wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out." Now this, remember, was said immediately after the disciples of John had asked, why Jesus had not taught the same severe life (the type of which was fasting) which John had. And so, too, Christ did not preach the Cross to His disciples at first. The first time He did preach it, it shocked them. For it was not until after Peter's memorable acknowledgment of Him in these words, "Thou art the Christ," that He revealed to them His coming death, which even then, resulted in a kind of revolt against Him, drawing from Peter the exclamation, "That be far from thee, Lord."

Such a case of defection actually did occur in the behaviour of the young Ruler, who forced, as it were, from Christ a different method of procedure. At first Jesus would have given him mere moral duty: "Thou knowest the Commandments, Do not commit adultery: Do not kill." But not satisfied with this, he asked for Perfection. "What lack I yet?" And then there was nothing left but to say: "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and come and follow Me." For, observe, "strong meat" does not mean high doctrine, such as Election, Regeneration, Justification by Faith, but "Perfection:" strong demands on Self, a severe, noble Life. St. Paul taught the Corinthians all the Doctrine he had to teach, but not all the conceptions of the Blessed Life which he knew of. He showed them that leaving the principles of doctrine, they were to keep themselves in the Love of Christ, and be strengthened more and more with His Spirit in the inner man, growing up unto Him in all things. But all this by degrees. And thus of the weak,

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we must be content to ask for honesty, justice: not generosity, not to sell all, but simple moral teaching: "Thou knowest the Commandments.”

From a child we must not ask sublime forgiveness of injuries. That which would be glorious in a man, might be pusillanimity in a boy. But you must content yourself at first with prohibiting tyranny. There is no greater mistake in education than not attending to this principle. Do not ask of your child to sacrifice all enjoyment for the sake of others;-but let him learn, first, not to enjoy, at the expense, or the disadvantage or suffering, of another.

Another reason for not neglecting this is, the danger of familiarizing the mind with high spiritual doctrines to which the heart is a stranger, and thus engendering hypocrisy. For instance, Self-sacrifice, Self-denial, are large words, which contain much beauty, and are easily got by rote. But the facility of utterance is soon taken for a spiritual state; and while fluently talking of these highsounding words, and of man's or woman's mission and influence, it never occurs to us that as yet we have not power to live them out.

Let us avoid such language, and avoid supposing that we have attained such states. It is good to be temperate: but if temperate, do not mistake that for self-denial, or for self-sacrifice. It is good to be honest, to pay one's debts; but when you are simply doing your duty, do not talk of a noble life. Be content to say, "We are unprofitable servants-we have done that which was our duty to do."

The danger of extreme demands made on hearts unprepared for such is seen in the case of Ananias. These

demands were not, as we see, made by the Apostles; for nothing could be wiser than St. Peter's treatment of the case, representing such sacrifice as purely voluntary, and not compelled. "While it remained, was it not thine own; and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?" But public opinion, which had made sacrifice fashionable, demanded it. And it was a demand, like strong meat to the weak, for Ananias was "unable to bear it."

II. The second remedy in this factious state was to depreciate the part played by man in the great work of progress, and to exhibit the part of God.

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Who, then, is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed?" "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." In all periods of great social activity, when society becomes conscious of itself, and morbidly observant of its own progress, there is a tendency to exalt the instruments, persons, and means by which it progresses. Hence, in turn, kings, statesmen, parliaments: and then education, science, machinery, and the press, have had their hero-worship. Here, at Corinth, was a new phase, "minister-worship." No marvel, in an age when the mere political progress of the Race was felt to be inferior to the spiritual salvation of the Individual, and to the purification of the Society, that ministers, the particular organs by which this was carried on, should assume in men's eyes peculiar importance, and the special gifts of every such minister, Paul or Apollos, be extravagantly honoured. No marvel either, that round the more prominent of these, partisans should gather.

St. Paul's remedy was simply to point out God's part:

"Ye are God's husbandry," we are only labourers-different only from wheels and pivots, in that they do their work unconsciously, we consciously. We execute a plan which we only slightly understand-nay, not at all, till it is completed, like workmen in a tubular bridge, or men employed in Gobelin tapestry, who cannot see the pattern of their work until the whole is executed. Shall the hodman boast? Conceive the labourer saying of some glorious piece of architecture: Behold my work! or some poet, king, or priest, in view of some progress of the race, See what I have done! Who is Paul, but a servant of Higher plans than he knows? And thus we come to find that we are but parts in a mighty system, the breadth of which we cannot measure.

This is the true inspired remedy for all party spirit: "He that planteth and he that watereth are one." Each in his way is indispensable. To see the part played by each individual in God's world, which he alone can play, to do our own share in the acting, and to feel that each is an integral, essential portion of the whole, not interfering with the rest; to know that each church, each sect, each man, is co-operating best in the work when he expresses his own individuality (as Paul and Cephas, and John and Barnabas did), in truths of word and action which others perhaps cannot grasp, that is the only emancipation from partisanship.

Again, observe, St. Paul held this sectarianism, or partisanship, to amount virtually to a denial of their Christianity. For, as Christians, it was their privilege to have direct access to the Father through Christ; they were made independent of all men but the one Mediator Christ Jesus.

Whereas this boast of dependence upon men, instead of direct communion with God, was to glory in a forfeiture of their privileges, and to return to the Judaism, or Heathenism, "While one

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from which they had been freed. saith I am of Paul, and another I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal and walk as men?" So that all sectarianism is slavery and narrowness, for it makes us the followers of such and such a leader. Whereas, says St. Paul, instead of your being that leader's, that leader is yours; your minister, whom you are to use. For "All things are yours;" the whole universe is subservient to your moral being and progress. Be free then, and use them: do not be used by

them.

Remark, therefore, how the truest spiritual freedom and elevation of soul spring out of Christian humility. All this liberty and noble superiority to Life and Death, all this independence of Men, of Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, as their masters, arises from this, that "ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's;" that ye, as well as they, are servants only of Christ, who came not to do His own will, but the Will of Him Who sent Him.