the truths of religion. It is not always the public proclamation of the truth which ,reaches the heart of the careless and ungodly. "A word spoken in season, how good it is!" Many have bad reason for lifelong gratitude towards such as have in a casual way taken advantage of the opportunity to commend the gospel to their souls. II. CHRISTIANS ABE RESTRAINED FROM FREE INTERCOURSE WITH FELLOW-PROFESSORS WHOSE CONDUCT IS UNWORTHY OF THE NAME THEY BEAR. 1. It must not be supposed that we are confined to the fellowship of those whose character is mature and blameless. 'rhis would be to set up in the Church an aristocracy of the worst kind. 2. Those whose company is forbidden are such as, by manifest and flagrant violation of the moml law, prove the utter insincerity of their profession to be followers of Christ. 3. The reasons for thls prohibition are obvions. (1) It could scarcely be other than injurious to our own moral nature to be intimate with those whose life belies their creed, whose hypocrisy is unmistakable. (2) Such intimacy would be interpreted by the world as meaning that in our esteem it is of little consequence what a man is, if he only professes to be Christ's. (3) And there can be no question that to cultivate the friendship of a hypocrite would tend to encourage hlm in his sinful course, whilst to :withdraw from his society might lead him to repentance.-T. Vers. 1-7.-(Jhurch discipline. I. FLAGRANT SIN IS NOT TO BE TOLERATED IN THE -CHURCH. Though the precepts of Christianity are most pure, professors are sometimes impure. The Corinthian Church furnished a deplorable example. The sin of one of its members was a sin whlch was "not even among the Gentiles." Occasionally occurring among them, but exceptional even in such debased co=unities ; held in general reprobation, not countenanced by their laws. Into the purest society a great impurity may creep. But in the Church of Christ no such iniquity must be winked at. To permit its contkuance would be : 1. To imperil the spiritual life of the whole community. "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lll.lilp?" Sin bas great spreading power; it is marvellously aggressive. 2. To bring contempt upon the Church. The Church has often to endure contempt, but she should never deserve it. 3. To unnihilate the Church's influence for good. How can she fight against evils without, if she tolerates them within. 4. To grieve the Head of the Church. What an anomaly for the Church to foster or be indifferent to the sins whlch pierced her Lord ! 5. To invite the J°udgment if God. For transgression the ancient Church was cast away, and shall the Church of the new dispensation escape if she gives herself to folly and sin? II. To DE DEALT WITH : 1. By the Church. 2. The flagrant offender to be excluded. For slight offences wnrniDg may suffice, but serious lapses call for serious remedies. Sufficient recognition of the sin (as in excommunication) may be well, not only for the Church, but for the transgressor. lf the Church think lightly of his misdemeanour, he will probably think lightly of it also. Inferentially we gather tho.t the social position, wealth, influence, of the offender do not come into the account. The law of the Church is the same for rich and poor, high and low. 3. With hope of the offenders reclamation. In the case at Corinth the guilty one is, in Paul's language, to be delivered "unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh." The meaning probably is that Satan shall have power to deal with him somewhat as he did with Job (Job ii. 4-7) and with Paul himself (2 Cor. xii. 7); that the sin shall be followed by suffering; the evil-doer, outside the Church, being placed in the hands of Satan, "the god of this world," not absolutely, but largely, so far as bodily aflliction is concerned. Satan is represented in Scripture as causing bodily pain (see Luke xiii. 16). This deliverance to Satan was a power delegated to the Corinthian Church by Paul, who, as an inspired apostle, possessed it. 'l'he obJ°ect of the deliverance to Satan was that "the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." The means, "the destruction of the flesh," not the destruction of the body, which is to have a place in the resurrection, hut by affliction of the body the destruction of that "flesh," that carnality, that corrupt nature, which cannot inherit the kingdom of God. It is charitable to hope that affliction may fall, even ne;.vuy, upon flagrant transgressors in the Church. 'l'his may lead them to repentance and to a holier life. Exclusion from Church fellowship is to have this object in view. 'l'he severance is with a view to reunion, either below or above. We give up fellowship, but ,not hope. Our expectation and prayer should be that those excluded may be found in 180 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO 'l'HE CORIN'l'I-IIANS. [en. v. 1-13.
a saved condition in the day of the Lord Jesus. \Ve should not exclude out of vin- ?ictiveness, nor with spirit of final judgment, nor in despair of God's grace. Note: It 1s a very solemn thing to be excluded from the visible Church of Christ. This places us visibly in the kingdom of Satan, and we know not how much more fully under Satanic iufluence, The Church is a shelter and refuge appointed by God; we should be careful how we forfeit our place in it. Ilut, however sad our severance from the Christian Chmcb may be, the 1·eal sadness is in the sin which causes that severance. III. CrrnRCH DISCIPLINE A CAUSE OF CHURCH SORROW, I. Incompatible with boast- fulness. A cause of humiliation. Whilst we are vainly crloryincr, the devil is doing his work diligently, and the result will presently appear. 'l'hosc ,~ho are "puffed up" are preparing for a great abasement. Corinthian joy is the herald of sorrow. 2. Grief for the excluded one. Once a brother-a brother greatly beloved, perhaps-and now?· 3. Grief tending to self-examination on the part of those still in fellowship. (1) Pos~ sibly the lapsed one was_ not ca_red for as he should have been. (2) The evil was not checked, perhaps, when 1t was m the bud. There may have been opportunities to save from actual and open transgression. (3) The evil, perhaps, was rather fostered ; indi- rectly, at all events, by too light an estimate of its heinousness. This may have been so at Corinth; in a city so notoriously corrupt some believers may have entertained lax views of profligacy. If we have in any way helped a brother to fall, how keen should be our regret! (4) The offender may have been led away by the careless livincr of some in the Church. Or (5) may have been influenced by the general tone of°the- Church. At Corinth, no doubt, the many divisions and the much glorying in men bred" an unhealthy Church atmosphere.-H.