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THE REV. H. J. K. MAKST0N, M.A., ON 



Jesus which, though not specially mentioned in this epistle, yet 

 plainly underlies it. This point brings me into collision with 

 the Eationalist. The second is the doctrine of reconciliation, 

 which has its locus classicus in the close of the fifth chapter of 

 our epistle, and which brings me into collision with the Pan- 

 theist. 



The seeing of Jesus by Saul of Tarsus at noon on a certain 

 day near the gate of Damascus is a point of capital import. 

 On that account it is three times recorded in the book of the 

 Acts. It was twice narrated by the apostle in the most public 

 and circumstantial manner, once in Jerusalem, once in Cresarea. 

 It made on his mind, memory, and heart an indelible and 

 profound impression. Its importance is much more than 

 belongs to an incident in his development : it affects vitally 

 the character of the Christian religion as an historic and world- 

 wide scheme. It cannot be shown, in fact, that St. Paul was 

 converted by the seeing of Jesus or by the words that then 

 passed between the chief of sinners and the ascended Lord. 

 But what can be proved is that the kernel of the transaction 

 consists in the words " I am Jesus." These words form the 

 link between the Old Testament and the New. They echo the 

 I AM of the burning bush. They imply identity between the 

 manger of Bethlehem and the invisible throne. They created 

 in St. Paul the conviction that the faith of Jesus was free of all 

 ties in time and place. 



Accordingly, then, when St. Paul uses in his epistles the 

 simple name Jesus in speaking of our Lord, we are to think of 

 his first interview with his Master. That use recalls vividly 

 the event that made so awful and blessed a difference to I him- 

 self and to the whole human family. About twenty times in 

 the epistles as a whole does St. Paul thus write. In the 

 pastoral epistles and in the epistle to the Colossians, and that 

 to Philemon, the use does not appear. But in all the rest it 

 does. It appears in every sort of connection. Jesus was to 

 St. Paul the heart of Christianity : no part of it could be com- 

 plete without Him. As the object of faith ; as the measure of 

 truth; as the object of sight; as the author of life; as the 

 topic of preaching ; as the name above every thing ; Jesus — the 

 Jesus of the Damascus interview — was all in all. 



In our epistle the use is abundant and significant, and may 

 be traced as a golden thread running through the whole texture 

 and tissue of the letter. St. Paul did not always speak of his 

 Lord as Christ or as the Christ, or as the Lord Jesus ; or in other 

 terms of greater or less majesty and ambiguity. He let all men 



