The Washington times., 1922-02-05


the antique world that It would be
difficult to find anything resem-
bling Il in classical literature, for,
once moro, II il not violence-there,
IL plenty of violence In Hebrew
literature. Some passages from
Lucretius may be cited. but analo-
gies can always be discovered. and
1t Ia safe to say that st. Paul was
the first exponent Of personal pas
sion in literature: and this being
90. It II strange that a large body
of mentor the exegetists are
numberless-should have read and
reread st. Paul without drawing
attention to IL.
It IL true that Van Manen ex-
presses admiration for the splendid
passages in the Corinthians and
romans, but bis admiration for
these makes him even more incred-
ible than II he had ignored them.
We capnot cast blame upon a man
for his blindness. but to believe
Paul's beautiful lyrical outbursts
are nchmore than the casual inspi-
rations Of certain writing in the
second century II . sin against
Apollo; and. worse stu. is the b.
lief that personal passion can be
extracted from documents, for II
denotes a complete lack OF the
aesthetic sense. without which We
should be little better than animals.
20 In despair We fall to thinking Of
the scientist in the flying island,
who spent his IKE trying to extract
sunlight from cucumbers.
WHAT REMAIN OVERLOOKED.
In opposition to tho Dutchman's
theory that Paul was An invention
of the second century. and that the
Epistles represent the labors of a
school, we may contrast Remains
liberalism. for he accepts all the
Epistles a. genuine with the ex-
ception of the Epistles to the He
brews. to Timothy. and to Titus.
About the Epistle to the Ephesians
he has some doubts; he thinks that
1t may have been dictated roughly
to Timothy and worked over. lie
accepts the Epistles to the Philip
plans. Colossians. and Thessalo-
mans. saying that a. the same
turns of phrase occur in these as
in the great Epistles. all must be
accepted or else discarded. But
people living at the Same time not
only use the same phrases inadver-
tently. but copy each others
phrases, and II Renan had not, like
others. overlooked the accent Of
personal passion, he would no
doubt have written: These Epis-
ties seem to me to have been writ
ten, II they were written by Paul,
In . lukswarm mood. when he was
not altogether himself; but they
express his ideas 30 truthfully that
they can be safely attributed to
Paul, not rejected as spurious. like
the Epistle to the Hebrews.
We have qualified the blindness
Of the German and Dutch critics
a. natural and not to BE- won
dered at, these being without the
aesthetic sense; but tho case Of
Renan In altogether different, and
ws fan to apprehend how 1t was
that he should have overlooked
the new medium Of literary ex-
preston. our only guide. and
omitted to use II as . test IN
his analysis Of tho Bpistles- wher-
sver personal passion II, Paul is
not Tar on: only In one instance
IN which II II absent can tho
Epistis b attributed with any
confidence to Paul. the Epistls to
Philemon. which Renan speaks
Of ~ . tender, lovely thing. redo
lent Of all the graces that flour
ished IN PauPs heart. We, too,
admire this little Epistle. but for
tn humanity rather than for its
tenderness. Humbug n . coarse
word; let u seek for an equiva-
lent; but why seek for what Paul
has foundf I am all things to all
men, he says, ana II may have
besn In his mind that humbug
goes to the making Of all great
msu. for besides ideas and power
Of expressing them. . great man
needs the Eft Of stasemanage-
ment; he must stase-manage his
life, unless II IL to Be contended
that the lives Of great men are
staged by the unseen master Of
the show.
PAUL's SOUL ON PAPER.
And now to return once moro
to the theme Of this article. We
have said that wherever We meet
the note Of personal passion we
may be sure that Paul Is not far
off, and II this rare literary quail
ity, the rar,st Of all, be accepted
as q guide to Paul, we cannot