The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-09


The color of his preaching had changed:
And when Gallo had investigated and heard
what they had to say his answer was, IN
substance. this: If this concerned a law,
a Roman law. I wollld hear ii: / would lis
ten to it; but it is matter of words and
names and your own religion, to be judge
of these matters | have no mind. And ne
drove them from his judgment seat. And
then the Greeks took the ruler of the syn
agogue who had brought the complaint
against Paul and beat him before the Judg-
ment seat and Gallo let them do 1T, he
$50 much for PauI's outward experience.
He remained there year and half. What
did he preach? The omissions of the Bible
are marvellous, and some of them inexplica-
the report of Paus sermon at Athens, when
nothing came of the preaching. and has
given US no report of any sermon at Cor
NTH, out of which grew the first considera-
bic and prosperous church. But if Luke
has not, we have reason to see in other
circumstances the change in preaching
ing of Christ He resolved, in the first
with these Sophists. The Greeks, he said,
are seeking for reason-Sophism, skill in
will have nothing to do with all that He
was afraid lest he should be COMPOUNDED
with one of these ingenious dialecticians.
] will have nothing to do with that he
says and the Greeks seek for some mira
Gle, some sign, some evidence, some Won
derful power. They want the glorious com.
the manifestation of divine power in
some supernatural way, and will not give
them that. / have tried it and 1t has failed.
He says I saw what the Pharisees were,
I saw what the stories were, saw what the
Jews were. | saw what the failure of the
past had been and determined among you
would know nothing but Jesus Christ and
Him crucitied.'
A MIsQUoTED TEXT
''That text has been often msquoted 1t
has been quoted and preached from as if
Paul said, 4 determined to know nothing
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified; and
he did not. What he said was this: I
determined to know nothing among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucifed.' 1t
is as if he had said, I came to city mired
in luxury and seIf-indulgence; notorious
for its infamous licenses; tickling itself with
pseudo philosophy that did not take hold
of the moral life; city whose only moral
movement was q movement founded on
pure reason, not on conscience; city IN
which meeknesS and gentleness and forgive
ness and kindness and establishment and
humiliation were absolutely unknown. or
known only to be scoffed at; and resolved
to put away all the instruments on which l
had before relied, all the methods had be.
fore employed and 1 do nothing but tell
you the story of Christ and His cross; l
would rest my preaching, not on the glory
Christ who has already come; not on a
glory to be revealed in clouds and angels
and power but on a glory that is revealed
in poverty, humiliation, crucifxion igno-
minious death. In doing this. I resolved,
too, that ] would appeal to the Divine that
their ambition, and think 'a sancti e9sf them
by presenting them celestial picture to
respond to their ambitions, would appeal
to the spiritual in man. / came to see that
in every man there is a power of insight,
and of interior vision, and / resolved that
| would try and awaken that. dormant as
it is, and make men see; would try and
open their eyes. that were blind and their
ears that were deaf Listen to his account
OF his own purpose: must explain before
hand that the word which l sometimes
translate wisdom and sometimes 'sophism,'
Greek. There is a play in the Greek which
have. not found possible to represent in the
English.
And I, brethren when I came to you, came not
with an ambition to excel other teachers in rhe-
torcal or sophistical SKILL in declaring to you my
to know anything among ' you but Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And in weakness ana in fear
speech and my preaching were not Of persuasive
words of wisdom. but were manifestation of the
rest in the wisdom of men but in the power Of
God. Yet we can speak wisdom, and we do
wisdom of this age, neither of the rulers Of this
age w. who @, are becoming quite good for nothing
mystical wisdom hidden wisdom. which God
in our glory which none of the rulers of this age
know. for II they had known they would not have
written. that which the eye has not seen and the
ear has not heard and it has not entered into the
for those who love Him. But God has declared
them to US through the Spirit, for the spirit tof
NAM searches all things even the deep things If
God. For who among men knows the experiences
So as the .ne of ad Is m M h
except the spirit of God But have received
not the spirit of the world but the spirit which
comes forth from God in order that we may know
the experiences which are freely impaired to us
by God, of which we speak, not in forms Of speech
which can be taught by human wisdom but in
such as are taught by the Spirit interpreting to
man does not even receive the things of the Spirit
of God for they are foolishness to him and he is
spiritually discerned But the spiritual man dis
Germs all things, but he himself is discerned by
For who knew the mind of the Lord
to instruct him, but we have the mind Of Christ
up to this time in Paul's experience he
| has said nothing about the crucifixion, ex-
cept incidentally to refer to the death of
Christ. as a basis fer setting forth the res
direction Of Christ. From this time forth
he has almost nothing to say about the res
direction of Christ: and so little apparently
| did he have to say about it in his preaching
| to the Corinthians that some of the church
came to the conclusion that there no
| resurrection. and he writes them at length
| on the subject In his previous sermons
| and in his previous letters to the Thessa
| lonians he has nothing to say about cruel
| fiction and much to say of the second COM
| ing; in his future letters nothing of the sec
ond coming, or almost nothing. He will de-
| part and be with Christ He is waiting for
| the crown of righteousness which shall be
| given to him when he ascends to the
| Father.
A CHANGE OF CONCEPTION.
But he no longer speaks of the Christ as
| coming to establish kingdom on the earth
| and now. 1t is after this he writes to the
| Romans, Men are justified by faith alone
| He has not written that before. 1t is after
| this he writes to the Philippians, that be-
cause Christ hath humbled Himself, and
| taken the form of a servant, and been ODE
| dent even unto death, and that the death
| Of the cross, therefore. God hath highly ex-
| allied him. 1t is after this, too, that he
| writes to the Colossians, in mystical phrase,
| I am crucfed with Christ, and yet live,
| and Christ lives with me- And after this
| that he writes to the Corinthians, L have
| not known Christ after the flesh, and if
| had known Him would not have wished
| to know Him, l should not care for it, l
| should forget it, it is the spiritual vision
| which entrances me and inspires me- From
this time forth he is the preacher of these
| two things: First, the glory of self-sacri-
| flee; and, secondly, the mystical life of the
| inward faith.
Thus we have traced in Paurs expert
| ence three stages. In the first we see him
| a Pharisee. He is conscientious; he has
| studied the law; he believes in it; he en-
c,.If, -