The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 426

solely, altogether, from him, the "Image of the invisible God," and the "Firstborn of every creature." Inasmuch, then, as the ideal of our nature is not as we see it in and by our own unaided consciousness, but in and by a consciousness illuminated arnl guided by the Holy Ghost, how could it be otherwise than that new iotL,itions occur, and that demands are made on us never imagined before? On this foundation St. Paul stands when he affirms that those endowments which charm, those splendid gifts that win enthusiastic admiration, even self-sacrifice itself at the bidding of earth-born instincts, are nothing without that love which is purely a responsive affection, or, as St. John expresses it," We love him because he first loved us."-L. Vers. 4-1.-Tlie nature and operation of love. The negative view having been :Presented, the apostle considers the nature and operations of this love. And one characteristic of it, he puts in the foreground of its excellences. It can suffer. A virtue that cannot suffer is hardly a virtue at all. Certainly it is not a virtue that can lay the least claim to divineness. ·wedded love, parental love, philanthropic and patriotic love, have to unuergo a discipline of pain and sorrow even to symbolize the higher affection of Divine love. 'l'his holy love, of which this chapter is so laudatory, derives its very essence from the "Man of sorrows." Short of realizing, in its measure, the agony in the lonely garden and the yet lonelier cross, it dare not, it cannot stop, since only there is its test found. A beautiful restheticism, moral, perchance semi-spiritual, may follow the lowly Jesus of Nazareth through the windings of his Galilean and Judrean journeys, cling reverently to his person, spread the palm branches in his path- way, and shout its glad hosannas to his Name, and, after all, "forsook him and fle<l" may be the final record of its weakness. Only when he rises to the sacrificial height of his anointing as the Christ ofGou's Law and the Christ of God's love, and bears our ~ins in his own body on the tree-only here, where Jehovah "lets the lifted thunder drop," can the human soul be reconciled first to its own disciplinary sufferings, and learn afterwards, by many conflicts with self, to glory in the cross. But love not only suffers, it" sujfereth lon!J." It is patient-patient towards others, and, what is quite as important, patient with itself. And under all its sufferings, instead of being irrit- able, it is kind. U nsanctified suffering is usually morbid. It broods over its ills; it magnifies its afflictions; often, indeed, it makes us misanthropic. Sweetness of temper and tender outgoings of sympathy are not the common results of painful experiences, but the fruits of the Holy Spirit in them. Fortitude may be shown, and it may be naught but homage at the shrine of self. This love is of God. It takes to its heart God's thought of suffering as chastening, as correction, as the supreme moral necessity of a probationary life, through which we mnst pass to get any deep knowledge of our- selves. For it is never pleasure, but pain, that holds the key to the secret chambers, where the latent man awaits the voice of God bidding him arise and gird himself with immortal strength. Now, what effect ou this love would ensue from suffering that had become habitual and wrought patience and silent enduringness into character? By suppressing a morbid regard for self and quickening the sympathies that give width to the inner life, what would be the specific result on the relations sustained to others? These Corinthians, as we have frequently noticed, were pulling down one and putting up another, were thoroughgoing partisans, were censorious and depreciatory towards those with whom they were disinclined to affiliate. What change for the better would love bring about? St. Paul answers, "Love envieth nut." Observe how quickly ho turns again to the negative aspects of this "supremely excellent way," and what vigour is imparted to the argume1;t. At every step, contrast aids him by suggesting what love excludes, while its true qualities are set in bolder relief. Envy is pain at the sight of superior excellence in another, and is always a mark of blinding selfishness. According to one's temperament, it is displeasure or something worse, and usually contains an element of hatred. "Men, that muke Envy and crooked malice nourishment, Dare bite the best." Of course it leads to strife. It is a fruitful cause of schism, and as schism was 11 terrible evil in the apostle's view, he could not fail to show its utter inconsistency with I. CORINTHIANS. 2 F 4:H THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [cu. xm. 1-13