biblical critics who would cut down the number of epistles known to be
genuinely Pauline, we would have enough left to make on our minds the
impression of enormous personal activity. One passage does, indeed, tell
us of a period of months of withdrawal for reflection in Arabia. For the
most part, however, Paul's life was spent in ceaselessly going to and
fro throughout the Roman empire; even in the days of imprisonment he
seems to have been burdened with the administration of churches. It was
out of such multifarious activities that the theology of Paul was born,
and therein lies its value. No interpretation is likely to bring the
separate deliverances into anything like formal, logical consistency.
Very likely Paul was of a markedly logical frame of mind, but he did not
attempt to rid his message of contradictions in detail. The unity and
consistency are found in the fundamental life purpose to get men to
accept Jesus Christ as the Chosen of God. If Paul had ever heard that
much of his theology might be out-dated with the passage of the years,
he would probably have responded that he was perfectly willing that the
instrument should be cast aside if it had served its spiritual purpose
of bringing men to obedience to the law of God.

It is not intended to make this a book of sermons or exhortations. We
must say, however, that in a series of studies on how to understand the
Scriptures stress must be laid upon the maxim that the Scriptures can be
understood only by those who seek to recognize and obey the spirit of
life breathing from the Scriptures. Nothing could be more hopeless than
to attempt to get to the heart of Christian truth without attempting to
build that truth into life. The formal reasonings of the theologian are
no doubt of value, but they throw little light upon the essentials of
Christianity except as they deal with data which have been supplied by
Christian experience. It would, indeed, be well for any study of the
Bible to begin with a recognition of the part played by distinctly