The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 120

not only l)elon~s to God, so that none dare claim any kind of" lordship" over it; but it is one in which God is the great \Vorker. The process wrought out in it is tlrn result of his productive power, and, as far as the vit,tl part of it is concerned, of his alone. Mau is nothing; God is "all in all" (ver. 7). Ilut the instrument has its needful and proper place. God works out his beneficent ends through the intervention of man's own willing co-operation, and in this lies for mau himself' an infinite bene- diction. He might have made the earth to yield its fruits without any culture of ours;. but would that have been a merciful arrangement? In those parts of the earth where there is the nearest approach to such a condition of things, human life is always found to be in a state the most degraded. Labour is the law of man's being. .And though that labour, through the curse of sin, presents too often the aspect of irksome toil, yet still it is a" sublime neces~ity," the indispensable condition of physical health and happiness. In the spiritual sphere, too, God would have us to be "fellow-workers" with himself. He will not accomplish his beneficent purposes without us. He employs us as the channels and vehicles of his power. His working in us is the motive and the inspiration of our working for him. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for," etc. (Phil. ii. 12, 1~). We can expect to see the blessed issue- only when we place ourselves as ready and prepared instruments in his hands. But. never may we furget that the power is his and not ours. "Should e'er his wonder-working grace Triumph through our weak arm, Let not our sinful fancy trace A.ugut human in the charm." W. Ver. 11.-The one Foundation. It is of the personal, not the doctrinal, Christ that the apostle here speaks-of Christ, not so much as the basis of a system of religious- teaching, but as himself the living Foundation of living souls. Look at this Foundation. in two or three different lights. L As THE GROUND OF THE SINNER'S HOPE OF SALVATION. "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other Name," etc. (Acts iv. 12). The apostles never diverged in the slightest degree from this testimony. To have done this would have been to preach no gospel to men at all, but only to flatter them with a false, delusive hope. The reason of Paul's unyielding fidelity to the simplicity of his gospel message at Corinth and everywhere else, lay in his deep sense of the fact that, in whatever land or age or grade of social life a man may be found, whatever the level of his civilization or intellectual culture, "Christ crucified" can alone meet his spiritual necessities. .And he would pay just as little respect to our dreams of self-sufficiency as he did to those of the men of his own times; for they have just as little solid ground to rest upon. Our nature is the same as theirs. Our spiritual needs are the same. There is the same insatiable craving within us, the same guilt on our consciences, the same seeds of corruption latent in our hearts, the same moral dangers besetting the path way of our life. The same eternal spirit-world surrounds us, and wo must confront the same "righteous judgment of God." What can we do but cast our souls, with all the wealth of their affections and the weight of their immortal interests, on Christ'! What otber "refuge" have we but the "hope set before us in the gospel"? I!. THE BASIS OF ALL TBUE SPIRITUAL ONENESS AND FELLOWSHIP AMONG MEN. The Church at Corinth had become a distracted and divided communion. It failed to maintain the "unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." St. Paul knew well where the secret of this lay. .As a "wise master-builder," he saw at once that the breach, the disruption in the house was caused by some fault in its relation to the Foundation on which it was supposed to rest. In spite of all his care, the superstructure had not been based with sufficient firmness upon that. He calls them back to the principle and ground of their unity. They were divided because they had in some way wandered from it, had slipped off from it, lost their hold on it. The uniting principle had become less to them than the forces that rend asunder. There is no real, living, lasting union among men, ezcept on the basis of a common life in Ghrist. 1'here are appearances, shadows of it, approxirr1ations to it more or Iese near, but not the Diviue cu. !II, 1-23.] 'l'HE FIHST EPISTLE TO THE CORI~THIANS. 123