made when our Lord said, On this Rock I will build my Church." (Matt.xvi. 18). St. Paul will carry it on in all its development in later epistles. That Rock is the foundation on which all teaching is built. Some teachers build on that faith a precious edifice of gold, silver, and precious stones: the Word which is more precious than fine gold, and the Wisdom that is like precious stones. Others, alas! build up mere rubbish. Their teaching is vain and worthless, but only the fiery trial of temptation can show which superstructure is valuable, and which is all in vain.

Those whose work stands the test will receive the reward from their Lord; those who have laboured honestly, though in a mistaken manner, shall see their work fail, and will receive no reward, though they will not be themselves lost, but will be saved "as by fire.” How far this relates only to the trial of this life, or how far it is to be fulfilled after our death, we cannot tell; but there is much in the words to encourage, as well as to warn.

Going back to the comparison of himself to a builder, St. Paul reminds his converts that the whole Church is God's Temple of living stones (Eph. ii. 20—22), as he afterwards more fully drew out a Temple enshrining the Holy Spirit, and that to destroy or divide that Temple was fatal guilt. As that Temple is holy, so are those who form it holy.

Again St. Paul returns to cut down all self-complacency in intellect. He who prides himself thereon, had better become what the outer world esteems foolish. For in the Book of Job (v. 13), it is said: "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness:" and in the Psalms, xciv. 11, "The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are but vain." So no one must glory in any man. Call no man Father on earth, for One is your Father” (Matt. xxiii. 9), was the saying of our Lord Himself. And Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world; nay, life, death, things present, and things to come, all alike are ours, as Christians, the means of salvation given to us but we are not our own, but Christ's, and Christ is God's. It is all one mighty fabric, wherein all have their parts, the foundation covering the earth, the apex being God Himself in Heaven.

Let every one who is inclined to exalt, and quarrel about, a favourite clergyman, think of this.

LESSON LI.

THE ISTHMEAN GAME.

A.D. 54.-I COR. ix. 19-27.

Other questions are discussed in this letter to Corinth after that of party spirit. They were rebuked for improper marriages, for carrying their disputes before heathen tribunals. Then St. Paul answered the questions they had sent to ask him, as to what was to be done about marriages in the persecuted state of the Church, and about those between Christians and heathens, and about the eating of the meat of heathen sacrifices, which were often sold in the market. Here St. Paul argues that the idol in itself is nothing, but that those who still half believed in it might be harmed by seeing their brethren eat of the sacrifice. Therefore it might often be better to abstain; and he then goes into an explanation of his own position, and his resignation of everything to fit himself for the work of an Apostle.

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.

And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law ;

To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:

But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

COMMENT. Thus, though born a free citizen of Rome, and independent of all men, he had been as a slave to all in order to gain them over to Christ, living as a Jew, and under the law when with Jews, and dispensing with the ceremonial law when with Gentiles, not, as he explains, living without regard to the Law of Christ, but as one not bound by the old ritual law, from which, as a Christian, he was free. Consideration and sympathy for others, in fact the law of love, was the guide of his life in all the matters which were not morally right or wrong.

St. Paul illustrates the question by a reference to the great festival of Corinth, the Isthmian games, which took place every alternate year. These games, which were supposed to have begun as trials of strength at the funeral of some hero, were a passion with the Greeks. They took place at varying intervals at different Grecian sanctuaries, and the Isthmus was the second place of dignity where they were held. Champions made training for them the work of their lives, striving to excel in wrestling, boxing, throwing the disc, in races on foot or in chariots, in music, poetry; or rhetoric. All Greece looked on, the victor was crowned with wreaths of pine-leaves, parsley, or laurel, and was not only banqueted at the festival but was welcomed at his home with rejoicings as an honour to his city, and hung up his wreath by the altars of his household gods, wearing the like on his head on all public occasions. Such honours were esteemed worth years of training in exertion, and of abstinence from all such food and luxury as might lessen the strength or activity of the athlete. And here St. Paul draws his parable. These men thus strained every nerve for a mere fading garland of leaves, but the crown set before us is an eternal crown that fadeth not away. They give up everything for a contest wherein only one can bear off the prize, while the rest, with all their efforts, must be disappointed, whereas all that is asked of us is to do our best. Therefore St. Paul strives-not aimlessly, but striking blows against a real antagonist. He runs straight on his heavenly goal, laying aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us (Heb. xii. 1), and calling on those with him to run with all their might. And as the Grecian athlete trained himself by temperance, so St. Paul says that he too carefully watches and keeps in restraint the appetites of the body lest

VOL, V.

S

they should lead him astray. He is in the position of one who exhorts the champions in the arena, but he fears to be like one convicted of contending unfairly, who would be cast out of the amphitheatre in disgrace.

So from those old games of Greece has his voice echoed down through the ages of the Church, bidding us Christians run the race, and press forward to the prize of our high calling. The concourse and excitement of those games had made a great impression on him, for he recurs to them again and again.

LESSON LII.

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY

A.D. 54.-I COR. iv.

Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.

For I know nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.

Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?

Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.

For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death; for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.

We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.

Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place;

And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless: being persecuted, we suffer it:

Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

COMMENT. The right way, then, to account of the ministry which began with the Apostles, is as stewards or chief servants of the Master. So He had told them Himself when He spoke of the steward set in charge till the return of the Master (Luke xii. 42). It is indeed the first duty of a steward to be faithful, but in this matter he is accountable, not to the under-servants, but to his Master Himself. It was not the Corinthians' part to weigh the merits of Paul, Cephas, or Apollos; they were their Master's instruments, with various calls, and answerable to Him alone. Nay, St. Paul says, I judge not mine own self, though I know nothing against myself as a minister, but I leave all things to be declared at that last great day, which will bring to light whatever is hidden, and make manifest the secrets of all hearts, when each man will receive from God that meed, not more, which is his just due.

The next verse is difficult; but St. Paul seems to mean that he declares these things respecting himself and Apollos for the good of the Corinthians, that they may cease to puff themselves off, one against the other, in the names of one or other of them. For how absurd it was of the Corinthians to boast, when they had all come in through one or other of their teachers! Then, ironically, he describes their manner of setting themselves up, and places in contrast the humility, nay the misery, in which the Apostles lived. So far from being like famous teachers, they were wanderers, living by their own labour, continually incurring punishment, suffering, and poverty. This is no boast in St. Paul, for these humiliations seemed despicable to an ordinary Greek, and made glorying in the Apostles an absurdity in their eyes. Their very meekness under ill-treatment seemed mean-spirited tameness.

LESSON LIII.

ISRAEL OUR WARNING.

A.D. 54.-I COR. x. 1-14.

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

And did all eat the same spiritual meat;