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CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED
Forty-One Years Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, New York, Now President of the Baptist World Alliance.
TEXT: —“For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and
him crucified.” —1 Cor. 2:2.
T is said that, leading to an Austrian
city, there is a bridge in the para
pets of which there are twelve
statues of Christ. One statue rep
resents Him as the Sower, another
as the Shepherd, another as the
Carpenter, another as the Physi
cian; others represent Him as the
Pilot, Prophet, Priest and King;
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and still others represent Him in yet other
characters. The simple-minded country people,
coming into the city in the early morning with
their produce for the market, pause and pray
before Christ the Sower. A little later, the
artisan on his w’ay to his workshop worships
Christ the Carpenter. Later still, when the
sun has scattered the mists of the morning and
flooded the earth with his supernal splendors,
the invalid creeping from the city to breathe
the fresh air of the country, presents his morn
ing prayer to Christ the Physician. Doubtless,
there is much of superstition in this worship,
but there is also a great truth. Each worships
the Christ who best interprets his own thoughts
and best supplies his peculiar wants.
It is the glory of Christ that He can be every
thing to everybody, the world over. Today I
lift before you Christ, and Him crucified. This
is the view of Christ which gives significance
and glory to all other represtations; it is the
one which so engaged the whole being of the
apostle, which captivated his imagination,
controlled his intellect, and constrained his
heart. In all the history of the race there was
not to Paul such - a life as Christ’s, and in all
the life of Christ there was no such glory as
that which gathered around His cross.
Sadly Paul leaves Athens, goes forty-five
miles, and comes to Corinth. This famous
Grecian city was situated on the isthmus which
joins Peloponnessus to the mainland of
Greece. Horace calls it “bimaris” —on two
seas. Corinth was the natural portage from
the lonian Sea on the west to the Aegean on
the east. Both the Greeks and the Romans at
tempting to join the two seas by cutting a canal
across the isthmus, but, owing to the rock
character of the country the effort was not
successful. By an ingenious contrivance gal
leys were carried across on trucks. Corinth
had two harbors, Lechaeum on the west and
Cenchrae on the east. It thus became the mart
of Asia and Europe. Its ships whitened the
seas. Foreigners crow’ded the streets. Near
the city the Isthmian games were celebrated.
These games attracted strangers from all parts
of the world. The religion of Corinth was de
basing. Venus was the principal deity, as
Diana at Ephesus, and Minerva at Athens. ‘‘ It
is not for every one to go to Corinth,” became
a proverb which merchants well understood as
referring to the debasing worship of Venus.
Old Corinth became subject to the Romans 146
B. C. For nearly one hundred years the city
lay waste. But Julius Caesar sent thither a
colony of freedmen from Rome, and soon the
Wealth, splendor, and vices of ancient Corinth
reappeared in the new city. It was to this new
city that Paul came. Corinth had been called
the “Paris of antiquity.” Wealth abounded.
Luxury held constant carnival. Vice tri
umphed. In the name of the holiest instincts
of the soul the foulest sins of the body were
committed.
To such a city as this Paul came. Here he
preached. Here a Chureh was formed —a
Church to which or from which Paul’s most
famous epistles were written. The gospel that
could win in Corinth can win anywhere. After
Paul had left Corinth, and while at Ephesus,
The Golden Age for October 12, 1211.
REV. ROBERT STUART MacARTHUR, D.D., LL. D.
intelligence came to him concerning the Corin
thian Church from the household of the pious
Chloe, and also from an epistle which the Cor
inthians had addressed to him. The painful
condition of things thus communicated to him,
led him to write this epistle. In this letter he
opens to us his heart. He is a hard-hearted
man who can read these words without emo
tion. As we study them we can feel across
the continents and the centuries the throb of
that great heart which beat in the bosom of
the greatest apostle. Our theme this hour is
Paul’s determination at Corinth.
Characteristics of Paul’s Determination.
1. Let us, in the first place, notice some of
its characteristics. It was a deliberate deter
mination. Some have supposed that Paul was
disappointed alike with the methods and the
results of the work at Athens. But others
claim that his sermon there was an admirable
illustration of his own principle of being all
things to all men that he might win some to
Christ. The latter would make his determina
tion at Corinth refer rather to his purpose to
discard all mere rhetorical finish and oratori
cal art. It is also to be borne in mind that his
sermon at Athens was never completed. He
had just begun to speak of the resurrection and
the judgment when the interruption came. To
say that he made a mistake at Athens involves
difficult question of inspiration. No one
is warranted in making this statement. Nev
ertheless, it seems to me that there is in the
text an undertone which suggests a decided
contrast between the method pursued at
Athens and that now determined upon at Cor
rinth.
It was also a courageous determination.
Paul well knew the fondness of the Greeks for
a finished rhetoric and a graceful elocution;
he also knew their love for philosophical spec
ulations. He gives us in some of his epistles
indications of his own natural fondness for
abstruse and metaphysical discussions. He
well knew that such discussions would attract
the attention and awaken the enthusiasm of
his audience. On the other hand, he knew that
his chosen theme would expose him to the con
tempt and derision of his captious hearers.
Still, he had the courage of his convictions.
Addressing poets, orators and philosophers, he
discoursed not of poetry, or oratory, or philos
ophy. It is true that it was Athens which was
called “the eye of Greece, mother of arts and
eloquence,” and that Corinth was especially
noted as a great mercantile city. Still, Cicero
calls Corinth, because of her intellectual at
tainments, “the light of all Greece.” Paul knew
how a Jew would be despised by the Greeks.
Physically and mentally, they were Pharisees;
they despised all others as barbarians. They
were the favored sons of sunny Greece; and
Paul comes to speak to them of a Jew who was
crucified by His countrymen as a felon. I tell
you, friends, that was grit, that was grace, that
was pluck, that was piety.
We still speak of the offence of the cross;
but we oftener speak of its glory. How its
meaning has changed since Paul preached at
Corinth! Then it was to his hearers what the
gibbet or the gallows would be to an audience
of today. Behold the transformation! Poetry
with unfading garlands now decks the cross;
sculpture honors it; architecture, in noblest
cathedral, copies its form; painting sits before
it until its heavenly light illumines the can
vas; genius, in every department of thought
and activity, has found its highest glory in
placing the diadem on the brow of the Cruci
fied. Today many of you bear the image of
Christ and Him crucified in your deepest souls.
You have just sung,
“In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o’er the wrecks of time.”
That song expresses the deepest joy and the
highest glory of millions on earth and in
heaven. A man who is ashamed of his Chris
tian principles is a man of whom his Christian
principles have cause to be ashamed. Oh, for
the lofty courage of Paul’s noble determina
tion !
But it was also an intelligent determination.
Paul was a student of history. He was not a
narrow man. If he was a man of one idea, as
some have said, it was an idea so broad that
•it included all true and noble ideas. He was
a cosomopolitan man. Paul would be a leader
in business today in Atlanta, or even in New
York. Great preachers are vastly more than
simply preachers. Mr. Spurgeon might have
been a great railroad man, banker, or sales
man. Had he given himself to statesmanship,
he would have been another Gladstone. Glad
stone was the foremost Christian statesman in
the world in his day; he was the uncrowned
king of Great Britain. But Spurgeon, had he
given himself to statesmanship, would have
far surpassed Gladstone. The Apostle Paul,
had he remained a Jew, might have been the
President of the Sanhedrim. Had he gone into
Roman politics, he might have reached a lofty
place in the world empire of Rome. The truth
that flashed upon him as he journeyed toward:
Damascus enabled him to interpret the Old Tes
tament in the light of *the cross. He saw that
all the ways of God’s revelation converged to
ward and met in the cross. He saw that if you
take it away, the Old Testament is meaning
less. He saw that the cross is the center of
the Bible. It is more, and thoughtful men in
our day are beginning to recognize the fact.
It is the pivotal point around which all the
events of the world’s history revolve. “All
the light of secular as well as sacred story
gather round its head sublime.” All the cen
turies before Christ’s coming prepared for
that coming; all the centuries since expand and
illustrate the significance of His advent. Christ
is king. All events of history previous to His
death converged toward the cross; all events
since, have diverged from it. The cross stood
at the confluence of three streams of civiliza
tion.
Well might Paul determine as he did. His
decision heightens our admiration for the clear
ness of his intellect as well as the tenderness
of his heart. I ask no favors for him. Judge
him in the clear light of this nineteenth cen
tury. His determination will bear the test.
He was a man of brains; he had that most un
common kind of sense which we call common
sense; he was as true as brave, and as brave
as true. Come on, ye philosophers of history,
will ye measure swords with this man? We
may say of the noble Paul what Dr. Schaff says
of the great Neander: He was “a child in
spirit, a nan in intellect, a giant in learning,
and a saint in piety.” How the great God who
sitteth in the heavens must laugh at the weak
ness and wickedness of men in denying His
presence and opposing His power in the world
He has made. .
The Meaning of Paul’s Determination.
2. Notice, in the second place, the meaning
of Paul’s determination. Can we get the sweet
kernel out of his stirring words? Christ’s
matchless Person and redemptive work were
Paul’s theme as here expressed. Let us look
more closely.
He preached the humanity of Christ. By
the mystery of the incarnation Jesus Christ be
came the Son of man. He had to assume the
nature which He came to redeem. He said of
Himself, “a body has Thou prepared me,”
(Continued on Page 14.)