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

stances, and under all conditions; but plainly and obviously a judgment formed under the special circumstances in which the Corinthian Church was then placed; for he uses the expression, in giving judgment upon this subject, "The present distress, the present trouble." The present persecution, evidently, in which Christians were placed, made him say that, under existing circumstances, it was better for them to "abide even as I." And therefore he says, that if they can, and feel it personally to be their calling so to remain, it is much better they should. He does not lay down this as a lasting law; the very reverse: he gives it as his judgment here, in the 26th verse, that "This is good for the present distress; it is good for a man so to be.” He evidently shows it was a condition to be chosen then because of the present distress; but a condition that might be rejected afterwards as more according to the mind of God, and the duty of the individual. Even now, however, marriage has troubles which single life has not. Their troubles, their trials, their griefs, sorrows, bereavements, and losses, always operative, would be the more bitter at a time when to be baptized was to be marched to prison, or to profess Christ was to be thrown to the wild beasts. In so sad a state of things these feelings would be painfully entangling, which, if the bond were not formed, could not of course be experienced. And therefore he says that for the present distress celibacy was preferable. But it may not be preferable now. Your own judgment, your own circumstances, and condition in life,—in other words, common sense and Christian principle,—will regulate and guide every human being in such and so responsible a matter.

The apostle introduces, in two or three parts of this chapter, a kind of expression which seems somewhat perplexing and very strange. He says, "Unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord." And in another place, "I have no commandment of the Lord; yet I give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy." Now, some have tried to seize these admissions incorporated in this chapter, as if they were acknowledgments of the apostle that he was not inspired. But it seems to me to incline all the other way; because a man that professed to be inspired, as he does in other parts, being a conscious impostor, would keep up the pretence and profession of inspiration throughout, and would seize every opportunity of dictating instead of advising, on the ground that he was inspired of God. But he says, on some delicate questions of evanescent application, not of lasting value, he was not inspired to give an opinion; and the very exception that he makes proves the general fact that he was inspired when he wrote these epistles to the Romans, the Corinthians, and others. It is therefore plain, that instead of this being a proof that he was not inspired, it is a proof of the strict integrity of the apostle, who always assumes to be inspired throughout; but in the two exceptional instances, where he gives the judgment of an experienced Christian, not the inspired statement of an inspired apostle, we see the candour and honesty of one who always spoke truth, and in every instance, except in these two which he acknowledges, was inspired by the Holy Spirit of God to write it.

How beautifully does the apostle close all this! We have an evidence of one of those bright, moral, and

guiding laws, emerging from questions of transient and temporary value. He says, "But this I say, brethren, the time is short;" these questions will soon all be settled by your standing at the judgment-seat, where the relationships of life are only called up as far as they are associated with your responsibility. And, therefore, he says, "The time is short; it remaineth, that they that have wives be as though they had none;" that the cares, the anxieties, the troubles, the griefs, the fears, the forebodings of married life, should all be merged in the brighter prospects of an eternal life. "And it remains that they that weep be as though they wept not." To weep is human; to weep tears of despair is most unchristian; to. weep as though you wept not, that is divine. "And they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not." He is not speaking of demoniac joy, which is wicked, nor of Christian joy, which is joy exceeding, and full of glory; but of that ordinary joy, which a man has in his possessions, in his books, in his learning, in his friends, in his companions, in his fireside; in other words, of human joy, which he says is a right and a proper joy; only it is to be a joy that, in comparison of the other joy, is to be as though you rejoiced not. "And they that buy, as though they possessed not." Then property is right; all things in common, or communism, is not scriptural. You may buy in the market, you may possess at home; it is not sinful, it is responsibility: but you are to possess as though you possessed not; your heart and treasure are not to be in your possessions. "And they that use the world:" then, you may use the world; you may read its papers, you may mix in its scenes, you may mingle in its society, you may

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employ all its resources for the accomplishment of ends that are good; only you are to use it, not as abusing it," to the gratification of sinful passions, and to remember that "the fashion of it"- -a word borrowed from the drama, from the Greek drama "passeth away." You remember the figure of the wonderful interpreter of human nature, when he says, "All the world's a stage,

The men and women merely players."

Such is one of those remarkable coincidences, if not a copy, between the penetration of great genius and the disclosures of divine truth. Now, the apostle says "The fashion of it;" it is a stage, and all the men and women that are on it are merely wearing characters which are not real. On the stage a man appears as a king; and when he goes behind the scenes, his robes, and crown, and worthless sceptre, are laid aside, and he is a common man again. Another walks the stage as a queen; she retires, and ceases to appear what she seemed to be. The fashion, the form, the character, that we appear in-the extrinsic circumstantial distinctions of life are scenic, they are not real; we must put them off, and appear behind the scenes of life, and at the judgment-seat, not as kings and queens, and rich and poor, but either as sinners by nature or saints by grace. These are realities.

1. Marriage, so far from being regarded as a state of defilement, is set forth as the very reflection of Christ and the Church.

2. Ascetics have exhausted their ingenuity in explaining away what endures-the obvious meaning of St. Paul.