Ver. 2.-" Galled to be saints." The term " saint" is, in common use, limited to certain classes of holy men. It is applied to the inspired evangelists and apostles; to the great doctors and martyrs of the early Church, especially to such as were " canonized;" and to the glorified in heaven. But the New Testament usage is more general. In the Acts and in the Epistles, Christians generally, otherwise dcsiguate,l " disciples" and "brethren," are also called "saints." In all except two of St. Paul's Epistles, the Christians to whom he writes are thus designated in the opeuing salutations. l'he appellation is one very significant and very instructive. I. 'J.'HIB DESIGNATION REMINDS CHRISTIANS OF WHAT THEY EITHER O~'CE WERE OR 1, CORINTHIANS. 0 THE FIRST EPISTLE '1'0 'l'HE CORINTHIANS. [en. 1. 1-81.
\YOULD HAYE DEEN DUT FOR TITE GRACF. OF Gon. Properly and literally, n saint iA one ~eparatcd and consecrated, made holy by being called out of a sinful society and set apart and dedicated to God. In the case of most of those first thus addressed, it was literally the case that they had been" plucked as brands from the burning." Inlrnbitauts of one of the most luxurious, voluptuous, and debased cities of the ancient world, these members of the Corinthian Church had been rescued and saved by the gospel of God's grace. If the case seems different with hearers of Divine truth in our own land and in our o~·n day, still it must be borne in mind that Christianity alone has brought about such a result that God alone has made us differ. II. Tms DESIGNATION REMINDS CHRISTIANS OF WHAT THEY ARE. 1. They are the creation, the "new creation" of God's Holy Spirit. His cleansing and reueneratincr power, symbolized in the purifying waters of baptism, has effected this gr~t chang;'. 2. They are accordingly consecrated unto God. In the Corinthian temple of Aphrodite, a thousand priestesses were "consecrated" as prostitutes, to the impure worship of the goddess of lust. In the Christian Church all members are devoted to the holy serdce of a holy God. 3. They are sanctified in character. Negatively, Christians are represented by this language as being freed from the bondage and service of sin, Positi.ely, they are arrayed in the white garments of spiritual purity. Outward, ceremonial purity is insufficient; for Christ looks for and values the purity of the heart. 4. They are associated with a holy fellowship. The Church is a holy body, and au unholy member would be out of sympathy with the body to which it professedly belongs. Holiness is a " note" of the spiritual brotherhood. llI. 'l'HIS DESIGN'ATfON REMINDS CHRISTIANS 01" WHAT THEY WILL BE. They are inheritors of a holy kingdom. They look forward to immortal citizenship in that city into which entereth nothing that defileth, where holiness reigns perfectly and for ever, whose occupations of service and of praise are suited to holy beings and to a holy place. A prospect such as this is inspiring as well as delightful. The future casts its influence upon the present. "He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as Christ is pure."-T.
Ver. 5.-Enrichment in Chi·ist. Paul's view of the dignity of the Christian calling, of the privileges and honours of the Christian life, was both just and instructive, and .1,ay well assist us in our endeavour to live clear of and above the false and worldly standard with which we often meet. How could the grandeur and sacredness of our religious position be more effectively set before us than by this inspiriting language addressed by the apostle to the members of the Christian community at Corinth: "In every, hing ye were enriched in Christ"? I. A PARADOX, WHEN WE REGARD THOSE WHO Wl!:IIE THUS ADDRESSED. In the house of one Justus, a proselyte to Judaism, who had IJt!corne a Christian-a house close by the Hebrew synagogue, in the wealthy, commercial, pleasure-seeking city of Corinth, there assembled in a large apartment a company of disciples of the Nazarene. Some w1cJre of Jewish, some of Gentile race. Most, though not all, of the brotherhood were poor, and few were learned or of high station. Perhaps the families of Crispus the president, of Justus himself, and of Chloe from Cenchrea, were the persons in the assembly of most consideration; for Aquila, Apollos, and Sosthenes were absent. Some of those assembled to hear the letter of the apostle, who was the founder of the Church nt Corinth, were bondsmen, and few were persons of any note. When 'l'itus and Trophimus, bearers of Paul's Epistle, accompanied by the Corinthians-Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, who had also just come from the apostle then labouring at Ephesus-when these looked round upon the gathering of Corinthian Christians, they may well have started with astonishment as the language of the Epistle was read out, \\'hich described the abundant enrichment of these lowly, poor, unlettered disciples, Here was a company, including "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble," but composed of the ignorant, the weak, the base, the despiBed of the world. A few Jewish ffi(•rchants, a few handicraftsmen, a few slaves, a few industrious women, and perhaps a scholar or two, were declared to be "enriched in all things." Jt was a paradox; and it was a paradox which has been repeated again and again dllring the past nineteen centuries. ll. ,A POSISlBILITY, WHl.m WE THINK IN WHOM THIS ENBICHMEN'l' 'l!OOK PLACE. en. 1. 1-31.) THE FIIl.ST EPISTLE TO 'fHE CORINTHIANS. 19