The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 73

II. THE EPISTLE-CHRISTIANS. As a friend and counsellor, when on a jour.1ey and at a distance, communicates by letter with those who need his guidance and tbe assur- ance of his interest, 80 our Lord, though he has ascended on high, is ever sending epistles to the children of men. Every Christian upon whom he impresses his own will, character, and purposes, thus becomes Christ's communication to the world writt~n by his hand, and authenticated by his autograph. Every individual is ~ syllable, every congregation a word, every generation of believers a line, in the ever- lengthening scroll, which approaches its close as the ages near the end. III. THE TABLET-THE HEART. God does not write on stone, as men did in ancient monumental inscriptions, or as he once did on the tables of the Law. Nor on waxen tablets, as men wrote of old with the stylus, in notes of ordinary business or friendship. :Nor on parchment or papyrus, as perhaps these Epistles of Paul were written. But Christ writes on tablets that are hearts of flesh. The expression, adapted from the Old Testament, is an impressive one. In the Proverbs, Wisdom invites the young man to write her precepts upon the tablets of his heart. By Jeremiah the Lord promised to write his Law upon his people's heart. Christ takes the human soul and works upon it, and engraves there his own characters, sets down there his own signature, and sends the human nature-so written upon-into the world, to tell of himself, to convey his thought, his will. IV. THE AGENCY-NOT nm, BUT THE SPIRIT OF Gon. AB in the processes of nature we see the operation of the living God, so in grace we discern spiritual hand- writing. The Spirit of God most deeply reaches and most blessedly affects the spirit of man. The Spirit carries truth and love home to the heart with an incomparable power. He writes upon the soul in deep, legible, sacred, and eternal characters. V. THE RANDWBITING AND SU13STANCE OF THE EPISTLES. What difference there is in the appea.rn.nce and in the matter of the letters we daily receive! They vary in handwriting, in style, in tone, in matter, according to the character of the writer, the relation of the writer to the reader, the business upon which they treat. But there is something characteristic in all-all tell us something of our correspondents, and of their mind and will So is it with these living epistles described in the text. Every epistle tells of the Divine Writer, bears witness to the Lord from whom it emanates, is evidently written in his handwriting, and reveals his mind and heart. Every epistle must be 80 authenticated by bis signature that it cannot be suspected to be a forgery. Spirituality, holiness, obedience, meekness, benevolence,-these are the proofs that the epistle is the composition of the Christ. This is to be manifestly, unmistakably, declared. VI. THE READERS-ALL MEN. There is some writing which only a few can read; the characters may be ill written and illegible, or they may be in cipher, or the language may be scientific and technical. '!'here are letters of private business or of personal friendship, only intended-for certain individuals. But there is literature, such as the Bible or the law of the land, intended for the instruction and benefit of all. So, whilst there is religious language only fully understood by the initiated, by a 6elect class-e.g. doctrines, meditations, prayers-there is language intended for all mankind. Tho Chris- tian character and life can be read with profit by all men. '!'hey can comprehend the virtues which adorn the Christian, and which are the manifest si!!ns of the Lord's spiritual presence. If we are truly Christ's, then his handwriting will be legible to all men, and all men who know us may gain some advantage through reading what tho Divine hand has inscribed upon our uature.-T. Vers. 6--11.-The old and the new. The warm and affectionate nature of the apostle had embraced the religion of Chrbt with a fervour, an attached devotion, exceed- ing even that which he had shown in his earlier days towards the dispensation in which he had been nurtured. Not that he had lost any of the reverence, the affection, he had cherished towards the covenant which God had established with his Hebrew ancestors; but that the new dispensation was 80 glorious to the view of his soul that it shed its brightness upon the economy which it replaced. The contrast drawn here seems almost depreciatory of that Law which was "given by Moses," when that Law WW! brought into comparison with the" grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ." I. 'l'rm NEW 1s DE1'TER 'l'IIAN TIIE OLD. If God is a God of order, if progress characterizes his works, if development is a law of his procedure, then it i11 only OH. m. 1-18.] 1'HE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 73