Christian, but the body of a Christian, is redeemed by precious blood, and that the one just as truly as the other ought to be consecrated to the service, devoted to the glory, and sustained by the principles and laws of the Holy Spirit of God. He rebukes the sin that was dominant among the heathen; and shows that if envy, hatred, malice, quarrels, law-suits, disputes, contaminate the mind, there are sins that equally defile the body; and if it be true that the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, it is sacrilege and desecration to corrupt it. And if it be true that it shall rise again at the last day, it ought to be preserved faultless and without blemish before him. And if it be true that soul and body were both redeemed with the precious blood of a Lamb without spot and without blemish, the duty is not only with the mind, by abstaining from all that is morally and mentally corrupt, but also with the body, by being detached and separated from all that is grossly, and materially, and scandalously impure; both, bought with a price, to glorify God in body and spirit, which are his.

What a magnificent morality is that of the Bible ! What a pure and perfect world would this be were it saturated with Christian truth and pervaded by Christian morality! When great professors sin, blame not Christianity, but corrupt human nature. When you see inconsistency of conduct transparent in the character of the most eloquent professor, you are not to say, that is what Christianity produces; but such is intensity of human corruption, that even grace has failed to eradicate it; or such is the currency of Christian profession that bad men put on and assume the Christian name in order to get currency and credit

for a character which is not legitimately and justly theirs.

1. Sensuality degrades and debases soul and body.

2. Christians are not their own, nor indeed the property of any created being; they are God's, being bought with a price.

3. Liberty is here purely and beautifully distinguished from licence and liberality, from latitudinarianism—a distinction too often ignored.

O ICCIFIED BY CIRCUM

* IZRNAS THE TRANSIENT.

¤ às chapter many of A restors which, in the par perseeution, arose in and 12 March. The subject that smx prominent and perplexSvet If Triage. Some, in * is vio were married, rwal berzer sie to serve the VA EN INÝ To them the apostle as mais sa be dissolved only smile adds, it is no arguPOISON SNG You have been mar, NANL vilst you are a Christian; ie z zacon of the bond; it is more & my be a reason why you TƯ SIÙ A MACTage at all, and it is a A hug formed, you have no sana tem the husband who is PENI V sparate from a woman The dins you should have but being married, even the SCSI the infidelity, of the jos de the withdrawal and

renunciation of the bond by the other. Now, this is a very important law; and so true, so just, so reasonable is this law, that it has been incorporated into the statutebooks of the most enlightened and civilized nations of Christendom.

Then, the next question that was before the apostle was, whether it was better to marry, or not to marry? He says, what indicates great and broad common sense apart from inspiration itself, this is a matter entirely for your personal consideration. He assumes, nay, he asserts, that marriage in all is honourable, and lawful, and right; but if any one choose, either from his own personal taste, feeling, convenience, or comfort, not to marry, he is not only justified therein, but he will escape many difficulties, trials, troubles, perplexities. If, however, he prefer to marry, let him know that he has done that which is right in the sight of God, however perplexing may be many of the trials that may yet await him, in an age of fiery persecution ; so that, as the apostle says, this is to be determined entirely by reference to ourselves as in the sight of God. He does not say that ministers must not marry; he does not say that a woman more serves Christ by becoming a nun than by becoming a wife: the very contrary is the testimony of history. But it has been quoted very often by the Romanist as a triumphant proof of the apostle's preference of celibacy, that the apostle says, in one part, it is better not to marry, that he who gives not his daughter in marriage doeth better; and that in this matter he believes he has the Spirit of God. But let it be observed that he gives a reason for this judgment. It is not a judgment pronounced binding always, everywhere, in all circum

CHAPTER VII.

MARRIAGE, ITS BONDS-ITS

EXPEDIENCY MODIFIED BY CIRCUMSTANCES-INSPIRATION-THE ETERNAL IN THE TRANSIENT.

THE apostle seems to meet in this chapter many of those practical and perplexing questions which, in the course of a season of great persecution, arose in and troubled the Corinthian Church. The subject that was plainly before him as most prominent and perplexing to them was the subject of marriage. Some, in the midst of the great distress, who were married, thought that they would be better able to serve the Lord if that bond were dissolved. To them the apostle replies, that the bond once made is to be dissolved only by death or unfaithfulness; and he adds, it is no argument against this conclusion that you have been married to one who is a heathen, whilst you are a Christian ; this is no reason for the dislocation of the bond; it is no ground for separation. It may be a reason why you should not enter into such a marriage at all, and it is a strong one; but the marriage being formed, you have no right as a Christian to separate from the husband who is a heathen, or as a Protestant to separate from a woman who is a Romanist. These things you should have considered at the first; but being married, even the superstition, or the scepticism, or the infidelity, of the one, is not to be a reason for the withdrawal and