The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 417

children," in Dan. iii. 23, where t.bc LXX. extinguished, so an evil thin~ beralling a has," They gave their \,odies ;1110 the ffre;" loving soul will be extiuguishetl without or to the '<arious torlures and deaths by firo disquietude." Thin.keth no evil; literolly, in 2 Mace. ,·ii. At tlw burning of Uidley doth not ,·eclcon (or, impute) the evil. The and Latimer, Dr. Smith chose this ..-erse phrase seems to be o. very comprehensive for his text. Its applicability U! on 1t pnr one, impl~-ing tho.t love is ueither suspicious, with 111 ill ions of other inst1tnces in which nor implacable, nor retentive in her memory Scripture has been grossly abused by cm- of evil done. Love writes our personal plc,ying its letti-r to murder its spirit, nnd by wrougs in o.shes or in water. taking it from the God of love to give it to Ver. 6.-Rejoiceth not in iniquity; rather, the dcdl of religious hatred. The buri:ing at uni·ighteousness. The rejoicing at sin, of a snint was a singular specimen of the the taking pleasure in them that commit Clrnrch's "love." It profiteth me nothing; sin, the exultation over the fall of other~ Jit.crally, I am ?1Cdhing benefited_ A con- into sin, are among the worst forms of ,i,krn1ion of this verse might have shown malignity (Rom. i. 32 ; 2 Thess. ii. 12). the Christians of the earlv centuries that The Greeks had a word, ,mxa,p,,ca,c[a, to there was nothing intrinsically redemptive describe "rejoicing at the evil" (whether in the martyrdom into which they- often sin or misfortune) of otherd (Pro,. xxiv. 1hrust themselves. 17); Schadenfreude, "malignant joy" (Arist., Yers. i-7.-The attributes of love. 'Eth.,' ii. 7, 15). It is the detestable feeling Yer. 4. - Suffereth long, and is kind. indicated by the remark of La Roche- I'nssi.-ely it endur~s; acti,cly it does good. foucald, "that there is something not alto- It endures e..-ils; it confers blessings. En- • gether disagreeable to us in the misfortunes vieth not. Its negati ,e characteristics are of our best friends." Rejoiceth in the truth; part of its positirn perfection. Envy-"one rather, with the truth. There are many who shape of many names "-incluiles malice, "resist the truth" (2 Tim. iii. 8); or who grudg0, jealousy, pique, an evil eye, etc., "hold the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom. with all their base aud numerous manifes- i. J8); but love accepts it, keeps it pure, tations. Vanntetb not itself. The meaning exults in all its triumphs (Acts xi. 23; would probably be most nearly expressed 2 John 4). by the colloquialism, does not show o.(f. It Ver. 7.-Bee.reth all things (see on eh. does not, for instance, " do its alms before ix. 12). Endures wrongs and evils, and men to be seen of them" (Matt. vi. 1). The co..-ers them with a b(•antiful reticence. Latin perperus, which is from the same root Thus love "covereth all sins" (Prov. x. as this word, means 11 a braggart," or "swag- 12 ; l Pet. iv. 8). Believeth all things. gerer." Cicero, speaking of a grand oratorical Takes tbe best and kindest views of all men display of his own before Pompey, says to and all circumstances, as long o.s it is Atticus, "Good heavens I how I showed possible to do so. It is the opposite to the ,nyselj <df (evnrep1repevcra.µ11v) before my new common spirit, which drags everything in bearer, Pompeius I" (' Ad. Att.,' i. 14). deteriorem partem, paints it in the darkest Is not puffed up. Has no purse-proud or colours, o.ud makes the worst of it. Love inflated arrogance. " Love," therefore, is is entirely alien from the spirit or the cynic, free from the characteristic vice o[ the the pessimist, the ecclesiastical rive.I, the Corinthian Church (eh. iv. 6, 18, 19; v. 2; anonymous slanderer, the secret detractor. viii. 1). Hopeth all things, Christians seem to have Ver. 5.-Doth not behave itself unseemly lost sight al together of the truth that hope (see eh. xii. 23; xiv. 40). Vulgar inclecorum is something more tho.n the 1·esult of o. is alien from love, as having it:3 root in sanguine temperament, that it is e. gift selfishness and want of sympathy. "Noble and a grace. Hope is averse to sourness manners" are ever the fruit of "noble and gloom. It takes sunny and cheerful minds." "Be courteous" (l Pet. iii. 8). views of man, of the world, o.nd of God, Seeketh not her own. Self-seeking is the because it is a sister of love. Endureth all root of all evil (eh. x. 24, 33; Phil. ii. 4; things. Whether the" seventy times seven" Rom. xv. 1, 2). Is not easily provoked. offences of a brotber (Luke xvii. 4), or the The word " easily" is here a gloss. The wrongs of patient merit (2 'rim. ii. 24), or corresponding substantirn (paroxusmos, the sufferings ancl self-denif1ls and persecu- whence our "paroxysm") is med of tho tions of the life spent in doing good (2 Tim. "sharp contention" between Paul and ii. 10). 'l'he reader need hordly be reminded Darnnbas (Acts xv. 39). Love, when it is that in these verses he has e. picture of the perfected, rises superior to all temptations life and character of Christ. tn growing exasperated, although it may Vere. 8-13.-T/te eternal permanence of often be juotly indignant. Dut, as St. love. Cl,rysoston, says, "As a spark which falls Ver. 8.-Never faileth. The word "fo.il- i1Jto !he £(;a hurts not the sea, but 1s itself eth '' ( l,c1rl1rTu) bas two technical mennings ell. xm. 1--13.] THE FIHS'l' El'lSTLE TO '!'HE CORINTllIA~S. 42.5