erman Preached in Union Church on Sunda; September 30, by the Rev. E.
Horst-Smith tam made all things t0.all men that 1 might by all weans saco rohobly al appeared to teach the direct opposite of this une, & text which spoke of Paul's inflexible determination to rule out certain adapt (ations of his message that had tarved to his. mind, Me ree ive vould not only does he el being an evangelist, he gives for the privilege. "The task is indeed a bondage bat it is beeter than freedom, for he coned highest honour ever conferred upon mortal man. "Unto me who am less than the Toast of all saints Cor me tw terme of etwish theology, neither soul he Gry to please the Greeks sophy. These: were adaptations for Tyau tern of Greek phil.
might indeed ber mai solutely re to conegntrate upon his own clear, distinctive mesange: Twas determined Know nothing among you, save Jesus, and Him crueltied," And all this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." The message is so glorious that he wishes every one to hear it, Let ux got that firmly fixed in our minds. Refore we give our thought to the flexibility of method of which he speaks, and lest we should mistake wat flexibility for slackness, let us remember that the purpose very definitely: determines that any means he might sare the time we were speaking of these _nnother part of our mind, the knowledge that in the very same lette And moreover shall we not there was to be no cass adapt of the message its: If, The St. Paul's other statement about Leing made all things to all mien," was te be found, The one text! spoke of a rigid unbending purpose, the other apparently of an ily flexible adaptation. How shall we explain the presence of two such contrasted decisions in one letter?
Wo shall partly answer that question if we native in our text A Unifying Purpose may he ax well to notice fence that with all its bility, our text yet contains a limit. "Rend the qualifying might by all: means You seo the phrase to all men" has gained curveney part from its setting. Tt more than Wkely thet most of the people who use it are not aware of its context. Tt is the kind of expression that people quote without knowing quite whom they are quoting. I ix at least possible that. the coining of the phrase ix credited by some to Shakespeare ther than to St, Paul, for in a way it sounds more like' the former than the latter. Being "all things to all men" means to most people to be a Molly good fellow: the most likely place in Shanghai to find xuch sv nian would be near the centre of the longest bar in the world." Ie would he what is culled good mixer." But the phrase Jocks a Tittle different in its own en to it things to all men, that 1 might by all mowns sare rome." Thus the poss.hle al-optations are within clearly defined limits and ave ce-ordinated by relation to a great unifying. purpose.
Let us think for a little while of that purpose: "that T might by all means save some." To save men ix the all-consuming passion of St Paul. We regards men asin ter and in deep necil of sale ti He has looked into his own changesbility. of thy message. All that we said sometime azo and though our texts on the surface seem x0 different, we need not un: say anything. Seeing St Paul's purpose is to ye then is it not clear he needs a message of salvation. For that purpose he has found Jewish theology inadequate. He knew that theology thoroughly. Me had studied it under the best teachers. He had followed it with an assiduity and zeal rarely equalled and never excelled. But it was the goxpe! that had brought pence And not only was Jewish wisdom, Paul was convinced that wisdom was not a man's deepest need. There was a much deeper problem than ignorance to Wwe dealt with. He was absolutely at one with St. Peter when he said "There ix no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved." May we not well bear those con-non-Christian faiths? We believe in the eoraparative study of religion and in welcoming all the truth there by discovered, But we do not believe in the toning down of the Gospel so ax to make it indistinguishable from there ethnic faiths. The Gospel is distinct from every other faith, and in spite of all added Knowledge, we cannot better state its distinctive mark than to say that the Gospel claims to be able to sare. We believe in an digenous Cherch in every country We do rot see how we can believe im an indigenous Christiznity. The only place where Christianity indigenous is in heaven, in the heart of God. The purpose of St. Paul was to save, therefore there can he rho tanaperinge with the message of salvation. Otherwise the all. uni fying purpose will not he achieved, But once that purpose ix assured we may notice, The Fle heart and he hax looked upon the world and he has seen sin and it Let us state the has filed him with terror. He is not like the genial optimist who has ceased to have any concern hour his soul. He is quite other ho feels possible seen other t He Ienows there is evil ju the world ud he had been afraid for self, ind for others. But sin word: he has found Who is equal tu the situation, Whose grace is com mensurate with man's need, Whose lowe is stronger than sin; Who ie all sufficient." And so he has a dicated all the powers he possesses to the task of preaching thie great and grand Gospel of salvation, Me claims no credit fur it, Teen Inid pen He can dono other.
ity is laid upon me; T preach not the The appalling needs of ions come later. That is, I think, the main difference between and order, license It is only after the purpose is firn fixed, and the message surely graspced, that it is safe to speak of ad-optations. But once let these things which cannot be held, thi method are possi see if it ix possi understand the kind of adapt St. Pat has in mind. He says: "To Jews became ae a Jem....0t to them that are under the law e under the lw; to them that are without law tas without lave: to the weak heme Tweak." Can we not sum up these things by saying that he was prepared to surrender all special privileges? There was no personal serifice that he would not make.
The adaptation that St. Paul had in mind is one that would enable him to: get inside the difficulties of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.