The Pulpit Commentary — Philippians — Section 187

proclivities, turn awny their enr from the true teachers of tbeir time. Tbcy resort to places where they con be tickled, not taught, flattered, not corrected. II. Thie knowledge of Christ is to be transmitted IN ORDER TO BE PRACTISED. '"l'hoso things which ye have both lenrned, and receiver], and her.rd, and seen in me, do," A goRpel ser1!1on should never be regarded BB a lecture on philosophy, literature, or:art-a mere eubJect for speculative thought or a subject of discussion. The goRpcl is a law, it comes from the highest authority and with a binding force. What is sai,l is to be done, not merely approved, criticised, thought on, or sighed about, but done. The ideas communicated are to be translated into actions, and such actions will ever be Christly in spirit and tendency, But into what actions are the conventional sermons of England translated? Turn to the columns of our daily journals and read of the mercantile swindlings, the courtly depravities, idlenesses, and sports, the political intrigues, senatorial elanderings and quarrellings, the barbaric executions, the bloody wars, and other nameless iniquities sanctioned and enacted by the hearers of what arc called gospel sermons. Ah me I What boots preaching? III. The practice of this knowledge of Christ ENSURES THE SUBLIMEST GOOD. " The God of peace shall be with you." In ver. 7 we read of having the "peace of God,'' here of having the " God of peace." To have his peace is something glorious; but to have himself is something transcendently greater. "The God of peace." Elsewhere he is called the "God of salvation," the "God of consolation," the "God of hope," etc.; but this title seems to transcend all others. 1. He is at peace with himself. A moral intelligence to possess peace must be absolutely free from the following things-malice, remorse, forebodings. 'fbe mightiest revolutions through all the millenniums and the hostilities of all the hells of the universe a.wake no ripple upon the boundless sea of his ever-flowing love. 2. He is at peace with the universe. He has no unkind feelini; to any sentient being; he contends with no one; he is at peace with all. He contend, forsooth I Does the immovable rock contend with the waves that break at its feet: Does the sun contend with the fleeting clouds? Now, they who translate the gospel into their life shall have the "God of peace" ever with them-with them as the sunny heavens are with the earth.-D. 'l'. Vers. 10--17.-Man in model aspects. "But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, tbat now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to, a.bound : everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate wjth my affliction. Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no Church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may a.bound to your account." The apostle now turns his attention to a new subject, and the verses that follow to the close of the chapter seem to be a kind of postscript, acknowledging in a very graceful manner the various offerings which he had received from the Philippians by the hands of Epaphroditus. The passage before us may be regarded as presenting man in certain model aspects. I. Here is a man represented as an OBJECT OF CmnsTUN DE~EFICE~CE. "But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me bath flourisheu again." 1. He received their beneficence with religious gratitude. "I rejoiced in the Lord," etc. "There is," says Dr. Barry, "in these words an expression of some hitherto disappointed expectation, not wholly unlike the stronger expression of wounded feeling in 2 Tim. iv. 9, 10, 16. At Cresarea St. Paul would have been neces- sarily cut off from the European Churches; at Rome, the metropolis of universal concourse, he may have expected some earlier communication. But fearing to wound the Philippians by even the semblance of reproof, in their case undeserved, he adds at once, 'in which ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.' Epaphroditus would seem to have arrived early, almost as soon as St. Paul's arrival at Rome gave them the opportunity which they previously lacked." 'l'he colltributions which c,\tnc from the  190 THE EPISTLE TO 'l'HE PHILIPPIANS. [ou. iv. 1-23,