The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 430

and Christinnity assures us what it means. H is that we may be trained in the mi<lst of evanescence for that which is permanent. An<l this presupposes that there is not only an immortal soul in man, but that, by reason of his present orgauization and its relations, certnin of his functious and acquirements are purely temporary, while others are to live for ever. In fact, there are functions and acquirements which do not wait for tho death of the body. 'l'hey fulfil their purpose and expire long before age over- takes us. Yet, says Wordsworth- " Not for this Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other girts Have followed, for such loss, I would believe Abundant recompense." It is in the spirit of a true and noble Christian philosophy that this great moral poet of the century sees no cause to "mourn nor murmur" because our nature has a rejecting instinct, which, as God ordains, throws off and leaves behind it tastes and habits that were once very useful as well as precious. Keeping in mind, then, that this rejecting instinct is an organic part of our constitution and has its allotted functions to discharge, we can appreciate aU the more St. Paul's line of thought in the closing verses of this chapter. "Love never faileth." Its existence, activity, manifestation, will be perpetuated. The wonderful spiritual gifts of which he had said so much-prophecy, the ability to speak with tongues, knowledge-these should cease to exist. Although they proceeded from the Holy Ghost and were mightily instrumental for good in the incipient work of the Church, yet, nevertheless, they were to terminate. Scaffoldings were they all, useful as such, subserving most important ends, but mere scaffoldings, that could no longer remain when the edifice had been finished. What, then, is the ideal of the Church? It is not splendid endowments, for they are doomed to extinction, but the love "that never faileth." ,Vhether the passing away of these gifts refers to the apostolic age or to "the age to come," matters nothing, since the idea of their discontinuation, rather than of the time it should occur, is foremost in St. Paul's mind. Imagine, then, bis concrp- tion of love, when he could contemplate the Church as a vast body laying off these mighty accompaniments of its career, and yet, so far from being weakened, would be girded afresh with a power more res!Jleodent and display it in a form infinitely more majestic. Disrobed of these habiliments, its contour woul<l appear in the perfection of <;ublimity; its anatomy as an organism would be, as it were, transparent; the whole framework, the various parts, the ligaments binding them together, the circulating life- blood, wculd disclose the single animating principle of love. Would it startle the Corinthians to lenrn thnt even knowledg.i should vanish away? "We know in. part, and we prophesy in part." All knowledge cannot be meant, for love itself inclmles much knowledge, and, in its absence, would be simply emotional intensity. 'l'o possess the mero faculty of knowing would be worthless, if the mind could not retain the contents of knowledge and make them a portion integrally of itself. What the apostlu teaches is that such knowledge ·as stands related to the present state aml time, and grows directly out of imperfoct human development, and shares the conclition of all things earthly, is short-lived and must terminate. 'l'ongues shall cease, but the gift of speech shall not be lost. An<l he explains himself by saying that the gifts relating to prophecy and tongues were only partial, were exclusively adapted to t\ preliminary state of experience and activity, and completed their purpose in a temporary spiritual economy. ,ve are here under specific, no less than general limitations, and, in certain direction,, we are restrained more than in others. What the Spirit looks to is not knowledge alone, but to its moral aspects as well; to humility, meekness, self-abasement, when the intellect is stroncrest, freest, and boldest; nor will he expand the understanding and its expressional for;e for their own sakes, but develop them only so far as subservient to an ohject higher than their immediate ends. Pa!tial information, part!al. command of our mental faculties, partial uses of even tho wisdom wo possess-this 1s the .l~,~ of limitation and restraint, under which the complex probation of intelloct, sens1bil1ty, volition, aspiration, and outward activity, works out immeusurablo results. Therefore, he argues, we now know and prophesy "in part;" at the best, we aro fragmentary and incomplete; and yet this imperfection is connected with a perfect system and lea,ls up to it. The perfection will come; the ~~isting economy is its fureshadowing; n?r c_oul,\ knowledge give uny rational nccount ol itself, nor coulu prophecy au<l tougues v1mlic,1to 43S TIIE FIRS1' EPISTLE 'TO 'IHE COHIN'fHIANS. [ea. XIII. I-la.