66 made a minister," then they who possess it must possess the knowledge of "Jesus Christ and him crucified," the knowledge of the facts and principles contained in the divine testimony concerning him. All mankind have the inward light; all mankind, therefore, must have the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the knowledge of "the word of reconciliation, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;" for the ministry of Paul, as an ambassador of Christ," was to bear to his fellow-sinners the tidings of this "word of reconciliation." Is it, then, so? Is the whole heathen world in possession of the Gospel"the very gospel which Paul preached?" Paul speaks to the Colossians of their having "heard this gospel;" and he dates its spiritual productiveness in them from "the day they heard it, and knew the grace of God in truth." Beyond all question, this refers to the preaching of those who had first brought them the glad tidings of salvation in the message of the Gospel. But, if Barclay be right, they had the Gospel before. It was no news to them. They had it in the "spiritual saving light"-" the very gospel of which Paul was made a minister." And so it is with all mankind. So that, since the Gospel which Paul preached is the Gospel which missionaries profess to preach, these heralds of the cross carry to the heathen only what they already have! On what ground can Robert Barclay, or any sober-minded man, maintain this?-Let us see. 66 66 2. "The Gospel is not a mere declaration of good things, being 'the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.'"-Here are two statements, of which it is not easy to say which is the more extraordinary-First, that the Gospel is not a mere declaration of good things; and, secondly, that this is proved from its being "the power of God unto salvation!"-Now, in the first place, I know not what else the Gospel is, than a "declaration of good things." The entire language of the Scriptures so describes it. The prophets anticipate it, as a message to be brought by divinely commissioned ambassadors:-"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." And how speak the apostles themselves? "We declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made of God unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again.-Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from * Isa. lii. 7. all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."*" And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified."† -" Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory" (or rather, hold fast) "what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, that which ye also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."-" That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life-that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. This, then, is the message, which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."§-In such terms do the apostles invariably speak of the Gospel,-as * Acts xiii. 32, 33; 38, 39. +1 Cor. ii. 1, 2. : a testimony, a message, received by them from God, with a commission to declare it to men,-as, in a word, "a declaration of good things."-And no proof of the contrary can be more extraordinary than that which Barclay adduces—namely its being affirmed to be "the power of God unto salvation." For in what connexions is it that this affirmation is found? What is it that is affirmed to be "the power of God," and 66 the power of God unto salvation?" It is the "testimony of Jesus"-the very "declaration of good things" contained in the Gospel. Thus in Rom. i. 15-17. "So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Does not the very phrase "to every one that believeth," imply that there is something believed?—and what is that but the testimony, the message, the declaration, delivered by the apostles? What that was, Paul had previously specified, in regard to the facts of it-verses 1-4. "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, (which he had promised before by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures) concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, ̧ and declared the Son of God, with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:"—and he farther specifies its leading and most essential principle,—that which peculiarly constitutes it "the power of God unto salvation"-when he says of it" For therein is the righteousness of God by faith revealed to faith ;"-phraseology, of which Barclay's anti-evangelical interpretation shall be duly noticed immediately. Thus again, in 1 Cor. i. 18; 22-24. "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but to us who are saved it is the power of God:"-" we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."-The simple testimony concerning a crucified Saviour proved the mightily efficient instrument, in accomplishing, what all the researches and theories of human wisdom, after a trial of four thousand years, had done nothing whatever to effect :For, after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching" (or the preaching of foolishness-i. e. of what was so esteemed by the wise of this world) "to save them that believe." 66 3. You may possibly think I am hardly doing Barclay justice, when I represent him as adducing the gospel's being "the power of God unto salvation" in evidence of its being, in itself, something more than "a declaration of good things." Let us hear |