water
which followed the wandering Israelites, and the spiri-
tual sustenance which Christ affords those who are
within His covenant of grace.
But though sometimes the Alexandrian theologian
of the Jewish school was apt to make the Almighty
rather a Power than a Person, to represent Him as
Universal as well as One, and so to almost adopt a
14 PA UL OF TARSUS.
Pantheistic conception of the Divine nature the idea
which he entertained as to the action of God is lofty,
just and consolatory. His most marked attribute is
that of a protector to suffering humanity, an avenger
of high-handed insolence, of mercilessness, of wicked-
ness, and of wrong-doing. As a servant of such a God,
the Jew of Alexandria could hold no man in slavery.
The essence of the Divine nature is His Providence,
His universal, unsleeping sight, His absolute know-
ledge of each man, in act, in word, in thought, in heart.
And if sometimes His hand is slow to strike the
wrong-doer, and His ear seems closed to the wail of
misery the prayer of the poor destitute He is sure
to perform at last what His long-suffering tenderness
delays. It was this firm confidence which made the
Jew patient in adversity, trustful in the direst need.
It is this trust which has given unity and unchange-
ableness to a race now exiled for eighteen centuries
from its fatherland. He could endure all things, if he
held fast to the cardinal tenet of God's eternal being,
if he was jealous of God's honour, if he clung to the
crowning consolation of an ultimate deliverance, to be
worked by the power of Him who is mighty to save.
It need hardly be said that this calm, confident hope
is the thought which penetrates the devotional books
of the Old Testament, which has made the Psalter a
perpetual solace to Jew and Christian, which gave the
great prophets of old so mighty a power of interpreting
the letter by the spirit, as to make them, instead of
being the Ulemas of a scanty Syrian tribe, the teachers
of the whole human race. Even now the revelation
which these fathers make of the Divine nature, is
THE JEWISH TEACHING OF PROVIDENCE. 15
inferior to the luminous exposition which the Gospel
gives of the Almighty counsels, in degree only, not in
kind, as the dawn of a summer's day differs in bril-
liancy only from the sun-light in its strength.
Among the practical rules of Judaism, none was
insisted on with greater emphasis than the duty
of succouring the poor, the fatherless, the widow.
The reaping of the harvest, the gathering of the
vintage, the shaking of the olive trees, must not
be too complete, that this rule of kindly care for
the helpless may not be lost sight of, even in the
urgent business of life. The servitude of Jew to
Jew was permitted, but only for a brief space, since
the Sabbath-year must see the Hebrew bondman free.
The pledge must not be mercilessly enacted, in
some cases must be restored. Nor could a Jew
perpetually alienate the inheritance of his fathers.
Between Jew and Jew those money-dealings which,
more than ought else, make men harsh and unfeeling,
must not be stimulated by the condition of usury or
increase. Nay, similar rules attend the usage of the
brute creation. The labouring ox must be unmuzzled
when he treads out the corn, in order that he, too,
may share in the bounty of Him who gives both seed-
time and harvest. It is a cruelty which the Law
forbids, to take the mother bird and her young ; it is
unnaturally harsh even to seeth the kid in his mother's
milk. Is it not also likely that the horror of eating
blood the life of living beings which is treated as
the oldest command of the Law, may not have had the
same humanizing object of inculcating gentleness and
tenderness, and the avoidance of that familiarity
16 PAUL OF TARSUS.
with violence and slaughter which always brutalizes
man ?
Commands like these, energetically interpreted ex-
tended so as to include the spirit of the Law, as well
as its letter educated the Jew in the habit of generous
dealing towards those of his own nation who needed
the aid which he could give. Until he was maddened
beyond endurance by the insults which despotism
heaped on his faith, and the dishonour which was done
his God, the patriotism of the Jew did not consist so
much in the glorious memories which belonged to his
race, as in the active exercise of benevolence towards
his fellow-countrymen in the readiness with which he
listened to the cry of distress. It is by this, as well as
by his pure monotheism, that the Jew stands out so
markedly in the civilisation of the ancient world. And
it was this spirit which Christianity incorporated into
its ethical code, the best inheritance which it gained
from the older creed. Judaism, it is true, confined, in
theory at least, its kindliness to the race of Abraham,
though it is impossible that a carefully-trained gentle-
ness of nature should be wholly bounded by the ties of
blood should be deaf to any cry for pity which may
rise from those of an alien race. But Christianity, in
the hands of its great missionary, accepted as its car-
dinal truth, that all the generations of mankind should
be blessed by the great Son of Abraham and David,
and so enforced the beneficent maxims of the Jewish
code on behalf of all those who are gathered within
the church of Christ. Here was the contrast between
the hard, selfish, haughty pride of the Koman, and the
boundless charity of the Christian convert. Here was
ALEXANDRIAN PHILOSOPHY. 17
the origin of that marvellous conversion, which, leaving
St. Paul in possession of his ancient courage and in-
domitable will, made him able to endure all things,
and yet acknowledge the duty of universal charity.
As God was the Maker of all, the Judge of all,
the Saviour of all, so He is in this Alexandrian
Judaism the Author of all grace. St. Paul himself
did not plead more vehemently against self-righteous-
ness and self-sufficiency than Philo does when he says,
that the man who recognises the work of his own
mind only, and does not see God in what he can do,
is a brigand who robs another of his due.
That the philosophy of Alexandria had a wide
influence is known. It is clearly traceable in the
writings of Seneca, who was the pupil of a Jewish
doctor. But its influences on Christianity were
abiding. It contributed largely to that speculative
spirit which early busied itself with abstract dogma,
from the days of Origen to those of Athanasius and
Cyril. The chief city of Egypt was the cradle of
dogmatic theology, the workshop from which issued
these definitions and distinctions which tore Christi-
anity into sectarianism. And, unhappily, it was also
the earliest home of bitter intolerance. The birth-
place of turbulent theological factions, of persecuting
ferocity, of insane asceticism, of frivolous ceremony,
of arrogant sacerdotalism, it canonized these pas-
sions in the person of Cyril, who, Christian bishop as
he was, rivalled Flaccus in his outrages on the Jews,
and gloried in being the murderer of Hypatia.
It was inevitable that the Greek conquest of Asia
should have powerfully affected Semitic habits of
18 PAUL OF TARSUS
thought. Alexander and his successors gave their
subjects an army and a discipline. Army and dis-
cipline, it is true, rapidly deteriorated. He gave them
also an administration, which must have remained
Greek to a large extent, though it was accommo-
dated to Eastern habits. Those Greek customs,
also, the gymnasium and the sophist's lecture, took
root in the Asiatic and Egyptian cities. Schools of
philosophy, the basis of whose training was laid in
the formularies of the great Athenian thinkers,
flourished among these outlandish towns which the
Greeks generalised as barbarian. The most famous
Jewish doctors accepted and employed some of
these philosophic forms. The Pauline epistles contain
many illustrations of the exactitude with which the
nomenclature of the Peripatetic system was known to
the Apostle, however little the Aristotelian syllogism
may appear in his writings. The young Pharisee
who sat at the foot of Gamaliel learnt from him
technical terms which were much more nearly like
the method of the Academy and the Porch, than
akin to the discipline of these schools of the pro-
phets which Samuel seems to have founded, and
whose influence, moral and political, was so great
during the epoch of the kings. Some of the dispersed
Jews, whose allegiance to the Mosaic code was loose,
even frequented the gymnasium, and took part in the
games. It is not at all inconsistent with human
nature that this laxity of conduct and discipline co-
existed with a ferocious patriotism and a fanatical
spirit towards those who appeared to secede from
Jewish unity. The dispersed Jews were always the
JUDAISM LICENSED BY LA W. 19
bitterest enemies of the Apostle, both in Jerusalem
and elsewhere.
It seems, moreover, that the chief civil and
ecclesiastical magistrates of Judea exercised a pre-
carious criminal jurisdiction over their dispersed com-
patriots. They may have obtained this authority by
the consent of the Roman senators, who were always
well disposed towards an established religion, the
dignitaries of which might be useful instruments for
the maintenance of order. The controversial essay of
Hippolytus, bishop of Ostia, in which the tenets of
the more prominent heretics in the early part of the
third century are expounded, shows that the exercise
of the Jewish religion was protected in Rome at
this epoch. The empire may have connived at this
imperium in imperio, feeling w r ith Gallio, that it was
not the part of a dignified Roman to adjudicate on
the squabbles which broke out among the devotees
of a despicable superstition, and that it was quite out
of the question to expect that a Roman judge should
attempt to understand the byelaws of a ghetto. This
contemptuous toleration was of infinite value to the
infant churches. It was only when the political and
social system of the Roman empire seemed to be
imperilled by the growth of Christianity, that syste-
matic persecution began.
The Roman law favoured all voluntary associations.
It conferred a legal status on such parties as united
themselves into a corporation, and enacted bye-lawa
for their own order and guidance. Perhaps the most
valuable inheritance of Roman civilisation is the spon-
taneous municipality, the collegium of the jurists, the
20 PAUL OF TARSUS.
voluntary corporation, on which law bestowed some ot
the personality of the social unit. The peculiarities of
the Jewish creed, the marked servility, and the equally
marked pride of its devotees, qualities which have
made them at once the most pliant and the most
conservative of races, led them to eagerly adopt those
provisions of the law which gave their associations a
legal colour and standing.
The rigid monotheism of the restored Jew, and his
hatred to all anthropomorphic conceptions of God,
markedly distinguish the Israelite whom Ezra led
back from Persia, and the Macchabees marshalled
against the gross nature-worship of Syria, from the
Israelite of the Davidic kingdom, who perpetually
fell into Cariaanite idolatry. The Scriptures of the
Old Testament prove how easily the ancestors of the
later Jews were seduced into adopting the gods of
the heathen, Baal and Ashtaroth, Moloch and
Chemosh. It is not unlikely that intercourse with
their Persian conquerors may have aided the children
of the captivity in forming those strict conceptions of
monotheism, which insulated the Jew of the Roman
Empire. It assuredly developed that dualism, the
perpetual conflict between a good and an evil power,
which constituted the basis of Aryan theology,
which, almost absent from the system of the Old
Testament, is allowed in the New, which has at
length been taken by many sects to constitute the
essence of the Christian creed, and which is the
most poetical as well as the most stirring form in
which men can put before themselves the ends and
the means of the religious life, though it is far
AXXOCIA TION AMONG THE JEWS. 21
from being the noblest conception of divine love
and gentleness.
It is easy to see then, how this Jew, forced or
induced to quit his native land, secluded from the
society in which he lived by ceremonial obligations,
by an ineffaceable rite, by a persistent patriotism, whose
nationality was fed by a host of magnificent memories,
and sustained by an energetic organisation, should have
eagerly adopted those means of association which the
Roman law permitted. The dispersed Jews levied
a voluntary tax on themselves, and transmitted the
proceeds to the hierarchy at Jerusalem. The economy
of ancient society supplied a ready means for this
transmission, for the mechanism by which foreign
exchanges were effected was well known to the old
world. The Parable of the Talents is proof that so
much of the system of banking, as is contained in the
practice of giving interest on deposit accounts, was so
familiarly used in Palestine as to become an obvious
and popular illustration in a religious apologue. It is
plain that if a Syrian banker was ready to encourage
depositors with an offer of interest, he must have used
these deposits either as advances on loan, or as the
means for effecting exchanges with distant countries,
and that the latter object is much more likely than the
former. The Jew has traded in money from the days
of the Macchabees.
Sometimes these collegia, as the Roman law called
them, were declared unlawful. Occasions frequently
arose, on which the haughty conservatism of the
Roman noble was led to proscribe that which it always
despised, on the plea uttered at Philippi that the
22 PA UL OF TARSUS.
practice was not lawful to a Roman, that the public
morality was debased by the presence of foreign
superstition, or that the gods of the Republic were
insulted by rivals. The religion of Rome was essentially
domestic. The great gods of the city were to the state,
what the Penates were to the household. Generally
it was thought politic to conciliate a foreign deity.
But it was another thing to introduce his unlicensed
culte into Rome, or into a colony which was constitu-
tionally a part of Rome. And much more frequently,
as I conceive, the wealth of these Jewish collegia
roused the avarice of those Roman nobles, whose
rapacity was even more devouring than their pride.
Verres and Flaccus were the types of a class.
The Old Testament sanctions no particular form
of government, prescribes no single system of secu-
lar authority, enforces no uniform organisation of
society or administration. The eternal purpose of the
Almighty does not condescend to define a form of
polity for man. The house of Aaron is gifted with
the priesthood, the fierce tribe of Levi is dedicated
to Jehovah. But neither priest nor Levite is invested
with magisterial functions. The only office which
the priest of the old covenant exercised, was that
of a judicial decision on the condition of a person
suspected of leprosy, with the duty of pronouncing
the social excommunication of one convicted of this
disease. The taint of leprosy, incurable by any
remedy which lay in the power of man, became, by
an obvious metaphor, the representative of the moral
taint of sin, of which man cannot rid his fellow-man,
which must be cleared away by some act of divine
THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF THE JEWS. 23
beneficence, and which, being inheritable, designates
the inherent depravity of the human race, a moral
as consequent upon a physical death. But the priest
of the Pentateuch and the early historical books
of the Old Testament, is not a ruler, not even a
magistrate. Before the monarchy, there was no
central government in Israel, except during the oc-
casional supremacy of some eminent judge.
In Palestine itself, after the rise of the Asmonean
dynasty, the offices of high priest and monarch were
for a time united. Later on, they were divided, the
high priest becoming the centre of that ecclesiastical
system to which the scattered Jewish communities
owed allegiance and tribute. This Israelite pope
was assisted by a council, or conclave, or sanhedrim,
or presbytery, as St. Paul himself calls it. It was
before this assembly that Stephen, the first martyr,
was brought, and by it that he was condemned.
It was in imitation of this central organisation that
the Christian Church of Jerusalem established the
sacred College over whom James was set, and by
whose authority it was intended that all the converts
of the gospel should be governed. It was this
assumption which St. Paul resisted with so much
energy and with such success at Antioch. It is
doubtful, however, whether the College at Jerusalem
would not have ultimately succeeded in establishing
its pretensions, had not the capture and total destruc-
tion of the city dispersed the organisation of the
Christian Jews in Palestine.
It is possible that the form which the permanent
council of the high priest assumed, was borrowed
24 PA UL OF TARSUS.
from the usage of Greek and Roman politics. In
the view of Aristotle, the senate was essentially a
popular institution, and was characteristic of that
political civilisation which the Greeks achieved. The
Roman municipality had officers and senate, as in
Rome duumviri, who represented the consuls; curiales,
who were the councillors of the provincial towns.
So, where the dispersed Jews were in numbers
sufficient for a synagogue, they had a chief of their
community, and a council of advice. Such synagogues,
for example, existed at Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth,
and Ephesus, and were, naturally, the first theatre for
the Apostle's preaching, as they were constantly the
source from which mischief threatened him. The
captivity of St. Paul, with which the direct narrative
of the Apostle's life ceases, was primarily the work of
those Asiatic Jews whom he had often confronted in
their synagogues, and from whom he had finally sepa-
rated his converts during the time of his last visit to
Ephesus. In its beginnings, Christianity, like the
Judaism of the Christian era, was the religion of
' O
towns-folk. The heathenism of the villages was not
assailed till long after the apostolic age. But wo
shall see the effects of this hereafter, in considering-
7 O
what was the organisation of the Church in its early
stages of existence.
It does not appear that the Jews of the apostolic
age were profoundly conversant with all the books
of the Old Testament. A general acquaintance with
the Pentateuch, a more thorough knowledge of the
Psalms, and with some of the leading Messianic
prophecies, seem to constitute the Biblical learning
THE SCRIPTURES OF THE 7J!X 25
possessed by a carefully taught Jew. The New
Testament contains few allusions to the history of
the chosen people during the years which intervened
between the settlement of Canaan and the reign of
David, or during the rival monarchies. And yet
it would have been expected had the writers of
the New Testament been well acquainted with the
historical books of the Old that allusions would
have been frequent, that types and allegories would
have been discovered abundantly, and that the spirit
of the prophetic books would have been invoked
constantly and successfully against a blind obedience
to much of the ceremonial law which the Israelite
followed. The story of the chosen people is full
of passages which might have been used freely for
the purpose of spiritual analogy. What, for example,
is more obvious than the long doom of that kingdom
whose rulers persistently made Israel to sin ; and
the religious significance of the lesson ? What story
is more fitted for typical illustration than the exquisite
narrative of Joseph? What indicates more forcibly
the single-heartedness of the Christian than the career
of Joshua, his zeal than that of Elijah ? One would
like to know what scriptures those were in which
Apollos was mighty. Moses, we know, was read
on the Sabbath. Christ commented on the prophecy
of Isaiah in the synagogue of Nazareth. St. Paul,
however, quotes the Old Testament scriptures fre-
quently, especially in the Epistle to the Romans.
Some even of these scanty quotations are inaccurate.
Jeremiah is credited with a passage from Zechariah.
The author of the Epistle of St. James ascribes the
26 PAUL OF TARSUS.
drought in the days of Ahab to the efficacy of Elijah's
prayers, but the narrative in the Book of Kings
designates the prediction of this visitation as a reve-
lation from Jehovah, and the return of the customary
showers as a similar announcement, the prophet being
a perfectly passive instrument. Again, the Epistle
of Jude quotes as genuine, and without the slightest
suspicion, the Book of Enoch, and refers to the legend
of a dispute between Michael and the Devil over
the body of Moses, as though it were part of the
sacred history.
It is almost superfluous to say that the critical
faculty which investigates facts judicially, and which
considers their reality as relative to their probability,
is of recent growth. Nothing, indeed, is or can be told
with perfect accuracy, no description, for example,
gives all the circumstances which have come before
the sight. Still less is it possible to assign all the
causes and motives of an action. The utmost that
can be done is to narrate as much of the event as is
needed to give a clear and distinct impression of its
leading features, to tell the story as it invited the
attention or affected the imagination of the narrator.
Even under these circumstances, two independent
witnesses, both of whom endeavour to give a genuine
account of their impressions, may traverse, or even
contradict each other in particulars, as one sees every
day in judicial proceedings. The habit of criticising
events, as though they were marshalled before a court
of law and in view of the verdict of a jury or the
'once of a judge, and with such strictness as to
make it requisite that dates, places, and persons should
THE ROMAN DESPOTISM, 27
be precisely identified, is modern. And it may very
possibly happen that what is gained in precision by
such an analytical process, is more than lost in the
weakened vivacity of the tale and even in its substan-
tive veracity. To treat that only as a fact which is a
likelihood, reduces history to a dull drama of mechani-
cal puppets, which has far less reality than a con-
fessedly poetical narrative.
The authors of those books which have come down
to us, under the collective name of the New Testament,
lived in a thoroughly matter-of-fact world, with which
their affections and their hopes were very little in
harmony. They were the helpless subjects of a devour-
ing and remorseless despotism. Before the empire
was inaugurated, these subjects from time to time
strove to free themselves from the yoke. After this
epoch, the Jewish struggle in the later days of Nero
was the last effort which a nationality made to vindicate
its autonomy. It is impossible for us to realise the
deadening effects of such a despotism. From it there
was no escape, even no exile. Outside its barriers
were surging up those hordes, which in the end poured
over it like a flood. But in the early days of the
Roman empire these marauders were kept effectually
at bay, along a vast range of frontier, flight over which
was rarely open to the discontented. The civilised
world was literally bound in fetters. Caesar and his
legions were everywhere, crushing down everything
with the iron heel of power, enslaving everyone.
Speech was watched, for the empire swarmed with
spies and informers. Thought was hardly free, for the
tremendous interpretations given to the law of treason,
28 PAUL OF TARSUS.
made every man suspicious and suspected. The repu-
tation of eminent virtue and of daring vice was equally
dangerous. The best hope of safety lay in insignifi-
cance and obscurity. The saddest lot was to be of
Caesar's kinsfolk, the luckiest was to be his favourite
slave. "It is a rare happiness" says Tacitus, writing in
the better days of Trajan, " to think as you will, and to
speak as you think." It is amazing that in such an
age, Christianity laid its foundations so deeply and
so broadly.
The long indulgence of every sensual passion makes
Eastern sovereigns, we are told, feel a languid pleasure
in cruelty for its own sake. It becomes an excite-
ment to inflict pain. But these Eastern despots must
be roused from a more delicious apathy in order to
entertain this pleasure. The worst of the Roman
emperors had a horrible activity in the pursuit of this
gratification. Caligula and Nero, the former from a
ferocious insanity, the latter from very wantonness, were
preeminently cruel. The former demanded divine
honours to be paid him ; the latter, beyond his unnum-
bered outrages upon the people whom he ruled, worked
special havoc on the imperial house. Mother, wife,
cousin, were his victims. And these monsters of
despotism, so totally crushed was the people, fell by
their affronted soldiers, not by the daggers of those
whom they had outraged or wronged. The Roman
emperor had no one to fear but his praetorians, and the
body-guard of the emperor was generally faithful to
its paymaster. The mission of St. Paul was cast in
the darkest era of the world's history. It was a long
of despair.
AND THE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 29
From such overwhelming misery there are two
kinds of refuge. Men may forget their degradation
in profligacy, or escape into the haven of religion.
Caesar may claim their life, their goods, their corporeal
liberty, but he cannot quench their passions, or he
cannot coerce their souls. They may drown their
moral consciousness in debauchery, or they may take
the wings of a dove, and fly to the rest of the people
of God, may possess their souls in patience.
The fragments of a romance, professedly written in
the days of Nero and which may well ' have been
composed at that time still exist under the title of the
Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter. The name of the
book means no more than that the composition is
partly prose, partly verse. It contains a few passages
of great beauty, and one of genuine humour, the tale
of the Ephesian matron. But the greater part of
the fragments is the narrative of a licentious revel.
It is the mere delirium of debauchery. And yet it
is probably a picture of the expedients by which a
Roman noble strove to forget the despotism under
which he lived. Much which the Csesarism of that
age could not crush, it utterly debased. Aristophanes,
Lucian, Rabelais are coarse and licentious enough, but
Petronius is transcendently impure.
Another novel has come down to us entire. It
is of a later date than the fragments of Petronius,
but it is tainted in the same way, though in an
inferior degree. The Golden Ass of Apuleius has
been said to be a romance inculcating the worship
of the good goddess the deified power of nature.
As a picture of social life, it justifies the indignant
30 PAUL OF TARSUS.
condemnation of the Apostle, when he reckons up,
with characteristic vehemence, the accumulated mis-
deeds of those who are given up by their own vices
to a reprobate mind, who know how great is their
own depravity, but indulge it, and encourage others
to the like.
The other refuge from the slavery of Cresarism,
from the subjection of the physical man and his
material possessions to despotism, was religion. And
this religion was of two kinds. One had been long
in existence, partly as a protest against the gross
superstitions of the popular theology, partly as an
inquiry into the conditions of mind and being. It
had now become the defiant avowal of the superiority
of moral rifjht over brute force, even though it was
O ' O
constrained to occupy the attitude of passive resis-
tance. This was philosophy, especially that of the
later Stoics. The other alternative was new, obscure,
despised a foolish refinement, as was thought, upon
a Syrian superstition. This was Christianity, as
taught by Paul and his associates. The last struggle
between the ancient religion of the heathen world,
and the new force which was to leaven civilisation,
came in the form of a controversy between philosophy
and Christianity a struggle which continued vigor-
ously in Athens and Alexandria long after the Empire
professed the Faith, and which was at last concluded
by the compulsory silence of the philosophers. And
if Christianity converted the Constantines, philosophy
numbered the Antonines among its disciples and
devotees.
The philosophers of the Empire did not aim at
PHILOSOPHY. 31
providing a system which should leaven society at
large. They merely purposed to instruct those who
had capacity and leisure. They did not demand that
their disciples should be rich, well-born, influential.
It was the pride of philosophy that it totally ignored
rank and wealth, or treated them as superficial and
unimportant circumstances. The fact that the satirist
sometimes depicts the philosopher as hanging on to
the skirts of the rich, of being a parasite, is negative
testimony that such practices were a dishonour to
the profession which the philosopher made, and that
the majority of these savants were free from the
imputation of such aims. When a churchman is
described as rapacious, luxurious, or licentious, and
emphasis is laid on characteristics of this kind, the
satirist of the individual intends to imply that such
a person is an exception and a scandal. "When
Boccaccio depicts the clergy of his day, he expresses
no indignation against their profligacy, gluttony, and
mendacity. These were, at that epoch, the general
vices of the order.
The philosophies of antiquity could not address
themselves to the general mass of the community.
They did not appeal to sympathy, which is a uni-
versal bond, but to intelligence or reason, which, is
a limited faculty, an exceptional endowment. Still,
the philosopher intended to influence society at large.
But this was to be effected by attracting and instruct-
ing such minds as could rule or guide mankind. The
greatest victory of this discipline was to be achieved
when the philosopher should rule, or the ruler become
a true and competent philosopher. " Under existing
:\-2. PAUL OF TARSUS.
habits of thought," says Plato, "this is a tremendous
paradox, the advocates of which will be saved from
active hostility only by a torrent of ridicule. But,"
the speaker continues, "it is only in this way that
society can be saved." Nor can it be doubted that
the object which the Stoic and Plato nist of the empire
had before him, was an attempt to supplant, by his
better way, a brutal military system, and that any
success in this direction was a prodigious gain to
mankind. Few monarchs have reached the sim-
plicity, piety, truthfulness, and zeal for the public
good, which characterized Antoninus and Aurelius.
The age of these great princes is the one oasis in
the desert of the Roman Empire. They were the
ripest and the best examples of what philosophy
could do for man. But theirs was not a lasting
O
example. The general vices of despotism ruin
society, and its occasional virtues are incompetent
to restore it.
That Christianity has affected the mass of man-
kind is primarily due to the fundamental propo-
sitions which it affirms. It says, that mankind has
been saved or restored by the life and death of
Christ, however differently the profession of Christi-
anity has understood both life and death, however
limited or however wide may be its interpretation
of the benefit which mankind has gained by that
Great Fact in the history of the world. The more
wretched, forlorn, depraved, has been the condition
of those who have been introduced to this gospel
and who have received it, the clearer has the benefit
been. Hence, however much the teaching of Christi-
THE MISSION OF CHRISTIANITY UNIVERSAL. 33
anity may appeal to the reason, it appeals still more
urgently to the feelings, reaching to their lowest
depths, and stirring them profoundly and completely.
It demands faith, but it demands action as a proof
of faith. It addresses the individual, and, therefore,
from its very beginnings it markedly repudiated that
most preposterous outcome of Nihilism, under which
the Buddhist longs for annihilation and absorption.
It is true, that after a time this gross superstition
attacked the Eastern Church, and produced those
swarms of hermits and monks who travestied Chris-
tianity in the third century. Even now, the descen-
dants of these Buddhist devotees, the Lamas o
Central Asia, closely resemble, as MM. Hue and
Gabet affirm, the monkish orders of the Greek and
Roman churches. Had such an absurdity been de-
veloped during the life of Paul, and in the churches
which he founded, his indignation would have vented
itself in language like that in which he denounces
the Judaizing bigots of Jerusalem, when he writes
to the Galatians.
But though the Christianity of the apostolic age
addresses the individual, it supposes him to be at one
with other believers in Christ. Man is not saved for
himself only, any more than he is saved by his own
efforts. He is not, and cannot be, the isolated object
of the Divine mercy and grace. Christ came to save
the world. The arrogance and self-complacency which
induce men to think themselves the particular object
of God's favour, that affected thankfulness which
is real contempt for others, is the temper of the
Pharisee, not of the Christian. The Christian must
c
34 PAUL OF TARSUS.
teach his fellowman, by word it may be, by deeds of
necessity. The individual is converted, to be enrolled
into a church, with an organisation, a government, a
corporate power, a corporate grace.
The apostles preached in towns. The intinerary of
St. Paul is from Philippi to Thessalonica, Bercea,
Athens, Corinth. Nothing is said about halting at
intermediate places, and preaching the gospel in the
villages or small towns which were interspersed
throughout this route. The social arrangements of
cities were more available for the message of the
gospel than the population of the pagi and denies was.
It is not, indeed, to be supposed that the country folk
of Greece and Italy, of Asia Minor or Palestine,
were planted in scattered households. They dwelt
together for purposes of mutual defence, and generally
had their stronghold to which they might convey their
possessions when marauders were about. So, in all
probability, the form of the English village, where the
houses are clustered together near the church, is
derived from the time in which the country was liable
to the incursions of Danes and other Norsemen, and
when the church was a common hall in times of quiet,
a storehouse, an arsenal, and a castle in times of
danger.
It was easier to gather a church together in these
cities. There was the synagogue, or the place of
prayer; there were the dispersed Jews, sometimes
friendly, often hostile ; there were the devout Greeks,
who had been attracted from nature worship and its
course superstitions to the pure monotheism of the
Jews, though they did not accept its ceremonial
THE APOSTLES PREACHED IN TOWXS. 35
obligations. Sometimes they had even learned so
much as to comprehend that interpretation of the
letter by the spirit, which was known as John's bap-
tism, and which was the restoration of that generous
and living zeal which characterised the Hebrew prophet
of the kingdom. This was ground prepared for the
seed. But once within the believing church, the
Apostle taught that there was an absolute oneness
and equality in Christ. The distinction between Jew
and Greek was to disappear ; the ancient rite which
sealed the covenant of Abraham, and was renewed
under the captaincy of Joshua, was now obsolete ; the
foreigner was a citizen of the new Church, the
Jerusalem which was from above. The Scythian
savage might become the docile disciple, or the active
preacher ; the slave was the Lord's freeman, the free-
man was bought with the price of Christ's death.
The nature of the convert was changed, tfye old man
was put off there w r as no further fellowship with
bygone habits, practices, and beliefs, which were now
for ever abandoned ; for in their place was a new
being, ever growing, ever developing, ever renewing
itself, and gradually by its spiritual introspect, as it
knows more and more, reaching that likeness of the
Creator, for which it once ignorantly yearned, into
which it is now being transformed.
To those who lived within this mystic union, the
outer world seemed lifeless or corrupt an unreal
thing, which was passing away. The religion of the
heathen was a sacrifice to devils, its political system a
mystery of iniquity a revelation of Antichrist of
the Man of Sin. For a time, many of the converts
30 PAUL OF TARSUS.
had lived in and for this system had been enslaved
to its grossness, or overpowered by its prestige. They
had now been enlightened; and to go back, even in
thought, to that from which they had escaped, was as
impossible as it would be for a child to again accept
the errors which have been utterly dispelled by a sudden
and large experience. They enjoyed the full light of a
clear and perfect faith, the intensity of which corres-
ponded to the freshness of its growth, and contrasted
with the black debasement from which the man had
effected his escape. With men in this state of happy,
joyous trust, who lived in an age when charity had
not been throttled by dogmas and definitions, there
was no doubt to torment the mind, no gloss on the
law of liberty, which should seek to make it an in-
tolerable bondage.
It is in this absolute seclusion from past interests
that we must account for the indifference to public
questions which formed an early reproach on the
Christian community, and that timidity, or, at least,
acquiescence in the established order of things, which
characterised the Apostolic age. The casuistry of a
later age perverted the tenets which justified this
policy into a permanent political creed, and attempted
to make that a rule for the conduct of a Christian
community which was intended to secure to these
new converts complete isolation from a social system
which could not be touched without impurity. The
early Christians dared not exercise the rights of
citizens without forfeiting or imperilling the most
precious privileges of their faith. It was even doubt-
ful whether they might hold social intercourse with
INTENSITY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN FEELING. 37
unbelievers. Life was short, and immortality lay
beyond it.
Besides, it is manifest that all apostles and people
looked forward to the immediate consummation of the
world. St. Paul was possessed by this impression.
The times were in God's own power the day and the
hour were not revealed to the Christ in the days of
His flesh, but hid in the counsels of the Father. But
the time was assuredly short there were those living
who would be caught up in the air, to be for ever with
Him. They were near Him now in spirit, they would
be speedily near Him in the body. In the view of
that faith which bridged over the interval of the
Divine counsels, and already gave the assurance of the
immediate presence of God, the world, its cares, its
purposes, its pomp, its power, its threatenings, became
most remote, most insignificant, a mere speck in the
dawning Infinity.
CHAPTER II.
THE principles of morality are not peculiar to one
epoch of civilisation nor to one religion. They are as
permanent and as universal as other laws of nature
are. It is true, that like all those general positions
which are relative to the social condition of man, they
are often imperfectly understood, often ignored, often
violated to the detriment of society, to the injury of
those who do not know them, or knowing break them.
In just the same way, communities and individuals
understand the laws of health or of political economy
imperfectly, defy them or break them. The perfec-
tion of moral science consists in the accurate knowledge
of all moral obligations ; the theory of civilisation
presumes a general acquiescence in these moral obli-
gations, while its completeness is effected by prompt
and general obedience to the precise rules of conduct
and duty.
It would not be difficult to construct several systems
of pure morality which should be almost perfect, and
therefore alike, from a host of independent sources.
The duties of individuals to society at large, and to
THE MORALITY OF DIFFERENT RELIGIONS. 39
the forces which compose society, are to be found in
the Vedas, in the Zendavesta, in the works of the
Athenian philosophers, in the Kabbala and Talmud,
in the Koran, as well as in the New Testament.
The author of the Epistle to the Romans bears witness
to the universality of the moral law, and to its suffi-
ciency as an exposition of moral duty. It is an error
to arrogate the affirmation of this moral law to one
system of religion, and no less an error to argue that
such parts of different systems as coincide must have
been derived from some common source, or to see in
some agreement that the one is a plagiary of the
other.
It is easy to discover a close resemblance between
the morality of the Talmud and that of the New
Testament, easy for a partisan to exalt the gloss of
the Jewish doctors over the rules of the Christian
life as promulgated by the Evangelists and Apostles,
or to ignore the teaching of the Rabbis in estimating
the service which Christianity has done to the moral
purification of the world. It is not inconsistent with
what we read of Christ in the gospels that He should
have been, as Jewish writers have alleged, the pupil
of that Rabbi Simeon who was noted as the chief of
the Ascetics, the great teacher of the Essenes. It
may be true that a close resemblance may be found
between the comparison of the lily of the field with
the glory of Solomon ; and a recorded saying of this
famous doctor : that the eagerness with which a
lost sheep is sought, and the tenderness with which
it is welcomed back one of the most touching of
Christ's parables may have its counterpart in a para-
40 /'-I C"Z OF TARSUS.
ble of the same sage. He is reported to have said that
a certain man had a flock of sheep which were daily
led to pasture. Here they were joined by a gazelle,
who regularly fed with them, and returned with them
to the fold. The owner of the flock bade his shep-
herds take the greatest care of this stranger ; and when
he was asked why he showed it such favour, answered,
This creature has left the wilderness, and, in spite of
its own untamed and timid nature, has joined the
flock. It is well that I should welcome it more
affectionately than I do those who have been fed
by me, and tended by my care. For that which is
customary with them, is strange to the gazelle. And
thus, continues the Rabbi, God will welcome the
stranger who joins himself to the chosen people,
more than He will those who have always had the
blessing of His covenant, because they are born to
Israel.
Does the Christian law bid man love his neighbour,
and assert that they who, serving God, do this, are
near to the kingdom of God ? The great doctor Hillel
says, that not to do to your neighbour that which is
distasteful to yourself is the whole law ; while another
t.-.-iclier infers the universal obligation of charity and
beneficence from the fact that man is created in the
image of the Almighty.
Again, the grace which is given to the humble,
when expressed by the Jewish doctors, is stated under
the form that in the humble dwells permanently the
Shekinah of the Almighty. The Divine Master bids
those who would be first among men to be their
servants ; the Rabbi gives a conversation between
THE TEACHING OF THE JEWISH DOCTORS. 41
the chief among the Jews and Alexander the Great,
" What should a man do who wishes to gain the love
of his fellow-men ? Avoid all rule and authority over
them." Are the disciples informed that he who exalt-
eth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted, we are reminded of the
maxim of Hillel, " My humiliation will be my exalta-
tion, my exaltation my humiliation." "The know-
ledge of God is not in heaven," says Moses ; and the
gloss of the Rabbi is, "Do not look to find it among
those who raise their pride to heaven. He who
makes himself little in this world for the sake of the
Law will be great in the world to come." The Gospel
bids the forgiveness of injuries, and the t Talmud ad-
vises as follows : " They who undergo injury without
retaliation, who suffer themselves to be traduced and
do not retort, and who accept the ills of life cheerfully,
for them is that which was written in the prophets,
" The friends of God shall shine as the sun in his
strength." And again, " God ranges Himself on the
side of the persecuted, whether the persecutor and
persecuted are equally just or equally wicked. Nay,
as He assists the just man who is persecuted by the
unjust, so He even aids the unjust when he is perse-
cuted by the just." Are the disciples to be wise as
serpents and harmless as doves, the Talmud says that
" Israel is as brave as a lion, wise as a serpent, but
that he has also the simplicity of a dove." It would
be possible to extend these examples indefinitely. It
would be possible to exhibit similar parallelisms from
the teaching of the older Platonists and the later
Stoics. The canons of morality are universal and
1-) PAUL OF TARSUS.
immutable, for they are the highest laws of social
life.
And here I cannot but notice one marked peculi-
arity in the ethics of ancient Judaism, which is pre-
cisely continued in the modern development of this
primeval faith. No moral code has ever rested so
profoundly on home duties and home ties on the
love of parent and child as the Jewish has. The
birth of a son is the highest reward for Abraham's
faith. Paternal love almost makes a hero of Jacob,
and gives dignity to a character which is otherwise
furtive and mean. What is more tragic than the
sorrow of Jephthah, what is brighter than the filial
duty of Jonathan, what more touching than the grief
of David over that rebellious son who inflicted on his
father the most atrocious insults that could have been
perpetrated ? The Psalmist's picture of a pious and
happy family, of the laborious and contented husband-
man, whose wife is as the fruitful vine, whose children
are like the comely olive trees, full of assured promise,
is a sketch, the nature of which is perpetually bright
and fresh. The sorrows of Jeremiah are over wasted
homes ; his deepest grief is felt at the " children and
sucklings swooning in the streets of the city, who faint
like the wounded in battle, and pour out their soul
into their mother's bosom." The home was the centre
of Jewish life, the type of that archaic epoch when
every man did that which was right in his own eyes,
when Israel dwelt securely under his vine and fig-tree,
of the golden age of the nation. Even now the Jew,
with no little colour of truth, complains that Christian-
ity has exalted the monastic spirit, and disparaged
THE JEWISH LOVE OF I10XK. 43
home, and asks for the gain which social life has
effected by this contempt of the natural affections.
The sanctions of morality, apart from such evidence
as can be gained from the experience of obedience
and the blessings which such obedience entails, are
found in religion. To yearn after the supernatural,
and thereby to satisfy the longings of the soul to
address oneself to God, so that the weakness of
humanity may be aided in achieving the great destiny
which lies before it to trust in God, that He can
and will redress the evil and wrong-doing which
blot His creation, are the earliest and the most
lasting religious instincts, and belong to every creed
except those which exhibit the Deity as a remorse-
less and inevitable fate, or a capricious despot.
Even ruined and debased religions may often be
traced to a pure original.
The Jewish creed recognised the long-suffering,
the beneficence, the providence of God. He was
the avenger of the helpless, the judge of the wicked,
the protector of His people, the defence of His ser-
vants. He was surrounded by majesty, by light
unapproachable, by every symbol of awful power.
But He deigned to visit men, to serve and save them.
High as His dwelling is, He humbles Himself to
a watchful providence over man. He is King,
Teacher, Father. This last title is, as we all know,
His universal name in the New Testament. But
it is not unknown or unfamiliar in the Old. " Doubt-
less," says that prophet, whose writing has been in-
corporated with the sayings of an elder Isaiah, " thou
art our Father ; though Abraham be ignorant of us,
44 PAUL OF TARSUS.
and Israel acknowledge us not, Thou, O God, art
our Father, our Redeemer." The Paternity of God
extends beyond the narrow range of human kindred
or human patriotism. There was a bitter feud
between Ephraim and Judah. It has even con-
tinued to our day, is a feud of twenty-four centuries,
for the Samaritan is the wasted representative of
the Israelite kingdom, as he was in the days of
Christ, as he was to Benjamin of Tudela. But
there was one Father to both, to the worshipper
at Jacob's well, and to the Pharisee of David's
city. Nay, the outcasts of Abraham and Isaac,
the men whom Ezra and Nehemiah scornfully re-
jected from the company of those who were restored
after their captivity, could claim Him as their Father
and Redeemer, exiled and maligned as they were.
The really Jewish scriptures contain no affirmative
statement as to the immortality of man's soul. They
are similarly silent as to that final judgment which
forms so marked a characteristic in the religion of
Christianity. We know that even when some of the
later doctors of the Law taught the doctrine of man's
immortality, other doctors were hostile to the tenet.
Nay, even those who accepted the doctrine often
qualified it by a wild metempsychosis. There are,
they held, a certain number of created souls, which
pass from body to body, and when their transmi-
grations are completed the Messiah shall come.
This appears to have been the opinion of Josephus.
There are traces of this compromise between the
doctrine of man's immortality, and the absence of
recorded authority on the subject, in the language
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 45
of the gospels. The antenatal sin, which the blind
man in the Gospel of St. John may have committed,
is an illustration. Nor does the language of the
New Testament contravene the more refined concep-
tion which was included in the theory of transmi-
gration, that, namely, of a purifying process. There
is a final day of judgment, but there is almost
complete silence as to the intermediate condition of
the departed. Once only Christ lifts the veil, and
displays the rich man suffering, repentant, but not
despairing. The spiritual Abraham, the father of
all, does not address the lost as his sons.
It is well known that the Jews were divided-on this
subject that the Pharisees accepted, under various
forms, the doctrine of the soul's immortality, of the
enduring personality of the dead, and that the Saddu-
cees rejected the doctrine, or at least held that the
soul was absorbed into some general Intelligence or
Power. It would seem that the former doctrine, which
Christianity affirmed with peculiar emphasis, was
adopted after the captivity, and that it formed a charac-
teristic tenet of the stricter spirituality which the
ascetic Pharisees taught. This tenet is an inevitable
consequence of the spiritual life. If men are once per-
suaded that the enjoyment of life is not its end, if they
understand that man does not merely live to receive
his just portion in those good things of material
existence which a beneficent Providence bestows, and
a wise economy distributes and secures, they necessarily
conclude that man's being is not bounded by his visible
personality. It is, indeed, plain that the moral and
intellectual progress of society is due to the efforts of
46 PA UL OF TARSUS.
those who deliberately daff the lawful pleasures of life,
in order that they may effect the general good of
humanity. But neither the stimulus to this prodigious
service nor its reward can be found in the satisfaction
with which a limited existence could survey the unlim-
ited good which it has effected. "If," says the apostle
Paul, in that remarkable passage, where deep convic-
tion struggles for eloquence, " our hopes in Christ are
bounded by this life only, we are the most pitiable of
mankind." It is not impossible to suffer patiently
on behalf of a creed which offers no prospect but
annihilation ; it is impossible to do bravely, to labour
with unceasing and untired energy, to go about doing
active good, and withal to believe that all this power
and force, this concentrated influence which rouses and
elevates the soul of a generation, and leaves perma-
nent effects on the whole nature of man, is abruptly
terminated in an eternal negation. And as the
O
doctrine of the soul's immortality begins with the
development of the spiritual life, so it is intensified
and confirmed by the determination to serve man for
God's sake. The doctors who compassed sea and land
to make one proselyte, could not but affirm that the soul
which had enlightened his fellow-man in the knowledge
o O
of God partakes of the eternity which belongs to the
Most High. The fruit of their labour may have been
worthless, a mere growth of malignity and pride, a
mere slavery to the letter, but the activity which is
patient in winning souls, no matter to what creed,
cannot but believe in its own immortality.
The leading tenet of Jewish teaching was the
dignity of man. It is a tradition of the Rabbans
THE DIGNITY OF MAN. 47
that God said to Jacob, " I am the God of those on
high, thou art the god of those below," a legend
derived from or confirmed by these words of the
Psalmist which are quoted by Christ, as a patent
justification of His claim to the Divine Sonship. The
Kabbalists taught that the true habitation of God,
of which tabernacle and temple were but types, was
the body of man ; and they compared each member
of man's body to some one or the other among the
divisions of the building, placing the Holy of Holies
in the heart. They extracted from this symbolism
at once the duty of religious purity, and the obligation
of charity, since the wound of one part in the mystical
as well as the natural body is the suffering of all parts.
And in the same strain, as if by way of comment on
the declaration that man is created in the image of
God, the Jewish doctors affirmed that "the soul of man
is higher than the nature of angels ; that man is the
councillor of God in creation, His associate in the
work of heaven and earth ; that he is the stay and
foundation of the universe ; and that the angels desire
to hold converse with the just, that they may learn of
them the mysteries of the eternal God." And as the
last favour which the Almighty grants His favoured
servants, He deigns to let them know His incom-
municable name. It is in accordance with this
highest mark of divine condescension and indwelling,
that according to the Talmudists, the wonders which
Christ did were due to the power which He possessed
from the full revelation of what constituted that mys-
terious title. The same idea is current in Moham-
medan legends. It is by the possession of that name
48 PAUL OF TARSI**.
that the great Solomon gained his empire over all
creation, over men, and angels, over birds and beasts,
over ginn and devils. So, says Benjamin of Tudela,
David el Roy, who claimed about the middle of the
twelfth century to be the Messiah, and who there-
upon stirred up the Jewish nation in the caliphat of
Bagdad, exercised magical powers by virtue of the
same rare knowledge.
According to the teachers of the Talmud, the re-
O '
generation of man was due to the Eternal Word.
This was expounded to be, "God incarnate in the
Law, and continuing itself from age to age." Man
is degraded by the sin of Adam, but restored by this
Divine Essence, which permeates his heart and life,
which through him purifies and restores the world
and all creation. It makes man, by his own soul and
will, by his own conscience, the first and chief, nay,
almost the solitary instrument of his own regeneration.
How man may best facilitate the process is matter of
teaching, and the details of the teaching are to be
found in the works of the Jewish schoolmen. " The
doctrine," says one of the latest expositors of Hebrew
theology, "which most nearly represents the Jewish
machinery of regeneration, is that which is known in
Ecclesiastical history as Semi-Pelagianism which ad-
mits the infirmity, the sinfulness, of human nature,
but which also conceives it possible that man may
work out his own salvation." The redemption which
the Word effects, according to this author (Ben-amo-
zegh), is wholly internal. "The passion, the condem-
nation, the death, the garden of olives, the Praetorium,
and Golgotha. ;nv all internal, subjective facts, having
CHANGES IN THE TEMPER OF JUDAISM. 49
for their theatre the spirit and heart of the man, where
the Word sacrifices itself perpetually for the benefit of
humanity, and on the altar which the man raises for
himself." Man, in short, is self-made the architect
of his spiritual, as well as of his temporal fortunes the
sufficient master of his own eternal destiny. This
seems like the teaching of Hegel, it is not far from the
teaching of the Gemara.
The Jew was encouraged in being profoundly
national. It is needless to adduce proofs of this fact,
or of the endurance of the sentiment. That the
national feeling was hardened by centuries of persecu-
tion is certain; that it has been weakened by the
development of toleration first, and of civil equality
afterwards, is no less manifest. That a few genera-
tions of justice will almost efface the characteristics of
Judaism, may be safely predicted from the conditions
of human nature. The effort which is now made to
prove that the peculiar tenets of Christianity had their
origin in the teaching of those Rabbis who flourished
in the Asmonean epoch, reveals a different spirit from
that contemptuous hatred which retorted scorn on the
savage persecutors of the Jewish creed. The com-
parative gentleness with which the Jewish theologian
of the nineteenth century treats the mission and teach-
ing of Christ is of another temper to that which
induced the Spanish Jew in the twelfth century to
speak of Jesus, in the phrase of the Talmud, as " that
man " as the disobedient prophet whom the lion
slew. The Israelite of our day finds abundant
authority in the writings of the Hebrew schoolmen
to warrant his assertion, that these sages taught the
5() PAUL OF TARSUS.
equality and fraternity of mankind. But it should
be remembered that the reasonings of the teacher are
no evidence of the temper which inflamed the pupil,
still less of the passions and fears which occupied
rulers and people. The Rabban may be calm and
tolerant, while the chief priests and elders are rousing
the fury of an excitable populace.
As the religious life of the earlier Israelite was
complete without the tenet of the soul's immortality,
so it was satisfied with such felicity as can be obtained
by obedience to a moral law. The later apologist of
the Jewish creed, as contained in the traditions and
glosses of the Jewish schoolmen, may speak of human
life as the vestibule as the eve of the Divine Sabbath
as the time of labour as the now, while eternity is
designated as the time of retribution as to-morrow.
" One whole hour," say the same authorities, "of virtue
and repentance are worth more than all eternity for
eternity can give no more than the man brings to it,
and thus it is not without reason that Solomon said,
'a living dog is better than a dead lion." But the
eternity is itself a gloss on the text. It takes its sub-
stance from the life of the man, not its colour only.
It is a Paradise an Elysium a garden of divine
delights an eternity of the land of promise. There
have been ascetic Jews, as there have been proselytis-
ing Jews. But the tendency of the Jew is to be
intensely active in the material occupations of life
to be cosmopolitan in his treatment of secular business
to know no country, no patriotism, no allegiance-
nothing but obedience to the political institutions
under which he lives, and the value of which he
THE TEMPER OF MODERN JUDAISM. 51
thoroughly comprehends. " Throw no stone/' says the
Jewish proverb, " into the well from which thou hast
drawn water "-implying that men should be respect-
ful to the society which shelters them. Israel, if it
be anything, is an imperium in imperio. When it
ceases to be an institution, it ceases to be a special
creed is dissolved into some one or the other of those
creeds which are either rigidly monotheistic and icon-
oclast, or which are developments of the monotheistic
tenet. If the time had been favourable to it had
any terms of compromise been found Judaism might
have been merged in some religion of antiquity, as it
is likely that it was deeply coloured by the mono-
theism of the Persian conquerors of Babylon, for the
prophet speaks of Cyrus as the Lord's shepherd as
His anointed, and Daniel, the hero of Ezekiel's pro-
phecy, is the chief of the magicians at Babylon.
The Jews of the first century held that a pagan
who confessed God, and kept the moral law, might
be saved ; that Socrates and Plato would be in
Paradise with Abraham, Isaac and Moses. Abraham,
they said, was the first-born of the promise, only
because he was the first proselyte. " I call heaven
and earth to witness," says a doctor of the Law,
"both man and woman, slave and free, Jew and
Pagan, it is only by the works of man, that the
Spirit descends on him." "Why," says another, "is
there only one race of man ? It is that no man
may say, My father and mother are greater than
thine." And, to prove that these words were not
without the confirmation of facts, we are informed, that
the teachers of Hillel and Schemaiah were proselytes,
;,i> PAUL OF TARSUS.
that one of the great and venerated doctors was
descended from Haman the Amalekite, another from
Sennacherib, and others from Sisera; the legend
typifying that Israel would not shut its doors to
those who were the offspring of the most hateful
names in Jewish history. Nor was this welcome
limited to strangers of illustrious learning and virtue.
The prophetic authority of Zephaniah was cited as a
proof that the final unity of mankind was part of the
counsels of God.
The Jew averred that the revelation of God in
the Law was complete. "'The Law/ indeed, w r as
not comprised in the Pentateuch only. This is the
code of the Jews, their civil, political, ritual code
a monument of vigorous and manly genius, a
system of which the exemplar is a characteristic,
indestructible nationality. This code is ennobled
and exalted by inspiration, it breathes with a moral,
spiritual, dogmatic vitality, which gives an intense
energy to all its details, but it is only a code." It
needs an interpreter. For a series of ages this
interpretation was found in the teaching of the
prophets, those sages whom God raised up in order
to declare His will, or to announce His judgments.
Sometimes these men, like Samuel, were brought
up within the very precincts of the tabernacle, and
lived daily within sight of the Shekinah. At
another time, the interpreter of the age, like a
Marabout or Dervish, appears suddenly from the
desert or the mountain, clad in the rough dress of
the Ishmaelite, and denounces the apostate king,
or faithless people, scorching them with the wrath
THE JEWISH PROPHET. 53
of God, and zealous even to slaying. Another is
the wise counsellor, the polished courtier, but one
who never forgets his mission from the Almighty ;
who ejects a perfidious, idolatrous, murderous dynasty,
substitutes a more obedient family in its room, and
then counsels, warns, strengthens the monarch as
Elisha does. Later on, the prophet is a still more
important personage. He is called by no succession
or ordination, but by the voice of God, by the Word
of the Lord, by some inward warning, or in some
ecstatic vision. He is a scion of the royal house,
as Isaiah ; or a herdsman, as Amos ; or a priest,
as Jeremiah whose statesmanship was unavailing to
save the falling throne of David against the head-
strong king, and his more headstrong nobles ; or
another priest, as Ezekiel, the captive in the land of
the Chaldeans ; or the comforter of a ruined nation,
who assures them of God's sure though tardy ven-
geance on the enemies of Israel. He is sent in-
differently to the revolted house of Joseph, or to
the faithful tribe of Judah. His mission is to awaken
the conscience, to purify the heart, to call back the
people to the God of their fathers, whom they
have forsaken in word and thought.
The nearest parallel to the Jewish prophet is to be
found in those reformers who have set themselves to
the task of turning, in some age of spiritual deadness,
the hearts of erring children to the purer religion of
their fathers. Such were Basil and Benedict, Francis
and Dominic, Wiklif, Luther, Loyola, Wesley men
whom their own generation has intensely loved, and
intensely hated, but who have assuredly stirred
54 PA UL OF TARSUS.
humanity from its very depths, who have effected
permanent revivals. In one particular, however, these
men differed notably from the Jewish prophets. They
were ecclesiastics, not statesmen. They founded sects.
They reformed the religion of their day, but they
created an organisation by which they fondly hoped
that their spirit would live, their work be continued.
But in the prophetic age, there was no place for a
sect. The Jewish creed had few dogmas : it may be
said to have had only one, I am the Lord your God.
The discipline of Jewish society was the perpetual
interpretation of the letter by the spirit, in case the
Law was perverted to unrighteous ends ; or more
frequently the warning of the Almighty Word, the
chastisement of the Almighty judgment on public
and private sins. But it is impossible to found a
sect except by dogmas, impossible to maintain one
without a permanently organised discipline.
The open vision passed away. The Jews of the
restoration entrenched themselves in sacerdotalism.
They exacted evidence of pure descent from all those
who were to partake of the privilege of Israel. We
are informed that this strictness led to the extensive
forgery of pedigrees. They refused alliance with the
Samaritans, and created a perpetual schism between
themselves and their own kindred. They read that the
Ammonite and Moabite should not come within the
congregation for ever, and the Jews of Nehemiah's
age expelled the children of mixed marriages from
the nation. This rigorous nationalist forgot the per-
mission which the great lawgiver gave that the settlers
in the Promised Land might marry the women of
THE JE WISH RA EEL o 5
the country, and that the prince of the house of Judah
was wedded to Rahab of Jericho. Nay, was there
not one woman, whose gentleness and love have made
her for generations the type of perfect womanhood,
and was not she a daughter of the accursed Moab,
of the race which hired Balaam, and which made
Israel to sin? And yet was not this woman also
married to the chief of the house of Judah, and did
she not become the ancestress of David ?
The Rabbi became the successor of the prophet.
It is probable that the school of this teacher was
formed on the model of those academies in which the
sages of Greece instructed their pupils. It was in
such a school that the youthful Jesus was found,
engaged in questioning the master, and answering those
queries which the master put to his disciples. Such
questions and answers, such sayings of the teacher,
were handed down orally, and gathered at last into
those commentaries which are known as Talmud, or
Gemara, or Kabbala. They formed that vast body
of tradition out of which the Scribe and the Pharisee
obtained their skill in casuistry, sometimes indeed
using their knowledge to fortify the true interpretation
of the Law, often as a power by which they might
rule and oppress their fellows.
There was, therefore, a continual commentary on
the Law, which professed to be a revelation of its
meaning. The Jew declared that this revelation was
complete. The Christian declared that it was imper-
fect, or at best could only be interpreted by the
commentary of the Gospel. The gist of the Epistle to
the Hebrews is that the Son of God has revealed
50 PA UL OF TARSUS.
that which was unknown, has interpreted that which
was obscure, has fulfilled that which was inchoate.
The founder of Christianity asserts the high prophetic
gifts of the Baptist, but puts him below the least in
the kingdom of Heaven. "The Law," says the great
Apostle, "was our schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ."
It dealt with the age of childhood : the Christian has
o
come to the stature of a full-grown man.
While the Christian claimed a full revelation, com-
pared with which the light of Sinai was dim, and the
utterance of the prophet faltering, the wild tlieogony
of the Gnostics accepted the earlier revelation as
complete, but asserted the development of the Divine
Nature itself. They held, we are told, that the God of
the Jews was an imperfect essence, both in his moral
and spiritual nature, and that, his function over, he
was succeeded by a greater, holier, and more powerful
Being. It seems that this dreamy succession of
supernatural existences was developed from the bosom
of Judaism, if, as is commonly reported, Gnosticism
has Simon of Samaria for its founder. It is supposed
by most persons that it is to these transcendental
genealogies of the Gnostics that St. Paul refers in his
First Epistle to Timothy, and it is alleged that such an
allusion casts a doubt on the authenticity of the epistle.
The objection does not, for many reasons, seem valid.
M. Asher, the editor and commentator on Benjamin
of Tudela, understands these genealogies to be the
pedigrees which were forged after the captivity,
which are, he adds, to be found in the book of Chroni-
cles, and which were as apocryphal and silly as their
modern equivalents. If this interpretation be correct,
THE JEWISH REVELATION IMPERFECT. 57
the Apostle is urging his disciple to discourage the
vanity of the Jewish converts at Ephesus, and thus
is reaffirming the necessity for repudiating every
tendency towards distinctive Judaism in a Christian
church.
The Christianity of the Apostolic age ran a double
danger from Judaism. It had to withstand the furious
animosity of those who regarded Christ as a deceiver,
and His apostles as the emissaries of a pernicious and
unpatriotic sect. It had also to resist the still more
dangerous intrigues of those who insisted on con-
formity to the Jewish ritual as a condition of member-
ship in the new Church, who would have made the
Jerusalem which is above, and which is the mother of
all Christian men, a mere cramped and narrow
faubourg in the metropolis of Judaism. The bitter-
ness of the former could find no stronger language of
hatred than the words which the Jews addressed to
Christ : "Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and
hast a devil ?" combining in the charge the intensest
feelings of political and polemical rancour. The ped-
antry of the latter is the first example of that spirit
which has perpetually vexed Christianity, in its attempt
to coerce conscience by a rigid and implacable dogma-
tism. " Except ye be circumcised and keep the law
of Moses, ye cannot be saved." This is the first of
these anathemas by which men have tried to fetter
Christianity. Perhaps our own age has said the
last.
It has been said that in the administration of secular
business, the majority should rule, the minority should
influence. But they who are concerned with such
58 PA UL OF TARSUS.
business, are much more ready to affirm the former
position than they are to allow the latter. In our own
country, people very often attempt to coerce the
minority by calumniating its objects, and one of the
commonest words used for this purpose is the term
unenglish. Now, the nationalist party among the
Jews might have called the converts unjewish. Heated
by a narrow patriotism, they were ready to join the
cry of the depraved rabble in the heathen cities, and
stigmatise the Christian as the enemy of the human
race, because his sympathies were comprehensive.
Now, we need not be told that religious animosities
are inconceivably more bitter than political differences
are. Men who will tolerate one whom they call a
partisan, are implacable towards another whom they
are pleased to name a schismatic or a heretic. The
modern Jew denies that he ever entertains, or that his
race has ever entertained, religious enmities. The
history of Paul's travels is abundant proof to the
contrary. And yet Paul always abstains from that
topic which invariably irritated the Jews to frenzy, the
charge, namely, that they had repudiated the teaching,
and murdered the person of Christ. They hear him
till he speaks of his mission to the Gentiles. He
has only to avow this as the business of his life, and
they strive to tear him in pieces, conspire to assassinate
him.
It cannot be denied that the teaching of Chris-
tianity ignores patriotism. It ignores it, however,
only because patriotism is transient, is inferior to
the large purposes which can be obtained by evan-
gelising a federal humanity. The State is superior
CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM. 59
to the family, and asserts its claim to break up all
domestic ties in view of the public good, for it
sacrifices the father in the citizen. But it does
not, except under this constraint, disparage the
family ; on the contrary, it cherishes and encourages
the love of home. And, similarly, the claims of a
federal humanity are stronger than those of patriotism,
and, as civilisation advances, the latter will be sacri-
ficed if it clashes with the former. Patriotism is
encouraged only as the school of a higher life. And,
it should be remembered, that if patriotism has given
magnificent examples of self-sacrifice, of heroic de-
votion, of ardent courage, of noble enterprise, these
very qualities have been called out because a spurious
loyalty has armed the oppressor with the power which
a true patriotism has sometimes successfully defied.
But where, alas, could the preacher of the apostolic age
find the material for patriotic impulse in the hopeless
slavery of the Roman Empire. He is turned, per-
force, to the civitas Dei. He does not, indeed, forget
to prescribe the conduct of a pure and happy home.
Between that and the spiritual kingdom there was
a desert. If the Lord had not shortened those days,
no flesh should be saved.
The sacrifice of life, of home, of father and mother,
of husband, of wife, of child, is demanded only as
an alternative to the desertion of God. The State
claims all these possessions, if its own being is im-
perilled, often if its own pride is wounded, its
ambition is unsated. And can God, whom all
religion recognises as the Author of all benefits,
claim less than the exigencies of human society
60 PAUL OF TARSUS.
demand from its citizens? Is loyalty due to king,
race, country ; is political unity a boon for which no
sacrifice is too costly ; and is no hearty allegiance due
to the Father of heaven and earth; is the maintenance
of a universal gospel worth no sacrifice from those
who profess to be the city of the Great King?
The closer, the tenderer, the more affectionate are
the relations which religion affirms to exist between
man and his Maker, the more earnest must needs be
the devotion of the former to the latter. It is the
Paternity of God which is foreshadowed in the Old
Testament, but which thoroughly permeates the New.
The hostility which the Jews of the apostolic age
entertained towards the Church, was akin to that
which the Jew of Palestine bore to the Samaritan.
The enmity which men are apt to feel towards those
who swerve from some particulars of the faith, is
far bitterer than that which they cherish against
unbelievers. We have daily experience of such a
temper among sectaries. And it is clear, notwith-
standing the general affirmation of the Jewish doctors,
that there is not, and must not be, an eternity of
punishment, that the Christian reformation is glanced
at in the statement, that "he who profanes holy things,
who despises solemnities, who annuls our alliance
with Abraham our father, who gives to the law a
sense contrary to the true, who puts his neighbour
to the blush in public will have no place in the
world to come." The zeal of Saul was shared by
other zealots. High Priest and Council, Sadducee
and Pharisee, were of one accord in the cry, "Away
with such a fellow from the earth."
JEWISH OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY. 61
Still more dangerous, however, was the narrow
conscience of the converted Jew. To him the ritual
and discipline of Moses were the unalterable will of
the Almighty. Departure from the covenant in-
volved the terrible doom of anathema from his
people, obedience to it was the peremptory condition
of the Divine blessing and favour. Was it not
written, that Moses, speaking by the power of God,
warned Israel to obedience ; and did he not utter,
on those who disobeyed the statutes and command-
ments of the Law, those terrible curses which are
found in the last revelations of the Pentateuch.
Had it not been by disobedience that Israel was
scattered, impoverished, humiliated, enslaved ? Had
he not preserved his national existence by the
righteousness of some, by the remnant which saved
the race from becoming as Sodom and as Gomorrha ?
Do not Law, chronicle, prophet, confirm this obli-
gation ; is not Jewish history a continual consolation
to the faithful, a fearful warning to those who forget
God ? Christ came to fulfil the Law : He expressly
stated that He was not here to destroy it. Can
you, who were with Him from the beginning, who
are witnesses of His life, His death, His resurrec-
tion, who had been appointed to this office by the
Wisdom of God, by Him who knew whom He
had chosen can you recall any saying of His in
which He revoked the law of Moses? For ages
that law has made us a peculiar people, by it we
have resisted an idolatrous world, through it we
have known and worshipped the God of our fathers
can we abandon it now ? How can we be one
G2 PAUL OF TARSUS,
fold, under one shepherd, except by one obedience ?
How can the Gentiles be raised up as children to
Abraham, except they keep the covenant which was
once delivered to the father of them who are faithful ?
In something like this fashion, they who came down
from Jerusalem must have argued at Antioch and
Ephesus, in Galatia and in Crete, even after Peter
had given his healing counsel, Paul had narrated
the success of his mission, and James had uttered
the terms of the compromise which the apostolic
college proposed and authorised.
Even if the ancient Law had not been revealed
with so much solemnity, supported by such sanctions,
confirmed by such examples, enforced by such warnings,
had it not made a nation illustrious, a page in the
world's history luminous and real, had it not twined
itself so closely round the heart and brain of the Jew,
the mere habit of obedience to its precepts would
have given it sanctity and majesty in the eyes
of those who had followed it. To us, at this
distance of time, it may seem strange that the
Jewish ritual should have had such an overwhelming
influence over the Jewish Christian; that he should
not have eagerly embraced relief from observances
which his forefathers could not bear, and which he
had found oppressively onerous. But a little reflec-
tion will remind us of the tenacity with which
men cling to forms, guarantees, rites, obligations,
the origin and continuance of which are far less sug-
gestive and intelligible than the unexpanded ritu.al
of Moses, which are as oppressive and unsatisfying
as the grievous burdens with which the Pharisees
JUDAISM REP UDIA TED BY PA UL. 63
loaded men's shoulders, and which they made neces-
sary to the Jewish salvation.
But whatever may have been the attachment which
the converted Jew felt towards the code of Moses, it
was imperatively necessary that the Gentile convert
should be freed from them. Even had he not resented
the interference with his own mission, had he not been
indignant at an attempt to reconstruct the foundation
of his gospel, had he not been stirred to denounce
those, as he does over and over again, who were
designedly creating schisms in the Christian community,
Paul was too acute and farsighted a man not to discern
that the mission of Christ would be annulled, that
Christ would profit the convert nothing, that He
would be of no effect to mankind, if men suffered them-
selves to submit to the bondage of Judaism. There
was an immediate advantage in the conversion. This
was the avoidance of persecution. If the Jewish
Christian could induce the Gentile proselyte to submit
to the covenant, the hostility of the unconverted Jew
would be disarmed. This, as we know, was the opinion
of the apostolic college at Jerusalem, who persuaded
Paul to go through certain marked observances on the
occasion of his last visit to Jerusalem. In the eyes
of the great missionary they were of no importance.
It was his habit to gain men's hearts, or to disa-
buse their suspicions. If his concession involved no
sacrifice of principle, he was ready to conciliate Jew
and Greek in non-essentials.
Had the Christian converts allowed themselves to
submit, it is not difficult to see the consequences. The
Jews would have had, could have had, no permanent
64 PAUL OF TARSUS,
difficulty in allowing the prophetic mission of Christ,
and in permitting the formation of a sect which should
see in Him the greatest of the prophets, the Son of
God. Could they only have secured the perpetual
supremacy of the Mosaic ordinances, they would have
willingly acquiesced in the formation of a school which
should accept, affirm, propagate the tenets of the
Nazarene prophet. They would not have been greatly
offended had this school anathematised its rivals, or
extinguished them, any more than the head of Roman
unity was alarmed at the feud between the Dominicans
and Franciscans, or at that between the Minorite friars
and the endowed orders. Unanimity was not, is not
to be expected in the spiritual any more than in the
material life, but uniformity may be demanded and
must be insisted on. The question was ; Shall Christ-
ianity be lost in Judaism, or shall it assert its supre-
macy over the older covenant, by boldly claiming to be
the successor of a defunct organisation ?
Familiarity with Jewish observances endeared them
to the Jewish converts. But the acceptance of a
peculiar and ineffaceable sign, the fact of which
became especially notorious to the habits of ancient
civilisation, the obedience to a number of exact pre-
cautions against ceremonial defilement, which com-
pelled the Jews to live apart from the nations with
whom they sojourned, were conditions of church
membership which were intolerably distasteful to
the Gentiles. They were told that Christianity
was a law of liberty, a religion, the acceptance of
which, forthwith, worked an instant purification from
any taint which adhered to human nature, was a
JEWISH RITES OFFENSIVE TO GENTILES. 65
salvation by Grace, and they were invited, nay,
constrained by the threat of perdition, to submit
to these strange rites. There were portions of the
Jewish law which they could willingly adopt. " The
habit," says Josephus, in his Apology for his nation
against the malignant calumnies of Apion, "of imi-
tating many among the rites of Jewish worship is
general. There is no city of Greeks or barbarians
no race of mankind which is unfamiliar with the
custom of keeping the Sabbath, of resting on that
sacred day. There is none where certain of our rites
are not observed as fastings, the burning of lamps,
and the avoidance of much that our law forbids.
They affect," he adds, "to imitate our concord and
liberality, our industry in the arts, our heroic resolu-
tion to die rather than abandon our law." The Jews
did not establish an active propaganda, at least in the
capital. They knew the danger of attracting noble
converts. In the nineteenth year of our era, the
conversion of Fulvia, wife of Saturninus, to Judaism,
by the endeavours of some enthusiast, who persuaded
his neophyte to send a great present to Jerusalem
under the name of first-fruits, and who was charged
with the intention of appropriating the offering to his
own use, provoked a dangerous re-action from the
toleration, and even favour with which Augustus had
treated the nation. Four thousand of these Jews,
say Josephus and Tacitus, were transported to Sar-
dinia. The latter adds, that if the unwholesomeness
of the island was fatal to them, it would be a cheap
loss. Adherence to the tenets of Judaism, therefore,
on the part of such converts as were of Gentile origin,
66 PAUL OF TARSUS.
though it might check the hostility of the synagogue
and the Sanhedrim, would provoke the animosity
of the praetorium and the senate. The yoke was
intolerable, the obligation superfluous, the maintenance
of the ritual obstructive and dangerous.
The most superficial study of the Acts of the Apos-
tles teaches us that this controversy was the earliest
and the latest of which that narrative takes cogniz-
ance. The struggle commences with the mission of
Peter to Cornelius, and the suspicion with which
the chief apostle is treated a suspicion which is
disarmed only by the authority of a special revela-
tion, and of a miracle, and by the testimony of the
brethren who accompanied Peter in his journey
from Joppa to Csesarea. How it harassed the
life of Paul is well known. It was the subject
of long and anxious debate before the A.postolic
college. It led to the arrest and imprisonment of
Paul Even when he came a prisoner to Rome, he
instantly anticipates that this unsettled question will
follow him thither. He finds the Jewish residents
ignorant of any specific charge against him perhaps
because the bitterness with which he was assailed had
been assuaged by his captivity. The men of Judea
send no complaint. But elsewhere, everywhere his
preaching is spoken against. Almost the last fact in
this historic book of the New Testament is the declar-
ation that the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles,
and that they are to hear it.
The attitude which Paul took in this question is, at
first sight, ambiguous. It appears, though the lan-
guage used is not perfectly clear, that the Apostle gave
PAUL'S CONCESSIONS TO JUDAISM. G7
way in the case of Titus, not from compulsion, but for
the sake of peace. It is known that he spontaneously
put this discipline on Timothy. It may be that when
he sought, in the case of any among his disciples
whom he wished to employ as missionaries, the autho-
rity or licence of the Apostolic synod, he conceded
the point. It was his avowed principle to conciliate
men by a concession in non-essentials. Christianity
was a new creation the ceremonial characteristics,
the observances of Judaism, were nugatory, antiquated,
superfluous. Only, if some of the brethren still cher-
ished them, he could not fight for trifles. To resist
would stir up bitterness, and might prolong the exis-
tence of a sentiment which time would weaken, and
finally extinguish.
But the case was very different when an attempt
was made to exalt this sentiment into a rule of
Christian life, as a condition precedent to salvation.
The emissaries of the narrower school had intruded
on his special province, had raised the cry of Jesus,
not Paul, in the place where Paul had laboured,
had taught another gospel, had questioned the author-
ity of the Apostle's mission, had insinuated doubts
of his orthodoxy. Nor had this attempt been un-
successful. It had produced dissensions in Corinth.
It had thoroughly disorganised the Galatians, a
people of European origin, but who had been settled
in the interior of Asia Minor for three centuries.
This nation had once been the scourge of Asia, but
had latterly become peaceful. Up to the fifth
century after Christ, the country folk of Galatia
still spoke with the Celtic tongue of their forefathers.
68 PA VL OF TARSUS.
The people in the towns knew Greek, but were pro-
bably bilingual.
These Asiatic Celts possessed the peculiarities of
their race. They had strong religious feelings, and
high conceptions of moral purity, great quickness of
apprehension, keen affections, loyal natures. The
higher qualities of the Galatian race are illustrated
by the story of Chiomara, with whom Polybius
had conversed. She had been taken captive by a
Roman, and had been made to endure the last insult
by her captor. She was ransomed, but contrived,
like Judith, to bring back to her husband the head
of her ravisher, in proof of her conjugal fidelity and
courage, of her unpolluted and heroic chastity.
But, as these Galatians readily gave in to one
set of religious impressions, so they as readily per-
mitted their first impressions to be supplanted by
others. They accepted the Apostle's teaching with
warmth, as he preached to them during his intervals
of sickness. And now, with the fickleness of tender
and religious natures, they were terrified by the
denunciations of these teachers of the narrow school,
and were almost disposed to submit themselves
to the despotism of the Law. They had given
way in some points, had already consented to observe
the ceremonial seasons of the Jewish calendar, were
on the brink of sacrificing themselves irrevocably to
the claims of the Jewish covenant.
To this emergency the Apostle addresses himself
without hesitation. It is the occasion for a supreme
effort. Unless he succeeds in crushing this apostacy,
his mission is annihilated, his labours are vain, his
PAUL AND THE GALATIANS. 69
gospel is repudiated. So he wrote to the Galatians
a letter which has had a more powerful effect on u
the religious history of mankind than any other com-
position which was ever penned, any other words which
were ever spoken. It severed, conclusively, though not
at once, Christianity from Judaism; it declared the old
revelation imperfect, and transitory. It even pointed
to a covenant older than that of Moses, older than
any rite by which God had distinguished the objects of
His promise. This manifesto was a final and deliberate
schism, an act as defiant as the Confession of Augsburg,
and vastly more complete. At this distance of time,
when the din of the first theological fight has long
since been hushed, it is not easy to estimate the
extraordinary boldness of this sally. Though written
to the Galatians, it was probably published and dis-
seminated with great rapidity through the various
Christian communities. St. Peter, or whoever else
was the author of the second epistle which goes
under his name, might well say that there were
things hard to be understood in his fellow apostle's
writings. The hardest thing of all, however, was
to find an answer to the question which was put
over and over again by the contemporaries of the
Apostle, How can a man who is a Jew, who is trained
in the Law, who has profited much, as he says, in
the religion of his fathers, utterly reject the authority
of Moses, repudiate the code in which every Israelite
glories, can believe in Jesus, live for Him and be
ready to suffer and die for Him, and escape from
the fatal doctrine that a new religion can supersede
or render superfluous the foundation on which that
70 PAUL OF TARSUS.
religion is built. It is probable that the persons
alluded to in the last chapter of the Epistle to the
Romans, were carrying on, in the church which
Paul had not, indeed, founded, but which apparently
owed its origin to Aquila, the same interested
hostility to that liberal teaching which characterised
the Pauline gospel. The " Romans " must have
contained a strong Jewish element, else it is unin-
telligible that the Apostle should have, in this par-
ticular epistle, argued so copiously from the Old
Testament Scriptures more than half his quotations
being: found in this single letter. But, it is also
O cj
plain, from the recital of heathen practice and from
the reflections made on heathen morals, that the
Church of Rome contained, at the date of this epistle,
a strong admixture of Gentile converts ; and, it is
further plain, that the opinion boldly avowed in the
Epistle to the Galatians, to the effect that Mosaism
is superseded by Christianity, is strongly before the
writer of the letter to the Romans.
" I give you my advice," he says, " to take note of
these men who are making divisions and stumbling-
blocks, in contravention of the instruction in which
you have been trained. Keep out of their way.
Those people are no servants to our Lord Jesus Christ,
but to their own belly, and it is by their fair speeches
and plausibility that they deceive the hearts of the
unsuspicious." The teachers of a narrow theology
were fomenting differences under the pretext of a
spurious uniformity.
It is almost unnecessary to say that the Paulino
Ethics are as stern and strict as those of any moral
PA UL'S SECESSION. 71
system which has ever been promulgated. The
liberty on which he insisted was no cover, no apology,
no defence for licence, for those wild and profligate
excesses which the fanatic's faith has sometimes
permitted. The extravagances of the Adamites, of
the Cathari, of the Anabaptists, have been quoted
as a reproach on the genius of Christianity. In
reality they are homage to it. The claim of Christ-
ianity on the allegiance of men has been so strong,
that they who have repudiated its spirit have affected
to call themselves by its name. The Israelites often
fell into that idolatry which the Law denounced,
chastised, condemned. But there is no reason to
think that they forgot their nationality in their
offence.
The victory which Paul foreshadowed was not
achieved in his life-time. In the latest of his epistles,
if the second to Timothy is from his hand, and no
sufficient objection has, it seems to me, been alleged
against its authenticity, his mind is still full of
Antioch, Iconiuin, Lystra, and of the perils which he
endured in these places. All those who were in Asia
were alienated from him, even the converts whom he
had made, for whom he had laboured, for whose sake
he was in prison at Home. Knaves and charlatans,
as he asserts, the grievous wolves whose mischievous
activity he predicted so sadly at Miletus, were doing
their w r orst on the Christian flock, urging them to
quit that liberty to which he had called them, and to
adopt those ascetic fancies which would again bind
them to Jewish practices.
It has been suggested that the epistles ascribed to
72 PAUL OF TARSUS.
James and Jude are attacks on the Pauline theology ;
that in the Apocalypse the allusions to the Nicolai-
tanes, in the message to the churches of Ephesus and
Pergamos ; the condemnation of those who say they are
Jews and are not, in the churches of Ephesus and
Philadelphia, and who are branded with the name of
the synagogue of Satan, are reproaches cast on the
followers of the Apostle of the Gentiles. The same
criticism discovers in the prophetess whom the writer
calls Jezebel, and who is expressly said to have seduced
Christians to idolatry, and induced them to eat things
offered to idols, one of those female teachers who, like
Lydia, Priscilla and many others, accepted and fur-
thered the gospel of the Apostle. They who cannot or
will not accept this interpretation, may yet discern in
these vehement denunciations that the writer of the
Apocalypse detected laxity of life and doctrine in
churches whose characteristic practices had become a
monstrous caricature of the freedom which Paul
claimed for his converts.
Thus much at least is plain. The influence of the
ascetic party was so strong, that although the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem loosened the grasp of Judaism on
the Church, the tenets of the Egyptian Therapeutse,
and of the Syrian Essenes, offshoots of Judaism, or
more probably of that Buddhism which, as we learn
from the Mahawanso, and the inscriptions which
Cunningham has interpreted, was preached extensively
in Western Asia, and Northern Africa, in the third
century before Christ, encouraged that gloomy aus-
terity which was so characteristic of early Christianity,
especially in its Southern and Eastern home. Of this
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 73
temper Justin Martyr and Tertullian are types. It
was in the western world that the genius of Paul was
acknowledged and his gospel was adopted, for the
western Church detected the polemical value of the
Pauline writings when it began its struggle with the
Gnostics.
There is an epistle addressed, it is said, to the
Hebrews, which popularly goes under the name of
Paul. No one, however, who is possessed of the ]/
critical faculty in its most rudimentary degree, can
fail to recognise that the writing is none of his. The
style of this pastoral is that of grave, easy argumenta-
tion, and differs totally from the abrupt, involved,
and hyperbolic manner which characterises the Pauline
compositions. The language used is almost another
dialect from that which the Apostle employed. The
matter is an ingenious analogy between the ceremonial
of the Jewish law, and the office of Christ as the
Great Sacrifice. It might have been written by an
Alexandrian Jew, who allegorised in a Christian
spirit, by a converted Philo. The weight of tradition
assigns its authorship to Apollos. Even in an early " v
and uncritical age, it was seen that it did not proceed
from Paul.
The epistle was probably written after the Apostle's
death. The writer informs his readers that Timothy
is set at liberty, and that they purpose in a short
time to visit those to whom the letter was addressed.
No name but that of Timothy is found in the letter.
The salutation from those of Italy seems to indicate
that it was written from some town in that part of
the Roman empire. But the writer gives no clue to
74 PAUL OF TARSUS.
his personality. It is likely that Timothy had obeyed
the summons of Paul, and had shared his imprison-
ment, but that he had been liberated during the
period which followed on the death of Nero, an
occurrence which took place about a month after the
reputed date of the Apostle's martyrdom. It may
be added that the epistle contains fuller indications
of a system of church government than any of the
Pauline letters do, the teachers being twice bidden in
the last chapter to remember and obey those who
have the rule over them, an expression which easily
squares with the government of the Church at Jeru-
salem, and of those which were founded on its model.
But again, it would seem to be written before the
investment and capture of Jerusalem, for we can
hardly conceive that any letter would be composed
during that crisis of the nation's agony, and be wholly
silent on so terrible a 'subject.
No better defence could be found for the Jewish
ordinal than the successful proof that it was a sym-
bolical and prophetic ceremonial ; and with those who
held that the substance was given at last in Christ,
no better method could be found for concluding that
the necessity of the shadow was past. The excuse
for a ritual consists in the position that the ceremony
or rite presents a distant fact, or a transcendental
force under the economy of some visible or sensible
sign. Before the mind of the writer of the Epistle to
the Hebrews, the priesthood and the sacrifice, the
censer and the ark, the cherubim and the sanctuary,
were the parts of a grand historical procession, the
continuity of which was intended to be a perpetual
THE COVENANT AND THE GOSPEL. 75
reminder of some final consummation in which these
appointed symbols and shadows would be fulfilled and
absorbed. Far away in the dim antiquity, was
remembered the majestic figure of the king of Salem,
to whom Abraham, the father of the faithful, the
conqueror of the four kings of Canaan, did homage
and gave tithes, the king of peace, the king of
righteousness, who, in those primeval times, united
the functions of priest and monarch. This great
memory was powerfully impressed on the mind of
the Psalmist, who contemplates an eternal priesthood
after the similitude of Melchisedek, the mysterious
hierarch of whom no father or mother is recorded, no
genealogy given, who appears in the midst of an
idolatrous and licentious people, and disappears after
he has blessed the great patriarch. Who can this
be, implies the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews,
unless some heavenly visitant, like them who con-
versed with Abraham at the door of the tent of
Mamre, him who wrestled with Israel, and whose name
was sacred, him who appeared with a drawn sword by
the wall of Jericho as captain of the Lord's host; who,
in short, but the eternal Son of God ? Here is the
perfect, the perpetual priest, who has not only entered
into the holiest place before the vision of God, but
has invited those who believe on Him to behold the
same glory.
And then, to show that an unchanging purpose
shapes the counsel of God throughout, the writer of
this epistle enumerates the victories of faith under the
older covenants, from the days of Abel to that army
of witnesses whose exploits and endurance are told in
76 PAUL OF TARSUS.
so fervid a strain of passionate eloquence, as the
memory of those ancient heroes passed before the
mind of the enraptured allegorist. Nothing is more
consummate than the art of this passage, for, while
it keeps present the fact that the coming of Christ
is the abrogation of the imperfect symbol, it consoles
the Jewish believer with the glories of his race, and
suggests greater triumphs, under the reign of the
King and Priest whose throne endures for ever in
heaven.
The law of Christ and the law of Moses are one,
only the former is more exact and absorbing than the
latter. To do despite to the former is a capital
offence ; to scorn the latter, and its great sanctions, is
to invite an angrier judgment a speedier wrath. To
apostatise from this more perfect law, is to repudiate
the place of repentance to sin like Esau to fall into
the hands of the living God to draw back unto per-
dition to provoke a consuming fire. But to them
that believe, Sinai has lost its terrors ; and in place of
the mountain from which the Law proceeded, there is
the pleasant prospect of the divine Zion the city of
God the Jerusalem of heaven, as the prophet Eze-
kiel foresaw it in vision the Sabaoth of angels the
Church of the eternal First-born, of the Divine Judge,
of the perfected spirits of the just.
CHAPTER III.
As races have come to nought, have been ruined or
destroyed, as regions, which were once the gardens
of the earth, have become deserts, so theologies have
become extinct. Three of the most notable among
these forms, whose antiquity is extremely remote, and
which existed when Christianity began its career, still
survive. These are the creed of the Jews, that of
Brahmanism, and that of Buddhism. The last, which
is, nominally at least, the most widely embraced of
all faiths, is said to be nearly six centuries older than
our era.
Again, some religious systems have utterly perished.
No trace survives of the theosophy and ceremonial
of Greece, Home, Egypt, Phoenicia. Zeus, Jupiter,
Apollo, Phoebus, Athene, Minerva, the myriad divini-
ties of the Greek and Roman Olympus, are as extinct
as the most remote geological fauna. So with Isis
and Osiris, Anubis and Thoth, and the infinite series
of Egyptian Gods. The Theogony of Phoenicia,
Dagon, Ashtaroth, Baal, have become mere names, the
memorials of which have perished with them.
78 PAUL OF TARSUS.
Some have survived, but are wasted into extreme
feebleness. The ancient religion of Zoroaster is said
to exist in the Parsee colony of Bombay, among the
scanty and expatriated relics of a race which was
formerly great and victorious. The Druses and Yez-
idis are the representatives of some ancient Gnostic
religion, once probably as wide-spread as any of the
Eastern beliefs. The few Israelite sectaries who still
linger at Nablous, are the remains of that Samaritan
schism which began with the revolt of Jeroboam,
was embittered by the rivalry of Tobiah and Sanballat
on the one hand, Nehemiah and Ezra on the other,
and which was strong enough in the time of Christ to
be intensely detested by the Jewish national party.
But all these religions are crumbling away, and
perhaps in a few generations each will become
historical
It has been stated more than once in these pages
that the Christian religion was nearly absorbed by
Judaism at the beginning of its career, and that on
grounds of human probability it was about to become
an obscure Jewish sect, when it was rescued by the
vigour and independence of the great missionary-
apostle. Paul saved it from this catastrophe, by the
peremptory manner in which he insisted on the
abrogation of the Jewish code, as far as Gentile
converts were concerned, and Paul was ultimately
successful in the bold course which he adopted. But
the effort was a supreme struggle. It cost the Apostle
a life-long martyrdom, and for a time discredited his
labours and his success. The attempt to supersede the
Jewish ritual excited the warmest hostility. The
THE GNOSTIC ORIGINES. 79
success of the attempt thrust the Church into a new
danger. Paul saved it from being stifled. He lived,
it appears, to see it exposed to the attacks of a more
ubiquitous and more versatile enemy. In the East, at
least, it was nearly supplanted by Gnosticism. It was
threatened and even imperilled by the equivalent of
Gnosticism in the West.
For a century and a half the Church struggled for
existence against the numerous, and frequently hos-
tile sectaries who were known under the general
name of Gnostics, and who, as will be seen,
held certain tenets in common. By far the
largest part of that controversial theology which
has descended from the earliest Christian times to
our own, is occupied with the statement and refuta-
tion of these Gnostic reveries. The existence of
such opinions is alluded to by Justin Martyr. The
work of Irenaeus consists almost entirely of state-
ments purporting to give an account of the tenets
entertained by the various heresiarchs of the Gnostic
theogonies. The lately -discovered work of Hippo-
lytus, bishop of Ostia, is, for the most part, a treatise
on Gnostic opinions. The greater part of Tertullian's
works are controversial, and deal with the same
tenets. During the days when Christianity was in
its infancy, men did not construct creeds, or elaborate
definitions on the nature of Christ, and on the work
of redemption; but either accepted the simple faith
of the apostolic teaching, or exhibited a prodigious
theogony, which they collected from all sources, and
arranged into the most fantastic systems. Never did
the religious imagination run wilder riot. At the
80 PAUL OF TARSUS.
same time, it is not impossible to trace those theories
to a few simple principles. These principles were
recognised in and before the age of St. Paul.
In eastern Iran, and in that part of it which the
ancients knew as Bactria, there lived, at a time which
it is now impossible to fix with any degree of cer-
tainty, a certain Zoroaster. Some facts about the life
of this personage, and an exposition of the doctrine
which he taught, are contained in the Zendavesta a
scripture written in an ancient Aryan dialect. Zoro-
aster is the reputed founder of the Magian religion.
The characteristic of this creed is dualism i. e., the
existence of two powers, principles, beings, of co-ordi-
nate and nearly equal authority one of whom is
Good, the other Evil; one the author of every blessing
which lightens the lot of humanity, the other of all
and every misery which depresses and degrades it.
These two powers are in constant rivalry; and al-
though the beneficent spirit will and must finally
vanquish his enemy, and the enemy of the human
race, the struggle is long, arduous, and as yet far from
its completion. The name of the Good Being is
Ormuzd, that of the evil Ahriman. Lately deciphered
inscriptions prove that the system of Zoroaster was
the state religion of the Persian people. To Darius,
for example, Ormuzd is the author of all prosperity,
victory, blessing, and is reverenced accordingly. Both
Ormuzd and Ahriman were emanations from Primeval
Light. But Ormuzd was the elder, and Ahriman was
ambitious, proud, and jealous of the first-born. These
faults are an impersonation of the vices and the vin-
dictiveness of those who, in an Eastern dynasty,
THE FORTUNES OF PARSISM. 81
are near of kin to the ruler, but are subjects to
him, and are thereupon suspicious and suspected.
Such persons were Smerdis to Cambyses, Cyrus the
younger to Artaxerxes.
The principles of the Zoroastrian or Magian religion
are to be found in the Scriptures of the Parsees,
who are reputed to be the surviving worshippers of
the ancient Persian Deity. If we can trust slight
hints given in those relics of a faith which was
once accepted by the highest civilisation of Central
Asia, the oldest parts of the Zendavesta point to the
existence of pastoral habits among the people to whom
Zoroaster was the prophet. The greater part of the
Zend scriptures treat of ceremonial defilement and
purification, and are even more minute in the rules
which they lay down for the atonement of voluntary
and involuntary offences than the Mosaic ritual is. It
is possible, however, that many of these regulations
have been interpolated. That the religion suffered
by the conquest of Alexander cannot be doubted.
It is said to have declined during the Parthian
occupation of Iran, and to have been restored by
Ardshir in the third century of our era. This
monarch, the first king of the Sassanid dynasty, did
for the scriptures of the Zoroastrians what Peisis-
tratus did for the Homeric poems; he collected
them from the memories of those who treasured
them into the volume which we know by the
name of the Zendavesta. When the Persian empire
was overrun by the followers of -Mohammed in
the seventh century, a few of the adherents of
Parsism escaped to India, and obtained permission,
82 PA UL OF TARSUS.
under certain conditions, to settle near the mouth
of the Indus.
The creed of the Persians was that of a dual
monarchy. But the good king was surrounded by
a hierarchy of powers whom he had created. Chief
among these were six amshaspands, then twenty-
eight other powers, one of whom was Mithra, and
then an infinite order of pure spirits, all of whom
were superior to man. On the other hand, Ahriman,
the evil power, created an infinite number of dewas,
who are presided over by six evil dynasts. Orrnuzd
is the creator of the world a work which he effected
in six periods of time. In this new world, Ormuzd
placed a man and woman, who are corrupted by the
wiles of Ahriman. But, when the earth is most
depraved and afflicted, Ormuzd will send his prophets,
the chief of whom will regenerate creation and bring
it back to its pristine beauty, power and purity.
Thereafter will ensue a universal resurrection, and
the chief prophet will judge both good and bad.
Then those who are found pure will live in eternal
felicity. And, on the other hand, Ahriman, his
demons, and the wicked will be also purified, but
by a torrent of molten metal. In the end, the reign
of Ormuzd will commence its uninterrupted course,
humanity will be perpetually happy, and all will
be engaged in singing the praises of the Supreme
Being, the Ancient of Days, the King of Light.
In this life, man is always exposed to the machina-
tions of the dewas and their chief. They who fall
into sin become the habitations of evil spirits, and
are finally transformed so as to be identical with the
A HRIMA X A XD SA TA X. 83
demons with whom they have consorted. But the
door is never closed to repentance and faith, however
great has been the sin, even though its ceremonial
lustration is impossible. Furthermore, to know the
names of Ormuzd is a power, a talisman, with which
to chase away demons, and coerce the wicked. These
names, which were revealed to Zoroaster, and are con-
tained in the Zendavesta, are twenty in number, and
designate the attributes of the Supreme Being. The
name Ormuzd in the Zend, Ahura-mazda means
the great wise God. His rival's name is Anra-
mainyus, or, as it has been corrupted by Europeans,
Ahriman.
One cannot fail to see a close parallel between this
Zoroastrian system and the theosophy of the Jews.
The angel of God appears frequently in the earlier
books of the Jewish canon, though there is hardly
any such agency in the Mosaic epoch. But the
operation of an evil spirit is scantily hinted at. We
first read of such a personage in the story of Saul's
madness. We read of him again, in the apologue of
Micaiah, when this prophet stood before the misguided
Ahab. We read of Satan in the book of Job, the
scene of which is not Jewish, but Arabian.
This name Satan that is, an adversary or an enemy
is used in Hebrew with the article when it denotes
the superhuman adversary of man. So Zechariah,
one of the later prophets, uses it, after the return from
Babylon, and therefore when the conception of a
spiritual foe had become familiar to the Jewish exiles.
But elsewhere throughout the Old Testament, the evil
spirit is only a subordinate instrument of Jehovah, a
84 PAUL OF TARSUS.
>
power whom God permits to deceive the reprobate,
to torment the sinner, and to try the good.
In the New Testament, however, but particularly
in the Apocalypse, this personage is recognised as
an active malevolent being, who seeks to thwart the
designs of the Almighty, and to pervert the souls
of men. He is permitted to tempt Christ, and his
satellites torment the bodies and distract the minds
of those whom they inhabit. He is the prince of
this world, the power of the air, the father of the
disobedient and unfaithful, the enemy of the saints,
one who disguises himself as an angel of light,
the hinderer of holy purposes, the prompter of impure
and unholy thoughts, the. devourer, the destroyer,
and, hereafter, the inhabitant, with his angels, of
everlasting fire. In the Apocalypse he is the leader
of a rebel host, who fights against Michael and the
angels of God, the dragon, the serpent, the prisoner
for a thousand years, who* is afterwards set free to
harass and vex the faithful, but who will finally be
judged and punished. Out of his mouth came those
lying prophets who have power to deceive men. He
has a mystic name, which is designated by a certain
number, and is probably made up of the numerical
values of the letters composing it, as those names,
Abraxas, Mithras, and Belinus were; the symbolic
genii of Gnostic, Persian, and Druidical worship.
The Rabbinical books of the Jews and the writings
of Philo are full of the same facts, for they refer to
a hierarchy of angels, evil and good to the beneficent
action of the one, to the malevolence of the other.
The Pharisees, we are told, acknowledged angels
J TAN IN THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 85
and spirits, the Sadducees denied the existence of
each order. Thus the Gemara even said that the
temptation of Abraham was a deed of Satan, the
rescue of Isaac an interposition of Jehovah, and a
baffling of the enemy. In the romance called the
book of Tobit, the machinery of the story is the
mission of an angel, who should accompany Tobias
on his journey, should defend him and his wife
from the machinations of Asmodeus, who had pre-
viously slain those husbands to whom Sarah had
been wedded, and should bind the evil spirit in the
utmost parts of Egypt.
No one can ignore the fact that the Old Testament
recognises, and that its teaching is based on, the per-
petual antagonism of good and evil of the struggles
and ultimate victory of the former, of the power
and final punishment of the latter. But, while
it exhibits infinite goodness under the form of a
heavenly Father, it does not impersonate the oppos-
ite principle except slightly and imperfectly. Nor,
unless we repudiate every rule which would guide us
on any other subject when we are discussing the affini-
ties of an opinion or belief, can we doubt that this im-
personation of the evil principle in a chief of wicked
spirits and in his subordinates, was derived from,
or suggested by, the Zoroastrian theology. The Jews
had been carried captive into Assyria and Persia,
and had been brought in contact with this religion
when it was in its full vigour. Daniel, a descendant
of the royal house of David, was the chief of the
Magi, receiving a name prince of Bel by virtue
of his eminent position in the priesthood of the Zor-
8C PA UL OF TARSUS.
oastrian system ; while another Jew, a companion of
his, was called the servant of Nebo. It was possible
for those Jews to retain their worship of the one
true God in the midst of Aryan theism, for the
Persians were not idolaters. It was possible for
a Jewish prophet to recognise a Shepherd in Cyrus,
and even to call him the Lord's anointed. But it
is impossible to doubt that the Jews who lived in
Persia borrowed and transmitted to the returning
exiles of Zerubbabel, Neheiniah, and Ezra, some
of the dualism with which they were made familiar
at Susa and at Babylon. Even when Parsism was
depressed by the Parthian dynasty, the Chaldean
was known at Rome, and the Babylonian Numbers
were consulted by noble ladies at the metropolis of
the empire.
When a new religion, however pure and powerful
it may be, supplants another, it can hardly help
making some compromise with its vanquished enemy.
It is no disgrace to western Christianity, that it con-
ciliated the Paganism which it overthrew, by accom-
modating its feasts to the cherished memory of ancient
rites. Thus we are told, that the Christmas festival
was fixed at the winter solstice, because this period
was occupied in the Roman calendar by the Saturnalia
a holiday time in which the rigour of slavery was
relaxed, and the bondsman was permitted a short
liberty. Nor can any one object that the episcopate
was founded on the model of those fiscal and military
divisions which the empire defined. Church govern-
ment was found to be a necessity, and men adopt t <1
familiar forms for carrying out what was to be dom. .
THE INFLUENCE OF PARSISM ON JUDAISM. 87
This kind of compromise accounts for the fetish
worship which the Roman church has revived and
inculcated in the reverence paid to relics, and for the
rationalism which has given the peasantry its local
saints, instead of Nymphs and Dryads, which has
made the mother of Christ a Juno, and, like her
pagan prototype, which has multiplied her by the
shrines in which she is worshipped. Not even the
stern monotheism of the Mosaic code could extirpate
from the Israelite mind all sympathy with the wor-
ship of the Hittite. The high places remained ; the
returning ark, welcomed by the Israelites, found them
gathered at Beth-shemesh, the house or temple of the
sun ; and the house of Jacob constantly associated itself
with the gods of the nations round about.
The influence, however, of a religion which guides
the life and practice of a great and generous nation,
such as the ancient Persians undoubtedly were, cannot
fail of being felt in a still greater degree by subject
races. Besides, the Zoroastrian creed was not repug-
nant to the mind of the captive Israelite. The
companions of Daniel refuse to honour an image ;
the chief of the Magians, the eunuch of David's
race, declines, on peril of his life, to obey the in-
sidious suggestion of the courtiers of Darius, and
still prays to his God, with his windows open in
the direction of Jerusalem, three times a-day. But
the hierarchy of Zoroaster in which angels were
subordinated to the one great Deity was no way
alien to Daniel's orthodoxy. Nothing pleases the
imagination more than to people the vast expanse
with ministering spirits, to ascribe the sorrows and
88 PAUL OF TARSUS.
sufferings of life to the spite of malignant demons.
It is the familiar habit of children to conjure up thick
coming fancies ; and at this epoch the childhood of
civilisation and belief, the same energy of imagination
delighted in the exuberant growth of these divine and
pure emanations, and constructed, as antagonists to
them, a host of gloomy and passionate spirits, who
strove to drag men down to their own likeness, but
who could be resisted, baffled, judged, by the wise
and pure in heart. To one wrapt in the contempla-
tion of this war in heaven, of which man was the
prize, and of which the victory was finally assured,
there was no solitude. The lonely hermit was least
alone. To one who had in view the pomp and
majesty of eastern royalty, there was a far nobler
and grander array in the" 5 glorious host of heaven, in
that angelic band, the power of the lowest of whom was
greater than that of the mightiest king, for they are
the servants of the Lord of Hosts. The counterpart
to this regal splendour is the pomp of faded majesty,
the royalty of hell. Just as to the eastern mind, a good
and wise king, such as Cyrus, the father of Persian
nationality, who had for his attendants an immortal
body guard, was the highest exemplar of human
excellence and beneficence; just as a furious, mad,
suspicious tyrant, such as Cambyses, was the im-
personation of malevolence and mischief so the un-
seen world had its King and His heavenly host,
and also its regal fiend, with his attendant demons.
The Israelite eagerly engrafted the two systems on
his national creed, and, already made familiar with
the angels of God, discovered their antagonists in
DUALISM IN RELIGION. 89
the gods of the heathen, in the devils of the Pauline
epistles, in the evil spirits who possessed those un-
happy men who fell under their sway. The same
dualism has been transmitted to our times, and has
become part of the system of popular religion. It
is so strongly intertwined with the innermost senti-
ments of the human heart, that the imagination
itself must be extinguished before dualism ceases to
be acknowledged.
The creed of the East was a supernaturalism, with
an exact ceremonial, typical of personal holiness, and
a strict discipline which imposed penances or punish-
ments on those who violated its moral precepts. The
creed of the West was the worship of nature, without
any permanent ceremonial, and with no higher moral
code than was absolutely necessary in order to preserve
society from dissolution. The supreme ruler of the
Zoroastrian world is a pure spirit to whom sin is
loathsome. The ruler of the Greek Olympus is the
president of an aristocratical council, a capricious,
sensual chieftain, whose providence over human affairs
is of the slightest and most uncertain kind. With a
strange perversity, men, misled by the dazzling
splendour of Greek genius, have tried to discover in
the theogony of the Greek creed, and in the social
life of which it is the highest exemplar, a lofty and
simple morality. They have mistaken poetry for
religion. The civilisation of Greece, and subsequently
that of Rome, were extirpated, because neither was
based on religion or morality.
The border-land between the East and the West
was occupied by the Jews. It appears that nature
90 PA UL OF TARSUS.
worship was nowhere more sensuous than among the
Phoenicians of the coast. The God of the Hebrews
is absolutely spiritual, absolutely holy, and, as the
conception of Him is developed in the prophets, is a
Being of perfect justice, who prescribes and enacts
obedience to a Law, which is to be interpreted by
an intelligent and scrupulous conscience. The creed
of the Jew is a single sentence, I am the Lord your
God. Upon this creed the Pharisee induced the
dualism of the remote East, while the Sadducee
insisted on retaining nothing but the secularism of
the Mosaic revelation, in which the immortality of
man's soul might be contained by implication, to
which it certainly was not repugnant, but by which
it was not expressly affirmed. The Sadducee, how-
ever, was as monotheistic as the Pharisee, believed as
rigorously that the Almighty was a pure Spirit.
The teaching of Christianity was welcome to the
religious sense of the western world. Its acceptance
enabled the believer to escape from the immeasurable
grossness of nature-worship, to take refuge in a pure
theology, to apprehend that for which every creation
groans and struggles. In those days of conversion,
men fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, and cast their
abominations of silver and gold, which they had made
to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to the dark-
ness of that night from which they had emerged. To
tjhern Christianity was emphatically a new creation.
Old things had passed away, all things had become
new. It was an escape from bondage to freedom, to
a glorious liberty, and was welcomed with all the
freshness of a first enthusiasm.
CHRISTIANITY IX THE WEST AND IN THE EAST. 91
The case, however, was different with the eastern
people. They had already a religious creed, which
taught that God was a Spirit, and that they who
worship Him must do so in spirit and in truth. They
were monotheists, iconoclasts, haters of symbolism,
and of nature-worship. They had lived for ages
under traditionary customs which no one was prepared
to loathe, under rites which had been sanctioned by
the same authority which had given them their purer
creed. Hence, as has often been said, the Jewish
Christians clung tenaciously to the traditions of their
forefathers, and nearly wrecked the prospects of Gentile
Christianity, by peremptorily insisting on obedience to
the Law of Moses. Even when some liberty was given,
they insinuated that those who claimed release from
Jewish rites were enemies to the spirit of Christianity,
and the secret advocates of a compromise with idol-wor-
ship and licentiousness. As with other Eastern converts,
there was an unwillingness to abandon those gorgeous
visions with which the unseen world was peopled, and
to accept those simple practical principles by which
the Christian life was to be guided. In the West the
Magian was an adventurer, in the East he worshipped
at the foot of the infant Jesus, was the hierophant of
transcendental revelations, the mystic, the gnostic, the
man possessed of knowledge, the knowledge which
inflated a man with a sense of self-importance, the
knowledge which the author of the epistle to Timothy
designates as falsely named.
This Gnosticism was born at a time when the human
mind was more eager after belief, and more ready to
construct systems, than at any epoch in its history.
92 PAUL OF TARSUS.
It offered the most energetic and the richest visions to
the believer, and it is not marvellous that it had many
teachers and a vast following of disciples. It extended
itself widely through the eastern world, and affected
not a little of the western. Its symbols are still
existent in great numbers in the form of gems,
engraved with composite emblems and legends. It
was a formidable rival of orthodox Christianity up to
the sixth century, and unquestionably leavened it with
many of its speculative formularies. It did not expire
in Europe till just before the Reformation, if indeed
its influence may not be traced still later. It consti-
tutes the occult science of Cornelius Agrippa. The
description which Mr. Layard gives of the tenets
entertained by the Yezidis clearly indicates that the
religion of these devotees can be traced to a Gnostic
origin. The Gnostics were, in their own language,
according to Gesenius, the Elect, and a sect which
calls itself elect is apt to have a long vitality.
The fundamental characteristics of Gnosticism are
its dualism, its doctrine of emanations, its assertion
that the God of the Jews, the God of the visible
creation, was an inferior, if not an evil spirit. The
schools of Gnosticism differed in many particulars, but
they invariably affirmed the three doctrines stated
above. A supreme intelligence exists, an eternal,
immutable, ineffable being, against whose purity and
power evil is arrayed, and from whom proceed the
various forces by which evil is combated. And as
these visionaries thought matter was evil, a doctrine
which may be traced in the philosophy of Greece,
they believed that the creator of the visible world
THE GXOSTIC SYSTEM. 93
was either unconscious of the mischief which his
creation would work on the intelligence which it
coerced or restrained, or that he spitefully weighted
the pure spirit of man with the gross and polluting
burden of matter. Hints of this theosophy are found
in the Septuagint, in Philo, in the Kabbala, in the
significant words of the first, in the allegorising theory
of the Law, which marks the second, and in the
emanations of Adam Cadmon, the typical or perfect
man, the macrocosm to whom the individual is the
microcosm, of the third. Ten of these emanations,
according to the Kabbala, proceeded from the perfect
Adam. The same authority, according to M. Matter,
affirms that the parts of man's nature, his appetites,
his passions, his reason and his spirit proceed from the
four worlds of angels which influence and control him.
This fourfold division of man's inner nature is charac-
teristic of Greek philosophy.
Abundant illustrations could be given of the manner
in which Gnostic phraseology pervades those writings
of the Canon, which are expressly directed against
the doctrine which those dreamers inculcated, most
of all from the Apocalypse. Here the seven spirits,
the twenty-four elders, the Alpha and Omega, the
mystic number of the Beast, are all counterparts of
that theory of emanations which began with Cerinthus
and was completed by Valentinus and Marcion. But
the use of certain Greek words is even more sugges-
tive of the manner in which the language of the
apostles was permeated by the phraseology of this
wide-spread and versatile school. The reader may
find examples of these usages in the elaborate work
94- PAUL OF TARSUS.
of Matter. The Shepherd of Hennas, once believed
to be a canonical book, is framed on a Gnostic model,
with its seven women representing the Virtues who
wait about the Church. The writers of the New
Testament do not, it is true, accept the theory which
these words imply, nay, they are impliedly, or, in
express terms, profoundly hostile to the Gnostic hy-
pothesis, but they could not, in the existing state
of theological language, avoid the employment of
terms which the speculative temper of the Eastern
mind had appropriated and characterised. These
words might have been perverted by the wild imagin-
ation of the sectaries, but they had the advantage
of being definite, and what philosophy has ever
disdained to spoil its rivals of their armour?
The narrative of an interview between St. Peter
and Simon is contained in the Acts of the Apostles.
The latter is described as resident in Samaria,
though he was, according to Justin, a native of
Gitti, a village near. This man, by his magical
arts, had deceived the people of Samaria, who
called him the great power of God which is, by
the way, a Gnostic formula. We are further told,
that Simon enrolled himself among the converts of
Philip, and that the apostles came down to Samaria
to receive the converts, and, by imposition of hands,
to bestow on them the Holy Spirit. Thereupon
Simon offered the apostles money, with the request
that he might receive the apostolic privilege of con-
ferring this gift of the Spirit. He is sternly rebuked
by Peter, who bids him repent and ask for forgive-
ness ; and the narrative, as far as Simon is concerned,
SIMON OF SAMARIA. 95
is concluded by a request on Simon's part, that the
apostles would pray for him, that no misfortune
should come on him for his presumption. Hence-
forth, the Scriptures make no mention of the Samari-
tan. Another Magian confronts St. Paul in Paphos,
is more severely reprimanded, and is visited with
a sharper judgment.
The rest of Simon's history is enveloped in a cloud
of fable. Justin Martyr says, that he persuaded the
Emperor Claudius and the senate to erect a statue
to him on the Tiberine Island, the apologist having
mistaken a dedication to a Sabine deity for an inscrip-
tion in honour of the Samaritan. But Simon figures
in a host of legends. He is present at the interview
between Peter and Paul on the one hand, and Nero
on the other, and is represented as perishing in an
attempt to fly. He raised himself in the air by
the aid of evil spirits, and fell in consequence of
the prayer of Peter. In the Clementines, Peter
and Simon are represented as arguing together. But,
in the whole literature of the early Church, the
Samaritan Magian is made the founder of a system
which claims to be antagonistic to Christianity. He
is not properly an heresiarch, but a rival to Christ,
as Apollonius of Tyana was, after the adventures
of the Tarsian devotee had been manipulated by
his biographer Philostratus.
Simon, according to Irenseus, claimed to be the
voice of God. The supreme Being was "He who is
fixed," "the root of all things." From this Being
emanate three pairs of derived beings, one of which
is the mother of all that exists, spirits, angels, and
9G PAUL OF TARSUS.
archangels. This personage is Ennoia or Intelligence,
who is perpetually persecuted by evil spirits, and is
preserved by the Supreme Being, in order to be mani-
fested to mankind by the agency of Simon. The
Jewish God was one of the angels of this Intelligence,
and was the author of the visible world. Irenaeus
adds to his account of Simon, that his followers, a
century and a half later, had fallen into gross licen-
tiousness, and excused their vices on the ground that
there was neither morality or immorality in external
acts. It is only by his dualism that Simon is identified
with Gnosticism.
The sect really sprang out of Christianity. The
earliest Gnostics came from Egypt and were familiar
with the allegories of Philo. With Cerinthus, Christ
was the son of Joseph and Mary, and as a man was
superior in justice, foresight, wisdom, and therefore
power, to all other men. He received the Divine
Nature at His baptism in the Jordan, and was
thereupon an emanation from the Supreme Being.
Marcion, the most eminent of the Gnostics, was, we
are informed, fond of quoting the saying of Christ,
"Put not new wine into old bottles." He meant to
imply that those Christians who had been familiarised
with the grand complications of the Eastern theogony
must needs incorporate their profound and magnificent
conceptions with the simple creed of the Apostles.
The Gnostic was unwilling, on being admitted within
the sanctuary of the new covenant, to strip himself
of his gorgeous traditions; he must needs enter clothed
in them. They are" susceptible of a spiritual interpre-
tation. They are revelations anterior to this last
THEORIES OF GNOSTIC WRITERS. 97
experience of the Divine development, but they can
be made to harmonise with Christianity. Some of
those persons allegorised the mythology of Greece, and
discovered ^Eons in the Olympian deities, allowing
their imagination to run riot in the strangest theories
as to the meaning of Greek myths, and the origin of
Gentile practices. Some of these interpretations are
as grotesque as the latest allegory of the Homeric
poems, under which the heroes of the Iliad are im-
personations of the Sun and Moon and Stars, of
Nature, of Night and Day, of the Seasons and the
Winds.
Let us take the scheme of Saturninus. God, says
this Gnostic, is one, unknown by all, ineffable, inaccessi-
ble. The Gnostic is less exacting than some writers,
who have told us that the attributes of the Almighty
are utterly unknown to man, and that the divine
morality conforms to no human standard or experience.
He allows that all beings, with their attributes, proceed
from Him by way of emanation.
The highest power of God is His Wisdom or Word.
This is the first-born Son of God, the ideal type by
which the most perfect of all creatures, man, is created
and formed. But the creation of man was committed
to an inferior power the Jewish God. He had
received a mission to make man in the image of God,
but in error he did not realise the Divine type, the
heavenly Adam. Man was created a creeping thing.
The Word, as pitying his unhappy condition, bestowed
on him a ray of Divine life. But so feeble was the
work of the inferior God, that the breath of the Word,
by which humanity was enlightened, became powerless
G
98 PAUL OF TARSUS.
to effect his restoration to the Divine image. Christ
therefore came down from heaven to put an end to the
office of the Jewish God, and to save those who believe
in Hun those, namely, who have preserved that ray of
Divine light which was given to the first man, and
transmitted to his descendants. The moment they
have lost the ray of Divine light (and they lose it by
the overmastering influence of evil spirits), the way of
return to God is irrevocably closed. This heresiarch
forbade his followers to contract marriage and beget
children.
Bardesanes, one of these Gnostics, the chief of
another sect, who wrote against Marcion, was the
author of the first Christian hymnal. We are told
that he composed a hundred-and-fifty sacred songs,
which were set to music by his son, and were used by
the orthodox, to their danger and detriment, till
Ephrem the Syrian superseded them by other words,
the tunes being retained, just as the English pietists
of the last century adapted religious words to secular
music. Nor is there much doubt that the ascetic
Montanus, who won over the arrogant and fervid
spirit of Tertullian, gathered his strange notions of
the Comforter from the example, if not from the
teaching of the Gnostic sects, who represented every
form of mysticism, from antinomian grossness to
ecstatic and morbid rigour.
We know these grotesque doctrines only through
those who detested them, stigmatised them, and per-
haps caricatured them. It is to be regretted that no
single work has come down to us from those who taught
what they called Knowledge. Had such been our
THE GNOSTIC CONCEPTION OF GOD. 99
fortune, we might perhaps have been able to construct
the system of these Syrian and Alexandrian mystics,
and, however alien the scheme might prove to our
habits- of thought, have discerned that Valentinus,
Basileides, Bardesanes, Saturninus, had at least as well
ordered an imagination, as noble a conception of God,
as rational a bagiology as those of many men who
have challenged and obtained the reputation of ortho-
doxy.
This, however, at least is clear. The Gnostic idea
of God was pure and even sublime. But the con-
ception which assigns the work of the visible world
to a malignant deity, because the Gnostic cherished
an insane hatred of matter ; the savage temper
which discerns nothing in creation but misery, dis-
order and vice, and which shows its contempt for
the body by fierce austerity, or gross licentiousness,
are grotesque misconceptions of that Providence
which these enthusiasts allowed. Worse still was
that sullen- pride which limited the office of the
Redeemer to a privileged race, to a few individuals,
capriciously chosen, whose grant of this election
was certified to them by some inward conviction,
and was perfected by an absorbing contemplation;
which, without the evidence of personal holiness,
or the fulfilment of personal duties, transported them
to the bosom of God ; which, finally, asserted that
the nature of the true Gnostic is like gold, the bright-
ness of which no pollution can dim, no contamination
affect. But, though the name of Gnostic, of Catharist,
of Paulician, has faded away under the anathema of
orthodoxy, it is doubtful whether the spirit has been
100 PAUL OF TARSUS.
exorcised. It is still possible for men to narrow
Almighty beneficence, to arrogate to themselves
redemption, to think that austerity is holiness, that
an inward assurance is the Divine favour, to look
bitterly on the beauty of God's creation, and see
nothing but what is evil in nature, even though
they may not people the world with ^Eons, and
make their own system of belief a series of emanations
from the Almighty and infallible exposition of His
will.
We are told though it is probable that the state-
ment must be taken with caution that the Gnostics,
and particularly Marcion, accepted a mutilated gospel
of St. Matthew, though with some additions, and
most of the epistles of St. Paul, the pastoral letters
being rejected; but that even those whose authenticity
was allowed, were curtailed or interpolated so as to
sustain the doctrines which Gnosticism affirmed. It
is significant of the extent to which these tenets
permeated Christian communities, that the Ebionites
and Nazarenes the bitterest enemies of the great
Apostle, the persistent advocates of Jewish Christi-
anity are stated to have finally embraced the extreme
Gnostic doctrine of a particular redemption, and the
perfectibility of man by asceticism and contempla-
tion. We are told that they said of the Redeemer,
that " He was called the Christ of God and Jesus,
because no one before Him had fulfilled the Law,
but that if another had done so, he could have been
Christ, and that they, by doing the like, would
become christs, since He was a man like unto them-
selves." This wasted sect of Judaizers, who lingered
GNOSTICISM A CLAIM TO SCIENCE. 101
on by the Dead Sea, was still open to the tempta-
tions which other sects have fallen into, and which
are characterised by St. Paul in one of his pithiest
and most prophetic sentences, Knowledge puffeth
up, but love buildeth up.
The essence of the Gnostic system, whatever were
the formularies with which it introduced its dogmas,
was the saving power of knowledge or science. It
matters nothing that the material of this knowledge
was a long array of subjective or imaginary essences,
the "bodiless expansions of a cunning ecstasy." They
were, if we can believe that the votaries of this system
propounded them all in good faith, as real to the
Gnostic, as the laws of nature, or the succession of
geological epochs, or the development of species are to
the physicists of our own day. The Gnostics wished
to give an interpretation to a set of facts, or to an
array of myths which had been accepted as facts, and
believed that they had gained the key to their solution,
by marshalling a progressive development of heavenly
entities. They believed that by the steady contem-
plation of these great realities, the soul of man might
be educated, ennobled, purified, glorified. The know-
ledge which they possessed separated them from the
vulgar and perishing herd of men, made them the
elect of a Divine wisdom, delighted them with the
ravishing dream that they were the peculiar objects
of the Divine favour, the self-made possessors of a
saving science. The spirit of the Gnostic is found,
not in what he knew, which a later philosophy declares
to be visionary, but in the utter absence of that love
of man for the sake of God, which is the practical side
102 PAUL OF TARSUS.
of religion, and of that clinging to a Divine ideal of
moral excellence, and perfect holiness, which constitutes
the contemplative side of the same religion.
There need be no antagonism between the religious
sense and scientific method. A clear and keen in-
telligence, which observes diligently, and draws
careful inductions from its observations, is quite
compatible with that sensitiveness which stimulates
and strengthens the sense of public and private duty,
because it lives in the sight of God, and does its
part in regenerating and purifying man for God's
sake, according to its power. There is not, and
there cannot be, any natural discord in the con-
stituent faculties of man's being. All the forces
which make up the identity of the individual may
be, and ought to be, in harmony; may be made to
assist each other in the work which each man has
to do. In true and healthy minds such a harmony
does exist. Nothing is more graceful, nothing more
winning than the union of acute intellectual power,
and the tender gentleness of an affectionate desire
to do good, because the heart yearns after purifying
and elevating the object of such goodness. Nor does
experience lack examples of so noble a conjunction
of energies.
But, as the religious sense may, unhappily, become
harsh and bitter, may be perverted by narrowness,
by spiritual pride, by sinister motives; so men may
insulate themselves under a feeling of profound satis-
faction at their own attainments in knowledge, and
of contempt for those who are unequally instructed
with themselves. Any kind of learning may suffice
THE GNOSTIC TEMPER PERMANENT. 103
to effect this perversion, for the Gnostic professed to
possess the highest and truest learning with which his
age was supplied, and this on the most important and
absorbing subject. The temper of the Gnostic does
not cease to influence men, because the sciences of
observation have superseded in exactness and interest
the constructions of the Gnostic imagination. Any-
kind of knowledge may serve to inflate its possessor
with an over-weening sense of his own acuteness and
superiority. It may be the dry theory of the econo-
mist, according to which men are conceived to be
held together by mutual interest, and individualised
by an enlightened selfishness ; or the method of nature,
the knowledge of which may fill the student with a
modish conceit of his own quickness ; or learning ;
or philosophy. It may be impossible to construct
a logical religion, and to give proof of the emotions
by which man clings to a living God. But the
religious sense, if it be just and loving, at least does
this much. It binds men more closely together than
any other force can ; it gives, as long as it reigns in
man, cohesion and duration to the unity which it
creates ; it constructs and purifies society ; it makes
man reverent towards his fellow-man, pitiful, tender,
forgiving, courteous, graceful, gentle. If it dies or
is perverted, Society becomes a camp, in which distrust
is perpetual and panic is imminent; in which the
enemy is at the gate, and the spirit of resistance is
gone. So, at least, experience, past and present,
informs us. It is possible, that, at the instant of this
ruin, Archimedes still sits, poring over his problem,
unconscious of the crisis, indifferent in the midst of
104 PAUL OF TARSUS.
his speculation to the crash, the havoc, the despair.
After the agony is over, the same sentiment will,
unless a people be utterly lifeless, revive and renew
the strength which has been wasted, and men will
eagerly welcome the force which has hitherto been
found to constitute the very soul of human society.
After all, the highest, worthiest, truest of all human
knowledge, is that which is directed towards purifying
and ennobling man. He who discovers the knowledge
of this method, and, having discovered it, seeks to make
it the law of social life, is the wisest savant, the truest
teacher of mankind. The worth of the knowledge
which analyses a plurality of worlds is not disparaged
when it is said that it is of little import by the side
of that wisdom, if it can be found, and that under-
standing, if its place can be detected, which makes
man happier, and stronger, and better. The greatest
victories of science are little better than a thauniaturgy,
if they have no effect on the well-being of society.
They may become the instrument of conceit to him
who wins them, the instrument of oppression to him
who uses them. But, on the other hand, it is im-
possible for a science of social morality to make true
progress, unless the whole race of man is bettered
by it. It is impossible that it should influence man-
kind without making each successive generation
stronger and more just. Like every other good
force, it may be misused by designing persons, or
parodied by charlatans, who mislead men into ac-
cepting the husk of a true wisdom, in place of its
fruit. Whether Christianity has or has not finally
achieved this science of social life, is a larger question
GXOSTIC EXPRESSIONS IN THE EPISTLES. 105
than can be discussed here. But it is plain, that
Jesus of Nazareth intended to propound such a
science, that the Apostle of the Gentiles intended
to affirm and expound the science, and that the
permanent enemy of Christianity is the theory that
the knowledge of God or nature, and the blessings
of God or nature, are the heritage and privilege of
the few, the elect, the fortunate.
Critics have detected traces of the Gnostic system
in the pastoral epistles, and have, thereupon, dis-
credited their authenticity. It is known that Gnosti-
cism ripened in the early part of the second century,
and it is inferred that the " falsely-named knowledge "
of the First Epistle to Timothy is a reference to the
Emanations of these sectaries. But the language
of the Apostle is not necessarily directed against those
whom we know as Gnostics. It seems rather to
point to those Jewish or semi-Jewish sects, which are
known to have sprung up in the cities of Asia-Minor,
and to have attempted a compromise between the
learning of the Rabbis and the tenets of Christianity,
or, at least, to have overlaid the latter by the former.
The Apostle was reasonably jealous of any addition
which might be made to the simple creed which he
had taught; for he well knew that nothing deadens
the sense of religion so much, as the reduction of
it to a set of formal definitions, the acceptance of
which might be construed into an equivalent to that
energy of faith and love, which his instincts and
his experience assured him were the true constituents
of the Christian temper.
Besides, though Gnosticism culminated in the
106 PAUL OF TARSUS.
second century, it does not follow that it was not
existent, and even active, in the first. The earliest
Christian controversialists give us the names of the
Gnostic savants, but they do not expound to us the
origin of the Gnostic temperament. If the exposition
given above is satisfactory, Gnosticism, in some shape
or other, is not of one age, but of all is not the title
' o '
of an extinct theology, but the equivalent of a per-
manent phase of human thought. That men busied
themselves with the origin of evil, and recognised its
antagonism to good, in a formal dualism, long before
the apostolic age, is historically certain. That they
had constructed a cosmogony on this principle is
equally clear. That they had, according to the fashion
of the time, realised the development of the universe
by impersonating creative power in a series of angelic
beings, is as plain as proof can make it. But this is
only the shell of Gnosticism. Its kernel is the sub-
stitution of theology for trust in God, knowledge for
religion, contemplation for duty, philosophy for love.
The system of the Stoic and Platonist, as critics and
rivals of Christianity, was only another phase of the
same theory was equally the substitution of the indi-
vidual mind for the body of Christ, and the growth of
the perfect man the peace of the absorbed and en-
lightened intellect for the peace of God the salvation
of the few, by their own power and holiness, for the
redemption of the world by the Passion and the Pre-
sence of Christ. We ought to be far from wondering
that the Apostle detected and inveighed against this
tendency. It is rather to be wondered at, that his
writings do not contain frequent allusions to the dan-
THE INFLUENCE OF INTELLECTUAL PRIDE. 107
ger in which, from his point of view, men might make
shipwreck of their destiny in a vain and engrossing
self-sufficiency. The early Church did recognise such a
warning in the Apostle's statement, that the natural
intellect of man does not receive the influence of God's
Spirit.
Nor is there reason to think that the genius of
Gnosticism is extinguished or evaporated, or that it
ever will fail to assert itself in its own domain that,
namely, of exclusiveness, of spiritual or intellectual
pride. It is true that no one now busies himself in
constructing a dualistic hierarchy, or fills heaven, and
earth, and hell with the fancies of an unrestrained
imagination. The steady progress of phenomenal
science the regular method by which it has built up
its inductions the success with which it has inter-
preted the order of nature have made men contemp-
tuous towards imaginary systems, and sometimes even
sceptical as to the existence of other than sensible
forces. The cosmogonies of the Eastern sage, of the
Greek philosopher, of the Western schoolman, have
given way to the logic of facts, and the laws of nature
which they exemplify. Those exploded theories were
attempts to interpret the phenomena of Being; and
for a time, at least, satisfied and delighted the mind.
But they are abandoned only because other attempts
have been made to interpret the same phenomena.
Ptolemy retreats before Copernicus and Galileo ; the
scheme of elemental forms, by which Aristotle at-
tempted to interpret nature, has been superseded by
the chemical analysis of modern research ; the humoral
theory of physiology, loy which the same philosopher
108 PAUL OF TARSUS.
tried to account for growth and decay for health and
disease, has been abandoned for a microscopic investi-
gation into the circumstances of organic generation :
creation is the formula of a bygone speculation, of
which development has latterly become the scientific
equivalent.
The thinkers and reasoners who lived before and
after the commencement of our era, were constantly
busied with the philosophy of Being with the laws
of consciousness and nature with the conditions of
progress and change. To account for all those pheno-
mena of sense and cognition, they invented a world
of imaginary existences. Thus, for example, the appe-
tites and passions, the reason and the spirit of man,
were derived, according to some of these Mystics, from
the four worlds of spirits. The characteristic words of
this system are traceable even in the Septuagint its
terms are freely employed in the New Testament.
Childish and trifling as the system which these men
constructed seems to us, it satisfied them. It enabled
them to account for all they saw, knew, and felt to
give an exact and formal account of creation, and of the
facts of nature or life. Deeply enamoured of their
genealogies and cosmogonies, they wrapt themselves
up in their contemplations stood aloof from inter-
course with the unenlightened world without them, and
limited the possession of knowledge to those who were,
like themselves, engaged in solving the problems of
creation or development. Sometimes ascetic, some-
times licentious, but always for the same reason
because the body was only an accident to the spirit
or intelligence of the man, they lived in an atino-
THE SELFISHNESS OF GNOSTICISM. 109
sphere of spiritual and intellectual pride. It is Gnos-
ticism in its rudimentary form, or in its tendency,
which Paul contrasts with love in the First Epistle to
the Corinthians. Gnosticism, in some shape or other,
was invariably adopted by the heresiarchs of the first
three centuries, as we see from Tertullian ; and it was
into an analogous creed that this father of the Latin
church ultimately seceded, for the Paraclete of Mon-
tanus closely resembles " the great power of God " of
Simon, and the mysterious Pleroma of Basileides.
"This people," says the Pharisee, "who know not
the Law are cursed." The creed of the Gnostic was
that of the Pharisee, without his Judaism, without
that sense of nationality or patriotism which saved
the Jewish devotee from being absorbed in the worst
of egotisms a belief in his own spiritual perfection,
and a scorn for the mass of those who live outside
the region on which the rays of divine light have
shone. They who had learned the Law and its
interpretation were harsh and fanatical; zealous for
the maintenance of that empire which they possessed
over the minds of their countrymen; but they did
not forget that the nation was chosen as well as
themselves, or repudiate the election of Israel in
the ascendancy which they claimed for their own
authority. They believed themselves to be an aris-
tocracy of intelligence and education, but the collective
Israel was as a nation, the soldier of God.
The seeker after wisdom, the Gnostic who inserted
Jesus and the Gospel into his eclectic creed, believed
that some men were illuminated, but that the great
majority of mankind were consigned to impenetrable
110 PAUL OF TARSUS.
and unilluminable darkness. It was a favourite
dogma of these idealists, that some were elect, and
others reprobate. It is true that the Gnostic did
not give himself up to a cold and apathetic fatalism,
but demanded from those who were conscious of
their election a fervid energy of the soul, which must
be ever directed towards that Being from whom
the illumination was derived. But he was the God
of intelligence as opposed to the God of creation,
insulated in his sympathies, haughtily indifferent to
a world of sorrow and ignorance. The knowledge
or wisdom which is not combative contributes little
to the forces of human progress, is not the wisdom
which is from above, because it does not aid in re-
generating or redeeming mankind.
It has been stated that Gnosticism was the chief
enemy with which the nascent church contended. It
is almost certain that, in order to meet this enemy,
the Pauline doctrines were affirmed by the western
and accepted* by the eastern churches, and that the
rancour which the Jewish Christians entertained
against the great Apostle, was finally transformed
into the reverence which has been for so many
centuries felt towards him, as the great doctor of
the primitive church. Marcion accepted his Catholic
epistles, though in a mutilated form. What better
weapon could be found to fight, against these Mystics
than the authority which their principal advocate
recognised ? Judaism was repudiated in order that
Pharisaism might be combated. An effort, indeed,
is made to proscribe Paul and the Gnostic under
the same name, and, by the agency of Peter, in
KNO WLEDGE NOT RELIGION. Ill
the imaginary discourses which, are still extant under
the name of the Clementines, but the effort failed.
The fantastic theosophy of emanations, aeons,
essences, and powers the system under which logi-
cal formularies were represented as objective realities,
and exhibited as a pedigree, which originated in a
primeval pair called "depth" and "silence" could
have had no permanent influence on mankind, de-
served no vitality. Even if this philosophy had
rested on a real foundation, it would have done
nothing towards the moral progress of mankind.
No growth of mere speculative opinion has ever
assisted in the development of virtue or morality,
though such opinion may have, indirectly, retarded
both. Man is the better by what he does, not by
what he knows. The clearest and most confident
avowal of belief may be, as we all know, unaccom-
panied by worthy service. Men may hide God's
talent in their own napkin, keeping the talent dili-
gently all the while, and even boasting of its posses-
sion. There is no theory more false than that which
asserts that opinion and religion, belief and virtue,
always co-exist; or, that those who cannot assent
to a doctrine must needs fall short in the practice of
godliness. But it is true that an opinion may be in
itself immoral, because it contravenes, either directly or
indirectly, that morality which lies under every reli-
gious life, or because it supersedes hearty obedience to
it. To trust in God, and to do His will, are the faith
and obedience of the Gospel. In the absence of this
faith and obedience, the true and the false in theology
are equally virtueless. There is no allegiance to a
112 PAUL OF TARSI'S.
definition, no loyalty to a formulary. Both are
tendered to a Person and a Power, and are invariably
offered on grounds which recommend themselves to the
reason and the affections.
In the early age of Christianity, there was no field
for that political action which may be powerfully
allied with a great religious movement. The social
life of mankind was, as we all know, governed by a
jealous and irresistible military despotism, from which
no one could escape. An attempt was made to main-
tain a religion and a nationality in the Jewish war. It
failed after a prodigious effort, and Judaism was pro-
scribed. To Christianity the importance of this event
was enormous. It finally severed the new religion
from the old, and transferred the centre of the Church
from Syria to Italy and Egypt. But, even if the
teaching of the early Christian fathers had not pro-
scribed all resistance to constituted, or de facto author-
ity, the example which the ruin of Jewry afforded
would have been quite sufficient to deter the Christian
Church from any organised hostility to the civil and
military power of Rome.
Such an alliance, however, as that between political
action and religious zeal, has been effected from time to
time. This was the characteristic of Islam, and is
the explanation of its amazing success. It accounts,
also, for the force which Calvinism exercised during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Men were not
won over to the creed of the Geneva reformer by the
attractiveness of the doctrines which he taught,
O '
but by the means which he employed to assist in
spreading his creed. He appealed to republican sen-
POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS SYMPATHIES. 113
timent to that passion for political liberty which is
always keenest when men feel the oppressiveness of
institutions which cease to challenge their attach-
ment, and to which they are no longer proud to
be loyal. The most superficial glance at the history
of the religious struggle ; in France, where Calvinism
ultimately failed ; in Scotland, where it triumphed ; in
England, where it ended in a compromise, will detect
how closely a political was intertwined with a religious
movement. It may seem a paradox, but the great
convulsion of the eighteenth century, which we call
the French Revolution, was the product of this double
energy political and religious zeal.
The Gnostic was as little anxious to confront the
military despotism under which he lived and dreamed
as the Christian enthusiast was. But when a creed or
a religion is debarred from alliance with political
advocates, it can commend itself only by appeals
to universal sympathy, and by the constancy with
which it endures martyrdom. Christianity adopted
both methods ; .Gnosticism adopted neither. It was a
theology of particular salvation confined to the elect
and the illuminated only. Its adepts, as Tertullian
maintains, shrunk from suffering on behalf of their
tenets. Now a faith which incites neither love nor
admiration will have no bold on the minds of men.
A creed, on the other hand, may be harsh and severe
may distribute its rewards and punishments by no
higher principle than caprice or chance, and yet may
win its adherents by thousands, because it appeals to
some profound and energetic sympathy. The Scotch
Covenanters did not fight and die for the Westminster
H
114 PAUL OF TARSUS.
Confession, but for liberty of conscience. Besides,
men may accept a faith which seems dark and for-
bidding, and yet find the profoundest consolation
in it, because they look on themselves as the peculiar
objects upon which its narrow favours are bestowed
ungrudgingly, because they are able to die first.
As the Christianity of the apostolic age carefully
abstained from traversing the authority of the political
system under which it grew, so it shows no trace of
any inclination to ally itself with the forces of a
friendly government, should such a contingency arise.
The maxim of its Founder, " My kingdom is not of
this world, else would my servants fight," has its
complement, implied but unexpressed, that the same
kingdom declines the alliance of the civil authority in
aid of its own pretensions to allegiance, or in effecting
the extension of its sway. From time to time, a
religious movement has enlisted political sympathies
on its side, and may do so again. But the association
must be temporary, unless the religion is to be
enslaved and corrupted. For its own safety, it must
make only a short treaty with material and social
interests. The reason lies in the facts, that its in-
fluence and action cannot be narrowed to the limits
within which political authority and social opinion
are contained, that its agent is enthusiasm, and that
this sentiment can have only an occasional connection
with political utility.
The mission of Christ is to the world, to save it,
to renew it, to sanctify it. He propounds a general,
why not a universal forgiveness ? He suffered, the
just for the unjust, that He might, as the highest
CHRISTIANITY AND THE WORLD. 115
example, commence that service which all those
who ponder on His work, and thereupon would be
His disciples, must needs continue. Like the runners
in the Athenian torch-race, each man who is worthy
of this office, and has set himself to the work, is to
carry on, unextinguished, and with undiminished fire,
his love towards the race of which he is a member.
This is the glory of the noblest sacrifice which has ever
been made on man's behalf. Do they, who, follow-
ing His example, are willing to lose their lives trusting
that they may find them, whose hearts' desire and
prayer is for the salvation of their people, who can
even, in the plenitude of their self-abnegation, wish
themselves anathema from all hope, if by such means
the whole race may be enlightened, shall they think
that the majesty of God is at variance with the
fatherly care with which He ever watches His creatures,
or that it is not in His counsels that mercy rejoiceth
against judgment ? To have the mind of Christ, is
to continue the work which He began, to save souls,
to take part in the great battle against sin, misery,
ignorance, moral death. Such a life is the best
O '
antidote against that morbid dread of God which
clouds the religious sense of many, and that indolent
egotism which claims to be illuminated, and is lazily
confident in its own indefectible perfection.
CHAPTER IV.
EARLY in the first century after Christ, a Christian
living at Nablous, a city better known by its ancient
name of Samaria, addressed an Apology to the
Emperor Antoninus on behalf of his fellow-believers.
This defence of the new religion was written by
one who was well acquainted with the Old Testament
and at least three of the Gospels, for he quotes abun-
dantly from these books. The writer, who calls himself
Justin, comments on the unfairness which treats the
Christians with severity, while he defends them from
those charges of impiety and licentiousness which were
freely uttered against them. In giving a summary
of their faith and practice, he informs the emperor
of their method of common worship, and describes
the ceremony of Baptism, and of the Lord's Supper
or Eucharist. Justin gives the earliest account,
after the Apostolic age, of the ritual observances
peculiar to the new sect.
" Those," he says, " who agree with and confess
our tenets are washed and regenerated in the name
of God, of Jesus Christ our Saviour, and of the
CHRISTIANITY IN JUSTIN'S AGE. 117
Holy Spirit. This washing is called illumination.
In this baptism/' he observes, "we do not use the
ineffable name of God, for if any one did so, he
would be forthwith seized with uncontrollable mad-
ness. When we gather for worship, we use common
prayers in a loud voice, for ourselves, for the person
who has been baptised, and for all others. Then
we kiss each other. After this, bread, a cup of
water, and another of wine are brought to the
person who presides over the brethren. Thanks
are offered to God. The president takes the viands,
gives praise and glory to the Father of all, by
the name of the Son, and the Spirit of the Holy
One, offering general thanks because the worshippers
were deemed worthy of such blessings from His
hands. Then the deacons distribute the bread and
wine to those who are present, and carry them to
those who are absent. No person, however, is per-
mitted to partake of them except those who are
believers and are baptised. We offer alms, and
are constantly together. We always meet on Sun-
days, when we first read the commentaries of the
Apostles or the writings of the Prophets. When
the reader ceases, the president of the meeting
preaches. We then pray, and again receive the
bread and wine."
The first account seems to describe the daily
office, and the second to refer only to the Sunday
service. It would appear that the common prayers
were some set form, and that they were recited
by the whole congregation. The method of worship
corresponds, generally, to that which is alluded to
118 PAUL OF TARSUS.
in St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, though
disorders and confusion had crept in upon the devo-
tions of the Corinthian Christians. It may be
observed, too, that at Nablous, if Justin is describing
the customs of the congregation in his own city,
there is no regular minister, in any modern sense
of the word. The word which I have translated
"president" does not designate even a permanent
officer. The solemnity of the Lord's Supper, and
the preaching of the Gospel, are performed by a
person who is not necessarily possessed of anything
but a temporary function. That such a president
was selected by reason of his character and in con-
sideration of his capacity for inculcating the doctrine
and rule of the Christian life, may be expected ; but
Justin gives no hint of an order or a clergy set apart
for this office, still less of any sacerdotal mediation,
or judgment, or spontaneity. The primitive Church
is a congregation, whose creed is excessively simple,
whose ritual is an act of mutual sympathy, an
expression of common needs. The author of the
Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that there were
believers who did not even collect together for
common worship and mutual exhortation, though he
advises the contrary practice.
The primitive Christians Justin being taken as an
instance of their customs set great store on participa-
tion in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, or, as he
calls it, in the Eucharist. The language which the
Apologist uses about this rite is positive as to the
belief in its being the means for associating the
Christian with Christ, and of its being an essential to
BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST. 119
salvation or at least to religious health and safety.
If the Apology of Justin be genuine, and its genuine-
ness has been rarely disputed, and if Justin can be
taken, as there is no reason to doubt he can, should
the first hypothesis be satisfactorily accepted, as the
type of the Syrian Christian at the beginning of
the second century, the ceremonies of Christian initi-
ation, baptism, and the Lord's Supper, are severally
treated as illumination, regeneration, and a partaking
of the body and blood of Christ.
The two characteristic offices of associated worship,
which the testimony of Justin shows to have been
generally practised in the earliest Christian com-
munities, are obvious symbols of natural use. A
ceremonial purification was not peculiar to Chris-
tianity. It is found in Judaism, in those Eastern
creeds which influenced the religious sentiments over
which Christianity was induced, and in the lustrations
of the Greek mysteries. Physical purity was an apt
emblem of moral sanctification, and its sign was
adopted by the Great Master, as a means of formal
admission into the covenant of His Gospel. Baptism
in the name of Christ becomes, by a natural feeling,
at once a symbol and a power.
One of the earliest, most lasting, and most widely-
spread among the feelings of humanity, is that which
exalts association into unity. Under the influence
of this sentiment, physical objects which once belonged
to some dearly-loved being, or physical acts which
recall his presence to the memory, renew the pleasure
or felicity which the presence of his being once gave.
They form the link by which the soul can bind itself
120 PAUL OF TARSUS.
to that which has gone out of its sight, and after which
it is earnestly longing. Relics and memorials are the
means by which the sadness of separation is lightened,
by which the reality of that which is so tenderly
loved is certified and assured. Hatred, on the other
hand, uses the same stimulants that love does. The
tenderness which cherishes such mementos is akin
to that fierce malignity which collects the relics of an
enemy, in order to make them the material for the
incantations of magic or witchcraft. As the solicitude
with which deep affection gazes on that which it loves
seems to guard or protect the object of its care, so
men have believed that an envious or hostile glance
may wound or weaken those against whom it is
directed. Hatred is not only the counterpart of
love, but it uses the same associations in order to
glut itself.
Out of these sympathies, assisted by such reminders,
men develop the permanent conceptions of family,
country, church. It is because they are thus con-
strained to perpetuate what they have felt and known,
that they are saved from that isolation, which may
flatter men with a cynical sense of independence, but
which would, if it were generally adopted, wreck
society, and all the forms under which society is con-
stituted and exists. To say that man cannot live
alone is a platitude. But men may seek to gain all
the advantages which social life affords them, and
contribute nothing to the forces by which they profit.
The moral progress of man is not due to the fact,
that in the struggle of life, the strong have supplanted
the weak, or elbowed them out of existence. On the
ASSOCIATION AND US ITT. 121
contrary, it has been effected by the fact that the
strono- have sheltered and cherished the weak, that
O '
they who can strive and conquer have used their power
and their success for the purpose of succouring the
feeble and the oppressed, for lavishing the tenderest
feeling and action on those who cling to them for
support and protection, and who have nothing to offer
in return for these benefits but untiring and unchang-
ing love. It may be that man has been developed to
his present condition out of a mere animal savagery.
It is certain, that if this be the case, he owes all his
progress to actions which are the very reverse of that
policy which gives the weak over as a prey to the
strong. It is equally certain, that if he does decline
hereafter into barbarism, he will owe his moral^deca-
dence to the spread of the temper which urges men
to live for themselves alone.
The admiration, the worship, with which men wit-
ness the strength and wisdom which are used for the
good of others, and not for personal aggrandisement,
the homage which they offer to courage, joined to
gentleness, are acknowledgments of the great part
which such qualities play in the moral government of
society. Nor is this admiration less enthusiastic
because they who feel it are conscious only of the
benefit which goodness and wisdom confer on them-
selves, and do not forecast their effects on mankind at
large.
The memory of Christ was riveted in the hearts
of His disciples and followers. He had largely
availed Himself, in the teaching which He gave
them, of the sentiment of Association, by the use
\-2-2 PAUL OF TARSUS.
of parable and analogy in His discourses and actions.
He had instructed them in the doctrine that the
unity of mankind was to be found in Himself, and
had prescribed a ritual by which that unity should
be perpetually suggested. When He was gone from
them, the whole meaning of His intercourse with
them became apparent and permanent. Before, their
hearts were dull, and they could not understand
Him, their eyes were holden that they could not
see Him. Now everything was clear.
But nothing seems to have been graven more
indelibly on their memory than the scene of the
last Supper. It is the one event in the life of
Christ which St. Paul narrates. It is the central
fact of the fourth gospel, the circumstance to which
the discourses in that gospel tend, or round which
they are arranged. It was recalled to the mind of
all by the necessities of daily life, by the breaking
of bread. The reminder was cumulative, the analogy
natural. As human nature requires daily sustenance,
so the spiritual nature which is contained in the
life of man needs daily nurture. As the physical
growth of man is due to his daily bread, so the
growth to the measure of the stature of the fulness
of Christ demands as imperatively the renewing of
that spiritual food. The showing forth of the Lord's
death is the source of the Christian's life. The five
thousand are fed abundantly, and the fragments
exceed the necessity. Nay, the practice of Christian
man was prefigured in the Law. The heavenly
food in the wilderness, the ever-flowing rock which
accompanied the wanderers in the desert, are mani-
THE SCRIPTURES OF JUSTIN. 123
festations of the same spiritual force. Unseen but
not undiscovered, He is in the midst. He is the
Power of God and the Wisdom of God.
The readings in the Church whose ritual Justin
describes, are taken from the commentaries of the
Apostles and the Prophetical books. The term
employed to express these commentaries is that used
by Xenophon to denote the collection of Socratic
conversations which is known as the Memorabilia.
It is clear that the Apologist was conversant with
the three gospels, for he freely quotes from them,
though he does not name the authors of these
biographies. It may be that time has spared us
only some of these compilations, and that the ruin
which fell on Judea during the great war, may have
been followed by the loss of many apostolic composi-
tions. The considerable space between the age of
the first Apostles and that of the earliest Fathers is
very imperfectly illustrated, is very inadequately
filled by the reminiscences or collections of Irenseus.
St. Paul may have adverted to one of these lost
books, when he is said to quote, as a well known
saying of Christ, that " it is more blessed to give than
to receive/' a passage the more remarkable as the
Apostle hardly ever refers to these doings and sayings.
The writings of the Prophets are those books of
the Jewish Scriptures in which Justin was very well
versed. Born a heathen, and bred a philosopher,
Justin tells us that he was converted from meta-
physical speculations to Christianity, by the con-
versation which he held with an old man who accosted
him as he was taking a solitary walk on the sea-shore.
124 PAUL OF TARSUS.
These prophetical writings were carefully studied by
the more learned Christians, as they formed the best
polemical weapon against the Jews, their Messianic
character harmonising with the history of Christ.
St. Paul gives us some particulars about the ritual
of the Corinthian Church. It had become necessary
that the Apostle should put an end to certain dis-
orders and confusions, and establish in Corinth a
uniformity with the practice of other churches. There
was one very notable peculiarity in the churches of
this city, which is not mentioned as characteristic of
any other church, which is not referred to in the
subsequent epistle to the same church, nor in the
epistle of Clement. It is the power of speaking in
tongues, a power, the manifestation of which St. Paul
does not wish to forbid, though he plainly desires to
keep it within the narrowest possible limits. It is
probable that the discouragement with which the
Apostle treats the faculty may have led to its disuse.
It is clear that the faculty was abused, that it tended
to disorder, and that its only possible value was that
it might attract the favourable notice of unbelievers,
though this advantage was counterbalanced by the
risk, that an excessive or simultaneous exhibition of
the power might induce an uninstructed audience to
believe the actors mad.
The persons who possessed the power of speaking
"tongues," uttered their sentences occasionally in a
foreign language ; but sometimes, it would seem, gave
vent to unintelligible sounds. Some of these out-
pourings the Apostle compares to the irregular emis-
sion of such musical notes as have neither rhythm or
XPEAKIXG WITH TOXGUEX. 125
melody, or to the blare of a trumpet, which does not
indicate any of the known calls to which soldiers give
ear. It is probable, the Apostle says, that there is no
sound, however numerous sounds may be, which is
undevoid of meaning ; but if one does not know what
the sound may mean, the utterance will be a jargon.
A man, indeed, may pray in language which he him-
self cannot comprehend, and the act of devotion will
edify his spirit, but his mind will have no benefit from
the sounds expressed, and perfect acts of prayer and
praise must be intelligible as well as devotional. Five
words which may be comprehended are worth more
than ten thousand of those obscure sounds. If they
must needs be uttered, a very few people should make
the ejaculation, and one should interpret it, if it can
be interpreted. If no interpretation be forthcoming,
it is better for the person who possesses the faculty
to be silent, as the sound neither profits himself nor
others. There is a danger that an honest enthusiasm
may lead him who feels it into strange freaks that it
may be simulated by others for sinister ends that it
may be misinterpreted, even at its best. It is impos-
sible to avoid the inference that the reasoning employed
by the Apostle containing, as it does, no small
amount of suggestive irony should have checked, and
finally eradicated, the habit of speaking in " tongues."
Far superior, however, to this ecstatic, and some-
what superfluous gift, is that of prophesying, as St.
Paul calls it. It is the most serviceable of spiritual
gifts edifying and instructing individuals and the
Church. It may be communicated to all believers.
Other gifts may be used with thankfulness when be-
12G PAUL OF TARSUS.
stowed ; this is that gift which all should desire to
obtain ; it is that, says the Apostle, which I wish that
all of you possessed.
The names and history of those eminent men who
had guided the public policy of Israel during the
monarchy, were familiar facts to both Jew and Chris-
tian. Some of them had written books. At least,
their recorded sayings were collected and set in order
by their disciples. These works, under the general
name of " The Prophets/' were esteemed highly by all
who held to the Jewish covenant as a complete revela-
tion, and were equally reverenced by those who believed
that the Law was imperfect and typical the shadow
of that which was to come.
We are so accustomed to consider the prophet of the
Jewish covenant as the expositor of the Divine purpose
towards the chosen people and the rest of mankind,
that we are apt to lose sight of his attitude towards
his own generation to forget that he rebuked and
counselled king and nation that he was a statesman
and a jurist, who interpreted the politics of his age
according to the law of God and the pernmnent inter-
ests of His people. The spirit of this law was ex-
pounded by the prophet, with breadth and boldness,
with force and dignity, with exquisite poetry and
pathos. The prophet was the preacher of holiness
and righteousness, of religion and morals ; for the
Jewish kings constantly exhibited the traits of other
oriental sovereigns, and the priests do not appear to
have exercised any great social influence by the mere
virtue of their office. It is by the prophets and their
writings that Israel not only maintained the purity of
THE JEWISH PROPHETS. 127
his religion, but was saved from sinking either into
one of those races which have been long since extinct,
or from being degraded into a permanent, but a
savage horde. The word of the Lord came to him,
was spoken, and endures for ever. To the student of
history it is impossible to exaggerate the influence
which these men have exercised on the destiny of
mankind. Though they were guided by such lofty
impulses, and such profoundly religious sentiment,
their life and action is intensely real. They were
neither philosophers nor devotees, but politicians of
the purest type, whose energies were devoted towards
preserving the institutions of a petty Syrian kingdom,
but whose principles of action were those of perfect
political morality, and were therefore of universal
significance. They believed in a public conscience,
a public duty, a public religion, and they never
failed to insist on the obligations which give society
all its force and vigour. God had committed to
them a great charge, and they dared not be timid or
unfaithful.
History supplies us with no parallel to the influence
which these men wielded. They were the leaders
of opinion in a kingdom which was neither so large nor
so populous as Yorkshire, at an epoch when their coun-
try was overshadowed by powerful empires, and was
the highway of great contending armies. They had to
preserve its independence by their policy. But they
had a still harder task to perform, that of maintaining
the purity of its religion. Even more dangerous
than the political forces which threatened Judah, were
the corrupting influences which tended to debase
128 PAUL OF T A RS I >'.
the Law by their contact ; for no nature- worship was
more gross than that of Phoenicia, no fetish more
cruel than that of Moab and Aminon, and of the
other old Cauaanite races. They had to interpret
the Law according to its spiritual meaning, to advocate
a higher life than the corn, and wine, and oil, and
honey of the older promise ; and to set this loftier
example before the State and the Man. Nor were the
external difficulties of their position all that they
had to contend with. Some prophets were found
who, like Hananiah, apostatised from their calling,
men whose time-serving falsehood extorted from Jere-
miah that bitter complaint which contains in it a
summary of ages in the world's history, -The prophets
prophesy wickedness, and the priests applaud them,
and my people love, to have it so, and what will ye
do when the end of these things comes ?
These prophets were not ignorant enthusiasts, who
owed their authority to mere self-assertion. They
were trained to such learning as the times possessed,
in certain recognised seminaries. These institutions
were, it would seem, founded by Samuel, for it
is during the age of this Judge that the schools of
the prophets are specially distinguished, and were
continued down to the great Captivity. At the
Restoration, the prophet's place was supplied by the
teaching which the Rabban gave his disciples. The
Jews were ready to recognise the spirit of the older
prophet in the teaching of the Baptist, and the
discourses of Christ are the utterances of one who,
trained as the prophets were trained, surpassed them
all ; completing the sum of Divine wisdom, announc-
THE JEWISH PROPHET A STATESMAN. 129
ing in all their fulness the counsels of God, and
promising the continuance of the Spirit to His
disciples.
As the part of the prophet was one of great
honour and authority, so it was one of peculiar
danger. Monarch and people were occasionally re-
called to their duty by the warnings of these advisers,
but as often turned savagely on the unwelcome or
intrusive counsellor. The author of the Epistle to
the Hebrews recounts the sufferings which these
patriots underwent. Christ, with full foresight of
His own destiny, charges the existing generation
of the Jews with an aggregate of that blood-thirsty
hate which prompted the death of Abel, and con-
summated the slaughter of Zecharias, whose murder,
says the Talmud, was committed during the time
that Jerusalem was besieged by the Chaldeans, and
was mercilessly avenged by Nebuzaradan.
It is the power, then, of interpreting religious duty
in the various occasions of life, of bringing the Spirit
of God which dwells within the believer to bear on
the course of human action, which St. Paul prays
that his Corinthian disciples may possess. He ranges
the prophet after the apostle in the rank of usefulness.
He would have them all obtain, and all use this gift
for personal guidance and mutual counsel. Himself
in the fullest sense a prophet, and enjoying abundantly
this clear inward light, he longed that all his converts
should be equally advanced in spiritual knowledge
and wisdom, should equally contribute towards the
edification of the Church. He warns them against
sectarian differences, reminds them that their allegiance
130 PAUL OF TARSUS.
cannot be divided or shared, and advises them to aid
each other in the great work of wisdom and holiness.
The time was not come in which this function-
to be performed by the members of an obscure and
struggling sect should be extended so as to fill the
sphere in which the ancient prophets exercised their
great ministry. And when the time did come, and
an opportunity was offered in which Christianity,
having interpenetrated the whole life of society, might
constitute a Divine republic, a true civitas Dei, a state
in which profound religious energy should go hand-in-
hand with clear political sagacity, the Christian world
was busied in logomachies, was ruled by monks
and ascetics, by logicians and mystics. Then the
Church eagerly completed a bargain, under the terms
of which the successful portion was empowered to
proscribe its rivals, provided only that the whole force
of ecclesiastical government should ally itself with
the temporary expedients of a demoralised and decay-
ing government, with the degraded imperialism of
the Constantines.
The worship in the Corinthian churches is strangely
like that of the earliest Quakers. One man had a
psalm to recite, another a rule of conduct to announce,
a third some linguistic utterance, a fourth some reve-
lation, a fifth the interpretation of some obscure
passage of Scripture, or of some mystic declaration.
To add to the confusion, the women were as eager
in their contributions to this bewildering clamour
as the men were. Hence the Apostle enjoins silence
in the churches on the women, as is seemly, and
to avoid scandal. The injunction, it appears, was
CHURCH GOYERXXENT AXD WORSHIP. 131
peculiarly needed in the Corinthian churches, was
special, perhaps temporary. Elsewhere, it is clear
that women exercised great influence on the discip-
line of the Church, and that they busied themselves
with the spread of the Gospel. Priscilla is one of
these, so is Junia, whom Paul speaks of as an apostle,
also Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis, and probably
Julia, and the sister of Nereus, to quote those
names only which are found in the Epistle to the
Romans. The notion that the Apostle discouraged
the services of women on behalf of the Gospel, is
an exaggerated inference from the language of the
Epistle to the Corinthians, and is contradicted by
facts.
If the assemblies of the Corinthian Christians,
when St. Paul wrote with the view of checking
these disorders, resembled those ecstatic gatherings
of the older Quakers, so the religious exercises
which he commends resemble the decorous solemni-
ties which have characterised the meetings of these
sectaries, after the enthusiasm of teachers like Fox
was controlled by the good sense of reformers like
Penn. There is absolutely no hint given in the
epistle of any organised ministry, still less of any
hierarchy whatsoever. Every convert, as far as the
text of the letter informs us, was on a footing of
perfect equality with his neighbour or brother in
Christ, was competent to raise his voice or expound
in the Church. We do not even find a temporary
president of the meeting, such as was set up in
the church which Justin describes. The gifts of
the Spirit were various, and every convert had
132 PAUL OF TARSUS.
some gift which he might employ for the general
good of the Church. But this silence as to church
government and an official ministry is not peculiar
to the Corinthian epistles. Only one of the epistles
addressed to churches contains any allusion to resi-
dent ecclesiastical officers; and this address to the
bishops and deacons of Philippi, while it has made
some persons suspect that the letter is of doubtful
authenticity, has induced those who contend for its
genuineness to assign it to the latest period of the
Apostle's life.
But though the epistles to the churches afford little
or no information on the subject of the Christian
ministry, and present a mass of negative evidence as to
the appointment of a regular order, the Apostle gives
an account of what the office of the Lord's Supper was,
and what it ought to be. The converts came together,
each bringing his food and drink with him, though
not, it would seem, with the intention of giving it to
a common fund. Some were hungry, some indulged
in excess ; the rich enjoyed themselves, the poor were
put to shame by their inability to vie with this pro-
fusion and ostentation. It would appear that the
Corinthians imagined, provided they took their meal
in the same building, that they were performing the
rite which was commanded to believers as a solemn
commemoration of Christ's death. St. Paul therefore
narrates the circumstances under which the rite was
instituted, enjoins its observance on Christians, shows
the danger of a profane misinterpretation of it, and
the consequences which have already ensued from
careless malpractice, inculcates the rule that it is a
CHURCH DISCIPLINE AT CORINTH. 133
feast in which, all worshippers are equal, and promises
to give further details on his arrival.
The First Epistle to the Corinthians gives some
insight into the discipline of the Church. A professed
believer had married his step-mother, and this, appar-
ently, during his father's lifetime. Such a marriage
was discreditable among the heathen. Under certain
circumstances, it was, despite the prohibition in Levi-
ticus, permitted among the Jews, in consequence of
certain decisions in the Talmud, which professed to
interpret cases like those of Abraham and Sarah,
Amnon and Tamar, Adonijah and Abishag, where
marriages between persons who were within close re-
lations of consanguinity or affinity were either con-
tracted or contemplated. The gloss of these doctors
was, that in case the wife was of heathen parentage
on the mother's side, the relationship need not be a
bar. It has been suggested that the offender was a
Jew, who had taken advantage of this opinion of the
Jewish doctors, and had thereupon debauched and
married his step-mother. It seems to me more likely
that the wife had taken advantage of the easy law
of divorce which prevailed among the Romans (for
Corinth was a Roman colony), and had thus contracted
a marriage which the Roman custom branded as inces-
tuous, but for which, in so licentious a place as Corinth
was, there was probably no punishment.
Apart from the consideration of its immorality, the
act was dangerous to the reputation of the Church.
The early Christians had every interest to maintain
a character for purity, since scandal would be sure
to be busy with them, however careful they were, if
134- PAUL OF TARSUS.
it could only catch at any fact. St. Paul therefore
commands instant and severe measures. They are
to suspend the culprit immediately, in the name of
Christ, and by His power, from fellowship with the
Church. They are to give him over to Satan, the
Apostle using this phrase, familiar to those who knew
the histories of Job and Ahab, to imply that the
offender should suffer some severe bodily ailment, as a
punishment and corrective for his offence. The object
of the chastisement was not the destruction of the
man, but the repentance of a sinner. We learn that
the Church was roused to action by the Apostle's
command, that it cleared itself of all complicity in the
scandal, that it put public censure on the offender,
that the offence was repented of, and that it was
forgiven.
The Founder of Christianity was reproached with
His lenity to offenders, was blamed for the readiness
with which He welcomed repentant sinners. A scheme
of religion which inculcated the doctrine of God's
love, gentleness, longsuffertng, which insisted on the
impossibility of man's fulfilling all the requirements
of a precise and searching law, and which taught that
man was reconciled to God through the great sacrifice
of Christ, could not be severe to those who sorrow
over their sin, could not but welcome back those who,
roused by an accusing conscience, seek forgiveness
and peace. If the Gospel declares all men to need
salvation, if it warns men of the consequences which
ensue to those who are impenitent, and even implies
that a sharp and purifying fire is needed for them who
have lived sensuously, though not sinfully, it is
CHRISTIANITY LENIENT TO PENITENTS. 135
boundless in its charity to those who seek forgiveness.
To grant this forgiveness is the very essence of the
Christian religion ; to refuse it is to be implacable, and
therefore unforgiven ; to inflict irrevocable punish-
ment is to usurp the functions of God ; to desire that
such punishment should be inflicted is to be of a
spirit of which no man should knowingly be, to league
oneself with the accuser and destroyer. The scheme of
Christianity admits the great value of human life, but it
insists on the transcendant value of the human soul.
The generosity with which Christianity treated
repented sin in primitive times has been permanently
characteristic of its later discipline. It has even
gone beyond the ancient rule, and has all but
ignored discipline itself. But, however lax it has
been in dealing with the practice of its followers,
it has from time to time been implacably severe
on their opinions. It has dealt with morals and
belief respectively as the Index dealt with Lucian,
permitted the publication of all that is gross,
suppressed everything which it considered sceptical.
It has, in the hands of those who pretended to be
its fathers and doctors, committed the greatest cruel-
ties which have ever polluted the world. The dark
fears of tyrants have never devised such torments
for their victims as the disciples of Christ have
perpetrated, and that without the tyrant's plea,
without a word of justification from the teaching of
Him whom they profess to adore, in the face, even,
of His absolute prohibition. They who professed
to be the stewards of God's mercy and grace, de-
veloped an insane fanaticism out of the fears which
13G PAUL OF TARSUS.
they stimulated, and led generations of mankind to
believe that they were vindicating God's honour by
permitting, encouraging, assisting a dark and merciless
hatred against those who were suspected of heresy.
The Church of the earliest ages is not perfectly free
from this attempt to usurp the functions of the Divine
Judge. We shall see that the labours of Paul were
seriously hindered by the narrowness of those who
professed the faith of Christ ; that the last days of his
life were embittered by the apostacy of those who
owed their knowledge of the Gospel to his unwearied
energy ; that for a time he was followed by angry
calumnies. But the fervid zeal of the early Church
was ready to welcome all who accepted the name, and
strove to live the life of the Christian. It had not yet
attempted those definitions which bewildered and rent
it. It was busied with the belief that the work of all
religion is to effect the association of man's soul with
the undoubted Presence of God. It saw that the
space between God and man, which might be infinitely
small, and might be infinitely great, could be filled up
by the person of Christ a Humanity of perfect love,
of unwearying providence, of such attractiveness that
it occupies every affection, sanctifies every emotion,
unites all men by a common bond, but is, withal, the
power, the glory, the wisdom of God the exemplar of
all creation, the strength by which everything is made,
one with God and one with man, the one true
Priest and Mediator. To accept His mediation is to
satisfy man's most earnest longings to guarantee the
law of liberty, or in modern language, the highest and
MEATS OFFERED TO IDOLS. 137
The Church at Corinth put a question of conscience
to the Apostle. The worship of Greece and Rome
involved the offering of sacrifices. The same nations
practised augury by inspecting the viscera of slaugh-
tered animals, these animals being the substitutes for
a more ancient rite, which was common in Mexico at
the time of Cortez, where human sacrifices were offered
for similar ends, the body of the victim being after-
wards disposed of in the same way. Having served
the purpose of intercession or vaticination, the carcases
of these animals were sent to the butcher's shop. It
is probable that by far the largest portion, if not
the whole of the meat exposed for sale had been
previously employed for these sacerdotal objects, and
that a conscientious refusal to purchase any of that
which had been offered to idols, would be equivalent
to abjuring the use of flesh altogether. What is to
be done in such an emergency ? Can we purchase
such food ?
To a person whose early training led him to look
with horror on any ceremonial defilement, however
little it was coupled with a disposition to offend against
the Law, the case was one which must have been
instantly answered in the negative. The Jews were ex-
cessively strict in seeing every condition of ceremonial
cleanliness satisfied in the preparation of all animal
food, and would certainly have rejected this kind of
flesh. But the Apostle thought differently, now at
any rate. The idol is absolutely nothing. There is
but one God, or, in case people believe there are
powers in heaven or on earth, to us at least there is
but One, who is the Author of all, and to whom we
138 PAUL OF TARSUS.
revert, and one Christ, who is the Type of all, and
by whom we subsist. They who really know and
understand these facts have no need to find any diffi-
culty in the case; or, as he subsequently tells the
Romans, there is nothing unclean in itself; or, as
logicians say, there is no objective impurity in any
kind of meat. The uncleanness of food is a subjective
impression.
In a later part of the epistle, the Apostle, after one
of his characteristic parentheses, reverts to the case
of casuistry which has been submitted to him. He
is reminded of it by having alluded to the community
of act, thought, and spirit, which are involved in the
celebration of the Lord's Supper. He compares it
to that fellowship in the sacrifice, which those who
partake of the flesh offered at the sacrifice must needs
reciprocate. And then comes before his mind the
analogy which is presented by participation in flesh
previously offered to idols. To participate in the
sacrifice is devil-worship, and cannot be thought of.
To imagine that the religious feast can be conjoined
with an idolatrous symposium, a heathen revel, is to
profane it, and cannot be endured.
The rule of life is, however, clear. What is lawful
to an individual, and what is expedient or advantageous
to a society are not always identical, and the Christian
is bound to consider his neighbour's good. If you,
who know that the act of idolatrous sacrifice is a mere
farce, see meat exposed for sale, buy it without
question or comment. If you are invited to the house
of a man who is not a Christian, and you care to go,
do so, and eat of any dish set before you, without
MEATS OFFERED TO IDOLS. 139
question or comment. But if you are expressly
informed that the meat has been sacrificed, avoid it
for your own sake and that of the person who informs
you. Better deny yourself than offend those for
whom Christ died. Give no cause of scandal to Jew,
Greek, or the Church of God. Take my example,
who was a Jew to the Jews, and a Greek to the
Greeks, in order to win them over. The example is
that of Christ himself, who could not countenance
intolerance of race or station rebuking sin in all,
encouraging what was hopeful in all.
Whether this liberty which the Apostle advocated
was abused, or they who censured his system of
generous interpretation were offended at such counsel,
is not clear. But the author of the Apocalypse com-
plains that the converts in the Asiatic churches eat
things offered to idols, and that in Thyatira, the
church listened to the woman Jezebel who claims to
be a prophetess, and dares to counsel this practice.
It is difficult to avoid the impression that part of the
vision in Patmos was directed against the liberty
which Paul demanded, though he gave counsel as
to the limits of that liberty. It does not necessarily
follow, that the writer of the vision was aware of
the reasons which induced Paul to decide as he did,
or of the cautions with which he surrounded his
decision. But it was very hard to wean men from the
traditions of the older faith, to induce them to believe
that a ritual which was merely symbolical was not
of universal and permanent obligation. It is hardest
of all to advise successfully, that the spirit of a law
should be discovered, and its letter interpreted by such
140 PAUL OF TARSUS.
a spirit. It may be added that Justin Martyr com-
ments unfavourably on those who give permission to
eat the flesh of heathen sacrifices.
If the Apostle granted liberty in this direction,
he refused it to those who would thrust the Jewish
polity into the Christian Church. He hears that the
Galatians are observing days, months, seasons, years,
the sabbath of the Jews, the new moons, the stated
feasts, the times of the Jewish Law. He dreads that
his labour may have been in vain, when men who have
learned God's will, and, better still, were accepted by
Him, return to such poor and contemptible observances.
For Sabbatarian strictness the Apostle has no respect
whatever. He tells the Romans that he is indifferent
to the recognition of any such day. But when it is
made obligatory by reactionary teachers, he even
denounces the observance of it totally. The curious
fancy which has intruded into some Christian societies
a rigorous observance of Sunday, and which has trans-
ferred to it the extreme strictness of the Jewish
Sabbath, was not only not countenanced by St. Paul,
but spoken of as a matter of utter indifference, except
when it is intended to suggest allegiance to the Jewish
code. Then it was to be repudiated as delusive and
dangerous. Even when that code was imperative, the
Master had taught that the Sabbath had a purely
human purpose; it could not be endured that prejudice
should exalt it into a stringent obligation of religion.
The first day of the week had already been recog-
nised as a convenient occasion for common prayer and
mutual exhortation. According to Josephus, the days
of the Jewish week were known over the civilised
THE SABBATH AND ALMS-GIVING. 141
world ; and the reason why Sunday was selected for
the purposes of devotion is given by Justin. It was
the day of the resurrection, and was thence called the
Lord's day. St. Paul directs that on this day each
man should lay up that which he can spare for the
necessities of the poorer brethren, and observes that
he gave the same direction to the Galatian churches.
The wholesome and purifying custom of systematic
charity characterised the Jewish synagogue, and was
inculcated on the Christian communities. When men
are taught to feel pity for poverty, distress, and sick-
ness, they are insensibly schooled into that duty of
forgiving injuries which Christianity has made an
article of faith.
The Apostle insists that he is justified in drawing
on this fund, or some similar resource, for the excep-
tional supply of his own personal necessities. Occa-
sionally he accepted the spontaneous assistance of his
converts, and particularises some churches which had
been eager to supply his wants. But his delicacy of
feeling his honest pride in the perfect disinterested-
ness of his missionary work, led him to dispense
generally with such acknowledgments of his services.
He abhorred the thought of making the Word of
God a trade of huckstering over the price at which
his office should be compensated. A rare self-
abandonment ! It is as difficult to imitate the self-
denial of an Apostle, as it is to achieve his vigour
and success.
Paul and Barnabas put no charge on the churches,
but the other Apostles did. Nay, they travelled in
company with their wives, the Apostle specially desig-
142 PAUL OF TARSUS.
nating the brethren of the Lord and Peter as having
used this privilege. An early legend represents the
wife of Peter as being- led to death, and as encouraged
O ' o
by him to persevere. It is curious and instructive that
this disclaimer of the Apostle, and contrast of his
habit with the thoroughly lawful practice of the other
Apostles, should inform us of the fact that the en-
forced celibacy of Christian ministers has no warranty
in the conduct of the Apostles, and that the contrary
custom is sustained by their example. But the time
was not come yet in which worldly policy would
recommend a Manichsean tenet as a part of ecclesi-
astical discipline.
The earlier epistles of St. Paul supply us with no
information as to the form of church government
adopted by primitive Christianity. It probably varied ;
its organisation was not settled, nor was it important
that it should be settled. Had there been any per-
manent, or even regular officers in the Corinthian
church, it is impossible but that the Apostle should
have made some reference to them. The Corinthians
do not seem even to have established the diaconate ; for
the contribution which each is expected to make towards
a general collection, is not to be paid to some local
treasurer, but is to be [stored up in the house of the
giver until the Apostle's arrival. Had the Apostle
considered it important that the Corinthians should be
supplied with a settled ministry, he would have
ordained such officers at his previous visit, or in his
first letter to them, which has perished, or would have
directed them to provide themselves with proper
officials from their own body. The disorders which
THE MINISTRY OF TUE CHURCH. U3
lie wishes to check and the correction of which is the
principal motive for writing the epistle are not reme-
died by the establishment of a hierarchy, by providing
a central authority to which disputes could be referred ;
and the same fact may be inferred negatively as to
the other churches whom he addresses, with the
exception of that at Philippi. St. Paul must have
been totally indifferent as to forms of church
government, and would have rebuked any intoler-
ance which might prescribe a uniform rule in all
the churches.
With the exception of the deacon's office, the origin
of which is narrated in the Acts of the Apostles, all that
we know of ecclesiastical officers is obtained from the
writings attributed to Paul. In his letters to Timothy,
the Apostle instructs his favourite disciple in the
qualifications which must be sought for in a bishop or
overseer. These do not materially differ from those of
a deacon. In the letter to Titus, the bishop and the
elder or presbyter are identified. In the First Epistle
of Peter, the word bishop is applied to Christ, and
the Apostle describes himself as an elder or presbyter.
The " angel " or messenger of the seven churches in
the Revelation has been supposed, somewhat super-
fluously, to be the bishop, for it is difficult to see
how a personage whose name implies departure from
a particular locality should be identified with the
resident governor of the Church.
There is not the slightest trace of any hierarchy in
the New Testament, unless, indeed, it be discovered in
the Apostolic College at Jerusalem, whose paramount
authority St. Paul distinctly repudiated. The Church
H4 PAUL OF TARSUS.
was a republic of federal congregations, bound together
by no administrative tie, though closely united by a
common faith and a common charity. Nor is any
Apostle tied to a spot. Titus is sent to ordain elders
in Crete, is spoken of, therefore, as its first bishop, but
in the Second Epistle to Timothy he has gone to
Dalmatia. Timothy is left at Ephesus in the first
epistle, but is certainly not there at the date of the
second, for the Apostle informs him that he has sent
Tychicus thither. Where Timothy was does not
appear, but he was to call at Troas on his journey to
Paul, then in imminent peril at Rome, where, as it
seems from the Epistle to the Hebrews, the disciple
narrowly escaped his teacher's fate. It is an anachron-
ism to speak of an Apostolic bishop, perhaps an
anomaly. That this officer's appointment became
general at an early period of Church history was
due to causes which had no existence, or only an
inchoate existence in the Apostolic age.
The silence of the New Testament on ritual and
Church government contrasts markedly with the en-
ergy with which these accidents of later ecclesiastical
history have been assailed and defended. It can be
shown that the three ecclesiastical offices were all but
universally recognised by the middle of the third cen-
tury, that the function of ordinary bishops was con-
ferred by bishops only, that of presbyters by bishops
and presbyters, while a less marked solemnity accom-
panied the appointment of deacons. According to
Selden, however, who quotes St. Jerome, the bishops
of Alexandria were elected and consecrated by the
presbyters till the Patriarchate of Alexander, in the
EPISCOPACY UNKNOWN IN THE EARLY CHURCH. 145
fourth century. But the ancient missionary did not
delay his labours till he had received a bishop's license.
The best claim to antiquity and independence which
can be put forward on behalf of the ancient Irish and
Gaelic Churches, lies in the fact that St. Patrick ap-
pears to have received no ordination whatever, and
that St. Columba was singularly independent of epis-
copal control.
It is not remarkable that authoritv, which is natur-
/ 7
ally apt to identify a fact with the form in which
it is contained, or by which it is disguised, should,
after the custom of episcopal government became
universal, look on the advocacy of an alternative to
such a form as disaffection, treason, or heresy. But,
unless it can be shown that the form in question is
absolutely essential to the maintenance of order, and
the security of freedom, its expediency is always
open to debate. The policy of episcopal government
has been challenged, partly on account of the excessive
zeal which its supporters have manifested in claiming
for it a Divine authority, partly because it has been
sustained by force against reluctant disputants. Now,
in ecclesiastical as in civil government, a form of
administration which resents criticism on its intrinsic
authority is self-condemned ; that which strives to
suppress all opinion as to its validity, or value, is sure
to provoke active hostility. Had the principle of
episcopacy never affected to rest on Divine right, but
had been content to found its claims on the obvious
convenience of a graduated municipal system, it would
have probably been accepted as the best way in which
religious thought can be encouraged and tested,
K
HG PAUL OF TARSUS
religious action assisted and guided. But its advocates
attempted to make its acceptance a condition of
Christian brotherhood ; to force its establishment on
unwilling minds, and even to inflict the worst atrocities
of civil war on those sectaries who were dissatisfied
with its regimen.
It is said that the establishment of a clerical order,
and, in particular, of a permanent chief officer who
should govern the Church in a town or district, was
founded on a necessity for creating some organisation
against heretics and schismatics. The theory is plau-
sible, but of doubtful proof. It is quite possible that,
had St. Paul created some such officers in Ancyra,
Ephesus, Corinth, his authority would have been more
respected, and the churches of Galatia, Asia Minor,
and Greece would have been spared some follies and
scandals. But it was not the mission of the Apostle
to organise a society, but to teach a religion. He did
not fall into the common error of reformers and mis-
sionaries that of setting up a precise rule of church
government, for he knew well enough that such arti-
ficial systems are in the end constantly fatal to the
movement which they are intended to further. The
Apostle foresaw that his work would be, to a great
degree, undone by intrusive tenets. Before his life
was over, he witnessed more than once the partial or
complete apostacy of churches which he had founded,
and of disciples whom he had taught. But with the
exception of a few, and these very general, directions
to Timothy and Titus, he provides no ecclesiastical
magistracy which should meet these imminent mis-
It cannot but be the case that he put no
COMMUNISM IN THE EARLY CHURCB. 147
reliance in those adventitious aids to orthodoxy. It
is certain, if he had no confidence in them, that he
was guided by his customary prescience. The schisms,
heresies, religious parties, of the second and third
century were innumerable. It was only when State
and Church were allied that outward uniformity was
achieved under the mechanism of an episcopal system.
Apart from the natural tendency to organisation
which a common belief and a common practice en-
gender, the social habits of the early Church rendered
some form of church polity necessary, and even
spontaneous. The primitive Church of Jerusalem
was poor. It adopted a strict communism, an ascetic,
contemplative life. In time, when the resources
which its first disciples threw into the common fund
were exhausted, it lived on the alms of the faithful,
adopting finally the custom of the Jewish hierarchy,
who levied first-fruits on their dispersed brethren.
Hence the early necessity which arose for establishing
a treasury, with officers who should be appointed to
distribute the funds, and who should obviate the charge
of favouritism. These, we are expressly told, were the
motives for establishing the diaconate. In Nablous
the duty of distributing the common fund was intrusted
to the president.
St. Paul was far too wise to attempt the introduc-
tion of this communistic system among the Gentile
converts. He knew well enough that such a scheme
would be fatal to energy, would be fatal to the Church.
For the sake of peace, and as part of his compromise
with the Judaizing party, he recognised their claim,
that the Gentiles should remember the poor, adding,
US PAUL OF TARSUS.
with some irony, that he was ready enough to do so.
Nor did he neglect to carry out this promise, for he
was engaged in this work of charity, or at least
generosity, when the rabble set on him in the temple
at Jerusalem. He had no objection to assist the
poverty of those pious ascetics, of putting their claims
before his converts, though he shrunk from taking any
compensation for his own services.
In course of time, it was inevitable that distress
should arise within these Gentile churches, and it was
notoriously the duty of Christian men to relieve the
wants of their brethren, and indeed of all men. The
profound sense of this generous obligation was one of
the best gifts which Judaism bestowed on Christianity.
The establishment, then, of officers who should collect
the alms of the richer, and assist the wants of the
poorer brethren was necessary. The office was not
limited to the male sex, even when the poorer congre-
gation asked the aid of some rich and distant church.
Phoebe, the deaconess of Cenchrea, gets an introduc-
tion from St. Paul to the churches at Rome, just as a
colonial missionary might be introduced to the benevo-
lence of a wealthy English congregation. The text
implies that her mission was an application for some
pecuniary assistance. It is to be regretted that Pliny,
in his celebrated letter to Trajan, admits that he felt
it expedient to put two of these pious women to the
torture, in order to extract the truth from them. But
the fact shows the important position filled by the
Bithynian deaconess.
The bishop and his presbytery bear an obvious
resemblance to the great or the little Synedrion of the
THE ORIGIN OF EPISCOPACY. 149
Jews. The former of these was constituted in imita-
tion of the seventy elders who were selected by Moses
and associated with him; the latter, containing twenty-
three members, was supposed to be indicated by
certain passages in the book of Numbers. The chief
of this assembly of elders naturally became the bishop.
Among the heretics, says Tertullian, the bishop's
office was temporary, as was also that of the presbyters.
The function of such officers was to keep order in the
Church, to admit the catechumens, and subsequently
to see to the instruction of the young, to preach, and to
govern. The office of a judge in matters of doubt-
ful doctrine, in heresy, and in any breach of the
Church's law, were later developments of the episco-
pal office, but were in course of time naturally
annexed to it, as the organisation of the ecclesiastical
system was more exactly elaborated. It may be added
that, as persecution became more general, the post of
bishop was that of danger, and, among men who were
reproached with a passion for martyrdom, that of
honour. The reader need hardly be reminded that
men who have been persecuted are not always tolerant.
In the history of Christianity, it has frequently been
found that they who have suffered most, and most
patiently for their creed have, when enabled to give
effect to their own judgment, been distinguished for a
savage and relentless orthodoxy.
Again, familiarity with the local magistracy and
council of the Roman colonies may have suggested
analogous institutions in the Church. The earliest
o
churches, when Christianity was so far tolerated as
to permit the erection of permanent buildings (and
150 /'-I UL OF TARSUS.
we read of such buildings as early as the time of
Alexander Severus), were built in the form of the
Roman basilica, or court of justice. On the raised
apex of the building was the bishop's throne, while,
arranged in a semi-circle, on either side, were the seats
of the presbyters the altar being placed just before
the bishop. So the emperor dispensed justice from
his tribunal, while his assessors and advisers sat on
either side of him, and delivered their judgments on
the case before the court. So the Pope sits still
during the highest ceremonies. The name by which
the area of the bishop's jurisdiction is designated is
a word denoting a secular administration. Diocese is
used by Lysias, Demosthenes, and Aristotle, to imply
the control of expenditure. It was transferred to the
Latin language, and in Cicero means the civil divi-
sions, or shires, into which a province was parcelled
out.
We shall search in vain, then, for the details of
ecclesiastical government in the authority of the Apos-
tolic age. They were developed from the necessities
of the position, and from the convenience of adopting
a process of administration which was familiar in
secular experience. Rapidly, episcopacy became one
of the conservative forces of the Church, and so fonned
a barrier against novelties in speculation and practice.
In time, the conflict of opinion, which raged through
the fourth and fifth centuries, was waged by episcopal
champions the success of the combatants varying,
the vehemence and violence of the battle increasing.
After a \\liilc, the patriarchal see became the unit in
the Church, and the bishop a suffragan to the metro-
GROWTH OF THE EPISCOPAL SYSTEM. 151
poli tan, as the presbyters had been made the subjects
of the bishops. Last of all came the struggle for the
primacy, and the submission of the whole Christian
republic to a theological Csesar.
It is not difficult for us to anticipate what would
have been the judgment of the author of the Epistle
to the Galatians on those who would limit the gifts
of God to the subjects of one ecclesiastical administra-
tion. We can easily imagine what he would have
said of those who assert that a missionary effort is
neither successful nor valid, unless it be accompanied
with some definite hierarchical organisation, and who
would therefore intrude on the labours of others, not
that they may plant or water, but that they may clip
the tree into some set shape. With a strong effort he
had disengaged himself from the trammels of a precise
and formal education, and, though willing enough to
concede to the prejudices of others, he insisted that
the shibboleths of ecclesiastical parties were vain in
themselves, and might be tyrannical, reactionary, and
even fatal to religious truth altogether. The heathen
have been converted and enlightened. In place of
some gross fetish, dark rite, or debasing superstition,
they have been told of a Father who forgives, of
a Brother who leads them to the Divine presence,
dwells with them, and familiarises them with that
for which heretofore they ignorantly and fruitlessly
longed. They feel a new nature are new men have
been born again. Then, in the freshness of their faith,
some come down to trouble them, and say, Except
you adopt the ceremonial, the ritual, the forms, the
government of the church to which we belong, ye
152 PA UL OF TARSI'S
cannot be saved. Can any one doubt what advice
Paul would have onven in this crisis, or that his zeal
o
for Christian liberty would have forced him to repeat
that contemptuous wish which he uttered when he
heard of those who troubled the Galatians ?
We can, with no great stretch of fancy, realise the
gathering together at the house of Justus, hard by the
synagogue. Prayers are said by the assembled con-
verts. Psalms are sung, perhaps those with which
the Jews commenced their devotions. Then follows
the reading of the Scriptures, and in particular those
majestic compositions which, full of dignity, wisdom,
warning, hope, have come down to us under the names
of the great Jewish prophets. Then some of those
present narrate their experience of the new gospel,
recount the visions, the ecstatic reveries, the heavenly
sounds with which they have been favoured, such, for
example, as are told in the Shepherd of Hermas.
Others give, in turn, to the whole assembly, or to groups
collected there, short exhortations on the Christian
life and the Christian hope. Afterwards follows the
feast in memory of that which Christ held on the
night that He was betrayed ; then thanks are given
to God, and the assembly disperses with the kiss of
peace.
CHAPTER V.
THERE is probably no man who doubts the historical
existence of The Person some of whose acts and words
are narrated in the gospels. But to many minds He is
represented as an idealised being, the real lineaments of
whose life and teaching it is impossible to discover
in the cloud of myths by which the figure is enveloped.
This opinion has partly risen out of a disbelief in the
supernatural a disbelief which has been growing for
the last century, and which has been strongly assisted
by the progress of physical science, partly out of the
impression that the miracles of Christianity are at once
essential to its truth, and manifestations of an abso-
lutely new power, instead of being, as they profess to
be, the exercise of exalted energy, partly from anta-
gonism to that dogmatism which, professing to be
based on certain positions, the acceptance of which
is necessary to salvation, has inflicted, and still inflicts,
prodigious injuries on mankind. The theory that the
narrative of the gospels is generally mythical, is further v
supported by the fact that it contains discrepancies
and contradictions, which, on the commonest rules of
154 PAUL OF TARSUS.
historical criticism, ought to throw grave doubts ou
the genuineness of the story. This latter argument
seems to me to have very little weight. The notion that
genuine history is characterised by an exact and mi-
nute attention to details, is wholly modern. It may be
doubted whether since no narrative can give all par-
ticulars this method of historical composition does
not, with all its affectation of reality, present a more
unreal presentation of the past, than the artless tale of
an interested, but uncritical observer, whether, in
short, syncretic history is not exceedingly apt to be
untrustworthy or deceptive. Thucydides is the
type of an exact and patient historian. Had, how-
ever, another author, of an equally critical turn of
mind, devoted his attention to the same events, we
should, most probably, have two very different stories
of the Peloponnesian war. The more accurately two
persons narrate their impressions of the same great
events, the wider is sure to be the discrepancy
between them. No two men see facts in exactly
the same light, or direct their attention to exactly
the same circumstances.
Be this as it may. If the narrative of the Evan-
gelists is a myth, it is the most magnificent myth ever
invented. Assume, if you will, that the Jesus of the
gospels is a Jewish doctor, who united in His person,
and at that time, the wisdom of a Rabbi and the
enthusiastic genius of a Hebrew Prophet, and that
two parties the Jewish hierarchy and that bureau-
cracy which got the party name of the Herodians
combined against Him with a trumped-up charge of
treason against the Roman government, and threat-
CHRIST IS THE GOSPELS. 155
ened Pilate a creature of Sejanus, who might be
alarmed at the prospect of being involved in his pa-
tron's ruin into getting this inconvenient teacher put
out of the way by a legal murder. It is plain that
this is the ostensible ground of procedure before
Pilate, and it is equally plain that offence, taken at
the unsparing reproofs which Jesus uttered against
the chiefs of Jewish society, was the motive which
weighed with the traditional parties of Christ's day.
Such an event is no way remarkable. An oligarchy
conspiring against a reformer, and using every effort
to crush him, is a familiar historical occurrence.
But this, though it is, in brief, the prominent fact in
the life and death of Christ, and though it is seen
clearly in the story of the gospels, is not the concep-
tion which occupies the mind of the Evangelists, and
absorbs those who have studied their narratives for
eighteen centuries. In the epic of the Gospel, if we
are to consider these compositions as so many poems,
there is one hero. There are other characters drawn
in very slight outline, but with great clearness, with
rare beauty and nature. The fervid unsteadiness of
Peter, the habitual dejection of Thomas, the tender-
ness of John, the indecision of Nathanael, the zeal of
Zacchseus, the womanly worship of the Magdalene,
the contrast between the sisters of Bethany, are
portrayed in a word or two.
But in the centre of all this is the figure of Christ.
It is not a colossal form which dwarfs the other actors
in the drama, or a prodigious force by the side of
which ordinary human energy is lost, or an overmaster-
ing will whose resistless action compels submission and
156 PA UL OF TARSUS.
obedience, but it is an effulgence which extinguishes
every other light. It is said that the sun at its
highest makes all other flame cast a shadow. Now
the Evangelists were so profoundly conscious of the
luminousness of that Presence, that, to the reader of
the gospels, Christ appears always in the radiant gar-
ment and with the visage of His transfiguration. He
is as the sun in the splendour of which other luminaries
are extinguished. The Humanity of Christ is never
lost sight of, He is always Jesus of Nazareth, but He
is surrounded by an indescribable and mysterious clear-
ness, which we seem to gaze on as the disciples did.
In the simplest and most familiar acts of His life
among them, He is with them, but not of them.
Their relations to Him are not those of a Rabbi to
his pupils, but of men necessarily following and
wondering at a Person who is wholly superior to
themselves, whom they saw constantly, whom they
reverenced profoundly, but whom, as they confess,
they understood imperfectly. He taught as one
having authority, and He spoke and acted with all
the authority of His teaching. If the Christ of
the gospels is a hallucination of the Evangelists,
it is the most amazing and the most attractive con-
ception which the imagination has ever framed.
Attempts have been made more than once to in-
vest an historical personage with ideal characteristics.
Two such attempts were notoriously undertaken in
rivalry of the Christ, as described in the gospels.
These are the life of Apollonius of Tyana by Philo-
stratus, and that of Pythagoras by Jamblichus. The
most unfriendly critic of Christianity would not
CHRIST A ND SOCRA TES. 1 57
contrast these narratives favourably with the gospels.
Besides, both personages are unreal. The existence
of Apollonius is doubted, and the first historian of
Greek philosophy, Aristotle, though he often speaks of
the Pythagoreans, never mentions the name of the
sage who was in after tunes reputed to be the
founder of the sect.
But the draft of an idealised portrait has been
once made, and by the greatest master of dramatic
language which the ancient world produced. Every
effort of his imagination was lavished by Plato on
completing the picture of his Socrates, and the
works of this incomparable writer have come down
to us entire. We know that the picture is ideal,
for we have a homelier portrait of the wisest Greek
from the pen of another disciple whose sketch is much
more true to nature. But Plato did for philosophy
what the great sculptors of antiquity did for the
human form. As they invested their statues of
gods and heroes with their highest conceptions of
human beauty, so Plato conferred on his imaginary
Socrates the possession of the loftiest ideal philosophy.
The parallel between Christ and Socrates has often
been drawn. Both were reformers of society, both
suffered on a false charge of impiety, and in deference
to a false patriotism. But here the parallel ends.
Socrates is the purest example of heathen ethics,
and the Platonic system of ethics is sustained by
a scheme of emanations which are intended to have
the force of a religious authority, and to be confirmed
by the laws of thought. But Christ is the founder
of a religion. Nay, He is the religion itself. Other
158 PAVL OF TARSUS.
men have been shadows of the great Original. Here
is man in the image of God, man as the ancient
seers conceived him to have been originally framed,
man as modern optimists conceive him capable of
becoming. Here is the type of humanity. Hence-
forth religion is the imitation of Christ, because
the nature of God has shone forth in the person
of man. If this conception is a myth, the grandest
poetical character is dwarfed into nothingness beside
the narratives of the reformed tax-gatherer, the
attendant on Paul and Barnabas, the physician of
Troas, and the fisherman of Galilee, who, whatever
may be their discrepancies in detail, agree in this
magnificent ideal of wisdom, holiness, loveliness. If
this conception be a myth, humanity is better in
its myths than it is in its verities.
The easiest road to saintship is by asceticism.
Men are instinctively so enamoured of self-denial-
are so pleased by a contrast to the wretched clamour of
self-interest, which is always stunning them with its pre-
tentious noise, that they will honour a fool if he can
show himself disinterested. They will even acquiesce
in a system which is certain to induce moral
and social evil, even if it furthers the worst am-
bition which a sinister organisation can gratify,
provided only that an ascetic tinge is imparted to those
who found the system. Buddhism is the worship of
asceticism. Brahmanism owes its continued existence
to the austerities of Fakirs and devotees. The
founders of the Roman orders have been almost invari-
ably rigorous ascetics. Some of them have been crazy,
or almost idiotic. There is nothing which is more
CHRIST AND ASCETICISM. 159
cardinal in the discipline of the Roman Church than
the celibacy of the clergy. A married minister of
the Gospel is inconceivable to the most liberal layman
of the Romish Church. Nothing puzzled the con-
temporaries of Talleyrand secularised as he was by
the highest authority, so much as his marriage. And
yet the truest critics of the social state in Roman
Catholic countries have deplored the celibacy of their
clergy have seen that the surrender of all domestic
ties gives a vigour to ecclesiastical organisation and
usurpation which is eminently dangerous to society,
and is wholly inimical to liberty. And in another
manner, though the Greeco-Russian Church enjoins
marriage on the parochial clergy, all authorities latest
among them, Dr. Eckhardt concur in stating that all
ecclesiastical influence is with the monks, and that the
secular clergy are despised and degraded.
Christ totally repudiated asceticism. He is con-
tinually represented at the home of rich men. When
He entered on His mission His first appearance is at
a wedding. He avows that He came eating and
drinking, and we are told that He was calumniated ;.
because He did not decline the hospitalities which were
offered Him. He recognises the stern courage of John
the Baptist, asserts that he was a prophet, nay, even
more than a prophet, but speaks slightingly of his
pretensions and position as compared with those who
are within the kingdom of heaven. He taught,
to be sure, that men who follow Him must deny
themselves, He put a sharp test to the rich young
man who would be His disciple, He avowed that
wealth was a danger, and inculcated reliance on the
160 PAUL OF TARSUS.
providence of God for the supply of daily necessities.
The sacrifice of one's own interest may be a condition
of the highest morality and religion which the
Gospel inculcates, but Christ never makes asceticism
the end of life, as the purifier of the soul.
It is evident that the disciples who walked with
Christ, were struck most of all with His insight into
men's hearts. He knows man thoroughly. He divines
the thoughts of individuals, anticipates their words,
reads their very soul. This is the power which is
always present in Him. Such a conception is perfectly
true to nature. To know mankind is the greatest
manifestation of what we call genius. To interpret
public opinion, and thereupon to guide it, is the highest
effort of statesmanship. To know all this, and to be
able also to exercise the same power in particulars,-
to discern by an instant intuition all that passes
through the mind of another, is to be possessed of the
Wisdom and the Power of God. Now this was what
the Evangelists perpetually recognised in their inter-
course with Christ.
Joined to this marvellous insight into man, Christ
had another notable characteristic, that of profound
sympathy for suffering, infinite tenderness for the
weak, boundless charity for the penitent. The re-
proach was cast at Him that He was the friend of
publicans and sinners. The rich man who made Him
a feast is amazed at His gracious bearing to the
penitent woman who shed tears on His feet. His
parable of the Prodigal Son a story which has taught
repentance and hope to thousands is the narrative of
His own bearing to the sinful soul which yearns for
THE COMPASSION AT ENESS OF CHRIST. 101
pardon. So, again, with His commiseration for the
widow at Nain, His compassion for the bereaved
parents in Galilee, His sympathy with the sisters of
Lazarus. His unceasing benevolence to the sick and
7 O
ailing. There is nothing more touching in the life
of Christ than His welcome of children to His arms,
and His sorrow at the impending fate of Jerusalem.
Now, if wisdom is divine, love joined to wisdom is
even more divine. It is the rarest of conjunctions,
but the most winning of forces. It turns a terror
into a Providence. This exact scrutiny into motives,
this distinctness with which thought or purpose is
known, would frighten and deter man from companion-
ship with so acute and clear-sighted an observer. But
when this knowledge is interpreted by love, it becomes
infinitely attractive. And the Christ of the gospels
is a personage in whom these qualities combine. He
has even a word of compassion for the miserable
Judas, He utters a prayer for the forgiveness of them
who crucified Him.
The Jews, nineteen centuries ago, were keenly ex-
pecting the coming of the Messiah. The teaching of
the Rabbis had discovered this manifestation in such
phrases as " the Word of God," " the power of God,"
" the wisdom of God." Some speculated on the mys-
tic numbers in the Book of Daniel. Some, mindful
of the glorious era of David and Solomon, materialised
the promise made to the Fathers. This was the popu-
lar view. The multitudes were ready to make Jesus
a king. They joined gladly in His processional entry
into Jerusalem an act which evidently alarmed the
chief men in the city. The last expectation of the
162 PAUL OF TARSI'S.
Twelve, according to the narrative in the Acts of the
' O
Apostles, is that He should restore the kingdom to
Israel. But the wisest men anticipated only a moral
revolution a fulfilment of the prophecy of Zechariah,
" The Lord shall be King of the whole earth. In that
day there shall be one Lord, and His name one."
The doctrine of Christ, " The kingdom of God is within
you," had no strange sound to Jewish ears. The office
of the Word, according to the Talmudists, is to en-
lighten the man. The young man who fulfilled the
Law was not far from the kingdom of God. The Jew
could read and understand the words of Hosea,
" What does the Law demand of thee, except it be
to do justice, and to love mercy, and to be ready to
walk with the Lord thy God."
During the life of Christ the two characteristics
o
which I have referred to were constantly before the
view of His disciples. Of course they did not believe
that such a person could be delivered into the hands
of His enemies. When Peter repudiated the sugges-
tion, he, no doubt, spoke the thoughts of all those who
were with him. It is probable that Judas did not
intend to do more than take money for assisting in an
attempt which he was persuaded would fail. Is it
possible to believe that John the evangelist, who was
the especial object of Christ's favour, and who was
known to the high priest, could have witnessed what
went on in the pontiff's palace and the prsetorium, and
have been silent, if he had not been convinced that
this judicial procedure would have ended in an acquittal,
or in some manifestation of power, by which Christ
would have passed out from the midst of His enemies?
THE DEATH AXD RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 103
Had not Christ said that He was greater than Solo-
mon and Jonah the king and the prophet who
severally affected the imagination of the Jew most
powerfully ? For the one was the most splendid
monarch of Eastern story ; the other was the prophet
who, having by his counsel restored the kingdom of
Israel to the dimensions it reached in the days of the
great king, left unwillingly his office of chief minister
at the court of the second Jeroboam, in order to de-
nounce the sin and predict the fall of Nineveh the
great of the rival, and finally, the conqueror of Israel.
The narrative of the gospels testifies to the con-
sternation of the disciples at the judicial murder
of Jesus. But their sorrow soon gave way to joy.
They were informed that He was risen again from
the dead, and this by eye-witnesses of His revived
Presence. The body was no longer in the tomb.
They who do not believe that death has ever
loosed its hold on those whom it has once occupied,
are constrained to adopt the hypothesis, that the
narrative of Christ's resurrection is a fraud, or a
delusion, or both. If the disciples did dispose of
the body of Christ, and persisted in proclaiming that
He had risen, till they were overpowered by an
hallucination which had its beginnings in deceit and
falsehood, and if, while occupied by this imagination,
they adopted a severe and ascetic life, an exact
and precise morality, it is not easy to find the
parallel to such a delusion. No rational person can
doubt, that the belief in the resurrection of Christ
was entertained as firmly by all those who professed
His religion, as the belief in their own existence
1G4- PAUL OF TARSUS.
was. It is proclaimed before God and man, not,
be it observed, for any material end, such as a
scheme of conquest, or the foundation of a spiritual
despotism, to be exercised by those who could induce
their hearers to acquiesce in a supernatural authority,
but by men who are charged with advocating so
spiritual a system, that they ignored home, friends,
country, life itself, for the sake of Him whom they
said was risen.
It seems impossible to doubt the good faith of
those simple and devout men, who could have had
no possible motive for committing a fraud, and per-
petuating a falsehood. Writing twenty-five years
after the event, the apostle Paul states that Christ
was seen by Peter, by the Twelve, by five hundred
at once most of whom, he added, were still alivo
at the time of his writing ; by James, and again,
by all the apostles. Belief in the resurrection of
Christ is not made to depend on the testimony of
one or two women, who have visited the sepulchre
at the early dawn of a spring morning and been
deceived by some appearance and sound, or upon
the assertion of some ecstatic visionary, whose imagi-
nation has represented the Person whom he had
followed so long, the voice which he had so often
listened to. The evidence is cumulative ; and, as
far as one hears, no single person who had averred
that he had seen the risen Christ ever shook off the
impression or conviction, or discovered that he had
been in error. There is no parallel to so general,
so persistent, a delusion.
According to the narrative in the Acts given
TESTIMONY TO THE RESURRECTIOX. 105
three times over, and purporting, on two of these
occasions, to come from Paul's own lips the conver-
sion of the Apostle was due to a vision of the risen
Christ. Without relating the circumstances, St.
Paul tells the Corinthians that he had an interview
with Jesus, and was thereupon an independent witness
of His resurrection. Elsewhere, he rests his equality
with the old apostolate on the ground that "he
had seen the Lord." The author of the Clementines
disputes the fact, in order to dispose of his claims
to such a dignity. It is clear, then, that when
Paul wrote his epistles there w r ere very many persons
who were ready to give their testimony to the resur-
rection of Christ, to their having seen and conversed
with Him.
The affirmation of the death of Christ is the basis
of the doctrine which asserts the redemption of man.
The means by which man can be restored, or be
created anew, or can commence the process of per-
fection, is the suffering of Christ. That the progress
of humanity is achieved by the self-sacrifice of those
who devote themselves to its good, is a tenet in every
religion, and is confirmed by overwhelming experi-
ence. The sacrifice of Christ is the apotheosis of this
principle. Whether one considers the merit of the
sufferer, or the excellence of the doctrine which he
taught, the example of Christ is the chief illustration
of the seeming paradox, that society gains by its
losses, that it conquers by its sacrifices, that a righteous
cause triumphs because it spares neither life nor labour
in the prosecution of its claims, in the vindication of
itself. Christ was the great atonement, but man is
16G PAUL OF TARSUS.
always engaged in the work of atonement for his
fellow-man, as long as vice, sin, ignorance, have to be
combated, wrong redressed, right" done. Too often,
indeed, the sacrifice and suffering are wasted because
the immediate end is false or unworthy. Whatever
else may be its merits, Christianity, in the hands of
Paul, puts prominently forward the statement of the'
condition under which man may be regenerated, and
declares that this sacrifice is vain, even in the person
of its highest Exemplar, unless the same course be
followed by those who accept the Gospel. Other
apostles had affirmed the doctrine that the sacrifice
of Christ is the salvation of man. Paul recognised
the ethical significance of the statement, extended
and developed it, and made it a permanent rule of
conduct. The atonement of Christ is not in the hands
of this Apostle a magical purification, but an example,
the imitation of which is the duty, the glory, the hope
of them who would be like Him; and if stress is some-
times laid on the immediate effect of Christ's death in
those who are enlightened, and less emphasis is put on
the continuity of the work which man does for man, it
must be remembered that the apostolic generation
confidently looked forward to the termination of the
world within the lives of those who had witnessed
the crucifixion.
To do unsought and unrewarded benefit to mankind
for the sake of God is the essence of the Christian
life. It is that which gives perpetual vitality to Chris-
tianity, which enables it in spite of its having been often
enslaved to a coarse, harsh, false, political system, in
>pite of its being perverted by dogmatic logomachies,
THE DOCTRINE OF SELF-SACRIFICE. 1G7
and presented as a set of opinions, to assist and retain
the foremost place among civilising agencies. The
essence of Christianity is not in the priest, but in
the sacrifice. It is to Christianity that we owe
school, hospital, reformatory, and other allied agencies
by which it is hoped that sin and vice will be
discouraged and diminished. It is very possible
that many of those who are virtually under its
influence, decline, as far as words go, to acknowledge
its authority. But men are constantly, for good as
well as evil, controlled by traditions, habits, associa-
tions which they do not recognise, or which they
even repudiate. Other religions have inculcated
beneficence, almsgiving, charity ; but Christianity is
peculiar, in having taught that man can save man,
and that he ought to save man. The civilisation
of man is not an induction, but an experience, a
harmony, an adaptation of those forces which may
enlighten him, and leave him free.
The sacrifice of Christ, and the significance of that
sacrifice, are deduced from the admitted facts of His
trial and execution. Both trial and execution were
due to personal animosity on the part of the leading
Jews, who stirred up the populace to demanding the
death of Jesus. People talk of the fickleness of a
mob, and ignore the deliberate malignity of an oli-
garchy. There is reason to believe that the mob was
not one of native, but one of foreign Jews, who,
coming up to the temple in crowds, that they might
celebrate the Passover, were easily wrought to mad-
ness by hearing that Jesus had said He would destroy
the temple. Another mob of foreign Jews, twenty
168 PAUL OF TARSUS.
years or more after this time, was roused to the same
madness, when they were informed that Paul had
brought Greeks within the Jewish precinct. In these
days, the Russian of the Greek Church, and the
Frenchman of the Latin, are more easily driven to
frenzy by tales about the profanation of their churches
in Palestine, than the resident Christians of Jerusalem
are. When they visit the sacred places, they are far
more fanatical than those are who habitually dwell on
the spot. Nor is the more sober judgment of those
reformed churchmen who do not stimulate the religious
sense by symbolism or local feeling free from liability
to similar impressions. Facts, says the Roman poet,
have far less influence on the ear than they have on
the eye. But distance lends intensity to sentiment.
The resurrection of the body was a fixed article in
the creed of the orthodox Jews. It was affirmed by
Christ generally. He predicted it of Himself. As
has been stated before, it was believed to have oc-
curred in the person of Christ, and there were a host
of witnesses who were ready to affirm that they had
seen Him in life and in the body whom the chiefs
of the Jewish nation had persuaded Pilate to crucify.
It may be said that the body of Christ was not iden-
tical in its physical qualities with that of His life and
passion. He appears suddenly, and disappears as sud-
denly. The corporeity of the risen Jesus was unlike
that of ordinary men, but it could, according to the
narrative of the fourth gospel, be touched and handled.
According to Luke, the risen Christ actually ate with
His disciples, and soon afterwards disappeared, being
carried away to heaven. But no other gospel ascribes
THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 109
to Him those peculiarities of ordinary life, and the
authenticity of the passage in St. Luke's gospel is
not free from doubt.
Paul was by education a believer in the resurrection
of the body, and had he remained constant to the faith
of his youth, he would have insisted as energetically
on this tenet as a necessary part of the creed of a
spiritual religion, as he did after his acceptance of
Christianity. Then he had seen a Person who had
certainly been dead. The tenet had been verified
by a prerogative instance. Accepted as a fact, the
resurrection of Christ became the basis of that doctrine
according to which Christ unites and permeates all
those who are His redeemed. This is His grace, His
peace, His presence or indwelling. So strongly is
the resurrection of Christ identified with the spiritual
life, that the Apostle cannot conceive the death of
Christ to be effectual for the regeneration or salvation
of mankind, except on the hypothesis of His subsequent
resurrection. " If Christ," says he, "has not risen,
that which we preach is valueless, and your trust is
delusive. We too are found out to have given false
evidence of God, for we have borne our testimony of
Him that He has raised Christ, whom He has not
raised, if there be no resurrection of the dead. If
Christ be not raised, your confidence is vain, ye are
still in your sins ; nay, they who have slept in Christ,
have perished. As it is, however, Christ is," he
adds (using a metaphor familiar from the custom
which prevailed among the dispersed Jews, of for-
warding offerings to the temple in Jerusalem), " the
first-fruits of the dead."
170 /'.1TZ OF TARSUS.
Paul gives no reason for this connection of the
o
resurrection of Christ with the hopes which he held
out in his gospel, beyond this statement, that the
resurrection is the guarantee of man's immortality,
and thereupon of that compensation for the sufferings
of life, in which the religious sense assures men. He
held, it would seem, that unless there be some fresh
garment for the spirit of man, unless it be clothed on
by some eternal vestment, it has no individuality, no
existence. The body is the instrument of natural
life, and the spiritual life of the hereafter needs some
similar instrument by which to exhibit and continue
its energies. In short, if the death of the body be
not a prelude to its resurrection under some new and
perpetual organisation, death annihilates the spirit
simultaneously with its separation from that physical
being which manifestly perishes. To die is not to
live, unless the life finds some other dwelling-place.
"We know," he says, in his Second Epistle to the
Corinthians, " that if our earthly house, which is a
tent, be dissolved, we have a habitation from God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
In this we groan, longing to put on our heavenly
home, to be found clothed, not naked. We who are
in this tent groan under our burden, since we do not
wish to be stripped, but to be clothed fully, that the
mortal part of our nature may be absorbed by life."
The immortality of the Greek philosophers was
vague and shadowy. That force, genius, virtue, could
be irretrievably lost with the death of the man in
whom they were existent, was an intolerable sugges-
tion. That the outrageous injustice with which the
JMMOR TA LITY A ND CONSCIO USNESS. 1 7 1
life of antiquity was too frequently acquainted,
with which all social life is too familiar, should
not be rectified by some Power, and at some
future time, was so shocking a sentiment, that it
could not be entertained without imperilling even
that measure of justice which existing society has been
able to secure, and without which society would come
to an end. But how, and in what form, the soul's
immortality and felicity was to be secured, was left
indefinite. Plato expounds his conception of the soul
of man after death in the form of a vision, vouchsafed
to Er the Armenian a myth which, probably, had
a Syrian origin. But, while the psychological exis-
tence of the human soul was affirmed, the physio-
logical conditions of its existence are ignored. The
good are rewarded, the bad are punished. But how
do the former apprehend their felicity? how do the
latter become sensible of their misery ? To know and
to feel, to enjoy and to endure, to be sad and to be
happy, require the existence of some organisation,
through and by which the man receives his impressions.
The road of knowledge is by experience and sensation.
How can a disembodied spirit preserve its conscious-
ness, which is its being ? The instinct which refuses
to acknowledge annihilation is intelligible, but what is
the process by which identity is secured ?
With this difficulty Paul attempted to grapple.
Nothing appears to indicate more clearly how the
Apostle's mind was impregnated with the formularies
of the Peripatetic school, than the exposition which
he gives of the means by which the personality of
the man may be secured in the life to come. Here,
1 7 -2 PA UL OF TA RS US.
however, it may be necessary to say a few words on
the psychology of that school of ancient thought, from
which, as the writer believes, the phraseology of the
Apostle's statement is derived.
In the Aristotelian philosophy, all the phenomena
of life and consciousness were comprised in one word,
for which {^vxn} there is no English equivalent. Per-
haps the nearest is " the vital principle." The word
is applied to the spontaneous development of any
organism whatever with which Aristotle was experi-
mentally familiar. Had he been acquainted with the
laws of crystallization, there is every reason to think
that he would have extended the application of the
word so as to include this development, for he does not
confine his term to the phenomena of volition only.
The Aristotelian philosophy takes cognisance of the
facts of life and nature. But it takes no note of the
transcendental and supernatural. It is entirely sub-
jective, entertaining no other evidence than that of
sensation and consciousness, if, indeed, it makes any
marked distinction between these two terms. It is
possible, the philosopher argues, that there may be
a life of the man which transcends experience. It is
certainly unpopular to dispute the -opinion that the
man is immortal, though the body perishes. But of
such an existence there is no evidence. Nay, it U
impossible to conceive how it may be, however much
we believe that it is, because we are familiar only
with the machinery by which impressions are received
and by which thought is evolved from those impres-
sions. The instrument of thought is in the body,
ami tin- }><xly perishes.
THE PA ULINE PSYCI10LOG Y.
The general principle of life, or of spontaneous as
opposed to derivative motion, exhibits various stages
of development, from mere growth to appetite and
will. The highest manifestation of life, that of man,
includes the phenomena of the more imperfect forms
of existence. Man, besides his own proper organism,
has that of the brute and the plant ; he grows and feels
as well as thinks. The A.ristotelian psychology, in
brief, is incomplete Darwinism, differing from it mainly
in the fact, that the progression of existence is con-
ceived as co-ordinate, instead of being due to natural
selection, this phrase being a euphemism for the fact
that the strong prey on the weak, or at least narrow
those opportunities of life which the weak would
have in the absence of the strong.
Such an organisation Paul recognises as a " natural
body." But he assumes that this natural body contains
the germ of a higher organisation, which is destined
to receive that part of man's complex nature, "his
spirit," and which survives dissolution. The difference
between the man of physical creation, and the man
of the new or spiritual creation, lies in the fact that
the former is life, the latter spirit. The former is
of the earth, is the vessel of the potter. The latter
is the Lord from heaven. The realities of physical
existence are distinct from those of the heavenly
nature, though Christianity is the exaltation of the
former to the latter. To them who are regenerate
the higher life is potentially present, whether they
have died or are alive. This only is sure, that when
He comes, the transformation w r ill be instantaneous
and complete. The dead will rise in their new nature,
174- /M UL OF TARSUS.
the living will be changed. The risen Christ is the
exemplar and prototype of that glorious body which
man will receive in exchange for the weakness of his
present habitation, and in which he will preserve
his individuality. The hope, however, of this resur-
rection seems to be limited for the language used
by Paul is sometimes perplexed and ambiguous to
those who are regenerate, in whom is sown that
germ of a new life which endures beyond death and
the grave, and in the consciousness of which the
Christian can exult over his last and his greatest
enemies.
St. Paul does not accept that coarser theory of a
resurrection which confers on the spirit of man the
same organism that he had and used during life. It
must be something wholly different. It seems
likely that this idea of the spiritual body though
it had not been unfamiliar to him in the school of
Gamaliel was framed on the Vision which he had
seen on the road to Damascus, and which was im-
pressed so indelibly on his memory. Christ is in the
heavens, the place of light, from whence comes life.
Hence, relieved of the ordinary conditions under
which the human body is limited by the grossness
of its nature to one spot, He can show Himself in His
glory to the furious enemy who is afterwards to be-
come the faithful Apostle can warn, reprove, console,
instruct him. And though we have no knowledge
of what that nature is, we do know this, that we shall
be like Him. It is plain that the Apostle had identi-
fied the doctrine of man's immortality with the resur-
tion of Jesus, and that he therefore holds a middle
THE NATURE OF THE RISEN BODY. 175
position to that immortality of the pure intelligence
which the Greek philosopher and the Jewish allegorist
of Alexandria accepted, and to that perpetuity of
physical impulses and feelings which has been fre-
quently held by Christian teachers of a later epoch,
and also believed by many uncivilised races, to consti-
tute the only true immortality of man. Many of
these creeds, which strongly affirm the spirituality of
God, as strongly affirm a material, and even sensuous
resurrection. This, as is well known, is peculiarly
the case with Mohammedanism. Our own age and
race has developed a still grosser theory in Morinonism,
which asserts the being of a material god, and promises
its devotees a voluptuous immortality.
The researches of modern science have shown that
the earth is a vast graveyard, wherein are buried
not only the bodies of innumerable creatures, but
where extinct forms of life, more numerous by far
than all existing organisms, lie entombed. Man,
the latest born of these forms, has inherited for
his portion the sepulchre of a thousand successive
worlds. The eternal hills of his experience are, in
comparison with regions which look far less permanent,
recent structures, built by some vast upheaval out
of the bed of a deep but geologically a modern sea.
The only unchanged form is the ever-shifting ocean,
which has at one time engulfed, at another relinquished
the land here and there. And the succession of these
epochs involves so prolonged a period of time, that
the mind is wholly lost in attempting to give reality
to that which is as illimitable as space. Creation
reaches back through an incalculable series of years,
17G PAUL OF TARSUS.
during which the earth, now shaken by internal fire,
now reeking with a continuous summer, now bound
in permanent winter, was rushing round the sun,
and hurrying with the company of its fellow-planets
through space. The beginning is infinitely distant.
Man is a being of yesterday, even when the remotest'
period which modern speculation suggests is assigned
to his appearance on the earth. There are a few
inhabitants of the primeval seas w T hich have preserved
their organisms, which have remained unaltered
through these multitudinous cataclysms which have
overtaken the earth, through those furious storms
which at various periods have desolated creation.
But man has only appeared in the most recent epoch
of the world's history. Can his existence be the
sign of the world's last renovation, of a peaceful
and steady growth, the consummation of which is a
new heavens and a new earth ? To the men of the
apostolic age, the earth had waxed old, and was ready
to pass away. If we, so many centuries after their
time, hold to their faith, the race of man was in the
infancy of its true destiny, was commencing its
career, when they taught that the end of all things
was at hand.
Had the facts of modern science been unveiled to
the eyes of Paul, it does not appear that his exposi-
tion of the resurrection would have been different.
It may be true, he might have answered, that tho
experience which we have of life connects it with an
organism which is born, grows, decays, perishes.
But the experience which we appeal to is assuredly
bounded. We may assert, but erroneously, that
THE PAULINE TEACHING AND MODERN SCIENCE. 177
no other being exists beyond that which we can
comprehend. There are, it may be, other forms in
which life is continued, nay is exalted, of which our
faculties are not and cannot be cognisant, but after
which the soul, the heart, the spirit of man strives,
in which it trusts that it may escape annihilation.
This eager search after life and immortality is the
germ of that perpetual and unchangeable existence
which resides in this body of death, which ever
prompts the man to treat his present life as the
preparation for an unlimited eternity. Such a longing
for the perfection of God is a gift of unspeakable
value to the possessor, is a cause of immeasurable
benefit to man, is by its very presence a pledge that
it will be certainly satisfied, however little its fulfil-
ment comes within the range of experience, or agrees
with its inductions.
The Gospel of redemption and immortality were,
according to Paul's teaching, to be preached and
offered to all men. It is evident that the Apostles at
Jerusalem shrank from carrying the tenets of Chris-
tianity beyond the pale of the Jewish nation. The
Acts of the Apostles give no colour to those legends
which scatter the Twelve in various parts of the earth.
St. Paul's words in the Epistle to the Galatiaus indi-
cate that the Apostles were at Jerusalem at the time
of his conversion ; that they were there three years
later, when he went up to visit Peter, but stood aloof
from them ; and suggest that they were there still,
fifteen years after the first visit, when the mission of
Paul to the Gentiles was finally admitted, the teaching
of the Jewish converts being reserved to Peter. The
M
17 PAUL OF TARSUS.
absence, too, of any allusion to any other apostles in
the other epistles and writings of the Apostolic age,
seems conclusively to show that the Twelve lived
together in poverty and prayer at Jerusalem. At
last, Jerusalem having been destroyed, and nearly all
having been removed by death, John, in extreme old
age, is said to have migrated to Asia Minor.
The sincerity of conviction, the flexibility of charac-
ter, the sagacity which discerned what was essential,
the rigour with which the essentials of Christianity
were insisted on, the tact with which men are treated,
and the perfect catholicity of Paul's mind, gifted the
Apostle with peculiar influence in commending his
doctrine to the Gentile world. He is troubled with
no scruples about race, rank, sex ; and he does not
hamper himself with any attempt after effecting a
uniformity among his disciples or converts. Critics
have affected to discover evidence compromising the
authenticity of certain epistles as, for example, those
to the Philippians, one to Timothy, and to Titus in
the fact that a hierarchy, or, at least, a scheme of
general office-bearers, in certain churches is recognis-
able in these epistles. By itself, the objection does
not seem to me to possess the least importance. Had
a particular form of church government been pre-
scribed in any of these epistles, the acceptance of
which was to be deemed necessary, or even important,
grave doubts might well be thrown on the document,
or, at least, on the passage in which such a rule might
be found. But Paul was absolutely indifferent to the
mere organisation which a Christian society might
adopt. The man who bade that the service of the
THE PAULINE GOSPEL CATHOLIC. 179
Church should be conducted decorously and in an
orderly fashion, set no store by any particular process
for effecting these ends. He even puts little stress
on the sacraments. He did not, it seems, practise
baptism himself, except in rare instances. He makes,
except on one occasion, no marked allusion to the
Lord's Supper. With him religion was no outward
form, however venerable or sacred it might be, but an
inward light, bright enough to guide the whole heart
and conscience, and yet capable of being diffused over
the nature of the humblest and weakest.
The Christianity of Paul was the first religion which
invited all men into the brotherhood of the Faith. It
is true that it did not pretend to attack the prevalent
usages of society, to counsel resistance to the imperial
system, to seek reform through political agencies, to
construct the secular life of the existing generation
anew, to prescribe a form of polity, to break down
any customary habit which is not in itself morally
vicious. It was intended to be a community within
a community, which was aggressive only by passive
resistance to errors of opinion and grossness of practice,
which was intended to absorb, not to reconstitute
society. To use a modern phrase, Christianity trusted
to moral forces only, and trusted to them without
making any reference to their indirect significance.
As has been before observed, the conduct of the early
Christians was exceedingly like that of the Quakers
of Penn's age. They took no active part in opposition
to popular practices, but protested passively against
them. Hence, at first sight, the Christianity of the
Pauline gospel seems to be wanting in that force
180 PAUL OF TARSUS.
which reprobates or checks social and political wrong.
Nay, some have gone so far as to argue that it con-
dones or encourages the evil which it does not directly
attack. Thus, it has been said to have counselled
acquiescence in slavery, to have justified the extra-
vagances of despotism, to have substituted a dreamy
quietism for that active resistance to the coarse
excesses of insolent power which may be the highest
duty that man can fulfil for his fellows.
But this charge is in many particulars unjust, and
even unintelligent. It ignores the circumstances of
the age in which Christianity was developed. It
ignores the fact that the triumphs of passive resist-
ance are more numerous, and have been more lasting,
than those of energetic opposition. It fails to notice
that a creed, which puts all men on the same level
of necessity, and offers all the same magnificent hopes,
is the heaviest discouragement to secular distinctions.
It does not acknowledge that the genius of Christianity
is a perpetual assertion of the equality of man, nor
see that it meets that haughtiness which affects
superiority over the general lot of humanity, or which
disdains to acknowledge any right or any justice
which has not been conceded by power, with the
example of Christ, who made Himself of no reputa-
tion. It is the essence of Christianity, as taught by
Paul, that man is bound to consider his duty before
he asserts his rights, and that there is no claim which
he can set up for eminence, which he ought not to
substantiate by the service which he has done for it.
Hence, the natural tendency of the Christian temper
is towards political and social equality. The Judaizing
PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 181
teachers would have made it communistic, and Paul's
good sense detected the peril of such a theory. If we
look at his teaching from a modern point of view,
the Apostle, in so far as he contemplated the recon-
struction of society by the aid of Christianity, accepted
the two leading conditions of what is called popular
government, that all social distinction should be
personal, and that it should be won by public service.
A sufficient refutation of the statement, that the
social theory of primitive Christianity sustained or
encouraged the harshness of the relations which sub-
sisted between master and slave, is to be found' in the
eagerness with which the latter accepted it. Slavery,
it is true, was a far less bitter lot in antiquity than
it has been made within societies which are professedly
Christian. The emancipation of slaves was common.
They were frequently treated with kindness and
consideration. They were permitted to acquire
property, and even to purchase their own freedom.
Their condition improved under the empire ; for
slavery is never more cruel than when it is practised
by a people having free political institutions, is always
least onerous when all classes of society are in the
grasp of a common despotism. It was made a social
reproach against Christianity that it enrolled such
numbers of slaves among its members. Bishops, in
early times, were elected from this class of persons.
Thus, Callistus, bishop of Rome 218-233, was, accord-
ing to Hippolytus, a slave of one Carpophorus, a con-
fidential person in Csesar's household ; and, if we can
trust the report of this author, who vouches for his
personal acquaintance with the facts, he was a swindler
182 PAUL OF TARSUS.
and knave. There will be no great attraction
in a religion which does not seek to ameliorate the
condition of those who embrace it. Besides, it is
known that from early times, the possession of slaves
was considered by Christian writers and teachers as
contrary to the Christian notion of justice, which
imposes the duty of doing as one would be done by.
It is certain that this notion has finally succeeded in
proscribing the practice as antichristian and inhuman,
and that oppressed races have to thank the teaching
of the New Testament for immunity from slavery.
This' doctrine of absolute equality between the
members of a common religion was accepted in a
still more practical form by Mohammed and his
successors. As the promoters of this religion appealed
to the sword, they were able to enforce such a
general equality. It must be allowed that the
success of Mohammedanism was as much due to
the promise of equal privilege, in the case of all
who accepted the new faith, as it was to the valour
and enthusiasm of primitive Islam. The facility
with which this religion is even now extended is
to be accounted for by the fact that it is constantly
brought in contact with a system of privileged castes
and races, and that it effects the destruction of all these
distinctions by conferring equal dignity on all its
converts. It does not fall within the compass of
this work to discuss the causes which have arrested
the civilisation which the Mohammedan creed achieved,
and which have even caused it to retrograde from
the height which it reached ten centuries ago, at
Bagdad and Cordova. It is sufficiently clear that the
THE WORD OF GOD. 183
doctrine of the natural equality of man within the
limits of the faith, and the comparative tolerance with
which Islam treated dissentients from its tenets, account
for the remarkable phenomenon of a few Bedouins
establishing a mighty empire, and developing science
and philosophy, when these were almost unknown
names to a mediaeval Christianity. Nor is it less
clear, that the chief reason of the decline of Islam
does not arise from its contact with European civilisa-
tion, but from the barbarism of its later political
system, and from the fanaticism of its Rabbis.
As, according to Paul, the beginning of the Chris-
tian life was trust in Christ, so the perseverance of
the Christian was due to the grace of Christ, or, as
it is sometimes called, the Spirit of Christ. The
teaching of the book of Proverbs personified the
wisdom of God ; the communications made from the
Almighty to the Prophets of the Jewish monarchy,
of the- captivity, and of the restoration, were effected
by the instrumentality of the Word of God ; and
these conceptions were still more fully solidified in the
book of Sirach, in the Wisdom of Solomon, and in
the Alexandrian theosophy. That God therefore
visited man by the instruments whom He had created
or chosen, was a familiar form of thought to the Jews
of the Christian era ; and when Paul speaks of Jesus
as the power by which the union between God and
man was achieved, he is using language which was
perfectly intelligible to his hearers. In course of time
the Word of God had ceased to be an abstraction, and
was conceived to be a Person. But the Personification
was complete when this conception was united to an
184 PAUL OF TARSUS.
historical man, who alone among men had, after
suffering the common lot of humanity, vanquished the
common enemy, was risen, was glorified, was out
of the dominion of death, and had become the
assurance of life and immortality.
If men have any belief in God, and if they acknow-
ledge, in their relations to Him, anything beyond
what is purely secular if they do not allow His
personal existence to disappear in Pantheistic gener-
alities, they are forced to recognise some mediator
between themselves and Him. Thus, in the language
of Paul, Moses was the mediator between the God
of the Hebrews and that people, as Mohammed is
said to be to Islam. So, in a far higher sense, be-
cause gifted with a far more exalted being, Christ is
the Mediator of the new covenant, as well as the
great atonement for mankind. And just as, during
His life on earth, His Gospel formed a perfect rule
of life a sufficient exposition of the faith a full
ground of hope, so He is present by His power, His
Spirit, His grace, though He no longer appears to the
ordinary vision of men. He is known better to the
believer than He was known to His disciples in the
days of His flesh. Whatever other intermediary there
might have been previously between God and man, such
agencies are superfluous in the spiritual presence and
life-giving power of Christ. He unites all the im-
perfect and divided functions of priest, angel, spirit,
in the intercourse which He holds with His people,
in the grace, peace, strength, hope, which He gives
them. No phrase is too strong to express the power
which He wields, the authority which He possesses,
THE ALTERNATIVE TO THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 185
the gifts and graces which He can bestow. He lifts
men from the sin and weakness of their mortal nature,
bestows on them a new creation, reconciles them to
God, supports and strengthens them in the toil of a
transitory life, and conducts them finally to the pre-
sence of His Father and theirs.
Paul dwells but little on the alternative to this
picture of the Christian life. The world around him
was full of sin and wickedness, of ignorance and de-
formity. There are those who have no place in the
kingdom, who have no -inheritance with the saints
with those who have been made holy by the sacrifice
of Christ and by trust in Him ; but very little is said of
such persons, apart from reprobation of their life. The
Apostle does not dwell upon the lot of the unblest
does not attempt to describe the condition of those
who are cast aw r ay. He is not responsible for those
theories of endless torment inflicted on unforgiven sin,
still less for that scheme of the Divine justice and
mercy, which would, in accordance with no moral
sentiment whatever, capriciously condemn some per-
sons to eternal banishment from the sight of God, to
the perpetual company of mocking and malignant
fiends. Christ died for the godless; His love is
sufficient for the salvation of the whole human race.
It is enough to know how great is His mercy to those
who love Him. It is superfluous to enquire into the
future condition of those who disregard His Gospel,
still more so to speculate on the lot of such men as
have never heard the Word. Nay, if love be the most
enduring of the Christian graces living when trust is
realised, and hope is satisfied and if this be the chief
186 PAUL OF TARSUS.
attribute of God and His Son, it is incredible that
He should be pitiless who commands pardon and pity
as the best offering which man can make Him. The
Gospel which Paul preached has much to win men,
little to terrify them. The presumptuous insolence
which seeks to make the Almighty the author of un-
charitable and merciless judgment was unknown to
the man who was all things to all men, in order that
he might gain some, and who believed that he had the
mind of Christ.
Christianity owes the form which it has assumed,
when it has been best interpreted, to the Pauline
scriptures. The gospels give us a history, in which
the facts of a life, the sayings and lessons of a great
Teacher are narrated. But, except in the fourth
gospel, the theology of the narrative does not develop
much more religion than can be found in the pages of the
evangelical prophets. "With the first three evangelists,
Christ is the last, though incomparably the greatest, of
those to whom the Vision of God was vouchsafed,
in whom the Spirit of God was manifested. In the
fourth gospel, He is the Word incarnate, in whom
exist the loftiest powers, who is with God from the
beginning, who is in full communion with the
Everlasting Father, who has life from the Father
in Himself, as the Father Himself is the source
and centre of all life.
In the gospel of Paul, Christ is an Example, but
also a Power. He is the source of man's salvation,
and the origin of all graces. Paul tells us that he
announced a simple creed, that " Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures ; that He was buried,
CHRIST AN EXAMPLE AND A POWER. 187
and rose again the third day, according to the
Scriptures ;" and that abundant evidence was supplied
to the fact. This is his gospel. Out of it he
constructed his theology, by it he insisted that the
reconciliation between the creature and Creator
was effected. This is the chief element which he
imparts into the ancient doctrines of the Hebrew
Scriptures, as they were understood by the doctors of
the Christian era. God is still there, as He is
described in the Prophets, a Being of infinite love,
patience, gentleness. The commandment of God is
still imperative on man, and must be interpreted, as
heretofore, by its real spirit. Only the Law is done
away the ritual of Moses its ordinances, sacrifices,
ceremonies, with all the glosses of tradition. Not, in-
deed, that the repeal of these enactments, the aban-
donment of this symbolism, is to inaugurate a period
of licence to release man from his allegiance to that
spiritual religion which purifies the heart. Far from
it. The epistles of Paul abound with directions as to
how man may live holily, reiterate the obligations of
those who ally themselves to this new religion. Every
one of the relations of domestic and social life pass
under the Apostle's review, and are commented on
repeatedly. The Christianity which he taught does
not inform men that the acceptance of certain tenets
can be made substitutes for the regular fulfilment of
moral duties that obedience to stated ceremonies is
the obedience with which God is satisfied, or is in
itself a purification. He allows no man to say Cor-
ban, and thus pretend that a gift to the altar is a
release from human ties. He exacts honest, persever-
188 PAUL OF TARSUS.
ing, intelligent work, as strictly as a political econo-
mist does. He knew that the largest power of doing
good was contingent on the fulfilment of very homely
and everyday offices that few men are able to do real
public service who neglect their ordinary business, and
sacrifice common sense to some ideal wish. He had
too much practical wisdom to be ignorant of the fact,
that a man is not the worse Christian because he mas-
ters the cares of this life by his diligence, and that the
best way to use one's substance well, is to earn one's
substance honestly. That which binds the whole of
Christianity together which effects the unity of re-
deemed humanity which constitutes the Church is
the presence, the indwelling of Christ. In this Christ
are united all the power which God has given or will
give, and all the tenderness of that devoted and cease-
less love which made Him a sacrifice for man. But the
gospel of Paul is neither ascetic, nor contemplative,
nor dogmatic. Man is illuminated, not to dream, but
to labour. He is to earn his living to seek by the
toil of his life the means for conferring benefits on
others, to work out his own salvation, to seek the
salvation of others, and, as he best may, to commend
his faith by the diligence, holiness, and perseverance of
his life.
It has been said truly by M. Vacherot, that Paul
was the greatest of innovators and the least of sec-
taries. His gospel was intended for all mankind.
The hopes which he held out to those who believed
were not bounded by caste, or race, or sex, or con-
dition of life, or age, or habit of thought, or power
of thought. Had it been possible for those who
PAUL AS A THEOLOGIAN. 189
constructed a theology from his writings to have
apprehended the spirit in which those writings were
composed, the world would have had a different his-
tory. The disciples of a great teacher, however, are
not those who learn his formularies, and busy them-
selves with methodising his principles, but they who
seek to gather to themselves the mind of the teacher,
who are followers of him in his attempt to evangelise
the world.
But, in fact, the dogmas which have been defended
by the teaching of St. Paul, are not contained in his
writings, but are developments for which those who
propounded or accepted them strove to find proof or
warranty. The Christianity of many modern sectaries
is like the Salaminian ship, which, still pretending to
be the vessel which carried Theseus, has now, by
reason of perpetual repairs and additions, little left of
the original timber. For Paul is not, technically
speaking, a theologian, since his theology is, except in
one important particular, that of Gamaliel and the
other orthodox teachers of later Judaism. Even after
his conversion he could call himself a Pharisee. Upon
Judaism he induced the office of Christ, as the only
and the complete solution of the question which had
long agitated all religious minds, How can man be
saved? This question is still asked by those who
have repudiated Christianity, and, denying the immor-
tality of the individual, assume the immortality of the
race. And these persons answer the question in the
same manner that Paul does, that man in the aggre-
gate is made perfect by the sacrifice of man, that
humanity gains by them who offer themselves as vie-
190 PAUL OF TARSUS.
tims for its moral progress. Both agree that no good
deed is wasted ; but the Apostle of the Gentiles, while
he insists on the conditions which govern the regene-
ration of mankind, claims that a recompense remains
for them who have devoted themselves on behalf of
their fellows, and that the identity of the agent is as
enduring as the force of the action.
It is part of the irony of history, that men are
often credited with opinions and motives which never
controlled, or even influenced them. Of this perverse
judgment, popular ideas about the Apostle faul are
conspicuous instances. He is sometimes considered
as the author of those subtleties which took their rise
in Alexandria, after Christianity was made to con-
tribute to the syncretic philosophy of Philo, and
which culminated in the dialectical refinements of the
fourth and fifth centuries. He is really a preacher
who took Jewish monotheism, engrafted on it those
limitless energies which he recognised in the mediation
of Christ, and inculcated an intensely spiritual, as
well as an exactly practical morality. He is occasion-
ally spoken of as an egotist. But he was really a
man of great judgment and gentleness, of attractive
manners, of immense activity, one side of whose
nature was occupied by an absorbing love of Christ,
the other by a passionate longing to communicate the
joys and hopes which he entertained as widely as
possible throughout a suffering world.
CHAPTER VI.
THE apocryphal or legendary literature of early
Christianity is very copious. Much has been already
printed, and additions are constantly made to what
is known. Dr. Tischendorf has lately collected a
fresh volume of these writings. But his publication
probably embraces only a part of that which still
exists in manuscript. If all these relics of theological
romance were collected, they would form only a small
fragment of what has been written. Some of these
writings enshrine historical facts and genuine tradi-
tions. According to the modern canons of criticism,
the fact that a story is unknown out of the particular
region in which it is current, rouses a suspicion of its
genuineness, which is quite distinct from its intrinsic
likelihood or improbability. But modern criticism is,
perhaps, apt, in interpreting the genuineness of records,
to be led into conceiving that the writings of ancient
authors were constructed on the method employed
in our own day. In much ancient history, when the
writer lives amid or near the events which he narrates,
the facts are subordinated to the inference, or coloured
192 PAUL OF TARSUS.
and selected to assist the inference. But the narrative
may still be a real reflexion of the age in which it is
written. It seems to me an extravagance of scepticism
to look on the Annals of Tacitus as little better than a
political romance, the biographies of Suetonius as a
mere epitome of court scandal.
These apocryphal writings of early Christianity
may be subjected to one easy test. The dramatic
tendency which certainly influences the authors of
these narratives, generally supplies the means for
detecting the age of the story, and sometimes the
motive for its composition. We have historical
evidence of the growth of theological dogma; and
when divisions arose in the Church, during the time
that dogmas were being crystallised, the temptation
to make the story a vehicle for the transmission or
defence of a dogma was irresistible. The absence of
dogmatic colouring is not a proof of the authenticity
of such writings, but is good evidence of their antiquity.
Some of the most ancient of these compositions,
as the Pastor of Hennas, and the epistle of Barnabas,
were introduced into early manuscripts of the New
Testament Scriptures, and, for a time at least, were
received as authorities. Some of these, which a later
criticism accepted as canonical, were rejected or sus-
pected in an earlier age, as for example the Apocalypse.
It is not unlikely that this acceptance or rejection
was due, in the first instance, to the fact that some had
been widely distributed and others had only a local
circulation.
Among the earliest specimens of this legendary
literature, is a story entitled the Acts of Paul and
THE BODIL Y PRESENCE OF PA UL. 193
Thecla. The story, alluded to by Tertullian, has
latterly been republished in the original Greek, by Dr.
Tischendorf. It is a narrative of the sufferings under-
gone by a damsel of Iconium, who had heard the
preaching of St Paul, and who resolved to abandon
all lover, home, friends for the sake of the gospel
which he preached, and in honour of the preacher.
The earnest and self-denying attachment which the
early Christians bore to their teachers in the Faith,
is frequently alluded to by the Apostle, and is scorn-
fully commented on by Lucian, in his narrative of the
exploits of the charlatan Peregrinus. Thecla, like
Lydia, was one of those female converts of primitive
Christianity, whose heart the Lord opened, and who
ministered to the wants of the apostles.
The Acts of Thecla give a portrait-description of
the Apostle's person and physiognomy. This descrip-
tion is probably the origin of those other accounts
of Paul's appearance in the flesh, which are found,
for example, in John Malalas and Nicephorus. He
was, we are told, short in stature, almost bald, bow-
legged, stout, with eyebrows meeting, and with a
prominent nose. Other accounts add that he had
small but piercing gray eyes. His manner was, it
is said, singularly winning. His face and figure
must have been markedly of the Hebrew type.
He has himself commented on the meanness of his
personal appearance, and the unattractive delivery
which characterised his speech. To translate his
homely phrase, his oratory, he says, was nothing to
speak of. But he, nevertheless, could call to
witness the success of his ministry, when he claimed
N
194 PAUL OF TARSUS.
to possess a transcendent treasure, enclosed though
it was in an earthen vessel. The poverty of the
casket served to assist the lustre of the jewel it
contained, the plainness of the setting called attention
to the worth of the gem.
The great Apostle, then, was a man who did not
possess the two gifts which were most prized in the
ancient world personal beauty and fluency of speech.
He did not command attention by the majesty of
his person, or rivet attention by the eloquence of his
utterances. To outward appearance, he must have
looked like some common-place travelling Jew, whose
rapid and confused speech provoked the Athenians
into calling him a babbler, when, quitting his ordinary
province, that of arguing with the Jews and their
proselytes in the synagogue, he essayed to dispute
with the polished loungers in the Athenian agora.
But this speech, homely, unadorned, rugged as it
might have been, possessed two characteristics which
are more persuasive than the subtlest oratory. The
speaker was thoroughly convinced of that which he
said, and profoundly in earnest when he commended
his convictions to others. The great master of ancient
eloquence said that dramatic action was the first,
second, third requisite of successful pleading ; but no
art can rival in its effects the outspoken utterances
of disinterested sincerity, no address is more certain
to command the sympathy of an audience, than that
of a man who pleads from his heart.
Paul was born at Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, no mean
city, as the Apostle called it, with the natural feeling
of a man for his birth-place, and the home of his
THE CITY OF TARSUS. 195
childhood. The city was built on a plain at the foot
of Mount Taurus, and through it flowed the stream of
the Cydnus, which, rising in the snows of the moun-
tain, and gushing through deep ravines, was notable
for the coldness of its waters. The river, says Strabo,
divides the town, and the gymnasium of the youths
was on its bank.
The same author informs us, writing at a time
when St. Paul must have been a child in this Cilician y x
city, that the inhabitants of Tarsus were so addicted
to philosophy, and took such a general interest in
every branch of education, that the reputation of the
city exceeded even that of Athens and Alexandria
the great centres of intellectual activity and of
high culture. And it is remarkable, continues this
authority, that the students are not strangers who
visit the city, as they do at most of these ancient
academies, but are the natives of the district ; most of
whom, when they have gained the 'learning which the
schools of Tarsus supply them with, migrate to other
places, and rarely return.
There is very little recorded about the family of
Paul. He tells us himself, that he was of pure
Hebrew descent, the phrase that he uses being
probably the equivalent of that which a Spaniard
took pride in when he called himself an old Chris-
tian. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, and was
perhaps named after the gallant, wilful king whose
chivalry, comeliness and lofty stature were so excep-
tional. We are informed that his father belonged to
the strictest school of the Pharisaic sect, and that his
son was reared in the same discipline. We know
196 I' ACL OF TARSUS.
further, that his father was a Roman citizen, either by
purchase or grant. Add the facts that his sister had a
son, who either lived at Jerusalem, or, as is equally
probable, had come up to the holy city at the time
when his uncle made his last unfortunate visit there,
and that he had five other kinsmen, two of whom had
become Christians before himself, and all that we
know of his family is told. The alternative name of
the Apostle, that by which he is best known, was ap-
parently part of the Gentile name, by which, in
conformity with Roman usage, the citizen was desig-
nated. Paulus is a cognomen shared by many
families, as might have been easily the case, for it
means a person of small stature, and such nick-names
were common in the days of republican Rome.
Silas or Silvanus, a companion of St. Paul, was
similarly a Roman citizen, and so, it would seem, was
Lucas or Lucanus, whom we know as the third
Evangelist, and the author of the work called the
Acts of the Apostles, in which are contained a few
selected incidents of the Apostolic age. Paulus is
only one of three Roman names which the Apostle
bore. We know nothing of the other two.
The fact that St. Paul learned a trade in his youth,
gives us no hint as to the social circumstances in which
he was born and brought up. It is well known that
the doctors of the Jewish law prescribed the instruc-
tion of every male child in some handicraft. Eastern
nations have no conception of an hereditary aristocracy,
of a class which is made leisurely by the posses-
sion of inherited wealth. As among Mussulman com-
munities at the present day, so among the Semitic
THE ED UCA TION OF PA VL. 197
races of the Christian era, a king might lift a beggar
from the dunghill to set him among princes, and as
easily compel him to revert to his original condition.
Some occupation, therefore, was universally taught to
the youth, by which, should misfortune overtake him,
the man might earn his bread. " He who does not
teach his son a trade," said the Rabbis, " teaches him
to be a thief" i.e., a Bedouin, or a brigand. So the
young Saul, living at Tarsus, was instructed in the
craft of a local industry the manufacture of goats'
hair into a strong cloth for tents. This cloth was
called cilicium, from the province in which it was first
manufactured, and in low Latin was used perhaps is
still used- to designate the hair shirt worn by ascetics
and devotees. There was a time in his life when the
Apostle found his skill useful, though it does not,
I think, follow necessarily, that he was actually
engaged in the manual labour of a hand-loom weaver
at Corinth.
After a time, but at what time we know not, the
youth was sent to Jerusalem, to be taught by the
most eminent of the Jewish doctors, the last and the
greatest of the Hebrew schoolmen. Gamaliel was the
grandson of Hillel. As the Acts of the Apostles tell
us, he was an honoured teacher among the Jews, and
a man of good sense and moderation. The Gemara is
full of stories about him, illustrating his influence,
orthodoxy, and wit. Thus, he is made to talk famil-
iarly with Csesar, by whom is probably meant
Augustus, and to have vindicated the Jewish nar-
rative of man's creation, and the doctrines of the
soul's immortality and the body's resurrection, by cit-
198 PAUL OF TARSUS.
ations of Scripture and ingenious parables. It is
possible that his pupil Saul was one of those Cilician
Jews who disputed with Stephen. We know that he
was in that furious rabble which, goaded by the re-
proaches of the eloquent and zealous deacon, shed the
first Christian blood. As Paul obtained his know-
ledge of Greek literature in Tarsus, so he learned the
mysteries of Jewish casuistry at the feet of Gamaliel
in Jerusalem. It appears, too, that Paul had some
permanent home in Tarsus, for there Barnabas sought
and found him, when the two Apostles of the Gentiles
set out on their first formal mission.
It does not seem that Paul's circumstances were
mean. He constantly travels by sea, and with some
retinue. That he freely spent his substance on his
companions, and on those who might need his assist-
ance, is to be expected from the generous character
of the man. That he was intensely sensitive to any
suspicion of mercenary motives, is well known. That
he did not hesitate to assert his right to the assistance
of his converts, and that he was exceedingly averse
to insisting on the satisfaction of that right, are per-
fectly consistent traits. But this jealous love of in-
dependence did not deter him from accepting assistance
which was urged on him, nor did any false shame
prevent him from acknowledging such gifts with
affectionate gratitude. He knew distinctly that any
service, however great it may be, is instantly suspected,
and certainly tainted, if any charge of self-interest can
be alleged against the doer of it. That he suffered
occasional privations, due to temporary causes, was
to be expected from the missionary life which he under-
HIS CIRCUMSTANCES. 199
took. But a pauper could not have lived for a long
time in Ephesus. It was the most frequented city
in Asia, and therefore was a place where no one
could have resided except at considerable expense.
Besides, during his residence he made acquaintance,
in a somewhat intimate fashion, with some of the
" chiefs of Asia." It appears that when he was im-
prisoned at Csesarea, Felix expected that he might
make offer of a hribe, so as to procure a release from
his confinement, and the bribes which corrupt Roman
governors took were large. Nor again at the closing
period of his recorded history, when, if at any time,
his circumstances would have been desperate, does
he seem to have been impoverished. Some of his
friends accompany him, apparently as passengers, in
the ship whose sign was Castor and Pollux ; and in
Home, where Juvenal tells us the cost of subsistence
was excessive, the Apostle lives in his own hired
house, the soldier who kept him in a kind of free
custody being quartered on him. We find that this
house was large enough to receive such visitors as
waited on him, and to contain an audience.
I have commented on these facts, not with a view
to attempting a life of the Apostle, an undertaking
which has been frequently essayed, and never, I think,
with success, but because the circumstances which
have been adverted to should be stated, in order to form
an estimate of St. Paul's character as a man, and his
work as a missionary. For he is really the missionary-
Apostle, chosen, set apart to carry the good tidings
to all the nations, to found churches, to train preachers,
It was he and his disciples who "turned the world
200 PAUL OF TARSUS.
upside down." With three exceptions, the names of
those who had followed Jesus up to His passion dis-
appear from sacred history after the catalogue is given
in the Acts of the Apostles, always occupy an inferior
place to Philip, Stephen, and James. In the infancy
of the Christian Church, John is associated with
Peter ; a little further on, and James the brother of
John drinks of the cup and undergoes the baptism,
which Christ, with affectionate sadness, predicted
would be the lot of the sons of Zebedee. Later
legends give us the history of the apostolic dispersion,
and at last assign his mission to each of the Twelve and
describe the acts of his martyrdom. In all likelihood,
however, as they were at Jerusalem on the occasion
of Paul's first visit, so most of them remained there
as an apostolic college, under the presidency of James,
known as the brother of our Lord, till death removed
them one by one, or till the survivors, foreseeing the
fall of the Holy City and the ruin of their race, fled
to some place of refuge beyond the Jordan. It is
probably at this time that the voice from Patmos is
raised, and the Christian Church is instructed in the
mystic vision of the future Providence of God. Last
of all, the gospel of Christ's discourses is published.
It seems clear that the resident Christians of Jeru-
salem excited little animosity on the part of those
rival sects whose hatred toward Christ was so furious
and so inveterate. It is true that immediately on the
formation of the Church the boldness of men like
Peter, and John, and Stephen brought persecution
cu the faithful. But at that time the death of Jesus
fresh in the memory of men, and the hierarchy
THE ZEAL OF THE DISPERSED JEWS. 201
became alarmed and indignant at being charged with
his murder. Nor do we know what were the causes
which led to the execution of James and the imprison-
ment of Peter.
The author of the Acts of the Apostles tells us that
the execution pleased the Jews. It is possible that,
for a few years after the crucifixion, the events which
preceded the Easter of His Passion may have recurred
to the memory of those who took part in that crime,
and that the hate which, as the Roman historian tells
us, is felt by the wrong-doer to his victim, may have
roused the people to acts of hostility against the com-
panions or disciples of Christ. During the middle
ages, it was a common thing for the populace to be
roused to excesses against the Jews by inflammatory
orations preached on the Passion of Christ at Easter
time. It is seen, too, that the dispersed Jews who
did pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the Passover were
more easily stirred to fanatical outbursts of rage than
the settled inhabitants of the city : and they who
profited by their first-fruits and their offerings were
not unlikely to conciliate them by zeal against those
who might be supposed to be unfriendly to Jewish
nationality and the Law of Moses. It may be, too,
that James and Peter one of whom, by reason, it
seems, of the vehemence of his character, was sur-
named, with his brother, "the son of thunder;" the
other, the chief witness of Christ's life may have pro-
voked this sudden onslaught by reproaches similar to
those which were uttered by Stephen, and have led
Agrippa to consider that policy demanded the sacrifice
of these troublesome sectaries. It was the last attack
202 PAUL OF TARSUS.
on the Apostolic college, as far as we have information
in the Acts of the Apostles. Afterwards, we are told,
the Word of God grew and multiplied. There was
nothing, indeed, in the character and practice of the
Jewish Christians which could cause permanent hos-
tility to the Church of Jerusalem.
Agrippa had been one of those adventurers of royal
blood, who swarmed at the courts of the Roman
emperors. Following the traditions of the Republic,
the emperors maintained a number of dependent
monarchs in the outlying parts of the empire, as in
the interior of Africa, in Syria and in Asia Minor.
They set up, and deposed these puppets at pleasure.
They encouraged pretenders to plead their rival claims
at Rome. Sometimes a kingdom was made a province,
and afterwards constituted anew into a kingdom, with
the same or altered boundaries.
The imperial house had hitherto shown great favour
to the Jews. Julius Caesar had received important
assistance from the nation at a crisis of his fortunes,
and he had not been ungrateful. Augustus followed
the same policy. He confirmed Herod the Great in
his sovereignty over Judea, and, during the reign of
this astute king, the Jews prospered and preserved a
form of independence ; for Herod's wrath fell mainly
on his wives, his children, and his nobles. The jest of
Augustus, that he would rather be Herod's hog than
his son, is well known. Either by design or from
caprice, the monarchy of Herod was not continued to
his sons, for they received only small portions of their
father's extensive dominions, while the greater part
of Palestine was committed to the rule of a procurator
AGRIPPA, THE FRIEND OF CALIGULA. 203
who was subordinated to the proconsular governor of
Syria. Such a procurator was Pilate, who was in the
first instance a creature of Sejanus, and had, perhaps
to please his patron, as well as to indulge his natural
savageness of temper, treated the Jews with extreme
harshness. The fall of Sejanus occurred a little before
the murder of Christ ; and the affectation of justice,
the comparative gentleness of the procurator's manner
in dealing with the Jewish authorities, the symbolical
protest against the iniquity of condemning the
righteous, and the concession to the threat of being
represented as unfaithful to the jealous and suspicious
Tiberius, point to the alarm and anxiety which Pilate
felt at the crisis when the priests led Christ before the
governor.
Agrippa had been the friend and companion of
Caligula, and the confidant of his secrets. He had
shared those furtive pleasures which Caligula ventured
on, during the lifetime of Tiberius, when the man's
real nature was unknown to any one but his closest
associates, and to the dark, shrewd old emperor. In
order to maintain his appearance at court, and to
further his intrigues after the throne of the great
Herod, Agrippa had involved himself terribly in debt;
for, in those evil days, nobles and princes borrowed
largely in order to find the means for profligacy and
bribery, with the certainty that they would be able to
recover their fortunes from subjects or provincials if
they could get a kingdom or the administration of a
province. Thus, Agrippa borrowed largely of Alex-
ander Lysimachus the rich Alabarch of Alexandria,
stipulating that half the sum should be paid at
204- PAUL OF TARSUS.
Alexandria, the other half at Puteoli (another
illustration, by the way, of the manner in which the
Jews carried on their banking operations) ; of Antonia,
the mother of Claudius; and, finally, of a rich Samaritan
who lived at Rome and was a freedman of Claudius.
But, up to the time when Tiberius died, Agrippa had
been the unluckiest of adventurers. His prospects
were then at the worst, for the emperor had not only
slighted his suit, but had cast him into prison.
On the accession of Caligula, he was instantly
released and loaded with favours. The emperor gave
him a chain of gold, the weight of which was equal
to that of the fetters with which he had been loaded.
He made him king of the Jews, bestowing on him
that which he had so long sought for in vain.
Agrippa hastened to take possession of his kingdom,
but was imprudent enough to exhibit himself in royal
pomp at Alexandria, where the Jews were at that
time exceedingly unpopular. The last recorded
circumstance of his public life a similar but a more
scandalous exhibition of vanity is well known to all
who read the Scriptures, and is also narrated by
Josephus.
Agrippa seems to have been the only man whom
Caligula really loved. When the emperor became
insane, and the whole world was subjected to the
caprice of a cruel and sensual madman, Agrippa still
influenced him. At last, Caligula declared himself a
god, and bade the empire worship him, and the empiiv
submitted with alacrity to the amazing degradation.
The Jews alone refused to commit this act of impiety,
and Caligula ordered that a statue of himself .should
THE .CO URA GE OF A GRIP PA . 205
be forthwith set up in the Temple at Jerusalem. Had
the command been obeyed at once, there is little doubt
that the outbreak which tasked the energies of
Vespasian and Titus, would have been anticipated by
thirty years.
At this crisis, Agrippa threw himself in the very
path of the madman, as he was on the full course of his
frenzy. He addressed a letter to him, in which he im-
plored him not to take this step. The letter is pre-
served in that work of Philo which narrates the
sufferings of the Alexandrian Jews, and the attempts
they made to conciliate the emperor. The effort must
have cost Agrippa infinite anxiety. It was certainly an
act of singular heroism; it was as if he had cast himself
to the wild beasts of the circus, for he risked life and all
that he had lived for. Agrippa had been a voluptuary
and an adventurer, he had been the meanest thing the
world had ever seen a courtier of the early empire,
but in this act he showed the courage of the Maccabees >-
from whom he was descended. It is only justice to
him to believe that he counted the cost, and that he
deliberately ventured everything to save the Temple
from profanation, the Jews from an inexpiable insult,
and the empire from a desperate war. He gained
delay by his remonstrance, and Caligula's death put
an end to the danger.
I have mentioned these facts in the life of Agrippa,
because they show that, although he had been
corrupted by the influences of the Roman court,
and had flattered the worst vices of the worst men
in the worst age of the world's history, he was yet
saved from utter degradation, and roused to courage
20G PAUL OF TARSUS.
by the religion which kept its hold on him. That
motive, which was strong enough to make a hero of
Agrippa, and which might have made him a martyr,
if the dagger of Chaerea had not shortened the career of
Caligula, animated every Jew. The Jew was of a race,
according to Cicero, that was born for servitude. But
no race ever struggled more earnestly for its faith and
its nationality than that of Israel did ; and, dispersed
and broken as it is, none has ever maintained both
with greater fidelity, none has illustrated more clearly
how powerful passive resistance may be.
I have observed that from the days of the elder
Agrippa, the Church at Jerusalem enjoyed unbroken
quiet. Its chief officer was a devout ascetic, for
James lived according to the strictest rules which
the Law prescribed to the profession of a Nazarite.
His mode of life resembled that of those anchorites,
the Trappists of ancient history, who lived by the
Lake Mareotis, under the name of Therapeutre, and
were probably the representatives of the Buddhist mis-
sion which was sent to Egypt in the days of Ptolemy
Philadelphus. The knees of James became horny
by the constant attitude of prayer. Josephus, who
narrates the circumstances of his death, states that
the man was highly honoured and respected. Strict
in the fulfilment of those obligations which the Lu\v
imposed, the college at Jerusalem may have been
looked on as a mere offshoot of the Pharisaic sect,
which provoked no antipathy on the part of the
Jewish hierarchy, because it advised no innovation
on the practice of orthodox Israel.
The physical constitution of St. Paul was weakly,
PAUL'S THORN. 207
as in the case of many men who have been characterised
by great mental vigour and unsparing energy; his
bodily powers seemed wholly inadequate to the task
which he undertook. Besides, he underwent labours
and hardships which were sufficient to try the
endurance of the strongest frame, of any frame ; for
it is often the case that certain privations are borne
better by the weakly than by the robust. It is well
known, moreover, that he speaks of some peculiar
trial to which he was subject, a trial which he
designates as a messenger of Satan. It has been
suggested that this was some sensuous impulse. But
this interpretation is erroneous as well as offensive.
The " thorn" is some sudden racking pain ; some con-
stitutional infirmity which agonises or prostrates the
sufferer for a time. The word which has been trans-
lated thorn, is properly a sharp stake. A verb formed
from it is used to denote crucifixion or impalement.
A paroxysm of such pain would leave the patient
"buffeted," i.e. sore and uneasy; the word expressing,
in popular language, the feeling of having been bruised
or beaten. It may be observed, that such bodily
afflictions were supposed, in accordance with the
language employed at the commencement of the book
of Job, to be injuries inflicted by Satan the accuser,
who is permitted by God to stretch forth his hand
against the servants of the Most High, but who
cannot touch their life. The dominant notion of
modern theology, which makes the incitement to
sensual impulses, and other sins against the holiness,
the majesty, the providence, and the will of God,
an act of an ever-watchful and malignant spirit who
208 PAUL OF TARSCS.
tries to drag down into his own misery those who are
ordained for a higher destiny and loftier hopes, was
at least an undeveloped opinion in the Apostolic age.
St. James tells us, that sin is the spontaneous
following of a man's own lusts and appetites. The
devil of St. Peter's epistle who goes about, seeking
whom he may devour, is plainly a human, and not a
spiritual foe a persecutor, but not a seducer.
The Apostle suffered, then, from some intermittent or
recurrent malady. It was probably to this disease
that the pallid look, which all his descriptive portraits
specify of him, was due. I have little doubt that the
disease was neuralgic. One conjecture as to its nature
has been made, which appears to be plausibly sup-
ported by certain passages in the epistles and else-
where. It is that he suffered from weakness of sight.
It is supposed that his writing to the Galatians " in
such large letters" is one hint. Another is in his
saying, that some who loved him would have plucked
out their right eyes for his service. A third is
gathered from his mistake about the high priest.
But not one of these passages is conclusive, and none
suggest the strong fierce pain which the word em-
ployed by the Apostle to describe his suffering,
naturally signifies. It is, however, a matter of obvious
interest to know what was the physical hindrance
which Paul suffered from, and from which his resolute
and devout spirit gathered consolation and even
strength. The honour we entertain towards those
who have conferred inestimable benefits on mankind,
is not lessened when we learn what were their physical
ailments, what were the personal hindrances which
WAS PA UL MARRIED '! 209
they had to battle with, in addition to the enormous
toil which must be undergone by those who, in God's
name, and for man's sake, strive to teach an ignorant,
and purify a corrupt world. We do not care to know
these things because they show that such eminent
persons are so much like ourselves, but because we
would understand how the power which stirred and
strengthened them, was so vast, so effectual, so divine,
as to overcome what seem to be insurmountable
obstacles.
It was an early question whether the Apostle was
married. The passage in the Epistle to the Corin-
thians, in which he speaks of himself as unincumbered
with domestic cares, does not preclude the notion that
he might have been a widower does not even prove
more than that he went on his missionary journeys
alone. On the other hand, he speaks of his assent
to the death of Stephen, and of his commission from
the Sanhedrim, functions and powers which could
not well have been exercised by a man who was not
a member of that council. But we are expressly
told that this great assembly of the Jews included
only fathers, in order to secure a merciful interpreta-
tion of the Law. An early explanation, too, of the
"true yokefellow" at the Church in Philippi, whom
he bids labour to reconcile or assist Euodia and
Syntyche, recognises the wife of the Apostle in the
phrase. The epistle was, it may be said almost
certainly, written from Rome, and during the time of
that imprisonment in which the perils of the Apostle's
situation were aggravated by sorrow, and ultimately
by the desertion of many among his friends.
210 PA UL OF TARSUS
The ascetic spirit which has induced men to forego
domestic ties, and with them the reciprocal gentleness,
unwearied love, unvaried patience, persevering energy,
which should belong to the relations of husband and
wife, parent and child, which do belong to them
generally, and which constitute the strongest sanctions
of social life, has been developed and inculcated for
various reasons. There are persons who have, deliber-
ately and of purpose, shut themselves out from those
attachments that they may serve their fellow-men the
better, and so serve God. The very purity and beauty
of these relations, and their paramount value in the
organisation of society ; the fact that they are com-
mended at once by clear reason and tender affection,
make the sacrifice of him who could delight in them,
but who resolutely avoids them, that he may give his
undivided will and powers to the good of mankind, the
highest effort of self-abnegation. Christ recognises
such a sacrifice ; but with the significant hint that
the sacrifice must be made with a real and intelligible
purpose.
Again, the celibate state was recommended by St.
Paul expressly for temporary reasons. In view of the
"present distress," the tempest which was threatening
the infant Church, it might be expedient to lessen
the trials of life by diminishing the number of its ties.
The Apostle's advice is simply that of a prudent man,
who foresees the strain which human nature will be
put to, and who dreads the risk. It is counsel given
in aid of human weakness, while the case which Christ
puts is of that strong and persistent heroism which
knows no weakness. The Apostle bids men avoid
(KL1EACY. 211
suffering ; the Master contemplates the example of the
man who resolves to give his undivided and unim-
peded energies to the highest ends.
A third series of arguments in favour of celibacy
was derived from that dualism which characterised
Aryan theosophy. In the view of this scheme, the
body was an evil beast, to which the soul was linked,
and from which it should seek freedom by a continual
practice of austerities. The Creator of man had, for-
sooth, bound him, Mezentius-like, to a corrupt and
loathsome nature, from which he must strive to liber-
ate himself from which, in thought at least, he must
live apart. The body was not, from this point of
view, the instrument of life the mechanism by which
God's will might be done but an evil and insatiate
power, an ever-present enemy, which must be beaten
down and crushed. That it should be allowed any
pleasure, however innocent and pure, was to concede
something to a foe who would seize every opportunity
for mischief. It is not unnatural that this morbid
misconception of human life should have its reverse,
and that there have been individuals, and even sects,
who have carried their theory of the dual nature of
man to such a length, as to believe that the indulgence
of any appetite, however gross of any practice, how-
ever debasing, may leave the soul untouched and un-
tainted. Such a sect, we learn from the Gemara,
existed among the Jews in the time of Gamaliel.
" There are men," it is said, " who assert that they
cannot sin, either with the soul or with the body. If
the spirit is divested of the body, it flies away like a
bird. If the body is separated from the soul, it lies
212 PAUL OF TARSUS.
as senseless as a stone." The answer of the Jewish
schoolman is in the form of a parable. " A certain
king had a rich garden, full of ripe fruit, and he put
as guardians into it two keepers one lame, the other
blind. The lame man, however, climbed on the blind
man's back, and together they robbed the garden.
When the owner came, and found that such a deed
had been done, both culprits denied the act. How
could I see the fruit ? said one ; how pluck it ? said
the other. The wise king, however, was not deceived.
He bade the lame man get on the blind man's back,
and, binding them together, thus judged and pun-
ished both."
And, lastly, the practice of celibacy has been
advocated, because it has been found to suit the
policy of religious despotism, and has aided in estab-
lishing an organisation which has subserved a fac-
titious object, by denying the affections any natural
centre. It is almost superfluous to urge how entirely
this practice has been enforced for sinister ends, how
completely akin it is to the ultimate authority on
which the Christian polity is founded. It was un-
known to the Jewish discipline, it was a mere accident
of the Apostolic age. It owes its sanction to the
worst ambition which has ever perverted men, the
desire to control the religious sympathies of humanity
in the interests of intolerance and aggression.
The revelation of the Almighty, in describing His
love for His creatures, can use no more expressive
word to denote His Providence than that of Father ;
with all that it suggests of unwearied patience,
forethought, goodness, towards helpless infancy, trustful
THE WOMEN OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 213
childhood, inquiring and impetuous youth. It has
sanctified that affection which belongs peculiarly to
mankind, by transferring it to the nature of God.
And, similarly, the relations of the great Evangelist,
the Mediator, the Saviour of Humanity, to the
nature which He has exalted and redeemed, are
figured under the similitude of that other tie which
constitutes home, with its affections, its reciprocal
duties, its graces, its labours, its purposes. They
who employed those facts of social life to illustrate
the dealings of God with man, were, we may be
sure, wholly devoid of that perverse spirit which
has enslaved men to a morbid asceticism, or to a
politic scheme of ecclesiastical government. Certainly,
if Paul remained a celibate after his conversion to
Christianity, his motive must have been that which
Christ recognised and commended under such excep-
tional circumstances.
As the Christians of the Apostolic age held marriage
in honour, so they emancipated woman. The equality
of all believers in the sight of God tolerated no social
difference, no pride of race, no theory of an inferiority
of sex. The Apostle would not break down the sub-
ordination of a wife to her husband in the household.
To have announced the domestic equality of the sexes
would have been too violent a paradox for the age in
which he lived, and Paul is at the pains to warn believ-
ing matrons against presuming in temporal matters on
account of their equality with men in the Church.
In the world outside the Christian Church, women
were generally in a position of marked inferiority.
They were, according to the custom of Semitic nations,
PAUL OF TAXXI'X.
carefully secluded among the Jews, for Philo reckons
it among the grossest injuries which Flaccus did the
Alexandrian Israelites, that he permitted the mob to
break open the harem of the Jewish family, and to com-
pel the women to remove their veils. What the Jews
thought of women generally may be gathered from
the Book of Ecclesiasticus a work written during
the time of the Syrian domination. The civilisation
of Greece never extended to her women. It is true
that the haughty Roman heiress and matron had
assumed great independence custom allowing an
easy divorce. But this independence had become
in many cases synonymous with licentiousness if
we can credit satirists and historians though occa-
sionally there might have been wives who deserved
such grief as that of Paullus, whose virtues are
celebrated in the exquisite elegy of Propertius.
But Christianity raised women at once to the level
of men. They presided over churches, they travelled
as evangelists, they formed the earliest permanent
order in the Christian ministry, under the name of
deaconesses. It is true that at Corinth Paul would
have silenced their preaching, but the command is
probably local, and founded on special reasons. Try-
phsena and Tryphosa are the types of a class. Aquila
and Priscilla always mentioned together were the
founders of the Church in Rome, the teachers of
the learned Apollos, and continued their joint-labours
so long that they were the object of Paul's latest
greetings. In Lucian, the old women and the
widows take up the case of the impostor Peregrinus,
and importune for liis release.
THE PURITY OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 215
This equality of women with men, this honour paid
to devout maidens and matrons, this dignity assigned
to them in the domestic life of early Christianity, led,
of course, to scandalous and malignant calumnies at
the hands of unbelievers. The apologists of Christ-
ianity engage themselves in refuting these slanders.
Justin tells a story of a young man of Alexandria
who wished to publicly demonstrate his personal
morality by the severest test. There was a little
colour for suspicion in the fact that Christianity was
necessarily a secret society, and it was only too
notorious that, among the heathen, mystical religious
rites, to which only the initiated were introduced,
were often a veil for gross debauchery. The circum-
stance which induced the expulsion of the worship
of I sis from Rome was, if we may trust Josephus,
a scandalous intrigue, furthered, in consideration of
a heavy bribe, by the priests of the Egyptian goddess.
It is almost superfluous to say, that the Pauline
epistles, in common with the rest of the New Testa-
ment Scriptures, are full of exhortations to purity-
full of warnings against unchastity in deed, word, and
thought. It was an age of excessive grossness, of
coarse licentious speech, and the Apostle would have
no compromise with it whatever ; prescribed complete
seclusion from its practices as the only preservative
against its contagion. He exhorts his disciples to
remember the pledge which they have given to their
Maker and their Redeemer, and to utterly put away
from themselves everything which might lure them
back to the wantonness which popular Paganism per-
mitted, or even commended which was suggested
216 I' M r L OF TARSUS.
publicly, and practised openly. The discoveries at
Pompeii confirm the description given of the morals
of Antioch.
The powers which the Apostle possessed for the
furtherance of his mission were not, as has been stated,
those of an imposing presence and rhetorical skill.
He did not win his converts by impetuous denuncia-
tions, or by magnificent promises, or by practising
on morbid fears. To the Jews he argued as one of
their doctors would, that Christ was prefigured in the
Law, and in the Prophets, and in the Holy Scriptures,
in the three divisions of the Jewish Bible. It was
not difficult to do this, partly because the habit of
interpreting these writings in an allegorical sense was
very familiar, as we may see from the Talmud and
the writings of Philo ; partly because the Old Testa-
ment is full of Messianic anticipations, of unfulfilled,
but glorious promises. Doubtlessly, the history of the
Messiah, His rejection by the Jews, His condemnation
by priests and council, His crucifixion by the Roman
governor, was a vast difficulty, a perpetual stumbling-
block. Some of the believers in Christ met the
difficulty by denying the reality of the crucifixion
altogether. But great as the crime was, it was a crime
of ignorance. It was due to the fact that God's coun-
sels were hidden from the princes of the world, who
would not otherwise have crucified the Lord of glory.
To those, however, who rightly understood the revela-
tion of God, it was clear that Christ must suffer, in
order that such glory should be won. The condition of
all progress, all growth, all restoration, all perfection,
is sunWmjj. It \vns a cardinal tenet in the morality of
THE PREACHINGS OF PAUL.TO JEWS. 217
Judaism, that the just are the expiatory victims of
the wicked, that the regeneration of the world is to
be hoped for and obtained by the self-abandonment
of those whom God raises up for this high end.
Hence, the Apostle could speak of himself as one
who was helping, by his own self-sacrifice, to fill up
what was not even completed by the death of Christ,
the perpetual expiation which man makes for his
fellow-man the waste which is demanded from the
believing soul, in order to compensate for the waste
which is caused by the sinful soul. As far as humanity
is concerned, the sacrifice, the crucifixion, the shame,
the loss is still going on, in order that humanity may
be exalted and redeemed. The Apostle appeals to
the consolations which must be afforded to those who
are convinced that they are aiding the work of human
redemption, by identifying their efforts with the
supreme effort of Christ's Passion. Christ, I grant
(it is as though he should say), was crucified, but ye
are crucified also. Your life-long struggle with the
temptations and trials which beset you, with the
passions which are crowded into your mortal nature,
with the foes within you and the foes without you ;
your work for your own salvation and for that of
others, are similar to that grief which He endured for
you, which He suffered whom I preach to you as
your Saviour and your Example. The shame of the
death is done away by identifying it with the most
ardent struggles after the purification of your own
souls, and the regeneration of the world. Met by
the scandal of the crucifixion, and it was an over-
whelming scandal, Paul boldly made it a matter of
218 PAUL OF TARSUS.
satisfaction, and insisted that it was not only the
initiative in the redemption of man, but the type of
that great struggle in which death and the grave are
baffled at the very moment of their apparent victory.
The difficulties which afterwards arose as to the nature
of Him who suffered, and as to the part which men
play in their own salvation and that of their neigh-
bours, were as yet latent.
With the heathen world there was another difficulty.
St. Paul tells us that to the Greeks the name is gen-
eric the Gospel he preached was folly a sheer ab-
surdity. To common habit it must have seemed so.
We can imagine such persons arguing as follows :
Here is a well-informed man, who has travelled much,
and seen much of the world. He is, to be sure, a
Jew, and therefore believes in such a conception of
God as is just and pure, though the belief is overlaid
by a host of antiquated observances and superstitions.
We can accept the monotheism which the Jew teaches.
The best and wisest men of our own race have held
such opinions, and have repudiated those vulgar ideas
of the Divine nature which are current with a mob of
profligates, with illiterate villagers, and with the rab-
ble of towns. But this is not a teacher of monotheism.
He proposes to us a deified, or, at least, heroic re-
deemer of mankind a new incarnation of the Deity.
And who is his strange God ? It is a Syrian peasant,
who possessed certain powers which were probably
magical, and who ended his career by a violent death,
inflicted by judicial sentence, and, as we may reason-
ably suppose, for having taken part in some local in-
surrection. That a wise and holy person should suill T
TO GREEKS. 219
death for his opinions is not without a parallel that
such a person should have sprung from an ignoble
origin is not without precedent ; but that he should
have sprung from such an origin, in such a people,
have limited his teaching to a section of his own race,
have perished by the hands of those he instructed, and
should now be held up before us as an object of rever-
ence as a person who, having died, has risen, lives,
and is a God, passes the bounds of credulity. What
Festus uttered as Paul pleaded before Agrippa what
the Athenian Literati said, when they invited him to
expound his doctrine on Mars' hill, must have been
in the mind of many who heard him speak.
With such persons the Apostle dealt by teaching
the common interests of mankind, the universality
of the Divine Providence, the certainty of the Divine
judgment, and the appointment of a Person by whose
agency that judgment should be declared ; who, having
lived among men, and having died the death of men,
was recalled from death in order to fulfil this inevi-
table purpose. To live is to prepare for death, to
die is to enter into the vestibule of the Divine judg-
ment-seat. So he reasons with Felix, and with the
Athenians. No part of the Greek theology exercised
a more powerful restraint on the conduct of men,
than the tribunal of the stern, strict judges before
whom the dead were arraigned, and by whose sentence
the pious and the guilty were rewarded and punished.
But, in the scheme which the Apostle proposes, and
which affirms those elements of a primeval faith,
there is coupled the tenet, that he who is to be
judge is also advocate, that he who will hereafter
/'-I UL OF TARSUS.
utter the sentence is renewing the nature of those
who will appear before his tribunal. To the Greek
mind, initiation into sacred rites, the knowledge
' ' O
of which was confined to those who were fit to receive
the revelation, and who would be purified by the
knowledge, was a familiar process. The Apostle
appropriates the word which designates this purifying
knowledge to the Christian faith, and the Gospel
becomes a mystery.
All the descriptive portraits of the Apostle affirm
that, whatever may have been his physical appearance
and utterance, his manner was singularly graceful
and winning. Of the attachments which he inspired
we have abundant proof. Of the affection which
he felt for his converts and disciples we have similar
evidence. If he endured enmities he consolidated
friendships. His intense personality makes his asso-
ciates or disciples shadowy and almost impersonal.
At first, indeed, Paul seems to be subordinated to
Barnabas, whose name (two occasions excepted in
which active hostility is shown to these fellow-
labourers) is always put before that of his great
colleague. But after the quarrel between them,
when Barnabas disappears from the narrative, and
Paul becomes almost the only personage in the
history, the associates of the Apostle are his disciples,
probably his converts. Such were Silas, Luke,
Timothy, Titus, and others.
Nothing, it has been said, illustrates the grace of
Paul's manner more completely than his letter to
Philemon. Very likely it is the sole remaining
\;un|)le of many similar epistles, written as occasion
PAUL AND PHILEMON. 221
arose, to those with whom he was united in the double
bond of teacher and friend. The circumstance which
gives occasion to the letter is well known. The
fugitive slave of an opulent citizen of Colossse as
we may surmise the master was has been converted
by the Apostle, and is employed as a messenger to
the Church which Paul had planted there. The
master had also been a convert, and St. Paul writes
by the slave's hand at once to the Colossians, and
to the master, with a view to disarming the anger
of the latter against the runaway. Nothing can show
greater tact than this epistle. The writer begins by
thanking Philemon for the kindness and generosity he
had shown to the Christians in his neighbourhood.
Then he introduces the subject of his letter; alludes
playfully to the name which the slave bore "the
Profitable;" states that he would have gladly kept
him as an attendant on himself, but could not do so
without consent; and prays that he may not only
be forgiven, but treated hereafter as a fellow-Christian.
Then he offers to pay for any loss which has occurred
to Philemon by the fraud or misconduct of his servant ;
hints at the relations which have already subsisted
between Philemon and himself; assures himself
that more than his request will be granted ; and
expresses a hope that he may be spared to pay
Philemon a visit. Nothing can be less intrusive,
less importunate in its tone, than this letter, and
yet nothing can more earnestly express the wishes
of the writer, and avow more courteously his assur-
ance that the favour will be granted.
Equally marked is the sensitiveness which appears
222 PA M OF TARSUS.
in the Epistles to the Corinthians. In his anxiety to
restore unity to the distracted Church in that city, and
to cure scandals which had infested it, the Apostle
uses the greatest caution in administering rebuke and
counsel. We learn from these epistles what were the
leading characteristics of those primitive Christian
communities, what were the internal dangers to which
they were exposed, and how great was the tact needed
to direct and control them. And we can also learn
from the genuine portions of the Epistle of Clement
to the Corinthians, that the Apostle's advice had the
effect of quelling their disorders, though they broke
out with redoubled mischief after St. Paul's death.
The Corinthian Christians were only too apt to imitate
those faction fights of the Jews and Romans (for the
Corinth of the Apostolic age was hardly a Greek city),
which are described as having been waged before the
tribunal of the philosophic Gallic.
But though the Apostle was notably discreet in his
treatment of those with whom it was important to be
conciliatory, his temper was not absolutely imperturb-
able. It is fortunate for the future of the Christian
religion that his patience had its limits. He was too
sagacious not to see that the attempt to fasten Juda-
ism on his followers would simply ruin Christianity,
and that the attempt must be met resolutely and at
once. And as a man in whom the feeling of self-
respect was heightened by the consciousness of his own
energetic temperament, by the knowledge of his pro-
digious success as a missionary, and by the ever-
present conviction of a special revelation from Christ,
to which revelation, and to which alone, he owed
PA UL'S LETTERS. 223
his knowledge of the Gospel he taught, he was
thoroughly exasperated by the attempt of his adver-
saries to disparage, to even deny his apostolic author-
ity. The result of this anxiety for the future of
Christianity, and this necessity of self-defence, was the
Epistle to the Galatians, in which the Apostle vehe-
mently asserts the authority of his mission, gives the
history of his call to the apostolate, and his early reso-
lution to act independently of the college at Jerusalem,
attacks the consistency of two such men as Peter and
Barnabas, and then announces the necessity of separ-
ating, at once and for ever, the Christian Gospel from
Jewish practices. He plainly declares the ceremonial
parts of the Mosaic covenant to be abrogated, an-
nulled, antiquated ; nay, that obedience to them is
inconsistent with the fellowship of Christ, taking a
position from which retreat was impossible, affirming
a principle which nothing could explain away or
qualify. He rebukes the levity with which his con-
verts had supplemented his teaching ; assures them
that his gospel needed no addition ; and expresses a
wish that he could be with them instantly, and solve
his doubts as to their attitude towards him and his
gospel by speech, rather than by the slower process
of communicating to them by letter, and waiting for
a reply, to change his written word for word of
mouth. A man of warm affections, Paul always pre-
ferred to treat men with gentleness and consideration,
even when he was prescribing a strict rule of spiritual
life ; a man of strong convictions, he could not suffer
the essentials of his ministry his independent author-
ity as a teacher, and his complete knowledge as a
1'AUL OF TARSUS.
missionary to be disparaged or trifled with. He
affirms the former by an unwonted and emphatic
adjuration ; he pronounces an anathema on those
who change his gospel, add to it, or substitute any
other teaching for it.
The method of the Apostle's reasoning is often
obscure, generally abrupt, never, in the technical sense,
logical. He expressly repudiates the use of such an
instrument of persuasion as the formal method of
demonstration. The subject did not admit it, except
in so far as, in dealing with Jews, he appeals to the
authority of the Old Testament Scriptures. For
religion is not an affair of evidences, does not admit
of demonstration. It may be questioned whether
faith has ever been aided, or doubt resolved by the
logical apparatus of theology. It has been proved
that the religious sense may become nearly extinct
in an age to which dogmatism has supplied the
strictest definitions, the most elaborate conclusions.
To win a man over to God's will, to instruct his
heart in the belief that God is a real Being whom
man can love, and loving, will obey, and to nerve him
for the struggle which such love and obedience in-
vites him to, against the sin, the meanness, the selfish-
ness, the arrogance, the vanity, the ignorance of a
mere worldly life, is not the function of logic, which
may perhaps raise a man to a passive acquiescence
in a Power, or at best to the cold admiration of some
unvarying Law. "The affections believe," says Paul,
and reason takes the impulse as a principle of action.
And what is true of a religion which gains man to
God, is even more manifest in the exhortations by
THE STYLE OF PA CL'ti
which the Apostle bids men believe in Christ. He
appeals to loyalty, to that mysterious sentiment,
which, apart from the prospect of past and future
benefit, binds men to the incarnation of perfect love,
wisdom, gentleness, purity,- the power and the wisdom
of God. If men do and can claim this loyalty because
they exhibit in faint and imperfect outline some of
these divine attributes, or evoke it because they
merely represent the cohesion of social life, how much
more should He claim an all-absorbing devotion who
O
was on earth a pattern of perfect goodness, and has,
given infallible guarantees of future perfection to His
disciples. Such a loyalty, ever present, ardent,
untiring, but glowing more brightly, working more
fervently as his experiences accumulated, governed
the Apostle's nature from the day when he drew near
to Damascus, to that in which he saw the time of
his departure at hand. This he commended to his
converts, not by any weight of reason or wisdom,
but by his perpetual experience of Christ.
Even, however, if every allowance is made for the
subject which the Apostle treated, and for the preg-
nant brevity of his phrases and expressions, it cannot
be denied that the method of the Pauline epistles is
singularly inconsecutive. The style abounds in paren-
theses, inserted argumentations, recollections of topics,
which are introduced into matter foreign to them, or
diverse from them, in the most puzzling fashion.
Sometimes, also, so many words are omitted from
a sentence that it requires the boldest conjecture to
supply the missing terms. It seems as though the
clause had been inserted between the lines of the
p
226 PAUL OF TARSUS.
manuscript, and that space failing for the whole
sentence, the expression was condensed into inextric-
able ambiguity. Thus, for example, in the case of
that celebrated passage, " a mediator is not of one,
but God is one," it is said that at least two-hundred-
and-fifty renderings have been given of the eleven
words in the original. The sentence bears every
mark of having been written in. It is not essential
to the argument. The Apostle is stating that the
mission of Christ is the fulfilment of a promise made
through Abraham to mankind, ages before the Mosaic
covenant was promulgated and confirmed. The Law,
on the other hand, was not an immediate revelation,
was an addition to existing promises, and was added
in order to obviate sins of disobedience or reckless-
ness, was communicated by subordinate authority,
was put into the hands of an intermediary, plenipoten-
tiary, ambassador, or mediator. Then, to emphasise
the difference between the earlier promise and the
later law, he defines such an agent as Moses was by a
parenthesis. A mediator implies the existence of two
separate parties, between whom the person delegated
to such an office acts. But God is an original Power,
He is one of the parties to the covenant or promise,
and His direct relations with the person to whom He
makes the promise are of a far higher significance
than the revelations which He communicates to man
by man.
Instances could be multiplied of these after- thoughts,
parentheses, recollections, glosses on what has been
already written down, and is being read to the
Apostle by an amanuensis. Let us take an example.
HIS PARENTHESES. 227
The Corinthians ask him what they are to do in the
case of purchasing meat which has been offered to
idols, or is suspected of having been offered. He com-
mences his reply in the eighth chapter of the First
Epistle, and in the course of this states his own feeling,
that if any act of his, however innocent in itself, were
to shake the faith of his brother, he would in con-
science abstain perpetually from the act. This leads
him to comment on his apostolate, and his claims to
consideration. This suggests his right to maintenance
at the hands of his converts, did he choose to claim it
a right which he vindicates at length, and by many
analogies. The fact that he makes no claim leads him
to expound the principles which have guided him in his
public career, and to insist on diligence and consistency
in the Christian life. Here he illustrates the risk of
falling away by showing how large was the Divine
favour to the Jews in the wilderness, and again
parenthetically detects a spiritual significance in the
Providence which supplied their wants. In the face
of these benefits they fell into idolatry, and, as the
Apostle is reminded, into other offences against the
majesty of God. Their example is your warning, for
your trials are not beyond your endurance. Then,
reminded of the idolatry of the Israelites, and simulta-
neously of the food and water in the wilderness, he
abruptly speaks of the feast which is held in remem-
brance of Christ and His betrayal. He justifies his
statement that this rite is a communion of Christ,
by the community which exists between them who
partake of the sacrifice ; and this brings him back to
things sacrificed to idols, on the use of which he now
228 I'-iUL OF TARSUS.
gives a full opinion at the conclusion of the tenth
chapter. The course of the reasoning is traceable,
it is not incoherent, for it is associated ; but no better
illustration can be given of what Aristotle calls in-
consecutive utterance, as contrasted with methodical
statement, than this passage does. With very rare
exceptions, it is always possible to discover the con-
nection of thought in St. Paul's dictations to his
amanuensis, or in the copy which the amanuensis
made ; but the association between the connected
statements, though real, is vague.
If the reader of the Pauline epistles can disengage
himself from two superstitions, one which urges him
to discover a Divine revelation in every sentence
and word of these writings, and another which seeks
to tie a hearty, earnest, shrewd, religious man to
some prim system of composition, such as might
be congenial to a literary pedant ; the one dictated
by a spirit of divination, the other by an unnatural
affectation, he will find more freshness, spontaneity
and reality in the epistles of St. Paul, even in their
obscurest and most involved passages, than in any
more exact compositions. The writer understands
what he is talking about, and means what he says. If
he staggers under the greatness of his subject, if he
is distracted by the infinity of the interests which
he treats, if every word which rises to his lips suggests
a host of profound and large associations, if his
care of all the churches gives every fact a varied
but a real significance, the intensity of which is
heightened by the energetic affectionateness of his
nature, and the vivid way in which he sees tin;
THE REAL MERITS OF HIS STYLE.
bearing of everything which occurs in the course
of his ministry, human speech must be blamed
for its poverty, human experience, which has de-
veloped speech, for its narrowness. His life was
in his hand, his heart was on his lips. The heart
was often too great for the speech. It learnt much
and suffered more. Short of those mysterious hours
which were passed between the garden of Gethsemane
and the darkness on Calvary, the world's history
has uttered nothing more tragic than the words of this
aged missionary, " At my first defence no one came
to my assistance, but all deserted me." Is this
to be always the lot of such men as Paul ? He
has his consolation, " The Lord stood by me and
strengthened me."
Though the general style of the Pauline argument
is obscure and involved, there are passages of astonish-
ing beauty scattered up and down these epistles.
Such, for example, are the magnificent episode on
Christian love ; and the exposition of the resurrection.
Nothing can be more clear and succinct than the
narrative of Paul's early apostolate, which is contained
in the Epistle to the Galatians, or his resume of
the depravity into which gross superstitions had
degraded the Roman people. So, again, the letters
to Timothy are full of affectionate solicitude and
fatherly counsel, as that to Philemon is a pattern
of high breeding and tact.
The antecedent likelihood, that many of the Pauline
compositions are lost, is strengthened by distinct evi-
dence. One at least, which was sent to Corinth,
has perished. It is probable, that in his care of
230 PA UL OF TARSUS.
all the churches he despatched many other letters
to the numerous cities in which he had planted his
gospel, from Antioch in the east to the extreme
west where, as Clement of Rome informs us, he
preached after his first trial. Tradition gives him
as wide a missionary enterprise in the West as history
shows him to have accomplished in the East and
in the centre of the then known world. We could
have wished that the vigorous sketch which he gives
of his earlier labours had been continued in the
last epistle which came from his hand, and that
we had been informed in his final charge to Timothy
of the conclusion of that noble struggle, that complete
race, on which he congratulates himself at the con-
summation of his career.
CHAPTER VII.
THE conversion of St. Paul is the greatest fact in the
history of the Christian Church. Other men, from
having been persecutors, have become preachers, have
cherished that which they previously wasted. The
zeal of a convert is proverbial, and the zeal of the
early Christians, certainly of the Gentile converts, was
unwearied. Nothing can exceed the boldness with
which the Fathers of the Apostolic age, and their
successors during the days of persecution, defied the
power which crushed them, but could not root them
out. Every age has witnessed the heroism of
martyrdom ; and Christianity counts her confessers
from the days of the Neronian persecution to those
of the slaughter in Madagascar. It is impossible to
coerce the human will, except it be first debased ; and
Christianity made the human will divine in the sacri-
fice and glorification of Christ. He was the Example
as well as the Redeemer of humanity. By the grace
of God, men could be made like Him who is the
Captain of their Salvation. No sex, no age, no rank,
no race, was excluded from this great emancipation. On
2']'2 PAUL OF TARSI'S.
the one side was a despotism, vast, unavoidable, all-em-
bracing, iron, a military occupation of the world, at
the head of which was some scion of a worn-out aristo-
cratical family, which in its best days was notorious-
even among the Roman nobility for hardness and
licentiousness. Four emperors of the Claudian race
occupied the triple function of commander-in-chief,
chief judge, and high priest. Beneath this system
lay a world of despair. There was no refuge from the
violence of government except obscurity, no opiate by
which to forget the terror except sensual indulgence.
On the other side was the promise of God, the new
light of a glorious future, which faith affirmed and
hope made near. The coming of Him who had
ascended was daily expected. He would be seen in
His glory before the generation in which He lived
had passed away. And when men murmured because
He delayed His coming, and said that His promise
was slack, they were comforted with the assurance
that He was not slack, but merciful ; they were told
that we who are alive and remain, shall be caught up
with the dead to meet Him in the bright region above
them and to dwell with Him for ever. To interpret the
zeal of the early Christians we must measure not only
their hope, but the contrast which experience presented
to that hope, the dead, hateful, cruel world of sight,
the fresh, lovely, joyous world above. The heathen
called them mad, but they knew that their hope was
sober truth. In the world, they were most miserable;
in Christ, they are already blessed. Woe to man,
i such enthusiasm vanishes. The mission of
humanity is over, if the Judge comes, and finds no
Til K ( '(L\ VMIS10X <>F I' A UL. 233
faith, no trust, no confidence in the world, nothing but
blank apathy, or easy self-indulgence. This was the
temper of the early Church.
Of this zeal, hope, endurance, faith, Paul was the
most conspicuous example. He had always been
eminent for his activity. In the days when he per-
secuted the Church his energy was unbounded.
Having harried the Christians of Jerusalem, he jour-
neyed to strange cities, taking advantage of the
general anarchy which the furious despotism of Cali-
gula permitted. In those times of darkness his hope
was in all that the Rabbis had taught, or could teach,
of the immortality of man's soul, of the resurrection
of the body, of angel and spirit. In misdirected faith,
in impetuous endurance, he travelled madly over the
plain which leads to Damascus, under the burning
mid-day sun, eager to vindicate the law of Moses on
those recreant Jews.
The narrative of St. Paul's conversion ; the vision in
the way, the light from heaven above the brightness
of the sun, the voice from heaven, the solemn question,
not the less solemn, because it used a familiar meta-
phor, the summons to obedience, and the acquies-
cence in the command ; the change of heart, purpose,
life, though not of character, is given three times over
in the Acts of the Apostles. St. Paul does not in
his own writings refer to the circumstances of this
great crisis in his life, but simply states that he perse-
cuted the Church, that God revealed the Son to him,
and that Christ appeared to him last of all. And this
omission is the more remarkable, because there are
several occasions in the epistles, in which reference to
234. PAUL OF TARSUS.
the supernatural event would seem convenient or ap-
posite as, for example, when his claim to the apostolic
office was challenged, or questioned, or impugned.
For the Apostle was assailed from two quarters. The
Jews never forgave him for his desertion of the cause
in which he exhibited his earliest activity. His name,
his person, his mission, were odious to them. They
did not forget that this ringleader of the sect of the
Nazarenes had once been the bitter foe of the society
to which he had apostatised.
They who recognised the mission of Christ, but clung
closely to the Jewish ritual, were little less hostile to
Paul. Shortly after the death of Christ, there arose
a sect which went by the name of the Ebionites,
which still existed in the days of Jerome, perhaps
in those of Justinian. Some traced these men to a
teacher called Ebion ; others said that the name meant
nothing but "the poor," and that they were those
Judaizing Christians who gave so much trouble in An-
tioch and Galatia. These men hated the Apostle, and
denounced him as a heretic and latitudinarian. They
circulated a wild story about his conversion. They
v said that he was a pagan, who, for love of the high
priest's daughter, became a Jew, but that, being dis-
appointed of his wish, he abjured Judaism, and wrote
against circumcision, the Sabbath, and the Law. The
story is told by Epiphanius.
Among the relics of early Christian literature is
a narrative, referred to already, which gives certain
imaginary conversations between St. Peter and other
Scriptural personages on the one hand, and Simon
th<j magian on the other. The authorship of the
HOSTILITY TOWARDS HIM. 235
work is ascribed to Clement of Rome. But this is
a manifest absurdity. The date of the composition
is probably the middle of the second century. But,
though the title of the book is a forgery, it un-
doubtedly depicts the opinions of those sectaries
who existed up to the fourth century in the neigh-
bourhood of the Dead Sea, and who, recognising
the twelve apostles as the only source of authority,
united Judaism to Christianity. At one time they
were a powerful party, and, as they combated with
Paul in his lifetime, so they succeeded, for a century
at least, in overturning his authority in the Eastern
churches. The Homilies of Clement represent Peter
as arguing against, and demolishing the sophistries
of Simon. Some of these are the fantastic tenets of
Gnosticism. But, in many particulars, Paul is plainly
glanced at. Thus, the authenticity of a personal
revelation is distinctly repudiated, Peter alleging
that even an angel could not address man except
through the interposition of a human body ; and,
when Simon replies that a vision is given to none
but the good, Peter quotes examples to the contrary
from the Old Testament. " If," says he to Simon,
"you have been visited by him, taught by him in
an hour, and made an apostle ; utter his words,
interpret his sayings, love his apostles, and do not
proclaim war against me, who have lived with him.
You have withstood me, who am the solid rock
and foundation of the Church." It is difficult to
avoid concluding that St. Paul is referred to in these
expressions.
It is not easy to detect the extent to which Judaism
230 1' A UL OF TARSUS.
dominated in the churches of Palestine. But it
appears certain that the measure of its influence is
the measure of hostility to St. Paul and to his preten-
sions as an Apostle. The extreme party denied his
authority altogether, and even circulated fables to his
disadvantage. Even the more generous were not
without fear at his boldness, and suspicion as to his
motives and acts. This is shown by the language used
to him by those residents in Jerusalem, who persuaded
him that he should make a show of respect for the
Law, t}y associating himself with certain Nazarites,
and presenting himself in the Temple with them.
This concession was followed by disastrous conse-
quences, by the riot in the temple, and the inter-
ference of Lysias, the imprisonment at Caesarea, the
voyage to Borne, and the captivity there. Every one
can see how constantly Paul strove to conciliate the
Jews, and how constantly he was repulsed.
Two defects were discovered in his claim to the
apostolic office. He had been a persecutor. He did
not satisfy the definition which the college at Jerusalem
gave to the status of an apostle that of one who had
been in the company of Christ during all the course
of his ministry, from His baptism by John till His
final disappearance. This was the qualification of
Matthias. It is probable that as long as there
remained any alive who had seen and followed Christ.
vacancies in the Apostolic College were filled up from
their number, and that, even afterwards, they who
had conversed with the apostles were treated witli
peculiar respect, as the recipients of these memorabilia
which the apostles narrated or compiled. In course of
HIS APOSTOLATE DISPUTED. 237
time, it is true, all these witnesses would be removed
by death. But the prospect of this cessation of
ocular testimony to the facts of the Divine life did not
disturb the early Church, for \i always looked forward to
the speedy reappearance of Christ upon earth. When
this hope was delayed, many adopted Chiliasm, and
believed that the personal reign of their Saviour, to
last for a thousand years, was close at hand. Such,
for example, was the belief of Justin. Here, then, was
the great difficulty in the case of Paul. Even if it were
possible to exalt to the eminence of an apostle one
who had persecuted the Church (and at first the
disciples seriously distrusted him), how could they
admit the claims of one who had probably never seen
Christ during His course on earth, who certainly had
never listened to His teaching or witnessed any of
these great facts which were certified by the other
apostles. In the first instance, these difficulties were
overcome by Barnabas, who introduced Paul to the
other apostles, sought him out at Tarsus, whither he
had departed, and was for a time associated with him
in the ministry, till the friends were estranged
Antioch.
But Paul was distinctly resolved to own no man
as his superior in the work before him. He in-
sisted, that in every particular he was the equal V
of those who were acknowledged as apostles ; he
asserts that he did not for an hour yield to any
dictation. To have done so would have imperilled
everything, his own authority as a teacher, the
reality of the revelation delivered to him, the liberty
which he assured his converts in the Gospel. There
238 PAUL OF TARSUS.
are some who may see in this resolute attitude of
the Apostle, the inevitable egotism of a strong will
and a clear purpose ; but, it is more reasonable to
discover in such a temper, an unshaken conviction
in the reality of the mission which was intrusted
to him, and a distinct persuasion that this mission
was to be fulfilled in one way only, and by those
specific means which he had been already adopting.
And, to us who can understand the effect of this
uncompromising temper upon the history of Chris-
tianity it is manifest that the Apostle's persistency
is the reason why Christianity did not become a
mere Jewish school, which might have had a faint
existence in the Ana of some Talmud or Cabbala ;
or would, more probably, have been completely lost
in the general havoc of the great Jewish war. As
it is, the teaching of the Pharisee of Tarsus has
given method to modern civilisation, has erected
religion into a social system, and has constantly
been a standard by which the Christian republic has
been measured and reformed.
The Epistle to the Galatians contains the most
. emphatic declaration of St. Paul's authority and
independence as an apostle, though it is not the
only protest against those who might impugn liis
right to the position which he had assumed and
vindicated, for nearly every epistle of the Apostle
contains allusions to the same subject. The most
sceptical critic has never questioned the authenticity
of this composition, or hinted that it is affected by
any of those canons of forgery which have been so
very variously affirmed about the sacred writings
HIS INFLUENCE ON CHRISTIANITY. 239
of Christendom. Rough and plain-speaking to excess
as might have been expected from a man whose
anger was roused at the intrusion of mischievous
busy-bodies and pedants among his converts, and at
the foolish facility with which the former had imposed,
and the latter had acquiesced in, a vain and super-
fluous ritual the letter is full of gentle passages
and affectionate appeals. It is to be observed, too,
that no name is associated with that of the Apostle
in the preamble to the epistle ; that no salutations
from individuals, or to individuals, are found at its
conclusion. The grievance of which the Apostle
complains is his own though shared by his com-
panions but he could not, or would not, associate
any individual with himself in the expostulation
which he addressed to these vacillating disciples.
He wrote too, we may conclude, hastily, even im-
petuously, immediately on receiving the vexatious
news of which his communication treats, and he has
had neither time nor inclination to collect and send
the messages which are so general in his other
epistles.
In preparing the way to an exposition of the
authority under which he spoke and acted, the Apostle
reiterates a statement that the Gospel which he had
preached was complete, that it needed no addition,
and that no alteration in it could be permitted. He
couples with this assertion an emphatic excommunica-
tion on those who hold the contrary. He varies the
expression in the fifth chapter, announcing that he
who troubles them shall bear his judgment, whoever
he be, the phrase seeming to denote that the emissaries
PAUL OF TARSI'S.
of Judaism alleged the authority of some persons in
the Apostolic College, and that the Galatians were
overawed by the pretensions of those who " had seen
Christ," or at least were the mouth-pieces of those
who had -enjoyed such important experiences. And
then he asserts that his announcements which he had
made to them were not received from men, but by
the revelation of Jesus Christ. By this he appears
to imply that he had not accepted the traditions of
the teachings which Christ uttered, nor had ranged
himself as the disciple of any apostolic master, but
had interpreted the circumstances of Christ's life and
death by the Spirit of Christ which dwelt within
him, and which sufficiently revealed the significance of
these great and absorbing facts. It is unnecessary to
argue that this knowledge was conveyed to him in any
supernatural manner. The facts were patent enough.
St. Paul could appeal to the younger Agrippa
as to the absolute notoriety of the events which
attended the life and death of Christ. The importance
of the revelation does not consist in the mere fact that
Paul knew the events. In all likelihood, he had heard
them over and over again during the days in which he
was a persecutor. What was significant, was, that
knowing them he interpreted them, and that they
ceased to be a stumbling-block to a man who had made
such advances in the knowledge of Judaism.
St. Paul was resolved immediately on his conversion.
He understood that his mission was to the Gentiles,
and, as he tells us, he associated himself with no man
whatsoever, not even taking a journey to Jerusalem
in order to confer with the apostles, but withdrew
HIS DOINGS AFTER HIS CONVERSION. 241
into privacy to some part of the region which was
vaguely called Arabia, and which was sometimes made
to include Damascus, just as Xenophon extends the
district of Syria so as to contain the Euphrates.
After a time he returned to Damascus, and announced
himself as a convert and a missionary of the Naza-
renes. Thence, as he tells us in his Second Epistle to
the Corinthians, he escaped by being let down in a
basket from the window of some house which overhung
the wall of the city.
Three years after his conversion he went to Jeru-
salem. But, faithful to his determination not to
involve himself with the Jewish Church, he saw, as he
asseverates with an oath, only one of the Twelve, and
James the brother of Christ. Those, indeed, were
men of the highest eminence and consideration, whom
it was at once seemly and prudent to acknowledge.
But he saw no other apostle, and remained in Jerusalem
fifteen days only, during which time he was in the
company of Peter. These days were doubtlessly spent
in conversation about the mission and life of Christ;
and it seems certain, though St. Paul repudiates the
presumption that he derived any part of his authority,
or of the exposition which he gave of the Gospel,
from any person whatsoever, that he must have
heard during this fortnight many of these facts of
the private life of Christ, which were so well known
to the chief of the Twelve, and many of these discourses
which Peter so clearly remembered.
The Apostle of the Gentiles returned to his work.
For a time, according to the Acts, he resided at
Tarsus ; whence he set out with Barnabas on those
Q
242 PAUL OF TARSUS.
early journeys of which we know little, but which,
probably, extended over Asia Minor, and, in particular,
over Galatia. During this time he was absolutely
unknown by face in the Jewish churches. He was
only reputed to be a preacher of that very Gospel
which he had previously harassed. After a lapse
of fourteen years from his first visit, he went again
to Jerusalem with Barnabas, in order, it appears,
to appeal against the importunity of those who wished
to bring the Gentile Christians under the ceremonies
of the Jewish law. Titus, also a Greek, accompanied
him. It seems that the Apostle gave way in the
case of Titus, as he took the initiative in that of
Timothy, only as a means of conciliating prejudice,
though he protests that this concession was not of
necessity. The debate at Jerusalem led to an
amicable separation. The Twelve saw that Paul
was really and generally the Apostle of the Gentiles ;
Peter, of the circumcision ; and that both were
eminent in their calling. The chiefs of the Church
sided with him no more than he did with their local
customs ; but the most eminent among them James,
Peter, and John (and St. Paul speaks somewhat
disparagingly of their pretensions to hierarchical
authority) admitted the mission of Paul and Bar-
nabas, leaving them to carry out their function
without let or hindrance, and reserving the teaching
of the Jewish race to the Twelve. They exacted only
one obligation, that the proselytes of Gentile origin
should not forget the poor, ascetic, contemplative
Church at Jerusalem. The risks of rupture were
avoided, and Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch.
LIBERTY AND RULE. 243
But the inveterate passion of the converted Jews,
which urged them to reduce all men who agreed with
them on doctrinal points to the same ceremonial and
ritual, was not extinguished by this compromise. The
college at Jerusalem might acknowledge the wisdom
of conciliation, might concede to the energetic and
resolute bearing of St. Paul, might find it impossible
not to "glorify God in him," seeing how successful
had been his mission. But, with the rank-and-
file of religious sectaries, uniformity is everything;
and ambitious men, those who " wish to glory " in
the largeness of their following, know that they can
always stimulate the rank-and-file to demand uni-
formity, just as politicians can trade on a sham
patriotism, and that they can always, by watching
for their opportunity, precipitate a crisis. The
believing Jews at Antioch waited for such an
opportunity.
Meanwhile, St. Peter went down to Antioch.
The fact is mentioned, but not the occasion. For a
time matters went on smoothly. St. Peter had
himself, according to the Acts of the Apostles,
preached to the Gentiles, attended on their con-
version, baptised them, eaten with them, been re-
ported to the apostles at Jerusalem for a breach
of the ceremonial law, had explained matters, and
had been exonerated from blame. Now, a further
decision had been given in favour of liberty, and
Peter was not slow to acknowledge and act on it.
But the unfortunate facility of being ashamed of
his duty at a crisis, which seems to have been
a special weakness of this apostle, which led him
24 i PAUL OF TARSUS.
to deny Christ after vehement protestations of loyalty,
and which is implied in the legend of his martyrdom
at Borne, misled Peter in this emergency. Cer-
tain emissaries came to Antioch from James, and
apparently reproached Peter for having abandoned
the exclusive rule of the Jews. He was afraid,
and withdrew himself from Gentile company. The
other Jews, we are informed, played the same under-
hand part; and, worst of all, even Barnabas, who
had been chosen as an apostle to the Gentiles, and
had laboured with Paul for years, joined the secession.
For this unworthy conduct, Paul rebuked the chief
apostle publicly, charged him with inconsistency,
and reminded him of the grounds on which the
Gospel was founded, as compared with those on
which the Law rested. We do not know the effect
of this rebuke; but, judging from the character of
St. Peter, we may be certain that it caused no real
division between the two great apostles. If Peter
was rash and timid, he was affectionate and ready
to repent of offence committed. It is exceedingly
probable, too, that the persons who had perverted
J . the Galatians w r ere some of these Antiochene Jews ;
and that, when St. Paul tells the story, the Galatians
were not at a loss to identify the emissaries who
had unsettled them.
The narrative whose leading characteristics Imvr
been stated and commented on, was intended to prove
three things. St. Paul wished to show that his apos-
tolate, both in its origin, and by the tenor of the facts
which preceded his second journey to Jerusalem, was
independent of the Twelve, and derived no authority
THE DISP UTE AT A NTIOCH. 245
from Jerusalem. He could not brook rival, still less
superior, in the work which was before him, nor
submit to any control whatsoever, on the part of any
man, however eminent he might be. This had been
his constant determination, from the first day of his
Christianity, and he was not likely to forego it after
so many years of missionary labour, and in the case
of persons who owed all their knowledge of the Gospel
to him, till such time as these meddling emissaries
had striven to misrepresent him, had repudiate^ his
authority, and called in question the completeness of
the Gospel which he preached.
Next, although he protests against having sought
it, or sacrificed anything to gain it, he asserts that the
Twelve made the concession, or arrangement, that the
Gentiles should not be constrained to accept Jewish
rites, and implies that a division of labour was effected,
by which he had the guidance of the Gentile, Peter of
the Jewish converts. This compromise seems to be
indicated as still valid in the introduction to St. Peter's
first epistle, which is especially addressed to the dis-
persed Jews. Not, indeed, that St. Paul would object
to any association with the special ministry of Peter,
on the contrary, he frequently addressed the Jews,
but the rule w r as a general one, and in effect most
important, because it was a formal acknowledgment of
Paul's mission, and of its total independence. Hence-
forth the two churches were to be one in faith and
mutual goodwill, but different in their ritual, cere-
monies, and government. The church which Peter
was to instruct was national, that which was put under
the guidance of Paul was oecumenical. The story that
216 PAUL OF TARSUS.
Peter ruled the Church of Rome for a quarter of a
century is, of course, contradicted by the facts told in
the Epistle to the Galatians, and is plainly a baseless,
though ancient fable, which has been maintained and
amplified in order to serve particular ends, and to
justify ecclesiastical Caesarism.
In the third place, St. Paul intends to imply that
the circumstances reported to him as to the state of
the Galatian churches justify a suspicion of bad faith
on the part of the college at Jerusalem, and, in parti-
cular, of James. It is plain that the agents of this
eminent person disturbed the peace of Antioch,
brought about the vacillation of Peter, and even per-
verted Barnabas. It is difficult to avoid the conclu-
sion, that the same authority had been employed to
sanction the Propaganda in Galatia. What else is the
meaning of those allusions to some great personages
in " the angel from heaven," " those who seemed to be
something," who " seemed to be pillars," they " who
would shut you out of the Church that they may be
the objects of your admiration," of him " who is to
bear his own judgment, whosoever he be ?" These ex-
pressions can hardly apply to obscure and unauthorised
preachers, who, without any personal or external re-
commendation, were traversing the Apostle's doctrine.
Impressible as the Galatians might have been, they
would hardly have been turned from the freedom
which St. Paul's gospel gave them, at the hands of
such a missionary, to submit to the Jewish rite and
the Jewish ceremonial, and this by the arguments of
strangers, unless those persons had come armed with
very full credentials. Luther docs not denounce Tet-
THE EMISSARIES OF JAMES. 247
zel, but the Pope whom Tetzel represents. St. Paul
is not thinking of nobodies, when he is so exceedingly
plain-spoken in the wish which he utters against those
who troubled his converts.
Nothing can be more false and more delusive than
to imagine that the first teachers of the Christian
religion were men whose harmony of opinion and
action was complete, who entertained one view only
of the Gospel, and who had neither difference, nor
debate, nor quarrel. They were not unconscious
mouth-pieces of a supernatural inspiration, auto-
mata of some uncontrollable enthusiasm, unanimous
machines, but were men of like passions with our-
selves, men with characters, impulses, affections, fears,
dislikes were human in the mistakes they made, and
in the truths which they embraced and enunciated.
It is sheer superstition to treat them as more than
men, as other than men, however highly we may
value their labours, and reverence the spirit which
generally guided their thoughts, their actions, and
their words. If we make them unreal and transcen-
dental personages, we do them a great injustice,
and ourselves a certain mischief, because all free
enquiry into their motives and feelings is suspected
as a challenge of their authority, and every other
form of commentary becomes mere verbiage shed
around a foregone conclusion. They are not stars fixed
round the great central Light, and differing only in
glory and goodness from Him who is the centre of
their system. But they have what light they possess
from reflection, and feel themselves immeasurably
distant from the Power which illuminates them.
248 PAUL OF TARSUS,
Such men as St. Paul, who have seen much of the
world, have made human nature and human charac-
ter their careful study, and who know how much of
both nature and character is due to circumstances,
education, association, habit, are inevitably tolerant,
invariably indifferent to mere varieties of feeling
and peculiarities of manner. When men of St. Paul's
intelligence are animated by a desire to do good to
those with whom they are brought in contact, they
use these differences discreetly, and easily accommo-
date themselves to idiosyncrasies of race and character.
In a word, they possess tact, and a conscientious,
self-denying, earnest, active, generous nature, which
is also gifted with tact or discretion, wields among
those with whom it is conversant an irresistible in-
fluence. And, on the other hand, they who live in
a little world of their own, be they apostles or ordin-
ary men, contract a narrow and exclusive temper, set
great store by trifles, are conservative and tenacious
on minor points, insist on literal obedience, are pas-
sionately fond of conformity, are jealous for the letter,
are slow to understand the spirit. As time went on,
and Paul became more catholic in his teaching and
manner, the ascetic college at Jerusalem became
more scrupulous, precise, rigorous, exacting. In the
presence of a great and comprehensive genius, they
are willing to effect a compromise, will acknowledge
that there is a world beyond their experience. But
when he is gone, the old exclusiveness usurps its place
anew in their minds, they forget their concessions,
they torture themselves with the idea that they have
too far, and seek to retract what they 1m vc
A PHASE OF HUMAN NATURE. 249
granted. When St. Paul was at Jerusalem, James
gave him the right hand of fellowship. When he is
gone to Antioch, the emissaries of James follow him
in order to revoke in detail all that had been pre-
viously allowed.
The spirit which influenced the apostolic society at
Jerusalem is by no means extinct. It is possible to
conceive the case of some missionary who has spread
the light of the Gospel among the heathen, and has
won over abundant converts. These converts run well,
suffer many things. They may even submit to mar-
tyrdom with courage and constancy, braving death
and torture on behalf of the creed which they have
embraced, and in the faith or confidence which they
entertain. A persecution as bitter as any to which
the early Christians were subjected, may fall upon
them, and they may perish numerously man, woman,
child under the hand of pitiless enemies. They may
be exposed to the most dangerous calumny which can
be raised against one who wishes to reform or restore
the society in which he lives, that, namely, of un-
friendliness to established institutions of being un-
social, unpatriotic, traitorous. The remnant which is
left after the hurricane may win tolerance from its
persecutors may even convert them. Unluckily,
however, when the heroes of this spiritual warfare
attract the attention of such Christian societies as have
lived at ease, it is found that they are destitute of
some form, or mode of government, or ritual, which
is accepted among certain other communities. They
have, it is true, faith in Christ, and have obeyed the
law of the Gospel, striving unto death. The}' have
250 PAUL OF TARSUS.
never heard of the form, ritual, or mode of govern-
ment, for the Scriptures are silent on such topics, and
they have learned little beyond what is written in the
New Testament. But they are now to be informed,
that unless they accept the system of which they now
hear for the first time, they cannot be saved ; that
faith in God and His Christ is nothing except they
have faith in a hierarchy and a liturgy. It is easy
to anticipate what would have been the attitude of
St. Paul towards such intruders. He has left it on
record in the Epistle to the Galatians. He tells us
his own practice when, in the Epistle to the Romans,
he repudiates building on another's foundation.
In quitting this topic of the vexations which St.
Paul had to endure at the hands of the Church in
Jerusalem, it is proper to remark that, if we can trust
the genuineness of the First Epistle to the Thessa-
lonians and the weight of internal evidence is over-
whelmingly in its favour there was a time in which
the example of the Jewish churches might be held up
to Gentile converts. St. Paul speaks of the Thessa-
lonians as followers of the churches of God which are
in Judea. But it is not likely, after he had borne the
provocation which was given him in Antioch and
Galatia, that he could have used such language of
those "who came from James."
St. Paul rests his claims to the apostolate on the
providence of God, and on the marks of favour with
which his mission had been supported. In these
particulars he did not fall short of those who affected
to be specially apostles. He uses a term familiar
in the nomenclature of the Aristotelian logic, to
THE LOYALTY OF PA UL. 251
denote his destination for the high office which he
fulfilled. He was separated as an Apostle, defined,
so to speak, to the duty. Christ was revealed to him,
not, as has been suggested, to tell him the facts of
the Master's life, or to implant in him the discourses
of the great Teacher, or even to narrate to him the
wonders which He wrought, for it is impossible to
doubt, that had this been the case, frequent quotations
from such a literal revelation would have been given
in the epistles, but to inform him as to the spiritual
significance of Christ's coming, and to impart to him
the Gospel which he should convey. Except, there-
fore, in the passage where he describes the institution
of the Lord's Supper, Christ is not a man who lived
among men and taught them, but a Divine being who
wields the power of God, and by Himself associates
man with his Maker. In the Gospels, Christ is
perfect Humanity. He is deified Humanity in the
Apocalypse. But in the Epistles of Paul, though
He is intensely personal, He is a Power, an Illumina-
tion, a Lord of dead and living, a Redeemer, a Judge,
a Being whom men tempt, whom men love, reverence,
serve. In the gospels, He is the highest of Teachers ;
in the epistles, He is the Son of God and the Brother
of man.
The intense and unvarying loyalty which St. Paul
felt towards Christ, the profound faith or trust which
he had in Him, were his hope and consolation, the
guarantee of his mission, the absorbing object of his
life. This comfort was clouded only by one recollec-
tion, the fact, namely, that he had once persecuted
those who believed in his Master. Hence, in no
252 PAUL OF TARSUS.
tone of hyperbole, but in sober and sad earnest, he
speaks of himself as chief among sinners, because he
had blasphemed Christ, persecuted His followers,
insulted His Gospel. He can excuse himself, nay,
can explain God's mercy to him, only on the ground
that he was ignorant, and had none of that trust in
Christ, which is now his safety and his comfort.
Similarly, he speaks of himself to the Corinthians as
the least of the apostles, as unfit to be called an
apostle, and for the reason that he persecuted the
Church of God. He refers to his previous career in
his energetic letter to the Galatians, and again in the
last epistle which he wrote to any company of his
converts that to the Philippians ; when his mind was
most completely absorbed in the retrospect of his
ministry, and when, having seen that his life was
Christ, he reckoned that his death was gain. In the
midst of his consolations, in the best season of his
hope, this remorse was always before him.
It is quite in nature that this memory was far
keener to the Apostle than it was to those who a
few years before were persecuted by him. Men
forget the wrong done to them more easily than the
wrong they have done. They remember the latter in
one of two fashions. They either hate energetically
the object of the injury rousing themselves by every
motive they can frame to excuse the wrong, and con-
tinuing it; or they are full of tenderness towards those
whom they have dealt unjustly by eagerly seeking out
occasions, long after all other recollection of the facts
has faded, to relieve themselves by showing kindness,
by accumulating benefits on those whom they liav-
HIS EARLIER MEMORIES ENDURINu. 253
injured. It is in keeping with this feeling, that Paul
speaks so lovingly of those who were in Christ before
him, that he declares he would lay down his life nay,
even be rejected from the Divine favour, if he could
only secure the salvation of those by whom he would
have dealt so savagely if they had embraced the
Gospel in the days when he " breathed out threats and
murder."
What does he mean in the Epistle to the Galatians ^
when he speaks of the excessive persecution and
havoc which he inflicted on the Church of the
believing Jews ? Does it not seem as though he had
tortured them, as he had himself been tortured,
when he reckons up the sufferings of his apostolic
life ? Once in the history of the Israelite nation, the
tribe to which Saul belonged had nearly been extermi-
nated, and the survivors were thereafter no way
lacking in zeal. The fugitives of Rimmon, the
residue of Gibeah, the remnant of men, women and
children who escaped that terrible slaughter were
head-strong and fanatical in future. Paul had the
spirit of his ancestor, who sought to slay the Gibeonites
in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah. And
when he was converted, he retained not only the
recollection of Stephen's death, but of the multiplied
murders which he had ordered or encouraged, when,
during the wild anarchy of Caligula's reign, he sought
and obtained authority from the chief priests to bind
and slay, following the Nazarenes to strange cities
and compelling them to blaspheme Christ. His
resolution and strength of purpose were the traits of
his youth, his manhood and his age. Thus, in later
254 /M UL OF TARSUS.
days, when the real work of Paul was understood and
acknowledged, and the old jealousies had become
extinct, the Christian commentator interpreted the
blessing of Jacob, and discovered in his prophecy
the career of the greatest among the sons of
Benjamin, "Benjamin shall devour in the morning
as a ravenous wolf, and in the evening give nurture."
When St. Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans,
his missionary labours had extended in a circle, as he
roughly names it, from Jerusalem to the eastern coast
of the Adriatic, this vast region having been untrodden
by any Christian foot except his own, and those of his
disciples. As yet, he had not visited Rome, nor did
he visit it till he came thither as a prisoner. He
remained at Rome for two years ; the statement made
at the conclusion of the Acts of the Apostles implying
that his residence in the metropolis ceased at that
time. The narrative of his labours after this period
is wholly lost to us. He had intended a journey
to Spain, and had resolved to take Rome on his way.
It is reasonable to conclude that he carried out his
purpose, and that the origins of churches in the far
west of the ancient world were the preaching of this
unwearied Apostle. There are legends of his having
visited Gaul and Britain. That his writings were
known in these western churches is plain from Irenaeus;
that his authority as a teacher of the Gospel was
recognised in those regions, even before it was accepted
in the eastern world, is plain from the quotations which
the early Fathers of the west make from his writings,
from the store which they set by his robust and
practical doctrine.
PAUL A STATESMAX. 255
In point of fact, St. Paul possessed, together
with the spirit of a missionary, much of the shrewd-
ness of a statesman. But he was no doctrinaire.
He was the founder of churches, not the frarner
of constitutions. He had none of that pedantry
which insists on a uniform, method of ecclesiastical
government, and disdains any diplomatic intercourse
between diverse forms of church administration. He
knew that religious, just like civil, communities
can, if they are left to themselves, discover and
adapt to their own ends the machinery of their own
organisation. Hence, even in the pastoral epistles,
where we should naturally expect some distinct theory
of church government, his advice bears rather on
the qualifications of those whom the churches should
select as their officers, than on the administration
or government of the Church. Deacons there must
be, for the essence of the Christian life in the
early ages of the Church was mutual succour.
Elders there might be, for the habits of Judaism
naturally influenced the Christian converts. Or
there might be some special overseer, or overseers,
who made themselves responsible for the good govern-
ment of the Saints. Or there might be no officers
whatsoever, beyond some temporary chairman ap-
pointed to keep order, as was the characteristic of
the Corinthian church, and, apparently, that of
Justin's place of worship at Nablous. But no one
can cite the Apostle as an authority on the creation
of a caste of ecclesiastics, as the founder, or even
the adviser of a hierarchy.
The activity of the Apostle's mind, the energy
256 I'-^UL OF TARSUS.
of his spiritual nature, continued to the last days
of his life ; and, unfortunately, so did the bitterness
of his enemies. It is manifest that the Second
Epistle to Timothy was written just before his
second trial and condemnation; when, in the general
desertion of his friends, he was expecting death;
and when he almost dreaded that his beloved disciple
would join the timid or the malcontent. But the
words of the epistle are as full of religious con-
fidence as any which he ever penned or dictated
before, when his career was in mid-course. He is
still the preacher, the apostle, the teacher of the
Gentiles. There are sayings which may be trusted,
even in the darkness of unbelief and worldliness ;
and these sayings are to be continued through a
long and unbroken succession of teachers. There
is no sign in the last words of the Apostle, that
old age, imprisonment, ingratitude, sickness, had
worked any weakness in his will, or diminished, in
any single particular, that which had been the absorb-
ing interest of his life. He has enemies as well as
false friends, Phygellus and Hermogenes, HymenaBus
and Philetus, Alexander the coppersmith. And he
has friends Luke and Onesiphorus, besides those
who were faithful to him at Rome, and in whom
antiquaries have discovered a Roman bishop, a Roman
senator, and a British princess. He has his word
for his enemies, his expressions of loving regard
for his friends. With such men as Paul, there is
no cessation in the fervency with which they carry
out the purpose of their life. They relinquish their
hold on the work before them, only when they die.
THE PERSEVERANCE OF ST. PA UL. -J.T7
The veteran falls on the field in full panoply. The
helmsman is torn from the rudder while his grasp
is as vigorous as ever.
It is a matter for profound regret, that the world,
has had to undergo the irreparable loss of the letters
which the Apostle wrote during the last years of
his life, and of the narrative in which it is probable
that Luke recounted the events of his western jour-
neys, of his second captivity, and of his death. I
cannot resist the impression that the Acts of the
Apostles is a series of mutilated fragments, the
remains of a far larger history, which conclude abruptly,
but which originally contained a complete narrative
of Paul's life. Were this narrative preserved, we
should le^rn what was the activity of those five
or six years which elapsed between the residence
in the hired house at Rome and the chain of which
Onesiphorus was not, though so many others were,
ashamed. We might, perhaps, hear also how. it
was that all in Asia, who had owed so much to
the Apostle, were turned away from him ; and what
were the machinations by which Phygellus and
Hermogenes were constituted the leaders of this
schism. That it was the old rancour admits of
little doubt. These intruders must have brought
forward the old charges, that he had advised a
compromise with idolatry, that he had taught every-
where against the people, and the Law, and the
Temple. The malice of polemical rancour knows no
bounds, is unsleeping, implacable, insatiable. Paul
had offended the conservatism of the Jewish Chris-
tians, and their vengeance kept no truce.
258 /M UL OF TARSUS.
More than once in his writings, Paul has described
the labours and troubles of his apostolate, and always
with exceeding clearness and concentration. For
example, he recounts the characteristic traits of his
ministry in a passage of great beauty and eloquence,
when writing his last existing epistle to the Corinth-
ians. He begins by avowing his anxiety to avoid
offence. We know that he accommodated himself to
all, Jew or Gentile, when no real question of conscience
was involved; that he discouraged sectarian narrowness,
and dissuaded his followers from these theological
cavils which he rightly named doubtful disputings.
This lenity of opinion was of course misrepresented,
and Paul was charged with the vice of a perverted
casuistry, of having advised to do evil that good
might come of it. But the motive which he had in
practising this wise complaisance, was that of preserv-
ing the office of the evangelist from ridicule, of
disarming dislike to the strange doctrine which he
preached, that, namely, of salvation by reason of the
resurrection of a crucified prophet, by careful and
studied courtesy. He knew very well that earnestness
and conviction seldom fail to win men over, if they
are coupled with a genial consideration for the feelings
of others ; with the charity which suffers long and is
gentle; with the love which he had previously des-
cribed in so exalted and so impassioned a strain.
As he defers so much to the habits and feelings of
men, so he is unsparing of himself, as becomes the
minister of God. The most obvious and recurrent of
his experiences are those pains and penalties which he
undergoes in order to commend the Gospel which he
HIS ENDURANCE. 259
preaches, the endurance, the heavy cares, the straits,
the hair-breadth escapes, the personal violence, the
imprisonments, the restlessness, toil, sleeplessness,
privations which he has to bear on behalf of his con-
victions. But there are also exacted from him a
blameless life, a copious knowledge, extreme patience,
gentleness, enthusiasm, unsuspected and disinterested
devotion, truthfulness of spirit, the power which God
gives the pious, a scrupulous and perpetual fairness,
the armour of righteousness, as he calls it, on either
side. And all this is to be maintained against discredit
and calumny, or, perhaps harder still, amidst good
repute and fair report. Nor, is it to be wondered at,
that this apostolic character is in appearance made up
of contradictions, is interpreted variously. Paul
himself understood it to be so, and states the different
picture which it presents to those who can understand
it, and those who look on it as Festus did.
A life of this kind seems a daily death, while it
gains perpetual vitality : one of ceaseless grief, and yet
of constant consolation : of deep poverty, but copious
in its power of enriching others : as utterly destitute,
and yet grasping at and containing a wealth which
transcends all worldly possessions. For, in fact, if tried
by any human standard, these endless toils, and cease-
less dangers would warrant men in those contemptuous
jibes which were commonly cast on the early Chris-
tians. But they balanced against misery and con-
tempt that certainty with w r hich their enthusiasm
supplied them, of an assured victory, an everlasting
triumph over their enemies, and the enemies of their
Master. The glory to come is infinitely greater than
260 PAUL OF TARSUS.
the present distress, the toil of the race, the abstinence
and hardship which constitute the training for this
supreme struggle, is as nothing when compared with
the prize which the righteous Judge is certain to
bestow. So enraptured were these men by the pros-
pect, that they scorned the world and its treasures; so
assured were they of the future, that they took no care
for the present. They were even so entranced with
the blessedness of the time to come, of the day which
they believed to be at hand, that they did not care to
pray for vengeance on their foes. They do not seem
to have thought of that alienable privilege of wretch-
edness, the invocation of the wrath of God on the
persecutor and wrong-doer. The Gospel is more
concerned with the unspeakable comfort and consola-
tion of trust in God, and in his Christ, than with
the misery of those who forget the one and repudiate
the other, is more conversant with mercy than with
judgment.
The life of Paul was one of enthusiasm, but of en-
thusiasm coupled with a sober judgment, and lofty
morality. With him faith was the guide of action,
action was the manifestation of faith. To sucli a
nature nothing is impossible. It can, of a truth, turn
the world upside-down reconstruct it. There is no
state of society, no general habit of thought which
can come in contact with it, and yet remain unaffected
by its power. Give it power of speech ; and Jet human
nature be ever so cold or sluggish, it will stir it
up to warmth and energy. It is an error to imagine
that mankind is less impressible in our own age than
it lias been in bygone times to believe that enthusi-
THE FORCE OF ENTHUSIASM. 261
asm is a mere historical force to think that it is
impracticable, in these later days, and, in the greatness
of modern society, to move nations by a vast and
wide-spread sympathy. The hour for such an upheaval
is always at hand, it is only the man that is wanting.
There was never an age in which men's hearts so
much failed them for fear, as that in which Paul be-
gan his missionary labours, no state of society which
was less likely to be roused to religious zeal, less apt
to fervently accept a spiritual creed. A period of
great social suffering is no way favourable to a reli-
gious impulse, but is more likely to advise that license
of despair which gives the gloomy counsel, " Let us
eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." At that mourn-
ful epoch, one man laid deeply the foundations of
a new faith, certainly through half, and probably
through the greatest part of the vast Roman empire.
To repeat the same events, it is only necessary that
the same characters should reappear with the same
purpose, the same zeal, the same perseverance, the
same judgment, the same tenderness and courage.
But a great missionary is, perhaps, even rarer than a
great general, for his genius is higher, his task more
difficult.
There always will be those who seek to conquer or
enlist the sympathies of men. If they whose culture is
high, and whose motives are pure, disclaim all enthusi-
asm, and, in their attempts to assist the progress of
mankind, shun warmth, fervour, sympathy as irrational
and deceptive impulses, and substitute for the awak-
ening of man's moral sense the hard logic of a bare
O <J
moral system, they will never wield the deliverer's rod,
262 PAUL OF TARSUS.
will never be able to rescue a nation from the bondage
of a merely material life, and renew the image of God
in the soul of man. The religious sense is no inven-
tion of human policy, though it may be made its tool.
It is the necessary outcome of two facts. Man is, col-
lectively, far from having reached the virtue which
some have arrived at -still farther removed from that
which all might achieve. The only means by which
the growth of this perfection can be assisted, is the
disinterested self-denial of those who set to the work of
saving and serving their fellows. But the willingness
to serve man in this manner comes from the conviction
that such beneficence is the work of God, and the will
of God.
It is a mournful sight a sad presage, when the
natural leader of men refuses his office, and flies to
that Epicurean ease which, in the early ages of Chris-
tianity, in the flourishing times of Judaism, in the
best days of practical Stoicism, and even during the
last struggles of a reformed Paganism, was abhorred
as the worst treason against human duties and human
hopes. But it is a more mournful spectacle, a sadder
presage, when they who can guide and reform a world
by speech and action, bow down to and worship suc-
cessful force.
Such a degradation of genius and power is the last
consequence of neglecting these public duties which
men owe to men, and in the disinterested satisfaction
of which the great Apostle not only saw that he was
a follower of Christ, but avowed that he was filling
up that which is left of Christ's sufferings. They
who will not lead when they can, must in the end
ANTICHRIST. 263
honour those who usurp their office, will extol the
charlatan, will walk contentedly in the triumphal
procession of those who win the foremost place by
chicanery, fraud, or violence, and will even shout a
paean over the humiliation of mankind. It may be
that they will, like the four hundred who stood before
Ahab, promise their hero victory, and assure him that
God is on his side, while no Micaiah is left to foretell
the inevitable doom of licence and injustice. Human-
ity is never so degraded as when its highest powers
are worshipping its lowest forces, when genius utters
an encomium on wickedness in high places.
To the early Christians, and notably to the apostle
Paul, power used for merely selfish and sensual
ends was Antichrist. The mission of Christ, accord-
ing to these votaries, was the recovery of the human
race, by the agency of moral forces, disinterested
labour, fervid self-sacrifice. They believed that Christ
deliberately relinquished power which made Him
higher than all created beings, in order to restore
mankind to the image of God, and that during His
life on earth He could have returned to that power
had He chosen to leave the regeneration of man
imperfect, since it was possible to effect that regenera-
tion in no other way but by self-abnegation. They
had not yet attempted to define the process by which
this enormous boon was conferred on mankind through
the life and death of Christ, but they were assured
that the boon had been given, and that it was given
only by reason of that voluntary sacrifice.
The spirit of Antichrist is precisely the reverse. 1 1
uses pow^r for selfish ends, and it must degrade man-
/M UL OF TARSUS.
kind in proportion to its success. It was the policy
of the Greek tyrant, says Aristotle, to keep his people
impoverished, mean-spirited, suspicious of one another,
and this has been the policy of every oppressor ever
since. All virtue, courage, truth, are his enemies; all
baseness, meanness, falsehood are his allies. And
just as they who work according to the pattern of
Christ's life, are the perpetual representatives of His
mission ; so they who follow the sordid ends of a cold
selfishness, are incarnations of Antichrist, while they
who extol such a theory of human life and action
are .the preachers and apostles of this devilish revela-
tion. In the days of Paul, and to the author of the
Apocalypse, Antichrist was incarnate in the cruel
and frivolous sensuality of Nero. The same power
has been recognised in every personage who has con-
strained mankind to assert that he is the agent by
which the mystery of iniquity works ; for human
nature has produced her monsters and portents, and
has been amazed or distressed at their doings.
The ancient world busied and tortured itself with
the origin of evil up to the time when the question was
finally settled by the dogma of original sin, by which
is meant the transmitted vice with which an act of
disobedience infected all the reputed descendants of
a reputed ancestor. Between the Gnostic who made
evil a god, and the Pelagian who asserted that it
was subjective and acquired, a host of thinkers occu-
pied themselves with this mysterious and inexplicable
fact, some tending to dualism, some to that Nihilism
which makes all acts, in so far as they bear on the
only, indifferent in their effects; few recog-
THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. SELF-SACRIFICE. 265
nizing the truth, that the victory of man's moral
nature lies in the fulness with which man refers
all the facts of his own being, and all the principles
of his own action, to the behests of that Divine Law
whose stringency and completeness are demonstrated
by overwhelming experience.
Infinitely more startling, however, than the question
of the origin and purpose of evil, is the truth referred
to above, that the moral progress of mankind can
be effected only by the suffering of man. The hopes
of humanity do not lie in the fulness with which
science discovers and employs the forces of nature.
On the contrary, there is no danger which is more
imminent than the appropriation of these powers
by the coarsest despotism which can enslave and
corrupt its subjects. It does not consist in what
is called culture, because art and poetry are easily
made the slaves of that wealth which is willing
to have its existence certified, and its power acknow-
ledged by the homage of cultivated parasites. It
is not learning which can save man; for, at the
best, learning .only influences a few, and is very
apt, in those who possess it, to degenerate into
self-sufficiency and ease. Least of all, do the hopes
of man lie in the aggregation of wealth; for ex-
perience tells us that wealth is not only apt to be
arrogant and domineering, but that it tends to the
formation of a coarse and harsh oligarchy, which
is degraded by low tastes, and is prone to ferocious
fears, and that it is perhaps better to discourage
the growth of opulence than to admire and wel-
come it. Nor, finally, do the hopes of humanity
266 PAUL OF TARSUS.
reside in the adoption of any form of polity. It
may be that one form of administration is better
than another, because it offers least resistance to
the influence which ought to leaven society, gives
a freer course to those forces which can chasten and
exalt mankind. Despotism degrades us, but it does
not follow that liberty purifies us. The atmosphere
is cleared of its accumulated poisons by some furi-
ous storm, which does in the end bring health to
the many, but bestows its benefits amidst the waste
and ruin of those whom it smites. And so the
moral purification of society is effected by the suffering
of those whom the cleansing storm catches in its
course ; the victory of the most righteous cause
demands the suffering and death of some among those
who enter into the battle. When the stronghold of
truth and virtue is to be built, the foundations are
laid in the first-born, and the youngest perishes before
the walls are finished. Everywhere we have to
witness the reign of the same mysterious law. There
is no joy which is not bought with sorrow, no happi-
ness which is not secured by pain. The Syrian
is before, and the Philistine is behind, and men
must perish in arresting the march of each, before
it is possible that the day should come in which
His government and His peace shall increase, and
have no end.
It has been observed that the Jewish race has
furnished splendid examples of dominant energy over
almost every subject upon which human power has
been able to exercise itself, in other words, that
it lias exhibited abundant and marvellous examples
THE JEW AND CIVILISATION. 267
of concentration and force. Perhaps the vigour
which it really possesses has been exaggerated.
But, it is certain that the world is indebted to the
Jew for two great principles. Israel has taught
the unity of God, and, therewith, has affirmed the
reality of religion, and the obligation of man to
society. Other races have inculcated the necessity
of loyalty to a form of government. The Athenian
and the Roman did so. But loyalty to a govern-
ment inevitably degenerates into fetish worship, if
it is made to constitute political virtue. The Jew
was saved from this risk by the fact that his loyalty
was not wasted on an institution, but concentrated
on his race. His loyalty, too, was not aggressive
but defensive. Only once in the long annals of
this people was Judaism a military power. This
transient splendour is even now remembered in the
East, where historical memory is ordinarily only
of yesterday.
But the Jew has suffered a perennial martyrdom
for his monotheism, while he has been leavening
civilisation with his belief. For the sake of this
tenet, he has been an alien among nations, has
been persecuted, scorned, trampled on. But he has
not been crushed. His tenacious vitality is a stand-
ing proof that it is impossible to annihilate a germ
of true life. He has given to mankind a great
doctrine. His race supplied humanity with one
and that, a perfect Teacher, a perfect Example, the
chief Saviour of mankind, the Master of all them
who attempt the same office. His race gave the
world the great exemplar of the missionary the
268 PA UL OF TARSUS.
wise, loving, fervent, resolute man of Tarsus, the
Apostle of the world. Pity that the veil is still
on their hearts, as it was when Paul wrote and
predicted that it should be taken away. That it
has not been removed, is the fault of those who
have never acknowledged what mankind owes to
the testimony of Israel, and, therefore, have never
echoed that desire of the heart and prayer which
he who suffered so much for his own nation con-
stantly entertained and uttered, when he thought
upon the deeds God had done for Israel, and the
service which Israel has done for humanity and
Christendom.
CHAPTER VIII.
" To us," says St. Paul, " whatever may be believed
to exist elsewhere and by others, there is one God,
the Father, the source of all existence, the object of
our being ; and there is one Lord Jesus Christ, by
whose agency all things exist, and by whom we are
what we are." Throughout his epistles this contrast
is perpetually stated. God is our Father, Christ is
our Lord. The Lordship which Christ exercises is
frequently designated. The disciples of Christ, the
recipients of His Gospel, are His servants or (the
word bore a far more gentle meaning to the ancient
world) His slaves. He has purchased them, and
they are His ; He has renewed or regenerated
them, and they are thereupon a new creation. He
is their future Judge, for He is to come from
heaven again in order to execute His last office in
the great scheme of redemption. He is to gather
His own together, in order that they may receive
those indescribable joys which will reward their
patience. And, meanwhile, He is related to them in
the closest and most personal manner. Every phrase
270 PAUL OF TARSUS.
which can denote the nearest and most indissoluble
connection of which we can have experience, is adapted
to indicate the relation of Christ to His people. The
favourite analogy which St. Paul uses, is that of life
and intelligence in union with the corporeity of man.
Christ is to His Church what the life, soul, intellect,
spirit, are to the human organism.
Except during the instant ecstasy on the road to
Damascus, it does not appear that Paul ever claims to
have seen Christ. He had not sat at His feet, and he
had not heard that voice to which even the soldiers
who were sent to take Him were constrained to listen,
and listen wonderingly, when they said on their return
after a fruitless errand that " never man spake like this
Man." The Twelve had enjoyed the benefit of His
instruction for a lengthened period. He had ex-
pounded to them the depths of the Divine Law, and
had revealed to them the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven. He and His had lived together, as a little
community, in terms of the closest intimacy, with a
common purse, sharing plain lodging and humble fare.
Christ had taught the Twelve continuously. The
recorded sayings of the wise Master do not represent
in quantity more than one day's discourses of those
three momentous years, are but the scantiest fragment
of the childhood, youth, manhood, of the great
Nazarene. The author of the fourth gospel, with a
pardonable exaggeration, says that the doings of Jesus
could fill all the books that the world might contain.
We possess but a slender portion of those parables by
which He illustrated His teaching, of those discourses
in which He expounded the new commandment; of that
CHRIST A PERSONALITY TO ST. PAUL. 271
grave irony with which He exposed the pretensions of
self-seeking teachers ; of those indignant reproaches with
which He drove hypocritical Pharisee, time-serving
Herodian, well-born or wealthy Sadducee, to insatiable
wrath. 'These things, forsooth, were not done in a
corner. The light was set on a hill. They came to
Paul, as they come to us, from the narrative of eye-
witnesses, from the memory of listeners. He had
heard of them, no doubt, to a far larger extent than
later generations have, when he was in Damascus,
in Arabia, but most fully during the fifteen days of
his visit to Peter. It may be that a summary of what
he heard and told his own disciples is, as antiquity
believed, contained in the gospel of Luke. It is not
a little remarkable, however, that he does not allude
in his epistles to the discourses, miracles, command-
ments of Christ, but only to the supreme facts of his
life and death. Whatever he may have known of
those events which are narrated in. the gospels, he
does not make them the basis of his teaching.
It would be, however, a total misconception to be-
lieve that, in Paul's eyes, Christ, the Son of David,
the Prophet of Galilee, the rejected of His people, the
Saviour of mankind was, in any sense whatever, an
abstraction. On the contrary, He is always a vivid,
manifest, real personality the very intensity of indi-
vidual being. Many of the expressions used of Christ
were, of course, familiar to Jewish ears as formularies
in Rabbinical theology. Such were "the Word of God,"
"the Son of God," "the power and the wisdom of God."
The personification of those exalted qualities was natu-
ral enough to the mind of antiquity. But the Christ
272 PA UL OF
of Paul was no incaniation of a Divine attribute ; .nor,
conversely, was it the apotheosis of a Jewish Augus-
tus, in whom might be supposed to reside the loftiest
manifestations which the world had ever seen of
moral goodness and intellectual power. Paul always
preached Christ crucified. It was not easy to treat a
crucified person as a glorified, deified being, merely
from the fact that he was a teacher of the highest
righteousness, and had been slain by those whom he
came to instruct and benefit. That event is and has
been too common. If men worshipped all the teachers
whom they have sacrificed to their jealousy, their sus-
picion, their weariness, the gods of the human race
would be as numerous as those of the Egyptian
Olympus.
Towards the Christ whom he preached Paul enter-
tained the most ardent affection. The love of Christ
for man is reciprocated intensely by the love of this
man towards Christ. It is the one great and abiding
consolation in all the labours of his energetic life. He
was not without other joys. Sorely tried and harassed
as he was, by secret and open enemies, by his craving
after sympathy, by his enforced distrust of men, by his
unsatisfied claim for fidelity, he gained, as such ardent
natures do, many devoted friends. He had warm
attachments, and no man, however enthusiastic, disin-
terested, persevering, wise, he may be, can conciliate
men's affections, unless he be genial and affectionate
himself. But there was one friend who was closer
than any other could be, who never failed him, who
watched and strengthened him in his labours. And
hence he can boldly ask, after enumerating every in-
HIS CONFIDENCE IN CHRIST. 273
fluence which can hinder human weakness from the
consciousness of the Divine presence whether trouble,
penury, persecution, hunger, want, danger, or the pros-
pect of death can separate him from the love of
Christ, can confidently, nay, triumphantly, assert that
in the face of all these hindrances, he is overwhelm-
ingly victorious by the love of Him, and that no
created force or power can seclude him from this per-
petual warranty of his hopes. The other apostles
speak almost faintly of the personality of Christ when
they are compared with the last of the chosen, the
Benjamin of the new Israel. Hence Paul is the per-
manent teacher of that school of Christians, which has
dwelt with such tenderness on the humanity of Christ,
which worships Him as God because it loves Him as
man, which delights itself in any association which it
can frame in order to designate the inclusion of every
affection of which the human heart is capable in the
love of Jesus. Paul is the apostle of the Quietists, of
the Passionists, of those who would seclude themselves
from every part of the business of life, in order that
they may occupy their hearts with the absorbing con-
templation of that glorified, but veritable humanity.
So comprehensive was the nature of Paul's faith, that
he the most active and cool mind which Christianity
has ever enlisted in its service is, from this tenderest
part of his character, the perpetual example of those
women, and those womanly -hearted men, who have
suffered themselves to dwell with such loyal intensity
on the merits of their Lord, who have clung to him
(the simile is Paul's own) with much the same trusting
attachment that a pure-hearted and earnest wife docs
274- 1'A UL OF TARSUS.
to the husband of her love, and pride, and happiness.
With such natures faith supersedes a creed, for there
is no power by which the emotions of the heart its
trust, which is the faith of the New Testament can
be translated into a set, dogmatic avowal, which is too
frequently the faith or the creed of later Christianity.
And yet St. Paul has also become the Apostle of
dogmatic Christianity throughout ecclesiastical history.
It is from his writings, almost exclusively, that con-
troversialists and polemics have forged their weapons.
A text or two in his epistles has been made the basis
of some definition or article of faith which has agitated
or divided Christianity from time to time. The Gnos-
tics acknowledged no authority except his catholic
epistles, with the Gospel which he was supposed to
have dictated or revised ; while the earliest Christian
Fathers, who contended with these sectaries, drew
their replies from these very writings. When men
entered into controversy about the nature of Christ,
both Arian and Athanasian appealed to the Pauline
epistles in support of their rival theories. The grim
logomachies of Sabellius and Eutyches and Nestorius
were defended and impugned from the same authority.
Again, the world of Christendom was threatened with
disruption in the days of Pelagius; and the irrepressible
question as to the harmony of man's free will, witli
the divine scheme of redemption, was made a forbidden
topic for many a century by reason of the energy of
Augustine, and by virtue of a quotation or two from
St. Paul's writings. Slowly, it is true, and indirectly,
the Christian world slid back into a theory akin to
that of Pelagius ; and Luther, who well kuc-.v that
MADE A DOGMATIST IN SPITE OF HIMSELF. 275
the best way to depose the Pope was to prove him
heretical, insisted on the doctrine that man is justified
by faith, understanding by faith the acknowledgment
of certain abstract propositions on the nature of good,
of Christ, and of man.
The Pauline epistles were ransacked, and his words
subjected to an elaborate exegesis, in order to prove
that the divine economy of Christianity commanded
the universal establishment of an episcopal form of
church government. Nay, some of the more eager
and imaginative of these controversialists have dis-
covered the authority for a liturgy, and that ritualism
which deals in costume, in the parchments and
cloak which were left at Troas. No words ever
written have been studied more carefully and more
persistently than those of St. Paul, none have been
quoted more confidently on behalf of foregone and
repugnant conclusions. And yet there is no writer
in the latter part of the New Testament more free
from formal definitions than St. Paul is, none the
articles of whose creed are plainer and fewer. With
how strange an irony is he who discouraged the
Roman converts, in admitting men to church member-
ship, from entering on doubtful disputations made
the chief authority for the attack and defence of
theological subtleties.
The fact is, no large-hearted man is ever intolerant
of opinion. He may be persuaded that unless he
comprehends and affirms his creed as emphatically
as he holds his faith, he is in peril. But, in dealing
with others, he is certain to be considerate. There
are times in which creeds lose much of their hold on
276 PA UL OF TARSUS.
men's minds ; but faith, real trust in God, manifested
by patience, and demonstrated by earnest and self-
denying love to man, is stronger than at other periods
of ecclesiastical history, when controversy has been
sharp and definitions have been more exact. The
gospel which Paul preached is singularly free from
anathemas, even when the preacher is strongly pro-
voked. He does not fly to that armoury of polemical
strife, whence some men have scattered imprecations
on every thought and action which seems likely to
challenge authority, or threaten usurpation. He
would rather win than terrify. Even when he is
constrained to insist on curing a grave scandal by
sharp discipline, he is careful to excuse the act on the
plea of its absolute necessity, and to limit its stringency
as narrowly as possible. He knew that the best way
to obviate quarrels was to recognise differences. He
was well aware that men may work for a common
purpose, even though their several methods of pro-
cedure may be so various as to seem incongruous,
and that, provided the means be just and honourable,
identity of end is a sufficient bond of unity. Experi-
ence proves that the higher is the object which men
propose to themselves, the easier is it for them to
invite the co-operation of different forces. The wisdom
of the statesman consists in effecting a harmony of
interests, that of a great religious reformer in enlisting
all action on behalf of one grand purpose. Both wreck
their reputation when they ally themselves to party
cries, and narrow rules.
No writer in the New Testament, however, has
written so much as St. Paul has ; and none has
THE OFFICE OF CHRIST TO WARDS MAN. 277
written nearly so much about the nature of Christ.
It occurred to him in pursuance of his charge over
the churches which he had planted to communicate
by letter to his disciples or followers, on topics
which, though they seemed temporary or incidental,
have a perpetual interest, because they perpetually
recur. In these communications he had to deal
broadly with the Christian character and the Chris-
tian system, as became, to use an analogy, the great
statesman of the infant Church. Had he been a
personage of ordinary temper and character, he would
have had a policy, as partisans always have. But
a great statesman has no policy; he accepts a few
leading principles, his wisdom being to show how
these principles apply to the various occasions of
human life. And, similarly, the leading rules of
St. Paul's gospel were a few inductions, the appli-
cation of which is universal. But the acuteness and
wisdom of the teacher is found in the aptitude with
which he points out the universal character of the
position which he affirms. In St. Paul's teaching, this
is the redemption of man by the sacrifice of Christ.
But the four facts contained in this formula are
of enormous extent, and are exhibited under a multi-
tude of phases, redemption, the nature of man,
sacrifice, the nature of Christ. Can any conceptions
be more vast ? can any interest be more absorbing ?
And need we wonder that, in explaining these con-
ceptions, distinct as they are from each other, it
is impossible to gather any clear notion of the mechan-
ism by which the harmony between these facts
and operations is effected, except by estimating them
278 PAUL OF TARSUS.
from every point of view which can possibly come
within our ken ? The Pauline interpretation is multi-
form; but, under no circumstances is it presented
as a harsh, dry, monotonous analysis, in which the
fire, spirit, life, of the Christian polity has totally
evaporated. Paul has, perforce, been made the
authority for speculative opinions ; the warm-hearted,
impetuous, earnest, resolute, loving man has been
treated as though he were a cold doctor of arid
logomachies, a chief of the schoolmen, the convener
and presiding genius of an assembly or a synod.
If the Apostle were estimated by the use which
men have made of his writings, we might say that
no man has ever inflicted so much evil on mankind.
But, in fact, if men had been content to judge him
by what he says and means, and not by what they
wish to prove, Christianity might be understood
in all its tenderness, generosity, attractiveness and
power.
It is said that the earliest Christian sectaries, those
Gnostics, who, not having developed the theogony of
Valentinus, merely busied themselves with the place
which Christ occupied among the emanations from the
supreme Being, retained or reconstructed those gospels
only which narrate the facts of the Saviour's child-
hood. The object of these persons was to find
authority for the theory which they entertained about
the nature of Christ. For a different reason, there
is hardly any part of the gospel narrative which
awakes our sympathies so profoundly as the story of
the Child-Christ. The gentle mother, the journey to
Bethlehem, the birth in the stable, the cradling in
THE CHILDHOOD OF CHRIST.
a manger, the visit of the Magi, the flight into Egypt,
the escape from Herod, the return to Nazareth, the
obedience to Mary and Joseph, the visit to Jerusalem,
the scene with the doctors in the Temple, are of the
deepest interest, are the vehicle of a thousand tender
associations, justify that reverence for childhood which
is the most marked characteristic of Christian society.
In no part of His life is Christ more human than in
His childhood, in no part is the feeling of affection
towards Him more keenly felt than in the recurrence
of the season which reminds us of His birth and
growing up. Christ has granted the Shechinah to
childhood, has invested it with the white robe of His
holiness. To this St. Paul bears witness. They who
care little for the circuit of the Christian year, its
times and seasons, its reminders and its memories, are
drawn perforce to the children's festival, the time of
Christmas, the record of the birth of Jesus.
The fullest statements as to the mission and work
of Christ are found in the shorter epistles. Thus, in
that to the Ephesians, we are told that the mystery of
Christ was not known to mankind in former generations
as it is now revealed to His apostles and teachers by
the Spirit ; that by the Gospel preached to them the
nations should be reckoned as heirs, incorporated, and
made partners of the promise contained in Christ.
And then St. Paul goes on to speak of the undiscovered
riches of Christ, of the work of creation being done
through Christ, of the wisdom of God dwelling in
Christ, of God as the Father of Christ, of Christ's
indwelling in His people, of the glory which comes
from the presence of Christ in His Church. Several
280 PAUL OF TARSUS.
of these expressions are indeed familiar phrases of
Jewish theology, and would be perfectly intelligible to
those who were acquainted with the language of the
Jewish doctors ; but together they form a weight of
significant epithets, each of which illustrates some
relation in which the Founder of Christianity is
supposed to stand to His people, and all by reason of
the relation in which Christ Himself stands to God.
The Epistle to the Colossians contains even fuller
statements on this subject. The Colossians do not
seem to have been the converts of St. Paul, if we take
the words, " those who have not seen my face in the
flesh," as applying to the persons who are to receive
the letter. But here Paul speaks of God as One
"who has saved us from the control of darkness,
and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of
His love, in whom, and by whose blood, we get
redemption namely, the remission of sins; who is
the image of the invisible God, the first-born of
every creation, since in Him are all things created
things in heaven and earth, things visible and
invisible be they thrones or lordships, governments
or powers; all of them have their creation by
Him and for Him; He is before everything, and
all things exist in Him ; and He is the Head of
o
the body of the Church ; He is the beginning, the
First-born from the dead, that He may be chief in all
things, because all the fulness " (a word which after-
wards was used in a strange significance) "was content
to dwell in Him, and by it to conciliate everything to
Himself, who brought about peace by the blood of
His cross, by Himself, to whatever is on earth and in
CHRIST IN THE CHURCH. 281
heaven. A.nd you," he adds, " who were once alien-
ated, and foes to Him in mind by wicked deeds, He
hath now conciliated in the body of His flesh, by His
death, so as to bring you before Hun holy, spotless,
and irreproachable, provided ye remain firmly founded
and settled in your trust, and are not distracted from
the hope of the Gospel which you have received a
Gospel which is proclaimed in every creation under
heaven, and of which I, Paul, am a servant."
Much, again, of this ascription of attributes to the
person of Christ, is identical with that which the
Hebrew teachers recognised in the Word. But all
that portion of the Apostle's exposition which trans-
fers the power of the Word to the work of human
redemption, and which makes the agency of that re-
demption to consist in the death of Christ, is distinc-
tively Christian, and is characteristic of that Gospel
which Paul had preached throughout his life.
A little further on in the same epistle, St. Paul
returns again to the declaration of the effects which
were secured by the sacrifice of Christ. He is warn-
ing these Colossians against the figments of a vain
and treacherous philosophy, against the traditions of
human science, against the materialism of physical
laws. To these unsatisfying pretensions he opposes
Christ. "He is the incarnate habitation of the fulness
of Divinity, and ye are filled by Him, derivatively.
He is the head of all authority and rule ; He has
given you a spiritual circumcision, that of Christ,
by stripping off the body of fleshly sin. You are
buried with Him in the baptism, and by His means
ye are awakened up through trust in the work of God
282 PAUL OF TARSUS.
which raised Him from the dead. Once ye were dead
in sins, which are the uncircumcision of your flesh, and
now, having made you the gift of pardon from your
sins, God is raising you to life in Him." He hath
blotted out that which was written against us, which
stood in our way the letter of the law has taken it
out of our path, has nailed it to the cross of His Son,
has stripped of their authority other masters and other
rulers, and has publicly exhibited them " when (as a
Roman general did the captured kings and van-
quished commanders in the procession of victory) He
celebrates His triumph over them in the victory of
the cross." Here, again, in a passage of dithyrambic
exultation, the Apostle starts from the same topic
the fact that Christ represents the fullest incarnation
of God which the theosophy of his age allowed,
and thence argues to the prodigious effects which the
sacrifice of so glorious a personage must have worked
for the regeneration and exaltation of humanity, for its
freedom from sin, for its reconciliation with God, for
its introduction to a new, a final, a holy covenant.
It is impossible to compare these passages from the
two epistles written, it would appear, at the same
time, and that late in St. Paul's life with those
which are to be found in such writings as the epistles
to the Thessalonians, without discovering a great de-
velopment in what we may call Christology. The
epistles to the Thessalonians are the earliest parts of
the New Testament. St. Paul had not yet been
driven into an open rupture with Judaism. He still
commends, among Gentiles, the imitation of the Jew-
ish churches. The expectation of a spivdy
CHRISTOLOGY A DEVELOPMENT. 283
of Christ was at its height, and men were looking
forward, with feverish anxiety, to that coming in the
clouds of heaven which had been predicted and pro-
mised. It is true that the Apostle invokes, as is his
wont, the grace and peace of God and Christ on his
converts, at the commencement of the first epistle, and
utters the same blessing at the conclusion of each.
But there is little or no trace of that mystical force
which is ascribed to the death of Christ in the pas-
sages just commented on. We read of the hope of
Christ, of the imitation of Him, of His endurance, of
His death at the hands of His people, of His resur-
rection and its pledge, of His presence, of His Gospel,
of the commands which He communicated, of the
salvation effected by Him, of His speedy advent. It
may be that the larger theory of His constructive
office, in the regeneration of Humanity, was present
to the Apostle's mind, but it is not expressed. There
were, indeed, abundant reasons why that which was
not revealed in the earlier, should be insisted on in
the later epistle. As a religion, Christianity was in-
complete, until it not only guided the life, but satisfied
the needs of the soul, in its search after the means of
union with God. We do not know, and never shall
know, what were the struggles of men after a theology
in the early days of Christendom. We cannot see the
thick of the fight, but we know something about the
forces which stood in most marked antagonism to each
other, and yet with some similarity of equipment.
The Christology of St. Paul is before us, and so is the
theosophy of the Gnostics.
The purpose of the Epistle to the Romans is to
284 PA UL OF TARSUS.
show, though in a less marked manner than is done
in the letter to the Galatians, that the Jewish ritual
and ordinances are superseded by the revelation of
Christianity. Hence the Apostle insists on the
effects which have been induced by the sacrifice of
Christ, in the reconciliation of man to God, and on
the guarantee which the resurrection of Christ affords
that this reconciliation is complete. Here, then,
Christ is the perfect man, who stands in contrast to
Adam ; the First-born among many brethren ; the
Advocate of man in the presence of God ; the Lord
of dead and living ; the Judge of men ; the Minister
of circumcision, whose mission it was to confirm the
promise made to the Fathers ; the descendant of David
according to the flesh, but the Son of God in power ;
by whom we are heirs of God, fellow-heirs with
Christ ; who, if we suffer with Him, may be glorified
with Him in the end. He is exalted and glorified,
because He has been humbled, betrayed, put to death ;
He reigns over all, because He has undergone, for
man's sake, the lot of a servant. He is the perfect
Type of humanity, in whom converges every grace,
power, gift, function, which may be needed for the
grand purpose of His coming, that of recovering the
race of man, of aiding the suffering and groaning
creation in gaming that which it expects so earnestly,
the redemption of the body, the adoption into sonship,
which even the first-fruits of the Spirit need.
In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, there is a
passage which is full of beauty, tenderness, and hope,
and has thereupon been selected as a most consolatory
exhortation to those who are saddened by the bereave-
CHRIST IN THE EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 285
merit of their dearest and best beloved. In the chapter
which is read at the Anglican burial service, occurs a
remarkable statement as to the place of Christ in the
Divine economy. Beginning from the position laid
down in the Epistle to the Romans, that death is the
lot of the sons of Adam, life the gift of Christ's resurrec-
tion, the Apostle proceeds to say that this regrant of
life is exhibited in a definite order, that the first-
fruit of the great harvest is Christ ; next, those who,
at the sudden presence of Christ, are His. And then,
St. Paul continues, " the end will come. Christ will
then deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father, in
order that He may bring to an end all rule, authority
and power Christ must reign till He hath put all
enemies under His feet ; the last enemy who is to be
brought to an end being death. God, " says the
Apostle, quoting the words of the Psalmist, when
he speaks of the power conferred on man, " has put
all things under His feet." "But," he adds, "the
words, 'He hath put all things under him,' imply
that the Being who has granted this authority is
external and superior to such a dispensation ; and that,
therefore, when this subjugation is finally accomplished,
the Son Himself must be subject to the God from
whom this authority is derived, that God may be
supreme in everything." It is impossible to explain
away these unambiguous words, which distinctly ex-
press the Apostle's conviction that the present relation
of Christ to the Father, and to the creation which He
has saved, are determined by the cessation of the
visible creation, by the second coming of Christ. This
event, as we have already seen, was perpetually ex-
286 PA UL OF TARSUS.
pected by the believers in the Apostolic age, and is
nowhere declared to be more immediate than in
this very passage. " I tell you," he says, " a mystery.
We shall not all die, but we shall all be transformed."
The existing generation is to see the greater advent,
and, with it, the reabsorption of all imparted power
into the unity of God. In the Pauline Christ ology,
the perfection of Christ's Being is achieved by the
death on the cross. " He puts on the figure of a slave,
exists in the likeness of man and in the fashion of a
man, humbles Himself, subjects Himself to death, the
death of the cross ; and is therefore highly exalted by
God, is gifted with a name above every name, is the
object of reverence to everything in heaven, earth, and
hell, and is confessed to be Lord by every tongue, to
the glory of God the Father." The completion of
His office is contained in His second coining, in His
judgment, and in the final and eternal reconciliation
of man to God. Then His work is done, His mission
is a glorious memory, He is again the perfection of
humanity, the first-born of all creation, the first-born
among many brethren. Such a Christology differs
largely from that of the Nicene doctors. It is bounded
by the period which lies between the death of Christ,
or rather His resurrection, and that consummation of
all things which the Apostle thought so near.
But, though the Christology of Paul contained
none of the exact definitions which the conflicts of
later theology developed, nothing, on the other hand,
which we can conceive, is so intense to the Apostle as
the personality of Him whom he saw on the road to
Damascus, and saw but once. None < -\ en of
THE NEARNESS OF CHRIST TO PAUL. 287
who had passed the three years in His company,
had so vivid, so permanent an apprehension of Christ
as Paul had. The Master, Saviour, Redeemer,
Advocate, Judge, is present to him in every act,
in every relation of life. Christ, a real, living Person,
is the beginning and end of his thoughts, is ever in
his heart, always on his lips. He never loses sight
of the vision. It carries him how, he knows not
to heaven, and fills his mind with Divine voices, with
words which, like the name of the Almighty, were
incommunicable. In all his bodily weakness, in all
the trials of his life, he is triumphant, a conqueror
through Him who strengthened him. He is never
alone, he can never be separated from the love of
Christ. Christ has literally come to him, and taken
up his abode with him. He has the mind of Christ,
bears the marks of Christ on his body, fills up what is
left of His afflictions, knows and exults over the deep,
the unsearchable riches of Him whose servant,
minister, apostle he is. The fourth gospel tells us
of one whom Jesus loved. The Pauline epistles
depict us a man who loved Jesus, with a perfect,
all-absorbing, unremitting devotion. Other men have
served Him, worshipped Him. Paul dedicated his
whole nature to the Person whom he once persecuted,
but now loved with every power of a large heart,
a vigorous will, and an imaginative mind. However
long we may search into the history of religious
emotions, we shall find no parallel to this man's
concentrated love for Christ. He combines what
is seen or told to us in the characters of Peter,
Mary Magdalene, John ardent zeal, loving ad or-
288 PAUL OF TARSUS.
ation, rapt contemplation. To such a person, the
definition of that which is beloved would be un-
natural and even odious. Who attempts to analyse
his own heart, when it is occupied by one engrossing
affection ?
In degree, this feeling towards Christ was shared
by the early Christians. The celebrated letter of
Pliny to Trajan is evidence of its prevalence in
Bithynia; the contemptuous sneers of Lucian are
proof that it lasted in Syria and Greece. Gradually,
however, as the personal memories of Christ faded
away, and the survivors of the Apostolic age became
fewer and fewer as the expectation of His coming
grew more distant by delay, and men even murmured
at the slackness of His promise as the watching
for His appearance was superseded by the dream
of Chiliasm as the thousand years of the Petrine
Epistle, and of the Apocalyptic vision, were developed
into the belief in a visible reign of the glorified
Son over an impregnable Paradise on earth, into
which the faithful should be gathered, Christ ceased
to be a person, a man, and became a nature, an
hypostasis, a debate, a disputation. The love of
Christ was ultimately strangled by the growth of
opinion. The faith of the Apostolic age originally
trust in a living, present, energetic power, which
was able to save to the uttermost all who came to
God through Him, as the author of the Epistle to the
Hebrews declares became the acceptance of a series
of abstract propositions, not one of which touched the
heart, or strengthened the will. But Christianity
is always compelled to seek for its sanctions in
REVIVALS OF CHRISTIANITY. 289
something more impulsive than a series of definitions ;
perpetually revives itself by tearing to pieces, or
breaking through the cobwebs of a subtle logic ;
and always puts before the believer's mind a personal
Christ, a perfect Man, a Being to love, to live for,
to labour for, to die for, to hope in. The humanity
of Christ makes martyrs ; disputes about the nature
of His divinity have bred schoolmen and inquisitors.
The teaching of Christianity always encounters the
typical Jew and the typical Greek ; the one, being
occupied by the dream of an exact system, finds
impassioned faith a stumbling-block, a wild enthu-
siasm ; the other, wrapt up in the invulnerable armour
of his own intelligence, moralises on the weakness
of humanity, its liability to impulse, its uncritical
acquiescence in sentiment and emotion. But, when
once the religious sense is thoroughly aroused, these
critics cavil in vain. The love for the perfect man,
Christ Jesus whose wisdom, beneficence, self-sacrifice,
are so old, and yet so new ; so wonderful, and yet
so familiar; so wide in their effects, and yet so
intensely personal in their appeal to individual
sympathy again occupies the heart of man, and
gains its fervid allegiance. In brief, whenever Chris-
tianity is reconstructed, and the mind of Christ reigns
in man, man reverts to the pattern of the Apostolic
age, exhibits an intense affection for the humanity
of Christ, and inaugurates a fresh epoch of charity
towards his fellows. But, as soon as dogmatism
reasserts itself, Christ is lost in a maze of definitions,
and the preacher of the Gospel is tempted to become
a persecutor and injurious.
290 P&VL OF TARSUS.
The reader will not, of course, conclude that this
attempt at expounding the Pauline Christology
intends to indicate a judgment on any theological
hypothesis as to the Nature of Christ. The utmost
inference which I am forced to make is, that the
popular belief in that which since the days of the
Nicene Fathers has been accounted orthodox, finds no
positive proof in the Pauline epistles, but rather, to
judge from the important passage already quoted from
the First Epistle to the Corinthians, is repugnant to this
Apostle's conception of Christ's place in the Divine
economy. It is possible that, had Paul been ques-
tioned as to the Nature of Christ, he would have
answered according to the Nicene symbol, and that
he might not have considered the phraseology of this
creed a mass of those dialectical subtleties which he
advises the Roman Christians to avoid. It is idle to
inquire what would have been the attitude of the
Apostle towards the heresiarchs of the third and fourth
centuries, had their opinions been matured in the
earliest age of Christianity, just as it is superfluous
to ask what he would have recommended as a perma-
nent form of church government, had he been
appealed to by the first advocates of the Roman
primacy, or by the opponents of ecclesiastical cen-
tralisation.
Nor can it be denied that the author of the Epistle
to the Hebrews, who was certainly not St. Paul,
whoever else he may have been, makes far more
positive declarations as to the Nature of Christ than
Paul does. The first chapter of this epistle indicates
a development in the history of Christology which
THEORIES AS TO THE NATURE OF CHRIST. 291
goes beyond the Pauline utterances. It is true that,
in the course of the argument, the humanity of the
Saviour is made the basis of the parallel between
Him and the chief of a superseded ceremonial ; the
eternal priesthood having been, in the language of the
writer, conferred on Christ by the initiative of God.
In other particulars, the epistle ascribes to Christ
those qualities and attributes which the philosophers
of the Alexandrian Jewry assigned to the Messiah of
their hope. But the fullest witness to the Nicene
doctrine is given by the author of the Apocalypse and
of the fourth gospel. It was not, then, without reason
that the emperor Julian was, as we are told, accustomed
to say, that the Divinity of Christ was no tenet of the
three Evangelists, or of Paul ; but of John, the John,
who is the reputed author of the fourth gospel and the
Apocalypse; for the epistles ascribed to this apostle
do not go beyond the Pauline doctrine.
It is possible that the doctrine of the Nicene
Fathers is nothing more than a necessary inference
from the position which the earliest teachers of Chris-
tianity assigned to the great Founder of their faith.
The mission of Christ was to save a Avorld, and this
function could not be fulfilled by any but one person.
In view of this great office, it was natural, perhaps
necessary, to accumulate on His person the attributes
of the Almighty. As men came more and more to
feel and believe that the salvation of each man was a
mystery of miraculous power, they were more and
more led to see that He who was gifted with this
exalted mediation was in the counsels of the Father
from the beginning, and that He shared for ever in
292 PAUL OF TARSUS.
the majesty and power of the Eternal. To lower His
Nature was to disparage His work. To exalt it was
to confess the unworthiness of man, and the mighty
mercy of God. The harmony of the human and the
Divine nature occupied, as is well known, the keenest
intelligence of the Eastern world, then the centre of
dialectical skill and philosophical speculation. The
result is to be found in those creeds which were gradu-
ally elaborated during the fourth and fifth centuries,
and notably by the termination of the last great theo-
logical controversy that in which the teaching of
Pelagius was formally condemned, and the nature of
Christ was formally and precisely defined. It is pro-
bable that soon after this, the last of the creeds that,
namely, which has been ascribed to Athanasius was
constructed.
The death and resurrection of Christ were the
special facts on which St. Paul insisted. The
former was not of course disputed, though, after
a time, a strange sect pretended that a phantom
was crucified, the true Christ having been mys-
teriously conveyed away. But the resurrection was
no novel utterance from the mouth of Paul, at least
to the Jews,- who generally accepted the doctrine
of a corporeal resurrection. It was a characteristic
tenet of the Pharisees; and the story of St. Paul
having created a diversion in his own favour, by
affirming that he was charged with maintaining
the resurrection of the dead, is completely in accor-
dance with what we know of the dissensions which
prevailed on this topic among the Jews. The rational-
ists denied and ridiculed, the mystics affirmed the
LIFE AFTER DEA TIL 293
doctrine. On the other hand, the heathen world
thought, with Festus, that a man who held the
resurrection of the dead to be a possibility was a
madman. The mass of the people believed in a
world of spirits, as men have almost invariably
believed. Much of the familiar theology of the
ancient world was based on spirit-worship. The
Penates of the Roman household appear to have
represented the deceased ancestors of the family.
The early civilisation of Borne gathered from the
mysterious Etruscan race who were, probably, a
fragment of that great family which throve in ancient
Egypt, and still exists in Eastern Asia the charac-
teristic tenet of reverence for the spirits of departed
relatives. But this worship had become an archaism
in the Christian era. The gentry of the Boman empire
accepted that notion of a comfortless immortality which
is stated in the Odyssey in its naked gloominess,
and which is pictured in the phrase, " Let us eat
and drink, for to-morrow we die." The lowest con-
dition of life was better than the best hopes of the
dead. So Achilles, the type of Greek heroism, is
made to think. The last representative of Etruscan no-
bility, Maecenas the friend and minister of Augustus ;
the patron of art, learning, poetry shuddered at
the change from life to death, and welcomed any
suffering if he were only left with the boon of exis-
tence. This dread is not fear of annihilation, of
absorption into a universal essence. It is a belief
that sensation survives death, and that the departed
soul exchanges for the gladness, the light, the warmth,
the energy of corporeal existence, a sad, dark, cold,
294 PAUL OF TARSUS.
motiveless being, in which the memories of departed
and irrecoverable enjoyments remain, to curse rather
than to console. This exchange of death for life
from the point of view taken by the Epicurean who
believed in the soul's immortality has never been
described with such precision as by Shakspeare, in
the words put into the mouth of Claudio,
" Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ;
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot ;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod ; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice ;
To be imprisoned in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendent world ; or to be worse than worst
Of those, that lawless and incertain thought
Imagine howling : 'tis too horrible !
The weariest and most loathed worldly life
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise
To what we fear of death."
The resurrection of Christ was, according to St.
Paul, the earnest of a general resurrection. Whether
he held that they who had failed to reach the Gospel
of the Divine mercy, would partake of the resurrection
which Christ had secured for them who were His at
His coming is not clear. In the Acts of the Apostles,
he is represented as holding the view of a universal
resurrection in his address to Felix, in which just and
unjust shall appear before the Judge. But, in the
epistles, the hopes of the resurrection are generally
limited to them who believe, though he speaks in the
Second Epistle to the Corinthians, of all appearing
before the judgment-seat of Christ, each to receive
PAUL AND THE RESURRECTION. 295
good or evil according to what he hath done in the
body. But, as has been observed before, the theocracy
of St. Paul does not concern itself so much with those
who are rejected as unworthy of salvation, or with the
destiny of those who refuse to accept the Gospel, as
it does with the hopes and the blessings of those who
receive and keep it. It is enough that a glorious
immortality is promised to them who love Christ.
There was no interest in curiously investigating the
case of the wicked and unbelieving.
To this resurrection of the just, Paul clings with
intense earnestness and confidence. Take it away,
and all the purpose of his life is gone, every sacrifice
which he has made is valueless, the redemption of
man has not been achieved, they who have fallen
asleep in Christ are perished. They who have lived
in this hope are the most pitiable of all men ; the only
alternative in this blank despair is a life of epicurean
enjoyment. And this expectation of a bright future,
an eternal existence of rest and joy, is heightened by
the conviction that he will live with the object of his
unwearied love, the glorified man Christ Jesus. In
some undefined place, in the third heaven, at the
right hand of God, in some house not made with
hands, but eternal in the heavens, He, the Lord
Christ is, and there His disciples, His new creation,
will meet Him and dwell with Him, what time this
earthly habitation this mere tent of passing life is
dissolved or destroyed. It is in the air, the heavens,
the symbols of light and brightness, and purity. But
these places are a figure, as the resurrection is a
mystery, the representative of an un expounded future,
296 PAUL OF TARSUS.
of a new Jerusalem, the eternal home of the true and
just. As yet, however, though we cannot see Him
with mortal eyes, this Jesus, the Saviour and the
Friend, is present everywhere. They put Him on;
He dwells with them. Hereafter the union will be
closer, the presence perpetual, the vision one of inex-
pressible glory.
The Apostle anticipates the retort of those who
object to him, and who may raise the question, How
are the dead raised, and in what body do they come ?
In the visible world there are diversities of existence,
and the analogy holds in its invisible or transcendental
counterpart. And then he compares the resurrection
to the growth of the plant from the seed, in language
well known to every one, the figure being worked out
with great poetical beauty. Such comparisons between
physical development and growth, and the resurrection
of the body, were instituted by the Jewish doctors.
Thus the Gemara contains a conversation between
Gamaliel and Csesar by whom is probably meant
Augustus in which the great Rabbi is represented
as victoriously refuting the emperor's scepticism,
and proving that the resurrection of the body,
wonderful though it be, is paralleled by the perpetual
occurrence of other and greater wonders in the ordinary
process of physical generation.
To accept the doctrine of the resurrection, and to
extend it to the race of man, or at best to the
faithful, was a difficult problem to the Gentile mind.
That audience at Athens which listened with attention
to the Apostle while he discoursed of the spiritual
Nature of the Almighty, the unity of the human race,
THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE DOCTRIXK. 297
the providence of God, the search which man must
needs make after Him, the coming judgment, and the
person of the Judge, were startled into contempt
when they heard him speak of the resurrection of
the dead. But the doctrine, once accepted, was full of
profound consolations. They who believed this tenet
were afterwards afraid of nothing. Assured of a real,
a conscious eternity of unimaginable blessedness, they
could endure any calamity with confidence. The
restitution was to be complete, perpetual. The loss,
suffering, scorn which could be inflicted on them by
any human power was transient, trifling. They who
believe that a happy immortality is the reward of this
life and labour are invincible. And thus, as by antici-
pation, the Apostle speaks of those who have been ad-
mitted into the commonwealth of Christendom as already
dead. His words appear to have been misinterpreted
by some who heard them, and who, like Hymenseus
and Philetus, alleged that thereupon the resurrection
had happened already. But to the mass of them who
believed, death was an exchange from a life of sorrow,
persecution, \veakness, into a perfect and glorious eter-
nity, as soon as ever the second coming of Christ took
place an event which was daily expected. Then, im-
mediately on the sound of the trumpet which should
summon them to accompany Him who would meet
them in the air, the kingdoms of the world, the cruel
empire of Antichrist, would be shattered, and every-
thing would be made subject to God and His Christ.
To this belief in a risen Christ, who has all that
profound sympathy with human nature which makes
Him so winning all that gentleness which invests the
298 PAUL OF TARSUS.
Saviour with such ineffable grace all that holiness
which at once attracts the soul, and yet constrains it
to be ever watchful, lest some contamination should
hinder intercourse with Him Paul links his concep-
tion of a church, his rule of Christian life. From
Christ came all gifts. In Him is the unity of the
brotherhood. In Him begins the life of the believer.
In Him the believer rests. For Him the believer
labours. In Him he gets his strength. By Him he
has abundant confidence in the mercy and love of God.
The derivation of Christian duties from a trust in
Christ is a matter of frequent exhortation in the
Pauline epistles. Take that, for example, in the
letter to the Ephesians. " I who am a prisoner in
the Lord, exhort you to walk worthily of the vocation
to which you have been called. Show all conciliation,
and gentleness, and patience, considerate love for each
other, making it your business to maintain oneness of
spirit, in the bond of peace. There is one body, one
spirit, just as you have one hope in the fact of your
calling ; there is one Lord, one trust, one baptism, one
God and Father of all, who is over all things, who
permeates all things, and is in all of you. Each one
of us has His grace conferred on him according to
gifts of Christ. This is what the text means :
' Having ascended to the height, He led captivity
captive and gave gifts to men.' The expression
' ascended ' implies that He previously descended to
the lowest region of earth. And He that ascended is
the very Person who has ascended above the whole
heavens, that He may occupy all things. And this
Person has of his gifts made some apostles, some
THE SPIRITUAL BODY. 299
preachers, some evangelists, some shepherds and
teachers, in order to effect the perfection of the saints,
for the work of service, for the building up the body
of Christ, to continue till we all converge in the
unity of our trust, and of our acquaintance with the
Son of God, into a perfected manhood, to the measure
of that growth which contains Christ. Be not, there-
fore, any longer foolish children, tossed about and
twisted round by every blast of dogma, by the
tricks of men, who, for sinister ends, would cunningly
entrap you in error; but, on the contrary, uttering
the truth in love, let us grow in everything up to
Him who is the head, the Christ, from whom the
whole body is fitted and brought together in every
joint of its perfection, and, according to the vigour
which belongs to every member, who effects the
growth of the body for its own construction in love."
This passage is only one among many in which
the Apostle comparing the union of Christian men
to the highest living organism intends to imply
that Christ is to the Church what life and intelligence
are to the physical nature of mankind, the source
of its vitality and enlightenment. Nothing can be
more simple than the elements of the creed with
which this analogy is consistent. To know that
Christ lived and taught, died and rose again, in order
to redeem man from bondage, reconcile him to God,
save him, was the knowledge needed for that primi-
tive faith. To know this, and know it thoroughly,
was to trust in Him and the Father, and, thereupon,
to obtain the benefits of Christ's coming. Then
comes the perpetual indwelling of Christ, the trans-
300 PAUL OF TARSUS.
formation of man's moral nature, and the code of
duties, which, flowing naturally from the conditions
of a Christian polity, have a permanent sanction, by
being fulfilled in the highest Exemplar of human
life, the life of Christ ; and by becoming, as they
are fulfilled by the disciple, the pledge and requisite
of His indwelling.
It cannot be said that this perpetual reference of
the Christian life to the assistance of a glorified
Person, who sustains, exalts, and perfects it, is accom-
panied by any concession to laxity of practice or con-
duct. On the contrary, the rule of the Pauline
morality is as high as can be conceived. He utterly
broke with the ceremonial law, his indifference to
Judaism growing into complete antipathy to it as he
had greater experience of its narrowness, its pedantry,
its inconsistency with Christian liberty. He is mani-
festly careless about observances which were exacted
rigorously in his own time from the Jewish Christians.
For example, he speaks of keeping the Sabbath as a
matter of indifference, in the Galatians as even a mark
of feeble compliance with what he calls the " beggarly
elements." He assigns no overwhelming importance
to those rites which are peculiarly Christian the
Sacraments of the Gospel for he expressly declares
that he did not himself baptise, except on rare
occasions, and he makes only one marked reference
to the Lord's Supper; when, indeed, he strongly
condemns the practice of those who perverted it into
a scene of selfish jollity, of grossly unbecoming levity.
He is practically silent on church government. He
speaks almost contemptuously of the Twelve, and of
PA UL A MORALIST. 301
their pretensions to authority. So little was he
characterised by exactitude of phrase, and precision
of definition, that those heretics of the first ages,
against whose tenets much of the early controversial
theology of the Christian fathers is directed, acknow-
ledged his authority, and quoted from his epistles in
confirmation of their theories.
On the other hand, St. Paul is, after the Master,
the moralist of the Gospel. His directions as to con-
duct are numerous, precise, exhaustive. Besides
those which address themselves to the individual,
and which exact from him obedience to a pure and
searching code of conduct, he gives directions as to
the behaviour of men as members of churches, as
holding intercourse with the world around them, as
united in the great brotherhood of Christianity. He
lays down rules for families, on the relations of hus-
band and wife, parent and child, master and servant,
all these rules being genial and rational. He
commends neither asceticism, first preached by the
Buddhists, and afterwards affirmed by Manichean
perversity; nor monachism, which is a form of apathetic
communism. His Christian is a man in the world,
who must, perhaps, considering the purpose of his life,
and the peculiar trials of his calling, abstain from
what is in itself lawful and expedient, in order that
he may be disentangled from the temporary risks
which his profession ran. But, on the whole, the
Pauline morality is personal arid domestic. The
advice which he gives to the Corinthians, that, under
existing emergencies, a single life is the safest, is
professedly an opinion. In the Epistle to Timothy,
302 PAUL OF TARSUS.
he expressly speaks of compulsory celibacy as a
doctrine of devils. This plain-spoken sentiment may
be a contemptuous allusion to the Ebionite Christians,
who had given him so much trouble, but the experience
of society is not adverse to the judgment of St. Paul.
He would have people work for their living, inculca-
ting the duty of industry in terms as plain as those
which are used by the Political Economist. His
language about those who lazily depend on chance or
charity for the wants of their family or their dependents
is even stronger, for he speaks of such as denying the
faith or trust they should have in God, and as lower
in tone than the unbeliever. That he was no advocate
of niggardliness towards such as need help, is proved
by his continual advice to those who were able to
assist poverty or distress from their abundance ; for
he knew that poverty will always exist, and that the
habit of judicious almsgiving is a good means of moral
culture ; but he was slow to receive assistance himself,
and it is hardly possible to fail of seeing a covert
sarcasm in the solitary injunction which he confesses
to having received from the Apostolic College, that
he and his associates should remember the poor, by
which is meant the community at Jerusalem. He
did remember them, and owed his imprisonment at
Caesarea and Rome to his efforts on their behalf.
However ascetic Christianity may have become in
the second and third centuries of our era, there is no
warranty for such a theory of religion in the Pauline
teaching of the first.
It is unfair to the great moralist and statesman (if
we may employ the latter phrase) of the infant Church,
HIS MORALITY UNIVERSAL. 303
not to distinguish him from those who succeeded to his
mission. Christianity was charged has been charged
continually with making men austere, reserved, un-
patriotic, dreamy. There is no warranty for this re-
proach in the teaching of Paul, whose estimate of the
claims which even the corrupt society of the time in
which he lived, and in particular that of Corinth, is just
and forcible. In a true spirit of toleration, he would
not have his converts avoid the society of idolaters,
though he would as every respectable heathen would
have advised recommend them to abstain from inter-
course with profligate or immoral persons. He does
not advise married persons, one of whom may be
brought under the influence of the Gospel, while the
other clung to heathenism, to use the freedom of
divorce which the Roman law gave, and this for
domestic as well as for religious reasons. Even his
advice of patience to slaves is part of the theory
which he held, that Christianity can accommodate
itself to any condition of society, provided men are
obedient to the Divine law, are scrupulous in the fulfil-
ment of all duties.
They who charge the Christianity of the New Tes-
tament with timidity and want of spirit, should, I
repeat, remember what the social state was in which
it began its work. The world never saw before or
since so relentless, so wide, so jealous, so immoral a
despotism, has never seen one which was so strong
in sheer force. Now, there are two ways in which a
reformation of morals and opinion can be attempted.
The one is resistance which is rarely efficacious, and
in this case would have been madness; the other is
304 PAUL OF TARSUS.
endurance, which generally succeeds, and which
would have succeeded far more completely in the his-
tory of Christianity, had not the Christians of the
fourth century clutched at power as soon as they were
able to grasp it. The Roman empire became Chris-
tian by the patience of the first three centuries ; but
Christianity failed to regenerate society, because it
readily became the tool of the later empire became
an establishment instead of a gospel, a logomachy in-
stead of a rule of life. The dower which Constantine
gave the Church was, as Dante says, the parent of
vast mischief, and more than counterbalanced the
splendour of the imperial conversion. Let any one
compare for himself the theoretical teaching of Paul
with the practical bearing of all that he affirms, and
he will have no difficulty in determining what would
have been the history of the world if those who came
after the Jew of Tarsus had been representatives of his
spirit, as well as successors to his office.
CHAPTER IX.
THE soul of man longs for illumination and pardon.
It is ignorant, and led astray by evil impulses. It is
conscious of transgression, whether the law which
it has violated be natural or, to speak in the spirit of
modern philosophy, one which society has elaborated
and enforced for its own preservation ; or conven-
tional by which must be understood some rule of
municipal custom ; or divine that is, has been pro-
pounded by an authority which claims to be instructed
by God. The construction of human society renders
it necessary that interruptions of its peace, or in-
vasions of that security which all political institutions
profess to warrant, should be repressed and punished.
Punishments inflicted by human law are sometimes
treated as vindictive, sometimes as corrective, accord-
ing as it seems necessary to avenge a wrong, or to
prevent the recurrence of an injury ; to compensate
the sufferer, or to protect the general order of society
by deterrents which intending criminals can appreciate
and dread. A later theory of punishment, which has
been developed from humanitarian Christianity, and
306 PAUL OF TARSUS.
from it alone, proposes to effect the reformation of the
offender. It is possible that the acceptance of this
humane theory of punishment may be assisted by the
fact, that the judgment of law is fallible, both in its
decision of the act and in its interpretation of the
motive, and that, therefore, the case of the criminal is,
and should be open to favourable consideration. But
this is not the original theory of social defence. Men
must accept the risk which the administration of law
by a fallible judge involves, since they obtain the
advantages of its administration, for the latter are
immeasurably greater than the former. If a legis-
lature seeks to reform its criminals, it does so because
it has been interpenetrated by that instinct of the
religious sense which makes the salvation of a human
soul at once a duty and a merit. In this country
such an opinion is strongly entertained. But there
have not been wanting jurists and moralists who,
looking at society from the standpoint of utility, have
entertained a harsher theory of punishment, have
conceived that crime is best checked by relying on the
deterrent force of punishment only, is even stimulated
by the machinery of a reformatory in which criminals
are to repent and amend.
It is to be observed that law ignores many offences
against morality, and frequently punishes acts which
are no violation of morality whatever. A man may
lead a life which is profligate and scandalous, may set
an evil example, may mislead or debauch others.
But, however mischievous his course of action may
be, society may not visit him with any penalties
of law, partly because it has seen good reason to
THE RANGE OF HUMAN LA W. 307
limit the operation of criminal justice ; partly because
the evil which the culprit does is legally imponderable
or vague in its effects ; sometimes because the check
which law could impose might induce other practices
quite as mischievous, or even more dangerous in their
effects, but less open to detection or reprobation. For
it must not be forgotten that custom has a wider
range of corrective action than law has, and that
its preventive power is even more efficacious than that
of judicial punishment. And, on the other hand,
both law and custom visit with penalty and rebuke
practices which are not in themselves immoral. The
laws of nearly every country inflict disabilities, and
prohibit acts which are in themselves just and natural.
Thus, for instance, they have disabled persons who
entertain particular beliefs, or are unable to entertain
other beliefs, sometimes treating certain opinions as
the highest crimes. They who challenge the value or
advantage of established institutions, whether political
or ecclesiastical, have been visited with nearly equal
rigour; have been condemned, proscribed, banished,
though their opinions have been simply speculative.
Over and over again it has happened that the
fathers have slain, and the sons have canonized
the prophets. Christianity has lasted for nearly
nineteen centuries, and Christian men have not yet
accepted the command laid down by the great Master
of their religion, " Let wheat and tares grow together
till the harvest."
It is inevitable that man should recognise among
the attributes of God, the functions of a judge. He
does so from the analogy of civil society. The office
308 PAUL OF TARSUS.
of the judge is the most beneficent and the most
sacred of human institutions. Reverence for law is
the first condition of civilisation ; the administration
of law is the most permanent and useful service which
a citizen obtains from the State ; obedience to law
is the first civil duty, and the judge is the impersona-
tion of these benefits. This is the power to which the
Apostle commands subjection ascribing its authority,
even when wielded by the heathen, to the direct
ordination of God. But human law is confessedly
imperfect, cannot right all wrongs cannot punish all
injuries. Hence they whom law does not reach, and
they whom law does not aid, will inevitably be cited
to appear before the Judge of all, in order that the
question may be tried, and right may be done. So the
religious sense, whenever it entrenches itself in moral
obligations, always affirms. Recompence, restitution,
are assured in that judgment ; patience, hope, faith are
developed from a confidence that it will be pronounced.
The Divine tribunal is a permanent court of appeal
from human error and human partiality. It is set up
in the mythology of Greece and Rome, in Eastern
nations, in the polytheism of Egypt, in every creed
which is spiritual. In the Mosaic theology the Judge
chastises the offender with temporal suffering, rewards
or recompenses the injured person with temporal bless-
ing the appeal being immediate, the providence secu-
lar, since the ancient Israelite is always represented
as living under the direct government of Jehovah.
The people were in view of the Shekinah, and the
doctrine of hereafter remained undeveloped in the
majesty of His presence.
GOD A JUDGE. 809
They who cherish the thought that God is a judge
between man and man, cannot but confess that their
own acts are open to His interpretation, and within
the scope of His judgment. Sometimes, indeed, per-
sons have believed that they run no risk of His anger,
that they are elect, impeccable, assured of His per-
petual favour ; that, in their case at least, judgment is
foregone. But the conscience of most men is proof
against this egotism. They are not arrogant enough
to claim perfection, but, on the contrary, are alive to
faults in themselves to infirmity of purpose, negli-
gence in practice, readiness in yielding to temptation,
forgetfulness of duty, unfair or ungenerous dealing
towards others. They know that such acts and feel-
ings, if unchecked, are the beginning of those offences
which even human law reaches ; and if they know so
much, how much more must He know, whose equity
as a judge is the consequent of His perfect wisdom,
transcendent knowledge, universal providence.
The range of the Divine judgment, therefore, must
be vastly wider than that of human law. Man can
deal only with that which is actual, but the prescience
of the Almighty detects the offence in its beginnings,
when it is only potential, when the germ of the evil is
commencing its growth. Man can deal only with
some offences those, namely, which inflict a definite
and intelligible injury on individuals or on the security
of society ; but God judges that which offends His
holiness, or does damage to the civitas Dei. Man
adjudicates on intentions when they are developed
into action; the Divine sight takes cognizance of
thoughts, from which actions may spring. The falli-
310 /ME T Z OF TARSUS.
bility of man constrains him to treat doubtful cases
with leniency, unless justice is to become unduly
severe and intolerably capricious ; but in the light of
God's countenance there is nothing doubtful, in the
clearness of His judgment nothing fallible. It is no
wonder then, that when this conception of the great
Judge occupies the religious sense, no sacrifice is too
costly to deprecate the anger which He may be sup-
posed to feel at the offence which He sees so plainly
and so unerringly, the extent and meaning of which
He recognises with far greater distinctness than the
tenderest and most susceptible conscience can conceive
it. To acknowledge the judgment of God is, by in-
evitable sequence, to confess and know that a clear,
vigilant, penetrating eye is always fixed on the inner-
most nature of each man, and that as this vision sees
everything, so it forgets nothing. The scriptures of
the Old Testament, and particularly the Psalms, con-
stantly affirm the unwearied and watchful scrutiny of
the Divine presence. The language of the New is not
less precise as to the universality of the same Provi-
dence.
The conception would be intolerable, were it not
that so sensitive a religious instinct invariably assigns
to the Almighty a beneficent regard for His creatures,
a willingness to accept repentance, a readiness to
bestow strength and deliverance, the qualities of for-
bearance, long-suffering, patience, compassion. He
is the Father, who not only supplies the wants, but
bears with the petulance and disobedience of His
children. His wrath is roused against those only who
deny Him his due honour, who say He is not, who
THE JUDGMENT OF GOD. 311
go astray after other gods, who repudiate His authority,
as well as disregard His injunctions. But to those
who acknowledge Him, He is always placable. He
always invites them to repent, He always accepts
their penitence, He always grants them forgiveness.
It is everything to know Him, for when He is known,
the awful features of the great Judge become a vision
of ineffable tenderness and pity, of sympathy for weak
and struggling humanity, of Fatherly love for way-
ward childhood, of watchfulness over feeble steps, of
attention to the utterance of wants and desires, of
solicitude, bounty, gentleness. He is the wise and
tender Father, who shows compassion to all His
children.
One thing, however, He exacts, as He is merciful,
so man must be merciful. He will not forgive the
unforgiving. The surest sign of impenitence is a hard,
imperious, unpitying temper. It is as though He
could not but exact on behalf of those who are wronged,
whatever is their abstract right ; but as though with
this, He would give nothing but that bare right to him
who mercilessly rejects the suit of another. Man can
forgive the offence which has been committed against
himself. For thus far, at least, he still retains that
image of God in which he was created. But if he
insists on his literal due from his neighbour, he cannot
expect consideration from another, and least of all
from Him who knows how imperfect has been the
obedience of His creatures, and how unwarrantable
it is for man to be implacable, when he most needs
such forgiveness himself. To be unmerciful and un-
forgiving is to deny the Fatherhood of God, and to
312 PAUL OF TARSUS.
look on Him only as a Judge. " To him," says the
Apostle James, speaking in the spirit of the Hebrew
prophet, and as the servant of Christ, " who does no
mercy shall be pitiless judgment given; mercy has
higher claims than judgment."
It is inevitable, in so far as a belief in God and in
His Providence exists, that religion should develop, to
a greater or less extent, such conceptions of the rela-
tion in which man stands to the Maker, the Judge,
the Father, as have been stated above. The Law must
be stricter and more rigorous than that which human
society can enact, the Lawgiver must take clearer
cognisance of facts and motives than human legislation
can achieve or attempt. The justice of the All-wise
will be tempered with mercy. On the other hand,
as no injury can, except by a figure of speech, be
put on the Almighty, but only on those who are
equally the objects of His Providence and Love,
the mercy which He shows can be anticipated by
forgiveness, granted on the part of those who aiv
wronged, and can only be obtained on the condition
that the penitent is willing to accord the pardon
which he begs for. And, in a more or less perfect
form, these religious tenets characterise all theological
systems which have ever contained a just conception of
the Deity. The forgiveness of injuries is no peculiar
maxim of Christian ethics. It is Jewish, Zoroastrian,
Pythagorean, Platonic, Stoic. So is the great defen-
sive rule of social morality that of doing as we would
be done by. It is not without reason that the Psalm-
ist having averred that the fool hath said in his
heart, There is no God pnrtrays the converse of that
THE DIVINE MERCY. SIX. 313
picture which a lively conscience of God's presence
exhibits, narrates the deeds of those who deny His
Providence and Justice, and accounts for that social
panic, that fear where no fear is, which follows on the
extinction of the religious sense the absence of God's
fear before men's eyes.
The Epistle to the Romans contains the Pauline
doctrine of sin. The passage just referred to, or
rather two passages grouped together from the Psalms
the fourteenth and the fifty-third are cited in order
to prove the universality of sin. The narrative of the
fall of Adam is made the basis of a similar general-
isation. Death was the penalty annexed to the
offence committed in the garden, death has been the
lot of humanity ever since, and, therefore, the sin of
the first progenitor of mankind was propagated through
his offspring. This position, on which St. Paul insists
more than once, was derived from the teaching of the
Rabbis. The facts of the Mosaic cosmogony were
admitted, and the explanation was obvious and con-
venient. It is to be observed, however, that the
derived sin of Adam's descendants was inferred from
the mortality of man's body, the dogma of transmitted
guilt was a gloss.
That the Apostle fully believed in the sufficiency of
his explanation as to the origin of moral evil will be
readily allowed. That he quoted the passages from
the Septuagint in which David is celebrating some
victory over his foreign and domestic enemies, and
contrasting their evil doings with the character of the
generation of the righteous, as though it were a
theological declaration about the universal depravity
314 PAUL OF TARSUS.
of mankind, and that he made the quotation in perfect
good faith need not be doubted. The allegorical
interpretation of Scripture was so customary among
the Jews of the Pauline era, and was adopted so
naturally by Christian teachers, that we need not
be surprised at the citation of this passage, in which a
slight analogy is taken to be a conclusive proof. A
glance, indeed, will show that David did not mean to
affirm, in the passages quoted, the universal depravity
of man's nature, still less to apply these words to those
who are under the Law, as the Apostle implies that
he does. It is possible that he was thinking of his
rebellious son and the associates of his revolt ; but, it
is far more likely that, when he speaks of the bones of
them that besieged Zion, he had before him Chemosh,
or Milcom, or Moloch, the abomination of the nations
round about ; whose worship the Israelite contemptu-
ously, perhaps justly, called fornication; and who
had been eating up Israel as though they were eating
bread.
And, similarly, it may be proved that the varieties
of the human race cannot be referred to a common
origin ; that the history of humanity is not retrogression
from a pure exemplar, but progress from comparative or
actual barbarism ; that the prune val Adam, at least of
many races, was no dweller in a Paradise, who talked
with God, and had the gift, or, at least, the prospect
of immortal life, but a savage who slowly elaborated
the arts of domestic life, who maintained a warfare
against wild beasts, and who lived at so remote a
period, that many species of animals have disappeared
since he first walked on the earth. Tf such a theory
THE ORIGIN OF SIX. 315
can be maintained, there is no escape from one of
two alternatives. Either the man and woman of the
Mosaic account are the progenitors of one family of
mankind, and, therefore, have transmitted their sin
and their hope to those only who have sprung from
them ; or the story of Adam and Eve is one of those
allegories in which men have always delighted, and by
which they have wished to express the conviction, that
the facts of later social life represent a decline from
primeval purity, just as the Greeks consoled them-
selves in the depravity and violence of their own epoch
with the dream of a golden age, with a Hyperborean
felicity, with the islands of the blest, with the garden
of golden fruit, and similar schemes of an imagination
which protests against the evil which it sees, but
cannot or will not cure. Under neither explanation,
however, can the narrative of the garden be an
exposition of the origin of evil.
The historical origin of sin, vice, infirmity of pur-
pose, selfishness, sensuality, is not so important a
matter for consideration as the fact that these things
are. The discovery and application of remedies for
those evils is a problem, pending the solution of
which all creation groans and travails in pain. Every
religion which contains in itself a spark of the Divine
fire professes to have discovered a more or less effec-
tual remedy for such mischiefs". Every religion which
has actually found out some aid towards the moral
progress of mankind has done its part in the general
scheme of social regeneration. It is matter of very
little consequence whether this or that teacher has
accurately traced out the sources of the disorder
316 PAUL OF TARSUS.
which he has learnt to rectify. It is enough to cast
out devils in the name of Christ. In the treatment of
disease, moral no less than physical, it is important
to know the cause of the sickness only when the cause
and effect exist and cease to exist simultaneously.
When the infection has been taken, it is of very little
importance to the patient or the physician to be able
to identify the origin of the malady. In such a
crisis, the first thing which has to be considered is the
treatment. Nay, when the symptoms are grave, and
the situation is urgent, it is worse than a waste of
labour to speculate on the source of the complaint
to wrangle over theories, and to abstain from prompt
and decisive action.
St. Paul thinks that he has the Spirit of God. He
says so modestly, and if ever man could say it, he says
so truly. If life and labour such as his was, if in-
tense activity, and equally intense love, such as con-
stituted his very nature, were delusions, he might
well call himself of all men most miserable ; we might
despair of the human race, and assert that the heaviest
curse which has fallen on mankind is that gift suici-
dal, as we should then justly call it of a disinterested
and self-sacrificing sense of duty. If it be the case
that they who have diligently set themselves to profit
by the order of society and the convictions of others,
in order to gather together the means of rank, wealth,
pleasure, ease, are the equals or superiors of those who
have slighted such advantages, in order that they
may effect a permanent improvement in the lot of
their fellow-men, if a refined and temperate selfish
^ a shrewd, cold prudence, i> as good an end of
THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN PA UL. 317
human life as a lofty perseverance after great and
generous objects, no delusion can be more gross than
Christianity. But, it must be added, that the awak-
ening from this delusion would arrest civilisation, and
rapidly drive men back to savagery. For a tune,
indeed, power might ally itself with intelligence, and
might oppress mankind. But very speedily every
man's hand would be against his fellow-man, and the
sneer of the sophist would become the law of nature.
Justice would be the interest of the strongest, and
internecine war the unchanging lot of humanity.
There is an inveterate difficulty in believing that
the Apostle is the mouth-piece of a positive revelation.
If there is reason to know that he misquotes, or mis-
understands the authority to which he appeals, or that
the historical statement to which he refers, in order to
substantiate his generalisation, is no fact at all, but an
apologue or a parable, we may, we ought to decline
acceptance of the proof. His conclusions may be tine,
though his premises may be irrelevant or false. When
a conclusion is certified by experience, formal and pre-
cise proof is not always necessary in order to secure
conviction, just as it is not always possible. Such a
condition is frequent in moral science, all but uni-
versal in the case of religious conviction. And so it
does not follow that the Pauline conclusion is false
because the Apostle's premises are irrelevant. The
words of the Psalmist may not mean that human
nature is universally corrupt, the derivation of sin
from the taint of Adam's transgression may be a
paradox, as it certainly seems to be at variance with
what we believe of the Divine justice; but man's
318 PAUL OF TARSI'.*.
nature may } T et be universally corrupt, man may be
naturally inclined to evil, we may have no truth in
us, and deceive ourselves if we say that we have no
sin; we may still need a Teacher, a Saviour, a Re-
deemer. St. John is as powerful a witness to the
sinfulness of man as St. Paul is, though he does not
ascribe this infirmity to the hereditary taint of descent
from a disobedient ancestor.
It matters nothing whether man has sprung from a
savage ancestry, the mental powers of which were
hardly higher than those of the other animals with
whom the primeval barbarian herded, or whether he
is the defaced copy of a Divine Exemplar. The fact
of interest is that he is now liable to impulses which,
if unrestrained, would make instant havoc of society,
and which are therefore partly coerced by law, partly
by custom, partly, and most of all, by the religious
sense. Take away the influence which the latter
exercises, and it appears that no substitute can be
found for it, and it seems inevitable, either that social
forces, which are nearly equal in strength, will engage
in the fiercest struggle for supremacy, or that power
will create a rigorous and jealous despotism, under
which the ruler and his instruments need only to be
active and cunning, and the people will be permanently
sunk in ignorance and degradation.
Philosophers and publicists have frequently busied
themselves with the project of constructing a common
life for voluntary associations; but they have never been
able to discover anything which shall be strong enough
to make these associations cohere together. There are
n> secular Coenobites. Religious associations, on the
SINS AGAINST RELIGION VARIOUS. 319
other hand, have existed in plenty, and have had a very-
tenacious vitality. The apostolic college at Jerusalem
is the earliest Christian exemplar. The French mis-
sionaries found monasteries in abundance through cen-
tral Asia, among the Buddhists. In the United
States there are several communities of Coenobites.
So vast is that country, and so little is any attrition of
sects felt in the rural districts of the Union, that these
social experiments have a fairer chance of success and
endurance in America than they would have else-
where. But every one of these communistic schemes
is founded on a religious basis even when, as is
charged against some of them, the practice of the
community is licentious. A religion may consist of
little more than dogma, or it may ignore dogmas and
court asceticism, or it may be neither dogmatic nor
ascetic, but demand an active charity and a pure heart.
Each of these religions has its schedule of offences.
In the first the sin is called heresy ; in the second it
is called worldliness ; in the third it is a breach of the
inner law, which God has ordained and conscience
sanctioned. In each case it is supposed that the com-
mission of the sin secludes the man who commits it
from his Maker, leaves him to the anger of the Judge,
excludes him from the love of the Father, cuts him off
from illumination and pardon.
An offence against religion is called a sin. The
word commonly used for this state is one which
expresses an error, mistake, misconception, less culpa-
ble than deliberate or wanton wickedness, but blame-
worthy because care and forethought would have
prevented its occurrence. The sinner is one who has
: ; L ',, 1'Al'L <>F TARSUS.
missed his way, whose path has been dark, and who
has therefore strayed from it. The word suggests
excuse, pardon, reconciliation ; is contrasted with
another state in which the light is deliberately put
out; in which the offence is wilful, daring, insolent; in
which the man is lawless or unjust. Thus, the synop-
tic gospels affirm that there is a sin against the Holy
Ghost, against that Power which enlightens, strength-
ens, teaches men. The author of the Epistle to the
Hebrews contemplates the case of those who have
been enlightened and have repudiated the gift, in
language containing the strongest phrases of nascent
Gnosticism, the phraseology of the Alexandrian
Theosophists. The beloved disciple declares that there
is a sin unto death. Paul speaks of the rejected, those
who fail on being tested; or, as our version gives it,
though with a force which familiarity has weakened,
the cast-away, the vessels which the potter has
framed and found to be unsound or unserviceable.
But, generally, the language of the New Testament
is merciful towards sin, excluding no one from
penitence and pardon. " This is good and approved
before God our Saviour, who wills that all men
should be saved and arrive at an insight into the
truth," says the Apostle in the first letter to Timothy.
The charity of Christ is universal, the love of God is
unbounded, the door to repentance is open, and the
Gospel of the New Covenant is as merciful as the
teaching of the Prophets.
A> n Ti'/ioii k-ans to the contemplative, the ascetic,
or the practical consequence of illumination or regen-
ration, so it stigmatises as sin a departure from tli--
SINS OF 0PM 10 .V MULTIPLIED. 321
rule of the life which it has inculcated. It has
happened that the first of these forms of religious
opinion has exercised so energetic an influence, that
conformity to written creeds is treated as the highest
duty, divergence from them as the most grievous sin.
The Roman Church, for example, has multiplied the
"articles of faith," and has uttered its anathema
against those who decline to accept any of its dogmas.
It is probable that the terrors of this denunciation
have been weakened, but there are millions of professed
Christians to whose conscience doctrinal heresy is the
highest crime that can be committed against the
Majesty of God. Perhaps there has been no country
where this dread of unbelief has been more general
than in Spain. Here the suspicion of heresy was
more feared than the reputation of any moral de-
pravity. So there are parts of Italy, where people
have united the profession of brigandage with the
most scrupulous and sincere orthodoxy. It is
obvious that the most lively horror at the imputa-
tion of unsound opinion on theological topics is
quite compatible with the utter absence of all the
other elements of the religious life, and that the
strictest, the most heartfelt profession of a creed is
no guarantee of a single Christian virtue.
To any one who considers how different are the
capacities of men for comprehending facts and reason-
ing out conclusions, how difficult it must be to form
any comprehension whatever of those remote and
exalted conceptions which theology attempts to define
and limit, how much less responsible, on the plainest
principles of justice, a man must be for an error of
;\-2-2 PAUL OF TARSI'S
judgment or opinion, than he is for an offence against
virtue or morality, it must seem strange that false
opinion has been treated as sin. Hitherto, indeed, old
and new forms of religious organisation have been at
one on this point, and have held the non-acceptance of
a tenet as a criminal act, as one which should be visited
with social or even legal penalties.
They have even asserted, perhaps in justification of
their practice, that theological error is the consequence
of moral guilt. But men have constantly lived in
accordance with the highest and purest moral virtue,
while they have been sceptical or heterodox on spec-
ulative questions. And conversely, men whose ortho-
doxy has been unimpeached have often set an evil
example of conduct, have allowed their lives to belie
their profession, have even attempted a compromise,
under the terms of which strictness of conformity is
made to compensate for laxity of practice. Such
persons have frequently been treated with the greatest
leniency by those who agree with them in opinion.
But if theological error were the causes of vice, it
ought to follow that the possession of theological
truth must be a guarantee of holiness.
There are opinions, positively entertained, which are
immoral in their tendency. Any opinion, for example,
which separates a man from those relations to God,
which are at once the pledge of his trust in God,
and which exact a constant watchfulness over life or
action ; any tenet which would induce a man to sub-
stitute any other agency than his own conscience, or
his own duty, in tin- satisfaction of a moral obligation,
is in itst-lt' immoral. The guide may be a Pharisee,
CHRISTIANITY AND DOCTRINAL DOUBT COMPATIBLE. 323
and the blind may lead the blind ; the ceremonial
need not purify the heart, but may leave the man a
whited sepulchre.
There is, however, a serious danger involved in the
doctrine that the acceptance of certain definitions and
tenets is the necessary foundation of the Christian
character. What if overmastering doubts, honest
disabilities of judgment, make men decline to admit
certain statements, or formulas, or presumed facts ?
What if such doubts and difficulties are met by stern
declarations and angry anathemas ? Is it not possible
to conceive that men may be alienated from a bene-
ficent religion by the harshness of its advocates ?
Has it not, unhappily, been the case that Christianity
has been rendered distasteful to many by the intem-
perate severity of those who pretend to expound it ?
The time must come in which the teaching of
Christianity -if it is to retain its hold on the hearts
of men must ignore differences of opinion, or, in other
words, must accept the fact that while men agree
closely on the ground of common duty and common
action, and are willing, nay anxious, to make duty
more stringent and action more heroic, they cannot
all be made to think alike. When this teaching is
current, the reunion of Christianity becomes possible,
because the teacher has reverted to the examples
which the Founder of the faith has given. To have
the mind of Christ, it is not necessary to busy
oneself with abstract and dark speculations ; but it is
necessary for each to do the work wliich God has given
him to do, and thereafter commit oneself to Him who
judges righteously. To forget the mind of Christ,
324 ^- l VL OF TARSUS.
and abandon the continuity of that great office which
His life, and the life of those who conformed to Him,
began, in the vain struggle after effecting a uniformity
of opinion, is to nail Him anew to His cross, and then
to cast lots for His garment. The faith which rt-
moves mountains is not that which creates stumbling-
blocks, but it is the zeal which is unsparing of itself,
and gentle to others, the love which Paul commends
as the greatest and most enduring of the Christian
graces.
That morbid asceticism which believed that motive-
less and inactive self-torture was the highest form of
the religious life, which made austerity a virtue, and
the enjoyment of God's blessings a sin, has probably
passed away for ever. This extravagant theory of
perfection was imported into Christianity, it would
seem, from Buddhism, through the imitation of those
devotees who, before the Christian era, congregated
in the deserts of Lower Egypt. It is difficult for us
to conceive the process by which men, who voluntarily
lived a brutish life in caves, or passed their existence
on lofty pillars, or went through sharp and meaningless
penances, came to imagine that their practice was the
truest service that could be rendered to God, and that
they were the peculiar favourites of Heaven.
This strange opinion, derived, I believe, from the
practice of rival devotees in the Brahman and Budd-
hist creeds, once completely permeated Christianity.
It formed the leading characteristic of many religious
orders. It still lingers among the more rigid sectaries
of the Roman Church, its Carthusians and Trappists.
It has peculiar attractions to those who have lived a
THE ASCETIC TEMPER, ITS EVILS. 325
while in reckless pleasure. It is really akin to that
Manichsean doctrine, which, holding that matter is
evil, has divided creation between a beneficent God
and a malignant demon, and assigned the largest and
most important share to the latter.
In a modified form, it has developed that unhealthy
anxiety about personal salvation which has tormented
so many good men, has cast a blight on their lives,
has benumbed their energies, has crippled their useful-
ness. There is no sadder sight than that of a tender
and loving nature, which, giving itself up to this
dread of God, thereby dishonours His love, and
doubts His mercy ; which creates for itself a valley
of the shadow of death, a vale of misery; which brings
the terrors of Sinai into the region of the Gospel.
But Christianity has no claim on society does no
service to mankind, if it is to be considered only as
the machinery for saving the individual soul, least
of all if that soul is only to be saved by an agony of
dread. Christ did not live to save men but man.
They who are Christ's have the same purpose before
them, and any anxiety about their personal safety is
superfluous and debasing.
Christianity demands that man should do good to
man for God's sake, and for no other object besides.
The opportunities are multiform ; the claim on the
individual is perpetual. To such an extent only as is
needed for the satisfaction of this great function, does
religious duty assume the ascetic spirit. It is possible,
when men resolve on such an employment of their
powers, that they have to forego not only the regular
reward of their labours, but the legitimate enjoyments
OF TARSUS.
of life. Christ, who expressly repudiated the ascetic
life in its mildest form, drawing a contrast between
His own practice and that of the Baptist, contem-
plates the case of the man who sacrifices domestic
happiness to a high sense of public duty. St. Paul
takes credit for the self-denial with which he adopted
celibacy, or at least suspended that companionship
which he considered honourable and pure. He even
urges, in his anxiety to detach his followers from the
temporary dangers qf their calling, and to accustom
them to the contemplation of Christ's immediate ad-
vent to judgment, that they should be celibates also.
James, the head of the communist church at Jeru-
salem, inveighs against the rich, only as forgetful of
duty and sunk in sensuality. Now, it is undoubtedly
the office of Christian men to avoid temptation, and
to keep their passions, appetites, impulses, in check.
The favourite metaphor of St. Paul is that of the
palaestra. He "keeps under" his body, the word
being equivalent to that which Horace employs when
he speaks of Sybaris as bruised by the exercise of the
gymnasium. The Christian, to use a modern phrase,
is always in training is under a permanent regimen
and diet.
The world owes everything to voluntary labour.
The energy which pursues knowledge for no material
profit, and which eagerly imparts it ; the true pleasure
which is felt at conferring lasting and general benefits ;
the temper which gains the highest satisfaction by
knowing that the cause of humanity, civilisation, pro-
gress, has made a firm advance by reason of some ;K t
which has strengthened and assisted them ; the addi-
DIFFERENCE FROM THE CHRISTIANS SELF-DENIAL. 3^7
tion to the knowledge which lightens the sorrow's of
mankind, and extends the blessings of an all -wise
Providence to the largest possible number of His
creatures, and therefore to brutes ; the self-devotion
which visits the sick, aids the poor, builds and sustains
school, hospital, and a pure Church ; the courage and
gentleness which check oppression and disarm anger ;
the tenderness which tames savage nations, and re-
claims desperate, but not impenitent vice, speaking
peace and pardon to them who are fallen, but not
incurable; the love which wins the young, and thereby
confers the most exquisite pleasure on those who gain
the confidence and receive the caresses of childhood,
are examples of the Christian temper, imitations of
Him who bade little children run to His arms, and
who, on the eve of His Passion, with the sad presenti-
ment of His own destiny, and the sadder sense of the
ruin which brooded over the beloved city, would still
have gathered her people to Him, as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings.
The greatest victory, however, which the spirit of
Christianity achieves is obtained when it permeates
the mind of the statesman. In the days when the
Gospel was first preached there was no opportunity for
sketching the career of such a man, and the Scriptures
of the Gospel do not portray undeveloped characters.
But the statesman of the divine commonwealth is
contained, by implication, in those descriptions of
Christian worthiness which Paul loves to draw. To
win assent by patient and persistent vindication of the
truth, to wait for neither honour nor reward, to use
power wisely, never desiring it and never wasting it,
328 PAUL OF TARSUS.
to bear misconstruction patiently, and to learn vigilance
and forbearance from the bitterness of hostile criticism,
to outlive calumny by perfect simplicity and candour,
to administer affairs justly, and to cherish every force
by which social morality and mutual good-will may be
strengthened and made permanent, to make no com-
promise between ambition and honour, to be unmoved
and just amid the din of rival sects and clashing
interests, to defer not for an instant to the selfish
clamour of a factious mob, whether the mob be one of
grandees or peasants, of partisans or opponents, to
withstand the subtlest of all temptations, the gratifica-
tion of a sordid patriotism, the flattery of a selfish
nationality, to be prudent, incorruptible, alert, these
are some of the qualities of a Christian statesman.
A few men have been such examples, and they have
been the apostles of a Divine wisdom, have left
ineffaceable traces on the history of mankind, have
brought back on the scarred and distorted visage of
humanity some features to the likeness of God. Man
can give them no reward for their benefits; the
recompense of their labour is laid up in the treasury
of God. Man could not stimulate them to such efforts
and such sacrifices as they make. It is the Spirit of
God which dwells within them, and by which they
follow the great Captain of man's salvation, like Him
being made perfect by suffering.
The man who counselled the avoidance of doubtful
questions in the reception of members into the Chris-
tian brotherhood, and who spoke contemptuously of all
ascetics, whether they were the emissaries who un-
li-d the Galatians, or the punctilious forerunners of
THE CHRISTIA N STA TESMA N. 329
Gnostic idealism, was not likely to have taken part in
those theories which have made conformity in religious
opinion the most essential feature in the Christian
character, or to have discovered any special sanctity in
unmeaning austerities. According to the simple creed
of the Apostolic age, there is one God. This is the
contribution of pure Judaism to the Christian Church.
There is one Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. This Man
died and rose again. He is the Power of God, the
Word of God, the Redeemer of mankind, the present
Saviour, the perfect Example, the future Judge. In
Him, through Him, for Him we live, work, suffer,
hope. This, St. Paul could say, is my gospel, and from
this teaching I derive my religion. There are other
forms in which the Gospel is preached, but if they
preach the Spirit of Christ, I am indifferent to vari-
ations in the manner, and heed not hostility to
myself. "Some, indeed," says he in one of his last
letters, "preach Christ enviously and contentiously,
some generously. They who do it contentiously, have
no pure purpose, for they think that they w r ill make
my chains gall me the more. They who do it lovingly,
know that I live in prison to defend the Gospel.
But what of this? In every way be it with a
sinister or an honest purpose Christ is announced,
and this is and shall be matter of congratulation to
me." What a comment on the rivalry of sects !
How naturally does the writer go on to warn his
beloved Philippians against cavillings and logomachies
the perennial curse of Christendom.
The danger of doctrinal sin is made of little account
in the Pauline religion. There are traces, indeed,
/'ACL <>F TARSUS.
of the idea, that misapprehension as to theological
tenets is an offence, or, at least, a danger. There were
men, according to the second pastoral epistle, who
entertained views about the resurrection, which con-
travened the habitual teaching of the Apostle. There
were IIK-II whom the Apostle anathematised in his
wrath, because they renewed the yoke of Judaism, and
frightened the Gentiles into the acceptance of super-
fluous observances. There were conceited visionaries,
who prided themselves on a special illumination, on
a knowledge which puffed them up, who were given
over to the deadly delusion of spiritual pride, the
heretical men who were to be twice warned and then
avoided. But, of the later doctrine which harsh
creeds have engendered that the non-acceptance of
ecclesiastical definitions is a sin against God, a wicked
error, an act of treason against the Divine majesty-
there is no trace. The common sense and sagacity
of the Apostle would have scouted the idea of those
jurists, who, having recognised the conception of
conspiracy, rebellion, treason against the human ruler,
have applied it to those who will not, or cannot, accept
the precedents of successful polemics. Men have
asserted, that the result of an attempt to define the
transcendental mysteries of Divine Providence ought to
be as plain to ordinary minds as those human laws are
which may be unjust, but are certainly intelligible,
and they have added to this fallacy another which is
.still more gross. They have affected to consider that
a misapprehension of the Divine nature is the same-
sort of offence as that which seeks to overthrow
the authority of a secular ruler, who is a man as
PAUL ON DOCTRINAL SIX. 331
much as the malcontents are ; and that hesitation as
to allowing some of the attributes which they assign
to an omnipotent God, is identical with the crime
of seeking to destroy a government by violence or
fraud, of subverting a power which cannot exist
and continue without weapons of defence. Alas, to
be ignorant of His beneficence and justice ; to live
without knowledge of Him, is no matter for anger,
but occasion for pity, for that compassion which
the strong should feel towards those who are weak;
the wise for those who are ignorant ; the rich for
those who are poor ; the child whose father and mother
love him, and whose home is cheerful and happy,
for the fatherless, the orphan, the destitute, the home-
less; the man of strong, clear, active mind, for the
hypochondriac who suffers under baseless illusions.
But sometimes the armour of confident assertion
is the cloak of doubt. Shall we admire or pity the
audacity which utters the famous paradox of Tertul-
lian, " Credo quia impossible est ? "
For the sin of the ascetic, Paul mentions to dismiss
it with disdain. It was no part of this Apostle's
theory that his converts should go out of the world,
that they should be sour, mortified, recluse. The
advice which he gives, and of which so much has been
made, as to marriage, is given for temporary and
special reasons. Elsewhere, he commends the con-
nubial state, and reckons among the signs of the
latter times, of the days of wandering spirits, and the
teachings of devils, the repudiation of marriage and
those alimentary restrictions which ascetics have
always insisted on. There is, it may be, some benefit
332 PAUL OF TARSUS.
in the subjection of the body to discipline ; but piety,
religion, is of universal benefit, for it conveys with
itself the promises of the present and of the future life.
It remains, then, that the sin which the Apostle
denounced, and against which he uttered his warnings,
was that against the Moral Law, such sin as the
Jewish prophets condemned, and made the object of
God's wrath, and, in particular, the sins of sensuality
and greed, the sins of a reprobate intellect. The
details of such a depravity are described in the first
chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, where, in
accordance with the teaching of the Hebrew jurists,
the tendency to these offences is connected with
ignorance of the Being and Providence of God, with
the absence of the religious sense, with the folly, as
David says, which denies God in the heart. So,
again, it is the flesh against the spirit, the animal
impulse of man contravening and degrading the
diviner element, which leads to the sin which dis-
honours man. In one remarkable passage, the Apostle
compares the logical act of appetite with the logical
act of the nobler nature of the spirit, and notes their
antagonism, his contrast being probably suggested by
the familiar language of Aryan dualism. Sin, then,
is partly the consequence of unworthy conceptions of
God, partly a yielding to the temptation which is
perpetually recurring in the body of this death, in the
facile obedience to an imperious law which campaigns
against the law of my intellect (the origin, according
to Aristotle, of all law), and which takes me captive to
itself, to the law of sin which exists in my body, and
in its passions.
APPETITE AND REASON. 333
This contest between appetite and reason, between
the flesh and the spirit, is elaborated in the Epistle to
the Galatians. " Walk by the spirit, and you will not
satisfy the desire of the flesh. The flesh has its
impulses which would subdue the spirit, the spirit
those which would subdue the flesh. These contravene
one another, and so you do what you do not wish to
do. If ye are led by the spirit, you are not subject to
a law ; " or, as is explained a little afterwards, when the
Apostle has sketched the vices and virtues of those
contrasted forces, " there is no law against those who
practise the latter." Law, be it ceremonial or munici-
pal, is directed against those who break it, and has no
practical existence to them who are exempted from
obedience to a ceremonial code, or whose conduct is
such that they do not incur the penalties of municipal
legislation.
Whenever the Apostle utters his warning against
sin, and enumerates its various phases, he invariably
reckons unchastity as the greatest or most prominent
of vices. The extraordinary impurity of social life
among Romans, Greeks, Syrians, the shamelessness
with which licentiousness was practised and avowed,
may have induced the Apostle to lay great stress on
the necessity for purity among his converts. In the
Epistle to the Corinthians he speaks of incontinence
as specially degrading. In that to the Thessalonians
he urges the necessity of keeping the body pure, in
contrast to Gentile practice. But, apart from the
immediate effect of this particular vice, the Apostle
knew what were the associations of ancient prostitution.
The practice was part of the system of nature-
PAUL OF TARSI'*.
worship. Antioch, where St. Paul resided so long,
was notorious for its dissoluteness, for the openness
with which wantons were recognised and patronised.
In Corinth, Paphos, and a hundred other cities, prosti-
tution was considered, not merely as some of our
publicists have reckoned it a social necessity, but a
culte, an act of worship. The earlier Scriptures of the
Old Testament allude to the women who lived near the
precinct of some idol shrine. The story of Israel and
Moab bears testimony to the close connection between
licentiousness and idolatry. For this reason, fornica-
tion is commonly used in the Old Testament as a
synonyme for idolatry, and sometimes in the New, as
for example in the Revelation. As the Jewish creed
grew more strictly monotheistic, it proscribed with
peculiar energy any practice which was associated with
that nature- worship which it detested and despised.
To the moralist, sin is vice, which, as far as its
influence extends, wrecks society. Violence, fraud,
rapine, endanger the institution of property ; licen-
tiousness insults the sacredness of home, the dignity
of woman, the instincts of paternal fondness and
care. It is not because the effects of unchastity
are less mischievous than those of lawlessness, that
criminal law does not take cognisance of, or punish
the former, but because the machinery of repression
or punishment is less easy. No civilised community,
I believe, neglects, however free it leaves the Press,
to punish those who sell indecent or immoral books,
pictures, and the like. Nor, were it possible or con-
venient to check the vice to which these publications
pander, in tin- interest of society, is tlu-iv any doubt
THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF SIN. 335
that a legislature might and would use the forces at its
control in order to purify, as it does to protect society.
The effect of sin on the individual is, that it deadens
the religious sense. It perverts the sight of God,
inducing the man to frame such notions of the Deity
as characterised the nature-worship of Greek, Roman,
and Syrian. God, argues the Apostle, had made
Himself known, the invisible verity being made
intelligible by the analogy of the visible creation ; as,
for example, the eternal power and divine majesty
of the Almighty. But, though the heathen world
knew God, its inhabitants "gave Him not the glory
and praise that was His due, but argued themselves
into folly, so that they were darkened in a senseless
heart. Calling themselves wise they became stolid,
and transferred the glory of the unchangeable God
to some image of changeable man, or to that of
bird, beast, or reptile." Hence, he goes on to infer,
their vices, on which he dwells with vehement disgust,
concluding with a description of the depravity into
which the heathen had fallen, and the satisfaction
which they felt in their depravity.
The sight of God which sin perverts, the revelation
of God's justice which is made in the Gospel, and
which leads to an ever-increasing trust in God, -that
process from faith to faith, according to the Hebrew,
a formula of growing intensity, -is no mere knowledge.
Men may be acquainted with everything which has
been alleged, proved, accepted on behalf of a doc-
trinal system, and may acquiesce in every tenet
which theologians have affirmed, may be of unim-
peached orthodoxy, may dread heresy as though it
33G PAUL OF TARSUS.
were some dangerous or deadly contagion, and still
be far removed from the apostolic sight of God,
from the manifestation, the revelation, which Paul
thought the choicest gift of the Gospel which he
preached. Nay, a precise orthodoxy may be coupled
with those very vices which are denounced in the
Epistles to the Romans and the Galatians. The
history of Christianity can supply abundant illus-
trations of the fact, that no religious system, however
positive may be its tenets, is any guarantee against
that laxity of practice which the Apostle speaks of
as the proof of a reprobate mind, or as the logic of
the appetite, or as the works of the flesh. Faith, as
commonly understood, is neither the life of Christ
nor the sight of God. And, conversely, if the sight
of God and the life of Christ are the highest hopes
and the best pattern which can be before the mind of
man, it is possible that heresy, free-thought, resolute
inquiry into the ground of our belief, may be no bar
to the imitation of the latter, and the possession of
the former. The sight of God is not, in the economy
of Christ's teaching, reserved for the learned theolo-
gian, but for the pure in heart. In this particular, the
Apostle's doctrine does not swerve from that of the
Master. Man may become the temple of God, but the
building must be cleansed for the Divine indwelling.
In the system of St. Paul, the process of illumina-
tion and reconciliation, of forgiveness and hope, is
simple. To trust in Christ, to believe in the mercy
of God, is sufficient for pardon, is a pledge of grace
given, of mercy vouchsafed. The symbol of this trust
is baptism into the name of Christ. The warranty of
THE WORK OF GRACE. 337
the hopes which baptism affirm is the Passion of Jesus.
The gospel of the Apostle contains, as has been said,
a few facts, and one simple act of initiation. Nothing
can be more brief than this gospel of doctrine, for it
ascribes the salvation, the regeneration, the reconcilia-
tion of man to the sublime self-sacrifice of the risen
Christ. It is stated in its most succinct form to the
Philippian gaoler, "Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be safe." In the symbolism of the Alex-
andrian gloss on the Jewish covenant, as expounded
in the Epistle to the Hebrews; before Christ came
there was a vail shutting men out from the Schekinah.
The proof that God was there was afforded by the
occasional entrance of a Jewish priest. He came and
the vail was for ever taken away. Every one has a
right to enter now. Salvation is no longer the heritage
of a race, it is the right of all the families of the earth.
Eagerly accepting the universality of the Saviour's
mission, the apostles, who treated Christianity in a
catholic spirit, were satisfied of the fact that He has in-
vited all men to the mercy of God, and that the Cove-
nant of Abraham is extended to the whole human race.
But when the convert is admitted to the Gospel,
the work of grace commences. The change of conver-
sion is vast, it is no less than a new creation, a new
birth. But it would be rash, irrational, ruinous to
suppose that the great work is achieved in the instant
of confession and in the avowal of allegiance. The
growth of the spiritual man, like that of the natural
man, is from babyhood to manhood. The work of the
Spirit is solid and gradual. Men are builded up,
increase, grow to a full stature. The life of the Chris-
338 PAUL OF TARSUS.
tian man needs care and watchfulness, self-denial and
self-control. The religious change is one of slow
accession, of anxious and continual watchfulness. It
could not be effected but by the aid of the Divine
Spirit, by the presence of Christ, by the perpetual
practice of Christian duty, by the concurrence of the
will of man, and the help of God. " It is not," says
the Apostle, " in my presence only, but in my absence
still more, that I insist on the rule that you should
accomplish your own safety with fear and with
anxiety ; for it is God whose energy effects this in us,
that we should will, and we should show our energy
in the direction which pleases Him." St. Paul uses
the same emphatic word a word for which philosophy
is indebted to Aristotle to show that the will of God
and the will of man are simultaneously operative in
the Christian soul. Man is no inert matter, but
without God the man can do nothing.
Each man is aided in this great work of regeneration
and reconciliation by the Spirit of God, and is thereby
renewed in the likeness of the Great Father. But
surrounding, combining, pervading, knitting and bind-
ing together them who are engaged in the labour of
the spiritual life, is the glorified Christ. He begins
the redemption of the individual, by constituting these
units into a Church. Man cannot live in a religious
solitude, any more than he can dwell apart from the
social life in which he moves. Christianity is a fellow-
ship, a company, a community. In this association,
no man can say to his neighbour, I have no need of
thee. The aggregate of Christian men is a building,
in which the individuals are tlu> separate stones, a
GOD WORKING WITH MAN'S WILL. 339
body of which they are the separate members. Christ
is the life which pervades them, by which they are
mutually sensitive, by which they exist, move, grow.
" We have," says St. Paul " our commonwealth in the
heavens. From this we are expecting our Lord Jesus
Christ, who will transfigure the body of our humilia-
tion so that it shall take the shape of the body of His
glory, in accordance with the living energy by which
He can marshal all things under Himself." Then the
illumination is completed, the pardon is sure, the
victory is won, the sight of God is everlastingly
obtained, and the mission of Christ is ended.
That the great scheme of human redemption and
moral progress should fail for want of advocates who
can win assent, and gather forces for the battle against
selfishness and sin, is not to be believed. To entertain
this doubt, to sit with folded arms while the course of
humanity goes backward, to be dismayed at the
present, to despair of the future, is the highest offence
which a clear conception of truth can commit against
duty. " Woe to me," said Paul, " if I preach not the
Gospel ; to do it is no cause for boasting ; I must needs
do it." To decline the work is to sin against God's
Spirit, to refuse Him who speaks, to enter into the
peril of that sin which is, above all, inexcusable. And,
on the other hand, it is certain that they who, for no
other purpose than that of doing justly, and curing the
hardships and sorrows of life, seek the good of man,
will find that they are, though perhaps unconsciously,
the truest teachers of the Gospel of mercy and grace,
"though Abraham be ignorant of them, and Israel
acknowledge them not."
CHAPTER X.
THEY who have busied themselves with the chrono-
logy of the New Testament, generally set a period of
about thirty-three years between the time at which
the "young man Saul," eager to vindicate the Law,
set out for Damascus, and that at which, in his last
imprisonment, " Paul the aged " declared that " he
had fought a good fight, had finished his course, and
was now ready to be offered." This interval had been
spent in founding and in confirming churches. The
Acts of the Apostles give us an account of somo
among Paul's many labours. His own Epistles supply
us with a little further information. But the narra-
tive in the historical work is imperfect, even where it
professes to state the facts, and is silent as to the last
years of Paul's life. The letters which the Apostle
wrote, were, we must believe, very numerous. His
care of all the churches certainly led to frequent
communications with them, so that, even at a com-
paratively early period in his career, his letters were
reckoned to be weighty and vigorous. But only a
small number of these can have been preserved. His
THE RAXGE OF PA UL'S LABOURS. 341
labours were incessant, and he was always seeking to
occupy new ground. But we hear about none of his
doings from the time in which he rented a house at
Rome, six years before the commonly-received date of
his martyrdom, to the final consummation of his career,
when he stood, almost friendless, before the judgment-
seat of Nero, and was looking forward to his rest and
his reward.
During this vigorous life he had preached the
Gospel over the Western world, avoiding only those
districts where other men had laid the foundation, and
renewing by letter, when absent, the teaching which
he had given by word of mouth. Some of these
congregations must have kept archives, and a few of
these archives were preserved till such time as the
Jewish reaction abated, and the surviving writings of
Paul were sought after, especially by the Latin Chris-
tians, in order to develop a systematic theology. It
was for this object especially that the Epistles of Paul
were collected, studied and expounded. But there was
nothing less before the eyes of Paul than the founda-
tion of a school. His aim was to establish a divine
commonwealth, which, dwelling within the organisation
of the Roman empire, should leaven, purify, and finally
reform society. The universal acknowledgment of
Christ is a part of the recompence of His suffering. He
is to have the homage of every knee and every tongue.
Such a result, however, is impossible, unless the
Gospel of Christ is capable of reaching every heart, and
instructing every mind. Now, nothing is more certain
to hinder this universality, than a hard and dry system
of definitions and restrictions. Hence the Apostle
342 PAUL OF TARSUS.
warns men against these refinements. " Do what you
do without them," he says in his last public epistle
that to the Philippians. " Have peace among one
another," he enjoins in his earliest epistle that to
the Thessalonians, whom he speaks of as an example
to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.
It is plain that justice is the foundation of civil
society, and that the essence of secular justice is to
grant each man full freedom to labour, and to secure
each man that he should enjoy the fruits of his labour,
subject only to the condition that the exercise of his
faculties shall not inflict wrong on others. Nor is it
less plain, that the organisation of civil society is
perpetually exposed to attack on that side which forms
the most vital part of its existence, and that it can
only by perpetual effort ward off force and fraud, the
success of which is fatal to its being. Government
exists to do justice, though the decline and fall of
nations has been due to the fact that the power of
government has not only not been employed for the
primary object of its existence, but has perpetually
aided rapine and oppression. The Platonic Socrates is
made to show that any theory of government which
warps justice, even in appearance, to the sustentation
of particular interests, contains that which is in the
end certain to effect the dissolution of civil society.
The profound sympathy of Paul, which made him
suffer with any distress, and be indignant at any offence
which his disciples endured, suggested a striking and
exact illustration of that distributive justice which
constitutes the key-stone of civilisation. He bids
men n. at each other as members of the same physical
PAUL'S THEORY OF SOCIETY. 343
organisation, urging that injury done to one part
induces suffering and disease on the whole. Such a
theory of civil government corresponds with that of
those economists who allege that, from a material point
of view, society is best off, not when the largest
amount of wealth is collected, but when the largest
amount of persons live in affluence or comfort by
means of labour naturally or spontaneously distributed.
In the social and economical state alike, the spontan-
eous distribution of these benefits which industry and
order collect, is of more profound significance than the
circumstances which attend on their production or
collection. In the physical body, nature effects this
distribution ; health being the state in which such
an equipoise is indicated or affected, disease an abnor-
mal growth or a local repletion. In the Pauline
hypothesis of a perfect society, the rectification of a
wrong is not due to the clamour or plaint of that
which is immediately distressed, but to the sympathy
felt by the whole of society towards the suffering or
the injured part. From St. Paul's point of view, a
social evil sends a pang through the whole body,
urging it to take note of the disease and to discover
the remedy. That the remedy can be found, and the
disease subdued, he did not for an instant doubt. To
ignore the disease, or to deny the remedy, is to ac-
quiesce in the wreck of humanity.
Conceive, if you can, a public conscience so keen and
tender as to be instantly alive to the moral evils which
corrupt, enfeeble, blemish those powers whose unin-
terrupted action designates the vigour of true and
unbroken progress, and so wise as to instantly busy
344- PA UL OF TARSUS.
itself with their cure. Imagine men, comprehending
that the corrective forces of public morality are not,
except indirectly, concerned with the reformation of
offenders, but principally with the purification of
mankind itself from some taint which it has ignorantly,
wilfully, or carelessly contracted. Picture a society
busily engaged in finding out the means by which
poverty, ignorance, vice, selfishness, can be chastised or
healed, not because the victims of those morbid
growths are afflicted, but because society itself is
degraded and dishonoured by the presence of such
calamities, and is therefore restless till it cures or
alleviates them. Whenever man begins to purify the
society in which he lives, under the stimulant of these
feelings, and from these motives, he begins to construct
the divine commonwealth, the perfect man, as Paul
conceived and expounded it. Well would it have been
if the reformation of man had but been continued in
this spirit. The utmost that men have done as yet, is
to concede a right, perhaps no more than the right of
complaint to the sufferer. But they will find no
remedy for the diseases and depravity of social life,
till they recognise that the worst part of the case is the
influence of these malignant growths upon the health
of humanity itself, and perhaps on its very life.
It is not, therefore, Utopian to project a social
system which shall be formed and governed upon
the principle that vice and misery must be obviated
in the interests of society itself. Nor is it visionary
to conceive a force which shall so permeate the
<-mmon life of men as to sustain such a policy
wli.-n it has once been adopted, and, therefore, form
SIN AND HOLINESS. DISEASE AND HEALTH. 345
an obstacle to the beginning of that which demoralises
and degrades all in the depravity of a part. We
may imagine, with perfect reasonableness, a community
where wrong is unknown, and, therefore, from which
misery is banished. No excellence, either of the State
or of the individual, is impracticable simply because
it has hitherto been ideal, and has transcended
experience. Paul, who avowed that man was de-
praved, contemplated his social perfectibility.
Now, whether it be that man has departed from
the pure original in which he was once created
as is commonly conceived, or, that he has, conversely,
made some progress towards the perfection which
may be developed in the future by the gradual
growth of a wise morality, but that he has, histori-
cally, no higher origin than that of mere animal
life ; it is clear, on either hypothesis, that society has
hardly attempted to govern itself on the principle
which has been adverted to, that of righting wrong,
and checking vice, in consideration of its own safety
and health. It is also clear, that prodigious heroism
is needed on the part of individuals who, foreseeing
the only means by which society can be regenerated,
seek to grapple with the evils whose ultimate con-
sequence must be so disastrous. Such persons have
been violently crushed, or mercilessly ridiculed at
best, have provoked into active antipathy a host
of interests, which can easily get credence for the
fallacy that custom is nature, or that an habitual
wrong becomes a prescriptive right. And, even if
this angry panic of imperilled or alarmed self-interest
be wanting, there is always the obstacle of inert
PAUL OF TARSUS.
apathy which calls enthusiasm a madness, and would
rather indolently shut its eyes, than rouse itself
to knowledge and incur the anxieties of resolution.
o
Paul was not wanting in courage. Testimony to
his lofty and unshaken perseverance is to be gathered
from the sufferings of his life. He is still unshaken
as he contemplates the apparent failure which sad-
dened his retrospect, when, deserted by his friends,
he had the immediate prospect of a violent death.
He had laboured for more than thirty years, and
all those in Asia Asia, which had been the principal
scene of his energies were turned away from him,
had left him alone. His career is an example of
the trouble, the animosity, the disappointment which
attend on those who strive to purify the world. The
indomitable vitality of a true Christianity has rendered
it impossible that the career of Paul should be a
warning.
But Paul did not, and could not, attempt to grapple
with society as a whole. As has been several times
observed, he believed that the world was rapidly
approaching its dissolution. There was some reason
for this belief. Mankind has not even yet recovered
from the desolation which was caused by the Roman
Empire, and from the destruction of ancient civilisa-
tion. That empire and that civilisation perished by
their own vices, by the persistent indifference of
the Imperial government to all public duty. But,
even if the Apostle had anticipated the duration of
the world, he could not have directly attempted the
task of a social reformation in the Roman Empire.
Thu uflort would have been a forlorn hope. There
THE CIVITAS DEI. 347
was risk enough in the indirect attempt, risk which
any but the boldest spirit would have hesitated to
run. But to have openly defied the power of Roman
conservatism, would have been to provoke instant
destruction. And the sacrifice would have been as
fruitless as that of Savonarola.
Hence Paul set himself to work to construct a
society within a society, which should challenge as
little attention as possible, beyond that which would
be accorded to the blameless and virtuous lives of
its members. Under circumstances which would
not cause scandal or retort upon the Christian pro-
fession, he counsels his disciples to ask no questions
for conscience' sake, to go into general society. With
the same purpose he dissuades the believing wife
from using the right of divorce against the unbelieving
husband, because he anticipates that the latter v Ul
be won over to the Gospel by the pure and scrupulous
life of his wife. The advice marks all the difference
between a needless and offensive protest against the
conduct of one's neighbour, and a rigid regimen of
one's own life and action. If one's own reputation
for consistency is challenged, the Apostle counsels
no reticence, justifies no evasion, permits no cowardice.
But it is neither good manners nor tact to blurt out
one's own convictions in any company, or, under all
circumstances, to perpetually protest against whatever
one sees and hears. It was the vice of the
Christianity which followed on the Apostolic Age,
or, rather, on the age which followed the revival of
Paul's teaching, for the professed Christian to court
persecution by indiscreet and superfluous avowals.
348 PA UL OF TARSUS.
Hippolytus, in telling us, from the Christian side,
what was the career of the worthless Callistus,
whom the Roman Church subsequently elected as
its bishop, and has even canonised, is evidence
of the eagerness with which an adventurer affected
martyrdom ; and Lucian, from the heathen side,
narrates, in the history of Peregrinus, how devotees,
whose reputation was doubtful, wantonly affronted
the habits of society in the third century after Christ.
The man who intrudes such crude beliefs on his
own age, becomes the orthodox persecutor of a time
when his beliefs are accepted. When Gibbon says
that the virtues of a clergy are more dangerous to
civil society than their vices are, he is thinking of
those virtues of courage or rashness which simply
aid the ambition, or affirm the egotism of those
who exhibit them. It is not clear whether Paul
knew the parable about the good seed and the tares, but
it is clear that his advice is quite in accordance with
the teaching of Christ. It is doubtful whether he
had ever heard of those disciples who wished to call
down fire from heaven, but it is certain that he
was not of that spirit which Christ rebuked. It is
manifest that he was all things to all men, if haply
he might gain some, that he was indifferent to those
who preached Christ of contention, provided only
that Christ was preached, that he was thoroughly
of the mind of Christ, who prayed that His disciples
might not be taken out of the world, but be pre-
served from the evil of the world.
The Gospel which Paul preached was not intended
to govern nit-ii, but to influence them. It was not
CHRISTIANITY REFORMS SOCIETY. 34<)
intended to confer authority on its teachers, advocates,
disciples, hut to lay duties on them. " The Son of
Man came not to be the object of service, but to serve,
and to give His life as a ransom for many," is said by
Christ when he was enforcing the great tenet of
Christianity, that personal power and influence are to
be dedicated to public service. The object of the
Christian life is to restore, to regenerate mankind ; not
to assure the individual of his personal salvation, in
the first instance at least, but to assist in the recon-
struction of society. The reward of this labour is an
eternal identity in the midst of assured felicity, "a
place in the kingdom of God," a share in that " which
has been prepared by Christ " on behalf of them who
wait for Him. And in order that as many persons as
possible may be included within the number of those
who have this great object before them, Paul was
prepared to do away with every hindrance and obstacle
in the way of union. What the difficulties were with
which this plan was beset, has been repeatedly stated
in these pages. They were not obviated during Paul's
life; they recur in other forms after the obstacles which
Paul sought to remove had become unimportant, when
the Christian sects reproduced the temper, after aban-
doning the tenets, of conservative Judaism. The
Church of Christ is not a society bound together by
a written constitution, or by a set of formal rules,
but by the work and the fruit of the Spirit.
Every epistle of Paul bears witness to his convic-
tion, that the victory of Christianity is to be found in
the holiness of its adherents. Having commented on
the variety of powers and gifts, which the followers of
PAUL OF TARSUS.
the faith may possess and exercise, he lays down in
the Epistle to the Romans a series of injunctions on
the details of the Christian life. " Let your love be
genuine. Loathe the evil, cling to the good. Into
your mutual brotherhood carry the feelings of natural
affection. Show that grace of courtesy which makes a
man defer his own dignity to that of his fellow. Be
diligent in the business on your hands, be eager in the
spirit of your profession, serve the occasion which lies
before you, feel joy in your hopes, constancy in your
trials, confidence in your prayers. Be generous to
the wants of those who hold your own belief, be eager
to practise friendly intercourse with all, meet those
who harm you with kind words, with blessing and not
with cursing. Give the sympathy of cheerfulness and
sorrow to those who need it. Have unanimity with
one another, avoid haughtiness of spirit, condescend
to be gentle with men of lowly station. Do not think
of nothing but yourselves, do not retaliate evil. In
your general intercourse with mankind, be anxious for
a good reputation, and, if it be possible, for your part, be
peaceable. Do not seek, my beloved, to exact satisfac-
tion, but give place to anger, according to the scripture,
' Vengeance is mine, I will punish wrong, saith the
Lord.' If thine enemy, then, hunger, feed him ; if he
thirst, give him drink,- for by doing so thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head. Let not evil-doing vanquish
you, but overcome it by the good you do."
Such is a paraphrase of the conduct which Paul
commends as the means by which the Gospel may be
approved of, and its influence extended. It will be
u that these injunctions apply principally to the
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. SECULAR GOVERNMENT. 351
mutual intercourse of Christian men, and to their
dealings with the world around them. They con-
tain the quintescence of common sense. They are
followed by a general rule of obedience to secular autho-
rity, and an acquiescence in the course of Providence,
as indicated in the existing authority of the civil
power. The arguments on w r hich this acquiescence is
based are these : The Apostle urges that there is no
reasonable ground on which Christian men can be
apprehensive of that power which the magistrate
wields. Law is for the wrong-doer, not for the just,
whom Law virtually respects and defends. Next, the
civil administration of affairs is part of the moral
government of the world, and therefore resistance to
authority is resistance to the implied Providence of
God. Lastly, and this is most to the purpose, the
order of the world is temporary, and will not long
endure. " The night is far advanced, the day is near."
In immediate proximity to that great change which
will follow instantly on the appearance of Christ, it is
idle to disturb oneself with the merely secular question
of human government and law.
Had Paul anticipated the prolonged duration of
the visible world, had he foreseen that the course of
things would have remained unchanged for centuries
after his own life and work were finished, he could not
have varied the advice which he gives to the Christians
whom he instructed. Had he contemplated a time in
which absolutism would give way to popular govern-
ment, and the Christian man would not only be invited,
but would be bound to exercise his judgment on ques-
tions of public policy, and to take part in the administra-
352 PAUL OF TARSUS.
tion of affairs, he would still have counselled obedience
to law and authority, even if the authority were sel-
fish and the law unjust. Better have a bad adminis-
tration than anarchy, better partial law than general
confusion. But to suppose that he would have
counselled indifference, or passive acquiescence in
tyranny or wrong, is to misapprehend the whole tenor
of his teaching. Christianity is a perpetual protest
against evil, whether it be temporal or spiritual,
whether it be that of ruler or subject, whether it be
crime or sin. If it have the opportunity of using the
force of civil authority conjointly with its moral
influence to do what is just and right, it will not
hesitate to employ such powers as Providence has
bestowed on it. Men do not put off their civil duties
to the generation in which they live, because they
profess to believe in a religion which promises them
certain future benefits. They will still " walk in
wisdom to those who live without their action, and will
pay the price that it is worth for the use of the
occasion which lies before them." It is true, that the
best force which Christianity can exercise is to be
found in the example of life which the Christian spirit
affords. But the man who held that Christian men
shall judge the world, shall, in the language of the
Rabbinical schools, judge angels, and much more what
belongs to the interests of this life, would certainly
not have precluded Christianity from aiding natural
morality and justice with all the forces at its disposal.
Besides, the mind of every Jew who cherished
any recollection of his nation's glory, its prestige
and its mission, was occupied with the memory of
THE PA TRIOTIC FEELING OF PA UL. 353
that ancient time, when the prophet stood before
the king, and, if need be, rebuked him for falling
away from the covenant of Israel, and the command-
ment of God. Paul never forgot the greatness of
the race from which he sprung; never, even when
he had been forcibly severed from both parts of it,
from the Jews of the old faith, for his unpardonable
conversion ; from the Jews of the Apostolic College,
for his equally unpardonable indifference to ritual,
did his tenderness for the ancient people of God fail
to break forth, did his pride of race forsake him. It
is not without design that he lays so much emphasis
on the prophetic office, implying by it the function
of bearing testimony to the truth of God before an
unbelieving and demoralised world ; as the prophets
of old did from the days of Samuel to those of
Malachi.
The Jewish prophet is the representative of the
principle, that the forces of government are, and
should be subordinated to justice, mercy, and con-
science; ,and that no office, however high, is, or
ought to be out of the reach of reproof or correction.
Armed with the Word of God, the prophet is as
we are told by Jeremiah a defenced city, an iron
pillar, and brazen walls against king, prince, priest,
and people. A high office, but one full of danger
to him who fills it; for Jeremiah, though constantly
the counsellor of king and people, is frequently in
great peril on account of his far-sighted candour,
most of all, at the hands of dishonest rivals, who
prophesied smooth things, and deceived the people
with the hopes of safety or impunity. It was in a
PAUL OF TARSI'S.
spirit like that of a Hebrew prophet, a Jeremiah,
a Micah, or an Amos, that Paul stood in the
presence of Felix, and reasoned with him on justice,
and self-restraint, and a future judgment, till the
adventurer and man of pleasure trembled before liis
prisoner. In the same manner Paul argued with
the younger Agrippa, though with less success,
since he only extorted from the king an ironical
compliment.
It must not, however, be forgotten, that the prophet
of old addressed such a monarch, a prince, a priest,
and a people, as whatever were the short-comings
in the practice of each professed allegiance to the
la\v of Moses. Even Israel had not really revolted
from God; only from David and the worship at
Jerusalem. The prophet of Israel does not reproach
king and people for the dissent which reared the
chapels in Dan and Bethel, but for the rebellion
which led them to worship Baal and Ashtaroth in
the place of the God of their fathers. Here, except
during the dynasty of Ahab, there was, at least, a
nominal acceptance of the national religion ; and the
prophet though he incurred frequent risk for the
boldness of his manner, and, occasionally, for the
inferences which his denunciations suggested had
nothing to fear on account of the matter of his speech.
Elijah, Micaiah, Elisha, are menaced or punished
for their attitude to the king, not for their religion ;
and the false prophet, Zedekiah, who urged Ahab
to his destruction, employed the common prelude
to the prophetic utterance, "As the Lord liveth."
So, also, Jeremiah declares, "Then the Lord said
THE PROPHETS. 355
unto me, the prophets prophesy lies in My name ;
I sent them not, neither have I commanded them,
neither spake unto them." This hypocrisy did not
render these time-servers less bitter in their treatment
of the true messenger, but it acknowledged that his
mission, like theirs, was in the name of the God of
Israel, and that he was justified in speaking openly
before king and priest. Had the office of Paul fallen
in times like those of the Hebrew prophet, he would
have dealt as largely with the political circumstances
of his day as his predecessors did, as boldly as he
himself spake before Ananias and the Sanhedrim.
The teaching of St. Paul is as precise when he
touches on the internal life of the Christian. Keenly
alive to the reality of sin, occasionally using language
about it which strongly savours of the dualism which
was adopted by the stricter Gnostics; firmly holding
that the beginning of deliverance is the purchase
which Christ has made of the enslaved soul by
the price of His Passion; the lesson which he reads
his disciples is, in the highest degree, practical.
He would have them look perpetually to the law
of their mind, their conscience, the Spirit of Christ
which inhabits them, and to gather a rule of life
from its guidance. He is perfectly plain-spoken
about the vices which he condemns, the sensual and
selfish practices which he saw everywhere about him,
and of which he says, that they who permit the
growth of these habits shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, gladness,
peace, forbearance, gentleness, kindliness, trust, good
temper, self-control," he tells us in the Epistle to
350 P&VL OF TARSUS.
the Galatians. "Put on, then/' (he says to the
Colossians,) "as elect, holy, beloved of God, hearty
compassion, gentleness, modesty, good temper, for-
bearance." He has advice to give to husband and
wife, to parent and child, to master and servant,
to men as members of churches, to individuals as
engaged in the earnest struggle of the Christian
life. " My exhortation, brethren, is," says he in the
first of his epistles, "that you reprove the unruly,
that you comfort the low-spirited, assist the weak,
be forbearing to all. Take heed not to retaliate
evil for evil, but always follow after what is good
to each other and to all. Be always glad. Pray
regularly. Give thanks on all occasions, for this
is God's will in Christ Jesus on your account. Do
not put out the light of the Spirit. Do not make
scorn of teaching. Test everything, and hold what
is worthy. Abstain from any kind of evil." Similar
lessons of moral virtue are given to the Ephesians,
if, as some have doubted, the letter which goes under
this name was intended for the Church of Ephesus,
and are scattered up and down every epistle. A holy
life, a blameless demeanour, a gentle temper, a win-
ning manner, are the means by which Paul would
have every man use the gift which is bestowed on
him, and do his part in effecting the perfection of
humanity.
Christianity recognised the corruption, imperfection,
weakness of man's moral nature, and, withal, saw that
this infirmity not only impaired the progress of the
individual, but hindered the development of society.
It discerned that the regeneration of man was to be
CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 357
effected by the sacrifice of man, and it discovered the
original of this sacrifice in Jesus of Nazareth. These
two facts constitute the basis of this religion. Further-
more, and by implication, Christianity affirmed the
fundamental equality of all men, equality in the
necessity of an atonement and a mediation, equality
in the right to both. It acknowledged neither sacer-
dotal nor secular privilege, for its highest officer is a
preacher or minister. As its advocacy is so lofty a
self-abnegation, and as obedience to its tenets is so
thoroughly spiritual, it was, and ever is, absolutely
separated from that nature-worship, which destroyed
the civilisation which it attempted to influence, and
which, under one form or other of materialism, has
survived its earliest manifestations. As it was in-
tensely sympathetic, it was driven into antagonism
towards that Gnostic particularism which offered its
devotee perfection, by the contemplation of a wisdom
which might be achieved by culture and knowledge,
but which never sought to regenerate or benefit the
world.
It is by means like those which have been recounted,
that Paul contemplated a general leavening of society
by the genius of Christianity. He knew who had
better personal experience of the fact ? that a
resolute and wise spirit is certain to attract attention
and win allegiance. For thefe is at least this consola-
tion to those who, being credited with disinterested-
ness, seek to impress their opinions upon their fellow-
men, that even though a very moderate amount of
freedom may be given to those who strive to reform
society, the effect of every lofty purpose is rendered
358 PAUL OF TARSUS.
more intense and lasting by reason of its exceeding
rarity. Even those who are sunk in sloth, sensuality,
and selfishness, are attracted by the energy which
disdains their pleasures and purposes, and shapes out
for itself some novel, but beneficent end. The only
real resistance which earnestness and activity meet,
is that of being confronted with an antagonist resolu-
tion, which is equally persevering and determined.
A strong will can be withstood only by collision with
another will, whose weapons have been tempered by
the same, or by an equally skilful armourer. To such
an energy as that of Paul there was no antagonism,
either in the sluggishness and ignorance of popular
idolatry, or in the subtle but nerveless refinements of
ancient philosophy. His tenets interpreted, metho-
dised, and modified, permeated ancient civilisation
rapidly. But, unhappily, the master-builder had no
true successor. His mantle fell on no one. No Elisha
obtained a double share of the Christian prophet's
spirit.
No successor of St. Paul, no disciple, no companion
is known to us as having laboured like him, or as
having written like him. With the exception of Luke,
none of his associates in the ministry have even been
canonised. There are other compositions of the Apos-
tolic Age, which have never, or only temporarily, been
admitted into the Scriptures of the New Covenant.
There are others which may have been written by those
who had heard the apostolic teachings. But, they are
wholly inferior to those relics which were collected
and compiled into the volume of the New Testament,
schools of the prophets provided a succession of
THE SCRIPTURES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 359
teachers from the days of Samuel to those of the
restoration, and during six centuries the same teaching
was proclaimed with unabated vigour and spirituality.
But the Scriptures of the New Testament are con-
cluded within a brief epoch, and are concluded ab-
ruptly. One successor of the Apostle Clement of
Rome is a faint reflection from the man of Tarsus,
speaks neither with his authority nor with his fulness
and depth. It is not difficult, even if we look at the
facts from no supernatural point of view, to discover
why the Church, when it framed its canon, and when it
had decisively admitted the authority of Paul, treated
him as eminently inspired ; for no teacher of Christ-
ianity ever possessed so great a genius, none was ani-
mated by so intense a religious sense, or enlightened
by such profound sagacity, and endowed with such
admirable tact.
It will be curious, perhaps instructive, to consider,
in concluding this estimate of Paul and his times,
what would have been the consequence had other
men, equally gifted with the Pharisee of Tarsus, suc-
ceeded him in the conduct of the Church ; and what
would have been the attitude of such a man as he
was, if he were to appear among us now, if, according
to the fancy which was prevalent among many theo-
rists of his age, the spirit of Paul were to re-animate
some human body, and to guide anew some human
will.
The Christology of Paul might have been progres-
sive. The epistles of Paul say nothing of the birth
or childhood of Christ. They assign Him no miracu-
lous origin ; they speak of Him as merely a descen-
3GO PAUL OF TARSUS.
dant of the stock of David. The language of these
writings implies that the perfection of Christ was
finally effected at His death and resurrection, that it
was the recompence of His perfect self-sacrifice. The
critical passage in the First Epistle to the Corinthians,
from which it appears that the dignity of Christ was
a development, and His office one which would ulti-
mately be superseded by the Almighty Father, when
its work was completed, indicates that Paul had by
no means attempted that harmony between Tritheisiu
and Monotheism, which tasked the energies of the
Nicene Fathers, and which has finally been accepted
by the general voice of Christendom. Minute and
laborious search into the epistles proves nothing more
than a general acquaintance, on the part of Paul, with
the spirit of Christ's teaching, and gives no idea of his
having been informed of those details which are found
in all the gospels, and particularly in the last. He is
thoroughly acquainted with the moral perfection of
Jesus ; he affirms the completeness with which the
Lord satisfies the Messianic hope, and vindicates His
claim to being the Founder of the Gospel, and of the
kingdom of God. He asserts that Christ is not only
the power of God, and the wisdom of God i.e., that
He satisfies the conditions under which, according to
Jewish teaching, God is manifest in the flesh, but that
He has become to us wisdom from God, justice, purifi-
cation, redemption. He is the source of all hope and
strength. But Paul never forgets that while there is
one Lord Jesus Christ, there is one God.
Still, it does not follow that, as time passed on, and
ili- int. -us.- l.i-licf in the humanity of Christ, and tin
THE GROWTH OF CHRISTIAN BELIEF. 361
nearness of His second coming grew fainter, Paul
might not have developed more fully that theory of
the nature of Christ which was first debated by the
Gnostics, and ultimately settled by the Alexandrian
theosophists. The Eastern mind was thoroughly im-
pregnated with the idea of emanations from God.
The Western was accustomed to apprehend the incar-
nation of God in man. The union of these two concep-
tions may have been the inevitable consequence of a
religion which assigned the most exalted functions to
its Founder and its Victim. As Paul lived, the breach
between his teaching and Judaism became wider.
Thus, had his spirit, his wisdom, his quick apprecia-
tion of what was necessary to the scheme of Christi-
anity, been continued in his successors, it is possible
that the monotheistic tenets which are comprised in
his epistles, might have been modified, or developed
even into the Athanasian symbol.
But of this we may be sure. Paul would never
have mistaken faith for belief the trust in Christ and
God for any mental assent to definitions of opinion
and statements of fact. With him Christianity was
intensely social and personal, and therefore never
could have become dogmatic and logical. If he had
admitted these formularies of belief, he would have
treated them as matters of secondary importance as
positions which are inevitably and invariably obscure,
as doubtful disputations, as attempts to know the
mind of God, which is inscrutable, as imperilling that
other knowledge which man may possess that of the
mind of Christ. He would have discouraged any
investigation, the practical side of which is not mani-
362 PAUL OF TARSUS.
fest, whose solution is no aid to the Christian life.
He would have been still more dissatisfied with these
inquiries, if he found that they were rending the
Church into fragments, that they were exposing it
to the derision of the heathen, that they were pre-
venting that quiet and steady leavening of society with
a high sense of public and private duty, which it
was the mission of the Church, in Paul's eyes, to
achieve.
Again, a man whose theory of Christianity was so
earnest and so practical, would have discountenanced
any persecution on the ground of mere opinion. It
was not to be expected that a Jew would have had
any respect for the caricatures of God which the
heathen worshipped, or would fail to connect the
depravity of the ancient world with that debased idea
of the Divinity which was popularly entertained.
The history of his own race, and the history of other
races proved, or seemed to prove, that a false religion
and a low morality are reciprocally cause and effect.
Paul knew that the revolution of the Maccabees was
a reaction, as well against the tendency to Greek idol-
atry, as it was against that impulse towards Syrian
sensuality, which, as is plainly enough seen from the
book of Sirach, infected Jewish manners. Still, Paul
contents himself with strongly expressing his convic-
tions on the connection between a false religion and
general immorality. But he preaches no crusa<l<
against the former. He is no iconoclast. He does
not counsel his disciples to affront the devotions \\liirh
th.-y witnessed, any more than he himself did those
I' At Inns. No one would have condemned more
PERSECUTION. DISCIPLINE. 8G3
strongly, more energetically, than he would have, the
mad fury of Cyril, or have denounced more indig-
nantly the murder of Hypatia. There were men in
his day who erred concerning the faith, who made
shipwreck of it; and Paul, believing that physical
suffering raises the moral, and purifies the spiritual
sense, invokes, in the Hebrew phrase of deliverance to
Satan, some physical evil on them, that they may
be chastised into abandoning their profane avowals.
But he never identified himself with Satan, or with
Satan's function.
It is not to be supposed that Paul was indifferent
to discipline. An ecclesiastical society can no more
endure the presence of notorious offenders against the
conditions of its moral being, than a civil society can
neglect to chastise or coerce criminals. But Paul
counsels the avoidance of such persons rather than
their formal exclusion from the Church. Public
notice must indeed be taken when the scandal is
flagrant ; but the penitent is to be restored upon
submission. He could not have countenanced the
proceedings of those who wished to brand the weak-
ness or timidity of the lapsed after the Decian perse-
cution, any more than he could have advised the rash-
ness which provoked that onslaught. The discipline
of an ecclesiastical organisation, he would have argued,
is a means to an end, that end being the approval of
the Gospel in the sight of men, and the conversion of
those whom Christ came to save. To avoid the ap-
pearance of evil, to be scrupulously exact in the fulfil-
ment of human duties, which is as much the law of
God as it is of man, ought to be instinctive in every
364- PA VL OF TARSUS.
Christian community. Hence the avoidance of such
persons as compromise the reputation of the Christian
brotherhood is only an act of self-preservation. But
discipline is much more easily effected by the gentle,
sometimes silent, rebukes of wise men, or by just
public opinion, than it is by law and verbal regula-
tions. Paul trusted more to his own presence for the
correction of faults in practice at Corinth, than he
did to any code of statutes which he might draw up.
He had to found a church, not to compile a written
constitution. The commission which he had received,
his call to the apostolate, might be vouchsafed to other
men, who might continue his work in his spirit.
He would have been totally indifferent to forms of
ecclesiastical organisation. Various forms of govern-
ment may equally secure freedom and order both in
Church and State. What is to be deprecated is that
fanatical adherence to any form of government under
which men seek to force their habits on the life of
others. What is to be learnt from such a fanatical
adherence, is that individuals are able to seek and
find their own, not the general or public good, in
every form of government. We can gather from the
Second Epistle to the Corinthians, that there were
men who, within that particularly democratic church,
huckstered the word of God; for St. Paul's term, which
\\ c translate " corrupt," alludes as much to the petty
manner in which the great office of man's redemption
was treated, as to the adulteration with which these
men had disguised its tenets. The reform of a church
government may be necessary. Its institution may
have leen radically vicious, its conduct may have
CHURCH GO VERNMENT. 365
stereotyped the faults of its origin. But he is a very
bad judge of human nature, and knows very scantily
the history of the process by which human nature may
be permanently bettered, who believes that changes
in the form of an administration are organic, and there-
fore may be considered final. Least of all is this the
case with a church, which, to be faithful to that by
which it consists, must depend for its true vitality on
moral can hardly, except it be bent on suicide, trust
to external forces. In Church and State, that is
the healthiest condition in which they, who having
accepted or allowed a form of government, arid who are
clearly alive to their duties as members of a religious
or civil polity, are indifferent to the details of the
constitution under which they live.
It has been stated above that Paul discerned in the
low morality of the age through which he lived, and
in the degrading conceptions which, as he saw every-
where, men entertained of God, a reciprocal connection.
But unhappily, a neglect of public and private duty,
an indifference to natural morality, and a habit of
low and degrading vice, are not peculiar to heathendom.
Such vices were witnessed during the prophetic age.
There is, indeed, no reason to believe that Paul was
imperfectly acquainted with those parts of the Hebrew
Scriptures in which the deeds of a corrupt society in
Judah and Israel are stigmatised and denounced.
The transgressions of the two kingdoms were precisely
those which have been committed in times of prosperity
and wealth, and even in those of adversity and suffer-
ing, when men become effeminate and licentious,
insolent and hard-hearted. That the rich should
3C6 PAUL OF TARSI',*.
oppress the poor, that the strong should prey on the
weak, that wealth and power should be employed for
selfish and base ends, for low and coarse pleasures,
are contingencies to be expected, for they have per-
petually happened. But the corruption of society
consists in the applause with which such malversations
are witnessed, in the acquiescence or congratulation
with which vice is recognised or commented on.
There are no grounds on which to infer that human
nature has been materially changed since the day in
which Amos testified against the depravity of the Is-
raelite nobles, and Paul drew his inferences from the
corruptions of the Roman world, though the Syrian
kingdom and the military empire have passed away.
Whatever may be the origin of those personal and
selfish impulses which debase the man if they are un-
checked and gratified, they are still the same as in the
days of the Syrian prophet and the Christian Apostle,
have the same consequences, need the same remedies.
It cannot be denied that the world has made vast
material, much moral, progress, but the work of
maintaining the latter, not less than the former, has
to be continually renewed in each generation of man-
kind. The labour of perpetuating the highest moral
law, or, in the language of the New Testament, the
kingdom of God and His Christ, is even more difficult
than that of transmitting to posterity the conquest
which man's intelligence has made over the material
world; because the inductions of science, though arrived
at wit! i vrreat difficulty and after long research, an-
communicated easily, since they can be easily verified,
wink- th- infusion of the divine law into the individual
THE MISSION OF CHRISTIANITY PERMANENT. 367
mind demands exactly as much pains now as it did
when a pure morality and a spiritual religion first
asserted themselves on behalf of civilisation and
progress.
Perhaps, if any well-informed person were asked,
what are the chief difficulties which a preacher and
apostle like Paul would meet with were a mission
like his to recommence at the present day, he would
answer that they would be found in the attitude in
which religion and science stand to each other. He
would say, that there has long been a breach between
them, and that the breach is gradually widening, that
their relations are ordinarily those of avowed hostility,
at best, of cold and hollow courtesy. He would point
to the alienation of the inductive sciences from theo-
logy, to the scepticism with which even the philosophy of
consciousness treats everything which is supra-sensuous.
He would observe that there is an active and increas-
ing school of thinkers who have assigned its distinct
place in the history of human thought to the super-
natural or religious movement; who assert that this
phase of the human mind has now become an exploded
fiction, and that it is destined never again to influence
any high intelligence. He would add, that, to the
foremost minds of the age, the reign of law had com-
menced ; that this is the philosophy of the definite,
while the philosophy of the infinite is transcendental
and unreal. He would conclude that the deference
which is still paid to religious belief is, on the part of
those persons, transitional and politic ; that it is partly
due to the unwillingness with which such men would
provoke interests which, however indefensible they
PAUL OF TARSUS.
are, are yet powerful, and partly to the fact that they
consider it superfluous to attack that which will one
day or other collapse by the gradual decay of its
foundations.
Much of this is apparently true. But no man who
has ever busied himself, though cursorily and super-
ficially, with the facts of human life, can fail to see how
far man is from having arrived at even a moderate
standard of justice and goodness, even under the most
favourable circumstances. Nor will he fail, also, of
discovering that the prospect there is of elevating the
moral nature of the individual, and of progressively
purifying society, does not consist in the development
of knowledge, or in the control which man has gained
over the forces of the physical universe. He will see
that it has been by the self-devotion of earnest and
patient men that a generation has been purified, and
that it is by the continuity of these moral forces that
the work, once begun, can be maintained and extended.
Now, it is not too much to say that no motive except
the religious sense (by which I understand the practice
of virtue and holiness, for the sake of a Being who is
absolutely good and absolutely holy), has ever supplied
the perseverance necessary for this labour of bettering
mankind. Every religion must have its martyrs, the
kind of martyrdom varying with the difficulties which
have to be overcome. And there is too much reason
to believe, that much of the hostility which exists
between science and religion is not due to the fact
that they are incompatible, but to the manner in
which the professional advocates of the latter have
the inductions of the former.
CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE. 369
In the hands, at least, of a man like Paul, the
difficulty could not be capital. The difference be-
tween the secularism of the Mosaic system, and the
spiritualism of the prophetic teaching, is far greater
than that between the theology of Paul in his epistles,
and such a harmony as he would try to effect between
the deductions of modern science and the fundamental
tenets of his gospel. He would have taken the fact
of sin, of human depravity, of which there is too
mournful and too general a proof, without troubling
himself with its origin. He would have made no
more stir about the cosmogony of Moses than Philo
did, and would have recognised the hand of God in
science as he did in natural morality, as he did in the
order, as far as he understood it, of the physical
universe. He would have experienced no difficulty
in admitting the proofs which geology gives of the
vast duration of the world. He would even have
allowed, comparatively speaking, the eternity of
matter, because he could have induced upon it the
plastic power of a Divine intelligence, which creates
by one method of law as much as by any other. He
would have easily dispossessed his language of those
phrases which imply a physical heaven ; have dis-
covered his new creation in conditions apart from
locality; and perhaps have rejoiced in the prospect
which science offers of the cognition of infinite
space and endless worlds.
For, it must be repeated, the characteristics of the
Pauline gospel are a few facts, none of which contra-
dict human experience, and in many particulars obtain
its support. He holds that man is, and has been,
2 A
370 PAUL OF TARSUS,
saved by suffering; and that the progress of humanity
is due to the unbought and unpaid diligence of high
and persistent well-doing. He affirms that the begin-
ning, and well nigh the whole of this work was done
by One, in whom the power and the wisdom of God
were immeasurably manifest; and that it is by the
Spirit, and in the indwelling of this Personage, that
the residue of man's appointed work is to be com-
pleted. How this work has been done, and must be
done, is often expounded, and need not be repeated.
How the agent is aided and consoled is equally
affirmed. That the service done to man is paid by
the perpetual consciousness of the benefactor, or, in
other words, that the life of such a person is not lost
in death, is a matter of natural belief, and of natural
justice. The assistance which this belief gives
towards the construction of society, and the aid
which it affords to the regeneration of humanity,
is of such profound significance, that its importance
is well nigh a test of its truth. And over all this
system of lofty moral philosophy, and gentle catholic
religion, is the wise, the loving, the beneficent
Father, who claims the homage of His children's
labour ; who has given them for their guidance, their
safety, their example, their hope, their stay, the
object of their trust, His first-born Son, their Brother
and their Lord, to watch over their work, to aid
His Providence, to be with them always, even to
the end. Such a gospel is intensely probable,
prodigiously strong, profoundly consolatory. If
it cannot be proved to demonstration, it is certain
that, were it fully accepted, it would work without
CHRISTIANITY AND THE WORLD. 371
flaw or slip, and would realise the dream of the
most sanguine optimist. If Christianity be not the
light of the world, it is because the world is still
lying in darkness.
Nor would such an apostle as Paul have had much
more difficulty in dealing with that other hindrance to
Christianity, which is derived from the impatient ob-
jection, that it fails to meet misery, suffering, injustice,
wrong. The answer is instant, It is no fault of the
Christian spirit, it is the fault of those who will not
accept and obey it. The gospel of Paul is not a com-
munistic dream, but it is hard work and mercy; honest
labour and patience. For no words can surpass in
exhaustive force those in which he describes the spirit
which should animate a Christian society, when deal-
ing with the extraordinary gifts which the Christians
of Corinth had, or believed they had he tells them
and us what is the force and what is the working- of
O
love. It is sufficient to say, that the language rivals
that of the great Master Himself. It is the loftiest
poetry, the most exalted morality, the purest religion,
the most consummate wisdom. It is no marvel
that Paul, when he sums up, in superlative man-
ner, his magnificent wishes for the grace and power
of his Corinthian brethren, utters his thanks to
God for so indescribable a gift as that which he
prayed might be the character of all.
His heaviest task, beyond doubt, would not have
lain in the objections which science and misery might
make to the sufficiency of his teaching, and in the
answer which he might give to their doubts or to
their wants, but in the dull, heavy obstacle of that
S7i> PAUL OF TARSUS.
selfish, sensual, sordid, self-interest which is the Anti-
christ of the Pauline gospel. But who can trust him-
self to describe it, and why seek to picture that
which is, and will be, the manifest, the perpetual
enemy of mankind ?
What, then, is the hope of the Divine common-
wealth ? It does not consist in a new revelation, for
the moral progress of humanity is bound up with the
principle which forms the foundation of Christ's death,
of Paul's life, of the life of all who have done true
service to mankind. It does not require the promul-
gation of a new code, for the tenets of Christian mor-
ality are rather exhaustive and exact than novel.
That there is no foundation but Christ, that is, that
society is constructed on the basis of self-sacrifice, was
dimly, but certainly, seen by Plato, who commits the
government of his ideal state to men whose life is to
be one of unceasing toil and self-denial, endured from
the profound conviction that they are developing their
own highest nature, by spontaneous and diligent ser-
vice to man. But in the Pauline teaching it is as-
serted, that to labour on this foundation is the duty
and good of every man, that each can, and must
contribute his share of work to the mighty edifice,
and give such work as will stand the test of the
severest trial to which work can be put. This gospel
is as new as yesterday, because it is conterminous
with the necessities of humanity, because it can, and
should still exert its forces as long as "the perfect
man " is inchoate and undeveloped.
To many men, indeed, Christ is not risen. He i>
still in the grave to them ; still garrisoned by the sol-
THE OBSTACLE TO CHRISTIAN TEACHING. 373
diers who are set to watch the body ; still a wasted
energy a dead power. For the significance of His
resurrection is the commencement of His kingdom,
not only to each heart, that believes in Him, and
trusts in Him, and seeks communion with Him, and
feels His presence ; but to the race of man, which is
still wrestling, in its long agony, with the forces which
seek to debase, degrade, oppress, misuse it. When
the preacher bids those who are smitten down by the
coarse, hard hand of wrong and iniquity, to raise their
eyes to Him who is lifted up to open their ears to
His Gospel, he often speaks to dim eyes and deaf ears,
to hearts hardened by misery, to men who say or
think, What is this Christianity which you preach to
us ? how does it deal with the toils of our life ? how has
it influenced those who profess to have governed human
society by its precepts? He dwells, you tell us, in
the midst of his worshippers. But His law is as far
as ever from being the guide of life, is still treated
as Utopian, is unfulfilled, unacknowledged. If he
be the power of God, and the wisdom of God, how is
it that the power is not exercised, the wisdom not
obeyed ? What a mockery, they say, is this world
of Christendom ! what a phrase ! what a deception !
It hardly protests against the evils it pretends to
cure. To us, Christ is a history, a remote event, not
a present and a living energy.
The Gospel of Christ, you would tell us, can answer
every question which bears on the moral nature, the
hopes, the fears of man, can remedy every wrong,
can heal every wound, can soothe every sorrow.
How is it dealing with the problems of human life ?
.57.J. /M VL OF TARSUS.
To what extent does it confront that harsh and grip-
ping greed which accumulates its own pleasures on the
misery of thousands, which divides society into two
camps, one of which is arrayed against the intolerable
sorrow of its condition ; the other is anxiously occu-
pied in disarming the despair which it has created ?
How many, calling themselves by the name of that
Master who, with such intense pungency of indigna-
tion, with such bitter irony, exposed and denounced
the hard hypocrisy of His own age, follow His ex-
ample in speaking after His Spirit to their own ?
"Where is the champion of oppressed, of degraded
humanity ? Who seeks to lay bare the ulcers which
fester in what men glibly call modern civilisation,
and, laying them bare, is prepared to discover and
apply their cure? "The harvest is past, the sum-
mer is ended, and we are not saved." So said
the wise prophet of a nation which was then about
to enter into the valley of the shadow of death.
Is Christendom to find no prophet; is there to
be no physician for the sorrows of the people-
no one to set forth Christ plainly as Paul set
Him forth ?
Thus, the chief difficulties which lie in the way of
those who trust in the force of a revived and restored
Christianity, do not arise in a discovery of the means
by which the work should be set about, but in inter-
preting and combating the forces which will resist
or withstand it. Debarred by the terms of its origin
from any appeal to force ; taught by the experience of
centuries tluit its great obstacle has been that alliance
with hi.-i-iilur power which captivated and demoralised
THE WORK OF CHRISTIANITY PERPETUAL. 375
it in the fourth century, the divine commonwealth
must not be led for an instant to desire a renewal
of that ancient and disastrous association. The his-
tory of Christianity has been like that of Samson.
It has been seduced by the charms of a Delilah,
has been shorn of its strength and beauty, blinded,
and set to work in the prison-house of political expe-
diency. But though it ought to have no recognised
understanding with secular government, it can exhibit
no antagonism, to the organisation of civil authority.
If it fulfils its mission wisely and efficiently, it will
guide and purify the public conscience, and eventually
supersede the functions of secular authority, by reduc-
ing it to a form and a routine. Appropriating all the
forces of social life, and giving them one direction,
while recognising every variety of power and function,
it can in this way only effect the fulfilment of the
Apocalyptic vision, " The kingdoms of the visible
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of
His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever;" or
as the prophet saw it in his ecstacy, " Great is
His government, and there is no boundary to his
peace."
Such a reconstruction of Christianity, such a re-
newal of the Pauline church, may have its origin in
a fusion of sects, or it may commence in a movement
external to them all. Men are weary of words, and
turn away from the arid strife of polemical disputants.
Traditions have ceased to hold a mastery over them.
Day by day it becomes less easy to renew the ancient
bitterness of controversy, and to array the facts of the
Gospel against its spirit. There is less and less pros-
376 /'-I t-'L OF TARSUS.
pect of effecting a union between some of those who
profess the name of Christ, against others. There is
even less power of rousing passion against those who
stand aloof from acknowledging the name of Christ at
all, or from confessing His office. But however
gentle our age may be towards opinion, it is not
behind any in its admiration for the exact fulfilment
v
of duty, and in the homage which it pays to self-
devotion, kindliness and love. It neither inquires
into the creed of misery, nor into that of charity.
But it is conspicuous for its tenderness towards the
former, and for the honour which it shows towards
the latter. The world in which we live has, at least,
understood the maxim of Christ, that " he who is not
against us is on our part." Pity that the example is
rare.
The greatest strength, however, which a New Re-
formation will require, lies in the need there is for a
Religion. What is called civilisation in our day, is,
in many particulars, a failure. It has become a hot
and bitter struggle for life, in which one may see, on
the one hand, an ever-increasing wealth, surrounded
by guarantees and securities of enjoyment, securities
which were accorded in no previous age of the world's
history, wealth which is too often, and with coarse
ostentation, paraded with cynical insolence, wor-
shipped with sordid adulation. And on the other
band, there is a vast and growing misery, for which
ordinary palliatives are inoperative, for which ordi-
nary explanations are superficial and unsatisfactory,
for which no remedies are found, because few care to
discover them, fewer still dare, on discovery, to an-
THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION. 377
n ounce them. Must we wait till men ask, and in
terms of increasing menace ? What, then, if the only
fruit of those labours to which we have given our lives
is to increase our own misery, to tie us down more
firmly to inevitable privation, and to swell the opu-
lence which mocks our want ? For us, and we are
many, society needs reconstruction.
The attitude in which an earnest religion would
stand to this morbid and dangerous condition, would
not be that of stupid acquiescence in an inevitable
destiny, but of an active and general determination to
discover the remedy for that which dishonours and
degrades mankind. The patience and content which
are inculcated by the Christian temper, are not indif-
ference at the result, but the acceptance of a fact, for
which there must be, and shall be a cure. Indivi-
duals may, as Paul says of himself, " learn to be con-
tent, whatever be the condition imposed on them."
But the corporate action of Christian man is one
which is the very reverse of this passive content.
" The struggle," says Paul, using his favourite meta-
phor of the palaestra, " is not with flesh and blood, but
with authorities and powers, with the world's rulers
of this state of darkness which prevails in our gen-
eration, with the spiritual forces of wickedness in
heavenly places." It is as though he had said, We
have no quarrel with human government ; we take
up no arms to fight against civil authority. Our con-
test is with that godless and blind selfishness, which
arrogates to itself the right of associating its aims with
the destinies of man, and governing the course of
society, which makes that light which is darkness,
I' ACL <>F TARSUS.
that sweet which is bitter; which affects to consider
the rule of its own conduct as the rule of man's exis-
tence ; which installs itself in the place of God,
against which the deadliest foe which humanity en-
counters it is needful for Christendom to take the
panoply of God, and to be steadfast in the work which
it has to do.
THE END.
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