The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-19


bishops letters written with the author
| ity of an ecclesiastic to the church over
which he has right to exercise control:
They are letters of a friend written TO
| friends. They are personal, anectionale,
individual. They are not literature They
are not to be studied in any proper sense
written for literary purposes. They have
not literary form. They are personal letters,
written by a friend to friends.
THE APOSTLES LETTERS.
HE never thought, however they would
last eighteen centuries. He never thought
centuries. He never conceived for a mo-
ment that eighteen centuries would pass
over the world before Christ would come
again and set all things right If he had
he would have written very different let
tiers. They, perhaps, would have been
wiser but they would not have tingled with
life and been red with his own hearts blood.
He leaves TheSsalonica and then writes
back letter to fire them anew with en-
thusiasm for the risen and coming Lord.
Then learns that their enthusiasm for the
risen and coming Lord is turning into a SUI
perstitious and misleading hope, and writes
them back second letter to correct their
error. He learns that the Galatians, who
bad welcomed him with great enthusiasm
have fallen back into the legalism of He
braiSm and of paganiSm, and observe days
and months and years, and putting them
serves under the law, and he writes them
letter that is like Luthers trumpet blast
the Church of Corinth the corruptiOnS of
the corruptest city of Greece have entered
corruptions of doctrine and corruptions of
life. They get drunk at the Lords table;
they are licentious in their membership;
they have come to doubt the fact of the
sects and parties. He writes a letter of
earnest protest against the errors which are
undermining their life. He learns that
church has grown up in Rome. 1t is partly
Roman and partly Jewish, and these Ro-
mans and these Jews do not know how to
live together tremendously. He writes them
letter the object of which chow that let
ter has been misinterpreted and misquotedO
is to show how large, how deep and how all
embracing is the love of God in Jesus Christ
the Lord. He is in Rome, prisoner. His
friends at Philippi send him box. He
writes them letter of thanks for it. He
hears of errors that have crept into the diff
ferent Asatic churches. and writes first one
letter to Colosse and then another, a let
ter which circulated among the churches of
Asia.
such is the letter to the Ephesians. And
he writes one letter. sending 1t home by
slave, willing to return to his master be-
cause the master has become Christian
and the slave has become converted. Every
one of his letters grows out of particular
eXigency, is addressed to particular
household and intended to meet a particu-
lar want.
PAUL AS A PROPHET AND POET.
LET me, then, in sentence or two, sum
up what 1 have said in these first four in
troductory lectures. Paul is a Hebrew, poet,
prophet, intuitionalist, a man of fervid ma
ture. He is no peasant, son of peasants, no
fisherman, like the disciples of Galiee. He
has been bred in one of the great cities of
Greece. His parents are persons of COM
petence, if not of wealth. He has had the
| best education which they could give him.
He is man of culture and refinement, and,
says Coleridge, "a gentleman whose man
| Strong words are those: possibly too
| strong, and yet when l think of his tact,
his skill, his poise, his versatility, his
| adaptability, his readiness for every ext
gency and for every place in life and the
broadness and largenesS of his SympathieS,
| do not know where another man will be
found in history whose manners SufpaSS
| those of Paul. His conversion is rather
more a change of point of view than it is
| of moral nature. He was always a man of
earnestness, always man of courage of
| his convictions, always a man of pride of
| character When on the road to Damascus
! he sees the apparition of the risen Christ
| it does not change that moral character.
He remains man of pride, of strong will,
of res0lute purpose. OF fervid pature, of
| study afresh the Old Testament. He does
| not come out of this study with COM
pleted system of theology. He comes out
! and that it is possible to recognize this
! faith that the Jesus who was crucifed and
| is risen is the Messiah of the prophecy But
he also comes out to comply with the direc-
ton which, If my memory serves me right,
| he himself gives: Grow in grace and in the
! knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
| Christ And he grows. His message to the
! TheSSalOnanS is not the same his mes
sage to the Romans, nor that the same as
his message to the Ephesians and the
| COloSsians, and his conception of the secret
| and the power that is to change the face
| of the world changes with his change and
| grows with his growth. One thing never
| changes-his loyalty to Christ. whom alike
when he thinks the Christ will come in his
| lifetime and when he has given up all hope
| of the Christ coming in his lifetime, whom
| alike he believes in, hopes in, trusts in and
looks to with answering loyalty