for the weakness of his spirit, and the faint desire of good which was in him was slain. And yet is this Gospel which destroys a sweet and acceptable savour 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." Even had the Corinthians perished, he must have rejoiced that their blood was not on his head. II. The nature of true Christian work.

The work of the Apostle Paul is contained in the 2nd verse: "Ye are our Epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men." But let us explain the meaning of this phrase and its connection. The close of the 2nd chapter looked like boasting-it seemed like a recommendation of himself. Now, in these verses, he is replying to the possible charge. He declares that he wanted no commendation to them, no praise, no recommendatory letters; and in this he was alluding to the ἐπιστολαί συστατικαὶ of the early church. A great Christian brotherhood was the Church of Christ; and if a Christian of Corinth travelled to Rome or Galatia, he received from the bishop or congregation letters of recommendation, and was at home at once among friends. Now such a letter St. Paul says, he did not need. Nor need any boasting be his, nor praise from himself or others; his works were too well known. What then were St. Paul's works? What were St. Paul's Epistles? You will answer at once, These which we hold in our hands. "No!" replies the Apostle. The Epistles of St. Paul were not those which were written then on parchment, or printed since in ink, but those which were written by God as truth on human hearts: "Ye are our Epistle."

Now first: Observe the remarkable expression of the Apostle his letter! He was writing on men's hearts; and

:

each man here is writing something; and his writing lasts for ever. Pilate uttered a deeper truth than he thought, when he said, “What I have written, I have written." For deeds are permanent and irrevocable: that which you have written on life is for ever. You cannot rub, blot, or scratch it out: there it is for ever; your Epistle to the world and to the everlasting ages, for all eternity palpably what you are, to be "known and read of all men." This it is which makes life so all-important. Oh! then, take care what you write, for you can never unwrite it again.

Secondly: The best of all Epistles is that which a man writes and engraves on human spirits, "not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." What then? A man's "works"—what are they? That which makes him "immortal," as we say. But what is that immortality? Well, the Pyramids were cut in tables of stone, and the monuments of Assyria are more enduring than brass, and yet they will wear out. There are works which will outlast even these-written not in rock, but in ink; noble works of the Gifted and the Pure and True. There is the Bible--and St. Paul's Epistles as part of it. But there is something which will outlast the Pyramids and the Bible: a human soul, and the work for good or evil done upon it. This is the true Christian work; it is the highest: and yet not only that which an Apostle could do, but that which all may do. And think how many do it! The mother, the teacher, the governess, the tutor-not ministers and Apostles only-are doing it. Men, my Brothers, your truest, your best work, almost your sole work, is in that which lasts for ever.

Thirdly: It is fitting to distinguish between the scribe, or amanuensis, and the real author of this spiritual Epistle, written on men's hearts. St. Paul's language might have seemed a ground of boasting: had he not written that which was to last? But he makes this distinction, that it was the Epistle of Christ,

ministered by him. The Spirit of Christ-He was the author of the work, and St. Paul was but the amanuensis. Suppose, for example, that the poor scribe, who wrote one of these Epistles at St. Paul's dictation, had prided himself upon it, because it was written by his pen. Yet that were not so foolish as if some poor miserable minister or teacher, rejoicing over his success, were to misdeem the work his own.

The amanuensis ?-the man? No! It is the Spirit of the living God which does the work on human hearts.

THE

LECTURE XL.

2 CORINTHIANS, iii. 4-18.

HE 3rd chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, is one long digression, and arose out of the necessity of explaining the apparent self-sufficiency and boasting of the 17th verse of the 2nd chapter; so it is not till the beginning of the 4th chapter that the subject of the 2nd is taken up again.

The beginning of the 3rd chapter seems but a reiteration of this boasting, for St. Paul appeals to his work in proof of his ministry. True Christian work, according to him, was something written on human souls. Men--the hearts and spirits which he had trained—these were his Epistles to the nations; so that, if the world wanted to know what St. Paul meant to say, he replied-"Look at the Corinthian Church; that is what I have to say: their lives are my writings." The first three verses then, are only a re-statement of his vaunt. But then, he explains: The Corinthians are our Epistle, yet not ours, but rather Christ's. Christ is the Author, I am but the scribe. Not I, but the Spirit of the living God, made them what they are. I have only been the minister.

Hence he infers that there was no vanity in his assertion, though it looked like a boast. For the trust he had was not in himself the writer-but in Christ, the Spirit, the Author of the work: "Such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God: Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament." Then it is that from these words, "able ministers," he breaks off into a digression,

which occupies all the chapter, and is descriptive of the Christian ministry in contradistinction to the Jewish.

Our subject now is the principle of the Christian ministry; that is, the exposition and application of the Word of God. There are two modes in which this is done :

I. That of the Letter.

II. That of the Spirit.

Or-to use more modern equivalents-we distinguish between the formal ministry and the spiritual one,-between the teaching of the Old Testament and that of the New.

Let us make, however, one preliminary remark: Ours is an exposition; and therefore we take the subject broadly. Our object is rather to get a comprehensive view of the Apostle's argument, than to pursue it into every particular. Each separate sentence might be the text of a rich sermon ; but omitting detail, will confine ourselves to the main scope of the chapter; that is to the contrast we have spoken of above:—

we

I. The ministry of the Letter.

The ministry of Moses was one of the Letter; it was a formal ministry-a ministry of the Old Testament: for a formal ministry, a ministry of the letter, and a ministry of the Old Testament, have all the same meaning. It was the business of Moses to teach maxims, and not principles; rules for ceremonial, and not a spirit of life. And these thingsrules, ceremonials, maxims, law-are what the Apostle calls here the "letter." Thus, for instance, Truth is a principle, springing out of an inward life; but Moses only gave the rule: "Thou shall not forswear thyself." It is impossible not to see how plainly inadequate this rule is to all that truth requires; for he who scarcely avoided perjury may have kept nevertheless, to the letter of the law! Again: Love is a principle; but Moses said simply, "Thou shalt not kill, nor steal, nor injure." Again: Meekness and subduedness before God-these are of the Spirit; but Moses merely commanded fasts. And further: