The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 14

apostle was in great distress on their aceount, and they shared with him this peculiar burden of grief; and, secondly, the supporting grace which God had given him was not confined to his soul, but overflowed (e.bot1nded) in thei1 souls.· What a great truth is this I There a.re times in our history as believers when, if left without the support of Church relations, we should be overcome by temptation. In such hours God shows us the worth of membership in the Church; grace comes to us through their affections, and brethren in Christ a.re our best friends in the flesh. The human, or rather the Divine in the human, saves us when all else would be ineffectual, and thus it is that associates and companions in the faith co-operate with other "ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heir:; of salvation." And what a meaning this imparts to the Holy Communion, wherein we express, not only our remembrance of Christ's suffering and death, but our fellowship with his sufferings in others! Keep in mind how sorrow ennobles us. Is it the silence and loneliness, the self-examination, the penitence, the amendment, in which the divinest fruits of chastening appear? These are not ultimate results. It is not alone what the discipline of pain makes us in ourselves; it is not the individual man, but the social man, that is under God's plastic hand, and who, while learning to "bear his own burden," is also learning a lesson far more difficult, to bear another's burden and "so fulfil the law of Christ." Who are they that practise the "so"? Who are the burden-bearers-those that carry the ignor- e.nee, perverseness, folly, misfortune, troubles, of other people on their hearts? Only snch as have known Christ as he suffered from taking "our infirmities" and bearing "our sicknesses," and who have been taught by the Holy Spirit that the mediating life to which we are called as the highest sphere of life is possible only by means of personal affliction. Was Bunyan immured in Bedfonl jail on his own account or for the worl<l's benefit? Was Milton blind for his own sake or for England's? How cou Id ' Pilgrim's Progress' or 'Paradise Lost' have been produced except in obedience to the law-partakers in suffering, partakers in comolation ? St. Paul proceeds to the illus- tration. Of his general sufferings we have a definite idea. How he was misrepresented by his enemies, how he was charged with meanness and cowardice, how he was vilified for his self-denial, how the Judaizers pursued him with merciless zeal, we all kno,,. \Ve know, too, how his heart was moved by the deplorable state of things at Corinth. Now, it is quite true that the endurance of trouble prepares us to bear a new trouble; but it is true also that trouble increases the sensitiveness to pain, and hence, in a succession of sorrows, tho last, though not in itself the heaviest, is virtually such because of the sensibility involved. '1.'his was St. Paul's condition. At thid very conjuncture, when a phalanx of evHs threatened, he had one particular trouble, of which he says, "We would not, brethren, havo you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia.." What it specifically was, we know not. He tells us, however, that it was exceptional even in his sad life; for he was" pressed [borne down] out of measure," and again, "above strength" (human resistance inadequate to bear the load), so much so that h., saw no way of escape, life hung in peril, "we despaired even of life." In that dreadful hour all seemed over. Such hours do come to the best and noblest of God's servant,. l3ocly gives way, heroism is weakened, faith is half shorn of its strength. It is the eclipse of all light, the hour of darkness and of the Prince of darkness; the very soul seems to put off its better attributes, and life to its core appears an unreality. St. Paul "had the sentence of death" in himself. Was there any "lower deep"? Yet in this season of terrible experience a Divine lesson was being taught him, and it was "that we should not trust in ourselves." Had he not learned it long ago? Yes; in part, but not in this precise shape nor in this degree. '1.'he capacity to suffer is peculiar in this, that its development requires a manifold experience. One troublu is not another trouble; one grief is not another grief. Affliction that reaches a cer- tain sentiment or a particular section of our nature may leave other sentiments allll sections altogether untouched. Every quality within must go through this ordeal. 'l'he :uss of money is not the loss of position and influence, the loss of friend is not the loss of a child, the loss of a child is not the loss of a wife. Each affection must pass through the refiner's fire. Nay, the very instincts rnnst share the purifica• tion ordained for such as are to bo made "perfect throngh suffering." Every link must be tested, must be thoroughly known, before the chain can be formed. Wilat the iuue was ia St, Prml's case he informs us, and it was this-all self-roliance wu  11 THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TH;E CORINTHIANS, [c..,H, L 1-;-24,,