d
according to the rules of sense; but, though weighed down with care,
having made but a poor thing of the world because of that vision which
he saw that day, and now near martyrdom, he turns with a full heart to
God, and breaks into this song of thanksgiving. There are lives which
bear to be looked back upon. Are ours of that kind?

But my object is mainly to draw your attention to what seems to me a
remarkable feature in this burst of thanksgiving. And perhaps I shall
best impress the thought which it has given to me if I ask you to look,
first, at the character of the God who is glorified by Paul's salvation;
second, at the facts which glorify such a God; and, last, at the praise
which should fill the lives of those who know the facts.

I. First, then, notice the God who is glorified by Paul's salvation.

Now what strikes me as singular about this great doxology is the
characteristics, or, to use a technical word, the attributes, of the
divine nature which the Apostle selects. They are all those which
separate God from man; all those which present Him as arrayed in
majesty, apart from human weaknesses, unapproachable by human sense, and
filling a solitary throne. These are the characteristics which the
Apostle thinks receive added lustre, and are lifted to a loftier height
of 'honour and glory,' by the small fact that he, Paul, was saved from
sins as he journeyed to Damascus.

It would be easy to roll out oratorical platitudes about these specific
characteristics of the divine nature, but that would be as unprofitable
as it would be easy. All that I want to do now is just to note the force
of the epithets; and, if I can, to deepen the impression of the
remarkableness of their selection.

With regard, then, to the first of them, we at once feel that the
designation of 'the King' is unfamiliar to the New Testament. It brings
with it lofty ideas, no doubt; but it is not a name which the writers of
the New Testament, who had been taught in the school of love, and led by
a Son to the knowledge of God, are most fond of using. 'The King' has
melted into 'the Father.' But here Paul selects that more remote and
less tender name for a specific purpose. He is 'the King'--not
'_eternal_,' as our Bible renders it, but more correctly 'the King of
the Ages.' The idea intended is not so much that of unending existence
as that He moulds the epochs of the world's history, and directs the
evolution of its progress. It is the thoug