The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 214

etc. '!'his iR self-assertion of the right order; the manly use of the power by which it is given us to determine our own course, and not allow it to be left at the mercy of outward influences, or to be determined for us by the persuasive force that happens to be the strongest. As a mere act of self-discipline, this is good; for the will, like any -other faculty, grows by use, and self-mastery by the power of a resolute will is the basis of all moral excellence. Think what differences there are amon~ men in this respect. 'l'he secret of success or failure in the lower interests of human life lies mainly here. It depends far less on native talent, favourable circumstances, etc., than it does on ~he energy of a self-regulating will. This power is necessary to give due effect to .any other power. Many a man has noble qualities both of mind and heart-quick intelligence, wise judgment, warm enthusiasm-but lacks the steadfast ,viii that would bind them all together, giving unity and strength to his character and effective force to his endeavour. According, however, to the greatness and strength of this faculty, so is the danger of its being misdirected-like the forces of nature, water, steam, electricity, etc. Self-will is blind, lawless, immoral, and therefore not really free. Moral freedom lies in the mastery of a will that determines for the right, chooses to move in harmony with the Divine will, the "will that is holy and just and good." Learn chiefly two grand lessons. 1. That things lawful and innocent in themselv.es may become evil by being allowed to gain an undue mastery over us. 2. That our only effectual preservative against this is the resistive energy of a will inspired by the Spirit of the well-beloved Son.-W. Ver. 10.-Divine ownership. One of the most elementary principles of Christian thought and life is expressed in these words: "Ye are not your own." 'l'he sense of Divine ownership rather than self-ownership is the inspiration of all Christian dignity and strength. Consider- !. T1rn NATURE AND GROUNDS OF THIS PERSUASION. There is a sense in which it is true of all men that they are not their own. It is a necessary inference from the fact that they are created and dependent beiags. But more than this is meant here. As a mere truth of natural religion, it is lifeless and profitless. As in so many other cases, it must be elevated to the level of a Christian doctrine, linked with, set in the light of, the great facts that belong to the "record God has given us of his Son," before there can be any efficacious force in it. As a reality of Christian life, then, this Divine owncr~hip rests on two distinct grounds. 1. Purchase. "Ye were bought with a price." The apostle refers to a historic fact of the past, viz. the personal seli- surrender and sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of God, for the redemption of men. This, with all that it involved of obedience, humiliation, anu. suffering even unto death, was the "price" that bought us. We may differ in our abstract iu.eas as to the nature of the atonement, but this fact is to the Christian mind indisputable. "The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many" (Matt. xx. 28); "Christ bath redeemed us from the curse," etc. (Gal. iii. 13) ; "Redeemed with the precious blood of Christ," etc. (1 Pet. i. 10). Like the noble Roman youth who, as tradition tells, leaped full- armed into the yawning chasm because the city could only Le saved by the sacrifice of her best treasure, so did Jesus, the "well-beloved" of heaven, the noblest treasure of earth, the "only-begotten of the Father," the Head and Chief of our humanity, yield up his life to redeem the life of the world. He gave himself for us. "He suffercJ, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us unto God." Not that there was any essential moral efticacy in the mere fact of suffering, but that that suffering was the measure of our value in the sight of infinite and eternal Love. Pure love invests its object with a value in comparison with which 1111 thnt belongs to itself is as nothing. The heart in which it dwells finds its deepest satisfaction in the joy of another. Saving another, itself it "cannot save." All tender human relationships are meant to develop in us this Divine sensibility. How spontaneously does all the thought 11ml care and passion of the mother's soul, the deep exhaustless wealth of her being, flow out towards her -child I She loses herself to find a dearer self in him. How instinctively, at any risk, does she shield him from d,tr.ger ! With what sublime self-forgetfulness does she snrrcrnler her own case and comfort, to toil through the livelong day, and watch -tl1rough the weary night, and let her very life ebb slowly and silently away, that shu  'Jl:lE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE COTIINTI-IIAKS. [cu. n 1-20.