The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 116

of Christ. In that, standing alone, he could have found no nst, no inspiration. He saw also this, that our Lord's sufferings were just the dark background that threw out so perfectly,_ wilh such well-defined lines and graceful forms, his noble spirit, his Divine charact<ir, his sublime sonship, his blessed life. And so he could speak calmly oven -triumphantly, of the suffering Saviour, and glory in the dying of the Lord Jesus through which the life of Jesus found its highest and best manifestations. How much a picture depends upon its background! Fill the front with the most exquisite figures or Jan~sca.pe, still all the tone and cha;llcter and impression of the figure will depend upon its background. You may so pa10t as to leave the forms and figures indistinct and uncertain. You may throw out into prominence the special thought or truth which you seek to embody in form; your picture may be calm morning, hot noonday, flushed evening, tender twilight, or gathering night, according to your background. St. Paul felt what shadows of suffering and woe lay all behind that life of his Lord• but they helped him to see the glory of Christ himself; they seemed to bring out s~ clearly the Divine and blessed life that was in him. Illustrate by the language ot Isa.. liii. and Phil. ii. 5-11. Also from the scenes of Gethsemane and Calvary. The Captain of our salvation was made perfect, to our view, through suffering. n. ST. p AUL's CONCEPTION OF HIS OWN LIFE. He could wish nothing better for himself than that what was true of Christ might be true of him, and that his sufferings, too, might show up bis character and help to make him a blessing and a power for good. St. Paul never could glory in mere suffering. Suffering is grievance and loss. But if they could be like Christ's sufferings, not merely borne for him, and in the doing of bis work, but actually like his, and ordained by God to be the same to him, and to others through him, as Jesus' sufferings did! The apostle felt be could glory in that. And this is the view of suffering that we also need to gain. Our troubles and sorrows are as the dying of the Lord Jesus. Once laying hold of this, we find that we havo one thing tt1 be supremely anxious about-it is that our dying shall show up Christ's life in us, shall make the Christly virtues and graces manifest in our mortal flesh. We have our sorrows. Does our character shine out clearly on the darkness of them? Do men see and feel our "whiteness" by the contrast of them? Are we beautiful with a Divine patience, and fragrant with a Divine sweetness, in the very darkness? On the background of our pain do men see our submission? In the hour of our disappoint- ment do we show up to men our trust in God? When heart and flesh fail does the sanctifying Spirit of Christ make our very faces glow with the heavenly light? Is it true of us that the "life of Jesus is manifested in our mortal flesh" ?-H. 'l'. Ver. 16.-The outward and the inward man. For the word" perish" in this verse, the Revised Version reads "is decaying." "Outward man" is the body, "inward man" is the soul, so far as the terms may be understood by anybody. "Outward man" is the whole sphere of the senses and the flesh; "inward man" is the whole sphere of the moral, the spiritual, the Divine, the eternal, so far as the terms may be apprehended by the quickened and regenerate of mankind. 'l'he "outward man " is man related to the "seen and temporal ; " the "inward man" is man related to the " unseen and eternal." And what the apostle so plainly says in our text is this-the "outward man," the material framework of the body, and the whole. circle of purely human and earthly relations, are yielding to a gradual process of decay, and soon they must all pass away. But the" inward man," the spiritual life, the very man himself, is day by day rising, through successive stages or renewal, to yet higher life. And the very decayings of the body and of the earthly surroundings bear directly nr,on the nourishment and growth of the soul's life, and so upon the soul's future. 'lhis is the thought which is set before us for our consideration, and we begin with that familiar truth on which the statement of the text rests. L BODY-LIFE AND SOUL-LIFE BOTH DEPEND ON NOURIBHJIIENT, ON FOOD. This is the law of all created life. Angels live on angels' food. Souls live on appropriate souls' food. And bodies live by meat and drink and air. Science tells us that bodily life, health, fatness, and vigour directly depend on the character and quantity and appro- priateness of the food supplied. Given vitality and freedom from active disease, and any bodily result that is desired can be obtained by giving flesh-forming, or bone- forming, or brain-making foods. And the health, the vigonr, nnd the work of our on. 1v, 1-18.] THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 117