The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 310

eternal harvest. It is to C"l'ery man "none other than the savour of life unto life, o, of death unto death." II: THE SENSE OF PERSO:S-AL ~Nwo~TIIINESS. "Though I preach the gospel, I have nothmg to glory of." The consc10us dignity of his office is coupled with deep humility. "Who is snflkicnt for these things?" (2 Cor. ii. lG). Paul's humility, indeed, was not that of the man who is always doubting his right to the position he occupies, and fitness for the work he is doing. He knew that he bore the stamp and seal of a Divine com- mission. And every true preacher of the Word must in a measure share this feeling. If a man has no conscious or acknowledged fitness for the work, he bas no business to undertake it. But it must needs be that, in hours of calm reflection, in the solitude and silence of the night, he will often lie "Contemplating his own unworthiness." Many thinzs will serve to bumble him. 1. The thought that he is but an instrument in t!ie hands of Goel (eh. iii. 5-7). 2. The fact that, in proclaiming the mercy of God to smncrs, he has to look upon himself as the foremost of those who need that mercy (1 Tim. i. 15, 16). 3. The light the Word he preaches continually sheds on the evils- ,,f his own heart and life. 4. The sense of the subtle spiritual dangers th:::.t beset his ,acred calling. 5. The fear "lest that by any means, having preached to others, he himself should be a castaway" (ver. 27). III. A. SENSE OF MORAL coNSTI\AINT. "Necessity is laid upon me," etc. The ap0stlc felt that he had been invested by the risen Lord with a very solemn stewurdship, and 1 hat J,e dared not be unfaithful to it. The heaviest of all "woes," the woe of a remorse- ful conscience, the woe of a spirit that has fallen from the heis;ht of a glory that mi 5ht have been its own for ever, would fall upon him if he did. His would be the misery of being basely untrue to himself as well as to his Divine Master. '!'here are two kinds of moral "necessity "-the necessity of an external force and that of an internal: the necessity of an outward law, backed by some form of outward penalty; and the necessity of an inward impulse, backed by the sacred fear of inward shame and loss. It wns this latter kind of necessity of which he was supremely conscious. It was consistcnL with perfect moral freedom, because it was of the nature of a resistless force in the depths of his own soul, the decision of his own will, the impulse of his own heart. The will' d God had imposed this stewardship, this "dispensation of the gospel," upon him. Ho ,,ad been separated unto it from his very birth (Rom. i. l; Gal. i. 15). And God's will had become his will, God's purpose bis purpose. The manifested Jove of Christ had become a constraining power wit.hin him, leading his whole being into captivity, ,lrawing forth every energy of his nature in a holy and joyous service. This kind of "necessity" is the loftiest principle by which any human spirit can be actuated. Never is a man so great, so free, so royal, so divinely blessed, as when be is intelligently conscious of it. This is the true inspiration of gospel ministry. 'l'he harvest is great. May the Lord of the harvest "scnii forth labourers" thus inwardly constrained to serve him!-W. Ver. 22.-" By all means sai,e some." 'l'wo points present themselves for our cousideration here-(1) The end the apostle had in view; (2) the method by which lie sought to secure it. I. Tim END. "To save some." What does he mean by this? \Vhat to him was the salvation of men? 1. It certainly means deliverance from a dread future calamity. " The wrath to come," "the perdition o_f ungodly men," was t? St. Paul no dream, b~t· an awful realitv. It was worth all possible effort and self-sacrifice to sav(l men from It. If be had no other impulse than that of mere human sympathy to movo him, we have- here a sufficient explanation of the enthusiasm of his zeal. It is often said that if Christian people really believed the future that is before multituJes of their fellow- creatures to be so dark and dreadful as they say it is, they could nevor rest as they do- Ill their own natural or spiritual satisfactions. 'l'hey would rather be beside themselves with a frantic agony of sympathetic sorrow and desire to save. There is truth ln this. 'J.'he easy indifference with which too many of us regard the condition and prospects or tLe godless world around us, belies the reality ~f. our faith. Our con~eptions of what the solemn issues of the future shall be may d1f1er. Some, after anxious and earnest cH. 1x. 1-2i.J TllE ~'IHS'l' EP,GTLE TO THE COIUNTHIA:SS.