II. THE GLORIOUS SOURCE FROM WHICH THAT REVELATION CAME.-The change in the apostle's life, had not resulted from some hallucination, some messianic conception, the creation of his own spiritual aspirations; but had resulted from a direct revelation from heaven, vouchsafed by Almighty God. Paul had not desired, demanded, or deserved it; the revelation came to him, at an unexpected place, and time; he was the most unlikely man of his age to pass over from the ranks of the opponents, to those of the advocates of the Cross. It was well for the apostle, and the world, that he should thus have clear and confident assurance, that he had been really converted, and specially selected to be the apostle to the Gentiles, (a) that he might speak and write unhesitatingly about Divine things; and, (b.) that the Churches might have no misgivings in accepting him and his teaching. All real conversions are of God, though all are not so sudden, and ascertainable, as to time and place as was that of Paul's. Like the invisible and untraceable wind, the spirit moves on human hearts unseen, and often unknown by mortal sense; but it is God who opens blind spiritual eyes, and reveals His Son in contrite souls. Ordinarily, God works in connection with human means: but, whatever the means used to obtain the Divine blessing, and whatever the channel through which it may come, we ought to trace it up to God, as its source, and centre. No wonder Paul could expatiate so glowingly upon the excellencies of Jesus, and His Gospel, when he had had so Divine a revelation made within him. The historic Christ of his Epistles is identical with the Christ of the Evangelists; showing it was the "same Jesus" revealed to him, who was-as it were-born K out of due time, as was revealed to the disciples, who were chosen by the Master, that they might be with Him. Let us be thankful, that Christ may not only be revealed to us in the Gospels, but He may be revealed in us, by the Holy Ghost, whose office it is to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us. These revelations will be made within us, in seasons of earnest effort, when we are endeavouring to obey God's will, and in seasons of retirement and reflection, when we are musing upon the loving kindness of the Redeemer. He will make our hearts burn within us, and open to us the Scriptures, so that in us, we may apprehend Him, when to us, He may not be consciously near. CONCLUSION.-Learn the crown and climax of human life is to have Christ revealed in us, and to be in Him, as the branches are in the vine. Such experiences will lift the soul above the petty and paltry pleasures of the present life; and, will be preparatory to, and predictive of, the clearer and fuller revelation of heaven, where we shall see the King in His beauty, and sing His praises for ever and ever. F. W. BROWN. CHRISTIANITY. Though Christianity be as generally professed and clearly taught amongst us as ever it was it was in any nation, there are but few who are ever the better for it, the most being here also as bad, both in their principles and practices as they which live in the darkest corners of the earth, where the light of the Gospel never yet shined. The far greater part of the people in this kingdom know little or nothing of the religion they profess, but only to profess it as the religion of the country wherein they live. They may perhaps be very zealous for it (as all people are for the religion in which they are born and bred), but take no care to frame their lives according to it, because they were never rightly informed about it.—Beveridge. 123 Germs of Thought. THE PREACHER'S FINGER-POST. Paul's Treatment of Self-conceited Teachers. "WE ARE FOOLS FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, BUT YE ARE WISE IN CHRIST; WE ARE WEAK, BUT YE ARE STRONG ; YE ARE HONOURABLE, BUT WE ARE DESPISED. EVEN UNTO THIS PRESENT HOUR WE BOTH HUNGER, AND THIRST, AND ARE NAKED, AND ARE BUFFETED, AND HAVE NO CERTAIN DWELLING PLACE; AND LABOUR, WORKING WITH OUR OWN HANDS: BEING REVILED WE BLESS; BEING PERSECUTED, WE SUFFER IT; BEING DEFAMED, WE INTREAT; WE ARE MADE AS THE FILTH OF THE WORLD, AND ARE THE OFFSCOURING THINGS UNTO THIS DAY. I WRITE NOT THESE THINGS TO SHAME YOU, BUT AS MY BELOVED SONS I WARN YOU."-1 Cor. iv. 10-14. PAUL is still thinking of those teachers of the Corinthian Church who were "puffed up," inflated with conceit. He treats them here with I. AN IRONIC APPEAL. "We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised." Or "ye have 66 OF ALL are glory, but we have dis- *For treatment of verse 9 see "Homilist," vol. xxxii., p. 243 If All this is sarcasm again, well deserved, and well directed. How would our little penny-a-liners feel if such a man as Thomas Carlyle were to stand before them and speak in this way? they had any sense remaining they would quiver into nothingness. How much more would those small pretentious teachers in the Corinthian Church feel this stroke of satire dealt out to them by the grand apostle to the Gentiles! He treats them here with II. A PERSONAL HISTORY. Here he refers to his privations. "Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace," without nourishment, without clothing, without the shelter of a home. Here he refers to his labours. "And labour, working with our own hands." Here he refers to his persecutions. "We are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things." Then he refers to the spirit in which he endured the sufferings, 'Being reviled we bless, being persecuted we suffer it, being defamed we intreat." Now why did he state all this? Not for the sake of parading his great trials and toils, but for the sake of bringing these proud teachers to their senses. They could not fail to acknowledge that he was an apostle-a pre-eminent minister of Christ; notwithstanding this, in the world he was treated with cruelty and contempt, he was poor and despised. What, then, had they to be proud of as ministers? most likely to be of Apostolic Succession ? Those who are "full" and "rich," and royal, and "wise," and "strong,' who pride themselves in all these things; whom the people favour and flatter? or those who, like the Apostle Paul, in the discharge of their ministry, endure privations, persecutions, and all in the magnanimous spirit of self-abnegation and generous forgiveness of enemies? Call no man a successor of the apostle who has not the apostolic character. To call a man a successor of the apostle who has not the apostolic character_manfully noble, Christly royal, and withal self-sacrificing-is a mischievous imposture. The Ideal Church a Tribunal. "DARE ANY OF YOU HAVING A MATTER AGAINST ANOTHER," &c.— 1 Cor. vi. 1-8. pre In our sketch on the ceding verses we looked on the true Church as a feast. Here we have to look on it as a tribunal, a court of judicature, where disputes are to be settled and grievances redressed. It would appear that questions arose among the the Corinthian Christians that required settlement, questions of wrong done to persons or to property, and that too the litigous spirit was so rife in their midst, that they took their grievances to the heathen courts. For this the apostle reproves them. "Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?" Three remarks about the ideal Church as a tribunal- |