God is ever working. Let this thought shame those foolish, worthless persons who deem it derogatory to labour. Not only when he fashioned this world and made it fit for our dwelling place, not only when he created man, but always and everywhere is God working. The laws of nature are the operations of the Almighty, and he is working as well in the spiritual sphere as in the physical.

I. TRUE CHRISTIANS ARE SPIRITUAL LABOURERS. Christian evangelism and pastors, teachers and bishops, are all working in prominent positions in the harvest field of spiritual toil. Bat spiritual labour is the natural outcome of the spiritual life. Every sincere follower of Christ is seeking an end outside of himself - the promotion of the kingdom of righteousness and the glory of the Divine Master. Our hearts may rest in the Lord, but our hands work for him.

II. CHRISTIANS ARE FELLOW LABOURERS ONE WITH ANOTHER.

1. There is difference in natural powers, in spiritual gifts, in ecclesiastical position, in length of service.

2. But there is unity in aim, in hope, in the relation all sustain to him by whose authority and for whose glory they toil.

3. And there is sympathy, mutual good will, and helpfulness. If there is defect here, it is a discredit to the common profession, a hindrance to the general usefulness, a grief to the one Lord.

III. CHRISTIANS ARE FELLOW LABOURERS WITH GOD AS THEIR MASTER.

1. All are alike called by him who scuds forth labourers into his harvest. He is independent of us, and it is to his grace we owe it that we are permitted to labour for him.

2. All are alike directed to labour for the one great end - the universal and immortal reign of truth and righteousness, holiness and love.

3. All are alike instructed by him as to the special means by which the one end is to be secured. He gives to every one the appropriate implement for his toil, the weapon adapted to his warfare.

4. All alike receive the needed strength and guidance from him, the spiritual impulse and power which gives efficacy to their service.

5. All rejoice that, whether they plant or water, the same Lord "gives the increase."

IV. CHRISTIANS ARE LABOURERS WITH GOD AS THEIR FELLOW WORKER. This interpretation, whether justifiable or not grammatically, does not seem liable to a charge of irreverence.

1. In Christ Jesus, the Son of God, we have the supreme Exemplar of spiritual labour. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." Jesus calls us to do what he himself is doing. What power there is in his appeal, "Work, not only for me, but with me!"

2. The agency of the Divine Spirit is never withheld. The husbandman can only work effectually when God works with him by the agencies of nature; the mechanist, only when physical forces can be employed under his control, the physician, only when his treatment is in harmony with physiological laws. So the Christian labourer is successful, not through independence, but just because he avails himself of the co-operation of the Lord and Giver of life; because, in all devotion and diligence and humility, he endeavours to live and to toil as a fellow worker with God! - T.

I. THE IMMEDIATE APPLICATION OF THE TEXT.

1. Believers though they were, Paul could not address the Corinthians as spiritual persons, for they moved in the lower, earthly region of man's nature, where strife and division have place, and into which it was impossible to introduce exalted subjects.

2. He then proceeds to show on what a mistake this party feeling proceeded. The different teachers were but humble instruments in the hand of one and the same God, who commissioned each with spiritual gifts, and who alone prospered their work. Paul might have taken a different course. He might have urged on his own party to more determined action. But, instead of that, he deprecated the existence of any parties, and bade all rise into that higher region in which they would discern that different spiritual teachers were working together with one God, and for the same spiritual results.

3. Oh, that these words had been heeded by the Church since! They would have rendered impossible most of the divisions which have been, and are still, its weakness and its curse. All of us "labourers together with God!" No thought could be more exalted. Well might anybody who felt it protest against what else might be deemed the honour of leading a party.

II. THE WIDER APPLICATION. For is it not profoundly true that, since we ale Divinely made, and since we live in a Divine world, all the work we any of us do here is for Divine purposes, and by Divine energy, and so is a "labouring together with God"?

1. It may be said: On this view all other things work for God. True; for "fire and hail, snow and vapour, stormy wind, fulfil His Word." It would be a healthy Christian thing to see God's ministers in all the forces of nature, whether silent, like those at work in an opening flower and decaying leaf, or imposing, like those revealed in earthquakes and volcanoes. It is a deeply Christian and a deeply scientific thought, too, to see God at work in these law-abiding and universal changes; and unchristian and unscientific is the too common thought that, in general, things go on of themselves, hut that sometimes, in answer to prayer, God steps in to interfere with them and work special providences. That idea sets God apart from His universe, supposes it can go on without Him, and sees His presence only in irregularities. The other belief supposes God at work always and everywhere, and recognises His intelligence as displayed in the glorious order of His works. The unconscious energies of nature, then, are working together with God. The universe "is God's husbandry and God's building."

2. But, if so, the same may be said, with much higher emphasis, of men. On what a far higher level of being do they live and work, possessed of spiritual faculties resembling those of their Maker, and entrusted by Him with a certain independence in little spheres of activity! So that they can delightfully feel that they are co-operating with Him, or idly neglect to do so, or wilfully oppose His will. The region in which we can help or hinder God's plans is a narrow one indeed; but, to have such a power at all, how wonderful and great! There is work for us to do — no grand, famous work, but sacred daily duty.

(T. M. Herbert, M. A.)

I. IN SPIRITUAL HUSBANDRY. Now it is the province of the husbandman to plant and to water, but neither dexterity in planting can ensure the striking of the root, nor diligence in watering command the ripening of the fruit. In the spiritual husbandry of the Church all is God's; the field — the world; the plants — men; the instruments wherewith the clods are broken — the appointed ordinances Of grace; the plan for the direct combination of labour — His Word; the water — the purifying influence of His Spirit; the sunbeams — the quickening and cheering manifestations of His love. As in nature the husbandman "waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth, and hath long patience, until he receive the early and latter rain," relying implicitly on the Divine pledge, so the faithful minister of Christ pursues his spiritual husbandry in patience and in faith.

II. IN SPIRITUAL BUILDING. Here, too, the labour is of man, but the power of God. In the spiritual temple of the Church the foundation is of God's laying, the material of God's preparing, the plan of God's contriving, the proportions of God's adjusting; and if ministers of Christ may be said, in the gathering or the raising, in the cementing or compacting, in the edifying or carrying up, m the roofing or covering in, to "build up lively stones into a spiritual temple, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ," yet the quickening, pervading power of God is continually recognised throughout. For what could impart life to the stone except a miracle of grace? Conclusion: From this, then, it will follow that while, with St. Paul, we exalt the office of the Christian ministry, at the same time, with St. Paul, we abase the individuals who exercise it. Let them be, like Apollos, "mighty in the Scriptures"; let them be, like St. Paul, mightier still in "signs and wonders," &c., yet, like Paul and Apollos, in themselves they are nothing.

(T. Dale, M. A.)

We are delighted with the sweet invitation, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour," &c. We sometimes forget that the same Saviour invites us also to labour. "Go, work in My vineyard."

I. WORK —

1. Strengthens faith (John 7:17). Christian experience fortifies against infidelity. The man of scientific ability cannot convince me, against my years of experience, that water is unwholesome, or that its Creator is a blunderer.

2. Strengthens spiritual life. The little child craves activity quite as much as food. Such a child may be never so well fed, and clothed, and sheltered, yet, if it have not opportunity to exercise, it will be a dwarf. So work is a means of spiritual development and growth to every child of God.

3. Purifies the life. Society is kept pure by activity, just as the ocean and atmosphere are kept pure by the winds and waves. The Church in which all minds and hands are busy planning and executing will not have time to criticise, complain, or gossip.

4. Employment and enjoyment go hand in hand. The working Church is the happy Church, and the happy Church helps to keep members from backsliding.

II. TOGETHER. We may say this is the difficult problem. There are so many wills and tastes — so great difference in culture and habit — that "working together" is almost impracticable.

1. And yet when we look at the Christian at the time of surrender, it will not seem so difficult. Every true convert begins the service of the Lord with the question, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? "and this becomes the first, middle, and ending question of the converted man's life. He becomes a member of the body of which Jesus Christ is head. As the members of a human body are controlled by the will — the head — so must be also the members of Christ's body. No jealousies between such members. No complaining one of another, but each bearing the burden assigned.

2. And then nothing will help to unite workers so much as a high appreciation of the work to be done. One soul is worth more than all the world beside, and millions perish daily for lack of the bread of life.

3. In view of the fact that Jesus prayed that His disciples might be one.

III. WITH GOD. No man has a right to engage in a work in which he cannot ask God's presence and blessing. Much more must we realise God's presence and blessing in the advancement of His kingdom. We may be sure that God will not allow the Son's mission to fail. "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it."

(R. Moffett.)

I. THE BASIS OF THIS CO-OPERATION is the high and holy relation between the Christian heart and God. The Christian is united to Him as a child is to a parent, more by affection than by mere external ties. He is united to God, likewise, by a fervent sympathy with the Divine character. God's holiness is exceedingly attractive to him. Besides, a Christian has truly and persistently submitted his will to God's will, feeling that the Divine will includes all that is wisest, purest, noblest. A Christian, furthermore, holds his soul and his thoughts in daily communion with God, so that affections are interchanged with Him.

II. ITS NATURE. The Christian accepts —

1. The Divine idea of his own development of character, and labours to produce in himself those things which God seeks.

2. The Divine order in this world, and endeavours to secure among men that intelligence and goodness for which God endlessly works, and causes nature to work.

3. All his powers and affections in stewardship, and undertakes to use himself for God's work, His personal influence, his property, his children, his friends — all these he throws in, as it were, to the common stock, and administers them for God, and not for himself.

4. The duty to love all that which God loves, to promote all that God is seeking to promote, to hate what God hates, and to destroy it if he can.

III. PRACTICAL LESSONS.

1. This view consoles in our conscious weakness. There is no man that, when he looks upon the courses of God in the world; the results that he is to achieve in himself; to seek among his fellows, that does not often come to a consciousness that he is weakness itself. Sometimes it makes one feel utterly worthless, discourages endeavour, and leads one to desire to fly away and be at rest, because they think it will make no difference whether they live or die. What is a drop of water of itself? What is weaker? But when God has marshalled the sum of the weakness of myriad drops together, they lift the mightiest ship as if it were but a feather, and play with the winds as if they were mere instruments of sport. And yet that very drop is there, and has its part and lot in the might of the whole vast; unbounded sea.

2. He who unites himself to any great truth which God has established may be sure that he will go forth from conquering to conquer; not by reason of any might or skill in himself, but because he is a labourer together with God. The man that adopts any Divinely appointed truth, no matter what the world thinks of it, rides in God's chariot, and has God for his charioteer. He always wins who sides with God. On the other hand, no man in this world is safe or victorious unless he feels that he is going with, and not against God.

3. No life can be barren or insignificant that is a part of God's life. A woman that seemed to be endowed with everything calculated to fit one for the most eminent service, was called, in God's providence, to marry a man that was not her equal. She was placed in an obscure position. While she might have been listening to the chime of the spheres she was occupied with rocking the cradle, darning, sewing, washing, and cooking. And sometimes, perhaps, she thought to herself, "Woe is me! To what end am I living?" Her child developed under her care, and learned to call her mother; and then she thought God spoke, so sweet was its voice to her, and in that child she expected to reap her reward for all that she had done and suffered. But just as he was touching manhood, in a moment the wave closed over him, the labour of her life was ended, and, stranded on the shores of despair, she cried out, "Why was I born? and to what end have I lived?" A hundred had marked her fidelity, and she had been schoolmaster to every one of them. A hundred had witnessed her patience, and all the sermons they had ever heard had not preached such a lesson to them as her silent example. Multitudes that had learned of her, in turn became teachers of others. Her influence spread wider than what she dreamed. It was not until she had gone up to the end of life in obscurity, and God had caused the light of eternity to shine on her work, that she understood how glorious little things might be. The good deeds of this life are dewdrops, innumerable, lying unseen among men; but when God shall pour the revealing light of the other world upon them, how it will kindle them and make them sparkle! Imagine how Solomon's temple was built. In the forest of old Lebanon many and many a day-labourer worked in obscurity, and wondering of what consequence all his work could be. In another place were workers in metal. Some did one thing and some another, but none knew the plan of the temple, none knew what they wrought till on a certain day, when they all trooped to Jerusalem. Then they stood entranced, and wondered that out of things so insignificant in the mountains there should come such glory in Jerusalem. God had sent some to the cedar forest, some to the stone quarry, some to the dark. and dank places of this world; but He is collecting materials which will glow with untold splendour in the temple that He is building for the New Jerusalem.

(H. W. Beecher.)

God a labourer, a labourer with men, God a labourer with men for men, are the facts stated in this passage.

I. GOD WORKS ALONE. We are not wont to consider God in His wonderful activities, but more accustomed to think of Him as having created the universe, and complacently beholding its wondrous workings and results. Nevertheless, the God referred to in this passage is not only glorious in holiness, but also a God doing wonders. This activity of the Infinite One is involved in —

1. The doctrine of providence. The preservation of the action, harmony, and stability of nature requires His constant oversight and direction and application of nature and of its laws. This is also true of all the beings which God had created. Every one of them lives in Him. The seraph before His throne, and the men upon His footstool, are each of them the objects of His ceaseless care. So is every sun and star as well as every plant and flower. How wondrous, how inconceivably glorious must be the activity of the Divine mind!

2. The doctrine of the final judgment. We shall be summoned to the Divine presence, the Omnipotent Judge, who has known our motives and all the circumstances under which we have acted, and we shall receive from Him, from His personal knowledge, the decisions of that day. How wonderful must be the presence, and perception, and memory of this Infinite God, who is thus our judge!

3. The reception of worship. How necessary, in order that God may properly regard our approaches to Him and our devotion, that He should understand everything that affects thought or feeling at the time that those services are rendered! And when we consider how great is the number of His worshippers, how wonderful must be the exercise of His intelligence and of His love! There are two things which render it difficult for us to rightly appreciate these activities.(1) The one is that God is invisible.(2) The other is that in most of His works God operates independently of rational agencies.(a) In making the universe He employed no agents. On the contrary, He spake and it was done.(b) In the conservation of the universe none of the beings that occupy it have an agency in holding it in its orbit.(c) In legislating for mankind He has no legislative assembly. The laws by which we are governed emanate from His mind, are promulgated by His authority, and He will execute His own sentence.

II. NEVERTHELESS, THERE IS ONE OF THE DIVINE ENTERPRISES IN WHICH GOD IS PLEASED TO ASSOCIATE MEN, and that is the work of human salvation.

1. But there are several departments of it in which God acts alone.(1) This was true in devising this scheme of mercy; there were no consultations.(2) And in making the atonement that was necessary to accomplish this purpose God acted by Himself. He so loved the world, &c. Jesus Christ alone is the Redeemer and Saviour of the children of men.(3) It is equally true that in the transformation of the human soul it is a Divine work; it is the work of the Holy Spirit.

2. Still there are .departments in this enterprise in which God has been pleased to employ men.(1) He did this in inaugurating Christianity in the earth. By prophets and priests He prepared the world for the reception of the coming Messiah.(2) And then when the fulness of time was come the shepherds of Bethlehem listened to the announcement of the fact from the heavenly host; wise men from the East came to witness His incarnation.(3) Disciples were with Him during His ministry, and just before His ascension they received from Him His great commission. And on the day of Pentecost they received the power to go forth and preach the gospel which had been committed to them. You will see in every step of its introduction and inauguration it became needful that human instrumentality should be employed.(4) And now that it is inaugurated God requires His people to promulgate it. He has made it the business of the Church to give these Holy Scriptures to all men, and in this there is a very large service to be rendered. When in every community upon the earth there shall be a Christian, a Christian pastor, and Christian disciples, it will be their duty to employ every possible influence and agency to prevail upon men to heed the call of Divine mercy. By our Christian character, our constant watchfulness, and every influence that God gives us, we are to beseech men to be reconciled to God.

III. PRACTICAL LESSONS. If our views of this subject are correct, we may infer —

1. The greatness of the work of human salvation. It is the only enterprise in which God is engaged in which He has taken into the fellowship of labour with Him either angels or men.

2. The dignity of activity in the cause and for the sake of Christ. We are not acting upon physical, material things; we are not seeking to promote mainly temporal interests or present happiness merely. We are seeking to recover lost spirits, redeemed by Christ, for whose restoration there is provision made by the power of the Spirit.

3. The certainty of success in these spiritual enterprises. If we were to do this work in our own wisdom and strength we might well hesitate and fear as to the result, but if we are labouring with God who can doubt the success?

(Bishop Janes.)

I. WE ARE GOD'S FELLOW-LABOURERS.

1. Men rush into the ministry or into similar positions without a doubt about their ability. But if they pondered the words, "We are God's fellow-workmen," they might see some reason to question their fitness. Every workman has two things which must not be wanting in God's fellow-workman.(1) An object. This in our case is the final happiness and perfection of each in heaven, and the attraction of each toward that Person who can bring him there. How ought we to ask ourselves whether this is substantially our object!(2) A method. Every artisan not only knows what the particular result he designs is, but he knows also the process by which he must arrive at it. Now we who undertake to teach others ought to be quite sure that the gospel is true in its two great parts, the offer of forgiveness of sins through Christ, and the offer of the Holy Spirit's presence to transform, direct, and sustain: these things we ought to have experience of in ourselves, and so be able to declare, as of our own knowledge, that those who listen to us may attain the great object if they will only use the proper means.

2. It is in carrying on this work in this way that we are God's fellow-workmen. God has the same object that we have, and God is co-operating with us in our endeavours after it.

II. YE ARE GOD'S HUSBANDRY, with regard to the state of your hearts and characters at any particular time.

1. By nature the soil is cold and hard, shallow and barren. It bears some things which look good and beautiful, waiting, as it were, for the Holy Spirit to turn them from natural gifts into spiritual graces; but not yet receiving, because we prefer having them as they are, and shrink back from prayer, which is the connecting link between the soul and God. Now, when we see how slow we all are to take this little step in earnest, we feel that nothing can give us any hope at all but the assurance that God is here engaged, and that He can work with us, preparing the stony ground to receive the good seed of His Word, that it may take deep root and spring up into an abundant harvest.

2. And as it is with the ground, so it is with respect to the weeds which grow so rankly. Long experience teaches us to expect them. We say to ourselves, It must go on so to the end; no care or pains of ours will ever root them up. Perhaps not: and yet it may be not only our duty to labour on as if we might succeed; but more than this; the fault may be in great part ours for not having remembered that we are God's husbandry, and for not having prayed to God more earnestly to do for us that which for ourselves we could not do.

III. YE ARE GOD'S BUILDING.

1. This is especially true of young people. Your characters are forming now; soon they will be (what we call) formed: then habits of good or evil will have become a second nature, and change, if it come at all, will be a difficulty beyond anything that you have yet known of. Every day is adding something to the building: something of good, or something of evil, some accession of knowledge, of self-control, of practice of good and conquest of evil, or else of carelessness and indifference, of self-indulgence or vanity or forgetfulness of God.

2. Yet, blessed be God, He has not left us (strictly speaking) to build. Ye are God's building. O how gracious an assurance; that, while that formation of character is going on, to all appearance, so easily and almost casually. Still all the time God is working, God is building; if we will only seek Him and trust Him and not thwart or counteract His work, He is carrying on, in the secret of the soul, a process of formation, and the finished thing will be His own temple, in which He will abide for ever and be satisfied with His travail! But, indeed, we must seek Him.

(Dean Vaughan.)

I. WHAT THE WORK INCLUDES IN WHICH GOD AND HIS PEOPLE ARE LABOURERS TOGETHER.

1. The spread of the gospel through the world.

2. The conversion of sinners.

3. The increase and prosperity of the Christian Church.

II. THE SPIRIT IN WHICH THE WORK UNDER CONSIDERATION SHOULD BE PROSECUTED. In the spirit of —

1. Humility.

2. Love to God.

3. Love to men.

4. Holy zeal.

5. Prayer and of faith.

(S. Brawn.)

The Creator does a part, and the chief part, but He kindly gives us a part, as considerate parents let their children join them in their works, though they could often do it better themselves. Creation is not finished, nor ever will be, but is always proceeding. In this progressive system man can put in his hand and make or mar.

I. Look at the MATERIAL CREATION.

1. The elements are in a rude state. The rivers run waste to the sea; the ocean rolls a vast desert of waters round the world; the forests grow and decay, and furnish nourishment for new generations of the same species; the fire is a hidden force, and the lightning plays apparently at haphazard among the clouds. But God has delegated to man, as His vicegerent on the earth, the power and skill, within certain limits, of using these unwieldly and fearful agencies, and, carrying out the plan of their creation.

2. So with the animals. They are created. in kind, but the type may be improved. Man can cross and perfect their breeds. He can tame the wild, multiply their number, and, by better shelter, food, &c., develop new excellences.

3. So flowers, fruits, and vegetables all require to be improved by human skill and ingenuity. Compare the dinner of a savage under his native palm with a horticultural exhibition, and we see the endless room for man to work in, and the effects of his science and experiments.

4. The forests were given to his hands uncut, the ores buried in the earth undug and unworked, the pearls in the sea, the fire in the flint, the steam in the water, the temple and the palace in the quarry. The arts, useful and beautiful, are thus a species of creation. Man was sent, not to destroy, but to fulfil.

II. It is a great thing to learn distinctly and impressively this duty of a man to be a co-worker with God. Some nations have not learned it yet. The savage tribes still linger on the animal plane. But even the civilised nations do not yet fully comprehend that a NEW MORAL AND SPIRITUAL, as well as material CREATION, is to be called forth by man. The conquest of matter is not enough, Christianity is to be superadded. Man has not done his work when he has built a house and woven a suit of garments. He can co-work with God in the building of his body and his mind — a Divine carpentry.

1. Physical education is a part of this sub-creation. The body is to be unfolded, invigorated, and kept as a pure temple for the soul, with nothing to do it sacrilege.

2. Guided by the rules, and animated by the spirit of Christianity, man is to be a co-worker with God in the building of his character. The Creator necessitates no holiness. Even Jesus learned obedience. The materials of this higher architecture are given in abundance. There is reason for the truth, understanding for practical affairs, conscience for the right, love for the good, hope for progress, so that our own nature is a forest, quarry, and mine, containing all the needful means for our great work. But beside these native faculties society and Christianity give us the tools to work with, the motives, books, teachers, to aid us in the sub-creation. We are called to be labourers with God, in no meagre plan and for no trivial results. The plan is Divine and the results are eternal. The problem runs somewhat in this wise: Given, passion, energy; required, a spirited character and an active life. Given, a soft infant; required, a sturdy, well-formed, intelligent, and virtuous man. Given, conscience; required, righteousness. Given, affections: required, love to all in heaven and earth. Given, instinct, reason, the gospel of Jesus; required, a new human race, a new moral and spiritual creation. The end and emphasis of all things is formation of ourselves on God's idea of a human being. The gospel of Jesus is yet but in its infancy in this respect. It has done little compared with what it is to do. It has only begun its work in the soul and among the nations. It is slowly becoming a power in the earth. Conclusion: Let us not forget the lesson and application. This creation is a self-creation, this formation is a self-formation. God gives us means, materials, motives, guidance, and, to let nothing escape us that would be of help, He has presented the exquisite figure and spirit of a Divine Man. The danger is in turning off on some by-path of your own, instead of following the way God has marked out, in fulfilling some little, worthless, and short-lived plan of your passions or pleasures.

(A. A. Livermore, D. D.)

One is something overwhelmed by the thought of the manner in which good old honest words occasionally lose their primitive meaning and become attached to some separate part of daily life, and in such a manner as to become terms rather of reproach than anything else. You talk of a labourer in ordinary conversation as a man who is doing day by day unintelligent, mechanical toil; but, after all, labour such as that is the very basis upon which the happiness of the world is built. All labour is Godlike; and the single test which you may apply to see whether labour is successful or not is the test which St. Paul applied in these words when he said, "For we are labourers together with God." I want, then, to look upon the harvest as the fruition of successful labour with God. The fact that harvest comes year by year to a successful result is simply an evidence of the truthfulness of the test which St. Paul applies. Man does his work, then there comes side by side with his work the work of God. His work would altogether fail if it were not labour with God. Now let us suppose for a moment that the husbandman were to labour upon the assumption that he would work by himself and not labour with God. Suppose he said: "I don't believe that the seasons will come round in their accustomed succession, and I will labour as for seasons of my own." Every intelligent man knows the result of labour such as that would be complete disaster so far as the harvest is concerned. For the only way in which the wondrous things in the world of nature are brought to their perfect beauty and fruition is because you have on the one hand the hard toil of the man, and on the other hand the hard, unceasing, unremitting toil of God. Now what is true of the harvest of the earth's fruits is certainly true of every work which man undertakes in daily life. The rule of success is labour with, not labour against, God. The man who has to work can only labour successfully by working with God; and by working with God I mean working just as the husbandman works, in conscious subordination to the law of God. If a man will not obey the law of God his physical work cannot be successful as it might be successful if he worked in subordination to the will of God. If a man breaks down his physical frame by indulging in sin, that man, by disobeying the will of God, is rendering the harvest of his daily work uncertain. It is precisely similar with a man engaged in business. He who will labour with God must labour according to God's law, and where there is that obedience to the will of God there will be ultimate success. The harvest may not come as the harvest of some of the transitory things in nature comes, very quickly, and remain only a short time, but it will be substantial and solid, and will give perfect happiness and perfect peace, because it will be success which has been honestly won, and prosperity which has been rightly gained. Such a labourer can see, even in the success of his business, his own handiwork co-operating with the handiwork of God, and in all the good fortune which has befallen him he can recognise the directing providence of his Heavenly Father. "Labouring together with God," that is the grand secret of successful work. There is one other thought that I would like to leave with you from the consideration of this truth, and that is this: that just as there is labour with God, and just as the conditions of successful labour are to be with God, so after labour there comes rest, and the conditions of successful rest are also to be found in the rest with God.

(J. R. Diggle, M. A.)

This ninth verse is a further amplification of Paul's intent, which is to press unity against factions and divisions; and it is a declaration of his argument before, which was "The planters and waterers are one, but God gives the increase." This he further illustrates in the beginning of this verse — "For we are workers together with God." We are all in God's vineyard, and labour unto Him. In what sense they are workers with God; not by immediate producing of any spiritual effects, but by the external application of the ministry to the people. As Gehazi carried his master's staff and touched the child with it, but that did no good till Elijah came himself. In the first place, consider what reasons may be for this, why God will use such workers with Him, He needeth not the parts or gifts of any. First, this is a fit and an accommodated way to our natures. When God sends men of the same mould and subject to the same affections, this may the more easily draw us. When God delivered the law Himself, it was with such terror and majesty, that they desired that God would not Himself speak any more to them, so that mere men would not be able to bear the immediate approaches of the Divine majesty to them. As the fowler catcheth many birds by one decoy a bird of the same feather, thus it becometh us to have such to bring us home unto God, that are affected with our estates, that have the same temptations in them as other men. Hence the more experience God's ministers have of the work of grace, the temptations of Satan, the deceitfulness of sin, the more fit they are to comfort others, or to deliver them out of snares. Secondly, He may do it to oblige us and tie us to His instituted means. It is a great caveat in the Scripture, and frequently urged: "No man must follow the imagination of his own heart." Now God would prevent such loose principles, and bind us up to His instituted way; He will bind us, though He is not bound. Thirdly, hereby God would exercise the humility, meekness, and obedience of men. Oh, it is a great matter for men to submit to God's institution! Fourthly, that men might be the more inexcusable. For if thou art not now turned from thy sin, who shall plead for thee? Fifthly, God will hereby declare His power so much the more. Now to this there needs one caution to be added, viz., that this connection between the labour of the minister and God's working is not natural, necessary, and perpetual. We may work, and yet neither the presence or power of God be therein. It is not here as in the works of nature; there God hath made a perpetual and unalterable decree. Now if you ask when may it fall out that though the ministry laboureth, yet God doth not work with it, reasons may be on God's part, the minister's, and the people's. First, work with God in prayer, that He would work with the ministry. Secondly, take heed of such sins as may provoke God not to he with the ministry.

(A. Burgess.)

The metaphor of the field describes the raw material on which God works; that of the house describes the result of the work. The field represents the individual Christian in his secret power of life and endless growth; the house represents the Church in the unity of plan, in the beauty and strength of its structure. The metaphor of the building lends itself more easily than that of the farm to the apostle's purpose in the subsequent verses, and leads naturally to the highest conception, that of God's temple in ver. 16.

(Principal Edwards.)

I. THE FIRST CONDITION OF THE SOIL — its wilderness condition — IS NOT WITHOUT GROWTHS. It is overgrown with forests, choked with underbush, and cumbered with falling and decaying materials. The sun is always hidden from its interior. It is apt to be a lair of beasts. This is certainly the state of the human soil before religious culture is applied to it. Men are in a state of wilderness in the beginning.

II. THE FIRST STEP OF HUSBANDRY IS TO RELIEVE THE SOIL OF THESE WILD GROWTHS, AND PREPARE IT FOR TILLAGE. The trees are felled and burned, so that the ground may be disencumbered and laid open to the sun. But some, for expedition, are only girdled. All connection between the sap at the roots and the top is severed by a line of sharp cuts around the trees; and so girdled, they will stand for a while, but they will never leaf again; so that, little by little, more and more ground is susceptible to the plough. The first work of religion is analogous to this. Many of the things which men practise in an unregenerate state are, by the power of God's grace at their conversion, cut down peremptorily and taken out of the way. But there are a great many things which are only girdled, and only little by little brought to the ground.

III. When this preliminary process is complete, the pioneer farmer is ready for THE NEXT STAGE, which IS THAT OF SEED-PLANTING. It is not smooth sward that the plough is now to turn; but rough soil, full of the green stumps of trees but just disappeared. And, worse than this, roots are matted all over the ground; but the ground is, at any rate, open to the sun, and every year and every ploughing will rip up and throw out some of these roots. And so it is with men. Their first efforts at goodness are very crooked and shallow. When men first begin to let go the lower forms of wickedness, and to sow the higher seeds of virtue, it is often like the sudden taking away of the forest, and the laying open of the soil to the sun. The first crops are very unsatisfactory; yet these incipient mistakes must be taken, if you are going to have a good farm by and by.

IV. HAVING GOT THUS FAR THE HOME-LOT IS CLEARED. The stones are cleared away, the stumps rooted out, and the ground fenced round where his house is to be. Then he gives the ground a more thorough farming, and so the house-lot is got into a better condition. So men usually begin to smooth down those traits of their character which lie next to themselves, as it were, and which are in the family. Then one and another habit is attacked, and trait after trait is added. And so they enlarge, more and more, every year, their husbandry.

V. Hitherto the farmer has only sown the grains and roots absolutely needed for sustenance; but NOW A GARDEN AND ORCHARD ARE PLANTED. And so in spiritual life. At first it is a tough, hard fight for life. By and by times of richer gladness come — more liberty, more hope. Prayer grows out of duty into pleasure. God's Word opens, and Christians walk amid beds of flowers. Clusters of fruit are gathered — richer experiences — the fruits of the Spirit.

VI. EVENTUALLY IT IS RESOLVED UPON TO BRING IN EVERY ACRE. All outlying lots are to be cleared. So, eminently, is it with advancing Christians. After a time many men experience a second conversion, as it seems to them. They are aroused to a sense of the largeness and symmetry of Christian character. And their purpose is to subdue every thought and every feeling to the will of God.

VII. THE FARMER, AS HIS LAST STEP, APPLIES TO HIS SOIL, THUS BROUGHT FORWARD, THE MOST SCIENTIFIC METHODS OF ASCERTAINED HUSBANDRY. He underdrains deep the whole estate; and when all those stagnant pools and chilling springs that deluge the roots of tender-growing plants are carried away, then he subsoils. He puts down the plough as far as iron can go, and mellows the soil and the subsoil down deep in the earth. Then he begins to select better herbs than before. And just so it is with Christians. As they grow in grace, and as God, the great Husbandman, perfects the work of clearing up and bringing into a condition of complete tillage the human heart, the religious feelings grow deeper. Many of those causes which obstructed their growth are now drained and carried off from the soul. Men give themselves more thorough religious cultivation. And the later periods of Christian experience are by far the most assiduous and the most faithful Conclusions: Note —

1. Some practical lessons we may perceive from what has been said.(1) The difference between instantaneous beginnings and gradual developments. No man ever suddenly cleared up forty acres of land. A man may and does begin suddenly, but the doing requires a long period. And so no man ever began to be a Christian without an instantaneous volition; but the mere volition is only a beginning. The evolution of Christian character is gradual.(2) The meaning of succession in Christian experience. We know that in husbandry, until some things are done, other things cannot be reached. And so there must be an order of development in Christian life. We cannot anticipate those graces which come only after the ripening of preceding graces. Graces grow just as grains do; first the sprouting under the ground, &c.(3) That the hardest part in both kinds of husbandry is apt to come at the beginning; but that, if well met then, it grows easier and easier every successive year. How hard was it at first to bring the soil to such a state that you dared to think "plough!" and how hard is it for a man at first to bring himself into such a state that he dares to think "prayer!" How many men who would like to be able to get their graces just as they can get an old, well-cultivated farm; but, though you can do that in natural husbandry, you cannot do it in spiritual husbandry.

2. The various kinds of spiritual husbandmen and husbandry.(1) There are shiftless and lazy farmers who raise just enough grain to keep them through the year. That is all they ask, and therefore they have no ambition to seek for more. And how many men there are who, after having been in the Church ten or twenty years, are just about where they were when they first entered it!(2) Scheming, changeable farmers who, instead of laying out their strength upon well-ascertained processes, are bewitched with new schemes and experiments. And there are just such spiritual farmers. One is running after new promises, another after a new faith, and another after new solutions of miracles. One has got a new doctrine, another some new idea of Church organisation, and another some new way of putting this or that religious truth. They see their old farms left untilled.(3) Pedigree farmers, whose fruit bears the highest-sounding names, but is the poorest in the neighbourhood. Their oxen are lean, their cows are milkless, but what a line of blood they sprung from! Did you never see just such husbandmen in the Church? — men who had no greater morality, or piety, or spiritual experience, but who went back through a long pedigree.(4) Chaff farmers. Suppose you should find a farmer who said that he was satisfied that farmers had been doing injustice to many kinds of seeds; and that he felt assured that if a man would sow cockle-seeds; and do it sincerely, God would give the increase: so He would — of cockles. Suppose a man should sow that detestable Canada thistle, and say that it was wheat. Would any amount of botanical sincerity on the part of this fool secure to him a harvest of anything better than the seed sown? Now a great many persons say, "Why do you teach us such doctrines? What matter is it whether we believe in the Bible or not, so that we live about right, or that we are sincere? Is not that enough?" No, it is not enough. There is the same connection between spiritual seed and the result. Sincerity is a very good thing, but it cannot make grain out of chaff; neither can it make Christian graces out of worldly affections and worldly estates.(5) Fence farmers. What would you think of a husbandman who neglected everything because he was giving his whole time to the building of his fences? And, oh, such fences! The best and highest that could be built. Oftentimes, when he has got them all built up, he goes to work and pulls them down again. And what for? Why, just so that he can build them up again! And did you never hear of spiritual husbandmen that were for ever defining the great points of doctrine; for ever running boundaries round the kingdom of God; rebuilding the middle walls of partition, but never sowing and never reaping? There never was a fence that would keep vermin out of a man's farm, nor a fence that would keep hawks off from it. The best thing a farmer can do is to take such care of his soil as to have a harvest so rich that he will be able to spare a little to vermin and birds. The only safe way is to have so much spiritual culture in the Church that such minor troubles make little difference with its prosperity.(6) Nimrod farmers — hunting farmers. There are in the Church heresy-hunters. They are searching for foxes, and wolves, and bears, that they suppose are lying waste God's husbandry! They never do anything except fire at other folks. I have no doubt that Nimrod was a very good fellow in his own poor, miserable way; but a Nimrod minister is the meanest of all sorts of hunters!

(H. W. Beecher.)

The harvest is passed; the corn is housed. Is the farmer's labour done? No, the plough is even now at work again; the seed must soon be sown for next year's crop. So continual is the round. But, as the work of husbandry goes on, is there no lesson to us in these things? Yea, all nature speaks to us if we would hear, and the words of the text call us to listen to its voice. Let these words teach you —

I. THE CARE WHICH GOD HAS HAD FOR YOU.

1. In choosing you to be part of His own field — the Church of Christ. You are plants set in the Lord's garden, branches grafted into the living Vine; your heart is the soil on which God deigns to bestow culture, and from which His grace is able to bring forth fruits, meet for the paradise of God.

2. In the price He gave for this field. "Ye are not your own," &c.

3. In enclosing you with the design of making you holy to Himself. Have you ever seen a piece of ground taken in from a common? While all around it is still barren and wild, is not that one spot fair and goodly to the eye? This is what God would have you be in the midst of a world that lieth in wickedness.

4. In that He is ever seeking to improve the ground of your hearts. But, as the farmer does not use the same management to all kinds of soil — the stiff, stubborn clay must not be treated like the light, dry sand-so God now tries to win us by mercies; now to frighten us by judgments. Perhaps your heart clings to the love of this world; then He shakes it loose by storms of trouble. Perhaps He sees you indulging in sinful pleasures; then He makes you taste their bitterness and gall.

5. By employing labourers in His field, for your sakes. He sends His ministers to labour among you, if, by any means, they may save your souls alive.

II. THE RETURN YOU OUGHT TO MAKE TO HIM. What is this? Surely, to take care that you do not receive the grace of God in vain. When a farmer has bestowed much care and management upon a field, does he not expect some increase? How few soils are hopelessly bad, as not to be made better by good management! The earth is no insolvent debtor; you do not put into its bank to receive nought again. Shall the very ground we tread on put us to shame? Ask, then, yourselves, are you bearing fruit to God?

(E. Blencowe, M. A.)

As such —

I. HE IS THOROUGHLY ACQUAINTED WITH THE SOIL. He knows —

1. Its original state; the soul with all its pristine powers.

2. Its present condition; its barren and wilderness state — stony, weedy, and thorny.

3. Its tillable capabilities — what can be made of it. Some can become the majestic cedar, whilst others only the shrub.

II. HE HAS ALL NECESSARY INSTRUMENTALITIES. This stony, weedy ground requires certain well-contrived implements to work it into a fruitful condition. There must be the ploughshare, the pruning-hook, &c. He has them.

1. In the events of life. All the dark and painful circumstances in life are His implements to break up the fallow ground. All the pleasant and propitious are instruments for mellowing the soil.

2. In the revelations of truth. There is law and love, Sinai and Calvary.

III. HE POSSESSES THE PROPER SEED. His Word is seed in many respects.

1. Vitality. Every seed has life in it. His Word is spirit and life.

2. Completeness. The seed is complete in itself. Nothing can be taken from it, nothing can be added to it, any alteration injures it.

3. Prolificness. One seed in course of time may cover a continent and feed nations. The word of God is wonderfully fruitful.

IV. HE COMMANDS THE CULTURING ELEMENTS. The best agriculturists who understand the soil possess the best implements and the best seed, are thwarted in their efforts, because the elements are not propitious. God has command over the elements. The heat, the cold, the dew, the shower, the sunshine, and the air, are all at His disposal.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

The Scripture doth delight to compare the Church to many similitudes, all which show the tender respects it stands in towards God. Sometimes to a wife, sometimes to a body, sometimes to the branches of a vine; at other times to a garden, to a vineyard, and here to a field, and a house. We will first handle these two similitudes jointly, and then severally. Jointly, in that they are God's husbandry and house. It implieth these things — First, the power and goodness of God in making them so. A building is not of itself; everybody that seeth a house, presently concludes the house did not make itself; so if you see a field well husbanded, we all know of itself the earth would not do, but rather its curse is to bring forth briers and thorns. So when you see a people leaving their sins, walking according to the rules revealed in Scripture, you must necessarily conclude, this men have not of themselves, they cannot have this by flesh and blood. Hence, God, speaking of the Church of Israel, said: "He planted a vine" (Jeremiah 2:21). Secondly, it doth imply dominion and absolute sovereignty over us. Even as the master that buildeth the house appointeth what customs and orders shall be in the house, the husbandman appointeth what seed he pleaseth for the ground. This point is of great consideration, for how durst men in all ages have brought in such superstition, such heresy, such tyranny in the Church of God, if they had remembered there is but one master in the house of God — one lawgiver. All officers are but servants, and not masters. Thirdly, it denoteth propriety and interest that God hath a right to us, that we are His, and not our own. The house is the owner's, he hath the propriety of it; so that by this means they who are, indeed, of this building, of this field, they are more happy than all others in the world, for God is in covenant with them. To them only God is their God, and they His people. Fourthly, it supposeth care, love, and protection. Propriety causeth care and love among men. What cares a man for another man's field, another man's corn, but he looketh to his own? He weedeth that, he fenceth that, he keepeth that from all violence. It makes for God's praise, that thy heart be a room swept and kept clear for Him to lodge in. Oh, urge this in prayer! O Lord, am I not Thy husbandry? Is not my soul Thy building? Why, then, lieth it thus ruinous? Why is it neglected by Thee? It is not only my comfort, my happiness, but Thy glory and honour is interested in this. Come we in the next place to consider the several similitudes, and — First, ye are God's husbandry. Take notice that He doth not here speak of the invisible and mystical Church of Christ, but as they were a visible Church at Corinth. This relation of being God's husbandry implieth something on His part, and many things on ours. On His part: First, that He finds all people of themselves like a barren wilderness and fruitless desert. The curse upon the ground is fulfilled in them — to bring forth nothing but briers and thorns. All the things of grace and godliness are not only above our natures, but contrary to them. Secondly, it supposeth that grace and godliness is wholly planted by God in their souls, for this floweth from the other. Seeing we are such a barren wilderness, what fruit can ever be expected from us? Thirdly, this supposeth that God likewise giveth all the seasons and opportunities of growth and fruitfulness. As the gardener, He looketh to His times when He must water the plants, lest they die. The season of the year helpeth to grow, as well as the nature of the soil. Oh, then, know that as the natural seasons and times are of His appointment, so much more the gracious ones. On our parts, who are the field to be tilled, there are these things: First, a willingness to have the Word of God prepare and wound our souls; even tearing our hearts to pieces, that so the Word as seed may fructify. This is what the Scripture calls, "Ploughing up the fallow ground" (Jeremiah 4:3). Oh, expect not healing and peace and comfort, till you have been thus disquieted! Do not then quarrel at the Word of God, but rather bless Him for the power of it, when it changeth the whole face of a congregation. Secondly, this implieth that you should answer the satisfaction of that husbandman whose husbandry you are. Who will bear that ground which, after much labour and cost, brings forth no fruit at all? Thirdly, it supposeth a careful improvement of all those means which God useth for our spiritual good. If we be God's husbandry, we are patiently to receive and fruitfully to improve whatsoever may make for our fruitfulness. Now the means are of two sorts, either essential, and entire and perfect, such as the hearing of the Word, praying, godly communion; or, accidental and occasional, such as afflictions, troubles, and persecutions. They need a winter as well as a summer. Lastly, consider how near such a people are to utter ruin; while you are but near it, there is some hope of escaping, if you seek out; who. after all God's husbandry, are the .same ignorant and profane people still. Thy soul is God's field. Oh, what fruit, what reformation shouldst thou show forth? Thus, not only the Sabbath day, but every day may be a Sabbath day; every field thou goest into; every goodly crop thou seest on the ground, it may teach and preach unto thee.

(A. Burgess.)

is Divine —

I. IN ITS PLAN.

II. IN ITS STRUCTURE.

1. Christ, the foundation.

2. Living stones, the superstructure.

III. IN ITS WORKMANSHIP. Each stone by God is —

1. Polished.

2. Adjusted.

3. Cemented.

IV. IN ITS PURPOSE.

1. For His glory.

2. For the inhabitation of His Spirit.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

There have been many splendid structures which, in their day, have been the wonder and admiration of the world, but this infinitely transcends them all. The colossal palaces and hanging gardens reared by Nebuchadnezzar must have presented a gorgeous spectacle; while the fame of Solomon's temple has filled the earth in every age. But what is all this material splendour, which has long since passed away, to this temple whose stones are immortal spirits — whose foundation is the rock of ages-whose walls no revolutions can ever shake — whose fair proportions shall be fully developed, amid the ruin of all the mightiest and loveliest works of human ingenuity and power — whose top-stone shall be brought forth with shoutings when the "heavens shall have passed away." In surveying this building, note —

I. THE FOUNDATION. This is the most important part; if this be defective, all the cost and labour of the superstructure will be in vain. But the foundation upon which this edifice is built is such as an Omnipotent hand alone could lay, and for which no other can be substituted. Christ is the foundation of the Christian Church, as He is —

1. The source of her being. The Church could have no existence but for Him. The spiritual stones that constitute the edifice are sinners ransomed by His blood, and renewed by His Spirit. Were it possible for the connection between the stones and the foundation to be dissolved, the whole edifice would become a heap of ruins.

2. The author of her creed. In regard to her doctrines she rests on no human authority, but takes them as they flow pure from Christ and His inspired apostles.

3. The founder of her discipline. His laws are few, and the principles on which they rest are equity and love. "One is your Master," &c. "A new commandment give I unto you," &c.

4. The guarantee of her stability and perpetuity. "Upon this rock will I build My Church," &c. These were His words — this was His pledge; and "all power is given unto Him in heaven and in earth," in this capacity, and for this very purpose.

II. THE MATERIALS.

1. Immortal spirits, redeemed and regenerated men, lively stones, or what Paul denominates "gold, silver, precious stones"; the accredited and the durable materials which ministers are the instruments of placing in the Church. But in the visible Church there are materials of another kind — mere professors, hypocrites, formalists, "the wood, hay, stubble"; but they form no part of the true Church, but shall ultimately be removed from the edifice.

2. Whence are the materials taken? See these "living stones," as in successive courses they rise to constitute and adorn the edifice. They are of various colours — from the white of Europe to the jet of Africa; every rank — from the monarch to the labourer. "They shall come from the east and from the west," &c. "They shall come" from the eastern Brahmins — from the western savages — from the Southern Isles — from the northern Esquimaux; "they shall come" from the patriarchal and the prophetic ages — from the Jewish and the Christian dispensations. David, with the harp, shall be there; and Isaiah, with his evangelic songs; and Ezekiel, with his prophetic visions; mingling with the malefactor from the cross, and the poor beggar from the rich man's gate. "They shall come" from every denomination: the Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, &c,; all forgetting, or lamenting, that they should ever have been otherwise than one.

III. THE INSTRUMENTALITY AND AGENCY. The instrumentality is human; the agency Divine. Yet the instrumentality is of Divine appointment; and, for the most part, inseparably connected with the agency. Though it is God who "giveth the increase," yet Paul musk "plant" and "Apollos water." Ministers are not architects, but simply workmen, employed under the guidance of the Divine architect. Nor can any one stone boast against another in respect of "the rock whence it was hewn," "the hole of the pit whence it was digged," for all alike are hewn out of the quarry of a common depravity. However much as they may vary in other respects, all are on a level here — alike "dead in trespasses and sins"; whilst it is "God who has quickened them together with Christ," &c. I know that it is not with us to "limit the Holy One of Israel," nor to say by what avenues He shall or shall not obtain access to the human heart. It may be affliction, &c.; but the ministry of the gospel is the main and ordinary instrumentality. Was it not by this that Peter "pricked to the heart" three thousand; that Luther shook the throne of papal tyranny; that Whitefield and Wesley aroused the slumbering Churches of Great Britain and America. What is it that has caused the Rose of Sharon to bloom amid the snows of Greenland? What is it that has gathered the savages of Kaffraria and New Zealand around the Cross? It is the preaching of the gospel in its simplicity and purity — and nothing less — that God will own and honour for this great and glorious purpose; Christ, in the sufficiency of His atonement; in the prevalence of His intercession, &c.

(T. Raffles, D. D.)

I. GOD IS OUR BUILDER. If we climb some high hill near the sea on a fine day, we behold on one side hills and valleys; and on the other the tremendous ocean stretching to the horizon. Then we feel that our Father is a grand God to make such things. There are great buildings which men have erected, but there is no building which is so great as the splendid planet on which we live. But far more wonderful than the world is the body of man; but a grinder thing still is the soul, which God created to dwell in. It appears as if He had given to the soul of man a portion of His own almighty power. Does not the Scripture say, "Ye fight against God"? We have power to say "No" to the Almighty! But there is something far grinder and more precious still — it is the new spirit which is breathed in every man who believes in Christ. This is Godlike.

II. GOD HAS FURNISHED A PLAN FOR THE BUILDING — the life of Christ. It is the best life and nobody can improve on it. The Lord does not mean us to copy His style of garment, or to eat the same sort of food, or to be put to death on a cross. We are to copy His character.

III. GOD HAS ALSO GIVEN A FOUNDATION FOR THE BUILDING. "Christ Jesus." Then, we are to believe His words and to build our actions thereon. Jesus is our foundation for the knowledge —

1. That God loves us as our Father. We are to live from day to day feeling certain of that.

2. That Christ lays down His life for us. So we are to rest upon Him for forgiveness.

3. That in Him are all things necessary for our peace. Build on Him, then, for all circumstances of trouble.

(W. Birch.)

I. THE APOSTLE'S DESCRIPTION OF THE CHURCH. "Ye are God's building." This building —

1. Has a proprietor. God is the proprietor of the site (the world), of the foundation (Christ), of the materials (sinners), of the builders (ministers), of its privileges here, and its ultimate glory in heaven.

2. Has an architect. Infinite wisdom and power. Before this building was commenced there was intention; it is the result of design.

3. Has a good foundation. Christ, called a "stone," to convey the idea of stability and durability; and a tried stone," to indicate that it is completely adapted to answer the purpose for which it is laid; "a sure foundation," because no attacks of its enemies, no revolutions of time, no concussions of earth will ever shake or destroy it.

4. Has a grand superstructure. It is composed of materials properly fitted, to occupy a place in the building (1 Peter 2:5). The stones once had no connection with the building, deeply imbedded in nature's quarry of guilt; but by the hammer of God's Word and the energy of the Spirit, they have been detached from the rock, brought from darkness to light, &c. By regeneration, by sanctification, they are fitted for a position in the temple.

5. Has workmen — ministers, all Christian workers, missionaries.

6. Has perfect beauty (Psalm 48.; Song of Solomon 6:4). See the polished stones, bearing the inscription of "Holiness to the Lord." See their love, union, benevolence. They are adorned with the righteousness of Christ, and bear the image of God.

II. THE SPECIAL DESIGN OF THE ERECTION.

1. Magnificent. It is "a habitation for God." What a glorious inhabitant! "God is known in her palaces for a refuge." "Behold the heaven of heavens," &c.

2. Gracious (Isaiah 66:1). "The Lord loveth the gates of Zion."

III. THE BLESSEDNESS OF BEING A PART OF HIS BUILDING.

1. It is honourable. It is the most glorious building that ever was erected. It is to be allied to the glorious Proprietor Himself.

2. It is advantageous. The state of a person is decided; he has realised the Divine power by which he has been fitted into the temple of God. This produces peace, contentment, joy, hope. He has an interest in all the promises and privileges of this house, and is a participant of all its provisions.

3. It is a state of safety. The Proprietor will never suffer this building to be destroyed. He ever watches over and defends it; He is a wall of fire round about it, angels minister to it, all the attributes of God are pledged for its security.

(Homilist.)

The metaphor describes the work of God as being not the gathering together of certain devout souls wishing to abstract themselves from the corruptions of the heathen around them, and to shape their own lives after a nobler mode. Such persons might have dwelt in Corinth, exciting no remark, creating no enmity; the worst that could have befallen them would have been an idle scoff as enthusiastic strivers after an ideal of unattainable perfection. But by representing the Christian body as a Divinely erected building, he paints at one stroke a picture of tangible social system rising in the midst of the old heathen world like a new sanctuary in the centre of one of its temple-crowned cities, with the Christian community growing up in Corinth, with its groups of little children and its elder men, its ministry and ordinances of worship, its examples of whole households like that of St. Stephanas, enrolled by baptism among its members. This was not a philosophical school created by Pauline teaching, but an all-comprehensive, all-embracing structure, reared by a Divine hand, the abode of supernatural powers and operations, a structure which invited into it through its ever open gates all of every race, and age, and class, the Jew and the Greek, the vast slave population of the old world, as well as its most privileged citizens; and this in order, having gathered them within its walls, to weld them together into a new social system by bonds and principles which soon would supersede existing ties. Nor is this all. A building implies not a sudden emanation of opinion, but a construction of progressive stages, each based upon that which lies below; from the foundation which the earth hides, to the pinnacle which loses itself in the blue air. And so St. Paul speaks of their being "being built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets," coupling together the living and the dead as a substructure of the Church of his day. Yes, even that Church of the first-born, in all the fresh light of its new faith, was to regard itself not as a creature of its own age, although Christ had Himself walked the earth in that age; but it was to know that its foundations went back into the depths of eternity, that its creed, short as it was, "Christ, and Him crucified," gathered up into itself all the past revealings of God. Their legend, St. Paul would tell them, was no system of faith and morals lying on the surface of a single generation; it penetrated into the very secret of them all. The facts were the outcome of God's determinate counsel working gradually century after century up to its accomplishment from the birth of time. Its precepts of love and holiness were not arbitrary precepts, but derived from the very being of God; thus the corner-stone of the building had been laid before the elder angels began to be. And as God does not create each human being separately, but carries forward His original work continuously, "making of one blood all nations of men," so with the work of salvation, the Lord does not simply join to Himself those that are being saved, but He adds them to the Church, and that by the instrumentality of those who were Christians before them. Thus, you see, every generation of the baptized is bound together by a spiritual consanguinity with the generations which precede it. The creeds which we inherit from ages, the prayers whose solemn tones are prolonged among us from the remotest times, like the long-drawn note of solemn music through a cathedral; the influence of saints and doctors and confessors, indestructible as that influence is, whether men like it or not; all this is but the outward expression of that essential continuity which, through the one baptism and the one Bread of Life, Jesus Christ, has secured to the fellowship of His disciples.

(Bp. Woodford.)

I. ITS FOUNDATION. A wise builder is always most attentive to this, because the stability of the structure can only be secured by that of the foundation (Matthew 7:24). We are thus prepared to find the Church of Christ represented as built upon a rock, i.e., Christ. In His complex nature He becomes, by His obedience and death, the ground on which guilty men are brought to stand and live again in the favour of the Almighty (Acts 4:11, 12).

II. THE EDIFICE.

1. The Church of Christ is an edifice composed of rational and immortal beings, brought out of a fallen state, to stand in an intimate relation to Him, and to God through Him. They are all united to Him in their hearts by faith, and meet together in that union. This Church hath both an outward form, and an inward grace. The visible Church is composed of all in every place, who make an open profession of faith in Christ. But many of these make this profession in the absence of any Divine principle of faith in their hearts. These are only nominally of the temple of God. They live upon a name. "Thou hast a name, that thou livest, but art dead." The profession of the rest, however, is that which results from the principle within: for "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness," &c. These are the true and real temple, "builded together for a habitation of God, through the Spirit." As the practised eye of the jeweller discerns the real gem from the artificial resemblance, and uses means to make the difference manifest, that the precious may be separated from the vile, so does Christ distinguish those in His Church who are really partakers of "like precious faith," from those who have the appearance of it only.

2. Such is the analogy to be traced between the spiritual temple of God upon earth, and a material sacred edifice. As far, however, as heavenly things exceed earthly ones, they are incapable of being fully represented by such, e.g. —(1) No stone moves itself to the foundation. It is taken from the quarry and carried to it to be placed upon it, without the possibility of its own concurrence. But here there is a principle of spiritual life, in consequence of which the individual goes to Christ to be redeemed unto God by Him and made to live in His sight. "Unto you that believe, Christ is precious; to whom, coming, as unto a living stone, ye also," &c.(2) Every stone in this Divine fabric is immediately united to the Foundation, and all of them that are equally near to it. This cannot be the case with a material building. But the souls of all believers in Christ are equally intimately united to Him by their own personal faith.(a) The faith of the parent cannot save the child, nor that of the husband the wife.(b) Neither have we any saving connection with Christ by an outward union to His Church and participation of its ordinances. "Being in the Lord" is a constant phrase of the New Testament in describing a state of salvation.(3) Every portion of spiritual building makes increase of itself and the whole by the addition of other parts. This is out of question with respect to any erection of man.

(J. Leifchild, D. D.)

Remember that the building of a noble and Godlike and God-pleasing character can be erected on the foundation of faith only by constant effort. Growth is not the whole explanation of the process by which a man becomes what God would have him to be. Struggle has to be included as well as growth, and neither growth nor struggle exhaust the New Testament metaphors for progress. This other one of my text is of constant recurrence. It takes the metaphor of a building to suggest the slow, continuous, bit-by-bit effort. You do not rear the fabric of a noble character all at a moment. No man reaches the extremity, either of goodness or baseness, by a leap; you must be content with bit-by-bit work. The Christian character is like a mosaic formed of tiny squares in all but infinite numbers, each one of them separately set and bedded in its place. You have to build by a plan; you have to see to it that each day has its task, each day its growth. You have to be content with one brick at a time. It is a lifelong task, till the whole be finished. And not until we pass from earth to heaven does our building work cease. Continuous effort is the condition of progress.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

I. A GOOD PLAN.

1. What is a good plan?(1) A plan adapted to its purpose. If the edifice is intended for study, worship, business, recreation, or residence, the plan, to be good, must be fitted for its purpose.(2) A plan aesthetically pleasing. Nature provides for the aesthetic instinct in boundless varieties of forms and hues. A plan that does not embrace all those lines, and curves, and proportions, and blended shades, that charm the aesthetic instinct, cannot be considered truly good.

2. What is the plan on which moral masonry should proceed? The character of Christ. This ideal has the two grand attributes of architectural excellence, fitness, and beauty. All history shows that such an ideal is to be found nowhere else. Men, alas, are everywhere building character on other plans: some by the plan of sensual pleasure, others by the plan of commercial greed, others by the plan of worldly vanity and ambition. But they are all unsuitable and unlovely. In them the soul is neither happy nor beautiful.

II. GOOD MATERIALS. However fitted and beautiful the plan, if the materials are poor, the stones crumbling, the tiles leaking, the timber rotten, the edifice will be anything but perfect. What are the materials with which we are to build up a good character? They are actions. If these are corrupt, the materials are bad; but if good, then the character is all right. Good actions are actions that spring from a supreme sympathy with the supremely good. Such actions are the gold and the silver and the precious stones that will bear the fires at the last day.

III. A GOOD FOUNDATION. What is the good foundation of a character? Not conventional mortality, not religious observances, not orthodox creeds; but Christ and Him only. See in Matthew 7., the destinies of the wise man who built his house on a rock, and the foolish man who built on the sand. The one endured through the storm, but the other was swept away in utter ruin.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

Now this comparison of building supposeth these things — First, that a people of themselves are nothing but so much rubbish, and that it is God who makes them this glorious building. That as you see the temple was built by excellent art. The trees in the forest and the stones in the quarry could never have prepared themselves, nor put themselves into so goodly a structure. So it is here. Men by their own power, their own ability and strength, could never become a fit habitation for the Lord to rest in. Secondly, it implieth that the matter of this building should be sound, precious, and substantial. Oh that you would think of this, what ye ought to be! Holiness to the Lord should be writ on your hands, foreheads, and whole conversation. Thirdly, it implies the gracious presence and power of God among His people. A house is the place where a man continually resides; and this is one great reason why God useth this metaphor to show with what rest and delight He will take up His habitation in His Church. Fourthly, this house or building doth imply God to be the Master therein, that He only may prescribe the laws and orders, what shall be done, and what not; He appoints every one his work and his labour. Fifthly, here is this further in this building. It is not an ordinary building, but a sacred and holy one. Therefore they are called the temple of the living God. Now then, what an astonishing consideration is this? Sixthly, it being a house, all within are servants, and so they are to do their Master's work, to live to Him. "Whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). Thus this health, this wealth, these parts, this time is none of mine; I must improve it for my Master. Seventhly, it supposeth order and government. The Church of God is a house; now that hath domestical laws. Paul did rejoice to see the Church's order, and her faith (Colossians 2:5). Eighthly, unity, love, and concord among those that are in the same house. Oh, let this shame all animosities and quarrellings! Are we not of the same house?

(A. Burgess.)

1. It is a spiritual building. What our Lord Jesus say of His kingdom is true of His building, that it is not of this world — in it, but not of it (John 15:19). It is a building of souls.

2. It is a spacious building of vast extent. "I beheld, and lo, a great multitude," &c. (Revelation 7:9).

3. It is a high building. Though part of it be here below, yet the top of it is as high as heaven. There it is that the glorious angels are, and the spirits of just men made perfect; all of this building.

4. It is a holy building (Ephesians 2:21). Holiness to the Lord is written upon the front of this building.

5. It is a living building. No other is so. The same who are quickened are "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets' (Ephesians 2:1. 20).

6. It is a light building. This is one thing that makes a building pleasant, and comfortable — many and large windows. All the world besides is in darkness; it is the Church only that hath the true light.

7. It is a secure, a safe, building. The Church of God is such a building as the ark was (1 Peter 3:20, 21).

8. It is a spreading, growing building.

(Philip Henry.)

Apollos, Cephas, Corinthians, Paul, PeterCorinthApollos, Building, Farming, Fellow, Fellow-workers, Fellow-workmen, Field, God's, Husbandry, Laborers, Labourers, Planting, Simply, Tillage, Workers1. Milk is fit for children.
3. Strife and division, arguments of a fleshly mind.
7. He who plants and He who waters are nothing.
9. The ministers are God's fellow workmen.
11. Christ the only foundation.
16. You are the temples of God, which must be kept holy.
19. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

1 Corinthians 3:9

     3254   Holy Spirit, fruit of
     5205   alliance
     5630   work, divine and human
     7027   church, purpose

1 Corinthians 3:5-9

     4510   sowing and reaping

1 Corinthians 3:5-10

     5109   Paul, apostle

1 Corinthians 3:9-11

     5478   property, houses

1 Corinthians 3:9-15

     5240   building

Twenty-Third Day. Holiness and the Body.
The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you; therefore glorify God in your body.'--1 Cor. iii. 16, vi. 13, 19. 'She that is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit.'--1 Cor. vii. 34. 'Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.'--Rom. xii. 1. Coming into the world, our Blessed …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

November the Ninth the Holy Spirit as Emancipator
2 CORINTHIANS iii. 4-18. In the Holy Spirit I experience a large emancipation. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." I am delivered from all enslaving bondage--from the bondage of literalism, and legalism, and ritualism. I am not hampered by excessive harness, by multitudinous rules. The harness is fitting and congenial, and I have freedom of movement, and "my yoke is easy and my burden is light." And I am to use my emancipation of spirit in the ministry of contemplation. I am to …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Temples of God
'Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?'--1 COR. iii. 16 The great purpose of Christianity is to make men like Jesus Christ. As He is the image of the invisible God we are to be the images of the unseen Christ. The Scripture is very bold and emphatic in attributing to Christ's followers likeness to Him, in nature, in character, in relation to the world, in office, and in ultimate destiny. Is He the anointed of God? We are anointed--Christs in Him. Is He the Son of God? We in Him receive the …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

God's Fellow-Workers
'Labourers together with God.'--1 COR. iii. 9. The characteristic Greek tendency to factions was threatening to rend the Corinthian Church, and each faction was swearing by a favourite teacher. Paul and his companion, Apollos, had been taken as the figureheads of two of these parties, and so he sets himself in the context, first of all to show that neither of the two was of any real importance in regard to the Church's life. They were like a couple of gardeners, one of whom did the planting, and …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Death, the Friend
'... All things are yours ... death.'--1 COR. iii. 21, 22. What Jesus Christ is to a man settles what everything else is to Him. Our relation to Jesus determines our relation to the universe. If we belong to Him, everything belongs to us. If we are His servants, all things are our servants. The household of Jesus, which is the whole Creation, is not divided against itself, and the fellow-servants do not beat one another. Two bodies moving in the same direction, and under the impulse of the same …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Servants and Lords
'All things are yours; 22. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 23. And ye are Christ's.'--1 COR. iii. 21-23. The Corinthian Christians seem to have carried into the Church some of the worst vices of Greek--and English--political life. They were split up into wrangling factions, each swearing by the name of some person. Paul was the battle-cry of one set; Apollos of another. Paul and Apollos were very good friends, …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Sanctified for Service.
"We are labourers together with God; ye are God's husbandry; ye are God's building."--1 COR. iii. 9. In this passage St. Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for that spirit of party which was dividing them into followers of this or that teacher and so destroying their unity in Christ. You do not belong, he says, to Paul or to Apollos; we have no claim upon you; ye are not to be called by our name: you are God's husbandry, and God's building, not ours; we are but labourers in His service and …
John Percival—Sermons at Rugby

On the Wisdom of this World
"The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."--I Cor. iii. 19. It is remarkable that about the time of our Saviour's coming into the world all kinds of learning flourished to a very great degree, insomuch that nothing is more frequent in the mouths of many men, even such who pretend to read and to know, than an extravagant praise and opinion of the wisdom and virtue of the Gentile sages of those days, and likewise of those ancient philosophers who went before them, whose doctrines are left …
Jonathan Swift—Three Sermons, Three Prayers

On the Interpretation of Scripture
IT is a strange, though familiar fact, that great differences of opinion exist respecting the Interpretation of Scripture. All Christians receive the Old and New Testament as sacred writings, but they are not agreed about the meaning which they attribute to them. The book itself remains as at the first; the commentators seem rather to reflect the changing atmosphere of the world or of the Church. Different individuals or bodies of Christians have a different point of view, to which their interpretation …
Frederick Temple—Essays and Reviews: The Education of the World

The Existence of Merit
1. HERETICAL ERRORS AND THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH.--a) The medieval Beguins and Beghards held that man is able to attain such a perfect state of holiness here below as no longer to require an increase of grace or good works.(1226) Luther, holding that justification consists in the covering up of sin and the external imputation of the justice of Christ, consistently though falsely asserted that "the just man sins in every good work,"(1227) that "a good work, no matter how well performed, is a venial …
Joseph Pohle—Grace, Actual and Habitual

The Objects of Merit
After defining the existence of merit the Tridentine Council enumerates its objects as follows: "If anyone saith that the justified, by the good works which he performs, ... does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that eternal life,--if it be so, however, that he depart in grace,--and also an increase of glory: let him be anathema."(1320) Hence merit calls for a threefold reward: (1) an increase of sanctifying grace; (2) heavenly glory; and (3) an increase of that …
Joseph Pohle—Grace, Actual and Habitual

The Christian Church
Scriptures references: 1 Corinthians 3:11; 3:6-9; Colossians 1:18; Acts 2:47; Ephesians 5:23-27; Matthew 16:16,18; 18:17; Acts 5:11,12; 13:1,2; 14:23; 16:5; 1 Corinthians 11:18-34; 12:28-31; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2:14; 1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 12:22,23; Revelation 1:4,11,20; 2:7,11; 22:16; 22:12-15,17. THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH What is the Christian Church?--One of the best definitions is as follows: "The church consists of all who acknowledge the Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, the blessed Saviour …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian

Carnal Christians.
1 Corinthians 3:1.--And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. The apostle here speaks of two stages of the Christian life, two types of Christians: "I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." They were Christians, in Christ, but instead of being spiritual Christians, they were carnal. "I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet are ye able, for ye are …
Andrew Murray—The Master's Indwelling

The Indwelling Spirit Fully and Forever Satisfying.
The Holy Spirit takes up His abode in the one who is born of the Spirit. The Apostle Paul says to the believers in Corinth in 1 Cor. iii. 16, R. V., "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" This passage refers, not so much to the individual believer, as to the whole body of believers, the Church. The Church as a body is indwelt by the Spirit of God. But in 1 Cor. vi. 19, R. V., we read, "Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

Dedicatory Letter.
To the respected and worthy NICOLAUS VON AMSDORF, Licentiate in the Holy Scriptures and Canon of Wittenberg, [14] My particular and affectionate friend. Dr. MARTIN LUTHER. The Grace and Peace of God be with you! Respected, worthy Sir and dear friend. The time for silence is gone and the time to speak has come, as we read in Ecclesiastes (iii. 7.) I have in conformity with our resolve put together some few points concerning the Reformation of the Christian Estate, with the intent of placing the same …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation

Alcuin on True Missionary Labours.
THE cause of the first failure of the mission amongst the Saxons, may serve as a lesson and a warning to all times. It was this: that they sought to introduce from without what can only be effected from within; that worldly aims were blended with the diffusion of Christianity; that men did not follow the example of the Apostle Paul, who, in preaching the Gospel, allowed the Jews to remain Jews, and the Greeks, Greeks, and knew how to become to the Jews as a Jew, and to the Greeks as a Greek. The …
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places

Certain it Is, Albeit all this Disputation Go from Side to Side...
38. Certain it is, albeit all this disputation go from side to side, some asserting that it is never right to lie, and to this effect reciting divine testimonies: others gainsaying, and even in the midst of the very words of the divine testimonies seeking place for a lie; yet no man can say, that he finds this either in example or in word of the Scriptures, that any lie should seem a thing to be loved, or not had in hatred; howbeit sometimes by telling a lie thou must do that thou hatest, that what …
St. Augustine—On Lying

It Follows after Commendation of the Trinity, "The Holy Church. ...
14. It follows after commendation of the Trinity, "The Holy Church." God is pointed out, and His temple. "For the temple of God is holy," says the Apostle, "which (temple) are ye." [1801] This same is the holy Church, the one Church, the true Church, the catholic Church, fighting against all heresies: fight, it can: be fought down, it cannot. As for heresies, they went all out of it, like as unprofitable branches pruned from the vine: but itself abideth in its root, in its Vine, in its charity. "The …
St. Augustine—On the Creeds

Now it Has Been My Wish on this Account to Say Something on This...
22. Now it has been my wish on this account to say something on this subject, by reason of certain of our brethren most friendly and dear to us, and without willful guilt indeed entangled in this error, but yet entangled; who think, that, when they exhort any to righteousness and piety, their exhortation will not have force, unless the whole of that, wherein they would work upon man that man should work, they set in the power of man, not helped by the grace of God, but put forth by the alone choice …
St. Augustine—On the Good of Widowhood.

Homilies on the Statues.
Abel, beloved of God, yet slain, [466]342; more blessed in his death than Cain, [467]374; died the first to instruct Adam, [468]414; his sacrifice good, [469]422. Abraham, rich but not covetous: entertaining angels, [470]349; tent of, stronger than Sodom, [471]456. Absolution, [472]356; at the altar, [473]443. Accused at Antioch, tortured, [474]474. Acrobats, [475]470. Actions, few, for their own sake, [476]379; end of, [477]459, n.; the proof of philosophy, [478]465. Adam, fell when idle, [479]353, …
St. Chrysostom—On the Priesthood

Epistle Xlvi. To Isacius, Bishop of Jerusalem .
To Isacius, Bishop of Jerusalem [159] . Gregory to Isacius, &c. In keeping with the truth of history, what means the fact that at the time of the flood the human race outside the ark dies, but within the ark is preserved unto life, but what we see plainly now, namely that all the unfaithful perish under the wave of their sin, while the unity of holy Church, like the compactness of the ark, keeps her faithful ones in faith and in charity? And this ark in truth is compacted of incorruptible timber, …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Epistle Xlix. To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch .
To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch [35] . Gregory to Anastasius, &c. I received the letters of thy Fraternity, rightly holding fast the profession of the faith; and I returned great thanks to Almighty God, who, when the shepherds of His flock are changed, still, even after such change, guards the faith which He once delivered to the holy Fathers. Now the excellent preacher says, Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus (1 Cor. iii. 2). Whosoever, then, with love of …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

How the Wise and the Dull are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 7). Differently to be admonished are the wise of this world and the dull. For the wise are to be admonished that they leave off knowing what they know: the dull also are to be admonished that they seek to know what they know not. In the former this thing first, that they think themselves wise, is to be thrown down; in the latter whatsoever is already known of heavenly wisdom is to be built up; since, being in no wise proud, they have, as it were, prepared their hearts for supporting …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

First Sunday in Lent
Text: Second Corinthians 6, 1-10. 1 And working together with him we entreat also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain 2 (for he saith, At an acceptable time I hearkened unto thee, and in a day of salvation did I succor thee: behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation): 3 giving no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our ministration be not blamed; 4 but in everything commending ourselves, as ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

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