are made by the Spirit of God to call into exercise the resig- nation, patience and faith of the sufferer, that they bring forth fruit unto righteousness. The natural element of holiness is happiness, and misery is the natural element of sin. They stand severally in the relation both of cause and effect. The more miserable you make a bad man, the Avorse you make him. The wicked are said to curse God while they gnaw their tongues mth pain, and they repent not of their deeds. Rev. 16, 10. 11.
11. Tor behold this self-same thing, that ye sor- rowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, (what) clearing of yourselves, yea, (what) indignation, yea, (what) fear, yea, (what) vehement de- sire, yea, (what) zeal, yea, (what) revenge ! In all (things) ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
The question may be asked whether Paul means here to describe the uniform effects of genuine rei^entance, so as to furnish a rule by which each one may judge of his own expe- rience. This, to say the least, is not the primary design of the passage. If it affords such a rule it is only incidentally. The passage is historical. It describes the effects which godly sorrow produced in the Corinthian church. It shows how the church felt and acted in reference to a specific offence, when roused to a sense of its enormity. Foi\ behold! The connection is with what precedes. ' Godly sorrow is salutary, for, see what effects it wrought for you.' litis self-^ame thing^ i. e. this very thing, viz., hemg sorry after a godly sort. ^VJiat carefulness it wrought in you {vfjuv, for you, for your advantage). Carefulness, (o-ttovSt/v',) literally, haste ; then the inward feeling which leads to haste ; then any outward manifestation of that earnestness of feeling. Here it means earnest solicitude as opposed both to indifference and neglect. The Corinthians had strangely allowed a grievous sin, com- mitted by a church-member, to pass unnoticed, as a matter of no importance. The first effect or manifestation of their godly sorrow was an earnest solicitude on the subject, and a desire to have the evil corrected ; the very oi)})Osite of their former indifference. It is so in all cases of repentance. Sins