The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 382

element of tenderness at the expense of that of power. They none of them, it may be, answer to our o~rn ideal. And we conclude that it is vain to think of representing upon can,as the mingled splendours-the heavenly lights and earthly shadows-of that wondrous face in which " The God shone gracious through the Mon. But we are scarcely in danger of error in any honest and intelligent moral conception of Christ. Th~ glorious Original appears too plainly and luminously before us. "Behold the Man ! "-the consummate type of all human excellence. Do we really admire and adore him? Do we admire everything that we see in him ; every separate lineament and expression of his countenance? Would we have all men, specially those with who::n we have most to do, to be like him? Is it our desire to be ourselves fashioned at every point exactly after such a Model? This is involved in a true recognition of the headship of Christ over ourselves and every man. II. TnE SPRI~G OF THE HIGHER LIFE FOR EVETIY MAN IS CHRIST. However we may deal with the subtle questions suggested here respecting the original constitution and prerogatives of man's nature, one thing is plain-that nature now bas no self-recover- ing power of life in it. It has in it rather the seeds of decay and death. "In Adam all die." The second Adam, the Lord from heaven, is a "quickening Spirit." In him the power of death is overmastered. Through him God pours into our being the ~!ream of a new and nobler life, a life in which every part of it, both physical and spiritual, shall have its share (John v. 21; vi. 47-50; xi. 25, 26; 1 John v. 11, 12). The Fountain-head of a blessed, glorious immortality for every man is he. Looking abroad over a languishing, dying world, he says, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." And there is not a human being nn the face of the whole earth who is not personally interested in this Divine revela- tion of the Life eterrni.l. III. THE suPnEME LAW FOR EVERY MAN IS CHRIST. We arll all necessarily under law. It is not a question as between law and no law that has to be decided. The question is-Wbat shall be the law that we voluntarily recognize? What shall be the nature of the governing force to which we yield ourselves?. Shall it be true, righteous, beneficent, Divine? or shall it be false, usarping, fatal, Satanic? There is no middle course. God would have us make our own free, unfettered choice. Our whole daily life is actually a choice of Gervitude, and it is emphatically our own. The true servitude is the service of Christ. All holy law is summed up in bis authority. He is the proper, ricrhtful Lord of every human soul. Ee demands the unreserved allegiance of e"t"ery ma;. His claims arc sovereign, absolute, uniyersal. They a?mit of no qualific~- tion, and from them there is no escape. As well thrnk bf the capnce of yom: 0\1'.n will to render your body superior to the laws of matter, to defeat the force of grav1tat1on, to escape from your own shadow, as think to shake off the obligation of obedience to Christ when once you have heard his voice, and he has laid his royal hand upon you. IV. THE REST AND HOME OF EVERY MAN'S SOUL IS IN CrmIST. "Oh, where shnll rest be found, Rest fur the weary soul 'l " 'vVe scheme a:cd toil to surround ourselves with earthly satisfactions, but the secret of a happy home on earth is that the spirit shall have found its true place of safety and repose. And Christ only can lead us to this. 0 blessed Lord Jesus, thou Friend and Brother and Saviour of every man, bring us into living fellowship with thyself I "Here would we end our quest; Alone are found in thee The life of perfect love, the rest Of immortality." w. Vers. ~3-26.-" The Lord's Supper." St. Paul had not been an eye-witness of the sacred incident that he here relates. Nor had he gained his knowledge of it by tlH• report of others. He had "rece_iycc. it of the Lord." At ~vhat _time and in what way this took pla.ce we know not. vve may, perhaps, best attnbute 1t to that remarkable -cB, XI. l-3t.) THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 38T