Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-07-07
BY DR.. MARION M'H. HULL

wealth, Messianic hope, neighborli-
ness, Gods sovereignty and mans
free willard it was necessary for
Him to differentiate clearly their
scrupulosity, their hypocracy, their
emphasis on the external, their neg
lect Of the internal in worship and
religion.
Their fight with Jesus was be-
cause He disregarded their inter-
probation of the Sabbath, and de-
nounced them as hyQocrites. Their
power with the people lay in their
piety, and they did not propose to
lose their power by not resisting
His obvious disregard of their prac-
tees and teaching.
There were seven different kinds
of Pharisees:
/. The shoulder Pharisee, who
wore his. religion on his IS, shou Jul d r..
2. The "wait-a-little" Pharisee,
who was always asking for little
more time to do good thing;
3. The bleeding" Pharisee, who
was SO afraid he wou1ud see a wom-
an and lust after her that he would
blindfold himself in the street and
" 4. The "painted" Pharisee, who ad-
vertised his holiness to keep from
being deflled;
would do some good thing to offset
something wrong he had done ana
thus strike a balance;
6. The fearing" Pharisee, who
had no other idea of God than awe;
Z. The love" Pharisee, who was
one because of his love to God. Haye
they their counterparts IL our molly
Christianity? To which c-ass do you
belog?
Undoubtedly Saul belonged to the
last class. He had been carefully
taught and from all we know OF MN
he had not been a hypocr1te or had
not been guilty of the over serupu-
losity of the Pharisees. He told his
hearers that he had lived in all good
conscience until that day; he claimed
10 be blameless, as touching the law.
He thought he was doing Gods Will
when he prosecuted the Christians
unto death.
He had probably never seen Jesus
during His earthly ministry, al
though he was about the same age.
completed he probably went back to
Tarsus and was there during the
ministry of Jesus. After Jesus
death he came back to Jerusalem as a
member of the Sanhedrln OF
course. he was told of the life and
teaching and death of the Carpen-
ter Of Nazareth and Of His bitter de-
nunciations of the Pharisees. Saul
heard only the Pharisees' side of the
case. When Stephen began his min
istry Saul opposed it, but even his
highly trained mind was not equal
to the Spirit-filled heart of Stephen
(Acts 6:9,1O), and this only angered
him the more. He was the instiga-
tor of the death of Stephen. Not
satisfied with that-and entirely free
from blood thirstiness-. but sure
that the highest service he couio
render God was to crush out this
new sect, he made havoc of the
church (the word expresses what
terrific storm would do). going from
house to house and dragging botn
men and women to prison. When
their cases came before the Sanhe-
drin for trial he voted for their
death (Acts 26:10). There was no
hypocrisy in this, no scrupulous-
ness; but he did it in all good con-
science Perfectly conscientious,
but wrong; absolutely honest, but
was this all because he was a
Pharisee? Well, before you answer,
consider that after nearly thirty
years of the most loyal service to
Christ, he claimed still to be a
Pharisee (Acts $3.50. And so after
all it was not a crime to be Phar-
isee.
The Essences lost their indemnity
in the Christian community. They
became Christians in large numbers,
for all they needed, was to recog-
nize Jesus as the Christ. The Phar-
isees, from whom they separated on
a political basis, believed many good
things-what they needed was to rec
ognize Jesus as the Christ. Saul,
the love" Pharisee, caught a vision
Of Him on the way to Damascus. He
was still q Pharisee, but one who
recognized that righteousness must