LECTURE VIII.

November 9, 1851.

1 CORINTHIANS, iii. 11-23.—“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.-Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;-Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.—If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.-If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?—If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.—And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.— Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours ;-And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's."

As the last time we treated of the first ten verses of this chapter, to-day we shall go on to the end, merely recapitulating, beforehand, the leading subjects we were then led to enlarge upon; which were, first-St. Paul's treatment of the Corinthian Church when it was in a state of schism, broken up into parties, one party following Apollos, attracted by his eloquence; another, St. Paul, attracted by his doctrine of Christian liberty; another, St. Peter, whom they looked on as the champion of the Judaistic tendency; while another called themselves by the name of Christ. And the schism which thus prevailed was no light matter,

for it was not only a proof of carnal views, but it amounted also to a denial of Christianity. For men emancipated by Christ, and given direct access to God, to return again to an allegiance to men, and dependence upon them, was voluntarily to forfeit all Christian privileges. It is very interesting to observe the difference in St. Paul's treatment of the Corinthian Church from his treatment of other Churches. He says to them: "I have fed you with milk; for hitherto ye were not able to bear meat, neither yet now are ye able." There is a remarkable difference between this Epistle to the Corinthians and that to the Ephesians. It is not in the former that we find the Apostle speaking of the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge; nor do we there find him speaking of the beauty and necessity of self-sacrifice. These were subjects too high for them as yet, but instead we find him dealing almost entirely with the hard, stern duties and commandments of every-day life.

St. Paul's twofold method of dealing with the Corinthian Church in their state of faction was,

1. Through an economic reserve of Truth.

By which we understood that first principles only were distributed to feeble minds, to men who were incapable of the Higher Life: that they were fed with these, in the same way as children, incapable of receiving meat, are nourished with milk.

2. The depreciation of the Human, through the reduction of ministers to their true position; by pointing out that they were only labourers, servants in God's world, only a part of the curious clock work of this world of His. Thus each would be a part of one great Whole, each would be

called upon to work, as essential to this, but not to exhibit his own idea; each would best preserve his own individuality, when most acting as a fellow-worker with God.

Now observe! Here was a true notion of Christian unity as opposed to schism. "He that planteth and he that watereth are one." This is the idea I have so often given you-unity in variety. St. Paul did not say, You are wrong, you ought to be all of one way of thinking. No: he said rather, There is one truth, the ritualistic truth, in St. Peter's and St. James's mind. There is another, the truth of Christian Liberty, which I teach you. There is another, the truth of grace and beauty, in Apollos. And all together build up a Church. And he made use of two metaphors, drawn from agriculture and architecture. How foolish it would be to dispute about the respective merits of planting and watering! Could there be a harvest without either? How foolish to talk of the superiority of capital over labour, or labour over capital! Could anything be done without both? Again, who would dream in architecture of a discussion about the comparative importance of the foundation and the superstructure? Are not both necessary to each other's perfection? And so to dispute whether the Gospel according to St. Paul or St. James, is the right Gospel, to call the latter "Straminea Epistola," is to neglect the majestic entireness and the unity of the truth of God. Observe, St. Paul did not say, as many now would say, You must attain unity by giving up your own views, and each one holding the same. He did not say, Mine are right, and the followers of Apollos and Peter must follow me; but he said that, whatever became

of their particular views, they were to rejoice in this—not that they were Christians of a particular kind, but that they had a common Christianity. There was, and could be, but One Foundation, and he who worked, whether as builder or architect, on this, was one with all the rest. The chapter concludes with

I. An address to ministers.

II. To congregations.

I. To ministers. "Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." First, then, ministers are to preach as the foundation-Christ.

Now, let us protest against all party uses of this expression. The preaching of Christ means simply, the preaching of Christ. Recollect what Paul's own Christianity was: a few facts respecting his Redeemer's life, a few of his Master's precepts, such as, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," out of which he educed all Christian principles, and on which he built all that noble superstructure -his Epistles. Remember how he sums all up: "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto his death." His Life, Death, and Resurrection, working daily in us, "being made manifest in our body." And again, "Ever bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." Settle it in your hearts: Christianity is Christ; understand Him, breathe His spirit, comprehend His mind: Christianity is a Life, a Spirit. Let self die with Christ, and with Him rise to a life of holiness: and then, whether you are a minister or ministered to, you

need not care what discussions may arise, nor how men may dispute your Christianity, or deny your share in the Gospel; you stand upon a rock.

Next, on this foundation we are to build the superstructure. Christianity is a few living pregnant principles, and on these you may construct various buildings. Thus in doctrine you may erect on this Calvinism, or Arminianism; or in ecclesiastical polity, you may build on this a severe, simple worship, or a highly ritual one, or an imaginative one with a splendid cultus; or in life, you may live on this devotionally or actively, you may pursue the life of the hermit of the third century, or of the Christian merchant of the nineteenth. For Christianity is capable of endless application to different circumstances, ages, and intellects.

Now, in the words of this twelfth verse, observe that there are not six kinds of superstructure, but two: gold, silver, and precious stones, which are the materials of the temple; wood, hay, and stubble, with which a cottage is erected; but in these buildings the materials of each are of various degrees of excellence, and in the latter, good, bad, and indifferent. Now, what do these symbolize? As I said before, perhaps doctrines or systems; but more probably they are to make us recollect that the Church is made up of persons of different kinds of character built up by different ministers. Some of straw, utterly worthless; some of silver, sound, good, but not brilliant men; some of gold, characters in which there seems nothing of base alloy, true to the very centre; some of precious stones, men in whom gifts are so richly mingled with useful qualities, that they are as jewels in the