terminated, and that the prize shall be adjudged, not to the one who surpasses all others, but to all who " run their race with patience." Methinks, the Saviour, the Judge of all, is holding forth the prize to you ; and the whole host of heaven are witnesses of your exertions. Consider the countless mul- titudes that are already crowned, and that have bid an ever- lasting adieu to all the dangers of warfare, and the fatigues of running. Soon your hour also shall arrive : only, whenever it may arrive, let it find you exerting yourselves with all your might ; that you may be able to say with your dying breath, " I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me ; and not unto me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."]
1 Cor. X. 3, 4. They did all eat the same spiritual meat ; and did all drink the same spiritual drink : for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them : and that rock was Christ.
THOUGH it is certain that the covenant of grace is ordered in all things and sure, and that God will fulfil his promises to all who believe, yet there is no man so absolutely assured of his own interest in the Divine favour, as that he can with safety cast off all watchfulness and circumspection. The Corinthians, by going to the utmost verge of their Christian liberty in eating things offered to idols, were in danger of being drawn back into actual idolatry. The Apostle recommends to them therefore to exercise self-denial, as well for their own sake, that they might not be ensnared, as for the sake of others, whose weak con- sciences might be wounded. He tells them that he himself felt the necessity of mortifying all his appe- tites, and that he was obliged to '' keep his body under, and to bring it into subjection, lest by any means, after having preached to others, he himself should be a cast-away." He then proceeds to remind them of the Israelites, who, notwithstanding the numberless privileges that they enjoyed, as God's