verse•, is taken from what would meet the eye of n tmveller in Ephesus, where St. P,i11l now was, or in Corinth, where his letter was to be first read. It is such a. contrast as may be seen (though not in precisely the same striking form of difference) in Londun in our own day. 'l'he stately pa.laces of marble and of granite, with roof and column glittering with gold nnd silver decorations, and, close by these, the wretched hovels of the poor and outcast, the walls made of laths of wood, with the interstices stuffed with ~traw, and a thatched roof above. Then arose before the apostle'~ viRion the thought of a city being visited by a mighty conflagration, such as desolated Corinth itself in th" time of Mummius. The mean structures of perishable wood and straw would be utterly consumed, while, as was actually the case at Codnth, the mighty palaces anrl temples woulrl stand after the fire had exhausted itself'' ('I'. T. Shore). The point of the apostle is that, sooner or later, all earthly works come under severe and searching testings, which prove whether there is anything in them of permanent value, and destroy what had but a temporary use or was really worthless. There is a good and important sense in which the testing-day is a continuous day. 'We need not put the thonght of the proving of our life-work off to some indefinite future. Every day tests and tries. Every night we may think that God weighs the day and its works in his perfectly adjusted balances. But the early Christian mind was very fully occupied with th~ idea of a particular day, on which Christ would appear and the judgment of mankind be completed; see 2 Cor. v. 10. I. THE FIRE-TEST FOR ALL LIFIMVORK, Fire is conceived as: 1. The most destructive agent. 2. The most searching agent. Recent fires have shown how it can destroy even buildings of brick and stone. lllustrate from the great Chicago fire. 3. The most purify- ing agent. Illustrate its power to cleanse the dross from metals. Compare the two other cleansing agents noticed in Scripture-water and blood. Both these cleanse by a mechanical process; fire cleanses by a chemical process. Nowa,lays, in great cities and in regard to great buildings, the most anxious question is, "Will the walls etc., stand fire?" We try to build places that shall be fire-proof. Fire fitly represents the searching power of God: "As fire docs, so does God in the end thoroughly search out and destroy all that is vile or refuse, all that is not thoroughly genuine and ,lurn.ble." For passages associating fire-symbols with God, see Deut. iv. 2-1; ix. 3; Ps. I. 3; xcvii. 3; Isa. !xvi. 15, 16; Mai. iii. 2, 3; 2 Thcss. i. 8; Heb. xii. 29. It may be shown that (l) time, (2) difficult circumstances, (3) afflictions, test our life-work, and act as the fire of God. Sooner or later, even in this life, men find out of what sort their work has been, but all mistake and delusion about the quality of our work will bl' swept away in the great revealing day of God. II. 'l'HE REWARD FOU ALL WHOSE LIFE-WORK ABIDES THE TEST. The reward is reallv found in the abiding, the permanent character of the work. "Those who have built well shall have their 1·eward in their work having survived the trial of the fire." F. W. Hobertson points out the doctrine of the rcwardableness of work, as taught in this passage. "All were one, on the one Foundation; yet St. Paul modifies this: they were not one in such a sense that all their work was equally valuable, for' every man shall receive his own reward according to his labour.' It is incredible that the mere theologian, defending the outworks, writing a book on the evidences of Christianity, or elaborating a theological system, shall be o.s blessed as he who has huugered and thirsted with Christ, and like Christ suffered. Nevertheless, each in his own way shall gain the exact recompense of what he has done." On the doctrine of rewards, consiJer (1) the sense in which they are present; (2) the sense in which they are future; (3) how far we mny think of them as material, and bow far as moral; (4) their precise adaptation to the worker, and relation to the work he had done; and (5) their coming as a gift or grace, never as a claim of merit. Ill. THE LOSS OF THOSE WHOSE LIFE-WORK WILL NOT ABIDE THE TES'l'. Their work will perish. It is proved to be "of the earth, earthy." It had no abiding spiritual -:haracter. Reference, no doubt, is to all so-called Christian teaching that has mind m it, energy in it, individuulily in it, but not Christ in it, and Christ wholly. All work that only glorifies the worker must perish. Only work that glorifies Christ can stand the fire-test. Show with what care we should test our own work in God's sight, to be sure that no self-sEeking bas crept into it and spoiled it. "If we would judge ourselves we shall not be judged." But St. Paul, while writing such severe and L CORI:STHIANS, K TilE FIRST EPISTLE TO TllE CORINTHIA};S, [en. m. 1-23.
"''~rching things, makes most careful qualifications, so that none should he unduly ,hcouraged. This is said for the comforL of sincere souls whose life-work has proved :. L1ilnrc. "He himself shall be saved; yet so as b_v fire." "He shall be savecl, while ,\I I his work shall be dcstro)·cd, just as, to use St. Paul's metaphor, a builder escapes I r.. m his house which has been hurnt over his head, and stands tremblino- yet safe i,,.,king on his work in ruins." "Surely the' smell of fire' may be said to p;ss on hin~ ,,ho sees all those works which he so honestly believed to be for God vanishinrr as ,,orthless stubble in the searching trial which will 'purge away all the dross' of' our human doing~, and le.we only ~hat is o~ r_eal v~lue in God's sight." Impress how entirely our human will should be lost m the D1vme will, so that our Chri~tian work should be in no sense at all our work, but entirely God's appointment for us, and wholly done u•,<lcr his guidance and in his strength. ·work that has the self-seeking stamp on it "·ill be sure to burn up. Precious stonework, gold and silver work, is work done "·holly for Christ, in which the self does not appear. Let each man, then, test his ministry, his teaching, his iIJfluence, now, while he may correct his errors, and begin to ,!u better things in a better spirit.-R. T.