The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 257

stones would cry out. AR God hll.l! wrought tb;e great thing for UR, we muet never let men or God he11r the last of it! What " subject for bo&st I Where ie there aught th11t ORD for a moment compare with it? Boast, ye Christians, of redeeming love till all your powem of boasting fail. 3. We may well boa,st of Gorfs work in m and thrnugh us, (1) In us. When we joyfully recogni110 that we are growing in grace we must exult in the God of all grace. This thing is not of us, but of him. To him must nil the praise be acoorded. 'l'he " old man" within us is the child of our fall a.nd our folly; the "new man" is God's special creation. Clearly should we realize this, and concen- tmte all our boasting in him from whom this "unspeakable Gift" (which is " Christ in us") emanates. Humility and abasement in respect of oumelv88; boastfulness in respect of him who has wrought the marvel in us. (2) Through us. To depreciate what is accomplished through ns is but lying humility. Paul was not guilty of it. It is professooly abasing ourselves and really abasing God. When the work accomplished is undoubted, the only right course is to glory to our utmost in the God who has accomplished it. We must reserve no praise for ourselves, since we have deserved none; all the praise must be his. We need care, however, when glorying in God for what he has accomplished through us, lest, whilst ostensibly praising him, we should be covertly praising ourselves. There is a mouth of hell which lies near the gate of heaven. We must guard against feeding conceit by supposing that we are of ourselves instruments so fit that God could not have BO well performed the work through others; or that through persona.I merit we a.re favourites of God, a.nd that therefore he has specially wrought his will through us; or that, having been BO honoured, we may nqw hold our heads high. Whilst extolling God we must a.base ourselves; whilst boasting in him we must refuse to glory in the least in the unworthy instrument. That he has so greatly distinguished what was so greatly unworthy should but deepen a.nd intensify our humility.-H. Ver. 4.-Holy weapons. One style of weapon for one kind of conflict, another for another. For the common battle-field, cannon a.nd rifle with their horrid din, tpe bayonet, a.nd the sword. For contests of opinion, weapons of argument and intellectual precision-writing&, lectures, a.nd debates. For successes in the sphere of spiritual thought and life, spiritual weapons mighty through God. St. Paul was much addicted to the use of military metaphors. To him a zealous missionary was e. good soldier of Christ; a well~uipped a.nd disciplined Christian was a man armed in the panoply of God. His own course of service in combatting errors a.nd publishing the truth of the gospel was BB the march of a warrior, nay, of a victor, triumphing in every place.. •So he le.,"Vdsd both the ordering of things within the Church and the aggression of the Church on the world a.round as parts of his military duty, in which he wllB bound to war, but not according to the flesh. There is still need to make war. On every side a.re obstinate hindrances to the gospel of grace, and to the health and peace of the Church. The most formidable of these a.re in the region of thought and feeling; strong~ holds of prejudice a.nd self-righteousness, and entrenchments of unbelief. And those who propagate the gospel, a.nd guard the purity and peace of the Church, must·surmount those obstacles, or pull down those strongholds, BO as to lead away the convictions of the delivered ones 88 happy captives to the obedience of Christ. I. N CYl' BY CARNAL WEAPONS OB ANY FOBM OF PHYSICAL coAcTION. Though St. Peter drew his sword to defend his heavenly Master, he was bidden at once restore it to its sheath. When Pontius Pilate interrogated our Lord about hie being King of the Jews, he received for answer, " My kingdom is not of this world : if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight." Extremists have inferred from this language th.e.t the followers of Christ may not, in a.ny circumstances, wield a weapon of war; but this is mere folly. The subjects of the kingdom of Christ are also for the time subjec_ts of an earthly kingdom also, or citizens in a.n earthly community, a.nd have the sam~ natural and civil rights 88 other men, a.nd the same warrant and obligation to defend them. They may not delight in wa.r; but even to that dire extremity they may proceed if there be no other way to keep order and secure justice and liberty. To do otherwise would. be tamely to surrender the earth to the most unscrupulous and aggressive of its inhabitants. But weapons of worldly warfare do not advance that spiritual power which is the highest of all; nor is it pennitted t.o u.ae them for direot furtherance of ()hrist's kin,tdo!ll 011. L 1-18.J 'l'HE BEOOND EPIS'l'LE 'fO THE CORINTHIANS. 257