.sooner or later, to stop the rnanifesto.tion-a inflation and restlessness. As in all result which St. Paul would probllbly ho.ve Churches of the saints. The clause pro- been the last to regret, when its purpose had bably belongs to this verse, not to the follow- been accomplished. iug. It is a reflection ou the exceptional Ver. 28.-Let him keep silence. The turbulence o.nd disorder which disgraced "him" refers to the glossolalist, not to the the Corinthian Church. interpreter. To himself. In his private Vere. 34, 35.-Rulea about th6 public <levotions (ns St. Paul himself seems to have teaching by women. done); not in the public assembly. Ver. :J4.-Let your women keep eilenoe in Yer. 29.-Two or three. If more than the Chnrohes, St. Paul evidently meant two or three preached, the congregation this to be a genero.l rule, and one which would get weary. Let the other judge ; ought to be normally observed; for he re- rnther, let the rest discriminate the value of peats it in 1 Tim. ii. 11, 12. At the same what is said. "Provhesyings" are not to be time, it is fair to interpret it as a rule made despised, but we are only to hold fast what with special reference to time and circum- .is good (1 Thess. v. 20, 21), and we are "to stances, o.nd obviously admitting of excep- try the spirits" (1 John iv. I). St. Paul is tions in both dispensations (Judg. iv. 4; not encouraging the Corinthians to the cen- 2 Kings xxii. 14; Neh. vi. 14; Luke ii. 36: .soriousness of conceited and incompetent Acts ii. 17; xxi. 9), as is perhaps tacitly criticism, but only putting them on their implied in eh. xi. 5. But . . . to be under guard against implicit acceptance of all obedience (Eph. v. 22; Col. ii. 18; Titus they hear; which was a very necessary ii. 5; 1 Pet. iii. 1). Christianity emanci- caution at a place where so many teachers pated women, but did not place them on an sprang up. equo.lity with men. As also saith tho Law Ver. 30.-Let the first hold his peace. It (Gen. iii. 16; Numb. xxx. 3-12). would be easy enough to judge whether the Ver. 35.-Let them ask their husbands. rernlation "\'ourhsafed to his neighbour was Here again St. Paul is deo.ling with general more pressing and important thou Lis own rules. address. Vera. 36-40.--Appeal and summary. Ver. 31.-Ye may all prophesy; rather, Ver. 36.-What 1 An indignant excla- ye all cnn; that is, "if yon have the gift mation. Came the word of God out from of prophesying." St. Paul has already you 1 Are you the authors of the Christian implied tbat at every assembly there would system, that you are to lay down rules about be idiotai, uneudowcd worshippers, who only it ? No rebuke was too strong for the came to profit by the gifts of others, and pretensions of these Corinthians. Or came .that " all" are not prophets ( eh. xii. 29). it unto you only 1 Is no one to be considered May be comforted; rather, may be exhorted but yourselves? Have you no respect for or cheered. Christian custom? and that when you Ver. 32.-And the spirits of the prophets were by no meo.ns the first Gentile Church are subject to the prophets. Into this golden in Europe (1 Theas. i. 8)? .aphorism St. Paul compresses the whole Ver. 37.-If any man think himself to force of his reasoni11g. The articles are be a prophet. Teat your pretensions by the !Jetteromitted: "Spirits of prophets are under capacity to recognize that I have been the control of prophets." llfontic inspira- speo.king to you what Christ approves and tions, the violent possession wbich threw requires (comp. 1 John iv. 6). Or spiritual. 1,ibyls and priestesses into contortions-the He has already said that to moat of them foaming lip and streaming hair ancl glazed he c,:mld only speak as carnal (eh. iii. I). or glari11g eye-have no place in the self- Yer. 38.-Let him be ignorant, The .controllin;.: dignity of Christian inspiro.tion. formulii seems to fall under the idiom which Even Jewi,h prophets, in the paroxysm of refua!B to say anything more nbout n subject emotion, might lie naked on the ground and (" If I perish, I perish;" "What I have ran, (I Sam. xix. 2-l); but the genuine in- written, I have written;" "He tho.t is -spiration in Clnistian ages never obliterutea filthy, let him be filthy still," etc.). The read- the self-consciou,;nPss or overpowers the ings vary considerably (" He is ignored ; " reason. It abhors the liysteria and simulo.- "He baa been ignored;" "He shall be tion and frenzy which have sometimes ignored ; " " Let him be ignored "). These disg-raced revivaliom e.nd filled lunatic other readings would be a statement of asvluma. retribution in kind-of Goel "sprinkling ·v er. 33.-0f confusion. The worcl is peno.l blindnesses on forbidden Justa." Dut renderc,l "commotion" in Luke xxi. 9; the reCLcliug of our tran~hition is on the "tumult," in 2 Cor. vi. 5 ancl xii. 20. "Con- whole the best supported, n.ud means that fusion" is, as St. Jame.; sayH (iii. IG), the to invincible bi;.:otry and ignorant ohstiuaoy result of envious and 1rnshi11g- 1·gotia111. St. Paul will havo no more to say (Mo.tL .But of peace; which caunot cocxbt 1·, ith xv. B; 1 Tim. vi. 3-5). en. xiv. 1-40.] THE FITIST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 461
Ver. 39.-Wherefore. The final con- its marlness off" is lost in the calm and clusion. Covet ... forbid not. The power majestic flow of the deep river. to preach is to be desired; all thnt cun be Ver. 40.-Let all things. The "but" of said of glossolaly is that it is not to be the original shoul<l not be omittecl. It is absolutely forbidden so long as the concli- a final caution against the abuse of the tions which St. Paul has laicl clown for its permission accor<le<l in the last chuse. regulntion are observed. But glossolaly is Decently; thnt is, " with decorum." Thus hardly possible under conditious of or<lcr, l\lilton uses the term - decorum, 1md self-suppression, and we are "· .. ancl helcl not surprisecl that we hear no more of it in Before his decent steps a sih·er wand." the Church, but only in the wild excitement of fanaticnl sects. The suppression, how. In Rom. xiii. 13 and 1 Tliess. iv. 12 it is ever, of the startling manifestation by no translated "honestly," i.e. honourably. In means necessarily involves any enfeeblemeut order. Time, proportion, regulatiun, self- of the inspiring conviction from which it suppression, are as necessary in worsliip as sprang. The brawling torrent which" foams m " the music of men's lives."