Looking into Grand Canyon from the South Rim. In the center foreground can be seen the famous Battleship Rock. Richard Seume T HE GOSPEL of our Lord Jesus Christ is in danger, not be cause it has ceased to be the power of God unto salvation
Who is he? Paul had not always been his name. Neither was he al ways the kind of man that name implies. When he was a haughty, hasty Hebrew of the Hebrews, when he had religion, he boasted the name of Saul: “a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city.” He was Saul, “the somebody.” Then something happened. Saul was saved! Let us never seek a synonym for that word; it is perfectly at home in the Scriptures, and should be good enough for us. Furthermore, It conveys as no other term could what happened to the Apostle; he was saved from sin and all of its consequences, but more than that, he was saved from himself. The one time somebody, the supposedly great one, Saul, was changed into another, Paul, “the little one.” He delighted to have it so. In every one of his epistles, it is the first word he em ploys. He was happy to be known in the churches as “Paul.” That name told the truth about him; he was insignificant. Witness his own testi mony here and throughout the TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
not so. Paul was a man of like pas sions with ourselves; he was of the earth, earthy, with all that that term implies so far as human aspirations and enticements are concerned. In spite of them, he proved himself to be the greatest servant of our Lord Jesus Christ this world has ever seen. Let us ask ourselves the questions: “How? What was his line? What technique did he employ to be such a success?” “Would I describe a preacher, such as Paul, Were he on earth, would hear, approve, and own.— Paul should himself direct me.” Rather than draw from some pas sage well known for its revelation of the Pauline personality, we will ex amine but one verse. Here we dis cover that secret, and yet, not a secret, that made Paul what he was. We invite you to take a look at this man in Romans 1:1. “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.”
to those who believe, nor because its enemies have tried to prove it noth ing more than another religion, but because of the behavior of its friends. This may appear as bold, un guarded thinking, and yet, as we have observed this fact in the lab oratory of Christian experience, we have found it to be true. The very ones who apparently delight in tell ing the story of Jesus and His love, are enjoying the personal attention that such a message attracts, with the result that the Christian ministry is glutted with spiritual showmen more interested in outdoing each other than in showing “forth the praises of him who hath called [us] out of darkness into his marvellous light.” These things ought not so to be! The life of the Apostle Paul is a worthy model for all who would seek to avoid this very thing. At first, we may be tempted to feel that because he so far surpasses us, we could never make practical the principles which governed his life. Yet, this is
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