institution the intention was that they should commemorate the Lord's death, not only on stated occasions, but at all their meals, whenever they ate bread and drank wine."-(Notes on Ep. Cor., vol. ii. 243.) Yet it seems somewhat strained and superfluous to apply the hosakis, 'as often,' to any other occasions than the social assemblies, when believers came together to call upon the name of their Lord, and celebrate His sacrificial love; and it is, moreover, not consistent with the Pauline distinction of eating at home and eating in the church. If we accept the exegesis thrown out by Dean Stanley, but not absolutely approved by him, it would involve a distinct recognition of the Saviour's self-sacrifice whenever and wherever bread and wine are socially partaken of by believers. It does not, however, appear to us that more can be fairly deduced from the recited injunction than the duty of using the bread and the cup in devout and grateful remembrance of the Lord 'as often' as they are introduced into the assemblies of His people.

CHAPTER XV. VERSE 32.

If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.

This sensual sentiment had long passed into a proverb. [See Note on Isa. xxii. 13.] The classical writers offer illustrations too numerous to quote. Anacreon, in his Fourth Ode To Himself,' has "Stretched on tender myrtles and upon lotus herbage, I wish to drink to my friends. And let Cupid, having bound his vest above his neck with papyrus, serve me with sweet drink (methu). For like a chariot's wheel life runs, being rolled along; and we, our bones dissolved, shall lie reduced to a little dust," etc. So in the Fourteenth Ode, 'On being devoid of Envy,' he exclaims, "To-day concerns me; but who knows to-morrow? Whilst, therefore, it is fair weather, both drink and throw dice, and pour out libations of Bacchus; lest, if disease should come along, it should say, It is not for thee to drink!" The same sentiment is expressed in Odes 24, 25, 35, 39, and 40. Herodotus (book ii. chap. 78) says it was customary among the Egyptians of his day to produce at all their feasts a wooden effigy of a dead person in a coffin, which was shown to all the guests, each of whom was addressed in these words,—‘Look. ing upon this, both drink and enjoy thyself; for thou shalt be such as this is when thou art dead!'

While Dean Stanley suggests the common use of the symbols of salvation, a clerical friend of the Temperance cause argues, that since grape-juice was consecrated as the symbol of atonement, it has become unlawful for common use, as was the blood of animals under the old dispensation. But it is obvious (from Gen. ix. 4) that the use of blood was forbidden in ancient times simply because of its being the ultimate seat of animal life, a reason not applicable to grape-juice; also that the prohibition extended to the use of blood in the flesh as much as to extracted blood, whereas only grape-juice expressed, and not grapes themselves with their contained wine, are supposed to be now forbidden. Neither does analogy require that because blood, as a symbol of atonement, was forbidden to the Jews, therefore grape-juice, which is simply an emblem of Christ's blooditself the true and specific symbol of His atonement,-should be equally interdicted. Again, the eucharistic bread, equally with the wine, is a representation of the mysteries of redemption, and should, for the same reason as the fruit of the vine, be excluded as ordinary food. That the Saviour's own words do not clearly forbid all common use of the fruit of the vine,' and that they were not so understood by the eleven, or by St Paul, is manifest from the novelty of the theory, and from the absence of any single reference to it in the apostolic epistles. It is evident, on the contrary, from the Circular Letter of the Council at Jerusalem, and from numerous passages in the Pauline Epistles, that such a construction of our Lord's words never occurred to those to whom the Holy Spirit was given, expressly that He should lead them into all the truth' necessary so the preaching of the gospel and the observance of its laws.

CHAPTER XV. VERSE 33.

Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.

The words 'evil communications corrupt good manners' are found in one of Menander's dramas, but it may have passed into a proverb in the Apostle's days, and have been cited by him as such. The statement itself is confirmed by daily experience, and evinces the wisdom of reducing our necessary contact with evil within the narrowest possible limits, that the personal and social corruption they are calculated to produce may be restrained. That drinking fashions and tippling resorts are vehicles of such corruption, in its most contagious and injurious forms, cannot be doubted by those who have carefully inquired into their influence on domestic and public life. Hence the demand for earnest and persistent effort to place the one under the stigma of a moral public opinion, and the other under the ban of civil law.

CHAPTER XV. VERSE 34.

Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

AWAKE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS] Ekneepsate, dikaiōs, 'be sober again, righteously.' The present imperative is employed to mark that the change should be immediate. Ek, prefixed to neepsate, indicates a return to sobriety, neepsis, from an opposite condition. In the Lxx. the phrase is used in the sense of awakening out of a drunken sleep,-in reference to Noah, Nabal, and the drunkards of Israel. [See Notes on Gen. ix. 24; 1 Sam. xxv. 37; Joel i. 5.] Commentators differ on the question whether the word here has a literal or figurative application,—whether the apostle calls upon the Corinthians to become literally 'sober,' or whether he compares their spiritual state to one of intoxicating stupor, and invokes them to shake themselves free of it. [As to neepho, see Note on I Thess. v. 7.] The exact force of the adverb dikaiōs is also disputed. Some take it in the modal sense of ‘fully,' 'perfectly,' 'effectually' 'become sober again, thoroughly.' Others prefer the moral sense of 'justly' or 'righteously '='become sober again, as it is right. Others agree with the A. V., in giving to ekneepsate dikaiōs a causal connection and righteous result = 'become sober again, and so enter on a righteous career.' Conybeare and Howson, in their Life and Letters of St Paul,' paraphrase the verse thus :-"Change your drunken revellings into the sobriety of righteousness, and live no more in sin." However it may be read, it must be understood as antagonistic to every degree of sensualizing influence.

44

THE SECOND EPISTLE OF

ST PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS.

CHAPTER V. VERSE 16.

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

By knowing Christ 'after the flesh' (kata sarkos) the apostle alludes to the external events of the Saviour's life separated from their spiritual significance. With such a knowledge of Christ he declares he would not be satisfied, since it was wholly devoid of that transforming and assimilating power which belongs to a spiritual discernment of Christ, and that alone. May not this passage be justly applied to those who think they find a sanction to their use of intoxicating drinks in the example of the Redeemer? If, as they suppose—and suppose without any warrant from the Gospel history,—the Lord made and used inebriating wine, their plea is at best grounded in a knowledge of Him after the flesh,-such a knowledge, in fact, as they would never dream of putting to a similar use by conforming to His style of dress, manner of traveling, and outward life in general. On the contrary, to know Him' after the spirit' is to understand, appreciate, and imitate Him in the spiritual principles by which He was actuated. If we have not His spirit, 'we are none of His,' and the paramount question for every Christian to consider and answer for himself is, whether a resemblance to that spirit, so loving and selfdenying, is not exhibited in abstinence from alcoholic beverages, rather than in their most limited but self-indulgent use? Beyond all dispute, if abstinence is vastly more conducive to the good of society than drinking, a perception of this truth will lead those who know 'Christ after the spirit' to abstain with all readiness and cheerfulness. If any man say that he honestly believes drinking to be, on the whole, more useful to society and to the cause of religion than abstinence would be, it is not for us to judge our brother, but we may affectionately urge him not to rest in such a condition without a full, careful, and unbiased examination of all the evidence within his reach.

CHAPTER VII. VERSE 1.

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Great was the anxiety of the apostle that his children in Christ should keep themselves unspotted from the world, and that they and he should purify themselves from "every defilement (pantos molusmou-in 1 Cor. viii. 7 the verb is rendered in A. V. ‘defiled') of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness (epitelountes agiōsuneen -completing the work of holiness in all its parts) in the fear of God." Such a desire after exemption from all stain of sin would, if universal and deep-seated, go far to secure its own realization, for it would instinctively lead to the avoidance of all things that expose the Christian to the dreaded contamination. It is remarkable that the defilement is spoken of as pertaining to 'flesh and spirit'; and whether the allusion is to the flesh and spirit as the sources of the defilement, or as the recipients of it, the caution conveyed ought to make believers shun intoxicating liquor, because that is adapted, more than any other external agency, to stimulate those lusts of the flesh and impurities of the spirit that bring the soul into deadly peril. Most true it is, that so long as the Christian is in the world, he will be exposed, more or less, to its evil; but this consideration, instead of diminishing, ought to increase his aversion to alcoholic beverages, as a wholly superfluous and artificially superinduced element of danger, and (as experience proves) of destruction, to innumerabie souls.

THE EPISTLE OF

ST PAUL TO

THE GALATIANS.

CHAPTER V. VERSES 13, 14.

13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Instead of alla dia tees agapees, but by love,' Codex D has alla tee agafectou Pneumatos, but in (or by) the beloved Spirit.' And after the words ho gar pas nomos, 'for the whole law,' the same Codex reads in humōn, ‘in you.'

Christians are called 'unto liberty' (ep' eleutheria),-liberty from the condemnation and power of sin, and liberty from the yoke of ceremonial observances; but this liberty is conditioned by the proviso that it is not to be used for an occasion to the flesh' (eis aphormeen tec sarki). It is a liberty that is to be made no excuse for indulging and pampering fleshly appetites; but using love as its instrumental and efficient power, it is to be exercised and manifested in acts of service by Christians to one another. For the whole moral law, as it relates to our human duties, is summed up in the precept to love our neighbor as ourself. To what extent, even among professing Christians, the use of alcoholic liquors is made an 'occasion of the flesh,' we need not conjecture; but it may be affirmed with confidence, that a general resolution by Christians to prefer the good of others to the gratification of a merely sensuous taste, would result in an avoidance of strong drink more extended, a discouragement of drinking customs more effectual, than Christendom has ever yet beheld. Those who plead that they are at liberty to drink,' cannot vindicate such a liberty on any Christian principle till they have shown that it is not claimed for mere self-indulgence, and is consistent with the utmost usefulness in the sphere assigned them by a gracious Providence.

CHAPTER V. VERSES 19-21.

19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.