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And what we have for ourselves to do with it is told us in that pregnant phrase of the apostle's, 'my gospel, and 'our gospel'; meaning not merely the message which he was charged to proclaim, but the good news which he and his brethren had made their own. So we have to make it ours. It is of no use to us, unless we do.
Our hearts were not enlarged, as the great Apostle's was; for our spirits were clothed with mourning in contemplating the darkness of the place. Many persons to whom we spoke could not read; and on offering a Testament to the man of the inn he refused to receive it. We pursued our travels, and at mid-day met with a trying detention from the muleteer having neglected to obtain a permission.
In fact, there may be many of you who would doubt that the Christians of that day so taught, were it not for the undisputed historical records, and the remnant of the doctrine itself embalmed in the "Apostle's Creed," in the passage "I believe in the resurrection of the body" which is read in the Churches daily, but which doctrine is scarcely ever taught in these days, and is believed in by but few Christians in fact, is ignored or even denied by the majority.
We now see the propriety of the apostle's language "We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea we establish the law." We also perceive that these three men are not to be liberated from prison because they believe the promise, or love and obey the king.
There are three other Scriptural sayings which may have been floating in the Apostle's mind when he penned this triumphant assurance. 'Thou shalt bruise his head'; the great first Evangel we are to be endowed with Christ's power; 'The lion and the adder thou shalt trample under foot' all the strength that was given to ancient saints is ours; 'Behold!
Ever since the revelation of mercy to fallen man, God deals with mankind, not in essential or absolute character, but by covenant in economical standing. All along since that epoch in the history of this world, "the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." As yet, however, the Son is not brought upon the stage in the apostle's present view.
And the thought that emerges from it directly is that only when we take the 'things that are not seen' into account, and make them the standard and the scale by which we judge all things, do we understand 'the things that are seen. That triumphant paradox of the Apostle's about the heavy burdens that pressed upon him and his brethren, lifelong as these burdens were, which yet he calls 'light' and 'but for a moment' is possible only when we open the shutter of the dungeon which we fancied was the whole universe, and look out on to the fair land that stretches beyond.
The First Epistle to the Corinthians is the solution of practical problems in the light of eternal principles; the second, an impassioned defense of the apostle's impugned authority, his Apologia pro vita sua. The Epistle to the Galatians is the epistle of freedom from the bondage of the law; that to the Romans of justification by faith.
I am thine to serve thee what I may, The apostle's Divine policy, to beget a due regard to his Divine doctrine of eternal life.-The apostle's explication of this expression, viz., The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.-The apostle's exhortation to separation from sin, as a good effect of a good cause, viz., Forgiveness-The apostle's addition, to prevent misunderstanding, viz., We have an advocate with the Father
Men have made out of the Apostle's divine vision of a unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God 'a staunch and solid piece of framework as any January could freeze together, and few things have stood more in the way of the realisation of his glowing anticipations than the formation of the great Corporation, imposing from its bulk and antiquity, to part from which was branded as breaking the unity of the spirit.
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