II. THE CONCENTRATION OF HIS MESSAGE. Every act of self-determination involves a corresponding selfrepression. Every selection includes at least one alternative. No man commits himself to a really practical resolution without first putting away and rejecting. Many pursuits invited St. Paul. They were attractive, pleasant, honourable, useful to the world. He had all the instincts of a student. He was a scholar with splendid capacity. He might have been, we feel persuaded, a greater than Philo, than Seneca-a greater than Plato himself. "To know Jesus Christ, and him crucified" is the end for which everything else is sacrificed. By "Jesus Christ," the Apostle understands His manifestation in general-His life, death, and Messianic dignity. Yet, while confining himself to this elementary theme of preaching, he might still have found means to commend Jesus to the attention and admiration of the wise. But he determined "not to know anything, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." He will not know even Jesus Christ except in one aspect. That is the idea. One of our best exegetes thus renders the words: "And even Him as having been crucified." It is the crucified Christ alone that he will know. Observe the far-reaching word "know." Not merely does he refuse to speak on any other theme, but he will "know" none other. The crucified Saviour shall fill the whole horizon of his mind and heart. He will, so to say, severely limit his Christology to this phase: "Even Him as having been crucified." 1. St. Paul disdained systems of philosophy or the teaching of morality merely. The Gospel has been presented as a philosophy. The development of the Church, the innumerable attacks of scepticism, the rise of problems within Christianity itself have rendered imperative the presentation of the Christian system as a well-ordered scheme of philosophical thought. Profound thinkers have arisen from time to time in the Christian Church who have demonstrated the reasonableness of Christianity as a philosophical system, and the work of these thinkers is of great value. But where one man is converted by reading books of apologetics or theology, a thousand are drawn and held captive by the pathos of Calvary-the moving, subduing story of the Cross. Men of all orders and degrees, of all climes and tongues, have owned the wondrous contagion of the Cross, and have yielded to its strange compulsion. We are philosophers who have found the truth, chemists who have discovered (or rather been told of) the elixir of life; as we read again our Plato and Aristotle, and even the modern searchers after truth, we are the children On whom those truths do rest That they are toiling all their lives to find. To be at the centre of all things; to have disclosed in our undeserving ears the secret of the ages; to know for certain how the world came into being; to have in the Cross the long sought after key to the suffering of the world; to be told what all this curious world is tending towards-that is our real position in the realm of thought.1 2. Theology cannot take the place of the Cross. Nothing has been more fatal in the history of Christianity than that marvellous intellectual curiosity which has been earnest to invent doctrine after doctrine, experience upon experience, till there appears a complete scheme of dogmatic ideas which is called systematic theology. But theological ideas, however systematic, lead only to barrenness and dryness if theologians ignore the fundamental principle which the Apostle has laid down-that the key is not to be found in a theology apart from a person, nor in a person apart from a theology. Whatever the Apostles teach, they always teach Christ. They never turn their teaching into dry intellectual formula; they abhor the exaggerated rationalism-for it is nothing more-of the extreme dogmatist, just as they have no sympathy with the incoherent gush which satisfies indolent devotion. A man may be a great theologian and at the same time a great sinner. If theology could save anybody the devil himself would have been converted long ago. He is one of the most expert theologians alive; he can quote Scripture for his purpose with marvellous propriety; but he is the devil yet for all that. On the other hand, there are many whose theological knowledge 1A. F. Winnington Ingram, Messengers, Watchmen, and Stewards, 16. is hardly worth the name, but whose devout and godly lives are a pattern and an inspiration to all who see them.1 3. Science cannot take the place of the Cross. Some are constantly asserting the claim of science to supersede Christianity. Many well-meaning Christians are spending the time which might be devoted to evangelistic work in endeavouring to reconcile the book of Genesis with the latest scientific theory, or in attempting, from a very superficial knowledge of the subject, to reply to men who not only possess an enormously larger stock of facts on scientific matters, but who also-and this is far more important-have had the advantage of a scientific training. Let us leave to experts investigation into the condition of the early inhabitants of the world. The most serious question in the world is not, What think ye of Darwin? or even, What think ye of Moses? It is, What think ye of Christ? O world invisible, we view thee, Does the fish soar to find the ocean, Not where the wheeling systems darken, The angels keep their ancient places;— But (when so sad thou canst not sadder) Shall shine the traffic of Jacop's ladder 1 1 H. W. Horwill. Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter, 4. St. Paul disdained human eloquence. It is certain that St. Paul was not unversed in the wisdom, or unskilled in the rhetoric, which was all the vogue in his day. The Apostle could have presented his message in a beautiful dress, and might have recommended himself to his hearers by polished periods; but he knew very well that the power of the Gospel did not consist in these things. He did not mar his 5. St. Paul was careful to efface self. message by any reference to himself. Christ. His desire was to exalt Christ. in proclaiming Christ the Saviour of side glances at his own prospects, his own reputation, his own success. He was content to hide behind the person of Christ, so that He might be seen and loved, and honoured and exalted. Like John the Baptist, whose business it was to cry "Behold the Lamb," and to point his hearers away from himself, saying, “He must increase, but I must decrease," so it was St. Paul's business to declare Christ crucified and to keep himself in the background. In any work which is to live, or be really beautiful, there must be the spirit of the Cross. That which is to be a temple of God must never have the marble polluted with the name of the architect or builder. There can be no real success, except when a man has ceased to think of his own success.2 As Michael Angelo wore a lamp on his cap to prevent his own shadow from being thrown upon the picture which he was painting, so the Christian minister and servant needs to have the candle of the Spirit always burning in his heart, lest the reflection of self and self-glorying may fall upon his work to darken and defile it.8 III. THE COMPREHENSIVENESS OF HIS MESSAGE. When the Apostle tells us that he is determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, he impresses upon 1 Francis Thompson. 1 COR.--3 2 F. W. Robertson. A. J. Gordon. our minds that this is "the hidden wisdom which God hath ordained before the world." He means that to know Christ crucified is the maximum of knowledge, not the minimum. He means that in Jesus Christ and Him crucified all doctrines culminate, and from Jesus Christ and Him crucified all duties emanate and evolve. We live in a world which may well be illustrated as a labyrinth, and as we pursue our way, there are many deviating paths down which we may be tempted to wander. But for us who desire practical wisdom for the conduct of life, we do not want a map of the whole labyrinth; what we do want is a silver thread which may pass through our hands and guide us to the secret part of all things. That guiding thread St. Paul claims to give us in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. "You are going down to the assize, my lord?" "Yes." "What do you think you will do with that remarkable series of frauds committed some time ago?" "I do not know." "What do you think you will do with that case of forgery, the most elaborate and intricate piece of business I ever heard of in all our criminal jurisprudence-what do you think you will do with it?" "I do not know." "Why, are you going down to the city in a loose mind?" "No." "What have you resolved to do?" "One thing. I have determined nothing except one thing." "What is that, my lord?" "That the law shall be administered and justice shall be done." That is what St. Paul said.1 Mr. Guyse did not condemn, but both approved and practised, the preaching of Christian morals, while he denied that such preaching is all that is meant by the phrase and commission, "to preach Christ." His statements on this department were the following: Preaching Christ (in a latitude of the expression) takes in the whole compass of Christian religion considered in its reference to Christ. It extends to all its noble improvements of natural light and principles, and to all its glorious peculiarities of the supernatural and incomprehensible kind, as each of these may, one way or other, be referred to Him. In this sense there is no doctrine, institution, precept, or promise-no grace, privilege, or duty toward God and man-no instance of faith, love, repentance, worship, or obedience, suited to the Gospel state and to the design and obligations of the Christian religion-that don't belong to preaching Christ. But to bring all these with any propriety 1 J. Parker. |