The Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul 111 I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice” (Phil. 1:18). He did not lord it over the churches, even over those that he himself had founded. To the Pauline party in Corinth he exclaims, “Was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor. 1 :13). “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4:5). Those who, from selfish motives seek for influ- ence over people pander to them and flatter them [as, e. g. did Absalom]. There was nothing of this with Paul. He re- buked the churches unsparingly for their sins, and did not hesitate, if need be, to incur their displeasure. Disclaiming all pre-eminence and position and power, he preached Christ and Him crucified as the head, and hid and buried self behind the cross. Earth to him was nothing. His eye was fixed on “the recompense of reward” (Heb. 11:26). 4 . Was his motive the gratification of any other passion? Impostors have pretended to receive divine revelations as a pretext in order that they might indulge in loose conduct. Was it so here? No; for all Paul’s teachings were in the most absolute antagonism to any such purpose. “His writings breathe nothing but the strictest morality, obedience to magis- trates, order, and government, with the utmost abhorrence of all licentiousness, idleness, or loose behavior under the cloak of religion.” Writing to the Thessalonians, he utters the chal- lenge, “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and right- eously and unblameably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe” (1 Thess. 2:10). “We wronged no man, we corrupted no man, we took advantage of no man” (2 Cor. 7 :2). The whole teaching of the Apostle is. in the sternest and most un- compromising hostility to everything but the highest and holi- est ideals. 5 . Was it a. pious fraud? That is to say, did Paul pretend to receive a divine revela- tion in order to give him prestige in advancing the teachings of Christianity? But Christianity was the one thing he had
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