The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 82

"1101(1 fnst that which is g00<l." The spiritnal man brings everything thus to the secret trihnnnl 01' his own soul. 1. All forms qf human teaching and influrnce, the various ways in which men se~k "to gui<le our opinions and our con<luct. "llelieve not every spirit, but pro,·e," etc. (1 John i'I'. 1). We may apply this to the whole action of tho spirits of men upon us through the or<linary lll<'ans of personal influence. 'l'he spirit ,,r truth nnd the spirit of error, the spirit of goo,l and of evil, como to us through these lrnmnn channels; and om mental conditions, our daily habits of thought and life, am determined, often far more than we are aware of, in this way. The spirits of men aro embodied in their "·orks and words, and thus not merely when they are physically present ,Yith us, but when \Ye have never seen them face to face, when oceans roH. bet1Yeen us, when they haYe passed away to other worlds, we may feel their living touch npon our souls. Their sway over us is independent of the conditions of space an~l time. "Being dead, th<'y yet speak." "They rule us from their urns." '!'heir very names me instruments of persuasive !<piritual power. The grand question in every such, case is "·hetber this power is on the whole favourable or otherwise to the cause of truth and righteousness. It is by some criterion of right and wrong in our own souls that this question must be determined, and what. can the criterion be but the" spirit of power and of Joye and of a sound mind" that God gives? Books, sermons, newspapers, theories, systems of religious faith and ecclesiastical polity, the personal example and com·crse of others, the social sentiments and customs that prevail around us,-in short, everything that possesses a moral quality and wields a moral influence over us, must be subjected to this test. This is the Divine "right of private judgment," which in. its higheSL aspect we cannot surrender if we would. 2. The revelation cf God, coming to us as it does through human and natural channels, must needs be amenable to the same law. According to its own teaching, the Divine in us can alone discover and, recognize the Divine element in it. "He that is of God beareth the words of God" (John Yiii. 4,); "Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice" (John xviij. 37); "Ye haYe an anointing of the Holy One," etc. (1 John ii. ~0). Men justly argue that the Dible, like every other book, must be brought to the tribunal of the" judging faculty." But what is that faculty? If they mean by it the Spirit of God given in his measure to e,ery lowly Christian believer, the wondrous supernatural light that shines from heaven upon every soul that humbly and prayerfully looks up for it,-this is a principle to which all apostolic voices bear witness. But if they mean some native faculty, some light of llatural reason, some power of spiritual discernment inherent in the very con- stitution of our being,-they are trusting to that which is the source of all confusion of thought and divergence of opinion, an ignis fatuus, which leads through mazes of uncertainty to the darkness of doubt and of despair. The religious sensibility in every man to which revelation appeals is one thing; the interpretive and verifying faculty, which is the special gift of the Spirit of God, which, indeed, is the Spirit of God in man. is another. How shall we know that we have this power? In one view of it it is a se!f~witnessing power, which no rival authority can gainsay; in another, it is a, power that proves itself by its qualities and results. It is a lowly, loving, patient, trustful, obedient spirit. And its supreme characteristic is that it testifies to Christ as at once the Centre and Circumference of our highest thought, the Source and End of our noblest life. It is the "mind of Christ,'' and no "persuasion" can be in harmony with it that does not lead more or less directly to him. II. His FREEDOM J<'ll.OM BEING JUDGED. "He himself is judged of no man" who has- not the same spiritual faculty. This follows as a necessary consequence of the superiority of his own gift. Take it in different ways. 1. No such man can understand· him. The workings of his inner life, his deepest thoughts, affections, aspirations, con- flicts, the powers that sustain and the principles that govern his whole spiritual existence,-these form a world into which the unspiritual man cannot enter. We are all mysteries to each other in the individuality of our being. Each lives in bis own world, and the painful sense of solitude will often seize upon the thoughtful spirit. Imperfect sympathies arising from imperfect mutual acquaintance are among the saddest. features of our social existence, and will often awaken strange longings for a state of being in which we "shall know even as also we are known." In no case is this separa-- tion so complete as between the spiritual and the carnal man. Here lies a gulf which. no artifice, no arrangement of outward circumstances, can bridge over. When a gr-od m. n. 1-lG.] THE FinST EPISTLE TO THE COlUNTHfANS.