and power of all our conduct. Then he says, "Christ died for all;" here is the motive; "Christ died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves." There have been many disputes, which all of us have often heard of, between what are called Arminians, and what are called Calvinists. The Calvinists believe in particular redemption; the Arminians in what is called general redemption. Now I am neither Calvinist nor Arminian, but a Christian; I hold that the dispute between the two is very much of a logomachy. Christ died for all in this sense, that not one human being that hears the gospel need be lost; and if lost, it is his own fault, and the fault of no one besides; and Christ died for the elect only in this sense, that none but they that believe and accept him are interested in his blood, and admitted into everlasting glory. I can preach to-day the universal responsibility of all, just as if I were an Arminian; and I can preach next Sunday the redemption of the elect, just as if I were a high Calvinist; and if you hear me each day you will say I contradict myself,—yet it is equally truth. How to reconcile God's sovereignty and my responsibility I know not; but I feel perfectly unfettered in proclaiming every truth; for my mission is not to harmonise, but to proclaim what I find in this blessed book; knowing that everything that is there is absolute truth, and that all doctrines are in perfect harmony, even when we fail to perceive it.

The apostle says then, "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh." What a remarkable statement is here! He says, "Once we knew Christ after the flesh, but now we know him no more after the flesh."

If this be the apostle's idea, as it probably is, it is one of the most striking indirect proofs of the inspiration of this blessed book; for the personal, the carnal, and the sensuous, disappear as Christianity proceeds on its way from the cross, and its march is quickened, as an inspiring force, throughout the whole world. For instance, if Christ had been a human teacher, and his apostles not inspired, what would they in all likelihood have done? They would have drawn often, and at length, pictures of his person; you would have had in this book what was his size and his stature, and his profile; what was the nature and fibre of his voice; what were his personal habits, and whatever else of the same curious sort is found in everyday biographies. We find this kind of information in every earthly biography; but we find in the Bible not one sentence of it. There is no portrait of Christ of any authenticity or value; there is no record of the colour of his hair, the complexion of his countenance, the height of his person, the intonations of his voice; not a word. Why? Because henceforth we know Christ no more after the flesh. It is God in our nature loving us, dying for us; it is the divine that is to grow more and more, and the mere human, as a sensible sight, to retreat and retire into the infinite distance till he come again. But when we pass into a corrupt church, where not the Bible, but tradition reigns, we find innumerable pictures of our blessed Lord, so supposed; we have one sketched by Luke the physician, whom tradition records to have been a painter, of which there are many copies; we have then the holy coat, parts of the wood of the true cross, the nails, the sponge; everything ideally or really connected with the personal history of Christ. A Pro

testant can say, "Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth we know him no more.” A Romanist cannot say so; he insists upon touching the hem of Christ's garment, and seeing the person of Christ; the Christian is content to walk by faith in an unseen Saviour, in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing, which is better than sight, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

The apostle next states the great truth, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Christ Jesus, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation." And then, says the apostle, "God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. And we are ambassadors for Christ." And what is the duty of an ambassador? Simply to deliver the message of his sovereign. And so says the apostle, "We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

The last verse, which is the substance of our embassy, is a most striking one. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Now in what sense was Christ made sin? Not by being a sinner; he was holy, harmless, pure, infinitely remote from sin. He was made sin by our sin being, in Isaiah's words, laid upon him. And just as true as Christ, made sin for me, took my place, so sure I am made righteousness by him; and as it was just in God to let forth the expressions of wrath against sin upon Christ, on whom lay imputed sin, he is faithful and just to let forth the expressions of his love upon me, because of imputed

righteousness. The doctrine of Augustine, the doctrine of Martin Luther, the doctrine of the Church of England, and of the Church of Scotland; the doctrine of all true evangelical ministers,—imputed, finished righteousness, in and by Christ, is the doctrine of the Word of God; and we thank him, and bless him that it is so.

"It is instructive to observe the apostle shrinking from the disembodied state beyond the grave, and his natural sympathy with the awe with which many good men have regarded the advance and progress of death. There is no Platonic doctrine of a vague and impalpable immortality, no Stoic affectation of rising above the ordinary feelings of humanity. It is, on a lower scale, the same picture which is presented to us in the agony of Gethsemane, 'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.'

"Paul's thought of the judgment-seat blends with the thought of home, as in the Psalms the spirit of the Psalmist reposes with equal comfort and confidence on the mercy and on the justice of God."-Stanley.

CHAPTER V. 14, 15.

CONSTRAINING LOVE.

"FOR the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again."

In the chapter from which these words are taken, the apostle has been reasoning with his Corinthian converts, as we have seen, on the certain approach of that day when all shall appear at the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive of the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men ;" and in doing so, he says, we have no side end to subserve, “we commend not ourselves unto you.” And then he vindicates himself from the charge that evidently had been thrown in his face by a reckless, unbelieving, and ungodly people, that much religion had made him mad. He says, "Whether we be beside ourselves," as you allege, "it is to God; or whether we be sober," as you deny, we are satisfied that "it is for your cause. If you say we are mad-be it so; but remember what is the inspiration of that madness, and you will learn to change your opinion of us. Or if we