a reason for vigilance and circumspection : for if they might so quickly be called to give up their account to God, it became them to be ever on their guard, and ever ready. Our lot, through the tender mercy of our God, is cast on happier clays : we are not exposed to the fury of persecutors : the utmost that we suffer, is, for the most part, a little contempt, and the loss of some temporal interests. Still however our " days" may justly be called " evil," because of the general prevalence of infidelity and profaneness'1. We are as liable to be ensnared by evil examples, as those at Ephesus were to be turned aside by the fear of man. " Iniquity abounds ; and therefore there is danger lest the love of many should wax cold." If then we would not be drawn into the vortex of corruption, we should keep at a distance from it ; and if we would stand in the day of trial, we should improve each passing hour in preparation for it.]
h If there be war, famine, pestilence, or any other public calamity, it might be mentioned here.
Eph. v. 18 — 20. Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to your- selves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord ; giving thanks al- ways for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ*.
THAT Christianity has raised the tone of morals in the world, will appear from the admonitions which the Apostles judged it necessary to give to the Churches in their day. It would appear almost superfluous, at this time, to expatiate upon the evil of fornication, in a letter addressed to true believers ; or to guard them against yielding to intoxication ; there being, in the minds of all, a consciousness of the inconsistency of such evils with the Christian profes- sion. But the Corinthians had, in their unconverted
a If this were the subject of a Sermon at a Feast (many Country Feasts begin on the Sabbath), it would be proper to include in the text the whole of the eighteenth verse ; and to prosecute, at some length, the contrast between the employment of true Christians, and that of nominal Christians, on such occasions.