CLXXXII. An Apostle’s Prospect of Death.
2 COR. v. 8. “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord.” IT would be impossible to set forth in clearer terms the apostle’s conviction that the intermediate state…
CLXXXI. Preparation for Heaven.
2 COR. v. 5. “Now He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.” I. THE work of preparation for heaven. There must be some kind of…
CLXXX. Morality and Religion.
2 COR. iv. 2. “By manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” THE truth of which the apostle is speaking, by the mani- festation of which he commends himself to the conscience…
CLXXIX. The Ministry.
2 COR. iv. 1, 2. “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceit- fully; but…
CLXXVIII. Mirrors of Christ.
2 COR. iii. 18. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” THE idea…
CLXXVII. Our Sufficiency.
2 COR. iii. 5. “Our sufficiency is of God.” THE doctrine in these words is no more true of ministers than of Christians in general. The station is different, but the strength is the same. I. This sufficiency of God…
CLXXVI. The Devices of Satan.
2 COR. ii. 11. “For we are not ignorant of his devices.” IT is both unphilosophical and dangerous to deny the existence and agency of evil spirits, or to consider such topics to be too absurd for discussion. Their non-existence…
CLXXV. Helpers of your Joy.
2 COR. i. 24. “Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy.” THIS Epistle much taken up with the subject of his own ministry. Paul’s ministry, from our knowing so much about it,…
CLXXIV. The Limitation of Knowledge.
1 COR. xvii. 9. “Now we know in part.” ST. PAUL is placing knowledge in contrast with love. He implies that knowledge belongs to the present in its essence; love only in its form. But love abideth for ever, and…
CLXXIII. Christian Strength.
1 COR. xvi. 13. “Be strong.” THIS whole verse has in it the ring of the battle-field. These words of Paul are in themselves “half-battles,” and send the Christian soldier forward with new eagerness into the thickest of the fight….