2 Corinthians 1

19. Aquila and Priscilla.** With Paul personal considerations were not lost in general philanthropy. It is common enough to be zealous about a cause, about some scheme of social good, and yet to be careless respecting individual welfare. But Paul’s love was from Christ’s own Spirit. It was love to the Church generally, and besides, it was love to Aquila and Priscilla. F. W. R.

22. There should probably be a full stop at “Anathema.” Maranatha, “The Lord cometh,” appears to have been a sort of Christian watchword, having no connection with the word before. Anathema, a curse, is Greek; Maranatha is Hebrew (Aramaic). It would be best to keep the former word in its Greek form, as being more generally ununderstood by us, and to render the latter by, “The Lord cometh.” A.—Anathema. Undoubtedly a curse, and may well awaken deep anxiety. It predicts the deepest misery; it includes absolutely every one who bears no love to Christ, although in the estimation of all he may be blameless. Maranatha. Jesus comes! Thus has the faithful Church exclaimed in joy through centuries, both to the believing and the unbelieving world. The promise of his coming is certain. It is guaranteed by the power, the majesty, the faithfulness of God, who never leaves his promise unfulfilled. His coming is inevitable for individuals and for all, for friends and foes, for time and for eternity. Oh, day of glory, when at last the veil shall be removed, and when the king shall be beheld in his full beauty by all such as love him with a pure heart fervently. But yet, oh, day of consternation and remorse, when all hidden things shall be revealed, all different fates decided, all doing and all leaving undone closed for eternity! Van O.

1. PAUL, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the 2 church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia: grace be to 3 you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all com- 4 fort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which 5 are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as 6 the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is 7 for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are 8 partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. For we would not, breth- ren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out 9 of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: but we had the sen- tence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth 10 the dead: who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that 11 he will yet deliver us; ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed 12 upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf. For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the 13 world, and more abundantly to you-ward. For we write none other things unto you, than 14 what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end; as also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are our’s in the day of the Lord Jesus.

THE style of life that is wanted now, to gain for the ideas and the spirit of our common faith a fair and cordial reception, is a life that flows evermore from the divine spring of a living and personal communion with the Father, and goes to help every brother, and to bless every neighbor; that, while it is hid with Christ in God, walks among men with the tenderness and dignity of the Son of man; that asks no deference for its profession, but professes simply because it can not help telling its trust, owning its gratitude, honoring the Master; that by open and solemn reverence for the times and places of God’s worship obeys the manliest of instincts; that finds an exercise for its Christian principle in all the companies, associations, resorts, employments of the world, and a temple for its praise in every scene of joy; that brings an added grace to all the innocent amenities and hopes of youth, and sets a more splendid crown on the saintly head of age; that sanctifies society and kneels in the closet; and that everywhere bears with it this meek, brave testimony, that “by the grace of God” it has had its conversation in the world. F. D. H.

If the First Epistle to the Corinthians is the most varied and comprehensive of Paul’s letters, the Second is the most personal and impassioned. It is not systematic, argumentative, or expository, though full of matter and of force. Its distinctive merit is that, while everywhere exalting Christ, it shows us the man Paul of Tarsus, the follower of Christ, as he actually was in labors, anxieties, suspense, and suffering, how sensitive and emotional how tender and generous, and yet against false teachers how stern and resolute! It is not at all a treatise or essay constructed on a plan, but a warm outpouring of the apostle’s heart. The letter was written in Macedonia, and very likely in the city of Philippi. D. F.

Paul had left Ephesus, where his First Epistle to the Corinthians had been written, and crossed over into Europe. The news of the effect of his former Epistle had been anxiously looked for by him, and he had sent Titus probably for the purpose of ascertaining it. At Troas, on his way from Ephesus, he had expected to meet Titus (2:13); and, not finding him there, he crossed into Macedonia, where the meeting took place, and the expected tidings were announced to him. The general reception given to his letter had been favorable, but all had not submitted themselves quietly to it. A.—The majority of the Corinthian Church had submitted to the injunctions of Paul, and testified the deepest repentance for the sins into which they had fallen. They had passed sentence of excommunication upon the incestuous person, and they had already contributed toward the collection for the poor Christians of Palestine. But there was still a minority whose opposition seems to have been rather embittered than humbled by the submission which the great body of the Church had thus yielded. They proclaimed in a louder and more contemptuous tone than ever their accusations against the apostle. They charged him with craft in his designs, and with selfish and mercenary motives; accused him of vanity and weakness; declared that he was continually threatening without striking, and promising without performing.

Titus, having delivered to Paul this mixed intelligence of the state of Corinth, was immediately directed to return thither—in company with two deputies specially elected, to take charge of their contribution, by the Macedonian churches (8:18, 22)—in order to continue the business of the collection. Paul made him the bearer of this second letter, which is addressed (still more distinctly than the First Epistle), not to Corinth only, but to all the churches in the whole province of Achaia, including Athens and Cenchrea and other neighboring towns, all of which probably shared more or less in the agitation which so powerfully affected the Christian community at Corinth. The twofold character of this Epistle is easily explained by the existence of the majority and minority which we have described in the Corinthian Church. Toward the former the Epistle overflows with love; toward the latter it abounds with warning and menace. The purpose of the apostle was to encourage and tranquilize the great body of the Church; but, at the same time, he was constrained to maintain his authority against those who persisted in despising the commands of Christ delivered by his mouth. It was needful also that he should notice their false accusations, and that he should vindicate his apostolic character by a statement of facts and a threat of punishment to be inflicted on the contumacious. C.

It was under these circumstances, and with these objects, that he wrote this Epistle, and with a view of breaking the severity which he was apprehensive of being compelled to employ against the rebellious (see 13:10) by, if possible, winning them over before his arrival. Hardly any of the Epistles is so various in character and style and so difficult to enter into and appreciate as this. “Consolation and rebuke, gentleness and severity, earnestness and irony, succeed one another at very short intervals and without notice.” Of all the considerable Epistles in the New Testament, this, at first sight, and on our ordinary impression, contains the least matter of great and universal interest to the Christian Church. But first sight and our ordinary impression give way upon more mature examination. We shall find that—even exclusive of the very important passages which here and there meet us, full of weighty revelations and of comfort for all ages of the Church—in the midst of the personal portions we have continually precious texts of world-wide import occurring.

1. The Epistle opens with the customary greeting, the Apostle associating with himself Timothy, as he had done Sosthenes in the former letter. This mention of Timothy was opportune here, as we learn from 1 Cor. 4:17 that he had been sent to Corinth to “bring them to remembrance of the apostle’s ways in Christ.” These associations of others with himself are never allowed to interfere in the least degree with the individuality of the Epistles in which they occur. A.

3. Blessed be God. There is no mistaking what is the inner spirit of Paul, by watching the ready gushings of his soul, the sentiments that first spring to his tongue when it is set free. On his heart was the image of his King, the King of kings; penetrating all his powers was the spirit of that King, his heart glowed with love, his life was filled with service, and when he spoke his lips were filled with blessing. Father of mercies. The begetter of them, the fountain from which they all spring, Christ the channel in which they all run, flowing here, flowing there, irrigating a parched world like the streams of the East watering its arid plains. Father of mercies; no mercy in the earth of which he is not the Father. It is to be emphasized that it is as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that He is presented to us as the Father of mercies, and also as the God of all comfort. J. D.

4. God had not failed him, but had matched his consolation to his servant’s need with a redundancy which testified its source. Paul offers himself to their confidence, not as a self-cured physician, but as one whom God had first emptied and then filled with the fullness of his own effectual grace. The strength of his language is according to the depth from whence it comes, for he is speaking in the Holy Ghost; in the name of his Almighty Comforter he undertakes what God alone can truly do. Such is the rich fruit of an experimental faith, which out of weakness is made strong, not for himself only, but to bear in willing love the burdens of the weak. Bonar.—Christianity says, Your suffering blesses others; it teaches you sympathy, it gives them firmness and example, and reminds them of their frailty. How high a truth! for here is the law of the cross: “No man dieth to himself,” for his pain and loss is for others, and, unconsciously to himself, brings with it to others joy and gain. F. W. R.

5. Suffering Christians are happy in the rich supplies of spiritual comfort and joy that in times of suffering are usual; so that, as their sufferings for Christ do abound, their consolations in him abound much more, as the apostle testifies. God is speaking most peace to the soul when the world speaks most war and enmity against it; and this compenses abundantly. The world can not but misjudge the state of suffering Christians; it sees, as Bernard speaks, their crosses but not their anointings. L.—As frankincense, when put into the fire, giveth the greater perfume; as spice, if it be beaten, smeleth the sweeter; as the earth, when it is torn up by the plough, becometh more fruitful; the seed in the ground, after frost and snow and winter storms, springeth the ranker; the nigher the vine is pruned to the stock, the greater grape it yieldeth; the grape, when it is most pressed and beaten, maketh the sweetest wine; linen, when it is washed, wrung, and beaten, is so made fairer and whiter; even so the children of God receive great benefit by tribulation; for by it God washeth and cleanseth, schooleth and nurtureth them, that so they may enter into their rest. Cawdray.

6. This is a very profound text. The thought, stripped of the warm and genial language in which the apostle clothes it, and put into modern phraseology, is this: God teaches Christian people through the experience of Christian ministers. If God afflicts flicts one of his ministers, it is that he may instruct many through that single stroke of discipline, and bring lessons for the flock out of the trials of the pastor. If he comforts one of his ministers, it is that the man so comforted “may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith he himself is comforted of God.” According to this view, the doctrine of Christ would come to the people through the experience of one, whose difficulties and trials were their own. And coming to them thus, it would surely come to them with a living power. “For as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.” E. M. G.

7. Of the consolation. God puts us to the school of sorrow here, and gives us the opportunity of “suffering with Christ,” that by the daily crucifixion of our old nature, by the lessons and blessings of outward calamities and change, there may grow up in us a still nobler and purer Divine life; and that we may so be made capable—more capable, and capable of more—of that inheritance for which the only necessary thing is the death of Christ, and the only fitness is faith in his name. A. M.

9. Sentence of death. The shadow of this great death was permitted to come over him, not only to demonstrate the power and faithfulness of God as his deliverer, but for the more effectual destruction of all self-reliant confidence, and a corresponding increase of positive and simple trust in God. Bonar.—There is nothing so hard to force upon the soul as the conviction that life is a real, earnest, awful thing. Only see the butterfly life of pleasure men and women are living day by day, hour by hour, flitting from one enjoyment to another; living, working, spending, and exhausting themselves for nothing else but the seen and temporal and unreal. And yet these are undying souls, with feelings and faculties which death can not rob them of; their chance swiftly passing, and no second chance for ever! F. W. R.

10. Delivered and doth deliver. Salvation, though a work wrought already for eternity, is the daily lesson of a growing faith. He that is our God is a God of salvation, and our changes are ordered for the proving of his many names. Sickness, privation, and trouble of any kind are permitted as occasions of sustaining and delivering love. Grace knows how to deliver even from those snares in which our own folly or carelessness may have entangled our feet.

11. Ye helping us. He disarms their unfriendliness by calling for their help; by making them his intercessors he tries the surest method of rekindling their waning love. And thus the partial estrangement of which he had complained in his former letter, and which lingered still, though in a less degree, would be replaced by a deeper and

12. These words have the charm of life in them. They tell us how a man lived, not in smooth circumstances, in sunny weather, but how he lived when he was beset by many enemies, and girded round about by difficulties and sorrows; how he lived, not in conspicuous places merely, but everywhere, and through and through; how he lived, not for a short time, but always; for, manifestly, he is here giving information as to the settled principles and continuous moral character of his whole life. Here is the kind of life which each one of us should live or endeavor after as his own. A. R.

Our rejoicing. Not that we are to seek in ourselves for joy and peace when suffering under a consciousness of sin; not that we are to seek relief from the burden of guilt in our own virtues or graces; not that we are to look to our own works for justifying righteousness: in all these views of our case, we must rejoice only in the Lord; but, as those who are justified and at peace with God through Christ, we are to do the work of righteousness, which is peace, and enjoy the effect of righteousness, which is quietness and assurance for ever; we are to covet the rejoicing which Paul speaks of as arising from “the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world.” There is the joy of justification and the joy of sanctification: one, the delight of being restored to God’s favor by the work of Christ, and the other the joy of being restored to God’s image by the work of the Spirit. J. A. J.

Testimony of conscience. It was not faultlessness Paul meant by the testimony of conscience, but integrity, moral earnestness in his work; he had been straightforward in his ministry, and his worst enemies could be refuted if they said that he was insincere. F. W. R.—“In simplicity” this man had lived and was living. The word means singleness—singleness of mind, purpose, character, life. The opposite of this is duplicity, doubleness in speech, behavior, heart. Linked with “simplicity” is “godly sincerity,” which perhaps brings in no characteristically different element. For the two are much akin. The word sincerity means, literally, translucence, clearness of mind. Such is the sincerity of a devout soul. It is called “godly sincerity” (literally, “the sincerity of God”), either because it is like his own or because it comes directly from him into the heart and life of its possessor. It is sincerity which comes from God, who thus gives us of his own and makes us partakers of the Divine nature. In making us good, he makes us like himself. By his own holy and sincere spirit he fills us with “godly sincerity.” A. R.—The kind of Christian action and Christian speech wanted for the best exhibition of Christian truth is that where the word and the deed just follow and obey the meaning of the soul; where the feeling or conviction of the truth exactly measures, spaces, and shapes the outward profession; where the disciple holds it an equal infidelity to pretend to more or to less faith than he possesses; where, in fact, the expression is not nicely regulated by a conscious reference to its external effect, as being exemplary, but by a spontaneous and irresistible impulse of a holy purpose in the breast. F. D. H.

But by the grace of God. By its cleansings, its kindlings, its renewings, its growths; by its whole drift and discipline; by its gentle commiserations and unrelenting severities; by its inward strengths drawn immediately from the immortal strength of God, and by its outward leadings and guidings through duties and difficulties and changing days—by this grace of God we live, we have “our conversation in the world.” A. R.

15. And in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before, that ye might have a second benefit; and to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my way toward Judæa. When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay? But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.

20. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now he which stabilisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth. Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.

1. But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness. 2 For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made 3 sorry by me? And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy 4 of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more 5 abundantly unto you. But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in 6 part: that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, 7 which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. 8 Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him. For to this end 9 also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things. 10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave 11 it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage 12 of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. Furthermore, when I came to Troas to 13 preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia. 14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh 15 manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet 16 savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is suf- 17 ficient for these things? For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

THE same message comes to us all, offering us the same terms. Christ stands before each of us in the same attitude. And what is the consequence? A parting of the whole mass of us, some on one side and some on the other. “I, if I be lifted up,” said He, “will draw all men unto me.” The attractive power will go out over the whole race of his brethren; but in some hearts there will be no yielding to the attrac- tion. Some will remain rooted, obstinate, steadfast in their place; and to some the lightest word will be mighty enough to stir all the slumbering pulses of their sin-ridden hearts, and to bring them, broken and penitent, for mercy to his feet. To the one He is “a savour of life unto life, and to the other a savour of death unto death.” The broadest doctrine of the universal adaptation, and the universal intention too of the gospel as the “power of God unto salvation,” contains hidden in its depths this undeniable fact, that, be the cause what it may (and I believe the cause lies with us), this separating, judging effect follows from all faithful preaching of Christ’s words. He came to judge the world, “that they which see not (as he himself said) might see, and they which see might be made blind.” And on the cross that process went on in two men, alike in necessity, alike in criminality, alike in this, that death’s icy finger was just being laid upon their heart, to stop all the flow of its wild blood and passion, but different in this, that the one of them turned himself, by God’s grace, and laid hold on the gospel that was offered to him, and the other turned himself away, and derided, and died. A. M.

15-19. Paul had intended to come to Corinth somewhat before the time when he was writing, and he had let the Corinthians know of his intention; but for reasons of sufficient weight he changed his inten- tion, and so his opponents accused him of lightness, and with saying yea one day and nay another. He replies that the Son of God, the object of all his preaching, and, therefore, at once the orderer and the pattern of all his steps, was incapable of any- thing like vacillation. An unchangeable purpose could be read in the life and character of the Lord, and that purpose was the fulfillment of the promises of God—a fulfillment which God himself was ever working out in all Christians by the power of the Spirit, whereby we are all sealed as his. Paul could not be capricious because his Lord and Master could not, and because that Lord and Master had sent his Spirit into the hearts of his disciples to be their guide and strength.

20. The promises are yea. We doubt whether these promises have strength as well as truth, and whether they are not mocking voices call- ing us over mountains which we can never climb. And still to us there is the same answer, and that answer is the life of Christ. To every doubt about our duty, and about our Father’s love, and about our own hope of reaching him, the life of Christ for ever answers “Yea,” and for ever, “Amen.” Yea, they are the promises of God; yea, they are certain to be fulfilled; yea, you shall have strength to share in their fulfillment. You may trust them when they call; you may follow them where they lead; you may hold by them in the darkness; you may call upon their aid when you are defeated: for to all of them the life of Christ, the love and holiness that speak in his life and death, for ever say “Yea,” and for ever, “Amen.” This is the fixed purpose of Christ, to fulfill the promises of God; and so the servants of Christ will reflect in their lives the same fixed purpose, which shall grow with their growth, and increase with their strength, and give steadiness to their youth, and energy to their manhood, and fire to their old age. For how can he vacillate or change who has the deep purpose of his life at once called into activity, and upheld with unchanging firmness, by the knowledge of the power of Christ? F. T.

21. Christ, says Paul, was true; and God has established us in Christ. Therefore, fickleness, duplicity, or deceit is impossible to us. Observe, too, that he does not assert his truth because of his apostleship, but because of his Christianity; for he associates the Corinthians with himself—“us with you.”

23. To spare you.** Had Paul gone to Corinth while they were unrepentant, his apostolic duty would have required from him severe animadversion. Now, it was to spare them this that he changed his intention. It was no caprice, no fickleness, it was simply tenderness to them.

24. The mere priest wishes to save men by his own official powers and prerogatives, while the minister wishes to help them to save themselves. See how exactly this verse expresses the distinction between these two spirits: “Dominion over your faith”; there is the very spirit of the priest. “Helpers of your joy”; there is the spirit of the minister—a desire, not to be a ruler, but a helper; not that he shall hold men up, but that they shall “stand.” Whenever you find a man anxious and striving to make men independent of himself, yea, independent of all men; desiring to help them, not to rest on his authority, but to stand on their own faith, that they may be elevated, instructed, and educated; there you have the Christian minister, the servant, the “helper of your joy.”

3. He distinctly says, he had written to pain them, in order that he might have joy. Very selfish, as at first it sounds; but if we look closely into it, it only sheds a brighter and fresher light upon the exquisite unselfishness and delicacy of Paul’s character. He desired to save himself pain, because it gave them pain. He desired joy for himself, because his joy was theirs. He will not separate himself from them for a moment: it is not I and you, but we; “my joy is your joy, as your grief was my grief.” And so knit together are we beloved—minister and congregation! F. W. R.

4. Paul spake with tears; nor is it easy to withhold such expressions of grief when a man reposes in the bosom of a church, bearing simply the name of Christian; a stranger to its feelings, to its plans, and to its spiritual peace; a man whose power is felt in the political and commercial world always; in the religious world—never. A. B.

5. One of those cases where the delicacy of the apostle’s blame has been obliterated by the translators. What he says is this, that the offender has not wronged him, but in a measure (he will not say this without qualification, lest he bear too hardly on him) all of them—the whole Corinthian Church. This meaning would be expressed thus: “But, if any hath caused sorrow, he hath not caused sorrow to me, but in part (that I press not too heavily) to you all.” A.

6-11. The main defense of the apostle against the charge of fickleness in the non-fulfillment of his promise was, that he had abstained from going to Corinth in order to spare them the sharp rebuke he must have administered had he gone thither. A great crime had been committed; the Church had been compromised, more especially as some of the Corinthians had defended the iniquity on the ground of liberty, and Paul had staid away after giving his advice, that not he, but they themselves, might do the work of punishment. He gave sentence—that the wicked person should be put away, but he wished them to execute the sentence. For it was a matter of greater importance to Paul that the Corinthians should feel rightly the necessity of punishment than merely that the offender should be punished. It was not to vindicate his authority that he wrote, but that they should feel the authority of right; and the Corinthians obeyed. They excommunicated the incestuous person; for the Epistle of the apostle stirred up their languid consciences into active exercise. Accordingly he applauds their conduct, and recommends them now to forgive the offender whom they had punished. The forgiveness of man is an echo and an earnest of God’s forgiveness. Even the mercifulness of one good man sounds like a voice of pardon from heaven. The man whom society will not forgive nor restore is driven into recklessness. This is the true Christian doctrine of absolution, as here expounded by the apostle. The degrading power of severity, the restoring power of pardon is vested in the Christian community.

12,13. Paul gives an additional proof that it was not forgetfulness of them which had made him change his mind: this proof was his unrest at Troas. While there one subject engrossed all his thoughts, the state of Corinth; and the question, What would be the result of the letter he had sent? At Troas he expected to meet Titus, who was bearing the reply; but, not finding him there, he could not rest, he could not take full comfort even from “the door which had been opened” for success. He left his work half finished, and he hastened into Macedonia to meet Titus. His argument therefore is, Did this look like forgetfulness? Did this make it probable that he “had used lightness or purposed according to the flesh”? Or did it show that he was absent unwillingly, putting force on himself, like a wise parent who refuses to see his child, though his heart is all the while bleeding at what he inflicts? This is the connection between the 12th and 13th verses. F. W. R.

14. Triumph in Christ.** The words mean to lead captive in a triumph over the enemies of Christ. The metaphor is taken from the triumphal procession of a victorious general. God is celebrating his triumph over his enemies; Paul (who had been so great an opponent of the gospel) is a captive following in the train of the triumphal procession, yet (at the same time, by a characteristic change of metaphor) an incense-bearer, scattering incense (which was always done on these occasions) as the procession moves on. Some of the conquered enemies were put to death when the procession reached the Capitol. To them the smell of the incense was a savor of death unto death; to the rest who were spared, a savor of life unto life. The metaphor appears to have been a favorite one with Paul; it occurs again Col. 2:15. C.

14-16. How finely characteristic of this apostle is the sudden rising out of his own distress into exultation over the gospel and the preciousness of Christ! Even that journey which Paul took in such depression of spirit was a triumphal march for the gospel, and spread a fragrant “savor of Christ,” like the incense in the public procession of ancient conquerors. Sweet and life-giving was that savor to believers; unwelcome and so deadly to unbelievers. Thus the apostolic preacher felt himself to be lifted above the common range of things. He was on a mission of life or death in every place; and, far from viewing this as a function easily fulfilled, wondered and trembled at the charge—“And who is sufficient for these things?” D. F.

16. God’s word has two edges; it can cut back-stroke and fore-stroke. If it do thee no good, it will do thee hurt; it is the savor of life unto life to those that receive it, but of death unto death to them that refuse it. Bun.—There is no more waste in preaching than there has been in making an atonement which is not received. The precious seed which, Sabbath after Sabbath, is thrown out upon the moral desert, which resists and sets at naught all the diligence of the husbandman, is not lost. It will bring forth fruit—the broad field, upon which at last shall be gathered the sublime, and awful, and mysterious, and stirring magnificence of the end, is white unto the harvest. Every grain is there giving produce; every particle of gospel truth springs up and waves on that awful field. E. M.—To all, God’s universal love is ready to impart life, and earnestly that love desires that all should be helped through the preached word; but, nevertheless, those who refuse the love which speaks to them may not escape the power of God. Those who refuse to believe the word must stumble at it. They hinder, indeed, through their resisting obstinacy, the sanctifying of God within them, for He will drive no man to conversion; but the sanctifying of God on them they can not hinder. Because they do not choose to be softened and enlightened unto eternal life through his word, it has upon them a hardening operation unto death. Besser.

Who is sufficient? Our mission is to unfold the mysteries of God’s word, to preach Christ, and to save souls from death. Waving the smoking censer, we stand between the living and the dead, between hell and heaven, seeking to intercept the downward progress of sinners to the one, and allure them up to the other. Every sermon we deliver tells upon the changeless destiny of those who listen to us. Eyes that gaze up into ours while we proclaim to them the salvation of Christ will soon see the Judge of all the earth. Who, then, is sufficient for a work so great, for responsibilities so overwhelming, save he who is filled with the Spirit? In vain our talents, our learning, our eloquence, our carefully prepared and gracefully delivered discourses—all, all will be fruitless without the unction and power of the Holy Ghost. Winslow.—Carry your poor inadequate resources to Christ! In his hands they become sufficient. He multiplies them. He gives wisdom, strength, all that fits for the task to which he calls us. Bring your little faith to him; he will increase it. Bring your feeble love to him and ask him to kindle it from the pure flame of his own, and he will make your heart burn within you. Bring your partial understanding of his will and way to him, and he will be to you wisdom. Bring all the poverty of your natures, all the insufficiency of your religious character, all the inadequacy of your poor work to your Lord. Feel it all. Let the conviction of your nothingness sink into your soul. Then wait before him in simple faith, in lowly obedience, and power will come to you equal to your desire and to your duties, and he will put his Spirit upon you, and will anoint you to proclaim liberty to the captives and to give bread to all the hungry. “Who is sufficient for these things” must ever precede, and will ever be followed by, “our sufficiency is of God.” A. M.

17. Truth would be to some “the savor of death unto death”; for there can be no doubt that the

faithful preaching of the gospel sometimes kills. And yet is this gospel which destroys a sweet and acceptable savor to God even in them that perish. An awful truth! The gospel preached in fidelity ruins human souls. A “banquet”!—oh! know ye

what ye say? It is sometimes death to hear it! And yet we must not dilute it. How the apostle rejoiced in that day that he had been uncompromising, and firm, and true! “not dealing deceitfully with the Word of God.” F. W. R.