to exist only as long as they are needful, and then to be done away. There are to be new things, but there is still something in the old things which can never alter-the spirit which underlies the words, the ancient truth which creates the form it dwells in. It is in this sense that Christ is the Spirit of the law, for He is "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." And St. Paul's ministry to the Jews, and to the Judaists among the Gentiles, was freedom from the letter-conversion to the spirit of the law. Blinded as were their minds, veiled as were their hearts, nevertheless liberty was coming. For "when it" (the Jewish heart) "shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away: now the Lordis that Spirit." Therefore, to turn to the Lord Christ was to turn to the spirit instead of the letter of the law; and so they would become the true Israel, free, with clear vision: for "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty there is the open face" which reflects the glory of Christ.

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2. The Ministry of the New Testament was a "lifegiving" ministry.

First, let us touch on the figurative meaning of the word "life-giving." It is like a new life to know that God wills not sacrifice and burnt-offering, but rather desires to find the spirit of one who says, "Lo! I come to do Thy will.” It is new life to know that to Love God and man is the sum of existence. It is new lifeit is free thought-to know that "God be merciful to me a sinner!" is a truer prayer in God's ears, than elaborate liturgies and long ceremonials of ecclesiastical ritual.

Further: Christ was the spirit of the law, and He gave, and still gives, the gift of Life. But how? St. Paul replies, in the eighteenth verse: A living character is impressed upon us: we are as the glass or mirror which reflects back a likeness, only we reflect it livingly; it does not pass away from us as the image does from the glass, but is an imparted life, which develops itself more and more within us: for Christ is not a mere example, but the Life of the world; and the Christian

is not a mere copy, but a living image of the living God. He is "changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

Now such a ministry -a ministry which endeavors to reach the life of things-the Apostle calls (1.) an able that is, a powerful · - ministry. Observe, he names it thus, even amidst an apparent want of success. For such teaching may leave no visible fruits. It makes no party or sect. Its minister may seem to fail, but his victory is sure; he works powerfully, deeply, gloriously. He moulds souls for the ages to come. works for the eternal world.

He

(2.) St. Paul calls it a bold ministry: "We use great plainness of speech." Ours should be a ministry whose words are not compacted of baldness, but boldness; whose very life is outspokenness, and free fearlessness: a ministry which has no concealment, no reserve; which scorns to take a via media, because it is safe in the eyes of the world; which shrinks from the weakness of a mere cautiousness, but which exults even in failure, if the truth has been spoken, with a joyful confidence. For a man who sees into the heart of things speaks out not timidly, nor superstitiously, but with a brow unveiled, and with a speech as free as his spirit: "The truth has made him free."

LECTURE XL.

1852.

2 CORINTHIANS, iv. 1 – 15. -"Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced

the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.- - But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost :In whom the god of this world had blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. - We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. - We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; - Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God."

THE first two verses of this chapter contain the principles of the Christian ministry: they embrace its motives a sense of mercy and a sense of hope: they declare its straightforwardness, its scorn of craft and secrecy, its rejection of pious frauds and adroit casuistry; and they show that its influence is moral, and not official. Hence it becomes clear that its indirect was more sure than its direct influence.

Now the connection of these two verses with the third, is through the word "every." For a reply sug

gested itself to St. Paul's mind from some objector; "Every man's conscience has not acknowledged the truth of the message, nor the heavenly sincerity of the messengers." To which the Apostle answers, The exceptions do not weaken the truth of the general assertion to every man whose heart is in a healthy state to all but the blinded the Gospel is God's Light, and those to whom it is not Light are themselves dark, for the obscurity is in themselves, and not in the truth. And then, having replied to this objection, St. Paul proceeds with the same subject the Apostolic Ministry. He represents it under two main aspects:

I. As a Ministry of Light.

II. As a reflection, in word and experience of the Life of Christ.

"the

I. Let us glance at the fourth and sixth verses : light of the glorious Gospel : " "God, who conmanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Compare with this what St. John says in the opening chapter of his Gospel: "The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." Nothing could be more different than the minds of St. Paul and St. John; and yet how remarkably they coincide in this thoughtthey both call Revelation, "Light!" According to St. John, to live in sin was to live in darkness; it was a false life a life of lies in which a man was untrue to his own nature. According to St. Paul, it was to live in blindness-blinded by the god of this world." But both Apostles concur in representing Revelation as simply the unveiling of the truth: the manifestation of things as they are. This is strikingly shown in St. Paul's metaphor: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." As on the darkness of the physical world, light rose at the Eternal "Be,"

and all things appeared as they were, not a creation, but a manifestation and yet, in truth, a real creation (as but for light this world were as if it were not, since it is what it is in consequence of light): so, on the moral darkness of a world in sin and ignorance, the light of revealed truth showed things as they are, and exhibited them in their true relative proportions. That revelation created, indeed, a new world, which yet was not a creation of things that had not existed before: for the Gospel did not make God our Father; it revealed what He had ever been, is, and ever shall be; it disclosed Him, not as a tyrant, but as a Father: not as a chance, or a fate; not as a necessary thing, but as a Person; and in the Life of Christ, the Love of God has become intelligible to us. The Gospel threw light on God: light unknown before, even to the holiest hearts among the Jews. "Clouds and darkness are the habitation of His seat," spoke the Old Testament: "God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all," declared the New. For, out of Christ, our God is only a dark, dim, and dreadful mystery. There is only an awful silence, which is never broken by an articulate voice. But all is brightness in the Redeemer's life and death.

The Gospel threw light, too, upon man's own nature. Mana dark enigma, a contradiction to himself, with god-like aspirations and animal cravings — asks his own heart in terror, "Am I a god or beast?" And the

Gospel answers: "You are a glorious temple in ruins, to be rebuilt into a habitation of God and the Spirit, your soul to be the home of the High and Holy One, your body to be the temple of the Holy Ghost." It threw light upon the grave; for "life and immortality were brought to light through the Gospel." The darkness of the tomb was irradiated; and the things of that undiscovered land shone clear and tranquil then to the eye of faith: but not until then, for before, immortality was but a mournful perhaps.

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Now there are three practical deductions from this

view of Truth.

1. As to ministerial conduct. Our life is to be a