,nqd so it is Rpt to be to intellectual people still---to the Greeks; of the pt'csent day, to lit.crnry men, to the reading portion of the community. That is at least what all such have to surmount. 'l'he cross seems foolishness to them. They would like a difficult vroblem on which to exercise their intellects. Now, in one sense, the cross is above reason, inasmuch as reason could never have found it out. But in another sense it is below human reason;, it is a revelation, a doctrine all found out for man, an,! a doctrine 'which is level to the meanest understanding. The result of the philosophic uravin:i; '!'{as, Rt a ".Cry early peri.od of _the Church, the rise of Gnosticism. It was very much a _b)ending of.the Gre,e~ philosophy withChri8tianity. It was the religion of mind, those ,embracin_g it professing to have a deeper insight i-nto Christian f;,cts than the common 'Mople1 who took_ them iii their obvious sense. And since the disappearance of Gnos- :ticism,.tl\ire,h'.all been, q.gain and again, al),d is at present in some quarters, an effort to ,~onside{:' the Hterary and nading.class so as to give the cross a philosophic cast, with lhe vi_Q. f pf attra_cting th_em. . Now, there are some ways of speaking to intellectual .people :petter.: than ot1iers, and nothing is to be hoped for from irrational or dry •discourse, yet, if_ the crOSlJ j.s, turned foto a philosophy, it may attract some, but it is 'riot likely to l;>enei,it them. Let the cross be presented as_ le_vel to the lowest intellect; let if ,be ,preseµ.ted ~s a simple, c"\ivinely reveal~d fact, speaking to the heart more than to the fot:e)I,ect ;, let"there be no fear to offend pride of intellect, which must be humbled before the sotilcan be, saved. (c) The cross is an offence because it i, humbling to self- righteP,usness,' _.It is a strange infatuation of the natural heart that, with no righteous- i;iess to l~y ,claini to, it is yet so natural to it to flatter itself with having a righteousness. 'l'he cross, going upon _the supposition that, we· have no righteousness of our own, and that all th~ praise o( our salvation is due to God, is ai:J. offence. In the Homan Catholic 6ys'tem there is ,a pla()e given to works alongside of the merits of Christ, which is very pleasing to the feeli,ng. of self..rightequsness. We are a.11, apt t.o construct a theory of 1alvatio_n in which ther.e is_~ place left for self. Now, the cross must never_ be presented to please self-righteous people; that would be ~ fatal compromise. Let the cross be proclain1ed as the impossibility of oui, own righteousness, as the· grace of God in a rightequsness freely provided for us._ That is a doctrine which must offend, but it is ,the ~illy docti;ine.that can satisfy _the conscience. (d) The cross is an offence because of its large demands. _lt 1/,emands that we forsake cherished sins._ And that cuts into ·natural liking, tbat'is painful like a crucifying, and therefore an offence. But the cross must.be presented as giving no quarter to sin, as the most tremendous proof that sin fa no.t to be _per·iµ,itted, as sho'wing how sin is utterly abhorred and condemned of God. _And to be acknowWdging the'cross, ~vhile tolerating sin in ourselves, is crucifying the So_n of God,, afresli _and putting him to an open shame. It demands self-sacrifice. 'l'he cross~life is c~aracteristi~ally a life of self-sacrifice. Christ was sacrificing all along, and when h'e came to the cross he sacrificed his a.11--,sacrificed bis life in the most awful circJmstances. And those who would take up the cross roust be prepared to follow Christ in his course of self-denial. And there, again, is where the offence of the cross a.rises. Its requirements are too high. But as the cross of Christ can never be blotted out, so its requirements c~n- never be lowered. It is the stirndard up to which our !if~ must be brought if'we are to attain to our perfection. 'l'here is one blessed way in which' the offenc~ ·of the cross ceases, and that is, when we have been humbled by it as &inners, and have been led to ·dwn its power. 'l'hen we admire it for the light it throws ·on the Divine perfections, and for the power there is in it over liuman he~rts. And we·sa.y, "Far be it from'. lne to glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ." 7. lie wishes the Galatians delive·rancefrom the unsettling teacl,ers. "I would that they which unsettle you would even cut themselves off." In the case· of the offender agaillst morality in the Corinthian Church, the apostle issued a decree that he should be cut off by the Church. That cou1d not be done in this case, because those teachers were not under'the jurisdiction of the Galatian Churches. 'l'hey came to' teach thorn as they were free to do; and all that the Galatians could do was to refuse them a hearing. ·'l.'ha.t this was tlie apostle's mind m,ay be gathered from the wish. he expresses tha~ 'they would cut themselves of!. As they could not be cut off by the Church, let them c'ut themselves off. :AS they were O!lly unsettling. the Gala.tian order, let them leave 'Galatian soil. B\lt he does no more than wish. It was certainly by itself desir:i.ble; hut it might be the purpose of God that th~se unsettling teachers should be left t.ber• 284 THE El'tSTLE TO THE GALATIANS. Ccu. v. 1-28.
to make trial of the Galatians, and, it might be, thereby to purify and to strengthen tbem.-R. F. •