imagos lingered in his thoughts, only to remind him that Christians were "unleavened," .and that all the leaven of impurity must be put away from them. For them the Paschal Lamb had been slain, and in the Victim's death they had redemption. "Let us keep the feast;" our consecrated lifa a festival of gladness, and our thanksgiving con- tinually ascending to God. And how shall this long and sacred festivity be observed? No external demonstrations are mentioned. Could the Jew conceive of e. festival like this? ·would not the pomp and show o~ national reunions, the booths and palm boughs, 1he cheer of open-air life, and the music and domestic joy of the congreo-ated caravans :rush upon him with their thrilling recollections? And would not the Grecli:, whose sense~ were so finely attuned to "IThatever was beautiful in material nature, and whose very birthright was the luxury of existence beneath skies and amid hndscapes that seemed to pour their sympathies into his bosom_,-wou)d not be recall the theatre and the games? .And yet St. Paul tells them of a festival winch the renewed _soul may keep without any of these things, and be supremely happy. "The old leaven," especially "the leaven of malice and wickedness," must be excluded, and the feast must be kept "with the unle3:ve:1ed bread of sincerity and tru~h." The evil in. our nature must be destroyed, and, rn its place, must be bad the genume excellence which bas been tried and proved, .and the harmony that comes from self-control because the human will is controlled by the indwellin~ Spirit of God. Virtues such as _sincerity and truth need society, and, assuredly, society needs them. Eager to commumcate and in turn to receive, what shall be the law of their intercourse with mankind? Fellowship is a Christian designation that cannot have its meaning in the world. But Christians are in the world, and a very important element in its life. To deny its associations and segregate themselves from others is to commit a species of suicide. On a former occasion St. Paul had written an Epistle touching this subject. But be bad been misunderstood, and now he would rectify their error. They bad blundered, not he. And now he sets the matter clearly before them by impressing on these Corinthians that there was not only a distinction between .the Church and tbe world, but likewise between the good and the evil in the Church itself. Tares must grow with the wheat, but that was no reason why they should treat the tares as wheat. Fornicators in the Church or out of it were fornicators, and the -brethren were not to keep company with them. And hence his explicitness, " not to company" with any man who was a fornicator, though he might be "called a brother." Nor does he stop here. Covetous men, idolaters, railers, drunkards, extor- tioners, they were not to associate with on such terms of social companionship as would be symbolized by eating with them. How could he as an apostle judge those who were without? If he did not do this, could they suppose that he meant to require it of them? The outer world must be left with God. And now St. Paul returns to the matter engrossing his solicitude: "Put away from among yourselves that wicked person." If, indeed, Christ is our Paschal Lamb; if through that offeriug of expiation and reconci1iation in itself for ever perfect and by us realized in pardon and renewal and sanctification, life becomes an Easter of glad thanksgiving; we must make this sincerity (purity) and this truth (harmony) visible to the world in our social sympathies. Bodily sins are easily condoned among men: beware of that evil. Extortion and covetousuess grow out of the idolatry of the senses, and they must not be countenanced by familiar association. How modem is this Epistle I No thought had St. Paul of us and our century, but these words of bis rise from their local connections and assume universality of application. Corinth is at our doors, because its spirit is in all unsanctified hearts. And yet-thanks to the grace of the Spirit-in all the foremost civilizations of this age and over a wider space than ever before, the Paschal Lamb is precious to thousands. Since the days of the apostle, human life has expanded its outward area. Myriads of things, unknown to it then, are its possession and strength and glory now. Two wonderful enlargements have gone on-that of the universe to our comprehension, and this of the globe and the world to which }Ve belong. And, in the midst of all the widening, specially in the fuller opening of human sympathies and the growth of h1;1man intercourse, the blessed festival of Christian life repeats its ancient joy and multiplies the participants of its Divine gladneas.-L.
Vere. 1, 2.-Impurity in tM Church. There could scarcely be stronger interna:1 -evidence of the genuineness of this Epistle than is supplied by this very painful chapter. •OB. v. 1-13.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 175