l I
write them."

We read again in Acts xxviii. 25, R. V., "And when they agreed not among
themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken the word, '_Well
spake the Holy Ghost_ by Isaiah the prophet unto your fathers saying,
etc.' " Still again we read in 2 Sam. xxiii. 2, R. V., "The _Spirit of the
Lord spake by me_, and _His word_ was upon my tongue." Over and over again
in these passages we are told that it was the Holy Spirit who was the
speaker in the prophetic utterances and that it was His word, not theirs,
that was upon the prophet's tongue. The prophet was simply the mouth by
which the Holy Spirit spoke. As a man, that is except as the Spirit taught
him and used him, the prophet might be as fallible as other men are but
when the Spirit was upon him and he was taken up and borne along by the
Holy Spirit, he was infallible in his teachings; for his teachings in that
case were not his own, but the teachings of the Holy Spirit. When thus
borne along by the Holy Spirit it was God who was speaking and not the
prophet. For example, there can be little doubt that Paul had many
mistaken notions about many things but when he taught as an Apostle in the
Spirit's power, he was infallible--or rather the Spirit, who taught through
him was infallible and the consequent teaching was infallible--as
infallible as God Himself. We do well therefore to carefully distinguish
what Paul may have thought as a man and what he actually did teach as an
Apostle. In the Bible we have the record of what he taught as an Apostle.
There are those who think that in 1 Cor. vii. 6, 25, "But I speak this by
permission, not of commandment ... yet I give my judgment as one that hath
obtained mercy of the Lord," Paul admits that he was not sure in this case
that he had the word of the Lord. If this be the true interpretation of
the passage (which is more than doubtful) we see how careful Paul was when
he was not sure to note the fact and this gives us additional certainty in
all other passages. It is sometimes said that Paul taught in his early
ministry that the Lord would return during his lifetime, and that in this
he was, of course, mistaken. But Paul never taught anywhere that the Lord
would return in his lifetime. It is true he says in 1 Thess. iv. 17,
"_Then we which are alive and remain_, shall be caught up together with
them to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
As he was still living when he wrote the words