in the salvation that Jesus secured, But no humrm words can exhaust our riches in Christ Jesus. III. THE 0ONNECTION BETWEEN THESE TWO EXCHANGES. "For yowr sake.~." The one exchange was made in order to accompligh the other. To bless us Christ must condescend to become oae of us. IlluBtrate by the missionary makin"' himself a China- man, and living all alone among the people that he might reach the~1 with the crc,spel messnge. Or by the Moravian missionary, giving up friendship, love, and h;pe, to enter the lazar-house and try to teach and save the lepers. And what did Christ do for us when he had thus bumbled himself to take our nature on him? n is said that "he went a.bout doing good," a.nd that was his way of ma.king everybody rich with (1) blessings; (2) truth; and (3) salvation. And St. Paul appeals to the Corinthians and to us, saying," Ye know the grace." But do we know 1 Have we felt the persuasion a.nd attraction that are in such "love Divine, all love excelling" ?-P.. T. Ver. 12.- Willing minds putting value on gifts. " First a willing mind." The apostle has been calling to mind the resolve which the Corinthian Church had made a year previously. They had determined to join in the collection that was being made for the poor and suffering saints at Jerusalem. It seems that the disturbed state of the Church and the delay of St. Paul's visit had led to the forgetfulness of this resolve, and little or nothing had been done in relation to it. The apostle now brings the matter a.gain before them, reminds them that there was at one time the willing mind, and be seems delicately to suggest to them that it would be a beautiful way of testifying to the restored relations between himself and them, if they would revive this collection, carry the matter through, and give him the joy of carryiag their gifts to the poor Jerusalem saints, in whom he was so deeply interested. He was thus led to dwell upon the importance, befora God, of the spirit in which gifts a.re made. They ought to carry our hearts to him, just as the old Mosaic sacrifices carried the hearts of the worshippers. Gifts have voices which God can bear, and he reads our hearts by the help of them. Two points are here suggested. I. MAN ESTIIIIATEB GIFTS BY THEm MONEY VALUE. A fair enough standard in view of the institutions that have to be sustained and the work which bas to be done. '.i'he Church needs large gifts, and is compelled to ask for quantity. She needs the devote- ments of the rich, and is not wholly wrong in trying to raise ever higher the standard of Christian gifts for Christian uses. But the money estimate of gifts needs to be set under most careful limitations. It fails to take account of the relative circumstances of the givers. A pound is a pound, whoever may give it; but the rich man passes it over, and knows that it will not involve bis going without any one thing that he wishes to have. The poor man bands it over, and knows it means wearing the threadbare coat a few months longer, or going without some personal gratification. In really worthy scales that poor man's pound weighs heavy, for there is added to it that self-denial which is, in God's sight, of great price. Man cannot discern or rightly appraise motives. The business principle too often wholly sways men in their Christian an,l Church relations, and men are accepted by the largeness of their contributions rather than by the largeness of the love with which they contribute. II. Goo ESTIMATES GIFTS BY THEm WILL VALUE. "If there be first the williag mind, there is acceptance." God seeth not as man seeth. Man looketh on the coun- tenance; God looketh on the heart. Man appraises the value of the thing; God rea,ls the state of the will and the purpose of the heart. Illustration may be taken from th,· large gift of Barnabas to the early Church. God accepted it because it was the expres- sion of a willing mind. 'l'be gifts of Ananias and Sapphira were smaller; they were not, however, refused on this ground, but only because the will was wrong and the motive mixed and bad. The "amount" of a gift is quite as important i':1 ~he si 9ht of God as in the sight of man, beca;1se a great gift alone can express_ the willmg ~d. of a. man with great means. God Judges proportions. He only_ desHes .to see Chns~1an love triumphing over disabilities, and making the rich, who clmg to riches, splendidly generous, and the poor making the "poverty which bad con~um~d them _even to the very bottom" (ver. 2) yield noble and self-denying contnbut1ons. W1th God the question is-How much did your heart give? It is a second thing, with him, to ask---,How much did your hand give? But he does expect the hc(1rt and the 218 THE SECOND EPISTLE 'l'O 'l'HE CORIN'l'llIANS. [cu. 1x, 1-16.
hand to honourl\bly Bet together. the hand honestly expressing what the heart feels.-Il. T.