The life and work of St. Paul

WOBK AND MABTYBDOM OV ST. STSPEKH. 01
The inference from this that the day must come, of which Jesus had
prophesied to the woman of Samaria, in which neither in Gevizim nor
yet in Jerusalem should men worship the Father, constituted a perfect
defence against the charge that anything which ho had said could be
regarded as a blasphemy against the Temple.
Thus far he had fulfilled all the objects of hia speech, and had shown that
injurious words had been as far as possible from his thoughts. It had become
clear also from his summary of the national story that the principles which he
had advocated were in accordance with the teaching of those past ages ; that
the rejection of Christ by the rulers of His nation was no argument against
His chums ; that the Temple could not have been meant to be the object of an
endless honour; lastly, that if he had said that Jesus should change the
customs which Moses had delivered, Moses himself had indicated that in
God's due time his entire dispensation was destined to pass away. And he
had stated the grounds from which these conclusions followed, rather than
urged upon them the inferences themselves. He had done this in deference
to their passions and prejudices, and in the hope of bringing the truth gently
into their hearts. He might have continued the story through centuries of
weak or apostate kings, stained with the blood of rejected prophets, down to
the great retribution of the exile ;
and ho might have shown how, after the
exile, the obsolete idolatry of the gods of wood and stone had only been
superseded by the subtler and more self-complacent idolatry of formalism and
letter-worship ; how the Book had been honoured to the oblivion of the truths
which it enshrined how in the ;
tithing of mint and anise and cummin there
had been a forgetfulnesa of the weightier matters of the Law ;
how the smoke
of dead sacrifices had been thought of more avail than deeds of living mercy ;
how circumcision and Sabbatism had been elevated above faith and purity;
how the long series of crimes against God's messengers had been consummated
in the murder of the Lord of glory. A truth which is only suggested, often
comes homo to the heart with more force than one which is put hi words, and
it may have been his original design to guide rather than to refute. But if so,
the faces of his audience showed that his object had failed. They were listening
with stolid self-complacency to a narrative of which the significant incidents only
enabled them to glory over their fathers. It was, I think, something in the aspect
of his audience some sudden conviction that to such invincible obstinacy his
words were addressed in vain which made him suddenly stop short in his review
of history, and hurl in their faces the gathered thunder of his wrath and scorn.
" Stifc-necked 1
" he exclaimed, "and uncircumcised in your heart and ia
your ears, ye are ever in conflict with the Holy Spirit ; as your fathers, so ye !
Which of the prophets did not yonr fathers persecute P and they killed those
who announced before respecting the coming of the Just, of whom ye now
proved yourselves betrayers and murderers ; ye who received the Law at the
ordinance of angels, 1 and
"
kept it not 8
I
Acts viL 52 ; leg. JyW*> A, B, 0, D, E.
* Acts vii. 53, XI