The Christian is not only to take the doctrines which concern Christ, to build up his soul with them as the body is built up with food, but he may draw from them the wine of joy and the new wine of delight. It is meet that we rejoice in Christ Jesus. He is the bliss of the saints. Is it not a joy unspeakable and
1 Phillips Brooks.
190 FOR THE FEAST
full of glory, that my sin will never be laid to my charge if I believe in Him ; that my sin has been laid at His door, and He has put it all away, so that if it be searched for it shall not be found ? Is it not an intense delight to believe that Christ has so effectually put away sin that no destroying angel can touch one of His saints? There being no condemnation, there can be no punishment for us either in this world or in that which is to come. We are safe as were the Israelites when the door was sprinkled with the blood. And then, being justified, we rise to a higher position, we are adopted into the family of God, and if children, then heirs. What a vista of glory opens before our eyes at the mention of that word, heirs of God ! All things are ours, because Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us.
As if to one who in a dungeon lay,
Laden with chains, and hidden from the sun, For some dark evil deed that he had done,
For which he must his life a forfeit pay,
Should come a messenger of glad reprieve, And lead him out into the sunlight gay, Pardoned and free, on some high holiday,
To joy his trembling heart can scarce conceive;
So in his veins the wine of life should run, So should he still rejoicing keep the feast, Who is from guilt and fear of death released,
By the sure promise of the Mighty One,
That, as in Egypt passing Death was fain
To spare the house where blood he might perceive, Sprinkled by those who did the Lord believe,
So, for us too, our Passover is slain.
The Body for God.
Literature.
Alexander (S. A.), Tlie Christianity of St. Paul, 132, Arnold (T.), Sermons, v. 147. Baillie (D.), The Love of God, 80. Black (H.), Work, 193. Calthrop (G.), The Lost Sheep Found, 25. Clarke (J. E.), Common-Life Sermons, 82. Cornaby (W. A.), In Touch with Reality, 97. Dale (R. W.), Weekday Sermons, 154. Davidson (T.), The City Youth, 37. Dearmer (P.), in Practical Questions, 244. Duncan (J.), In the Pulpit and at the Communion Table, 221. Elmslie (W. G.), Expository Lectures and Sermons, 257. Gregg (J.), Sermons and Lectures ; The Light of Faith, 81. Herford (B.), Courage and Cheer, 191.
Hoyle (A.), The Depth and Power of the Christian Faith, 107. Ingram (A. F. W.), The Call of the Father, 163. „ A Mission of the Spirit, 123.
Mackennal (A.), The Life of Christian Consecration, 100. Mackintosh (H. R.), Life on God's Plan, 129. Moule (H. C. G.), The Secret of the Presence, 33, 48. Mursell (W. A.), The Waggon and the Star, 66. New (C.), Sermons Preached in Hastings, 246. Paget (F.), The Spirit of Discipline, 80. Robarts (F. L.), Sunday Morning Talks, 116. Russell (A.), The Light that Lighteth every Man, 309. Shore (J. T.), Saint George for England, 42. Simpson (J. G.), The Spirit and the Bride, 59. Temple (F.), Rugby Cliapel Sermons, ii. 297. Van Dyke (H.), Manhood, Faith, and Courage, 99 Walker (W. L.), The True Christ, 222. Wilberforce (B.), The Hope that is in Me, 222, Church Times, May 19, 1911 (Simpson). Preacher's Magazine, v. (1894) 130 (Hill).
The Body for God.
Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost . . . glorify God therefore in your body.— i Cor. vi. 19, 20.
St. Paul's words declare the basis on which all the fabric of specifically Christian civilization stands — the doctrine of the intrinsic sanctity of the body, bought by Christ on the cross, indwelt by the Spirit of God, commissioned to be the instrument of God's glory.
The Apostle is denouncing sins of the flesh. In his eyes these sins are something more than sins. They are flagrant anomalies ; they are monstrous wrongs. There is a direct contradiction in terms, a flat denial of the first principles of justice, in the com- mission of them. God has set His stamp upon us. He impressed us with His image in our first creation. He re-stamped the same image upon us when He formed us anew in Christ. Thus we are doubly His. Here is God enthroned in the sanctuary of your bodies. But you — you ignore the august Presence, you profane the Eternal Majesty ; you pollute, you dishonour, you defy, with shameless sacrilege, the ineffable glory, the Lord seated on His throne, high and lifted up, His train filling the whole temple of your being, as if He were some vile and worthless thing.
If There is a deep and luminous suggestiveness about St. Paul's characteristic formula, "know ye not?" Some have thought that the Apostle is thus recalling to the memory of his converts specific teachings of his own ; but this seems unlikely. Eather he is addressing himself to their elementary Christian instincts, and bringing these into the field against the shallow and demoralizing sophistries, which had for them an attractiveness so strange and so perilous. He would thus cut his way through the thickets of futile argumentation, and bring the whole question at issue into the open, where it could be clearly seen and justly appraised. 1 cor. — 13