the Pauline mystery. Another usual view is that "the mystery par excellence has a special reference to the Gentiles, that in fact it is nothing less than the inclusion of the Gentiles as well as the Jews in a common hope in Christ."1 Of course this was one of the chief features of Paul's ministry, and he speaks of it in close connection with his great secret; but it is not that secret itself. It is the part of the great divine plan which is specially given to him to disclose to the world, but it is not the pearl of great price. This I shall try to show by considering the passages in which the great mystery is mentioned.

The most important of these, in the Epistles of the second group, is 1 Cor. ii. 1-10. There Paul sets forth how he had proclaimed among them the mystery of God. This mystery, he says, was not known to the rulers of the world, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the glorious Lord of the Christian faith. But Paul knew it, and he set it forth, not in the words of an enticing theosophy or gnôsis, but in the simplest terms. It would seem that some Christian teacher, perhaps Apollos, had been setting forth the Christian faith in terms of a philosophy like that of Alexandria. If the mystery could have been thus reached, it would not, Paul implies, have remained unknown to the rulers of the world. A wisdom of a more real and practical kind is revealed by the Spirit of God, and leads those who accept it not to crucify, but to adore the crucified.

These words will not apply to any such doctrine

1 Armitage Robinson, Commentary on Ephesians, p. 238.

as the opening of the Church to the Gentiles. The mystery of which Paul speaks is a saving and renovating relation to the crucified Saviour, a perception of what he was to the Church. It stands in no contrast to a real and heavenly wisdom; but it has no relation to the wisdom of the world.

There is another important passage in the last verses of the Roman Epistle. Here, however, the interpretation is not easy; and the English revised version is scarcely intelligible. It runs, "Now to him that is able to stablish you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but is now manifested..

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The version of Sanday and Headlam1 is clearer: According to the Gospel that I proclaim, the preaching which announces Jesus the Messiah; that preaching in which God's eternal purpose, the mystery of his working, kept silent since the world began, has been revealed, a purpose which the prophets of old foretold, which has been preached now by God's express command, which announces to all the Gentiles the message of obedience in faith." The only objection to this version which I would venture to raise is that preaching which announces Jesus the Messiah" does not give the force of κήρυγμα Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, since it implies that Paul's special mission was to proclaim the Messiahship of Jesus. To Paul "my message and the proclamation of Jesus Christ" went far beyond the mere assertion of the Messiahship, to the proclamation

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1 Commentary on Romans, p. 432.

of general salvation through Jesus Christ. It is, in fact, this salvation which is here spoken of as not only the substance of Paul's preaching, but a secret of God, hidden from men of the past, hinted at by the prophets, and now by the Spirit revealed to Paul and to all Christians.

Here, no doubt, strong emphasis is laid on the fact that salvation is offered to Gentile as well as to Jew. But that fact is not primary. The essential point is that God had of old planned the redemption of men in Jesus Christ, and partly revealed that intention by the prophets; but now openly proclaimed it through the preaching of Paul, as a way of life to all who should accept it and show their acceptance by practical life. This is the great mystery, hidden in the past, not to be reached by human wisdom, but now revealed.

It has been disputed whether this passage is authentic and whether it is rightly placed. There seems good reason for the supposition that the last chapter of Romans, full of greetings to old friends, must have been addressed rather to the Church at Ephesus than to that at Rome. And the sense of the passage before us belongs rather to the third than to the second group of Epistles. To these we next turn.

In the beginning of the Colossian Epistle we find, first (i. 27), the phrase "God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." A little later comes the phrase "that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.”

In the first passage "Christ in you, the hope of glory," is identified with the great mystery which God has revealed.1 That mystery, the great secret treasure of the Church, is the indwelling of Christ, giving an earnest of glory to come, an indwelling which belongs alike to Jew and to Greek, who are in Christ one. The second passage asserts that in this unity with Christ lies a wisdom greater than that of the world, a knowledge or gnôsis which brings salvation. In another passage of the same Epistle (iv. 3) the Apostle asks for prayer that ways may be opened to him for the proclamation of the mystery of Christ. The Christian mystery then lies in a relation between the disciple and his heavenly Master. This he bears about with him as a sacred secret, the spring of conduct, and the ground of hope for the future.

Such a meaning comes out even more clearly in the Ephesian Epistle. In i. 9, 10 it is stated to be the hidden will of God-a will hidden from the world, but revealed to the Christian-that all things should be summed up in Christ, that he should be the head of all, and that in union with him all should find redemption. In iii. 6 the nature of the mystery is somewhat more explicated by the saying that this possession of Christ is common to Jew and Gentile. The old mystery of Israel's relation to God is superseded by a new mystery, in which the people of God is no longer a race, but a community consisting of all who believe in Jesus Christ. The community in Christ is further spoken of in v. 32 as a mysterious union which

1 Or, with the glory of the mystery, which gives the same meaning.

may best be compared to an ideal earthly marriage in which husband and wife are both ready utterly to give themselves one for another. So "Christ loved the Church, and gave himself up for it, that he might sanctify it."

When these passages are put together, it becomes abundantly clear that the mystery of Paul was a sacred but secret belief in the existence of a spiritual bond holding together a society in union with a spiritual lord with whom the society had communion, and from whom they received in the present life safety from sin and defilement, and in the world to come life everlasting. This enthusiastic belief lies at the root of all the words and deeds of Paul: it is the basis of his existence. It is no system of doctrine, though we may call it the teaching of salvation by faith in Christ, but it is really a relation, the relation of Christ to the Church, and to every member of the Church. Better than by any statement of doctrine it is explained by figure and analogy, by the comparison of the relation of the head to the limbs, of the bridegroom to the bride. Like all the deepest truth it must be led up to, and shown from many points of view before we can hope to gain any true conception of it. It is both a doctrine of a mystery and a mystical doctrine.

III

The relation of Paul to the Mysteries of the ancient world is far-reaching. It is not only that Christianity, as he views it, has certain secrets which belong only to the believer. But in the very nature of those secrets,