The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 497

spheres of their activities. 1. The one is sensuous, the ot,her spiritual. The earthly man is material, partially developed, and gross. (1) Jn his views of happiness . .All his pleasures are of a sensuous order. (2) In his views of wealth. He knows of no mnn th1it is rich but he who possesses worldly property. (3) In his views of dignity. 'lhe only honourable man to him id he who occupies the highest worldly position, and whn moves in thll mere pageantry that dazzles the sensual eye. He is, in one word, a ruan of the flesh. He sees only the fleshly, appreciates only the fleshly, enjoys only the fleshly. On the contrary, the other is spiritual. He lives behind the visible phenomena, realizes the spiritual, the eternal. To him the invisiule is the only reality, moral excellence the only wealth and dignity. Though in the world, Im is not or th~ world. He has his citizenship in heaven. 2. The one is practically selfish, the other is- bencvolent. The earthly mau is rc,ntrolled in everything by a regar,1 to his own pleasures and aggrandizements. Self is the centre and the circumference of all his activities, at once the lord of hi,1 faculties and the god of his worship. All outside of himself-even the universe itself-he values so far and no further than as it serves him. On the contrary, the heavenly man is benevolent. The social element within him controls the egotistic; his personal feelings are submerged in the ever-rising seas of sympathy with humanity and God. Like Christ, he" pleases not himself," and, like Paul, he would be "accursed" to help others. 3. The one is practically atheistic, the other is godly. The earthly man sees nothing bnt natnral law, order, etc. "God is not in all his thoughts." The universe to him is only an eternal or a self-produced and sell~regulating machine, a house that either has never had a builder or whose builder has deserted it. The other-the heavenly man-sees God in all; like the psalmist, sets him before him; like Enoch, walks ever with him. Such are the two im,,g,es or types of character that are set before every man. 11. That man DOES BEAR THE ONE, HE SHOULD BEAR THE OTHER. Account for it how you like, every man, in the first stages or his life, bears the image or the "earthy." He is sensual, selfish, godless. This fact, which is too obvious to need or even to justify illustration, is at once the crime and the calamity of the mce. But whilst we do bear this image at first, we should ·strive to bear the other. "We shall also" (or as Dr. Davidson renders it, "let us also") "bear the image of the heavenly." Let us do it: 1. Because it is right. This heavenly image, embodying all virtue, realizes the soul's highest ideal of excellence. It is just that for which we unconsciously hunger, and for which we shall hunger for over unless we get it. 2. Because it is practicable. (1) We have the model in its most imitable form. Christ is the model. He was pre-eminently spiritual, benevolent, godly; and never was there a character more imitable th1m Christ's-the most udmirable, the most transparent, and the most unchangeable. We can never imitate a character that we cannot unJerstand, admire, and find always the same. Christ was all this. (2) We have the means in the most effective forms, 'l'he gospel reveals the model, supplies the motives, and pledges the spiritual influences of heaven. 3. Because it is urgent. To do this is the gran,l mission of lite. Unless the work is fulfilled, our existence becomes a failure and a. curse. To pass from the "earthy" to the" heavenly," is to pass from darkness to light, from sin to holiness, from Satau to God, from Pandemonium to Paradise. CONCLUSION. Here is a test t'f character. Conventional evaugelism concludes that all who adopt certain tenets, join certain sects, and attellll to certain religious ordinancl's are of the heavenly type and fold. A tremendous mistake is this I Without unchar,t- ableness, it must be confessed that the vast mlljority of what are called Churches bear the image of the earthly; they are selfish, sensuous, and practically godless. Here also is a guide for preachers. Unless you get men from· the earthly to the heavenly type of life, what boots your sermons, with all their rntiocination an,l rhetoric? Get their souls out of the earthly into the heavenly, and in the heavenly gu ou building up a character suited to the higher hierarchies of beiug. "So build we up the being thut we nre. Thus drinking in tbo eoul of things, We ehnll be wiso perforco: und while inspired By choice, u.nd conscioud thut the will is free, Uuswerving shall we move, as if impelled Dy strict neceijsity-along tho puth  506 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [en. xv. 1-58.