Even so in Christ shall all be made alive : But each in his own rank; The first-fruits, Christ; then they that are Christ's at his coming. Then is the end! When he shall have given up the kingdom to God even the Father; Till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy, Death, is destroyed! For, all things hath he put under his feet, But when he saith, All things are brought under!' He, plainly, is excepted who put all things under him; And when there shall be brought under him all things, Then even the Son himself shall be subject to Him that put all things under him That God may be all in all ! -since, in respect to the dead, if one and all the dead be not awakened, what shall they gain who are just receiving baptism? why even are they baptized? yea-why stand we in jeopardy for ourselves every hour? I protest by that rejoicing over you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I suffer a daily death :-if, as men say, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me? if the dead be not awakened, let us cat and drink, for to-morrow we die!" Now for a more minute examination of the verse in question. The apostle having in verse 19 stated, that if hope only, bare hope, without any foundation in futurity, were the portion of Christians, and that during the short span of "this life" they were of all men the most wretched, proceeds in this verse (duly, however, warning the reader in the words, ὑπὲρ τῶν νεκρῶν εἰ ὅλως νεκροὶ οὐκ ἐγείρονται, of a return from his digression) to amplify the thought. The manner in which he does this will be found on reflection to be more than ordinarily beautiful. He had there distinguished between Christians and the ungodly, or men of the world; he here enlarges on the idea Christian, making baptism what Christ made it, the mark of distinction between the visible church and the world; and taking the class of newly-baptized converts (the present participle, observe, is used) as one extreme link, and the apostles themselves as the other, of the long golden chain of catholic unity, shows that, if the dead rise not, those on the one hand were most miserably deceived and deluded, while these on the other were needlessly exposed each day to a thousand appalling dangers for the sake of what in that case was nothing but the figment of a disordered and distempered brain. Can any thought be more just, suitable, and striking? "If in this short life, we have hope merely in Christ-wretched above all men are we: since, if the dead be not awakened, what reward shall they have who, entrapped by the splendid promises of a higher life which Christianity holds out, are even now touching the water of baptism? why even do they take this, the first step in religion? why are they even baptized? Nay-if nothing but pungent disappointment await these, who are but just pledging their faith in Christ, awful as that act is, how infinitely bitter, should he prove an impostor, the cup which we must drink; we who have fought for him so long; we who have received a hundred wounds in his service; we who still die daily to uphold his cause! Oh, my brethren, then our lot is hard! then from the babe in Christ to the man of full-ripe years, all, all are undone! Said I not well then, that if the dead sleep on for ever, wretched above all men is the Christian?" 'Ereì is rendered in its usual sense; that given to it in the English Vulgate, is acknowledged on all hands to be very rare, and is altogether denied by some. Honσovσw, "gain," see Robinson, c.) B.) 'Yep, "in respect to;" for this common sense of the word, see Robinson, 1.) c.) Kai, "yea," see Robinson, e.) Avtov is here rendered "ourselves;" it usually has the sense of the reflexive, when the personal pronouns are expressed, as is the case in this passage; see Robinson, 1.) a.) Should it be inquired why the words inèρ Tv veкрav are placed so far back in the sentence, a sufficient reason is at hand. The interrogative rís, rí, should not, it is well known, be placed farther back in the clause, than after the first or second word, unless there is meant to be an emphasis; but as none was here designed by St. Paul, the present order was adopted, being as good an arrangement for the sentence as any, and one exceedingly common with all the writers of the New Testament. After all, however, it will doubtless be objected, that to separate of βαπτιζόμενοι from ὑπὲρ τῶν νεκρῶν is, to say the least, a very harsh and questionable proceeding. One would have thought it had been proved that they could not, in accordance with the usage of the apostle, have been construed together; nevertheless, in order, if possible, to remove every scruple, some pains shall be taken to meet even this objection. For this purpose, an appeal is made to him who shall start it, to be consistent, and to carry out his principle to its fullest and farthest extent. That principle appears to be this, that when words are in such a state of approximation in position as the words οἱ βαπτιζόμενοι ὑπὲρ τῶν VEKOV, they cannot legitimately be separated in construction. As his first exercise, then, in the application of his rule, let the objector take the following string of passages: Rom. viii. 20; xii. 7, 8; 1 Cor. v. 3, 4; vi. 18; ix. 18; xiv. 11; 2 Cor. iii. 10; iii. 11; iv. 11; x. 17; Gal. vi. 6; Eph. i. 19; 1 Thess. iv. 14; 2 Thess. ii. 10; 1 Tim. ii. 14; v. 20; vi. 21; Heb. ii. 11; ix. 28; xi. 22. Now these constructions are not the only ones that could be adduced in direct contradiction to the principle laid down. Far from it. They are in the first place all from the writings of St. Paul; and again, they are all cases in which participles occur. Had these limits been disregarded, ten times their number might have been brought forward; but yet, such as they are, there they stand in clear opposition to the assumed law. To spare the reader the trouble of referring, a remark shall be made on one or two as a sample : 1 Cor. v. 3, 4. Ηδη κέκρικα ὡς παρὼν, τὸν οὕτω τοῦτο κατεργασάμενον, ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Here the application of the principle would not only be absurd, but repulsive to every devout mind: "I have already judged him that hath done this deed-in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." He refers to the incestuous person! Heb. ii. 11. "Ο, τε γὰρ ἁγιάζων καὶ οἱ ἁγιαζόμενοι ἐξ ἑνὸς πάντες. For both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified of one, all,”—all what, says the reader; echo answers "what!"—the text nothing. Heb. xi. 22. Πίστει Ἰωσὴφ τελευτῶν περὶ τῆς ἐξόδου τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ ¿umpóvevσe. “By faith Joseph, when he was dying-concerning the ἐμνημόνευσε. exodus of the children of Israel, made mention ;"-another strange anacoluthon! But enough—the anticipated objection is unsound; it proves too much, and therefore proves nothing; and until less vulnerable ones be found, the interpretation which has been given must remain firm and unshaken; nay, be it moreover clearly understood, that the reasoning which has been employed to rebut it, is likewise available to show that it is perfectly legitimate to construe as has been done; and consequently, that whatever becomes of the argument of the first part of this essay, (that, namely, to disprove the exegeses of former commentators,) the interpretation which has been offered stands independently of that reasoning, on grounds derived from its own intrinsic probability. Our pen, we perceive, is now dry. Should any be disposed to complain of a protracted article, let him remember that pages only have been written, for volumes that have preceded them, taking totally different views of the subject; and that if, by what has been offered, he be spared the weariness of wading through those volumes, and the dissatisfaction which must inevitably follow the completion of his task, it were at least unfair to complain of a waste of time. * West Bromwich. B. H. C. Since the above paper was written, the author has discovered that that distinguished scholar Markland has actually pointed the first part of the passage as he himself has done, viz. with an interrogation between βαπτιζόμενοι and ὑπὲρ τῶν νεκρῶν. But the sense he has endeavoured to extract from the words thus pointed, is altogether different from the one advocated above. It is this, "What will they get who are baptized? Doing this to dead corpses, if the dead rise not." See" Bowyer's Conjectures on the New Testament," p. 486. WHAT IS REQUISITE ON THE PART OF OUR CONGREGATIONS TO SECURE THE SPIRIT OF DEVOTION IN PUBLIC WORSHIP? (Concluded from Page 34.) This HAVING already stated some of those characteristics of the age, which' we think, are unfavourable to a devotional spirit, in connexion with public worship, we now proceed to suggest some things, which might be conducive to a more ardent devotion in thesanc tuary. We mention, first, right views of the public services of the Christian church. An evangelist publishing the Gospel to persons ignorant and unbelieving, would concentrate the power of the service in the preaching of the cross. the apostles did, this our missionaries do; it is the natural course. The truths of the Gospel must be heard, believed, accepted, before we can conduct the hearer onward, from its first principles to its richest services. The prayer offered in such circumstances would consist, chiefly, of intercessory pleading for the salvation of those who heard the glad tidings. The services of the early Methodists were of this character; the great thing they had to do was to preach Christ to thoughtless sinners; the devout exercises, therefore, were brief, and limited in their range of thought. The worship of an instructed Christian church should be more than this. As that church is the mystic body of Christ, there should there exist a true sympathy with its Divine Head. Its public services should be recognised as its seasons of solemn and holy communion with God,-with the universal church, -and with the heavenly world. A spiritual instinct should communicate to the mind a subduing sense of their sacredness. The soul should impressively feel their power; the heart should find in them a pure felicity. The conscience should be awake to the responsibility involved in their enjoyment. The immaterial should be seen through the bodily; the heavenly through the earthly; the things "unseen and eternal," through the things "seen and temporal." The mind thus filled with sacred associations, would feel awed and humbled before the presence of God; and the heart would be tender, penitent, and devout. To carry out these views, the sermon must not be regarded as the substance of Divine service; a juster estimate must be made of that which is the most sacred part of it. We are wrong in our exaltation of preaching, to the practical disparagement of prayer and praise. The truly religious mind will rather regret the termination of the devout exercises, than be listless or impatient during their continuance. Such views, generally and seriously entertained, would excite a deeper spirit of devotion in our public assemblies. There is also wanted a more profound faith in the truth and authority of religion. No man will act with energy, unless he has decision of purpose. Vacillancy of mind will be traced in feeble effort. If there be no vigour of thought, character will be tame or unsteady, and the conduct timid or wavering; governed more by immediate impulse, than by enlightened intelligence. If this be the case generally, profound faith in the truth of religion is necessary, to give depth and earnestness to the religious character. Such a faith must arise either from an unreasoning submission to human authority, or it must be founded on an intelligent reception of a Divine testimony. The former dogma we reject, as unsound and dangerous; the latter principle we hold, under the sanctions of reason and scripture. And there is something which suggests ideas of greatness, something which seems to be prophetic of a glorious destiny, in the thought that each human mind is authorised to be, in the present world, the final judge of truth,-even of the highest and most important of all truths. It invokes the heavens and the earth, the past and the future, to appear at its bar as witnesses; it is commissioned to summon into its presence to give testimony, the wise and the illustrious of every age—the oracular minds which among the ancients received the homage of the world, the profound and the prudent of every generation; and thus informed and instructed by the toils and struggles of man's universal mind, to sit in final judgment on the whole, and say, This, this is the truth. Every human spirit is thus thrown on its own resources, to struggle through the mazes of ignorance, to rise above the mists of passion, and the clouds of prejudice, until it gains, by its own peerless wing, the region of pure and perfect truth; -until, by the exercise of its unwearied energies, and by its disciplined and practised faculties, it becomes fitted to take its place among those seraph spirits, to whom nothing remains mysterious which can be known by created intellect. The ultimate reason, therefore, of the religious faith of every consistent Congregationalist, will be his private interpretation of the Scriptures: and every man who holds the great Protestant doctrine of the right of private judgment, ought to be a conscientious, and an earnest, if not an elaborate thinker. This he must be, or practically depend on a principle, which in theory he repudiates. He should be dissatisfied with indistinct conceptions, with feeble convictions, and with unsettled principles. "The word rational has been strangely abused of late times. This must not, however, disincline us to the weighty consideration, that thoughtfulness, and a desire to bottom all our convictions on grounds of right reason, are inseparable from the character of a Christian."* Religious truth must thoroughly imbue his intellectual nature, in order that his heart may be a fountain of pure spiritual emotion, and his life honour the Divine Author of the Gospel. "In our present state, it is little less than impossible that the * Coleridge. N. S. VOL. VIII. |