EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.

PRACTICAL EXPOSITION, No. VI.

Chap. i. 10-14: "For do I now persuade men or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers."

HAVING spoken in the very strong language of the foregoing verses regarding those who preached any other gospel than that he had preached, Paul is led very properly to adduce the strong argument of his own history in defence of his position. This was necessary. It might be suggested to the minds of his readers, that he was liable to the charge of taking too much for granted as to his own authority; he therefore appealed to the evidence which they had received of his sincerity in the cause of God, and of the actual divinity of his commission.

The sense of the words-" Do I now persuade men or God?" -is slightly obscured by our authorised English version. There seems to be no force in the phrase "persuade God," neither is it pointed as applicable to Paul's argument, even if we grant that it expresses his clear meaning. The proper rendering of the apostle's language would run thus-" Do I now ingratiate myself with men or with God?" or, "Do I seek to make man my friend or God?" This is, undoubtedly, the question that is enforced by what follows; and that the original bears this sense, is evident from Acts xii. 20—“ Having made Blastus their friend;" which. rendered according to the translation of the verse before us, would be—“ Having persuaded Blastus." Paul's meaning, then, is evident. He asks triumphantly, in view of what he had been and of the change that had taken place with him, "Do I NOW ingratiate myself with men or with God? Is my conduct such that man's friendship, and not God's, appears to be my aim?" He stood upon mighty vantage-ground in proposing this question. His whole course before and after his conversion had been such as to place him beyond the suspicion of being a dependant upon the countenance of men.

But he makes his question still stronger, and asks—“ Do I SEEK TO PLEASE MEN?" Again, he could appeal to his conduct. He could ask them confidently, to consider his course so far as they knew it, and then say, not only if it was his aim, to gain the friendship of men in preference to that of God, but if he ever sought merely to please men at all. He thus puts his case before them in the strongest possible manner; and to those who could reflect on what Paul had been among them, the argument must have been overpowering. No position can

be stronger, in regard to man's motive in any course of action, than the fact, that the course he pursues will bear no possible explanation but that which is found in that very motive. Moreover, no evidence of Divine approbation can be greater than this which Paul adduces-God alone could have made one who was what he was, to be what they now knew him to be. His argument is truly worthy of the noble place it occupies in his invaluable epistle.

This

The apostle proceeds, in the 11th verse, to say, that he furnishes them with evidence. "I certify you," he says, "that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man." verse is only an amplification of the truth implied in the Questions of the preceding one. He told them that so far from wishing them to be blindly led by his mere authority, he should furnish them with undeniable evidence that the word he preached was that of the Living God. He still proceeds to amplify his statement: "For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." His allusion here is to his vision of Jesus on his way to Damascus. It was one of his qualifications as an apostle, that he had seen the risen Jesus; and thus, as an eye-witness, could declare, that Divine Justice was satisfied with his great atonement. You find him saying, in vindication of his apostleship-1 Cor. ix. 1-“ Am not I an apostle? Have I not SEEN Jesus Christ our Lord?" And in another connection he says -1 Cor. xv. 8-" And last of all he was SEEN of me also, as of one born out of due time." This is "the revelation of Jesus Christ" to which he refers, and in consequence of it, he could speak to the Galatians with all the authority of an eye-witness and commissioned apostle of the Lord. None of the false teachers who sought to undermine his influence with the Galatian Christians, could at all cope with him in this. They might boast of having come from Jerusalem, and of having been taught by the highest apostles,-all such vain-glory was extinguished, when Paul declared, and proved, that he had seen the glorified Jesus, and received his commission from his lips.

In the 13th and 14th verses, the apostle begins his train of evidence. He had challenged them to show that he courted the friendship of men, or even sought to please them. He had declared his message and his authority to be direct from Jesus, --now he required to establish his declaration with the proof. He begins with his character, previous to his conversion. It is with this alone that we have to do in our present article. He says, "Ye have heard of my conversation in times past in the Jews' religion." Probably they had heard of this for a very different purpose from that for which it is now adduced. It is not at all improbable, that the false teachers had given them this part of Paul's history, in order to lower him in the esteem

of Christians.

"He had been a reckless murderer." Well, even the wrath and murders of Paul might be pressed into the service of God. "How," he says, "beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God." What, then, could change such a man? Would it be admitted, or even supposed, that human power could subdue such a heart as that of him who was a persecutor beyond measure? Could a desire for the praises or friendship of men produce this extraordinary transformation? Alas! for the false teachers' argument, there was no smile of man to be gained by the change. The smiles of men were all on the other side. What then had changed the tiger to the lamb, and made the spirit breathe love and mercy, that had formerly breathed out "threatenings and slaughter"? It is truly a noble argument. Paul may be imagined as before the mind's eye of a hesitating Galatian convert. He appeals to the young and wavering Christian. He exposes his own awful character, and expresses his own deep disgrace,-he presents himself as the measureless persecutor and waster of the church of God. But he is transformed. Love sits enthroned in the noble aspect of his expressive countenance, and he asks the hesitating convert, Who has produced this change? Can it be man? Can it be a desire for the smile of man, when the change was produced in the certain anticipation of his deadliest frown? No. None but God can produce such a change-God manifest in the glorified Jesus. Paul thus stood before the object of his tender solicitude, as it were, new and fresh from the presence of his risen Lord.

But the apostle had yet another argument from his history previous to his conversion. He was not only a persecutor, but

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also deeply versed in the religion of his fathers. He had 'profited in the Jews' religion above many" that were his equals in other respects, and had excelled them in zeal for "the traditions of his fathers." He was trained under the careful teaching of the celebrated Gamaliel, and all that the most powerful prejudices could do to steel his mind against Jesus of Nazareth, had been done. How then had the great change taken place? As we have already seen, it had occurred in the sure expectation of his being expelled from the affections of every earthly friend. What then could bring it about? His position was firm—it must have been felt to be impregnable by every reflecting Galatian. It must have been felt to be impossible to cope with this mode of reasoning, even by the Judaising teachers themselves.

Let us, then, learn some lessons of profit from this interesting and most important argument of Paul.

"We

1. The Christian should study the friendship of God in all his exertions, never preferring the friendship of men. labour, that whether present or absent we may be accepted of

HIM." This requires no further enforcement than that which it has in the example of the apostle before us.

2. The Christian should so act, that he may be able to appeal to his conduct, as evidence, that he studies the friendship of God. Occasion does occur when we may and ought to appeal to our conduct as Christians. How fearful our situation, if we cannot appeal to this test of our sincerity. In such a case, we need not think of appealing to any other. We are most criminally helpless, as defenders of the gospel of the grace of God. Olet not my dear readers forget this lesson. Where would Paul have been, if he had not dared to appeal to his converted history?

3. All may see in this the high origin, and Divine authority, of the good news of Jesus. The tidings are, that he was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, that by the grace of God he might taste death for every man ; and that he has been crowned with glory and honour, in testimony that his atonement is accepted of God, as a full satisfaction for our sins. No tidings can equal, or compare with, these. How delightful to the soul, to hear them from an eye-witness of Jesus' glory!—a witness that sealed the testimony he bore, by the sacrifice of everything that could be dear to him in this world! The very news themselves are self-evidently Divine. They are like God in every feature of them. But here is additional and mighty evidence to confirm our gladness, when, as needy, guilty, sinners, we rejoice to hear that our God, who "is a consuming fire," is now a propitiated and most gracious Judge. Hear him on this ground of Jesus' death, to which Paul so powerfully testified: Come now, let us reason together, though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as snow." Let no reader turn aside from this peace-speaking God. Let Him be accepted on His own free terms, as Paul accepted him. The chief of sinners, he gloried only in the cross of Jesus!

J. K.

THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANS. Rom. viii. 9: "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ. he is none of his.” IN the outset of the chapter from which the above quotation is taken, the apostle proclaims a great, important, and animating truth, viz. :-that all believers in Jesus are free from condemnation; and then, to prevent presumptuous misunderstanding, he proceeds to illustrate the character of those who are in Christ Jesus, and runs a parallel betwixt those who are spiritual-redeemed by Jesus, and those who are carnal-sold under sin. The Spirit of Christ, spoken of in this passage, is the same with the Spirit of God mentioned in the first clause of the verse; and again so emphatically in the eleventh verse; from which we learn that the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of

God, mentioned in this chapter, are one and the same Spirit: therefore, it must follow, that Jesus was very God as well as very man. This Spirit dwells in believers influentially, and he gains an entrance into the sinner's heart by his testimony, this is the grand conductor by which he enters and purifies the soul. Paul makes this very plain when arguing against the legalism of the false teachers who troubled and tried to seduce the Galatian converts; he says, "This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" You will observe he argues upon the supposition that they were truly converted to God before ever they saw the false teachers, and appeals to the evidence, viz. :-their possessing the subduing, and sanctifying, and perhaps wonder-working powers of the Holy Spirit; and, as if disposed to hazard the whole issue of the controversy upon the answer, he thrusts home the question, how did ye receive it?-whether was it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Gal. ii. 2. No inquiry can possibly be more important than to ascertain whether or not we are in Christ Jesus, and the following remarks are intended to facilitate that inquiry.

1. The person who has the Spirit of Christ, is a person that has received the Spirit's testimony as a true testimony to himself. Till this is done, the Spirit and he are at variance, and "how can two walk together except they are agreed?" It is impossible that I can be a Christian and at the same time reject the very truth by which I become one. It is impossible that I can have the Spirit of Christ, and at the same time treat that Spirit's truth as if it were the devil's lie,-see 1 John v. 10. Many persons admit that the Spirit's testimony, viz.,-" That God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son," is in the Bible to believers; but as they are unbelievers, it is not true to them. If this is not true to you, fellow-sinner, before you credit it, you have got nothing to credit, and you never can make God a liar, by rejecting it, unless it is true to you, and most true altogether irrespective of your faith. It is, moreover, manifest, that faith never can create a fact-the thing you are to credit must be true to you before you can be called upon to trust it; and were it not so, you never could be guilty of the awful sin of unbelief. Every benefit derived from information which is of public importance, is received by a personal application of it as true to ourselves. Suppose the case of a province in rebellion, to which the king sends a free pardon. It is proclaimed to the whole province, without any exceptions to the contrary, but applied by each individual rebel to himself. So with the Spirit's testimony to the sinner; each must receive it as true to himself, ere ever he and the Holy Ghost can be at one.

2. The Spirit of Christ, spoken of in the passage at the head