And then he pronounces these words, so solemn and weighty, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha." What a solemn statement is that! Christ is so worthy of love; the greatness of his work, the grandeur of his sacrifice, the disinterested love he has shown, are so truly without precedent or parallel, that the man who does not love Christ deserves to be condemned. The apostle does not say, "If any man sin, if any man has fallen, let him be Anathema." No; "if any man sin, he has an advocate with the Father;" but if any man will have a heart so hard, wickedness so undiluted, that he cannot love him who so loved us, then let him be Anathema; that is, let him be cast out, separated; it does not mean, let him be condemned for ever. And Maran-atha; that word has been often disputed. It means literally, "The Lord will come." The meaning of it is, "Let him be separated from you; and do not forget that the Lord. will come to determine his guilt or the reverse, and to put all things in order." You will find, in Eastern phrase at this moment, the word is retained. An Eastern bishop, in some of the Coptic and Syriac Churches, is called Mar-Athanasius. And so we have a sect called in the East at this moment, the "Maronites." And Maran-atha, therefore, is not a word of execration; but, simply, "If any man love not Christ, you separate from him, and let him be separate from you; and do not you curse him; do not persecute him; but leave him to the Lord, who will come and put all things right."

"22. 'If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha.'

"This and what follows is what Paul himself wrote. They are words which need no explanation. They

carry with them their awful import to every heart. If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ. If our Lord be 'God over all and blessed for ever,' want of love to him is the violation of our whole duty. If he be not only truly God, but God manifested in the flesh for our salvation; if he unites in himself all divine and all human excellence; if he has so loved us as to unite our nature to his own, and to humble himself and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, that we might not perish, but have everlasting life; then our own hearts must assent to the justness of the malediction pronounced even against ourselves, if we do not love him. We must feel that in that case we deserve to be anathema. Nay, we thereby are a thing accursed; we are an object of execration and loathing to all holy beings by the same necessity that holiness is opposed to sin. Maran-atha are two Aramaan words signifying 'The Lord,' or 'our Lord comes.' It is a solemn warning. The Lord, whom men refuse to recognise and love, is about to come in the glory of his Father, and with all his holy angels, to take vengeance on those who know not God, and who obey not the gospel. So deeply were the apostles impressed with the divinity of Christ, so fully were they convinced that Jesus was God manifest in the flesh, that the refusal or inability to recognise him as such, seemed to them a mark of reprobation. If this truth be hid, they say, it is hid to them that are lost. 2 Cor. iv. 3-6."-Hodge.

THE

SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

CHAPTER I.

PERSONAL NATURE OF THE EPISTLE-ADDRESSED TO THE LAITY -PASTOR AND PEOPLE-PAUL'S SUFFERINGS-PAUL'S SERMONS -DEFINITIVENESS OF THE TEACHING OF JESUS-AMEN, ITS IMPORT-CHRISTIANS SEALED EARNEST IMPORTATION OF

WORDS.

"OF all the Epistles of St. Paul there is none so personal as the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. It sprung entirely from the peculiar complication of circumstances which took place after writing the First Epistle.

"The First Epistle is the most systematic, the Second the least so of any of the apostle's writings. The direct objects of the Epistle are threefold. First, the expression of satisfaction at the tidings brought by Titus. Secondly, the expression of his hope that the contributions for the poor in Judæa will be speedily completed. Thirdly, the vindication of his character and authority against his judaizing opponents."— Stanley.

This Second Epistle, like the First, was addressed by St. Paul to the Corinthian Church,- -a Church planted in the midst of a corrupt and sensual city, very soon after the tumult, of which we read in the Acts of the

Apostles, in the theatre at Ephesus, and also some time after he had written his First Epistle,-intended to heal and correct the divisions that had grown up. In this Epistle he alludes to his visit to them, in order that he might ascertain what practical fruits his previous instructions, as contained in the former Epistle, had brought forth. There is not the least doubt that Paul was the author of it, and that he wrote it as inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.

As already noticed, it is of all the epistles in the New Testament the most personal. Paul speaks in it more of himself than usual, spends a great portion of it in vindicating the claims of his ministry, as at least an apostle called and anointed of God, and proved by the influence of his preaching upon their hearts to have spoken to them not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but in power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost.

He begins the Epistle after the manner of ancient letters, by prefixing his name, instead of adding it at the end of the letter or as the postscript; and introduces himself as speaking not according to the judgment of a private individual, but as an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God. He states there was with him Timothy his brother. He addresses the letter unto the Church, or the company of Christian people that were at Corinth, together with all the saints that were in all Achaia. It is important to observe that this letter, like all the letters of the New Testament Scriptures, with the exception of three little ones, is addressed to the laity as such. It is addressed to the saints, the Christian people, God's believing and professing people. And, therefore, for any one to take this letter, and say it belongs to the priest, and not to

you, is as great an offence as if a postman, whose duty it is to deliver your letters at your address, were to keep them for himself, and dole out a sentence to you now and then, as his own taste, convenience, or fancy might dictate. If there is to be any dispute who is to read the Bible, most unquestionably it will be proved that the laity have irrefragable right; and instead of the ministers, or priests, or presbyters, or whatever you may choose to call them, having a right to keep the Bible as theirs, and dole it out at discretion to the people, it would seem to me rather, if there be any force in the distinction at all, that the laity have a greater right to keep the Bible, and to give it out as they like to the priest.

He begins, after the salutation, with blessing and thanking God, the Father of our Lord, the Father of Mercies, for all the comfort that he had experienced in the midst of his tribulation. Some of the epithets applied to God in the New Testament are singularly beautiful. He is "the Father of lights," "the Father of Spirits," "the Father of Glory." So completely did Paul feel devoted to the good of his people, that he says he, the minister, was comforted not when he might be most happy, but when his people were most comforted; and that he, the minister, suffered not that he might be pained, but that he might be able to sympathise with his flock that suffered in the same manner. And so entirely was an ancient apostle's life a vicarious one,—not a meritorious one, but a vicarious one,—that he adds, "If we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation." Our whole personal is merged in our official; we live less and less for self, and more and more for the flock