The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 384

which the soul's fellowship with him may be deepened and strengthened. It accom- plishes this end, not by any magic power that it may wield over us, but by virtuo simply of the influence it is naturally fittetl to exert on mind and conscience and heart and by the grace of that good Spirit whose oftice it is to testify of Christ. We may b~ fully alive to the dangers that lurk in the use of all symbolic religious rites, the danaer especially of attributing to the sign an efficacy that lies only in that which is signifi~d. And we may see in this the reason why the rites of Christianity are so few. But what Christian heart can be insensible to the high spiritual value of an observance such as this? Moreo'l'er, the obligation is plain. "Do this," says our dyina Lord, "in remem- brance of me." May not such an appeal be expected to draw fo~th a ready response from auy soul that has ever "tasted that he is gracious"? Its being the behest of love rather than the stern requirement of law, makes it doubly imperative, while the simplicity of the deed it enjoins makes it doubly efficacious as a bond of affection and a vehicle of moral power. \Ve all know what a charm there is in even the most trivial memento of those whom we h:we loved and lost, especially if it be some object with which the personal memory is most closely associated by familiar daily use, some little thing that tender hands we can no longer grasp and a loving voice that is now fot ever still have bequeathed to us. With what a glow of grateful affection will the siaht of it sometimes suffuse our hearts! How near does it bring the departed to us again! How closely does it draw us into sympathy and fellowship with their personal life! And shall not this be expected to be pre-eminently true of these simple memorials of our loving, suffering, dying Lord? The realization of this, however, must always depend on something in ourselves. The influence we receive from the outward observance will depend on what we are prepared to receive, i.e. on what we bring to it in the conditions of our own inward thought and feeling. It will never of itself create right feelir;g. Come to it with a worldly spirit, with a divided heart-cold, careless, carnal, frivolous, prayerlcss, or in any way ont of harmony with the Divine realities it represents-and you can expect to find no uplifting and inspiring power in it. You are not likely to "di$cem the Lord's body." Christ is never further from us than when we de$ecrate sacred scenes and services by our discordant mental and moral conditions. But come with your soul yearning ~fter him, and he will unveil to you his glory and fill you with the joy of his love. " Let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup."-W. Ver. 2.-Christian ordinances. We do well to boast of our freedom in Christ. It is a sign of the elevation of our religion above others that it does not need to drill its \'otaries by a constant discipline of prescribed rites, ceremonial shows, and verbal repetitions. It loves simplicity and spontaneousness, and the life which it fosters needs not to be guarded and hedged by minute regulations, but is developed in a chartered holy liberty. At the same time, Christi~nity has concrete forms, and the Church received at the beginning ordinances, or directions, to keep. The Apostle Paul had delivered these to the Church at Corinth. I. NEGATIVELY, 1. They were different from the ordinances of the old covenant. The rites and statutes connected with animal sacrifice, distinctions of meats~ regulations about dress and divers washings, were suiteu. to the time in which they were instituted, and served to impress on the Hebrew mind great thoughts of God, of 8in, and of righteousness, and to impregnate life in the house and hibour. in the field with religious sucrcrestioos. But with Jesus Christ a new era. came. The restrictions and rites or°the ceremonial law, ceasing to be necessary, lost their obliga- tion. Moral inculcations, whether through Moses or through subsequent prophets,. of course remained, and were enlarged and emphasized by the Master and his apostles. But the Church, after some struggle and sharp controversy, discerned and asserted her freedom from the sacerdotal aod ceremonial ordinances by which the house of Israel had been bound. 2. They were not the traditions of Jewish rabbinism. Our Lord spoke strongly against the b?ndago into w~i~h the J~ws of his time ha~ been brought by "traditions of men," which had no D1vme sanct10n, but had acqmrerl, under the rabbinic and Pharisaic regime, a fictitious authority. Such tradi1ionalism tended to weaken the honour due to the authentic Law, and its continuance was entirely opposed to the doctrine of Christ. 3. They must 11.ot be confounded with the traditiona CH, XI. 1-34.] 'l'HE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 389