The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 63

HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-5.-Sou'l-Zitemture. "Do we begin a.gain to commend ourselves?" etc. l1! the early Church it was customary for the member who was travelling into another locality to take with him a letter of commendation from the Church to· which he or she belonged. The apostle says he did not require such a document . from the Corinthian Church, as some others did, for they themselves were letters written on hts own heart ; and his ministry was a letter written on their hearts also. They were tht- • living "epistles of Christ, . . . written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the livinn God ; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy ~bles of the heart." Our subject is so~ literature, or Christianity written on the heart ; and I offer five remarks. ' . l. Christianity written 011 the soul is CHRISTIANlTY IN TH!!; MOST LEGIDLE -F0BM. There are some whose caligraphy is difficult to decipher and whose thoughts are difficult to understand; their ideas are misty and their sty lo involved; but what is written on the soul is written so clearly that a child can make it out. II. Christianity written on the soul is CHRISTIANITY IN THE MOST 00NVINOING FORM. Books have been written on the evidences of Christianity; not a few by the ablest· men of their times, such as Paley, Lardner, Butler. But one life permeated and fashioned by the Christian spirit is a far i:pore convincing power than any or all of their most magnificent productions. He who has been transformed by Christianity from the selfish, the sensual, and corrupt, into the spiritual, the benevolent, and the holy, furnishes an argument that baffles all controversy and penetrates the heart. III. Christianity written on the soul is CHRISTIANITY IN THE HOST PERSUASIVE FOBH. There are many books "persuasive to piety," and many of then;i very powerful; but the most powerful of them a.re weak indeed compared to the mighty force of a Christly life. There is a magnetism in gospel truth embodied, which you seelt for in vain in any written work. When the "Word is made flesh" it becomes "mighty through God." • IV. Christianity written on the soul is CHRISTIANITY IN THE· ;MOST ENDURING FOBM. The tablet is imperishable. You may put truth on paper, but the pa.per will moulder; put it into institutions, but the institutions will dissolve as a cloud; put it on marble or brass, but the_se are corruptible. , • . V. Christianity written on the soul is CHRISTIANITY IN THE DIVINEST F0BM. The human hand can inscribe it on parchment or engrave it on stone, but God only can write it on the heart. "The Spirit of the living God." Paul was but the amanuensis, God is the Author. Ver. 6.-Tlie ministry of the letter and the ministry of the ,pi,,rit. "The letter killeth, but th-:i spirit giveth life." Notice- I. Tt;, twofold MINISTRY. "Ministers ... not of the Jetter, but of the spirit." What does this mean? Not the two disrcnsations, the Mosaic and the Christian; for both alike had "Jetter" and "spirit." Nor does it mean a donbl.o interpretation of tho Scripture, the literal and the spiritual. It means, I think, the word and tho thought, the sent(:nce and the scotiment. Christianity has both·" let tor" and "spirit." If it bad no "letter," it would bo unrevealed, a thought shut up in the mind. of God; if it had no "spirit," it woul<l be but a hollow sound. 'l'ho wor<ls poin~ to two distinct methods of teaching Christianity. 1. The technical method. Who nre the technical teachers? (1) The verbalist. There were me11 in the Corinthinu Church who thought ea. m. 1-18.] THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CO)UNTHlANS. 63