3. It is inconsistent with the eternal destiny of the body. The relation of the body to Christ is abiding. He who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also quicken our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11), raising them to a glorious life in him. The resurrection of the body tells us that it is not to be treated as a temporary thing, belonging only to this stage of existence. It is not to be destroyed like the belly and meats, but is united to Christ forever. Fornication, therefore, decades the body, inasmuch as it is thereby treated as the instrument of a perishable appetite.
4. It is in its own nature degrading. The act itself is a union with the vilest characters (1 Corinthians 6:16). Think of the dignity of the Christian's person as a member of Christ, standing in everlasting union with him; and with what holy horror should we regard this sin!
5. It is peculiarly a sin against the body. (1 Corinthians 6:18.) "Drunkenness and gluttony are sins done in and by the body, and are sins by abuse of the body; but they are still without the body—introduced from without, sinful not in their act, but in their effect, which effect it is each man's duty to foresee and avoid. But fornication is the alienating that body which is the Lord's, and making it a harlot's body; it is sin against a man's own body, in its very nature—against the verity and nature of his body; not an effect on the body from participation of things without, but a contradiction of the truth of the body, wrought within itself" (Alford). The awful effects of this sin are frequently written in characters of fire in the physical system.
6. It is a profanation of the Divine temple. 'I he body is "a temple of the Holy Ghost" (1 Corinthians 6:19). What was said before of the believer is here said of the body (1 Corinthians 3:16, where see homily). The body is the outer court of the temple, but still a part of it, and therefore holy. Dare we admit unholy feet to tread this court? Dare we profane the sanctuary by devoting it to sacrilegious uses? Will the Spirit of God continue to dwell in a polluted temple?
7. It contradicts the Divine proprietorship of the body. Believers are not their own, but the purchased position of God, bought for himself with precious blood (1 Corinthians 6:20; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 1:18, 1 Peter 1:19). Our bodies are not our own to do with them as we please. We are God's bondservants, bought for the purpose of serving and glorifying him (1 Peter 2:9). How weighty an argument for entire devotion to (God's service! Love to our redeeming God is the only sufficient motive for a holy life. "Glorify God therefore in your body."
LEARN:
1. The sacredness of the body.
2. The extent of sanctification—it reaches to the utmost circumference of our being (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
3. Flee fornication. Victory here is to be won by flight, not by fight (Genesis 39:12).
4. Watch against everything that might lead to this sin.—B.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE
1 Corinthians 6:12
Free, and yet not free.
The first step to a right understanding of this passage is to observe that the "all things" of which the apostle speaks are things in themselves indifferent ( ἀδιάφορα), not things in which any vital principle of morality or point of Christian doctrine is involved. Nothing could be "lawful" to him that was in its essential nature unlawful. There are matters in which the question of right and wrong is fixed, absolute, changeless; and there are others in which it is variable, conditional, determined by circumstances. It is of the latter that he speaks. He is consciously raised above the bondage of mere conventional or traditionary distinctions of clean and unclean, sacred and common, etc. A man is free from the restraint of external law when he has the spirit of it in his heart. All things are lawful to him when the governing principle of his life is that "love which is the fulfilling" of all holy law. The singularity of this declaration is that, while the apostle asserts his freedom, he at the same time surrenders it. He asserts it by voluntarily submitting to that which seems to be a denial of it. There is something paradoxical in this. But are we not familiar with many similar paradoxes? External nature is a marvellous combination of what seem to be conflicting elements—laws that limit, forces that balance each other, processes that run in opposite directions. What a strange commingling is there in the world around us of beauty and deformity, economy and waste, order and disorder, life and death! Divine providence presents the same characteristics. The wheels of the great providential plan move in different, often contradictory, directions; but the sovereign Spirit that controls and guides them develops from them one grand result. What is every man's daily history, in the common relationships of life, but a perpetual working and counterworking of what seem to be incongruous principles. He loses that he may win, serves that he may rule, stoops to conquer, sacrifices liberty in one direction that he may secure it in another, denies himself to please himself, suffers that he may enjoy, dies that he may live. No wonder there should be a similar balancing and limiting of seemingly discordant principles in the sphere of Christian doctrine and Christian life. Two views of personal freedom are here given.
I. FREEDOM LIMITED BY THE THOUGHT OF MORAL ADVANTAGE. That is in the highest sense "expedient" which is morally right and good. A thing may be "lawful" and yet, considering all the conditions of the case, not desirable, because unprofitable. Legitimate enough in itself, it may have bearings and involve consequences that are neither right nor good. In such a case a man of fine Christian sensibility will feel that, while perfectly free in one sense, in another sense he is not free. His conscience and the sympathies and affections of his religions life will restrain his use of that freedom. There is something dearer to a noble soul than even liberty. The thought of the higher profitableness of a thing should be more to us than the thought of its abstract lawfulness. Freedom is not in itself an end, but the means to an end above and beyond itself. To seek after "whatsoever things are true, honest, just," etc., even though it may involve us in many penalties, is better than to be always jealously maintaining our exemption from the bonds of external restraint. One of the finest examples of this principle is supplied by our Lord's payment of the temple tax (Matthew 17:24-27) Though "the children were free," yet, lest there should be "offence," he will pay the claim and work a miracle to provide the means of payment. The Sonship that relaxed one law only made the other the more sacred and binding. The apostolic Epistles are full of illustrations of the same principle (1 Corinthians 9:14, 1 Corinthians 9:15, 1 Corinthians 9:19-22; Galatians 5:13; 1 Peter 2:16). Never are we so loftily conscious of our Christian freedom, and never is that freedom so manifest, as when, for some high end, we choose to forego it.
"A life of self renouncing love
Is a life of liberty."
II. FREEDOM CONTROLLED BY THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF MORAL POWER. "I will not," etc. This is self assertion of the right order; the manly use of the power by which it is given us to determine our own course, and not allow it to be left at the mercy of outward influences, or to be determined for us by the persuasive force that happens to be the strongest. As a mere act of self discipline, this is good; for the will, like any other faculty, grows by use, and self mastery by the power of a resolute will is the basis of all moral excellence. Think what differences there are among men in this respect. The secret of success or failure in the lower interests of human life lies mainly here. It depends far less on native talent, favourable circumstances, etc., than it does on the energy of a self regulating will. This power is necessary to give due effect to any other power. Many a man has noble qualities both of mind and heart—quick intelligence, wise judgment, warm enthusiasm—but lacks the steadfast will that would bind them all together, giving unity and strength to his character and effective force to his endeavour. According, however, to the greatness and strength of this faculty, so is the danger of its being misdirected—like the forces of nature, water, steam, electricity, etc. Self will is blind, lawless, immoral, and therefore not really free. Moral freedom lies in the mastery of a will that determines for the right, chooses to move in harmony with the Divine will, the "will that is holy and just and good." Learn chiefly two grand lessons.
1. That things lawful and innocent in themselves may become evil by being allowed to gain an undue mastery over us.
2. That our only effectual preservative against this is the resistive energy of a will inspired by the Spirit of the well beloved Son.—W.
1 Corinthians 6:19
Divine ownership.
One of the most elementary principles of Christian thought and life is expressed in these words: "Ye are not your own." The sense of Divine ownership rather than self ownership is the inspiration of all Christian dignity and strength. Consider—
I. THE NATURE AND GROUNDS OF THIS PERSUASION. There is a sense in which it is true of all men that they are not their own. It is a necessary inference from the fact that they are created and dependent beings. But more than this is meant here. As a mere truth of natural religion, it is lifeless and profitless. As in so many other cases, it must be elevated to the level of a Christian doctrine, linked with, set in the light of, the great facts that belong to the "record God has given us of his Son," before there can be any efficacious force in it. As a reality of Christian life, then, this Divine ownership rests on two distinct grounds.
1. Purchase. "Ye were bought with a price." The apostle refers to a historic fact of the past, viz. the personal self surrender and sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of God, for the redemption of men. This, with all that it involved of obedience, humiliation, and suffering even unto death, was the "price" that bought us. We may differ in our abstract ideas as to the nature of the atonement, but this fact is to the Christian mind indisputable. "The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28); "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse," etc. (Galatians 3:13); "Redeemed with the precious blood of Christ," etc. (1 Peter 1:19). Like the noble Roman youth who, as tradition tells, leaped full armed into the yawning chasm because the city could only be saved by the sacrifice of her best treasure, so did Jesus, the "well beloved" of heaven, the noblest treasure of earth, the "only begotten of the Father," the Head and Chief of our humanity, yield up his life to redeem the life of the world. He gave himself for us. "He suffered, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us unto God." Not that there was any essential moral efficacy in the mere fact of suffering, but that that suffering was the measure of our value in the sight of infinite and eternal Love. Pure love invests its object with a value in comparison with which all that belongs to itself is as nothing. The heart in which it dwells finds its deepest satisfaction in the joy of another. Saving another, itself it "cannot save." All tender human relationships are meant to develop in us this Divine sensibility. How spontaneously does all the thought and care and passion of the mother's soul, the deep exhaustless wealth of her being, flow out towards her child! She loses herself to find a dearer self in him. How instinctively, at any risk, does she shield him from danger! With what sublime self forgetfulness does she surrender her own ease and comfort, to toil through the livelong day, and watch through the weary night, and let her very life ebb slowly and silently away, that she may find a deeper joy, a better life, in nourishing and saving his! So has it been with Christ's more than human, more than mother's love. "Herein is love," etc. (1 John 4:10). It is the memory and consciousness of this, and all that it means, that produces in us a profound impression that we are "not our own." Of all the forces that move the spirit to grateful self surrender, none so mighty as this sense of personal obligation to redeeming love. "The love of Christ constraineth us," etc. (2 Corinthians 5:14).
"Love so amazing, so Divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all."
2. Possession. "Your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost." The context requires that we give to this a strictly individual application. It is spoken here, not of the Church as the Body of Christ, "the fulness of him that filleth all in all," but of the physical personality of each individual member of that body. And it is spoken of as a simple, unquestionable element of Christian knowledge and consciousness. "What, know ye not," etc.? The heathen have had their ideas of Divine "possession;" but their possession has been exceptional, transitory, fictitious, the device of priestcraft, the wild dream of mystic superstition. Here the Divine possession is real, reasonable, permanent, fruitful of blessed issues. If we could only realize it more, not with anything like the wildness of a dangerous fanaticism, but with the calm quiet dignity of a spirit that is consciously walking in the light of God, what strength and beauty it would give to our life! Imagine the awful sanctity with which the temple of old must have been invested to the view of the worshipping people as soon as the heaven kindled fire came down, and "the glory of the Lord had filled the house." With what higher sanctity still should we clothe the being of a man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells! Shall not "Holiness unto the Lord" be the acknowledged, manifest, and all pervading law of his life?
II. THE PRACTICAL RESULTS OF IT. "Glorify God therefore in your body." This is something more than a mere passive, negative abstinence from evil. It is the consecration of the powers of our nature to all holy service, the active expression of the inner Divine life in all possible forms of well doing. It implies:
1. Conscious spiritual freedom. Christ delivers us from all kinds of degrading moral bondage when he thus redeems us and makes us his own forever. And "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Spiritual freedom lies in willing personal subjection to him who is our rightful Lord. Self hood in all its forms and phases is the slavery, the paralysis, and death of the soul. Live in and for yourself, as if you were "your own," and you have a very hard and oppressive taskmaster. Live unto the Lord, and you are most truly and joyously free.
2. The mastery of the spiritual over the fleshly part of us. The apostle has in view a special and most important aspect of the sanctity of the body. But we may take this word "body" as symbolizing the whole form and fashion and habit of the outward life. From the inner shrine of a spirit that has thus become the Lord's, the glory will stream forth through all channels of self revelation. The very outskirts of our being, the very lowest part of our nature, will be sure to be lighted up, spiritualized, beautified by it. We are apt to think of the body as being necessarily the encumbrance and the foe of the spirit. This is not a Christian way of thinking. Rather let us regard it as an instrument that God has wisely constructed, "fearfully and wonderfully made," and through which the holy energy of the spirit may serve his purposes and do him honour.—W.
HOMILIES BY D. FRASER
1 Corinthians 6:11
Great sinners saved.
It has been alleged that the early Christians were gathered from the mere rabble and offscourings of the ancient world. Gibbon remarks, with his usual sneer, that "the missionaries of the gospel, after the example of their Divine Master, disdained not the society of men, and especially of women, oppressed by the consciousness and very often by the effects of their vices." But it is not the fact, and it is not fair to insinuate, that the Church was formed from the mire of society. The gospel then, as now, influenced in some measure all ranks of society, all aiders of mind, and all grades of moral culture. Yet it is not to be concealed, and indeed it is to the credit of the gospel, that it brought newness of heart and life to some of the most profligate inhabitants of the ancient cities where it was preached. Not only in Judaea had it saved the very harlots; but in the licentious cities of the heathen, as Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome, it had rescued persons who were steeped in sensual vice. "Such were some of you," writes the apostle to the members of" the Church of God at Corinth." He had put down a terrible catalogue of sinners, who were not to inherit the kingdom of God. "Such were some of you; but you are so no longer: I recognize the mighty change."
I. THE THREEFOLD CHANGE.
1. "Ye were washed." "Ye washed yourselves." A definite fact, as much so as the washing of Naaman in the river which took away his leprosy. Such is the way of Divine grace. The thought of man's heart is that his sins may be rubbed out, or the traces worn out by lapse of time, or that by repentance and amendment of life they are atoned for. But nothing removes sin except washing. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin."
2. "Ye were sanctified.'' After the washing comes the anointing with holy oil. They who are cleansed are consecrated and set apart for Divine use. This is sanctification of the Spirit, which is imparted freely and at once to those who receive the gospel, though it is only gradually realized in experience and practice.
3. "Ye were justified." Being defiled, ye were cleansed; being profane, ye were hallowed; and being unrighteous, ye were Justified. You are no longer under condemnation, but being regarded as "in Christ," you are reckoned righteous in him. And this too is an accomplished fact in God's grace. Know it well, for it is the charter of your acceptance, and the warrant of your peace.
II. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THIS CHANGE.
1. "In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Warnings of the consequences of vice, expositions of the beauty and advantage of virtue, can do little in such cases as are indicated here. It was not for want of sages to sound the praise and discuss the nature of virtue that the Greeks of Corinth had been so vicious. But no change was wrought upon them till the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ was published. Here was not a sage turning fine sentences, but a Saviour who could save men from themselves, and make them sons of God. In this Name it was, and to this day it is, that the soiled are washed, the unholy sanctified, the guilty justified.
2. "And by the Spirit of our God." For it is that Spirit who convinces men of their sins, and who brings and unites them to the Saviour, in whom they are made new creatures. What condescension in that pure and Holy Spirit, to come near to such vile persons as the previous verse describes, and transform such sinners into saints!
III. THE LESSONS SUGGESTED.
1. That no sinner's case is too desperate for the gospel remedy. Christianity can do more than develop germs of goodness where they exist. It has a new creating energy, and can inspire good motives and feelings where there seemed to be nothing but evil, evil continually. There is no case so sunk and lost as to baffle the power of Christ's Name and the Holy Spirit's quickening grace. We do not make light of moral gradations. It is a thing to be thankful for, if one has been preserved from gross sin. It is a thing to be bitterly lamented, if one has committed, even in thought, such sins as the apostle enumerates. But the most moral man has something on his heart to be ashamed of before God. And the immoral have grievous confessions to make. Let the shame and grief be felt; they are wholesome for the soul. But let no one despond or despair. The Divine grace which brings salvation is no perquisite of the higher and middle classes of sinners. It goes down through all degrees to the lowest depth of human sin and misery. The Name of the Lord Jesus Christ is a shield for the most unclean. The Spirit of our God can renew those who are dead in trespasses and sins.
2. That a Christian is to be known by what he is, not what he once was. Many seem to have no real conception of the transforming power which the Holy Spirit exerts on those who truly receive the gospel; and, accordingly, when one who was known to be a sinner begins to confess the Saviour's Name, many virtuous persons shake their heads suspiciously, and sometimes wag their heads reproachfully, and relate all that they have heard, however vaguely, of such a person's faults, as though they must cleave to him forever. Thus the old sins are kept hanging as a perpetual reproach over the head of the new recruit to the Christian army, just as though there were no washing possible, no sanctification, no justification. But how unreasonable is this! Is it not from the ranks of sinners that the ranks of the saints have always been filled up? Is there not a significant "but" in our text, indicating the transition from the old state to the new? And is it not true in life, as well as in Scripture? You tell me what this person was: I bid you see what this person is, and glorify God, whose grace works such blessed changes among the children of men. Make not the conversion of a sinner more difficult than it need be, by your suspicions. Reserve your strictest judgments for yourself.—F.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
1 Corinthians 6:1-8
The relations of Christians to public law.
The apostle here deals with a fresh mistake made by the Corinthian Christians. In view of the extensive commercial interests of Corinth, we can well understand that disputes constantly arose which could only be settled by the common law courts. St. Paul does not intend us to infer that these law courts were unjustly conducted, or that, in ordinary matters and under ordinary circumstances, recourse may not be had to them. He only points out that the new feeling and sentiment which they should have and cherish, as Christian disciples, would be opposed to the litigious spirit, and fill them with an anxiety to set things right with their brethren rather than to struggle for the securing of their own rights. He glances, further, at the misconception which the surrounding heathen would form of such indications of quarrelling among the Christians. "We can well understand how detrimental to the best interests of Christianity it would be for the Christian communion, founded as it was on principles of unity and love, to be perpetually, through the hasty temper and weakness of individual members, held up to the scorn of the heathen, as a scene of intestine strife." The principle laid down by the apostle led in later times to the appointment of courts of arbitration. Of these we have historical evidence in the middle of the second century. It has been pointed out that the proper illustration of St. Paul's principle should be sought, not in a Christian country, but in a heathen country where Christians may Happen to reside. On his principle, as it may now be applicable to us, we propose to dwell.
I. ST. PAUL THROWS NO SLIGHT ON PUBLIC LAW. HOW are we to regard law? Is it the arbitrary command of a ruler? Or is it a national code created by the gifts of some legal genius, some Lycurgus or Justinian? Is it not rather a nation discovering the importance of the protection of its persons and. property, mutually agreeing to the adoption of rules for the securing of such protection, and putting the applications of such rules into the hands of certain individuals, called kings, judges, or magistrates? So for a people to disobey the laws is more truly rebellion against themselves, against their best interests, than against their rulers; and every individual in a nation is bound both to honour and to keep the law. St. Paul would fully recognize this, and intend no disrespect by what he says concerning it. We should observe that he carefully distinguishes the sphere of law to which he refers. Explain the difference between the "criminal" and "equity" courts at our assizes. St. Paul deals with matters of dispute, with equity questions, not with crime. And he very properly urges that such disputes usually rest on "strong feeling," "misunderstanding," etc., and consequently can be best dealt with from within the Christian brotherhood, which can recognize "feeling," and help its members to overcome "faults." Elsewhere he urges full obedience to the "powers that be." But he pleads that the Christians only confessed their failure from the Christian spirit when they could not give way one to the other, but were compelled to get outsiders and heathen to tell them what was just and right. So still we may say there are only a few things in respect of which Christians are justified in going to law, and they concern wholly the interpretations of national law in relation to rights of property. For these it is sometimes necessary to get an authoritative decision. Happily, the principle of arbitration is spreading in trade disputes and in national differences. Christians will hail the day when arbitration, the handmaid of peace, gains her rule in every land, and men and nations "learn war no more."
II. ST. PAUL ASSUMES THE AUTONOMY (SELF RULE) OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. He would have them fully understand that, as a Church, they were quite competent to manage their own affairs—all their affairs, and certainly all internal disputes. Show on what frequently declared and comprehensive principles the apostle's argument is based.
1. The Church of Christ is a society.
2. It is a separated society, standing free from the world; in it, but not of it.
3. It is a complete society; the Head and the members together make up a "whole body."
4. It is a society resting on a common basis, the "life in Christ," not on a common opinion, nor on a common order, but on a common life, which makes it as one family.
5. It is a society under a living Head. It endures as "seeing him who is invisible;" and it is a spiritual realization of the "theocracy," or direct practical ruling of the Divine Lord.
6. It is a society with judicial functions. Show that the Church has disciplinary powers which it may bring to bear on the moral offender (as at Corinth); and consultative powers which it may employ to settle family, trade, or society disputes.
7. It is a society with a character, one of whose leading features is "mutual forbearance"—a self denying regard rather for the welfare of others than for our own. In such a society it would be manifestly inappropriate for any member who had a contention with a fellow member to "go to law before the unjust." The high Christian feeling finds expression in St. Paul's intense language, "Why do ye not rather take wrong, why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?"—R.T.
1 Corinthians 6:2, 1 Corinthians 6:3
The judgment of the saints.
The Christian disciples are called "saints," not because they are actually holy, but because they are
St. Paul here speaks of them as "saints," to remind them that they hold their Christian standing by virtue of their character, that their "goodness" was to be their power. The word "judge" should be treated as the equivalent of "govern;" it does not, as used by St. Paul here, merely mean "give legal decisions." Illustrate by the work of the judges in ancient Israel; they were virtually rulers of the country.
I. THE SAINTS' JUDGMENT OF THE WORLD. F. W. Robertson says, "Successively have force, hereditary right, talent, wealth, been the aristocracies of the earth. But then, in that kingdom to come, goodness shall be the only condition of supremacy." For the idea of our sharing with Christ in the judgment, at his second coming, see Daniel 7:22; Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30. It is better, however, to impress the point that the actual presence of good men in the world, in society, is a constant testing and showing up of the evil of the world.
II. THE SAINTS' JUDGMENT OF ANGELS. This must refer to evil angels. We may, however, treat it as an intense expression of the apostle's, uttered under the deep impress of all that might be involved in the spiritual union of Christ and his people. Christ rules the angels, and so do we, since we are in him. "It is better to regard the passage as a climax arising out of the apostle's intense realization of the unity of Christ and his Church triumphant—a point which seems ever present to the mind of St. Paul when he speaks of the dignity of Christianity. In this sense, redeemed humanity will be superior to, and judges of, the spiritual world."
III. THE SAINTS' JUDGMENT OF EVERYDAY MATTERS. The argument of the apostle is that, if they recognize their high standing and privilege, and the power and responsibility of judging such external things as the "world" and the "angels," they ought also, and much more anxiously, to recognize their power to rule and judge all small matters arising within the Christian fellowship. What must be their condition if they could not find among themselves an efficient arbitrator? Illustrate by our Lord's advice to his disciples in relation to their disputes.
1 Corinthians 6:9
Inheriting the kingdom.
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" The phrases "kingdom of heaven," "kingdom of God," are familiar enough to the New Testament reader, as synonyms for the new, the Christian dispensation. The apostles seem to use the term for a kingdom which, they conceive, will be set up at Christ's second coming and the "restitution of all things." There is an important sense in which we are to recognize that the "kingdom" is actually now established; but it need not interfere with our cherishing the high hope of a day when that kingdom shall be fully perfected, and in some glorious way declared to be the kingdom of the world become the kingdom of God. The figure contained in he word "inherit" is taken from Israel's long journey through the deserts to the promised land, which was a country to be "inherited." Under careful limitations, the figure may be carried over into Christianity, and the Christian may be spoken of as "seeking a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." We are "heirs of salvation," which is "ready to be revealed in the last time." John Bunyan makes his pilgrim talk persuasively to Pliable, and say, "There is an endless kingdom to be inhabited, and everlasting life to be given us, that we may inhabit that kingdom forever," etc. For gracious moral purposes, for the furtherance of his sanctifying work, God would have us think of the privileges of salvation as both realized now and to be realized more fully by and by. This St. Peter states with the utmost plainness in his Epistle (1 Peter 1:3-6). A present keeping and a present joy are directly associated with the "lively hope" of an "inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and fading not away." Consider, then—
I. THE POWER OF A PROMISED FUTURE. That is, its bearing on the Christian
Hope is one of man's most important moral forces; strong according to the reasonable grounds upon which it rests. A man is never lost until he has lost hope. A man can rise up out of the uttermost disability and distress so long as he can imagine a brighter future, and fix his hope on it. Explain the relation in which "faith" stands to "hope," so that it may give us a sense of the present possession of that we hope for. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Also show the influence of hope as:
1. Producing a restful feeling, a contentment with present circumstances. Illustrate from St. Paul, who could say, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content," but only because he could also say, "There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness."
2. An inspiration to patient and earnest endeavour. Thousands are kept at work by the hope of success. The value and strength of the inspiration depend greatly on the character of the hope. How great, then, must be the inspiration of the Christian hope! and how practically purifying, seeing it is the hope of perfect and everlasting righteousness! "We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."
II. THE INFLUENCE OF A SENSE OF RIGHT TO THE PROMISED FUTURE. That right we have; but it is not of merit or of mere birth, it is wholly by grace, and belongs to our new birth through the Spirit. Still, we have a distinct sense of right; and that we ought to keep and to cherish, recognizing that varying moods of feeling, or conditions of frame, can in no way affect our standing and our rights. "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself;" "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Illustrate by the influence of the sense of right and possession which the husband and wife have in each other. Also by the spirit of noblesse oblige, which gives tone and character to all the sayings and doings of the young heir. Also by the claim to nobility which the Roman felt was laid on him by his Roman rights, in whatever country he might reside. If we have a right of heritage in God's everlasting and holy kingdom, we are under a constant impulsion to "walk worthy of our vocation."—R.T.
1 Corinthians 6:11
Recalling grace received.