Vers. 30, 31.-Daily dying. "Why stand we," etc.? The apostles, in their efforts. to extend the go5pel, endured great afflictions and involved themselves in terrific perils, and if there be no future life, Paul asks, why should they have done so? "Why stand we in jeopardy every hour ? " Why should we thus "die daily"? But .there is a daily dying in the case of every man. I. There is a daily dying that is INEVITABLE to humanity. 1. There is a daily dying of our corporeal frame. In each human body the seed of death is implanted, the· law of mortality is at work. The water does not more naturally roll to the ocean than the human frame runs every moment to dissolution. Life streams from us at every pore. This fact should teach us: (1) That worldlrmindedness is an infraction of' reason. ·what a monstrous absurdity it is to set our supreme affections upon objects from which we are departing every moment.. As the ship of the emigrant in full sail is bearing him every moment further and further from his native shore, so destiny is bearing every man further and further from his connection with this earth. No- anchor can stop this ship of destiny. (2) That sorrow for the departed should be· moderated. Why indulge in grief for those who are gone? Their departure was in obedience to the resistless law of their nature, and that same law is daily bearing us whither they are gone. (3) That Christianity is an invaluable boon to mortals, It. does two things; it teaches us that there is a future world of blessedness, and points us. the way by which that blessed world is reached. 2. There is a daily dying of our social worl,d. We live not only with others, but by them. Without society we might exist, but live we could not. Our contemporaries are the objects of our sympathies, the subjects of our conscious life ; they engage our thoughts, they affect our hearts, they originate our motives, they stimulate our conduct, and all this is much of our life. But this social world in which we live, and by which we live, is d_ying daily. The social cir- cumstances which feed our life' are changing every day. The thoughts, the love, the- grief, the anger, the fear, the hopes, which were once elements of life to us, have passed away because the objects of them have gone. 3. There is a daily dying of our mental motivity. The motives that influence us to action are elements of lire, and they are constantly dying. For example, the leading purpose that a man has is, for the time~ one of his strongest motives of action, but the leading purpose of every man is a dying thing. It is dead as a motive both when it is frustrated, as is constantly the case, and also when it is fully realized. A realized purpose has lost its motivity. Thus we die- daily in mind. II. There is a daily dying that is OPTIONAL to humanity. This optional death is of two kinds, the criminal and the virtuous. 1. There is the criminal. There are noble things in man that are dying daily, for which he is reHponsible. In the deprav~d so11l 0. sensibility of conscience, generosity of impulse, elasticity of intellect, freedom of thought, en. xv. 1-59.J TilE FinST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 4.99
spiritunlity of feeling-these, that constitute the highest life of man, die daily in the corrupt 80UI. 'l'ho sinner is constantly murdering these, and their blood cries to Heaven for vem;eance. "To be carnally minded is death." 2. There is the virtuous. There arc certain things that men should and ought to crucify-selfishness, sensuality, love of the world, etc. The highest life of man is a daily dying to all that is mean, false, mercenary, unspiritual, and uncharitable. The apostle felt this when he said, "I/' that is, my carnal self; "am crucified with Christ; " nevertheless, "I," that is, my spiritual self, " Ii ve," etc.