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LECTURES 



ON THE 



NEW TESTAMENT. 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



NEW YORK SUNDAY-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION, 



BY 

REV.DRS. WESTON, BEVAN, LLOYD, STORES, HALL, 

TAYLOR, VINCENT, ELDER, FOWLER, 

TIFFANY, AND JOHNSON, 



AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 



COPYRIGHT, 1881, 
BY AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



THE GOSPEL 



ACCORDING TO MATTHEW, 



BY REV. HENRY G. WESTON, D. D., 

CHESTER, PA. 



THE 



QOSPEL ACCORDINQTO [VIATTHEW. 



Preliminary to the examination of any one of the 
Gospels, two questions present themselves : What is the 
purpose of the Gospel history ? and What relation do 
the narratives of the Evangelists sustain to one another ? 
These four histories, with marked agreements and diver- 
sities, cover substantially one interval of time. Is there 
anything in their nature or design which requires that 
there should be more than one Gospel ? Are their like- 
nesses and divergencies, their insertions and omissions, 
their differences of arrangement and apparent discrepan- 
cies, accidental, or are they determined by a plastic and 
fundamental purpose ? Is there " an ever-active law of 
exclusion and inclusion," and can that law be ascertained 
and formulated ? 

Various theories have been adopted to account for the 
number and character of the Gospels. One is, that they 
are memoirs of Jesus Christ intended as a model human 
life, and that their variations arise from the idiosyncrasies 
of the writers ; another, that the Evangelists were but 
partially acquainted with the facts of our Lord's life, the 

1* 



4 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

materials out of which they built their narratives being 
fragmentary and imperfect ; a third, that Matthew ad- 
dressed the Jew, Mark the Roman, Luke the Greek, John 
the church ; that the three nations represent the three 
great, permanent classes of unspiritual men, and that the 
Synoptic Gospels wer*^ so shaped in order to convince 
these classes respectively of the truth of Christianity. 

If the Gospels are memoirs of Jesus Christ, or are 
designed to present a model human life, why do they 
pass over in silence the thirty years in which our Lord 
most nearly touched the ordinary duties and positions of 
men, and record only his Messianic, official, miraculous 
deeds and words ? Why do the Epistles know no " Christ 
after the flesh" (2 Cor. 5:16), never drawing motive, ex- 
ample, or sanction, from Christ's precruciiixion life, but 
always appealing to his resurrection as the grand source, 
and to his death as the grand model, of Christian action 
(Phil. 3:10; I Pet. 2:21-24).!* Is it credible that the 
omissions of the Gospels arose from a lack of informa- 
tion on the part of the writers } Could Matthew by any 
possibility have been unacquainted with the resurrection 
of Lazarus } Was John ignorant of the transfiguration } 
Did Matthew know nothing of those events which con- 
stitute one-half of Luke's Gospel } Were Matthew and 
John, apostles both, unaware of Christ's ascension .? The 
third hypothesis, that the Gospels were designed for 
different types of character, is inadequate to meet the 
facts of the case, leaves a large part of their phenomena 
unexplained, and is especially inadmissible when it claims 
that the first three Gospels were addressed to unbeliev- 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 5 

ers. The New Testament is the Christian's book. It 
was written for those instructed in the ways of the Lord. 
It everywhere addresses persons who have received the 
truth. It presupposes a knowledge of the essential inci- 
dents in the Gospel history. The orderly arrangement 
of the primary facts of Christianity is for those who be- 
lieve those facts, just as the Epistle to the Romans, the 
systematic discussion of justification, is not for the un- 
justified, but for the justified. You answer the question 
of the sinner, " How shall I be just with God T not by 
giving him the Epistle to the Romans, but by bidding 
him believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He needs to 
know, not the processes of salvation, but Christ the Sa- 
viour. Paul's exposition of the method of justification 
was written for those who had experienced the doctrine 
and were prepared to retrace the ground and study the 
provisions and methods of salvation. 

What, then, are the Gospels } They are histories of 
redemption as accomplished in the incarnation, life, death, 
burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They 
are in part what the Bible is in full ; the Scripture does 
not give all of God's deeds on the one side, nor all the 
world's deeds on the other, but only those which pertain 
to the history of salvation ; and the Gospels are neither 
memoirs nor chronicles, but histories : they record no 
facts except those which are em.braced in their design 
and purpose. Each Gospel presents its own phase of 
the history of redemption — Christ's work in a special 
aspect. 

Matthew is the opening book — the Genesis — of the 



6 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

new covenant. The Old Testament closes with the 
Jewish nation looking for their promised King and Mes- 
siah. The Jews are the favored people of God. To 
them belong peculiar privileges, an economy established 
by Heaven, and a future prosperity sung by every prophet 
and longed for by every generation. In the Gospel age 
the Jewish nation is deserted by God. A church exists 
in which the dominant portion are Gentiles, to whom the 
practice of the Mosaic rites is forbidden. These astound- 
ing facts " required to be not demonstrated, but explained, 
and in some respects justified. How had the Church 
been founded } How had it become open to the Gen- 
tiles } How were the people of Israel, from the midst of 
whom it had gone forth, themselves excluded from W. 
How reconcile with these unexpected events God's faith- 
fulness to his promises ?" The Gospel according to 
Matthew answers these questions. It gives the causes 
and methods of this wonderful change. It relates the 
coming of Jesus to the Jews as their king, his rejection 
by them, the abrogation of the old covenant, and the 
prospective establishment of the church with its consti- 
tution and ordinances. It shows us that this was no 
afterthought or expedient, but had been foretold by the 
prophets, and that in the earliest dealings of God with 
the Abrahamic people, its basal principles are seen. The 
Gospel according to Matthew conducts us from the posi- 
tion of the Old Testament to that of the New. If we 
have rightly represented its design, it will be systematic, 
fundamental, official, and will embrace in its view the 
time from the calling of Abraham to the end of the age. 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 7 

I. The systematic character of the Gospel governs its 
general structure and its details. Chronological sequence, 
the order of occurrence, is disregarded for the sake of 
the logical arrangement and regular development of 
ideas. Homogeneous events are grouped together, some- 
times in succinct statements (4:23-25), sometimes more 
in detail (chaps. 8, 9). The indefinite tote, used nearly 
one hundred times, marks the transitions in the narra- 
tive. Our Lord's instructions in Luke are in conversa- 
tions, and in John what may be called conversational 
discourses ; in Matthew they are discourses in the 
strictest sense — compact, elaborate, symmetrica] — all 
marked with an organic and vital unity. The teleologi- 
cal consecutiveness of the Gospel is perfect; there is 
not a sentence but is in its logical place, not one that is 
not a link in the chain. The completeness of the great 
discourses of our Lord and the topical arrangement of the 
Gospel are shown by the phrase — peculiar to Matthew — 
"when Jesus had ended these sayings" (7:28; 11 :i* 
13*53; 19*1; 26:1). These discourses — of the kingdom 
in its nature and characteristics (chaps. 5-7), in its pre- 
sentation (chap. 10), in its organic manifestation and 
development (chap. 13), in its internal spirit and relations 
(chap. 18), and in its consummation chaps. 24, 25) — • 
follow one another in regular progression, connected 
closely by the intervening narrative. The first words of 
Christ declare the object of his Messianic work, " to fulfil 
all righteousness " — to bring in and make actual perfect 
righteousness. The last words of Christ's instructions 
are, '' the righteous into life eternal," and between there 



8 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

two — the announcement of his purposes and its accom- 
plishment in the entrance of the righteous into the king- 
dom prepared for them from the foundation of the world — 
one theme is kept in view. The portrait in the sermon 
on the Mount of the perfectly righteous man — the ideal 
character to be produced — is followed by the details of 
Christ's work, through which the glorious result is 
attained. Into these we cannot now enter ; all that is 
possible for us at this time, is to point out some of the 
more general and obvious divisions of the Gospel. 

In the method of Christ's teaching, two stages are 
distinctly marked. In the first twelve chapters his 
statements are direct and explicit. In the thirteenth 
chapter, with the recognition of the judicial blindness of 
the Jews, our Lord introduces a new mode of teaching — 
by parables. 

A like order and distinction are observed in the mira- 
cles. Before this important epoch, they are all exhibi- 
tions of authority — external miracles. Now begins a new 
class of miracles — revelations of Christ in his essential 
nature and relations. 

The topics of Christ's teaching are equally distinct, 
divided by the sixteenth chapter. Previously to the 
recognition of his true character by his disciples in that 
chapter, his instruction has reference to his nature and 
person. " Who is Christ .?" is the question in every 
miracle and controversy. When this is rightly answered, 
the manner of redemption, by death and resurrection, 
occupies the attention. In other words, the person and 
the work of Christ are taught in their order. 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 9 

The twenty miracles recorded by Matthew follow a 
regular sequence, beginning with the cure of leprosy, the 
symbol of sin, and ending with the withering of the fig- 
tree, the type of judgment. 

The arrangement of the fourteen parables is equally 
systematic, commencing with that of the sower scattering 
the seed of the kingdom, and closing with that of the 
talents, the adjudication of the last day. 

As a history of Christ's presentation to the Jewish 
nation, the plan of the Gospel is readily seen. 

1. His presentation as the royal heir, ending with his 
flight into Egypt and his secluded residence in Nazar- 
eth — chapters i and 2. 

2. His presentation as the Son of God, resulting in 
his rejection by the nation, and in his recognition by the 
twelve disciples — chapters 3 to 20. 

3. His formal and avowed presentation to the nation 
as their king, resulting in a like formal and avowed rejec- 
tion, in his death, burial and resurrection, in a commission 
to his apostles to disciple all nations, and in the assu- 
rance of his continual presence with them until the end 
of the age — chapters 21 to 28. 

n. It is the Fundamental Gospel — it narrates the 
rejection of the Jewish King and the foundation of the 
Christian church. 

I. It is the Jewish Gospel. By this is not meant that 
it was written for the Jews, either Christian or unbe- 
lieving, any more than when we say it is the kingly 
Gospel, we mean that it was addressed to kings. It is 
the record of salvation offered to the Jews. The Mes- 



10 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW, 

siah comes to the covenant people. Here Christ is not 
sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel 
(15:24). When the apostles are empowered to preach, 
their instructions begin : " Go not into the way of the 
Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye 
not" (10:5). The Jews are the children of the kingdom 
(8:12), and Gentile is synonymous with heathen: *' Let 
him be unto thee as the Gentile* and the publican " 
(18: 17): "Use not vain repetitions as the Gentiles* do" 
(6 : 7). The point of departure, the phenomena, the divine 
appellations, the drapery, the symbolism, are all Jewish. 
Matthew explains no facts, no laws or customs, peculiar 
to the nation, nor does he describe the position of places 
in Judea, as do all the other evangelists (Mark 7:3,4; 
Luke 22:1; John 4:9; 5:2). In this Gospel only is 
Jerusalem the holy city (4 : 5), the city of the great King 
(5*35)) and the Jewish temple God's dwelling-place 
(23:21), the holy place (24:15), the temple of God 
(26 : 6). Here only does Christ assume the sacred and 
sanctifying power of the temple and altar (23:17-21), 
and draw from the altar service illustrations of obedience 
to the divine requirement (5 : 23, 24). The freedom of 
the nation from the unclean spirit of idolatry is distinct- 
ly recognized (12 : 43-45) ; authority over unclean spirits 
is given to the apostles (10: i), but in striking contrast 
to the other Synoptic Gospels there is no instance in 
Matthew of possession by a spirit designated as unclean. 
The authority of those who sit in Moses' seat is asserted, 
and obedience to their official commands enforced 

* In the authorized Version, translated ** heathen." 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. n 

(23 : 1-3). Only in this Gospel are the disciples directed 
to pray that their flight be not on the Sabbath-day 
(24 : 20). In Christ's reply to those who accuse him of 
breaking the Sabbath, in addition to the arguments 
common to other gospels, he defends himself by the 
custom of the priests in the temple (12:15). Our 
Lord's genealogy is traced to Abraham, and marked by 
the great events in Hebrew history ; for Christ is here 
Son of David, Son of Abraham, heir to the kingdom and 
covenants. In Luke it ascends to Adam, and the con- 
necting eras are both civil and sacred ; for there Christ 
is the Son of humanity, allied to the whole human race. 
When the amazed people seem on the point of recogni- 
zing the Messiah, they give expression to their conviction 
in the words, "Is not this the Son of David" (12 :22) } 
Joseph, the reputed father of Jesus, is addressed by the 
angel as Son of David (i :20). The blind men in the 
house cry, "Son of David, have mercy on us" (9:27) ; 
and the Syrophenician woman prays, " Have mercy on 
me, O Lord, Son of David" (15 : 22). 

The symbolism is Jewish. Not to speak of other 
examples, the symbolism in number pervades the Gos- 
pel. Seven, ten, twelve, with their multiples, repeatedly 
appear. The genealogy is arranged in three fourteens. 
There are fourteen parables divided by place and pur- 
pose into two sevens. There are twenty miracles sepa- 
rated in like manner into two tens. The number seven 
generally divides itself into four and three, the human 
and the divine. In the sermon on the Mount, the Chris- 
tian character is sketched in seven beatitudes (5 : 1-9). 

2 



12 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

Of these the first four are exclusively human — they are 
states which Christ. cannot share; the last three express 
emotions and conduct which belong to God as well as 
man. In the thirteenth chapter seven parables present 
the kingdom of heaven in various relations. The first 
four are from the human side, accidental, „ temporary, 
varying — the kingdom in its historical development, as 
man beholds it ; the last three are inherent, essential — 
the kingdom as seen by Christ, who joyfully sells all that 
he has, that he may buy the pearl of priceless value and 
the field in which the treasure is hidden. The Lord's 
prayer in Matthew has seven petitions : the first three 
relating to God, co-ordinate, co-equal ; the last four re- 
lating to man, joined by particles of sequence (6:9-12). 

2. It is the kingly gospel. 

The genealogy is the royal succession, giving the 
heirs of the throne. David the king begat Solomon the 
king, Roboam the king, etc., while Luke gives either 
Joseph's natural lineage, or, what is more probable and 
more in accordance with the spirit of the Gospel, the 
maternal ancestry of Jesus. As Christ's regal descent 
was through his reputed father, the divine revelations in 
our Gospel are to Joseph ; in Luke, the Gospel of hu- 
manity, Mary, through whom Christ took on himself 
human nature, receives the angelic announcement (Luke 
I : 27). The Magi inquire, " Where is he that is born 
King of the Jews " (2 : 2) } Of Bethlehem it is said : " Out 
of thee shall come a Governor who shall rule my people 
Israel " (2 :6). It is a rival king that seeks to kill Christ 
(2:13). John the Baptist cries: "Repent ye, for the 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 13 

kingdom of heaven is at hand" (3:2); in Mark and Luke 
he preaches the baptism of repentance for the remission 
of sins (Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3). In Matthew angels 
minister to the King after his victory over the tempter 
(4:11); in Luke the sufferer receives an angel's strength- 
ening help during the agony of Gethsemane's conflict 
(22:43). The authority of the Sermon on the Mount 
astonishes the multitudes {y \2^, 29), as they recognize 
in the "But I say unto you" (5 :22), the tones, not of the 
interpreter of law, but of the Lawgiver himself. The 
genuineness of the doxology in the Lord's prayer is very 
seriously questioned, but it is significant that in this 
Gospel we find the ascription, " Thine is the kingdom, and 
the power, and the glory" (6 : 13). The parables are all 
of the kingdom of heaven. Luke, the evangelist of 
humanity, begins his parables : " A certain man — went 
down from Jerusalem to Jericho" (Luke 10:30); made 
a great supper (14:16); had two sons (15:11), etc. 
Matthew's parables, with three exceptions, begin : " The 
kingdom of heaven is like — unto leaven ; unto treasure ; 
unto a net" (13:33, 44, 47), etc. There are four miracles 
peculiar to Matthew ; the opening the eyes of two blind 
men in the house (9:27-31); the cure of the blind 
demoniac (12 : 22) ; Peter's walk on the water (14:24-29) ; 
and the provision of the tribute-money (17:24-27). 
The first two are Jewish, the last two are regal ; they 
show the kingly character of Christ and his followers. 
Only in this Gospel is it said : "The Son of Man shall 
send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his king- 
dom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity " 



14 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW, 

(13 :4i) ; here only is the word preached the word of 
the kingdom (13:19); and that which in the other 
books of the New Testament is the gospel,* is in Mat- 
thew, with a single exception, the gospel of the kingdom 
(4 : 23 ; 9:35; 24 : 14). Here only does our Lord give 
Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven (16 : 19). Only 
in this Gospel, and here twice, does he speak of the Son 
of Man sitting on the throne of his glory (19 : 28 ; 
25 : 31) ; here only does he gather all nations before his 
throne for judgment, and apply to himself those wonder- 
ful words, " Then shall the King say unto them," " And 
the King shall answer and say unto them" (25 : 34, 40). 
At the royal entry into Jerusalem the multitudes cry, 
and .the children in the temple repeat the ascription, 
" Hosanna to the Son of David," a title which recognizing 
him as the Jewish king sorely displeased the chief priests 
and scribes, and drew from them a strong remonstrance 
(21 :9-i6). Matthew alone tells us that in the closing 
hours of Christ's life, more than ten legions of angels 
awaited his word (26 153); that at his death the earth 
was shaken, and the rocks were rent, and the graves 
were opened (27:51-53) — heaven, earth, and hades all 
acknowledging their king ; and the Gospel closes with 
the assurance that in heaven and in earth Christ has ex- 
clusive authority (28 : 19). 

The kingly character of Christ in this Gospel differs 
from that in Luke and John. Here he is born King of 
the Jews (2:2); in Luke his kingship is in the future, 
appointed to him by his Father (22 : 29) ; in John he 

* Of the kingdom, INIark I : 14, is probably an interpolation. 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO AIATTHEW. 15 

reigns now, but his domain is different from that of either 
of the preceding Gospels (John 18 136, 37) : on his head 
are many crowns (Rev. 19:12). And because in Matthew 
and John alone does he now occupy, in the one his innate, 
and in the other his essential, office, in those Gospels only 
is the prophecy of Zechariah quoted : " Tell ye the daugh- 
ter of Zion, Behold thy King cometh unto thee sitting on 
an ass's colt" (Matt. 21 15 ; John 12: 15). Luke says, 
" The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his 
father David " (i : 32), a promise yet to be accomplished ; 
and in the parable of the talents, he represents the noble- 
man as going into a far country to receive for himself a 
kingdom, and to return (19:12). In Matthew our Lord 
is worshipped from his birth (2 \2,Z, 11); in Luke not 
until his ascension (24 : 52). 

3. It is the Gospel of Rejection. Compare the intro- 
duction of this Gospel with that of Luke, the Gospel of 
Acceptance. In the one the advent of Christ is hailed 
with joy by all. Zacharias, Elisabeth, Mary, Simeon, 
Anna, the angels, the shepherds, pour forth their exult- 
ing praise in canticles sung by the church in all ages. 
When a boy of twelve years he sits in the temple, the 
centre of an admiring circle, astonishing them by his un- 
derstanding and his answers ; and the second chapter 
closes : " Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in 
favor with God and man." In the other, before Christ is 
born he exposes his mother to the danger of repudiation 
by her husband, from which she is saved only by divine 
interposition ; at his birth Jerusalem is troubled, and 
Herod seeks to kill the young child j on the plains of 

2'* 



1 6 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

Bethlehem, in place of the chorus sweeping through the 
midnight sky, the wail of mothers for their slaughtered 
babes is heard ; instead of a multitude of the heavenly 
host, a solitary spectre is seen — Rachel from her tomb 
looks in vain for her children, and bewails their loss ; 
Christ returns from Egypt, and for thirty years his life is 
covered by a single sentence, with which this second 
chapter closes : *' He shall be called a Nazarene." 

In this Gospel he withdraws from Judea, in conse- 
quence of the imprisonment of his forerunner, John the 
Baptist (4: 12), and begins an itinerant ministry in Gali- 
lee. In Luke no such reason is assigned : " He returned 
in the power of the Spirit into Galilee" (4: 14). In both 
Gospels great multitudes follow him (4 : 25) ; they see 
the proofs of his power (9 : 8) ; they are astonished at his 
doctrine (7 : 28 ; 22 : 23) ; they marvel and are amazed 
(9:33; 22:23); but Luke adds what is not found in 
Matthew : He taught in their synagogues, being glorified 
by all; they wondered at the words of grace which pro- 
ceed out of his mouth (4 : 22) ; the people gladly re- 
ceived him, for they were all waiting for him (8 : 40) ; they 
stayed him that he should not depart from them (4:42). 
Even in the embittered hostility which marked the last 
days of Christ's intercourse with the Jewish people, Luke 
tells us that from certain of the scribes came commen- 
dation of Christ's replies: "Master, thou hast well said" 
(20 : 39). Matthew's Gospel is the record of the national 
opposition to Christ, and of Christ's withdrawal from that 
opposition. The word ava,rwpew is characteristic of this 
Evangelist; found once in Mark (3 : 7), and once in John, 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 17 

(6 : 15), and not at all in Luke, it occurs ten times in Mat- 
thew. At the beginning of our Lord's work in this Gos- 
pel, we read those sad words recorded near the close by 
Luke, in which Christ declares the inveterate rancor of 
his foes, and the result of their determined pursuit as 
foreseen by him : The foxes have holes where they may 
escape from their pursuers, the birds of the air have shel- 
ters where they are safe, but the Son of man hath no 
place where he may lay his head ; he will be hunted to 
the death (8:20). In this Gospel Christ's life begins 
with withdrawal from his enemies ; to escape the mur- 
derous rage of Herod he withdraws into Egypt (2:14) ; 
on his return he withdraws into Galilee for fear of Arche- 
laus (2 : 22). His public ministry commences and contin- 
ues in the same way : Now when Jesus had heard that John 
was delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee (4 : 12). The 
Pharisees follow him, and hold a council against him how 
they may destroy him : ** But when Jesus knew it he with- 
drew himself thence" (12:15). Jobn the Baptist is put to 
death : When Jesus heard of it he withdrew by ship into 
a desert place apart (14 : 13). Still pursued by the Phar- 
isees he withdraws from Judea into the borders of Tyre 
and Sidon (15 :2i) ; he returns and evades his pursuers 
by crossing and recrossing the lake of Gennesaret (15: 39) ; 
until finally, the purpose of his earthly life accomplished, 
he ascends to Jerusalem to die (19:1). And because 
Matthew's Gospel is a history of withdrawals, he does 
not record the journeys through Perea in which Christ 
goes to meet his enemies ; in Luke that journey occupies 
nearly one-half of the Gospel. For in Luke Jesus con- 



i8 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

fronts and defies hostility : " Go ye and tell that fox, be 
replies to those who would drive him from Galilee by a 
threat of Herod, I cast out devils and do cures to-day and 
to-morrow and the third day I shall be perfected "(13:32). 
In Luke he bids his disciples prepare for resistance : " He 
that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one " 
(22 : 36) ; in Matthew the injunction is, " When they per- 
rsecute you in this city, flee ye into another" (10 : 23). 

The characteristic of rejection governs the death as 
well as the life of Christ. Matthew records but one^cry 
on the cross; it is that desolate wail : " My God, my God, 
why hast thou forsaken me " (27 : 46). In another Gospel 
there follow him to Calvary a great company of people 
and of women, who bewail and lament him (Luke 23 : 27) ; 
and when the sad deed is consummated, all the peo- 
ple that came together to that sight smite their breasts 
and return (23:48); but in Matthew no penitent thief 
prays, Lord, remember me; no word of sympathy from 
any human voice is heard ; on the contrary, those that 
pass by revile him (27 : 39) ; and the chief priests mock- 
ing him, with the scribes and elders, cry: " He trusted in 
God ; let him deliver him now if he will have him" (27 : 43). 
Only in this Gospel do the enemies of Christ carry their 
malice beyond the crucifixion, and set a seal and guard 
to prevent his resurrection (27 :62, 65). 

This Gospel necessarily excludes the idea of success. 
Christ is rejected, and the disciple must be as his master 
(10:24, 25). Hence there is a remarkable absence of 
motive or encouragement founded on what will be accom- 
plished. In Luke, when Peter is called to follow Christ, 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 19 

a miraculous draught of fishes foretells success in catch- 
ing men ; but this incident is omitted by Matthew (Luke 
5 : 4-10 ; Matt. 4 : 18-20). In the commission to the apos- 
tles in the tenth chapter — a commission covering succes- 
sively the three eras, to Christ's death (5-15), to the de- 
struction of Jerusalem (16-23), to the end of the age 
(24-42) — the one thought is, you will share the treatment 
your Master receives, but your Heavenly Father sees all, 
knows all, and will at the end reward all ; just as Christ's 
only assurance to his disciples, when he sends them to all 
nations is : " Lo, I am with you" (28 : 20). Of Christ him- 
self no success in this age is asserted. Matthew has no 
prediction like that in John : " I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all men unto me" (12 123) ; it is simply 
stated : " This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in 
all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall 
the end come" (24:14). Of the forerunner, Matthew 
says : " The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare 
ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight" (3:3); 
but he.does not add what is found in Luke : " Every valley 
shall be filled, and every mountain shall be brought low ; 
and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough 
ways shall be male smooth, and all flesh shall see the 
salvation of God" (3:5, 6). 

This feature of the rejection of Christ by the nation 
gives tone to all our Lord's teaching in the Gospel. 
Here only do we find the declaration, *' Strait is the gate 
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few 
there be that find it" (7: 14). In Luke the injunction, 
" Strive to enter in," is enforced on the ground that now 



20 GOSFEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW, 

the gate can be entered, and the time comes when it will 
be shut (Luke 13 124); in Matthew the reason for the 
exhortation is a truth which finds expression only here : 
" Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to 
destruction, and many there be which go in thereat" 
(7 : 13). Only in this Gospel are we told that many are 
called, but few chosen (22 : 14) ; that in the closing peri- 
od of the age the love of the majority (rwv TtoWa^v) shall wax 
cold (24: 12) ; that many will claim in that day, *'Lord, 
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy 
name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many 
wonderful works ?" to whom Christ will say, " I never knew 
you " (7 : 22, 23) ; here only do we read of the tares that 
are to be gathered out of the wheat field in the time of 
harvest and burned (13 : 30) ; of the net that gathered of 
every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to shore, 
and gathered the good into vessels,, and cast the bad 
away (13 147, 48) ; of the foolish virgins (25 : 2) ; of the 
man without the wedding garment; and of the outer 
darkness into which they shall be cast (22:12, 13). 
Matthew and Luke both record Christ's saying : " He that 
is not with me is against me" (Matt. 12:30; Luke 11:23;; 
but Matthew does not give, as do Mark and Luke, the 
other saying of our Lord : " He that is not against you is 
on your part " (Mark 9 : 39 ; Luke 9 : 50). 

The statement sometimes made that Matthew's Gospel 
was written to convince the Jew of the truth of Christi- 
anity, conveys a very erroneous impression of its struc- 
ture and contents. Our Lord and his disciples are not 
here shown in close and pleasing conformity to the Mo- 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEVA 21 

saic ritual. Matthew, the writer of the Gospel, was him- 
self one of a rejected and despised class, with whom no 
reputable Jew would so much as eat (9:11). It is a 
later Gospel that begins and ends with the temple; that 
records the priestly descent of the forerunner of Christ 
(1:5); the circumcision of both John and Jesus (i : 59 ; 
2:21); the presentation of the infant Redeemer to the 
Lord (2 : 22) ; the performance of all things according to 
the law (2 : 39), and his appearance in the temple at the 
age of twelve years in obedience to the Jewish custom 
(2 :42). It is Luke, not Matthew, who brings before us 
at the commencement an aged pair walking in all the 
Jewish ordinances, and at the close the disciples resting 
on the Sabbath-day, according to the commandment 
(23 : 56) ; who gives Christ's parting injunction, "Begin at 
Jerusalem" (24:47); whose Gospel ends with the disci- 
ples in the temple praising and blessing God (24:53). 
Matthe w records no appearance of the risen Lord in Ju- 
dea, but leaves the disciples in Galilee (28 : 16). Books 
which present Christianity in Jewish forms, like the first 
Epistle of Peter, which show the Mosaic types fulfilled 
in Christ, like the Epistle to the Hebrews, must come 
after this Gospel. Christ must be accepted as a spiritual 
King before the Messianic blessings can be actualized. 
Hence the scrupulous care with which this purely spirit- 
ual work is kept unmingled with any other element. In 
Matthew the first characterization of the coming Messiah 
is, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his 
people from their sins" (1:21); and the first miracle is in 
accordance with its statement of the mission of Christ — ■ 



22 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

the cure of leprosy, the symbol of sin (8 : 2-4). The first 
miracle in Luke is in sympathy with its opening songs — 
deliverance from enemies (i :7i) ; Christ rescues a man 
from the power of an unclean demon (4: 33-36). Through- 
out Matthew the true nature of Christ's kingship is care- 
fully and clearly set forth. All the other writers of the 
New Testament speak of the kingdom which John and 
Christ preached as the kingdom of God. Matthew, with 
five exceptions, always says "kingdom of heaven," a 
term which he alone employs. " Kingdom of God," to 
Jewish ears, might mean a civil polity like the original 
constitution of the Hebrew commonwealth, in which no 
earthly ruler was acknowledged and God was recognized 
as the immediate Head of the state ; in that case the new 
kingdom could be the old one renovated, defecated, enno- 
bled, and clothed with universal dominion. The phrase, 
"kingdom of heaven," was subject to no such ambiguity. 
It set forth a dispensation radically unlike any earthly 
dynasty. In the Sermon on the Mount Christ expounds 
his kingdom ; in it he fulfils the law and the prophets, 
not by obeying their precepts, which is never fulfilling a 
law ; not by enforcing obedience to them, which again 
is never fulfilling law, but by making actual that right- 
eousness which they had in view. He presents a sys- 
tem, not of preparation, but of perfection ; not of laws, 
but of principles. The Mosaic code was a collection of 
rules to be obeyed ; the precepts in the Gospel of Mat- 
thew " are positively mischievous to those who try to 
obey them as rules, instead of using them as aids to the 
apprehension of that perfection, in which every man is a 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 23 

law to himself." It is not enough to say that Christ 
brushes away from the Mosaic law unauthorized Jewish 
accretions. This is only incidental. He does far more. 
He contrasts what was commanded to their fathers with 
what he commands.* He repeals laws of Moses which 
entered into the whole civil and social policy of the Jews, 
He declares that the new garment is not the old one 
patched, and that for the new wine there must be new 
vessels (9:16, 17). There were three national distinctions 
that the Jews in Christ's time specially valued : the tem- 
ple, the Sabbath, and the ceremonial prohibition of certain 
kinds of food. Around these raged the warfare between 
Christ and the Jewish leaders. In our Gospel he asserts 
that he is greater than the temple (12 :6), that he is Lord 
of the Sabbath (12 : 8), and he pronounces all food clean 
(15 : 11). He annuls the laws of divorce (5 : 32 ; 19 : 9). 
He denounces the authorities of the nation (23 : 1-5) ; 
he accuses them of making God's commandments of 
none effect on the dne hand (15 : 6), and on the other of 
perverting the whole purpose of the Levitical dispensa- 
tion. God meant it as an instrument of redemption ; 
they made it a system of ritual observance. God sought 
to provide a way in which he could show mercy to sin- 
ners ; they made him intent on receiving sacrifices 
(12:7). He charges that as soon as the kingdom of 
heaven was preached by John the Baptist, they laid vio- 
lent hands on it, and continually endeavored to wrest it 
from its purpose and pervert its character (11 : 12) ; that 

* eppe^Ti Tolc apxaiotg (5:21) is not, It has been said dj/ them of old 
time, but, to them of old time. 

3 



24 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

when John would not dance to their piping nor Christ 
mourn to their wailing, they stigmatized the one as pos- 
sessed by a demon, and the other as a friend of publicans 
and sinners (ii : 16-19) ; that by their acknowledged in- 
ability to decide the position of John the Baptist, they 
voluntarily abdicated their place as the religious guides 
of the nation, and thus convicted by their own confes- 
sion {21:27), convicted by the conduct of abandoned 
sinners (21 131), convicted by the law (21 : 33-41), and 
convicted by the Gospel (22 : 1-8), nothing remained for 
them but to fill up the measure of their fathers by put- 
ting Christ to death (23 : 32). 

In the trial and condemnation of our Lord, as record- 
ed by Matthew, the nature of the Messiahship and the 
fulness of the national rejection are clearly seen. The 
trial is mainly that before the Sanhedrim, as Luke is oc- 
cupied with that before Pilate. The charge relates to 
his divine Sonship and his alleged purpose to destroy the 
temple (26 : 59, 66) ; we hear nothing of the social accu- 
sation, found elsewhere, of perverting the nation and for- 
bidding to give tribute to Caesar. (Luke 23 : 2.) Only 
in this Gospel, and here twice, does Pilate formally put 
the solemn question, " Whom will ye that I release unto 
you, Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ ?" Twice 
they decide to take Barabbas, and, Matthew significantly 
adds, destroy Jesus (27 : 17, 22). After the disclaimer of 
Pilate, we find only in Matthew those fearful words by 
which the nation assumed the whole guilt of the crime : 
" Then answered all the people, His blood be on us and 
on our children" (27 : 25). 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 25 

This Gospel of rejection is necessarily Christ's rejec- 
tion of the nation. Only here do we read : " The king- 
dom of God shall be taken from you and given to a na- 
tion bringing forth the fruits thereof" (21 :43). Here 
only does Christ, portraying the return of the unclean 
spirit to his former habitation, making the last state of 
the man worse than the first, say, " Even so shall it be also 
unto this wicked generation" (12 145). Here only does 
he declare that the horrible assertion. He doth not cast 
out demons but by Beelzebub the prince of the demons 
(12 :24), was the exponent and proof of a depravity so 
thorough and complete, that when God and the devil 
stood before them they could not tell one from the oth- 
er ; they had lost the power of discriminating between 
heaven and hell, between infinite compassion and demo- 
niac hate ; and that this terrible moral condition of heart 
and tongue was on the very verge of remediless ruin 
(12 : 33-37). Here only does he quote the prophecy of 
Isaiah : ** By hearing, ye shall hear and shall not under- 
stand ; and seeing, ye shall see and not perceive : for 
this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull 
of hearing, and their eyes they have closed ; lest at any 
time they should see with their eyes and hear with their 
ears, and should understand with their heart, and should 
be converted, and I should heal them " (13 : 14, 15). Here 
only does he say of the religious teachers of the Jews : 
" Every plant that my Father hath not planted shall be 
rooted up" (15:13). All the parables spoken in public 
after the thirteenth chapter — of the two sons (21:28), 
of the householder (21 :33), and of the marriage of the 



26 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

king's son (22 : 2) — set forth the national sin and de- 
struction. The closing" miracle is the blasting of the fig- 
tree, the emblem of the fate of the nation — covered with 
green leaves, the promise of fertility, but bearing no 
fruit (21 : 19). The last public discourse is an arraign- 
ment of the heads of the nation ; with burning indigna- 
tion he portrays their character and history, bids them, 
in words found only in Matthew, " Fill ye up the measure 
of your fathers" (23 132) ; and with the terrible inquiry, 
" Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape 
the damnation of hell " (23 : 33) ? pronounces their doom, 
and departs for ever from the temple (21:1). Compare 
all this with the last sentence in Luke's account of the 
public ministry of Christ : " And in the day time he was 
teaching in the temple, and at night he went out and 
abode in the Mount of Olives ; and all the people came 
early in the morning to him in the temple for to hear 
him" (21:37, 38). 

4. The refusal of the nation to receive their Messiah 
results in " a new covenant, a new election, a new legis- 
lation, a new community." When the world in former 
times had rejected God, he raised up a nation of which 
he should be Head and Lawgiver. When this nation 
rejects Christ, he calls a people to whom he shall stand 
in still closer relation as Head and sole Lawgiver. He 
gathers a small company of disciples who attend him 
constantly (4 : 18-22 ; 5:1; 10 : i), and who finally rec- 
ognize his divine character (16: 16). When this is ac- 
complished he is ready for the cross. In his address to 
the Father, in the seventeenth chapter of John, he says : 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 27 

" I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. I have 
manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest 
me out of the world. I have given unto them the words 
which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and 
have known surely that I came out from thee, and they 
have believed that thou didst send me. As thou hast 
sent me into the world, even also have I sent them into 
the world. And the glory which thou gavest me I have 
given them, that they may be one, even as we are one." 
The persons thus qualified and endowed are to be Christ's 
representatives, the salt of the earth, the light of the 
world (5:13, 14). When they have rightly apprehended 
his nature and mission, he makes known to them his in- 
tention to constitute a church — an ecclesia, a selection of 
individuals — comprising those persons to whom Christ 
is revealed by the Father : " I will build my church upon 
this rock"— the divinely imparted knowledge of Christ 
(16: 17-19). This is the nation to which the kingdom 
of God shall be given, for it will bring forth the fruits 
thereof, (i Peter 2 : 9.) The church differs from the 
old dispensation not only in membership, but in dura- 
tion. That was founded on natural relationship, and its 
ties cannot outlast the grave. This is of spiritual ori- 
gin ; earth and time do not bound it ; death does not sun- 
der its connection ; the gates of hades shall not prevail 
against it : 

" The saints on earth, and all the dead 
But one communion make." 

No Evangelist but Matthew mentions the church, 
and he announces its constitution, membership, duties, 

3* 



28 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

discipline and ordinances. The commands to administer 
and observe the rites of baptism (28:19) and the com- 
munion (26:26, 27), are given only in this Gospel* 
Here only is found the sacred formula used at the initia- 
ting ordinance of the Christian church : In the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost 
(28:19). 

HI. The Gospel according to Matthew is thus, by 
its very nature, official and organic, having primarily 
to do with these two nations — that from which the 
kingdom of God is taken (21:43), ^^^ that to which 
it is given (i Pet. 2:9); the one outward, carnal, Jew- 
ish, the other spiritual, holy. Christian ; the one rejected, 
the other founded and proleptically organized. Christ 
comes to the nation. He deals, as God dealt throughout 
the Old Testament, with an organic body acting through 
lawfully constituted and acknowledged representatives. 
The persons connected with the infancy of Christ all 
hold official stations; the parables ^are all organic or 
official ; the duties inculcated are all organic ; the final 
scene is the judgment of the nations ; and the commis- 
sion at the close of the Gospel is the official one : " Go ye, 
therefore, and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
have commanded you" (28 : 19, 20). The official relation 
of John the Baptist is constantly noticed, the great stages 
of Christ's work being preceded by a statement of the 
position of John (4: 14; 11:2; 14:12; 17:11-13). In 

* In Mark 14 : 22 (pdyere, eat is an interpolation. 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 29 

Luke this is passed over in some cases with no mention, 
and in others with brief allusion, but the same Evangelist 
gives in detail Herod's scornful treatment of our Lord just 
before his crucifixion (23 : 7-1 1), to which, as it is mere- 
ly individual, like Christ's personal friendships, Matthew 
does not refer. He records the formal request of the 
sons of Zebedee for official position (20:20-23); Luke 
omits this incident, but narrates the personal strife of the 
disciples on another occasion as to who should be the 
the greatest (23 : 24). The denunciations in this Gospel 
are of the national authorities, as elsewhere they are of 
character and conditions (Matt. 23 ; Luke 6 : 24-26). 
Here the woes are pronounced against the representa- 
tives and guides of the people. No Gospel but this tells 
us that in the last days many false prophets shall arise 
and shall deceive many (24: i) ; none but this warns us 
against false teachers, ravening wolves in sheep's cloth- 
ing (7:15), blind guides straining out a gnat and swal- 
lowing a camel (23:24), shutting up the kingdom of 
heaven against men (23 : 13). 

The impersonal character of Matthew's narratives is 
one of his most marked characteristics. Of our Lord's 
unofficial relations to individuals our Gospel makes no 
mention until the rejection has been consummated by the 
death on the cross (27:56, 57).* Before that time there 
is no account of those personal friendships and affections 
which appear in Luke so abundantly and in John almost 
exclusively. Here there is no reference to the family in 
Bethany (Luke 12 : 38; John 12:2) ; no loving catalogue 

* The change in this respect, beginning at verse 55, is very striking. 



30 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

of the names of the women who followed with the twelve, 
and ministered to him of their substance (Luke 8:2, 3) ; 
no commendation, as in other Gospels, of the poor widow 
who threw her two mites into the treasury (Mark 
12:41-44; Luke 21:1-4). The anointing by Mary is 
inserted to explain the conduct of the Sanhedrim in seiz- 
ing Christ at the Passover contrary to their previous in- 
tention, but the name of Mary is not given (26:1-16). 

. There is a marked difference between the position of 
Satan in this Gospel and that which he holds in Luke and 
John. Here he is the official head of a kingdom in con- 
flict with the kingdom of Christ ; there his individual 
dealings with individuals are essential elements in the his- 
tory. (Luke 23:3, 32; 13:16; John 13:27). In the nar- 
rative part of his Gospel, Matthew never calls Peter by his 
personal name Simon, as do the^vangelists, but always 
by his official name Peter (Luke 5 : 3, 10) ; in like manner 
he himself is styled Levi by Mark and Luke, but here is 
found only his apostolic name, Matthew. Thei genealogy 
of Christ is given in the order of descent, the form of the 
official records, while Luke gives the roll of our Lord's 
ancestors in the ascending series — the way most natural 
in the narrative of an individual life. If Matthew, in 
the narratives common to the . Synoptic Gospels, de- 
parts from the arrangement of the other Evangelists, the 
reason can always be found in the distinctive character 
of his Gospel. In the account of the temptation, for ex- 
ample, he presents, first the temptation in the wilderness, 
then that in the temple, then that on the mountain. In 
Luke, the arrangement of the last two is reversed. The 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 31 

'reason for the divergence is obvious. In Matthew the 
temptations are official and follow the official order : Son 
of Man, Son of God, Messiah — undo the Incarnation, 
violate the Divine relation, abdicate the Messiahship; 
Luke, the individual Gospel, adopts the sequence of an 
individual experience — the temptation to spiritual pride 
and presumption coming naturally after other forms of 
solicitation to evil have been successfully resisted. 

In God's arrangement, the national, official offer and 
rejection must precede the seeking for individuals — those 
for whom the supper was prepared must refuse the invi- 
tation before the command is given. Go ye therefore into 
the highways, and as many as ye shall find bid to the 
marriage (22:9). The time for the free, indiscriminate 
offer of salvation to all and by all is not yet come, and 
hence in this Gospel, none but the apostles preach the 
glad tidings, and they are restricted to their own nation 
(10: 5, 6). In the latter Gospels, the man out of whom 
the legion of demons had been cast entreats permission 
to remain with Christ, but Jesus sends him away, saying, 
" Return to thine own house, and show how great things 
God hath done unto thee" (Mark 5: 18, 19; Luke 8 138, 39) ; 
in Matthew there is no such direction (8:28-33). In 
Luke, to the man who begs leave to go and bury his 
father, Christ says, " Let the dead bury their dead, but go 
thou and preach the kingdom of God " (9 : 60) ; this latter 
clause is omitted by Matthew (8 : 23}. No Samaritan 
woman here tells the story of her conversion, and brings 
a whole village to Christ (John 4 : 28-40) ; no one, as in 
the other Gospels, casts out demons in Christ's name who 



32 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

does not follow with the disciples (Mark 9:38; Luke 
9:49). 

In this Gospel the evidence which accompanies the 
Messianic claims is fundamental, official, and complete. 
Here only is the will of God revealed in dreams, the 
method adapted to the lowest stage of spiritual develop- 
ment (1:20; 2:12, 13, 19, 22; 27:19); earthquakes 
attend the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord 
(27 : 5 1 ; 28 : 2) ; the graves are opened and the dead 
arise (27:52); the angel who rolls back the stone from 
the door of the tomb appears to the keepers, who, terri- 
fied at the sight, become as dead men (28 :2, 4); Judas, 
his betrayer, brings again the thirty pieces of silver to 
the chief priests and elders, and casting them down in 
the temple, says : " I have sinned in that I have betrayed 
the innocent blood" (27:3, 5) ; Pilate, his judge, washes 
his hands in testimony of the groundlessness of the 
accusation against Christ (27:24); the Roman guard at 
the cross declare their belief in Christ's divinity (27 : 54); 
his persecutors give public declaration of our Lord's 
prediction of his resurrection (27:62, 6^)\ and the 
official watch testify to the futility of all their efforts to 
detain Christ in the tomb (28:11, 14). Compare this 
with the Gospel of John, and note there the absence of 
all external testimony, whether from man or nature, and 
the presence of that only which inheres in Christ. 

IV. One of the main objects of this Gospel is, to 
show that the great facts of the Christian age have not 
thwarted the Divine purposes, nor compelled the adop- 
tion of principles previously unknown. God's dealings 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. zi 

with the called are throughout consistent and coherent. 
Christianity is ideal as well as historic and actual. In 
the kingdom of heaven the law and the prophets are 
fulfilled. The uniformity of God's work in the past, the 
present, and the future, is shown throughout the Gospel. 
The genealogy of our Lord contains the names of four 
Gentile women, three of them stained by heinous crime, 
who by faith and grace obtained a place in the royal 
line, and whose blood flowed in the veins of all the 
Jewish kings (1:3, 5, 6). In the first chapter of this 
Gospel, the fact is thus set forth, that God interwove the 
two great principles of the New Dispensation — grace and 
faith — into the very warp and woof of the Abrahamic 
people. By these, strangers and foreigners sought and 
secured a place in the household. In the second chap- 
ter, the Magi, the Gentiles, recognize and honor Christ 
(2:11), while the rulers and theocratic guides of the 
nation pass him by in contempt. A refuge is provided 
in Egypt from Jewish malevolence (2:14, 15). It is a 
Roman centurion whose faith was such as he' had not 
found in Israel (8 : 10). It is one of the accursed race 
of the Canaanites who draws from our Lord the exclama- 
tion : "O woman, great is thy faith" (15:28). It is 
the mixed multitudes fed by Christ — the four thousand — 
who glorify the God of Israel (15 :3i).* It is Pilate's 
Gentile wife who sends the warning: "Have thou noth- 
ing to do with that just man" (27:14); and the only 
recognition of Christ's innocence by those who stand 

* The Gentile character of this multitude will be apparent on a study 
of the words of the Evangelist. 



34 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

around the cross in this Gospel, is on the part of the 
Roman guards (27:54). 

The coherence of the work of redemption and its 
vital connection with the past may be seen also in the 
fact that in this Gospel we have no beginnings of spir- 
itual life. All the disciples are believers at their first 
appearance in the narrative. The Gentiles — the Magi 
and the Syrophoenician woman — present a developed 
faith of marvellous strength and persistence. There are 
no awakenings from the dead, like that of the penitent 
thief in Luke (23:40), or of the Samaritan woman in 
John (4: 1-28). The same principle governs in miracu- 
lous restoration to life. In Matthew the miracle of this 
class is that of the daughter of Jairus, who is at the point 
of death when the stricken father goes in search of the 
Saviour (9 : 18). In Luke, in addition to this miracle, 
the son of the widow of Nain is restored to his mother 
(7: 11-15) ; but in this case the dead man is being car- 
ried to the grave, while in John, who begins his Gospel 
where Matthew ends, with the recognized rejection of 
Christ, Lazarus is raised from the tomb in which he has 
lain so long that decay is doing its work. (John 1 1 : 1-43.) 
For the same reason there are no miracles of healing in 
the Gospel of Matthew unless they are sought or ex- 
pected by the recipient or his friends, no unanticipated 
miracles springing from Christ's unprompted mercy. In 
Luke are many such, in John, with perhaps one excep- 
tion, they are all such. But Matthew records no miracle 
of spontaneity like the healing of the ear of Malchus, 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 35 

(Luke 22 : 51) ; none like the cure of the man at the pool 
of Bethesda. (John 5 : 9).* 

* Those who impugn the credibility or information of the Evange- 
lists, because they omit important events or incidental details, will find 
on examination, that the omission arises from the fact that each historian 
narrates only the incidents belonging to that aspect of the history of redemp- 
tion which it is the design of his Gospel to present. The second miracle 
recorded by Matthew (8 ; 5, 13) may illustrate this remark. Luke (7 : i-io) 
tells us that the centurion sent elders of the Jews to intercede on his be- 
half. Of this Matthew makes no mention, but adds the words of our 
Lord which Luke omits : " The children of the kingdom shall be cast into 
outer darkness." Alford, to whom be all honor for his fairness and can- 
dor, says in his comment on this passage, " Here Matthew simply states 
the fact of the healing, not knowing of those that were sent." Why is 
this a necessary inference "i And why is it not equally clear that Luke 
did not know what Christ said? Each Evangelist relates what belongs 
to his Gospel. Matthew is the historian of the nation's rejection of the 
Messiah. In the case of the centurion he simply adheres to a principle 
which leads him to pass over the appreciative answer of the scribe not 
far from the kingdom of God (Mark 12:32-34); the commendation of 
Christ by the scribes as he silenced for ever his questioners — a com- 
mendation very remarkable in its place and time (Luke 20:39); the 
tribute of that ruler in Jerusalem to whom Christ in response so wonder- 
fully revealed the heavenly truths that constitute the very marrow of the 
Gospel. (John 3:1-21.) Luke, whose history is not one of official hos- 
tility, but of individual acceptance, docs not here record the prophesied 
rejection of the children of the kingdom. 

I may be allowed to mention another passage which Westcott says is 
attended with serious difficulty. (Luke 9 : 57 compared with Matt. 8 : 18-22.) 
The object of Luke in this short section is to give the requisites for 
discipleship; of Matthew to show the character of the nation. Hence he 
omits all reference to the third statement in Luke, "No man having put 
his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God," 
In the later Gospel the passage is found near the close of our Lord's 
life ; in Matthew near the commencement, one of the many intimations 
that at the very beginning of his work, Christ anticipated his death, and 
recognized the character and doom of the Jewish people. They would 
pursue him to the cross, and the dead nation would be abandoned to its 
fate. The interpretation that makes "The Son of Man hath not where 
to lay his head" a declaration of poverty cannot be reconciled with the 
facts of the Gospels. The meaning is far deeper. 

4 



36 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

Thus does this Gospel, which has in its first sentence 
the call of Abraham, and in its last the end of the age, 
grasp the whole covenant period and set forth the con- 
tinuity of God's dealings, and the accomplishment of his 
designs. The phrases " that it might be fulfilled," and 
" to the end of the age," are among its prominent and 
constantly recurring peculiarities. The references to 
the Old Testament, and the verbal citations from it in 
Matthew, far exceed in number those found in any other 
Evangelist ; but, with a single exception, they are not 
such as would be employed to prove to an unbeliever, by 
the fulfilment of prophecy, the Messiahship of Jesus. 
Many commentators deny that in the great majority of 
these predictions there is any direct reference to the 
Messiah. They are addressed to believers in Christ ; 
they vindicate by reference to Old Testament facts and 
principles, his lowly condition, his apparent powerless- 
ness, his reception by inferior and despised classes. The 
one exception is the prophecy of Micah cited by the 
Sanhedrim in answer to Herod's inquiry as to the birth- 
place of Christ. This is given by Matthew, not to prove 
the Messiahship, but to condemn the Sanhedrim out of 
their own mouth (2 : 4-6); they pointed the Gentiles to a 
Christ whom they themselves neglected, and threw the 
clear light of Scripture on the path in which they refused 
to walk. The uniform character of the other quotations 
will be obvious as you recall them : " Out of Egypt have I 
called my Son "(2:15): " He shall be called a Nazarene " 
(2:23): "The people which sat in darkness saw great 
light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 37 

death, light is sprung up" (4:16): "He shall not strive 
nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets : 
A bruised reed shall he not break,* and smoking flax 
shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto 
victory" (12 : 19, 20) : " For this people's heart is waxed 
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes 
they have closed ; lest at any time they should see with 
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should under- 
stand with their heart, and should be converted, and I 
should heal them" (13:15): "I will open my mouth in 
parables ; I will utter things which have been kept secret 
from the foundation of the world " (13 : 35) : " Tell ye the 
daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, 
meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an 
ass "(21:5): " Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings 
thou hast perfected praise" (21 : 16) : "The stone which 
the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the 
corner" (21 \^2). 

God's word does not return unto him void. His 
promises have a far wider, better, more glorious fulfil- 
ment than ever man imagined. The first book of the 
Old Testament records the calling out of a nation from 
which the Messiah should come ; this first book of the 
New Testament records the calling out of a nation in 
which the Messiah shall dwell. The tabernacle and tem- 
ple are destroyed, but the Divine Presence which they 
promised, and represented in shadow, is here in blessed 

* A bruised reed is not an emblem of a penitent and heart-broken 
sinner, but of an enemy of God. (2 Kings 18 : 21.) Christ did not retreat 
from his enemies for fear of them — they were weakness itself — but in pur- 
suance of his plans for the world. 



38 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. 

reality : Lo, I am with you alway, unto the end of the age. 
On the Galilean mountain are uttered the words of 
which the voice out of heaven which John heard in the 
isle of Patmos (Rev. 21 13) is only the echo : " Behold, the 
tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with 
them, and they will be his people, and God himself shall 
be with them and be their God." There is in our Gospel 
no account of the ascension — that belongs to another 
point of view. Here the final and abiding thought, as 
the church commences her world-wide mission, is the 
fulfilment of the Old Testament promise, the name with 
which this Gospel begins and ends — Jesus, Emmanuel, 
God with us. 



THE GOSPEL 



ACCORDING TO MARK 



BY REV. L, D. SEVAN, D. D., 

NEW YORK. 



4* 



THE 

QOSPEL ACCOR^DINQ TO MAF^K, 



The first question that presents itself in a discussion 
of the second gospel concerns its authorship. It is called 
the gospel according to St. Mark, and the universal doc- 
trine of the Christian church ascribes it to the hand of 
that evangelist. 

The gospel itself contains no statement as to its au- 
thor. Like the other memoirs of our Lord, it is anony- 
mous ; but the tradition of the ancient church is, without 
exception, to the effect that it bears the name of its wri- 
ter. With him has been associated the apostle Peter, 
whose amanuensis Mark was said to have been. It was 
apparently thought by the earlier writers of the church 
that Peter dictated the gospel to Mark, but this has not 
been the accepted view of modern critics. 

The first statement in the church in respect to the 
authorship of the second gospel is that of Papias, whose 
words are quoted by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical His- 
tory (III., 39). Papias was bishop of Hieropolis some- 
where during the first half of the second century, and 
although he appears to have been a man of small judg- 



4 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

ment, easily led into wild, wayward fancies, his testimony 
as to a matter of fact, in relation to an opinion prevalent 
at the time concerning a work then extant, and its alleged 
author, would not be at all affected by the weakness of 
his judgment or the trifling character of his views. He 
says, as quoted by Eusebius, that " Mark, being Peter s 
interpreter, wrote carefully what things he (Peter) narra- 
ted, though he recorded not in order, as it was spoken or 
done by the Lord, for he neither heard nor followed our 
Lord, but, as before said, he was the companion of Peter, 
who arranged his instructions as was necessary, but did 
not give a history of our Lord's discourses. Wherefore 
Mark has not erred in any way by writing some things 
as he remembered them ; for he was careful of one thing, 
not to omit anything of what he had heard, or to falsify 
anything in these accounts." 

Now we may not set any great store by these opin- 
ions of Papias as to the form in which Mark composed 
the gospel, but beyond a doubt the following facts are 
established : that in the time of this minister at Hierapo- 
lis there was extant some work upon the life of Jesus ; 
that it was said to be written by Mark; and that the view 
which the church accepted was, that in the composition 
of it, Mark was intimately associated with the apostle 
Peter. 

A second early reference to the authorship of Mark 
is that of Irenseus, also quoted by Eusebius in his History 
(V., 8) : " Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, has 
himself also handed down to us in writing what was an- 
nounced by Peter." 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK, 5 

The historian (II., 15), on the authority of Clement 
(Hypotyposes VI.), declares that many of those who lis- 
tened to the preaching of Peter in Rome requested Mark, 
who had followed the apostle for some time, to write out 
what Peter had spoken. Peter, hearing of this, was 
pleased at the interest shown by his hearers, and author- 
ized the work to be read in the churches. We may ob- 
serve here that this is inconsistent with a statement which 
Eusebius adds to the second reference which we have 
quoted, to the effect that Mark's writing was after the 
decease of Peter and Paul. 

In another passage Eusebius (Hist. Eccl,, VI., 14) 
cites the already quoted words of Clement, but adds to 
the account, that Peter, knowing of Mark's work when 
completed and given to the public, " encouragingly nei- 
ther hindered nor advanced it;" which may be under- 
stood to mean, that while he gave the gospel a general 
approval, he took no active part in either correction or 
addition to its contents. Without further quotation, we 
may just call attention to the fact that Tertullian and 
Jerome also refer to Mark's gospel as receiving the con- 
firmation of Peter, as indeed he was only an interpreter 
and amanuensis of the apostle's declaration concerning 
Jesus Christ. (Tertull. contra Marcion, IV., 5 ; Jerome, 
ad Helvidium, Quest. XI.) 

Added to these evidences from early Christian writers 
of the genuineness of Mark's gospel, we may mention 
Justin Martyr and Tatian as proving the existence, in 
the second century of the church, of a gospel such as the 
second in our canon, which was held to be the work of 



6 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

the evangelist Mark. Some modern critics have ques- 
tioned the evidence upon which the authorship of Mark 
has been accepted, but the grounds of doubt are certainly 
not as valid as the reasons for belief, and in one case at 
least a leading antagonist of the authorship of Mark 
(Credner) has seen reasons for changing his views. 

Some of the internal reasons for believing that the 
authorship of Mark is well founded may be noticed be- 
low. 

There is no reason, then, why we should not accept 
the tradition of the church that Mark was the author of 
the gospel, and we therefore now inquire. Who was this 
Mark } and. What do we know concerning him ? 

Simply to attach the gospel to some person of the 
name of Mark would have been a dry and sterile fact in 
the history of the New Testament. And we are fortu- 
nately not left to a mere statement so isolated and uninter- 
esting. Mark is said to have been the person mentioned 
in Acts 12 : 12, 25. The former passage relates that 
Peter, after his liberation from prison, found his way " to 
the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname 
was Mark ;" and in the other passage, occurring in the 
same chapter, and without any change of expression, so 
that we are justified in referring it to the same person, 
we are told that " Barnabas and Saul returned from Jeru- 
salem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and took 
with them John whose surname was Mark." In the fol- 
lowing chapter the course of the two apostles is marked 
out, upon the first missionary journey, on which they were 
sent by the Holy Spirit, and in the fifth verse it is reia- 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 7 

ted that they had " also John to their minister." Clearly 
this is the same person who in the preceding chapter is 
said to have possessed the surname Mark. In the thir- 
teenth verse we learn that John at Perga left them and 
returned from his ministry to Jerusalem. In the well- 
known passage, 15 : 37-39, Paul refuses to take with him 
upon the second journey "John who was surnamed Mark," 
because he had departed from them in Pamphylia ; and 
the discussion between the apostles became sufficiently 
severe to cause a separation between them, Barnabas 
taking Mark, and Paul choosing Silas, apparently receiv- 
ing the sanction of the brethren in his new determina- 
tion. Mark does not appear to be again mentioned in 
the Acts of the Apostles, but some references to him 
occurring in the Epistles must not be overlooked. In 
Col. 4: 10, Paul mentions him with accompanying words 
of commendation: "Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner sa- 
luteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas (touch- 
ing whom ye received commandments : if he come unto 
you receive him) ;" and the writer adds, " These only are 
my fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God, which have 
been a comfort unto me." In 2 Tim. 4:11, Paul again 
speaks of Mark in kindly terms. " Take Mark," he says, 
" and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for 
the ministry ;" and in the closing words of the letter to 
Philemon Mark is numbered by Paul among his fellow- 
prisoners. In the first Epistle of Peter, 5 :i3, Mark is 
mentioned as " my son," apparently referring to the proba- 
ble fact that he owed his Christian faith to the teaching 
of the writer. These are the only passages of Scripture 



8 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

where the name occurs. Three in which a supposed 
reference is made to him will be noticed by us in the 
short sketch of a life of Mark which we now would pre- 
sent, gathered from these Scriptural references and such 
remains of tradition as may seem not worthy of rejec- 
tion. 

The original name of the evangelist was most proba- 
bly John, Mark being a Roman name which he adopted 
at some time in his life, in accordance with that custom 
of which we have an illustration in the name which the 
Jewish Saul adopted, and by which he has been altogeth- 
er known. That this may have arisen from some con- 
nection with a Roman family of that name has been sug- 
gested by his familiarity with Latin, which has been 
gathered from the fact that he became the interpreter of 
Peter. His father may have been a proselyte of Rome, 
although reference is made only to his mother, who was 
Barnabas' sister. The later tradition of the church has 
sometimes separated between the two names, and in 
this way converted what was probably one minister of 
Jesus Christ into two or three saints of the ecclesiastical 
calendar. Some modern critics have endeavored to es- 
tablish the separateness between the companion of Paul 
and the " son " of Peter ; but this is rather to be set 
down to one of those skilful acrobatisms of New Testa.- 
#/6 ment criticism which absorbs all our attention to the 
skill of the act, so that we forget the absolute nothing- 
ness of the result. Mark was evidently of a somewhat 
excitable and mobile disposition, and that he who once 
accompanied Peter should have also been the companion 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 9 

of Paul is not such an extraordinary circumstance as to 
warrant the necessity of finding different individuals to 
sujDply the respective places. 

Mark was the son of Mary the sister of Barnabas, and 
evidently belonged to a family of deep emotional charac- 
teristics, and whose worldly position enabled them to ren- 
der considerable service to the early church. Barnabas 
was a man of property, belonging to Cyprus, and his sister 
seems to have lived in such state at Jerusalem that she 
could entertain a considerable number of the church at an 
assembly for prayer (Acts 12 : 12), testifying not only to 
the extent of her property, but also to the boldness and 
confidence of her faith. James, the brother of John, had 
been killed by Herod. Peter was in prison, and the 
church felt that nothing was left to it but to implore the 
help of God. One at least of their number, a woman, is 
brave enough to throw open her house and invite the 
community there to seek the Divine aid. It was no pri- 
vate meeting. It apparently was a recognized centre of 
Christian hospitality and influence. Thither went Peter 
straightway, needing no angel to guide him to a place 
which was well known to the apostle as a place of Chris- 
tian resort. It was the house of Mary, Barnabas' sister, 
the mother of Mark. 

It is not very difficult to picture to ourselves the 
young man who was the son of this Mary, the nephew of 
the son of consolation. Noble-hearted, frank, and gen- 
erous, we may well suppose him, sometimes, too much 
swayed by impulse, quick to go forth upon the great 
errands of the cross, too easily, however, impelled to lay 

5 



lo GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK, 

down his arms and retire from the conflict. His uncle is 
a fervent man, feeling the enthusiasm of the hour, and 
ready to consecrate his property for the common service 
of the church, in that mistaken, though generous, com- 
munity of goods, which marked the early history of the ec- 
clesiastical brotherhood at Jerusalem. With a mother of 
similar spirit, we may well picture to ourselves the warm, 
impulsive temperament of the young John Mark. This 
consideration lends some probability, or perhaps possi- 
bility, to the supposition that Mark was the young man 
to whom he alone of the evangelists refers (14 : 5 1), who 
when all the disciples forsook their Master and fled, "fol- 
lowed him/' " having a linen coat cast about his naked 
body ; and the young men laid hold on him, and he left 
the linen cloth and fled from them naked." 

It has been supposed that Mary, being a wealthy pro- 
prietress, may have possessed a residence at the foot of 
Olivet, just outside the city. It may have been her gar- 
den into which Christ entered for prayer and retirement — 
Gethsemane, earth's solemn scene of agony and tears 
and blood. Did the youth know it t It would be very 
natural. Were his slumbers broken by the company that 
entered the garden, with torches and riot, to seize the 
Lord .? Would it be strange that this lad, impetuous and 
heart-driven, should rise from his bed, throw around him 
hastily a linen sheet, and go forth among the crowd t 
He sees the Lord a prisoner, abandoned. He rushes 
forward to rescue, grasps Him to free Him from His 
guards. A soldier advances, seizes the youth, whose 
courage vanishes as suddenly as it arose. The young 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK, n 

man flies, and leaves behind his garment, amid the rude 
laughter and mocking taunt of the guard. It is a picture 
which imagination draws, but it is not impossible, and is 
not inconsistent with what we know of the evangelist, 
who alone narrates the event in his graphic story. 

Peter was probably the first Christian teacher of this 
youth, and if the expression, "My son," is thus to be in- 
terpreted, it is significant that this disciple of the first 
apostle should not have been unwilling to join Paul and 
Barnabas in their evangelistic tour. His relations to Peter 
also may have led Mark more easily to separate himself 
from Paul, who as yet was too generous and liberal for 
him, in his interpretation of the Lord's command to "> 
preach the gospel to every nation. 

We do not know the exact merits of the dispute be- 
tween Paul and Barnabas, when it was proposed by the 
latter to take Mark with them, which was so strenuously 
opposed by his friend and companion. Paul's relations 
to Barnabas were very intimate. Apparently old friends, 
Barnabas had been the first to extend to Paul the friendly 
assurances of the Jerusalem church, and even united the 
i)ew convert with himself in his labors at Antioch. Their 
fellowship in the gospel was therefore most close ; but, 
notwithstanding this, Paul, who was by no means an un- 
generous or forgetful man, was willing to sacrifice his 
fellow-apostle's companionship rather than pass over the 
delinquency of Mark. We cannot think that it was any 
personal feeling which led Paul to so severe a step ; but 
if, as we have suggested, Mark had gained any narrow 
sentiments from his relation to Peter in regard to the 



12 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

scope and mode of the progress of the gospel, we may 
well understand how Paul would refuse, even at the cost 
of personal friendship, to allow anything to hinder that 
work to which he had given himself with peculiar conse- 
cration. Barnabas, on the other hand, was tender-heart- 
ed, a true son of consolation. Moreover, it was his 
nephew^ the son of Mary, that sister who may well be 
ranked among the other famous women of the gospel ; 
and he yields to the claims of kinship and tenderness of 
heart, what Paul would not sacrifice — the interests of the 
church, and the unhindered progress of the gospel among 
the Gentiles. 

But a later period of the history shows us that Mark 
became reinstated in the good opinion of the great apos- 
tle, and, as we have seen, was found by him of much 
service and fidelity in the gospel. Indeed, Paul seems to 
reiterate his assurances of confidence in his old friend's 
nephew. The story of their estrangement had got abroad. 
The church knew it, and Mark had lost caste and char- 
acter among the faithful, certainly among those who were 
the disciples of Paul. But for these, and for the after 
ages, for all time, Paul takes care that it shall be well 
known that the fault was forgotten, that he had received 
Mark back again to confidence ; nay, more, that he had 
made him a companion, and found him most faithful. 
Mere harmony will not be sufficient. Again and again, 
in different directions, does the apostle send forth his 
commendation of the helper Mark ; and the Spirit Who 
directed this record of His choicest workings has left it 
for us, as an example of the way in which the erring are 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 13 

to be treated, and Christian charity and forgiveness and 
brotherliness to be rendered triumphant in all our rela- 
tions (^ life. 

The letters in which Paul refers to the presence of 
Mark with him were written from Rome at the time of the 
apostle's first imprisonment (62 a. d.). Afterwards he 
is found with Peter at Babylon, and it has been thought 
that the evangelist passed from the one apostle to the 
other as their means of communication, at a time of pe- 
culiar peril to the Christian church, fraught with the out- 
working of those forces which were soon to overthrow 
Judaism in its seat and centre at Jerusalem. 

In the later epistle of Paul, Timothy is commanded 
to bring Mark with him, and if, in accordance with this 
request, the evangelist accompanied Timothy, or at a 
later time came with Peter, either of which suppositions 
is possible, this fact would supply a basis for the opinion 
held so widely in the early church, that Mark was with 
Peter in Rome, and there discharged the duties of an 
interpreter. All these points, however, are mere sur- 
mises, and need only to be mentioned to complete what 
is possible for us of the life of Mark. 

It may not be uninteresting to observe how the tra- 
dition of the church has completed the life of the evan- 
gelist. It is said that, after the death of Peter and Paul, 
he went to Egypt, and preached in Lybia and Thebais 
for twelve years. He founded the church of Alexan- 
dria, and became its first bishop. His miracles roused 
the anger of the heathen. They declared that he was a 
magician, and during a feast of Serapis an attack was 

5* 



14 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

made upon the bishop of the Christian church while he 
was worshipping. He was fastened by cords, dragged 
along the road, especially over stony places, till he died, 
while a terrible tempest of lightning and hail scattered 
and destroyed his murderous assailants. The body of 
the martyred evangelist was buried by the church, and 
his tomb became an object of peculiar veneration until 
the year 815, when some traders from Venice stole the 
relics and conveyed them over the sea to their native 
city, where the noble cathedral which bears his name 
was erected above the spot, in which they were deposited. 
I need scarcely add that Mark then became the guardian 
saint of the great republic, as the winged lion by which 
he is symbolized in sacred art evidences, from the stately 
pillar upon which it stands in front of the Doge's palace 
on the Piazzetta. 

Some of the legends connected with the history of 
St. Mark are quaint and interesting. That of the heal- 
ing of Arianus, the cobbler, who had wounded his hand 
with the awl, and was afterwards converted and succeed- 
ed Mark as bishop of Alexandria; and the delivery from 
torture at the hands of his master of the Christian slave 
by the descent from heaven of the saint at whose shrine 
the slave was praying, are legendary stories told in honor 
of our evangelist ; while the story of the fisherman, which 
I will venture to extract at length from the version of 
the Venetian chronicle given by Mrs. Jamieson in her 
Sacred and Legendary Art, has furnished material for 
some of the grandest achievements of the artist's skill : 

" On the 25th of February, 1340, there fell out a won- 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 15 

derful thing in this land, for during three days the waters 
rose continually, and in the night there was fearful rain 
and tempest, such as had never been heard of. So great 
was the storm that the waters rose three cubits higher 
than had ever been known in Venice ; and an old fisher- 
man, being in his little boat on the canal of St. Mark, 
reached with difficulty the Riva di San Marco, and there 
he fastened his boat and waited the ceasing of the storm. 
And it is related, that at the time this storm was at the 
highest, there came an unknown man and besought him 
that he would row him over to San Giorgio Maggiore, 
promising to pay him well. And the fisherman replied, 
* How is it possible to go to San Giorgio t We shall 
sink by the way.'- But the man only besought him the 
more that he should set forth. So, seeing that it was 
the will of God, he arose and rowed over to San Giorgio 
Maggiore, and the man landed there, and desired the 
boatman to wait. In a short while he returned with a 
young man, and they said, * Now row towards San Nicolo 
di Lido.' And the fisherman said, ' How can one possi- 
bly go so far with one oar.?' And they said, * Row bold- 
ly, for it shall be possible to thee, and thou shalt be well 
paid.' And he went, and it appeared to him as if the 
waters were smooth. Being arrived at San Nicolo di 
Lido, the two men landed, and returned with a third, 
and having entered into the boat, they commanded the 
fisherman that he should row beyond the two castles. 
And the tempest raged continually. Being come to the 
open sea, they beheld approaching, with such terrific 
speed that it appeared to fly over the waters, an enormous 



i6 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

galley, full of demons (as it is written in the Chronicles, 
and Marco Sabellino also makes mention of this mira- 
cle) : the said bark approached the castles to overwhelm 
Venice, and to destroy it utterly ; anon the sea, which 
had hitherto been tumultuous, became calm ; and these 
three men, having made the sign of the cross, exorcised 
the demons, and commanded them to depart, and imme- 
diately the galley, or the ship, vanished ; then these three 
men commanded the fisherman to land them, the one at 
San Nicolo di Lido, the other at San Giorgio Maggiore, 
and the third at San Marco. And when he had landed 
the third, the fisherman, notwithstanding the miracle he 
had witnessed, desired that he would pay him, and he 
replied, 'Thou art right ; go now to the doge and to the 
procuratore of St. Mark, and tell them what thou hast 
seen, for Venice would have been overwhelmed, had it 
not been for us three. I am St. Mark, the evangelist, 
the protector of this city ; the other is the brave knight 
St. George ; and he whom thou didst take up at the Lido 
is the holy bishop of St. Nicholas. Say to the doge and 
to the procuratore that they are to pay you ; and tell 
them, likewise, that this tempest arose because of a certain 
schoolmaster dwelling at San Felice, who did sell his soul 
to the devil, and afterwards hanged himself.' And the 
fisherman replied, ' If I should tell them this, they will 
not believe me.' Then St. Mark took off a ring which 
was on his finger, which ring was worth five ducats ; and 
he said, * Show them this, and tell them, when they look 
in the sanctuary, they will not find it;' and thereupon he 
disappeared. The next morning the said fisherman pre- 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 17 

sented himself before the doge, and related all he had 
seen the night before, and showed him the ring for a 
sign. And the procuratore having sent for the ring, 
and sought in the usual place, found it not ; by reason of 
which miracle the fisherman was paid, and a solemn pro- 
cession was ordained, giving thanks to God and to the 
relics of the three holy saints who rest in our land, and 
who delivered us from this great danger. The ring was 
given to Signor Marco Loredano and to Signor Andrea 
Dandolo, the procuratore, who placed it in the sanctuary ; 
and, moreover, a perpetual provision was made for the 
aged fisherman above-mentioned." 

This story, by no means to be classed among the 
most absurd of ecclesiastical legends, we give thus at 
length, in order that the reader may see the deep gulf 
which divides the narratives of miracles contained in the- 
Scripture from those which have been multiplied by the 
superstitions of the church. 

We now turn from the author of the gospel to the 
gospel itself, and inquire concerning its structure and 
most characteristic features. We shall find that the na- 
ture of the man is repeated in the nature of the work. 
For while we ever remember that the Bible is the word 
of God, it must not be forgotten that it is the word of 
God spoken through men, and that we fail to note one of 
the most distinctive values of the Sacred Scriptures when 
we lose sight of the human side. The Bible has thus 
suffered greatly by being regarded as only a divine word. 
But all its parts bear unmistakably the image of those 
through whom it was delivered unto us. That man is a 



1 8 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

poor observer of the human race who cannot see the 
individual traits that lie upon the general base of a 
common humanity, and he fails utterly to comprehend 
the books of the Bible who cannot distinguish in each 
the peculiar feature which its human authorship has sup- 
plied. , 
We have, then, four gospels, lives of Jesus Christ. 
They are pictures of our Lord taken from different stand- 
points. Luke and John have a common universalness of 
application, which hardly belongs to the other two — Mat- 
thew's and Mark's gospels being rather concerned with 
the presentation of the relation which the life of Christ 
bore to the kingdom of God, the former viewing the life 
as the fulfilment of the types and foreshadowings which 
were found in the former dispensation, while the gospel 
under special review presents our Lord as the manifes- 
tation of Deity, in an independent form, but specially en- 
gaged in antagonism with the world-forces which opposed 
God in the person of his Son. It is a gospel of conflict 
and victory. The cries of battle ring through all its pas- 
sages, but they are the cries of battle which change into 
the shout of triumph, for it is the life of Him who has 
gloriously vanquished his foes, and ascended up on high 
amid the glory of his Father, and leading captivity cap- 
tive. This gospel presents our Lord breaking up the old 
rather than fulfilling it, and establishing a new kingdom 
of glory and freedom. Hence, the symbol of the lion has 
been attached in the legendary art of the church to the 
second evangelist. He has told the story of Judah's 
lion — majestic, kingly, overwhelming, and on the vivid 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 19 

page of his narrative we see the strength and courage, 
the all-mastering power of the Son of God. 

With such a distinctive purpose and character we 
need hardly say that we reject altogether the theory that 
Mark's gospel is in any sense an abridgment or abstract 
of the other gospels. Indeed, we may almost certainly 
conclude that he had never seen the writings of his fel- 
low-historians. That there should be correspondencies 
is very natural. In proportion as they are truthful nar- 
rations, that correspondence will be most pronounced. I 
see no reason for rejecting the supposition, that the writ- 
ten gospels are more or less a repetition of what was 
told in living speech, by the apostles and immediate fol- 
lowers of the Lord. That such repetitions would make 
current a Christian phraseology, and especially conserve 
the form of our Lord's words must be granted, and that 
this would be distinctly reflected in the writings of the 
evangelists, seems clear enough ; but that there need be 
on this account any relation between the writers, does 
not seem to me to follow. And certainly, the supposition 
that Mark abridged another gospel can only have arisen 
in an age, either ignorant of the true character of the 
gospels, or wholly uncritical. Mark's narrative is graphic, 
picturesque, vivid. It may omit some events told by the 
others, but in those which it relates it is fuller of detail, 
many of the points noted by Mark having escaped the 
attention of the other synoptists. 

In answer to the opinion that Mark was an abbre- 
viator of Matthew or Luke, or both, observe the num- 
ber of points which Mark alone notes. It is Mark alone 



20 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

who, in 3 : 20, 21, observes that the crowd was so great 
that they could not eat bread, and that the friends of 
Jesus were so opposed to his work, or at least in such 
little sympathy with him, that they declared him to be 
beside himself. The simile of the kingdom of God to 
the seed planted, which grew without the knowledge of 
him who planted — a profound criticism upon the progress 
of the church of Jesus Christ — is told us only by Mark, 
4 : 26-30. The graphic points in the narrative of the 
healing of the deaf and dumb man — one of _the most 
beautiful pictures in the life of our Lord, where he " took 
aside the deaf and dumb, and put his fingers into his ears, 
and he spat and touched his tongue, and looking up to 
heaven, he sighed and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that 
is, Be opened " — are all supplied by Mark alone, as also is 
the touching doxology of the people, who cry, " He hath 
done all things well ; he maketh both the deaf to hear and 
the dumb to speak," 7 . 3 1--37. In 8 : 22-26, the healing of 
the blind man at Bethsaida, whose returning sight came 
only slowly back, is related by this evangelist alone. 
Mark only, refers to the young man who came out to the 
crowd of guards when our Lord was taken prisoner, as 
we have already noticed. Besides these passages, pecu- 
liar to Mark, there are certain forms of expression and 
single words which he adds to the narratives, as they 
stand in the other writers, which render his style pecu- 
liarly individual and marked. In 1:13, Mark adds that, 
while in the wilderness at the temptation, our Lord was 
among the wild animals. In i : 42, Mark intensifies the 
speedy healing of the leper: "As soon as he had spoken, 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 21 

immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was 
cleansed." In describing the demoniac who dwelt among 
the tombs of Gadara, 5:4, 5, Mark makes the picture 
most graphic : " The man had often been bound with fet- 
ters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asun- 
der by him, and the fetters broken in pieces : neither 
could any man tame him. And always, night and day, 
he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and 
cutting himself with stones." Compare this with Mat- 
thew's *'two men possessed with devils coming out of 
the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass 
by that way;" and Luke's, "A certain man which had 
devils long time, and wore no clothes, neither abode in 
any house, but in the tombs," and the notion of Mark's 
being a copyist or abbreviator falls to the ground — the 
baseless fabric of a wayward fancy. Those who are in- 
terested in this matter will find further illustrations in 
7:3,4; 9:21-26; 10:24, 34»49; and 12:32, 34. 

But there is no feature so characteristic of Mark as 
the mode in which he commences and closes his narra- 
tive. Matthew has two chapters upon the genealogy, 
birth, and childhood of our Lord. Luke in a similar 
manner and at greater length recounts the circumstances 
of the early life of Jesus. John introduces his gospel by 
the wonderful revelation of the preexistence and incarna- 
tion of the divine Logos ; but Mark leaps at once to the 
story of Christ's public ministry with an account of the 
office of John the Baptist, and the baptism of Jesus. 
This introductory passage may seem to be an abridgment 
of the histories in the other evangelists, but the movement 

6 



22 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

of the style is abrupt, the touches are graphic and life- 
like. None of the gospels contain so forcible an account 
of these and earlier scenes in the Lord's public and offi- 
cial ministry. 

We can only briefly notice in passing some other 
theories concerning the relation of the gospels to each 
other. 

The great German critic Herder propounded the the- 
ory that the gospel of Mark was really the original record, 
and that the other histories were derived from it. But 
this again may be met, as was the already-noticed theory, 
which is really the reverse of this, by an appeal to the 
evident independence of the narratives. The modes of 
presentation, and especially the order of narration, are 
so entirely distinct, that even supposing Mark's gospel 
were the primitive work, and had been in the hands of 
Matthew and Luke, we are compelled to conclude that 
they made no use of it, but furnished the church with 
their own independent records. 

The hypothesis of a still more original gospel, from 
which all are alike derived, is nothing but a fancy, and 
though it is quite possible that such a gospel may have 
existed, it is strange that no record of it should be left, 
and not the vaguest reference to it can be found in all 
the writings of the ancient church. The existence of the 
sea-serpent is more certain than the existence of this 
original Christian evangel. That wonderful creature has 
at least been recorded as seen. We all know people who 
have heard that it has been said that somebody some- 
where saw a sea-serpent. But even such evidence can- 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 23 

not be found for this primitive gospel. Some critics 
have said that there may have been such a gospel. Even 
they do not venture to suggest that somebody ever hinted 
that there had been such a document. 

A modification of the theory is that there was a gen- 
eral tradition, orally preserved from apostles and apos- 
tolical men, and that our gospels are only later reductions 
of this general apostolic tradition to a written form. We 
may quite believe that the story of the life of Jesus was 
told by the apostles and early preachers of the word, as 
they went from city to city in the great work of world- 
evangelization, and we know from Luke's testimony that 
these orally-delivered histories were reduced into written 
form, by many in the churches ; but these writings were 
probably only fragmentary, and of the character of notes. 
The gospels which we now possess bear too markedly the 
sign of the authorship of eye-witnesses, to be "referred to 
any such process as the reduction of oral tradition into a 
written form, at a late period of the church's history. The 
style of these writings is so different from anything else 
in the early period of the church ; they are so simple, 
direct, and vivid, that the generally-received doctrine of 
the church concerning them is less open to objection 
than any other explanation which we can give of their 
origin, and is therefore to be accepted by us. 

At the same time we need not deny that Mark, for 
example, recorded in his narrative much of the testimony 
borne by Peter. The very ancient tradition of the church 
seems to point to some such relation, and it may very 
well be allowed, that he also incorporated something of 



24 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

that general evangelical knowledge, which had very soon 
become a portion of the church's possession, and upon 
the proclamation of which the foundation of the Chris- 
tian communities had first of all been laid. 

We may now sum up the sources of the gospel as 
found in apostolic testimony, generally accepted church 
teaching, personal knowledge, and these, moulded and 
fashioned in the gospel story by the individual character- 
istics of the evangelist, and finally, the Holy Spirit's 
grace and power, directing, overruling, and inspiring 
all. 

If we take a general view of the gospel, we shall 
easily perceive those characteristics which would natu- 
rally be found in the work of Mark. He was enthusias- 
tic, active, driven by impulse, little given probably to 
leisurely thought and contemplation. And this is the 
character of his narrative. It rushes everywhere head- 
long, like a leaping stream. There is no quiet contem- 
plation, little tendency to wait and ask what such events 
mean, what such words imply. Instead of this, you have 
picturesque descriptions, brief touches that illumine a 
scene in vivid brightness. Events are related rather 
than words. There are no discourses, sermons, conver- 
sations. The words of Jesus are brief, pregnant. They 
are generally controversial or denunciatory. They blaze 
with wrath against the false, the hypocritical ; they ring 
with the tones of conscious victory. 

The narrative of events is also characteristic. Mark 
has rapid transitions, and abrupt breakings off from one 
event to another. It has been well said " that the word 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 25 

straightway (eiGeuf) may be designated as the appropriate 
watchword of our gospel." Matthew gradually unfolds 
each page in the record of His life who fulfilled the 
prophets and the law. Luke in a few general words in- 
troduces each section of the story of the Man of Naza- 
reth, the Friend and Brother of His race. Mark, with a 
" forthwith," '' straightway," summons a scene before us 
with vivid imagery and graphic words. He constantly 
drops the past tense and speaks as of a present event, 
while his reports are but little in the third person, but 
introduced with the very words of the interlocutor in 
each conversation. We must not forget here also the 
minuteness of detail, the recollection of names, and a cer- 
tain tenderness and gentleness of nature which is seen in 
the constant use of diminutives and words of affectionate 
significance. 

The antagonisms and victories of the Son of God are 
told by Mark in a series of glowing sections. Christ 
comes forth, the expression of the Divine power, and the 
destroyer of the power of the devil. His appearance is 
the signal for popular enthusiasms, and the crowds that 
gather about him press to hear, but chiefly to feel the 
force of that Divine healing, which puts diseases to 
flight, exorcises the demons, sheds light upon the blind- 
ed eye, and opens the sealed ear. Wherever he comes, a 
holy joy, an overwhelming awe seize the people. If not 
received, he is rejected with a hatred that seems devil- 
born. He appears in Galilee, and wins disciples, con- 
quers devils, attracts the people, rouses the hatred of the 
Pharisees and scribes. He battles against the unbelief 

6* 



26 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

of his people, encounters the hostility of the king. The 
final scenes approach. Everywhere are conflicts and vic- 
tories. Into Jerusalem he rides in triumph, cleanses the 
temple, asserts himself not only Lord to save, but also to 
destroy. Then come agony and shame and death. The 
only articulate cry which Mark records is well named the 
*' Lion's cry of pain," " My God, my God, why hast thou 
forsaken me ?" but even when he died, he impressed the 
centurion with his glory, and was declared by the Roman 
to be truly the Son of God. How brief is the picture of 
the risen Lord, but how vivid ! and if the concluding pas- 
sages of the gospel (16:9-20) be accepted as genuinely 
the work of Mark, is it not still in perfect consistency 
that, having abruptly closed at the eighth verse, he should 
have added another section, swift and brief and expres- 
sive, in which our Lord's final victory over his disciples' 
doubt is recorded, and the triumphant progress of his 
gospel declared, with the accompanying victory of the 
Lord, and the confirming signs which followed the preach- 
ing of his word } 

If we ask the question, " For whom was this gospel 
specially prepared .^" the answer would seem to be ready, 
For Gentile Christians. And the proofs of this have been 
thus summarized : First, the omission of all genealogical 
notices of our Lord's descent. Had Mark intended his 
gospel for the Jews, he would have been careful to define 
the place of our Lord's family in relation to the Jewish 
kingdom and religion. 

In the second place, when we compare Mark espe- 
cially with Matthew, we are struck with, the absence in 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 27 

our gospel of Old Testament citations. There are only 
two, I : 2, 3, and 15 : 28, and the latter is rejected by the 
critics as having no authority. Some of the Hebrew 
and Aramaean terms are accompanied by a translation. 
"Talitha cumi" of 5 : 41 is interpreted, as are also " Cor- 
ban, a gift," of 7 : 11, and " Ephphatha, Be opened," of the 
34th verse of the same chapter. In 7 : 3, 4 the writer 
explains the customs of the Jews in respect of washing 
of hands before meals ; while some additions and some 
omissions are found in narratives common to Mark and 
the other gospels, which may suggest that the evangelist 
had a particular class before his eye when he composed 
his history. In 11:17, Mark inserts the words, "for all 
the nations," where our Lord speaks of the house of God 
being called a house of prayer. Tfiere is no mention of 
the Jewish law in this gospel, and the limitations of the 
mission of the disciples, which Matthew relates — that 
they are not to go into the way of the Gentiles, and into 
any city of the Samaritans they were not to enter — are 
omitted by Mark, which omission is also to be observed 
in the third gospel — perhaps the most humane and cos- 
mopolitan of all. 

As to the questions of place, and time, and language,^ 
in which the gospel was composed, we have only the 
conjectures of the critics. Irenaeus (III., i) says that it 
was after the deaths of Peter and Paul. This would be 
probably later than the year 63. It is not likely that the 
gospel was composed after the destruction of Jerusalem, 
for we can hardly think that such an event would be un- 
noticed in its pages. This may therefore supply us with 



28 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

a term beyond which we cannot affix a date for its com- 
position. 

Most ancient writers, such as Clement, Eusebius, 
Jerome, and Epiphanes, state that the place of composi- 
tion was the scene of the martyrdom of the apostle at 
whose inspiration the gospel was supposed to have been 
written. Chrysostom says Alexandria, and a modern 
critic fixes on Antioch, from a comparison (on too slen- 
der grounds) of Acts 1 1 : 20 with chap. 15:21 of the gos- 
pel. This is perhaps a good example of the narrow foun- 
dation upon which modern criticism is able to build its 
splendid erections of conjecture, hypothesis, belief, or in- 
fidelity. 

The language of the gospel was presumably Greek. 
Here also there is nothing upon which any definite con- 
clusions can be reached. The language which Mark used 
was most likely to have been Greek ; and the argument in 
favor of Latin, which Romish writers have urged, seems 
not to be well founded. 

Little remains for us now to say, but in conclusion, to 
present a brief abstract or general view of the contents 
of the gospel. 

Lange suggests that the words of Peter, in Acts 
10: 38, may be taken as its motto: "Jesus of Nazareth, 
anointed by God with the Holy Ghost and with power : 
who went about doing good, and healing all that were 
oppressed of the devil ; for God was with him." 

It were indeed a vain thing for us to endeavor to pre- 
sent the aspect of our Lord and his life as seen by the 
evangelist Mark. How poor and feeble are all the words 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 29 

of uninspired historians, after the rich fulness of the word 
of God ! And yet our sketch of the evangehst and his 
gospel will be incomplete unless, as we close, we endeavor 
to draw the picture of our Lord which Mark sets before 
us, though it can be, at best, only an imperfect sketch. 

He stands forth, in the very first words, a full-grown 
man. We see him before the Baptist. And there, having 
had the consecration which gathers all the past of law 
and prophets upon his head, he is filled with the Holy 
Ghost, and announced to the world, by the voice of God, 
as the Beloved Son in whom the Eternal is well pleased. 
Thence he passes to the conflict with the devil in the 
temptation of the wilderness, whence, all victorious, he 
returns with angels as his ministers. When he comes 
forth to preach the kingdom, he calls disciples, and they 
obey. The people are astonished at his doctrine, and 
the ills which afflict humanity fly at his word and touch. 
Demons, fevers, palsies, leprosies — every form of human 
misery he meets and conquers. His fame goes abroad 
throughout all the region, and vast crowds gather to hear 
his words and see his wondrous works. 

And this ministry, so strange, so powerful, is not for 
the privileged few, the recognized respectabilities of the 
time. It is for humanity. A publican hears his call and 
follows, leaving the receipt of custom and all he pos- 
sessed. He takes his place among the publicans and 
sinners, relaxes the code of traditionary religion, and de- 
fends his followers from the charges of sacrilege and want 
of reverence which are brought against them. 

Further manifestations of power are given, and the 



30 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

signs of conflict multiply. He is charged with possess- 
ing a devil, and the very grace by which he conquers 
Satan is referred to Beelzebub. Now he comes forth as 
the friend and brother of mankind, and declares that obe- 
dience to his will and the fulfilment of his word will bind 
a man more closely to him than the most sacred ties of 
sister, brother, mother. 

But Jesus is not only a miracle worker. He speaks 
the word of wisdom, and binds his truth and the signifi- 
cance of his growing word upon the ear of corn, the 
mustard grains, the bursting seeds. He sleeps in weari- 
ness upon a pillow in the hinder portion of the rocking 
boat. The tempest beats, and threatens to overwhelm. 
They wake him. He rises, speaks to the sea, and all is 
calm. Verily, it is the Son of God, who worketh thus, 
so mightily upon earth. 

A legion of devils is conquered — death itself com- 
pelled to give up its victim. At home, abroad, in Galilee 
or Gadara, he is everywhere, alike, the very power of the 
mighty God. 

But now comes opposition. His fellow-countrymen 
condemn him, and deprive themselves of his gracious 
workings by their want of faith. But this does not les- 
sen the power of Christ. Indeed, he endows his disciples 
with the same all-conquering force. He walks the sea, 
and its waves are adamant. He breaks the bread, and 
with a harvest-fulness, feeds five thousand with the food 
of five. 

** 'T was springtime when he blessed the bread, 
'T was harvest when he broke." 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 31 

The signs of opposition are not only among the people. 
The scribes feel the terrible force of his words of purity, 
and the king hears of him, and would fain see more of his 
mighty works. Now he advances to attack the hypocrite 
and unmask the false pretender to religious sanctity. 
The common people hear him gladly, rejoice at his 
power, and lift up the voice of praise and glory. 

The miracle of feeding, repeated, gives occasion for 
further onslaught upon the leaven of Pharisees and Her- 
od. He confesses himself to be the Christ, and utters the 
prediction to his disciples of his coming passion, with a 
promise of future victory. 

His transfiguration displays the indwelling Godhead. 
His works of power, repeated among the people, show 
how he has the faith which is ever victorious ; and with 
lessons to his disciples upon humility and catholicity of 
heart, the first part of the gospel closes with his retire- 
ment from Galilee into the deserts of Peraea. 

Here he prepares his disciples for the journey that 
lies before them, combating the carnal doctrines of Phar- 
isees and scribes, schooling the ambitions of his follow- 
ers, and making ready for the wonderful scenes which are 
to crowd upon him in his last days. 

Now he moves onward to Jerusalem ; at Jericho, heals 
Bartimeus, the blind man ; sends for the colt upon which 
he shall ride, and enters the sacred city with a triumphal 
procession. The fig-tree is cursed, the temple is purged. 
He asserts his right to perform these deeds of a divine 
authority, and refuses the challenge of his enemies. 
Words of solemn import, warning the careless, the un-. 



32 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

faithful, are spoken in parables. The quibbles of rabbis 
and the questions of lawyers are answered, with a wis- 
i(iom none can gainsay. He closes the mouth of adver- 
saries, and gives occasion for the praise of the people ; 
he tenderly observes and commends the poor widow, 
whose mites are richer gifts in God's treasury than all 
the lavish bounty of the wealthy. 

Then he foretells the destruction of the temple, prom- 
ises judgment and deliverance, and paints the awful pic- 
tures of the last days. 

But conspiracy and plot are thickening. Having 
eaten the passover and instituted the Christian feast, he 
passes to Gethsemane, to the council, to Pilate's bar, to 
the cross, to the grave. Now it seems as if the strong 
One were indeed overcome, as if the very Elect of God 
must yield to the great wickedness of the destroyer. But 
no, the grave is empty ! The Lord has risen, appears to 
his disciples, and ascends into glory ! 

Thus, in rapid outline have we sketched the picture 
which the evangelist has given us. "Who is this that 
comes from Edom," we ask, " with dyed garments from 
Bozrah t this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in 
the greatness of his strength t I that speak in righteous- 
ness, mighty to save. 

"Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy 
garments like him that treadeth in the winefat 1 

" I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the peo- 
ple there was none with me." 

See how the mighty Lord appears. The heavens 
open and proclaim him the Son of God. He speaks, and 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 33 

the people hear with awe and wonder. He moves among 
them, and stills the madness of the fever's pulse, pours 
light upon the darkened eye, says, " Be opened," to the 
deaf, rolls upon the astonished ear the music of this joy- 
ous world, while the lips are loosed to sing the praises 
of our God. Devils quake and tremble, and fly before 
his holy gaze. The leprous stand with skins as pure as 
the infant's, when He touches or speaks the, healing word. 
And death, itself, acknowledges Him, as Lord, and lays 
down its spoils, already vanquished and destroyed. See 
how He stills the sea, controls the storm, and bends all 
nature's forces to his will ! 

Yet men oppose him. Faithlessness robs him of his 
triumph, but chiefly itself of his grace. Hypocrisy hates, 
and plots against, and kills him. Royal wickedness and 
priestly blindness, with injustice seated on the throne of 
equity, combine to destroy the Son of God. And they 
triumph; but it is only a seeming triumph, for he who 
in his ministry often retires for rest and communion with 
God, that he might come forth to mightier working, lies 
down in the silent tomb only that he might return to 
life, death all vanquished, sins all smitten, hell crushed, 
heaven opened ; that he might be for ever the Lord and 
Saviour of those who put their trust in him. 

Here, then, is the Jesus whom Mark presents to us — 
the Son of God, the Lord and Master of men, great ago- 
nizer, mighty conqueror, destroyer of all evil, founder, king 
for ever of all good. And yet the Lion of the tribe of Ju- 
dah is gentle as the Lamb of God. Does he not sigh o'er 
human suffering and want t Does he not gently and ten- 

7 



34 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

derly remember all men in their deep needs of sinfulness 
and sorrow ? If not as sublime as the Jesus of John ; if 
not as human as the Christ of the good physician's por- 
traiture; if he does not gather up the lines of all the 
past, and show himself the issue and the glory of all that 
has gone before as the fulfiller of the publican's narra- 
tive — Mark's Christ is still a Christ we need — a Lord to 
save, strong to conquer for us, wise to rule. Thus is 
completed the glorious square of the evangelic history, 
and won by the love of the God-man whom the proph- 
ets predicted and the types foreshadowed, we rest confi- 
dently in the hands of Him who is the Son of God, the 
Redeemer of the world, the Lord God omnipotent, who 
reigneth and triumpheth for evermore. 



THE GOSPEL 



ACCORDING TO LUKE. 



BY REV, WILLIAM LLOYD, 

NEW YORK. 



THE 



QOSPEL ACCORDINQ TO LUKE. 



About six hundred years before the birth of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, a Jewish exile sat upon the banks of 
the river Chebar. He was one of many captives who 
had been carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. As 
he sat sadly musing, the heavens were opened and he 
saw visions of God which are thus recorded : " And I 
looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, 
a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness 
was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of 
amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the 
midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. 
And this was their appearance : they had the likeness of 
a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had 

four wings As for the likeness of their faces, 

they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, 
on the right side : and they four had the face of an ox on 
the left side ; and they four had also the face of an eagle." 

More than six centuries after this vision had been 
accorded to tlte captive Ezekiel, another Jewish exile was 

7"' 



4 THE GOSPEL 

walking upon the wave-washed shore of the isle of Pat- 
mos whither he had been banished for the truth's sake. 
Unto him also was given a vision which you will find in 
Rev., ch. 4. " And in the midst of the throne (that is, 
the throne of God) were four living creatures ; and the 
first living creature was like a lion, and the second like 
unto a calf, and the third had the face of a man, and the 
fourth living creature was like unto a flying eagle.** 

It is impossible for the reader to fail to note the 
similarity of these two visions. According to some of 
the early Fathers, these cherubic forms were representa- 
tive of the four phases of Christ's person, character, and 
works, which the Four Gospels delineate. It is clear 
that a different aim prompted and guided each evange- 
list in his work. There is nothing casual or random in 
their narratives. Each seems to have a well-defined line 
of thought and purpose. Each has a plan through which 
this purpose is seen running like a thread, around which 
the incidents crystallize into beautiful and symmetrical 
shape. They do not describe four Christs, but the one 
Christ in four aspects. Christ is the same in each and 
all. It is the same glorious figure that stands forth upon 
the pages of each, the difference is only in the lines of 
perspective. Now this view of the Fathers may be only 
a fancy, but it is not a vain or profitless one. It was, as 
Illuminated Missals, old Bibles, Windows of Churches 
and Marble carvings witness, for centuries regarded by 
the church as a correct application. 

Matthew shows us the face of the Lion: Christ as a 
king and the founder of a kingdom. Hi^ Gospel binds 



ACCORDING TO LUKE. 5 

as a clasp the Old with the New Testament. He holds 
up the lamp of prophecy and flings its radiance full upon 
Christ the Messiah, and shows us that the kingdom of 
Israel which found its first fitting expression in David 
was But an adumbration of the greater kingdom of 
which Christ was the king. Matthew's is the Gospel of 
the Royalty of Jesus. 

Mark gives us the face of the patient Ox. In his 
evangel we see the divine Son, the servant of man, bear- 
ing men's burdens, healing their sicknesses, and whether 
bound to the plough or prepared for the altar the servant 
of all. 

John's is the face of the Eagle. He soars into realms 
of thought so bright with the light that enfolds and 
drapes Deity, that we shade our eyes in the dazzling 
presence. 

Luke discloses the face of The Man. Christ on the 
human side. Humanity shown as God designs it to be. 
To this third Gospel and its author I am requested to 
direct your thoughts, and to this particular manifestation 
of Christ it is my purpose to devote this lecture. 

Firstly, I will speak upon the author. You will 
acknowledge that acquaintance, either personal or his- 
torical, with the author of any work tends to increase our 
interest therein, and enables us the better to understand 
it. You stand before a painting by some master hand. 
You are charmed by the genius it displays, its breadth 
of tone and fidelity to truth. But if you have a knowl- 
edge of the artist, his mental peculiarities, the idiosyn- 
crasies of his style, (if I may so call them,) your pleasure 



6 THE GOSPEL 

in viewing it is greatly enhanced. Fine lines and slight 
touches, which would otherwise pass unnoticed, become 
deeply suggestive. So is it with a book. Every true 
book is to a greater or lesser extent a revelation of its 
author. Knowledge of the author alone enables us to 
fully enter into and understand it. This is certainly true 
of the Gospels. For while we claim for them a plenary 
inspiration, we also claim they are stamped with the 
personality of their authors. 

The Gospel according to Luke. The records concern- 
ing the writer of this book are few and fragmentary. 
His name is an abbreviation of Lucanus, and he is not 
to be confounded with Lucius mentioned in Acts 13:1; 
Rom. 16 : 21. His name is mentioned three times in the 
New Testament, and is found in some few brief ecclesi- 
astical traditions. We must be content to blend the 
certain and uncertain, the traditional and Scriptural 
records. Brief as these are, and dim as is the outline of 
his life they furnish, we nevertheless gather three very 
important and undeniable facts. 

First in order is the passage found in Col. 4 : 14. 
" Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you." 
From the connection in which this passage stands it is 
clear Luke was of Pagan origin. In verses 10-12 Paul 
mentions his fellow-laborers who were of the circumcis- 
ion, that is, Jews, and in verse 13 those who were of 
Gentile birth, and in this group Luke is placed. He was 
probably born at Antioch. (Eusebius' Hist. 3 :4.) 

This is a very suggestive fact. It demonstrates that 
not only was not the mission of Christ confined to the 



ACCORDING TO LUKE, 7 

limits of Judaism, but the work of recording it was not 
to be exclusively in Jewish hands. It was eminently 
fitting that the Gospel, which should more than any other 
declare the fulness, the universality of the grace of God, 
the light which should lighten the Gentiles, should be 
written by one who had been brought out of pagan dark- 
ness into its marvellous light. When he was converted 
we know not. Some have supposed under the ministry 
of Christ himself, that he was one of the Seventy, and 
also one of the two unto whom Christ appeared on the 
way to Emmaus. But this, I think, the prologue to his 
Gospel disproves. There is in that a clear intimation 
that he was not an eyewitness of the facts he records. 
The strongest supposition is that he was converted 
through the labor of the apostle Paul, with whose jour- 
neyings and toils he became so intimately associated. 

The second fact we learn is, " he was a physician." 
This is of value. It shows that he was a man of educa- 
tion. I know this is disputed by the archbishop of York, 
who wrote the article upon Luke in Smith's Bible Dic- 
tionary ; but there is one important historical fact cited 
by Tholuck and Godet, which is confirmatory of this 
opinion : " There existed at Rome in the time of the em- 
perors a system of medical supervision ; a superior col- 
lege was charged with the duty of examining in every 
city those who desired to practise the healing art. Newly- 
admitted practitioners were placed under the care of 
older physicians ; their modes of treatment were strictly 
scrutinized, and their mistakes severely punished, some- 
times by taking away their diplomas." Luke must have 



8 THE GOSPEL 

passed through this ordeal successfully, and therefore pos- 
sessed, we conclude, an amount of scientific and literary 
culture above the majority of the other evangelists and 
apostles. We need only refer you to the grace, dignity, 
and purity of his literary style as a further confirmation 
of this. It is in beautiful harmony with the design of 
this Gospel that the writer should have been a member 
of one of the most humane, liberal, and beneficial pro- 
fessions. 

The third fact we learn is that he was a beloved fel- 
low-laborer with Paul in his mission to the heathen, and 
the writer of the Acts of the Apostles. Read in 2 Tim. 
4:11. As this lecture is not a critical one, I will simply 
call your attention to a few passages which throw light 
upon this, and thereby considerably enrich our knowl- 
edge of our author's life. 

** And after he had seen the vision, immediately we 
endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering 
that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto 
them. Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a 
straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Ne- 
apolis ; and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief 
city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony : and we were 
in that city abiding certain days," etc. Acts 16 : 10-17. 

" There accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea ; 
and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus ; 
and Gains of Derbe, and Timotheus ; and of Asia, Tych- 
icus and Trophimus. These going before tarried for us 
at Troas. And we sailed away from PhiUppi after the 
days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas 



ACCORDING TO LUKE. 9 

in five days ; where we abode seven days." Acts 
20 : 4-6. 

" And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren 
received us gladly." Acts 21:17. 

"And when it was determined that we should sail 
into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prison- 
ers unto one named Julius." Acts 27 : i. 

" And when we came to Rome, the centurion deliv- 
ered the prisoners to the captain of the guard : but Paul 
was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept 
him." Acts 28 : 16. 

From these passages we see the first clear ray of his- 
torical light fall upon Luke when he joins Paul at Troas. 
They also indicate through what parts of the great apos- 
tle's missionary tour the beloved physician was his com- 
panion. 

Silently, unobtrusively, he takes his place with Paul, 
the fact being marked only by the transition in the style 
of narrative from the singular to the first person plural. 
He accompanies him to Philippi, the place where the 
gospel standard was first planted in Europe ; with some 
slight interruptions shares in his toils and perils until 
the end came in the last imprisonment and the martyr's 
death at Rome. 

Of the latter part of Luke's life we know nothing 
certainly. Legends cluster about his name, but we have 
no means of ascertaining their truth — the most probable 
being that he died in Achaia ; and Jerome says " the 
emperor Constantine sought for his ashes to carry them 
away to Constantinople." 



lo THE GOSPEL 

Such is a brief and imperfect outline of the life of the 
man who by birth, character, culture, and association, was 
eminently fitted to write this third Gospel. We will now 
proceed to the study of the book. 

When and where was it written .? What are the 
proofs of its authenticity } Is the gospel we possess the 
gospel written by Luke and dedicated to Theophilus } 
What relation to the other Gospels does it sustain, and 
what is its aim and purpose .-* These are the questions 
we propose to examine briefly and as far as we are able 
to answer. 

I. The place where it was written is unknown. Opin- 
ions are divided between Caesarea, Achaia, Alexandria, 
Rome, and Asia Minor. It is impossible, however, to ver- 
ify any of these traditions and conjectures, neither is the 
verification, if possible, of any great importance. The 
date, however, is of grave importance. And upon this 
we are not left in much doubt. We will with Godet take 
our stand in the middle of the second century and as- 
cend the stream. If we find in a book of any certain 
date, quotations from some other writer, then it follows 
that the book quoted from existed before the composition 
of the one in which the quotation is found. Now it is 
well known that quotations from this Gospel are found in 
works issued between the years i6o and 195. Theophilus 
of Antioch wrote about 170; Irenaeus about 180. The 
Clementine Homilies appeared about 160. In all of 
these and other works I have not named of the same 
time, undoubted quotations from Luke are found. Still 
further proof is furnished by the fact that the Gnostic 



ACCORDING TO LUKE. n 

Heracleon wrote a commentary upon this Gospel and 
upon John's between the years 175 and 195. By Origen 
this Gospel is ranked among the four Gospels admitted 
by all the churches under heaven. A majority of the 
most reliable commentators place the date of its compo- 
sition between the years 58 and 64, some years before 
the Acts, it being "the former treatise," to which Luke 
refers in the opening of that book. We thus perceive 
that it was given to the world while there were upon the 
earth eyewitnesses of our Lord's life who could have 
exposed the falsehood of any statement therein contained, 
had it been untrue. 

n. Its authenticity. Proofs of genuineness are fur- 
nished first by heretical writings. The enemies of the cross 
of Christ have ever been made to minister to its triumphs. 
From the writings of errorists and perverters some of 
the strongest confirmations of truth have been gathered. 
From the years 120 to 170 lived and taught three great 
heretics, Marcion, Cerdo, and Bassilides. Marcion was 
the author of a gospel written evidently to support theo- 
ries he himself taught. His system may be briefly 
stated thus : He held that the Old Testament was not a 
preparation for the coming of the Lord, but was in spirit 
hostile to the gospel. That the God of the Old Testa- 
ment was a lower being than Christ, and characterized 
only by jealousy and cruelty. In this divorce of the 
Old Testament and the New, of God and Christ, he was 
preceded by Cerdo. Perhaps his error was the result of 
his strong repulsion to the Judaic conception which 
claimed Christ as the Messiah of the Jews only. But his 



12 THE GOSPEL 

gospel is manifestly a perversion and falsification of facts 
gained from other sources. Many passages are clearly 
alterations of Luke, and says Godet, "A scientific criti- 
cism can only conclude that our Gospel of Luke was in 
existence before that of Marcion, and that he chose this 
among all the gospels as the one which he could the 
most readily adapt to his system." Thus it is clear that 
in the year 140 this Gospel possessed full authority, the 
result of a conviction of its genuineness. 

Bassilides, a Gnostic of Alexandria, claimed to be a 
pupil of the Apostle Matthias, which claim implies the 
circulation of the Acts, in which alone is the apostolate 
of Matthias recorded, and consequently of this Gospel 
which we have proved was composed before the Acts. 

Secondly, we have the testimony from the church 
Fathers. Having proved that this Gospel was in the 
hands of Marcion and Cerdo in the year 140, it is perfectly 
legitimate to assume that it was received by the church 
and would be in the hands of the Fathers of that period. 
To their witness we therefore turn for further proof of 
its genuineness. I here refer you principally to Godet's 
Introduction and also to Ebrard's Gospel History. In 
the writings of Justin Martyr, says Godet, we find passa- 
ges which prove unanswerably that the writer was ac- 
quainted with and used as authoritative this Gospel. The 
angelic announcement to Mary is quoted in his dialogue 
with Trypho almost verbatim. The taxing of Quirinus, 
which is given only by Luke, is also mentioned. The 
institution of the Lord's Supper is given according to the 
text of Luke, and the sending of Jesus to Herod, as also 



ACCORDING TO LUKE. 13 

the cry, " Father, into thy hand I commit my spirit," both 
of which facts of the passion of our Redeemer are re- 
corded only by our evangehst. Is it possible then to 
doubt that this Gospel formed a recognized part of those 
apostolic memoirs from which this eminent Father derived 
all the gospel facts by him narrated ? 

We have seen that beyond question this Gospel was 
written before the Acts of the Apostles. Now every proof 
from the writings of the Fathers which proves the ex- 
istence of and acceptance of the Acts, must be taken 
as proving the existence and acceptance of this Gospel. 
As the citation of such passages will more properly belong 
to a future lecture, I 'pass them by, only saying, there 
are many such in the writings of Polycarp, Clement, and 
others. Says Ebrard, " The existence of the Gospel of 
Luke in the very earliest times is attested by a multitude 
of proofs." Referring to the witness of the Fathers, he 
says, " These witnesses all agree in this : that in this 
Gospel we possess the carefully elaborated work of a well- 
educated man, who was intimately acquainted with many 
eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus." 

Thirdly, we have evidence from other parts of the 
New Testament. My time and space will prevent an 
elaborate presentation of the proofs from this source. 
They are found in the Gospels of John and Mark, and in 
the Acts. A most distinct trace of its existence and in- 
fluence upon other New Testament writings is found in 
the close of Mark's Gospel, chap. 16:9-20. In many 
ancient manuscripts the second Gospel closes with the 
words of the eighth verse. It is absent from the Sinaitic 



14 



THE GOSPEL 



and the Vatican manuscripts. It is impossible for a 
comparison between it and some portions of Luke to be 
instituted without concluding that it is borrowed from 
the Gospel of the latter. Compare the following passages : 



Mark 16:9: Now when Jesus was 
risen early, the first day of the week, 
he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, 
out of whom he had cast seven devils. 

Mark 16 : 10, ii: And she went 
and told them that had been with 
him, as they mourned and wept. 
And they, when they had heard that 
he was alive, and had been seen of 
her, believed not. 



Mark 16:12: After that, he ap- 
peared in another form unto two of 
them, as they walked, and went into 
the country. 



Mark 16:13: And they went and 
told it unto the residue : neither be- 
lieved they them. 



Mark 16:14: Afterward he ap- 
peared unto the eleven, as they sat 
at meat, and upbraided them with 
their unbelief and hardness of heart, 
because they believed not them which 
had seen him after he was risen. 



Luke 8:2: And certain women, 
which had been healed of evil spirits 
and infirmities, Mary called Magda- 
lene, out of whom went seven devils. 

Luke 24: ID, 12 : It was Mary Mag- 
dalene, and Joanna, and Mary the 
mother of James, and other women 
that were with them, which told 
these things unto the apostles. Then 
arose Peter, and ran unto the sepul- 
chre, and stooping down, he beheld 
the linen clothes laid by themselves, 
and departed, wondering in himself 
at that which was come to pass. 

Luke 24 : 13, 32 : And, behold, two 
of them went that same day to a vil- 
lage called Emmaus, which was from 
Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. 
And they said one to another. Did 
not our heart burn within us, while 
he talked with us by the way, and 
while he opened to us the Scriptures ? 

Luke 24: 33, 35 : And they rose up 
the same hour, and returned to Jeru- 
salem, and found the eleven gathered 
together, and them that were with 
them. And they told what things 
were done in the way, and how he 
was known of them in breaking of 
bread. 

Luke 24 : 36, 43 : And as they thus 
spake, Jesus himself stood in the 
midst of them, and saith unto them. 
Peace be unto you. And he took it, 
and did eat before them. 



ACCORDING TO LUKE. t^ 

Up to the last chapter wc find no trace of Luke in 
Mark. We infer that this portion was penned by some 
other hand than Mark's ; and if so, it places our Gospel as 
a received authority in the middle of the second century. 
Mark must have been interrupted in his writing by some 
event which prevented its completion for some time. 
The only probable explanation is that the sudden perse- 
cution under Nero in a. d. 64 and the martyrdom of Paul 
led to Mark's hurried flight from Rome. A copy of the 
unfinished work remained deposited in the archives of 
the church there. This would explain the existence of 
the unfinished manuscript and its completion by the help 
of Luke's Gospel, which must then have been in circu- 
lation. This explanation implies the high antiquity of 
this book. 

Passing over the corroborations from the Acts, we 
sum up thus : The use of this Gospel by Marcion and 
Cerdo demonstrate its existence in the middle of the sec- 
ond century. The comparison with Mark and the Acts 
gives color to the presumption that it was in circulation 
in the latter part of the first century. But admitting 
this as open to question, ecclesiastical use of it in the 
church in the second century, as shown by Justin and 
other fathers, is decisive and sufficient with every candid 
mind to establish its' authenticity. 

Concerning the sources from which our author de- 
rived his facts there can be but two opinions: ist, that 
he was an eyewitness of the events recorded. This his 
prologue denies. Or, 2d, that he received his informa- 
tion from the lips of the apostles, and from other wri- 



i6 THE GOSPEL 

tings, and was preserved from errors by writing under 
the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. This latter view I 
believe to be the correct one. Some of the ancients held 
that he wrote entirely under the influence of Paul. But 
his own language is against this idea. Doubtless he 
gathered much from the lips of his great Master, but 
with the Spirit of God as his guide the evangelist made 
the Saviour's life a subject of close research, and with 
the materials thus gained wrote the Gospel which bears 
his name. 

" But are we sure that the book as we have it has 
come to us as it came from the author's hand .''" I an- 
swer, Yes. The afore-given evidences can be taken in 
proof of this. Moreover, we can securely rest our faith 
upon the fact that of the forty-four New Testament man- 
uscripts we still have, written previous to the tenth cen- 
tury, and which, from their antiquity and variety, are 
deemed of the greatest importance, thirty in all contain 
this Gospel in whole or in part. 

III. Let us now proceed to consider its distinctive 
aim and characteristics. 

I have already intimated what I believe these to be. 
Recurring to the cherubic symbol, this Gospel shows us 
the face of the Man. It is emphatically the Gospel of 
the humanity. It sets forth the perfect manhood of 
Christ in all its regal grace and beauty, in all its human 
and universal gentleness and sympathy. In Matthew He 
is the fulfiller of the law, the restorer of the kingdom. In 
Mark He is the Lord of nature, commanding its forces 
as a monarch his vassals, hushing the waves in their 



ACCORDING TO LUKE. 17 

wildest mood with a word, and holding the winds like 
hounds in a leash. In Luke He is active and all-em- 
bracing compassion ; the good Samaritan, binding up 
the wounds of despoiled and smitten humanity; the 
good shepherd, seeking over mountain steep and desert 
wild the lost sheep. It is the memoir, not of the son of 
David, the saviour of a race, but of the Son of man, the 
Second Man. " Here is man according to God ; the pat- 
tern man in and through whom all men are blessed and 
God is glorified, not only in moral perfectness, but in all 
the sufferings and honors which according to God's pur- 
pose are the heritage of the sons of men." 

In Christ we see humanity, triumphant over evil, 
bowed to the dust of death, raised to God's right hand 
and invested with the right to rule over all. So that the 
words which the poet uttered, when exultingly he sang, 

" Slain like him, like him we rise, 
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies," 

are not poetic rhapsody, but grand and blessed truth. 
To do more than give a few hints, which you may sup- 
plement by closer study, would demand more time than 
is. permissible. I can but glance at some few forms 
in which this Gospel distinctively portrays Christ the 
Ma7t. 

First the prologue and opening chapters. Luke is the 
only evangelist who mentions, in connection with his 
work, a personal friend. He dedicates his Gospel to The- 
ophilus. Mark also the difference between his geneal- 
ogy and that givA by Matthew. Matthew's is decidedly 
Jewish. The descent of Christ is traced to Abraham. 



i8 THE GOSPEL 

Luke gives the genealogy to Adam, thereby showing us 
that He was akin to the race. 

No less characteristic is the opening chapter. When 
St. John opens, he at once lifts us as upon eagles' wings 
above the earth, bears us unto the presence of the eter- 
nal and unbegotten Word; but Luke opens with the 
human aspect only. He introduces us to human rela- 
tionships and sympathies in a way unlike any other Gos- 
pel. He alone gives us the angelic annunciations to 
Zacharias and to Mary, of the coming both of the fore- 
runner and of the Lord. Here, and here only, do we 
find the canticles of Elisabeth and Mary. What a fine 
touch of human nature is given in thus recording the 
joy of motherhood which broke forth in these songs of 
blended maternal and pious hope. Here also we have 
the prayer of aged Simeon, whose eyes, dim with age, 
yet see God's Salvation, and who rejoices that the light 
shall be not only the glory of Israel, but the light also 
of the Gentiles. Equally remarkable is the announce- 
ment made by the angels to the shepherds. Matthew 
speaks of monarch-sages who came seeking a king ; but 
Luke records the angelic song, "Behold, I bring you glad 
tidings of great joy," etc. — a Saviour — all that God could 
give, all that man could want ; and the notes of that cho- 
rus still linger upon earth, and in their music shall all its 
discord yet be hushed. 

I pass over much which might be noted in this chap- 
ter in the same connection, and come to the baptism. 
Here only do we read, "When all the 'people were bap- 
tized, Christ also being baptized, and praying, the heaven 



ACCORDING TO LUKE, 19 

was opened." Here he is linked with all the people in 
the rite of baptism and in an act of devotion. 

Glance at a few facts of his early ministry. He opens 
that ministry at Nazareth, the place where he had been 
brought up. Bringing up is a part of every man's lot. 
He commences by reading a prophecy which he claims 
for himself, which describes Him as an anointed man, and 
declares his mission is to proclaim to all captive souls 
deliverance, and good tidings to all the sad and broken- 
hearted. And this peculiarity runs all through this Gospel,- 
this extension of grace far beyond the elect Israel to the 
Gentiles. He sends out the Twelve, and they go every- 
where preaching the gospel ; and when on their return 
John tells of one whom they found casting out devils, 
and forbade him because he followed not with them, He 
rebukes the narrow spirit, and declares that he who is 
not against Him is on his side. 

Luke also is the only one who gives us that touching 
revelation of the Lord's love for and forbearance with 
men even while they rejected him — when he rebuked his 
disciples for their uncharitable severity towards the Sa- 
maritans, saying, "Ye know not what manner of spirit 
ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy 
men's lives, but to save them." 

In harmony with this special love for man as man is 
the manner in which, in many passages peculiar to Luke, 
Christ reveals to men His own nature, that they may be 
made to feel their need of Him. As an instance I cite 
the revelation which was made to Peter by command to 
let down his net after an unsuccessful night of toil, and 



20 THE GOSPEL 

the result : " Depart from me," cries Peter, " for I am a 
sinful man, O Lord." It is the cry of a heart conscious 
of sin in the presence of Sinlessness. The first desire of 
any soul awakened to a sense of its own sinfulness is to 
have the vision of infinite purity removed. Many such 
fine touches, which are distinctive of St. Luke, you will 
readily recall. 

Again : Luke gives us glimpses into Christ's interior 
life which we do not find in the other Gospels. Espe- 
cially are we impressed with this in relation to that most 
important subject — prayer. Matthew records very fully 
Christ's directions concerning prayer, impresses its obli- 
gations, and gives most fully that inimitable model for 
prayer which has become a part of all Christian liturgies. 
But Luke does more than this : he shows us most fully 
our blessed Lord exemplifying and illustrating his own 
precepts. As man He needed help to fulfil his great 
work, power to meet and overcome temptation, patience 
to endure trial and contradiction. So Luke, picturing 
Him as man, shows how He continually exercised this 
grace of dependence. Only here do we read that at his 
baptism he prayed. Before him lay the work of conflict, 
the pain and agony of Gethsemane and Calvary ; and he 
prayed as he was baptized, and entered upon it. When 
he chose the Twelve, we read here only that " He con- 
tinued all night in prayer ; and when it was day he called 
his disciples unto him, and of them he chose twelve." 

May we venture with most reverent footsteps to at- 
tempt to enter the mystery of that night of prayer.? 
What supplications ascended that the men to be chosen 



ACCORDING TO LUKE, 21 

on the morrow might be endued with his spirit and be 
fitted for their great, new work! And what strength 
the remembrance of that night-vigil of their Master must 
have given them ! 

In the ninth chapter and eighteenth verse we see 
that it was after his disciples had suddenly come upon 
him praying, that Peter made that grand confession of 
Christ's deity, upon which, as an immovable rock, the 
church stands. 

When with the favored three, the sons of thunder 
and the man of rock, he stood upon the mountain-brow 
and was transfigured, it is Luke only who records, "As 
he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was changed." 
A grand truth this : prayer, the transforming power. 
And to this Gospel we are indebted for the words spoken 
to Peter after his fall and recovery, words which have 
cheered many a soul saddened by failure in time of test- 
ing — " I have prayed for thee." All of this, I say, is pecu- 
liar to Luke, and is in beautiful harmony with the aim of 
this Gospel of the human side of our Lord. 

Again : this is manifested in the narratives of certain 
miracles of our Lord : for example, in fhe touching story 
of the widow of Nain, chap. 7:11-16, and that of Jairus, 
chap. 8 : 41-56, compared with Matt. 9 : 18-26. A father 
came seeking his help, and here only are the words re- 
corded, "She is mine only child." Comp. Matt, i/: 15. 
Such facts reveal beautifully and blessedly the perfect 
sympathy of him who is not ashamed to call us bretJiren. 
The same trait appears in the parables peculiar to Luke. 
We have not the parables of the kingdom as they appear 



22 THE GOSPEL 

in Matthew ; but we have those which are more espe- 
cially related to us on our human side. Truth is pre- 
sented to us through human characteristics and affec- 
tions. They always begin, " A certain man." Witness 
"The Good Samaritan," "The Pharisee and Publican," 
and especially that blessed three, " The Lost Sheep," 
"The Lost Coin," and "The Prodigal Son." What a 
fellowship with man, lost, helpless, beggared, degraded, 
and perishing, do these parables reveal ; and what an 
unfolding of the depth and tenderness of the Divine 
yearnings over him they likewise give ! Thousands have 
been, and countless thousands yet unborn will through 
them be, won from the mountains of unbelief and from the 
far-off land of first revelry and then want, to the warmth 
of the Father's house and heart. As we near the close 
of his life this tender human element is still more mani- 
fest, and the universality of the blessings his death will 
procure more plainly declared. We can only allude, in 
this connection, to the promised " times of the Gentiles," 
to the place of crucifixion called by the Gentile name of 
Calvary, the salvation of the dying thief, and to the pa- 
thetic and yearning voices of Calvary. 

I had designed to dwell upon Luke's witness to our 
Lord's divinity ; but I am warned I must close. I refer 
you for this to Liddon's Lectures upon the Divinity of 
Christ, where you will find the subject clearly and ex- 
haustively treated. As a conclusion, allow me to pre- 
sent three practical lessons : 

I. The view here given of Christ encourages us to 
approach him with confidence. His royalty alone would 



ACCORDING TO LUKE. 23 

fill us with trembling awe. As we see him rebuking the 
winds and waves, controlling the powers of darkness, 
summoning the universe to his judgment-seat, we feel 
constrained to cry, " Depart from me !" His deity fully 
unveiled would overpower us with its infinite splendors. 
But in this Gospel we behold our Elder Brother — man 
with us — compassed with the same infirmities, grappling 
with the same temptations. Are we tempted } He was 
tempted also. Are we saddened by the faithlessness of 
friends } He passed through the same sorrow. Are we 
disheartened because our most earnest efforts fail } He 
scattered seed only in many instances to see it die upon 
the rock. When we come in contrition or sadness or dis- 
couragement to him, we come not to a cold abstraction, 
but to a loving, human-hearted Saviour, helper, friend. 
With such thoughts, how full of sweetness and force are 
the words we sing : 

" He in the days of feeble flesh 

Poured out strong cries and tears, 
And in his measure feels afresh 
What every member bears." 

2. Christ's frequent praying impresses us with the 
importance and value of prayer. Did he pray in the 
presence of duty, on the eve of conflict, and in the dark- 
ness of approaching death } and shall we not pray } Be- 
loved, believe me, success in labor, triumph in strife, 
calmness in trial, are all alike impossible to the pray- 
erless soul. Fellow-laborers in the vineyard of this 
world, learn, I beseech you, this lesson from your Lord. 
The history of the church's heroes is a history of the 

9 



24 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE, 

power of prayer. Great results must be prepared for \x\ 
the closet. The true soldier burnishes his armor and 
sharpens his sword ere he enters the battle. The best 
reapers whet the sickle ere they stand amid the grain. 

3. That which was the crown and glory of Christ's 
humanity must be ours also. I have said Christ's man- 
hood was a manifestation of humanity, as its Maker 
meant it to be. He was perfect : tried in every way, 
yet always true. He came to do the will of the Father, 
and from that purpose he never swerved. His life was 
one of unflinching loyalty to God, and complete sacrifice 
of self for humanity. By these he gained an eternal 
sovereignty. Angels hastened to minister unto him in 
his weariness after conflict and his agony in sacrifice. 
He conquered death and broke the bondage of the grave, 
and as he ascended gave the pattern and pledge of the 
dominion which all who trust in him and strive by loy- 
alty to God and love for man after perfect manhood, shall 
receive. The man Christ Jesus is the measure of man's 
capacities. Embrace him by faith. Study his life as 
your example ; rely upon his sacrifice as your salvation. 
Through these Gospels behold the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world. Look away from im- 
perfect men to the Perfect. Look until, with the disci- 
ples upon the mount, you see Jesus only. Here, the gaze 
will feed you with triumphant hope, and hereafter will 
make that hope a reality, as gazing upon The Man, the 
God, Jesus, blessed for ever, you become like him. 



THE GOSPEL 
ACCORDING TO JOHN 



BY REV. R. S. STORRS, D.D., 

BROOKLYN. N. Y. 



THE 



QOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN- 



My Christian Friends : It is an alluring and a de- 
lightful task, but it is also a very large and difficult task, 
which has been assigned to me this evening — to speak 
upon the Gospel according to St. John. If that canon 
of criticism be a just one which affirms that a man can 
speak worthily only of that which he was competent to 
have produced — that only the poet can justly criticise or 
celebrate the poem — that only the accomplished and skil- 
ful architect can fairly illustrate the subtile mysteries of 
proportion and rhythm in great cathedrals — that only the 
philosopher can rightly expound the profound philosophic 
treatise of another — who among the sons of men would 
venture to speak of the Gospel of St. John : the supreme 
literary work in the world; which presents the highest 
subject, and presents it in the most harmonious and per- 
fect manner ; where the author is always hidden, while 
the theme is always luminously exhibited ; where the 
style is lucid as the light, while the contents are immense, 
incalculable, surpassing thought, celestial in nature. 
Divine in glory > who shall speak without presumption of 

9* 



4 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN, 

this book, which aims to present to us, almost as in an 
autobiography, the infinite personality of the one Divine 
Being who has trodden the earth ? 

I compare with this aim that of any other writer, the 
most distinguished in the world : of Plato, in his " Re- 
public ;" of Milton, in his " Paradise Lost ;" of Dante, in 
his " Divina Commedia :" I compare with it the aim of 
any man who has lifted the rocks in praise to God, in the 
walls and spires of the cathedral, or who has covered the 
canvas with the glowing outbreak of his imagination, in 
the pictured forms of the Madonna and her child : I com- 
pare with it the aim of the physiologist, searching into 
the secrets of life, or of the astronomer, with his penetra- 
ting tube sounding the untrodden spaces of the heavens : 
and there is no other aim, contemplated or conceived by 
man, which is comparable to that which the writer of this 
book had before him, and which he has so marvellously 
accomplished. If we wait till some one has become wor- 
thy to speak of this Gospel of John, we must wait until 
we can call him back from the heavens, again to open his 
lips before us as he did before the assemblies at Ephe- 
sus, to tell us of the things concerning which he here has 
written, to show us how he was moved and inspired to 
write as he did ! 

And yet there are some things which may be said 
concerning this book, in a merely general and external 
way, which will not be adequate, certainly, to the theme, 
but which may not be unprofitable, and which may assist, 
more or less, in the study of the book ; and to say a few 
of these things, in a very simple manner, is the purpose 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 5 

of my coming here this evening. I hope that God may 
bless them at least to my own heart, as I utter them, and 
may add his blessing upon them to your hearts, as you 
hear them. 

The first question which arises concerning this Gos- 
pel of John relates to the peculiar office which it was 
intended to accomplish. 

It comes, you observe, after three preceding lives of 
the Son of God in the world ; and the question naturally 
arises, " Why was the fourth needed ?" What does it do 
for us which neither of the others, nor all the others com- 
bined, had sufficiently accomplished i* — It is a fair ques- 
tion. It meets us at the outset ; and we ought to have 
an answer, reasonable and sufficient, to give to it. The 
answer, I think, is not hard to find. 

In the biographies of men we are familiar with two 
forms and sorts of composition. In the first of these, the 
external events and incidents of the man's life are narra- 
ted, often faithfully and largely; the actions which he 
performed, the letters which he wrote, the words which 
he spoke, the enterprises which he planned/ and the gen- 
eral way in which he bore himself amid the great crises 
of danger, or suffering, or duty, which beset him. These 
are narrated in order that from them we may infer the 
character, genius, power of the man whose life in its ex- 
ternal particulars is thus set before us. And such narra- 
tives, in proportion as they faithfully record and clearly 
present the circumstances, the actions, and the words of 
the man, enable us, reasoning backward from these par- 
ticulars, to judge of the genius and temper of the man, 



6 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN, 

the phenomena of whose life are thus set before us. 
From the phenomena we infer the personality, which is 
involved in them ; and often, thus, we gain a perfectly 
vivid conception of the spirit of the man through the 
actions and the words which are full of significance. 

Of course we have innumerable examples of this kind 
of biography. Xenophon's " Memorabilia " sets Socrates 
before us in this way. Hildebrand, Luther, William of 
Orange, Washington, have been shown by such biogra- 
phies. Almost every eminent man in the world, who has 
had large power or borne a distinguished part in affairs, 
has been presented to the appreciation, perhaps to the 
admiration, perhaps to the condemnation, of the reading 
world, by those who have thus traced his career and illus- 
trated his character. 

But now there is another kind of biography, in which 
he who writes it seizes at the outset, as by a vivid spirit- 
ual intuition, the peculiar force, genius, spirit, of the man 
concerning whom he is to write. These are present to 
the writer from the very inception of his work ; and he 
simply illustrates them in the particulars which he after- 
wards recites, conceFning the action and career of the 
man. He does not infer the personality from the inci- 
dents of that career; but, having all that was peculiar to 
the man clearly before him at 'the beginning, he inter- 
prets and illuminates by that the subsequent action, the 
record of which he rapidly makes. This is the highest 
class in biographical writing — most appreciated by the 
matured, cultured, and sympathetic reader. We feel at 
once that such would have been the life of Socrates, if 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN, 7 

it had been fully written by Plato. Any life so written, 
of Cicero, Bernard, Angelo, Pascal, permanently enriches 
the world. It is in this way that Shakespeare treats 
the characters which he sets before us. He develops 
them from within outward ; from the person to the phe- 
nomena ; from the internal genius and character, vividly 
apprehended, and continuously carried in the mind of 
the writer, to the action and the speech in which that 
specific genius and character subsequently reveal them- 
selves. And thus it is that he holds his place as the 
first dramatist of the world ; because, having seized so 
distinctly, and held so decisively in mind, the spirit which 
he would illustrate to the world, he afterward presents 
it so naturally — through imaginary incidents, indeed, but 
through incidents which are real in their fitness to the 
character which they are contrived and constructed to 
reveal. Carlyle, in our time, has this power to a remarks 
able, almost to a preeminent degree ; and it is this which 
makes him the recognized master of biographical writing, 
in spite of all that is cumbrous, unattractive, perhaps 
repellent, in his style. You see it where he traces the 
career of Frederick the Great. In the marvellous portrait- 
ure of his character and life which Carlyle has given to 
the world, he has seized the character first, and the genius 
of the man, and then has illuminated the subsequent 
particular external story by the radiance of that original 
conception which he never has lost, which nothing has 
ever obscured in his mind, and by which he interprets 
whatever he subsequently in detail narrates. 

There are, then, these two classes of biographical 



8 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 

writing : the first, that in which the external incidents are 
related, in order that the writer may work back through 
them to the conception of the character and the power 
of the man whose life he is to describe ; the second, that 
in which the character and power of the man, perfectly, 
vividly comprehended by the writer, are made subse- 
quently to illuminate whatever his pen afterward re- 
cords. And we should expect, I think — certainly we 
should regard it as desirable — that when a Divine Person 
comes into the world, if it be possible in the nature of 
things, both of these classes of writings should be com- 
bined in the narratives which present him to the honor, 
the homage, the adoration of the world. We must hope 
that there will be this, which relates the familiar acts, 
the incidental words, the apothegms, the gnomic sen- 
tences, the parables, as well as the wondrous works of 
power, and through which we are carried back to the 
conception of the power and spirit which dwelt and 
reigned in Him who is thus revealed to our faith ; and 
we must hope, also, if it be possible, by the constitution 
of human nature and by the inspiration of the Holy 
Spirit, that there will be at least one writer who will 
seize at the outset the unique, the supreme, the tran- 
scendent, the Divine, in this solitary Person thus walking 
the world to challenge its allegiance, and who after- 
ward will, simply by the radiance of that conception, 
illuminate all discourse, emphasize all action, interpret 
all suffering, and gloriously unfold the consummation 
and the end of the life thus wondrous in nature and in 
scope. - ■ ' . , 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 9 

In the one case we are like a man travelling from 
the frontier toward the capital ; in the other case we are 
like one who first understands, surveys, masters in 
thought, the imperial capital, and then from that point 
surveys the empire in which it is central, over which it is 
dominant. In the one case we are like the man who fol- 
lows a campaign in its successive incidents, of battle, 
march, and apparent defeat, and through all these suc- 
cessive combinations reasons back to the plan, and even 
to the genius, of the general commanding ; in the other 
case we comprehend the genius and the plan at the out- 
set, and in the light of this foreknowledge read whatever 
subsequently occurs. In the one case we go from moon 
and planet toward the sun ; in the other case we stand 
in the sun itself, central and supreme, and from it survey 
the entire system which it irradiates, and which it car- 
ries through the immense ethereal spaces, — which takes 
from it all light and beauty, and which is evermore up- 
held and controlled by its unfailing sovereign energy. 

Both these classes of biographical writing, as I have 
said, might perhaps have been expected— certainly both 
might have been desired — in a book which should seek 
to present to us the marvellous story of a Divine Person 
coming into the conditions of human life, subjecting him- 
self to the limitations of our weakness and frailty, tarry- 
ing on earth through the term of a mortal life, that he 
might lift the race to which he came toward God and 
heaven ! And both these sorts of biographical writing 
we find in the New Testament. 

We have first the early oral teachings of the apos- 



lo THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JO HIST. 

ties concerning the Master — whom they had so long ac- 
companied, whose words had fallen with immense im- 
pressiveness upon their minds, from whom they had fled, 
their affection and their allegiance failing at the critical 
moment, yet whom they reverenced, trusted, adored, es- 
pecially after his resurrection from the dead, and to 
whom they gave the service of their life. This early 
oral teaching of the apostles was the Gospel, which was 
proclaimed by them, which their office ordained them to 
proclaim, as eyewitnesses of the things which they had 
seen and heard, and which afterward they were to report 
to mankind. This was the Gospel by which men were first 
to be addressed, that they might be converted to Christ, 
and made the believing disciples of him, under the quick- 
ening grace of God's Spirit. This was the Gospel in 
which they were to be examined afterward, questioned 
and catechized, when they offered themselves to be re- 
ceived into the church. This was the Gospel by which 
they were to be subsequently instructed, built up in the 
faith, and through which they were always to be pressed 
to new and nobler Christian activity, after their conver- 
sion and their personal association with the body of be- 
lievers. 

Now, as the apostles grew older, and it was Increasing- 
ly evident that, in the multiplying number of the church- 
es, some of these would hardly be able to hear at all the 
apostles' voices, and that sooner or later, in the nature of 
things, they must pass from the scene of their ministry, 
it was a natural desire of the churches — and certainly 
not less a desire of the apostles, a movement in their 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. n 

minds of the Spirit of God — that there should be carefully 
reduced to writing these narratives which they had given 
orally ; that these might remain, permanently instructing 
and inspiring to good, among the churches ; that copies 
of them might be multiplied, and circulated more widely ; 
that there might be no possible risk of that interpolation, 
and that gradually growing misinterpretation, which 
would be plainly likely to occur if they should leave the 
Gospel, thus taught by their several voices, to be commu- 
nicated to subsequent times simply by tradition. So that 
oral proclamation of the apostles, concerning Him whom 
they had seen, was reduced to writing by three evange- 
lists. By Matthew, who was himself an apostle, and a 
witness of the things which he recorded ; who writes 
with many personal characteristics appearing in his 
style ; its Hebraistic peculiarities showing him to be of 
the Hebrew descent ; the carefulness of his method indica- 
ting his commercial training ; collating miracles by them- 
selves, and parables by themselves ; arranging according 
to the nature of the subject, rather than chronologically; 
and who writes with primary reference, evidently — as 
internal and external proofs conspire to teach us — to the 
dispersed converted Hebrews. He shows how the Old 
Testament was continually fulfilled in the life, the action, 
and the sufferings of the Divine Person, concerning whom 
his pen is reciting what before his lips had told. 

Then Mark — not an apostle, but long a companion of 
Peter, and perfectly familiar with his account of the life 
of the Lord — writes that account as he had received it ; 
writes, according to the earliest testimony which remains 

10 



12 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 

to us concerning this Gospel, under the supervision of 
Peter himself, and under his direction. He gives no 
genealogy of Jesus ; but starts, as the impetuous apostle 
might have been expected to start, suddenly launching 
forth in full career upon the wonderful historical action of 
the Lord in the world. He writes, apparently, especially 
for the Romans. He writes as though he were inditing an 
answer to that scornful and skeptical question of Pilate, 
" What hast thou done T — the question which naturally 
arose to the Roman lip. "No matter what thou hast 
thought or taught ; that is a mere fancy in the mind, or 
a mere noise in the air." The Roman law takes cogni- 
zance of character only as revealed in action, and thus 
becoming the fit subject of judicial inquiry, approval, or 
punishment. So, " What hast thou done i^" Mark 
writes as if to answer this : to show what the Son of 
God, anointed with the Holy Ghost, and clothed upon 
with power from heaven, had done in the world. His 
entire Gospel has, apparently, a principal reference to 
the Roman world. 

Then Luke, long a companion of St. Paul — possibly, 
though not probably, one of the seventy disciples — of 
Greek descent, and of careful Greek culture — writes his 
narrative, to set forth in order what he has heard from 
St. Paul ; what he has gathered, as he tells us himself, 
from all the sources to which he has had access, which 
could furnish him the authentic information of eyewit- 
nesses, concerning the career of the Lord in the world. 
He writes with great care, skill, and elegance. His per- 
sonal characteristics appear in his narrative as clearly as 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 13 

those of Mark and Matthew do in theirs. He writes ev- 
idently for the Greek converts ; that they may share the 
inestimable benefits of which the Hebrew and Roman 
converts were assured through the other gospels, and may 
know exactly what the Lord, whose message of grace 
was for Greek and Jew, had done and said. 

Each of these, you observe, writes independently of 
the others ; neither having seen, apparently, the equiva- 
lent or the parallel writing of either of the others. They 
write in substantial agreement, because they are writing 
the same original apostolic story — the story of Christ's 
work upon earth, and of his teachings, as the apostles 
had severally heard them. They write, however, for 
some reason to us unknown, but which to them was con- 
trolling and imperative, principally, almost wholly, of his 
ministry in Galilee, and of his last visit to Jerusalem, 
with the discourses which he there uttered, in the hear- 
ing of the Pharisees, the people, and his disciples, and with 
the significant and tremendous particulars of his death 
and resurrection. Except so far as that last visit is pic- 
tured in their narratives, we should hardly know that he 
had made any journeys to Jerusalem, or had accom- 
plished any ministry in Judea. Of these only the last 
Gospel especially informs us. Each of the others writes, 
as I have said, independently of the rest ; yet all write in 
substantial agreement, though with incidental differences 
and superficial diversities, which, as plainly as anything 
else, show that these narratives were directed by the 
Holy Ghost. They attest sincerity, and they grapple 
attention. To these three harmonious and parallel but 



14 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 

diverse records the attention of scholars is incessantly 
drawn anew ; and the labors of harmonists in reconcilino- 
their apparent differences, and in bringing into one con- 
tinuous narrative these three stories of the life and work 
and words of the Lord — these have been, as you know, 
continuous and immense. 

One characteristic belongs to them all. In each we 
have the external action ; the word spoken to the world 
at large, rather than to the disciples : the words spoken 
concerning the kingdom of Christ in the world, with 
the means and appliances to forward it, and through 
its extension to bless mankind. But from all these rec- 
ords we are led constantly backward and upward to the 
conception, more and more clearly and strongly presented, 
of the power and the spirit of Him by whom the words were 
spoken, and by whose might the acts were performed. 

Turn now to the foui th Gospel, and you see at once 
the other method of biographical portraiture, applied by 
the human mind, under the inspiration and instruction of 
the Divine Spirit, to the representation of the life and 
person of this mysterious Son of God ! At the very 
beginning we are confronted by that which is transcen- 
dent, supreme, unsearchable. Divine, in the person and 
the life of Him whom the writer would present. He 
traces the Lord's genealogy, not to Abraham, not to 
Adam, but to the eternity of God's own being ; and the 
subsequent discourses, and the sublime actions, are in- 
tended to set forth with vivid fidelity the amazing truth 
contained in that majestic proem with which the book 
ppens. They are the illustrations of that central, domi- 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 15 

nant, illuminating fact, which breaks upon us with the 
first writing of his pen, with the earliest utterance of his 
intuitive and inspired soul. Everything else is tributary 
to this. You are throned in the sun, and are looking 
forth thence upon the whole system. You have started at 
the capital, and are traversing the country which that 
governs and crowns. You begin at the centre and sum- 
mit of the story, and go from thence, through all the 
crowded and radiant gospel, to its utmost circumference. 

That is the peculiar office which this Gospel is in- 
tended to fulfil, and which it in fact marvellously accom- 
plishes. The aim of the writer is to present this holy, 
omnipotent, eternal Son of God, in that which he said, 
in that which he did : nature first, action afterward ; first 
the mind, then the utterance which revealed it. It is the 
grandest aim, as I said before, ever conceived by the 
human intelligence ; an aim so vast that, unless you rec- 
ognize not only the genius, or the character, but also 
the special inspiration of the man, his folly in attempting 
it will be most obvious. Ambition so daring, unless sus^ 
tained by divine assistance, must shadow all his claims 
on human attention. The folly of the attempt will be. 
come only more final, and more fatal, because of the 
absolutely transcendent character of the unique purpose 
which he has in view. 

So we come to observe more distinctly the man him- 
self, to whom this task has been committed, and by whom 
it is sought to be accomplished. But concerning him 
we know comparatively little. We know that he was of 
the middle class in society — not of the very 'poor, not of 



i6 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 

the very rich. We know that he was by human relation- 
ship a kinsman of the Lord ; that there was some bond 
of blood between them. What precisely this was, it is 
perhaps not possible absolutely to affirm. Probably his 
mother Salome was a sister of Mary. If so, he was of 
course, on the human side, a cousin of the Lord ; and 
that relationship would have led him naturally, we should 
suppose, to observe and magnify the human side of 
Christ's life. If he, standing in such a relationship to 
the Lord, affirms his divinity, and shows it streaming 
into and everywhere exalting the subsequent record, then 
that affirmation and that demonstration are emphasized 
by the fact that he was humanly so close in the kinship 
of him concerning whom he writes. 

But the temperament, spirit, and genius of the man are 
the things we must especially consider. He walks before 
us as "a veiled figure," it has well been said, throughout his 
Gospel. He does not mention his own name. He speaks 
of himself in the third person, whenever he has occasion 
to refer to himself at all ; and yet his words so throb with 
the beautiful and intense vitality of his spirit that we 
know him almost as if the whole book had been written 
about himself, as if there had been exact descriptions, 
detailed accounts, of his characteristics as revealed in his 
life. A meditative, contemplative, affectionate, enthusi- 
astic, ideal nature — this is evident in all parts of the Gos- 
pel. It is evident especially in all the relations which he 
sustains to the Master. It is evident in his Epistles, and in 
the Apocalypse, as well as in his Gospel. A nature en- 
dowed with almost feminine intuitiveness ; with a deli- 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 17 

cacy of insight incomparable among men. "A virgin 
spirit " he has been called, and called most justly — pure, 
ethereal, unseculaf, reserved. He appears indeed a Son 
of Thunder — the Master thus named him ; but this de- 
scribes, not boisterous and noisy force, but the intensity, 
the moral earnestness, the vivid and masterful energy, 
which were in him ; the affectionate ardor, the devout and 
adoring fervor of spirit, the intense and consuming en- 
thusiasm of nature. In such a nature the sharpness of 
moral conception and judgment is perfect. It is capa- 
ble of the most profound and absorbing excitement, in 
which is involved also a vast power over others, in kin- 
dling and quickening their hearts with ardor. As such 
a person the Lord describes him ; as such a person we 
always see him, in the wondrous and inspiring records of 
this book. 

Then observe, further, his special relation of affection 
to the Master. First, he is one of many disciples. Then 
he is one of the twelve apostles. Then he is one of the 
three disciples with the Master in the chamber of death, 
where he raises the dead child to life. He is one of the 
three with him again on the Mount of Transfiguration ; 
one of the three nearest to him, amid the gloom and 
agony of Gethsemane. Then he is the one of all the dis- 
ciples who leans on the Master's breast at the supper ; 
the one to whom Lord commends his mother from the 
awfulness of the cross ; the one to whom he reveals him- 
self later in the final Apocalypse, from amid the glory 
which succeeds the ascension. The circle constantly 
narrows ; the relation becomes more intimate and pecu- 



i8 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 

liar, between this affectionate, enthusiastic, intuitive apos- 
tle and the Master whose glory he discerns ; whose glory 
he is afterward to portray to the world as no other could. 
Out of this affection, pure, tender, supreme, comes 
inspiration to every faculty ; comes always added clear- 
ness of insight into the temper, into the nature, into the 
essential relations to the universe, of Him whom he loves. 
Compare him with Matthew, for example, or with James, 
or even with Peter, and you see instantly the peculiar 
intimacy between his mind and Christ's mind. You see 
how much more fully the Lord was revealed to him than 
in the nature of the case He could be revealed to a less 
capacious, less sensitive and delicate receptivity, in an- 
other. We know in daily experience how different is the 
very faculty of seeing among men. One looks upon a 
picture, and marks it on his guide-book, and passes on. 
Another sees in it the gloom and agony and triumph of 
Calvary, painted by the master's hand ; or sees the flush of 
rapture in the martyr's face, as Agnes or Perpetua looks 
up into the heavens whose radiance is opening wide 
above them. One man sees nothing on the canvas but 
the reproduced lines of hills and valleys, such as he has 
seen in nature a hundred times ; another in the same 
picture sees the scene of great historic events, where 
Charlemagne conquered, Columbus landed, or Titian was 
born. To him a spell and charm are in all the lines to 
which the other is wholly blind. So St. John, with this 
intense, intuitive, ethereal nature, saw more in Christ, when 
the Spirit of God had purified, had almost transfigured 
that nature, than any other of the disciples, even stand- 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 19 

ing in the same external relations, could possibly have seen. 
The intimacy became closer, the fellowship sweeter, the 
inward revelation of Christ more perfect, the longer the 
interactions of their minds upon each other continued in 
the world. 

Observe, too, the peculiar opportunity which John 
had for the most perfect knowledge of Christ, through his 
subsequent companionship with Mary, the revered moth- 
er of the Lord. No commentator, so far as I remember, 
has dwelt upon this point, as especially arresting his at- 
tention, and as illustrating the hidden and peculiar riches 
of this Gospel. Perhaps some have done so, but I do not 
recall it. Yet there is great significance in it. It was 
with John, after the death of Jesus, that Mary tarried, 
you remember. Has it occurred to you that her moth- 
er's heart must have known more, in some respects, of 
that wondrous Son than any other human heart } that 
there were facts connected with his coming into life upon 
the earth of which she alone was conscious, of which 
others could only have heard 1 that there must have been 
inward recognitions of the Divine in him on her part 
which almost superseded the necessity of outward reve- 
lation } which illuminated facts, emphasized discourses, 
and gave a certain transfiguring glory to all the common 
life of the Lord t Yet she has said nothing concerning 
it to the world, except as she has spoken through Luke 
and through John. Unquestionably Luke must have 
got from her much of that which he reports, so particu- 
larly and so fully, in the first two chapters of his Gos- 
pel. Unquestionably, I think, John also got much from 



20 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 

her, in the long hours of reverent conversation which fol- 
lowed the ascension of Christ from the earth, when 
Mary and her young nephew — if nephew he were — were 
talking together of Him whom they both supremely 
adored. And it is to me a beautiful thought that the 
mother's heart speaks to us in this Gospel, which has 
been referred to so justly in the words of the prayer, as 
" the heart of Christ revealed to the world." 

It was not the intrepid dialectics of Paul, or his sov- 
ereign submission ; it was not the rugged fidelity of 
Peter, or the clear ethical convictions of James ; it was 
the sympathetic tenderness and the illuminating affection 
of the mother's heart — who had followed that divine Son 
from birth to death, and after death had seen him going 
up into the heavens, with his hands lifted in benediction 
until the cloud received him out of her sight — it was 
this which largely, instrumentally, I think, interpreted 
to John the mystery of grace and glory in Christ. He 
was sure of the Incarnation ; and he made it the key- 
word of his Gospel : " In the beginning was the Word ; 

and the Word was with God ; and the Word was God 

And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us ; 
and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten 
of the Father, full of grace and truth." 

Observe, too, how the inspiration of the Holy Spirit 
operated constantly, though silently, upon this enthusi- 
astic, ideal, intuitive nature, purified by grace, instructed 
by affectionate intercourse with the Master, and by pro- 
longed subsequent converse with His mother; how it 
recalled to him what otherwise might have faded, and 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO yOHN. 21 

interpreted to him what otherwise might have been ob- 
scure ; how it refreshed, exalted, augmented every power, 
and made him competent, if ever man was competent 
or could be, to write the amplest Life of the Master, on 
the plan which I have indicated — beginning with his 
divinity, and from that summit-fact illuminating every- 
thing ; not beginning with the external work, and from 
this ascending towards the ultimate sovereign conception 
of its author ! 

So qualified in himself, so blessed in abundant oppor- 
tunity of knowledge, so quickened by the Spirit, in his 
old age, after the others had written their records, but 
while everything is yet vivid before him, he writes this 
Gospel, spreading out as in a panorama before us his 
whole recollection of the Lord and of His work. He 
tells us when he first met the Lord, at that most critical 
moment in his life ; he remembers that " it was about 
the tenth hour;" he remembers just how high the sun 
was above the Mediterranean ; the very aspect of the 
Jordan valley is vividly before him. He recalls the words 
of Christ, reasoning with the Jews on the temple floor. 
He sees again their bitter hatred, hears their contemjo- 
tuous replies, sees their sour faces ; and the chill of 
the wind still smites him, as he says "It was winter." 
The very blast is on his cheek as he pens the word. He 
feels again the icy sharpness of that cold hour, corre- 
sponding to the sullen chill in the skeptical temper of 
those around Christ. He speaks of Judas, and we see 
the sign by which Judas is disclosed and made known as 
the traitor. Judas rises and goes out, and John says, " It 



22 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 

was night." What a picture has he sketched in this sin- 
gle line ! John was reclining, I suppose, with his Master, 
next to him ; Peter was perhaps at the end of the table ; 
and Judas, perhaps, opposite to John ; and as Judas went 
out, having received the morsel of bread which was the 
sacrament of brotherhood, when the door swung open 
into the windy inner court, John, following him with his 
eye, sees the darkness, hears the gust, and he writes it all 
in that one word, " It was night." He went into the 
night, prophetic of the darker, denser, eternal night 
which lay beyond ! 

So vivid is his recollection, even in old age, because 
of his affection, because of his intuition of the glory of 
Christ, because of the inspiration of the Spirit which is 
upon him. In the evening of his life, having often talked 
of these things with his disciples, he writes the narrative 
out in full, that this Divine Person whom he had known 
may ba set forth before the world : — the grandest work 
ever committed to a man ; committed to the chiefest of the 
apostles in fitness for it ; the last work of his life, it is 
supposed ; and certainly the greatest work that the human 
mind has ever imagined, has ever attempted to achieve. 

Then observe, in the light of this office of the Gos- 
pel, and of the man to whom that office is intrusted, the 
method which the Gospel followed. It differs essentially 
from the method pursued in the preceding narratives, 
which treat principally of the ministry in Galilee, of the 
external actions, and of the teachings of Christ to the 
world at large concerning his kingdom. This Gospel 
starts, as I have said, with the Divine, eternal genealogy 



THE GOSPEL ACCORVIiXG TO yOHN. 23 

of Christ. Then it represents his Divine mind in his 
discourses — discourses uttered not to the world, so 
much as to the chosen circle of his disciples — discour- 
ses, not concerning his kingdom in the world, of which 
the other disciples have chiefly written, but concerning 
his own attributes, his own nature, his relations to the 
Father, his plans and purposes for mankind. John un- 
dertakes to give these to his readers ; illuminating them 
all with the light of that supreme conception with which 
he starts — the absolute union of the Lord with God in 
the essential deity of his person. Not merely thus does 
he set forth the mind of Christ ; he sets forth also his 
spirit and character, his Divine temper of self-sacrifice — 
that supremest thing in God of which there is no other 
revelation in all the universe known to us ! It implies no 
self-sacrifice on the part of God to carry the planets for 
ever forward, in their musical order, or to set the suns on 
their poise in the heavens. It implies no self-sacrifice on 
the part of God to carry the world on its path through 
the heavens, from age to age ; to adjust the rhythmic and 
melodious motions of those mighty masses with which 
the earth is related. It is the joy of God — so far as that 
joy springs from anything material — to uphold and con- 
trol the mighty universe which He has built. It involves 
no self-sacrifice in yonder organist when he loosens into 
the air the mighty harmonies and the cadenced melodies 
with which the instrument is instinct, by the touch of a 
key. It involves no self-sacrifice to the poet when he 
utters, in his melodious numbers, the thoughts and fancies 
which fill his soul And there is no self-sacrifice to God 

n 



24 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 

in sprinkling the sod with summer blooms, or making the 
autumn orchards rich with ripened fruit, in bending his 
bow upon the clouds, or piling beauty and wealth upon 
the world. The only revelation of self-sacrifice in God 
is that which is made in Christ his Son, through whom 
His heart is declared to the world. That is part of John's 
conception of God in Christ ; and he writes to show how 
that self-sacrifice wrought itself into transcendent exhi- 
bition, in his long patience, his suffering, and his death. 
God's Son was to be glorified ; that was a part of the in- 
finite counsel. But His glorification was not at all to be 
on a throne, lifted up, in sight of Jerusalem. It was not 
to be in his suddenly descending from the pinnacle of 
the temple, as the tempter had suggested that he should, 
with a legion of angels for his attending acclaiming co- 
horts. His glory was to be realized in this : that while 
he had power to sweep Pilate, v/ith all his legionaries, into 
the Mediterranean sea — power, when the officers came to 
take him, not merely to beat them to the earth by a 
glance of his eye, but to pin them there forever, if he 
chose, till their dry ashes mingled with the dust — he 
yielded his mighty and omnipotent hands to the binding 
fetters ; he allowed them to be transfixed with nails, and 
fastened to the cross; he permitted himself to be crowned 
with the acanthine crown, on the brow where now are 
many diadems ! He was glorified in dying, because he 
died the Sinless for the sinful, the Lord of the earth for 
the redemption of mankind. 

That is the burden, that is the consummation, that is 
the supremest lesson, of the Gospel of John ! Starting 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 25 

with God manifest in the flesh, flashing back thenceforth 
each Divine discourse from the mirror of his serene con- 
templation and his clear recollection, rehearsing the ever- 
memorable works in which the kingly mind in Christ 
was illustriously revealed, he shows us as well the celes- 
tial spirit, the unimagined Divine temper, most fully 
shown, most gloriously crowned, when dying for His ene- 
mies ; dying beneath Jewish malice, and Roman coward- 
ice ; dying for the world which hated and killed Him ! 
Only a nature like that of John, related to Christ so inti- 
mately as he was, taught by Christ's mother as he had 
been, inspired of the Spirit as he certainly was, could 
have given that amazing conception of Christ : — which 
has lifted the race, and brought the heavens nearer the 
earth, as he has wrought it out in the manifold illustra- 
tions which crowd his record. 

Herein he indicates the whole plan of Christ's king- 
dom, and the universality of that kingdom in the earth. 
*' And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all 
men unto me." How touching it is that the next words 
he puts into a parenthetical form, as if to show that he 
did not feel himself to have wholly understood them at 
the time ! " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
all men unto me." John no doubt thought, when he 
heard the words, that what Christ meant was : " If I be 
lifted up in some illustrious transfiguration, over the tem- 
ple and the city ;" " If I be lifted up as on the wings of 
sustaining angels :" and so he adds afterward, when he 
came to a better and deeper understanding of the say- 
ing, " This he said, signifying by what death he should 



26 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 

die." It was to be the lifting up on the cross which at 
last should draw the world unto himself ! This is John's 
conception of Christ ; this his manifestation of His glory, 
transcendent in the world ; this his foresight of that uni- 
versal kingdom on earth, in which He is at last to reign, 
the King of kings and Lord of lords. The Apocalypse 
itself only answers thus to the sovereign idea of John's 
Gospel. If the Apocalypse were written before the Gos- 
pel, then it interprets some things which are otherwise 
obscure in the history of this book. But whether writ- 
ten before or after, it only carries out, in that vivid, tumultu- 
ous, panoramic exhibition, as of a supernal drama, the same 
idea which John elsewhere more simply develops, of the 
universal kingdom of the Lord on the earth. It is there 
shown coming to its final supremacy, over the stress of 
human resistance, and through terrific clash of conflict, 
by instrumentalities which God in his providence raises 
up, but coming at last to the same complete and final 
supremacy which is all put before us when we read these 
words of Christ himself, recorded by his affectionate 
scholar, ' I will draw at last all men to me 1' 

It is a beautiful thought, too, concerning this Gospel, 
in its connection with the Apocalypse, that the first im- 
pression ever made on the mind of John concerning Je- 
sus was made by that which was spoken at the outset by 
John the Baptist : " Behold the Lamb of God !" It shows 
the tenacity of the memory which lost nothing; it shows 
the spiritual perfection of view which interpreted every- 
thing, — that this title of Christ recurs continually in the 
Apocalypse. It links that book with the first impression 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 27 

which John ever received of Jesus. The vision of the 
royal Conqueror is before him, of the mighty King, of Him 
whose face shines as the sun, who is girt about with the 
golden girdle, who marches at the head of the armies of 
God, leading them to victory ; and yet, " I beheld, and lo, 
in the midst of the throne, a Lamb, as it had been slain !" 
From the first moment of his incipient discipleship to 
the last ecstasy of the final Apocalypse, was John filled 
with this image of the Lamb — of the Lamb that was 
slain for the sin of the world ! Perea and Paradise are 
inseparably linked by it. 

This is the method of John's Gospel. It is the one 
which in large measure supplements the others. It has 
sometimes been spoken of, therefore, as the supplementary 
Gospel. In some sense it is such ; not as filling out the 
tracings of their previous delineation, or adding other 
particulars of the same kind which they had narrated ; 
but as presenting, as I have said, the ministry in Judea 
more thoroughly than they had done — developing freely 
what the others had touched upon lightly — and espe- 
cially as giving us the profounder discourses, under the 
higher and clearer illumination of that supreme concep- 
tion of Christ which John had at the outset, and which 
irradiates all his writing. So it is an ever-unfolding Gos- 
pel, and will be such to the end of time. When we have 
searched the heavens through, and counted and weighed 
each star in its orbit ; when we have reduced those lumi- 
nous films of celestial light to the islands in the universe 
which they undoubtedly are ; when we know all the au- 
gust and solemn mysteries of the heavens, in their order 

II* 



28 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 

and brightness, their secret harmonies and their im- 
mense outreach, beyond our thought, — even then we shall 
not know God to perfection, in the majesty and the beau- 
ty of his mind and his will ; and until we know Him, as 
manifest in Christ, we shall not fully have apprehended 
the meanings, have comprehended the ideas, have search- 
ed and sounded the spiritual facts and spaces in their 
immeasurable depths, which are infolded in this divi- 
nest of the Gospels, this luminous and transcendent book 
of the Word ! 

Finally we must face this question, and give if we 
can the answer to it — a question which meets us often : 
Why was this book so late in appearing ? and what was 
at last the immediate motive in which it originated ? 

Evidently it tarried long, imbedded vitally in the 
consciousness of St. John, but not written out by him 
until that comparatively late period in his ministry when 
he put it into this full and wonderful expression. Really, 
therefore, the question concerning this book, which is 
urged so often by skeptical writers on the battlefield of 
debate in the Biblical controversy of this century, is this : 
Why did not John write his Gospel earlier .'* Why did 
he delay it so long t To this question it is not perhaps 
possible for us to give an answer wholly satisfactory. 
We do not know why. Any answer must be largely 
conjectural. It is one of those matters concerning which, 
after so many centuries have passed, it is almost idle to 
inquire. By-and-by, perhaps, when we meet him in the 
heavens, we may learn directly from him whether the 
Christian consciousness of the churches was not suffi- 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO yOHN. 29 

ciently advanced to receive it at an earlier stage, or what 
other influence it was which detained him from writino- 
But the motive for ultimately writing the marvellous 
book is easy to comprehend. 

He did not write it in order to fill out the synoptical 
outline of the earlier evangelists, supplying similar par- 
ticulars which they had failed to narrate, and completing 
the early teachings of the apostles by adding other de- 
tails of the ministry in Galilee. He wrote to supple- 
ment the preceding gospels in a different and a higher 
sense. He wrote from an independent and supreme 
point of view, in an original method. There must have 
been the continual motive in his mind, which is in the 
mind of any man who has a great truth, known to him- 
self but unknown to others, which it is for their profit 
and welfare to know, and which he can communicate. 
An affectionate and enthusiastic nature like John's, rev- 
erent, adoring, wholly consecrated to Christ, must have 
been moved all the time to utter to others those things 
which he knew and had seen concerning this Divine 
Lord. Then there was, added to this, that practical mo- 
tive which he himself indicates in the thirty-first verse of 
the twentieth chapter, where he says, " These things are 
written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, 
the Son of God ; and that, believing, ye might have life 
through his name." 

That is reason enough for his writing at any time ; 
while the special reason for his writing at a period so late 
may possibly be found in the fact that there was then a 
comparatively rich maturity of Christian knowledge and 



30 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO yOHN. 

spiritual experience among the churches, which had been 
wanting in the earlier time. The first converts had 
been suddenly brought out of Judaism and heathenism, 
into the knowledge and faith of Christ, and into a per- 
sonal consecration to him. All their conceptions of 
truth were crude ; their chief thought concerning Christ 
contemplated him as a governing Master. Into the 
mysteries of his life and love, of his esoteric teaching, 
of his stupendous redemption, they hardly could enter. 

In the last ten years of that first century, in the time 
when John wrote this Gospel, there were many Chris- 
tians who had been born and trained in Christian house- 
holds ; who had had, one may say, a hereditary Chris- 
tian experience behind them; who had not been born 
heathen or Jews, but had been taught, from the earliest 
unfolding of consciousness, the truths and precepts and 
the promises of the New Testament. To such a com- 
parative maturity of Christian knowledge, and of spirit- 
ual experience, this Gospel is addressed. It presupposes 
a fruitful preceding moral culture. It is not apt to rude 
beginners in the Divine service. The missionary now 
may reach the heathen better and more directly through 
the narratives of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, than through 
the sublimer record of John. It is after a man has been 
converted, has been trained and disciplined by teaching 
and by suffering, after his children have come to read 
and love the New Testament, and the spirit of it has 
moulded the life of the household — it is then that the 
great, incomparable truths of the Gospel of John will be 
most amply and familiarly opened to the soul. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN, 31 

So in the gradual development of the church at Eph- 
esus — which was half an Oriental, and half an Occidental 
city — where magic and heathenism confronted fiercely 
the rising power of Christian consecration and apostolic 
instruction — it had come to pass, in the old age of John, 
that there were many for whom the magic had utterly 
ceased to have charm or power ; over whom superstition 
exerted no influence, and to whom an idol had never 
been anything but a dead image, of brass or of wood. 
They had been taught, from their earliest recollection, in 
the new and Divine dispensation of religion, had always 
walked in the prospect of the unending Future ! They 
were ready, therefore, to hear what John now said, at 
first with his lips, and afterwards with his pen. The 
plate was prepared for the impression of all his words to 
be stamped upon it, in the clear radiance of the Sun of 
Righteousness. Their souls could now contain the truth 
which, fresh from idolatries, they could not before have 
mastered or have held. 

Then there were special crises arising, calling for just 
this exhibition of the truth, which had lain imbedded in the 
consciousness of John, while Paul was writing, journey- 
ing, and founding churches, while Peter was contending 
valiantly for the faith, and was being crucified with his 
head downward. A controlling design appears in the 
writing of each of the apostles. John's Gospel certainly 
is not wanting in it. He knew the very ultimate truth 
ever revealed to the human mind concerning Christ. He 
had spoken of it, no doubt, to his friends, but it had not 
yet been committed to documents. Now was the time, 



32 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO yOHN. 

without the church as well as within it, for that to be 
done. Differences were arising, which had begun to ap- 
pear in Paul's time, and questions were being asked : as 
to the authority of the apostles, and the certainty of their 
knowledge concerning the reality and the nature of the 
resurrection of Christ; a question as to why it was that 
Christ had been rejected of his own nation ; a question as 
to why it was that Christ, if Divine, had submitted him- 
self to the strange endurance of anguish and of death. On 
the one hand, the Ebionites maintained that he was not 
Divine in any essential eternal sense ; that he had been 
only a just, benevolent, highly-gifted, noble-minded Jew, 
who had been taken as the Messiah by those who believed 
him because of these excellent characteristics, and be- 
cause of the spiritual influence which they gave. That 
conception of the Lord was to be answered and displaced. 
On the other hand, the Docetse affirmed that Christ's 
humanity had not been real. While the Ebionite denied 
his divinity, these differing doubters held that his human- 
ity had not been actual and true ; because they held, with 
other Gnostics, that matter was essentially and eternally 
evil. Either, then, what appeared the body of Christ 
had not been his body, but one which he phantasmally 
assumed, without taking it for the true garment of his 
soul, or else it had been of an ethereal substance, not 
of the earthly material which men thought that they 
saw. It was either a fiction altogether, or it was a cheat- 
ing appearance. This doctrine was active against the 
church on every side, and even was widening within it. 
Other errors, as well, were springing up, out of that 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. Z2> 

mysterious Gnosticism, that malignant compound of poly- 
theism, pantheism, monotheism, materialism, mysticism, 
and the wildest demonology. The fiercest and haughtiest 
enemy which Christianity has met was this organized, 
many-sided, aristocratic, licentious heresy. It seriously 
tried, and it hopefully expected, to drive the Gospel from 
the earth. John does not antagonize it by argument. He 
simply supersedes it, rules it out of the sphere of thought, 
in his disciples. He crushes it to powder, and scatters 
it on all the winds, by setting forth in contrast with it the 
true doctrine of God manifest in the flesh : the Eternal 
Word, creating at the outset the heavens and the earth, 
and in the fulness of time becoming Brother, Redeemer, 
and King of men ! 

So heresy always brings out the truth. So the doc- 
trine of meritorious works in the Roman church, with 
the doctrine of a purchasable indulgence for sin, however 
flagrant the sin might be, brought out the doctrine of 
justification by faith, which was thundered through the 
world in such articulate trumpet-tones by the early re- 
formers. It was preached with an earnestness — it had a 
vivid and vehement development — which it could not 
have had except for that heresy which confronted and 
aroused, in a sense determined it. So the law of true 
Christian perfection is revealed when Antinomianism 
assails the church. So the proper Divinity of our 
Lord, and the efiicacy of his atoning death as the condi- 
tion of man's salvation, are proclaimed the more earnestly 
when the doctrine which denies his Divinity and his sac- 
rifice, and which makes Him only a beautiful example, finds 



34 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO yOHN. 

currency in periodicals, and in the common speech of 
men. So the doctrine of Retribution, final and inevita- 
ble, continuing as long as sin continues, is to be more 
distinctly developed, more earnestly and more impres- 
sively preached, because men are daring enough to set 
th*eir minds against the sovereign mind of Christ, and to 
affirm that he spoke rashly, and did not know what he 
was saying when he said, " These shall go away into ever- 
lasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." 

Always, heresy brings the truth to more vivid exhibi- 
tion. And these heresies, then, arising around Ephesus, 
and around all the churches which John supervised, 
brought out at length, from his enlightened and certain 
consciousness, this consummate and illustrious doctrine 
of Christ : his divinity, his eternity, his oneness with God, 
his oneness with man, the wisdom of his discourse, the 
glory of his spirit in his supreme sacrifice, and the uni- 
versality of his kingdom in the earth ! It was an original, 
self-moulded Gospel, inspired by the Spirit, but depend- 
ent on no other. John may never even have seen the 
writing of any other of the evangelists. What he wrote 
came from his own mind ; it came with a gush. It is the 
most profoundly individual book, one may say, in all the 
Scripture. It is "like the seamless garment of the Lord," 
one has said, so thoroughly interwoven, so glistening 
with celestial gold. I should rather say it is like the 
sudden gush of the gold, long fused and simmering in 
the furnace, until all dross has vanished from it, and all 
impurity has been cleansed away — which at last, when 
the door is opened, rushes forth, glowing, incandescent. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 35 

streaming with light, and precious beyond estimate or 
compare ! So came the Gospel from the heart which had 
held it so intimately and long, and which spoke it at last, 
to be thenceforth the inestimable possession of the world 
for ever ! 

One cannot but wonder and admire, as he comes to 
the end of this train of thought, at the immense diversity 
of gifts which God employs in his ministry to the world ! 
I think of Peter, resolute, tough, fearless against resist- 
ance, zealous and courageous, though far enough cer- 
tainly from perfection, at last asking as a favor, tradition 
says, to be crucified with his head downward, as not wor- 
thy to be crucified as his Master had been. I read his 
Epistles, eloquent and powerful, of faith and of hope. I 
think of Paul, that man of immense incisive intellect, 
discursive, energetic, perfectly acquainted with the Greek 
literature, catching his images from the Greek games, the 
illustrious and unwearied champion of the truth in his 
own time and in all time — whose firm will, braced upon 
God, the whole Roman empire could not break down — 
whose words have rung evermore through the ages, from 
that day to this, whenever liberty of conscience has been 
imperilled, and individual conviction has been fighting 
against tyrannical assumption — himself the Calvinist and 
the Puritan of the world — alike magnificent in character 
and in mind, the pattern and the exemplar of whatever 
is at once most heroic and most lovely in personal valor 
and in personal courtesy. And then I turn to John, the 
ideal, the contemplative, the affectionate, the adoring 
one, who was nearest the heart of Christ, who saw his 

12 



36 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO yOHN. 

glory most clearly, and portrayed it most tenderly and 
triumphantly; — and I think of the Mind above them all, 
which used them as its instruments, having prepared 
them for their office and sent them on their errand, and 
having constantly inspired them to their endeavors and 
successes ; and then I know that the kingdom of Christ 
remaineth for ever ! He who had these men, all alike, 
while so unlike, for his servants — for his " slaves," as they 
proudly represented themselves — He of whom these men 
equally witnessed, and for whom they equally gladly 
wrought — in whose name they triumphed and died, and 
for the vision of whom they looked when the heavens 
should open — His kingdom can never fail ! It must be 
as pure as His heart — as supreme and immortal as His 
power and will ! 

It has been said that the Roman church is the church 
of St. Peter — the church of exact administration and dis- 
cipline ; that the church of the Reformation is the church 
of St. Paul, with his development of the plan of Redemp- 
tion, and his doctrine of justification by faith; that the 
church of the Future is the church of St. John, the apos- 
tle of love, and of the holy heart of Christ. I do not 
accept this, altogether ; but I know that in the future* 
when the three shall have blended together in the Chris- 
tian wisdom of the world, as the blue and the crimson 
and the gold are blended in the perfect splendor of the 
sunbeam, this Gospel of John shall still irradiate all the 
Scripture, and shall be unfolding new treasures and 
riches, transcendent ideas, celestial meanings ! that wher- 
ever a soul hun.frers then for the vision of Christ, once 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 37 

tarrying on earth, now ascended into heaven, it shall find 
it here ! wherever a soul has manifested to it the glory 
of Christ, in any rapturous vision of His person, it shall 
find it reflected from these supreme and luminous pages ! 
wherever a soul goes to death, triumphant in the Lord, 
it shall carry still these words on its lips : " Let not your 
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid !" To the end 
of time — where experience is deepest, where vision is clear- 
est and most transfiguring — this Gospel of John shall be 
still most precious. And next to the vision of the Son of 
God himself, in his glory, there can be nothing so attractive 
in all the future, nothing so rejoicing to the heart, as to 
look on the illumined face of him who clasped the hand 
of Christ, and leaned upon His sustaining breast, and 
who, as taught by His own Spirit, has taught the world 
that "the Word was God," that "the Word was made 
flesh," and that that Word, so incarnated in our nature, 
shall at last conquer the world ! 



THE 



Acts of the Apostles. 



BV REV. JOHN HALL, D. D., 

NEW YORK. 



12^ 



THE 



ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.* 



It has been suggested to me by the Vice-President 
of this Association that instead of attempting to deal with 
the whole subject of the Acts of the Apostles in one 
address, it should be divided into two; that I should take 
the opening part of the book for to-night, and some one 
will no doubt be found happy enough and competent 
enough to take up the latter part of the book in some 
subsequent series of lectures ; in this way it may be pos- 
sible to fix your attention more closely upon details than 
it otherwise would be possible to do, for any one who 
looks at the book must be conscious of what a very 
wide region it covers, and how difficult it would be to 
bring immediately, solidly and instructively before the 
view of an audience, all this broad area within the com- 
pass of an evening's address. 

I remember a time in my own thought when, if any 
one had asked me how the books of the New Testament 
came to be as they are, I should either have been at a 
loss altogether for an answer, or I should have been ready 
to say that in the process of putting the books together, 

* This is a verbatim report of an address which was spoken, not 
read : hence its colloquial form. j, h. 



4 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, 

perhaps in the process of binding them, it had been found 
convenient to arrange them just as they are. But when 
one comes to know his Bible a Uttle better, he gets rid 
of all such hazy explanations as this, and he finds out 
that the New Testament in its place, and the Old Testa- 
ment in its place, are both organisms with a distinct and 
definite structure, with their various portions so placed 
that he who would undertake to make a change of the 
the order in which they are arranged would, in a great 
degree destroy the symmetry of the whole. It is a little 
easier to make that perfectly plain in connection with the 
New Testament than it is with the Old ; although I do 
not doubt that we shall be able to see some general prin- 
ciple running through the Old Testament. It is very 
easy to see how it is with the New. The New Testa- 
ment, being the revelation of Jesus Christ, naturally the 
first part of the book is devoted to a history of Christ. 
This is done by four consecutive evangelists no two of 
them alike. I dare say to many of you it appears a 
strange thing that there should be four writers going 
over the same ground and dealing with the life of one 
individual. I am afraid that in the first instance many 
persons do not discriminate between the various evange- 
lists, or look out for the personal characteristics of the 
writers of the Gospels in their various productions. 
Whenever the reader does come to discriminate in this 
way, then I think the interest with which he reads the 
, Gospels is very greatly increased. I have been in the 
habit of illustrating this fourfold characteristic of the 
evangelistic narrative by an illustration which all of us 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 5 

can easily comprehend. If you want a plan for a house 
and one is prepared, it is scarcely ever presented upon a 
single surface. There will be a ground plan ; there will 
be a front elevation ; there will be a side view and, gen- 
erally speaking, there will be four presentations of the 
building you desire to erect. In no other way can it 
adequately be brought before the eye. So here we see 
the manifold character of our blessed Lord. Men are 
placed at different standpoints, so to speak, and they 
have an opportunity to study him, and each from his 
own particular standpoint as it were, inspired by the 
Spirit of God, has recorded what he has observed so that 
it shall stand out with distinctness before the reader, 
that at the distance of centuries he may be able to get 
some clear, full and comprehensive notion of the char- 
acter and the life of Christ. Generally speaking, writers 
are agreed that Matthew prepared the Gospel for the 
Hebrews, as is indicated by the genealogy which he 
gives of our Lord and by his very numerous quotations 
from the Old Testament Scripture, and the application 
of those passages to a general delineation of the truths 
as brought out by our blessed Lord, which would strike 
the mind of the Jewish reader and suggests to him that 
the advent of the Saviour introduces the fulfilment of 
the prophecy that had been given to the Fathers. There 
is an obvious and natural transition from the Old Testa- 
ment to the narrative of Matthew. How easy is the 
translation from Malachi to Matthew. Then comes 
Mark's Gospel, the general understanding among critics 
being that he received his main assistance from the apos- 



6 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

tie Peter. It is a gospel of movement or action, In which 
our Saviour is seen as doing rather than heard as speak- 
ing, and in which he stands before us so prominently and 
distinctly as the man Christ Jesus going about doing 
good. 

Then we come to the Gospel of Luke, connected as 
it is with the subject that we have before us to-night. It 
is not necessary for us to enter into speculations as to 
who Luke probably was. There are some who allege 
that he appears to have been a Gentile by birth. That, 
however, is only a matter of speculation. Probably 
nothing can be said with confidence one way or the oth- 
er about that matter. He was, for a long time, the com- 
panion of the apostle Paul ; and we can trace, as we 
proceed in the narration of the Acts of the Apostles, in 
the use of the pronoun " we^' very naturally, a writer who 
was with Paul. We can trace points at which he takes 
up the journey and becomes the companion of Paul with- 
out mentioning the fact. By his use of the pronoun 
"ze;^" we conclude that he must have been a companion 
of Paul, and a fellow-laborer with Paul. 

He is called the " Beloved Physician." I do not think 
we are bound to attach any importance to the specu- 
lation that probably, as has been suggested, he is called 
a physician in a figurative and metaphorical sense, so as 
to indicate the bringing of medicines for the minds of 
men. Nor is the parallel of his case to be found in the 
case of those servants of the Lord who were called fish- 
ermen. It is to be borne in mind that such was their 
occupation at the time that Christ commanded them to 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, 7 

follow Him, and the title was subsequently applied to 
them in a spiritual sense, having a spiritual significance ; 
but it is not, to my mind, in any figurative or spiritual 
sense, but in a practical and actual sense as an historical 
statement, that Luke is alluded to as the Beloved Phy- 
sician. It appears that in many instances educated 
Greeks, who were really no higher socially than slaves 
or freedmen, were nevertheless educated for physicians, 
educated upon the standard of the time ; and it has been 
conjectured that he stood in this rank. At any rate, his 
style and the general character of the expressions by 
which his narrative is marked, indicate that he was an 
intelligent man, such a man as would be regarded among 
us relatively as an educated man. 

There are certain features about Luke's Gospel which 
would seem to indicate that he had been specially se- 
lected to write a gospel intended for Gentile believers, 
in which the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ and his 
work might be presented in such an aspect as would 
conciliate the Gentile mind. And it is impossible for 
any one to go through the Gospel of Luke without noti- 
cing these characteristics, standing out with great clear- 
ness, even upon the surface of the narrative. Wherever 
the Messiah comes in contact with the Gentiles, when- 
ever a word is spoken in their favor, whenever they are 
presented in a favorable aspect, whenever the matter 
that is being referred to touches their case, though it 
may not find a place in Mark or in Matthew, you are 
sure to find it upon the pages of the evangelist Luke. 
His exhibit is not Jesus Christ simply as the Messiah 



8 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

for the Hebrews,, fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies 
as to the Jews, but a Messiah for the world — for the 
Jews as well as the Gentiles. So the parable of the 
Good Samaritan finds a place in Luke's pages. So the 
existence of the grateful Samaritan finds its place upon 
Luke's pages. In one word, (for I have no time to par- 
ticularize upon this subject,) any seemingly insignificant 
circumstances in our Lord's career that touch this great 
feature, have a charm for this writer; and as the Spirit 
of God directs him he puts them in his pages as if he 
were thinking that educated men, freedmen, slaves, good 
centurions, Romans and Gentiles, to the very ends of 
the earth would need to study the character of our Re- 
deemer, who came, not to Jews only, nor to Gentiles 
only, but who came to make Jews and Gentiles one, 
breaking down for ever the middle wall of separation 
between them. 

It does not lie within my purpose to touch the Gos- 
pel of John, although if it were proper to do so I would 
say here that it goes to show in the clearest way the 
plan and the unity of these narrations of the evangelists. 
It is easy to see how this evangelist, Luke, is the proper 
person to be used for chronicling the establishment of 
the Christian church in the world. Jesus Christ comes. 
He reveals the Father unto men. He is the witness to 
the truth. He is a leader unto the people. He sets 
forth the old Hebrew law in a new light. He clears 
away from it excrescences that were permitted to re- 
main there. He discriminates between the local and 
temporary, and the spiritual and permanent ; and above 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 9 

all he sets forth himself as the representative of the 
Father, with his gracious invitations, repeated in numer- 
ous texts, such as, " Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." If this were 
all of the New Testament, an earnest questioner might 
ask, "What will come of it? Here we have a great 
teacher, and a great revelation, and floods of light come 
upon that which has hitherto been obscure. But he 
leaves the earth, he says he is going to his Father and 
our Father. What will come of it.?" and if our New 
Testament had been cut off, so to speak, abruptly at the 
close of the Gospels, how many wondering interrogatories 
must have been in the human mind. Will any perma- 
nent result flow from this Teacher } Will there be any 
organization 1 Will there be anything further } Will 
there be any organized unity t Will there be any sym- 
pathy or fellowship with this Jewish church — this visible 
theocracy that has been identified with God and his 
truth and his cause in the world.? The Acts of the 
Apostles as a book furnishes the answer to that great 
question. We do not need to deal in any degree with 
the questions that have been raised touching Theophi- 
lus, to whom the Gospel of Luke and this book alike 
are dedicated. It is not material to our purpose to 
determine whether it is a fictitious name, intended to 
represent everybody that loved the Lord and honored 
him, or whether it is the actual name of a real man. 
But it is proper to say that it is in no wise contrary to 
the analogy of the Scripture to suppose that it was the 
name of an actual man, a believer and a Gentile — as we 

13 



10 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

may presume from his name, compounded as it is of two 
Greek words — and whom Luke made prominent by in- 
troducing and dedicating to him a Gospel Hke that, and 
a history Hke that which it was the function and the 
honor of Luke to present to Christendom. He says, 
"The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus," which 
naturally suggests that there is a close link or connec- 
tion between the former and that which is now produced, 
so that the Acts may be taken as a kind of second Luke, 
a continuation of his Gospel, a carrying forward of the 
history first introduced by Jesus Christ, and then to be 
perpetuated and to be rung in the ears of men in all 
lands and through succeeding ages, through those who 
received his commission and were baptized with his 
Spirit. 

I remember my attention was called many years ago 
to a work that I suppose is not very much used now, 
because some later books have superseded it — namely, 
Baumgarten on the Acts. It is in Clark's Foreign 
Theological Library. It is not by any means a perfect 
book, but it contains some most admirable and useful 
presentations of the truth, and if you should come in the 
way of it, and ^houjd find time to read and study it, 
I think it would be of great service and value to you. 
I remember that it was a kind of revelation to me. I 
was comparatively young when I saw, what he takes 
pains to delineate in this work, that, strictly speaking, 
the title of the book is misleading. I do not mean that 
the title is not applicable to the book itself, but strictly 
speaking, the book does not contemplate the acts- or do- 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. ii 

ings of the apostles, so much as it contemplates the acts 
or doings of Christ who sent the apostles ; as though we 
read between the lines in some such way as this : " The 
former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that 
Jesus began to do and teach until he was taken up into 
heaven ; and this I dedicate to thee, O Theophilus, that 
I may show thee what Jesus continued to do and to teach 
after he was taken up into heaven." And the more you 
study the book the more just that criticism will seem to 
you to be. 

Practically all the apostles are not here. They are 
just mentioned as a list in the beginning. We find that 
most of them were put out of sight. Practically two 
apostles monopolize the attention of the writer through- 
out this book. The book never claims to give a consec- 
utive history of either one or the other of these two. 
We have the apostle Paul, who has the largest share 
of the book, and whose movements are presented to us 
with great fulness ; yet we can easily satisfy ourselves, 
by comparison of the Epistles with the book of the Acts, 
that some movements of Paul that had a very important 
bearing upon the world's evangelization do not find any 
place in the Acts of the Apostles. Plainly it is not in- 
tended by the writer to give us successive pictures of the 
whole of the apostolic band. His intention is to present 
to us the continuous work of the Lord ; and he has se- 
lected certain things as examples. It is his intent to 
keep Christ before the mind of the reader, and to make 
the reader understand what is being done by the church 
below. The Head of the church is above. But he con- 



12 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

tinues to teach; he continues to do; he continues to 
work. If you by his grace are the children of God, you 
are being taught by him. If you do as Stephen did, as 
Teter did, as John did, as Paul did — if you do mighty 
works, it is because Christ from his throne is working in 
you and by you, and carrying on his gracious purposes 
in the banishment of the Mosaic law, and in the intro- 
duction and establishment of his truth among the nations 
of the earth. 

Accordingly we find this book is not at all biograph- 
ical in the strict and proper sense of the word. It is 
more ; it is what might be called ecclesiological. It is 
not intended to show how a particular man or particular 
men carry themselves ; it is intended to show the prog- 
ress of the work of the church of Christ on earth. The 
veritable body of Christ disappeared from the earth, but 
another and no less glorious body is to be set up on 
the earth, the mystical body composed of living saints, 
an organism with Christ as its head and the Holy Ghost 
as its heart. The Acts of the Apostles shows how this 
organism grew up, and how it contained all the requi- 
sites that it needed to take within itself every tribe and 
tongue and people and nation. 

In accordance with this general character of the 
Acts, one need not exercise any subtle ingenuity in 
seeking for the divisions of the book. It divides itself 
into two great portions. The first we find occupied with 
the establishment of the Christian church among the 
Jews ; the second by the establishment of the Christian 
church among the Gentiles, The idea is to show how 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 13 

this truth that Jesus Christ left alone in our world, so to 
speak, and which he charged his servants in his name to 
make known, grows ; how it comes from one great cen- 
tre to another and finds a lodgment in each one of them, 
and impresses itself upon the attention and the con- 
science of those who hear; how it spreads in each one 
of these centres, beginning at Jerusalem, until it has 
reached what was then the capital of Gentiledom, Rome, 
and established itself there; and when that has been 
done, when the narrative of that has been set before us, 
then the book closes, and closes with an abruptness that 
shows how little the writer thought of himself, and how 
little he thought about anybody else, dear as they were 
to him, and venerable as most of them were in the 
church ; how little he thought of them except in so far 
as they were the instruments of Christ in carrying out his 
will and in fulfilling that portion of the Old Testament 
prophecy that the Lord should come forth out of Zion 
and out of Jerusalem, and at the same time that the Gen- 
tiles should see his light and all the nations of the earth 
behold his glory. 

Now these two great classes of Jews and Gentiles 
constituted the world at that time ; and I need not dwell 
upon the bitter animosities that existed between these 
two races, nor call your attention to the fact of how wide 
was the chasm that separated them, or what a gulf of 
prejudice, mutual suspicions, and bitter hostility, lay be- 
tween them ; how complete was the contempt with which 
the Jew, forgetting what he owed to grace, and taking 
his high privileges as a right, regarded the Gentile, and 

13* 



14 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

with what compounded interest the Gentile returned his 
scorn and hatred, so that "the accursed Jew" was the 
formula that most naturally came to the lips and tongue 
of even the cultivated Roman when he had occasion to 
speak of an inhabitant of Judea. Any man who would 
appreciate the gigantic difficulties in the way of estab- 
lishing this living spiritual unity among Jews and Gen- 
tiles and placing them upon the same level as brethren, 
must take into account all the divergences which grew 
up for centuries, dividing the Jew from the Gentile. It 
is no wonder that we should find so many indications in 
this book, and so many corresponding indications through- 
out the Epistles, of the jealousies with which, even when 
they became Christians, Jews by birth regarded Gentiles 
by birth, and Gentiles by birth regarded Jews by birth, 
that were believers. 

Having now called your attention to the order and 
the sequence of the gospel narrative, and to the narra- 
tive of the book of the Acts in general, it will be proper 
for me, in the second place, to proceed to an analysis, 
such as ought to be before the mind of the teacher if he 
would give a clear and comprehensive account of the suc- 
ceeding portions of the book. The first chapter is in 
some sense introductory to that which comes after. 
After the graceful preface to which allusion has been 
already made, involving the dedication, the writer takes 
lip his narrative where he dropped it at the end of his 
Gospel, and proceeds to give a vivid description of the 
ascension of our blessed Lord : upon which it is not ne- 
cessary for us to dwell. In obedience to the Master's 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 15 

command, they had waited for the promised Spirit that 
was to constitute their motive-power. In the mean time 
they seem to have been mindful of the theocratic arrange- 
ment that had prevailed among the tribes of Israel, having 
no doubt the idea that there was some intentional resem- 
blance between the twelve tribes and the number of the 
disciples or apostles ; and it seems to have appeared to 
them proper that, one of their number having fallen by 
his transgression, they should take the necessary steps 
for appointing his successor, so as to make the complete 
number twelve. This was done apparently, not by the 
eleven alone, but in consultation and apparent coopera- 
tion with the rest of the believers in Jerusalem, the num- 
ber altogether being about one hundred and twenty. 

They seem to have continued in this state of prayer- 
ful expectation until the day of Pentecost was fully come, 
and the second chapter of the book very naturally occu- 
pies itself with the startling details of that transaction. 
Peter is the man who figures most prominently in it. 
Just at this point I cannot refuse myself the satisfaction 
of calling your attention to the singular delicacy which 
runs through the whole of this narrative when it touches 
individuals. I will suppose one to be reading continu- 
ously through the Gospels, and as he finishes the Gospels 
the thing that is uppermost in his heart is : What a shame 
for Peter ! What a disgrace that a disciple so favored as 
he was, so honored and so near to Christ as he was — 
what a disgrace to him and to humanity that he should 
so dishonor and belie his calling and his Lord ! Sup- 
pose that, passing with these feelings from the Gospels, 



i6 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

he comes into the Acts and reads the narrative in the 
second chapter. We have some feehng of revulsion in 
our minds, that feeUng of suspicion of which we are all 
conscious when some one of our brethren has commit- 
ted an error or has been betrayed into some action that 
is not according to our standard of right. We come to 
the Acts of the Apostles with a kind of feeling against 
this man, so base and so mean, being brought forward so 
prominently here. - But you will notice that the Gospel 
which immediately precedes the Acts is the Gospel of 
John. The last chapter of that Gospel gives us a most 
touching delineation of the details of the restoration of 
Peter by Jesus Christ himself : *' Feed my lambs ; shep- 
herd my lambkins ; take care of my sheep." Again and 
again and again Jesus Christ spoke to this man, lifted 
him up, restored him to his love and confidence, and re- 
stored him therefore to ours, so that we have no sense of 
revulsion. Our idea of the fitness of things is not shocked 
when this impulsive, impetuous, and brave man, sound at 
heart, though momentarily weak, is permitted to stand 
forth in that day when the Holy Ghost is shed upon the 
believers, and to bear, in the Master's name, that testi- 
mony which thousands believe, and believing it, they are 
received into the Christian faith. There is to me a sin- 
gular beauty in this collocation of facts. The Lord Jesus 
knows, not our thoughts only, not our convictions only, 
not our souls and consciences only, but he knows our 
feelings, and with a touch of infinite delicacy applies his 
gospel to them, so that we shall not only adore, but ad- 
mire while we adore him. He is the incarnation of 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, 17 

grace and beauty as he is dealing with the children of 
men. 

I do not need to dwell upon this second chapter. I 
have already mentioned the work of Baumgarten, and I 
will say here to any one who wants to get a book that 
will touch his heart with its delineation of this great mir- 
acle of Christianity, let him provide himself with the 
book of Mr. Arthur, a most able and earnest Methodist 
minister and a most entertaining and instructive writer, 
called " The Tongue of Fire." It is a striking thing that 
when the Master sends out his disciples to conquer the 
world he does not give them swords to fight with, but 
tongues of fire, to speak burning words that will save 
human souls and inflame the people with love to God 
and zeal for Christ. 

That was practically the birthday of the Christian 
church. It may be said that the church was born on the 
day of Pentecost. Now it began to stand forth as a uni- 
ty. Baptism is the recognized emblem and badge of 
the believer. We have been baptized unto the Father, 
the Son and the Holy Ghost, We have a most beautiful 
picture of the condition of believers in the temple. " And 
all that believed were together, and had all things in com- 
mon ; and sold their possessions and goods and parted 
them to all men as every man had need. And they 
'continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and 
breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat 
with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and 
having favor with all people ; and the Lord added to the 
church daily such as should be saved." This is the model 



i8 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

church ; this is the mother church ; this is the pattern 
of what a church should be. Other churches, as they 
are estabHshed throughout the nations, are, so far as pos- 
sible, catching the spirit of Jesus. They are looking 
back to this early, pure, bright day of Christianity in the 
world, and, so far as possible, are catching its spirit and 
reproducing its features. 

Now one might suppose there is nothing but for such 
a church to go on with successful and ever-increasing 
movement throughout the world. But that has never 
been true, dear friends, of any good movement in the world. 
Accordingly the next chapter brings before us, with 
sufficient distinctness ^nd with sufficient fulness, the 
subsequent dangers to which the church may be expected 
to be exposed in her future history. A miracle is wrought 
by Peter and John. As a consequence of that miracle, 
attention is drawn to the church of Christ and an oppor- 
tunity is given of explaining the way in which the mira- 
cle is wrought, and calling attention once again to the 
risen and glorified Saviour. But as the people of Christ 
speak to their fellow-citizens, a hostile power is aroused 
and is arrayed against these men. " The captain of the 
temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being ag- 
grieved that they taught the people and preached through 
Jesus the resurrection from the dead." These Sadducees 
were the liberals of their time — broad-minded men, men 
at least who so complimented themselves ; men of ad- 
vanced thought ; men that had got rid of the super- 
natural; men to whom indeed angels and spirits were 
nothing ; men to whom the resurrection was a mockery 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, 19 

and the future life a mere dream. But behold these 
Christian teachers, who not merely say that they are wit- 
nesses of the resurrection of the dead, but they say that 
their Master has risen from the dead and that they have 
proof of it. The Sadducees were too liberal to persecute 
or to annoy anybody for an abstract opinion. The Sad- 
ducees in all ages have been ready to make a great pa- 
rade of their liberalism, but the moment that a doctrine 
that is new touches their own creed, true to their own 
character in more ages than one they have been forward 
in the ranks of the persecutors and among the readiest 
to put down, with the strong hand of power, the hum- 
ble witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

This is not the only kind of danger to which the 
church is exposed. I do not need to go into these details. 
Every person has read them, or can read them and satis- 
fy himself. Well, the church got over that danger as it 
always will get over such dangers. It has nothing to 
fear from mere brute power, but there are other perils 
to which the church is exposed. It seems a perfectly 
obvious thing that there was no design on the part of the 
sacred writer to chronicle every incident and every fact. 
On the contrary there is a principle of selection running 
through this narrative, and specimens are given of that 
which the church has to encounter or which the church 
has to anticipate or fear in all time to come. On the 
one hand the church was to be apprehensive of the 
world's persecuting power. On the other hand she is 
to be afraid of secularism and vanity, ambition and 
self-seeking, ostentation and corruption among her 



2a THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

own members. How early Ananias and Sapphira led 
the way in that direction. This was not " Socialism." 
There was no obligation upon the people to give up their 
possessions for the common good. It was a matter of 
free will, but it was undoubtedly true that credit was 
given to those who did sell their possessions for the sake 
of the common benefit. So Ananias and Sapphira laid 
their heads together. *' We have possessions," they say, 
** and let us sell them and keep a portion of them our- 
selves ; let us appear to be giving the whole and get the 
credit for the whole while we keep a portion ourselves." 
And they talked it over with themselves. Many a man 
will do a bad and wicked thing while its secret is in his 
own bosom, who is not base enough and bad enough to 
do it in concert with another. Men have always held a 
conspiracy to be a worse crime than a mere individual 
offence. They conspired together ; they were so delib- 
erate about it. They talked it over. Husband and wife 
are sometimes bad enough individually, but they are very 
bad when they come to concert a plan of wickedness with 
one another. They did that, and so they are detected 
and exposed and signally punished. Of course there is 
a parallel between this tragedy at the beginning of the 
Christian dispensation and the tragedy at the beginning 
of the Jewish dispensation. There was a reason for both. 
Covetousness was the lesson of both tragedies, that of 
Judaism in its infancy and Christianity in its youth. 

I said there was no Socialism in the church at this 
time ; that seems to be assumed in the very appeal which 
Peter makes when he says, ** Was it not thine own ?" 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 21 

They were not bound to dispose of their possessions, and 
after they were sold there was no obligation upon them 
to give up the whole of the money. They could give as 
much or as little as they pleased. It was because they 
agreed together to tempt the Holy Ghost, that the pun- 
■ ishment was visited upon them. This was another proof 
of the personality of the Holy Ghost, for man cannot 
tempt an attribute and cannot lie to an attribute. It is 
proof al'so of the Deity of the Holy Ghost, for it is said 
afterwards, '* Ye have not lied unto men, but unto God ;" 
and on that sad day, for it must have been a sad day 
even to the church, the bodies of these two transgressors 
were carried out and buried. No wonder that great fear 
fell upon the church and upon as many as heard these 
things, and that of the rest durst no man join himself 
unto them. Brethren, it is not always a healthy sign 
when crowds are joining themselves to the church. It is 
sometimes a good sign when men feel that there is some- 
thing awful and holy about the church, and that they are 
not to join themselves to it as a light and every-day 
matter. 

I do not mean to dwell upon these things. What I 
want to make plain to you is this : that among the mul- 
titudinous incidents that must have happened, the sacred 
writer describes just those that may be expected to be 
typical of the future, and full of instruction to the church 
in all time to come. 

But there is another danger that menaces the church. 
First it is the persecuting power of the world ; then it is 
vanity and ostentation in the members ; and now it is 

14 



22 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

class feeling, and the rivalry of old antipathies and old 
class jealousies. The number of the disciples was multi- 
plied, and somebody had to administer the possessions 
that were sold and put into the common stock. There 
arose a murmuring among the Greek-speaking people — 
who did not always live in Palestine, but who were there 
only for the time — against the Hebrews, because their 
widows were neglected in the daily ministration. We 
all know how it comes about. There begins to be a little 
shaking of the head and a little side-whispering of a man 
to his neighbor, and a little intimation that there is some- 
thing in the way or something wrong — something that 
had better be looked into. " Do n't you talk about it ; 
you need not quote me as saying it, but there is some- 
thing that had better be changed." There arose a mur- 
muring, an undertone of discontent and dissatisfaction, 
such as sometimes runs through a congregation and par- 
alyzes its usefulness for a time. That was the trouble ; 
and observe the brave and manly way in which the trou- 
ble is met by the men who are by God's appointment at 
the time the leaders of the church. They do not stifle 
it. They do not hush it up. They do not say, " Let us 
quiet it, and say nothing about it." Powder is perilous 
when it is closely confined. Let the explosion go off in 
the open air, and there is a mere whiff of smoke, and the 
thing is harmlessly over. Bring it into the daylight and 
see what is wrong. Let us look fairly at it, and if there 
be anything wrong, let us meet it and make things right. 
This was done. " It is not our business to take charge 
of this matter. The thing was put into our hands be- 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 23 

cause there was nobody else to take hold of it, and we 
have done it. It is no particular pleasure to us to do it. 
It would be a relief to us to get rid of it. Let us choose 
men to administer to the various wants of our people." 
And so to this ecclesiastical body, this corporation of 
Christians, there comes the needed supply in the election 
of these good and true men to administer this trust. 
Thus they took away the cause of complaint that existed 
among the people in regard to this matter. They treat- 
ed the subject in a bold and manly way, and the people 
became obedient to the faith. 

This was the way in which the church in the olden 
time treated the danger that came to her then. The dan- 
gers that menaced the church in those times exist in the 
history of the church to-day. The church is not only 
exposed to the danger of persecution, and the danger of 
pride and vanity, but there is a danger against which 
Christian people ought constantly to be on their guard. 
It should be a matter of solemn duty to stop whispering, 
to put down the backbiter ; to say, " If there is anything 
wrong, out with it ! out with it ! Let it be explained and 
cleared away, and dealt with in a manly, straightforward 
way; but let there be none of this subterranean rumbling, 
that never can do anything else than disturb and harass 
and paralyze men honestly seeking to do their duty.'* 

I am reminded by looking at the face of the clock 
that the time has come when it will be proper to bring 
these remarks to a close; and probably there is not 
much more to be said ; at any rate, not very much that 
will not come legitimately under the notice of the broth- 



24 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

ers who will succeed me in dealing with Paul, and espe- 
cially his work among the Gentiles ; and so, if you please, 
with the few remarks with which I shall conclude, I shall 
turn your attention away from this analysis of the narra- 
tive and ask you to look at two or three prominent 
instances that pass before us in the course of this history, 
and at two or three men who act a prominent part, and 
in whom there is so much that we may with great advan- 
tage imitate. Take for example, Barnabas, who is to 
play a very conspicuous part in the latter part of the 
book. The sacred narrative takes occasion to introduce 
him at a proper time as one of those who, having a pos- 
session, sold it for the common good. There was no 
particular claim upon him to do this, but out of the love 
of God, and the spirit of Christ which animated him, he 
dispossessed himself of that which he owned and sold it 
for the benefit of the church. We will omit, for the 
time, any reference to the rest of the apostles, and follow 
him through the book. See how intelligent and how 
true be is ! He was evidently a man of good family and 
of considerable property. He had a sister who had a 
house in Jerusalem, and it was there that many of the 
leading Christians came. Everybody knew Mary's house. 
It was the headquarters of the Christian people in that 
city. As a matter of course they used to have prayer- 
meetings there, and when Peter was released from prison, 
we learn from the sacred narrative that he went to the 
house of Mary, the sister of Barnabas, where there was a 
company of Christians assembled together. Even the 
domestic that served in the house of Mary caught some- 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 25 

thing of her mistress' spirit. I can almost picture the 
girl as she stands looking through the lattice to see who 
is there. She has heard people talk about Peter ; about 
his being in prison ; and when she sees him there at the 
door she goes in and tells the assembled company that 
Peter is at the threshhold. They say, " Why the girl is 
mad ! Peter is in prison !" But she is so earnest, and 
reiterates her assertion with such solemnity that they go 
and look, and behold, he is there ! 

Now Mary has a son ; and his name is John, and his 
surname is Mark. Barnabas, having no family of his 
own, takes his nephew John Mark with him and pets 
him as it were. Now John Mark had to give up a good 
deal. He might have thought something in this wise : 
" There are the possessions which my uncle owned that 
might have been mine ; but he has given them up to the 
church. I have no liking for this kind of life. It is not 
by any means a pleasant kind of work ; there is a great 
deal of inconvenience and some danger, and it is very 
different from the comfort and luxury of my life in Jeru- 
salem at my mother's house." And so he turns his 
back, for the time being, upon the gospel work, and this 
produces some sharp words between Barnabas and Paul, 
and leads to a temporary separation. But then, as we 
follow the sacred narrative, we find that this young man 
comes back again — as the sons of good mothers nearly 
always do when they go astray — into the path of loyalty 
and obedience. And we find that Paul himself bears 
evidence to the faithfulness of John Mark, and of his 
personal affection for him. 

J4* 



26 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, 

There is another man mentioned in the narrative, of 
a different sort entirely, and his name is Gamaliel. He 
had the reputation of being a man of great wisdom. It 
seems to some persons that on that occasion he uttered 
words of profound wisdom in the advice which he gave 
touching these men, when he said, " Let them alone. If 
this cause be not of God, it will come to naught ; but if it 
be of God, there is no use of your fighting against it." I 
have never been able to see any indications of great wis- 
dom and nobleness in that man : never. He was a man 
learned in the law, a very eminent doctor of divinity in 
the city, and he should have had very decided opinions 
upon matters of this kind. He should have been ready 
to give his opinion in favor of the right side, and against 
the wrong side, if there was a wrong side : but he did not 
do it. It seems to me that he exhibited a good deal of 
mere human wisdom, a little approximating to what we 
call " being on the fence." " If this cause be of God, it 
will stand of itself." Is that a test of duty to you and to 
me t Am I to remain undecided until I see whether a 
cause will succeed or not, and then if it succeeds attach 
myself to it } Are accessions of that kind worth any- 
thing to a cause } Is that a proof of heroism, of devotion, 
of self-sacrifice for the cause of duty .? And even if you 
test his principle by the facts of history, it seems to me 
that his principle will not stand the test. Am I to allege 
that everything that is put down is proved not to belong 
to the cause of Christ ? Why, they trampled out Prot- 
estant reformation in Spain, and they trampled it out in 
Italy, and they baptized it in blood and wellnigh tram- 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 27 

pled it out in sunny France. Am I to say that the cause 
of this Book is not God's cause because some earthly 
power triumphs against it for a time ? Rather would it 
seem to me to have been the duty of Gamaliel, learned 
in the Scriptures, to have searched the Scriptures and 
compared their testimony with the testimony of these 
men ; and if he should be convinced that these men were 
on the side of truth, and that this cause was of God, then 
should he have been on their side fearlessly, whether the 
cause should seem then to succeed, or whether it should 
seem then to fail. 

One thing further. Peter and Paul are the typical 
men of the apostles. It is probably one of the meanings 
of the statements made by Christ to Peter, " I will give 
to thee the keys," that Peter has the honor of opening 
the door of the proposed path to the Jews and then to 
the Gentiles. These two men worked on parallel lines 
for the most part, but sometimes they crossed each oth- 
er's path in such a way as to show that they were work- 
ing in the same service and were moved by the same 
spirit. Peter seems to have been chosen to bring the 
Gentiles into the Christian church. Paul was an apostle 
to the Gentiles ; but in the providence of God Peter was 
first chosen to carry the gospel to them. Peter was just 
the man for bringing in the Gentiles. Peter subdues the 
Gentiles and leads them along in the light of the truth. 

I need not detain you by referring to the wonderful 
wisdom and the wonderful grace that was shown to the 
man who was to be first brought in. He was not a noto- 
riously bad man ; he was not a disreputable man ; but he 



28 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

was a praying man, an almsgiving man, a man against 
whom there was no possible objection but the one of 
being a Gentile, The offence is made as light as pos- 
sible so as not to offend too strongly the prejudices of 
the Jews. The barrier between them is reduced, so to 
speak, to a minimum, so as to make it as easy as pos- 
sible for these Jews, who were Christians now, to over- 
come their rigid prejudices and breathe the free air of 
the unity, in which there is to be neither Jew nor Greek, 
neither barbarian nor Scythian, nor bond nor free, but 
all to be one in Jesus Christ. It will come naturally to 
your mind to notice the beautiful and exquisite way in 
which the Christian church grows up out of the Jewish — 
not a new creation, but the old with a new form in a new 
body; the old with a new and more glorious nature. 
Brethren, we are the children of Abraham ; we sit down 
with Abraham and Isaac and with Jacob. It is one of 
those thoughts that sometimes come to me when I think 
of heaven, what a glorious, inspiriting, and freshening 
thing it will be to meet upon equal terms the grave fathers 
of the olden time, to meet men like Isaiah and Jeremiah 
and Daniel and Ezekiel and Hosea, washed by the same 
blood, sanctified by the same Spirit, basking in the beams 
of the same eternal light, and with the same ceaseless 
and ever-rolling eternity of unbroken felicity in the pres- 
ence of the common Lord ! I would like to realize this 
conception in its earthly application ; I would make no 
walls between the Old Testament and the New. I would 
draw no line of demarkation between. I would study the 
New Testament in the light of the Old, and the Old in 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 29 

the light of the New. I would have the Christian church 
looked upon as the outgrowth of the olden time. The 
temple indeed has no parallel of a material kind. But 
the Temple of Zion to-day is more lovely because it is a 
temple in which all true saints are stones ; these edi- 
fices, indeed, in which we worship are analogous to the 
synagogues of the Jews ; and our talking to the people, 
our Scripture reading, our Scripture explanations, our 
singing of hymns, our prayers in common, and even our 
collections, are the literal and lineal descendants, as any 
man will see who will take the trouble to examine into 
the matter, of the ordinances and institutions and ways 
of worship that were carried on in these Old Testament 
synagogues. The temple was to be taken out of the 
way. The priest was gradually going down, and the 
prophet was rising up to prepare you and me, to prepare 
the Jews and the Gentiles, and all the world for that dis- 
pensation, the joys of which we inherit, and which Christ 
bade his disciples to go preach to all nations, saying to 
them, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
the world." 

May we be led to catch the spirit of this new dispen- 
sation of which we are made heirs, so that we may be 
true, faithful, and effective in the noble and blessed ser- 
vice of the best of masters. 



THE 



Epistle to the Galatians. 



BY REV. WILLIAM M. TA YLOR, D. D., 

NEW YORK. 



THE 



Epistle to the Galatians. 



Somewhere about three hundred years before the 
birth of Christ a horde of adventurers from the western 
extremity of Europe pushed their way eastward, crossed 
the Hellespont, and overran the greater portion of Asia 
Minor, where for a time the Syrian kings were compelled 
to submit to them. At length, however, they were them- 
selves overcome by Attains of Pergamus, who hemmed 
them in within comparatively narrow limits. The terri- 
tory to which they were thus confined was composed of 
parts of Phrygia and Cappadocia, and came to be known 
as Galatia, from the name " Gauls," by which the inva- 
ders were called. There these western barbarians came 
into contact with the original Phrygians and the Greek 
settlers who were scattered among them, and were so 
influenced by them that they adopted the manners and 
customs of the Greeks, so that their land was sometimes 
denominated Gallo-Graecia. In the conflict between 
Antiochus and the Romans they took the side of the 
former, and were easily subdued by the consul Manlius. 



4 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS, 

But their conquerors allowed them for more than a cen- 
tury and a half to retain their own form of government, 
and it was not until the twenty-fifth year of the Chris- 
tian era that they were reduced to a Roman province. 

The population of this region was thus, at the time 
when Paul wrote, of a composite description. First, 
there were the descendants of the invading Gauls, who 
retained those peculiarities which even till this day have 
kept such persistent hold on all the branches of the 
Celtic race. Next, there were the genuine Phrygians, 
who were devoted to the idolatry of Bacchus and Cybele. 
Then came the Greek colonists, who carried with them 
their culture, their language, and their philosophy. To 
these must be added a large Jewish element, for Antio- 
chus had settled two thousand Jewish families in Lycao- 
nia and Phrygia, and many more were probably attracted 
to the three great cities — Pessinus, Ancyra, and Tavi- 
um — by the facilities which their situation afforded for 
commercial enterprise. Each of these classes brought 
its own deposit and contributed it to the formation of 
the national character ; but the dominating qualities 
were those of the Gauls. The rugged external features 
of the half-barbarous Europeans had yielded somewhat 
to the enervating influence of the effeminate Phrygians, 
but beneath the surface they were Celtic still, and were 
distinguished by eager restlessness, shallow vivacity, 
short-lived enthusiasm, and that unreliable fickleness 
which Caesar found in his Gallic allies and antagonists. 
Indeed, one cannot read this letter of Paul's, even in the 
most superficial manner, without being reminded that 



THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 5 

the Galatians were the kinsmen of those whom the great 
Roman general has described as "fickle in taking up 
plans, fond of innovating, and utterly untrustworthy." 
The Jewish influence, so far as it went, was no doubt 
wholesome, and the presence of his kinsmen amono- 
the people gave the apostle the same point of contact 
with the Gentile mind which he invariably improved in 
other quarters ; but on the other hand, the Celtic fond- 
ness for ritual observances served also to give the Juda- 
izing party in the early church an advantage which they 
were not slow to use against the gospel which Paul 
preached. 

So far as appears the churches in Galatia, which were 
probably situated in the three principal cities which I 
have already named, were founded by the apostle him- 
self, and in the Acts of the Apostles there is special 
mention of two visits which he made to this district. 
The first (Acts 16:6) was in the course of his second 
missionary journey, not long before he crossed from 
Troas into Macedonia. He was suffering at the time 
from some severe bodily aflfliction — probably from an 
unusually acute attack of that chronic malady which he 
has elsewhere called his " thorn in the flesh ;" for in his 
letter he speaks of his having preached to them at first 
"through infirmity of the flesh" (4 : 13). But the effect 
of his weakness was to elicit the sympathy and kindness 
of his hearers, for he represents them as neither despising 
nor rejecting his trial, but as receiving him as if he had 
been an angel of God ; nay, as if he had been Christ 
himself. Such had been their eagerness to help him, 



6 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 

that he bears them record that if it had been possible they 
would have plucked out their 'ownj eyes and given them 
to him. His preaching among them had been a setting ] 
forth before their eyes of Jesus Christ as evidently cru- 
cified among them. And as Lightfoot has eloquently 
said, " If we picture to ourselves the apostle as he ap- 
peared before the Galatians, a friendless outcast, writhing 
under the tortures of a painful malady, yet instant in 
season and out of season, by turns denouncing and en- 
treating, appealing to the agonies of a crucified Saviour, 
perhaps also, as at Lystra, enforcing this appeal by some 
striking miracle, we shall be at no loss to conceive how 
the fervid temperament of the Gaul might have been 
aroused, while yet only the surface of his spiritual con- 
sciousness was ruffled."* Great enthusiasm apparently 
prevailed among them ; they received, by the laying on 
of apostolic hands, the gift of the Spirit and the power 
of working miracles. They spake of the blessedness that 
had come to them through his ministry. They started 
off with eagerness and did run well, so that when he left 
them his heart was full of joy, and he anticipated great 
things from them in the future. But when, after an in- 
terval of two years or more, he made them another visit 
(Acts 18:23), he found that some evil influence had 
been at work among them, and felt -it necessary to de- 
nounce every one who preached to them another gospel 
than that which he had proclaimed (i : 9) ; while at the 
same time he told them some unpalatable truth, for which 
he seems to fear that they held him as their enemy 

* Lightfoot's Galatians, p. 24. 



THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS, 7 

(4 : 16). We know next to nothing of what was clone or 
said by him on this occasion, but it is probable that he 
went to Ephesus feeHng reassured concerning them, and 
having the hope that he had established them in the 
faith. Yet he would be naturally solicitous about their 
movements, and would endeavor to keep up his knowledo-e 
of them by every means in his power. Indeed it was the ^ 
report of their virtual apostasy which struck out of him 
the letter which we are now to consider, and which is in 
some respects*the most remarkable of his writings. 

Its genuineness is as good as universally admitted. 
Only one even of the negative critics of Germany has 
ventured to call its authorship in question, and his views 
have been condemned by all. We have here, therefore, 
an undoubtedly authentic letter, written some think from 
Ephesus, about the year 54 ; and others, as Lightfoot, 
Howson, and Alford, from Macedonia, about the year 57 
or 58. At the very latest, therefore, we are only twenty- 
nine years from the crucifixion of Christ; and as we 
crowd into our modern years, by steamship, railroad, and 
telegraph, so much more than they did in ancient times, 
these twenty-nine years may be taken as representing 
only fifteen years of this century. That is to say, we 
have here a letter which is virtually as near to the date 
of the Redeemer's death, as we are to-day to the battle of 
Gettysburg. Let that fact be realized in all its signifi- 
cance, and you will see how absurd all these theories are 
which would account for the Gospels by the gradual ac- 
cretion of mythical stories round some ideal nucleus. 
Those myths, to which Niebuhr and others refer in sec- 

15* 



8 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 

ular history, are the growth of ages ; but there is posi- 
tively no opportunity for their formation in the brief in- 
terval which elapsed between the resurrection and the 
beginning of the Christian literature, even if the epoch 
to which we are referring had been adapted to their pro- 
duction. Here is a letter of a date that is less than thirty 
years removed from the death and resurrection of Christ ; 
it is the undoubted production of one of the most intel- 
lectual men of his own or any other age ; and it has come 
to us virtually as he wrote it ; yet we couid easily bring 
out of it all the great facts and doctrines of the gospel : 
so that the mythical theory is thereby demonstrated to 
be a palpable impossibility. 

The occasion on which this letter was written, as we 
have already hinted, was the receipt of intelligence by 
the apostle to the effect that the Galatian converts had 
fallen from their belief in salvation by grace, through 
faith in Jesus Christ, and had submitted to the Jewish 
rite of circumcision on the alleged ground that it was 
essential to their acceptance with God. This had been 
brought about by the agency of false teachers from Je- 
rusalem, who pretended to speak as the messengers of 
the apostles ; and from the specification by Paul of one 
particular troubler (5 : 10), it is probable that there was 
one individual among them who made his antagonism 
peculiarly prominent, and was, as we might say, a ring- 
leader in the revolt against his instructions. But, who- 
ever they were, they went most insidiously to work, for 
they began by endeavoring to undermine the apostolic 
character and authority of Paul. They represented that 



THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 9 

he was subordinate to James, Peter, and John, and that 
these pillars of the church were irreconcilably opposed 
to his teachings ; and, working upon the fears and foi- 
bles of the people, they drew them away in large num- 
bers from the simplicity of the gospel. The apostasy 
was as sudden and as enthusiastic as their original con- 
version had been. It seemed to the apostle almost as if 
they had been spellbound by some evil influence ; and as 
he heard the news of it there was a strange commingling 
and contending of opposing feelings within his heart. 
Indignation at the troublers ; sorrow, surprise, and dis- 
pleasure, at the conduct of his old friends ; yearnings 
after their return, interblended with dissatisfaction at 
their departure from the faith ; scorn at the accusations 
which had been brought against himself, and deepest 
anguish at the dishonor which had been done to Christ — 
all were simultaneously at work within him. Out of this 
tumult of emotions the Epistle to the Galatians was 
born ; and as we can trace the marks of volcanic fires on 
the rocks which some great convulsion has upheaved, so 
we can clearly discern the effects of Paul's inner feelings 
in the style and argument which he has employed. It 
has a burning vehemence peculiar to itself. The " ar- 
rows of its thoughts" are " headed and winged with 
flame." It is characterized by passionate energy, scath- 
ing invective, rapid movement, parental tenderness, and 
condensed power. It is logic on fire, and its conclusions 
scorch those who refuse to be convinced. As Douglas 
of Cavers has admirably said, " The mind of Paul [in it] 
is rapid as the lightning, and yet strikes, by its zigzag 



lo THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS, 

impetuosity, every projecting point that approaches its 
path ; and, still undelayed by these deflections, attains 
instantaneously the goal." The sternness of its reproof, 
however, as many passages in it conclusively prove, was 
but the other side of love ; and even its personal refer- 
ences are to be accounted for by his longing for the re- 
turn of those who had gone back, by his zeal for the 
purity of the gospel, and by his enthusiastic devotion to 
the cause of Christian liberty. 

In the order of the development of Christian doctrine, 
the Epistle to the Galatians stands midway between the 
second letter to the Corinthians and the letter to the 
Romans. Indeed, as Lightfoot has conclusively estab- 
lished, there is the same connection between the Epistles 
to the Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans, that there is 
between those which have been called the Epistles of the 
Imprisonment. They constitute a group, and they reach 
their climax in that greatest of all our apostle's writings, 
which may be styled a treatise rather than a letter. In 
the second letter to the Corinthians we have a personal 
vindication similar to that which makes so conspicuous 
a feature of the letter to the Galatians ; in both we have 
the same indignant denunciation of his antagonists, with 
the same concern for the honor of the Gospel and for the 
restoration of the fallen ; while in the Epistle to the 
Romans we have the full elaboration of the argument 
which is briefly epitomized in that to the Galatians. Or 
as Lightfoot has expressed it in his own clean-cut fashion, 
" To the Galatians the apostle flashes out in indignant 
remonstrance the first eager thoughts kindled by his zeal 



THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. ii 

for the Gospel striking suddenly against a stubborn form 
of Judaism. To the Romans he writes at leisure, under 
no pressure of circumstances, in the face of no direct 
antagonism, explaining, completing, extending the teach- 
ings of the earlier letter, by giving it a double edge 
against Jew and Gentile alike. The matter which in the 
one Epistle is personal and fragmentary, elicited by the 
special needs of an individual church, is in the other 
generalized and arranged so as to form a comprehensive 
and systematic treatise."* 

Proceeding now to the analysis of the letter itself, we 
find that it may be easily divided into three parts : the 
Pei'sonaly the Doctrinal, and the Practical. 

The Personal portion extends to the close of the sec. 
ond chapter, and is devoted to an establishment of his 
apostolical authority. So eager is he to get at his theme, 
that in the very salutation he calls himself an apostle, 
" not of man, neither by men," that is, not of men's ap- 
pointment, nor even of the appointment of Jesus through 
any human instrumentality, but designated directly and 
immediately by the Lord Jesus himself. And he proceeds 
to the establishment of these assertions by affirming that 
after his conversion he had no communication whatever 
with any of the apostles for three years ; because he went 
immediately to Arabia, and after a while returned to Da- 
mascus, from which, at the end of the period I have just 
named, he went to Jerusalem. But even then he had no 
opportunity of receiving any commission, for he was only 
fifteen days with Peter, and he saw none of the other 

* Lightfoot's Galatians, p. 49. 



12 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 

apostles save James, the Lord's brother. Indeed, so brief 
was his sojourn, that he was unknown by face to the 
churches of Judaea. The only other occasion on which 
at Jerusalem he came into contact with any of the apos- 
tles was at the meeting of what is styled the Council of 
Jerusalem. He had indeed with Barnabas, as we know 
from the narrative in the Acts, been at the Holy City 
with offerings for the poor saints in the interval between 
those two visits to which he here refers ; but that was in 
the very heat of the Herodian persecution, when in all 
likelihood the apostles were absent, and he himself made 
a very limited stay ; therefore, as it is to his purpose only 
to mention his personal interviews with the pillars of the 
church, he leaves that altogether out of the account, that 
he might give prominence to the fact that for fourteen 
years he had been preaching continuously, recognized 
and unchallenged as an apostle, though he had only spent 
fifteen days with Peter. 

It may be regarded by some persons as a difficulty 
that Paul affirms in this letter that he went up at this time 
to Jerusalem by revelation, whereas in the narrative in 
the Acts it is alleged that he and Barnabas, with certain 
others, were deputed by the church at Antioch to consult 
the apostles and elders on the circumcision controversy 
which had just arisen. But to this the answer is obvious, 
for the journey might be both "by revelation" and by 
the appointment of the church, since the revelation might 
be given either directly to the church, or to Paul himself 
after the action of the church, for the purpose of remov- 
ing any doubt which he might have as to the propriety 



THE EPIS7XE TO THE GALATIANS, 13 

of the proceeding. We have here one of a class of cases 
in which the addition in one account of some particular 
that is unmentioned in another is neither a contradiction 
nor a discrepancy. A week or two ago, when I returned 
to my home from the Sabbath evening service in my 
church, I was told of a great fire which was raging in 
Twenty-third street in this city; and when I inquired 
into its character, I was informed by a member of my 
family that the first account she received from a passer- 
by was that it was a chair-factory ; the second, from an- 
other casual informant, was, that it was an armory ; and 
the third, from still another witness, was, that it was a 
church, and she did not know which to believe ; but 
when I opened my newspaper on the following morning, 
I found that it had been all the three, and that even if 
there had been a fourth report that two churches had 
been destroyed, that also would have been accurate. 
Now a case like that, occurring at one's own doorstep, 
is a complete vindication of the harmonizing principle 
which we have here adopted, and which permits us to 
believe that Paul went to Jerusalem by the appointment 
of the brethren of the church at Antioch, fortified and 
confirmed by a direct revelation to himself from the 
Lord. 

Now on this visit two things occurred, which proved 
the independent apostleship of Paul, and his coordinate 
authority with James, Cephas, and John. The first was 
his refusal to circumcise Titus, a Gentile Christian, who 
was one of his companions. The Judaizing party in- 
sisted that this Greek should be subjected to the Abra- 



14 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 

hamic rite, as a thing essential to his salvation and his 
standing in the Christian church ; but Paul " gave place 
to them by subjection, no, not for an hour." But so far 
from being repudiated by the other apostles for this 
action, he was, in a private interview which he had with 
them, distinctly recognized by them as coordinate with 
themselves, and they came to an understanding with him 
that he should go to the Gentiles, while they should con- 
tinue to work among the Jews ; both alike honoring the 
grace that was given to them, and giving to each other 
the right hand of fellowship. 

It may seem strange that here Paul makes no refer- 
ence to the public deliberations of the Council, or to the 
decree which was adopted by it, and which, specifying a 
few things from which the Gentiles were to keep them- 
selves, yet left them free from the yoke of the Jewish law 
as a whole. But the decree was the determination of 
the church, speaking through the apostles and elders and 
brethren ; and Paul is arguing here throughout on his 
own official standing and position ; therefore he keeps 
himself rigidly to the matter in hand, and suffers no side 
issue to be raised. 

For the same reason it is that, passing all other 
things, he fixes attention next on his contention with 
Peter. From the account here given, it would appear 
that, after the discussion in the assembly at Jerusalem, 
in which it will be remembered that he took the ex- 
tremely liberal side, and gave his voice for leaving the 
Gentiles perfectly free from the yoke of the law, Peter 
went down to Antioch. On his first arrival, and proba- 



THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 15 

bly with the view of showing that he was in full accord 
in every respect with Paul, he ate with the Gentiles with- 
out scruple. After a while, however, certain Jews came 
from James — that is, not necessarily commissioned by 
James, but from Jerusalem, the place where James was — 
and then, fearing them that " were of the circumcision," j 
Peter withdrew and separated himself. The influence of 
his example was so serious, that all the Jews went after 
him, and even Barnabas was carried away with the cur- 
rent. We can readily understand the case, especially 
when we remember that with all his admirable qualities, 
Peter was too much a man of impulse, and went fre- 
quently from one extreme to another. That scene with 
the Master upon the lake was typical of the elder son of 
Jonas throughout his career. He was always the first to 
start out over a sea of difficulties to meet his Lord, but 
often, ere he reached Him, his fears overmastered his 
faith, and he began to sink. It certainly was so in this 
instance. At first he braved all opposition and despised 
all prejudice ; but the men from Jerusalem got round 
him, and wrought upon his fears. They represented, 
perhaps, that a great outcry would be made against his 
conduct by his friends in the Holy City ; that the course 
which he was taking would create controversy and de- 
velop antagonism ; that it would seriously interfere with 
his comfort and mar his usefulness, and that if he had any 
regard for his own happiness, he should at once retrace 
his steps. Thus they prevailed upon him to do as they 
desired. But in Paul's estimation this conduct was dis- 
simulation. He did not mean to allege, indeed, that Peter 

i3 



1 6 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 

designed to deceive others, for he imputes no motives 
But he indicates that Peter's action was dissimulation, in 
the hteral sense of the word, that is, an appearance of 
being what he really was not. He had not changed his 
opinions. He was as sound in the faith as he had ever 
been. But what Paul complained of was, that his altera- 
tion of his conduct at that particular juncture was such 
as to convey the impression that he had changed his con- 
victions ; and feeling that something should be done to 
counteract the evil which would otherwise result, he went 
directly to his friend and publicly exposed the inconsist- 
ency of which he had publicly been guilty. 

Let it be clearly understood therefore, that Peter's 
error was not one of doctrine, but of practice. Hence, 
they are entirely at fault who bring up this difference 
between these two apostles as if it disproved the inspira- 
tion of either or of both. Inspiration is one thing, 
sanctification is another. Both indeed are the effects of 
the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul. In the one He 
employs the powers of the mind in the communication 
of truth to others : in the other He operates on them 
in the formation of the individual's own character. 
There may be inspiration without sanctification, as in 
the case of such a one as Balaam ; and there may be 
sanctification without inspiration, as in the case of ordi- 
nary believers. In respect of inspiration the two apostles 
were upon an equality, and the sermons and epistles of 
Peter are in perfect harmony with the discourses and 
letters of Paul. But in respect of sanctification they 
were different. Each had his own distinctive excellcn- 



THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 17 

ces, and each his own characteristic defects. One of 
the failings of Peter, as we have seen, was a hasty im- 
pulsiveness, which sometimes made him the first in 
noble daring, and occasionally led him to act with start- 
ling inconsistency. But his convictions were right ; 
and it was his knowledge of that fact that led Paul to 
expostulate with him in the address which is here epit- 
omized, and which presents the finest possible combina- 
tion of firmness with delicacy, and of faithfulness with 
affection. It would well repay the most minute consid- 
eration ; but I must be content with setting before you 
the substance of the appeal which it makes, and while I 
do so you will perceive that Paul by introducing it here 
is at once vindicating his own apostleship, and presenting 
a most cogent argument against the reasoning of the 
Judaizers, which it is the main design of this letter to 
refute. Fitly therefore, does it form the point of transi- 
tion from the personal to the doctrinal section of the 
Epistle. 

I! is something like the following : If you who are a 
Jew by birth, and therefore have been brought up under 
the law of Moses, feel yourself at liberty to disregard its 
prohibitions and to live as you were doing a little while 
ago after the manner of the Gentiles, it is absurd in you 
to oblige the Gentiles to conform in everything to the 
Mosaic institutes. You do not, indeed, insist on that 
in so many words ; but still the natural inference from 
your present withdrawal from the Gentile Christians, is 
that you have now come to believe that circumcision is 
essential to salvation. For this is not a case of conform- 



1 8 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS, 

ing to the wishes of a weak brother ; it is a complying 
with the demands of those who say " Except ye be cir- 
cumcised after the manner of Moses, ye can not be saved." 
Now observe how your conduct affects the fundamental 
i:)rinciples of the gospel. We who are Jews, having be- 
come convinced that we could not be justified by the 
works of the law, have sought salvation through faith in 
Christ ; but if in so doing we are after all found to be 
transgressors, because we have wilfully neglected the 
law as an appointed means of salvation, then it must 
follow that Christ, who taught us to neglect it in that 
relation, has been to us the minister of sin. That is a 
conclusion, from which of course you will shrink with 
horror ; still you must be prepared to face it, or you 
must admit that by your present conduct you have made 
yourself a transgressor. There is transgression some- 
where. If you were wrong before in eating with the 
Gentiles, then as you did that under the direct command 
of the Lord given to you in a vision, he Avas to you the 
minister of sin. But if you were right before, then you 
are wrong now, and you are yourself the transgressor. 
If you were right in destroying then it is clear that you 
make yourself a transgressor by building up again the 
things which you had formally thrown down. There is 
no other alternative. By your present conduct you are 
either making Christ the minister of sin, or making your- 
self a transgressor ; and when the matter is put thus, I 
know well what will be your answer. For indeed your 
experience and my own are here identical, and I through 
the law am dead to the law. Its condemnation killed 



THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS, 19 

me. But Christ killed it ; and delivered me, yet not to 
lawlessness but rather to love, that I might live unto 
God ; and such is my union to him, that I am crucified 
with him, yet I live, but after all it is not I that live, but 
he that liveth in me. Thus I do not make the grace of 
God unnecessary, as I certainly should do if I were to go 
back to the law for salvation ; for if it were possible to 
obtain righteousness by the law, then there was no need 
for the death of Christ, and he was sacrificed in vain. 

There is nothing said anywhere as to how Peter re- 
ceived this admonition ; but from what we know of his 
character and temperament, we may conclude that he 
frankly owned his error ; and we are sure that no root of 
bitterness was left by it to spring up and trouble the heart 
of the apostle of the circumcision, for long after he writes 
of his censor as " our beloved brother Paul." 

The sum of this personal apologia then is, that after 
his conversion Paul received no instruction in the gospel 
from any of the apostles, and was not commissioned by 
men ; that he had only seen Peter for fifteen days in 
fourteen years — and that three years after he had been 
commissioned by Christ himself; that when he had met 
the apostles in conference at Jerusalem, he had done so 
as an equal ; and that at Antioch he had stood up suc- 
cessfully against the leading apostle, in defence of the 
liberty of the Gospel ; therefore it could not be said with 
any truth, that he was a whit behind the very chiefest 
apostles. 

But before proceeding to the second division of the 
Epistle, it may be well to see how many facts in the his- 



iG 



20 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 

tory of Paul, additional to those which are elsewhere 
furnished to us, are brought out here ; and to mark how, 
though incidentally mentioned in the course of this 
argument, they fit into the other records, in a manner 
which proves at once the independence of the separate 
narratives and the truthfulness of them both. Perhaps 
no portion of Paley's admirable work (Horas Paulinse) 
is so rich in undesigned coincidences as that which 
he has devoted to this Epistle ; and as a specimen of 
the argument of a book which I fear is too much neg- 
lected in these days, but which is of inestimable and 
perennial value, I will direct your attention to one or 
two of the points which he makes. We are indebted to 
this letter for the information that Paul went from Da- 
mascus into Arabia; now see how Paley makes this 
establish the independence of the Acts and the Epistle, 
in this convincing style : " If the narrative in the Acts 
had been made up from the Epistle, it is impossible that 
this journey should have been passed over in silence ; 
if the Epistle had been composed out of what the author 
had read of Paul's history in the Acts, it is unaccount- 
able that it should have been inserted." Bearing in 
mind then this evidence of the fact that these two wri- 
tings, the Acts and the Epistles, come from independent 
sources, see how they confirm each other. The history 
tells us that Paul was " brought up at the feet of Gama- 
liel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the 
law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God ;" the 
Epistle says, " I profited in the Jews' religion above 
many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceed- 



THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 21 

ingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers." The his- 
tory affirms that " Saul made havoc in the church ;" in 
the Epistle he confesses " that beyond measure he per- 
secuted the church and wasted it." The history records 
that he was converted on the way to Damascus and went 
immediately into that city; the Epistle says, "I went 
into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus." Now 
if you recollect that in the Epistle Damascus has not 
been before named, and is only now brought in incident- 
tally to give an accurate description of his return journey, 
you will agree with Paley when he says, " Nothing can 
be more like simplicity and undesignedness than this." 
Again the shortness of Paul's stay with Peter in Jerusa- 
alem fits in with the words which were heard by Paul 
while he was praying in the temple and which the his- 
torian has preserved: "Make haste! get thee quickly out 
of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony con- 
cerning me." Thus the words of one book are seen to be 
in incidental conformity with a specification delivered in 
another book, "a species of consistency," says Paley, 
" not, I think, usually found in fabulous relations." 

The Doctrinal division of the Epistle begins with the 
opening of the third chapter, and extends to the close of 
the fourth ; and the transition to it is made both natu- 
rally and easily from the experimental reference with 
which the first portion concludes. The apostle has 
affirmed that if righteousness come by the law, Christ is 
dead in vain ; and, remembering with what distinctness he 
had set the Lord before their eyes as evidently crucified 
among them, he appeals to them whether they had re- 



2 2 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 

ceived the miraculous gifts of the Spirit in connection 
with their submission to the law, or with the hearing of 
faith. He knew what their answer must be ; for their 
beginning had been in the spirit ; but if now they were 
to be made perfect by the fiesh, then over and above the 
absurdity of such an anti-climax they stultified them- 
selves, for all the persecutions which they had endured 
at the hands of the Jews had been in vain, and they had 
made themselves martyrs by mistake. Then, as in a 
later day Luther went behind the Fathers who were 
quoted in support of justification by works, to the grand- 
fathers, as he called the apostles, who proclaimed justi- 
fication by faith, so Paul here goes back beyond the law 
to Abraham, who " believed God and it was accounted 
unto him for righteousness," and affirms that the true 
spiritual descendants of Abraham are those who are 
seeking salvation by faith. He alleges that the promise 
made to Abraham, " in thee shall all nations be blessed," 
was the gospel in germ ; that thus the gospel came 
before the law, and that its blessing now, as in the days 
of Abraham, was to be obtained through faith. It was 
indeed true that the law was not of faith ; for its founda- 
tion principle was this : " The man that doeth them shall 
live in them." But there was no salvation in that ; for 
they could not keep the precepts of the law, and so the 
only effect of their attempt would be to bring them 
under its curse ; for it is written, *' Cursed is every one 
that continueth not in all things that are written in the 
book of the law to do them." Indeed, it was to redeem 
us from that curse that Christ had condescended to be 



THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 23 

made a curse for us in giving himself up to crucifixion 
on our behalf, and thus it comes to pass that the bless- 
ing of Abraham is enjoyed by the Gentiles through Jesus 
Christ ; for they receive the promise of the Spirit 
through faith. 

To all this it might perhaps be answered, that as 
the law came after the promise it virtually annulled it ; 
but there is no force in that objection, for the covenant of 
God stands through all generations, and is not affected 
by anything that came after it ; and, as that covenant 
gave the inheritance by promise, the law could not take 
it back. The law was given by angels in the hand of a 
mediator, even Moses, who represented not only the 
people before God, but also God before the people : for 
a mediator is not a mediator of one, but of two parties ; 
and as in this case one of the parties is God, who is un- 
changeably faithful to all his promises, it follows that 
the law, to the covenant of which he was one of the 
parties, could not be a retraction of the promise. 

But if this be so, some one will ask what was the use 
of the law } It was added, replies Paul, because of the 
liability of the people to transgressions, and its purpose 
was to keep them under due restraint until the coming 
of that seed of whom God in the promise spake to 
Abraham. The law was the paedagogue, or slave that 
kept the child in its minority under strict surveillance 
until the coming of Christ ; but when Christ came, the 
office of the paedagogue was at an end, and the boy 
passed from minority to manhood, from the position of a 
child under a guardian to that of a full-grown son. The 



24 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 

law served for a disciplinary restraint until Christ came ; 
but when he appeared the restraint was thrown down ; 
and Jews and Gentiles alike were introduced by him into 
the status of full-grown sons of God, or into what the 
apostle has elsewhere called " the glorious liberty of the 
children of God" by faith. Thus speaking from the Jew- 
ish standpoint, to go back from the gospel to the, law was 
as foolish as it would be for the heir who had attained 
full possession of a large inheritance at his majority, to 
abjure it and the liberty of its enjoyment, and voluntarily 
return to the position of a minor, by placing himself 
under his old tutors and governors. And though the 
Gentiles among them had never come under the Jewish 
law, yet the same principles applied to their old heathen- 
ism, which, however degraded it had been, was, equally 
with Judaism, a system of restraint, and had this in com- 
mon with it, that, as a ritual, it was made up of precepts 
and ordinances, and so was a system of law as opposed 
to grace. Therefore, even for those of them who had 
been Gentiles, the adoption of the Jewish law would be 
a going back to a rudimentary bondage to elements 
which, though far from being so rude and low as heathen- 
ism was, were yet in themselves weak and beggarly as 
every merely ritualistic system must be, now that Christ 
has absorbed the spirituality that was in them all. 

At this point of his argument the apostle breaks off 
into an earnest and affectionate appeal to his readers in 
which an effective contrast is drawn between their first 
reception of him when he preached to them in weakness, 
and their altered feelings toward him now that they 



THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 25 

seemed to regard him as their enemy because he had 
told them the truth. He affirms that his attachment to 
them is unabated, and beseeches them, as his Uttle chil- 
dren of whom he travailed in birth again until Christ be 
formed in them, that they should return to their first love. 
Then knowing the allegorical use which his antagonists 
made of many portions of the law, he turned their own 
weapons against themselves, by taking the history of 
Isaac and Ishmael as an illustration both parabolical and 
prophetical of the argument which he had just enforced. 
The sons of Abraham were two : the one, Ishmael, was 
of the bond woman Hagar, and was of the flesh ; the 
other, Isaac, was of the free woman Sarah, and was by 
promise ; but Ishmael and his mother were cast out and 
Isaac and his mother were retained, according to the 
command, " Cast out the bondwoman and her son ; for 
the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son 
of the free woman." Now the spiritual analogues to 
these historical yet typical characters are as follows. 
Hagar represents the Sinaitic covenant, that of the law, 
and has her issue in the earthly Jerusalem, which is in 
spiritual bondage with her children. Sarah represents 
the covenant of promise, and issues in the heavenly Je- 
rusalem, that city of which even now the Christian is a 
denizen, and which is the home of spiritual freedom. 
Thus the difference between Paul and the Judaizers was 
that while they both alike traced their parentage to 
Abraham, he claimed to be a son of the free woman and 
they were the sons of the slave. He was a child of 
promise, and they were children of the flesh ; and that 



26 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 

accounted perfectly for their antagonism to him ; for just 
as Ishmael mocked Sarah and Isaac and he that was 
born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after 
the spirit, even so it is now. Thus even their opposition 
to him made it only the more apparent that he and his 
adherents were not the children of the bondwoman but 
of the free. 

The argument of this portion of the Epistle turns on 
the use of the law, and it is needful to a right under- 
standing of it that we clearly perceive the meaning which 
here belongs to the term " adoption," when it is said that 
Christ came " to redeem them that were under the law 
that we might receive the adoption of sons." Usually 
adoption denotes the reception of a stranger into the 
family as a son ; but here it is the elevation to the status 
of full-grown sonship, of those who having been children 
from the first, were up till that time under the charge 
of tutors and governors ; and so the view which he gives 
of the law is that of restraint, rather than of education. 
It is true that elsewhere he speaks of the law as having 
been of signal service in the religious training of the 
people, and our translation, by giving the rendering here, 
that the law was our schoolmaster " to bring tis to Christ,'* 
would seem to favor the idea that he lays stress on that 
aspect of it in this Epistle. But the office of the paeda- 
gogue was one of control rather than of instruction, and 
the proper translation, as is made evident from his con- 
trast later on between the heir as a servant and as a son, 
ought to be " the law was our paedagogue until Christ." 
Hence, when Christ came the occupation of the law was 



THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 27 

gone. There was no further need for its operation, and 
they who were set free from it came under the higher 
principle of love. They were absolved from the control 
of minute restrictions, only however to give free play to 
the strength of their filial affection as the full-grown 
sons of God. 

So when he proceeds to the Practical part of his let- 
ter in the fifth chapter and bids his readers stand fast 
in their liberty, he is careful to distinguish between lib- 
erty and license; and warns them against using it for an 
occasion to the flesh. He contrasts the works of the 
flesh with the fruit of the Spirit ; and after an enumera- 
ation of evils, each of which is in itself an indication that 
the individual guilty of it is still carnally-minded, he 
holds up to admiration the one grape-cluster of Christian 
graces, which is the Eshcol earnest of the heavenly in- 
heritance ; and the presence of which not in single vir- 
tues, but in a group, is needed in order to authenticate it 
as the result of the Spirit's work. 

Then, after brief but pointed exhortations to mutual 
burden-bearing, to liberality and to unflagging perseve- 
rance, he sums up in a few comprehensive sentences, 
each of which, like Luther's words long after, is in 
itself a " half-battle." He bids them take note of his 
affectionate solicitude for them, as manifested in the fact 
that he had written to them, not through an amanuensis 
as usual, but with his own hand ; and they might see 
how much that effort cost him, when they looked upon 
the large letters which, owing to his infirmity, he had 
been compelled to make. He contrasts the conduct of 

17 



28 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 

the Judaizers, whose desire was only to glory in external 
ordinances, with his absorbing purpose to glory only in 
the cross of Christ. He asserts that the one grand in- 
dispensable thing is, not to be circumcised, but to be 
created anew in Christ Jesus. And alluding to the fact 
that the ownership of a slave was attested by the brands 
which had been burned into his flesh, he declares that 
he carries with him the evidence of his apostleship in 
the scars of persecution with which he was marked. 
" From henceforth, let no man trouble me, for I bear 
in my body the marks," or stigmata, "of the Lord Jesus." 
Then, calling them once more by the endearing name 
of " Brethren," he concludes as usual with a benedic- 
tion. 

Such is a brief analysis of this unique Epistle. We 
cannot tell what effect it produced upon the churches to 
whom it was primarily addressed. But many centuries 
later, when the truths which it contends for had been 
buried under the rites and ceremonies of the Papal 
church, the exposition of this portion of Scripture by 
Martin Luther was one of the most powerful agencies 
in giving depth and breadth and permanence to the 
Reformation with which the name of the German preach- 
er is imperishably associated. And now in our times, 
when many among us are seeking to give undue promi- 
nence to ritual observances, the principles which it en- 
forces have come again into importance, so that its study 
is incumbent upon all who would make themselves men 
who have " understanding of the times, to know what Is- 
rael ought to do." For what is true of circumcision, which 



THE EPISTLE TV THE GALATIANS. 29 

was the ordinance of the old covenant, is just as true of 
baptism and the Lord's supper, which are the ordinances 
of the new. Everything which in any degree would tend 
to make the cross of Christ of non-effect ; everything 
which would lead men to glory in an external rite, rather 
than in the death of the Lord Jesus ; everything which 
would exalt baptism and the Lord's Supper above that 
faith which worketh by love, and make them of more 
importauce than the new creation which is the result of 
the work of God's Spirit upon the soul, is to be resisted 
with an energy as intense and a zeal as vehement and 
an earnestness as sublime as those which Paul manifest- 
ed in the instance of the Galatian apostasy. When men, 
anywhere, insist on something as essential to salvation, 
other than that faith in Christ which has received the 
promise of the Spirit, we are to give place by subjection, 
no, not for an hour, that the truth of the Gospel may con- 
tinue with us. Nay more ; if the inconsistency of one 
who is recognized as a pillar of the church should seem 
to lend the influence of his name to error, we are to with- 
stand him to the face. We are to make the cross of 
Christ the touchstone and test of every novelty in re- 
ligion ; and if the necessity of that is repudiated, or its 
efficiency denied, then no considerations of a personal 
character are to prevent us from opposing the innova- 
tor with all our might. The truth of the Gospel, and 
the honor of the cross, are to be dearer to us than all 
else ; and however tolerant we may be in regard to minor 
matters, however much like Paul himself we may seek 
to become " all things to all men," we are to be firm and 



30 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATJANS. 

resolute and uncompromising here — not scrupling even to 
use the language of the apostle, " though we, or an angel 
from heaven, preach any other gospel, let him be anathe- 
ma." The danger of our day, unless I greatly misread 
the indications of the spiritual barometer, lies just here. 
In our zeal for liberality we are becoming latitudinarian, 
and forgetting that there is a point where intolerance is 
necessary in order to the very preservation of liberty. 
This letter was written in the interests of freedom. Its 
conclusion is, *' Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ 
has made us free ;" and yet, for the very purpose of 
maintaining that liberty, Paul here hurls his anathema 
at the Judaizers' heads. Let us not forget, therefore, 
that there is an intolerance in the Gospel as well a tol- 
eration. We may, and we ought, to exercise the fullest 
forbearance in regard to minor matters ; but there must 
be no toleration of treason to the cross ; for the tolera- 
tion of such treason is always treachery. I say not, 
indeed, that all such errors should be put down by force. 
God forbid. But I do say that they should be denounced 
by every loyal servant of the Lord, and that the church 
should absolve itself from all complicity with the errorists. 
And though there be many who would cry out against 
such a course as bigoted, I would rather, even in the in- 
terests of freedom itself, have, if you choose to call it so, 
the bigotry of Paul, than the indifference of him who 
counts nothing essential, and who is "everything by 
turns and nothing long." Luther was no foe to freedom ; 
and in the proportion in which like him we are intoler- 
ant of everything that compromises the honor of Christ 



THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 31 

or the doctrine of his cross, we shall conserve and widen 
the liberty which he did so much to secure. So let us 
raise anew the shout of Paul, making it our motto, not 
for the moment of enthusiasm merely, but for all our 
lives. " God forbid that I should glory save in the cross 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified 
unto me and I unto the world." 



>7* 



THE 



Epistle to the Philippians 



BY REV. MARVIN R. VINCENT, D, D., 

NEW YORK. 



THE 



Epistle to the Philippians, 



On a spring day in the year of our Lord 6i, the 
crowd of idlers who usually were found lounging on the 
quay at Puteoli might have been seen watching an ap^ 
proaching vessel. The words, "An Alexandrian corn- 
ship," passed from mouth to mouth. From the sheltered 
nook in the north of the Bay of Naples, where lay Pute- 
oli, the Liverpool of Rome, the loungers could see the 
vessel as she came up between the island of Capri and 
the Minervan cape, and would recognize her character 
from her not striking her topsails as other vessels were 
compelled to do on entering the bay. She swept past 
the lighthouse on the end of the mole, of which seven- 
teen arches may still be seen by the modern tourist ; and 
as the throng buzzed round the landing-place, eager to 
catch a sight of her passengers and to pick up scraps of 
news from Africa, they met, passing to the shore, a cen- 
turion and some soldiers having in charge prisoners for 
Rome. Perhaps few noticed among these unfortunates 
a somewhat undersized man with keen, aquiline features, 



4 THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 

an oval face shaded with gray hair, bushy eyebrows, 
pointed beard, worn and travel-stained, as if from a long 
and hard journey. 

It was thus that the great apostle to the Gentiles 
made his first appearance in Italy — a prisoner. Assault- 
ed by the Jews at Jerusalem, Paul had put himself as a 
Roman citizen under the protection of Claudius Lysias, 
the commandant of the Roman garrison, and had been 
sent by him to Felix, the procurator of Judaea, whose 
headquarters were at Caesarea. 

Here Paul had been detained for two years, appear- 
insr meanwhile before Felix and his successor Festus, 
and again before Herod Agrippa II., then king of Chal- 
cis, during his complimentary visit to the new governor. 
Festus having desired Paul to go back to Jerusalem and 
be tried under his protection, Paul refused, falling back 
on his right as a Roman citizen to appeal to the em- 
peror. 

The governor thus had no alternative but to send 
him to Rome under guard. The journey was made by 
sea, and involved the memorable shipwreck at Malta ; 
and it is at the end of this journey that we now meet the 
apostle at Puteoli. 

Time forbids us to follow him along the Appian Way 
to the metropolis. Once in Rome, he became the sub- 
ject of "the law's delay." The official documents in his 
case had probably been lost in the shipwreck, and it 
would be long before duplicates could be obtained. The 
prosecutor and witnesses had to be brought from Syria 
to Italy, a tedious and perilous journey. Nero the em- 



THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 5 

peror was full of caprice, and so averse to business that 
it was only at rare intervals that he could be persuaded 
to hear a suit and pronounce a verdict. 

Thus began another confinement of two years, yet 
not a season of idleness, as we shall soon see ; and in 
order that we may understand some of the points at 
which Paul's activity was brought to bear, and to which 
reference is made in the epistle under consideration, we 
must glance at certain of the elements of Roman society 
with which the apostle found himself in contact. 

And, first, there were the Jews. In the twenty- 
eighth chapter of Acts we are told that Paul, three days 
after his arrival, called the chief of the Jews together, and 
strove to disabuse them of the unfavorable impression 
respecting himself which he naturally supposed that the 
Asiatic Jews would have endeavored to create among 
them in advance of his arrival ; and that, on a subse- 
quent day, he defended and expounded the gospel in 
their hearing. The Jews formed a very large and influ^ 
ential community in Rome. In such numbers had they, 
with other Orientals, poured into the city, that a contem- 
porary poet represented their influx by the metaphor of 
the Syrian river Orontes pouring itself into the Roman 
Tiber. The draught upon the specie of the city, made 
by the annual payment by each Jew of about twenty-five 
cents towards the expenses of the temple, was so great 
as to cause complaint. They were feared and hated, yet 
they stood high in the favor of the government. Jewish 
slaves and freedmen rose to influence in patrician house- 
holds, and Jewish names are still found in the aristo- 



6 THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS, 

cratic burial-places on the Appian road. Their assem- 
blies were countenanced, their temples received gifts 
from the emperor, and they were admitted to share in 
the public distribution of corn. Not only this, but their 
faith became fashionable. The religious dilettanti of 
Rome affected Judaism, and professed to honor the name 
of Moses and the sacred books. Poppaea, Nero's con- 
sort, than whom no viler creature ever disgraced a throne 
or dishonored a home, was their patroness ; and so suc- 
cessful were they in the work of proselyting Greeks and 
Romans, that Seneca, Nero's tutor, said, " the Jewish 
faith is now received on every hand. The conquered 
have given laws to the conquerors." It was among these, 
as we shall presently see, that the "envy and strife" and 
the attempt "to add affliction" to Paul's bonds (1:15) 
were chiefly nourished. From them came the " dogs," 
the " evil workers," " the concision," to whom he alludes 
in chap. 3:2. 

2d. There were the Christians. In ch. i : 14 refer- 
ence is made to " the brethren," and in 4 : 22 to " the 
saints," especially " they of Caesar's household." In Acts 
28 : 14 we read that, on landing at Puteoli, on his way to 
Rome, the apostle found a Christian community evident- 
ly in intimate relations with the church at Rome, since 
they communicated Paul's arrival to it, and called out 
the deputation which met him at Appii Forum. There 
was, then, a church at Rome when Paul arrived there ; 
not organized, indeed, but numerous, since, three years 
before his arrival, he had addressed to the Roman Chris- 
tians the most important of his EpistleS; in which he 



THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIFFIANS. 7 

sends salutations to more persons than in any other. 
We know very little about its members, but the pre- 
sumption is that they belonged mostly to lower social 
grades, yet were not for that reason altogether without 
influence. Every student of Roman history knows what 
a large and often terrible part was played by petted ser- ^ 
vants of the imperial households, and what multitudes 
of them were required not only to minister to the sensu- 
ality and luxury of their royal masters, but also to serve 
their intellectual demands. Hence among the servants, 
the freedmen, even the slaves of Caesar's household, one 
might easily come into contact with secretaries, profes- 
sors, physicians, and philosophers. Singularly enough 
there was discovered some years since a burying- place 
belonging to the emperor just preceding Nero, a sepul- 
chre of the kind known as a " columbarium," or dovecot, 
because its walls were lined with pigeon-holes for the 
reception of little caskets containing the ashes of the 
dead. In this were found many of the identical names 
mentioned in the salutations of the Epistle to the Ro- 
mans : Amplias, Urbanus, Stachys, Tryphasna, and Try- 
phosa, with others. " If," as Mr. Merivale remarks, 
" these are indeed the very individuals to whom he sends 
his salutations, we are authorized to conclude that the 
faith as known at Rome before his own arrival there had 
already made its way within the precincts of the palace 
itself." The gospel was already heard among them " of 
Caesar's household." 

3d. There was the Pr^torian Guard. In the 

thirteenth verse of the first chapter, we read or ought to 

18 



8 THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPFIANS, 

read, "my bonds in Christ are manifest throughout the 
praetorian guard and to all others." The scene of Paul's 
confinement is a matter of conjecture. It may have been 
the camp of the praetorian guards, to the northeast of 
the city, outside the walls, which was large enough to 
have contained within its precincts lodgings for prisoners 
under military custody; so that Paul could dwell, as we 
are told he did, (Acts 28:30,) in "his own hired house," 
and yet have been within the camp. These praetorians 
formed the imperial guard. They were picked men, ten 
thousand in number, and all of Italian birth. Their pay 
was higher and their privileges greater than those of 
other troops. Their power was enormous and dangerous. 
Already they held the empire in their hands, and the 
day came at last when, having murdered their emperor, 
they put the empire of the world up at auction on the 
city wall and knocked it down to the highest bidder. 
Into the camp of these haughty, licentious troops the 
apostle was thrown, and as each soldier took his turn in 
guarding him, he was chained to his hand. Hence 
comes his frequent mention of his ''bonds" in these 
Epistles, as in Eph. 6 : 20, where he says " I am an ambas- 
sador in bonds," using the word which means the coup- 
ling chain. Relieving one another in the duty of mount- 
ing guard, the members of the corps would come suc- 
cessively into personal contact with the apostle; so that 
it is easy to understand how he could say to the Philip- 
pians that his bonds had "borne witness to the gospel 
throughout the Imperial guard.." 

We have thus the Roman setting to these four 



THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 9 

Epistles, to which let us now turn our attention. These 
four Epistles — to the Colossians, Philippians, Ephesians, 
and Philemon — are perhaps the richest fruit of Paul's 
first imprisonment. No serious question arises as to 
their authorship, or as to the place of their composition. 
They are generally conceded to be Paul's, and to have 
been written at Rome. A very few critics have vainly 
endeavored to show that they were composed at Caesarea 
during the apostle's two years* confinement. 

On the order of their composition, however, a ques- 
tion of some nicety arises. It is generally conceded that 
Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon, belong together, 
being written and despatched about the same time-; 
while Philippians stands by itself. The question is 
whether these three were first written, or Philippians. 
The majority of critics adopt the opinion which places 
Philippians last, basing it on the following arguments. 

1. That the ^ogress of the gospel indicated in the 
Epistle would require a longer time than would be allowed 
if the Epistle were written early in the imprisonment. — 

But we have already seen that Yz}A found a strong body <:2jiarfd 
of Christians on his arrival. '^'^ ""~" A^^^/^^* '^ 

2. That the names of Paul's associates, Luke and ' 
Aristarchus, mentioned in the salutations in Colossians 
and Philemon, are not mentioned in Philippians, thus 
showing that they had left Rome before the Epistle to 
the Philippians was written. — But, if this proves the 
later composition of Philippians, why does it not equally ^ 
prove the later composition of Ephesians, since neither /W-^*-<A>^- 
of those names occurs there } Or, to take another case, *" -^ ""^^ 



lo THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 

why is Jesus Justus, who is saluted in Colossians, not 
saluted in Philemon, which was written at the same time, 
sent to the same place, and carried by the same messen- 
ger? The matter is sufficiently explained by the fact 
that the salutations in Philippians 2SQ, general ^ "all the 
saints," which may have included these names, while 
those in the others are special. 

3. That the numerous journeys between Rome and 
Philippi, to announce the apostle's captivity, to carry the 
Philippians' contribution to Paul, to announce the sick- 
ness of Epaphroditus, and again to tell Epaphroditus that 
the Philippians had heard of his sickness, required more 
time than the early composition of the Epistle would 
\ cx^yx. K.V' allow. — But it is not proved that these four journeys were 
\^(^hT made or were necessary; and if they were, the time 
tc</ y^%y^/'> required in going between the two places was a little 
;^/-6l^^>. less than a month. It has been supposed by some that 
y ^^«^v<, Aristarchus left the vessel at Myra, and went to his 
*^ • home in Macedonia before going to Rome; in which 
case he could have announced to the Philippians the 
apostle's journey to Rome, and Epaphroditus might 
have left at once and have met Paul on his arrival in 
Rome. 

JO - /^Cr^' '^' ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^"^ ^^ ^^^ Philippian Epistle is 

^/.^v^^^jT^more despondent than that of the others; indicating the 

:-^.J"<6* . depression attending a long confinement. — On the con- 

Ih^ <# trary the Philippian Epistle is perhaps, on the whole, the 

^<>^^^^-^ ^' most cheery of all Paul's writings. Even his possible 

sufferings are contemplated with joyful hope. Look, 

for instance, at 1:21, 22. So marked is this that Bengel, 



THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPFIANS. ii 

a commentator who knows how to compress a great deal 
into a word, says, "The sum of the Epistle is, 'I rejoice, 
do ye rejoice.' " 

Thus, as it seems to me, the evidences fail to substan- 
tiate the later date of the Epistle, while, on the other 
hand, its resemblance in style and contents to the earlier 
group of the Epistles, especially Romans, and the fact 
that Ephesians and Colossians both deal with advanced 
forms of error, and assume a larger development of the 
church than appears in Philippians, seem to indicate that 
Ephesians and Colossians ought to be placed as late as 
possible, and Philippians as early as possible. I there- 
fore follow the minority in placing Philippians first in- 
stead of last ; somewhere about 6r or 62 a. d.* 

Let us now try and get some idea of the place and 
people to which this Epistle is addressed. 

Philippi was in Macedonia. Travellers by sea, like 
Paul, landed at Neapolis, and then travelled ten miles 
over the mountains along the Roman highway to Phi- 
lippi. 

The city commanded the high road between Europe 
and Asia. It was a Roman colony ; or, in other words, 
a little Rome, in which every feature of the parent civili- 
zation was reproduced as minutely as possible. The civil 
and military organization, the language, the names of the 
magistrates, were the same as at Rome. As we read the 
story of Paul's visit as told by Luke, we discover a Roman 
sentiment in the protest of the officers against the recep- 

* I have followed Professor Lightfoot, both in the argument and in 
the conclusion ; but have carefully gone over the ground with other 
authorities, and have reached his conclusion independently. 

18* 



12 THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 

tion of strange customs in religion. It is because Paul is 
a Roman citizen that he obtains redress and apology for 
his imprisonment from the magistrates, and in the Epis- 
tle to the Philippians it is the franchise of Roman citizen- 
ship which he uses to symbolize that of the kingdom of 
Christ : " Our citizenship is in heaven " (3 : 20). 

From its central position between Asia and Europe, 
on a thoroughfare of traffic, a variety of national types 
met and mingled in Philippi. There were the Greek, the 
Roman, the Asiatic, representing all varieties of philos- 
ophy and of religious speculation ; Greek and Roman 
paganism, Greek skepticism. Oriental mysticism, Jewish 
legalism. It was a grand theatre on which to demon- 
strate the power of the gospel to deal effectively with 
all phases of nationality and of faith alike, with both 
sexes and with all social grades. Thus the three conver- 
sions which were specially identified with Paul's first 
visit represented, ist, three national types. Lydia, the 
purple-seller, was an Asiatic of Thyatira, the crazed 
slave was a Greek, and the jailer a Roman. 2d. Three 
types of religion. Lydia was a Jewess, the damsel a 
Greek pagan, and the jailer a Roman pagan "of the 
politico-religious type, if he preserved the characteristic 
features of his race." 3d. Three social conditions. Lydia 
was a rich merchantwoman ; the Greek sorceress was a 
slave, a chattel without social or political rights ; the 
jailer was a subordinate officer under the government. 
In the early history of the Philippian church there is 
therefore illustrated one of the great features of the work 
of the gospel as set forth in Paul's words to the Gala- 



r THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIFFIANS. 13 

tians (3 : 28) ; " There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is 
neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female ; 
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." 

Another interesting fact, and one which seems to 
interpret at least one significant allusion in the Epistle, 
is the exceptional position of woman in Macedonia. Not 
only popular prejudice, but the deliberate verdict of Gre- 
cian wisdom in its best age, asserted the natural inferi- 
ority of woman. The Athenian law enacted that every- 
thing which a man might do by the counsel or request 
of a woman should be null in law. She was little better 
than a slave. To educate her was to advertise her as a 
harlot. Her apartments were a prison, her companions 
mainly children and slaves. 

But in Macedonia, for some reason, woman was evi- 
dently held in high esteem. Monuments were erected to 
women by public bodies ; and what is very significant, 
records of male proper names are found in Macedonian 
inscriptions, formed on the name of the mother instead 
of on that of the father. Macedonian women were per- 
mitted to hold property, and were treated as mistresses 
of the house. These facts are borne out by the account 
of Paul's labors in Macedonia. In Thessalonica, Beroea, 
and Philippi there were additions of women of rank to 
the church ; and the prominence of women in church 
affairs at Philippi appears from the fourth chapter of the 
Epistle, where two ladies, Euodia and Syntyche — or, to 
give the English equivalents, "Sweet Scent" and "Hap- 
py-go-lucky" — are besought by the apostle to reconcile 
their differences which had caused disturbance in the 



14 THE EPISTLE TO THE rHILrPPIANS. 

church, and are commended to his colleagues as- women 
who labored with him in the Lord. 

Paul, as you will remember, was summoned to Mace- 
donia from Troas by the vision of the Macedonian man 
saying, " Come over and help us." Taking ship at Troas, 
and accompanied by Silas, Timothy, and Luke, he pro- 
ceeded to Neapolis, on the southern coast of Macedonia, 
and thence, as we have seen, along the Egnatian road, 
one of the great Roman highways, ten miles in a north- 
westerly direction, to Philippi. 

With the coming of Paul and his companions to Phi- 
lippi, the gospel first entered Europe. The first Chris- 
tian service was held in the Jews' praying-place by the 
little river Gangas ; and Lydia, the first Christian con- 
vert, opened her heart to Christ, and her home and purse 
to his ambassadors. 

I need not dwell on the familiar stories of the healing 
of the possessed damsel, the imprisonment and scour- 
ging, and the conversion of the jailer. Paul's first visit 
closed with the persecution which violated his right as a 
Roman citizen by scourging him, and condemned him to 
a night in the inner or lower prison. If the Philippian 
jailer continued in office, it is a suggestive fact that Paul 
should have left a Christian convert in charge of the very 
prison to which so many would be likely to follow the 
apostle for Christ's sake. 

But Paul did not forget to provide for the nurture of 
the infant church. He left Luke behind him to complete 
its organization. Five years later he sent Timothy and 
Erastus, and shortly after made, himself, a second visit 



THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 15 

(2 Cor. I : 15-17; conf. i Cor. 16:5, 6), which was fol- 
lowed almost immediately by a third, owing to a plot 
against his life which compelled him to return from Cor- 
inth to Macedonia. (Acts 19: 21 ; 20: i, 3.) From this 
time we hear nothing of the Philippian church until 
Paul's letter is written to it from Rome. 

The Philippians had been already marked by their 
generosity in contributing to Paul's needs. After the 
close of his first visit, while he was still in Macedonia, 
they had more than once sent him timely assistance to 
Thessalonica. (Phil. 4:16.) When from Macedonia he 
passed on to Achaia, fresh supplies from Philippi reached 
him at Corinth. (Phil. 4:15 ; 2 Cor. 11:8, 9.) Then 
when they heard of his being sent to Rome, Epaphrodi- 
tus was despatched with their gift. Epaphroditus, hav- 
ing come to Rome, not only discharged his commission 
as the bearer of the gift, but entered so heartily into 
Paul's work that he fell sick. " He staked his life on 
the hazard," says Paul (Phil. 2 : 30), " that he might 
supply the lack of your personal ministration." He 
recovered, but with returning health came home-sick- 
ness. He feared that his friends in Philippi might be 
alarmed by the tidings of his sickness ; so that in the 
year 61 or 62 he started for Macedonia, carrying with 
him the Epistle to the Philippians. The general state of 
the church, as gathered from this Epistle and elsewhere, 
may be thus briefly sunrimed up : They were poor. In 
2 Cor. 8 : 1, 2, we read of their deep poverty. They were 
in trouble, probably from persecution. In the same pas- 
sage we read of their "great trial of affliction," and in 



1 6 THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. ' 

the last four verses of the first chapter of this Epistle, 
the mention of "adversaries" and conflict, together with 
the figure of the arena which underlies the whole passage, 
seem to indicate a state of persecution. They were in 
danger of dissension, if not already suffering from it. To 
such a condition the exhortation to humility and the 
warning against strife in 2 : 1-4 are addressed, also the 
admonition "to stand fast in one spirit" (i :2y), to "do all 
things without murmurings and disputings" (2 : 14), and 
the words to the two ladies at the beginning of chapter 
4, counselling them to "be of the same mind in the 
Lord." 

Coming now to the Epistle itself, our first duty is 
to present a brief analysis of its contents. This must 
needs be unsystematic, for the Epistle itself is utterly 
unsystematic. As Professor Lightfoot remarks, " Of 
plan and arrangement there is even less than in St. 
Paul's letters generally. The origin and motive of the 
Epistle are hardly consistent with any systematic treat- 
ment. As in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, the 
torrent of personal feeling is too strong to submit to any 
such restraint. Even the threefold division into the 
explanatory, doctrinal, and hortatory portions, which may 
generally be observed in his Epistles is obliterated 
here."* 

The opening salutation is of unusual length, consist- 
ing of the first eleven verses of the first chapter, and 
containing thanks to God for their Christian fellowship 
and cooperation, expressions of confidence as to the com- 

* Int. to Com. on Philip., p. 67. 



THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 17 

pletion of the good work begun in them by God's Spirit, 
and prayer for their growth in grace. From 12 to 26 he 
describes his personal circumstances, the progress of the 
gospel at Rome, the work of his opposers, the zeal of his 
friends, and his own feelings as to the possibility of his 
death or life. With verse 27 he begins an exhortation 
to Christian unity and courage which extends to the 4th 
verse of chapter 2, where he enters upon the example of 
Christ as an exhibition of the humility essential to the 
maintenance of fellowship, expanding into that magnifi- 
cent picture of our Lord's humiliation : a passage pro- 
foundly suggestive and inspiring; yet of which a recent 
writer has said that " the diversity of opinion among its 
interpreters is enough to fill the student with despair, 
and to afflict him with intellectual paralysis."* A few 
words of exhortation follow, and he closes chapter 2 with 
an expression of hope of his speedy release, his purpose 
of sending Timothy, and the announcement of the recent 
illness and contemplated return of Epaphroditus. The 
word "finally!' at the beginning of chapter 3, seems tq 
indicate that the apostle was about to close the Epistle 
with some parting exhortations to unity and peace : but 
some tidings may have reached him at this point respect- 
ing the attempts of the Judaizers to corrupt his converts, 
reminding him that the same influences may be at work 
in Philippi. At the 2d verse of chap. 3, therefore, he 
diverges into a warning against these ; and proceeds to 
contrast his teaching with theirs — the true circumcision 
with the false ; the power of faith with the inefiiciency 

* Bruce, " Humiliation of Christ." 



i8 THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPFIANS. 

of works ; all of which he illustrates by a comparison of 
his own early education, prospects, and aims as a Jew, 
with his present hopes as a Christian (to ver. 15), follow- 
ing this with an exhortation to steadfastness, a lament 
over the victims of sensuality and worldliness, and a 
contrast of these with the citizen of heaven, who, instead 
of minding earthly things, looks for the Saviour, the 
Lord Jesus from heaven. With the beginning of chap. 
4, he resumes the line broken off at the beginning of 
chap. 3. He exhorts two prominent ladies to reconcilia- 
tion. At ver. 4, he says, '^Farewell,'' not "rejoice,' "in 
the Lord :" following the salutation with some parting 
admonitions to high aims and holy thoughts of things 
lovely and pure, ver. 8, and after dwelling at some length 
as has been aptly said " with a graceful intermingling of 
manly independence and courteous delicacy" upon the 
gift brought from them by Epaphroditus, he closes with 
salutations and the usual benediction. 

The pervading tone of the Epistle is imparted by the 
apostle's strong personal attachment to the church. The 
only Epistle which bears comparison with it in this par- 
ticular, is the first to the Thessalonians. He thanks 
God at every remembrance of their Christian fellowship 
from the first day (1:3-5). He congratulates himself 
on being the subject of their prayers (i : 19). He is 
assured that the continuance of his life and work will 
be not only profitable but grateful to them (i 124-26). 
He rejoices at being "poured out" like a libation for 
their sakes (2 : 17). He speaks of his sufferings as such 
a man is wont to speak only to his nearest friends (i :/, 



THE EPISTLE TO THE FHILIFPIANS. 19 

16, 23, 29, 30). He longs after them "in the heart of 
Jesus Christ" (1:8). They are his "joy" and his 
"crown" (4: i). In the very opening salutation of the 
letter he drops his official title, and greets them as a 
friend and fellow-servant of Jesus Christ. The tone of the 
Epistle is one of almost unmitigated commendation. This 
puts it in strong contrast with the "sustained severity" of 
the Epistle to the Galatians, and the sharp reproachful- 
ness of portions of ist and 2d Corinthians. There is no 
more personal feeling expressed here than in Galatians, 
1st Corinthians, the second part of 2d Corinthians, and 
1st Thessalonians; but it is of a different character from 
that of the three first named. In Galatians, the feeling 
is intense, indignant, and sustained. In 2d Corinthians 
it is affectionate, but apologetic and self-vindicatory, 
changing from a "conciliatory and affectionate strain of 
entreaty" in the first part, to a tone of stern command 
and almost of menace. Expressions of devotion to the 
church blend with sarcasm and irony. Thankfulness 
and indignation struggle in his mind like cross tides. 
The Epistle to the Philippians, on the other hand, flows 
on to the end in a steady stream of thankful joy and 
commendation. The feeling has equal strength and 
depth; but less tension : equal energy, but less fire. In 
2d Corinthians we have the expression of a heart relieved 
by the penitence of offending brethren. In Philippians 
we have the calm of unimpaired confidence. It is with- 
out the sense of restraint which attaches to Colossians, 
where the writer cannot forget that he is in a contro- 
versial attitude, and is treating truth in its relations to 

19 



20 THE EPISTLE TO THE FHILIPPIANS. 

heresy. It more resembles Ephesians in the freedom 
with which Paul gives himself up to those spontaneous 
impulses of thought which lead him away from the direct 
line of his subject into the awful depths of some divine 
counsel, or bear upward his soul in some impassioned 
prayer. At the same time, the Philippian Epistle does 
not imply so high a capacity as that of the Ephesian 
believers for receiving the higher mysteries of the faith, 
such as the unity of mankind in Christ, and the symbol- 
ism of the marriage relation as setting forth the relation 
of Christ to his church. In this epistle we see none of 
Paul's ■' sensitiveness about the behavior of his converts 
to himself, which appeals in Galatians and 2d Corin- 
thians ; none of the earnestness about points of difference, 
none of the consciousness of the precarious basis of his 
authority in the existing state of the two churches."* 
There is the assumption throughout of frank understand- 
ing and Christian friendship, the substitution of lively 
hopefulness for the gloomy foreboding of the 2d Corin- 
thian Epistle. 

The second general characteristic of the Epistle is 
the absence of formulated doctrinal teaching, which 
throws it into such marked contrast with the Roman, 
Galatian, and Colossian Epistles. In Philippians we have 
the substance and heart of the Gospel, rather than its re- 
lation to any specific form of error. The doctrinal points 
elaborated in other Epistles are here matters of allusion, 
rather than of development or of discussion. The docu- 
ment is not a theologian's lecture nor a bishop's encycli- 

* Jowett, cit. by Lightfoot, Intro, to Galati:.ns. 



THE EFISTLE TO THE PHILIPFIANS. 21 

cal, but the affectionate letter of a father to a household. 
Between the apostle and his readers there is assumed a 
community of faith in the truths to which he confidently 
appeals for the enforcement of all that is honest, pure, 
lovely, and of good report. 

This ethical character of the Epistle is very strongly 
marked ; by which I mean that its tendency is to exhibit 
doctrine on the side of practical duty, rather than on its 
abstract side. In this particular the whole Epistle par- 
takes largely of the character of the twelfth chapter of 
Romans. When he praises them, it is for their active 
cooperation in the defence and confirmation of the gos- 
pel (i : 7). His exhortation centres upon their "conver- 
sation," or daily behavior, that it may be such as " be- 
cometh the gospel ;" that they " stand fast" in ^^ striving 
for the faith of the gospel" (i : 27) ; that they "work out 
their own salvation" (2:12); that they be "blameless 
and harmless," so as to be " lights in the world " amid a 
perverse people (2 : 15). The finest example of this, how- 
ever, occurs in the second chapter, in the description of 
the humiliation of Jesus. There he describes, in one of 
the grandest passages of inspired rhetoric to be found in 
Scripture, the descent of Christ from the glory of God to 
the conditions of our earthly state : " Let this mind be in 
you, which was also in Christ Jesus : who, being in the 
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with 
God : but made himself of no reputation, and took upon 
him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness 
of men : and being found in fashion as a man, he hum- 
bled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the 



22 THE EFISl'LE TO THE PHILIPFIANS. 

death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly ex- 
alted him, and given him a name which is above every 
name : that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things un- 
der the earth ; and that every tongue should confess that 
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 
Had this passage occurred in the Epistle to the Colos- 
sians, it would probably have been used to illustrate the 
doctrine of the union of the divine and human natures in 
Christ ; to show how the incarnation of the Son of God 
contradicted the Gnostic, whose doctrine of the inherent 
evil of matter led him to shrink from associating God 
with a material body, and consequently made him re- 
solve Christ into a phantom, a mere semblance or effi- 
gy of flesh and blood. But in this Epistle this whole 
tremendous passage is brought to bear upon the practi- 
cal duty of humility : " Let this mind be in you, which 
was also in Christ." 

The section of the Epistle which, more than any 
other, partakes of a doctrinal character, is that embraced 
in chapter 3. The apostle there deals with two doctri- 
nal errors — yndaism and Antinomianisni. Yet, to re- 
peat what has been hinted at already, his treatment of 
the former error is significant of the earlier date of this 
Epistle as compared with Ephesians and Colossians. It 
marks a transition-point between the discussion of the 
old Pharisaic Judaism and the discussion of the new phil- 
osophic Gnosticism with which the two latter Epistles 
are occupied, and which was to disturb the church for 
two centuries to come. " In the Epistle to the Philip- 



■ THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPFIANS. 23 

plans we have," to quote the words of Professor Light- 
foot, " the spent-wave of the old Judaic controversy." 

At the same time you observe that within this chap- 
ter the contrast of faith and law, and of the true and 
false circumcision, are sharply emphasized, and the in- 
troduction to the chapter is marked by three epithets, 
*'dogs," "evil workers," " the concision," the severity of 
which indicate strong feeling on the writer's part. 

We are through these epithets introduced to .a phase 
of Judaism and to a party in the Christian church from 
whom Paul experienced the most bitter and persistent 
opposition ; namely, the yiidaizcrs. These were nomi- 
nally Christians, who accepted Jesus as the Messiah, but 
as the Saviour of Israel only. They insisted therefore 
that Christ's kingdom could be entered only through the 
gate of Judaism. Circumcision was their watchword. 
Circumcised converts alone were in a state of full accep- 
tance with God. They appeared quite early in the his- 
tory of the church. These were they of whom we read 
in Acts 15:1, who came down from Judaea and disturbed 
the church at Antioch by teaching the converts, " Except 
ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot 
be saved." 

Your attention has already been called to the num- 
bers and influence of the Jews in Rome. In the prov- 
inces of the empire these were still greater ; and how- 
ever the Judaizers might be disowned by the pure Jews 
for their position on the Messianic question, they could 
avail themselves of their influence and organization ev- 
erywhere to undermine the faith of the new converts, to 

19* 



24 THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 

establish the rite of circumcision and the law of Moses, 
and especially to attack Paul. As the centre and soul of 
the movement towards the Gentiles, he was the object of 
their special hatred and abuse. They challenged his 
birth, his authority, his motives. They charged him 
with weakness, with vacillation, with cowardice, with 
serving his own interest under a cloak of disinterested- 
ness. " In a thousand ways they struck at his reputation, 
and exerted themselves to counteract his work. * Paul 
must be destroyed,' was as truly their watchword, as 
the cry for the destruction of Carthage had been of old 
to the Roman senator."* These are the persons refer- 
red to in the sixteenth verse of the first chapter, who 
" preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing 
to add affliction to my bonds." These are the " dogs," 
the " evils workers " of chapter third, against whom the 
Philippians are warned — "the concision;" that is, those 
whose circumcision, being a mere form, was nothing 
more nor better than the senseless mutilations which 
the priests of Baal inflicted on themselves on Carmel, 
or which were practised by the worshippers of Cybe- 
le, of whose orgies he had probably learned in Galatia. 
Against these his words in the third chapter are aim- 
ed — contrasting the doctrine of salvation by works 
with that of salvation by grace ; claiming that those 
who are saved by faith are the true Israel; illustra- 
ting the futility of lineage and of works from his own 
example. The whole passage, from the third to the 
eleventh verse, is well worthy of study, since it is full of 

* Stanley, " Sermons an 1 Lectures on the Apostolic Age." 



THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPFIANS. 25 

incidental hints lurking in single words, and not always 
apparent in our version ; hints which, while they serve 
to illustrate the main point in the discussion, are also 
answers to the assertions of the Judaizers. For instance, 
'* We serve God in the spirit." The choice word, used by 
a Jew to express his service as one of God's elect, is here 
boldly claimed by Paul for a Gentile Christian's service. 
He alone is of the true Israel. Such an application of 
the word would appeal to a Jew just as the phrase " Sac- 
rament of the Lord's Supper" would appeal to you if a 
Chinaman should apply it to the worship of Joss. So, 
too, in recounting his own lineage and education, it is 
interestinsf to see with what care his words are chosen. 
Do the Judaizers depreciate him in comparison with the 
apostles of the circumcision ? He was circumcised the 
eighth day ; and thus proven to be neither an Ishmael- 
ite, who would not be circumcised until his thirteenth 
year, nor a proselyte, who would be circumcised in ma- 
ture life, but a Jew according to the law. Do they chal- 
lenge the purity of his descent ? . He is not only a He- 
brew, which would merely distinguish him from a Greek- 
speaking Jew : not only a Jew as distinguished from a 
Gei2tile. He is of the stock of Israel, the name which 
expressed the dignity and glory of the people as God's 
covenant people, not descending through Ishmael nor 
Edom, but direct from Israel, the prince of God. Do 
they challenge his Palestinian birth } He was indeed 
born in Asia Minor, but he is of the tribe of Benjamin, 
the only one of the patriarchs born in the land of prom- 
ise. He is of ancestors, too, who had not, like so many 



26 THE EPISTLE TO THE FHILIFPIANS. 

others, given up their native tongue, but had continued 
to be Hebrew speakers. He is a Hebrew of the Hebrews. 
Thus the old theme, so thoroughly and exhaustively treat- 
ed in Romans and Galatians — citizenship in Christ, as 
against Jewish pretension ; faith in Jesus, as against flesh- 
ly descent and fleshly ordinances, is here treated again, but 
this time mainly in the light of Paul's own experience, 
with an undercurrent of self-defence against the Judaizing 
" dogs " and " evil workers " who are disturbing the Ro- 
man converts and seeking to add affliction to his bonds. 

The second doctrinal error is Antinoinianismy the ex- 
treme reaction from Judaism, the doctrine which declares 
that the gospel does away with the obligations of the 
moral law. This is handled from the sixteenth to the 
nineteenth verse of the third chapter. Though the Chris- 
tian brethren are made free in Christ Jesus, let them re- 
member that they are nevertheless to walk by a ride ; and 
not like those who have given themselves up to sensuali- 
ty, making " their God their belly," forgetting that " the 
kingdom of God is not meat and drink ;" glorying in the 
unfettered license which is their " shame," and having 
their minds set on " earthly things." The treatment of 
this error is incidental ; not argumentative, but hortative, 
and illustrated by the contrast with those (ver. 20) whose 
" citizenship is in heaven," whose mind is set on '* heav- 
enly things," whose God is the coming Saviour, and 
whose end is a change into his likeness. 

Thus it will be seen that the attitude of this Epistle 
towards doctrinal error is none the less decided and un- 
compromising for its lack of the distinctively doctrinal 



THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS, 27 

type of Romans or Galatians. Its dealing with these 
errors reminds us, by the intensity of its language, that 
the writer is still the Paul of the Galatian and Corinthian 
Epistles, yet it cannot but be noted how this, as all the 
other Epistles, bears witness to the discriminating quality 
of a ripe charity; to the sound wisdom of Christian love 
which knows how to draw the line between weakness and 
perverseness, between the lapses of an undisciplined will 
and the obstinate wickedness of an estranged heart, be- 
tween the mistakes of an untutored conscience and the 
selfish persistence of an unholy desire. 

But while the Epistle commends itself to those who 
are concerned with the substance rather than with the 
processes of Christian doctrine, while it is ethical rather 
than controversial in character, it gives, on the other 
hand, no countenance to the effort to resolve the gospel' 
into a mere code of morals. The peculiar value of this 
Epistle is its exiiibition of the gospel as centring in 2. per- 
son and a life, rather than in a code or a dogmatic system. 
The personal Christ is its very heart, though his person 
and work are treated from its own point of view as dis- 
tinguished from others of the Epistles. In Romans and 
Galatians we see Christ in his relation to the Jewish law 
and ordinances. In Colossians his divine majesty and 
authority are emphasized as against Gnostic angel-wor- 
ship and asceticism. In Ephesians we see him as the 
head of the body, the church ; the chief corner-stone of 
a building ; his divine energy informing the earthly 
church, himself the centre and perfection of the promised 
church above. The controversial element underlying all 



28 THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 

these three is wanting in the Epistle to the Philippians, 
as is the handling of those profounder Christian rnyste- 
ries which characterize Colossians and Ephesians, such as 
the relation of Christ to the eternal counsels of God ; his 
position as the instrument of the divine election ; his 
exaltation, through resurrection, to the heavenly places ; 
the secret of vital union with his earthly church as set 
forth in the marriage relation. In both these Christ is 
sharply defined as the instrument of God's redeeming 
plan of salvation by faith as compared with works. He 
is the reconciler of Jew and Gentile in one body. In 
Philippians the treatment of Christ is more subjective 
than in Ephesians or Colossians. I mean that while in 
Ephesians, for instance, we see Christ before Paul as an 
object of contemplation, in Philippians we see Christ in 
Paul as the subject of his experience ; not what he knozvs 
Him to be by study, and by revelation of Him as the King 
of glory and the Head of the church, but what he feels 
Him to be in His power over his own life. In Paul's expe- 
rience we see a rule of life indeed, but we see the person 
and life of Jesus incarnating and interpreting the rule. 
The summary of Paul's life is Christ (i :2i). Christ's 
death is not only a sorrowful recollection ; it has been 
shared by Paul's moral nature in his own death to sin. 
His view of Christ's resurrection is a standing rebuke to 
the loose grasp with which the modern Christian church 
holds that truth. It is to him a blessed memory and an 
inspiring hope, but it is also a present energy. The goal 
of his spiritual ambition is to know the power of Christ's 
fesurrection nozv and here, as well as hereafter (3 : 10), 



THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 29 

Christ's life is more than a beautiful story. He not only 
lives after it, he lives it. Christ's own affection possesses 
him. He longs after the brethren as with Christ's own 
love, " in the heart of Jesus Christ " (i : 8). He emphasi- 
zes the inward impulse of duty — the inittd of Christ 
(2:5). He urges them to "work out" their own salva- 
tion, but in the next breath reminds them that God work- 
eth /;/ them to will (2:12, 13). He does not depreciate 
conduct. No man could ever draw from his words license 
for moral looseness, but he exalts conduct by exhibiting 
it as the expression of the inner life of faith, and as a 
growth into the likeness of Christ. 

Having thus discussed the great characteristics of the 
Epistle, it now remains to call attention to certain minor 
details. 

And first it is interesting to discover in the words 
and imagery of this Epistle some traces of the coloring 
of stoicism, the best moral system of paganism, with 
which Paul had probably become acquainted in the East, 
the representatives of which he had encountered on 
Mars' Hill at Athens, and which, at the time of Paul's 
imprisonment, was represented in Nero's household by 
the philosopher Seneca. Whether Paul and Seneca ever 
met, as some have supposed, is very doubtful ; but it is 
not strange that the apostle's vigorous and picturesque 
language, in which so many of the objects of his wide 
and varied observation constantly appear, should have 
taken some tinge from a school so widely known and so 
influential as that of the Stoics. There, for example, is 
the word " citizenship " (3 : 20), " our citizenship is in 



30 THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 

heaven," and also in i : 28, " Be citizens in a manner be- 
coming the gospel." The ideal of a great human broth- 
erhood, of a world-wide state, was a favorite one with the 
Stoic. "I will look," says Seneca, "upon all lands as 
belonging to me, and on my own land as belonging to 
all. Nature gave me alone to all men, and all men to me 
alone." It certainly is not impossible that this concep- 
tion may have helped to give the mould to the thought 
of heavenly citizenship, the more so since the Stoic ideal 
seems to have included heaven as well as earth, the divine 
system as well as the human, in its ideal commonwealth ; 
so that the conception has an external resemblance, 
though of course not a deep, inner correspondence, to 
Paul's beautiful thought of a Christian living in the econ- 
omy and communion of heaven even while he remains 
upon earth. 

There, too, is the word in 4:2, "content," or, liter- 
ally, "self-sufficient," and the whole sentiment of the 
passage to the eighteenth verse. That word " self-suffi- 
cient" was the Stoic word. It set forth the Stoic's idea 
of moral kinghood — man sufficient unto himself because 
he possesses all things in himself. Was it not most nat- 
ural that the Stoic's word should have carried to the 
apostle's mind the thought of a higher self-sufficiency, 
centring not in Paul, but in Christ, Paul's neiv self, and 
interpreted by the words, " I can do all things through 
Christ which strengtheneth me" t And once more : if 
you will take the passage in chapter i : 21-27, ^.nd begin 
studying it with the thought that the Stoic had no hope 
of immortality, and that his philosophy encouraged and 



THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 31 

justified suicide as a means of escape from the world's 
burdens, you will find it most instructive to pursue the 
vivid contrast presented not only by Paul's contempla- 
tion of death, but by his brave willingness to live and 
suffer and delay the being with Christ for the church's 
sake. 

Paul's language, as I have said, is peculiarly pictu- 
resque ; not only in his constant use of vivid metaphors 
and striking figures, but from the fact that very often a 
single word contains a picture in itself, which is not re- 
produced in the translation, but which really gives color- 
ing and tone to the thought, and sometimes furnishes the 
mould in which the whole thought is cast. This Epistle 
is very rich in such words ; andl will call your attention 
to a few of them. In the twenty-eighth verse of the first 
chapter the apostle exhorts the Philippians not to be 
terrified \iy their adversaries. The word "terrified" is 
that which is used of a frightened horse, flying out of the 
road at every stump or wisp of straw ; pointing a good 
lesson to those timid Christians who live in constant fear 
that something will overthrow the church or undermine 
their faith. 

In the twenty-third verse of the same chapter we 
have a beautiful picture in the word " depart," which is 
entirely lost in our translation. Its selection is exqui- 
site, when we remember the atmosphere of struggle in 
which Paul lived. It is a soldier's word, meaning to 
"break camp." Join it with those other words in 2 Cor. 
5 : I, "Our earthly house of this tait or tabernacle',' and 

you have the picture complete. The feeble, manacled 
20 



32 THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 

body is but the weather-stained tent through the torn 
curtains of which the tired soldier looks out towards 
home. To strike this tent, to " break camp," and to go 
to be with Christ is "far better." 

In chap. 2, ver. 17, we read, "If I be offered upon 
the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice 
with you all." Here, again, our version gives scarce a 
hint of the picture in the word '' offered',' which is, lit- 
erally, '^poured out as a drink-offering^ Thus Paul says, 
" You have laid your faith and service on God's altar ; 
now if my very life be poured out like a libation upon this 
offering of yours, to further your Christian work and con- 
secration, I rejoice with you." 

So in chap. 4, ver. 7, we read, " And the peace of 
God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your 
hearts and minds through Jesus Christ." Here is an- 
other military figure, of which, by-the-way, Paul is very 
very fond, in the word '^ keep!' It \^/^ moimt guard" — 
the peace of God, like a sentinel patrolling before the 
believer's heart. The picture might almost have been in 
the poet's thought when he wrote, 

" Love is and was my King and Lord, 
And will be, though as yet I keep 
Within his court on earth, and sleep 

Encompassed by his faithful guard, 

And hear at times a sentinel 

Who moves about from place to place, 
And whispers to the worlds of space, 

In the deep night, that all is well." 

These are all that time will allow me to unfold ; and 
now, in conclusion, let me briefly refer you to the prin- 



THE EPIS2LE TO THE PHILIFPIANS. zi 

cipal passages in which our version gives a wrong or in- 
adequate idea of the text. 

In chap. I, ver. 8, instead of "bowels," you should 
read, "the heart!' The Greeks used the original word 
to mean the nobler intestines — the heart, liver, and 
lungs — where the affections were supposed to reside. 
Indeed, our use of the word ''heart'' in that sense is 
really a trace of the same error. The apostle means 
that he loves the Philippians with Christ's own love. 

In chap. 2, ver. i, instead of ''consolation!' read, "ex- 
hortation!' The word is an appeal to the power of 
Christ's precept and example as exhorting them to unity 
and peace. The word consolation, or comfort, follows 
immediately after. 

In ver. 6 of chap. 2 is a very important one. You 
will remember that the apostle is illustrating the descent 
of Christ from the glory of heaven to our earthly state ; 
showing that, though equal with God, he did not hesitate 
to become man, and to serve and to suffer. Now if we 
read according to our version, "thought it not robbery 
to be equal with God," you see that we abruptly intro- 
duce the thought of Christ's laying claim to equality with 
God, into a course of thought which hinges on Christ's 
voluntary htiniiliation. On the contrary, Paul's words 
mean that, in his assuming our nature, Christ did not for 
the time being emphasize or press his claim to equality 
with God, but laid aside his divine majesty and entered 
into the conditions -of our humanity. It remains true, as 
appears by the words, " being in the form of God," that 
Christ did not think it robbery to be equal with God ; but 



34 THE EPISTLE TO THE FHILIFFIANS, 

that is not the truth which is held in these words, which 
we ought to read thus : " Being in the form of God, He 
did not regard eqtmlity with God as a thing to be eagerly 
grasped at (as though he were anxious only to assert His 
deity), but on the contrary, " emptied Himself I' which is 
the right rendering of the words *' made Himself of no 
reputation." 

In chap. 2, ver. lo, instead of ^^ at the name of Jesus," 
read, " /;/ the name of Jesus." The difference seems slight, 
but is very wide. To bow at the name of Jesus, is to 
bow at the mention of his name ; and hence this verse 
is cited as authority for the custom of bowing when the 
sacred name is pronounced. Whereas the meaning is 
the same as doing or asking in the name of Jesus. It. 
simply means that all prayer shall be made in his name ; 
that no man shall come unto the Father but by him." 
In the words of Dean Alford, " It were much to be wished 
that such indefensible senses of Scripture texts might be 
universally, by honest men, abandoned, and that we might 
no longer be told that St. Paul, in the sublimest part of 
his most sublime description of the glory of our exalted 
Redeemer, is laying down a rule for a mere outward ges- 
ture when his name is mentioned." 

In chap. 2, ver. I2, instead of " work ont'' your own sal- 
,vation, which conveys the idea of our saving ourselves by 
our own works, read "carry ont" your salvation ; not for- 
getting indeed that salvation is God's gift, but equally not 
forgetting that it is to be carried out by a "life of holy 
obedience and advance to Christian perfection." In the 
following verse, instead of " of his good pleasure," read 



THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPFIANS, 35 

"for his good pleasure." In the one case the meaning is, 
God does with and in us as hQ pleases ; in the other, that 
God works in us to carry out in and by us his own perfect 
and holy will. 

In chap. 3, ver. 20, for the word "conversation" it is 
better to read citizeiiship. If conversation retained the 
meaning it had when our translation was made, repre- * 
senting the whole sum of a man's active relations to 
society, the translation could not be improved. But 
conversation has now come to mean almost exclusively 
the interchange of talk, so that the apostle's meaning is 
better expressed by the word "citizenship ;'' for he means 
to say, we are members of the heavenly commonwealth 
here on earth. God is our King, and we live under 
heaven's laws and speak heaven's language, and are on 
earth as strangers and pilgrims. 

In verse 21, instead of "vile body," read "body of 
otir hnmiliation i" for, as the dying Archbishop of Dub- 
lin said when the passage was read to him, " Nothing that 
He made is vile." So, instead of "glorious body I' we 
should read, " body of His glory y 

The name Euodias, at the beginning of chapter four, 
should be Euodia, the other form being a masculine ter- 
mination, and the person referred to being a Macedonian 
lady. 

Thus tender and strong, wise and sympathetic, beau- 
tiful in that very lack of systematic structure which 
marks the impulsive utterance of a loving heart, this 
precious letter comes into our hands. It appeals to us 
through this element of personal sympathy, because it 



36 THE EPISTLE TO THE FHILIPFIANS. 

shows us so much of Paul's inner self. We do not lose 
sight of the teacher, but he falls into shadow behind the 
confiding friend ; yet, best of all, though the letter is per- 
vaded with the apostle's personality, the prominent figure 
in our minds, as we rise from its perusal, is not Paul, but 
Paul's Master and Saviour. The apostle is, after all, our 
medium for the clearer seeing of his Lord and ours. And 
in this magnifying of the living Christ above the forms 
of doctrine, through this, the least doctrinal of the apos- 
tle's letters, we receive a legitimate stimulus to a broader, 
more generous, and more intelUgent study of doctrine. 
The Philippian letter is the best introduction to the 
study of the Pauline writings, in that it leads us to the 
noble themes of Christian doctrine in Christ's own way — 
through the adorable person of Him who through self- 
emptying, service, and obedience to death, justly claims 
the homage of every knee and the confession of every 
tongue. 

There comes to my mind to-night a memory of a 
summer evening among the Styrian Alps, as I drifted 
in my boat past the gray, scarred rocks which encircle 
the beautiful Trauensee. The twilight drew on almost 
unawares, and the great mountain bulwarks began to fall 
back into the shadow which crept across the quiet lake ; 
but as I cast my eye upward, it lighted on a neighboring 
height crowned with a cross ; and there, while the shad- 
ows lay dark below, while the mountain ramparts were 
fading out in the gathering gloom, the sunset light lin- 
gered round the cross, and it stood out clear and sharp 
against the evening sky, as though some strange power 



THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 37 

had been given it to beat back the darkness. And so 
the cross, and the men and the works which the cross 
inspires, ever Uft themselves into the Ught while the 
night of time gathers thickly round the old empires 
and the memory of their tyrants and of their prisons. 
So it comes to pass that a Christian apostle outlives 
and outworks a pagan empire, and a Christian letter sur- 
vives a pagan prison. So it is that we to-night, after the 
lapse of nearly nineteen centuries, are studying this brief 
letter of Paul to a little feeble provincial church, and are 
stimulated to thought and kindled to devotion by those 
same words, while the shadows gather round the forgot- 
ten graves of Nero and of Seneca, while the tourist wan- 
ders idly over the Palatine, and looks down into the 
choked vaults of the palace of the Caesars, and the anti- 
quarian digs where Nero's fish-ponds sparkled and wild 
beasts rent the limbs of Christian martyrs for the amuse- 
ment of the populace. The cross which gives this clus- 
ter of Epistles their stamp and their inspiration, will lift 
them with itself into ever clearer light and sharper out- 
line, while the world passeth away and the lusts thereof, 
until, in the sunset of the latter days, the world with its 
rebellious wills, and the church with its warring creeds, 
shall vindicate Paul's unswerving faith, and Christ shall 
be all and in all. 



THE EPISTLES 



TO THE 



COLOSSIANS AND PhILEMON, 



BY REV. JAMES F. ELDER, D. D., 

NEW YORK. 



THE EPISTLE 



TO 



THE COLOSSIANS 



COLOSSI AND ITS CHURCH. 

Two hundred miles due south of Constantinople, one 
hundred miles due east of Ephesus, would be the approx- 
imate site of Colossae. The river whose name has given 
to our language one of its most expressive words — 
meander — here receives into its upper waters from the 
east a tributary called the Lycus. On the south bank of 
the Lycus, just above its junction with the Meander, lay 
the commercial city of Laodicea, which is mentioned 
repeatedly in this Epistle. " Here was that lukewarm 
church mentioned in the Revelation to which Jesus 
wrote, " Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Its 
haughty claim, " I am rich and have gotten wealth and 
have need of nothing," was no idle boast : and though 
prostrated by an earthquake a few years before, it speed- 
ily rose from its ruins — by its own resources alone — with 
more than its former splendor. 

Six miles across the valley of the Lycus, on the rocky 



4 THE EPISTLE TO THE CO LOSS TANS. 

spur between the Lycus and the Meander, was Hierapo- 
lis, also mentioned in the letter to the Colossians. This 
was a gay and fashionable watering-place, the mountain 
streams containing medicinal properties ; and its ruins 
still testify to its former greatness and importance. 
About twelve miles farther up the valley of the Lycus is 
the probable site of Colossae. Unlike Laodicea and 
Hierapolis, which were situated upon the banks back 
from the river, Colossae lay right athwart the stream. It 
was near the great highway from Ephesus to the Eu- 
phrates Valley, and in the days of the Persian conquests 
was a great and populous city. But at this time it was 
a place of little note, overshadowed by its more prosper- 
ous rivals toward the mouth of the Lycus. Its site has 
only recently been identified, if at all ; its very name is 
uncertain, Colossae or Colassae ; and altogether, accord- 
ing to Lightfoot, here was the least important church to 
which any Epistle of Paul was addressed. 

There is no evidence that Paul had visited the neigh- 
borhood prior to writing this letter. On the contrary, 
in the first verse of the second chapter, he says, " I would 
that ye knew what great conflict I have for you and for 
them at Laodicea, and for as tnany as have not seen my 
face in the flesh " — language which, fairly construed, 
would imply that he had never been either at Laodicea or 
Colossae. But we know that Paul labored three years at 
Ephesus, only one hundred miles away, holding daily 
discussions most of the time in Tyrannus' lecture-room, 
and supplementing his public teaching with the most 
assiduous and tender labors from house to house : '' so 



THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIAKS. 5 

that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the 
Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks." His methods, no 
doubt, ^ere analogous to those of modern missionary 
leaders. Keeping his headquarters at Ephesus, he re- 
ceived curious and interested listeners from all parts of 
the country. Here and there one would be converted, 
and return to his own city carrying the word of life. 
Now Colossse, we have seen, was near the great highway 
of travel, and its representatives would be certainly found 
at Ephesus, and very likely some of them came in con- 
tact with the noted preacher of the new religion. It is 
altogether probable that in this way Philemon, a native 
of Colossae, was converted through Paul's ministry, and 
Epaphras also, who appears to have been a spiritual 
father to the churches of Lycus, Through such con- 
verts in part — what in modern missions would be known 
as native helpers — Paul kept up his intercourse with a 
large number of communities, and maintained his " care 
of all the churches." 

And now, five years later, during his imprisonment at 
Rome, Epaphras of Colossae visits him with tidings from 
the valley of the Lycus. Of the Colossian church he 
has much to say that is hopeful and encouraging to the 
apostle: but the insidious influence of some false or in- 
competent teacher is plainly hinted, and gives Paul no 
little anxiety. He is about to send Tychicus to Asia 
Minor to inform the churches of his condition and pros- 
pects ; and by him he sends the letter which we know 
as the Epistle to the Ephesians, but which some consider 
a circular letter, copies of which were to be distributed 

21 



6 THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 

among prominent churches in Asia. In this view, the 
letter from Laodicea, alluded to in chapter 4:16, is sup- 
posed to be one of these copies. Paul also wished Ones- 
imus to accompany Tychicus and return to his master, 
and so prepares the letter to Philemon. At the same 
time and by the same messenger he sends a special 
letter to the Colossian church in order to prevent further 
mischief, if possible, from the false teaching of which 
Epaphras had brought him word. The three Epistles 
to the Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon, therefore, 
were probably written and despatched at the same time. 
That Paul wrote the Epistle we have under consideration 
has -never been seriously questioned, save by some mod- 
ern German writers, who have been sufficiently answered 
by competent critical authorities. It may be safely 
assumed that there is no intelligent lay reader of Paul's 
letter who would not recognize on internal grounds his 
.authorship of this Epistle. 

i 

THE DESIGN OF THE EPISTLE. 

But the more interesting question for us is, What 
were the special difficulties and harmful tendencies which 
this letter was designed to meet } So far as these have 
express mention or clear intimation in the Epistle, they 
are pretty much grouped in the last sixteen verses of 
chapter 2 (8-23). That part of the Epistle which fol- 
lows these verses — chapters 3 and 4 — consists for the 
most part of plain and practical observations, and for 
our present purpose may be dismissed without further 
notice — save perhaps, the first four verses of chapter 3. 



THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 7 

Turning now to the first cliapter, we find Paul, after 
his customary benediction (i, 2), expressing his thanks 
to God for the encouraging report received from Epa- 
phras of their spiritual condition (3-8), and assuring them 
of his constant prayer for their increase in knowledge 
and good works, for their patient and joyful endurance, 
and for a thankful spirit to the Father who had given 
them so glorious a redemption through the Son of his 
love (9-14). On this allusion to the Son he glides into 
a most eloquent and exalted strain, asserting the preemi- 
nence of Christ, both in creation and in the church, and 
the good pleasure of God that through the blood of the 
cross the universe should yet be reconciled to himself 
(15-20). He then speaks of this reconciling grace as it 
had been bestowed on the Colossians (21-23), ^i^^ con- 
cludes the chapter with a reference to his own steward- 
ship in the mystery of the gospel, the sufferings which it 
involved and the anxieties and the labors which it imposed. 

With the opening of the second chapter we can 
almost see the shadow of these anxieties settle on the 
very page as we read. He now gives utterance to his 
great struggle of mind for the welfare of the churches 
of Colossae and Laodicea, and adds frankly, " This I say 
lest any man should beguile you with enticing words." 
He compliments them, however, on their firm array and 
steadfast faith, and exhorts them to persevere in the same 
(2 : 1-7). 

This brings us to the sixteen verses in which are 
grouped the special allusions which give to this Epistle 
its distinctive character. In the whole letter there arc 



8 THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 

thirty-six words not found elsewhere in Paul's writings 
or in the New Testament. Of these words one-half are 
in these verses before us, showing that the new ideas 
combated or advanced in this Epistle are largely con- 
centrated here. Unfortunately, however, for a clear 
understanding of the situation, we do not find well-devel- 
oped systems of doctrine or sharply-outlined heresies 
assailed by the apostle ; but rather certain mischievous 
tendencies, superstitious customs, vain speculations, 
whose precise character and bearings are not always 
clearly defined. Nor is there apparently any logical 
treatment of these errors, but Paul seems to pass to and 
fro among the various types of error with perplexing 
freedom. Let us, nevertheless, select some of the most 
distinctly marked evils which Paul combats, as they are 
suggested by his language, or confirmed by subsequent 
developments of speculative thought. 

RITUALISM. 

I. The influence of Judaic Ritualism is very appar- 
ent in the teaching of this Colossian errorist. 

Jews were everywhere. Antiochus the Great trans- 
planted 2,000 Jewish families from the Euphrates into 
this very region. Laodicea as a great trading mart would 
attract them ; and as their fondness for watering-places 
is by no means a modern characteristic of the race, 
Hierapolis would have its charm for them also. But it 
was hard for Judaism to appreciate the freedom which 
the gospel taught. Even a converted Jew would find it 
difficult sometimes to emancipate himself from the tram- 



■ THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS, q 

mels of the old faith (as witness Peter's dissimulation at 
Antioch), and Judaizing teachers were constantly spring- 
ing up in the churches, and insisting on some of the old 
ritualistic observances. To some of their scruples Paul 
was lenient. But when they insisted on these dead 
forms as essential .to salvation, circumcision for example, 
he was a roused lion, and would give place by subjec- 
tion, no, not for an hour. How sternly he combated that 
fatal error may be seen in the Epistle to the Galatians. 

But as compared with that Epistle his tone here is 
moderate and calm. And the explanation is to be sought 
in the different attitude which the Judaic errorist here 
assumes. There he made the keeping of the law vital 
to salvation. Here the end of his ritualism seems to be 
the attainment of a superior piety. Circumcision is not 
now so much a condition of salvation, as a species of 
self-mortification tending to and perhaps symbolizing a 
holier life. As such it was comparatively harmless, but 
at best a beggarly provision against carnal nature, in the 
light of that grace by which the gospel enables us to 
triumph over the flesh. *' Your circumcision, performed 
by hand," Paul would say, '' is utterly futile as regards 
the putting off your fleshly nature. It .takes away but 
a small part of the body, and removes not one sinful 
propensity. But there is a spiritual circumcision per- 
formed by Christ, which consists in the putting away of 
the whole body of the flesh by the renewal of your 
being \ so that when you are buried with him in bap- 
tism you leave your carnal nature, as it were, like 
graveclothes in the tomb, and rise with Christ to his 

21* 



lo THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 

new and exalted life at the right hand of God. Your 
holiness does not proceed from outward observances, 
but from an inward life, and that life draws its inspira- 
tion from your practical participation in Christ's resur- 
rection to glory. It is a life hidden with Christ in God. 
Your sins are forgiven ; your nature is renewed ; hence- 
forth keep your mind fixed on this substantial fact, that 
you share by faith in Christ's resurrection-life, and sin 
shall not have dominion over you." 

How many, who are yearning for greater attainments 
ia holiness, would find this thought helpful in their 
struggles for victory over self and sin. As Paul else- 
where says : " Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead 
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ 
our Lord." The reckoning it to be so will go far toward 
making it so. We are dead, and our life is hid with 
Christ in God. We are to live constantly in the con- 
sciousness of this resurrection-life of Christ shared by 
us through faith. And when temptation presents its 
alluring face, instead of wallowing in the mire of our 
own corrupt natures as we wrestle and roll in the bitter 
struggle with sin, let us simply reckon, consider, believe, 
know that we are by Christ's side, at his Father's throne, 
with the angels, citizens of the heavenly kingdom, and 
the temptation will vanish like a horrid dream, and we 
shall walk in the white robes of victory. 

ACETICISM. 
2. A decided ascetic tendency is discernible in 
connection with this Judaic ritualism. 



THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS, ii 

This ascetic tendency in Judaism had already crys- 
tallized in an organization known as the Essenes. They 
were as much stricter than the Pharisees as the Phar- 
isees were stricter than the common people. Their rev- 
erence for Moses and his word amounted almost to 
worship. They observed the Sabbath rigidly, were most 
scrupulous about eating and drinking, and eschewed 
marriage — recruiting their ranks by the adoption of Jew- 
ish youths into the order. Their principal settlements 
were on the Dead sea, though members of the order 
were scattered throughout Palestine. That some one in 
love with the tenets of this order had found his way into 
the Colossian church is by no means improbable. Or, 
considering the location of Colossse, some philosophy 
tinged with Oriental Buddhism may have prompted these 
ascetic practices — which is almost saying that they are 
the spontaneous product cf our poor, yearning, groping 
human nature. But the rigorous self-denials inculcated 
among the Colossian Christians, were more likely con- 
nected with the Mosaic law. The "feast days, new 
moons, and Sabbaths," point to Jewish festivals, annual, 
monthly, and occasional, enjoined by the old law. And 
the restrictions in the matter of food have the same 
source. To this "observance of days and months and 
times and years," Paul in Galatians applied the same 
curious term, which he twice uses in similar connection 
in the passage before us — " the rudiments of the world." 
The word "rudiment" means the beginnings of things — 
the first principles — like the letters of the alphabet, or 
the lines and points and surfaces with which you begin 



12 THE EPISTLE TO THE CO LOSS TANS. 

to teach geometry. " This vaunted wisdom in keeping 
of ordinances, which you prize so highly," Paul would 
say, "is the merest alphabet of knowledge. It had its 
place when men were first put to school in things divine ; 
but in the school of Christ these things are comparative- 
ly useless and childish. They were only a shadow cast 
before the substance ; and the body — the substance that 
cast the shadow— is Christ's, i. e., is found in the things 
of Christ — his cross, his resurrection, his spirit of life. 

*' But do you say that such things are commanded in 
the law, and we are under bonds to keep them "i Bonds .^ 
Why talk you of bonds .? Do you not understand that 
that bond was cancelled when Christ died } that he took 
it out of the way, nailing it to his cross "i so that lifted 
far above your reach, torn with the same cruel nails that 
rent his hands, and stained and blurred by his blood, 
that law of ordinances which was such a yoke of bond- 
age to man should never again confront him to condemn 
him 1 Why, then, do you let any man take you to task 
about eating or drinking, or observing festivals or Sab- 
baths } When Christ died on the cross you died — as 
your burial with him in baptism testifies. Is Christ sub- 
ject to that law of ordinances in his resurrection state .'* 
then no more are ye who died with him and rose again. 
But if your participation in Christ's resurrection-life 
emancipated you from all law of ordinances, why, as 
though you were still living only in the world, and your 
participation in that life were an utterly meaningless 
thing, are you overridden by these foolish ordinances, 
such as 'Handle not, taste not, touch not'.^ What possi- 



THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. i3 

ble influence on your souls can the things have to which 
these rules refer, if wisely used ? They are all made to 
be used with thanksgiving, and in the using to be de- 
stroyed. They go into the belly and are cast out into 
the draught. Do ye not perceive that whatsoever thing 
from without entereth into a man it cannot defile him t 
These are teachings of men, and you subject yourself to 
them after the Lord died to deliver you from like bond- 
age." 

" To be sure," Paul adds, " such things have a show 
of wisdom. It seems commendable for a man to impose 
such self-denying service, and to humiliate himself and 
treat his body rigorously ; it might do some men good, 
done in a proper spirit ; but these things, after all, have 
no permanent value in preventing our carnal natures 
from asserting their sway." And how true it is that a 
monastic life and ascetic practices cannot bring the body 
of the flesh into complete and lasting subjection. A man 
may immure himself in a desert cave, may macerate his 
body unsparingly, but he cannot get away from himself. 
Our sinful nature clings to us despite all such self-morti- 
fication, and like the garment of Hercules steeped in the 
blood of Nessus, fills our whole being with the agony of 
its poison. In some instances, too, men claiming that 
the body alone was the seat of evil, and that the soul 
could not be contaminated by it, have professed a lofty 
contempt for this miserable mass of clay and corruption, 
and veering to the other extreme, have given themselves 
over to work all unclean ness with greediness. Not phi- 
losophy or asceticism, but a vital union with Christ in 



14 THE EPISTLE TO THE COLO SSI ANS, 

his enthronement at God's right hand can solve this 
problem of victory over the flesh, and emancipate from 
its thraldom the millions of earth who to-day are seeking 
rest through self-mortification and conformity to rigor- 
ous ordinances and traditions of men. 

PRACTICAL LESSONS. 
Obviously this treatment of the evil in the Colossian 
church has an important bearing on the great question 
of Christian liberty under the gospel. It is human na- 
ture to multiply ordinances and impose restrictions — to 
make rules. Churches might be found who have made 
almost every questionable practice, from tobacco-chew- 
ing to slaveholding, a disqualification for membership. 
So far as such rules are an expression of opinion — a kind 
of moral Nilometer — they may have their place and their 
use. But when they are imposed as conditions of Chris- 
tian life and fellowship, they are Judaism reenacted. 
Who ever knew of a church enacting, " No member of 
this church shall commit murder or steal, or worship 
idols".'' And why.? Simply because such a rule would 
be superfluous. As well enact a law that no mother shall 
hate her own babe. Before such a law could reach the 
subjects of it, it would fall to the earth of its own impo- 
tence. In such matters — these grievous breaches of pub- 
lic morals and fundamental obligations — you concede 
everything to the restraining and directing influence of 
the enlightened Christian conscience, or to universal hu- 
man instinct. So the law of the spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus, which reigns in the renewed man, may be trust- 



THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 15 

ed, if followed, to keep him from walking after the 
flesh. 

Now I say — as I believe Paul says, in effect — Seek 
to have all Christian conduct regulated by the same in- 
ternal law — this same divine instinct. Educate it by all 
the truth of God to its intensest susceptibility, but let 
that inner principle of the new life decide all matters of 
duty and indulgence. Away with your handwriting of 
prohibitory ordinances: handle not — the billiard-cue; 
taste not — wine ; touch not — a partner in the dance. 
The church of God has no right to make such rules for 
the control of its members. Christ has put an all-suffi- 
cient law in their renewed natures, and by that law, as 
confirmed and illustrated by the Word, must they stand 
or fall to their own Master. But has the church no ris^ht 

CD 

of discipline over its members .-* Most assuredly ; and 
when the church or its regularly-established tribunal is 
convinced that a member is not walkino: accordinsf to 
that law of the Spirit, as they understand it, it is their 
duty to interfere, remonstrate, and, if need be, discipline 
the offender. I only say, beware how you impose mi- 
nute prescriptions and special rules for the government 
of the Christian life of others. The New Testament is 
remarkably free from prohibitory legislation in the way 
of special precepts, but exceedingly rich in great princi- 
ples for the conduct of life. While your regulative code 
may be a restraint on one, it may only be a pall on the 
Christian life of another. Your negative rules may be 
unconsciously adopted as a standard of Christian attain- 
ment by some inexperienced soul, and resting in the let- 



i6 THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 

ter of your ordinance, he may only repress the spiritual 
life within him that was meant to be developed from 
grace to grace. 

Hearken, my beloved brethren : Does the risen Christ 
need a law to keep him from going astray ? Would he 
be more likely to remain the Sinless One if there were 
hung before his eyes an eternal "Thou shalt not"? No 
more does the Christian whose life is truly hid with 
Christ in God need the restraint of outward law. He 
does, need restraint ; he does need law. But the law that 
will be most potent to keep him will be the law of the 
spirit of life in Christ Jesus, written on his renewed 
spirit by the finger of God, and faithfully followed in the 
light of Scripture teachings. He may, under the im- 
pulse of that renewed nature, lay down special rules for 
himself, for daily guidance ; but even that is perilous, 
for he may find himself following a formal rule long after 
the free spirit would otherwise have made this rule su- 
perfluous. Life in nature makes most symmetrical or- 
ganisms : so in spiHtual things inward life v/ill "make the 
most faultless conduct. The measure of a Christian's in- 
dulgence must be determined in all cases by the law of 
the renewed spirit in the light of Christ's enthroned 
presence. 

Does that Christian young man frequent the billiard- 
saloon } Do not say to him dogmatically and imperious- 
ly, " This is all wrong." But try to lead him to an appre- 
ciation of his share in the risen Christ-life ; help him to 
realize what are the associations of that life which is hid 
with Christ in God ; bring these heavenly ideas into con- 



THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 17 

trast with the associations of the billiard-room, and en- 
deavor so to stimulate his Christian instinct that from 
pure disrelish he shall drop his cue. This of course will 
take time and patience and prayer ; but when your work, 
is done, you have not only rescued the young man from 
degrading associations and a vicious habit, perchance, but 
you have put under his Christian life and character an 
immutable and eternal foundation. You have given him 
a principle of action, and not put him under bondage to 
a rule. But go to him with your short and arbitrary 
" Thou shalt not," and you will get only a reluctant sur- 
render of his pastime ; you may bring a sense of bondage 
over his spirit, and perhaps in the end a reckless and de- 
fiant reaction, in which his last state shall be worse than 
the first. 

Or that Christian man who insists on his rlcrht to 
drink wine t Vou may dash the cup from his hands with 
your inflexible ordinance, " Taste not," but you have not 
won your brother — perhaps made an angry foe. Keep 
your ordinances, and for him (though they may be of 
temporary advantage to many) your pledges out of sight, 
and address yourself to the Christ-life within. Ask him 
if such gratification of his appetite mars his enjoyment 
of the Holy Spirit's presence .'' Can he ask his Master's 
blessing on the cup } Is there no peril for himself or 
his children in this habit .^ no slavery of spirit.? Or 
does he know that yonder pale, shrinking wife has no 
power over her drunken husband to reform him, because 
he defends his rum-drinking by the example of his Chris- 
tian neighbor over the way } Would Christ's self-sacrifi" 

22 



i8 THE EPISTLE TO THE COLO SSI ANS. 

cing love not prompt the abandonment of the cup for the 
sake of the perishing men and weary wives and suffering 
children about him ? Self-sacrifice is the highest law of 
that realm from which, as a Christian man, the springs of 
his life are expected to flow. 

Or that Christian girl who dearly loves to dance — are 
there no considerations, drawn from the new life which 
she has professed, that will regulate or even subdue her in- 
dulgence in this pleasure ? Is she indeed crucified to the 
world, and the world to her, by the cross of Christ ? Or 
does she only wear a cross as an ornament on her neck, 
and not take the cross to her heart as a means of self- 
mortification ? Does her sense of fellowship with Christ 
suffer no shock from the associations and spirit of the 
ballroom ? If right for her to dance at all, it is right to 
" do it heartily as unto the Lord " — even as David danced 
before the Lord with all his might. Are there no mis- 
givings in reference to that which she allows and defends t 
*' Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Thus her dancing, 
under given circumstances, is to be controlled by her 
participation in that life which is hid with Christ in God. 

By this perpetual reference of life and conduct to the 
Christ life within us, and the heavenly citizenship into 
which that life inducts us. Christian character is freed 
most rapidly from unworthy elements, and built up most 
swiftly and completely on principles that shall rule 
throughout eternal ages. 

I acknowledge that this liberty into which the gospel 
introduces us is attended with great peril. So is the pos- 
session of free will in God's intelligent creatures every- 



THE EPISTLE TO THE COLO SSI ANS, 19 

where. But as that is what makes them likest God when 
their choice is directed to holiness, so this Christian lib- 
erty, used as not abusing it, is the very flower and perfec- 
tion of our prerogatives in Christ. We are no more 
slaves and children, but full-grown sons, with liberty to 
do as we please, on the presumption that we will always 
please to do right. Christ has lifted from our souls the 
crushing tables of stone, but he has left there in living 
characters of love the knowledge of his will written in 
our hearts. And to this inner law of our renewed being 
is all conduct to be referred — the law of the spirit of life 
in Christ Jesus. And nothing will help us to realize the 
Scripture ideal faster than the conscientious exercise of 
our freedom in the constant study of the Word and 
prayer. The perils of this liberty, to a true Christian, 
are as nothing compared with the paralyzing influence of 
such rules and ordinances as Paul here condemned. 

In the same connection in which he speaks of their 
liberty in the matter of eating and drinking, Paul also 
mentions ^'Sabbaths' (ver. 16). If he refers at all to the 
weekly Sabbath, he may have meant that none were to 
consider themselves bound to keep the seventh if they 
preferred to observe the first day of the week. But the 
more probable reference is to occasional festivals and 
fasts, also called sabbaths, which were observed by the 
Jews, but could not be regarded as binding on the Chris- 
tian conscience. Being distinctively Jewish or ceremo- 
nial, they were a part of that handwriting of ordinances 
which Christ took out of the way, nailing it to his 
cross. 



20 THE EPISTLE TO THE COLO SSI ANS, 

Some, however, find in Paul's language here and in 
Romans 14 : 5 the entire abrogation of the Sabbath, and 
deny that it is binding in any form on the Christian 
church. But it seems impossible that the Sabbath, as a 
day of physical rest at least, should ever be abrogated. 
Jesus said, " The Sabbath was made for man ;" and while 
man needs its merciful provisions, it will stand. The 
obligation to labor six days and to rest one day, in regu- 
lar alternation, appears to ground itself in constituent 
laws of being, and will last so long as the present consti- 
tution of man endures. The importance of the Sabbath 
as a provision no less for man's religious nature, implies 
its permanence and demands its regular observance. For 
these reasons it was embedded in the Decalogue among 
other fundamental and immutable laws. 

The Lord's day has taken the place of the Jewish 
Sabbath — as autumn takes the place of summer, as noon 
takes the place of dawn. The prop07'lion of labor and 
rest is alone immutable, while the object commemorated 
in that rest may be changed by divine direction, if a 
more worthy occasion should arise. And a finished re- 
demption took the precedence of a finished creation as 
the supreme object of Christian contemplation. (See 
Taylor Lewis, in Lange's Genesis, page 197.) 

If it be asked how we may spend the Sabbath most 
appropriately without falling into Jewish bondage on the 
one hand, or transcending our Christian liberty on the 
other, I would say, in a word, that we shall best keep the 
day by observing it in the spirit of its new name — the 
Lord's day. As on Washington's birthday we recall the 



THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 21 

man, recount his sacrifices, and review his character, so 
on the Lonfs day we are to give our thoughts, disen- 
gaged from the world by the Sabbath rest, to the con- 
templation and the imitation of Christ ; to study his per- 
son and word, to sing his praise, to adore his name, to do 
works of mercy, and to teach the children his love. 'We 
should carefully refrain from all unnecessary things that 
will infringe on the repose of the day, or distract our 
minds from fellowship with the Lord. For it is a day to 
be spent in the company of the Master ; sometimes, like 
Mary, sitting in happy communion at his feet; sometimes 
listening to his divine teachings in the gathered throng ; 
sometimes helping the little ones to come unto him to be 
blessed ; sometimes, like the favored three, going with 
him to the house of mourning ; and sometimes, like them 
also, standing with him in the mount, where we have 
dazzling visions of his glory, and fain would abide for 
evermore. 

But if the Gospel does not abrogate the Sabbath, 
either as a -day of rest or worship, neither does it propose 
to leave it in utter isolation as consecrated time. The 
ideal life in Christ, of which Paul speaks in the passage 
before us, demands, in its practical workings, that holiness 
to the Lord shall be upon the bells of the horses, and that 
the meanest cooking utensil shall be as the bowls before 
the altar of God. (Zech. 14:20, 21.) In other words, 
Christian life and conduct in all their details are to be 
permeated with that spirit of devout consecration which 
alone can really sanctify the deed or the doer. The Is- 
raelite under the law was required to give one-tenth of 

22* 



22 THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 

his substance to the Lord ; the ideal under the Gospel is 
that of life and possessions wholly devoted to God. And 
if God still claims one-seventh of our time as peculiarly 
his own, it does not imply that he means us to be any 
less holy when engaged in the duties of intervening days 
than when employed in the services appropriate to the 
Sabbath. A Christian's life is hid with Christ in God, 
not only on Sunday, but at all times. In that heavenly 
presence he moves as a royal priest of God continually, 
and every act of daily duty is a priestly service. He is 
bound to keep holy the Sabbath-day, according to the 
commandment ; but he will also endeavor to sanctify the 
rest of the week by doing whatever he does — the eating 
and the drinking, the marrying and the giving in mar- 
riage, the buying and the selling, as well as the praying 
and the praising — all, all to the glory of God. 

But the Sabbath itself will always be to him a day 
above all other days. Its welcome rest, its distinctively 
religious employments, its hallowed associations, its 
divine sarxtions, will ever give it a peerless rank, and he 
will haste to meet it as the lark soars to meet the morn- 
ing in the upper air. Indeed, without this glad and faith- 
ful observance of the Lord's day, there is small hope of 
living on a high spiritual plane on-any other day. 

As regards, however, a holy temper and a consecrated 
purpose, there should be no violent divorce of the Sab- 
bath from the rest of the week ; no chilling transition 
as we turn from worship to business, from rest to toil. I 
fear the idea that Sunday alone is God's time tends to 
make some professed Christians unconsciously put on 



THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 23 

and off their religion with their Sunday clothes ; while 
the Gospel idea is for all days to be spent in priestly 
service, and all, even the most mean and trivial of daily 
duties, to be done to the glory of God. 

ANGEL-WORSHIP. 

3d. But the last point which we notice among the 
errors rebuked by the apostle is the worship of angels. 

The Pharisees, we are told, confessed the existence of 
both angels and spirits, but there is no evidence in Scrip- 
ture that the worship of angels was a part of the Jewish 
faith. This element, therefore, was probably introduced 
from extra- Judaic sources, and was no doubt a part of 
that " philosophy and vain deceit " against which Paul 
warns the Colossians as having no more substantial basis 
than the tradition of men. Later Jews, indeed, indulged 
in the most extravagant speculations as to the successive 
ranks and orders of angels; and in the second century a 
most stupendous system of error, embodying analogous 
speculations, arose — derived largely through Alexandrian 
literature from the various Oriental speculative and mys- 
tical philosophies. This system was known as Gnosti- 
cism, and arrogated to itself the possession of peculiar 
knowledge, to be comprehended only by the favored few. 
Certain Gnostic tendencies are supposed to be hinted at 
in this Epistle, and indeed one of the charges brought 
against the genuineness of the Epistle by Baur is, that it 
reveals the existence of a system which historically should 
be placed a century later. But such a charge cannot 
fairly be supported. There are only hints, at the most. 



24 THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 

of Gnostic tendencies, not the outlines of a Gnostic sys- 
tem to be found here. 

But perhaps 'a brief glance at the main features of 
full-grown Gnosticism may give us a clearer idea of some 
of these mischievous tendencies which Paul combats. 
Adopting the dualistic theory of the universe, Gnosti- 
cism postulates the existence of two mutually opposing 
kingdoms : one of light, the abode of the absolute and 
incommunicable God, and the other of darkness, a world 
of formless matter in which all evil inhered. The great 
problem was how to bring God into relation with this 
world of matter so that creation could occur, and yet God 
not be compromised by contact with this kingdom of 
evil. Accordingly, they conceived a series of aeons, or 
spirits, varying in number with different systems, evolved 
in successive emanations from the absolute God. At 
each evolution less and less of the Original Light was 
reflected by the aeon, till at last an emanation was pro- 
duced sufficiently remote, and contact with the kingdom 
of evil became possible, and creation took place. 

Now this angel-worship grew out of a similar false 
idea about the distance and incommunicability of the 
Deity. It said, apparently. Sin cannot come into imme- 
diate contact with holiness : even Christ is too pure and 
too remote for us to approach directly : it will be more 
fitting and expressive of proper humility if we interpose 
the mediation of the angels, who excel in strength, and 
who may intercede for us, at least avail to help us. 
Here comes in the apostle's warning, " Let no one rob 
you of your prize — the Christian's reward — by persuad- 



2HE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 25 

ing you into this false humility in the worship of angels. 
These men are idle dreamers, puffed up by their idle car- 
nal speculations. As there is to your body one head from 
which the whole body, duly attached and supported, de- 
rives its unity and growth, so in spiritual life there is one 
Head, even Christ. No angel mediators should be suf- 
fered to come between you and him. As your own head 
is directly and firmly attached to your body, so the con- 
tact and union of each believer with Christ is direct, or- 
ganic, vital. To interpose other mediators is to cut your- 
selves off from the only source of life and growth. In 
him, made flesh, dwells all the fulness of the Godhead ; 
and out of his fulness all your fulness comes, and that 
directly from his divine-human person. He is the head 
of all principality and power and every other name you 
may apply to the celestial hosts : yea, he rules the spir- 
itual hosts of darkness as well : for on the cross he strip- 
ped them of their power and made a show of them open- 
ly, leading them in triumph. And will you sever your 
connection with your spiritual head, and yet hope to 
grow } Will you turn from the personal audience of the 
King, freely tendered you, to seek his favor through his 
servants t You do but dishonor your Master with such 
mock humility." 

With reference to the more fully developed Gnostic 
scheme, while it cannot fairly be discovered in the Epis- 
tle, yet a single passage in the first chapter is wondrously 
adapted to meet this false conception of God's relation to 
the universe. With Paul there is no room, as there is no 
occasion, for successive emanations. He knows of but 



26 THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 

one being who stands in any such relation to God : and 
he is the image of the Invisible One, the first-born of all 
creation. There are no long approaches to be prepared 
before God can compass the work of creation ; for in 
him, the first-born of God, were created all things, those 
in the heavens and those on earth, the visible and the 
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities 
or powers, all things were created through him and for 
him. And he is before all things, and in him all things 
subsist. As he is the head of creation, so also he is the 
head of the body — the church, since he is the beginning, 
the first-born from the dead ; that in all things he may 
be preeminent. For God was pleased that in him all 
fulness should dwell. Outside of Christ, then, there are 
no aeons or angels who in any sense are an extension of 
the Godhead. All the fulness of the Godhead resides in 
him who was made flesh and who wears our nature still. 
What revelation of God was better calculated to meet 
the incipient evil of angel-worship at Colossae, or the 
more gigantic system of error that afterward arose as 
Gnosticism } 

A SIMILAR ERROR OF TO-DAY. 
And what shall we say, in concluding our remarks on 
this Epistle, of those who to-day are repeating and de- 
fending an error almost identical with that which Paul 
here condemns, namely : the invocation of saints, and for 
that matter, of angels too ? who dishonor the Head of 
the church by making their approaches to him through 
a deceased woman ? who invoke departed Christians, 



THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 127 

and supplicate the good offices of angels on the ground 
which would place them on a par with the Gnostic aeons, 
that in a subordinate degree they are partakers of the 
Divine nature ? It only shows how inveterate is that in- 
stinct of false humility which dishonors Christ by refu- 
sing to recognize him as the sole and sufficient mediator 
between God and man. Well does the Scripture exhort 
us to come boldly to a throne of grace. 

And are we not liable unwittingly to fall into the _^.y^,4^ 
same slough by magnifying too highly the intercession 
of living saints on behalf of ourselves or others ? This 
urging the anxious to rise for prayers, th[s_sending up of 
multitudinous requests to some popular place where 
prayer is wont to be made, this desire for the prayers of 
some individual especially prominent or gifted — may 
there not lurk in it all the germs of a feeling that may / 
unconsciously put some one else in the place of Christ pf 
as intercessor.? When the idea is that others '' strive^' '^^ 
together with us " in prayer to God, there is no impro- 
priety or peril ; but if the secret thought is, " This per- 
son is better than I, Christ will listen to him more read- 
ily than to me," we are verging towards the idolatry of 
the Romanist and the angel-worship of the Colossian 
church. " Whosoever cometh unto me I will in no wise 
cast out." Let us teach men that the throne of grace 
is free to the direct approach of all, and may the good 
Lord keep us from the subtleties of our own deceitful 
hearts, and enable us to live in close and conscious fel- 
lowship with our living Head. 



28 THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. 

THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. 

But a few moments remain for the consideration of 
the Epistle to Philemon ; and, in truth, there are no seri- 
ous difficulties to detain us, though it would furnish in its 
suggestiveness a multitude of practical lessons. It is 
brief — a single chapter of twenty-five verses — conceived 
in the most beautiful spirit, and easy of comprehension. 
We deem the following to be consistent with Paul's let- 
ters as the probable history of the case. 

Paul's language in the 19th verse, "to me thou owest 
even thine own self," implies that Philemon was indebted 
to the apostle as the instrument of his conversion. As 
we have stated before, it is altogether likely that in some 
visit to Ephesus Philemon, who was a citizen of Colossce, 
fell in with Paul and became a Christian. A warm per- 
sonal friendship was established between them, and on 
his return to Colossae Philemon became an active mem- 
ber of the church, and opened his house for its meetings. 
His wife also appears here as a convert, and Archippus, 
probably their son, held some important office in the 
church at Laodicea, within easy walking distance of his 
parents* home. Another member of Philemon's house- 
hold was a slave named Onesimus, who perhaps may also 
have been known to Paul, or who most likely knew of 
Paul at Ephesus. For some reason, not gathered from 
the letter, Onesimus ran away from his master, and appar- 
ently also robbed him at the same time. Perhaps the 
theft was what led to his flight. He at last made his way 
to Rome, where he would be most likely to escape detec- 



THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON, 29 

tion in the crowds of the metropolis. But whether his 
previous knowledge of Paul led him to the apostle's pres- 
ence, or whether he was driven by v^rant to go to him, or 
whether Epaphras found him and brought him to Paul, 
certain it is that he became a convert to Paul's preaching, 
and a most useful helper to the apostle. Indeed, Paul 
would gladly have retained him about his person to min- 
ister to him, but he felt that Philemon's rights must be 
considered, and Onesimus be returned. He knew that 
he had only to write to Philemon and request his consent 
to retain his slave, but that would seem to put Philemon 
under some constraint, and he wished the favor to be 
granted of his own free will. In addition, therefore, to 
the letter to the Colossian church at large, he writes a 
private letter to Philemon to secure the favorable recep- 
tion of Onesimus, who had doubly wronged his master 
by theft and flight. 

ANALYSIS OF THE EPISTLE. 
After the salutation to the various members of Phile- 
mon's household (1-3) and a hearty expression of thank- 
fulness for Phikmon's love to God's people (4-/), he 
enters on the principal object of his letter. He hints at 
his right to command Philemon on the ground of his 
apostolic authority, but prefers to plead with him as a 
dear friend. He reminds him, too, that Paul is now an 
old man and a prisoner, and exhorts him to receive the 
once "good-for-nothing slave" as though he were the 
apostle's own child— as indeed he was, spiritually (8-12). 
After alluding to his wish to keep him with him, as fur. 

^3 



30 THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. 

ther evidence, perhaps, of his own confidence in Onesi- 
mus' conversion, he dwells on the wonderful providence 
that had taken Onesimus away for a season that he might 
be returned for ever ; for the bonds which now united 
slave and master were those of Christian brotherhood, 
and would never be broken. And if Paul had occasion 
to rejoice, how much more Philemon, over the happy 
change (13-16). Again, by their old-time comradeship 
he urged the reception of Onesimus, even as himself; 
and promises, over his own signature, to be responsible 
for anything in which the runaway may be indebted to 
his master ; albeit he reminds Philemon how he owes to 
him his own self (17-19). "Yea, my brother," he adds, 
"let me have joy of thee in the Lord ; refresh my heart 
in the Lord." At the same time he expresses his confi- 
dence that Philemon will even exceed his wishes, and 
bids him prepare him a lodging in the hope of a future 
visit (20-22). A few salutations close the Epistle (23-25). 

But no paraphrase can do justice to the simple ear- 
nestness, the delicate tact, the Christian courtesy of this 
short letter. It has been and will remain unapproacha- 
ble, in these regards, in the annals of epistolary corre- 
spondence. The letter with which it has been oftenest 
compared is one addressed to a friend by the younger 
Pliny. The following translation of this beautiful letter 
is given in Lightfoot's Commentary on the Epistles to 
the Colossians and Philemon, a book to which I have 
been very greatly indebted in the preparation of this lec- 
ture. The letter runs as follows : 

"Your freedman, with whom, you had told me you 



THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. 31 

were vexed, came to me, and throwing himself down 
before me, clung to my feet, as if they had been yours. 
He was profuse in his tears and his entreaties ; he was 
profuse also in his silence. In short, he convinced me 
of his penitence. I believe that he is indeed a reformed 
character, because he feels that he has done wrong. You 
are angry, I know ; and you have reason to be angry ; 
this also I know • but mercy wins the highest praise just 
when there is the most righteous cause for anger. You 
loved the man, and I hope will continue to love him ; 
meanwhile, it is enough that you should allow yourself 
to yield to his prayers. You may be angry again if he 
deserves it ; and in this you will be the more readily 
pardoned, if you yield now. Concede something to his 
youth, something to his tears, something to your own 
indulgent disposition. Do not torture him, lest you tor- 
ture yourself also at the same time. For it is torture to 
you when one of your gentle temper is angry. I am 
afraid lest I should appear not to ask, but to compel, if I 
should add my prayers to his. Yet I will add them, the 
more fully and unreservedly because I scolded the man 
himself with sharpness and severity ; for I threatened 
him strictly that I would never ask you again. This I 
said to him, for it was necessary to alarm him ; but I do 
not use the same language to you. For perchance I 
shall ask again, and shall be successful again ; only let 
my request be such as it becomes me to prefer and you 
to grant. Farewell." 

And Lightfoot adds : 

"The younger Pliny is the noblest type of a true Ro- 



32 THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. 

man gentleman, and this touching letter needs no words 
of praise. Yet, if purity of diction be excepted, there 
will hardly be any difference of opinion in awarding the 
palm to the Christian apostle. As an expression of sim- 
ple dignity, of refined courtesy, of large sympathy, and of 
warm personal affection, the Epistle to Philemon stands 
unrivalled." 

THE MORAL VALUE OF THE fepiSTLE. 

But the great importance of this Epistle to the 
Christian church lies in the attitude in which it placed 
Christianity to slavery. The evils of slavery in that age 
and the proportions it assumed were simply enormous. 
The slaves of Attica, Lightfoot tells us, were as numer- 
ous as its citizens, and in the contracted territory of 
Corinth there were not less than 460,000. In Egina, 
scarcely 40 square miles in extent, there were 470,000 
slaves. Some wealthy Roman land-owners had 10,000 
or 20,000, or more. These slaves had no protection in 
Roman law, and were absolutely at their masters' dispo- 
sal. And so great was the dread of their violence, that 
the law enacted that in case of the murder of a master 
all the slaves under the same roof should be put to death — 
a law which was probably executed on 400 human beings 
in a single instance during Paul's residence in Rome. 

Now what Paul would have done had his century 
been the nineteenth instead of the first, we can only 
conjecture; it is safe to assume that he would have been 
judiciously conservative. But in that age and under those 
circumstances he deemed it his duty to send the run- 



THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. zt, 

away slave back to his master. Perhaps he would have 
done the same had Philemon not been a Christian, but a 
cruel heathen ; we know not. But we can conceive him 
talking to Onesimus familiarly something after this 
strain : " To be sure, Onesimus, it was your lot to be a 
slave ; but you are now Christ's freeman. From a worse 
bondage than that of the body has the grace of God 
delivered you — even bondage to your own degrading life 
and passions. Henceforth you have really but one 
master to serve — the Lord who has redeemed us all. 
Poverty and toil are not the lot of slaves alone. Go back 
and serve Philemon faithfully, doing what you do heartily 
as unto the Lord, and not merely to please your earthly 
master. Serve Christ, and from him shall be your re- 
ward." What he wrote to Philemon we have already 
seen, and in the letter addressed to the Colossian church 
he had enjoined on all masters to deal justly by their 
bond-servants, remembering that they had a Master in 
heaven who was no respecter of persons. 

Paul felt that he could safely leave this case to the 
inherent influence of the gospel in the heart of both 
master and slave. He knew that Philemon would not be 
likely to pass the cup to Onesimus at the Lord's table 
as a brother beloved, and then order him to be tortured 
for his recent fault. And before that same idea of uni- 
versal brotherhood and equality of man which inhered in 
the gospel, Paul knew that slavery everywhere was doom- 
ed ultimately to fall. To attempt to do away with the 
evil as then existing by prohibitory injunctions on the 
Christian church, or by inciting social crusades against 

23* 



34 THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. 

it, would have been repeating the great tragedy of Sam- 
son's end, and for the time at least Christianity and social 
order would have been brought down together in one 
awful wreck. But from the hour when the gospel was 
preached as recognizing no distinctions of race or rank 
in Christ Jesus, the work of sapping and mining this 
hugh social fabric has been going steadily on. Progress 
has been slow; the cries of successive generations of 
enslaved and outraged humanity have gone up into the 
ears of the Lord of Sabaoth apparently unheeded. But 
it is our glad privilege to live in the far-off age that has 
seen the mine fired and a huge portion of the gigantic 
structure fall. And what England, Russia, and America, 
have done presages the utter and speedy extinction of 
slavery the wide world around. The silent, all-pow- 
erful moral influence of the gospel of Jesus Christ has 
done it. 

And when slavery falls from such a cause there is no 
likelihood of its restoration. Though nominally as a 
war measure emancipation took place in this country, yet 
the moral sentiment of the people as dominated by the 
spirit of Christianity led the way for it, and alone made 
the triumph permanent. And it is remarkable, with all 
the social ostracism and political intimidation and grind- 
ing opposition that have been visited on the Freedmen of 
the South, there has been no suggestion of their reen- 
^lavement. The situation seems to have been accepted 
not merely as a dire necessity under political conquest 
and military force, but with a sense of relief as from a 
horrid nightmare. Southern slavery is twice dead, 



THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. 35 

plucked up by the roots ; and I doubt if there were to- 
day a Southern Confederacy, and the blacks were left 
solely to the mercy of those States, whether the boasted 
corner-stone of that Confederacy as originally organized 
would not prove to be a stone which the builders would 
reject ; and, so far from ever being exalted to the head of 
the corner, it would be ground to impalpable powder. 

If there be, then, one lesson to be drawn, in closing, 
from the study of these two Epistles, it would be the 
renewing and revolutionizing power of the truth as it is 
in Jesus. We have seen the transforming power of that 
lofty ideal of a life hid with Christ in God, more potent 
far, in regulating individual conduct, than all prohibitory 
legislation and outward rules. And we have to-day the 
palpable evidence that great social and political systems 
of evil yield in God's good time to the same omnipotent 
influence of the truth of the gospel. May we not gather 
thence wisdom and encouragement for our assaults on the 
gigantic evils that yet remain ; and while not neglecting 
any legitimate means for restricting their outward growth, 
yet be most assiduous in our endeavor to pierce their 
very heart with the sword of the Spirit, which is the 
word of God ? 



THE 



Pastoral Epistles 



TO 



TIMOTHY AND TITUS. 



BY REV. C. C. TIFFANY, 

NEW YORK. 



ST. PAUL'S 
PASTORAL EPISTLES 



It has become my grateful task to address you con- 
cerning the Pastoral Epistles of St. Paul. It is a pleas- 
ant duty, albeit an arduous one : pleasant, because we 
cannot read any writing of the great apostle to the Gen- 
tiles without a sense of coming in contact with a master 
mind, nor without a strong impression that his was a 
human spirit, nobly fitted by its discipline and its attain- 
ments to be the channel for the message of the Divine 
Spirit; pleasant, because he summons us to audience 
with a great heart and a grand intellect, along which and 
through which the truth of God marches with imperial 
tread ; but an arduous task, both by reason of the sub- 
ject-matter, so lofty and at times so subtle, and of the 
disputations of men, which have woven their interpreta- 
tions about it — interpretations which bewilder us by their 
variety, and distract us with the din of theological and 
ecclesiastical conflict. It is my purpose, however, to 
avoid as far as possible this outside confusion, and to 
gather from out these Epistles themselves the salient 
truths they were meant to teach — truths which we must 



4 ST. PAULS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 

learn for ourselves if we would rightly teach them to 
others. 

The Pastoral Epistles are three. They consist of 
two to Timothy and one to Titus. In the order of their 
composition, the one to Titus comes in between the first 
and second letters to Timothy, but they were all writ- 
ten within the space of a few years, and all after the 
first imprisonment of St. Paul in Rome, with the ac- 
count of which Luke's history in the Acts of the Apos- 
tles ends. 

It may be asked why we are to assume a second im- 
prisonment of the apostle Paul unrecorded in Holy Writ, 
during which and between which and the first imprison- 
ment these Pastoral Epistles were written. There are 
both internal and external reasons which compel it. 
Those which are internal refer to the subject-matter of 
the Epistles, and the nature of the heresies and false 
teachings which are rebuked in them, which are of such 
a character as could not have arisen in the earlier period 
of the apostle's life. Indeed, to certain destructive crit- 
ics the form of these ripe evils herein treated has been 
the occasion for strong doubt, if not for stout denial, of 
the apostolic authorship of the Epistles. Both Schleier- 
macher and De Wette have urged this argument, which 
we will consider farther on, when we think we can show 
that the evils herein treated coincide exactly with that 
late epoch in St. Paul's life which marks, the interval be- 
tween the first and second imprisonment. But undoubt- 
edly the nature of the heresies here mentioned and the 
phrases applied to them are so advanced upon the evils 



ST. PAUL'S PASTORAL EPLSTLES. 5 

corrected and opposed in the Epistles to the Ephesians 
and Colossians, or appearing at any time of the period 
extending from the year a. d. 54 to a. d. 63, during 
which the other Epistles were written, that we are forced 
to place these writings among the latest productions of 
the apostle's pen, and assign them to the period subse- 
quent to the account of his residence in Rome, with which 
the Book of the Acts of the Apostles so abruptly ends. 
The concluding notices of the second Epistle to Timo- 
thy, wherein the apostle speaks (as in chap. 4:6) of his 
prospect of immediate martyrdom, forbid our placing 
that Epistle at any earlier period, and all the three letters 
stand together in the nature of their contents. 

The external reasons for assuming a liberation from 
the first imprisonment followed by a second imprison- 
ment, are as follows : The Epistles to Timothy are writ- 
ten to him at Ephesus, and in his character of presiding 
officer of the church there, to which special charge he 
had been set apart by the apostle Paul himself when he 
went into Macedonia. See i Tim. i : 3. This time must 
have been subsequent to St. Paul's first visit to Ephe- 
sus, recorded in Acts 18:20, 21, when the church was 
founded, if indeed it was at that time founded. For at 
that time of his departure, St. Paul did not go to Mace- 
donia, but to Jerusalem. The second visit to Ephesus 
was the long one related in Acts 19, when he continued 
there (see ver. 10) at least two years ; which statement 
may not have included the whole time, since St. Paul, in 
his address to the elders of Ephesus, who met him by 
appointment at Miletus (Acts 20 : 31), says "by the space 

-4 



6 ST. PAULS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 

of three years" he preached among them ; which, by the 
well-known method of Jewish reckoning, may mean no 
more than parts of three years, but must mean as much. 
The apostle did at this time depart to go to Macedonia 
(Acts 20 : i) ; yet he did not leave Timothy behind him, 
but, as we read in Acts 19 : 22, he sent Timothy and 
Erastus before him. Again (in i Tim. 3 : 14), we find 
the apostle hopes soon to follow his letter to Ephesus ; 
but in the Acts we find no trace of such intention and 
no attempt to accomplish it. It has been supposed by 
some that Timothy's stay in Macedonia was short, and 
that he returned to Ephesus before the apostle left (see 
I Cor. 16: 8-1 1) ; but if so he must have almost imme- 
diately deserted his charge ; for, as is evident from 2 Cor. 
I : I, he is again in the autumn with St. Paul in Macedo- 
nia (whence the 2d Epistle to the Corinthians was writ- 
ten), in the winter in Corinth (see Rom. 16:21), where 
the Epistle to the Romans was written, and returned to 
Asia with him (Acts 20 : 3, 4) ; so that the ruling and 
ordering of the Ephesian church during the apostle's 
absence, which furnish the whole scope of the Epistle, 
would have been defeated. Some critics, to meet this 
difficulty, have supposed an unrecorded journey of the 
apostle into Macedonia during the two or three years' 
residence in Ephesus ; but the whole character of the 
first Epistle shows that (to quote Dean Alford) it belongs 
not to a brief and casual absence of this kind, but to one 
intended to last some time. The hope of returning soon 
is faint (i Tim. 3 : 14) ; the provision is for a longer 
absence. 



ST, PA UrS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 7 

Taken, then, with the internal considerations already 
alluded to, the external indications form a strong argu- 
ment for a later composition of these Epistles than the 
theory of one imprisonment would furnish, especially as 
the fact of a second imprisonment is supported by an 
ancient tradition not easily set aside, referred to in the 
Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius (2:22), in the ist 
Epistle of Clement of Rome to Corinth, and in a frag- 
ment of Muratori on the Canon. 

Now as to the fact, time, and place of the writing of 
the 1st Epistle to Timothy, we have the following indi- 
cations : In the Epistle to the Philippians (i : 26 and 
2 : 24), written during the first imprisonment in Rome, 
the apostle intends and hopes to come to see them 
shortly. The hope of release also appears in the Epistle 
to Philemon (ver. 22), written from Rome. The suppo- 
sition is that the apostle realized this hope and visited 
(when once set free) the Macedonian and Asiatic church- 
es, leaving Timothy at Ephesus, and writing the Epistle 
from some place on his journey where he was detained 
and was likely to be kept longer than he had anticipated 
(i Tim. 3 : 14, 15); that he went with Titus to Crete, 
leaving him there to complete the organization of the 
Cretan churches (Titus i : 5), writing the Epistle soon 
after from Asia Minor, when proposing to winter at Ni- 
copolis (3 : 12), a well-known city in Epirus. We judge, 
from 2 Tim. 4: 13, 20 (written after his last communica- 
tion with Timothy and from the Roman prison), that he 
journeyed from Crete to Nicopolis by Troas and Miletus. 
Nicopolis was a Roman colony, and the apostle having 



8 ST. PAULS PASTORAL EPISTLES, 

been known in Rome as a leader of the Christians, 
would be exposed to the hostile action of parties plotting 
against him in the metropolis, and would be likely, at any 
time after the great fire at Rome in A. d. 64 (which Nero, 
who caused it, charged upon the Christians), to be arrest- 
ed as implicated in causing it. As in this case the crime 
alleged was committed in Roifte, the Decemviri of Ni- 
copolis would send him to Rome for trial. We learn 
from 2 Tim. 2 : 9 that he was in this imprisonment treat- 
ed as a criminal, not as an offender in matters of the 
Jewish law — as before, when he dwelt two years chained 
to a soldier in his own hired house (see Acts 28 : 30). As 
a criminal he is now thrown into prison, Of his Asiatic 
friends only Nicephorus was faithful and found him out 
(2 Tim. 1:16; 4:10, 11). Luke was faithful still; but 
in his loneliness and infirm and premature old age, at 65, 
St. Paul writes this second letter to his favorite Timothy, 
begging him to come wiih Mark to see him. It was 
written after his first appearance and pleading before the 
court (2 Tim. 4 : 16, 17), but how long after we cannot tell. 
But both Eusebius and Jerome mention the tradition 
that he suffered martyrdom in the last year, or last but 
one, of Nero, therefore late in 6^ or in 6'^. And this 
Epistle (2 Tim. 4 : 6) was written in immediate expecta- 
tion of that event. It has, not without reason therefore, 
been called the testament of the dying Paul to his spir- 
itual son, and through him to the whole community. 

Let us now turn from the writer to the recipients of 
these letters. Of Titus but little, of Timothy much is 
known. Titus is never once mentioned in the Acts, un- 



ST. PAUrS PASTORAL EPISTLES, 9 

less under another name, which some have supposed to 
be the case, since of all the companions of St. Paul, he 
seems to have been the most valued and trusted. But 
some have supposed that at last he deserted the apostle, 
and so found no mention at the hands of St. Luke. In 
view, however, of his excellent character and devotion, 
we are compelled to regard his departure from the im- 
prisoned Paul at Rome for Dalmatia (2 Tim. 4: 10) as 
suggested by the apostle himself. He is first mentioned 
in the Epistle to the Galatians, chap. 2:1, 3, where we 
learn that he was of Gentile origin ; and we conclude 
that he was certainly converted under St. Paul, from the 
expression (Titus i : 4), " To Titus mine own son after 
the common faith." The next notice of him is in 2 Corin- 
thians, where (12: 18) we find that he, with two other 
brethren, was sent forward by St. Paul from Ephesus, 
during his long sojourn there, to set on foot a collection 
(8 : 6) for the poor saints at Jerusalem, and to ascertain 
the effect of the first Epistle to the Corinthians. In 
2 Cor. 2:12, 13, we learn that notwithstanding the great 
opportunities of usefulness at Troas, where the apostle 
Paul waited after his departure from Ephesus, he was so 
anxious for the return of Titus that he went over into 
Macedonia to meet him, and (chap. 8:6-15) was greatly 
comforted by the satisfactory account which he brought 
of the effect of the ist Epistle, and by the effective zeal 
and earnestness in the work of the gospel shown by Titus 
himself. In chap. 8 : 23, St. Paul calls him his partner 
and fellow-helper; and in 12 : 18 he appeals to his integ- 
rity and entire unity of action with himself. From this 



lo ST. PAUrS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 

time for a period of ten years (a. d. 57 to 67) we know 
nothing of Titus, except the notices furnished in the 
Epistle. From this we learn that St. Paul had left him 
in Crete (1:5), "to set in ordet the things that are 
wanting, and ordain elders in every city." His stay at 
this time was not long, for in 3:12 the apostle summons 
him to come to Nicopolis, where he was to winter, and 
whence, as we have seen, St. Paul was probably sent to 
Rome for his last imprisonment and martyrdom, charged 
with criminal action. From 2 Tim. 4 : 10, we learn that 
Titus left St. Paul for Dalmatia, whether before or after 
the apostle reached Rome we cannot tell. So far as 
tradition goes, Eusebius speaks of him as the first bishop 
of Crete ; and Butler, in the " Lives of the Saints," says 
he is honored in Dalmatia as its principal apostle ; that 
he returned from Dalmatia to Crete, and finished a labo- 
rious and holy life at Crete, at an advanced age. 

Concerning Timothy we have fuller information. He 
is first mentioned (Acts 16 : i) as dwelling in Derbe or 
Lystra, on St Paul's second visit there. His mother was 
a Jewess, his father a Gentile, and he was probably con- 
verted under the apostle's preaching on his first visit, as 
(i Tim. I -.2) the apostle styles him, "My own son in 
the faith." His mother and his grandmother Lois (2 Tim. 
I : 5) were both Christians, probably converted on St. 
Paul's first visit from being pious Jewesses (3 : 14, 15). 
Though young, Timothy was well esteemed at Lystra 
and Derbe (Acts 16 : 2), and St. Paul took him as a helper 
in the missionary work, having first circumcised him, his 
father being a Jew, to remove any obstacle to his access 



ST. PAUrS PASTORAL -EPISTLES, ii 

to the Jews. This has been made a charge of time-serv- 
ing and inconsistency against the apostle, as he had re- 
fused to circumcise Titus. But the cases were different. 
Titus was a Greek. To circumcise him, would have been 
to yield to the principle of the Judaizers — that a man 
must be made a Jew to be a true Christian. To have 
refused to circumcise Timothy (of Jewish stock) would 
have seemed to declare that the Jew could not be in the 
fullest sense a Christian. St. Paul's open position op- 
posed both these views. His watchword was, ** Neither 
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision." 
His action in regard to both Titus and Timothy showed 
strict adherence to his principle of the indifference of 
outward acts. In Titus he resisted circumcision when 
declared necessary and made an essential of Christianity. 
In Timothy he performed the rite, not in itself wrong, 
when it would give greater access to the gospel — in re- 
spect of which neither circumcision nor uncircumcision 
availeth anything. He combined in his diverse actions 
the same principle, which led in the one case to the main- 
taining of freedom and in the other to the expediency 
of free concession. 

Without tracing all the events of his career, suffice it 
to say, that from this time on Timothy was the compan- 
ion and fellow-worker of the apostle. He probably ac- 
companied him in his progress through Macedonia, for 
he was left behind in Berea with Titus (Acts 17:14), 
when the apostle was sent away to Athens by sea. He 
rejoined the apostle with Silas at Corinth, having brought 
tidings from Thessalonica. (See i Thess. 3 : 6.) He 



12 ^T. PAUL'S PASTORAL EPISTLES, 

remained with the apostle at Corinth, and his name 
appears in the addresses of both the P^pistles to the 
Thessalonians written at Corinth. We next find him 
ministering to St. Paul during his long stay at Ephesus 
(Acts 19 : 22), whence he was sent with Erastus to Mace- 
donia. He was with the apostle again in Macedonia 
when he wrote the second Epistle to the Corinthians 
(2 Cor. 1:1); and in the winter following was with him in 
Corinth when he wrote the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 
16:21), and on the apostle's return to Asia went forward 
and waited for him at Troas. We next hear of him from 
the three Epistles of the first Roman imprisonment. 
He was with St. Paul when he wrote to the Colossians 
(Col. I : i), to Philemon (verse i), and to the Philippians 
(Phil. 1:1). From this time we hear of him no more till 
We come to the Pastoral Epistles. From these we learn 
that he was left by the apostle at Ephesus to take charge 
of the church in his absence ; and St. Paul's urgent 
appeal to him to come to him in Rome makes it proba- 
ble that he would set out immediately to see him there. 
The tradition mentioned in Eusebius styles him the first 
bishop of Ephesus ; and the ancient martyrologies make 
him die by martyrdom under Domitian. 

When Timothy was ordained to the ministry we can- 
not tell. Dean Alford inclines to the view that it was 
when left by the apostle for his isolated work at Ephe- 
sus. Be the time what it may, he was solemnly set 
apart for the ministry with the " laying on of the apostle's 
hands and those of the presbytery " (i Tim. 4 : 14 ; 2 Tim. 
1:6); and according to prophecy (i Tim. 4 : 14; 1:18). 



ST. PAUrS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 13 

His character was earnest and self-denying, as shown 
by his leaving home with the apostle, his submission to 
circumcision at his hands, and from (i Tim. 5 : 23) the 
fact of his abstinence fpom wine. There are tokens of 
timidity apparent in the apostle's exhortations to him, as 
though he were better fitted for a coadjutor than an inde- 
pendent laborer, (i Cor. 16:10.) For about fifteen 
years he was as a son in the Gospel to the apostle, a 
source of great consolation to St. Paul, and a man of 
devoted and affectionate character, though doubtless 
lacking in the boldness of his spiritual father — an apos- 
tolic Melancthon to the apostolic Luther. 

I have dwelt thus long on the writer and recipients 
of these Epistles, because they are so especially per- 
sonal communications. It is indeed an official person 
who writes and who is written to, and of course there is 
much reference to official station and ofificial duties ; but 
there is a personal strain throughout these letters, and 
they are rather the utterances of affection than official 
admonitions. We shall find much of the value of the 
Epistles to consist in this. They give an insight into 
the very heart of the apostle, and teach us how the Divine 
inspiration mingled with and made use of the natural 
affections and characteristic emotions of the writer, as 
well as of his higher intellectual endowments. 

'first epistle to timothy. 

This Epistle itself states the occasion of its composi- 
tion. St. Paul had left Timothy in charge of the Ephe- 
sian church. Heresies, such as he had foretold in his 



14 -5*7: PAUL'S PASTORAL EPLSTLES. 

address to the elders of Ephesus — who met him at Mile- 
tus, when he took a supposed final leave of them — had 
arisen ; and Timothy, comparatively young, and unused 
to independent labors, must be -encouraged and enlight- 
ened concerning his work, in the doubtful prospect of a 
return of the apostle — a return which he had hoped to 
accomplish when he left, (i Tim. 3 : 14, 15.) The pre- 
cepts of the apostle, however, regarded two quite differ- 
ent branches of his duty : one was to keep down and 
extirpate the growing heresies of the day ; the other had 
respect to the government of the church itself. 

Before, however, dwelling upon either of these topics, 
I would call your attention to one feature of both the 
Epistles to Timothy, which marks them at once as per- 
sonal communications and as the utterances of an aged 
Christian man. I do this because it illustrates the natu- 
ral flow of his supernatural inspiration, and lets us see 
how free and unconstrained in the method of its expres- 
sion was that Divine enlightenment which gives to these 
Epistles the force of a Heavenly Authority, while it pre- 
serves intact the characteristics of the human author. 
Indeed, we learn from this feature of these letters how 
the Holy Spirit, who inspires the thought, uses what 
some might term the infirmity of old age, and what all 
recognize as its characteristic, as the means of conveying 
some of the most touching as well as the most exalted 
expressions of Divine truth, and leads our thoughts to 
dwell on the author as an inspired man rather than merely 
an inspired penman — as one whose whole being was suf- 
fused with the truth and spirit of Christ, so that it could 



ST. PAULS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 15 

not but manifest itself, whether by a direct effort of 
argument, or the indirect expressions of personal expe- 
rience. 

This peculiar characteristic of these Epistles is St. 
Paul's habit of going off, on the mention of anything 
which reminds him of God's mercies to himself, or of his 
own sufferings on behalf of the Gospel, into a digression 
on his own history or feelings or hopes. The habit of 
digression, or of having his attention caught by a word 
or phrase which suggested some side-truth, and leaving 
for a while the direct argument to pursue it, is charac- 
teristic of St. Paul in all his epistles. But in the letters 
before us the cause of digression is different, while the 
habit remains. Here it is not a suggestion of subsidiary, 
though connected truth, but of some personal experience 
which sets his heart glowing, rather than his mind 
moving, and stirs him up to the utterance of that elo- 
quent ascription v/hich is kindled from the embers of 
feeling, rather than by the fuel of ideas. Turn to i Tim. 
1:12-18 for an illustration of this characteristic fact. 
St. Paul here turns from the subject to himself. He has 
been giving a charge concerning errors in the church. 
But the words "glorious gospel" were too much for the 
argument. The aged apostle could not then think only 
of those who perverted it. His feeling kindles in the 
thought of what it had done for him, and so he goes on to 
speak of his own experience of it. I doubt if in all the 
Biblical literature can be found expressions more dear to 
the Christian heart than here. They have inwoven them- 
selves into the universal Christian experience, because 



i6 ST. PAULS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 

they originated in the utterance of just such experience. 
" He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry." 
What clergyman does not con over that expression as 
the classic utterance of his own emotion as he contem- 
plates the high responsibilities and the beckoning privi- 
leges of his calling, especially when the sense of his per- 
sonal insufficiency presses most heavily upon him ! 
What Christian does not linger fondly over the expres- 
sion of ver. 15, as he comes to the cross of his Redeemer 
for forgiveness and for strength, words which have bro- 
ken many a criminal's hard heart, and which are by the 
Episcopal Church put among the comfortable words to 
be read in the hearing of all the faithful as they approach 
the table of the Lord's bounty : " It is a faithful saying, 
and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came 
into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief"! If 
we should attempt to sketch even the associations of 
these words with the scenes they have brightened and 
glorfied, with the hours of holy communion they have 
sweetened, the joys of the new-born believer they have 
begotten, the triumphs of the dying-bed which they have 
assured and lightened, 

" Where would the glowing numbers end ?" 

Must we not thank God for this inspired utterance of an 
old man's heart, as fervently as for the profoundest ar- 
gument begotten by the same Spirit in his brain ? And 
when we look at the ascription in ver. 17, which closes 
this interjected paragraph, where shall we, in all litera- 
ture, find the equal of its sublimity.? "Now unto the 



ST. PAULS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 17 

King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be 
honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen." Of these 
and other like passages in these Epistles might be said 
vrith far deeper and truer meaning, what a distinguished 
modern writer says concerning the effect of the writings 
of Thomas a Kempis.* See how what she writes of him 
applies here : " This voice out of the far-off (Middle) 
ages was the direct communication of a human soul's 
belief and experience, and came .... as an unquestioned 
message. I suppose this is the reason why the small 
old-fashioned book .... works miracles to-day, turning 
bitter waters into sweetness, while expensive sermons 
and treatises newly issued leave all things as they were 
before. It was written down by a hand that waited for 
the heart's prompting ; it is the chronicle of a solitary 
hidden anguish, struggle, trust, and triumph, not written 
on velvet cushions to teach endurance to those who are 
treading with bleeding feet on the stones. And so it 
remains to all time a lasting record of human needs and 
human consolations ; the voice of a brother who ages 

ago felt and suffered and renounced, with a fashion 

of speech different from ours, but under the same silent 
far-off heavens, and with the same passionate desires, 
the same strivings, the same failures, the same weari- 
ness" — we may joyfully add, of our Master, the apostle, 
with the same faith as ours, and with the same Lord to 
inspire it. 

There are other such passages, though shorter, to be 
found in i Tim. 2 : 7 ; 2 Tim. i : 1 1, 12 notably, " For I 

* George Eliot ia "The Mill on the Floss." 
25 



1 8 ST. PAUL'S PASTORAL EPLSTLES. 

know whom I have believed," etc. ; 2:9, 10 ; and espe- 
cially 4 : 6-9, which I must read to you before we go off 
on the heresies, as being so full of that joyful faith in the 
midst of all difficulties and dangers that it may well 
teach us to keep a steadfast trust in the face of any 
menace to the faith. Read 2 Tim. 4 : 6-9, 16-19 > ^Iso 
I Tim. 6: 13-16. 

These illustrations of the personal breaks or inter- 
ruptions of the course of the Epistle, show the general 
character of its style. It is not succinct and logically 
coherent, but discursive, now speaking of this, now of 
that ; more in the character of a private letter to a pub- 
Ih: person, than an official document. Our criticism of 
its contents, therefore, must keep this in view, if we are 
to really grasp its import, both in regard to the heresies 
of which it treats, and to the church government which 
it recommends ; for we have here germinant principles 
to guide action, rather than positive edicts and set insti- 
tutions. 

The passages in relation to the heresies touch- 
ing the church, are found in the ist Epistle, chiefly in 
1:4-11; 4:1-9; 6:3-5; and in 2 Tim. 2:14, 16-26 
generally ; 3 : 1-9. And we find in them a special char- 
acter of their own. I said earlier that the form of these 
errors had been urged by some (Schleiermacher and De 
Wette especially) as an argument for a later composition 
of the Epistles than St. Paul's lifetime would allow, be- 
cause of the elements of Gnosticism contained in them, 
a form of error which did not come to its full develop- 
ment before the second century. Now in any of the 



ST. PAUnS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 19 

passages I have indicated, you will find a common fea- 
ture running through this error: it is a false speculation, 
an attention to " endless genealogies which minister 
questions, rather than godly edifying" (1:4); a "giving 
heed to fables and seducing spirits " (4: 7) ; a false asceti- 
cism (4:3); " perverse disputings " (6:5); " strifes about 
words" (2d Epistle 2:14; 16-23); "heady and high- 
minded " persons (3 : 4-7) ; with all which erroneous doc- 
trine was mingled dissoluteness of life. Now in this 
false knowledge and disputings of genealogies, we do 
find Gnostic elements. But it is germinant, not devel- 
oped Gnosticism. These heresies represent a transition 
period from the old Judaizing opponents to the later 
Gnostic opponents of the gospel. The old Judaizing 
party would confine Christianity within the limits of Ju- 
daism. They would keep it chained to the law. The 
later Gnostic heretics would identify it with speculation, 
and merge it in a philosophy, and so would wholly spurn 
and reject the law as an outward institution. In the 
heresies of these Epistles we see a mingling of both ele- 
ments, showing the transition stage from one to the 
other. The traces of Judaism in the heretics of these 
Epistles are numerous : they professed to be teachers of 
the law (i Tim. 1:7); they commanded to abstain from 
meats (4:3); in Titus i : 10 they are designated as being 
of the circumcision, and in i : 14 gave heed to Jewish fa- 
bles and commandments of men ; and were given to 
strivings about the law (3 : 9). But these are not the 
Judaizers of the earlier Epistles, notably of that to the 
Galatians. Those were strong upholders of the law and 



20 ST. PAULS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 

all its requirements ; and would make circumcision es- 
sential as well as faith in Christ. In the Epistle to the 
Colossians there is also an advance. There they have 
added to Jewish tenets such excrescences as " will-wor- 
ship," "neglecting of the body," "voluntary humility," 
"worshipping of angels," "intruding into those things 
which he hath not seen," " puffed up by his fleshly mind," 
" not holding the Head." (Col. 2:18, 19, 21) In Philip- 
pians there is a further advance. In 3 :2 they are called 
"dogs, evil-workers, the concision." And in the nth 
verse of the same chapter we find indications of the same 
heresy, concerning the resurrection's being passed al- 
ready, which is fully developed in 2 Tim. 2:18. Now in 
these Pastoral Epistles there is noted the same progress 
from legality through superstition on to godlessness, only 
in a riper stage. The heretics here have lost all true un- 
derstanding of the law (i Tim. 1:7-19), repudiated a 
good conscience, are hypocrites and liars (4:2), use reli- 
gion as a means of bettering themselves in the world 
(6: 5, and Titus i : n), "overturning the faith" (2 Tim. 
2 : 17), with mind and conscience defiled (Titus i : 15, 16). 
" They profess that they know God, but in works they 
deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and to 
every good work reprobate." 

There are also in these Epistles traces of Gnosticism. 
The endless genealogies may point, as Dean Alford sug- 
gests, to the lists of Gnostic emanations which in their 
full form come later : though I rather incline to refer them 
to the Jewish traditions, which purported to contain the 
mysteries Moses had handed down by tradition, as a tra- 



ST. FAUrS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 21 

ditional law or Kabbala. But plainly in i Tim. 4:3 we 
have the seeds of Gnostic Dualism. The passage is 
prophetic, but the germ of the future was evidently al- 
ready present. In 6 : 20 the phrase rendered " opposi- 
tions of science" has a reference to the Gnostic specu- 
lations. 

But the Gnosticism of these Epistles is not that of 
the second century. That was altogether antijudaistic. 
The Jewish Creator, law, and system, were held in con- 
tempt and abhorrence by it. The whole system stood 
over against the Jewish stand-point. The heretical spec- 
ulations found no root in the permanence of the Mosaic 
economy. It rather despised it as a thing gone by. The 
Oriental and Greek elements which had been fused with 
Judaism completely cast it out. And one great cause of 
this was the obliteration of the Jewish hierarchy and na- 
tional system by the destruction of Jerusalem. The 
logical outcome of the unnatural alliance of positive 
Jewish law and Greek intellectualism and Oriental mys- 
ticism, was thus assisted by the course of outward events. 
But while these events were preparing, the tendency to 
the break was growing, and we reach a very interesting 
period of its growth, in the ripening heresies of these 
Pastoral Epistles. For these exhibit a state of things far 
in advance of the principles of the old Judaizing party, 
and far in the rear of the full-blown Gnosticism of the 
next century. As the progress from the one to the other 
was gradual, the peculiar features of the period marked 
by these Epistles indicate just what we might expect, a 
mingling of legal and speculative elements, which passed 

25* 



22 ST. PAUnS PASTORAL EPISTLES, 

by for ever when, a few years later, the temple was de- 
stroyed, Jerusalem made a heap of stones, the priesthood 
scattered, and religion decentralized. 

I have spoken thus fully of these heresies, not be- 
cause they are in their special form of much practical 
interest to-day, but because they have been used as an 
argument against the genuineness of the Epistles, where- 
as they seem to me to mark out very distinctly the date 
of their composition, and to be, according to Meyer, Al- 
ford, and Van Oosterzee, whose views I follow, a proof 
of their authenticity. But they have not only a specula- 
tive interest. Their special form of error passes, but 
their principle remains. And the method of the apos- 
tle's treatment makes them intensely practical and gives 
a lesson to every age. It is this which must interest and 
edify you as teachers of the truth here taught. If as 
such you rightly grasp its significance, you will not spend 
your time and strength on expositions of ancient Juda- 
ism or speculative systems, but will seize and press home 
the ethical principles which appear in the apostle's treat- 
ment of them, and which are applicable to every age and 
to all error. 

Now if we examine any of these denunciations of 
error, we find the animus of the apostle's objection to 
lie in their practical ungodliness. Against both the 
legal and the speculative spirit the apostle opposes " the 
glorious gospel of the blessed God." He lets us see that 
*'the faith of Christ" is neither a system of legal pre- 
cepts nor a system of intellectual speculation, both of 
which may leave the heart, out of which are the issues of 



ST, PAULS PASTORAL EPISTLES, 23 

life, as barren as before. The gospel is not to be appre- 
hended as a subject of disputation, as a material out of 
which theories are to be spun, as though either perfunc- 
tory behavior or mental comprehension were the result 
aimed at by it. No, it is a source of life. It is that 
heart-trust in God, as revealed in Christ, which must 
hold the faith in a pure conscience, and which cannot 
substitute either ritual acts (bodily exercise) or intellec- 
tual acuteness (oppositions of science) for righteousness 
of conduct flowing from devotion of soul. " Now the end 
of the commandment," he says (i Tim. i : 5), "is charity 
out of a pure heart and of a good conscience, and of faith 
unfeigned ;" i. e., it is faith, not the pretence of faith ; no 
empty thought or fancy, but a spiritual light and a spir- 
ual life. The general character of these false teachers 
was not so much error in doctrine, as leading men away 
from the earnestness of the living, Christian life, to 
useless and vain questionings, ministering only strife. 
Therefore St. Paul opposed the gospel to that. Wheth- 
er in his denunciation of errorists, or his positive exhor- 
tations to Timothy himself, the constant tenor of his 
teaching is, faith and a good conscience : *' Take heed 
unto thyself and to the doctrine." The body of the gos- 
pel truth is righteousness of life, against all false asceti- 
cism on the one hand, as well as lawless sensuality on 
the other. Its soul is that living alliance with the Lord, 
which takes him for the personal love of the heart. The 
gospel faith is, as portrayed in the Epistles, the practical 
alliance of the soul with Christ. Its spring is love, not 
legalism. Its effect is moral obedience, not mental spec- 



24 ST. PAUrS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 

Illation. And this is so because the gospel centres in a 
living person. It is not a product of philosophy ; i. e., of 
man's thought, but of revelation ; i. e., of God's thought. 
And this divine thought became a human fact, and was 
revealed in a human Person, to whom all love can be 
given, and to whom all obedience is due. Or, as it is 
expressed in that cresting phrase of the Epistle to Tim- 
othy : " Without controversy, great is the mystery of 
godliness, who was manifest in the flesh, justified in the 
spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, be- 
lieved on in the world, received up into glory." 

This is one of the celebrated texts of these Epistles, 
and we may as well examine it here, having arrived at it 
in the progress of our thought, before we glance at the 
ecclesiastical portion of the Epistles. 

You will have noticed that I did not quote the pas- 
sage exactly as it stands in our version. The best and 
most orthodox scholars are now agreed, especially since 
the light thrown upon the text by the Sinaitic Manu- 
script, that the word after "mystery" is not i^fof/' God," 
but Of, "who." The rendering with the relative "who" 
does not alter the sense of divineness, which is expressed 
by the substantive, " God ;" indeed, it is so expressive of 
it that the change in the manuscript seems to be the 
natural effort of some commentator to make the mean- 
ing plainer, not to alter it. " There is hardly a passage 
in the New Testament," writes Dean Alford, "in which 
I feel more deep personal thankfulness for the restora- 
tion of the true and wonderful connection of the original 
text." And says Van Oosterzee (who edits these Epis- 



ST, PAULS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 25 

ties in Lange's Commentary), " The reading ' who' is not 
only critically, but exegetically proved to be the best, 
and the view that it is an heretical corruption is quite 
excluded." The ground for these expressions of learned 
commentators is that the sentence is made by the word 
"who" so much clearer in its connection, while undimin- 
ished in its divine meaning. To understand it fully we 
must regard the context. In the verse preceding, St. 
Paul explains the object of his writing to Timothy : 
" That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave 
thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the 
living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (of the 
living God). "And" (the thought seems to run, well 
may I exhort you to behave well in so responsible and 
exalted a place where the truth of the living God is 
guarded), for "great, weighty, glorious, is the mystery of 
godliness" (equivalent to the truth of the living God) : 
and then follows the description of the mystery of godli- 
ness, which is not that it is a mere sentiment, or state- 
ment, or law, but a personal manifestation of God (the 
article is not neuter, agreeing with mystery, but mascu- 
line, and refers to a person) ; not the mystery which was 
manifest, but the mystery of Godliness who was mani- 
fested. This reading brings the passage into exact ac- 
cord with Colossians i : 27, where St. Paul defines the 
mystery of the Gospel as something long hidden, but 
now made known, when he writes, " Even the mystery 
which hath been hidden from ages and from generations, 
but now is made manifest to his saints (to whom God 
would make known what is the riches of the glory of this 



26 ST. PAULS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 

mystery among the Gentiles), which (mystery) is Christ 
in you the hope of glory." Therefore we have announ- 
ced in this text in i Timothy not something which is 
a great mystery, but the great and glorious mystery (of 
Godliness), what it is ; and it is, as I said, not a law, or 
doctrine, or statement, but the manifestion of God in a 
living Person; who was manifested in the flesh. The 
words are descriptive of Christ alone, and we learn from 
them concerning him that he was the mystery of the liv- 
ing God revealed ; and we learn of them concerning our- 
selves that the mystery of piety for us is Christ in us. 
This is precisely the practical truth which the apostle is 
teaching all through his warnings and exhortations. It 
is the rich truth of the Epistle, which we are to aim to 
extract and teach from every portion of it ; namely, the 
religion of Christ, not a precept, not a speculation, but a 
divine fact, in which we are to live, and which is to live 
in us ; or, to follow the style of the apostle, the religion 
of the gospel a divine fact, God manifested in Christ, 
in zvhorn we are to live and who is to live in us. 

Let us turn to look at the ecclesiastical portions of 
these Epistles. These are contained chiefly in the sec- 
ond, third, and fifth chapters of i Timothy and the three 
chapters of the Epistle to Titus. These have been the 
subject of ceaseless controversy, but more generally for 
the facts they are assumed or not assumed to presup- 
pose, than for the directions they evidently contain. The 
difference of opinion is more in regard to the office held 
by Timothy and Titus, than the office of those to whom 
they were sent, or the directions of which they were the 



ST. PAUL'S PASTORAL EPLSTLES, 27 

messengers. As our subject here concerns the Epistles 
themselves and their contents, we may pass by unnoticed 
the controversy concerning the nature of the ecclesiasti- 
cal jurisdiction of the apostolic messengers. We need 
not enter into the question as to whether they were di- 
ocesan bishops or evangelistic missionaries. On these 
points we may hold different opinions. Careful scholars 
on either side would hesitate to say that we could accu- 
rately determine this question from the Epistles them- 
selves without light from other literature ; and it is with 
the Epistles themselves only that we have to do. 

Apart from this vexed question then, it is evident, 
from the Epistles themselves, that Timothy and Titus 
were commissioned by St. Paul, and had the two powers 
of ordination and judicial rule (See i Tim. 5 : 1, 19, 20, 
22 ; Titus 1 : 5), and whatever their rank, all candid 
scholars admit that the terms bishop and elder, episco- 
pos and presbiiteros, are here interchangeably used. 
Presbyter was the earliest Jewish Christian name, nomen 
cetatis ; episcopos the later, taken from political usage 
among the Greeks, nomen officii. The origin of the or- 
der of deacons we know from the Acts. The origin of 
the order of elders is not given. They existed in the 
Ephesian church before these Epistles were written, as 
the elders came down to meet St. Paul at Miletus, when 
he calls them episcopoi. The direct lesson for us con- 
cerning church government which we are to gather out 
of these Epistles, is not the special method of it, but the 
fact that, in the church, government is of Divine institu- 
tion. The church is to be orderly ; and Order is the pa- 



28 ST. PAULS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 

rent of Orders. There is a power to bear rule, and there 
are those set apart to exercise it, and to them reverence 
and obedience are due. The whole tenor of these in- 
structions to Timothy and Titus is a protest against all 
lawlessness in the church. It is to exercise discipline, 
and to exercise it through duly-appointed officers. But 
the discipline has respect to sound doctrine, or whole- 
some doctrine, that which tends to righteousness ; and 
moral fitness is the indispensable characteristic of those 
who exercise it. The fact is, the directions given in 
these Epistles are of an ethical, not of a hierarchical 
kind. They refer to the selection of men whose previous 
lives and relations in society afford good promise that 
they will discharge faithfully the trust committed to 
them, and will work faithfully and successfully in their 
office. 

The lesson of great practical importance to be drawn 
from all these directions is the one of the Divine appoint- 
ment of rule, of the necessity of moral fitness for office, 
and of the responsibility, both of governors and governed, 
for the faithful discharge of their respective duties. 

It is very evident, from these Epistles, that women 
were not mere ciphers in the church, and were not meant 
to be. They are mentioned specially in the 2d and 5th 
chapters of i Timothy. In regard to their teaching in the 
general assembly, it is expressly forbidden (2:12): "I 
suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over 
the man, but to be in silence." Women preachers, what- 
ever else they may be, are not an apostolic institution. 
Some have argued from the different status of woman 



ST. PAUL'S PASTORAL EPISTLES. 29 

to-day, that for her now to ascend the pulpit and preach, 
while it would break the letter, would not transgress the 
spirit of the apostle's injunction, because it is not now 
an unwomanly act. They attribute the necessity of this 
apostolic command to the fact of woman's position in the 
East, and declare it to be of a temporary and an expedi- 
ent character merely. To have preached there and then 
would have brought the charge of immodesty against 
the Christian community ; it would not have comported 
with Eastern notions of propriety, and so had to be dis- 
countenanced. But now, when, through the influence of 
Christianity, woman is accorded a wholly different posi- 
tion, different duties may rightly be demanded of her, 
and different functions permitted to her. 

In opposition to this, I would say that the apostle 
based his argument not on an exceptional condition, but 
on a universal truth ; not on the character of Greek or 
Oriental civilization (and he knew Roman civilization 
and woman's position then), but on the primitive relation 
of the parents of us all. " Adam was first formed, then 
Eve." He views the public act of preaching to a mis- 
cellaneous assemblage, as contradictory of the true posi- 
tion and functions of womanhood. She is not for less 
noble, but for other uses than that. I know that in these 
days of "Woman's Rights," this judgment of St. Paul is 
considered a very narrow one ; and men who agree with 
him are held to be tyrants without his excuse. But not- 
withstanding, I venture to say that in all the results (and 
many have been excellent) of the woman's movement of 
our day, I have never yet seen one advantage arising 

26 



30 ST. PAULS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 

from putting woman into that publicity from which her 
own true nature shrinks. There is no gain, but infinite 
loss to her, in according her any station which destroys 
or blurs the charm of womanhood. Her unique position 
seems to me to be plainly written in her nature, stamped 
by her organization, and illustrated by her special func- 
tions in society ; and I deem that we have the expression 
of the Divine mind for our age, as well as for the age. of 
the apostle, in the words, " I suffer not a woman to teach 
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." 
You will see, of course, that this direction has respect to 
the public functions of the ministry. It has nothing to 
do with unofficial activity, or with the ministry of conso- 
lation ; with woman's meetings for prayer and confer- 
ence — all which are not only allowable, but useful in the 
highest degree. It only accords to woman the glorious 
privilege of being a woman ; and places in her hand a 
potent weapon of defence when any would urge her, on 
the plea of duty, to push beyond the barrier which the 
delicacy of her nature and the most sacred duties of her 
position would set up. It is in fact an affirmation of that 
greatest of woman's rights — the right to be a woman. 

But, as I said, women are not to be ciphers in the 
church. In i Tim., ch. 5, we have an indication of their 
work and power in the church, in the directions concern- 
ing the widows, who evidently were not merely the ben- 
eficiaries of the congregation, but formed part of a corps 
of workers in the church. It would be too much to 
assume, and would doubtless anticipate the future, to 
call them an order of deaconesses, though this opinion 



ST. PAUVS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 31 

has been widely held ; but they undoubtedly held in a 
simple and less-organized form the virtual position, after- 
ward organized into the early order of church deacon- 
esses, and were the original germ from which such an 
order sprung. But here we find no trace of a vow of 
ordination, no semi-clerical office which marked the order 
which Canon XI. of Laodicea formally established. 
Exact distinctions of class and name do not suit the 
character of the primitive age. These women were 
doubtless real widows, not the nominal widows of a later 
age, called so because of their renunciation of the world 
and of domestic life. They were persons who had been 
married (5 : 9), and now, in their advanced age, gave 
their activity to the affairs of the Christian community. 
The character of their work is sketched in ver. 10, as 
also in ver. 5. Benevolence and devotion combined to 
form woman's official occupation. 

It is not so much for the special feature it reveals, as 
for the universal fact it emphasizes, that we prize the 
passage. It gives the seal of the apostle's approbation 
to woman's work in the church of Christ ; and would 
that the strong common sense here manifest could mark 
all attempts to organize and conduct it. How marked 
in contrast do the apostle's precepts stand to the early 
novitiate of many in the conventual orders, who, without 
experience, renounce the world before ever they have 
attempted to accomplish their task in it; where separa- 
tion from domestic life and family ties are made in direct 
contradiction of the apostle's decision, that the young 
women are. to marry, and train their households well, 



32 ST. FAUrS PASTORAL EPISTLES, 

and are only thus to gain the discipline and the matured 
experience which fit them for the position of fellow-work- 
ers in the congregation of the faithful. It is not the 
girlish sentimentality which turns to the imagined poetry 
and mystic seclusion of the cloister as its ideal life, which 
the apostle in these Epistles endorses ; but rather the 
sobered devotion of those who have known life's vicissi- 
tudes, and deepened and strengthened their religious fer- 
vor by an experience of life's discipline. 

Indeed, 'in the treatment of every subject which the 
apostle touches in these letters there is apparent the 
equipoise of the loftiest enthusiasm for the subject, and 
the plainest common sense in its treatment — a balance 
which awakens confidence by both its earthly and its 
heavenly wisdom ; the heavenly wisdom of undying de- 
votion, the earthly wisdom of uncompromising discretion. 
A lesson we may well learn and teach from any portion 
of the Epistles, is the lesson of "zeal according to knowl- 
edge" — the lesson of the love which inspires and the 
wisdom which guides. In fine, there runs through all 
these letters that true practical strain which traces the 
fruit to the root, and develops the root into the fruit of 
the Gospel. The action and reaction of faith and prac- 
tice are everywhere made apparent. Take i Tim. 6 : lo, 
where he declares against covetousness, and writes, " The 
love of money is a root of all evil," and traces as one 
of those evils the loss of faith itself ; " which some hav- 
ing coveted after, have erred from the faith ;" practical 
wrong-doing resulting in mental bewilderment, or as in 
I Tim. 1:19, where, speaking of holding faith and a good 



ST. PAUL'S PASTORAL EPLSTLES. 33 

conscience, he says, which (a good conscience) some hav- 
ing laid aside, "concerning faith have made shipwreck." 
And again in that oft-misquoted passage, 2 Tim. 3 : 16, 
where, while he is not giving the statistical Hmits of 
inspired writing, nor compiling a canon of Scripture, 
but indicating its object and value, he declares, "All in- 
spired or God-given Scripture is profitable for doctrine, 
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
unto all good works." He is here expressly avoiding a 
question of strifes and jangling, a controversy concerning 
^vhat are and what are not Holy Scriptures, and is indi- 
cating the sure touchstone by which they may be discrim- 
inated, even the purpose for which they were given — 
which is not a worship of their letter, but the incorpora- 
tion of their spirit in the life and action of those who 
read them. Judged by such a test, how fully is the 
inspiration of these writings themselves vindicated and 
confirmed. They are addressed to the correction of 
special faults and errors of that far-off time. They are 
written to give order and peace to the Christian commu- 
nity of a far distant age. They record passages of an 
old experience, and are laden with exhortations to a 
youthful minister who lived in circumstances greatly dif- 
ferent from our own. Yet how living they are to us ! 
They let us see that the primitive church was no happy 
family wherein no errors found lodgment, and no brawls 
disturbed the peace, but a church militant like that of 
our own day, with foes of the household as well as of the 
camp. Within were fightings and without were fears. 

26* 



34 ST. PAUrS PASTORAL EPISTLES. 

But they let us know, too, that the true solvent of our 
troubles was the one applied to their own ; which solvent 
is not to be found in a code of rigid laws, a legalism of 
edicts, and bulls, and encyclicals and canons ecclesiasti- 
cal ; not in a speculative philosophy, nor the refinements 
of intellectual dogmatism ; but in Him only who was the 
great Mystery of Godliness, who was manifest in the 
flesh, the Lord himself ; Whom to follow is to war a good 
warfare ; Whom to love is everlasting life. 



THE 



Epistle to the Hebrews. 



BY REV, C. H, FOWLER, D.D.,LL,D., 

NEW YORK. 



THE 

Epistle to the Hebrews, 



The Epistle to the Hebrews brings us face to face 
with the great unsolved problems of existence. It grap- 
ples with them as if confident of victory. Like some 
stalwart knight who, disguised by the very brightness of 
his armor, and riding into the circle of titled champions, 
unannounced and unendorsed, with no title but his cour- 
age, and no passport but his sword, hews for himself a 
path to power, and bears off the fear of foes, the admira- 
tion of strangers, and the confidence of all : so our 
Epistle comes into the field of our convictions, joins 
the goodly company of canonical books, and with no 
apostolic name for authority, and no clear tradition for 
defenoe, it shines with the fulness of apostolic inspi* 
ration, and by the power of its marvellous revealments 
demonstrates both its supernatural origin and its divine 
authority. 

It comes out of the apostolic age with apostolic in- 
spiration, but with no certain apostolic name. It made 
its way late into the canon, coming in by the way of the 



4 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

Eastern church, and so slowly gaining the recognition of 
the Western church. But its internal structure and vi- 
tality, its spirit and power, have dissipated all doubts 
about its right to recognition, and have secured for it the 
highest encomiums from modern scholarship. It rises to 
the highest themes of possible revelation, yet it handles 
them in the most human and natural way. Now and 
then it ventures upon interpretations of older Scriptures 
with a freedom justified only by inspiration. Yet it re- 
lies upon the Old Testament Scriptures for its argu- 
ments, and seeks not so much to make a new revelation, 
as to unfold the germs of the old. While the Roman 
Epistle of the great Paul presents the theology, the doc- 
trine and divinity of the New Testament, and is essen- 
tial to a comprehension of the Gospels, this Epistle of 
the " Great Unknown " unfolds the spirit of the Old Tes- 
tament and the relations existing between the Old Tes- 
tament and the New. Some have called it an epistle, 
some an essay, some a treatise on theology ; but if we 
were to name it we would call it The Gospel of the 
Old Testament unfolded by the light of the New. 
It presents the priest, rather than the victim, and fa- 
miliarizes the reader more with heavenly things than 
with the Cross. Elsewhere in the New Testament Jesus 
is regarded chiefly as a King ; here he is seen chiefly as 
a Priest. While the evangelists dealt with the incarnated 
Christ, and Paul constantly defended his apostolic char- 
acter as one who had seen the Lord, yet in treating of 
Jesus as King they were occupied with an invisible king- 
dom, and were thus necessarily led to handle principles. 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 5 

In our Epistle the author toils and builds about the 
priesthood of Jesus, which, being in his church, had a 
visible embodiment ; and maturing through the Old Tes- 
tament rites and ritual, was constantly handled by visible 
signs. Its necessary environments therefore made it 
both ponderable and tangible. Thus this Epistle comes 
nearer to our capacities than any other part of the New 
Testament, except the Gospels themselves, which in their 
chief character took on our form, had an experience, and 
became like unto us. The rest of the New Testament 
exhibits the Son of God as heir to the eternal throne ; 
this Epistle as High Priest in the eternal sanctuary. 
The evangelists exhibit the law not as destroyed, but as 
fulfilled by the Son of God ; Paul exhibits the law as a 
wandering schoolmaster leading the worshipper to Christ ; 
this Epistle exhibits the law as administered by the 
Great High Priest. The evangelists, by the tragedy of 
Calvary, give us the breadth of human wickedness and 
want; Paul, by the faith that overleaps the middle wall 
of partition, gives us a glance at the breadth of Divine 
love ; this Epistle, by exhibiting the web, woven from 
the garden of Eden to the most holy place in the heav- 
ens, shows us a little of the breadth of that wonderful 
revelation by which Infinite Wisdom is seeking the edu- 
cation and salvation of the race. 

It is impossible to read this Epistle carefully and not 
be impressed with that " unfolding in time of the eternal 
purpose of redeeming love," which can best be grasped 
and comprehended as \^^ growth of revelation. We get 
a hurried glance at the "divers manners" in which God 



6 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, 

has revealed his truth, and then we are led into the mys- 
tery of our spiritual instruction. Revelation is a germ 
in the hand of our first parent in Eden, and as we watch 
it it soon waves like the cedars of Lebanon. It was a 
dim promise of a Deliverer, a statement that somewhere, 
somehow, some time, the bruised and bruising heel would 
appear, so dim that a murderer was mistaken for this 
Deliverer. When Earth's first mother, in the bewilder- 
ment of bearing her first son, cried out, " I have gotten 

a man the Lord," this dim promise was added to 

and built upon till holy fire, blazing on the altars of the 
patriarchs, illumined the darkness of nature ; till a pre- 
scribed and ratified covenant secured a chosen people 
and visible covenant ; till a tabernacle with a Holy of 
Holies contained the shining presence of God ; till a tem- 
ple, made after the pattern seen in the Mount, gave per- 
manence to both ritual and service ; till prophets dis- 
closed the offering of the Great Sacrifice ; till in the ful- 
ness of time Christ came and his Spirit was poured out 
upon all flesh. This Epistle, more than any other part 
of the Bible, gives us the unity and completeness of all 
this revealment. As we read, the ages roll together, hu- 
manity is condensed into one family, and the Divine rev- 
elations are reduced to one lesson given and perfected by 
God's Son. Yonder it is but a bubbling spring, hardly 
able to lift a single shining grain of sand into the light ; 
so small that the foot of the passing ox might trample it 
out, or the thirst of a single sunbeam might drink it dry. 
Soon it overflows its narrow brim, trickles down the 
hillside, crawls under the willows, vivifies and fructifies 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 7 

its green way through the meadow, pushes across states 
and territories, and sweeps on over wide zones, bearing 
on its broad bosom the commerce and navies of man- 
kind. Yonder the "father of the faithful" pays tithes to 
a Gentile priest ; next the washed and robed priests min- 
ister for the chosen people. Finally the Great High 
Priest enters within the veil and offers the one full and 
sufficient sacrifice once for all, and sits down on the right 
hand of the Majesty on high. This great Epistle to the 
Hebrews, so complete and so profound, so comprehen- 
sive and so minute, shows us Jesus as the author of the 
first covenant and the finisher of the second, leading Is- 
rael out of the land of bondage and delivering mankind 
from the bonds of iniquity. 

At first thought it seems strange that so great an 
epistle should be left without an evident author. But 
then it soon occurs that so great a Book, so deeply wo- 
ven into the religious history of two thousand years, so 
closely in league with events, does not need the bolster- 
ing of any particular apostolic name to insure its author- 
ity. It is enough that it is vitalized with the spirit of 
inspiration and radiant with the light of the eternal 
world ; enough that, building us up upon fifteen cen- 
turies of sacrifices and types, it gives us first the shad- 
ow in these types, then the express image in the in- 
carnated High Priest, and lastly a glimpse at the sub- 
stance, the reality that awaits the believer in the world 
to come. 

While we cannot go into a detailed argument show- 
ing why modern scholars are looking elsewhere than to 

27 



S THE EFISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

St. Paul for the author of this Epistle, we do not feel at 
liberty to pass this over in silence. We must at least 
give an opinion based upon an examination of the evi- 
dence in the case. We are compelled to abandon the 
theory of a Pauline authorship, partly because it treats 
its subjects so differently from Paul's treatment in other 
epistles. Paul always begins with man's need, and rea- 
sons out to the supply in Christ. Hebrews begins with 
Christ's exalted character, and leads down to man's need. 
Paul emphasizes the victim ; Hebrews the priest. Paul 
gazes on the cross ; Hebrews into the heavenly places. 
The argument deduced from the style of the Greek used 
is of great weight. Paul is rugged ; Hebrews melodious. 
Paul is angular; Hebrews flows. like oil. Paul is limi- 
tedly provincial ; Hebrews is classical. More decisive 
than these peculiarities of language and style, which are 
far greater than the demands of the varying subjects and 
circumstances, must be regarded the statement in chap. 
2 : 3, which classes the author as one who never saw the 
Lord, "which at the first began to be spoken by the 
Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard 
him," while Paul always defended his apostleship by the 
fact that he too had seen the Lord. 

It is of sufficient value to justify the introduction 
here of the fact that Bleek, according to Dr. Mall, has 
shown that the citations in Hebrews from the Old Tes- 
tament are all from the LXX, and follow the variations 
of the Alexandrian Codex, whih Paul, in citing the LXX, 
always follows the Vatican Codex. 

This fact is introduced not simply because it is very 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 9 

nearly determinative of the non-Pauline authorship of 
this Epistle, but also because it furnishes a good example 
of the care with which every syllable and letter of this 
sacred Book has been examined. This opens the door 
and gives us a glance into the furnace in which these 
sacred oracles are tested. Surely if the form of the 
Fourth was not with them, we should not have them to- 
day without even the smell of fire upon them. While all 
things are being proved or tested, let us hold fast that 
which is good. 

The theory first made prominent by Martin Luther 
that Apollos was the author of this Epistle is now gen- 
eraljy; accepted. He was a man " with great power to 
convince the Jews from the Old Testament Scriptures 
that Jesus was the Christ," and a man whom some of the 
Greek Christians preferred to Paul on account of his elo- 
quence. Though this theory is without support from 
Scripture or tradition, yet it is gaining ground. The 
canonical character of the Epistle is not affected in the 
least by this probable authorship. The Epistle remains 
a Gospel fivm the Old Testament. 

This exalted character of this Epistle is sustained by 
the fulness with which it discovers the meaning of the 
old types. The march of knowledge is always from 
the known to the unknown. This involves figures, com- 
parisons, illustrations, and types. These types were 
ordained to foreshadow the truths that waited by the 
thousand years for capacity in the race for their recep- 
tion. Take this ninth chapter, and with it walk back into 
the old temple service on the great day of atonement, 



lo THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

and how much of Divine truth blazes from those old 
forms and ceremonies ! While we bow on the pavement 
with the great congregation, waiting for the annual en- 
trance into the Holy of Holies of the high priest, our 
representative, and holding this ninth chapter in our 
hands, how our faith is strengthened in these rites when 
we read concerning these types, " The Holy Ghost this 
signifying, that the way into the Holiest was not yet 
made manifest." Surely this gives a divine light to all 
these ceremonies. We are surrounded with Gospel ideas. 
The great sacrifice is made on our behalf. Pardon, the 
remission of our sins, is vicariously reached. An essen- 
tial Calvary rises before our eyes, a shadowy cross stretch- 
es out its arms for our embrace. We are surrounded with 
the supernatural revealments of a supernatural salvation. 
Prophecy is in the place of history. True, the glass is 
reversed, and the image of the good things is very small, 
but it is an image. The reality is taken by faith in each 
case — faith in the divine word as to what is to be, as 
in the divine word as to what has been. This Epistle 
opens all the ages back to Abel. It marches through all 
the centuries with the unquenchable torch of its holy 
fire, and kindles the flames on every altar, in every dark 
valley and on every mountain side. It transforms every 
bleeding victim and offering priest and blazing altar into 
footlights about Mount Calvary. It quickens into life, 
as with the inspiration of the Almighty, the vast body of 
Old Testament ritual and service. It unlocks the bosom 
of every Hebrew worshipper, and exposes to open gaze 
the secret faith that elevated him above the low plane of 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. ii 

corrupting idolatry, and exalted him into personal com- 
munion with the living God. This Epistle collects and 
exhibits the Gospel of the Old Testament Dispensa- 
tion. 

The analysis of the Epistle is not difficult. The only 
chance for mistake is in attempting to dissect it with a 
knife, instead of analyzing it in a retort. It must not go 
into the dissecting-room, but into the laboratory. It can 
be measured, not by a yard-stick, but by a spirit test. 
Taken as a living orgajiism, with a certain design, it will 
not be difficult to determine the function of each part. 

It was probably written to the Jews dwelling in Jeru- 
salem, and who were just breaking up their old habit of 
attendance upon the services of the temple, and who were 
thus peculiarly exposed to the peril of relapsing into Juda- 
ism. It seems to have been written by some Jew, like 
Apollos, trained and perfected in Alexandrian Greek, and 
familiar with the temple service as ordered by Moses, 
rather than the actual service as conducted in Jerusalem. 
From this standpoint the Epistle must be 'considered, 
not as an argument and exhortation, like some sermons, 
in which the argument serves as a stock on which to swing 
round the exhortation as a lash, but as a living organism 
created for certain uses, in which the different parts are 
not only fitted into each other, but grow out of and into 
each other. The doctrine or argument of the Epistle is 
more like a skeleton than a stalk, and the exhortations, 
for they are many and frequent, grow upon and are 
attached to the bones from end to end. 

The aim of the Epistle is to prevent apostasy orrelap- 
27* 



12 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

shig into yitdaisin. The argument is centred about this 
idea. The design of the old service is therefore present- 
ed, and its relations to the perfected system of Christian- 
ity pointed out. The superiority of Christianity is ar- 
gued, and applications and exhortations are frequently 
interjected. 

TJie spinal CO htmn of tJie argument is the exalted High 
Priesthood of ycsus. The high priest is the central 
figure in every sacrificial system, He is a necessity cre- 
ated by the guilt that demands or resorts to sacrifice. 
The worshipper is guilty, and therefore consciously un- 
worthy. Some one must represent him and offer his 
gifts, and make peace for him. Thus the central claim 
urged is the exalted Priesthood of Jesus. 

The law was given in consideration of a Priesthood 
to administer its rights and services, and as a trainer or 
schoolmaster, to be temporary. Thus it is said, "The 
priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a 
change also of the law." (Heb. 7:12.) 

The Priesthood of Jesus is expressly declared to be 
the central thought concerning him. The eighth chap- 
ter, after the great argument, showing the exaltation of 
Jesus, from many considerations, and well on toward the 
end of the argument, opens with these words, " Now of 
the things which we have spoken this is the sum. We 
have such a high priest, who is set on the right hand of 
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens ; a minister of 
the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord 
pitched and not man." 

While Romans deals with law and the sacrifice and 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 13 

faith, Hebrews emphasizes the Priesthood. There were 
good reasons why this part of Christ's character and 
work could not have been presented earlier in the history 
of the infant church. The Jews were looking for a Mes- 
siah, with kingly qualities, suited to their temporal needs. 
That was one open door through which Jesus might enter 
their hearts. Then \S\€\x patriotism would have prevent- 
ed their comprehending his Priesthood. Thus in Acts 
we see how they stone Stephen, charging him with speak- 
ing against the temple, and saying that Jesus would 
change the customs of Moses. So they sought to kill 
Paul in the temple for alleged teaching against the tem- 
ple and bringing Greeks into it. At the probable date 
of this Epistle, about 64, the breach between the Jews as 
a nation and Christians was complete. The Christians 
were no longer allowed to come into the temple. The 
national hatred was as intense and bloodthirsty as it 
could be, so that the presentation of the Priesthood of 
Jesus could not prejudice their case any more. The ful- 
ness of time for this doctrine had come. 

The argimieiit sustaining the exalted Priesthood of 
Jesus opens with the opening of the Epistle. Jesus is set 
forth as the Son of God, having the same nature, being 
his express image, making the worlds, upholding all 
things, and receiving the worship of aHgels. The argu- 
ment is most wonderful. Complete and determinative in 
its character, it is also majestic and mighty in its move- 
ment. " Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever ; a scep- 
tre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou, 
Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the 



14 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands. They 
shall perish, but thou remainest ; and they all shall wax 
old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold 
them up ; and they shall be changed ; but thou art the 
same, and thy years shall not fail." (Heb. i :8-i2.) 

This is accompanied with his elevation above all 
angels and all things. 

In the second chapter our author pauses to show how 
the incarnation and suffering of Jesus prepared Him for 
his work of ''bringing many sons unto glory," and ex- 
horts obedience to him. In the third chapter Jesus is 
exalted above Moses, as the maker of a house is greater 
than a servant in the house. His claim and supremacy 
are urged on account of his sinlessness and his ante- 
mundane glory. 

The most of the third and all the fourth chapters are 
intense exhortations to faithfulness, and encouragements 
to come unto the great High Priest, who, having been 
tempted, and having suffered, is touched with the feeling 
of our infirmities. 

Having established the divinity and sympathy of 
Jesus, our Epistle proceeds to show the exaltation of his 
Priesthood over all other priesthoods. 

Having shown the exaltation of Jesus above Moses, it 
is easy to show his exaltation above Aaron, whom Moses 
constituted a priest. This is done by going back to the 
priesthood of Melchizedec, who was greater even than 
Abraham, in whose loins Levi and all the Levitical priests 
paid tithes to Melchizedec. This man's priesthood, after 
which Christ's was typed, was greater than Aaron's, 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 15 

because it was not for one people, but for all peoples, and 
was without end, and not temporary. 

The Priesthood of Jesus was also confirmed by an 
' oath, and was made surety of a better covenant. The 
Levitical priests were continually changing, while this 
man had an unchangeable priesthood. 

The failure of the old system to perfect the worship- 
pers is not charged upon any sins of the priests, but upon 
the system itself. The Priesthood of Jesus purges or 
cleanses its subjects, and has this supreme dignity. 
The Epistle runs on from the beginning, showing the 
divinity of Jesus, and how he is greater than Moses, and 
has a Priesthood that swallows up the Aaronic priest- 
hood, and is applied to the whole race, like the priest- 
hood of Melchizedec, till it reaches the eighth chapter, 
sixth verse, when we are told, " But now hath he ob- 
tained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he 
is the Mediator of a better covenant." Here our author 
swings out into another line of thought, and identifies 
Jesus with the Jehovah of the Old Testament, who made 
the old covenant when he took Israel by the hand and 
led her out of Egypt. The various sides of the work of 
Jesus in Redemption are brought before the mind. The 
victim and the priest are united, so the work of atoning 
and of administering the atonement are presented as 
? embodied in Jesus. This better covenant is offered as a 
part of the dignity of our Great High Priest, 

Jesus is brought before us as on the great day of 
atonement. The parallel between the old typical work 
in which the high priest offered sacrifices for himself, and 



1 6 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

for the temple and for all its appointments, and then for 
the sins of the people, is carefully traced. Jesus as High 
Priest offers himself once for all ; and having thus com- 
pleted and perfected the system of Old Testament wor- 
ship and types, he sits down on the right hand of the 
Majesty on High to await the results of his sacrifice as 
they shall appear in the salvation of a lost race. 

TJte great doctrine of blood atonement, " without the 
shedding of blood there is no remission," is affirmed, 
illustrated, and sanctified. It receives the infinite empha- 
sis of the death of the Son of God. However much 
modern skepticism may be offended at the blood atone- 
ment, yet this Epistle reaches back through the centuries, 
lifts the high priest and his victim, the blood of sprinkling 
and the blood of cleansing, out of every shade of heathen- 
ism, and by the death, resurrection, ascension, and inter- 
cession of Jesus, gives us a way of approach even into 
the presence of God. We are enabled to come boldly to 
the mercy-seat and obtain grace for our needs. Here we 
are brought face to face with the great doctrine of the 
Bible — the offering of a life for sin that forfeits life — that 
was first illustrated by the acceptable sacrifice of Abel, 
and was taught by every sacrificial offering that stained 
an altar or cheered the church from Abel to Jesus. The 
flames that flickered heavenward century after century, 
burned on night and day through the ages, consuming 
the victims and types of the passing system, kindled at 
last upon the victim slain from the foundation of the 
world. They consumed his humanity, but when they 
came to his divinity they went out never again to be re- 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 17 

kindled. An argument divinely constructed, and drawn 
out through fifteen centuries of supernatural attestations, 
and crowned with the awful tragedy of Calvary and the 
amazing miracles of the resurrection and ascension, can- 
not be answered by the dulness or blindness or scoffing 
of a few doubters. Conscious of our sins we know that 
the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, that 
Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness to them 
that believe, that we have an Advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for 
our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the 
whole world. Take the doctrines of atonement, as em- 
bodied in this Epistle, out of the Bible, and the book 
would not hold together. All the light of Old Testa- 
ment ages that was borrowed from the coming Sun of 
Righteousness would be extinguished, leaving all those 
generations in hopelessness. Whatever there is about 
the tragedy of Mount Calvary that has gone forth 
among the idolatrous and heathen nations, quenching 
their false fires and destroying their idols, is centred in 
the atonement as explained by this Epistle. Other sac- 
rifices cease because Jesus has suffered once for all. 
In him is all fulness. " Having, therefore, brethren, 
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of 
faith." 

The lessons of this Epistle are too numerous to be 
catalogued in much less space than that occupied by the 
Epistle itself. It is a great mass of world-embracing 
truths filled in with constantly-recurring exhortations. 



i8 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

Adult babes, persons who are men in years and babes in 
wisdom and strength, are set on thinking about their 
responsibilities. While the great doctrine of salvation 
by faith is not slighted or shadowed, there comes out the 
counterpart of this vital truth, that while we are saved by 
faithy we are rewarded according to our zvoi'ks. Entering 
heaven with a common password, the name of Jesus, and 
cleansed in a common fountain, the blood of Jesus, we 
pass up to our places in the presence of the King on the 
works of righteousness we have wrought in his name, 
assured in this Epistle that " God is not unrighteous to 
forget our work and labor of love." 

Passing over in silence many great truths, such as 
the power of faith — to which much space is given — let us 
briefly glance at some that seem to be incorporated in 
the very groundwork of this marvellous Epistle. 

In this long and yet condensed summary of all God's 
revealments through all past history, only two possible 
ivays of treating sin for its correction and cure are even 
so much as hinted at. These are by law for its conviction 
and condemnation, and by the Gospel for pardon and 
cleansing. It never dawns upon, one of the sacred writers 
that it can be treated in any other way than as the mor- 
tal tormentor of man and enemy of God. It never con- 
ceals its deformity under any cloak of ignorance. Mere 
knowledge is never prescribed as an antidote for this 
disease. It is never thought of as a mere trial necessary 
for the acquisition of character, and so a blessing that 
ought to be disseminated throughout the universe, for 
the spreading of which angels ought to be sent out as 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 19 

missionaries of sin to all worlds for the purpose of inspi- 
ring and arousing rebellion against God. Sin never re- 
ceives such treatment anywhere in the Book of God. It 
is here exhibited in its horrid deformity. It stands on 
the earth a monster with its haughty head among the 
eternities. Beneath its feet is the dying race, in its 
bloody hands is the dying Christ, and in its aching heart 
is the undying worm. It has broken into the universe 
and carries woe wherever it goes. It desolates every 
world it touches with sword and fagot. It runs up the 
black flag of treason against God's government. It tor- 
tures and torments his children. It threatens the safety 
of his court. With sin loose anywhere in the universe 
there is no peace for his palace, no security for his king- 
dom, no comfort for his children, and no allegiance for 
his subjects. Sin is the one enemy of God's government 
whose capture and destruction tax the energies of his 
empire. It is the one thing that God hates. The shore- 
less ocean of his being flows like an everlasting tide of 
fire and wrath against sin. He seeks by all possible 
means to corral and capture it. But in its treatment he 
is estopped from every policy of approval, compromise, 
or allegiance, by his own eternal righteousness, which 
cannot look upon sin with the least degree of approval ; 
estopped from the use of his omnipotence by the very 
conditions of his moral government ; estopped from in- 
termitting his remedial efforts by the infinite love that 
set him on the work of creating. In all the agony of 
his soul, which extorted from his bosom his only-begot- 
ton Son, he has never found out any other way of cor^ 

23 



20 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

reeling and euring sin than by the chastenings of the 
law to reveal the fact of lostness and awaken the sense of 
want ; and then by the magnetism of the cross to draw 
men up to himself. Surely in the presence of these facts 
there is infinite value in the blood of reconciliation, even 
the blood of Jesus, and in his prevailing advocacy of every 
case that commits itself to his care. God offers but one 
escape from sin, and that is set forth in this Epistle as 
by the blood of Jesus. We have in him a sin-offering 
and an advocate, let us therefore come with boldness 
and obtain mercy. 

The great purpose of the Epistle is to warn the He- 
brew Christians of the danger of apostasy. Words of 
exhortation are constantly wedged into the argument of 
the Epistle. Thus, after the brilliant and marvellous pres- 
entation of the exalted character of Jesus made in the 
first chapter we are told, " Therefore we ought to give 
the more earnest heed to the things which we have 
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip" (2 : i). 
Again, we read, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in 
any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from 
the living God" (3:12). Every few verses our author 
breaks out, " Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being 
left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem 
to come short of it " (4 : i). And " Let us labor there- 
fore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the 
same example of unbelief "(4:11). We are exhorted not 
to lay again the foundation of repentance from dead 
works, on account of the impossibility of renewing again 
unto repentance any who may thus fall away (6:1-10). 



THE EPISTLE TO 2 HE HEBREWS. 21 

The Epistle abounds in most fearful warnings against 
apostasy, such as, ** If we sin wilfully after that we have 
received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no 
more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for 
of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the 
adversary" (10:26, 2^). It is warning enough that in 
this great argument for fidelity and obedience, 1 13 verses 
out of 416, a little more than one fourth of the entire 
Epistle, is given to practical exhortations in application 
of the truths. Surely we could hardly be more power- 
fully urged to vigilance and faithfulness. 

We cannot close this hurried and brief sketch of this 
Epistle without returning to the great thought of the 
Book, the Priesthood of Christ. 

Exactly what we need on account of our sin and guilt 
we find in Jesus. Our littleness is supported by his 
vastness, our want by his fulness ; our guilt is met by his 
grace, our fear by his intercession. All we do or can 
need we find in him. It has pleased the Father that 
all the fulness of the Godhead should dwell in Him bod- 
ily. He has entered into our disabilities, he took not on 
him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed 
of Abraham ; wherefore in all things it behooved him to be 
made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful 
and faithful high priest, "for in that he himself hath 
suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that 
are tempted," (2 : 16-18). 

We know in this city how even the slight and shift- 
ing distinctions of society separate men from each other. 
There is a great world of ignorance and crime that boils 



22 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

and surges under society that we never touch. We pass 
them on the street, we are offended at their coarseness 
and crime, we cringe when we look at their nakedness 
and bruises, we soon come to think that they are accus- 
tomed to their ills and diseases and gnawing hunger and 
pressing want. We watch them picking coal out of the 
ashes we have cast out, and picking food from the gar- 
bage-carts, and we say to ourselves, ** They find consider- 
able comfort in finding a sohd piece of coal, or in stum- 
bling upon half a biscuit." It is true they do. But we 
overlook the fathomless sorrow and want that can make 
such refuse fortune a comfort to them. We do not live 
in the same world with them. We are in no condition 
to sympathize with them. Even the temporary order of 
society so separates men that their sympathies seldom 
touch each other. 

Your neighbor is rich, you are poor. How widely 
you are separated. He cannot find wants enough ; you 
know not how to want things. He struggles to put the 
most sixpences into a given space ; you struggle to put 
one sixpence into the most places. He never makes a 
garment do half duty ; you always make it do double 
duty. He rides ; you walk. He has many friends ; 
you toil on in solitude. He has skilful physicians ; 
you suffer on without relief. There is little or nothing 
in common between you. 

All these distinctions and disabilities Jesus sees, and 
avoids, and enters into our actual condition, and by his 
poverty puts his strong soul up against our little souls 
and throbs into us some of his own almightiness, '' For 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 25 

we have not a High priest which cannot be touched 
with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points 
tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (4 : 15). 

Our High priest comes to us under double types and 
with a double nature. He comes to us through the 
Aaronic priesthood as a man, "who can have compas- 
sion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the 
way, for that He himself also is compassed with infirmi- 
ty" (5:2). He is typified unto us through the priest- 
hood of Melchizedec as an Eternal Prince. "Thou art a 
priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec." Thus he 
is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God 
by him. All gentleness and all power. 

It is not possible to fathom the infinite mystery of 
the suffering of Jesus. We can tell as little about it 
as we can about any suffering. There is a ministry of 
pain that seems to have an exalted place in the divine 
economy. Characters are led out of selfishness up into 
sainthood by the burning hands of pain. Mortals, 
crushed by great sorrows, discover their rarest fragrance. 
It seems quite safe to affirm that suffering is the only path 
up to perfection. Every soul on the soil of probation, 
whether it be the soul of a mortal or the soul of a Re- 
deemer, can pass up to perfection only by this weary way 
of suffering, " For it became Him, for whom are all 
things and by whom are all things, in bringing many 
sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation 
perfect through sufferings. For both He that sanctifieth 
and they who are sanctified are all of one" (2 : 10, 11). 

The mystery of the suffering by which Jesus was 

23* 



2 4 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

perfected for his office is hardly open to human specula- 
tion. We can only behold and adore. I have sometimes 
fancied that this suffering was the only way in which it is 
possible to demonstrate love. This proves to us the 
love of Jesus. In his broken-hearted sobs that went 
out from Calvary there went an argument for God's love 
for man than can never be excelled or doubted. I have 
also thought as I have gazed upon some helpless inno- 
cent babe writhing in the death agony, that possibly this 
suffering, so dark to the loving parent here, might over 
yonder furnish the alphabet with which in the eternal 
ages to spell out the boundless love and meaning of Cal- 
vary. This much we do know that God perfects his 
Son by suffering. Though he were a Son, yet learned 
he obedience by the things which he suffered. "And 
the servant is not above his Master, nor the disciple 
above his Lord." 

It is enough for us to approach the suffering Jesus 
without seeking to fathom its mystery. Enough that he 
is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto 
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession 
for them. For such a High priest became us who is 
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and 
made higher than the heavens (7 : 25, 26). Enough 
that he has entered within the veil with his glorified 
humanity, and standing there in the presence of the 
Father presents us in his person. Enough that, as our 
advocate and representative, he presents our atonement 
and hears our prayers, which we know not how to offer 
as we ought, but which Jesus vitalizes with his blood 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 25 

and presents unto the Father in such a way as to make 
them prevail. 

" Erect at the outtermost gates 
Of the city celestial He waits, 

With his feet on the ladder of light, 
That crowded with angels unnumbered, 
By Jacob was seen as he slumbered 

Alone in the desert at night. 

" The angels of Wind and of Fire 
Chant only one hymn and expire. 

With the song's irresistible stress — 
Expire in their rapture and wonder, 
As harpstrings are broken asunder 

By music they throb to express. 

" But serene in the rapturous throng, 
Unmoved by the rush of the song, 

With eyes unimpassioned and slow, 
Among the dead angels, but deathless. 
The Saviour stands listening breathless, 

To sounds that ascend from below; 

" From spirits on earth that adore, 
From the souls that entreat and implore 

In the fervor and passion of prayer; 
From the hearts that are broken with losses 
And weary with dragging the crosses 

Too heavy for mortals to bear. 

"And He gathers the prayers as He stands, 
And they change into flowers in his hands, 

Into garlands of purple and red, 
And beneath the great arch of the portal, 
Through the streets of the city immortal, 

Is wafted the fragrance they shed." 



THE 



Epistles of Peter 



£V REV. HERRICK JOHNSON, D. D,, 

AUBURN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 



THE 



EPISTLES OF PETER. 



We must know Peter, if we would know his two 
Epistles. The record of his life is brief. Let us look at 
it as we find it before the ascension, and after it. 

PETER BEFORE THE ASCENSION. 
Simon and his brother Andrew were two plain fish- 
ermen, who plied their calling on the Galilean sea. 
They were born at Bethsaida (John i : 44), on its western 
coast. They afterwards removed to Capernaum, where 
Peter lived with a wife, and in his own house. (Luke 
4 : 38.) Andrew became a disciple of John the Baptist, 
But when John pointed to Jesus, and said, " Behold the 
Lamb of God," Andrew left the Baptist and followed 
Jesus. Soon afterward, he sought his brother Simon, 
and said to him, " We have found the Messias ;" and he 
brought him to Jesus. (John i :4i, 42.) At this first 
interview with Jesus, Simon received his new name, 
Cephas (Aramaean), or Peter (Greek), i. e., a rock, a stone, 
prophetic of what grace would make of his ardent and 
energetic nature. Subsequently to this interview, the 
brothers still pursued their occupation as fishermen, not 



4 THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 

permanently attaching themselves to Jesus until called 
to be his apostles. Then they "left all," and followed 
him. (Matt. 4 : 18-22 ; Mark i : 16-20 ; Luke 5 : i-i i.) 
After the twelve apostles were chosen and ordained 
(Mark 3 : 14-19), Peter took foremost place among them 
in speech and action. He is named first in each of the 
four catalogues of the Apostolic College. (Matt. 10:2; 
Mark 3:16; Luke 6 : 14 ; Acts 1:13.) He was oftenest 
the spokesman of the twelve. He was frequently ad- 
dressed as their representative. He, with James and 
John, was admitted to special intimacies with his Lord, 
as at the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5 : 1'j), 
at the transfiguration (Matt. 17 : i), at the hour of Christ's 
agony in Gethsemane (Matt. 26 : 37). It was Peter who 
saw the miraculous draught of fishes, and straightway 
" fell down " at Jesus' knees, saying, " Depart from me, for 
I am a sinful man, O Lord." (Luke 5 : 8.) It was Peter 
who walked on the water to Jesus. It was Peter who, in 
answer to the Master's question to the twelve, " Will ye 
also go away .?" replied, " Lord, to whom shall we go t 
thou hast the words of eternal life. We believe and are 
sure that thou art the Holy One of God." (John 6 : 6%y 
69, Sinaitic and Vatican MSS.) And it was Peter again 
who answered Christ's question, '*Whom say ye that I 
am V by the glorious confession, " Thou art the Christ, 
the Son of the living God." (Matt. 16:16.) For this the 
Master said, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona ; for 
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my 
Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, 
that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my 



--y 



THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 5 

church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against 
it." Yet this same Peter had the high presumption to 
take his Master aside and rebuke him for predicting his 
sufferings and death, calling forth from Jesus, in stern 
censure of his presumptuous interference, " Get thee be- 
hind me, Satan : thou art an offence unto me." (Matt. 
16 : 22, 23.) It was to Peter, sinking in the sea, that 
Christ said, "O thou of little faith." And to Peter, 
sleeping in the hour of his Master's agony, that the Mas- 
ter said, "Simon, sleepest thouf (Mark 14:37.) Pe- 
ter would die with his Master before he would deny Him, 
yet in less than a day he is denying Him with oaths and 
blasphemy. And yet again, one look from his grieved Lord 
breaks this apostle's heart, and he stands without the 
palace, leaning against the wall, his great frame shaken 
with weeping. He who will not break the bruised reed, 
by the same sea where Peter was first called to his apos- 
tleship, affixes the seal anew to his heavenly commission, 
and reinstates Peter in his apostolic office by the thrice- 
repeated question, " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou 
me ?" and the thrice-repeated charge to feed the flock ; 
and thus the record of Peter's life before the ascension is 
ended. 

" The weakness and the strength of our human love 
for Christ," says Alford, " are both mercifully provided 
for in this apostle's character." " He is very remarkable 
among the apostles," says Leighton, " both for his graces 
and his failings " — " a singular instance of human frailty 
on the one side and of the sweetness of divine grace on 
the other." Certainly no other apostle in the gospel nar- 

29 



6 THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 

rative so fixes upon himself the eye and the thought of 
the reader. He is oftenest at the front in speech and 
deed. He is a bundle of seeming contradictions. He 
gets from his Lord on the very same day most royal 
commendation and most severe reproof. We hear him 
saying, "Thou shalt never wash my feet ;" and the words 
scarcely die on the air before they are followed by, " Lord, 
not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." All 
readers find themselves drawn to this eager, impulsive, 
generous, energetic soul. The strange inconsistencies, 
the contradictory moods, the heights and depths, the 
unquestionable strength, and the as unquestionable weak- 
ness of this apostle's heart, are the counterpart and par- 
tial explanation of what is true of multitudes of other 
hearts. And when he reappears in the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, he is followed with a strange, intense interest. We 
are justifiably cujious to know what is to be made of this 
intensely human disciple under the dispensation of the 
Spirit. We naturally ask whether this fiery temperament, 
finding expression in such rash speech, this generous, 
impulsive outspokenness taking on at times almost the 
tone of bold bravado, this eager earnestness swinging so 
often back to wayward weakness, as if here were the very 
child of vacillation — whether these are to get pruning 
and stay and blended proportion, and to be purified and 
glorified by the power of the Holy Ghost. 

PETER AFTER THE ASCENSION. 
Well, the record of apostolic doing after the ascension 
tells us. There we find, at the very first anointing from 
heaven, the impetuous ardor still, but backed now by 



THE EPISTLES OE PETER. 7 

granitelike firmness ; the old bold, outspokenness still, but 
sustained now by a courage that fears nothing but God. 
Simon, son of Jonas, has indeed become Cephas — a rock. 
He who cowered before a barmaid, faces the murderers 
of his Lord, and charges their guilt home. And not even 
Paul, a man of far greater genius and culture — not even 
He who spake as never man spake, ever used so effective 
speech. Never in all human history were multitudes 
wielded after such a fashion as the two crowds that gath- 
ered before Peter, the one in an open square near the 
temple, on hearing the sound as of a rushing mighty 
wind, and the other in Solomon's Porch, on hearing of 
the healing of the lame man at the gate Beautiful. 

Besides these two recorded occasions of public and 
courageous speech in behalf of Christ as the Messiah, we 
find Peter twice before the Jewish court (Acts 4: 5-13 ; 
5 : 27-32), displaying there also the courage of his con- 
victions and fidelity to his Lord. He next appears in the 
record as sent by the apostles into Samaria. (Acts 8 : 14.) 
Subsequently he travels through Judea, performing mir- 
acles and preaching Jesus at Lydda and Joppa (Acts 
9 : 32-43), and is directed by God in vision to open the 
door of the church to the Gentile Cornelius. (Acts 10.) 
He next vindicates before the brethren at Jerusalem this 
reception of an uncircumcised heathen. Soon after, 
being imprisoned by Herod, he is miraculously delivered, 
and leaves the city. (Acts 12:17.) Later, he is again 
at Jerusalem, in the council of apostles and elders, called 
to consider the question raised at Antioch with reference 
to circumcision. His voice is pronounced in favor oi 



8 THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 

liberty, and against putting a yoke on the neck of Gentile 
disciples. (Acts 15.) At this point Peter drops en- 
tirely out of view in the sacred history. He does not 
have even another mention in the record of the Acts of 
the Apostles. Paul in one of his letters (Gal. i : 11) re- 
fers to him as being subsequently at Antioch, where he 
refused to eat with Gentile Christians. Peter here was 
guilty of undeniable dissimulation. He knew better. It 

/i^tf ' ^'^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ speech at Jerusalem, and a 
triumph of his old vacillating, cowardly nature ; for the 

„,c 'v /,,i record is, he was in fear of " them which were of the cir- 
cumcision," so that Paul "withstood him to the face, be- 
cause he was to be blamed." 

This is the last item of Peter's life on the pages of the 
New Testament, until we come to the two Epistles that 
bear his name. Was Peter their author ? Our review 
of his life should help us to an answer to this question. 

WAS THIS PETER THE AUTHOR OF THE EPISTLES 
THAT BEAR HIS NAME? 

Look, first, at the probabilities. Wishes are not argu- 
ments, I know. Likelihoods are not demonstrations. 
But the weight of probability arising from Peter's posi- 
tion and character in favor of Petrine authorship is some- 
thing very considerable, and decisive of the question 
^ except in the face of direct proof to the contrary. 

Take, first, Peter's pre-eminence among the apostles, 
both before and after Christ's death. It was personal, 
and not, as the Romish church claims, official. It was a 
primacy of order, not oi pozvcr. But it was a real leader- 



THE EPISTLES OE PETER. 9 

ship, and because of his energy and enthusiasm and im- 
pulsive ardor and promptness and decision. It was 
recognized by Christ. The only apostles who approach- 
ed him in personal power and favor with the Master 
were James and John and Paul. James fell so soon a 
martyr that he could leave the church little save the tes- 
timony and seal of his blood. But John's legacy to the 
church is a Gospel, three Epistles, and the Book of Revela- 
tion. Paul crowds the inspired record with his splendid 
and weighty Epistles. Now is it at all probable that 
Peter, the greatest of the twelve, singled out by his Mas- 
ter, and charged with special and royal commissions, of 
whom the gospel narrative warrants us to expect so much, 
should so early and so utterly drop out of sight, with no 
bequest to the church whatever from his inspiration, 
save the three or four speeches of his to the unbelieving 
Jews, recorded in the Acts } Would it not be a marvel- 
lously strange thing if he were left in this silence } And 
is not the presence of his Epistles in the Canon justified 
by a very natural and very confident expectation t 

Take again the way ift which the record of his life 
closes. The very last item is Paul's account of Peter's 
recreancy to his own convictions at Antioch. He plays 
the coward there. His old waywardness gets the better 
of him, and many — Barnabas among them — are carried 
away with his dissimulation. Now is Peter's record on 
the page of inspiration to end in such a cloud as this } 
The rocklike firmness that he has shown since his Mas- 
ter's ascension seems to be gone. Satan is sifting him 
again. Is Satan to have him ? Where is the proof 

29* 



lo THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 

that this wayward apostle continued faithful ? How do 
we knoiv that Peter grew to be perfectly representative of 
his Christ-given name, if we do not know anything more 
of him after this weakness and cowardice at Antioch ? 
If these epistles are the Epistles of Peter, the case is 
clear. 

Once more : take the solemn words of Christ, just after 
the Last Supper, " Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to 
have you that he may sift you as wheat : but I have prayed 
for thee that thy faith fail not. And zvhen thou art con- 
verted strengthen the brethrenr Where is the proof that 
Peter gave heed to' this solemn and peculiar charge .^ 
Not in his sermons to the Jews, nor in his addresses before 
the Sanhedrim, scarcely at all in the entire record of his 
life in the Acts. But these two Epistles are all aglow with 
the spirit of consolation, and are by eminence the stay 
and comfort and strength of believers. There is nothing 
left us to prove that Peter felt it to be peculiarly his of- 
fice to " strengthen the brethren " and thus obey his 
Lord, if these Epistles are not his. In the absence of 
direct proof, therefore, the probabilities are strong in 
favor of these Epistles as the genuine work of the apostle 
Peter. 

Let us next consider the external evidence. It is 
unquestionably conclusive with reference to the first 
Epistle. It was unanimously received by the primi- 
tive church. It is found in the ancient Syriac version of 
the New Testament, called the Peschito, a product at 
the latest, of the second century, and a translation from 
the Greek into the very language spoken by many of the 



THE EPISTLES OF PETER, n 

primitive churches. It is quoted repeatedly by the Fa- 
thers from Polycarp of the first century onward. Express 
testimony in favor of its genuineness is found in writers 
of the second and third centuries. With scarcely even 
an insignificant exception the testimony of antiquity is 
one way. Indeed Olshausen affirms that "Among all 
the writers of Christian antiquity there is not one who 
doubted the genuineness of the Epistle, or had even 
heard of any doubts concerning it." 

The external testimony to the second^ Epistle is 
by no means so abundant. Not until the fourth century 
is it recognized without dispute as belonging to the sa- 
cred canon. There it appears in all the catalogues of 
the Fathers and church councils. In the third century 
its genuineness was doubted. There are certain referen- 
ces to it as in existence in the second century, but noth- 
ing whatever of a positive nature as to its canonical 
character. It must be admitted that the historical evi- 
dence for Second Peter's place in the inspired books of 
the New Testament is not as full and satisfactory as 
could be wished. While, however, the authority is not 
proved by external evidence, it is not disproved. 

The silence of the earliest Fathers may be accounted 
for in that only the merest fragments of their writings have 
been handed down to us, and thus it might easily come 
to pass that in these fragments no citation would appear 
from so short a book as Second Peter. 

Moreover it was written just before Peter's death 
(2 Pet. I : 14), and so his continued living presence could 
not give the same authority to this as to the first Epistle. 



12 THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 

It was not specifically addressed, and so came under the 
guardianship of no particular church. It was received 
in a time of persecution. Mutual communications were 
interrupted and difficult. This, combined with the great 
hesitancy with which the churches of one section accept- 
ed from the churches of another section any new wri- 
ting as canonical, would account for the original obscuri- 
ty of Second Peter, and for its gradual admission into the 
catalogues of sacred books until its final, definitive and 
universal acceptance as inspired and genuine. 

The hiternal evidence of the genuineness of these 
Epistles demands brief consideration. 

As to the first Epistle, there has been little question 
worth the mentioning. An examination of particular 
words and phrases is here out of the question. But the 
tone and feeling of the Epistle are strikingly characteris- 
tic of Peter. The diction is similar to that of the speech- 
es at Pentecost and in Solomon's Porch. There is a 
ruggedness of language that befits the rocklike man. 
The style is marked by force and fire rather than ease and 
elegance. Yet the force and fire are so far chastened and 
subdued, that all the old brusqueness and self-assertion 
of this apostle's nature are gone. The warnings and con- 
solations are given by one whose fiery temperament has 
known the fellowship of his Lord's sufferings, and real- 
ized the sufficiency and the joy of his upholding grace. 
Surely it is Peter, in memory of his boastful confidence, 
who says, " Be ready always to give an answer to every 
man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, 
with meekness and fear'' Surely, it is Peter, with his 



THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 13 

Lord's forgiving love still fresh in his heart, who says, 
" Charity shall cover the multitude of sins." And surely 
it is Peter in vivid remembrance of his own terrible sift- 
ing by Satan, who says, " Be sober, be vigilant ; because 
your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about 
seeking whom he may devour." VViesinger is unques- 
tionably right in saying, as quoted by Alford, " If we had 
not known from whom the Epistle comes, we must have 
said, 'It must be a rock of the church who thus writes ; 
a man whose own soul rests on the living Rock, and 
who here with the strength of his testimony takes in 
hand to secure the souls of others, and against the haras- 
sing storm of present tribulation to ground them on the 
true Rock of ages.' " 

The internal evidence concerning the second Epistle 
has been held by some to be against its genuineness. 
A full and minute discussion of the points is here impos- 
sible. 

The chief objections are 

1. The diversity of style in the two Epistles. But 
this is not so marked as not to be accounted for by the 
diversity of condition in the persons addressed, by the 
different mood of the writer, and by the difference of 
time in which he wrote. 

2. In ch. 1:18, the Mountain of Ti'ansfiguration is 
called " the Holy Monntl' betrayijig, it is held, a later age 
than the apostles, as no such title is given it by a7ty evan- 
gelist. But what more natural than that Peter, pro- 
foundly impressed with the ineffable glory of that moun- 
tain vision, should speak of the place as the Holy Mount. 



14 THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 

3. All of PaiiVs writings are referred to and classed 
with " the other Scriptures ,' or sacred writings (ch. 3:16), 
as if a full collection of Paul's Epistles were already 
made, and the canon of the New Testament already- 
settled. But these words may clearly refer only to such 
of Paul's writings as Peter knew, and they imply no 
more than that "there were certain writings by Chris- 
tian teachers which were reckoned as on a level with 
the Old Testament Scriptures, and called by the same 
name."* 

The chief internal evidence in favor of the genuineness 
of the Second Epistle may be briefly stated as follows : 

I., It is worthy of an apostle. It is authoritative in 
language. It is conformed to the analogy of faith. 
There is in it not only no error of fact or of doctrine, 
but sublime instructions, novel and significant, in escha- 
tology ; and all its counsels and warnings have been 
eminently conducive to truth and godliness. 

2. It is superior every way to the writings of the 
age subsequent to the apostles. In power, vivacity, in- 
tensity and wealth of thought, it is immeasurably in 
advance of anything that succeeded it in post-apostolic 
times. It is separated from the earliest and best of all 
other writings of the second century by a difference so 
marked as to be recognized but utterly unaccounted for 
by the opponents of its authenticity. 

3. If Peter did not write this Second Epistle, it is a bold, 
shameless, deliberate forgery: for the writer affirms in the 
first verse that he is " Simon Peter, a servant and an apos- 

* Alford. 



THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 15 

tie of Jesus Christ." He further claims to have been with 
Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration (ch. i : 17, 18), 
and to have been the author of the First Epistle, which 
bears Peter's name. But this compels the most un- 
natural conclusions — conclusions impossible of rational 
belief. 

Here is a writer who impresses all readers with his 
moral earnestness, who passionately loves truth, and 
seeks above all things to establish his readers in the 
truth (ch. 1:12), who claims personal revelations from 
Jesus Christ (ver. 14), who warns against false teachers 
coming with "feigned words," and declares that "their 
damnation slumbereth not" (ch. 2:1-3), who urges his 
hearers, as himself about to die (ch. 1:14), to be found 
without spot and blameless in the coming of the day of 
God (ch. 13 : 12-14) ; ^^^d yet he is a hypocrite, clothed 
with fraud, guilty even of blasphemy against the Holy 
Ghost in claiming to have been the author of the First 
Epistle of Peter ! Well has it been said, " If Peter is 
really the author of this Epistle, everything is in glorious 
harmony : if he is not, we have before us an insoluble 
psychological riddle." Even the German Bleek, who denies 
that this Epistle is the work of Peter, and who admits 
the author's adoption of " disguise " and " counterfeit," 
is yet forced, in senseless and suicidal contradiction, to 
avow that "the Epistle itself throughout teaches us to 
regard the writer as a man of earnest moral sense — a 
man whose spirit and principles were thoroughly in 
accord with those of the apostolic writings, and presented 
nothing unchristian or heretical." Is it possible for this 



i6 THE EPISTLES OF PETER, 

to be true ? An odious impostor, coining falsehood on 
falsehood, blasphemously assuming to speak as he is 
moved by the Holy Ghost, yet " a man of earnest moral 
sense," whose "spirit" presented "nothing unchristian!" 
Surely this is a moral impossibility. Can horses run on 
the rocks ? Shall one plough there with oxen ? Has 
Christ such concord with Belial ? 

TO WHOM WERE THE EPISTLES ADDRESSED? 

The first Epistle opens with a salutation "to the 
strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappa- 
docia,.Asia, and Bithynia." That the Second Epistle was 
sent to essentially the same readers is clear from i Pet. 
3 : 1, where the author says, " This second Epistle, be- 
loved, I now write unto you." 

The provinces named in 1st Peter were all of Asia 
Minor. At the northwest was Pontus, dwellers in which 
were at Jerusalem when Peter preached his Pentecostal 
sermon. (Acts 2 : 9.) Pontus was the native home of 
Aquila. Galatia was next westward, visited by Paul in 
his second and third missionary journeys. (Acts 16:6; 
18:23.) Cappadocia was south of Pontus and Galatia, 
also represented in Peter's great audience at Pentecost. 
(Acts 2 : 9.) Asia was still westward, embracing several 
minor provinces, as Phrygia, Mysia, Pisidia, etc., the 
scenes of Paul's abundant labors in places like Antioch, 
Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Ephesus, Troas: containing 
also the cities of Philadelphia and Sardis and Pergamos 
and Colosse and Smyrna and Thyatira. The last prov- 
ince named in Peter's salutation, was BitJiyniay lying 



THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 17 

north of Asia, and into which Paul assayed to go on his 
second missionary journey, but the Spirit suffered him 
not. (Acts 16:7.) 

But who were "the strangers," scattered throughout 
these provinces, to whom Peter sent his letter? His 
words of salutation literally are, " To the elect strangers 
or sojourners of the dispersion of Pontus," etc. Dispersion 
is beyond doubt a technical term, whose proper appli- 
cation is to the Jews dispersed in other countries than 
their native Palestine. On this ground, and because 
Peter's was the apostleship of the circumcision, it is held 
by some that Peter addressed Jewish Christians only. 
But the reference in ch. 4 : 3 to their once having walked 
in "abominable idolatries" is conclusive as against this 
limitation. This and other passages (as 1:14; 2:10) 
make it clear that Peter had Gentile Christians in view. 
Moreover the Christians of these provinces,, as we learn 
from the record in the Acts, were composed mainly of 
Gentile converts. Nor is it at all likely that Peter would 
address one part of the believers in these provinces and 
ignore the other. His ministry was not exclusively to 
the Jews (Acts 10) any more than was Paul's exclusively 
to the Gentiles. 

It is scarcely to be doubted that both Jewish and 
Gentile Christians were "the strangers" of the salutation. 
They were strangers in the same sense as in chap. 2:11, 
where the very same word is used by the apostle when 
he beseeches them, as strangers and pilgrims, to abstain 
from lusts. Thus they were together the people of God's 

covenant^ the Gentiles being grafted by faith into the fam- 
30 



i8 THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 

ily of Abraham, a chosen generation, called out of dark- 
ness into his marvellous light. 

These " strangers " were not an unorganized, disin- 
tegrated body of believers, broken up and widely scat- 
tered as individuals throughout these provinces, as one 
might infer from the salutation. They were formed into 
churches, with regularly-ordained elders, as is evident 
from Peter's charge to the elders (i Pet. 5 : 1-5), and 
from the record of Paul's having ordained elders in every 
church in some of these parts (Acts 14:23). 

These churches had never enjoyed the personal 
labors of Peter, nor heard the gospel from his lips. He 
makes no allusion, drops no hint in either Epistle imply- 
ing personal acquaintance. On the contrary, when he 
refers to those who had preached the gospel unto them, 
he seems designedly to exclude himself, (i Pet. 1:12.) 

WHERE AND WHEN WERE THESE EPISTLES 
WRITTEN.? 

The first Epistle was written at Babylon, as Peter 
sends to his readers the salutations of the church there 
(ch. 5:13). There is no good reason to doubt that this was 
the renowned city of Babylon on the Euphrates. There 
were certainly Jews there at this period, as profane his- 
tory tells us. And Peter's presence in that city would 
indicate that the apostle of the circumcision had been 
eastward seeking his scattered countrymen, and preach- 
ing to them the true kingdom of God. 

The time of writing the first Epistle was about A. D. 
61. Several considerations determine this date. 



6S" 



THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 19 

There is no proof in the Epistle that the terrible 
persecutions under Nero had commenced, and we know 
these dated from A. d. 64. But the Epistle furnishes 
abundant evidence of the actual foreshadowing of some 
coming storm, as if that Neronian outbreak of bloody 
violence were near at hand. Moreover, the personal ref- 
erences to Sylvanus and Marcus, and the evident traces 
in the Epistle of Peter's familiarity with Paul's letters, 
even those of the first imprisonment at Rome, point to 
the year 63 as that in which Peter's first Epistle was 
probably written. 

His second Epistle could not have been written much 
later, not more than four or five years. The reference to 
the first Epistle (ch. 3 : i), "This second Epistle, beloved, 
I now write unto you, in which (two epistles) I stir up 
your pure minds by way of remembrance," shows that the 
two could not have been very far apart. If the tradition 
be accepted, and there is nothing to balance the testi- 
mony of Christian antiquity in its favor, that Peter suf- 
fered martyrdom at Rome at or near the time of Paul's 
martyrdom, then his death occurred about a. d. 6^ or 6%. 
This second Epistle could not have been written long 
before, and Peter may have written it either while on his 
way to Rome, or just after reaching the imperial city. 
But the time and place are alike conjectural. 

THE OBJECT AND CONTENTS OF THESE EPISTLES. 

The one supreme, comprehensive object of these Epis- 
tles is that which had been made by Christ in peculiarly 
sacred circumstances, Peter's special office. ^' Simon, 



20 THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 

Simon," said the Master on the memorable night of the 
supper and the betrayal (Luke 22 13 1-34), "thou art to 
know the terribleness of Satan's assaults ; thy temptation 
and trial and fall are to be grievous and bitter ; but I have 
prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. And when thou 
art tried in the fire and dost come forth vi^ith a purified, 
self-renouncing, and conquering faith, strengthen the breth- 
ren.'' And to "strengthen the brethren" is the para- 
mount, all-controlling aim of these two precious portions 
of the Word of God. It is not a little remarkable that 
the very word {crnpi^tj) with which the Holy Ghost records 
the charge to Peter is again and again used by the apos- 
tle in these Epistles to stay the hearts of his readers. 
He writes, " The God of all grace stablish {aTvpi^ei) you." 
(i Pet. 5 : 10.) He writes again, "Though ye be estab- 
lished (hTTjpiyfiivov^) in the present truth, I will not be neg- 
ligent to put you always in remembrance, so as to estab- 
lish you the more." (2 Pet. 1:12.) And still again, the 
very last word of warning he ever gave them, his dying 
appeal, " Beware, beloved, lest, being led away by the 
error of the wicked, ye fall from your own steadfastness'' 
[oTvpiyfiov). (2 Pet. 3:17.) This is one of those internal 
and undesigned evidences of the genuineness of these 
Epistles with which so many books of the New Testa- 
ment abound. Who but Peter, sifted of Satan because 
'of his self-confidence, thinking himself a rock when he 
proved a bank of sand, would thus thrice have used this 
very word } 

But it is not simply by this word that the object ap- 
pears. It breaks out everywhere in the two letters, from 



THE EPISTLES OF PETER, 21 

the opening reference to the trial of the faith of his read- 
ers that would be found unto praise and glory and honor 
at the appearing of Jesus Christ, to the very last appeal, 
to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and 
Saviour. The Epistles are not doctrinal, though doctrine 
is in them ; they are full of the strong meat of the Word, 
the choice manna of the Son of God. They are not a 
profound unfolding of a logical system of divine truth. 
His readers had been already grounded in Christian doc- 
trine by Paul and his companions. Peter therefore aims 
not so much at instruction as confirmation. His Epistles 
are exJiibitive rather than demonstrative ; and exhibitive 
of those grand and inspiring truths that have been the 
stay .and the joy of believers in all circumstances of trial. 
They merit for themselves this distinctive title. The 
Epistles of consolation, and they win for their author this, 
The Apostle of hope. 

But while the one great object of Peter is "to strength- 
en the brethren," each Epistle has a distinctive aim, by 
reason of the differing condition of his readers at the 
time of his writing. 

When Peter wrote his first Epistle, the Christians 
scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, etc., were deprived 
of the personal labors of Paul. Paul's great missionary 
journeys in these parts were ended. He had been a 
prisoner at Cesarea and Rome. Possibly he was now 
liberated and on some distant tour westward. We know 
from his Epistle to the Galatians that Judaizing teachers 
were among these churches, troubling the Gentile Chris- 
tians by teaching that circumcision was necessary to sal- 



23 THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 

vation, and entangling them with the yoke of bondage to 
the flesh. (Gal. 3:1; 5:1; 6:12.) Moreover, they were 
in manifold trials of afflictions by reason of the heathen. 
The bloody persecutions of Nero had not yet actually 
broken forth. There is no proof in the Epistle that they 
were haled before judges or violently put to death. But 
their faith was sorely tried, even as " with fire ;" they 
were "evil spoken of," "falsely accused," "reproached for 
the name of Christ," " buffeted " for doing well, and railed 
at for not indulging in their former "lusts and revel- 
lings and abominable idolatries" (1:7; 2:12; 3:1 6- 18; 
4 : 14). It is clear also from the Epistle that there were 
intimations of far severer trials (4 : 12), of a terrible judg- 
ment to come (4: 17), as if Peter heard already the roar 
of the lion so soon to go forth threatening to devour the 
faithful (5 : 8). 

See now how he meets this twofold necessity of 
strengthening these brethren. To antidote the poison 
of the errorists, he assures his readers that the doctrine 
that had been preached unto them by Paul and his co- 
laborers is the unchangeable word of the Lord that endu- 
reth for ever. As the apostle of circumcision and the 
chief of the twelve first chosen by the Lord, he ratifies the 
preaching of the apostle of the Gentiles, and magnani- 
mously endorses him in the very point in respect to which 
Paul had once withstood him to his face. He comforts 
and strengthens the disturbed brethren by stamping with 
falsehood these Judaizing teachers, saying to his readers, 
" The word of the Lord endureth for ever," etc. " This 
is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you " 



THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 23 

(i : 25). And again, " This is the true grace of God where- 
in ye stand" (5 : 12). 

But the apostle looks beyond these Judaizing troub- 
lers of the churches. Heresy is not yet so rife among 
his readers as to constitute their chief trial and danger. 
Their sorest strait is the perils they are in from the hea- 
then. Suspicions, calumnies, reproaches, are heaped 
upon them. Their situation is critical and hazardous. 
Everywhere they are maligned and maltreated. There 
are signs of impending storm and disaster. The air is 
thick with evil omens to these infant flocks. And all the 
fervor and warmth of Peter's nature are poured out in 
furnishing these buffeted and storm-tossed believers in 
Jesus a strong ground of consolation. The Epistle, 
therefore, while assuring them, as against the errorists, 
that they stand in the true grace of God, exhibits that 
grace in its peculiarly stimulating and inspiring aspects, 
to stay and cheer their hearts in their fiery trials. It 
abounds in the most affectionate warnings and the most 
soul-comforting promises. Especially is it full of the 
sufferings, the exaltation, the power, and the coming of 
Christ. 

Mark the proof of this. 

CHAPTER I. 

Faith is given anchorge in the very opening sentence 
of the salutation, " Chosen according to the foreknowl- 
edge of God." Then the apostle proceeds : 

" Ye are begotten to a living hope of an eternal inher- 
itance, and kept by the power of God. Herein ye greatly 



24 THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 

rejoice, even in tribulation, as it is thus made sure that 
the end of your faith, though tried in the fire, will be sal- 
vation, and salvation so great that prophets talked of it 
and angels desired to look into it. Hope^ therefore, to 
the end ; be obedient and holy, remembering the precious 
blood that redeemed you, and in the fellowship of this 
ransom love one another, as alike born by the enduring 

word of God. 

CHAPTER II. 

" Feed on this same word by which ye were born, that 
ye may grow thereby, and be ye built up on Christ, the 
precious cornerstone, who will be to believers an honor, 
but to unbelievers ruin. 

" Be of pure conversation among the heathen, obedi- 
ent to authorities, subject to masters, even when suffer- 
ing wrongfully, for Christ so suffered. 

CHAPTER III. 
"Wives, win your unbelieving husbands by subjec- 
tion, chaste conversation, and the ornament of a meek 
and quiet spirit. Husbands, yield honor to the wife. 
Be ye all loving, courteous, guileless, and of good con- 
science, so as to shame and silence false accusers. See 
to it, at all events, that if you suffer, it be for well-doing, 
as your Lord suffered. 

CHAPTER IV. 

" Forasmuch, then, as Christ suffered, arm yourselves 

with his mind; be of patient endurance and dead to sin, 

for there is to be a judgment both of the living and the 

dead. Discharge your social duties, use your gifts, and 



THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 25 

in participation in sufferings as Christians rejoice, for the 
spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you, and when 
Christ's glory shall be revealed, ye will be glad with ex- 
ceeding joy. 

CHAPTER V. 

" Elders, feed the flock, and do not lord it over God's 
heritage. Ye younger, submit to the elder. And all 
of you be clothed with humility; cast care on God, 
who careth for you ; resist the devil ; and the God of all 
grace, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you per- 
fect. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. 
Amen." And surely peace, like a river, must have 
flowed through the troubled souls of saints in Pontus and 
Galatia and Cappadocia as they went sounding the depths 
of this Epistle. All its wealth of consolation was spe- 
cially fitted to strengthen the brethren in their sufferings 
and fiery trials. 

But when Peter wrote his second Epistle, destructive 
forms of error were gravely threatening the churches. 
The danger was from within rather than from without, 
and had already grown formidable. Just exactly what 
these fatal heresies were it may be impossible to desig- 
nate. They were doubtless beginnings of what after- 
wards developed into destructive heretical systems. They 
were the roots of antinomian gnosticism, " the great moral 
ferment of the first fatal apostasy." These errorists de- 
nied that Christians were under the restraints of law, 
turned the liberty of the sons of God into license and 
lust, and crowded out the Lord Christ, denying his re- 



26 THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 

demption, raising angels to the rank of creators, and revi- 
ling Satan only to be led captive at his Mrill, and to perish 
at last and utterly in their own corruption. 

See now how, in his second Epistle, Peter meets this 
necessity of strengthening the brethren. 

CHAPTER I. 

His salutation is, " Grace and peace be multiplied to 
you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord',' 
striking here at the very outset the keynote of the whole 
Epistle ; for heresy can only be antidoted and its pestilent 
evils stayed, and hearts made proof against it, by a true 
knowledge of God and of Christ. 

Then the apostle proceeds : 

"Ye are given exceeding great and precious promises, 
that by these ye may be made partakers of the divine 
nature. Be diligent, therefore, in the cultivation of the 
gospel's rich cluster of Christian graces, that by fruitful- 
ness in the knowledge of Jesus ye may secure an abun- 
bant entrance into his everlasting kingdom. I put you 
in mind of these things, as myself about to die. You 
have not been fed on cunningly-devised fables, in what 
you have been taught of the power and coming of Christ, 
for we were eyewitnesses of his majesty in the holy 
mount, and the prophets do testify of it also, speaking 
by the Holy Ghost. 

CHAPTER II. 
"But as there were false prophets among them, so 
there will be false teachers among you, bringing in dam- 
nable heresies, and denying the Lord that bought them. 



THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 27 

With feigned words they will make merchandise of your 
souls. But their damnation slumbereth not. For God, 
who dealt with the sinning angels, and the old world and 
Sodom and Gomorrah, will deal with these adulterous 
walkers after the flesh, who, in their shameless apostasy, 
sport in their own deceivings, and speak great swelling 
words of vanity. And when he does deal with them, 
their last state will be worse than the first, and it had 
been better for them not to have known the way of 
righteousness. 

CHAPTER III. 

"This second Epistle I write to remind and assure 
you it is the unchangeable truth of God which you pos- 
sess, spoken before by the prophets, and now by your* 
apostles. Beware, therefore of the scoffers, walking after 
their own lusts, and flouting at the coming of Christ ; 
for as the world once perished with water, so it shall per- 
ish with fire, and suddenly too, as a thief in the night. 
Therefore be holy and watchful, looking for and hasting 
unto the coming of the day of God, which shall lead to 
new heavens and a new earth of righteousness. Know- 
ing these things, take heed, beloved, lest ye also be led 
away with the error of the wicked, but grow in grace and 
in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." 

Surely now, if Peter's first Epistle is specially adapt- 
ed to strengthen the brethren in view of trials from with- 
out, this second Epistle is equally adapted to fortify them 
against the seductive assaults of heresy and fatal apostasy 

* According to the Alexandrian, Sinaitic, and Vatican MSS. 



28 THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 

from within. The one Epistle is the complement of the 
other, and each fits to the present and pressing need of 
the sorely-bestead saints to whom it is addressed. In the 
first Epistle, it is by holding up the sufferings of Christ 
that he would take the sting out of the fiery trials of God's 
suffering saints. To this thought he turns again and 
again ; and with what tenderness and pathos he reasons : 
** Because Christ also suffered for us" (2:21); "for Christ 
also hath once suffered'' (3 : 18). "As Christ hath suf- 
fered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same 
mind" (4:1). "Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers 
of Christ's sufferings'' (4: 13). In the second Epistle it 
is the Lord in majesty and power who is revealed, for it 
is the lordship of Jesus that best serves to strengthen 
human faith in the truth, and to warn against apostasy. 
So in the first Epistle the names with which Peter names 
the Master are Christ and yesus Christ. In the second 
they are " oiir Lord and Saviour!' In the first Epistle, 
however, the look is not simply backward to Christ's suf- 
ferings ; it is forward also to when his glory shall be re- 
vealed (i : 7 ; 4 : 13). But it is the coming of Christ in the 
first Epistle, and for comfort, that Christians may h^glad 
with exceediftg joy (1:7; 4:13; 5:4). In the second 
Epistle it is the coming of the Lord, and linked with 
suddenness and destru,ction, for warfiing as well. Again, 
in the first Epistle, hope is the joyous and electric word 
ringing down through it as an antidote to sorrow : Be- 
gotten unto a living hope (i : 3). ''Hope to the end for 
the grace that is to be brought you " (i ; 13). " That your 
faith and hope might be in God" (1:21). "Be ready 



THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 29 

always to give a reason of the hope that is in you " (3 : 15). 
In the second Epistle knowledge is the strong word that 
gets repetition and emphasis, as an antidote to ''false 
teachers " and ''feigned words!' " Grace and peace be to 
you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus" (i : 2). 
" That ye be not unfruitful in the knoivledge of our Lord 
Jesus " (i : 8). *' I will not be negligent to put you always 
in remembrance of these things, though ye know them " 
(i : 12). "After they have escaped the pollutions of the 
world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour " 
{2 : 20). " Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (3 : 18). 

Blessed Epistles of consolation these. Who could 
have written them but the tempted, tried, sifted, tempest- 
tossed, impulsive, ardent, wayward Peter, the sufferings 
and infinite patience and forgiveness of whose Lord at 
last transformed this apostle into a rock of firmness, no 
longer resting on a human will but on the Rock of Ages. 
"When thou shalt be old/' his Master had said (John 
21:18) — "When thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch 
forth thy hands and another shall gird thee, and carry 
thee whither thou wouldst not." And the beloved disci- 
ple afterwards added, " This spake he signifying by what 
death he should glorify God." And standing within the 
shadow of that predicted crucifixion, knowing that very 
soon he must put off his earthly tabernacle, chastened, 
subdued, enriched by grace, Peter penned these letters. 
Ever since, the aching head has found a softer pillow 
with Peter's first Epistle underneath. The smitten and 
bereaved have gone down into some new sepulchre 

31 



30 THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 

that God has made in their heart's garden, and taking 
this Epistle with them and reading it there, the sepulchre 
has come to be the dearest spot in the garden. This 
word of consolation has led many a weeping saint out of 
the Valley of Baca upon the heights of the Delectable 
mountains. Faces with all the hope washed out have 
looked into this glass of the Word, and brightened like fires 
new stirred, as they beheld the glory of their Lord. It 
has put rifts in clouds and let light through. It has lifted 
sorrows off; or taken the sting out of them. It has 
changed cowards like Peter before the ascension into 
heroes like Peter after it. 

And surely the second Epistle has also had its special, 
distinctive and most precious uses. Many a waverer 
and doubter has here gotten better anchorage in the 
truth. In times when defection has spread in the church, 
when it has seemed as if the very foundations of God's 
temple of truth were being broken up, timid believers have 
grown calm and fearless, as they have caught the confi- 
dence of this ringing word of Peter. They have turned 
to this second Epistle and have grown sure as they read 
it, of the ultimate and utter overthrow of those by whom 
the way of truth is evil spoken of. "They have believed 
in their inmost souls that the church is built upon the 
rock and that the gates of hell shall never prevail against 
her. Here they have learned that one day is with the 
Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, 
that God has therefore a great while to do things in, that 
he does not measure years or altitudes as men measure 
them. And if, by the hope flashing out in the first 



THE EPISTLES OF PETER. 31 

Epistle, thick darkness has been dispelled from many 
a believer's sky, by the knowledge enjoined in the sec- 
ond Epistle better anchorage has been secured in the 
cleft of the Rock for God's storm-swept hosts. They 
are both full of the rich fruits of Peter's experience. No 
other apostle could have copied just such things out of 
his heart. Men have mocked Peter's memory since 
with stately piles of architecture wherein they have 
crowded out Jesus by Jesus' mother. Here is Peter's 
true building work, full, not of Mary, but of Jesus. Men 
have named Peter's successors vicegerents of God. But 
Peter's true successors are those who heed his dying in- 
junction and grow in grace and in the knowledge and 
love of Peter's Lord. Men have put Peter's so-called 
power of the keys to infamous uses. But here are the 
keys that have unlocked the mystery of suffering and 
sorrow to many a believing soul. In the books that God 
keeps will be found no richer memorial than of these 
two alabaster boxes of precious ointment that Peter broke 
for the world's bruised and burdened hearts. 




BS2361 .L47 

Lectures on the New Testament delivered 

Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 



1 1012 00052 2104 






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