The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 505

on the resurrection of the body by calling attention to the fact that the risen Christ "was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve." For the space of forty days he manifested himself at intervals to their senses, and during this intermediate period-a special dis- pensation to the disciples, differing widely from all that went before or came after-their education as witnesses, and particularly as witnesses of his resurrection, was carried 011 to the verge of completeness at Pentecost. In fact, Pentecost was the forty days consum- mated. And was this great training merely in the historical fact that he had risen ? Forty days were not needed for this. Twenty-four hourg after he had reappeared, all the twelve, except St. Thomas, were firm believers of the fact. But they were to feel the connection between his resurrection and death as spiritual truths of the highest moment, truths of the Divine government, truths of holy sentiment, and thn, fiuerl for the full dispensation of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. "Did not our /;eart bu,,, within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?" The heart, the burning heart, the heart of saving faith,-this is the distinctive type of experience now, and,/or the first time, <Jhristian emotion as to its essential quality is brought into notice. St. Paul enumerates the witnesses: St. Peter, the twelve, the five hundred brethren, St. James; and adds, "all the apostles." Then he mentions himself: " Last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." Could he speak of this in the way simply of historical summation? Not he; memory was too active, feeling too acute, humility and gratitude too profound, for a bare logical statement. In an instant, the devout soul hastens to acknowledge what it never lost an opportunity of expressing-its sense of God's mercy in calling him, o. persecutor of the Church of God, to the apostleship. "By the grace of God "-words often abused since he used them, but most so.cred and glorious as he uttered them-" by the grace of God I am what I am." That grace had not been bestowed in vain; nor does he hesitate to say that he had "laboured more abundantly than they all," and then "1" sinks out of si~ht, and it is all of grace. Notice the stages of the idea: born untimely; least of the apostles because he was guilty of persecution; the ouly man among them who ~tuod against this dark background, but the light in the foreground is the more resplendent for that; not ashamed to confess his utter unworthiness in order to magnify the grnce of Goo., and this grace deserving the entire honour of the more abundant labour. What an insight into the man! If, as we suppose, _the hours when this chapter was wrilten were extraordinary even in his wonderful mental history; if there was a fuller and closPr interblending of his faculties than he had ever experienced; if human knowledge nn<l culture then brought to inspiration their largest and richest tribute, and if inspiration brought to them its mightiest quickening ;-what could be more striking than the facL that in this very period of exaltation, when intellect was in the splendid array both ot its endowments and acquisitions, and when the power of speech had suddenly possessed itself of ne;v facilities of expression, he cannot proceed without pausing to bow his heart in adoration before the God of grace I Uppermost, indeed, was the thought of him who had" died for our sins," and the glory of Christ ri8en as personal to him nnd his apostle- ship was the grace shown to him as a per,, cutor of the Church of God. And wn ~,ho rend his glowing words, what finer privilege can the unfoldings of the human SO"~ in literature give us, what privilege so fine as this in which the apostle of the Gcnt·ilcs, rising above the levels of all common experience, speaks from a height which would be the abode of silence save that humility would offer its homage to the grace of Christ! 'l'he nobility of the man displays itself here; for, though labouring " more abundantly than they all," yet he claims no more than to be ono of the witnessing company of tbo apostles. After all, it is not the individual testimony of St. Peter, St. James, St. Paul, but the concurrent and united evidence, that is the important fact. Years intervened between the forty days and the scene on the road to Damascus, and he comes with his later testimony to join the group of tho earlier witnesses. "·whether it were I or they "-we are all agreed as to the appearance of the risen Lord-" so we preach, and so ye believed."-L. Vers. 12-34,-Denying the resurrectionfrom the dead,and what the denial involves Some of these Corinthian Christians denied that there would be a literal resurrection '!'hey understood little or nothing of the idea of the body, of its uses intellectually and morally regarded, and of its partnership with the soul in all that concerned present I. OORINTH[ANS, 2 L 514 THE I<'IRS'l' EPISTLE TO TIIE CORINTHIANS. [olI. xv. 1-58.