II.IT IS REVEALED INWARDLY BY THE SPIRIT (vers. 10-13).

III.IT IS UNDERSTOOD ONLY BY THE SPIRITUAL MAN (ver. 14-3:4).

(Principal Edwards.)

I. "THE WISDOM OF GOD." Wisdom is knowledge directed to practical ends through the most effectual means. The moral systems of Greece ill deserved that appellation. They were imaginative; they fed the appetite for speculation, but fell with no power upon conscience or conduct. But in the gospel "the wisdom of Godis displayed in efficient and wondrous arrangements to enlighten and save a fallen world.

1. It affords infallible instruction in all necessary truth. All true knowledge properly comes from God. Even art and science were probably first suggested to the mind by God, but secretly and without any mark of distinction. It is conceivable that much of Bible truth might have been thus secretly suggested, and have been published only as the results of the human investigation. Beyond their own rational evidence none of these truths, however, would have had, in this case, a greater than human authority. They would have been but matters of opinion still. The disadvantage of the most enlightened paganism was, that what of the wisdom of God was in it was not known to be from God. When they met with truth they met also with error; and both appeared to rest upon equal authority, and each was held with equal unsteadfastness and doubt. What was wanting was truth in a revealed form. "The wisdom of God" has supplied that desideratum. Whilst human teachers remained in the human court darkly investigating what might be hidden within that veil, the "Teacher sent from God" rent that veil, and He who dwelt between the cherubim "shone forth." Whilst they were gazing upon every dark form of error which flitted before them like the clouds of night, He came forth, and cried, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me," &c.; and the credentials He bore were equal to this high declaration.

2. It is a Divine contrivance to administer pardon to the guilty. This is peculiar to the gospel. The question, "What must I do to be saved?" has been sighed from many a breast, but has obtained no answer except from Christianity.

3. It is an efficient scheme for promoting personal and universal happiness. Man is miserable, and cannot be otherwise. Between sin and misery there is a necessary connection. Many experiments have been tried to build up happy and peaceful societies, but all have failed. Christianity would not have been "wisdom" had it not provided for man's happiness; and it could only provide for it by effecting his regeneration. When this takes place the heart is at rest; "the fruits of the Spirit" spring forth from the renewed soil; then man lives to help and bless his fellows.

II. "THE WISDOM OF GOD IN A MYSTERY." The apostle here probably alludes to the mysteries of Paganism. The priesthood in many places pretended to be in possession of a higher and purer doctrine which they kept from the vulgar, under the plea that they were too base and impure to be entrusted with it. It was, therefore, "hidden wisdom." But it was occasionally communicated to distinguished persons. The "initiated" had, however, to undergo severe penances; scenic symbolic representations in caverns, and in the night, were the means adopted for unfolding the secret; and these, and other ceremonies, were employed to inspire greater awe and to enforce secrecy. Probably this secret doctrine contained some of the ancient and purer theology, but mingled with fables. The apostle supposes —

1. Points of resemblance; but even the resemblances are implied contrasts such as exist between the sun and a fire, which at once calls our thoughts from what is common to both, to the contrast exhibited between a darkened blaze and an unsullied light.(1) Christianity was connected with .symbolic representations running through the previous ages, of which it was at once the accomplishment and the exposition; and it retained some figurative rites of its own — e.g., Baptism, the Eucharist, and the Sabbath.(2) It, too, is hidden from the profane, and those who receive it must be prepared by a previous discipline. But its discipline is not some foolish bodily austerity or onerous ceremonies, it is the discipline of humility and prayer. For "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him," and to them "He shows His covenant."(3) It also produces deep impressions of awe and reverence upon those who are admitted, to it. Religion has an awful grandeur, but nowhere is it displayed so impressively as in the gospel.

2. Points of direct contrast.(1) The mysteries of Paganism were, for the most part, by artifice; those of Christianity by nature and necessity. The bottom of this ocean is not discovered, not because the waters are muddy, but because they are deep.(2) In the Pagan mysteries plain truths were often hidden in doubtful enigmas; in Christianity nothing is mysterious but what is so by the appointment of Him who hides that from us which is unfit for us to know, or from the necessary magnitude of the objects.(3) The impression produced upon the initiated was the result greatly of trick, and brought the spirit of man into bondage and disquieting superstition. But "the mysteries of godliness" at once humble and exalt; and whilst they inspire fear, elevate, strengthen, and sanctify.(4) In the mysteries of Paganism, whatever wisdom was "hidden" was for the few; that of Christianity, for all. From the former the poor were systematically excluded. The poor find mercy in the gospel, but nowhere else.

III. THIS "WISDOM OF GOD IN A MYSTERY" WAS "ORDAINED BEFORE THE WORLD TO GLORY."

1. Christianity was ordained "before the world." We hear sometimes of its invention by man. We acknowledge that things invented have been added by human authority. But these are no parts of the system itself; and we may ask, When was that invented? And what human mind first devised its leading fundamental principles? — that man is a fallen being who can be saved only through the merits of a Divine sacrifice.

2. It was ordained as a perfect and efficient plan for human recovery.

(R. Watson.)

II. THE PECULIAR DESCRIPTION which the apostle in the text further gives of it.

1. "The wisdom of God in a mystery." By this, questionless, the apostle primarily intended to intimate that in speaking, or in ministerially publishing the wisdom of God, or the plan of human salvation in the mode of its accomplishment, in which the wisdom of God has its highest illustration, he proclaimed that which, in itself, is mysterious or incomprehensible. And is it not so? But though there is here that which is mysterious, that which is incomprehensible, there is nothing that is incredible. To refuse the plan of human salvation a place in our creed, because the mode of its accomplishment transcends our comprehension, we must, in order to be consistent, disbelieve whatever we cannot fully understand or explain. And in what tremendous and hopeless scepticism would this involve us! For what is there that is not to us replete with mystery?

2. But though the apostle may have referred to what is strictly mysterious in the plan of human salvation when he said, "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery," yet, from what immediately follows, it would appear that he meant to be understood as referring, not so much to the essential incomprehensibility of that plan, as to its previous secrecy. The plan of human salvation was before a mystery, a secret; but in consequence of the commencement of the Christian era, it is now made known: hence, "We speak— I and my fellow-apostles" speak— publish, proclaim, the once "hidden wisdom." His meaning is, that, compared with the revelation of it now made, all former revelations of it were imperfect. Though adapted to be spiritually and morally useful, yet every former revelation was not only partial, but oftentimes obscure. In this latter revelation, however, there was no darkness; it was clear, intelligible, satisfactory. But the apostle refers, not merely to the complete discovery now made of the plan of human salvation compared with the former partial and defective revelations of it, but also to its benevolent, its philanthropic character, when he says, "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom." The plan of human salvation was primarily revealed to the progenitor of the human race as their representative; but subsequently this revelation was made only to a portion of his descendants. The rest of mankind needed it, as well as these favoured ones; but from all without the pale of their privileged community it was withheld, and long withheld — so long, that to this latter class it seemed its revelation was never to be made. Until the commencement of this era the calling of the Gentiles to be partakers with the Jews of the blessings of salvation was a "mystery," a secret; but no sooner did this era commence than the original benevolent and philanthropic character of the plan of human salvation was made manifest. Widely was the revelation of this plan spread during the apostolic age; widely has it been spread since; but still it is far, very far from being universally spread.

III. THE SOURCE WHENCE IT ORIGINATED, THE ANTIQUITY OF ITS DEVICE, AND THE GRANDEUR OF THE OBJECT OF ITS REVELATION.

1. Its source was God. "We speak the wisdom of God"; that in which "the wisdom of God" was illustriously displayed we publish — even the plan of human salvation "which God ordained"; that is, which God decreed, and having decreed, revealed as His own contrivance. And is not this what the plan of human salvation is? Could it have any other origin than that to which it is here traced? Does not that about it which exceeds all description and transcends all conception prove that its contrivance not only was, but must have been Divine?

2. The antiquity of its device. "We speak the wisdom of God— the plan of human salvation "which God ordained before the world, that is, before the creation of the world; and if before the creation of the world, before the beginning of time; and if before the beginning of time, from eternity. And is not the plan of human salvation thus ancient? "Known unto God," it is said, "are all His works from the beginning f the world"; language which, whilst it undeniably imports antecedent arrangement, as undeniably implies that that arrangement was, on the part of God, eternal. And if, in reference to all His other works, the date of God's plans must be fixed in eternity, what other date can be reasonably assigned to His plan of human salvation? What admiration, what gratitude, what confidence is this fitted to excite in our breast!

3. The grandeur of the object of its revelation. "We speak the wisdom of God, which God ordained before the world, unto our glory." In devising the plan of human salvation, God sought His own glory; and in the accomplishment of that plan His glory has been secured. But though in devising that plan God chiefly sought His own glory, yet He sought ours also; even our spiritual, moral, and eternal benefit, which constitutes our glory. Indeed, the device of that plan would have failed in its object had not its accomplishment combined, in this sense, our glory with the glory of God. And have we not every reason to be assured, from it adaption to our ease, of its fitness to promote our glory, by promoting our spiritual, moral, and eternal benefit?

(A. Jack, D. D.)

I. THE MYSTERY WHICH LIES IN THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. It is entirely a mystery to us —

1. How it could comport with the justice of God to lay the punishment of our sins on the head of an innocent Being. He has done it. There is no mystery about that. But we know no more.

2. How justice could be satisfied through such an infliction. We cannot tell. All we know is that Divine justice positively did receive there the very last item of her demands.

3. How Christ could render satisfaction to Divine justice, while, at the same time, He was the Being to whom satisfaction was rendered, and the very Being who rendered it.

4. How it came to pass that, while the Divine nature is utterly unsusceptible of pain and death, nevertheless the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ have all their value and efficacy from the Divine nature of the Victim. We know it is so, but we know nothing further.

5. How there could be, in the "one person" of Christ upon the Cross, such a wonderful union of grandeur and humiliation — of complaining and omnipotence — of immortal Deity and expiring humanity! They are truths, but they are mysteries — Divine mysteries of Divine truth.

6. How that Son on the Cross, in whom the Father was well pleased, could have been abandoned at such a moment, and left to wail, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?". How the love of God should ever have brought Jesus Christ to the Cross.

II. THE DEMONSTRATION THAT ALL THIS MYSTERIOUSNESS IS NO GREATER THAN WE OUGHT TO EXPECT ON THE SUBJECT-MATTER BEFORE US. It perfectly accords with all the facts and all the other arrangements of the plan of redemption. In this accordance beams out the wisdom of God.

1. Sin was the great evil which brought our Saviour into the world and took Him to the Cross. And the existence of sin is just as mysterious a matter to us as its expiation. If sin is a mystery, the expiation of it ought to be a mystery also. And so it is. Great is the mystery of godliness, &c.

2. Why did the Son of God select this world as the theatre of His redeeming wonders? Spirits as precious as ours had fallen. Why did God pass angels by when He rescued us? No answer comes, except, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." There we must leave it. And if it be a mystery how God came to select this apostate world, it accords with God that that work itself should be a mystery also.

3. There is an entire correspondence between the doctrines of Christ's expiation of sin and satisfaction of justice, and all the other information we have about the Saviour Himself. The incarnation of Jesus ,Christ is just as mysterious to us as His atonement. That Jesus Christ should be able to give strength to the poor cripple's bones, and yet be Himself weary and wayworn — that He should feed thousands of men, and yet be a man of hunger — that He should please the Father, and yet the Father be pleased to bruise Rim, these are things before which faith and love may wonder and adore, but which reason can never explain!

4. There is something truly amazing in the mode of the redemption of sinners. If it were so, that Jesus Christ were coming into this world to ransom sinners, we should naturally have expected that He would come in the chariots of His omnipotence! But He was a poor man, and at the end of His work, instead of receiving any signals of triumph, He was mocked as an impostor and crucified as a malefactor. This is the mode in which God treated His Son! It corresponds with the mysteries of its design.

5. Through this Christ some sinners are brought into favour with God. They are believers. They are adopted into God's family, and He loves them with an unequalled tenderness and strength. But how does He treat them? The very pathway by which they travel to heaven corresponds in wonders with all the rest of their redemption!

(L S. Spencer, D. D.)

II. A MYSTERY IS AN EMBLEM, and Christianity is the wisdom of God in a mystery, because it has delighted in all ages to array itself in emblem. The parables of our Lord were called mysteries for this reason, and "the golden candlesticks" and "the stars" in the Book of the Revelation. But the object of a mystery, in this respect, is not so much concealment as to test whether men love the truth sufficiently to investigate the figures under which it is presented. The wisdom of God chose the ancient types for the manifestation of itself. All nature is made use of in this respect. The sun is the established emblem of Christ, the light of the world. In the shadows of evening the voice of heavenly wisdom admonishes us that the night cometh in which no man can work. Dews and rains remind us of the great promise of the fertilising and life-giving Spirit. It was for this very reason that the sacraments were anciently called mysteries. Baptism teaches us the washing away of sin, and the Lord's Supper that we live by His death.

III. A MYSTERY IS A DEEP AND DARK ENIGMA, and Christianity is the wisdom of God in a mystery, because it is by the most perplexing circumstances that it has often accomplished its designs. Take —

1. The humiliation of our Lord. The great pretensions of all the prophets were that He was to save and redeem and reign. Well, this Saviour is seen in the form of an infant — is placed in entire obscurity for thirty years. He was despised and rejected by the people at large, and His character and designs often perplexed His immediate followers. By and by we see this universal sovereign and Saviour expiring on a Cross, and provoking the taunt, "He saved others, but Himself He cannot save." Yet, however deep that mystery, there was wisdom behind it, and on the morning of the resurrection the wisdom of God came forth from the mystery. There seems to be an allusion to this in the words of St. Paul: "Great," says he, "is the mystery of godliness," &c.

2. The history of the Church. There have been so many manifestations of the wisdom of God in the mystery that certainly there is something for faith to rest upon with respect to the grand result as to the Church; and yet how deep and portentous are the clouds which arise before the mind of him who contemplates the apostasies of the Church, &c.

IV. A MYSTERY IS A PROCEEDING WHICH CONTRADICTS THE NOTIONS WHICH MEN ORDINARILY FORM OF FITNESS; and Christianity is the wisdom of God in a mystery, because it employs, for the accomplishment of its proposes, means which contradict all the notions of men.

1. There was nothing agreeable to human wisdom in the agents appointed for the conversion of the world; but Paul tells us that the wisdom of God had proved stronger than the wisdom of men, and that God had chosen the weak things to confound the mighty, &c. The mystery was to the men of the world; the wisdom in the mystery was manifested in the end.

2. There is the soul of a man immersed in worldliness and sin to be made sensible of its sin and danger — to have produced within it a new train of emotions which shall lead to God. What is the instrumentality which the wisdom of God employs in producing this effect? Is it the work of an angel? Verily it were worthy of such an agency. But now the wisdom of God veils itself in mystery, and makes use of a fellow-man, and by the secret influence which God gives, the work is done.

3. A soul reconciled to God is to be matured in grace and to be qualified for glory. How often does the wisdom of God, in accomplishing this great end, wrap itself in mystery! One object is to cure the spirit of worldly care, and a load of additional care is laid upon it. Another object is to teach reflectiveness of spirit, and the subject is plunged in most perplexing circumstances. Another object is to increase the peace of the soul; and yet the soul is placed in the midst of the turbulent storm. Another object is to excite a higher love, and yet the heavier stroke of the Lord is laid upon him. Here is the mystery; but we know the wisdom notwithstanding this, "for tribulation worketh patience," &c.

4. A nation sunk in ignorance and immorality is to be raised into a better state. How is it done? Never by means which are at all taken into the calculation of statesmen. God raises up His own instruments — they may be few in number — from the lower class of society, and the work goes on, principles are secretly spreading, and the scene changes. It is amusing to read the theories of the worldly wise on these changes, whereas the whole proves that the wisdom of God has been proceeding in a mystery to them.

5. And so it is with respect to foreign missions.

V. A MYSTERY IS AS UNFATHOMABLE SUBJECT, and Christianity is the wisdom of God in a mystery, because the subjects with which it is conversant are of this kind. There are many persons who object to our religion because of its mysteriousness. But what would a religion be that had no mysteries? What view could you have of God if you could comprehend Him? God is eternal — can the creature of a day take in the idea of eternal duration? God's plans must be like Himself; must they, then, not be incomprehensible by the necessity of nature to creatures like ourselves? The subject is clear, but our minds are clouded by reason of darkness, We cannot perceive the beauty and the proportions of an extended landscape, not because the objects in themselves are indistinct, but because they are distant.

VI. CHRISTIANITY IS A MYSTERY OF LOVE. Great has been the manifestation of the goodness of God to His people. Christ has come — the Holy Spirit has been poured out — the ordinances of Christianity instituted; but there is a period coming of still greater glory for the Church. They whom Christ has redeemed are to be with Him for ever and see His glory.

(R. Watson.)

1. By sacrifice.

2. By the sacrifice of His own dear Son.

II. IN ITS SPIRITUALITY.

1. It is revealed by the Spirit of God.

2. To the spirit of man.

3. By faith.

III. IN ITS DESIGN.

1. To manifest the glory of God.

2. Secure the glorification of man.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. MAY WELL BE MYSTERIOUS — for it is the wisdom of God.

II. MUST BE ACKNOWLEDGED TO BE MYSTERIOUS. For its doctrines —

1. Transcend human thought.

2. Are spiritual in their nature.

3. Are in opposition to our common modes of thinking,

III. IS WISELY MYSTERIOUS.

1. To command our reverence.

2. Humble our pride.

3. Provoke our inquiry.

4. Awaken anticipation of a brighter revelation in another life.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. THAT WHICH IT IS FORBIDDEN TO DIVULGE EXCEPT TO THE INITIATED. Such were the secrets of the political and religious festivals held in most cities of Greece. We have a trace of this meaning in Matthew 13:2. In 2 Peter 1:16 it is said that the apostles did not follow the false track of rationalised myths, but were eye-witnesses by initiation of Christ's majesty (Colossians 2:3).

II. THAT WHICH CANNOT BE KNOWN EXCEPT BY REVELATION (cf. Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:3, 4; Colossians 1:26).

III. SACRED CEREMONIES THAT HAVE A SYMBOLICAL OR SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE; sometimes restricted to denote the Eucharist. After the time of this is its prevailing signification, and its Latin equivalent is sacramentum.

IV. A TRUTH THAT TRANSCENDS THE HUMAN INTELLECT TO COMPREHEND, and this may be absolute impossibility or impossible till the Spirit of God gives an inward revelation. In the present passage the word includes somewhat of all these meanings except the third. The word "perfect," while it signifies "full-grown," contains an allusion to initiation into mysteries.

(Principal Edwards.)

I. THERE IS MYSTERY IN EVERYTHING.

1. Of nothing can we feel a greater certainty than of our own being and personal identity. But what am I? I can no more understand the essence of my conscious self, than I can that of God the Infinite Spirit. The philosopher here is no wiser than the child.

2. Turn to nature in any of her various departments. Look, e.g., at —(1) The facts presented in the animal kingdom. Explain the nature of instinct. Observe that spider, which has spread her gossamer across your window. How did she learn to construct that octagon as perfect as if drawn by the nicest geometrician? Or watch the robin; that nest is the first she ever built: yet see how perfect — the most practised of her kind has never formed a better. Where did she gain her skill in architecture?(2) Animal life and the functions of the vital economy. What is it that prevents the decomposition of the flesh of animals so long as the vital principle is there, while decay commences the moment it is gone? Tell us how it is that the gross substances taken in the form of food are converted into the beautiful carnation of the human cheek, and the gorgeous and variegated dyes of birds and insects. Show what it is that keeps the heart for ever throbbing, and the lungs perpetually heaving, without any effort of the will.(3) The vegetable world. There is the rose blushing crimson by your window. What elements have been concerned in its production? Light, heat, moisture, and the common earth. But by what means have the petal, the odour, and the hues been elaborated from such materials? How has the same sap been made to produce the hard stalk, the sharp thorn, the green leaf, and the admirable flower? There, too, is the lily by its side. It springs from the same soil, is warmed by the same sun, watered by the same showers, yet instead of having the same colour it is white as the virgin snow. Again, there is the grass and the violet that both spring from one common mould, and yet, one is a soft and lively green, and the other an imperial purple.(4) Inorganic matter. You have here the laws of chemical affinity and repulsion. You find that certain substances when reduced to a fluid state and then placed in given conditions, return to solids by the process of crystallisation; and that in doing this one always takes the cubic form, another always that of an octahedron, another always that of a parallelopiped, and so on. But of these, and a multitude of other plain and unquestionable facts, you cannot by the nicest observation detect the cause, or the mode of its operation. Nature veils it in deep mystery.(5) Those subtle yet efficient agents that produce the more general and grand phenomena of nature. Put an end to the conjectures of mankind, by telling us what light, and heat, and electricity, and magnetism are. That mighty universal force, to which, by way of concealing our ignorance, we give the name of gravity, which brings the pebble to the earth, and chains revolving worlds about their centres; search out the secret and instruct us in relation to its nature. You cannot answer our inquiries. You see, then, that mystery is written all over the universe of God.

II. THAT THE TRUTHS OF REVEALED RELIGION ARE CONFESSEDLY MYSTERIOUS, IS A CONFIRMATION OF ITS DIVINITY.

1. A system of religion which professed to be from God, and yet claimed to have no mysteries, would prove it to be false. For such a system would be anomalous, and we should justly reason that if earthly things are found to be beyond our comprehension, much more ought heavenly things to be expected to be so. To the Omniscient only are there no dark and hidden things.

2. There may be many other reasons besides that of our want of capacity to comprehend Him, to render it fit that God should withhold from us many kinds and degrees of knowledge which might without difficulty be imparted. It might, for example, only perplex us to have our minds excited to yet higher inquiry by further disclosures as to things that have no immediate relation to our duty or our happiness for the present. Life is so short, so full of engrossing occupation, that very little time is allowed us for merely speculative thought. Then, further, it is no less obvious that this living in the midst of mysteries may prove a most salutary moral discipline. By contact with the as yet unopened secrets of the universe our pride receives a salutary check. Both as regards the ends of practical life and the development in our souls of sentiments of humility, of veneration, and of worship, there are great advantages to be derived from the present withholding of many parts of Divine knowledge which might possibly be revealed.

3. Instead, then, of suffering ourselves to be perplexed because we encounter mysteries in the Christian revelation, it is much wiser, as well as more becoming, that we cultivate a humble, docile spirit. How exceedingly limited, at best, is our horizon! What an infant, in a sober view, does the wisest man on earth appear on the scale of universal being!

4. We ought likewise to consider, for the enkindling of a heartfelt gratitude, that the mysteries of our being had been far deeper and darker than they are, but for the partial light which God has afforded in His Word. By the help of this, where the wisest heathen, in all ages, have groped their way, we are able to see distinctly; and though we are able to know so little comparatively, yet let us devotedly praise God that He has enabled us to know enough to enable us to discern and keep the path of duty and of life.

5. For the rest it may content us that we can confidently anticipate the future increase of our knowledge.

(Ray Palmer, D. D.)

I. THE NATURE AND QUALITY OF THE THINGS TREATED OF.

1. Their surpassing greatness to the mind of man. God is an infinite being, a world in Himself, too high for our speculations and too great for our descriptions. Heaven enters into us, as we must into it, by a very narrow passage. But how shall the King of glory, whom the heavens themselves cannot contain, enter in by these doors? How shall these short faculties measure the lengths of His eternity, the breadths of His immensity, the heights of His prescience, and the depths of His decrees? and those mysteries of two natures united into one person and of one nature diffused into a triple personality?

2. Their spirituality. When we read that God is a Spirit, and that angels and the souls of men are spirits, we cannot frame any notion or resemblance of them. We can fetch in no information from our senses. Imagine a man born blind, able upon hearsay to conceive all the varieties of colour, to draw a map of France, &c. But as it would be extremely irrational for a blind man to deny that there are such things as colours, &c., because he cannot form any mental perception of them, so would it be superlatively more unreasonable for us to deny on the same grounds the great articles of our Christianity.

3. Their strangeness and unreducibleness to the common methods and observations of nature. Take, e.g. —(1) Christ's satisfaction for sin. That He who was the offended person should provide a satisfaction and concern Himself to solicit a needless reconciliation, that a Father should deliver up an innocent and infinitely beloved Son for the redemption of His enemies, are transactions such as we can find nothing analogous to in all the dealings of men.(2) Regeneration, concerning which men wonder by what strange power it should come to pass that any one should be brought to conquer inveterate appetites and desires, and to have new ones absolutely contrary planted in their room. So that when our Saviour discoursed of these things to Nicodemus, he asked, "How can these things be?"(3) The resurrection.

II. SOME OF ITS PRINCIPAL ENDS AND DESIGNS. But may it not be objected that the grand design of religion is to engage men in the practice of its commands, and that the way to obey a law is to know it, and the way to know it is to have it plainly propounded? To this I answer, first, that it is as much the design of religion to oblige men to believe the credenda as to practise the agenda of it: and secondly, that there is as clear a reason for the belief of the one as for the practice of the other. They exceed indeed the human reason to comprehend them scientifically, and are therefore proposed, not to our knowledge, but to our belief; but since God has revealed them we may with the highest reason, upon His bare word, believe them. But then, as for those things that concern our practice, they indeed are of that clearness that being once proposed to us, need not our study, but only our acceptance. In sum, the articles of our faith are those depths in which the elephant may swim, and the rules of our practice those shallows in which the lamb may wade. But as both light and darkness make but one natural day, so both the clearness of the agenda and the mystery of the credenda of the gospel constitute but one entire religion. I come now to show that the mysteriousness of the credenda, or matters of our faith, is most subservient to the great ends of religion.

1. Because religion in its prime institution was designed to make impressions of awe and reverential fear upon men's minds. God, who designed man to a supernatural end, thought fit also to engage him to a way of living above the bare course of nature, and for that purpose to oblige him to a control of his mere natural desires. And this can never be done but by imprinting such apprehensions of dread as may stave off appetite from its desired satisfactions, which the infinite wisdom of God has thought fit to do, by nonplussing the world with certain new and unaccountable revelations. To protect which from the encroachments of bold minds, He has hedged it in with a sacred obscurity in some of the principal parts of it, inasmuch as "familiarity breeds contempt."

2. Because religion is delivered by God to humble the pride of man's reason. Man fell by pride, founded upon an irregular desire of knowledge, and therefore Divine wisdom contrived man's recovery by such a method as should abase him in that very perfection, whereof the ambitious improvement first cast him down from that glorious condition.

3. Because He would engage us in a more diligent search into the articles of religion. No man studies things plain and evident. We are commanded by Christ to search the Scriptures, and whosoever shall apply himself to a thorough performance of this high command, shall find difficulty enough in the things searched into to perpetuate his search. For they are a rich mine which the greatest wit and diligence may dig in for ever and still find new matter to entertain the busiest contemplation with, even to the utmost period of the most extended life. Truth, we are told, dwells low, and in a bottom; and the most valued things of the creation are hidden from the common view, so that violence must be done to nature, before she will produce and bring them forth.

4. Because the full know]edge of it may be one principal part of our blessedness hereafter. All those heights and depths which confound the subtlest apprehension shall then be made clear to us.

(R. South, D. D.)

1. A greater crime than this was never perpetrated. It involved —(1) The grossest injustice. He was embodied virtue. His enemies and judges bore testimony to His innocence.(2) The basest ingratitude. He not only did no evil, but "went about doing good."(3) Most heartless cruelty. They put Him to a death the most ignominious and excruciating that infernal malignity could desire.(4) Most daring impiety. Whom did they thus treat? "The Lord of glory" (Psalm 24:8). It is impious to trifle with His laws and rebel against His throne, but how much more so to crucify the universal Lawgiver and King!

2. That this ignorance was the cause of this immense evil is evident.(1) Because it is itself an evil, and like will produce like. There are two things necessary to knowledge — mind and means. When either of these is absent, ignorance is a calamity, but when they are present it is a crime. These princes had both — they were not idiots, and riley had means by which they could know Christ; the Old Testament Scriptures, John the Baptist, Christ Himself. They need not have been ignorant. Their ignorance was a sin, and sin, like virtue, is propagated.(2) Had it not existed, such an evil could never have been perpetrated.

II. THE OCCASION OF IMMENSE GOOD. This crucifixion introduced things that "eye had never seen," &c., viz., God's love to the world and His method of saving it; Divine pardon, spiritual purity, immortal hopes. Conclusion: From this subject learn —

1. That the sinner is always engaged in accomplishing that which he never intended. These "princes—(1) Ruined themselves. It brought upon them and their country in this world tremendous judgments — and what in the world to come? Sinner, what are you doing? You are ruining yourself, but you do not intend it; but you are nevertheless doing it in the commission of every sin.(2) Executed the plan of the great God. "Him being delivered," &c. God overrules for good. So now, we have not to determine whether we shall serve God or not; we have to determine how — by our will or against it.

2. Whatever good a man may accomplish contrary to his intention is destitute of all praiseworthiness. What oceans of blessings come to our world through the crucifixion! Yet who can ever praise the crucifiers?

3. That no man should act without an intelligent conception of what he is doing. How many act from prejudice, custom, blind impulse! How few have a right conception of what they are doing!

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

1. It has abounded in all time.

2. Pervades all classes.

II. ITS INJURIOUS EFFECTS.

1. It occasions the worst crimes.

2. It led to the crucifixion of our Lord.

III. ITS FATAL ISSUE — destruction of both body and soul.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. THE DEED.

II. ITS AGGRAVATION.

1. He was the Lord of glory.

2. Came from glory.

3. Conducts to glory — dwells in glory.

III. ITS UNMITIGATED GUILT. A sin of ignorance.

1. Not therefore relieved, because the ignorance was wilful.

2. Not inevitable through the purpose of God, because had they known they would not have done it.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

II. THE MEDIATORIAL GLORY OF CHRIST is exceeding great. This is proper to Him as the Head of the Church, which He hath purchased with His own blood (Philippians 2:9, 10).

1. The fulness of grace inherent in Him. The humanity of Christ is filled with grace, as the sun with light (John 1:14), excelling all the saints in spiritual lustre and gracious excellencies.

2. The dignity and authority put upon Him. He is crowned King in Sion; all power in heaven and earth is given unto Him (Matthew 28:18), He is a Law-giver to the Church (James 4:12).

3. Jesus Christ shall have glory and honour ascribed to Him for evermore by angels and saints, upon the account of His mediatorial work; this some divines call His passive glory, the glory which He is said to receive from His redeemed ones (Revelation 5:8-10).Inferences;

1. How wonderful was the love of Christ, the Lord of Glory, to be so abased and humbled as He was for us vile and sinful dust!

2. How transcendently glorious is the advancement of believers by their union with the Lord of Glory!

3. Is Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory? Then, let no man count himself dishonoured by suffering the vilest indignities for His sake.

4. Is Christ the Lord of Glory? How glorious then shall the saints one day be, when they shall be made like this glorious Lord, and partake of His glory in heaven! (John 17:22.)

5. How hath the devil blindfolded and deluded them that are frightened off from Christ by the fears of being dishonoured by Him!

6. If Christ be the Lord of Glory, how careful should all be who profess Him that they do not dishonour Jesus Christ, whose name is called upon by them!

7. What delight should Christians take in their daily converse with Jesus Christ in the way of duty!

8. If Christ be so glorious, how should believers long to be with Him, and behold him in His glory above!

(John Flavel.)

1. Not seen by the observation of nature, providence, grace.

2. Not heard by the report of the preacher, &c.

3. Not conceived by reason, speculation, inquiry.

II. ARE REVEALED TO THOSE WHO LOVE GOD.

1. Much depends on the heart.

2. The revelation is glorious.

3. Is effected by the Spirit.

4. Is completed in glory.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

1. Its discoveries and blessings far exceed all human knowledge or conception.(1) "Eye hath not seen." And yet by the eye we have surveyed many of the works of God; and if we look upon ourselves, we discover displays of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. All these are glorious discoveries; but they say not how, when, or why they were formed.(2) "Ear hath not heard." When sight is exhausted, we can still drink in knowledge. But we never heard how the spring of moral conduct might be purified, life and heart made holy, and man be fitted for the society of God. We never heard of such powerful motives as the love of Christ, or such rich blessings as the beatitudes on the mount.(3) "Nor hath entered the heart of man," i.e., man never imagined. Every man carries about with him an ideal world of his own. How often have we attempted to paint to ourselves a character just such as we should approve! But it never entered into the heart of man to conceive of true dignity of character, or of the sources of real happiness as suited to the nature of man.

2. The peculiar excellency of this gospel will appear from —(1) The sublime and interesting truth which it discovers. Briefly, the design of the gospel is to raise man from the ruin of the fall — to wash him from sin — to adorn him with righteousness — to inspire him with sublimity of thought and holiness of affection — to lead him in all the paths of obedience, and finally to exalt him to the society of angels and fellowship with God. But who could have barely thought of such a purpose? Who could have admitted the possibility of the fact? The Divine Being was under no obligations to redeem man. All the motive is revealed to us in the gospel, and is to be found in His own unfathomable love. "God so loved the world," &c. And who would ever have conceived of such a simple plan of communicating such blessings! "Believe on the Lord," &c.(2) The pure and intense happiness it imparts. Even the speculative knowledge of these truths raises man in the scale of intelligence. But the gospel does more. The gospel calms the tumult of passion, reconciles man to God, and makes him to be at peace with himself. Now, "eye hath not seen," &c. Some have had every advantage and opportunity of knowing this subject, but they are still natural men. They cannot conceive how a man can know his sins forgiven, nor of the joy and peace in believing. The natural man doth not comprehend these things; and even believers do not form conceptions sufficiently noble.(3) The happy and glorious prospects which it unfolds. Philosophy never found out a remedy for the fear of death. It points to a few instances of apparent calmness and confidence. But it never fully met the evil. Death, to it, has ever been dissembled. But Christianity reveals the immediate consequences of death, and then supplants the fear of death. Where will philosophy show anything like the death of Stephen? And how is this to be explained? (Acts 7:55.) And all in whom is the spirit of Stephen have the like glorious prospects. But what are they? Nay, "Eye hath not seen," &c. The grandest description is, that it is beyond all description. If we cannot know all that God has prepared for us here, how can we conceive of the joys of heaven? (John 3:12.) "We walk by faith, and not by sight!" We could not possibly understand it; we have no powers of perception suited to such knowledge. Eye hath not seen so glorious a body as that of the Transfiguration, the model of ours; or so glorious a city as "that great city, the holy Jerusalem," &c. Ear never heard strains so melting as those John heard — "the voice of harpers harping with their harps." It never entered into the heart of man, the pure and unsullied bliss of the redeemed (Revelation 7:15-17).

II. THE CHARACTERS FOR WHOM THESE BLESSINGS ARE PREPARED. For "them that love Him." Consider the love of God as —

1. A necessary principle. Mere admiration will not suffice. The infidel may admire the character of the Creator as impressed upon His works, and be without even a desire to enjoy these blessings. Nor will a mere transient impression of the passions be sufficient, such as is frequently felt whilst contemplating gospel truths, even as a matter of speculation. A consideration of the love of God, the sufferings of Christ, &c., produces no permanent effect, but is obliterated by the next consideration. Now this love of God is necessary. "Without holiness no man shall see Him." Holiness is the image of God, and "God is love." These things are prepared only for them that keep His commandments, &c. But the whole law is comprised in this, "Thou shalt love," &c. Hence, "this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." It is only the love of God that gives us the true knowledge of Him. "He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love." This love of God is essential to our enjoying God. No man can enjoy what he hates.

2. A Divine principle. No man loves God by nature. Nothing less than Divine love can conquer this enmity of the human heart. A manifested principle. The love of God is the love of holiness, for God is holy. And if we love God we shall keep His commandments. This love cannot possibly exist without influencing the practice, and thus manifesting itself.

(F. A. West.)

I. FROM THE SOURCE THEY DID — from God. Man's ideas of God, apart from revelation, sprang rather from his own heart than from the teaching of nature, and therefore to imagine our salvation would flow from the source it did was impossible. After man sinned he changed God into his own image and likeness. The gods of the heathen consequently were perfectly destitute of those properties from which the gospel blessings could flow. They were destitute of holiness — heathenism has its heroes, but it has no saints. They were destitute of love, and were notorious for their cruelty and their lack of tenderness.

II. IN THE WAY THEY DID. "As the heavens are higher than the earth," &c. The way God took to save the world — by the incarnation and death of Immanuel — was so strange, that no one could imagine or dared imagine it but Himself. Not only is it so great that man could not in his own strength discover it, but so great that, after being revealed, it baffles man to comprehend it. The gospel is so Divine a conception that it dazzles the wise of this world into blindness. God's smallest thoughts, His thoughts in nature, perplex man. What then about the thought He conceived in the silence and solitude of eternity?

III. TO THE DEGREE THEY DID. Paul considered the fact that Christ was preached to the Gentiles a sufficiently great mystery to be put side by side with the Incarnation. Sin makes man selfish. The Romans deemed all others enemies, to be vanquished and made slaves; and once made slaves, they were of less value in their eyes than the beasts which perish. The Greeks judged all others barbarians, who ought to be robbed and slain. The Jews likewise were animated by the spirit of exclusiveness — they deemed all others unclean and worthless. Though our advantages are numerous and important, yet this truth is not properly understood by many in our day. All are not willing, even in this age, that the dew of God's blessing should fall outside their little garden. The old objections are being revived, that to attempt to evangelise the heathen is sheer waste. Such blind fatuity! The man who would try to stop the clouds to rain and the sun to shine outside the fences of his tiny farm would be looked upon as a lunatic. But his conduct were wisdom itself compared with that of those who in the vanity of their speculations would leave certain races outside the pale of civilisation and salvation. God's provision for the world is worthy of the high source whence it emanated, and the strange instrumentality whereby it was brought about, at once worthy of the infinite love and the precious sacrifice. To provide for only one nation would not be worthy of Him. Indeed, to provide sparingly for even the whole world would not be according to His custom — plenteousness characterises all His acts. With such fulness of grace in store, no one, be he who and where he may, need be lost.

(W. Morris.)

I. THE INABILITY OF THE LOWER PARTS OF HUMAN NATURE — the natural man — TO APPREHEND THE HIGHER TRUTHS.

1. Eternal truth is not perceived through sensation or science. "Eye hath not seen."(1) There is a life of mere sensation.(a) The highest pleasure of sensation comes through the eye. The Corinthians could appreciate this. Theirs was the land of beauty. They read the apostle's letter, surrounded by the purest conceptions of Art. Let us not depreciate what God has given. There is a joy in contemplating the manifold forms in which the All Beautiful has concealed His essence. It is a pure delight to see.(b) But the eye can only reach the finite beautiful. It does not scan "the King in His beauty, nor the land that is very far off." And the visible is perishable beauty — not the eternal loveliness for which our spirits pant. Therefore Christ came not in the glory of form; "He had no form nor comeliness," &c.; "there was no beauty that they should desire Him." The eye did not behold, even in Christ, the things which God had prepared.(c) This is an eternal truth. This verse is quoted as if "the things prepared" meant heaven. But the world of which Paul speaks God hath revealed, only not to eye nor ear. In heaven this shall be as true as now. The pure in heart will see God, but never with the eye; only in the same way, but in a different degree, that they see Him now.(2) Again, no scientific analysis can discover the truths of God. Science proceeds upon observation. Experiment is the test of truth. Now, you cannot, by searching, find out the Almighty to perfection, nor a single one of the blessed truths He has to communicate.

1. It is in vain that we ransack the world for probable evidences of God, and idle to look into the materialism of man for the revelation of his immortality; or to examine the morbid anatomy of the body to find the rule of right. If a man go to the eternal world with convictions of eternity, the resurrection, God, already in his spirit, he will find abundant corroborations of that which he already believes. But if God's existence be not thrilling every fibre of his heart, if the immortal be not already in him as the proof of the resurrection, if the law of duty be not stamped upon his soul as an eternal truth, science will never reveal these, the physician comes away from the laboratory an infidel. Eye hath not seen the truths which are clear enough to love and to the spirit.

2. Eternal truth is not reached by hearsay — "Ear hath not heard."(1) No revelation can be adequately given by the address of man to man. For all such revelation must be made through words, the mere coins of intellectual exchange. There is as little resemblance between the coin and the bread it purchases, as between the word and the thing it stands for. Looking at the coin, the form of the loaf does not suggest itself. Listening to the word, you do not perceive the idea for which it stands, unless you are already in possession of it. Speak of ice to an inhabitant of the torrid zone, the word does not give him an idea, or if it does, it must be a false one. Talk of blueness to one who cannot distinguish colours, what can your most eloquent description present to him resembling the truth of your sensation? Similarly in matters spiritual, no verbal revelation can give a single simple idea. For instance, what means justice to the unjust, or purity to the licentious? What does infinitude mean to a being who has never stirred beyond a cell? Talk of God to a thousand ears, each has his own different conception. The sensual man hears of God, and understands one thing. The pure man hears and conceives another thing.(2) See what a hearsay religion is. There are men who believe on authority. Their minister believes all this Christianity true; therefore so do they. He calls this doctrine essential; they echo it. They have heard with the hearing of the ear that God is love, that the ways of holiness are ways of pleasantness. But the Corinthian philosophers heard Paul; the Pharisees heard Christ. How much did the ear convey? He alone believes truth who feels it. He alone has a religion whose soul knows by experience that to serve God and know Him is the richest treasure.

3. Truth is not discoverable by the heart — "neither have entered into the heart of man— the power of imagining, and the power of loving.(1) It is a grand thing when thought bursts into flame, or when a great law of the universe reveals itself to the mind of genius, or when the truths of human nature shape themselves forth in the creative fancies of the poet. But the most ethereal creations of fancy were shaped by a mind that could read the life of Christ, and then blaspheme the Adorable. Some of the truest and deepest utterances ever spoken came from one whose life was from first to last selfish. The highest astronomer of this age refused to recognise the Cause of causes. The mighty heart of genius had failed to reach the things which God imparts to a humble spirit.(2) The heart of man has the power of affection. The highest moment known on earth by the merely natural, is that in which the mysterious union of heart with heart is felt. Yet this attains not to the things prepared by God. Human love is but the faint type of that surpassing blessedness which belongs to those who love God.

II. THE NATURE AND LAWS OF REVELATION.

1. Revelation is made by a Spirit to a spirit. Christ is the voice of God without the man — the Spirit is the voice of God within. The highest revelation is not made by Christ, for He said, "The Spirit shall take of Mine and shall show it unto you." And therefore it is written here — "The Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God." Now the Spirit of God lies touching, as it were, the soul of man. They mingle. The spiritual in man, by which he might become a recipient of God, may be dulled, deadened, by a life of sense, but in this world never lost. All that is wanted is to become conscious of the nearness of God. God has placed men here to feel after Him if haply they may find Him, albeit He be not far from any one of them.

2. The condition upon which this revelation is made to men is love. These things are "prepared for them that love Him," or revealed to those who have the mind of Christ.(1) Love to man may mean love to his person, or it may mean simply pity. Love to God can only mean love to His character: e.g., God is purity. And to be pure in thought and look is to love God. God is love — and to love men till private attachments have expanded into a philanthropy which embraces all, is to love God. God is truth. To be true — to hate every form of falsehood — to live a brave, true, real life — that is to love God. God is infinite — and to love the boundless, reaching on from grace to grace, and rising upwards ever to see the ideal still above us, aiming insatiably to be perfect even as the Father is perfect — that is love to God.(2) This love is manifested in obedience.(a) "He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me," &c. We remember the Roman commander who forbade an engagement with the enemy, and the transgressor was his own son. He accepted the challenge of the leader of the other host, slew, spoiled him, and then in triumph carried the spoils to his father's tent. But the Roman father refused to recognise the instinct which prompted this as deserving of the name of love — disobedience contradicted it and deserved death: weak sentiment, what was it worth? So with God — strong feelings, warm expressions, varied internal experience coexisting with disobedience, God counts not as love.(b) To love, adoring and obedient, God reveals His truth. As in the natural, so in the spiritual world. By compliance with the laws of the universe we put ourselves in possession of its blessings. Obey the laws of health and you obtain health. Arm yourselves with the laws of nature, and you may call down the lightning from the sky. In the same way there are laws in the world of Spirit, by compliance with which God's Spirit comes into the soul with all its revelations. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." "No man hath seen God at any time." "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us." "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine."(c) These laws are universal and invariable. There is no favourite child of nature who may hold the fire-ball in the hollow of his hand and trifle with it without being burnt; there is no selected child of grace who can live an irregular life without unrest; or be proud, and at the same time have peace; or indolent, and receive fresh inspiration; or remain unloving and cold, and yet see and hear and feel the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him. And if obedience were entire and love were perfect, then would the revelation of the Spirit to the soul of man be perfect too.

(F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

I. WHAT HEAVES IS NOT.

1. It is not a heaven of the senses.(1) "Eye hath not seen it." What glorious things the eye hath seen! Have we not seen the gaudy pageantry of pomp crowding the gay streets? We hear of the magnificence of the old Persian princes, of palaces covered with gold and silver, and floors inlaid with jewels; but we cannot thence gather a thought of heaven, for "eye hath not seen" it. We have thought, however, when we have come to the works of God, surely we can get some glimpse of what heaven is here. By night we have turned our eye up to the stars, and we have said, "If this earth has such a glorious covering, what must that of heaven be?" At another time we have seen some glorious landscape, and said, "Surely these grandeurs must be something like heaven." It was all a mistake — "Eye hath not seen" it.(2) "The ear hath not heard" it. Have we not sometimes heard the sweet voice of the messenger of God when he has by the Spirit spoken to our souls! We knew something of heaven then, we thought. We have heard music, whether poured from the lungs of man — that noblest instrument in the world — or from some manufacture of harmony, and we have thought, "This is what John meant by the voice like many waters, and the voice of harpers harping with their harps." But we made a mistake. "Ear hath not heard" it.(3) Others look upon it as a place where they shall be free from bodily pain, and where they will eat to the full and be satisfied. What a mistake! We can get no conceptions of heaven through the senses; they must always come through the Spirit.

2. It is not a heaven of the imagination. Poets let their imaginations fly with loosened wings, or the preacher weaves the filigree work of fancy, and you say, "It is sweet to hear that man speak; he made me think I was there." But imagination, when it is most sublime, and freest from the dust of earth, and kept steady by the most extreme caution, cannot picture heaven. "It hath not entered the heart of man," &c. Your imaginary heaven you will find by and by to be all a mistake.

3. It is not a heaven of the intellect. Men describe heaven as a place where we shall know all things, and their grandest idea is that they shall discover all secrets there. But "It hath not entered into the heart of man."

II. "HE HATH REVEALED IT UNTO US BY HIS SPIRIT." This means that it was revealed unto the apostles by the Spirit, so that they wrote something of it in the Holy Word. We think also that it means that every believer has glimpses of heaven by the influence of the Spirit. A Christian gets a gaze of what heaven is —

1. When in the midst of trials and troubles he is able to cast all his care upon the Lord, because He careth for him. Heaven is something like that — a place of holy calm and trust.

2. In the season of quiet contemplation, for the joys of heaven are akin to the joys of contemplation.

3. At. the Lord's table. You get so near the Cross there that your sight becomes clearer, and the air brighter, and you see more of heaven there than anywhere else.

4. When we assemble in our meetings for prayer.

5. In extraordinary closet seasons.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. THE HEALTH OF HEAVEN. When you were a child you had never felt sorrow or sickness. Perhaps later you felt a glow in your cheek, and a spring in your step, and an exuberance of spirits, and a clearness of eye, that made you thank God you were permitted to live. You thought that you knew what it was to be well, but the most elastic and robust health of earth, compared with that of heaven, is nothing but sickness and emaciation. Look at that soul standing before the throne. On earth she was a life-long invalid. See her step now, and hear her voice now. Health in all the pulses! Health of vision; health of spirits; immortal health. No racking cough, no consuming fevers, no exhausting pains, no hospitals of wounded men. That child that died in the agonies of croup, hear her voice now ringing in the anthem. That old man that went bowed down with the infirmities of age, see him walk now with the step of an immortal athlete — for ever young again. To have neither ache, nor pain, nor weakness, nor fatigue. "Eye hath not seen it — ear hath not heard it."

II. THE SPLENDOUR OF HEAVEN. John tries to describe it, and as we look through his telescope we see a blaze of jewellery, a mountain of light, a cataract of colour, a sea of glass, and a city like the sun. John bids us look again, and we see thrones; thrones of the prophets, patriarchs, angels, apostles, martyrs, throne of Jesus — throne of God. John bids us look again, and we see the great procession of the redeemed passing. "Eye hath not seen it, ear hath not heard it." Skim from the summer waters the brightest sparkles, and you will get no idea of the sheen of the everlasting sea. Pile up the splendours of earthly cities and they would not make a stepping-stone by which you might mount to the city of God. Every house is a palace. Every step a triumph. Every meal is a banquet. Every day is a jubilee, every hour a rapture, and every moment an ecstasy.

III. THE RE-UNIONS OF HEAVEN. If you have ever been across the seas, and met a friend in some strange city, you remember how your blood thrilled, and how glad you were to see him. What then will be our joy to meet in the bright city of the sun those from whom we have long been separated. In this world we only meet to part. It is good-bye, good-bye. But not so in heaven. Welcomes in the air, at the gates, at the house of many mansions — but no good-bye.

IV. THE SONG OF HEAVEN. There is nothing more inspiriting to me than a whole congregation lifted up on the wave of holy melody. But, my friends, if music on earth is so sweet what will it be in heaven! They all know the tune there. All the best singers of all the ages will join it — choirs of white-robed children! choirs of patriarchs! choirs of apostles! Harpers with their harps. David of the harp will be there. Gabriel of the trumpet will be there.

(T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

1. The mysteries of the gospel salvation.

2. Extending into the eternal future.

II. THEIR TRANSCENDENT VALUE.

1. Worthy of God.

2. Surpassing all human comprehension.

III. THEIR PARTICIPATION — depends on love to God.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

1. The Divine forethought, and the infinite fulness and carefulness of God's love for His children. Remember:(1) How the world was prepared before man came upon it.(2) How God prepared a body in which Christ should be one with us, die to be our Saviour, and ascend to hold the sceptre of the universe.(3) How Christ reminded His disciples that the dignities of the kingdom were only for those for whom it is prepared of the Father.(4) How He went to prepare a place for us, and sent the Spirit to prepare us for the place.

2. The Divine treasury. The figure suggests a vast building over whose portals we read, "Ask and it shall be given," &c. — a building divided into so many stores of Divine love. Let us open their doors.(1) One contains the "purposes" of the Divine love, delivering mercy, sustaining grace — purposes that no need can exhaust, no opposition thwart, no eternity unfold.(2) Another "promises" Divinely —

(a)Simple, little children can understand them.

(b)Profound, angels cannot fathom them.

(c)Certain, for "heaven and earth shall pass away," &c.

(d)Sweet and rich, "sweeter than a honeycomb," and "more precious than gold."(3) Divine "provisions— the mercy-seat where we obtain grace to help; the Cross, its cleansing fount, infinite ransom, Divine righteousness; the Lord's Table.(4) The "fulness" that is treasured up in Christ — fulness of grace to pardon, of merit to atone, of strength to sustain, of glory to reward.(5) Things prepared in the ministry of the Holy Spirit — regeneration, comfort, sanctification.(6) Glories that await us hereafter — the "crown" of triumph, the "harp" of praise, the "mansion" of repose and blessing, the "living fountain" of joy.

II. THE REVELATION OF THE SPIRIT IN WHICH THESE THINGS ARE MADE MANIFEST TO US.

1. Striking thought! God takes men into His confidence about matters that human reason could never fathom. It was so with Abraham. "Shall I hide," &c. Amos declares that the Lord will hide nothing, but will reveal His secret unto His servants. In proportion to our intimacy with God the Divine purposes will be made plain to us. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." The disciples pleaded with John, who reclined on his Master's bosom, to ask Him a secret which they did not venture to ask themselves. He lived so much nearer to Christ, and therefore had more of His secret. We deprive ourselves of unspeakable blessings in regard to God's dealings in providence from our failure to recognise God's hand in every gift. And God's children should feel that in regard to the mysteries of the world around they shall have light resting on their path, and truth revealed by the indwelling Spirit which enables them to trust where others cannot. The man that is nearest the sun will have most of light, and the man who lives nearest the throne will have deeper draughts of the water of life that proceeds therefrom.

2. As to the revelation by the Spirit of Divine things, take the case of Simeon, unto whom it had been revealed by the Holy Ghost that he should not die until he had seen the Christ. How long he waited for the consolation of Israel! But at last it came. So God may have revealed to you in His Word and by His Spirit truths that have yet to come in their Divine significance and power. Wait patiently; God's time is always the best. Take the case of Peter who, when all were dumb before "Whom say ye that I am?" received at once a revelation that Jesus was the Christ, &c. You may say "We are not Simeons or Peters." No; but remember how Christ thanked God that the things withheld from the wise and prudent were revealed unto babes, i.e., babes in spiritual experience. But even to your children, who shall say at how early an age God, by His Spirit, shall reveal the truth? Remember Samuel.

III. THE CONDITION ESSENTIAL TO THE RECEPTION OF THE BLESSING. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us— there is the origin of all Christian love." The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost— that is the next step. Then we are the children of God, and the Spirit beareth witness with our spirits, &c. Then the circle is complete. And the Divine love thus enjoyed must manifest itself in self-sacrificing love to men.

(J. P. Chown.)

I. THE PLAIN AND POSITIVE VIEW. "Things prepared."

1. "Things" plural — not one element of joy, but many. It is a caricature of heaven when psalm-singing is represented as its chief occupation. A wonderful variety marks the imagery of the Bible as to the heavenly state — "a city that hath foundations," "the marriage supper of the Lamb," being "present with Christ, and beholding His glory," is being made "like Him," &c. These varied expressions suggest that our heaven will be a condition of being in which the mind, with its large desires, its deathless cravings, and the soul, with all the warmth of its affections and sympathies, will find the fullest scope for their development. As the vine puts forth its tendrils, and finds something to cling to for its support and growth; so, doubtless, will all the innocent tastes and longings of our renewed nature find in the heavenly state that which answers to their wants, "prepared," as a trellis, to which they may cling, and in clinging to which they will find their delight.

2. And these are not things thrown together at haphazard. They are "prepared things." How eloquent all nature is as to the teachings of this word! Note the wonderful care with which God has "prepared" for the wants of every tree, animal, bird, and fish; yea, for every worm; just that which will best meet its wants and minister to its comfort. Then, when we think of the souls God has redeemed at the price of His Son's death, to whom His love has flowed out in a deeper channel than to any other of His creatures, whom He deigns to say that they are to be His portion; when we think of "the things prepared" for them in their final home, what shall we say? How shall we put limits to the extent to which His power, wisdom, and goodness will go in seeking to promote their happiness?

II. A NEGATIVE OR COMPARATIVE VIEW. Heaven's happiness is such as "eye hath not seen," &c., or to which all the eye hath seen, &c., bears no proportion.

1. It is clearly the inferential teaching of the text, that "the things prepared" exceed in glory all that we are familiar with in this outer creation.(1) And the eye sees wondrous beauty as it ranges through the world of nature. But there is no comparison between what the eye sees here and "the things prepared" for God's people in the future.(2) And then the ear opens an avenue to another world of enjoyment peculiarly its own. Yet the highest rapture of the most gifted musician through the organ of hearing bears no comparison to the joy the redeemed will experience in "the things which God has prepared for them."(3) And then the imagination has a wondrous power to call into existence worlds of beauty and loveliness all its own. But when you put these things together — all that the eye can see, &c., of that which is beautiful or grand — they will be infinitely surpassed by "the things prepared" by God as the future portion of His people.

2. And there is something very sweet in the thought of this instituted connection, between these glories spread over the face of nature and that blessed home which Jesus is preparing for us. It shows how God means that the one should remind us of the other. The Jewish Rabbis inform us "that when Joseph had gathered much corn in Egypt he threw the chaff into the Nile, that so flowing down to the neighbouring cities, and nations more remote, it might bear witness to them of the store of good things garnered up in the treasure cities of Egypt." And so God, to make us know what glory there is in heaven, has thrown some husks to us here, that we might draw out our inferences. If we find so much of glory spread over earthly things, what may we expect to find in those that are heavenly? If He give us so much in the land of our pilgrimage, what will He not give us in our own country? If He can lavish so much on His enemies what will He not reserve for His friends?

III. THE PERSONAL VIEW. "For them that love Him." These things are designed for a "prepared" people. The preparation on the one side is just as necessary as that on the other. What is the use of preparing a feast unless you know that the guests those who are to be admitted to it can see; of preparing a grand concert unless will have appetites; of arranging the paintings of a splendid gallery unless the audience can hear? The glorious things of the future are prepared for a people who love God. The planting of this love in the heart is the great personal preparation for heaven that we need. The necessity for this is absolute. "Except a man be born again, He., he cannot see the kingdom of God." These two things — love to God, and a new birth — always go together.

(Richard Newton, D. D.)

(Principal Edwards.)

(T. Chalmers, D. D.)

1. The deep things of God. Reason suffices in other matters; these can only be revealed by the Spirit, who teaches us to cry "Abba, Father."

II. AN ABSOLUTE AROUND OF CERTAINTY AND CONFIDENCE.

1. He knows all things.

2. Reveals that God is love.

3. This truth is as unchangeable as God Himself and becomes the immovable ground of our happiness.

III. SUFFICIENT FOR ALL OUR SPIRITUAL NECESSITIES, We want nothing more when this love is revealed in us because —

1. His gracious purpose is disclosed.

2. All the miseries of our nature are met in Christ.

3. Christ is revealed as a new source of life and happiness.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

is impossible to attain it by the mere force of intellectual power, however great its sweep and however large its results. The senses cannot discover this wisdom, nor can thought evolve it. The seat of the highest wisdom is not intellect, but spirit. But the spiritual consciousness of which we speak must not be confounded with the more superficial element of emotion. The latter sweeps over the surface of the life, the former is fixed deep in the centre of it. The latter is transient and uncertain, the former is set in the heart of eternal relations. The latter is fickle and untrustworthy, the former affords the most trustworthy testimony concerning the truths to which it testifies. Clearly enough, then, Paul excludes from participation in the true wisdom all that have not entered into a spiritual relation of life and love with God; and, more explicitly still, all that fail to apprehend God in Christ. A love of scientific investigation and an apprehension of spiritual realities do not necessarily go together; and without the latter even the elements of true wisdom are absent.

II. WHAT IS THE RELATION OF PHILOSOPHIC MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS TO THE BIBLICAL SYSTEM? Can we claim for the Christian Scriptures an inspiration which cannot be claimed, say, for the moral systems of Greek philosophy? The principle laid down in our text seems to me to state clearly the truth of the matter. It is not my intention to deny that the Greek received a revelation from God, for I believe he did receive e. Divine revelation, and that a revelation of considerable range and grandeur. Further than this, I affirm that, wherever there has existed any degree of moral and spiritual consciousness, God has necessarily manifested Himself through it. "The Word is the light that lighteth every man." But there was this essential difference between the Jewish prophet and the Greek philosopher, a difference that revealed itself more fully as their several histories developed: the apprehension of truth by the former was predominatingly spiritual, by the latter intellectual. The Greek reached his conclusions by elaborate processes of thought; the Hebrew received his revelations in the Spirit, and spoke as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. It is to this unique experience that we give the name of "inspiration." The unique revelation which this experience involved is asserted clearly enough in the principle laid down in the text; for it asserts this, that the revelation received through the Spirit of God transcends every other, and covers a sphere into which no other can enter.

III. THE RELATION OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT TO THE WISDOM OF GOD. The apostle clearly lays down the principle that the development of spiritual apprehension accompanies the development of spiritual life. It is to the man of mature spiritual life that the apostle reveals the higher wisdom of the gospel. Spiritual things are revealed by the Spirit of God, and are therefore apprehended in the proportion that we possess this Spirit. But, if this be so, if a clearer vision of truth must be ever coming to developing spiritual life, does it not follow that the New Testament Scriptures may be superseded, and that we must look for the latest revelation of truth to the spiritual man of to-day? When Christ came, and when, in the full light of His teaching, the central facts of His life and death, and the central significance of these facts, had been recorded, the book of God's revelation closed. The glorious opportunities for the conveyance of final and complete truth to men were such as could not recur. If we cannot find the certainty of truth here, then there is no rest for the sole of our foot for ever. But we must distinguish between the finality of the revelation and finality in the comprehension of it. I see no difficulty at all in admitting that even the apostles were wiser than they knew, that their teaching contained vast possibilities of unfolding and latent grandeurs which they but dimly apprehended. The truest theology is that which, like a growing child, maintains its identity, not through stagnation, but through development. God help us to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! But the most deep-lying development in the Christian life, deeper than thought-articulation of truth, is spirit-apprehension of it. Underneath the grandest thought-apprehension of truth there is a still grander spiritual consciousness of it. Truth in its deepest origin is life. In the full life which holds in its bosom the full truth consists man's highest heaven. This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.

(John Thomas, M. A.)

II. RELIGION IS A REVELATION TO LOVE. We must not forget in our study of these words that they speak of a revelation which has been made; it is not something we are to look forward to. "God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit." The state of mind to which God makes known the things which He has prepared is love. God is love, and love can only make itself known to love. The subject must be in sympathy with the object. The strange conduct of the Jews towards Christ can only be explained on this principle. The Saviour's life was in the truest sense really beautiful, as it is admitted by the most pronounced unbelievers in these days. And yet the people of His age esteemed Him as a "root out of a dry ground: He had no form nor comeliness"; when they saw Him, "there was no beauty that they should desire Him." God reveals His love to love. "We love Him because He first loved us." The infinite kindness of God is to be seen in the method of His dealings with the world. If His method of saving men were mainly intellectual, few comparatively would be redeemed; for the plan would ,of necessity be so cold and formal, that only the few gifted minds would be interested by it. The many can only be reached by a direct appeal to their feelings, and hence the religion of Christ addresses the minds of men through their hearts; and the apostles laid emphasis, not on the great thoughts of God, but upon His infinite love in the gift of His Son. It is clear, then, that the religion of heaven is a revelation of love to love. God cannot reveal Himself to any other temper. We have sometimes gone into gardens, and observed plants that should be in full bloom still unopened. The green bud appeared full, almost to bursting; it was least the time for it to send forth its fragrant blossom, and still it was completely inclosed in its natural shield and entirely hidden from view. The reason of the delay was the state of the air; it was cold and frosty, and they could only reveal "themselves to a bright sun and in a genial atmosphere; were they to open in the frosty air they would endanger their lives. A cold critical spirit is fatal to the revelations of love, it freezes the channels to the heart; and makes it impossible even for the love of God to find its way into it. But where a loving disposition exists, the love of God is sure to reveal itself.

III. RELIGION IS THE FRUIT OF A COMPLETE REVELATION.

1. The Holy Spirit has revealed the great truth that "God is light." God is the light of the soul, it is from Him we obtain the light that enables us to solve spiritual problems.

2. Another important truth has been revealed by the Spirit, that "God is love." This is done in a most effectual manner. "Because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which was given unto us."

3. The Spirit has revealed the truth that ,God is life: "For with Thee is the fountain of life." He in the first instance breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of man.

(D. Rhys Jenkins.)

1. God stands alone, and is known only to Himself.

2. He is infinitely less comprehensible than men who cannot, though of the same nation, comprehend each other.

II. ITS POSSIBILITY AND SUFFICIENCY. The Spirit —

1. Is as intimately one with God as the spirit of man is one with Himself.

2. Knows all things perfectly.

3. What He knows He can reveal.

III. ITS CONTENTS AND OPERATION.

1. It contains a revelation of the Divine purpose, of Christ, of the things prepared for us in eternity.

2. He who teaches these things awakens desire, produces faith, confirms and comforts the heart in the knowledge of them.

(R. Watson.)

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. His purposes of grace.

2. His particular dealings with individuals.

3. The glorious issue of His dispensations.

II. HE REVEALS THEM to MAN.

1. To us and in us.

2. With saving power.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. CONSIDER SOME OF THESE MYSTERIES.

1. To begin with the lowest, what do we know about the nature of matter? You can tell me as easily what the angels' wings are as tell me the ultimate constitution of a single particle of matter. Common oxygen and- hydrogen, and all elemental principles, belong by nature to the deep things of God. The very dust of the earth upon which we tread is in its real principle as unknown to us as the nature of God Himself.

2. But if the common earth is thus the wonder of science, much more is that dust a mystery when, by unknown forces, it is taken up and woven dexterously after a predetermined pattern and organised into. a thing of life. Sometimes investigators, pressing hard after the molecules of matter, have thought they had almost won the secret of life; but, just as our science seems about to put its finger upon that fugitive thing, life, it flies from its hand and we are no wiser than before. Life is one of the deep things of God, whose, origin no man can discover, and of whose future what we call death is only our ignorance. Perhaps to see the spring of life would be to see the living God Himself.

3. But if the life which colours the petal of the flower, and finds wings in the bird, and culminates in the form of man, is a mystery, what shall we say of that life when it has become conscious and is a thinking, willing mind? The human soul is one of the deepest of the deep things of God.

4. What then shall we say of all those further problems of life of which these things are, as it were, but the terms or elements? Our thoughts flutter over these deep things of God as the seabirds dip their wings in the ocean's waves. They only shake from their feathers the spray of the surface. Yet we cannot help thinking of the deep things of our soul's past, of the deeper things of its future. Whence came the evil that gives the good a bitter taste? How did death ever gain dominion over us? How did this hard, poisonous core of sin ever grow in the midst of this fair life? And who thus shall lift the veil for us from the future? We can see signs all around us of a great system of retribution. There is no doubt but that what a man sows that shall he also reap. The present retributive tendencies of things no sane man can deny. And they extend into the future; they work on and on. We can follow them out until they disappear in the unknown depths of futurity.

II. WE ARE READY NOW TO DRAW FROM SUCH REFLECTIONS SOME USEFUL AND PERTINENT CONCLUSIONS.

1. We may infer that —(1) There are some people who know more than their Creator ever intended that they should know. There are some, e.g., who know that the Bible is false, and religion a superstition, because, in this cast-iron world, a miracle seems impossible, prayer folly. Before they can be sure of that, however, they should know vastly more of the structure of this material universe than any mortal eye has as yet ever seen. Possibly this may not be a "cast-iron" universe; possibly it may be something more than a mere museum-world of biological specimens; and yet, for all we know to the contrary, this material system may be as permeable to Divine influences as this earth, which seems a globe so solid, is supposed to be open as wicker-work to all movements of the ethereal waves. "There," said Lacordaire, as he overheard in a Paris restaurant St. Beuve saying, "I cannot believe in God, because I believe only in what I understand— "there is St. Beuve, who does not believe in God because he does not understand Him; nor does he understand why the same fire melts butter and hardens eggs, and yet he eats an omelet."(2) There are people who know there can be no such place as hell, because God is good. I could trust better their assurance if only they could prove that there never could be such a place as Sodom, because God is good. Surely it is the part of a wise man not to dogmatise, but so to live as not to pitch his tent toward any Sodom, either in this world or in the world to come.(3) There are persons so wondrous wise as to know that God cannot exist as a Trinity, because three are not one. We, too, ever since we learned to count our fingers, have known that three are more than one; but there is a puzzle of arithmetic which we have not solved yet, and that is, how I can be at one and the same time the subject and the object of my own thinking — these three in one. When I cannot as yet hardly comprehend my own imperfection, I will, at least, allow God to exist in a perfection which passes my knowledge; and if revelation leads me to worship Him as a unity, complete in Himself, and not as a mere lonely, loveless unit, that needs something else to make it blessed, surely it is; a better wisdom to believe in, though we can but dimly comprehend, the unity of three eternal distinctions in the ineffable society of one blessed God.

2. But my main object is to remind you, by these questionings, of what our errand in this life really is.(1) It is very evident that the deep things of God are intended for finite minds to search. God has given us great problems for our mental exercise, and we have found out a vast deal. Truth opens new vistas to us at every turn.(2) But it is just as clear that to gain knowledge is not our chief errand here. This mortal stage is arranged for scenes of probation; it is fitted out for the formation of character. Our object is salvation. And so God follows through all man's history this supreme moral purpose, and to this end everything else in His providence seems to have been subordinated. This appears clearly enough from the reflections which we have just been pursuing; for God gratifies our love for knowledge only in so far as it seems to be for our moral good. How easy it would have been for Him to have granted us revelations of some of these mysteries! Let us remember. however, that while the shadows lie over many a field of knowledge, the light does fall directly over the narrow path of duty; and though we may not see far into the shadows of the forest on either side, yet, if we will, we can keep with resolute feet the narrow path of duty, and that is the path which leads up into the open day. Conclusion: Let us remember, then, that the great duties of life are the illuminated texts of Scripture: "Repent," "Believe," "Be converted," "Strive," "Pray," "Have the Spirit of Christ," "Set your affections on things above." These commandments of the Lord are "plain, enlightening the eyes" of whosoever wishes to see. There are many things which, as Jesus said, we shall know hereafter.

(Newman Smyth, D. D.)

2. Comprehended only by the Spirit of God.

3. Partially revealed to us.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. INSTRUCTED IN THE SUBLIMEST REALITIES. "Deep things of God." Things, not words, not theories, "deep things," deep because undiscoverable by human reason, and deep because they come from the fathomless ocean of Divine love. They are the primary elements of the gospel, and the necessary condition of soul restoration, and are —

1. The free gifts of heaven. "Freely given to us of God."

2. Freely given to be communicated. "Which things also we speak," &c. He who gets these things into his mind and heart is bound to tell them to others.

II. TAUGHT BY THE GREATEST TEACHER. "The Spirit of God." This teacher —

1. Has infinite knowledge. "The Spirit searcheth all things." "The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." He knows them in their essence, number, issues, bearings, relations, &c.

2. Is no other than God Himself (ver. 11). The implication is that this Spirit is

as truly God as man's mind is mind.

III. MUST DEVELOP HIS HIGHER NATURE (ver. 14). Man has a threefold nature — body, soul and spirit. The first is the animal, the second is the mental, and the third, the moral or spiritual. This is the conscience with its intuitions and sympathies, and this is the chief part of man, nay, the man himself. Now this part of the man alone can receive the "things of the Spirit of God." Set these things before the "natural man," his mere body, they are no more to him than Euclid to a brute. Set them before the mere psychical or intellectual man, and they are "foolishness unto him." Sheer intellect cannot understand love nor appreciate right. It concerns itself with the truth or falsehood of propositions, and the advantages and disadvantages of conduct, nothing more. Moral love only can interpret and feel the things of moral love, the "deep things of God." Hence this spiritual nature must be roused from its dormancy, and become the ascendant nature before the "things of the Spiritcan be "discerned," and then the man shall judge all spiritual things, whilst he himself will not be judged rightly by any "natural man(ver. 16). Who thus uninstructed can "know the mind of the Lord"?

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

1. Very little of himself.

2. Still less of his fellow-man.

3. Least of all about God.

II. THIS SHOULD TEACH HIM —

1. Modesty in his judgments.

2. Humility in his inquiries.

3. Confidence in the Word of God, for the Spirit knoweth all things.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

2. But under this outward living another and a deeper being lies. Those around you may know just as well as you do, the externalities of your life, and yet be profoundly ignorant about all that concerns your real, inward life. And it was of this inner world that St. Paul was thinking. In one short solitary walk, just think how many thoughts pass through your minds of which your nearest and dearest can never know. And nothing more illustrates the truth of the text than to think how differently the same scene may affect different persons, according to the associations linked with it.

3. This great ignorance of the inner life of those around us —

I. SHOULD TEACH US TO BE CHARITABLE IN OUR JUDGMENTS AND ESTIMATES OF THOSE ABOUND US. YOU cannot penetrate into the soul of your fellow-sinner, and know for certain what is passing there. Beware, then, how you think or say concerning him what may be cruel injustice. Let us think the best we can of our brethren in sin and sorrow.

II. SHOULD COMFORT THOSE WHO MOURN THE LOSS OF FRIENDS. It is sometimes a cause of grief and anxiety to the relatives of the dying, that they will not be brought to speak of their religious faith and feelings in that frank way which some would wish. Ah, you do not know what solemn thoughts pass in the unseen world within your departing friend's breast. Where a Christian profession gives good hope of a Christian end, you may well use this text as it were to eke out the humble trust of the happiness of one departed which you may fail to derive from his own brief and reserved words.

III. SHOULD TEACH US OUR GREAT NEED TO HAVE CHRIST FOR OUR FRIEND. For the text suggests to us the very awful thought that each one of us, by our make and nature, is a solitary being. Even in the case of those who know us best, there is a most imperfect knowledge day by day of our most real life. Our awful gift of personality parts us off from all created beings. Our spirits live each in its own sphere: and we cannot explain to one another. Do you want a friend, who, without your needing to tell him, will know your every shade of thought, of anxiety, of weakness, of sorrow, and who will discern the heartiness that glows through your every prayer, your every act of faith and love, the sincerity of your every struggle with temptation, the thousand things which you could not if you would confide to those you love best, and which if you could you would not. If you want all this — and every Christian does want all this — then come to Jesus.

(A. H. K. Boyd, D. D.)

1. Life is first unfolded through outward nature. In that rudest state of humanity, which seems almost instinctive, we might imagine individuality as nearly impossible, but so it is not; and monotonous as the ideas and experience may appear, they become incorporated with a distinct life, in the personality of each soul. But does not outward nature afford manifest evidence that it is intended to unfold life through higher feelings than sensation? Is there no other purpose for sight than discernment of our position and our way? Is there no other purpose for hearing than the simple perception of sound? Why are there flowers in the field? Why are blossoms on the trees? Why is the rainbow painted with hues so inimitable? Or, why, also, do the waves make music with the shore? These are not necessary to feed, or lodge, or clothe us; they are not necessary to mere labour or mere intercourse. They afford nutriment to the inherent life of rational creatures. The life is indeed but narrowly unfolded in which the sense of beauty in outward nature is dull or wanting. Not to mark the seasons, except by the profit or the loss they bring; to think of days and nights as mere alternations of toil and sleep; to discern in the river only its adaptation for factories; to be blind, and deaf, and callous, to all but the hardest uses of creation, is to leave out of conscious being whatever gives the universe its most vital reality. Such a life may be called a prudent life, and, for its object, it may be an eminently successful life; but its object is paltry, and its success on the level of its object. Not that men are expected to be poets or artists, or to have the peculiar temperaments that characterise poets or artists. Not that men are expected to talk of their experience of enjoyment in nature, or to affect it if they have it not. I merely insist that the sensibilities be open to every influence of natural beauty; and I hold that if these sensibilities belong not to the individual constitution, there is a deficit in it. If the world has deadened them, the world has done the being a serious injury; if education or religious culture has not been such as to incite them, each has failed in one of the most vital offices of a true spiritual culture. Outward nature, also, unfolds life by exercising thought; not thought which is busied only about wants, but thought which delights to seek the end of creation's laws and mysteries. But life is unfolded in its loftiest capacities when everywhere in outward nature the soul is conscious of God's pervading presence; when it sees the goodness of God in all that is lovely, and the wisdom of God in all that is true. Every man, whether he knows it or not, is an incarnation of the immortal; and through his immortality all things that connect themselves with his soul are immortal. In every loving soul, therefore, according to the measure of its power, God re-constructs the heavens and the earth.

2. The individual being of man is also unfolded by society. It is born into society, and by society it lives. Existing at first in passive and unconscious instincts, it finds protection in the care of intelligent affections. The home, therefore, is the first circle within which personality opens, and it is always the nearest. Beyond this, the individual is surrounded with circumstances more complex. He is cast among persons whose wills are not only different from his own, but constantly antagonistic to it. And thus in society, as in nature, the unfolding of his being will be by resistance as well as by affinity. The most self-complete personality can have no development but by means of society. Intellect works by means of society. Thinkers the most abstract have not all their materials of reflection in themselves. The studies that belong purely to the mind as well as those that belong to matter, and to the active relations of life, require observation, comparison, sagacity, variety of acquisition, and experience. No man can be a thinker by mere self-contemplation. He might as well expect to become a physiognomist by always gazing in a mirror, or to become a geographer by measuring the dimensions of his chamber. A man is revealed even to himself by the action on him of external things, and of other minds. Imagination works by means of society. For society it builds and sculptures, paints, forms its concords of sweet sounds, and puts its dreams into melody and measure. But for society, virtue could neither have existence nor a name. Society, by its occupations and injunctions, by the contact in which it places will to will, by its excitements and its sympathies, elicits the power of the moral nature: society it is that trains this power, tries it, strengthens it, matures it; is the arena of its contest, is the field of its victories. But if in society the moral nature has its contests, in society also it has its charities. But while society, whether in calm or conflict, unfolds life, to this its agency should he bounded. It should not be allowed to absorb the individual life, or to crush it. With the strength, the freedom, the integrity of thought and conscience; with honest and unoffending idiosyncrasies, it has no claim to interfere. Men in our age live gregariously; and if the aggregation were for exertion and for work, this might be a benefit; but men think, men feel conventionally, and this is an evil. It enfeebles, it impoverishes the life; it depresses, nay, it denounces originality, it takes away all stimulus to meditation, reflection, or any strong mental effort. I do not impeach the value of public opinion, but I do not bow to it as an authority, nor accept it as a guide. Life in our age is too much in the mass for any thorough spiritual culture; and life is too much in the outward for any intensity of individual character. If those who use efforts for others, and use them seriously, would first use them to the utmost on their own spirits, society would advance more quickly towards regeneration. There is a mawkish tendency in some to charge their failings on this or that cause out of themselves. They were tempted, the evil was placed in their way, and they could neither pass by it nor bound over it. This is a cowardly spirit which, after all, absolves not from the transgression, while it pulls down the soul into the deepest pit of degradation. It is just as far from genuine repentance and humility as it is from honesty and heroism. When we judge others we must make every merciful allowance; but we must not teach themselves to do so; nor must we do so when we judge ourselves. I have said that we should hold every man's personality sacred, as well as our own, and I repeat it. Why should I wish to compel any man, if such were possible, to live my life, think my thoughts, accept my opinions, believe my creed, worship at my altar. If such desire were not utterly foolish, would it not be the climax of presumption? Some one may object that the personality which I defend is an obstinate egotism. Not at all. Nor is it combative or exacting, but charitable and liberal. The absence of a true individuality produces many of the gloomiest evils with which society is deformed. Why else do people consider the meat as more than the life, and the raiment more than the body? Why else do they so esteem that which is not their being, and so little that which is? Why else do people ape the talents of others, and neglect those which are their own? Why do they so abortively attempt the work they cannot do, and overlook the work they can? Let a man be satisfied to be himself, and he will not be dissatisfied because he is not another. He will not, then, be hostile to that other for being what he is; nay, he will rejoice in all by which that other is ennobled; he will lament for all by which he is degraded. For a man, therefore, to be himself, fully, honestly, completely, does not circumscribe his communion, it makes it wider. But a man should not be content to be only roughly himself. A man ought to labour to beautify and harmonise in his interior personality; and if that be done, there will be no confusion in his exterior relationships. And what a glorious work is this! If the sculptor spends years in toil to shape hard marble into grace, and then dies contented, what should not a man be willing to bear and do, when it is a deathless spirit that he forms to immortal loveliness? After all, there is much of one's life that is not unfolded; much that remains uncommunicated, or that is incommunicable. The very medium, language, by which spirit holds converse with spirit, is inadequate to transmit the plainest thought as it is in the mind of the speaker. Language is not representative, but suggestive, and no merely spiritual idea is exactly the same in any two minds. How much of life passes within us, that we make no attempt to impart, that we have no opportunity to impart. If we find such to be our ordinary experience in life, what shall we say of its more solemn passages? Can any man, and let him be of surpassing eloquence, communicate an absorbing thought, and the interest with which it fills him? No; we try in vain to express an overflowing joy; as vainly go we attempt to put into utterance a deeply-seated grief. Even bodily pain we cannot make the most sympathising understand. And then death — death always in shadow, always in silence, always absolute in isolation! Who, then, can know the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? What misgivings, what memories, what darkening fears, what dawning hopes, may then agitate the breast, and none can know, and none can share them! We shall not seek to pierce the mystery. These solemn isolations we ought not to forget; they must, sooner or later, come to us all, and it is but common prudence to gather strength to meet them. The view that I have given in this discourse of life, some, I doubt not, will consider lonely. A great part of life must indeed be lonely. In a pure and reflective loneliness there is strength, and there is depth in it. There is great enrichment in it. To get at the meanings and mysteries of things we must converse with them alone. So the thinker is lonely; the poet is lonely; the hero is lonely; the saint is lonely; the martyr is lonely. Social affection has, indeed, great beauty; public spirit much worth: energetic talents have abundant utility; but it is by habits of independent and solitary meditation that they are matured, deepened, and consolidated.

(H. Giles.)

1. Only the spirit of man knows what is in man.

2. So the Spirit of God only knows the things of God.

3. Hence the things of God can only be known by him who has the Spirit.

II. HOW IT IS OBTAINABLE.

1. Not by him who has the spirit of the world.

2. But by him who receives the Spirit by a new birth, and consequently by the Spirit understands the things that God has freely given in His Word.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

2. Again every one is conscious of secret thoughts and depths in his own soul which only himself can fathom. He has feelings within feelings, which no other person can ever thoroughly understand, but which, to his own consciousness, make his individuality and his whole being.

3. Put these two truths together, and you arrive at a double analogy. As only "man" knows "man," and as only one's self knows one's self, "even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God."

I. Only God knows God. 'The Holy Ghost is God. Therefore the Holy Ghost "knows God." But he WHO IS "BORN OF GODHAS THE HOLY GHOST IN HIM, AND HE, AND HE ONLY, CAN "KNOW GOD." It is not your reading, reasoning, listening, philosophy, piety, or prayers that will enable you to know God, but only the Holy Ghost in you. We live in the midst of two worlds, equally real, equally definite. The one is that material universe which we see, and feel, and touch. The other is —

1. A veiled world till a touch of Omnipotence opens it. You may walk in the midst of it all your life, and yet never know that it is there. To another — at your very side — these things are, at this moment, more real and more distinct than your world is to you.

2. A spiritual world, made up of spiritual pleasures, pains, conflicts, tastes, friendships, services. It is here. But it wants a new faculty to see it. Suppose, at this moment, another bodily sense were added to your five senses, what new channels of thought and enjoyment that sixth sense would add to you! And this unseen system requires a new sense before it can be perceived.

3. A much higher world. The natural world is very lovely; but it is only the shadow of that spiritual world. What if you should find, at last, that all along you have been contented with the shadow, and that you have never grasped the substance of life, because your eyes were never opened to see it?

II. IF, THEN, EVERYTHING IN SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE DEPENDS ON THE INDWELLING OF THE HOLY GHOST, THE GREAT QUESTION IS, HOW CAN I ENJOY IT? Only by union with Christ. Only the grafted branch can get the sap. Only the united member partakes of the life's blood. The first act of union takes place by the free working of the grace of God. This is conversion; the new life. After that, many things will promote its increase — specially the Word of God, and prayer, and good works. Then, through union, comes the Holy Ghost; through the Holy Ghost, the knowledge of God; through the knowledge of God, the image of God; through the image of God, God; and through God, heaven.

(J. Vaughan, M. A.)

(Dean Goulburn.)

I. A Spirit of TRUTH. By witnessing to the truth He condemns —

1. The errors of the world.

2. The hypocrisies of the world.

3. The false judgments of the world.

II. A Spirit of LOVE. He inspires —

1. Love to God. Gratitude takes the place of cold thoughtlessness, sympathy with the redeeming work of Jesus takes the place of selfish isolation.

2. Love to our neighbour. One great form in which the world's selfishness finds expression is covetousness. The Spirit of God destroys it, and fills the heart with its opposite, benevolence.

III. A Spirit of ZEAL. His descent was accompanied with mighty rushing winds and cloven tongues of fire. These manifested —

1. The mystery of His nature.

2. The efficacy of His grace.

3. The majesty of His presence.

4. The facility and promptitude of His operations.

5. The impression which He would make upon the apostles.He came to change the whole aspect of society. The world was absorbed in love of the visible, occupied in things present, was indifferent to the future. The darkness of superstition and infidelity had again covered the face of the deep. The disciples, timid, feeble, and unlettered men, when inspired of God, became courageous, powerful and victorious. The Spirit of God inspires us with zeal —

(1)To confess our religion.

(2)To practise it.

(Bp. Adam Flechier.)

1. The spirit of the world is mean and grovelling; the spirit which is of God is noble and elevated. The man of the earth, making himself the object of all his actions, and having his own interest perpetually in view, conducts his life by maxims of utility alone. The citizen of heaven scorns the vile arts, and the low cunning, employed by the man of the earth. He condescends, indeed, to every gentle office of kindness and humanity. But there is a difference between condescending and descending from the dignity of character. From that he never descends.

2. The spirit of the world is a spirit of falsehood, dissimulation, and hypocrisy: the spirit that is of God is a spirit of truth, sincerity, and openness. The life which the man of the earth leads is a scene of imposture and delusion. Show without substance; appearance without reality; professions of friendship which signify nothing; and promises which are never meant to be performed, fill up a life which is all outside. The citizen of heaven esteems truth as sacred, and holds sincerity to be the first of the virtues. He has no secret doctrines to communicate. He needs no chosen confidents to whom he may impart his favourite notions. What he avows to God, he avows to man. He expresseth with his tongue what he thinketh with his heart.

3. The spirit of the world is a timid spirit; the spirit which is of God is a bold and manly spirit. Actuated by selfish principles, and pursuing his own interest, the man of fine earth is afraid to offend. He accommodates himself to the manners that prevail, and courts the favour of the world by the most insinuating of all kinds of flattery by following its example. He is a mere creature of the times; a mirror to reflect every vice of the vicious, and every vanity of the vain. He is timid because he has reason to be so. Wickedness, condemned by its own vileness, is timorous, and forecasteth grievous things. There is a dignity in virtue which keeps him at a distance; he feels how awful goodness is, and in the presence of a virtuous man he shrinks into his own insignificance. On the other hand, the righteous is bold as a lion. With God for his protector, and with innocence for his shield, he walks through the world with a face that looks upwards. He despises a fool, though he were possessed of all the gold of Ophir, and scorns a vile man, though a minister of state.

4. The spirit of the world is an interested spirit; the spirit which is of God is a generous spirit. The man of the earth has no feeling but for himself. That generosity of sentiment which expands the soul; that charming sensibility of heart which makes us glow for the good of others; that diffusive benevolence, reduced to a principle of action, which makes the human nature approach to the Divine, he considers as the dreams of a visionary head, as the figments of a romantic mind that knows not the world. But the spirit which is of God is as generous as the spirit of the world is sordid. One of the chief duties in the spiritual life is to deny itself. Christianity is founded upon the most astonishing instance of generosity and love that ever was exhibited to the world; and they have no pretensions to the Christian character who feel not the truth of what their Master said, "That it is more blessed to give than to receive."

(J. Logan.)

I. THERE ARE MANY THINGS FREELY GIVEN TO US BY GOD. "The great things of His law" are "free gifts." Pardon, holiness, "heaven upon earth," are free gifts. Christ is "the unspeakable gift," and "eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

II. THESE FREE GIFTS MUST BE KNOWN AND APPRECIATED, OR THEY WILL NOT BE RECEIVED BY US. Allowing that some free gifts of Providence can be physically received by the thankless and fleshly mind, they are only partially received by such. If I do not understand, or appreciate, the labour of the artist, he may have given me some sheets of canvas and some ounces of paint, but he cannot give me his picture. The musician may freely give me the treasures that have enriched his soul, and yet my inner self, through my lack of knowledge, fail to receive a single emotion: so, the Divine Harmonist may freely give the harmony of heaven, but these joys are only received by those who know them. "This is life eternal, that they may know Thee," &c. "We know that the Son of God is come."

III. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD'S FREE GIFT IS DEPENDENT ON THE SPIRIT THAT WE HAVE RECEIVED. It depends on the spirit of a man what is the truth that is forced upon him. Imagine the truths conveyed to a group of men before any given scene. There are the scientific spirit, the spirit of the historian, of the politician, of the artist, of the soldier, of the philanthropist; each receives different things, because perceiving different objects. The same thing occurs in respect of spiritual life. If our spirit is haughty or selfish, how can we know, or receive, free gifts that require for their appreciation self-condemnation and self-forgetfulness? If our spirit is false, how can we receive, or know, that which depends on the faithfulness and truthfulness of God? "The natural man receiveth not," &c. If there is no spirit of self-dissatisfaction, how can we appreciate the promise of pardon and life? The spirit of a man is open to influences from other spirits. One man may pour his spirit into another's, communicate it to society, enshrine it in the common motives and aspirations of the race. And, just as every man has a spirit of his own, so societies, communities, nations, the world itself, may have a spirit which reacts upon the individual spirits which compose them. We speak correctly of the spirit of the age, of a system, of a class, and of the world.

IV. THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD IS UTTERLY INSUFFICIENT FOR THE PURPOSE HERE INDICATED. This spirit has differed at different times in the world's history. Some day the spirit of the world will be the Spirit of God. Ignorance identifies them now, and philosophy tries to prove it. The apostle was not deluded by the false philosophy of Greece. We must not be deceived by the dicta of either France or Germany. Note some characteristics of this spirit in the days of Paul.

1. Sensuality. If not sensual now, still it is sensuous and materialistic. But the things given by God are spiritual and eternal. "Therefore," &c.

2. Selfishness. This blinds the eye to God's gifts. We suffer as much from the selfishness of trade, politics, religion, art, and even philanthropy, as Paul did, though it may be more subtle in its manifestations. "Therefore," &c.

3. Cruelty. The harsh repression of natural instincts — parental, filial, conjugal; e.g., the amphitheatre, modes of warfare, court intrigues. The spirit of the world

is materially changed in this respect, but its traces are still to be seen, and they war with God's free gifts.

4. The love and lust of conquest.

5. The love of money.

6. Enterprise. But in all these respects, in proportion as we catch and embody the spirit of the world, we incapacitate ourselves for knowing or receiving the things freely given to us of God.

V. THE RECEPTION OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD WILL STRIKE A RELATION AT ONCE BETWEEN OUR UNDERSTANDING AND THE TRUTH — between our hearts and the Divine appeals to our feelings — between our wills and the calls of duty and self-sacrifice. "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." We may have this Spirit if we will; we have quenched and resisted more of this Spirit than is enough to do for us all we want. Receive the Spirit. Pray for an abundance of it. "If ye, being evil," &c.

(H. R. Reynolds, D. D.)

II. THIS PECULIAR SPIRIT GIVES CHRISTIANS A PECULIAR KNOWLEDGE OF SPIRITUAL AND DIVINE THINGS. "That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."

1. The spirit of love which Christians receive from God removes that ignorance of spiritual and Divine things which is peculiar to sinners. As the removal of scales from a blind man's eyes will remove all the blindness, so love must certainly remove all that blindness or ignorance which arises from selfishness (vers. 14, 15; 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4, 6; 2 Corinthians 3:14-18).

2. The way in which God enlightens the minds of men in the peculiar knowledge of Himself is by changing their hearts, or giving them a pure, benevolent spirit. "I will give them an heart to know Me." As their ignorance of God arose from the blindness of their hearts, so in order to remove that kind of ignorance, He determined to give them a wise and understanding heart, or a spirit of true benevolence.

3. There is no other possible way by which God can give Christians the knowledge of Himself and Divine objects, but by giving to them His own Spirit, or shedding abroad His love in their hearts. He cannot convey this peculiar spiritual knowledge by mere inspiration. He inspired Saul, Balaam, Caiaphas, but this did not remove the blindness of their hearts. And Paul supposes a man may have the gift of prophecy, &c., and yet be totally destitute of the true love and knowledge of God. Inspiration has no tendency to change the heart, but only to convey knowledge to the understanding. For the same reason, God cannot give men this knowledge of Himself by moral suasion, or the mere exhibition of Divine truth, nor by mere convictions of guilt, fears of punishment, or hopes of happiness; the only way in which He can give it is by giving them a benevolent heart. For —(1) By exercising benevolence themselves, they know how all benevolent beings feel — God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, angels, &c. So the apostle argues in the text and context. As one man knows what his rational faculties are, or what his own selfish feelings are, so he knows what another man's are. Just so, says the apostle, we who have received the Spirit which is God, know the things of God.(2) The peculiar spirit which they have.(3) This spirit necessarily gives Christians a peculiar knowledge of the distinguishing truths of the gospel. The whole scheme of the gospel was devised and adopted in, is carried on, and will be completed by benevolence. Benevolence, therefore, prepares Christians to understand it (Ephesians 3:17-19).Conclusion: If the peculiar knowledge which Christians have of God and of Divine things arises from benevolence, then —

1. There is nothing mysterious in experimental religion. Christians have experienced no other change, but from sin to holiness, or from selfishness to benevolence. There is nothing more mysterious in loving God than in hating Him. The men of the world love to hear experimental religion represented as mysterious, because they are ready to conclude that they are excusable for not understanding it. All experimental religion consists in disinterested benevolence. And is this a mystery which sinners cannot understand? By no means; they can fully understand and oppose it.

2. There is no superstition or enthusiasm in vital piety, or experimental religion, for benevolence leads those who possess it to hate and oppose all superstition and enthusiasm.

3. They who are real Christians may know that they are such. The Spirit which they have received from God, bears witness with their spirit that they are the children of God. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren."

4. They may always be able to give a reason of the hope that is in them, though unable to exhibit all the external evidences of the Divinity of the gospel. They know the gospel is Divine, by the Divine effects it has produced in their hearts.

5. Sinners may know that they are sinners, by the spirit of the world, which reigns within them, and governs all their conduct.

(N. Emmons, D. D.)

1. Learning.

2. Reason.

3. Genius.

II. BUT THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

1. Divinely communicated.

2. Divinely acting upon their minds.

3. And thus enabling them to know the things freely given them of God.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

1. The evil element that surrounds the Church.

2. The insinuating guile that ensnares it.

3. The espionage that betrays it; like Delilah, it ensnares with flattery and song, deprives of the secret all strength, and delights in the discovered weakness.

II. THE CURE OF THE CHURCH. The Spirit which is of God.

1. It is found in a Divine gift. The Holy Spirit that enlightens, regenerates, sanctifies, comforts, and strengthens, is received as a supernatural deposit by every one who repents of sin, believes in Christ, and practises holiness.

2. This is the royal amulet of the Church. It protects the Church with the "love of the Spirit." It conducts the Church by "the Spirit of truth." It commends the Church by the Spirit of purity.

3. It is the infinite resource of the Church; obtained by the intercession of Christ it is to "abide with us for ever."

III. THE CROWN OF THE CHURCH. The highest point of Church life — "that we might know the things," &c.

(J. Odell.)

1. Not from worldly sources.

2. But from the Spirit of God.

3. Through the medium of the Word of God.

II. HOW HE IMPARTS IT.

1. Not according to human wisdom.

2. But in dependence upon the Spirit of God.

3. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

1. Spiritual in their nature (ver. 13). They relate to God, who is a Spirit; to the soul and its spiritual concerns; to heaven, its society, employments, and pleasures, which are purely spiritual.

2. Divine in their origin: "given to us of God." All the great and good things of the gospel are in Him and come from Him.

3. Free in their communication; clearly made known, but "freely given to us." They flow to men, irrespective of human worthiness; communicated "without money and without price."

II. THE KNOWLEDGE OF THESE THINGS IS —

1. Personal. In order to its answering any useful end we must have it for ourselves.

2. Scriptural. Our acquaintance with "the things freely given to us of Godmust be according to the truer nature of these things; it must agree with the gospel.

3. Accompanied with faith. Let his views be ever so Scriptural and correct, they are of no saving worth unless he give credit to them with his whole soul.

4. Productive of fruit. Faith is known by its fruit, and the value of knowledge is determined by its influence and effects.

III. THE WAY IN WHICH THIS KNOWLEDGE IS ATTAINED. "We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God."

1. What this spirit was not. The spirit of the wise of the world was not friendly to the gospel. It was a spirit of pride, of self-sufficiency, of prejudice, and conceit. The spirit of the world is —(1) "The spirit of error." It cannot therefore be friendly to our knowledge of the truth.(2) "The spirit that lusteth to envy."(3) "The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." If we are true Christians we have not received but have renounced this spirit. It is "from beneath."

2. Who this Spirit was — "the Spirit which is of God." This is a good Spirit, the reverse of that which we have noticed and producing opposite effects. Observe —(1) His names: The Holy Spirit and Spirit of holiness; the Spirit of wisdom, of grace, of truth, of Christ.(2) His offices — to teach, guide, enlighten, enliven, comfort, purify. The text suggests His office as a Teacher; for He is received "that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God." The Father teaches by the Spirit; and His teaching invariably leads to faith and hope and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 16:13, 14). Conclusion: What is the knowledge which you are seeking? Is it, or is it not, the knowledge of "the things which are freely given to us of God"? Acquaintance with other things is lawful and proper, but what can compensate for ignorance of the things which belong to our peace? The season of youth is most friendly to the acquisition of knowledge; and this applies to the knowledge of the gospel; but how rarely are young persons in earnest in this concern!

2. What is the proficiency which you are making? This question particularly concerns aged professors. You have long been planted in the house of the Lord, but what is your growth? Does your progress keep pace with your years?

3. What is the spirit which you have, and under which you live? Is it "the spirit of the worldor "the Spirit which is of God"?

(T. Kidd.)

1. The Word of God —

2. Which contains a revelation of Divine truth.

3. Freely given.

4. Of God.

II. ITS MEANS.

1. The Scriptures are to be understood not by the help of mere learning or criticism —

2. But by the assistance of the Holy Spirit —

3. Which we receive by faith and prayer.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

1. Real, not ideal; not to be imagined, admired, but "known." The gospel scheme is of surpassing beauty, but its aim is not to enchant the fancy, but to enrich the experience.

2. Many and various "things" not single or stereotyped. Our Father has more than our blessing for His children, and those blessings differ according to the object to which, or the circumstances under which, they are given.

3. Practical, not speculative. True, there are "things which angels desire to look into" in the gospel; but in the main it is not a thing to be reasoned about but to be enjoyed in the heart and exhibited to the life.

4. Divine not human. Man never saw, heard, or imagined them, much less invented or created them.

II. THE GIVER — "God."

1. Infinite in resources, and therefore "able to do exceeding abundantly." "Enough for all, enough for each," &c.

2. Loving in disposition, and therefore willing and ready to supply all our need.

3. Wise in administration, and therefore suiting the gift exactly according to the requirements of the recipients, and so augmenting their values.

III. THE MANNER. "Freely."

1. Without restriction. The gifts are needed by all, and are therefore given without respect to nation, class, rank, &c.

2. Without cost. The water of life is offered freely because none could purchase it.

2. Without regard to merit, because above all merit.

(J. W. Burn.)

II. THEIR FREENESS. They are given lavishly, abundantly, and without price or tax, so that the poorest may have equal chances with the rich. Every man may find a hundred ways leading straight into the King's presence; the grassy way, open to humblest men; the starry way, trodden by loftier minds; the providential way, studied by the patient in their retirement and suffering, so that neither the blind nor the weak shall be lost for want of an open road to heaven. This is Godlike. "He that spared not His own Son," &c. "Not as the world giveth, give I unto you." God giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not. But here is a peculiar temptation. The very largeness of the inheritance is a temptation to neglect or extravagance. Let us watch ourselves, or we may turn the bounty of God into an occasion of sin.

III. THEIR REVELATION (ver. 10). Even the things that are seen require to be made clear by revelation. How much more the testimony which is addressed to an understanding perverted and a heart poisoned by sin? The Bible is revelation, ,but the revelation itself needs to be revealed. "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may ,behold wondrous things out of Thy law." "Then opened He their understandings that they might understand the scriptures." The inspiring Spirit must make plain She book He hath inspired or it will be a letter hard, cold, friendless: but with the Spirit it will show you its beauty, its unsearchable riches. Is it enough to snatch it up and hastily peruse the dead print? Not so did the saints of old study the lively oracles. "O how I love Thy law, it is my meditation all the day."

IV. THE DISADVANTAGE OF HAVING TO PUT THEM INTO HUMAN WORDS (ver. 13). To show our own cleverness in the use of words has been at once the temptation and the curse of Christendom. Fewer words, plainer words, the better; more thought, more feeling, more devotion, that is what we want (ver. 1). All the Christian preachers whose fame is immortal in England at least have been, from a scholastic point of view, more or less rude in expression, so that in their case it was not by might nor by power, but by God's Spirit, that the great victories for Christ were won. Worldly wisdom is the curse of preaching.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

(J. King Lord.)

1. Let us observe the simple word "given," a word so simple that one would think it impossible to be mistaken.(1) Let it stand by the side of the word "offer." For there are some that say God merely offers grace and salvation in the gospel. But God says that He gives grace and salvation. The offer only comes half way, and there stops, but the gift comes home. So it is in the things of God. When God intends grace for any poor soul, He does not stop half way and wait for our closing with His offer, but He comes home to our very soul, and makes a sure lodgment of the blessing.(2) Further, if to give means to offer, it certainly means much more than to sell; for there be some who tell us that God gives upon conditions, or, in other words, sells grace; into which error they have been drawn by their inability to perceive that the "ifs" of the New Testament are not conditional, but evidential. I know of no other condition on which sinners are saved but the death of the Son of God.

2. Lest we should make a mistake concerning the matter or manner of God's giving, He hath added another word here to clear it up; we read of the things "freely" given to us of God. We know the miserly disposition of some men, who in order to preserve a decent appearance in the world lay out some of their money in charity, yet have so niggardly a way of doing it, and such an ungracious manner in bestowing it, that an honest man would rather go without than accept anything at their hands. Now, God would have us know that He is not one of these niggardly people, and therefore tells us that what He gives, He also freely gives. But in order to constitute it a free gift two things are necessary; it must be done without compulsion, and without condition; either of these destroy the freeness here spoken of.

3. Again, let us remark how God's free giving is further illustrated by another word which stands contrasted with it in the sentence: "We have received." Now this expression takes away all idea of any merit, power, or wisdom in the favoured objects of God's bounty, as completely as does the former; and when both are viewed together, they give a twofold testimony to the truth of the grace of God.

II. THE THINGS THEMSELVES WHICH ARE FREELY GIVEN TO US OF GOD. What is there which God hath not given us? for the apostle in the next chapter tells the believers in Jesus, "All things are yours," &c. But sweet as this description is, what would all this be, what would heaven be to him that loves God in His beloved Son, if the object of that love formed no part of the heavenly enjoyment? Therefore also God hath abundantly revealed it to us, that of these "all things" we speak of, He hath given Himself both as the cause and the substance; so that we may know that as all blessings come from God, so all blessedness is centred in God. Now to show this from Scripture that God gives Himself to us, we may observe that single sentence more than ten times repeated in the Bible, "I will be their God!" There is a twofold meaning in these words. First, I will give Myself over to them in covenant characters. All this is expressed in those words of Hosea (chap. Hosea 2:19, 20). Having thus made Himself over to us, He becomes bound to us to deal with us in lovingkindness and tender mercies. But there is another meaning of it which comes nearer to the point. God gives us Himself most truly when He gives us His Christ, for He is over all God blessed for ever, Amen. God in Christ, and Christ in God, shall be the Sun of heaven; a Sun that shall no more go down. If God thus makes over Himself for our eternal consolation and blessedness, how can we doubt whether or no He hath also given all things together with Him. Having given the greater, how could He withhold the less? (Romans 8:39). So, then, we need argue that matter no further; but of the "all things" here spoken of I would merely select one as being most important to be known, which is our complete justification, called by the apostle the gift of righteousness (Hebrews 9:26). Now a word or two more shall be added to show that we are really righteous before God by the presence of righteousness. And, first, it will appear from many parts of Scripture, that where there is an absence of sin, there is and must be the presence of righteousness; in short, that one cannot be without the other. This is shown plainly by Daniel 9:24, where he enumerates the blessings to be brought upon the Church by the advent of Messiah, at the expiration of the seventy weeks; for He was not only to "finish transgression," and make "an end of sin," but to bring in "everlasting righteousness." Here both the one and The other are attributed to the same event; and therefore he that believeth in that Messiah hath not only his sins put off, but an everlasting righteousness put on. Again, David saith (Psalm 32:1). But what is the Holy Ghost's comment on those words by the pen of Paul? David, says he, "describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works(Romans 4:6): so, then, what can be clearer than this, that where sin is not imputed righteousness is imputed, and this makes the believer doubly blessed. Again, this truth may be made to appear yet more clearly by comparison. There are some things in nature so completely contrary that the one cannot exist where the other is, and the absence of the one plainly indicates the presence of the other. The absence of sickness is health; the absence of darkness is light; the absence of filth is cleanliness. So in like manner the absence of sin is righteousness. Now observe how it is, that of sick, filthy, and dark sinners, we become healthy, and clean, and saints of light.

1. "By His stripes we are healed(Isaiah 53:5). Here is our sickness gone, and health established.

2. "The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin(1 John 1:7). Here is filthiness abolished, and cleanliness in its place.

3. "Ye were once darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord(Ephesians 5:8). Here "the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth."

III. "WE KNOW THE THINGS THAT ARE FREELY GIVEN TO US OF GOD," AND THAT, NOT BY THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, BUT BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD. Could we tell the world no more than what we have already considered we should have told them great things; for the love of the Father, and the Son, eternal and unfathomable, are therein revealed; but we have some of the Spirit's: love yet to declare, who giveth us the most comfortable knowledge of these things. We grant, indeed, that with our bodily eyes we have never seen Christ Jesus the Lord; but the Lord giveth to His children an eye even to see clearly things in themselves invisible. But if it be asked, How do we arrive at this most excellent and comfortable knowledge? The words of the text plainly answers, "We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." By the spirit of the world is here peculiarly meant worldly wisdom, which in the preceding chapter he has shown to be utterly unprofitable in order to teach us the deep things of God. But that which maketh us wise unto salvation, and teacheth us that we are sinners saved by Christ's blood, is the wisdom which cometh from above, the gift of the Spirit of God. No man is possessed of this heavenly wisdom except he be a heavenly man, that is, except he be born from above.

(H. B. Bulteel, M. A.)

1. He has received the Spirit.

2. Is instructed by the Spirit.

3. Speaks with the demonstration of the Spirit.

II. AFTER CAREFUL STUDY OF GOD'S WORD. Comparing, selecting, with much humility and prayer.

III. HE CANNOT, THEREFORE, ACCOMMODATE HIMSELF TO THE WISDOM OF THIS WORLD —

1. Either by modifying his doctrine to please worldly men —

2. Or adopting a worldly method of address.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. ITS NEED. The natural condition of the mind is spiritual darkness: hence illumination is necessary to the apprehension of spiritual things (Luke 11:36; 1 Corinthians 2:9-14; Ephesians 1:18).

II. ITS AUTHOR. It is ascribed to each person of the Trinity.

1. God (2 Corinthians 4:6).

2. The Son (John 1:9; 1 Corinthians 4:5).

3. The Holy Spirit (John 14:26).

III. ITS INSTRUMENT. The revealed Word of God (Psalm 119:105).

IV. ITS AGENCY. The ministry of reconciliation. Preaching may awake men to their need of spiritual illumination (Ephesians 3:9).

V. HOW OBTAINED.

1. By the careful reading of the Word.

2. By prayer (Psalm 119:18).

(L. O. Thompson.)

1. Not according to human rules.

2. But under the teaching of the Spirit.

3. In conformity with the Word of God.

II. BY WHOM THEY ARE TO BE DISPENSED.

1. Not by unconverted men, for they cannot understand them.

2. But by those who are spiritual, who are indifferent to the judgment of man, and have the mind of Christ.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. ADAPTING SPIRITUAL WORDS TO SPIRITUAL THINGS, and not language incongruous, as we should be doing if we spoke the things of God in words taught by human wisdom. But the apostle has already said this in effect, and according to this view there is a play on the word "spiritual" which is not in his manner; for "spiritual words" can only mean words taught by the Spirit (Ephesians 5:19), but "spiritual things" must mean things that reveal God.

II. ADAPTING SPIRITUAL THINGS TO SPIRITUAL MEN. But this is the direct opposite of what Paul declares, that spiritual men understand spiritual things, so that no adaptation of them to their capacity is needed.

III. INTERPRETING SPIRITUAL THINGS TO SPIRITUAL MEN. But it is only in reference to dreams and visions that the word συγκρίνω means "to interpret," and that with few exceptions in the LXX. In no passage are the things of God represented as dreams to be interpreted, or allegories of which the apostles have the key.

IV. INTERPRETING SPIRITUAL THINGS BY SPIRITUAL WORDS is open to the same objection.

V. PROVING THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUAL THINGS (whether Old Testament types or the teaching of the Spirit) BY THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. But the word does not elsewhere signify "to prove."

VI. COMPARING SPIRITUAL THINGS WITH SPIRITUAL is satisfactory. Christianity is a Divine wisdom. But this means from the side of teacher and of learner that revealed truths are combined so as to form a consistent and well-proportioned system of truth in their correlation. The higher Christian training resembles Plato's criterion of dialectical power, the faculty to see the relation of the sciences to one another and to true being.

(Principal Edwards.)

(A. Whyte, D. D.)

(Canon Evans.)

1. The prejudiced, who oppose the truth.

2. The indifferent, who do not trouble about it.

3. The unenlightened, who cannot understand it.

II. HIS SAD CONDITION. Naturally without —

1. Knowledge.

2. Concern.

3. Hope.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

1. The natural man in contrast with the spiritual man. Note Paul's classification.(1) The carnal man "lives after the flesh." His whole nature is the servant of sin.(2) In the natural man the ethical element may be predominant. He may be a man of culture, sympathy, and a believer in the objective facts and formal sanctities of religion; and yet so long as he is only all that, he "cannot discern the things of the spirit."(3) The spiritual man is such by virtue of a new creation. He has "put off the old man and his deeds."

2. "The things of the spirit."(1) They are spiritual things. Religion deals with supernatural objects — God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, &c. These are spiritually discerned. There are windows in the soul of the spiritual man through which he looks into the mystery of invisible worlds. "The Spirit searched," &c. "God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit."(2) They are revealed to faith. They occupy a sphere and deal with realities which "eye hath not seen," &c. They are emphasised as "the things of God," they are the product and expression of His thought. We have no faculties by which to apprehend a Being whose attributes are infinity and eternity. But what cannot be discerned may be revealed. That is what has taken place, and the verifying power of this revelation is a spiritual discernment, a faculty of faith, inwrought by the Spirit in the soul; and "the eyes of the understanding being enlightened," we "know what is," &c.(3) They become real in the consciousness of the believing man, who is translated into a new order of being, is born again. God and the soul touch.

II. SOME ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE APOSTLE'S TEACHING.

1. There is a class of outward things which we can only know by the senses. There is no rainbow to the blind man, no music to the deaf. So it is with the things of the spirit.

2. The senses bring in their report of things, but they know nothing of the science or philosophy of things. This is the work of trained intellect.(1) To the ordinary man nature looks like a jumble of accidents; to the scientific there is a place for everything and everything is in its place, from the atom to the sun. To ninety men out of a hundred the pebble, or bit of coal or chalk, is merely a thing for use; to the trained eye it is a revelation of cycles of duration, in which now vanished dynasties of animated beings sported. Nature is a book of hieroglyphics which only science can interpret — it is scientifically discerned.(2) Look at the Bible, at the seemingly discordant but really concatenated departments of revealed truth. But the Bible as a harmonious whole only yields itself up to the discipline and culture of the student.

3. Another class of realities we can know only as they come through experience. They are, in the strictest sense, "spiritual things(ver. 11).(1) The things of a man — his joys, hopes, fears, griefs, &c. — what man can know these, save the spirit of a man that is in him? Language is a system of signs for the expression of "unknown things"; but there are things of which it can be neither the sign nor the expression Thoughts lie deeper than speech, feelings than thoughts: consciousness the deepest of all, is the only witness of what passes in the mysterious world of mind. Sin, remorse, &c., have no sign and can never be interpreted but by the reality which calls them forth.(2) So the things of God can be known only by the consciousness created by the Spirit of God. Coleridge speaks of a philosophical consciousness lying behind the ordinary consciousness before he can be a philosopher. To know what the reality of life is, we must live, not dissect it. To feel the bitterness of sin we must repent, not speculate about it. To taste the sweetness and power of Christ's forgiveness we must believe in Christ, not just catalogue or canonise His virtues. These things belong to the "new name written, which no man knoweth," &c.(3) Hence the reason why so many unspiritual though gifted minds miss the entrance to the kingdom of God. They are "natural men" and "cannot discern," &c. They are as blind men groping in the dark. Let us be consistent. I, as a non-scientific Christian, am warned off the ground of scientific induction as a territory on which I have no factor of investigation. My religion is not the organ of physical discovery. Very well: the scientist is warned off the ground of spiritual consciousness as a territory on which he is equally at fault. Conclusion: Note —

1. The limit which these considerations set to the possibilities of mental culture, and the rebuke which they administer to the audacity and irreverence of the unsanctified intellect.

2. The need of regeneration.

3. "If any man will do God's will he shall know of the doctrine.(J. Burton.)

1. Earthly.

2. Sensual.

3. Devilish.

II. HIS SPIRITUAL OBLIQUITY.

1. Moral. "He receiveth not."

2. Intellectual. "He cannot know."

III. HIS HOPELESS CONDITION WITHOUT DIVINE HELP. The things of God —

1. Are foolishness to him.

2. Must be spiritually discerned.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

1. He follows the dictates of his own appetites.

2. He is under the control of his passions.

3. Being chiefly occupied about the perishing things of this world, he is dead to a future state.

4. Though man too much resembles the animal in many things, yet in this he differs widely from every other creature — he will be responsible for his conduct at the judgment-seat of Christ. Whatever be the sinner's moral inability, his natural powers qualify him to serve God; and it is sin only that prevents him from using those natural powers in a manner in which he would please God. While the natural powers remain, though the inclination be absent, his accountability is continued. "We say, God actually treats the want of disposition, not as an excuse, but as a sin; and we take it for granted that what God does is right, whether we can comprehend it or not. Howbeit, in this case, it happens that with the testimonies of God accord those of conscience and common sense. Every man's conscience 'finds fault' with him for the evils which he commits willingly, or of choice; and, instead of making any allowance for any previous aversion, nothing more is necessary to rivet the charge. And with respect to the common sense of mankind in their treatment of one another, what judge, or what jury, ever took into consideration the previous aversion of a traitor or a murderer, with a view to the diminishing of his guilt?"

II. THE DISPOSITIONS OF THE SINNER'S MIND TOWARDS GOD. He does not receive the things of the Spirit.

1. What the Spirit reveals. These things are found in the Holy Scriptures, which are the "lively oracles of God." If the Spirit had made known a plan of salvation which had flattered the pride of the human heart, his testimony would have been cheerfully received.

2. What the Spirit imparts. Man, as a fallen creature, requires something done in him as well as for him. How much soever men may boast of their reason, their intellect, and their discernment, they must be Divinely illuminated before they can rightly understand the things which the Spirit either reveals or imparts. The natural man does not believe this. If you were to examine the opinions of a very large majority of those who are called Christians, they are either careless about the renovation of their own hearts, or they reject the doctrine altogether as a useless, unmeaning dogma. They fancy themselves virtuous and good, and that they are capable of making some amends for their disobedience of the law of God; they think that they will at some future time do some good thing that they may inherit eternal life, though their conscience often reproves them, after their best efforts, till they are ready to believe themselves but unprofitable servants.

3. What the Spirit requires. He requires of all men "to turn from darkness to light, from the power of sin and Satan unto God." The animal man may love his sin and persist in committing it, but this he cannot do with impunity, for God will bring him into judgment! There is a method by which that sin can be forgiven, its dominion destroyed, and its love eradicated from the soul; and that is by the atonement of Christ. If he refuse this means of repentance and sanctification he must die in his sins; there remains no other sacrifice for sins. The Spirit requires that men should receive Christ. All the information which He imparts to the mind concerning the purity, spirituality, and extent of the holy law of God; every conception which He enables the mind to form of the holiness of God, exhibited in that law; and all the humbling convictions which He produces upon the soul in a state of penitence, are intended by the Holy Spirit to prepare the sinner for the reception of Christ as a suitable and all-sufficient Saviour. The natural man does not receive these "things of the Spirit of God." He does not believe them. He calls them the words of God; but it is the language of the lip, not of the heart.

III. THE REASON WHICH THE APOSTLE ASSIGNS. "They are foolishness unto him." What dreadful havoc sin has made of the human soul l What haughty conduct towards God! How proud, how ignorant, and how unfeeling is the heart of man! This revelation was given to him for his instruction, to correct his errors and to remove his ignorance. After the divinity of this revelation had been fully and rationally ascertained, it was the duty of this rational being to submit to its teaching and decisions, without hesitation, thankful that God would condescend to instruct the undeserving and the sinner. The Spirit has revealed the infinite perfections of the Deity, so far as that revelation was connected with man's duty and happiness, in a manner likely to excite him to fear, venerate, love, and worship Him as the ever-blessed God. What the Spirit has revealed must limit his inquiries and check his presumption. Let him regard what the Spirit of the Lord declares in His Word, and seek an experimental knowledge of those "heavenly blessings" which are provided in the new covenant for the penitent and believing. He does not understand them because they are "spiritually discerned." But the Spirit can and will restore the spiritual faculty if he will ask Him. Let him not call them "foolishness"; for the preparation of them was the highest manifestation of the wisdom and love of God. His not perceiving them is not to be considered as a reason why they are not good in themselves and suited to relieve his misery. This is to be traced to his want of spiritual vision, "for sin has blinded his mind!(Wm. Jones.)

(J. Burton.)

1. Who is the natural man?

2. What are the things he cannot receive nor know?

3. Whence his incapacity?

II. CONFIRM IT.

1. It was so in our Lord's day.

2. In the times of the apostles.

3. Is so now.

III. IMPROVE IT. Learn —

1. To appreciate Divine knowledge.

2. How to seek it.

3. How to employ it.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. THE NATURAL MAN RECEIVES NOT THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD, BUT COUNTS THEM FOOLISH.

1. Some oppose them violently, and do their best to put down such folly.

2. A greater proportion secretly despise and condemn. They dare say that religion is a good thing for old women, &c., but utterly repudiate it as a thing worthy the attention of wise men.

3. The great mass are indifferent. "For forms of faith let graceless zealots fight, he can't be wrong whose life is in the right."

II. THERE IS NOTHING WHATEVER IN THE THINGS THEMSELVES TO JUSTIFY SUCH AN ESTIMATION. You do not know what you say when you declare that the gospel of Christ is absurd. It is generally pretty safe to ask a man who rails at the Bible, "Did you ever read it?" These learned gentlemen are like those critics who, when they meet with a new volume, take the knife and cut the first page, smell it, and then condemn or praise. The mightiest intellects confess that the truths of this book are above their highest flights. Even Newton said there were depths here which no mortal could fathom. As these things of the Spirit of God are wise and profound, so they are most important, and if not received, it is not because they are uncongenial with our necessities. There are some speculations which a man need not enter upon, but the doctrines of God teach you your relationship to your Maker; your condition before Him; how He can be just to man, and yet be gracious; how you can approach Him, and become His child; how you may be conformed to His image, and made a partaker of His glory.

III. THE REASON FOR THE REJECTION OF THE GOSPEL.

1. Want of taste. You have sometimes seen an artist standing before a splendid picture. "What a fine conception!" says he, "I could stand a week and admire that." Some bumpkin, however, says, "It looks to me to be an old decayed piece of canvas that wants cleaning." Then leaving the gallery, he notices on the wall outside a picture of an elephant standing on his head, and a clown performing in some circus, and he says, "That's more to my taste." Just so is it with the natural man. Give him some work of fiction — a daub upon the wall — and he is satisfied. But he has no taste for the things of God.

2. Want of organs. Just as a blind man cannot appreciate a landscape nor a deaf man music; so the natural man lacking the eye and ear of faith cannot appreciate the beauties and music of the gospel.

3. Want of nature. The brute cannot appreciate the studies of the astronomer because he lacks an intellectual nature; and so the mere man of intellect cannot appreciate the things of the Spirit because he lacks a spiritual nature.

IV. THE PRACTICAL TRUTHS WHICH FLOW FROM THIS GREAT THOUGH SORROWFUL FACT.

1. The absolute necessity for regeneration, or the work of the Spirit. You may educate a nature up to its highest point, but you cannot educate an old nature into a new one. You may educate a horse, but you cannot educate it into a man. You may by your own efforts make yourselves the best of natural men, but still at your very best there is a division wide as eternity between you and the regenerate man. And no man can help us out of such a nature into a state of grace. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

2. If any of us have received the things of the Spirit, we ought to look upon that as comfortable evidence that we have been born again.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. SOME OF THOSE SUBLIME AND INTERESTING TRUTHS WHICH THE NATURAL MAN DOES NOT RECEIVE.

1. The equity and goodness of the law of God, and the evil and desert of every transgression of it.

2. The suitableness and excellency of the method of redemption by Jesus Christ.

3. The necessity of union to Christ by faith as the source of holiness and strength.

4. The necessity of reconciliation to God and conformity to the Divine image to all true happiness both here and hereafter.

II. THE ALARMING EXTENT TO WHICH THIS WANT OF SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT PREVAILS, AND THE INADEQUACY OF THE HIGHEST ADVANTAGES TO COMMUNICATE IT.

1. We see some men endowed with great strength of mind, and their natural powers much improved by a liberal education, but they do not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

2. We observe other men who have great discernment and assiduity in the concerns of this life, and who discover a particular tact in the management of business, and considerable ability in improving the advantages afforded them of amassing wealth, but they receive not the things of the Spirit of God.

3. We see other persons favoured with the advantages of a religious education, but they have not received the things of the Spirit of God.

4. Some men have an undoubted conviction of the truth of the gospel, and their passions are occasionally moved with its important discoveries. Still, except a Divine change takes place in the heart, they do not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

III. THE IMPORTANT REFLECTION WHICH THE SUBJECT SUGGESTS.

1. That the disaffection of man to God is not accidental, or the result of some circumstances in which he is placed, but is an evil principle, natural to the whole species, and the consequence of the fall.

2. The great gratitude we owe to God for the gospel of His Son, as a discovery of enlightening and renewing grace, as well as of pardoning mercy.

3. The indispensable necessity of Divine influence in general, and in respect to our own personal experience in particular.

4. The importance of accompanying the means of grace with humble and earnest prayer.

(Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)

(New York Sun.)

1. Here is a large brilliant diamond, and you pronounce it to be without fault; but the lapidary gives you a magnifying glass of great power, and bids you look at the centre of the stone; and there sure enough you see a black spot. The lapidary says the naked eye can neither receive it nor know it because it is microscopically discerned. And nobody arises to say, "Sir, you have introduced a painful mystery into human thought and inquiry." People are rather glad that a medium has been supplied by which the hidden truth may be brought to light.

2. Yonder are two shining surfaces, and you say there must be a great fire there. The scientist who overhears you, however, says, "One of those surfaces has no light at all." "But can't I believe my own eyes?" "No," he says, "just look through this instrument— the polariscope — and now you see that the one surface was primary light and the other but reflected. The naked eye can neither receive nor know it because it is polariscopically discerned. And you thank him for the information.

3. Yonder are two men who have undertaken a mineral survey. One is a mineralogist, the other a man who believes that if he cannot find things out with his naked eyes and fingers that nothing can or shall be found out. The former walks slowly over the ground holding in his hand a little crystal box, watching the instrument within. Presently the needle dips, and he says, "There is iron here." Can you see it, touch it? No. But the scientific man digs for iron and finds it, and then turns round to hear what the other has to say, and remarks, "The senses cannot receive or know it, for it is magnetically discerned," and then receives the confidence he deserves.

4. Look at this ruddy-faced boy. You cannot walk out with him, but he challenges you to leap a five-barred gate; and you say, "What a vigorous lad! There will be a long life and a happy one." A physician, however, drops in on your return, and hearing your verdict, applies an instrument to the region of the boy's heart, and then, taking you aside, says, "He will never see five-and-twenty. He has had rheumatic fever and contracted valvular affection of the heart." The untrained ear can neither receive it nor know it because it is stethoscopically discerned. Now in all these things we confess our need of instruments. Suppose that everything were taken away that cannot be discovered or read by the naked eye! Shut up the heavens, for astronomy must go; cover up the fields, for botany tells little to the naked eye. All science indeed would be impoverished and degraded. Yet the man who cannot read his own mother's letter without an eyeglass insists upon reading the infinite and eternal God by his unassisted powers.

5. The same principle holds good in spheres where instruments are not required.(1) Here are two men listening to the same piece of music. The one is inspired, enraptured, and says, "I would this might go on for ever." The other says, "I wonder when they will be done." The best ear cannot receive these things or know them, for they are musically discerned. The one man would be tormented if one note were the thousandth part of a shade wrong; but all the notes might be wrong so far as the other man knew.(2) Here are two men looking at the same picture. The one is chained to the spot; the other, with a thick shilling catalogue, does not see much in that, and hastens on to something that has superficies, no matter what the superficies may be: only let it be extensive enough. Paint for such men with a broom,

II. THE APPLICATION OF THESE THINGS IS TO THE THINGS OF GOD AS ACCESSIBLE TO THE SPIRIT OF MAN. There are blind minds as well as blind eyes. "Except a man be born again he cannot see."

1. As ministers, therefore, we are not to be discouraged because some people cannot understand us. There will always be men to whom the best preaching will be foolishness, because they have not the spiritual faculty.

2. Do we wish for this discernment? "If ye being evil," &c. "If any man lack wisdom," &c.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

2. The elements of our complex nature are many; and a man may be strong in some things and weak in others. Lord Macaulay was almost a blockhead in mathematics. Sir Isaac Newton had hardly patience enough to read the "Paradise Lost" and only asked contemptuously, "What does it prove?" Milton might very likely have asked the same of the "Principia." Many a great scientist has never been able to distinguish between the highest strains of music and any mere jargon of discordant sounds. Eminent lawyers and judges have been utterly blind to the beauties of the most perfect machinery, and many an inventive genius would have been utterly swamped in the commentaries of Blackstone.

3. Why, then, should it be thought any argument against the reality of spiritual things that here and there a man — with large genius for invention; for oratory; for science; for philosophy; for music; for art — has no appreciation for things unseen and eternal? It weighs less than a feather to him who revels in the demonstrations of geometry to know that hundreds of college students have never fully comprehended a single demonstration I "Poor fellows!" is all he can say, "I pity their obtuseness!" In like manner it weighs less than a milligramme to any Christian believer, whose soul has been illuminated from on high, that Darwin lived and died blind as a bat to all the glories of the spiritual universe. But unlike many another blind man, Darwin did, in a measure, realise his condition. He recognised the fact that his spiritual nature had died out! He calls it "atrophy." In his boyhood he had a consciously religious nature; in later years it was starved to death! He tells us, also, that in early life he had a poetical nature. That, too, had been famished. His soul had died — "at the top!" Alas! how many another soul has died in the same way! Shall the Christian believer find his faith disturbed because of these great men whose souls have been lopped off? No! He still knows in whom he has believed. A blind man may tell me that he sees nothing in the glory of the evening sunset, or in Raphael's Transfiguration. "Poor man!" I say, with deepest pity; that's all. I do not forthwith put out my own eyes, because he has put his out; or, peradventure, may have been born blind. God forbid! I only cherish my eyesight with the more thankfulness and care. When even Humboldt, Darwin, Ingersoll, and Renan tell me that they see nothing of the spiritual and Divine in this revelation of the Divine life and glory of the Christ of God among the sons of men — Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, Paul, John, and Luther, Knox, Wesley, Bunyan, and the unnumbered hosts of the Lord Almighty, will still continue to enjoy the seraphic vision and know whom they have believed.

4. A legislator may wisely study the Bible to help him in making laws. The historian may ponder its incomparable histories. The sociologist may turn over its leaves to find the profoundest teachings known to the world in his department. The lover of sublime and beautiful poetry may discover here some of the rarest gems that can be gathered from all the seas and from all the lands. But only the spiritual man can discern within these lids their choicest treasures of spiritual truth, and it would be passing strange if it were otherwise. What would your five-year-old boy think of conic sections, or your ten-months-old baby of a treatise on optics? "I wonder what grandfather can find in that old book! — it's a very dull book to me." So said a young man just entering college many years ago. But when the Spirit of God had opened his eyes, the young man marvelled no more at the absorption of his grandsire in the study of the old book, and himself lived to revel in its pages more than in all things else. Had sin never come, our vision had been clear. Oh, that every soul might cry out as Bartimeus, "Lord, that I may receive my sight!"

5. "What is the Bible?" Only Christian experience can fit any person to answer that question. I see a cherub of three short years over the way, and I ask, "What is that child?" The analytic chemist will tell me how much oxygen, and hydrogen, and nitrogen, and phosphorus enter into the forty pounds of avoirdupois of that beautiful form. The. anatomist will tell me the number of bones and muscles and the names of them all that enter into her perfect body. But you are the child's mother. And I ask you to tell me what she is. While I speak the angel of death has come, and she lies by your side a corpse. Her sweet face has a heavenly smile upon it, for she has had a vision of the Son of God, who has taken her into His arms. "What is that child?" You need the gift of tongues to tell me. The lips cannot utter it; your tears even can scarcely suggest it. The love of father and mother alone can conceive the answer. "What is the Bible?" Only he who has learned to love the Christ that shines through it can answer that question. And then his answer will grow as he grows, through all his years. He will find more in it as his experience deepens. The only proper test of the gospel of Christ is the trial of it. No soul was ever yet made worse by believing it. No Christian ever yet, as he came near to death, regretted his faith or recanted his trust in Christ.

(E. B. Fairfield, D. D.)

(H. W. Beecher.)

(J. W. Earnshaw.)

(J. W. Earnshaw.)

1. Enlightened.

2. Born of God.

3. Endued with the Spirit.

II. HIS PRIVILEGES.

1. He judges all things.

2. Is exalted above the judgment of others.

III. THE SOURCE AND SECURITY OF HIS HAPPINESS.

1. Not natural.

2. But Divine. He has the mind of Christ.

(J. Lyth D. D.)

II. HIS DISCERNMENT.

1. Wherein it consists.

2. To what it extends.

III. HIS IMMUNITY from the judgment of others; because natural men —

1. Cannot appreciate Divine things.

2. Are incompetent to form a correct judgment upon them.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

1. Arises out of an enlightened understanding.

2. Extends to all matters affecting his religious well-being.

3. And if not infallible, is guarded by the disposition to prove all things and hold fast that which is good.

4. Hence he is preserved from all serious error.

II. His IMMUNITY FROM JUDGMENT. He can despise the judgment of worldly men because they have no spiritual apprehension and their decisions are worthless, being over-ruled by the testimony of the Spirit within him.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

1. What is the antithesis to this tenure in conscious, personal, and rational judgment of religious truth? It cannot be what is impossible — that we should hold a body of truth on the external authority of the Church, while it does not commend itself to our own deliberate judgment. We cannot disbelieve a thing in our own mind and accept it on an authority external to us. The most that is possible is that a man should take a body of truth as summarised in Church formulas, and without letting his mind work upon it at all, simply passively accept it, and externally laud it and conform to it. And no man can for a moment suppose that such an attitude towards religious truth is the attitude of the Christian. No religious truth, then, is held rightly "as a spiritual man" should hold it, which is held as a mere external dogma positively accepted. It is held only then in a way worthy of our personal responsibility when it is held with active personal apprehension, as that which is an indelible and irrefutable part of our own deliberate conviction, in the light of all the facts of experience.

2. But it is only in our shallowest moments that we shall suppose this repudiation of absolute and unconditional authority, which leaves room for an exercise of our judgment, to involve in any sense the repudiation of authority at all, or the denial that truth should be held finally on mere external authority, to involve the rejection of external authority from its proper place in the formation of our mind. Indeed, those portions of the truth which do not come under the verification of our own faculties, must permanently be held on external authority, but the authority itself must then come under verification. In no part of our life do we live so much by authority and legitimately in its own sphere as in scientific matters. I accept, for example, with no hesitation, a body of truths in physics which are considered well established, the evidence for which I not only could not produce myself, but though I believe it exists, I am, through want of sufficient training and capacity in mathematics, incapable even of understanding and appreciating. But I accept the results because on other grounds where scientific reliability is put to a test intelligible to the uninitiated, I am able to verify it, The verifications general and particular open to ordinary men appear to be quite as valid of their kind in the sphere of religion as in the sphere of science. But in religion, as in science, the authority verified in general must cover particulars beyond the scope of our personal verification. It is, for example, only reason to take on the authority of Christ truths about the future which cannot come under our present cognisance, if we have reason to believe that they come under His. But the true relation of authority and private judgment, in matters of religion, appears more clearly on a more cognate subject, the subject of morals. In morals there is a commonly recognised standard from which a man could not differ without being looked upon with almost universal suspicion — say, on the subject of personal purity and truthfulness. We hold up before each generation as it rises this authoritative standard, this "norma" of moral truth. We do not tell a man as he grows up not to think on moral subjects, not to exercise his own private judgment, but we do tell him that if he exercises it in every way aright he will arrive at an agreement with the authoritative "norma," though the norma is a very old one, which has not materially varied since Christianity first illuminated the moral conscience of mankind, and though on non-theological ground, the basis of this moral dogma is not easily formed and stated — and if a man comes to a conclusion on morals counter to the established dogmas of purity and truth, we condemn him, not for having exercised his private judgment, but for having exercised it wrongly, conformity to the highest standard of mankind on a particular subject being taken as the test of right thinking on that subject. Indeed, unless we are prepared to identify self-will with the exercise of will, and license with liberty, and eccentricity with strength of character, we have no justification at all for putting private judgment as a contradiction to orthodoxy. The place of authority, then, is primarily and mainly in helping us to form our own judgment, We ought to bring our thoughts and feelings, our desires, into the light of the established and recognised authority, which may provisionally, and in the light of common experience, be regarded as expressing the collective wisdom, and setting the standard on the subject, whether of taste, knowledge, or religion. Our judgment ought not to be formed in an isolated, individualistic manner. It is out of committing ourselves to authority that right reason normally and naturally grows. Behind holy teachers, behind our mother's influence, there should be the great mother, the "mother of us all." To receive in the Church of Christ in earliest years — in education, at the time of our confirmation — a body of truth, a system of practice emphasising and embodying holiness of life, to receive it on her loving authority, and to grow up, as our faculty develops, into the intellectual recognition of her truths and practices on our own judgment — this is the moral growth of man.

3. The general principle of authority admits of a great variety of applications in matters of religion. Let us apply it to one particular state of mind. There is a very widely spread fear of committing oneself in matters of religion. A man is often deeply impressed with the need of religion. He has little doubt that the Christian life is what he wants, and to his practical judgment it appears reasonably clear that the Christian life is indissolubly bound up with the Christian motives, and that Christian motives derive their only force from positive and supernatural facts. Why, indeed, should anybody deem that the life can be severed from the truth which has moulded the life? Christian holiness has reigned supreme and final in the world of morals since its origin. And it has come down indissolubly bound up with its environment of doctrines, sacraments, ministries in the Christian society. In the strength, more or less, of these thoughts, there is many and many a man who feels the attraction of the Christian Church: its appeal. It seems the true home of what is best in him and those about him. But it is so much to commit oneself to — is it all true? — Crede ut intelligas is the Church's reply. The understanding of spiritual things can result only from experience, and experience involves faith as its basis. "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." The self-committal of faith must precede and be the basis of the satisfaction of the intellect. Well, is this unreasonable? Does it not appear on a little reflection that taking things on trust does in every department of life precede verification? The pure Pyrrhonist who professes to regard certainty about anything as unreasonable is the only person in theory who rejects the ultimate basis of faith. In the commonest knowledge of external nature is involved the taking on trust an objective reality which corresponds to the imitations of sensation. "It was pointed out," Mr. Spencer says, "when treating of the data of philosophy, that we cannot take even a first step (in knowledge)without making assumptions, and that the only course is to proceed with them as provisional, until they are proved true by the congruity of all the results reached. Apply this principle to the sphere of religion, where its application is more complete, and it gives just what we want, the crede ut intelligas. And do we suppose that we are in danger of really dwarfing our capacities for originality, our faculties of criticism, by such temporary suppression of them? On the contrary, is not the principle which Hegel used to inculcate in regard to education profoundly true — that we empoverish and reduce our faculties by a premature exercise of criticism, judgment, originality? Will, not intellect, is the basis of life. Self-conscious intellect belongs to the second stage, not the first. Faith is as legitimate a faculty of man as intelligence. It has its special exercise in realising man's moral and spiritual being. Why should we be ashamed of it? Why should it be apologised for? Thou shalt understand, but thou must first believe.

4. The scheme of Christian truth coheres. To a Christian believer who has advanced to any measure of understanding the whole is one and indissoluble. He recognises that it would be unreasonable to pick and choose; he recognises the coherence of the same sort of means by which we recognise the similar connection, far beyond our personal knowledge, in the department of science. Thus he abides under the shelter of the whole creed. He takes it on trust as a whole. The Christian Church seems to his spiritual faculties eminently trustworthy. He waits while the "Spirit leads him into all the truth." That is, he waits while in the growing experience of life, in the vicissitudes of failure and success, of joy and suffering, of growth and manhood, point by point, the truth becomes realised to his experience and his understanding. What was obscure is cleared up. What might have seemed at one time unnecessary is seen to have been wanted. If anything remains yet outside the sphere of his own personal verification, the processes of his past life warrant him in believing that the future will give it its place. There comes to hand — at this moment in a recent biography — a beautiful instance of the way in which one who stood wholly outside the Christian creed, and, as far as can be judged, by little or no fault of her own, came gradually within the bosom of the Church of Christ, and knew her Lord. Ellen Watson was a brilliant mathematician. When at the age of twenty she was a pupil of Professor Clifford, at University College, in London, and loved with the deepest respect and affection to speak of him as "the Master," he in his turn had a high admiration of her abilities, "believing," as we are told, "that she possessed the rare faculty for doing original work in his science; indeed, he even looked forward to her becoming known some day as a discoverer or originator in mathematics." Her position in regard to religion at that time is thus described: "The one absorbing passion of her mind was the love of positive truth, and this love was guarded by an almost severe morality of the intellect, which made her fear, above all things, every kind of illusion and self-deception. She dreaded, as an intellectual sin, the giving to a wish or a hope or a dream of the imagination the subject and influence of a conviction. Mathematics, by its strictly logical conclusions, and natural science, by its severe experimental tests, commended themselves to her high intellectual integrity as the greatest and best of all teaching, while at the same time they best satisfied the craving for positive truth which filled her soul, so that she delighted in resting on their conclusions as on an immovable basis. 'I do not need religion,' she often said at that time; 'science thoroughly satisfies me.' For, judged only as to the satisfaction afforded to the reason, religion appeared, by the side of positive science, as a collection of dim, uncertain facts mixed with conceptions of the imagination." The certainty of science "gave peace to her intellectual conscience; all else seemed misty — delusive." Within five years she died at Grahamstown, but with words very different on her lips, the words of triumphant faith and praise which make up the Church's "Gloria in excelsis," and with the Church's viaticum for her journey into the unseen world. The biography is mainly an account of the converson of her mind. It was a progress without a break. She lost nothing she had ever had. No part of her hold on scientific truth, her trust in scientific method, ever vanished. She did but, as she described it, gradually wake up in a larger world and found that the spiritual truths which she held by faith, though reached, it is true, by a different process, were still the "crowning knowledge of all that she had won before, perfecting and completing what was otherwise rudimentary and broken." The premature death of her master, Clifford, and the discipline of sorrow and suffering, rudely shattered the completeness which she had at first assigned to the life in the mere visible world. The imparious exigencies of an awakened spirit forced her into the sphere of spiritual and supernatural facts. The recognition of the Divine Fatherhood came slowly but surely upon the mind. Through Divine Fatherhood came the belief in the Divine Son. ship manifested in Christ, and while she was yet far off any clear grasp of the accuracies of the Christian faith, the Christian Church presented itself to her as embodying the truth, and satisfying man's obvious need for order, for spiritual shelter, for unity. She had none of that intellectual vanity which keeps clever people from confessing themselves wrong; none of that pride which makes us preserve our isolation. She desired to have perfect fellowship with the common Christian life. She accepted the Church in practice. She presented herself for confirmation. She sought and found in South Africa the fellowship of the saints in the Church. Authority presented itself to her, and was accepted by her just in the shape of something which embodied what her soul wanted. She recognised the truth, so hard to the natural will, that we must surrender ourselves, merge ourselves, if we are to find our true selves.

(C. Gore, M. A.)

I. THERE IS A COINCIDENCE OF JUDGMENT BETWEEN THE BELIEVER AND GOD. What God declares to be true the believer sees to be true. He acquiesces in the judgment of God as to sin, the method of salvation, the person of Christ, the doctrines of grace, the reality and importance of eternal things. So in his judgments of men. Those whom God approves the believer approves. This is the ground —

1. Of the unity of faith among believers.

2. Of the unity of fellowship; so that all Christians recognise each other.

3. Of the authority of the Church, and of the only legitimate authority of tradition.

4. Why schism is a sin.

II. THERE IS ALSO A COINCIDENCE OF FEELING, i.e., the spiritual love what and whom God loves, and hate what and whom God hates. The friends of God are their friends. This is the reason why they have a common experience, and why they love each other as brethren.

III. THERE IS A CONFORMITY IN THE LIFE OF THE BELIEVER WITH THE WILL OF GOD. He does what is in accordance with the mind of the Spirit. This is the ground of the community of worship. They all walk by the same rule and worship the same God and Saviour.

IV. ALL RELIEVERS ARE UNITED SO AS TO FORM ONE BODY.

(C. Hodge, D. D.)

I. "He that is spiritual judgeth all things."

1. It is not said that he judges all men, or any man; he has his opinion as to their views; but in regard to their persons, "to their own Master they stand or fall." "Judge not, that ye be not judged." Spiritual judgment, then, has to do not with persons, but with things. Still, does it absolutely judge all things? It is clear that it will not make a man acquainted with the truths of science, or the facts of history, or the details of business. Many a great statesman has had very little spiritual judgment. It will not make a man a skilful Biblical critic, nor a profound theologian.

2. Paul speaks of those things which come within the sphere of the spiritual nature. The Spirit of God reveals to the soul a world which lies both within the present and outside it. It is in a hidden chamber whose existence we dimly felt, but which God's Spirit makes known to us; and this chamber has in it a window which looks out on a new and infinite universe. We do not know ourselves, our fall and possible rise, our sin and salvation, until we are taken in there. This world may seem to those who have not been in it a narrow and poor and almost non-existent thing. But to those who have lived in it, it grows in certainty as its life grows, and it deepens and expands and rises, until it penetrates and comprehends the natural world on every side.

II. ITS INDEPENDENCE — "he himself is judged of no one."

1. This does not mean that the spiritual man is beyond the judgment of others when he has contravened human law. Nor is he exempt from judgment in his spiritual life. He can never be freed from the judgment of God, and his fellow-Christians may have it in their power to instruct and correct his judgment. And then, again, any man of the world can judge a Christian man's conduct, so far as it comes before the outward eye; he can approve it or he can condemn it, and he has a right to do so.

2. What, then, is meant by "he is judged of no man"?(1) The apostle is speaking of an inward, spiritual region into which the Christian man has been introduced by God's Spirit, and of the judgments which natural men, who have no experience of it, may form of it, and of him as he lives in it.(2) Perhaps the best way of illustrating this is to take Paul himself, and see how he had a whole world within him removed from the judgment of natural men around. Take(a) the great truth of salvation by grace without the works of the law. It was looked on by many then and since as an immoral doctrine. But they could not understand that in receiving this free grace there is a new nature received, the motions of which are always saying, "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"(b) Neither could he be judged as to the way his new life was supported. Men saw the persecutions, &c., to which he was exposed. The world could not understand how the spirit in him was sustained, and rose up in fresh flames of consuming zeal.(c) The mere natural man could not understand the happiness of his life. Let us only think of this chain which begins with hope and ends with it, like two golden nails fixed to the gate of heaven, while the links hang down into all the trials of life, which are touched and turned to gold by their Divine fastenings (Romans 5:2-5). Now this was not peculiar to the apostle. The experience of most Christian men will fall very far short of that of the apostle, but it is the same in kind; and they have a right to set this inner world, in which their spirit is living and moving, against all the arguments which the outer can advance.

III. ITS GUIDANCE AND TESTS.

1. It must never separate itself from its source — God's Spirit acting through God's Word. The spiritual judgment, if it is to be sound, can never be cut off from this fountainhead. "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple," &c. But in order to this there are two things to be observed.(1) We must not form our judgment on single texts, but on the breadth of Scripture — the letter may kill, the spirit gives life; and I know no better way of reaching the breadth of Scripture than by carrying it up in its final issue to the Lord Jesus Christ. Many things that are doubtful become simple when we ask, What would the example and spirit of Christ lead us in this case to say and do?(2) We must ask the guidance of the Spirit which gave the Word, and which kindled any light in us that we may possess. To ask the Author of the book to explain it is the true way of being guided aright (Psalm 25:6).

2. After this guidance from the Source, there is that which we may receive from the new nature formed within, and from the growth of it in obedience to God's will.

(J. Ker, D. D.)

I. A SPIRITUAL CHARACTER. The "natural man" is man in his unregenerate state, under the power and influence of those principles and affections which are natural; the spiritual man is man renewed by the Spirit of God.

1. Spiritual men have —(1) Spiritual appetites: they hunger and thirst after righteousness.(2) Spiritual senses, which are exercised to discern good and evil; spiritual eyes — they can see Him on His throne; spiritual ears — they can hear His voice.(3) Spiritual lips — they show forth His praise.(4) A spiritual taste — and therefore they can savour the things of God.

2. Let us particularise, and lay down a few tests by which the spiritual may be known. As regards —(1) The thoughts. They cluster around the Cross. Evil thoughts may enter, but they enter either by fraud or force. But they enter the mind of the natural man as friends and acquaintances.(2) The desires. "There be many that say, Who will show us any good?" They seek their happiness in the things of time and sense only. But "the spiritual" pray, "Lord, hit Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon me." These desires in the Christian may not arise so high as he could wish; but this is the current in which they flow, the end to which they move.(3) Gratitude. If ever a natural man feels anything like gratitude it is for some temporal favour. Now a spiritual man overlooks none of God's mercies. He blesses Him for his daily bread, but much more for heavenly bread. He blesses God for his civil freedom, but above all for the freedom with which the Son hath made him free.(4) The use of creature possessions. A natural man only uses them as bodily gratification; or, if mentally, as objects of curiosity and science. But a spiritual man sees God in everything.(5) Association. While here, we must have to do with the world; otherwise we must needs go out of it. But a spiritual man, when he is entirely free, will say with David, "I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that love Thy name."(6) Conversation. Spiritual discourse to a natural man is always uninviting, and even irksome. But the spiritual man encourages it and is at home in it.(7) Devotional exercises. The spiritual man does not draw nigh to God with his lips while his heart is far from Him.

II. AN ATTRIBUTE ATTACHED TO THIS CHARACTER. "The spiritual judgeth" (i.e., discerns) "all things." This must be qualified by being taken with four limitations. "All things" mean religious things, and apply —

1. To religious things only. True religion tends to make men wiser in other things — by arousing their faculties, by exciting their energies, by inducing them to redeem their time; but Paul does not refer here to the knowledge of nature, arts, science, &c., but to "the things of the Spirit," the things which are of God."

2. Only to religious things that are revealed. "Secret things belong to God," &c.

3. To religious things only of importance. Everything in religion is not equally momentous, though it is equally true. What you are required to know is not the decrees of God, but His commands; His promises, rather than His prophecies. A man may be spiritual and yet not able to judge what kind of creature the leviathan was; or know where is the locality of Ophir, or the length of a Jewish cubit. A man may be able to open the seals and blow the trumpets — that is, in his own imagination-and be no nearer to the kingdom of God than before.

4. Only to the knowledge of these comparatively; not absolutely and completely. For who by searching can find out God — who can find out the Almighty to perfection? Paul, after knowing so much of Christ for so many years, says, "That I may know Him.(See also Ephesians 3:18, 19.)

III. A DISTINCTION. "Yet he himself is judged of no man."

1. This distinction must be exemplified.(1) You have, perhaps, acquired a certain art, and a person, ignorant of the art, calls in question your proficiency in it, and you say, "I am not to be judged of by such as you." How could Handel be judged of properly by a novice in the principles of music? How could a statesman, in executing the complex concerns of a whole nation, be judged of by a man not able to manage his own family, or even himself?(2) It is always difficult to judge a man religiously. For we are ignorant of the heart and of a thousand things which may tend either to extenuate or condemn. For a man may be conscientious in certain things in which he is condemned. Therefore our Saviour says, "Judge not," and afterwards applauds judgment. "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."(3) But the spiritual is absolutely inexplicable to the natural man. "He is a new creature," and not, therefore, to be judged of by the old rules and principles of natural men. He knows them, but they know not Him! He has been in their condition, but they have not been in His!

2. The spiritual are, therefore, said to be "men wondered at."(1) Others may think it strange that we "run not with them to the same excess of riot"; but they know not what it is that has weaned us from it all, viz., the discovery of something infinitely superior.(2) They wonder, that you, should find. such delight in the exercises of the Lord s day. While they say, "What a weariness it is! — when will it be over?" you are "made joyful in the house of prayer."(3) Their experience under affliction often perplexes the people of the world. They see their afflictions, but they do not see their consolations.(4) Their conduct is often equally puzzling to them. They wonder to see them following a course which exposes them to endure reproach and self-denial. They know not the lever that moves them, and are unacquainted with the machine — the love of Christ — that sets all in motion.(5) Neither can they judge of the system of doctrine which they hold. It may seem to them as though they may "continue in sin that grace may abound." But no, they hate the very "appearance of evil." How can we who are dead to sin live any longer therein?"Conclusion:

1. Our subject accounts for Christians not being very ready to communicate to men of the world of their religion and experience. They would not understand it. David said, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul." They could relish it, but others could not.

2. Christ accounts for the divers misrepresentations of Christians by men of the world. "The world knoweth them not," although they are very free in speaking of them. Let us learn, then, to be indifferent as to the judgment of the world.

3. But is there nothing by which the people of the world may judge you who are spiritual? Yes. They can judge of —(1) Your talents. They may, perhaps, be able to say to you, "You think more highly of yourself than you ought to think."(2) Your outward condition, and know that you live above your income, and that you had better lower some of your sails.(3) Your consistency as professors of religion. "What do ye more than others?" You profess more than others, and you are to be judged of by your own pretensions.(4) The moral and practical effects of your feelings and experience. You should, therefore, seek to abound in all the fruits of righteousness, and to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.

(W. Jay.)

(Bishop Temple.)

1. Vast.

2. Unsearchable.

3. Unbiased.

II. DISCLOSED TO HIS SERVANTS.

1. In Christ.

2. By His Spirit.

3. Through faith.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

1. Representatively. The minds of great men represent themselves —(1) Through the character of their disciples. Jesus put His disciples in possession of His mind — both its great ideas and governing sympathies. They faithfully represented His mind to others. They died; but their followers, in their turn, transmitted the mind which they received. We look at the true Church, and we can see in it the mind of Christ.(2) Through literature. A man's book is a kind of second incarnation of himself. Thus the mind of Jesus has come down to us in the New Testament.(3) In their historic influence. Christ's mind has come down to us in this way.

2. Personally. Christ has distinctly assured us that He — not His mere influence, but Himself — is with His Church always, even unto the end, to enlighten, sanctify, guard, and strengthen it. This fact gives the Bible a wonderful advantage over other books. I take up the work of a departed author, and I find many things which I cannot understand, but I have no help. But when I take up the Bible — though it has been written for centuries — its Author is by my side. If we have the mind of Christ, then —

I. WHETHER WE RIGHTLY ACT IN RELATION TO THAT MIND OR NOT, OUR OBLIGATION IS IMMENSE. Our obligation is ever regulated according to the powers and privileges with which Heaven has endowed us. "Unto whom much is given, of them much will be required." In connection with this principle note —

1. That the most precious thing in the universe is mind. Matter, in all its forms of life and beauty, is but the creature, symbol, and servant of mind. One human soul, though tabernacling in poverty, is of more essential worth than the sun. The sun has no feeling, thought, volition; it can neither form an idea of itself, nor of its Author. But the feeblest moral mind has all this, and can do all this,

2. That the most precious mind in the universe is the mind of Christ.(1) All human minds are not of the same relative value. The minds of such men as Newton, Bacon, Milton are worth the aggregate mind of their age. But he who is instrumental in restoring one soul to moral truth and God, may do a greater work for the universe than he who corrects a hundred inferior minds. But the most majestic intellects bear no comparison with the mind of Christ; His mind was "the image of the invisible God."(2) Now nothing enhances our responsibility so much as connection with minds of a high and holy order. But contact with the mind of Christ enhances our responsibility a thousandfold. "If I had not come, and spoken unto them, they had not had sin," &c. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world," &c.

II. IF WE ACT RIGHTLY IN RELATION TO THAT MIND, THE EFFECTS ON OUR CHARACTER WILL BE MOST GLORIOUS. There are three great blessings which will result.

1. Mental vivacity. Mind is the quickener and developer of mind. The amount of vital energy and impulse, however, which one mind is capable of imparting to another will, perhaps, generally depend upon two conditions.(1) The character of the subjects of intercourse. Where they are tame commonplaces or vague abstractions, but a small amount of impulse will be imparted; but where they are of an opposite character, a powerful effect may be expected.(2) The native vigour of the mind that presents these subjects. The most moving subjects will produce little effect when presented by a lifeless mind; but where there is great native energy in the soul of the communicator, in any case, there must be a powerful effect. Now you have just these two conditions in the highest form in connection with the mind of Christ. His mind is life and light — condensed energy and focal flame. His mind broke the mental slumbers of humanity, put the world in action, and gave it an impulse that shall go on accumulating for ever. He, therefore, who is rightly connected with the mind of Christ must be a man of mental earnestness. A sleepy-minded Christian is a solecism — a contradiction.

2. Moral assimilation. "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise." Fellowship with a pre-eminently spiritual, holy, humble, benevolent, and devout mind is eternally incompatible with worldliness, impurity, pride, selfishness, and impiety.

3. True happiness. Christ's mind does two things towards human happiness.(1) It removes all obstructions. Sin is the great obstruction, and the great work of Christ is "to lint away sin"; to put it away in its —

(a)Idea form — the intellectual errors of men are sources of misery.

(b)Disposition form — the wrong and conflicting dispositions of men are sources of misery.

(c)Guilt form — the sense of guilt upon the conscience is a sore element of distress.(2) It supplies the necessary condition of happiness. A suitable object of supreme love. Our supreme affection is the fountain of our happiness; but for the supreme affection to yield perfect happiness it must be free from all moral defects, capable of helping us in all the contingencies of our being, ever reciprocating our affections, and one which will continue with us for ever. In Christ we have all this, and nowhere else. If, then, we are in right connection with the mind of Christ, we are happy. Melancholy and gloom are foreign to Christianity.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

I. WHAT THE CONSTITUTION OF "THE MIND OF CHRIST" WAS.

1. It was altogether human. It is an idle thought that the body of Christ was human, but the spirit or mind of Christ, was Divine. That which is Divine, being always infinite, is incapable of any growth or increase. But Christ "increased in wisdom." So complete was Christ's emptying of Himself here for our sakes that His mind became subject to all the laws by which our intellect is governed.

2. This is necessary for the truth of the history, to the integrity of His humanity, for the perfectness of His sympathy and power, for His being an exemplar that we may imitate.

II. HOW DID THE HUMAN MIND OF JESUS BECOME THAT SUBLIME AND PERFECT THING IT WAS? He had "the Spirit without measure."

1. This thought is the connecting link which unites our little minds with His. For this is exactly Paul's reasoning. "The spirit which is of God" is identified with the mind of Christ. That soul of Jesus, then, infinitely stored with the Holy Spirit, becomes a fountain from whence that Spirit is always pouring out into His own people; so that "out of His fulness have all we received." And this it is which makes a gift of the Spirit so very sweet to a Christian.

2. And, as that process goes on, every fresh communication of the Holy Ghost, passing as it does from the bosom of Jesus, enables us to say with greater and greater truth, "We have the mind of Christ."

III. THE ADVANTAGES WHICH BELONG TO THOSE WHO HAVE "THE MIND OF CHRIST."

1. As respects that great search after truth, no man can really understand the Bible who does not bring to the study of it "the mind of Christ." Now mark the apostle's reasoning. He says, no man can tell what is passing in any man's mind except that man himself. In like manner he says, no one can know what is passing in the mind of God but God only. But if only God knows God, how can we know God? By having "the mind of Christ." Thus, then, it is, by bringing the mind of Christ in our souls to "the mind of Christ" in the Bible that we can understand the mind of God.

2. The possession of "the mind of Christ" is a wonderful clue to the intricate windings of the labyrinth of life. There are thousands of points which require instantaneous decision. The juncture gives little space to go to some friend, or even to the Bible. At such moments a rapid perception of the right is an inestimable gift, and we shall have that if we have "the mind of Christ."

3. They have the benefit of "the mind of Christ" who wish to pray rightly. God has given us the license to "ask what we will, and it shall be done." But may not a man inadvertently ask and obtain a curse? Our security in that dangerous privilege is in the knowledge of the Bible — an acquaintance with God's promises. But we want something quicker. Those who bring Christ in them to their knees, having "the mind of Christ" in asking, know what is "the mind of Christ" in giving. And it is surprising to what an extent this may control and guide prayer. The Syrophenician woman had it, when she would not cease till she had obtained what she wanted. Abraham had it equally when he stayed his supplication for Sodom at "the ten." And doubtless Paul also, when he ceased to deprecate "the thorn" at the third petition.

(J. Vaughan, M. A.)

I. URGED AS THE SUPREME PATTERN OF SELF-RENUNCIATION. Mark —

1. Voluntary humiliation. "He emptied Himself," became obedient unto death." He who would study the grand pattern for the Christly life must begin in the valley of humiliation.

2. Absolute surrender for others — the perfection of self-sacrifice. "He came not to be ministered unto," &c.

3. Disinterestedness in benevolence — "Looking to the things of others."

4. The grand law of Christian discipleship. Though we may never be able to equal the incomparable humility, gentleness, and self-sacrifice of Christ, yet we may follow His example.

II. POSSESSED — AS THE DIVINEST INSPIRATION TO THE HIGHER LIFE. No man that would ascend to the loftiest moral excellence but must possess "the mind of Christ." By the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ there is imparted into us —

1. Strength to fight against sin and to achieve a victory.

2. Inspiration to spiritual power, beauty, excellence, and holiness.

3. Harmony of heart with the heart of God.

III. REALISED — AS THE CROWNING ENDOWMENT FOR THE NOBLEST SERVICE. "We have the mind of Christ." The conscious possession of the mind of Christ has led thousands to make the highest sacrifice and to render the noblest service — Luther to attempt the Reformation; Robert Raikes to establish the Sunday-schools; Charles of Bala to originate the British and Foreign Bible Society, &c. Lessons: The attainment is —

1. Possible.

2. Certain. "We have."

3. Let us all seek it afresh, for the glory of God, for the good of others, and our own happiness.

(J. Harries.)

1. Enlightening the understanding.

2. Assuring the conscience.

3. Informing the judgment.

4. Renewing the heart.

II. WE ARE THUS FORTIFIED AGAINST THE OBJECTIONS OF ALL UNBELIEVERS. Because —

1. They do not know the mind of God.

2. Are incompetent to judge of spiritual things.

3. Much more to offer any instruction to those who have the Spirit of God.

(J. Lyth, D. D.).