[If faithfulness be required on our part, so is it also on yours. You must come to the ordinances with a real dis- position and desire to " hear what the Lord God will say concerning you." You must have your minds open to convic- tion, and " receive with meekness every word you hear, that it may be an engrafted word, effectual to save your souls." You must not be offended with the faithfulness of your minister ; but consider Almighty God himself as speaking to you by him. Then may you expect from God those blessings which your souls need, and a happy meeting with your ministers in the realms of bliss.]
Paul's indifference to men's judgment.
1 Cor. iv. 3 — 5. With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of mans judgment : yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing hy myself ; yet am I not hereby justified : but he that judgeth me is the Lord. There- fore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts : and then shall every man have praise of God.
THE ministers of Christ are generally either un- duly exalted, or undeservedly depreciated, by those
around tliem ; but they should discharge their duties with fidehty, without any regard to the opinions of men, and approve themselves to Him who will judge them righteously in the last day —
I. The tribunal to which Paul referred his character — He was not concerned about maiis judgment —
[By some he was looked up to as the head of a party ^; by others he was deemed unworthy to live^ ; but he knew that men's judgment would continue only for a day'^ : he was therefore alike indifferent to their censure or applause.]
He could not wholly depend even upon Ms ozvn judgment —
[He did not know that he lived in any allowed sin; yet he was aware that, through the deceitfulness of sin and of his own heart, he might be led to form too favourable an estimate of his own state : he knew that God might discern much iniquity where we see none*^; he therefore could not ven- ture too confidently to trust even to the testimony of his own conscience.]
He committed himself rather to the unerring judg- ment of God —
[He did not indeed hope for an acquittal on the ground of innocence, or expect a reward as due to him on the footing of strict justice; but he relied on God's equity iis tempered with mercy, and willingly left himself to the righteous dis- posal of his Judge.]
II. The tribunal to which we must also refer ours —
God has appointed a day wherein to judge the world —
[He has constituted the Lord Jesus the Judge of quick and dead. And in due season he will summon the whole universe to his tribunal. Then will he bring into judgment, not the actions only, but the inmost thoughts and desires, of the whole world. Men judge of actions only, and of those actions principally which have respect to the welfare of the community in which they live. They care little about the state of men's souls before God. But God notices the inmost recesses of our hearts. " He will bring to light the hidden things of dax'kness, (of which men can take no cognizance ;) and will
a 1 Cor. iii. 4. •» ver. 13.
c This is intimated in tlie original. '' Luke ix. 55.
1952.3 Paul's indifference to men's judgment. 147
make manifest the counsels of men's hearts," and make the very designs and purposes of men the ground of his dealings with them to all eternity. He will notice what we have been as creatures what as sinners what as re- deemed sinners The very habit of our minds under