The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 363

·practically attended to his directions. There was much in them with which be could di.ad fault, and did find fault, but so far as they did the proper thing be praises them. To render generously credit where credit is due is the characteristic of a great soul, but one which others have not. I take it to be a duty to render credit where credit is due; bot how seldom is this attended to I In domestic matters how it is neglected! .A wife will go on loyally and lovingly attending to the wants and wishes of her husband, and perhaps not from one year to another does she receive from him ono word of hearty commendation. So with servants and masters : the employer, when he has paid the stipulated stipend to the most useful of bis employes, feeh he bas done his duty, and gives not a word of commendation. So with ministers and their congregations. How many ministers are there in every Church, who give the best fruits of their cultivated minds, and, by their sweating brain and agonizing prayers, produce discourses every week admirably suited to serve the highest interests -0f their congregations; and yet seldom receive one generous word of hearty com- mendation for all their toils! Miserable criticisms they will get in abundance, but nothing else. Verily, I believe that no social service is more important, and at the same time more neglected, than the yielding of a generous commendation to the truly -<:ommendable. Vers. 3-16.-The man and the woman. "But I would have you know," etc. .Although there are some things in these verses that perhaps no one can rightly interpret, and that may have been written as personal opinion rather than as Divine inspiration, there are two or three points in relation to man and woman interesting and noteworthy. I. THERE 1B BETWEEN THEM A- SUBORDINATION IN NATURAL RELATIO:-ISHIP. "But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is Goel." The principle of suborc11nation, it would seem, prevails throughout the spiritual universe; one rising above another in regular gradation up to God himself. Goel is over Christ, Christ is over man, man is over woman. "For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the mnn created for the woman; but the woman for the man." The ideal women and the ideal men are here, I presume, meant. It is because the me.n is supposed lu have more brain and soul than the woman the.t he is the master; but in cases-and they are not few-where the woman is the greater, the greater in intellect, heart, and all moral nobleness, she, without her intention or even wish, will necessarily be the head. In the Marriage Service, the woman at the altar is called upon solemnly to vow to obey her husband. I confess I have often been struck at tho incongruity of this, when I have seen a little-chested, small-brained man standing by the side of a woman with a majestic brow and a grand physique, when she is called upon to vow obedience to such a man. JI, 'J.'HERE IS DETWEEN THEM AN INDE'l'f.NDENT ODLIGATION IN RELIGIOUS SEnVICES. "Every man praying or prophesying, having his bend covered, dishononreth his head. But overy womnn that prayeth or propbesieth with her head uncoverCll dishonoureth her head," etc. It is here implied that both tho man and the woman are to prophesy, tonch, and pray; not one instead of the other, but each iudepemlently. However closely related the man and the wife may be, however dependent one is ou the olher, neither can perform the spiritual and religious obligations of the other. There is no sharing -0f duty here, no shifting of personal obligatiou ; each must staud alone before God. III. THERE IS A DUo'FERENCE DETW.EEN THEM IN OUTWARD ASPEC~'. There are two points here concerning tho difference. 1. A d((Jerence in the way in which they are to appear in public. The man is to appear with an uncovered head, tho woman with -11 covered head. "If the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her bo coverccl. For n. man indeed ought not to cover his head." 'l'he woman's head is to bo covered with her hair or n. veil, or both. \Vho shall divine the meaning of the tenth verse?-" For this causo ought tho woman to have power on her head because of the :ingels." 'l'o mo this is utterly iucom- prehensiblc. Probably there were at Corinth women who sh:ived off their hair in onlcr to obliterate the distinction of sex: shameless women. 2. This difference is aduen- Wious rather than natural. Is there any reason in_ nature why n man's bead should 368 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [011. n 1-34,