d ways. And is
there not something sublime in this demand of God that the noblest part
of man should be consecrated to Him? God reveals Himself in Christ to
our highest; and He would have us respond to His manifestations with our
highest. Nor is this the attitude of Christ only. The Apostle Paul also
honours the mind, and gives to it the supreme place as the organ of
apprehending and appropriating divine truth. Mr. Lecky brings the
serious charge against Christianity that it habitually disregards the
virtues of the intellect. If there is any truth in this statement it
refers, not to the genius of the Gospel itself, nor to the earlier
exponents of it, but rather to the Church in those centuries which
followed the conversion of Constantine. No impartial reader of St.
Paul's Epistles can aver that the apostle made a virtue of ignorance and
credulity. These documents, which are the earliest exposition of the
mind of Christ, impress us rather with the intellectual boldness of their
attempt to grapple with the greatest problems of life. Paul was
essentially a thinker; and, as Sabatier says, is to be ranked with Plato
and Aristotle, Augustine and Kant, as one of the mightiest intellectual
forces of the world. But not content with being a thinker himself, he
sought to make his converts thinkers too, and he does not hesitate to
make the utmost demand upon their reasoning faculties. He assumes a
natural capacity in man for apprehending the truth, and appeals to the
mind rather than to the emotions. The Gospel is styled by him 'the word
of truth,' and he bids men 'prove all things.' Worship is not a
meaningless ebullition of feeling or a superstitious ritual, but a form
of self-expression which is to be enlightened and guided by thought. 'I
will pray with the understanding and sing with the understanding.'

It is indeed a strong and virile Christianity which Paul and the other
apostles proclaim. It is no magic spell they seek to exert. They are
convinced that there is that in {67} the mind of man which is ready to
respond to a thoughtful Gospel. If men will only give their unprejudiced
minds to God's Word, it is able to make them 'wise unto salvation.' It
would lead us beyond the scope of this chapter to consider the peculiar
Pauline significance of faith. It is enough to say that while he does
not identify it with intellectual assent, as little does he confine it to
mere subjective assurance. It is the primary