Notes of a sermon preached Union Church on April 8, 1921
Whenever things went wrong with Paul through earthly limitations or human weakness he turned to the unfailing standard of Christ. Especially in this epistle, which he wrote in such tension of spirit his thoughts are always glancing up from the incidental to the eternal.
Tae Trine or PerriroccErs.
It appears that these Corinthians were hurt because he had not fulfilled his promise to visit them. You know the kind of people who are all alive to faults and slights, who cherish them and rub them in. Their judgement of others is based upon 'a vivid memory of their shortcomings. A humourist the other day depicted the experience of a man who at a critical point in a game of international cricket dropped a catch. All his strenuous work in the field was forgotten by the critics round the ropes, and he was held up to a censorious public as the man who dropped the catch. Finally he had to leave the country to escape his grotesque notor-Humour. as usual hits the The members of this church were focussing the failure of the apostle to keep his appointment, making it the topic of their conversation, when they might have been happy in the remembrance of all he had done for them.
Perry Minps Have Mvuca To Answer For.
And this little mindedness was characteristic of Paul's world. It is constantly reflected in these letters of long ago. Some of them are half given up to a perfectly needless defence of the apostle's motives. I don't say they were diluted in spiritual quality but they were certainly spoiled in their proportions, because the apostle's thoughts were dragged down to the level of apology, explanation and self-defence. The only, compensation is that when a deep nature is stirred, great thoughts rise to the surface. It was so with Paul, as with Christ; immortal sayings came out casually and even controversially. But—pet minds have much to answer for.
They broke the heart. of John Keats. They shadowed the life of F. W. Robertson. And how many people ave lethargic enough as to the se vices of our public men in Great Britain and America, but all agog about their mistakes and quite omniscient as to the impurity of their motives. There was a pack of these pettifoggers at the heels of Paul, and they tried his mag-unanimous heart to the utmost.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.