he first-born from
the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence: for it
pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell: and (having
made peace through the blood of his cross) by him to reconcile all
things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth,
or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated, and
enemies in your minds by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, and
unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight," (Col. i. 12-22.)

Once more, when addressing _Hebrews_, he says:--

"God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past
unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, _by whom
also he made the worlds_; who, being the brightness of his glory, and
the express image of his person, and _upholding all things by the word
of his power_, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the
angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than
they," (Heb. i. 1-4.)

Could Paul, I ask, have written in such language as this, or anything
approaching to this, unless he _believed_ Christ to have been divine,
in the fullest sense of that word? But believing this with all his
heart, his whole life and preaching were consistent with such a
belief. He preached Jesus as the Person whom all men were to love and
obey as God, confide and rejoice in as in God, and to whom they were
to commit themselves, both soul and body, for time and for eternity,
as to God. What he wished others to do, he himself did. For what was
the source and strength of his life? "The life I live in the flesh, I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for
me." "I live; yet not I, Christ lives in me." "I can do all things
through Christ that strengtheneth me." What was the one object of his
holy ambition? "That I may win Christ." What was his heaven? "To be
with Christ." And after thirty years passed in His service, and after
having endured such sufferings as never fell to the lot of one man, so
far from uttering the language of disappointment or regret, as of one
whose early convictions had not stood the test of experience, but had
failed to sustain him when most needed, he thus writes, with calm
confidence and perfect peace, in his ol