(1.) If we wish to understand the Word of God we must receive plain words as we find them in sacred Scripture. We have no right to assume that the present tense stands for the past; that ‘I am,’ means ‘I was;’ that ‘I do,’ means ‘I used to do;’ that ‘I hate,’ means ‘I used to hate;’ and ‘I delight,’ means ‘I used to delight.’ If we once begin thus to handle Scripture there is an end to exposition; and if people who thus twist Scripture would be consistent, they ought to go on, and say that the beginning of this verse, ‘I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,’ means, ‘I used to thank Him, but I do not now.’ (2.) Again, the transition from the past to the present is clearly marked in the passage. In the parenthesis which extends from the seventh verse to the end of the chapter, we find the three tenses,—past, present, and future. From verse seven to verse thirteen it is all in the past, and is a description of a certain portion of his past life. ‘I was alive;’ ‘the commandment came;’ ‘sin revived;’ ‘I died;’ ‘I found it to be unto death;’ and ‘sin deceived me, and by it slew me.’ It is a description of the great work of God in breaking down his pharisaism, and bringing him to Christ. I believe it all took place during those solemn three days at Damascus. But from the fourteenth verse to the end, all is changed, and the present tense is employed. ‘I am;’ ‘I do;’ ‘I allow;’ ‘I delight;’ ‘I hate;’ ‘I thank God;’ ‘I serve.’ The only exception is in the twenty-fourth verse, where we find the future: ‘who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ This distinction of the tenses is alone enough to prove the point, for it would be just as reasonable to maintain that the past means the present, as that the present means the past.