158 Apparent contradiction. CHAP. 



bring it into controversy at all. There is a real 

 difficulty in the question concerning the relation 

 between the will of God and that of man ; but the 

 passage before us, though by its mode of expression 

 it suggests the difficulty, has no bearing whatever 

 on the solution. Its purpose is purely practical. 

 It follows one of the strongest assertions to be found 

 in Holy Scripture of Christ's former humiliation and 

 present glory ; and it is followed by an exhortation 

 to purity in the midst of an evil world. The problem 

 of the relation between the will of God and that of 

 man was not before the Apostle's mind when he 

 wrote it; and the apparent contradiction speaking 

 in the first clause as if God's will were everything, 

 and in the second as if man's will were everything 

 is due to Saint Paul's condensed and elliptical. style, 

 which leaves the reader to seize for himself the con- 

 nection of the thoughts. 



But how is it possible for the will of God to 



you," but on that between Paul's absence from his Fhilippian 

 converts and God's presence in them. I quote from Lightfoot 

 in loco: "Having the example of Christ's humiliation to 

 guide you, and the example of Christ's exaltation to encourage 

 you, as ye have always been obedient hitherto, so continue. 

 Do not look to my encouragement to stimulate you. Labour 

 earnestly not only at times when I am with you, but now 

 when I am far away. With a nervous and trembling anxiety 

 work out your salvation for yourselves. For yourselves, did 

 I say ? Nay, ye are not alone ; it is God which worketh in 

 you." Compare the words of the second Collect at evening 

 prayer : "0 God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, 

 and all just works do proceed." 



