Vers. 7, 8.-.All lossfor Christ u; gain. No one of the early Christians was favoured with richer religious endowments or with higher rank than those enjoyed by St. Paul, and no one was called to make more heavy social and ecclesiastical sacrifices in entering the Church. Yet the apostle regarded his former wealth of privileges as so much loss because it was a hindrance to his receiving true wealth in Christ, and the winning of Christ as not simply a balance of profit, but as wholly a gain; so that, though in the eyes of the world he had made an astounding Eacrifice, in his own estimation he bad made no sacrifice at all, but had got a pure and simple advantage from the exchange. L RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES :MAY BECOME RELIGIOUS HINDRANCES. In their origin and primary purpose, of course, they could not be so, or they would never be privileges. But changing circOIIJBtances and abuse of them may make them of more har~ than good. A pure Jewish birth, Pharisaism, and the Law were once all ·good. But in !:it. Paul's day and in relation to Christianity they became positively injurious. So now a man's pooition and education in religion may be converted into a hindrance to his real Christian life. 1. We may be satisfied with these privileges and so not care to go on to the hiaher blessinas. The self-complacent Pharisee does not ask for and therefore misses th~ grace whi~h the penitent publican seeks and therefore finds. The reiigious posses- sions of the former result in his poverty, the poverty of the latter in his wealth. 2. We may be preJudiced by the nature of these privileges or by our experience of them. An imperfect religion is in itself better than no religion, but it becomes worse wheu it prejudices us against a higher faitli. II. THE GllEATEST RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES ARE OF NO USE WITHOUT CHRIST. St. Paul euunts them a.s "but dung." To be born of Christian parents, to be educated in Cl,ristian truths, to be associated in Christian fellowship, and to be zealous in Christian work,-all these things will count as nothing for our soul's profit if we do not know, trust, love, and follow Cliritit. It is true that they who have not an opportunity of knuwi.ng Cbrist may be benefited by other religious aids. But when Christ is accessiblo a l,i~her s!ar.clard is set before Ill!, and to live in tbe beggarly elements ill worse thau lu',lisL-it is fatal en. m. 1-21.] 'l'HE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. li'il
III. WE MAY HAVE 'l'O MAKE GREAT BAORIFICEB TN OTIDER TO RECEIVE CHRIST. W" may b11ve to give up worldly position, pleasant social connections, etc. vVe shall have to renounce nil our Pharisaic righteousness. That- structure which we have been build- ing with so much care and admiring so devoutly must be razed to the ground. Let ns count the cost. IV. To GAIN CrrmsT IS so PTIOFITADLE TIIAT THE LOSS OF ALL THINGS EL8E cou:-.--rs AS NOTIIING IN OOMPARISON. His not simply that the scale dips. It is that the weight on the other side is not felt; nay, that the value of the things given up is converted into its opposite, because they hindered the reception or Christ. In the great equation, all earthly things that stayed us from seeking Christ are lumped together and a minus sign affixed to the whole. If wo have truly won Christ at the greatest cost we are conscious of no sacrifice. It is all infinite gain.-W. F. A. Ver. 10.-" The fellowship of his sufferings." I. TrrE CnRISTiAN IS CALLED INTO THE FELLOWSmP OF ms Loan's SUFFERINGS. 1. He is called into fellowship with Christ. This is further implied by the clause, "becoming conformeu. unto his death." It is St. Paul's conception of the heart and essence of the Christian life. He constantly describes the process of our union with Christ as involving our repetition of Christ's experience of life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. The Christian life is an "Imitatio Christi." 2. The Christian is called to suffer with Christ. His life is not all suffering. Much Divine gladness shines across the path of his pilgrimage. But while new joys come with the gospel, new sorrows unfelt before also accompany it. Christ's joy is in his people (John xv. 11). So also is his sorrow. The Christian bas his Tabor and his Olivet; he has, too, his Gethsemane and his Calvary (Rom. vi. 5; 2 Cor. iv. 10). 3. The necessary experience of the Christian life involves a fellow- ship in the sufferings of Christ. The sufferings are not accidental. (1) Externally, they a.re caused as Christ's were caused. "A servant is not above his lord. If they persecuted me they will also persecute you" (John xv. 20). St. Paul suffered from Jewish jealousy, as Christ did before. More generally the hatred of darkness to light which raged against the great Light of the world besets and attacks all the children of light. (2) Internally, we have to fight all evil, and the mortal conflict is pain- ful. (3) Sympathetically, our union with Christ leads us to sorrow with him in his sorrow. II.' 'rnE FELLOWSHIP OF CunrsT's SUFl'ETIINGS IS O~'E OF THE GREATEST CHRISTIA...'{ PRIVILEGES. We might naturally take it to be quite otherwise. We might think it a thing to be submitted to simply as part of the necessary cost of entering the kingdom of heaven. But St. Paul reckons it as part of the gain in comparison with which all conceivable earthly advantages are but as refuse. How can this be? Surely we cannot em.brace and love pain for its own sake. 1. Fellowship with Christ's sufferi □ gs is a great honour. It is something to be counted worthy to suffer with him. We honour our noblest heroes by selecting them for the most arduous tasks. 2. This fellowship preserves us from many evils. Sorrow is a spiritual antiseptic. It kills the p;erms of corruption that breed freely in luxury. To be admitted into the sacred temple of the sorrows of Christ, to be touched with the solemn awe of his agony, and to feel in our- selves some faint throbs of this sublime passion, all this is to be called above the earthly scenes of folly and sin and to receive a baptism of purification. 3. This fellowship leads us to participation in Ohrz'st's glory. The story does not end with the suffering. I_t looks tragic; but it is no tragedy; for it issues in glad hallelujahs. But as even Christ w,1s perfected through suffering, so much more must his disciples tread the via dulorosa in order to reach their triumph. It is they who suffer with him who will also be glorified together with him.-W. F. A.