sign of n locnlized worship nnd a separated which the Church has never sanctioned any people; in the Gospe:H our Lord uses it of exclusive opinion. The thoughts touche,l his own mortal body; in the Epistles it i~ upon in this verse are fully developed in the: use,! (ns here) of the body of every baptized Epistle to the Romans. Glorify God; by Christian, sanctified by the indwelling behaving as his redeemed children, ancl Spirit of God. Ye are not your uwn. We therefore by keepin~ yourselves pure. In cannot, therefore, use our bodies as though these few brief words St. Paul sums up all they were absolutely under our own :)()ntrol. he has said, o.s he did in eh. v. 13. In your They belong to God, and, "whether we live body. 'fhe following words, "and in yo11r or die, we are the Lord's" (Rom. xiv. 8). spirit, which are God's," are a perfectly Ver. 2O.-Ye are bonght with a prioe. correct and harmless gloss, but are not That price is the blood of Christ, where- found in the best manuscripts, and are with he purchased the Church (Acts xx. 28; foreign to the drift of the passage. Your Heb. ix. 12; I Pet. i. 18, 19; Rev. v. 9). body is a temple, and in that temple God This metaphor of ransom (eh.vii. 23; 2 Pet. must be honoured. (As Augustine says, ii. I) has its full and absolute applicability "Dost thou wish to pray in a temple? pray to man. The effect of Christ's death for us in thyself. llut first be a temple of God.'') i.s that we are redeemed from slavery and ,; Unche.sti'Y diohonours God, and that in his prison, and the right of our possession is own temple (Rom. ii. 23)" (Meyer). In with Christ. Thus by varioll!i metaphors these clauses St. Po.ul has touched on three the effects of redemption a.re revealed to us subjects which occupy important sections on the human side. When we unduly press of the remainder of the Epistle, namely, (1) the metaphor, and ask from whom we were the relation between the sexes (eh. vii.); purchased, e.ud to whom the price was po.id, (2) the question of idol-offerings (eh. viii.); we build up scholastic systems which and (3) the doctrine of the resurrection have only led to error, and respecting (eh. xv.).
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-8.-7Jie ideal Ohurch a tribunal. "De.re any of you, having a matter against ,anothet,'' etc.? In our sketch on the preceding verses we looked on the true Church as a/east. Here we have to look on it as a tribunal, a court of judicature, where disputes are to be settled and grievances redressed. It would appenr that questions arose among the Corinthian Christians that required settlement-questions of wrong done to persons or to property, and that too the litigious spirit was so rife in their midst that they took their grievances to the heathen courts. For this the apostle reproves them. "Dare .any of you, having a matter ago.inst another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?" Three remarks about the ideal Church as a tribunal. L IT IS SUPERIOR TO OTHER TRIBUNALS ON THE EARTH. 1. It is a court formecl of .morally righteous men. 'l'his is implied in the words, "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints 1" So.ints, -or just men, form the tribunal. In worldly courts of judicature men are judged by 'legislative enactments or judicial decisions. Not so in this court. It is a court of equity, a court that tries cases not by statutory precepts, nor by ecclesiastical laws, but by ,scriptural principles, and these principles as they are embodied in the teaching of him who delivered the Sermon on the mount. The true Church is his representative and .administrator. 2. It is a court whose jurisdiction is universal. "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?" In many ways men of Christly lives are judging the world now. Their ideas of right and wrong, between man and man, am! mo.n ancl God, form that standard of character to which the consciences of men me constantly appealing, and to which they are forced to bow. All men at last will be judged by the character of Christ, and the Church is the representative of that character. "'l'lw words I say unto you, they she.II judge you in the last day." Not only docs this Ch~irch- tribunal judge the world, but judges angels also. "Know ye not that we shall JU<l,!e angels?" Hedeemed humanity is in some respects higher than angelic natures. lt has pnss~d through greater changes and is brought into closer connection with tbo Divine. They who have in them the spirit of absolute justice in the highest measure are the best juclges of character. In modern courts this spirit is often very feeble, and .in some caseH extinct. Hence the sad bluuderings about the intcrpr~tation of statutes 196 'l'IlE FIHST EPISTLE TO THE COUTNTHIAKS. [cu. vI. 1-20.