as this genitive means in 1 Cor. iii. 23 an l in Mark ix. 41-the next verse shows thAt they did not refer subjectively to their own spiritua.l devotion to Christ, nor to their being os individual believers accepted with Christ, but to their official character as men acting in Christ's employ, and in their office authorized by him. Compare the expression, "We are God's fellow-workmen," in 1 Cor. iii. 9, which a.ppea.rs to mean "joint workmen with each other in God's employ." 2. When, age.in, they affirmed th11t they were " ministers of Christ," on the one hand the word liul.Kow,, in its technical sense, points to work of public service in the Church; but on the other, as connected with the genitive Xp"1Toii, it also expresses the relation of servantship to Christ. So that we have again here the notion of, so to speak, employees of Christ ready to go about such offices of service as he appoints them to. The phrase, however, does not iwply any such personal intercourse as that, for example, which sub- sisted between Christ while upon earth and his apostles or other disciples then attendant upon him;· for we find it applied to persons who never saw our Lord, as T_imothy and Epaphras (1 Tim. iv. 6; Col. i. 7). The attendantship denoted is of a spiritual kind, being a ministry in the Church, which is Christ's body. But while this was their out.- ward guise, they were, St. Paul intimates (2 Cor. xi. 15), in reality Satan's ":ministers," not Christ's. 3. This S!;!nse of "ministers of Christ" serves to illustrate the meaning ID which they claimed the designation of " apostles of Christ./' As the phrase, " minister of Christ," expresses a relation to him similar to that which an employee bears to his employer, so the phrase, "apostle of Christ," seems to denote a relation to him analogous to that which an apostle bore to him that delegated him.1 According to this construc- tion of the designation, these men would seem to have laid claim to having been in some sense delegated by Christ. But we have no need to suppose, in this case, any more than with reference to the title " ministers of Christ," that they claimed any immediate personal relation to our Lord similar to that held by the twelve, but o.nly that spiritual ecclesiastical relation to him which they may be deemed to hold whom his Church, acting in his Name and under his guidance, has commissioned for the par- ticular work in which they are engaged. The honourableness of a <Jhurch apostle's/unction. The cases which have been now discussed have brought to light the fact that, besides the twelve commissioned directly by Christ in person, there were, in the infancy of the Church, persons who received the name of " apostles" in consequence of being despatched by some public body in the Christian. community for the execution of some trust connected with the Christian cause, and,that, amongst other forms of sacred business entrwlted to them, one was that of spreading the gospel. The deg~ee of estimation which the title, in general an honourable one, conferred upon its bearer• would naturally rise with the dignity of the service which he was com- missioned to discharge. If an" apostle'' whose business related simply to the collection and custody of alms, or to the conveys.nee to a venerated father in Christ of a.n affec- tionate contribution to his needs; appeared in the eyes of his brethren invested with a. certain measure of dignity by reason of the public confidence thus reposed in him, much i • U is po,sst'ble to understaud the genitive as used like the genitive e.oii in the clause above cited, "We are God's fellow-workers," that is, "in God's employ.'' Taken thus, the phrase," apostles of Christ," might mean" Church apostles," belonging to Christ, employed by Obrist, as other Church officers are. But such a construction would seem somewhat harsh in itself and hardly warranted by usage: at least we do not find similar dt:11igoations applied to other Church officers-no euoh designatiOD, for ex.ample, 1\8 "l\ bishop," or " 1W elder," or " an evangelist," "of Christ." XXX THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
more would this be the case when he had been set apart for a no less responsible function thnn tbat -of conveying to men the messag<l of th<l gospel and of propagating the Church. In such a case the designation of « apostl<l" inferred among Christians a twofold distinction, as it also carried along with it a claim to bis maintenance by his converts. Fictitious honour<ibleness. As has been seen, it was a distinction so significant as to be capable of being abused for purposes of vain-glory, or insubordination, or even cupidity for gain. The fact nlso that the office of public envoy was styled by the same title as.bad' been by Christ himself assigned to the twelve, would hardly fail of attaching to those who bore it an additional halo of respect. The twelve disciples were" apostles of Christ;" and they too were "apostles of Christ." Although it would be quite clear, upon a ·closer inspection of the circumstances, that the predicate was not really identical in tlie two cases, and that the element of dignity accruing from the suppositio;n that it 'llia.s identical was a fictitious one, it may nevertheless have often imposed ·on the unwary, and Clrurch apostles over-greedy of honour may at times. have not been foo scrupulous· to make an unfair use of this implement of imposture. ·That the·••j:,seuda:,apostles" at Corinth were not too scrupulous to do so seems almost suggested by what·St, Paul ~ays of these "guileful workers" in the thirteenth verse of the· eleve*h ~h~pt~r. 'fhey certainly, at any rate, demanded that they should be deemed quite u. much apostles as St. Paul was, and even more certainly so. • .. Probable cause of the disuse of the title " apostles " in the Ohurch. It may here bo remarked, by the way, that in all probability this liability on the part. of: the unwary to misconceive the relative character of the two apostolates, and the oppqttilnity thus offered to unprincipled bearers of the apostolic title for imposing on their brethren, by each of which causes the distinctive pre-eminence in the kingdom of God bw'ned by those who were apostles in the higher sense was infringed upon and their authority impaired, led to the early and total discontinuance in the Church of the use of th.e term -as applied to those who were Church apostles only. T~e last occurrence I of 1 Since these words were written, there has •come to light. and ,be~n •given to the