wi,dom, had been held back for" our glory." And is not the truth of that statement now attested? Understand wherein "our glory" lies. It is in this-man has a spirit and God communicates his own secret intelligence unto it in the shape of a "demon~ stration of the Spirit and of power." Not wisdom alone, not only perception and reflection, but n•alization and assimilation in the attending form of power, the act of the recipient of grace not being the functional act of a faculty, but of ,he whole mind• "comparing 8piritual things with spiritual "-the spirit of the renewed wan most fully conscious of itself, because of the presence of God's Spirit and the expansion thereby of its own consciousness. \Vhat a comparing power suddenly wakens! What an '.mtreaching process begin~ ! 'l:his capacit,Y of comparing, beginning our development m childhood and contmumg till old age, 1s one of the mind's foremost activities. It is susceptible of more culture than any mental property. The inventive genius of poets and artists, the skill of the great novelist, the discriminating power of the sagacious statesman, are alike dependent on the diversified energy of comparison. Accuracy of judgment, depth of insight, breadth of sympathy so essential to largeness of ,-iew, are mainly due to this quality. Give it fair treatment, and three score and ten years witness its beautiful efflorescence. But its spiritual uses are its noblest uses. "Comparing spiritual things with spiritual" is its grandest office.. When the human spirit receives the Divine Spirit, what a glorious enlargement, by reason of thu rnpcraddition of" the things of Goel," to the domain of thought, emotion, impulse! Calmly the mind works on; its laws never disturbed, its strength invigorated, its ideal of greatness opened in fuller radiance, its range and compass widened by a new horizon a motive power brought to bear it never knew, and the l'epose of strength deepenin~0 evermore in the peace of Christ.-L.
Y ers. 14-16.-Natural man and spiritual man. The natural man, who had not been forgotten by St. Paul in the first chapter, now comes under closer inspection, \Ve can see him from the point of view occupied in the second chapter. What is said of him? He "reociveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him : neither can be know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Nature is represrnted here as very different from grace, and the difference has the breadth nf contrast. Low and vulgar forms of nature are not enumerated, nor would it have been like the apostle to select his illustrations from exceptional cases of human depravity. Corinth could have easily supplied such instances. But the noticeable fact is that he avoids this sort of specification, and chooses his typical examples from "the wise," "the scribe," "the disputer of this world," yea, the very "princes of this world;" and these are they who lack all spiritual discernment, and in their blindness look upon the glorious gospel of Christ as "foolishness." And the portraiture is not finished till these "princes of this world" are sketched against the darkest of possible backgrounds, even the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. It is not the brutal Jl\Ob that he pictures on his canvas, but the best specimens, according to current opinion\ of the mind and culture of the age. Against these-the guides of public sentiment iind the accepted leaders of society, men of character and position-he directs his co~de•nation. And the grief of his heart is that these are the very men whose evil spirit h infected the Corinthian Church, and intrcduced vitiatin~ elements long ago ab ndoned by believers as utterly inconsistent with morality and religion. The natural man of that day was not the creature of the day, not an accident of those volcanic times when the foundations of civil order were shaking, and even the majestic hills of Home were threatened with upheaval. No; time and opportunity and ample means for develop- ment had been allowed; the fairest portions of the world had been given him for home and commerce; a thousand miles around the Mediterranean yielded everything that material civilization demanded; art and philosophy and government had afforded whatever the intellect of the senses craved; aud Judaism had diffused itself far and wide, till even Stoicism had felt its influence. After all, however, the natural man has wound up the history of ancient culture by crucifying the Lord of glory; and now, the stain of holy blood upon him, he has learned nothing from his own experience, but persists in treatiug the gospel as "foolishness." Nor can it be otherwise so long as tlie man remains under the thraldom of nature. Anomalous it may seem, but it is none the less true, that nature is morally known to us as the opposite of spirituality; and, cu. n. 1-lG.J 'l'HE FIHST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 67