very process of birth. As
we read them closely, we seem to be witnessing the creation of a world
of truth, as the angels wondered to see the firmament evolving itself
out of chaos and the multitudinous earth spreading itself forth in the
light. Minute as are the details he has often to deal with, the whole
of his vast view of the truth is recalled in his treatment of every one
of them, as the whole sky is mirrored in a single drop of dew. What
could be a more impressive proof of the fecundity of his mind than the
fact that, amid the innumerable distractions of a second visit to his
Greek converts, he should have written in half a year three such books
as Romans, Galatians and Second Corinthians?

119. His Inspiration.--It was God by His Spirit who communicated this
revelation of truth to Paul. Its own greatness and divineness supply
the best proof that it could have had no other origin. But none the
less did it break in upon Paul with the joy and pain of original
thought; it came to him through his experience; it drenched and dyed
every fiber of his mind and heart; and the expression which it found in
his writings was in accordance with his peculiar genius and
circumstances.

120. The Man Revealed in his Letters.--It would be easy to suggest
compensations in the form of Paul's writings for the literary qualities
they lack. But one of these so outweighs all others that it is
sufficient by itself to justify in this case the ways of God. In no
other literary form could we, to the same extent, in the writings have
got the man. Letters are the most personal form of literature. A man
may write a treatise or a history or even a poem and hide his
personality behind it; but letters are valueless unless the writer
shows himself. Paul is constantly visible in his letters. You can
feel his heart throbbing in every chapter he ever wrote. He has
painted his own portrait--not only that of the outward man, but of his
innermost feelings--as no one else could have painted it. It is not
from Luke, admirable as is the picture drawn in the Acts of the
Apostles, that we learn what the true Paul was, but from Paul himself.
The truths he reveals are all seen embodied in the man. As there are
some preachers who are greater than their sermons, and the principal
gain of their hearers, in listening to them, is obtained in the
inspiring glimpses they obtain of a great and sanctified personality,
so the best thing in the writin