1 Cor. ii. 6. We speak wisdom among them that are perfect.
THESE words appear, at first sight, to have an air of conceit and arrogance : and, if uttered by an un- inspired man in reference to lucubrations of his own, they might perhaps be not unjustly condemned, as betraying in the speaker, and generating in the hearers, the unhallowed feehngs of pride and self- sufficiency. But, as spoken by the holy Apostle,
they are open to no such unfavourable construction. If we were to understand by them, that the Apostle held one doctrine amongst those who were initiated into the secrets of his mind, and another amongst his less-instructed disciples, we could by no means justify him in such a conduct ; for lie would then resemble those philosophers of old, who, in private, exposed the fallacy of popular errors, which in their public discourses they upheld and sanctioned. This the Apostle never did. If he brought some things to the view of his more enlightened followers, which he for- bore to state to others, it was not from any doubt of the truth of the sentiments which he concealed, or from any fear of incurring the displeasure of men by the promulgation of them; but only from a conde- scension to the weakness of those whose organs of vision were not capable of sustaining the flood of light w^hich he was able to pour upon them. From such motives he certainly did, on many occasions, withhold truths from those who were unable to bear them, and content himself with administering milk to those who were incapable of digesting strong meat'\ But this is not the import of the passage before us. The simple meaning of it is, that whilst the great subject of his ministrations was by many of his hearers regarded as " foolishness," it was, in the eyes of those who properly understood it, " wisdom."
His words will naturally lead me to shew, I. What the true character of the Gospel is —
The Gospel which the Apostle preached was, sal- vation through a crucified Redeemer: " I determined," says he, " to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
Now this, whatever an ignorant and ungodly world may say of it, is " wisdom."
It is indeed a " hidden" wisdom —
[It was hid from all eternity in the bosom of the Father : nor had the first Archangel any conception of it, till it was
" 1 Cor. hi. 1,2. Heb. v. 11—14.