Chapter V: AUTOGRAPH CONCLUSION.--1. The Judaisers' motive (ch. vi. 12, 13) (2)

+I. Zeal is a certain fervency of spirit arising out of a mixture of love and anger,+ causing men earnestly to maintain the worship of God and all things pertaining thereto, and moving them to grief and anger when God is in any way dishonoured.

+II. Paul was zealous for the outward observance of the law+ and for Pharisaical unwritten traditions.

+III. He himself condemns his zeal because it was against the Word,+ and tended to maintain unwritten traditions, and justification by the works of the law, out of Christ. What Paul did in his religion we are to do in the profession of the Gospel. 1. We are to addict and set ourselves earnestly to maintain the truth of the Gospel. 2. We are to be angry in ourselves and grieved when God is dishonoured and His Word disobeyed. 3. We are not to give liberty to the best of our natural affections as to zeal, but mortify and rule them by the Word.--_Perkins._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 15-19.

_The Imperative Claims of a Divine Commission--_

+I. Are independent of personal merit.+--"But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace" (ver. 15). From the beginning the apostle was Divinely destined to fulfil his high vocation. His Hebrew birth and Hellenistic culture combined to prepare him for his future work. When he developed into a hot persecutor of the Christian faith he seemed far away from his life-mission. But a change took place, and it soon became apparent that, not on the ground of any merit of his own, but because it pleased God, the training from his birth was the best possible preparation for his lofty calling. We cannot see far into the future or forecast the issue of our own plans or of those we form for others.

"There is a Divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough hew them as we may."

The Divine element in our lives becomes more evident as we faithfully do the duty imposed on us. Joseph recognised this when he declared to his brethren, "It was not you that sent me hither, but God" (Gen. xlv. 8).

+II. Are based on an unmistakably Divine revelation.+--"To reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen" (ver. 16). The dazzling appearance of Christ before his eyes, and the summons of His voice addressed to Saul's bodily ears, formed the special mode in which it pleased God to call him to the apostleship. But there was also the inward revelation of Christ to his heart by the Holy Ghost. It was this which wrought in him the great spiritual change and inspired him to be a witness for Christ to the Gentiles. His Judaic prejudices were swept away, and he became the champion of a universal Gospel. The same revelation that made Paul a Christian made him the apostle of mankind. The true preacher carries within his own spiritually renovated nature evidence and authority of his Divine commission.

"This is what makes him the crowd-drawing preacher,
There's a background of God to each hard-working feature;
Every word that he speaks has been fierily furnaced
In a blast of a life which has struggled in earnest."

+III. Are superior to the functions of human counsel.+--"I conferred not with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me" (vers. 16, 17). The counsel of the wise and good is valuable, and ordinarily should be diligently sought and thoughtfully pondered. But when God calls, the commission is beyond either the advice or the opposition of men. Paul had reached a state into which no human authority could lift him, and from which it could not dislodge him. He might legitimately confer with others as to methods of work, but his call to work was imposed upon him by a power to which all human counsellors and ecclesiastical magnates must submit. Channing once said: "The teacher to whom are committed the infinite realities of the spiritual world, the sanctions of eternity, the powers of the life to come, has instruments to work with which turn to feebleness all other means of influence."

+IV. Stimulate to active service.+--"But I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus" (ver. 17). Immediately after his conversion the history tells us, "Straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues" (Acts ix. 20). In Arabia, a country of the Gentiles, he doubtless preached the Gospel, as he did before and after at Damascus, and thus demonstrated the independence of his apostolic commission. A call to preach demands immediate response and impels to earnest and faithful endeavour. It is said that Whitefield's zealous spirit exhausted all its energies in preaching, and his full dedication to God was honoured by unbounded success. The effect produced by his sermons was indescribable, arising in a great degree from the most perfect forgetfulness of self during the solemn moment of declaring the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. His evident sincerity impressed every hearer and is said to have forcibly struck Lord Chesterfield when he heard him at Lady Huntingdon's. The preacher, as the ambassador for Christ, is eager to declare His message, and anxious it should be understood and obeyed.

+V. Are recognised by the highest ecclesiastical authority.+--"Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and . . . James the Lord's brother" (vers. 18, 19). The claims of Paul to the apostleship, evidenced by such supernatural signs and such solid Christian work and patient suffering, were at length acknowledged by the chief leaders of the mother Church in Jerusalem. Good work advertises itself, and sooner or later compels recognition. What an eventful meeting of the first Gospel pioneers, and how momentous the influence of such an interview and consultation! Though the call of God is unacknowledged, ridiculed, and opposed, its duties must be faithfully discharged. The day of ample reward will come.

+Lessons.+--1. _God only can make the true preacher._ 2. _A call to preach involves suffering and toil._ 3. _The fruit of diligent and faithful work will certainly appear._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 15-17. _The Conversion and Vocation of St. Paul._

+I. The causes of St. Paul's conversion.+--1. The good pleasure of God. 2. His separation from the womb, which is an act of God's counsel whereby He sets men apart to be members of Christ and to be His servants in this or that office. 3. His vocation by grace--the accomplishment of both the former in the time which God had appointed.

+II. The manner of his vocation.+--"To reveal His Son in me." 1. By preparation. God humbled and subdued the pride and stubbornness of his heart and made him tractable and teachable. 2. By instruction. (1) Propounding unto him the commandment of the Gospel, to repent and believe in Christ. (2) Offering to him the promise of remission of sins and life everlasting when he believed. 3. By a real and lively teaching when God made Paul in his heart answer the calling. Ministers of Christ must learn Christ as Paul learned Him.

+III. The end of Paul's conversion.+--To preach Christ among the Gentiles. 1. Christ is the substance or subject-matter of the whole Bible. 2. To preach Christ is: (1) To teach the doctrine of the incarnation of Christ, and His offices as King, Prophet, and Priest. (2) That faith is an instrument to apprehend and apply Christ. (3) To certify and reveal to every hearer that it is the will of God to save him by Christ if he will receive Him. (4) That he is to apply Christ with His benefits to himself in particular. 3. To preach to the Gentiles: (1) Because the prophecies of the calling of the Gentiles must be fulfilled. (2) Because the division between the Jews and Gentiles is abolished.

+IV. Paul's obedience to the calling of God+ (vers. 16, 17).--1. God's Word, preached or written, does not depend on the authority of any man--no, not on the authority of the apostles themselves. 2. There is no consultation or deliberation to be used at any time touching the holding or not holding of our religion. 3. Our obedience to God must be without consultation. We must first try what is the will of God, and then absolutely put it into execution, leaving the issue to God. 4. Paul goes into Arabia and Damascus, and becomes a teacher to his professed enemies.--_Perkins._

Vers. 15, 16. _Conversion as illustrated by that of St. Paul._--In the case of St. Paul there are many circumstances not paralleled in the general experience of Christians; but in its essential features, in the views with which it was accompanied and the effects it produced, it was exactly the same as every one must experience before he can enter into the kingdom of God.

+I. Its causes.+--1. Paul was chosen by God before his birth to be a vessel of honour. "It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb." Are not all genuine Christians addressed as "elect of God" or chosen of God, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ? Why should not the real Christian give scope to those emotions of gratitude which such reflections will inspire? 2. The more immediate cause was the call of Divine grace. "And called me by His grace." There is a general call in the Gospel addressed to all men indiscriminately. There is, in every instance of real conversion, another and inward call, by which the Spirit applies the general truth of the Gospel to the heart. By this interior call Christ apprehends, lays hold on the soul, stops it in its impenitent progress, and causes it to hear His voice.

+II. The means by which conversion is effected.+--"To reveal His Son in me." The principal method which the Spirit adopts in subduing the heart of a sinner is a spiritual discovery of Christ. There is an outward revelation of Christ--in the Scriptures; and an internal, of which the understanding and the heart are the seat. 1. The Spirit reveals the greatness and dignity of Christ. 2. The transcendent beauty and glory of Christ. 3. The suitableness, fulness, and sufficiency of Christ to supply all our wants and relieve all our miseries.

+III. The effect of conversion on St. Paul.+--"Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." He set himself without hesitation or demur to discharge the duties of his heavenly vocation. 1. His compliance with the will of Christ was immediate. 2. Universal and impartial. 3. Constant and persevering.--_Robert Hall._

Ver. 16. _The Qualification of the True Minister_--

+I. Begins in an unmistakable revelation of Christ to his own
soul.+--"To reveal His Son in me."

+II. Urges him to declare the Gospel to the most needy.+--"That I
might preach Him among the heathen."

+III. Raises him above the necessity of mere human
authority.+--"Immediately I conferred not with flesh and
blood."

Ver. 17. _The Divine Call to the Apostleship._--1. That extraordinary way whereby the Lord made known His mind to the penmen of Scripture was so infallible in itself and so evident to those to whom it came to be no delusion that they were above all doubt and needed not to advise with the best of men in order to their confirmation about the reality of it. 2. The Lord maketh sometimes the first piece of public service as hazardous, uncouth, and unsuccessful as any wherein He employs them afterwards, that His ministers may be taught to depend more on God's blessing than on human probabilities, and that they may give proof of their obedience. Thus it was with Moses (Exod. ii. 10), and Jeremiah (Jer. i. 19). 3. The apostles were not fixed to any certain charge, as ordinary ministers are. Their charge was the whole world. They went from place to place as the necessities of people required, or as God by His providence and Spirit directed.--_Fergusson._

Ver. 18. _Requirement of a Preparation for Work._--"I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus." 1. Affording opportunity for thought and self-testing. 2. Gives leisure for study and forming plans for future service. 3. Is often the prelude of a busy and prosperous career.

Vers. 18, 19. _The Divine Call acknowledged._--1. That nothing of Peter's supposed supremacy over Paul and the rest of the apostles can be gathered from this place appears from this, that Paul went first to his work before he came to Peter, and that his business with Peter was not to receive ordination from him or to evidence his subjection to him, but from respect and reverence to give him a friendly visit. 2. It ought to be the endeavour of Christ's ministers to entertain love and familiarity one with another, as also to make their doing so evident to others, it being most unseemly for those who preach the Gospel of peace to others to live in discord among themselves. 3. As ministers may and ought to meet sometimes together, to evidence and entertain mutual love and concord, and because of that mutual inspection which they ought to have one of another, so their meeting ought neither to be so frequent nor of so long continuance that their flocks suffer prejudice.--_Fergusson._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 20-24.

_God glorified in His Servant_--

+I. By the undoubted truthfulness of his statements.+--"Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not" (ver. 20). The assertions of the apostle flatly contradicted the allegations of his enemies. They insinuated that Paul was but a messenger of the authorities of the Church at Jerusalem, and that all he knew of the Gospel had been learned from the twelve. So far from this being the case it is evident that for several years he had been preaching the Gospel, and had not seen any of the twelve, except Peter and James, and that only for a fortnight at Jerusalem about three years after his conversion. "In the present case," remarks Professor Jowett, "it is a matter of life and death to the apostle to prove his independence from the twelve." Having said all he can to substantiate his point, he concludes by a solemn appeal to God as to his veracity: "Behold, before God, I lie not." The apostle never makes an appeal like this lightly, but only in support of a vital truth he is specially anxious to enforce (Rom. ix. 1; 2 Cor. i. 17, 18, 23; 1 Thess. ii. 5).

"When fiction rises pleasing to the eye;
Men will believe, because they love the lie;
But truth herself, if clouded with a frown,
Must have some solemn proof to pass her down."--_Churchill._

The vigorous and faithful maintenance of the truth brings glory to God.

+II. By his evangelistic activity.+--"Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia" (ver. 21). During this tour very probably the Churches were founded, referred to in Acts xv. 23, 41. "A man's work," says George Macdonald, "does not fall upon him by chance, but it is given him to do; and everything well done belongs to God's kingdom, and everything ill done to the kingdom of darkness." God is the sublime end of all human activity, and our powers can never be more nobly employed than in expounding His will, unfolding His gracious character, advancing the interests of His kingdom, and striving to promote His glory among the children of men. Man is never so great, so luminous, so grand as when he is doing work for God with the light and help of God; and all such work is a revelation of the character and purposes of God open to the eyes of all who will see.

+III. By the reputation of his changed life.+--"And was unknown by face unto the Churches: . . . they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preached the faith which once he destroyed" (vers. 22, 23). The conversion of Saul of Tarsus was one of the most striking events in the early history of the Church. It was a marvel to all who had known his previous life. It was an unanswerable testimony to the power of the Gospel, and an argument that has been used in all ages to illustrate the possibility of the salvation of the worst of sinners. It is said the Duke of Burgundy was born terrible. He would indulge in such paroxysms of rage that those who were standing by would tremble for his life. He was hard-hearted, passionate, incapable of bearing the least opposition to his wishes, fond of gambling, violent hunting, the gratifications of the table, abandoned to his pleasures, barbarous, and born to cruelty. With this was united a genius of the most extraordinary kind; quickness of humour, depth and justice of thought, versatility and acuteness of mind. The prodigy was, that in a short space of time the grace of God made him a new man. He became a prince, affable, gentle, moderate, patient, modest, humble, austere only to himself, attentive to his duties, and sensible of their extent. If we could lay a hand on the fly-wheel of the Scotch express, running fifty or sixty miles an hour, and stop it, we should perform an astounding miracle. But this is what God does in His miracles of conversion. He laid His mighty hand on the fly-wheel of Paul's life, and not only stopped its mad career, but turned it right round in the opposite direction. The persecutor becomes a preacher.

+IV. By the recognition of His Divine call.+--"And they glorified God in me" (ver. 24). The attempt to disparage the authority of Paul was the work of a few malcontents, who sought to ruin his influence in order to extend their own. The Churches of Jerusalem and Judea, though many of them had not seen the apostle, acknowledged and praised God for the Divine work done in him and by him. A few false teachers may work much mischief, but they cannot overturn the work of God, nor prevent its full recognition. The faithful servant may safely leave his reputation in the hands of God. It lifts humanity, especially Christianised humanity, into special dignity, when it is discovered that God is glorified in man.

+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel elevates man by transforming him._ 2. _The conscientious worker has God on his side._ 3. _God is glorified by obedient toil._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 20. _Self-conscious Truth._--1. The choicest servants of Christ may be looked upon as liars and unworthy to be trusted, even by those to whom they are sent, and yet they must not give over to preach as knowing that the Word spoken by them doth still get credit from some, and will beget trust to itself from others, and for the rest it will seal up their condemnation and make them inexcusable. 2. It is not unlawful for Christians to take an oath, providing it be with these conditions: (1) That the thing we swear be truth. (2) That there be weighty reasons for taking an oath. (3) That we swear only by the name of God, and not by the creatures, seeing none but God can bear witness to the secrets of the heart.--_Fergusson._

Vers. 21-24. _The Self-evidencing Proof of a Divinely commissioned Messenger._--1. Seen in disinterested labours and travels (vers. 21, 22). 2. Seen in a remarkable change of character and conduct (ver. 23). 3. Seen in that the glory of his work is ascribed to God (ver. 24).

_Practical Proofs of Apostleship._

I. +Paul went from Jerusalem into Syria and Cilicia.+--1. Because he was ordained specially to be the apostle of the Gentiles. 2. Because Cilicia was his own country, and his love to his country was great. If any apostle above the rest be the pastor and universal bishop of the Church over the whole world, it is Paul and not Peter.

II. +Paul was known to the Christian Jews only by hearsay,+ because it is the office of an apostle not to build on the foundation of another or to succeed any man in his labour, but to plant and found the Church of the New Testament.

III. Seeing the intent of the devil and wicked men is to destroy the faith, +we must have a special care of our faith.+--1. We must look that our faith be a true faith. 2. We must keep and lock up our faith in some safe and sure place--in the storehouse or treasury of a good conscience. 3. Our care must be to increase in faith that our hearts may be rooted and grounded in the love of God.

IV. +Our duty is to sanctify and glorify the name of God in every work of His.+--Neglect in glorifying and praising God is a great sin.--_Perkins._

Ver. 24. _God glorified in Good Men._--We are taught to honour God in man and man in God. We are taught to avoid, on the one hand, all creature idolatry, and, on the other, that cynical severity, or ungrateful indifference to the Author of all good in man, which undervalues or neglects the excellencies which ought to be held up to admiration that they may be imitated by ourselves and others. Each of these extremes robs God of His just revenue of grateful praise. In what does creature idolatry consist but in honouring and trusting in the natural and acquired excellencies of creatures to the exclusion of God? But is there then no wisdom, no might, no excellence, in man? As it were absurd to deny this, it would be affectation to pretend to overlook it. Admire and deny not this wisdom, acknowledge this efficiency, and affect not to lower its estimate; only glorify God who worketh all in all. If He has chosen any of them to be more eminently His instruments for the furtherance of His purposes of mercy to mankind, He does it by virtue of His sovereignty. If He continues their useful lives, whilst you have their light rejoice in the light and glorify Him from whom it comes as its original and source; and when He chooses to quench these stars of His right hand in the darkness of death, still glorify Him. As to us, this is to remind us of our dependence on Him, who appointed their orbit and invested them with their different degrees of glory; and as to them, though their lustre fades from these visible skies, it is that it may be rekindled in superior glory in the kingdom of their Father.--_R. Watson._

* * * * * * * *

+CHAPTER II.+

_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._

Ver. 1. +Then fourteen years after.+--From Paul's conversion inclusive. +I went again to Jerusalem.+--The same visit referred to in Acts xv., when the council of the apostles and Church decided that Gentile Christians need not be circumcised.

Ver. 2. +I went up by revelation.+--Quite consistent with the fact that he was sent as a deputy from the Church at Antioch (Acts xv. 2). The revelation suggested to him that this deputation was the wisest course. +Communicated privately to them which were of reputation.+--It was necessary that the Jerusalem apostles should know beforehand that the Gospel Paul preached to the Gentiles was the same as theirs, and had received Divine confirmation in the results it wrought on the Gentile converts.

Ver. 3. +Neither Titus+ [not even Titus], +being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.+--The apostles, constrained by the firmness of Paul and Barnabas, did not compel or insist on his being circumcised. Thus they virtually sanctioned Paul's course among the Gentiles, and admitted his independence as an apostle. To have insisted on _Jewish_ usages for _Gentile_ converts would have been to make them essential parts of Christianity.

Ver. 4. +False brethren unawares+ [in an underhand manner] +brought in privily to spy out.+--As foes in the guise of friends, wishing to destroy and rob us of our liberty--from the yoke of the ceremonial law.

Ver. 5. +To whom we gave place by subjection not for an hour.+--We would willingly have yielded for love, if no principle was at issue, but not in the way of subjection. Truth precise, unaccommodating, abandons nothing that belongs to itself, admits nothing that is inconsistent with it (_Bengel_).

Ver. 6. +They in conference added nothing to me.+--As I did not by conference impart to them aught at my conversion, so they now did not impart aught additional to me above what I already knew. Another evidence of the independence of his apostleship.

Ver. 9. +They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship.+--Recognising me as a colleague in the apostleship, and that the Gospel I preached to the Gentiles by special revelation was the same as theirs.

Ver. 10. +Remember the poor.+--Of the Jewish Christians in Judea then distressed. Paul's past care for their poor prompted this request. His subsequent zeal in the same cause was the answer to their appeal (Acts. xi. 29, 30; Rom. xv. 26, 27; 1 Cor. xvi. 3; 2 Cor. ix. 1; Acts xxiv. 17).

Ver. 11. +When Peter was come to Antioch I withstood him to the face.+--The strongest proof of the independence of his apostleship in relation to the other apostles, and an unanswerable argument against the Romish dogma of the supremacy of St. Peter.

Ver. 13. +The other Jews dissembled likewise with him.+--The question was not whether Gentiles were admissible to the Christian covenant without becoming circumcised, but whether the Gentile Christians were to be admitted to social intercourse with the Jewish Christians without conforming to the Jewish institution. It was not a question of liberty and of bearing with others' infirmities, but one affecting the essence of the Gospel, whether the Gentiles are to be virtually compelled to live as do the Jews in order to be justified.

Ver. 14. +Walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel.+--Which teaches that justification by legal works and observances is inconsistent with redemption by Christ. Paul alone here maintained the truth against Judaism, as afterwards against heathenism (2 Tim. iv. 16, 17).

Ver. 17. +Is therefore Christ the minister of sin?+--Thus to be justified by Christ it was necessary to sink to the level of Gentiles--to become sinners, in fact. But are we not thus making Christ a minister of sin? Away with the profane thought! No; the guilt is not in abandoning the law, but in seeking it again when abandoned. Thus, and thus alone, we convict ourselves of transgression (_Lightfoot_).

Ver. 19. +I through the law am dead to the law.+--By believing union to Christ in His death we, being considered dead with Him, are severed from the law's past power over us.

Ver. 21. +If righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.+--Died needlessly, without just cause. Christ's having died shows that the law has no power to justify us, for if the law can justify or make us righteous, the death of Christ is superfluous.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-9.

_Confirmatory Proofs of a Divine Call--_

+I. Seen in a prudent consultation with the acknowledged leaders of the church+ (vers. 1, 2).--The men of reputation referred to in these verses are not so called by way of irony, but because of their recognised authority in the mother Church. Paul was not summoned to Jerusalem, but Divinely directed to take the journey. Neither his teaching nor his office was called in question, nor did he fear the most searching inquiry into his commission. Conscious of his Divine call, he claimed equality of status with the rest of the apostles and explained to them and to the Church the principles and methods of the Gospel he preached. He had nothing to fear, whatever might be the judgment of the Church leaders in Jerusalem. He expected from them nothing but sympathy and encouragement in his work, and he hailed with joy the opportunity of sharing the counsel of men as interested as himself in the success of the Gospel. With his God-given convictions and views, it was impossible for him to meet the apostles on any other ground than that of perfect equality.

+II. Seen in a prompt and stern refusal to compromise principle+ (vers. 3-5).--The object of Paul's visit to Jerusalem was to discuss a vital principle of the Gospel--the right of the Gentiles to the privileges of the Gospel without observing the works of the Jewish law. A misunderstanding at that critical moment might have imperilled the liberty of the Gospel. The presence of Barnabas and Titus was significant--the one a pure Jew, a man of gentle disposition and generous impulse; and the other a Gentile convert, representing the world of the uncircumcised. It is to the credit of the Church leaders at Jerusalem that, with their strong Jewish prejudices, they admitted that the legal rite of circumcision must not be imposed on Gentile converts. They were so convinced that this was the will of God, and that He had already sanctioned this an essential feature of the Gospel, that they dared do no other. An attempt was made, not by the apostles, but by certain "false brethren," to insist that Titus should be circumcised; but this was promptly and stoutly opposed. A concession on this point would have been fatal to the universality of the Gospel--the whole Gentile world would have been trammelled with the bondage of legal ceremonies. It was then that the great battle of Christian liberty was fought and won. The victory was another testimony of the validity and power of the Divine commission with which Paul was entrusted.

+III. Seen in the inability of the wisest leaders to add anything to the Divine authority.+--"But of these who seemed to be somewhat . . . in conference added nothing to me" (ver. 6). When Paul was called to the apostleship he "conferred not with flesh and blood"; now he affirms that flesh and blood did not confer anything on him. In conference and debate with the chiefs of the Church he showed himself their equal, and on the great essentials of the Gospel he was in perfect agreement with them. Though Paul is too modest to say it, so far from his learning anything from them, they were more likely to learn something from him, especially as to the wider scope of the Gospel. "In doctrine Paul holds the primacy in the band of the apostles. While all were inspired by the Spirit of Christ, the Gentile apostle was in many ways a more richly furnished man than any of the rest. The Paulinism of Peter's first epistle goes to show that the debt was on the other side. Their earlier privileges and priceless store of recollections of all that Jesus did and taught were matched on Paul's side by a penetrating logic, a breadth and force of intellect applied to the facts of revelation, and a burning intensity of spirit which in their combination was unique. The Pauline teaching, as it appears in the New Testament, bears in the highest degree the marks of original genius, the stamp of a mind whose inspiration is its own" (_Findlay_).

+IV. Seen in winning the recognition of a special mission and of equality in the apostleship.+--"They saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, . . . and perceived the grace that was given unto me," etc. (vers. 7-9). Paul won the confidence and admiration of his fellow-apostles. They listened with candour and ever-deepening interest to his explanations, and, whatever might have been their prejudices, they frankly acknowledged his Divine commission. What a memorable day was that when James, Peter, John, and Paul met face to face! "Amongst them they have virtually made the New Testament and the Christian Church. They represent the four sides of the one foundation of the City of God. Of the evangelists, Matthew holds affinity with James; Mark with Peter; and Luke with Paul. James clings to the past and embodies the transition from Mosaism to Christianity. Peter is the man of the present, quick in thought and action, eager, buoyant, susceptible. Paul holds the future in his grasp and schools the unborn nations. John gathers present, past, and future into one, lifting us into the region of eternal life and love."

+Lessons.+--_A Divine call._--1. _Confers the necessary qualifications to carry out its mission._ 2. _Demands courage and fidelity._ 3. _Compels public recognition._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 1, 2. _Truth its Own Evidence._--1. Though the minister of Jesus Christ is not to depend upon the approbation of others for confirmation of his doctrine, as if he were uncertain before their testimony is added, yet he is not to be so self-willed as to misregard what others judge or think, but ought to demit himself so far as to give a friendly account of the doctrine, that mistakes arising from misinformation may be removed and the joint consent of others to the truth obtained. 2. As there are always some in the Church of God who have deservedly more reputation than others, so Christian prudence will teach a man to be so far from striving against such that he will endeavour, by giving due respect to them, to receive approbation from such, that he may be in a better capacity to do good to others. 3. Nothing marreth the success of the Gospel more than difference of judgments and strifes and debates among eminent preachers, many resolving to believe nothing till preachers agree among themselves, and many stumbling-blocks are cast before people by the venting of passions, jealousies, animosities, and revenge. Paul endeavoured to get the consent of the other apostles to the doctrines preached by him, lest by the calumnies of his adversaries his preaching should be useless.--_Fergusson._

Vers. 3-5. _The Power of Truth._

+I. Superior to ceremonial observances+ (ver. 3).

+II. Detects and exposes the wiliest tactics of false teachers+
(ver. 4).

+III. Is uncompromising in its attitude towards the subtlest errors+
(ver. 5).

Vers. 4, 5. _False Brethren and their Treatment._

+I. The Church of God on earth, even at the best, hath wicked men and hypocrites in it.+

+II. They who teach Christ, joining some other thing with Him in the cause of salvation, are said to creep in,+ because in appearance they maintain Christ; yet because they add something to Christ, they neither enter nor continue in the true Church with any good warrant from God.

+III. No man can set down the precise time when errors had their beginning,+ for the authors thereof enter in secretly, not observed of men.

+IV. The false brethren urged circumcision to bring the converts+ +into bondage.+--They that be of a corporation stand for their liberties. What a shame it is that men should love bondage and neglect the spiritual liberty which they have by Christ.

+V. The false brethren urged the apostles to use circumcision but once;+ but they would not yield so much as once, because their act would have tended to the prejudice of Christian liberty in all places. Julian, sitting in a chair of state, gave gold to his soldiers one by one, commanding them to cast frankincense so much as a grain into the fire that lay upon a heathenish altar. Christian soldiers refused to do it, and they which had not refused afterwards recalled their act and willingly suffered death. We are not to yield the least part of the truth of the Gospel. This truth is more precious than the whole world beside. There is no halting between two religions.

+VI. The apostles gave no place by way of subjection.+--They willingly suffered their doctrine to be tried, yet they were not bound to subjection. We are to give place by meek and patient bearing of that which we cannot mend, but we are not to give place by subjection.

+VII. If circumcision be made a necessary cause of salvation, the truth of the Gospel does not continue,+ and falsehood comes in the room.--_Perkins._

Ver. 4. _A Spy._--Captain Turner Ashby was a young officer in the Confederate army, the idol of the troops for his general bravery, but especially for his cleverness in gathering information of the enemy. On one occasion he dressed himself in a farmer's suit of homespun that he borrowed and hired a plough-horse to personate a rustic horse-doctor. With his saddlebags full of some remedy for spavin or ringbone, he went to Chambersburg, and returned in the night with an immense amount of information. His career was one full of romantic episode.

Ver. 5. _Fidelity to Truth._--1. Though much may be done for composing Church differences by using meekness and forbearance towards those who oppose themselves, yet we are not for peace' sake to quit the least part of truth. Thus Paul, who for lawful ceding became all things to all men, would not give place by way of subjection, so as to yield the cause to the adversaries; neither would he do anything, in its own nature indifferent, that would be an evidence of yielding. 2. A minister, when called to confess and avow truth, hath not only his own peace with God and keeping of a good conscience to look to, but also the condition of his flock, who will be shaken or confirmed in the truth by his faint or bold and faithful confession. 3. It is not enough that people have the name of the Gospel among them or some truths mixed with errors; but all, and especially ministers, should endeavour to have the Gospel in purity and integrity, free from any mixture of contrary errors.--_Fergusson._

_The Truth not to be yielded._--Shortly after James I. came to the throne of England he set up a claim to all the small estates in Cumberland and Westmorland, on the plea that the _Statesmen_ were merely the tenants of the Crown. The Statesmen met, to the number of two thousand, at Ratten Heath, between Kendal and Staveley, where they came to the resolution that "they had won their lands by the sword and were able to hold them by the same." After that meeting no further claim was made to their estates on the part of the Crown.

Vers. 6-9. _Recognition of a Special Mission._

+I. By men of reputation who confessed their inability to augment
its authority+ (ver. 6).

+II. Acknowledging that the commission was distinctly Divine+ (vers.
7, 8).

+III. Confirmed by cordially admitting the messenger into the
fellowship of highest service+ (ver. 9).

Vers. 8, 9. _Divine Blessing the Highest Sanction of Ministerial Authority._--1. It is not the pains of ministers, or any virtue in the Word preached, from whence success flows, but from the effectual working of the Spirit. Paul ascribed the success both of his own and Peter's ministry to this. 2. Whom God doth call to any employment, and chiefly whom He calls to the ministry, He fitteth with gifts and abilities suitable thereto. James, Cephas, and John did not acknowledge Paul to be an apostle called by God, but on perceiving that grace and gifts, ordinary and extraordinary, were bestowed upon him. 3. We ought not to withhold our approbation, especially when it is craved, from that which by evident signs and reasons we perceive to be approved of God, though the giving of our approbation may disoblige those who pretend much friendship towards us.--_Fergusson._

_The Efficacy of the Christian Ministry._

+I. That grace or power to regenerate is not included in the Word
preached,+ as virtue to heal in a medicine. To regenerate is
the proper work of God.

+II. That grace is not inseparably annexed and tied to the Word
preached,+ for to some it is the savour of death unto death.

+III. The preaching of the Word is an external instrument of faith+
and regeneration, and the proper effect of it is to declare or
signify.

IV. The apostles at Jerusalem +acknowledged Paul to be an apostle
because he had the gifts of an apostle,+ and because his
ministry was powerful among the Gentiles.

V. As all minsters in their places are pillars, they are hereby
admonished +to be constant in the truth against all enemies
whatsoever.+

VI. As ministers are pillars, we are taught +to cleave to them and
their ministry+ at all times--in life and death.--_Perkins._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verse_ 10.

_Christianity and Poverty._

+I. Christianity has ever been the friend of the poor.+--1. _The poor who are made so by accepting Christianity._ Accepting Christ often means the loss of friends, of status, of fortune. The discovery of this result among the first Christians might have much to do in the formation of a common fund. There are many Jews and heathen to-day who are convinced of the truth of Christianity but hesitate to make a public avowal of their belief because of the apparent impossibility of gaining a livelihood and the certainty of social ostracism. Christian missionaries are not in a position to guarantee their support, nor do they wish to encourage, a system that might easily degenerate into wholesale bribery. There are converts who run all risks and deliberately accept Christ and poverty. All such the Christian Church, often at great sacrifice, does its best to befriend.

2. _The poor who are made so by unavoidable calamity._--Judea was devastated by famine in the reign of Claudius Cæsar, and the apostles promptly organised relief for the sufferers in the Jewish Churches (Acts xi. 27-30). Christianity has ever been ready to help the distressed and unfortunate. The hospitals, alms-houses, and other benevolent institutions that abound are substantial monuments of the practical benevolence of the Christian Church. Christianity is the best friend of the people.

+II. Christianity inculcates a zealous and unselfish charity.+--"Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same I also was forward [zealous] to do." Paul had already rendered noble service in this direction, and was prompted by the Spirit of the Gospel to continue to do so. He was zealous in good works, though he stoutly denied any merit in them to justify the sinner. His first concern was to help the _Jewish_ poor, though many of them impugned his apostolic authority and strove to ruin his influence. As champion of the Gentiles he employed the wealth of his converts in supplying the needs of his famishing Jewish brethren. Christian charity is superior to the jealousies of sects and parties, and even to personal insult and wrong. Behind the hand of the generous alms-giver is the heart of love.

+III. Christianity elevates and enriches the poor.+--It enjoins temperance, industry, honesty, and perseverance--the practice of which has raised many from poverty to wealth. The man who has prospered should never forget the claims of the poor. It is said that a certain man dreamed that the Saviour appeared to him and upbraided him with giving so little to His cause. The man replied, "I can't afford it." "Very well," said the Saviour; "let it be so. But do you remember, that when that business panic happened, how you prayed to Me to keep you out of difficulties? and I heard your prayer and tided you over the trouble. And do you remember also, when your little child was sick, how you prayed that her life might be spared, and again I heard your prayer and restored her? But now let it be an understanding between us that henceforth when you are in trouble I do nothing for you, seeing you can't afford to help Me." The man's conscience was touched, and he exclaimed, "Lord, take what I have; it is Thine."

+Lessons.+--1. _Christianity is the source of the highest philanthropy._ 2. _Is the unfailing hope and comfort of the poor._ 3. _Has achieved its greatest triumphs among the poor._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 10. _Remember the Poor._

I. +The Church of Jerusalem was in extreme poverty.+--1. Because the poorer sort received the Gospel. 2. Because the richer were deprived of their riches for their profession of the name of Christ.

II. It is the office of pastors and teachers, not only to preach and dispense the Word, but also +to have care of the poor.+

III. +Satisfaction, recompense, and restitution are the way to life+ by the appointment of God.--1. He must restore who is the cause of any wrong or loss to others and all that are accessory. 2. Restitution is to be made to him that is wronged and bears the loss if he be known and alive; if he be dead, to his heirs; if all be dead, to the poor. 3. The things to be restored are those which are of us unjustly received or detained, either known to us or unknown. 4. As to the order of restitution, things certain must first be restored, and things uncertain after.

IV. It is not enough for us to give good words and wish well, but we must in our places and calling +do our endeavour that relief may be sealed to our poor.+--1. The charge was great to maintain the altar of the Lord in the Old Testament; the poor come in the room of the altar. 2. The poor represent the person of Christ. 3. Compassion in us is a pledge or an impression of the mercy that is in God towards us, and by it we may know or feel in ourselves that mercy belongs unto us. The observing of the commandment of relief is the enriching of us all.--_Perkins._

_Christian Duty to the Poor._--1. It is frequently the lot of those who are rich in grace to be poor in the things of the present life, and driven into such straits as to be forced to live upon some charitable supply from others, God seeing it convenient hereby to wean them from worldly contentments that heaven may be more longed after and more sweet when it comes. 2. Though those who are our own poor, within the bounds where we live, are chiefly to be relieved by us, yet in cases of extremity the poor who live remote from us are also to be supplied. 3. Ministers ought to press upon the people, not only duties which are easy and cost them nought, but also those that are burdensome and expensive, especially that they would willingly give of those things they enjoy for the supply of others who want.--_Fergusson._

_The Poor Representative of Christ._--One evening at supper, when one of the boys had said the grace, "Come, Lord Jesus, be our Guest, and bless what Thou hast provided," a little fellow looked up and said, "Do tell me why the Lord Jesus never comes. We ask Him every day to sit with us, and He never comes!" "Dear child, only believe, and you may be sure He will come, for He does not despise our invitation." "I shall set a seat," said the little fellow, and just then there was a knock at the door. A poor frozen apprentice entered, begging a night's lodging. He was made welcome, the chair stood empty for him, every child wanted him to have his plate, and one was lamenting that his bed was too small for the stranger, who was quite touched by such uncommon attentions. The little one had been thinking hard all the time. "Jesus could not come, and so He sent this poor man in His place: is that it?" "Yes, dear child; that is just it. Every piece of bread and every drink of water that we give to the poor, or the sick, or the prisoners for Jesus' sake, we give to Him."--_Memoir of John Falk._

_Remembrance of the Poor recommended._

+I. The nature of the assertion.+--1. Remember the work of the poor. 2. The deprivations of the poor. 3. Our remembrance of the poor should be founded on a personal acquaintance with their circumstances. "Indeed, sir," said a person of large property, "I am a very compassionate man; but to tell you the truth, I do not know any person in want." He kept aloof from the poor.

+II. Obligations to comply with the recommendation.+--1. The dictates of humanity require it. 2. The demands of duty. 3. The rights of justice. 4. The claims of interest.

+III. Answer objections.+--Such as: 1. My circumstances are impoverished and I have nothing to spare. 2. Charity must begin at home. 3. I have a right to do what I will with my own. 4. The poor do not deserve to be remembered.--_Beta._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 11-21.

_A Fearless Defence of Fundamental Truth--_

+I. Does not hesitate to impeach a distinguished Church dignitary of inconsistency.+--"But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed," etc. (vers. 11-14). Peter had been accustomed to mingle with the Gentile converts on the ground of perfect social equality. Influenced by the fierce bigots of legalism, who insinuated that the circumcised occupied a superior status to the uncircumcised, he withdrew from the social circle of the Gentiles and confined himself to that of his Jewish brethren. The pliability of his impulsive nature led him into this as into other mistakes. To create a social distinction between Jew and Gentile was to undermine the Gospel. Paul saw at a glance the threatened peril, and it needed all his tact and courage to confront it. Though it meant a public impeachment of the sincerity and consistency of one of the most venerated apostles, the champion of the Gentiles did not hesitate. Alone, even Barnabas having for the time being deserted him, he stood up boldly for the truth of the Gospel.

+II. Is the opportunity for an authoritative restatement of the truth imperilled+ (vers. 15-18).--In these verses the apostle again sets forth the fundamental doctrine of justification by faith, without the works of the law. The Judaisers contended that to renounce legal righteousness was in effect to promote sin--to make Christ the minister of sin (ver. 17). Paul retorts the charge on those who made it and showed that they promote sin who set up legal righteousness again (ver. 18). The reproach of the Judaisers was in reality the same that is urged against evangelical doctrine still--that it is _immoral,_ placing the virtuous and vicious in the common category of sinners (_Findlay_). "The complaint was this," says Calvin,--"Has Christ therefore come to take away from us the righteousness of the law, to make us polluted who were holy? Nay, Paul says--he repels the blasphemy with detestation. For Christ did not introduce sin but revealed it. He did not rob them of righteousness, but of the false show thereof."

+III. Is made more impressive by showing the effect of the truth on personal experience+ (vers. 19-21).--In these words the apostle indicates that his own deliverance from the law was effected by being dead to the law--being crucified with Christ; and that his own spiritual life was originated and sustained by a living faith in a loving and self-sacrificing Christ. "Legalism is fatal to the spiritual life in man. Whilst it clouds the Divine character, it dwarfs and petrifies the human. What becomes of the sublime mystery of the life hid with Christ in God, if its existence is made contingent on circumcision and ritual performance? To men who put meat and drink on a level with righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, or in their intercourse with fellow-Christians set points of ceremony above justice, mercy, and faith, the very idea of a spiritual kingdom of God is wanting. The religion of Jesus and of Paul regenerates the heart, and from that centre regulates and hallows the whole ongoing of life. Legalism guards the mouth, the hands, the senses, and imagines that through these it can drill the man into the Divine order. The latter theory makes religion a mechanical system; the former conceives it as an inward, organic life."

+Lessons.+--1. _The leaven of error is not easily suppressed._ 2. _True religion has never lacked a race of brave defenders._ 3. _Experimental religion is the best guarantee of its permanence._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 11-13. _Christian Consistency_--

+I. May be spoilt by yielding to an unworthy fear+ (ver. 12).

+II. Should be strictly maintained for the sake of others+ (ver. 13).

+III. Should be defended with intrepid courage+ (ver. 11).

Ver. 11. _An Astute Defender of the Faith._

+I. Here we have an example of true virtue,+ in St. Paul resisting evil to the utmost of his power. In like manner must every one of us resist evil, first in himself and then in them that appertain to him.

+II. An example of boldness and liberty in reproving sin.+--1. This liberty in reproving is not the fruit of a bold and rash disposition, but is the fruit of God's Spirit, and is so to be acknowledged. 2. This liberty is to be ordered by a sound mind whereby we are able to give a good account of our reproofs, both for the matter and manner of them. 3. Our admonitions must be seasoned and tempered with love.

+III. An example of an ingenuous and honest mind.+--When Paul sees Peter he reproves him to the face. Contrary to this is the common practice in backbiting, whispering, and tale-bearing, whereby it comes to pass that when a man is in fault every man knows it save he who is in fault. We see that excellent men, even the chief apostles, are subject to err and be deceived.--_Perkins._