they were trying to subject to the rule of their religion. As we have
said in the previous chapter, the Scriptures bear scars of all such
conflicts. The revelation was knocked into its shape in the rough-and-
tumble of an attempt to convert the world. And this is not to claim for
the Bible any difference in method of creation from that which obtains
in the shaping of any vitally effective piece of literature. The world-
shaking conceptions have always been won in profound experience. This
chapter is not written with the principles of the modern school of
pragmatism as a guide, and yet pragmatism can be so stated as to phrase
an essentially Christian doctrine that spiritual ideas result from
spiritual practices and are of worth as they prove themselves aids in
further experience. Take some of the expressions of Paul. The
fundamental fact in Paul's experience was his vision on the Damascus
road and his determination to be obedient to that vision. To make his
own view of the Christian religion attractive to those whom he was
trying to win, it became necessary for him to speak in terms of the
Judaism of his time. In fact, he could not have spoken in any other
terms, though some of his reasonings seem to us to be remote from actual
life. But when he left argument and came back to experience he was most
effective. His terribly compelling utterances are those which were born
of driving necessity. The theology started with the vision and unfolded
in obedience to the vision, "What wilt thou have me to do?" Everywhere
upon Paul's epistles there are the marks of practical compulsion. A
letter was dispatched to convince stubborn Jews in Galatia or to
persuade questioning Gentiles in Rome. Some of the profoundest phrasings
of Pauline belief were uttered first as appeals for generous collections
to starving saints.

The example of Paul as a receiver and giver of spiritual light is very
significant. Even if we should make the largest allowances to the