The life and work of St. Paul

320 TOE LIFE AND WOBK O KT. PAUL.
and his speech contemptible in the estimation of these judges of eloquence 1-*
thinking, too, that he had little in the way of earthly endowment, unless it
were in his infirmities, 2 he yet deliberately decided not to avoid, as he had
done at Athens, the topic of the Cross. 3 From Corinth he could see the snowy
summits of Parnassus and Helicon but he determined never ;
again to adorn
his teaching with poetic quotations or persuasive words of human wisdom, 4
but to trust solely to the simple and unadorned grandeur of his message, and
to the outpouring of the Spirit by which he was sure that it would be accompanied.
There was, indeed, a wisdom in his words, but it was not the wisdom
of this world, nor the kind of wisdom after which the Greeks sought. It was
a spiritual wisdom of which he could merely reveal to them the elements not
strong meat for the perfect, but milk as for babes in Christ. He aimed at
nothing but the clear, simple enunciation of the doctrine of Christ crucified.*
But what was lacking in formal syllogism or powerful declamation was more
than supplied by power from on high. Paul had determined that, if converts
were won, they should be won, not by human eloquence, but by Divine love.
Nor was he disappointed in thus trusting in God alone. Amid all the sufferings
which marked his stay among the Achaians, he appeals to their personal
knowledge that, whatever they may have thought or said among themselves
about the weakness of his words, they could not at least deny the " signs, and
wonders, and powers" 8 which, by the aid of the Spirit, were conspicuous in his
acts. They must have recalled many a scene in which, under the humble roof
of Justus, the fountains of the great deep of religious feeling wero broken up,
the strange accents of " the tongues" echoed through the thrilled assembly,
and deeds were wrought which showed to that little gathering of believers
that a Power higher than that of man was visibly at work to convince and
comfort them. And thus many Corinthians the Gentiles largely exceeding
the Jews in number were admitted by baptism into the Church. r The
majority of them were of the lowest rank, yet they could number among
them some of the wealthier inhabitants, such as Gains, and perhaps Chloe,
and even Erastus, the chamberlain of the city. Nor was it in Corinth only
that Christians began to be converted. Paul, like Wesley, " regarded all the
world as his parish,'' and it is little likely that his restless zeal would have
made him stay for nearly two years within the city walls. We know that
there was a church at Cenchresa, whose deaconess afterwards " carried under
the folds of her robe the whole future of Christian theology;" 8 and saints
were scattered in small communities throughout all Achaia. 9
And yet, though God was thus giving the increase, it must have required
' 2 Cor. T. 1, 10. Luther, who seems to have entered into the very life of St. Paul,
calls him " " Em armes din-res Mannlein wie unaer Philippua (Melaucthon),
2 2 Cor. xii. 5, 9.
1 Cor. i. 23; ii. 2.
1 Cor. ii. 1 5. ivBpiairivjfi fs a good explanatory gloss of A, 0, J, &o,
1 Cor. L 17 ; ii. 2 ; 2 Cor. i. 18.
2 Cor. xii. 12. 7 Acts 8
xviii. 8.
Renan, p. 219.
2 Cor. i. 1 ; Rom. xvi. 1. The nearest Achaian towns would be Leclueum, Schoenus,
Cenchreae, Crommyon, Sioyon, Argos.