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of the inner circle of the Israelites. These were the inherited privileges of the Apostle.
(2) He proceeds to enumerate certain other privileges which depended on his own personal choice and activity. First : " as touching the law, a Pharisee." This was as much as to say that he attached himself to the party which was most scrupulous in its ritualistic observances. Possibly he meant to say more than this ; but this much it is quite certain he intended to affirm. Second : "as touching zeal, persecuting the Church." No man of the Jewish faith had been more determined and energetic in his opposition to the new way. Third : " as touching the righteous- ness which is in the law, found blameless." There was nothing more for him to do than he had done to make his righteousness as prescribed by the law complete. But he was careful to insert the words " which is in the law," for he had come to have a new view of righteousness, a view reaching down far deeper and rising far higher than any he had ever known till he found it in Christ. But according to his former standard and method of righteousness he was " blameless."
^ It is with the Christian life as with the block of marble out of which the artist calls the statue. The first blow of the hammer and chisel will take off a rough, rude block of marble. The next will remove similar fragments; but as the image advances to perfection, only powdered dust flies with each stroke, which is shaping the perfect conception into actual form. At the beginning there are multitudes of things which the believer recognizes that he must count loss, but afterwards he discovers renewed evidences of dissimilarity and incongruity, which must be removed if he is to be brought into the likeness of his Lord.^
^ Paul renounces not only sin, and all self-righteousness, but privileges, gifts and capacities, in order to possess himself of the supreme treasure. It is not enough that, when once you are truly converted, you have the earnest desire to have all these devoted to the service of the Lord. The desire is good, but can neither teach the way nor give the strength to do it acceptably. Incalculable harm has been done to the deeper spirituality of the Church by the idea that when once we are God's children the using of our gifts in His service follows as a matter of course. No ; for this there is indeed needed very special grace. And the way in which the grace comes is again that of sacrifice and
1 S. H. Tyng.
3i8 THE EXCELLENT EXCHANGE
surrender. When Christ has accepted them, and set His stamp upon them, we receive them back, to hold them as His property, to wait on Him for the grace to use them aright.^
2. Now, the things that Paul renounced were not without intrinsic value. There is something remarkable in the way in which the Apostle refers to the past, and the respectful manner in which he speaks of the faith of his fathers, and of his youth. It is often a sign rather of servility than of independence, when men vilify their former selves. The Apostle had not renounced Judaism in any moment of passion, or in any prejudice of novelty. Strong convictions had forced him out of his old belief. He had emerged into a faith purer and far more satisfying. But there were memories connected with the fulfilled dispensation which he would not willingly let die. There were phases of his own inner life there. For long years Judaism had been to him his only interpreter of the Divine, the only thing that met a religious instinct active beyond that of ordinary men. The grounds of trust which he now found to be insufficient had been the halting- places of his soul in its progress from the delusive to the abiding, from the shadowy to the true. He could not forget that there hung around the system he had abandoned an ancient and traditional glow. It was of God's own architecture ; the pattern and its gorgeous ceremonial had been given by Himself in the mount ; all its furniture spoke of Him in sensuous manifestation and magnificent appeal. His breath had quivered upon the lips of its prophets, and had lashed its seers into their sacred frenzy. He was in its temple service, and in its holy of holies; amid shapes of heavenly sculpture, the light of His presence ever rested in merciful repose. How could the Apostle assail it with wanton outrage or flippant sarcasm ? True, it had fulfilled its mission, and now that the age of spirituality and power had come, it was no longer needed ; but the halo was yet upon its brow and, like the light which lingers above the horizon long after the setting of the sun, there shone about it a dim but heavenly splendour. While, however, the Apostle was not slow to confess that there was glorv ' in that which was to be done away, he was equally bold in af&rming its absolute worthlessness in comparison with the yet ^ A. Murray; Abide in Christ, 115.
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greater glory of that which remained — " What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ."