INTRODUCTION.

Licentiousness and

CORINTH was a dynasty as well as a city. It was the mart for European and Asiatic commerce. It was noted for its wealth and its wantonness. Venus was the chief Corinthian goddess. dissipation, of all sorts and degrees, gave this ancient city a character that is likely to be associated with it while the world lasts. Paul arrived in this city and centre of dissipation. By God's blessing on his labours a Church was organized. Its quarrels and its divisions, and even its sins, are the subject of reproof and exhortation in this Epistle. The peculiarities of the place, mental and moral, had crept into the Church and threatened to overflow and destroy it. St. Paul writes, not only to correct these, but also to unfold in opposition and in greater fulness and beauty the distinguishing doctrines and duties of the Gospel. There are in these Epistles passages of eloquence and pathos, and moral power, unsurpassed as merely

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literary compositions, in any language or by any writer. The portrait of charity or love, in chap. xiii., by the Apostle of faith, is as remarkable as the eulogy on faith by the Apostle of love.

The magnificent description of the resurrection, in chap. xv., is worthy of the magnificent scene which it describes.

The readings, or brief popular comments, on this Epistle will be found, it is hoped, neither uninteresting nor uninstructive. One great object is invariably kept in view, namely, to show that the sacred Scripture meets all ages and circumstances and developments of social and natural life, and ministers instruction ever fresh and everywhere profitable.

Such extracts from able divines as are likely to throw light on the inspired words, will be introduced here as in the previous Epistle.

CHAPTER I.

CORINTH-PAUL'S COURTESY-GIFTS AND GRACES-DIVISIONSDISCIPLESHIP AND BAPTISM-PLAIN SERMONS-JEWS SEEK SIGNS-GREEKS REQUIRE WISDOM-NEITHER GIVEN-PERVERSION FROM TRUTH-END OF ALL.

FROM all that we can read in ancient and authentic history, it seems that Corinth was the last of the Greek commonwealths. On it the sun of Grecian splendour set, but even its autumnal sun was worthy of the Grecian renown. Athens and Sparta, with their sisterhood, had passed away; and Corinth alone became by its greatness, its beauty, and the assemblage of brave and learned men in the midst of it, the representative of all Greece. The Corinth known in the New Testament, and mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as the scene of the visit of the Apostle Paul, was in a very different state from what it presents in the pages of Xenophon or Thucydides. We must look for its history as a Grecian city in the pages of Plutarch, and the later Greek and Roman historians. It had become by its riches, its maritime renown, its commerce, so wealthy, and in consequence of its wealth so dissolute and debased, that the very name of Corinth was formed into a Greek verb, which means to be guilty of all that is vile, depraved, and dishonourable, -Kopitáεσ0αι, literally, "to play the Corinthian ;"

the city by its deeds shedding a disastrous renown upon Greece, and its name becoming a proverb amid the nations of the earth for what is corrupt, and unholy, and impure. At last the Corinth, to which this Epistle was written, was destroyed by Mummius, the Roman general, reduced to a wreck, and its treasures of gold, and silver, and marble, were all carried into Italy, formed into baths for the Roman patricians, and scarcely a wreck of its ancient magnificence save its Acropolis, which still survives, was left behind; and so many and so great were the stores of metal of all sorts found by Mummius and the Roman soldiers in this dissipated and dissolute maritime capital, that the metals, gold, silver, lead, and brass, molten, partly by accident, and partly by artificial appliances, were formed into a new metal, if one may so call a composition known by the name of Corinthian brass; that is, the mixture of the various metals, gold, and silver, and lead, and others, found in that capital.

This city being visited by the Apostle Paul, was afterwards addressed in two Epistles singularly instructive, replete with practical suggestions, and applicable to the Church, the visible Church, not only then, but in its present state, and indeed as it will be till the existing provisional church is merged in the future perfect Church, and we shall no more see through a glass darkly. He begins first of all with an expression of that courtesy by which St. Paul's letters were always characterised, and in which he sets a precedent to us by showing that we may speak true things and faithful rebukes, and yet not sacrifice genuine Christian courtesy. And very often truths that are to us

unpalatable will be received with greater cordiality, because conveyed in courteous words and by a feeling heart. Paul begins the Epistle in these words: "Paul, called to be an apostle through the distinguishing grace of Christ, through the will of God, in company with Sosthenes (see Acts xviii. 17), a faithful and devoted brother in the church of Christ, unto the church of God which is at Corinth,"-that is, to all the congregations of believers that were there and then assembled together," even to them that are sanctified in Christ, who are called to be by that most honourable name, saints; and in short, not only to the Christians at Corinth, but to the Christians throughout all Greece, "who call upon the name of Jesus Christ, both their Lord and our Lord."

Here are the distinctive features of true Christians -features that will one day emerge from the subsequent names that now cloud them, and shine with increasing lustre through endless ages. Do we glory in these? Do we prefer them to a more modern nomenclature? He recognises in them, and thanks God for what he thus recognises in them of holiness and goodness, before he proceeds to rebuke them for what was wrong. In the worst we shall find something to praise ; in the best we shall find much to blame. And it is by recognising in the worst what survives of the amiable and the good, that we shall most surely make them feel what is in them of the depraved and the sinful. Paul therefore tells them first of all-"I thank God that in everything ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge." It is also worthy of remark that what Paul recognises among the Corinthian Christians is not so much grace, as gifts. He is very dis