The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 369

sbo?ld protest eo_ stron~ly agai!1st ~be shocking abuse of the Lord's Supper among the Co_nnth1ans.. W1!h this fe~st, msti~ute~ and consecrated by Christ himself, its puq,ose bemg to brmg him back mto their midst and to enable them to realize his comin~ a_gain, the two ideas _being closely joined,-with _this tender. re'!1em bra nee and expect,:= t1on they h_ad associated se!1~ual pleasures, eatmg and drmkmg to excess, separatin::=; themselves mto classe~, desp1smg the Church of God, and bringing condemnation upon themselveH. What of Christ was in all this? Instead of memories of bis sacrificin.l death, instead of their personal recollections of his providence and grace in their behalf, instead of touching and humbling recallings of how he had dealt with each of them, what utter forgetfolness, what a closing up of every avenue of the past opening inw the present, and what a concentration in the animal gratifications of the hour! Instearl of anticipation and joyous hope, looking to the Lord's comin"', what blindness to all but the transient festivities of the carnal senses! On this acciunt (therefore) "many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." The reference is not to the weak- ness an~ sickliness that folio~ the violations of natural laws, nor is the sleep the falling asleep ID Jesus, but a punishment sent from God and executed under the directive agency of providence. Just in proportion as a man realizes Christ in the past will be realize him in the future. Just in the degree that he loses him from the past of his own heart, in that same degree will he vacate the future of his glorious image. 'l.'he present is all, and it is all of the senses. And when God ar;ses to judgment, as in the case of the Corinthians, what a sudclen intensity surcharges the present, the blessedness of the old yesterdays and the awaiting to-mon-ows nil extinguished, and the immediate moments, once so fugitive and so eager to glorify themselves by larger additions, linger- ing now and lengthening in the keener consciousness of pain and remorseful anguish! "Judge yourselves," 0 Uorinthians ! Examine your hearts ; return to your memories and expectations; go to the cross of Christ and learn the lesson of its self-sacrifice; condemn and punish yoursel.es for the guilty past; and make this discipline of self a chastening for future well-being. But let no true and humble soul be tortmed by the thought of eating and drinking "unworthily," and thereby incurrin:2: "condemnation." Whoever comes to the Lord's Snpper after a close self-exarninntion nidcd by the Spirit, and brings to it a meek and trustful mind; whoever repnirs to it after he hns communed with his memories of Christ's goodness to him,-will be a worthy participant in the sacred rite, and rnny surely expect the seal of God's approbation. A Christian child may understand the essential idea and spirit of the institution. And yet it has con- nections that transcend all thought, and the soul of every devout communicant welcomes the mysterious glory with which it is invested. Charles Wesley sings for every believer when he says- " His presence mokes the fenst, And now our bosoms fool The glory not to be expressed, The joy unspenkoblo." L. Ver. 1.-Imitation. The personal feelings of the npostle come out in these Epistl~• to the Corinthians perhaps more than in any othor of his writings. '!'his may woll have been because at Corinth his authority wns questioned, and other teachers were by some exalted as his rivals or superiors. 'fhat he should resent such treatment from those who were under peculiar obligations to him we cnn well umler8tn.ml; and it is very natural that he should be led all the more boldly to vin,licnte his npostolic character and to assert his apostolic authority. '!'hero is self-con(hlence of a ju~t and warrantable kind in the admonition and challenge of this language: " De ye imit,1tors of rue." I. THE PRINCIPLE TO WHICH THE APOSTLE HERE APPEALS-IMITATION. 1. It is 0. principle natural to all mankind. Most conspicuous is it in the co.se of chilclren and young people, and in the case of the uncivilized and unt1~tored, who ~a.nnot ensily acquire knowledge through symbols, but who le_arn arts with great facility t,hrough imitation. 2. Its range of operation is as extensive as the nature of man. V,i c trn.ce it in exercise in tho bodily life, for multitudes of acts and of arts nro acquired by those  374 THE FIUST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [cH. u. 1-34.