The life and work of St. Paul

410 THE LIFE AND WOEK OF ST. PAUL.
1 I have forgiven anything, is for your sakes, in the presence* of Christ, that we
of his devices." *
may not be over-reached by Satan, for we are not ignorant
Well, he did not come to them, and he did write, and what was the consequence?
His anxiety to know the effect produced by his letter and change of plan was so
intense, that it almost killed him. Successful as was the opening which he found
for the Gospel of Christ at Troas, he abandoned his work there, because he could
not endure the disappointment and anguish of heart which the non-arrival of Titus
caused him. He therefore went to Macedonia. There at last he met Titus, but he
omits to say so in his eagerness to thank God, who thus drags him in triumph in
the service of Christ. Everywhere the incense of that triumph was burnt; to
gome it was a sweet savour that told of life, to others a sign of imminent death.
St. Paul is so possessed by the metaphor that he does not even pause to disentangle
it. He is at once the conquered enemy dragged in triumph, and the incense burned
in sign of the victor's glory. The burning incense is a sign to some of life everrenewed
in fresh exultation ; to others of defeat ever deepening into death. To himself,
at once the captive and the sharer in the triumph, -it is a sign of death, and of
daily death, and yet the pledge of a life beyond life itself. 4 And who is sufficient
for such ministry ? For he is not like the majority 5 the hucksters, the adulteraters,
the fraudulent retailers of the Word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God
in the presence of God he speaks in union with Christ.'
Is this self-commendation to them ? Does he need letters of introduction to
them ? 7 And here, again, follows one of the strangely mingled yet powerful meta-
" Ye are our
phors so peculiar to the greatest and most sensitive imaginations.
Epistle," says St. Paul, " written on our hearts, recognised and read by all men,
being manifestly an Epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not mth ink, but
with the spirit of the living God ; not on stonen tablets, but on fleshen tablets
hearts." 8 He does not need a commendatory letter to them; they are themselves
his commendatory letter to all men; it is a letter of Christ, of which he is only the
'
writer and carrier ; and it is not engraved on granite like the Laws of Moses, but
on their hearts. Thus they are at once the commendatory letter written on
Paul's heart, and they have a letter of Christ written on their own hearts by the
Spirit, and of that letter Paul has been the human agent. 10
It was a bold expression, but one which sprang from a confidence which Christ
inspired, and had reference to a work for God. That work was the ministry of the
New Covenant not of the slaying letter but of the vivifying spirit," for which
1 li. 10. The best reading seems to be 5 Kexaptoviai, ci n xapio>ai, y, A, B, C, F, O.
Evidently we are here in the dark about many circumstances ; but we infer that St. Paul's sentence
of excommunication, as ordered in his former letter, had not been carried out, partly because some
of his exclusion from tha
opposed it, but also in part because the man repented in consequence
communion of the majority of the Church. St. Paul might have been angry that his plain order
had been disobeyed by the Church as such ; but, on the contrary, he is satisfied with their partial
obedience, and withdraws his order, which timely repentance had rendered needless.
* Cf. Prov. viii. 30, LXX.
. i. 12 ii. 11.
4 On this metaphor, v. infra, Excursus III. The last great triumph at Rome had been that of
Claudius, when Caradoc was among the captives.
5
ii. 17. oi iroXXot is a strong expression, but oi Xoiirol, "the rest," the reading of D, B, F, Q,
J, Is still more impassioned. It is possible that this may have been softened into the other reading,
Just as oi iroAAol has been softened into jroAAoi. We must remember how many and diverse were
the elements of error at Corinth conceit, faction, Pharisaism, licence, self-assertion; and St. Paul
(Rom. v.) seems to use oi iroAAol peculiarly
ii. 1217 (cf. Isa. i. 22, LXX.).
7 iii. 1. It is astonishing to find Ebionite hatred still burning against St. Paul in the second
century, and covertly slandering him because he had no