LECTURE IX.

I CORINTHIANS, iv. 1-6.—November 16, 1851.

THE fourth the first to the seventh verse, an address

HE fourth chapter, like the third, divides itself into two

sections. From

is given to a congregation. From the seventh to the end of the chapter, St. Paul addresses ministers. To-day our subject, comprised in the first six verses, is the true estimate of the Christian ministry. Now, the Christian ministry may be either over-glorified or undervalued, and in correction of both these errors, St. Paul says "Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." We consider, then,—

I. The undue glorification of the Christian ministry.

II. The depreciation of the same.

I. The Christian minister may be glorified or made an idol of in two ways-by party-worship of the man, or by attaching a mystical or supernatural power to the office.

First then, by the worship of the Man. This was the particular danger of the Corinthians, as we see distinctly stated in the sixth verse of this chapter. In pronouncing his judgment in this verse, St. Paul, with great delicacy, selects himself and Apollos for his instances, because there could be no suspicion of rivalry between them, for Apollos was of the same school of thought as himself. He speaks of his own party, and that of his friend, as worthy of censure, in order not to blame by name other parties and the sectarian disciples of other teachers in Corinth. And yet how natural! Let us take

these cases as specimens of all. Paul and Apollos each taught a truth, that had taken possession of their souls. St. Paul preached one, as we know, which he called "my Gospel," one peculiarly his own. Such is the case, too, with an inferior minister. Each man, each teacher, now as then, reveals to his hearers that truth which has most filled his own soul, and which is his peculiarly because it most agrees with his character. Well, this truth of his commends itself to kindred spirits in his congregation: it expresses their difficulties, it is a flood of light on many a dark passage of their history. No wonder that they view with gratitude, and an enthusiasm bordering on veneration, the messenger of this blessedness. And no wonder that the truth thus taught becomes at last the chief, almost the sole, truth proclaimed by him. First because every man has but one mind, and must, therefore, repeat himself. And, secondly, because that which has won attachment from his congregation, can scarcely be made subordinate in subsequent teaching without losing that attachment; so that, partly for the sake of apparent consistency, partly to avoid offence, and partly from that conservatism of mental habits which makes it so difficult to break through systems, ministers and congregations often narrow into a party, and hold one truth especially. And so far they do well; but if they should go on to hold that truth to the exclusion of all other truths, so far as they do that, it is not well; and nothing is more remarkable than the bitter and jealous antagonism with which party-men who have reached this point watch all other religious factions but their own. And then the sectarian work is done the minister is at once the idol and the slave of the party, which he rules by flattering its bigotry, and stimulating its religious antipathies.

Now St. Paul meets this with his usual delicacy: "These things I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men

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more highly than it is written, and that no one of you may be puffed up for one against another." And not for Corinth only, but for all who were, or should be, his brethren in Christ, did St. Paul transfer these things to Apollos and himself for have I not given you a Home history ?—the exact and likeliest history of many an English party, which began with a truth, and then called it the truth; flattering one another, and being “puffed up for one against another," and manifesting that, with all their high professions, they were carnal, and walked as men." But here let us observe the glorious unselfishness of this noble Apostle. Think you, there was no fire of ambition in his heart -that ardent, fiery heart? An Apostle, yes-but not exempt from temptation: with the feelings and passions of a Man! Do you imagine he did not perceive, what is so evident to us, the opportunity within his grasp of being the great Leader in the Corinthian Church? Think you that he knew nothing of that which is so dear to many a priest and minister in our day-the power of gaining the confidence of his people, the power of having his every word accepted as infallible?

Yet hear this sublime teacher :—I am a minister, a steward only. Who is Paul? I dare not be a party-leader, for I am the servant of Him who came to make all one. He that watereth and he that planteth are all one-they, even those Judaizing teachers who named themselves after Peter, are all servants with me of Christ.

Secondly, There is another mode of undue glorification of the ministry: by attributing supernatural powers and imaginary gifts to the Office. This mode was quite different apparently, from the other so much so, as plainly to mark a party in the opposite extreme: and it was far more necessary to warn some men against this view; for many who would have refused submission to a Man, would have readily yielded it to an Office. Many will refuse obedience to one standing on his personal gifts, or party views; but when one claiming the

Power of the Keys, and pretending to the power of miraculous conveyance of the Eternal Spirit in Baptism, or pretending, in shrouded words of mystery, to transform the elements of bread and wine into the very Body and Blood of Christ; or, declaring that he has an especial power to receive confession, and a miraculous right to forgive sins, therefore claims homage from the congregation; then, grave men, who would turn. contemptuously from the tricks of the mere Preacher, are sometimes subdued before those of the Priest. And yet this is but the same thing in another form, against which St. Paul contended in Corinth; for Pride and Vanity can assume different forms, and sometimes appear in the very guise of Humility. Power is dear to man, and for the substance, who would not sacrifice the shadow? Who would not depreciate himself, if by magnifying his office he obtained the power he loved ?

We have heard of Bernard, who, professing to be unsecular, yet ruled the secular affairs of the world. We have heard of men, who, cut off from human affections, and crushing them relentlessly, have resigned every endearment in life, yet have nevertheless reigned in their sackcloth with a power which the imperial purple never gave. Affecting to live apart from human policy, and human business, they spread their influence through every department of human thought, and life, and government. To appear more than human, to seem a spiritual being, above their fellow-men; for this men formerly as well as now, have parted with all that is best in our humanity, its tenderest affections, its most innocent relaxations, and its most sacred and kindliest enjoyments. History affords innumerable examples of this.

II. The depreciation of the Office.

There is a way common enough, but not specially alluded to here, in which the Minister of the Church of Christ is viewed simply in connection with an Establishment as a very

useful regulation, on a par with the institutions of the Magistracy and the Police. In this light the Minister's chief duty is to lecture the poor, and of all the thousand texts which bear on political existence to preach from only two, "Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's," and "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers;" to be the treasurer and regulator of the different charitable institutions in the town and village, and to bless the rich man's banquet. Thus the Office is simply considered a profession, and the common term "living" is the truest exposition of the dignity in which it is held. It is a "living" for the younger branches of noble houses, and an advance for the sons of those of a lower grade who manifest any extraordinary aptness for learning, and who, through the ministry, may rise to a higher position in social life.

In this view a degrading compact is made between the Minister and Society. If he will not interfere with abuses, but leave things as they are: if he will lash only the vices of an age that is gone by, and the heresies of other churches: if he will teach, not the truth that is welling up in his own soul, but that which the conventionalism of the world pronounces to be the Truth-then shall there be shown to him a certain consideration; not the awful reverence accorded to the Priest, nor the affectionate gratitude yielded to the Christian minister, but the half-respectful, condescending patronage which comes from men, who stand by the Church as they would stand by any other old time-honoured Institution; who would think it extremely ill-bred to take God's name in vain in the presence of a clergyman, and extremely unmanly to insult a man whose profession prevents his resenting indignities.

Now it is enough to quote the Apostle's view, “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ," and at once you are in a different atmosphere of thought.

These things are not essential to the position, for that may