The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-30
FAITH VERSUS THE LAW
GREATER IMPORTANCE OF THE FOR
MER RECOGNIZED BY ST. PAUL.
incidents which Prompted the ApOs-
tie TO Write the Second EpistIe
10 the Church at COrinth.

The following lecture was delivered in
plymouth Church Sunday night by the
Rev. DR.. Lyman Abbott in continuation of
his series on the life and writings of ST.
Paul:
''The overture to the Parsifal if my mem
DRY serves me right. contains the motives
which are afterward worked out in the
opera. Like such an overture is the second
of Paurs Epistes to the Corinthians. 1t
contains the motives of his subsequent
writing, the germs which he later devel-
opes. It is. indeed, hardly too much to say
that the seeds of everything wrought out
more fully in the Epistles to the Galatians
the Romans, the Philippians, the Ephesians
and the Colossians, are to be found in this
epistle And yet there are simply seeds
They can hardly be called thoughts. 1t is
Of all the epistles the least theological the
least like a treatise the. least systematic
It has less than any other a topic. 1t is
a letter of personal experiences. II we
might compare the other letters to SER
mons or addresses we might compare this
letter to the kind Of address in which one
gives his experience in a prayer meeting.
"And yet, it is for this very reason in
some respects the most vital and the most
interesting. Its fragmentary character, its
seed like character adds to its value For
theology which man works out in his
study through books is of comparatively
little use. The theology which has been
wrought out of him by actual experience
in life is theology which takes hold of men,
because in that there is life. All the great
theologians have thus been men of great
experiences. Augustine, Luther, Calvin,
Wesley, Bushnell-you can trace in all of
them the secret of their thought in their
life
1T is true, when we take up this epistle
to study it, we have to study it with COM
paratively little information respecting the
outward experiences amidst which and from
which it was born. The student of Pauls
life and epistles has to construct Pauls ex-
periences somewhat as skilled scientist
constructs an ancient animal from two or
three bones-the rest men call surnise-and
yet he does not hesitate to hang in the
museum a perfected animal and say, This
was the being which used to walk the
globe So out of single phrases almost out
of single words, in this epistle, scholars
construct the experiences out of which it
sprang.
I'm narrating to you these experiences to-
night am not dealing with Imagination;
am repeating to you the result of scholarly
study of the epistle and the Book OF Acts
IL 1 were writing, instead of speaking l.
should give you IN foot notes the authority
the biblical authority, for my various state
Ments, but it would take me too far away
from the particular description, and it would
overt your attention from the result, were
to stop for this purpose, and l shall not.
You have the opportunity to get the foot
notes later by asking for them.
Paul has gone from Corinth to Ephesus.
From Ephesus he has journeyed to Jerusa-
lem. He has come back from Jerusalem to
Ephesus again. He has made visits to the
al car vyl1 10 he has ha1
strange experiences at Ephesus-some of
great exultation, some of great depression.
He has had wonderful success and he has
met with very great hospitality. He has
fought, he says, with the wild beasts at
Ephesus, or TO wild beasts he compared the
mob which threatened his companions. In
these Journeyings, too, he has met with
some great peril, by land and by sea. from
ROBBERS ana from storm and from bad
roads. But, more than that, he has carried
with him the care of the churches which,
he says, came upon him daily. Every new
church is not a new support, but new bur-
den, and the heresies, the crudties of opin-
ion, the immoralities of life, which are de-
picted with some fullness I'm the First
Epistle to the Corinthians, are represented
70 him from other churches. He bears
them them al yieariously Who is weak. he
worked at EpheSus too. He has given
us picture of his work in an address he
made to the elders of the city. He goes
from house to house. He entreats men with
tears. He abors by day and by night And
he must add to his missionary labors some
adequate income, for he will not be de-
pendent on the churches.
PAUL'S PHYSICAL DEFORMITY.
With these burdens of the churches and
these external prosecutions, he has also a
physical deformity We do not know what
1t is We can only surmise. He calls it a
thorn In the flesh. He says that with it
Satan buffeted him. 1t is hindrance to his
work, whatever it is Some have thought it
10 ha off cf
the sudden glare of the light at the time of
his conversion; some, his weak bodily
presence, which stood in his way when he
undertook to address audiences; some, a
stammer or impeachment in his speech, which
he overcame with difficulty. Whatever it
was it was an impediment in the way of his
work, or seemed to him so to be. So great
was 1t that he said I besought the Lord
thrice that it might depart from me- BY
which he does not mean that he offered
three prayers for it's departure, but three
times in his experience he was confronted
with It; three times it seemed to him al
most like an insuperabe obstacle; three
times he wrestled in prayer with God that
1t might be taken away from him.
1t was evidently flung in his face by his
companions. The old Jewish law required
that the priest must be physically blame
less and Paul was rot physically blameless.
and the old Jewish party Hung this physical
DEFECT whatever 1t was in his face as an
evidence and sign that he was no true
prophet or His minister. AT last ii dawned
upon him. Truth came to Paul by degrees,
as It does to the rest of us, and through
hard experience. At last 1t dawned upon him
that the weaker he was and the less able
he was by any means of his own to produce
great impressions, the stronger was the tes-
timony to the power of the truth and the
greatness of the life of which he was the
minister. And he says: When 1 discovered
that. when l saw that in my weakness the
greatness of God was glOrited, when / saw
that because of my stammering speech, my
weak body, my defective vision men could
not say, He magnetized his audience by
his eloquence, he sweeps them away by his
passion, but they must see that the power
when / realized this, / gave thanks and I
said. Will glory in my tribulation, since it
glorifies my Father
But he did not at first come to this Not
only was he hindered by this physical de-
feet, whatever ii was, he was sick, and
very sick. Were you ever sick in a strange
city, away from home, without friends?
thought he surely would die. He thought
of himself as one under sentence of DEATH
awaiting the executioners sword | had
he said, sentence of death within myself
My only hope for the future lay in a God
who can raise even the dead to life again.
Oppressed. prosecuted, burdened by the
cares of churches, oyerwrought and over
worked, with this physical infirmity trip
ping him up and buffeting him, sick nigh
unto death, and gradually convalescing,
there Is brought to him by Titus further
news from the church in Corinth. il Is not
, altogether bad news. There has been YOU
Will remember, very grossly immoral per-
son in that church. and Paul has written
with sigor that they straightway excom-