may find a deeper joy, a better life, in nourishing and saving his! So has it been with ~hrist.'s more_ than hum:m, more than !11other's love. "Iiercin is love," etc. (1 John 1v. 10). It 1s the memory and consc10usness of this, and all that it meaus that produces in us a proi'uund impressiou that we aro "not our own." Of all the forces tlrnt mo'l'e the spirit. to gratcfn!, ~~lf-surren~er, n_one so mighty as this sense of personal obl1gat10n to redeennng love. lhe love ol Christ constraineth us,'' etc. (2 Cor. v.14). "Love so an1azing, so Divine, Demands wy soul, my life, my all." 2. Possess!·on. "Y?ur bod! is ~ terr~ple of the Holy Ghost." The context requires that we give to tlus a strictly 1nd1v1du:1l application. It is spoken here, not of the Chnrch as the Dody of Christ, "the fulncss of him that filleth all in all" but of the physical personahty of each iudividua\ I1;1et_nber of that body. .A.nd it is 'spoken of as a simple, unqnest10nablc clement of Cm1strn.n knowledge and consciousness. "Vvlrnt, kn~w ye not_." etc.? The heath_en have h~d their i_d~a~ of Divine" possession;" but their possession has b_een excep~1?nal, transitory, fi~ti_tions, the device of priestcraft, the wild dream o~ mystic superst1t10n. Here the D1vme possession is real, reasonable, pe~·manent, frmtful of blessed issues. If we ?~uld only realize it more, not with any- t]nn_g _hke t~e wildn_ess of a da~ger~us fana_t1cism, bnt with the calm quiet dignity of a spmt that 1s consc10usly walkrng ID the hght of God, what stren"th and beauty it would girn to our life! Imagine the awful sanctity with which the temple of old must have been ins;ested to the view of the worshipping people as soon as the heaven- kindled fire came down, and "the glory of the Lord had filled the house." ·with what higher sanct-ity still should we clothe the being of a man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells! Shall not "Holiness unto the Lord" be the acknowledged, manifest, and all-pervading law of his life? • II. THE PI\.A.CTJCA.L RESULTS OF IT. "Glorify God therefore in your body." This is something more than a mere passive, negative abstinence from evil. It is the consecration of the pQwers of our nature to all holy service, the active expression of the inner Divine life in all possible furms of well-doing. It implies: 1. Conscious spiritual freedom. Christ delivers us from all kinds of degrading moral bondage when he thus redeems us and makes us his own for ever. And " where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Spiritual freedom lies in willing persoual subjection to him who is our rightful Lord. 1:::ielf-hood in all its forms and pliases is the slavery, the paralysis, and death of the soul. Live in and for yourself, as if you were" your own,'' and you ha'l'e a very hard and oppressive taskmaster. Live unto the Lord, and yo11 are most truly and joyously free. 2. The mastery of the spiritual over the fleslily part of us. The apostle has in view a special and most important aspect of the sanctity of the body. But we may take this word "body" as symbolizing the whole form and fashio:a and habit of the outward life. From the inner shrine of a spirit that has thus become the Lord's, the glory will stream forth through all channels of self- revelation. The very outskirts of our being, the very lowest part of our nature, will be sure to be Jiahted O up, spiritualized, beautified by it. We are apt to think of the body as being necessarily the encumbrance and t~e foe of_the spirit. This is not a Christian way of thinking. Rather let us regard 1t as au mstrument that God has wisely constructed, "fearfully and wonderfully made," and throu};h which the holy energy of the spirit may serve his purposes and do him honour.-W.
Ver. 11.-Great sinners saved. It has been alleged that the early Christians were r,athered from the mere rabble and offscourings of the ancient world. Gibbon remarks, ~ith his u~ual sneer, that "the missionaries of the gospel, after the example of their Divine Master, disdained not the society of men, and especially of women, oppressed by the consciousness and very often by the effects of their vices." llut it is not the fact, aI!.d it is not fair to insinuate, that the Church was formed from the mire of society. '.!.'he gospel then, as now, influenced iu some measure all ranks of society, a.II orders of mind, and all grades of moral culture. Yet it is not to be concealed, nnd indeed it is to the credit of the ~ospel, that it brought newness of heart and lifo to some of the ruo,t profligate iuhabit,rnts of the ancient cities where it was preached. Not only in Judrea had it saved the very harlots; but in the licentious cities of th() en. vr. 1-20.J 'l'HE FinS't EPISTLE TO 'fHE CORINTllIA~S. 2li'.