And that kind of love which we call Christian love-charity-has the •same power of abiding. Let it but be gained in the early days of our Christian life, and it will stay and grow, widening and adorning the Christian spirit do,vn to its time of passing throllgh. If love thus abides in Christian life, can it be possible that death, which is hut the servant of Christ-Christ's hall-porter or gate-keeper-should be able to master it, overcome it, and finish it? Ilut we may further argue the immortality of love f.rom every view of the heavenly state that is presented to us, and every conception we can form of it. It is the place of union; the uniting bond must be love. It is a home; the one sanctifying power in a home is love. It is the place where God is all in all, ann "God is Jove." Those whom God teaches to love he teaches to love for ever. II. THE IMMORTALITY OF FAITH. Wbat is the propet· id~a of faith? It is the relation in which we ought to stand to things above us, higher than we are. It is our ~ eYincnce of things not seen." As long as there is anybody in the worl,i wiser than ourselves, we shall have to believe what they say. Get the very wisest man that ever lived on earth, if there is in heaven one spirit wiser than he, he will have to believe- to take on trust-what the wiser spirit may say. And the holiest archan11el must believe what the all-wise God may say. Change them as we may, know ~s we are known, grow with giant strides as the eternal hours pass by, still we can never overtake or outgrow God. As long as we are creatures we shall be, in knowledge as well as in power, below our Creator. While we keep our being we shall have to believe-we shall have to trust. If we have the true spirit wrought in us, we shall never want to get beyond faith. For the creature it is the highest blessedness that be is found willing to trust. To wish to see is to rebel. It is to wish to be God, and take the place of God. Enough for us to be for ever the children of God, and it is a very foolish child who wants to get beyond trust. Heaven is so beautiful, because we shall there be children at homo :lor ever; perfected in faith, in childlike trust, and safe in the protection and the shadow of the eternal Father. We are learning to believe by the experiences of our human lives, but it would be a sad thing if we were only learning something which we should lose v.ben we came to die, even if we exchanged it for something better. Of this we may rest assured, that in learning to trust we are learning for the hea,·enly and immortal ipheres. Ill. THE rnMonTALITY OF HOPE. In this life hope seems to change, but in reality it abides, only changing its objects. The old man hopes quite as truly as the young man, though not witLJ the same passionate intensity. '1.'he chang~ into the eternal spheres is more evident to the senses, but it is not more real, than the change from the boy to the man; surely in his second, glorified, manhood man will keep ~is power oi: hoping, only setting it on new and higher and eternal things. If we are st11l to grow 10 the eternal world, we must have something ever before us and above us to hope for. If we know that we may become wiser, truer, stronger, holier thrm we are, we cannot keep from hoping that we may become such. And hea~e~ can?ot possibly be a mere_ stereotyping 0f the sanctiryings wrought through our Christian hfe on earth. ~n seek10g, the~, _for faith, hope, and charity, we are seeking the heavenly treas~res, _t~e thrngs,;hat ar~ ab1drng and eternal. 'l'hey are the •• treasure in the heavens, which fa1leth not. -U. 'I.
EXPOSITION. our Authorized Version is quite uujustifioble, CHAPTER XIV. and shows the dongerof giving way to the bias Vere. 1-25.-77,e gift of preaching su- of mere conjectures. Probnbly it is this word, verior to the gift of tongues. not found in the origiunl, which bas given Ver. 1.-Follow after charity; literally, rise to the perplexing, uuhistoric, and un- ehase; pursue. The worcl is one of wliic·h warmntc<l theory that" t!Je gift of tongues" St. Paul is foncl (Hom. ix. 30, :11 ; xiii. 13; was n power of ~peaking in foreign languages. xiv. 19; Phil. iii. 12, 14; I Tiru. vi. II, Bpeaketh not unto men. Ilccnuse, ns a rule, etc.). And desire; rntuer, yet 1.,e zealo11s for. no one uuderstnncls nnytbing thnt he soya. But rather that ye may prophesy; and yet The word litcrnlly rneuns "!Jee.re." It rony, ·,uore strive after Ihe gift of sacred preaching. p,•rhnps, imply thut no specinl nttention wns Yer. '.l.-1n an uukuuwn tongue. 'l'ho gi\'Cn to tl,o~e who gnve way to these im- iulcrpolation of tlie worJ "uulrnown" in pulses of utterance. Tho wilolo of this cu. xiv. 1-40.] THE FinST EPIS'fLE 'l'O THE CORINTHIANS. 457