The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-25
Paul's Energy

Paufs Energy
 "When Paul, the fiery zealot, was mi raculously set aside as a vessel of cleo tion to preach salvation to the Gentle world, he brought to that task the same energy, the same earnestness that had characterized him when he persecuted the church of God and made it desolate He had labored hard formerly to stamp out faith in Christ, now he suffered all things to have that same Christ known and loved by all men. Perhaps in the writings of the great apostle there is nothing so clear, so self evident, so oft repeated as that simple boundless faith 1T, the Lord Jesus and his ardent. all consuming love for that Master, Jesus Christ yesterday, today and the same forever.
 ""In fulfilling his mission Paul had to encounter three classes of opponents. First, what we may call Jews of the strict observance To this class he him self had formerly belonged. These blind ly adhered to the letter of the law, as the books of the Acts and the Apostles say these had delivered up and denied the Holy One and the just whenever the pagan pilate judged he should be re- leased
 Secondly, the time serving Jews, those who, imbued with Grecian and Oriental ideas, dabbed In false philosophles and tolerated idolatrous and superstitious practices.
 Lastly, the pagan and Gentle lit- terati of Egypt and Chaldea, those who knowing nothing of the law of Moses or of the God of Israel, had yet learned plausible theories on everything under heaven, and could set forth these fantas- ties speculations in brilliant and fasein- ating language.
 Paul proposes to all these classes @ strong avowal of unshakable faith. Lis ten to his words, straight from the heart no pretense. no uncertainty, no equivo- cation-for Christ and Him crucified' he preached. Brethren, when 1 came to you I came not in loftiness of speech or of wisdom, but simply declaring unto you the testimony of Christi For l udged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
 Again he says: My speech and my preaching were not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the show ing of the spirit and power; that your faith might not stand on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God'
 "In the epistle of today St. Paul, as it were on pended knee, prays for two things First that Christ may dwell by faith in our hearts; secondingly. that we may know the charity of Christ which passeth all knowledge.'
 Our Faith
 May Christ dwell in our hearts by faith. What kind of faith should be ours? It should be. as was the faith of the great apostle of the Gentiles, un- questioning prompt, unfaltering, unlim- ited We should believe and ever have before our minds the truth that Christ was not merely a man, a prophet. a great teacher, a reformer, philanthropy | ist, as some of the so-called great leaders 1 of thought of today assert, men who, | in their insolent presumption. imagine | they are honoring our Divine Savior by | fondly acclaiming Him the greatest moral | teacher the greatest lover of his fellow man that the world has ever known or | ever probably will know. o, but we with Paul cry out Christ is before all and | by Him all things consist With St. John we assert, Tn the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and | the Word was God.
 We believe that Jesus Christ is God yesterday. today and the same forever. That, and that alone is the faith that | Paul professed. that he proclaimed bold- ly to bigoted or liberal, Jew or Pagan philosopher, as the case might be. that the faith he prayed might dwell In our hearts In the second place, Paul prayed that we might know the charity of Christ, that is His love for us. which surpasseth all knowledge to comprehend, even faint ly, what is the breadth and length and hoighth and depth of Christs love for man, we must not forget His oneness with the Father. T and the Father are one, so their charity is one. The Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. that whosoever be- lieveth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. God and Son, obed- tent to the will of the Father, laid down his life for us. His love was greater