LECTURE XLI.

November 14, 1852.

2 CORINTHIANS, iv. 1-15.-" Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;-But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.-For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.-For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.-But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;-Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;-Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.-For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.-So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;-Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God."

THE first two verses of this chapter contain the principles of the Christian ministry: they embrace its motives-a sense of mercy and a sense of hope: they declare its straightforwardness, its scorn of craft and secrecy, its rejection of pious frauds and adroit casuistry; and they show that its influence is moral, and not official. Hence

it becomes clear that its indirect was more sure than its direct influence.

Now the connection of these two verses with the third is through the word "every." For a reply suggested itself to St. Paul's mind from some objector: "Every man's conscience has not acknowledged the truth of the message, nor the heavenly sincerity of the messengers." To which the Apostle answers, The exceptions do not weaken the truth of the general assertion: to every man whose heart is in a healthy state-to all but the blinded-the Gospel is God's light; and those to whom it is not Light are themselves dark, for the obscurity is in themselves, and not in the truth. And then, having replied to this objection, St. Paul proceeds with the same subject— the Apostolic Ministry. He represents it under two main aspects:

I. As a Ministry of Light.

II. As a reflection, in word and experience, of the Life of Christ.

I. Let us glance at the fourth and sixth verses: "the light of the glorious Gospel :" "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Compare with this what St. John says in the opening chapter of his Gospel: "The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” Nothing could be more different than the minds of St. Paul and St. John; and yet how remarkably they coincide in this thought-they both call Revelation, "Light!" According to St. John, to live in sin was to live in darkness; it

was a false life—a life of lies—in which a man was untrue to his own nature. According to St. Paul, it was to live in blindness" blinded by the god of this world." But both Apostles concur in representing Revelation as simply the unveiling of the truth: the manifestation of things as they are. This is strikingly shown in St. Paul's metaphor: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." As on the darkness of the physical world light rose at the Eternal "Be," and all things appeared as they were, not a creation, but a manifestation-and yet, in truth, a real creation (as but for light, this world were as if it were not, since it is what it is in consequence of light): so, on the moral darkness of a world in sin and ignorance, the light of revealed truth showed things as they are, and exhibited them in their true relative proportions. That revelation created, indeed, a new world, which yet was not a creation of things that had not existed before for the Gospel did not make God our Father; it revealed what He had ever been, is, and ever shall be; it disclosed Him, not as a tyrant, but as a Father: not as a chance, or a fate; not as a necessary thing, but as a Person; and in the Life of Christ the Love of God has become intelligible to us. The Gospel threw light on God: light unknown before, even to the holiest hearts among the Jews."Clouds and darkness are the habitation of His seat," spoke the Old Testament: "God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all," declared the New. For, out of Christ, our God is only a dark, dim, and dreadful mystery. There is only an awful silence, which is never

broken by an articulate voice. But all is brightness in the Redeemer's life and death.

The Gospel threw light, too, upon man's own nature. Man—a dark enigma, a contradiction to himself, with godlike aspirations and animal cravings-asks his own heart in terror, "Am I a god or beast?" And the Gospel answers: "You are a glorious temple in ruins, to be rebuilt into a habitation of God and the Spirit, your soul to be the home of the High and Holy One, your body to be the temple of the Holy Ghost." It threw light upon the grave; for "life and immortality " were "brought to light through the Gospel." The darkness of the tomb was irradiated; and the things of that undiscovered land shone clear and tranquil then to the eye of faith: but not until then, for before immortality was but a mournful perhaps. Now there are three practical deductions from this view of Truth.

1. As to ministerial conduct. Our life is to be a manifestation of the Gospel. Observe St. Paul's argument:We do not tamper with the Word of God. It is not concealed or darkened by us; for our very work is to spread light, to throw sunshine on every side, and in every way fearlessly to declare the truth, to dread no consequences for no real minister of Christ can be afraid of illumination.

2. Light is given to us that we may spread it. "We preach ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God hath shined in our hearts." If he has illuminated us, then we are your servants, to give you this illumination. We should be as "a city set on a hill;" as the salt which penetrates and purifies the earth: "Ye

are the light of the world." This St. Paul felt vividly: St. Paul, who had himself been in darkness; and shall we refuse to feel it? we, who have had ages of light, which St. Paul had not? Our more open heaven seems to shut us out from feeling this. Perhaps we, who have been, or fancy ourselves to have been, in the brightness of his revelation all our lives, scarcely appreciate the necessity which he felt so strongly of communicating it.

3. It is the evil heart which hides the truth. Light shines on all, that is, all who are in a natural human state, all who can feel, all who have not deadened the spiritual sense. It is not the false life which can know the truth, but the true life receives what is akin to it; for "every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."

Thus observe what are "the evidences of Christianity." "The evidences of Christianity" are-Christianity. The evidence of the sun is its light, and not the shadow on the dial. So Christ is divine to those who are of the truth. To some persons He is not the image of God. How will you prove to such that He is? Is it by arguing about miracles and prophecy? Is it by discussion about the true reading of texts, or by requiring belief on the authority of the Church? No. It is by means of a right heart: it is by means of God's Spirit ruling in the heart. These, and these alone, will disclose Christ to a man; for "no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost; " and again: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God," and for this reason-"they are spiritually discerned."

Again, it is the worldly heart which hides the truth. "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them