The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 309

II. THEY COME TO OERTAIN PREPARED INDIVIDUALS. Not to masses, not to ChnrcheR, not to meetings. 'l'he vision is for individuals, who are thns made agents in the com- munication t~ men of the Divine thought and will. F. W. Robertson says, "To com- prehend the visions we must comprehend the man. For God gives vi8ions at his own will, and according to cortnin and fixed laws. He does not inspire every one. He does not reveal his mysteries to men of ~elfish, or hard, or phlegmatic temperaments. He gives preternatural communications to those whom he prepares beforehanrl by a peen liar spiritual sensitiveness. There are, physically, certain sensitivenesscs to sound an,] colour tho.t qualify men to become gifted musicians and painters; so, spiritually,1 there are certain strong original susceptibilities (I say original, as derived from God, the origin of all), and on these God bestows strange gifts and sights, deep feelings not to be uttered in ~ume.n language, and immeasurable by the ordinary standard. Such a man was St. Paul-a very wondrous nature, the Jewish nature in all its strength. We know that the Jewish temperament fitted men to be the organs of a revelation. Its fervour, it8 rrioq1l sense, its veneration, its indomitable will, all adapted the highest sons of the nation for receiving hidden truths and communicating them to others." III. THEY COME ON PARTICULAR OCCASIONS. By the law of Divine economy, only when they a.re the precise thing demanded, the only agency that will efficiently meet the case. IV. THEY'C01'4E IN GRACIOUSLY ADAPTED FORMS. Heard voices sometimes, a.t other times dreams, ocular visions, symbols, trances, and mental panoramas. Close by showing that; because the modem mode is direct to souls, immediate to the sha.ping of men's thoughts, and not through symbols, or dreams, or visions, we need not lose the conviction that, upon due occasions still, God gives to some amongst us insight and revelation of his truth.-R. T. Ver. 1.-Satan's messenger; or, the thorn in the flesh. It would be e. grave mistake to make this description of St. Paul's affliction the basis of any argument for the personality or agency of Satan. He does but use the familiar Jewish figure of speech, wh_ich may or may not embody for him auy doctrine concerning Satan. The figure is'most strikinglyused in the introduction to the Book of Job; but the following other passages illustrate how familiar it was to the Jewish mind : Luke xiii. 1ti; Acts v. x. 38.; 1 Cor; 5 ; 1 Thess. ii. 18 ; 1 Tim;. i. 20. "These are enough to prove that, while men referred special forms of suffering of mind and body, chiefly the former, to the agency of demons, they were prepared to recognize the agency of Satan in almost every form of botlily calamity." No single d~cription of Satan can cover the entire Scripture representation of him, but one aspect presented by it has not been dnly considered. He is sometimes regarded as the agent, or executor, of the Divine purpose in physical calamity, and even in moral testings through temptation. We may think of an angel of temptation as well as of an angel of death. We may not even think of Satan 33 in any sense actirig 'independently. He, too, comes fully within the Divine rulings and overrulings, What the nature of the apostle's affliction or temptation W33 cannot be certainly known from _his descriptions of it. Many explanations have been suggested. Lightfoot summarizes them thus: (1) a bodily ailment of some kind: (2) some opposition encountered from his enemies, or suffering endured; (3) carnal longings; (4) spiritual trials, doubtings, etc. Archdeacon Farrar thinks the "thorn" must have been some physical malady, and suggests epilepsy, of which be says," It is painful; it is recurrent; it opposes an immense difficulty to all exertion; it may nt any time cause e. temporary- ~uspension of work; it is intensely humiliating to the person who suffers from 1t; 1t uercises 9. repellent effect on those who witness its distressing manifestations." But he ,adds that there can be no doubt that St. Paul also suffered from ophthalmia, and that this disease fulfils in every particular the conditions of the problem. Dean Plumptre favours the idea of corporeal rather than mental suffering, and says," Nor need we b6 surprised that this infirmity-neuralgia. of the head and face ?r inflammation of the eyes, perhaps in some measure the after-consequences of the blmdness at Damascus- should be dcscribqd as • a messencrer of Satan.'" Another suggest10n has been made whicl'l is fresh and interesting, a;d worthy of very patient consideration. Prufessor Lias 'writes "Our lust alternative must be some defect of character, calculated to interfere with St. Paul's success as a minister of Jesus Obrist. AnJ the defect which  310 'l'HE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORIN'l'HIANS. [oa. xn. 1-21.