The Life of St. Paul | Page 2

impossible to study without receiving the impression that they were
expressly sent into the world to do a work required by the juncture of
history on which they fell. The story of the Reformation, for example,
cannot be read by a devout mind without wonder at the providence by
which such great men as Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and Knox were
simultaneously raised up in different parts of Europe to break the yoke
of the papacy and republish the gospel of grace. When the Evangelical
Revival, after blessing England, was about to break into Scotland and
end the dreary reign of Moderatism, there was raised up in Thomas
Chalmers a mind of such capacity as completely to absorb the new
movement into itself, and of such sympathy and influence as to diffuse
it to every corner of his native land.
2. This impression is produced by no life more than by that of the
Apostle Paul. He was given to Christianity when it was in its most
rudimentary beginnings. It was not, indeed, feeble, nor can any mortal
man be spoken of as indispensable to it; for it contained within itself
the vigor of a divine and immortal existence, which could not but have
unfolded itself in the course of time. But, if we recognize that God
makes use of means which commend themselves even to our eyes as
suited to the ends He has in view, then we must say that the Christian
movement at the moment when Paul appeared upon the stage was in
the utmost need of a man of extraordinary endowments, who, becoming
possessed with its genius, should incorporate it with the general history
of the world; and in Paul it found the man it needed.
3. A Type of Christian Character.--Christianity obtained in Paul an
incomparable type of Christian character. It already, indeed, possessed
the perfect model of human character in the person of its Founder. But
He was not as other men, because from the beginning He had no sinful
imperfection to struggle with; and Christianity still required to show
what it could make of imperfect human nature. Paul supplied the

opportunity of exhibiting this. He was naturally of immense mental
stature and force. He would have been a remarkable man even if he had
never become a Christian. The other apostles would have lived and
died in the obscurity of Galilee if they had not been lifted into
prominence by the Christian movement; but the name of Saul of Tarsus
would have been remembered still in some character or other even if
Christianity had never existed. Christianity got the opportunity in him
of showing to the world the whole force it contained. Paul was aware of
this himself, though he expressed it with perfect modesty, when he said,
"For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ
show forth all His long-suffering for an ensample of them who should
hereafter believe on Him to everlasting life."
4. His conversion proved the power of Christianity to overcome the
strongest prejudices and to stamp its own type on a large nature by a
revolution both instantaneous and permanent. Paul's was a personality
so strong and original that no other man could have been less expected
to sink himself in another; but, from the moment when he came into
contact with Christ, he was so overmastered with His influence that he
never afterward had any other desire than to be the mere echo and
reflection of Him to the world.
But, if Christianity showed its strength in making so complete a
conquest of Paul, it showed its worth no less in the kind of man it made
of him when he had given himself up to its influence. It satisfied the
needs of a peculiarly hungry nature, and never to the close of his life
did he betray the slightest sense that this satisfaction was abating. His
constitution was originally compounded of fine materials, but the spirit
of Christ, passing into these, raised them to a pitch of excellence
altogether unique.
Nor was it ever doubtful either to himself or to others that it was the
influence of Christ which made him what he was. The truest motto for
his life would be his own saying, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me." Indeed, so perfectly was Christ formed in him that we can now
study Christ's character in his, and beginners may perhaps learn even
more of Christ from studying Paul's life than from studying Christ's

own. In Christ Himself there was a blending and softening of all the
excellences which makes His greatness elude the glance of the beginner,
just as the very perfection of Raphael's painting makes it disappointing
to an untrained eye; whereas in Paul a few