some expression in Eph. vi. 20, oddin~ with tion or the word, which Is not justi!icd b' fine .contrast tho.t he is "o.n o.mbassaclor in any other passage in the New Testament. fetters." As though God did beseeoh you by We cannot, as Dean Plumptre says, get u, ; ro.ther, air if God were ezhorting y01J, by beyond the simple statement, which St. our means. In Christ's stead; ro.ther, we, on Paul is content to leave in its unexplieable (Jhrist's behalf, beseech you. :Be ye reconciled mystery, "Christ identified with man's sin; to God. This is the sense of the embassy. man identified with Christ's righteonBnesa." The aorist implies an immediate acceptance And thus, in Christ, God becomes Jehovah- of the offor of reconcilio.tion. Tsidken u, " the Lord our Righteousness " Ver. 21.-He bath made him to be sin for (Jer. xxiii. 6). That we might be made the us; ro.ther, he made; he speo.ks with definite righteousness of God in him; rather, that we reference to the cross. The expression is might become. The best comment on the closely analogous to that in Gal. iii. 13, pregnant significance of this verse is Rom. i. where it is sfl.id thnt Ch1ist has been "made 16, 17, which is developed o.nd explained in a curse for us." He was, as St. Augustine so large a section of that great Epistle (see says," delictorum susceptor, non commissor." iii. 22-25; iv. 5-8: v. 19, etc.). In him He knew no sin: nay, he was the very In his blood is a. means of propitintion by 1·ighteousness, holiness itself (Jer. xxiii. 6), which the righteousness of God becomes and yet, for, our benefit, .Go4 made him to be the righteousness of man (1 Cor. i. 31J), i•ein",for us, in that he ''.sent him in the eo that man ie justified. The trn th which likeness of sinful flesh ond for sin" (Rom; St. Paul thus develops and expresses is viii. 3). Many hil.ve understood the word stated by St. Peter anrl St. John in 11, "sin " in the sense of sin offering (Lev.- v. simpler and Iese theological form (1 Pet. ii 9, LXX.); but that is a preco.rious applica- 22-24; I John iii. 5).
HOMILETICS, Vers. 1-7.-0hdstian knowledge concerning the future 1,o,Zy of tn.e goorl. "For we 1':now·that if our earthly hollile," etc. Two things are to be noticed at the outset. I. Metaphorical representations of the body. 'l'he body is here spoken of under the figure of a "tabernacle" or a tent, and of a vestment or clothing. These two tbings would not be so distinct in the mind of the apostle as they are in ours, for both had the same qualities of movableness and protection. . The "house" to which the apostle refers was not a building of bricks or stone, a superstructure that would be stationary, but a mere tent to be carried about. 2. The implied necessity of the body. Paul's langu:i.ge implies that the body is a clothing or protection. As a clothin~, or protection, for the soul it is necessary, both hero ·and in the other world. The soul must have an organ where- ever it ia. Now what does the Christian know concerning the future body? I. He knows it will be BETTER THAN THE PRESENT, 1. It will be directly Divine. "A building of God." The.present body is from God, but it comes from him through secondary instrumentalities. 'l'he future body will come direct, it will not be transmitted from sire to son. 2. It will be fitted for a higher sphere. "In the heavens." 'l'he present body is fitted for the earthly sphere, it is of the" earth, earthy." 'l'he future will be fitted for the more ethereal; and celestial. 3. It will be more enduring. " Eternal." This body is like the tent, temporary; it has no firm foundation; it is shaken by every gust. We "perish before the moth." The future body will be eternal, free from the elements of decay. 4. It will be more enjoyable. "For in tbis we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven," etc. In this body we "groan, being burdened." To what pains and diseases is the present body subject I By implication the apostle states the future body will be free from all this, for all that is mortal will be "swallowed up of life." In that body there will be no groaning, no sighs or sorrows, no burden, no weight to depress the energies or to impede progress. The future body will be more fitted to receive the high things of God, and IUore fitted to communicate them also. II. He knows he is now DEING DIVINELY FITTED FOR THE BETTER BODY OF THE FUTURE. "Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Bpirit." Every seed has its own body; it is the seed that makes the body ; the organization does not produce the life, but the life the organi- z:ition. And this spirituol life in man God is now preparing to pass into a higher body. Just oe the chrysnlis is being fitted to struggle into on orgnnization with higher appe-- THE SECOND EPISTLE TO 'l'HE CORINTHIANS. [cn. v, 1~21,