Vers. 21-23.-.A call to the utmost expansiveness in religious sympathy. "Tl.cre- fore let no man glory in mea. For all things are yours," etc. The attendants on a Christian ministry may be divided into two classes. 1. Those who esteem the doctrine because of the teacher. 'l.'here are not a few in all congregations who accept doctrines simply because of the strong sympathies they have with the preacher. Paul seems to have thought of these when he wrote this chapter. He alludes to the men in the Church at Corinth who had been taken more with the teachers than with their doctrines. The other class of attendants on a Christian ministry are: 2. Those wbo esteem the teacher because of his doctrines. A man who preaches to them they feel is estimable only as he embodies and propounds the true doctrines of the gospel. The impropriety of glorying in teachers rather than in their doctrines is strikingly illus- trated in these verses by three things. I. 'l'HE UNIVERSE IB FOR THE CHURCH. "All things are yours." "All things," not some things. 1. 'fhe ministry is for the Church. "'Whether Paul, or Apollos." There is no agency more valuable on earth than the Christian ministry; in every way it serves man-intellectually, socially, materially. But its grand aim is to restore the human spirit to the knowledge, image, and fellowship of its God. Why, then, should it glory in one form? Let those who like Paul take Paul, and be thankful, and not find fault with those who regard Apollos as the most effective preacher. 2. The world is for the Church. By the world we mean the earth, with all its beauties and blessings. In the seuse of legal possession the world, of course, is not the property of Christians, nor is it the property of others. For he who claims the largest nuruber of acres has but II handbreadth compared with its numerous islands and vast continents. Yet in the highest sense it is the property of the Christian. He feels an intense ~ympathy and oneness with God who created it. 3. l,1/e is the property of the C!J1trch. "Or life." 'l.'here are certain conditions in which we find men on tlti:; earth, 'l'HE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [oH. m. 1-23.
in which they crinnot be said to live. There are some chained in their cell, under the Sl'ntcnce of ~leatli; they haYc forfeited their life. There are otherR whoso limbs are so p:\I'alyzed frat they can neither speak nor move; life is not theirs. Morally, sinful rnan is as a criminal; he is under the sentence of death; be is dead in trespasses. Hut life is the Christian's; his ~cntence of death is removed; his morn\ infirmities are healed, anc. all hi~ faculties and powers are nlivc unto God. 4. Death is the property of the Church. "Or ,!eath." What is death? Who shall define it? Who shall penetrate its me.ming? The \\'Ord has unfathomable depths of the wonderful and the terrible. But it is for the Christian; it is his. It delivers him from the imperfections of the present state; it frees him from all that is incompatible with his peace, his sarety, and his acl.vanceme11t; it introduces him into the scenes the services the ~ociety, of a blessed immortality. It is his; it is the last step 'in the pilgri~iage. ii. General euent.< are the property of the Church. "Thino-s present or thin<rs to come "-an e:prcssion including all the ~ircumstances of exis~nce. "Things pre;ent," "·hatcYer their character, are ours. "Thmgs to come:" what things are those? Now, if all these things are for tbe Church, why should any of its members give themselves up to any one particular ministry to the disparagement of others? II. THE CHURCH IS FOR THE REDEEMER. "Ye are Christ's." There are two very ,hfferent senses in wbich Christian men are Christ's. They are his: 1. By his relation- ship to them. He is the Creator of all. "By him were all things created." He is the Mediator of all. 2. By their pledge to him. They have pledged themselves to him as their moral Leader. They have vowed unqualified obedience to his teaching. If tlicy have thus consecrated themselves to him as their great Teacher, bow absurd to glory in subordinate and fallible teachers! Why live under the rays of the rush- light, when you can bask under the beams-of the sun? Follow a Plato in philosophy, a Solon in law, a Demosthenes in eloquence, a Bacon in sciences, but no one but Christ in religion. Value the Calvins, the Luthers, the Wesleys, for what they are worth, but disclaim them as leaders. III. THE REDEEMER IS FOR Goo. "And Christ is God's." Jesus, as a Mediator, is the Messenger and Servant of the Eternal. 1. Christ is God's Revealer. He is the Word of God, the Logos. (1) He reveals him in creation; (2) he reveals him in his personal ministry. 2. Christ is God's Servant. He came here to work out God's gr~at plan of saving mercy. Learn from this subject: 1. The infinite worth of Christianity. It gives all things to its true disciples. None of the "all things" specified here are possessed by those who are not his genuine disciples. The ministry is not theirs. If they attend preaching they are mere instruments in the hands of the preacher; they are carried away by the emotions of the hour. The world is not theirs, however large a portion of it they claim legally; the world uses them as its tools. Life is uot theirs; it is forfeited to justice. They have no true enjoyment in it. Death is not theirs; they are its. "Through fear of death they are all their lifetime subject to bondage." "Things present and things to come" are not theirs; they are the mero creatures of circum- stances. It is Christianity alone that makes all these things man's. It attunes the soul to the influences of God, as the .lEolian harp is attuned to the winds; and every passing breeze in its history strikes out in music the anthem, "'l'he Lord is my }>ortion, saith my soul." 2. The contemptibleness ef reli9ious sectarianism. How wretchedly mean and base does sectarianism appear in the light of this subject I The men who glory in their own theological peculiarities, ecclesiastical sect, and religious teachers, have never felt the grandeur contained in the text, that the universe is for the Church, the Church is for Christ, and that Christ is for God.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. I-4.-Spiritual condition of these Corinthian partisans characterized. These men were in a low state of Christian development, their growth in grace having been ..irrested by the jealousy and strife dominant in their midst. Under such circumstances, personal progn:ss and Church prn::;ress were impossible. Individual self-assertion and arrogance could not but lead. to the depreciation of others, nor could envious en. 111. 1-23.J 'l'HE FIRST EPlSTLE TO THE CORINTIIIA"NS. 101