q niet is arountl us, when the fever and the bustle of life are stilled, and our glorious, pure, white Lord comes so near to us, bring out to view the stains of secret fault. l I. THE llESPONSIDILITY OF 8ECURING THE HARMONY DETWEEN THE MORAL LIFE AND CHRISTIANITY IS THROWN UPON THE CHRISTIAN HIMSELF, The question of supreme importance to us is this, " Will we let the Christ-spirit that is in us nobly shape our whole life and relationship? Will we so fill everytbin" with the new life that men shall find the Christ-image glowing everywhere from u~? Will wo be thoroughly in earnest to li'vc the holy life?" 'l'he old idea was, win the soul for Christ, and let the body go-the helpless body of sin and death. The truer idea is that we are to win 0ur bodies for Christ, our whole life-spheres for Christ. And the bu~den lies on us, God will win no man's body or life-sphere for him. He will win them with him, -Ood will help every man who sets himself manfully to the work. The sanctification of a believer is no accident ~nd n? miracle. The law concerning it is most plain : "·work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in yon to will and do of his good pleasure." The responsibllity lies on us of "putting off the old man with his deeds," and the responsibility lies on us of" putting on the new man." The goodness and graces of the Christian life are to be won; they are not mere gifts. Gentleness of speech and manner, lowly mindedness, meekness of self-denial, tender consideration for others, glistening purity of thought and heart, strong faith, glowmg love, and ardent hope; the inexpressible loveliness of those who have caught the spirit of Christ; the charming bloom-richer far than lies on ripened fruit-that lies on the word and work of the sanctified ;-all these are to be won. \Ve must want them, set ourselves in the way of them, wrestle and pray for them, put ourselves into closest relations with Christ so that they may be wrou~ht in us by his Spirit. And communion-times bring all these claims so prominently before us. Brotherhood, holiness, forgiveness, charity, mean then so much; and our attainments seem RO few, so sm~ll, in the light of the ideal Chri~tian life. Let a man examine himself; find his evil and put it away; find what is lacking, and seek to gain it, and -£0 attain the moral fitness for sharing in the Holy Comrnunion.-Il. 'l'.
EXPOSITION. CHAPTER XII. These. ii. 3, etc., in the Greek). Dumb idols. This churacteristic of idols (Hab. ii. CH. xn.--CH. xrv.-ON SPIRITUAL GIFTs,l I 8 ; Ps. CXV. 5 ; CXXXV. 16) is fixed upon to IAlID THE DANGER wmcH AROSE FIIOM THE show that their "oracles" were mere falsity ABl:'SE OF THE "GIFT OF TONGUES." and pretence>. We find an illustration of the Vers. 1-11.-01~ spiritual gifts in epithet in the statue of IsiB at Pompeii, geneml. where tho ruined temple shows tho secret Ver. 1.-Now concerning spiritual gifts; stair by which the priest mounted to the -rather, things spiritual. The context, how- back of the sto.tue ; and the head of the ever, shows that St. Paul is thinking almost statue (preserved in the Musco Dorbonico) uclusively of the gifts (charismata) of the shows the tube which went from the ho.ck Spirit. I would not he.ve you ignorant of the heo.d to the po.1-ted lips. Through (see eh. x. I). The Corinthians had doubt- this tube the priest eoneenled behind the l'ess inquired in their letter as to the views statue spoke the answers of Isis. Even as of the apostle on this important and diffi- ye were led; rather, ho1csoever ye might ba lS'l.llt subject. led, us in the Revised Version. The Greek Ver. 2.-That ye were Gentiles. The phrase shows tho.t, under the oraculo.r undoubted reading is, that when ye were guidance of dumh idols, the Gentiles ho.d Gentiles. The sentence is then in form an been, as it were, drifted hit.her o.ud thither anacoluthon; in other words, it is not gram- " as the winds listed." matiellly 1inishcd. The ancients were Ver. 3.-Wherefore. Their previous con- much less particular about these small dition of Gentile ignoro.nce ren,lerod it matters of precision and symmetry than nccesBury to instruct them fully respecting the modems; and writers who are deeply the nr,ture und discrimiuution of the charisms moved by their subject, and hurried along of the Spirit. By tile Spirit of God; ro.ther, -by the strength of their feelings, often foll in the Spirit; i.e. in tho shito of spiritual into these unfinished construclions (see ex11ltntion und ecstasy. 'fhe phrase ie a ltom. ii 17-21; xv. 25-27; Gal. ii. 6; 2 Hebrew one to describe i11spirntion. .Tesa1 rn. XJI. 1-31.) THE FIRS1' EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 3U7