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THE EEV. H. J. R. MAEST0X, M.A,. ON 



College. As a human document, this epistle has no rival in 

 St. Paul's writings. As in that to the Eomans his mind was 

 fixed on the history of Redemption. As in the first epistle to 

 the Corinthians his mind is fixed on the order and disorder of 

 the Church, so in the second his mind is engrossed by the inner 

 life of souls. By bearing this in mind we are able to allow for 

 the difficulties of interpretation. "We can understand the sudden 

 and sometimes violent alternation of feeling ; the abrupt transi- 

 tion from topic to topic, from temper to temper. The cause of 

 this lay in the conditions under which the epistle was produced. 

 Circumstances the most trying harassed his body ; and influences 

 the most agitating and confused perturbed his spirit. The 

 epistle reflects them all ; and the correspondence is at once just, 

 natural and edifvincr 



o 



" Without were fightings, within were fears " : " I despaired even 

 of life : "I found no rest in my spirit " : "I wrote amidst many 

 tears :? : " who is sufficient for these things." 



In phrases such as these we discern the conditions under which 

 the epistle took its motley but beautiful shaping. 



A critic of eminence has pronounced that the language of 

 St. Paul in this epistle is as eloquent as that of Demosthenes, 

 and I agree with him. All the grades and variations of human 

 feeling are clothed with just and affecting diction. It is, 

 indeed, impossible to gather this from the crude and irregular 

 translation of the Authorized Version. But the fact is indis- 

 putable. And the fact is important, for it is another proof of 

 the stupidity of the critics, who cannot see how great St. Paul 

 was. They who can resist the evidence of the Greek of this 

 epistle in favour of the grandeur and veracity of the apostle 

 can resist anything and may be guilty of any freak of interpre- 

 tation. At least forty-seven terms expressing the emotions of 

 the soul or their expression in actions or states can be quoted 

 from this epistle. The list is copious, but I do not claim that 

 it is exhaustive. 



I have thrown into a note at the end of the lecture the 

 details. Here it suffices to say that the list covers the whole 

 area of experience. Passions, moods, habits, virtues, vices, 

 emotions and their manifestations, the seats of emotions and 

 the effects of them — all are touched in this wonderful letter 

 with a delicacy, a firmness, a deliberation which declare the 

 master hand. We rise from the perusal of the epistle with a 

 conviction that its author was one who was in deep sympathy 

 with huinan nature. He knew it well : he shared its feelings ; 



