was the theatre of magnificent manife.stations-the pillar, the manna 0 the flowin"' rock, the riven sea, etc. 4. TM sp'lendid intellects which were employed in connectio~ with it. Solomon, Elijah, Daniel, David, Ezekiel. For these reasons Divine revelation as it came through Moses was truly glorious. • II. 'l'hat although this special revelation was glorious as it came in connection with Moses, it was MORE GLORIOUS as it came in connection with CHRIST. "How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?" etc. Confiuing our illustrations on this point to the passage before us, we observe: 1. The Christian form of revelation is more likely to give life than the Mosaic. In Moses it was the " ministration of death." The Jews exalted the "letter" that "killeth" above the" spirit that giveth life," and they got buried in forms. In Christ the revelation is the gospel in life. 2. The Christian form of Divine revelation is more emphatically spiritual than the Mosaic. It is here called the " ministration of the spirit." In Moses it was associated with numerous forms a.nd ceremonies ; in Christ there a.re only two simple rites, a.nd the spirit throbs in every sentence. 3. The Christian form of Divine revelation is more restorative than the Mosaic. The apostle speaks of the one a.a the "ministration ot condemnation," of the other as the " ministration of righteousness." Maledictions thunder in the former, beatitudes in the latter. 4. The Christian form of Divine revelation is more enduring than the Mosaic. "For if that which is done away [ which passeth away] was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious." Judaism is gone; Christianity is the "Word of God, which abideth for ever." It is the final revelation of Heaven to our world. Such, then, is a brief illustration of the apostle's position; and the subject, in con- clusion, serves several important purposes. 1. It serves to ezpose the absurdity of making Moses the interpreter of Christ. It has been common with professing Christians to look at the New Testament through the spectacles of Moses, a.nd thus to Judaizs Christianity. Much in popery, much, alas! in old puritanism, much even in modem theology, is bnt Christianity Judaized, a going back to the" beggarly elements." 2. It serves to show the wrongness of going to Moses to support opinions which y()'II, cannot get from Christ. You can support war, slavery, capital punishment, by going to Moses; but you cannot find the shadow of a foundation for these in Christ. 3. It serves to reveal the glorious position of a true gospel minister. To show this was the object of the apostle in the text. The position of Moses, David, Isaiah, and all tbs great teachers under the old administration was glorious, but it is scarcely to be com- pared with the position of him who preaches that Christ of "whom Moses and the prophets did write." Vere. 12-18.-The gospel as a transcendent benefactor. "Seeing then that we have such hope" etc. Amongst the invaluable services which the gospel confers on man, there are four suggested by the text. It gives him moral courage, .spiritual vision, true liberty, and Christ-like glory. It gives him- I. MoBAL OOUBAGE. "Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness [boldness] of speech: and not as Moses,!which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to tbe end of that which is abolished," etc. This means that, seeing the revelation we have of God in Christ is not so te1ri~l? as his revelation in Moses, we have" great boldness." We need have no supe1st1t1ous fear or dread. Unlike the Jews, who were afraid to look at the Divine ro.dianco on the face of Moses, who trembled at the manifestation of Goel on Sinai, and who lackod the courage to look at the fact that their system was a temporary one, passing away ; we have courage to look calmly at the manifestations of God and the facts of destiny. We use "great boldness." He who has the spirit of Christianity in him has courage enough to look all questions in the face, and to speak out his convictions with tht1 dauntless force of true manhood. II. SPIBITUAL VISION. "But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; wh!ch veil is done away in Christ." '!'he "veil" of Moses was on his fa.co, some material usecl for the moment and then withdrawn, but the "veil" referred to here was that "veil" of prejudice and traditional notions which prevented them from seeing when Paul wrote that the old dispensation has passed away before the brightness of tht> new. 'l'he soul11 OH. m.1-18.] THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 65
of unrenewed men are BO veiled by depravity ihat they fail to see anything in the great universe of spiritual realities. The spiritual is no more to. them than nature is to men born blind. Now, the gospel is the only power under God that can take the" veil" from the soul, and enable us to see things as they are. Its grand mission is to open the eyes of the blind, etc. III. TRUE LmERTY. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." By the "Spirit of the Lord" here is meant the Spirit of Christ, his moral temper ; and wherever this is, there is freedom. 1. Freedom from the bondage of ceremonialism. 2. Free- dom from the trammels of legality. 3. Freedom from the dominion of sin. 4. Freedom from the/ear of death. The Spirit of Christ is at once the guarantee and the inspiration of that liberty which no despot can take away, no time destroy-the "glorious liberty of the children of God." IV. CHRIST-LIKE GLORY. "But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord,'' etc. 1. The glory of Christ was the glory of moral excellence. He was the "brightness of his Father's glory." 2. The glory of Christ is communicable. It comes to man through transformation "changed into the same image." 3. The glory of Christ which comes to man is progressive: "from glory to glory." The gospel alone can make men glorious.