and never-fading inheritance in heaven'' ]
Let every one that is engaged in the race, survey the prize. Let him at the same time contemplate the consequence of coming short, (not a transient disappointment, or loss of some desirable object, but everlasting misery in hell,) and the labour necessary to attain it will appear as nothing. None that have succeeded, 7ioiv regret the pains they took to accomplish that great object : though thousands that have refused to run, now
curse their folly with fruitless remorse Let not any
then relax their speed : but all attend to the directions given ; and " so run, that they may obtain the prize."]
' ver. 27. « ver. 24. » Phil. iii. 13, 14.
" Col. iii. 23, 24. and 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. " ver. 25.
1968.] Paul's MANNER OF SEEKING HEAVEN, 211
1 Cor. ix. 26, 27. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly ; so fight I, not as one that heateth the air : hut I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection ; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others,! myself should he a cast-away.
THE Scripture teaches us no less by examples than by precepts. Doubless the great exemplar, which all are to follow, is the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom there was no sin at all. But, next to him, the Apostles deserve our regard. St. Paul frequently exhorts us to be imitators of him : but he always limits that counsel by the superior regard which we owe to Christ ; and bids us to follow him, so far only as he followed Christ. In this view he introduces the passage which we have just read. He has been recommending to the Corinthians a holy self-denying conduct. To enforce his exhortation, he states to them how he acted under a variety of difficult cir- cumstances : and lastly, in reference to the Isthmian Games which were celebrated in that city, he gives them, in the words before us, a very animated view of his own experience, which he proposes to them for their imitation.
We may notice in these words, I. The manner in which the Apostle exerted himself —
It is scarcely necessary to say, that heaven was the prize for which he contended. For this he laboured,
1. With careful attention^ —
[As the course was precisely marked out for those who ran in the race, so there were certain rules prescribed in every one of the games; in allusion to which St. Paul elsewhere says,
^ The precise sense of the text cannot easily be determined. 'Q.Q ovK aBrjXojg may mean, " Not without distinguishing himself ;" and wc OVK ctepa Sepior may mean, " Not as one that misses his blow." The Author has given what he apprehends to be a just sense, with- out taking upon him to determine between the opinions of contending commentators. See Doddridge (on the place), who throws a beau- tiful light on the last clause of the text.
p2