LITERATURE. Aitken (W. H. M. H.), Mission Sermons, iii. 97. Clarke (G.), True Manhood, Womanhood, 1. (J. E.), Common-Life Sermons, 61. Creighton (M.), Claims of the Common Life, 64, 71, 78. Fairbairn (A. M.), Christ in the Centuries, 139. (R. B.), College Sermons, 60. Farrar (F. W.), Bells and Pomegranates, 255. Green (W. H.), in Princeton Sermons, 235. Greenhough (J. G.), in The Ladder of Life, 123. Hopkins (E. H.), The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, 161. Jenkins (E. E.), Addresses and Sermons, 149. Jerdan (C.), Messages to the Children, 131, 177. Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year: Miscellaneous, 487. Little (W. J. Knox), The Perfect Life, 48. Lyttelton (A.), College and University Sermons, 179. Maclaren (A.), Expositions: 1 and 2 Corinthians, 252. Matheson (G.), Messages of Hope, 31. Moore (A. L.), Some Aspects of Sin, 3, 15, 28, 39. Ryle (H. E.), On the Church of England, 92, 243. Shore (T. T.), Some Difficulties of Belief, 271. Thom (J. H.), Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, i. 345. Vaughan (C. J.), Christ and Human Instincts, 89. (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xi. (1875) No. 949; xvii. Christian Age, liii. 66 (Green). Christian World Pulpit, v. 23 (Barfield); xxviii. 395 (Tyler); xliv. 157 (Neil), 353 (Farrar); xlvi. 65 (Farrar), 78 (Macleod); lxxiv. 79 Contemporary Pulpit, 1st Ser., vi. 316 (Burn). Homiletic Review, xx. 49 (Green); xxi. 433 (Ludlow). that THE CHRIStian Knight. Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all ye do be done in love.-1 Cor. xvi. 13, 14. 1. THIS passage occurs at the end of St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthian Church, in which he has been reproving them for their divisions, and for the irregularities that have grown up among them. At the end of the Epistle, the Apostle has finished his hortatory remarks, and is adding a few personal messages, and giving directions about some practical points of Church administration, when, having occasion to mention the name of Apollos, he seems to have been reminded afresh of the irregularities he has been writing to censure. He thinks of the Corinthians and their errors; he thinks of their unstable minds, of their wandering imaginations; he thinks sadly how little impression his advice will produce; he doubts if he has spoken clearly enough, forcibly enough, if he has said all that can be said; then, as if to make sure, as if to clench his other precepts, as if to sum up in a few words all he has to say, as if to give the Corinthians some plain advice that they may easily keep in their memory, he chooses these few incisive words to serve as mottoes to recur to his hearers' minds in vacant hours: "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all that ye do be done in love." 2. The language is military. St. Paul had never seen an engagement, but he was familiar with barrack life, and one can imagine that there were aspects of that life that charmed him; its simple and absolute devotion, its discipline, its esprit de corps, the two elements of its might, unity and obedience, and the heroic qualities which were begotten of its dangers and its laurels. When he borrows a figure from the guardroom or the battlefield, the fidelity and spirit with which he uses it show that the allusion is not a mere grace of style; it is a vital constituent of the thought. To him Christian life was a contest, and he transfers to Christian action the nomenclature of camps. There are five precepts. And the fifth, though it is found in a separate verse, should on no account be left out. First there is the introductory call, Be awake! Then there are two pairs: Be godly, and be manly; be strong, and be tender. I. Be awake-" Watch ye." II. III. Be godly-"Stand fast in the faith." Be manly-" Quit you like men." (Be strong-"Be strong." Be tender-"Let all that ye do be done in love." I. BE AWAKE. "Watch ye." Be awake, lie not in slumber, that is the first requisite for all action; break the bands of sleep and indolence, or you can do nothing. The word means one of two things certainly, probably both— Keep awake, and keep your eyes open. Our Lord used the same metaphor very frequently, but with a special significance. On His lips it generally referred to the attitude of expectation of His coming in judgment. St. Paul sometimes uses the figure with the same application; but here, distinctly, it has another. There is the military idea underlying it. What will become of an army if the sentries go to sleep? And what chance will a Christian man have of doing his devoir against his enemy, unless he keeps himself awake, and keeps himself alert? Watchfulness, in the sense of always having eyes open for the possible rusb down upon us of temptation and evil, is no small part of the discipline and the duty of the Christian life. i. Wakefulness. 1. Many men have never awakened at all; they know not what life is; they know not what the world in which they seem to move may be; they have never raised their sleepy eyes from the dreary round of selfish enjoyment, as they call it, in which their time is spent. To lead an aimless, useless life, with mind enfeebled and faculties undeveloped, the whole nature enervated through want of exercise, this is the most awful prospect any man can be called upon to face. 2. There are two main causes at the bottom of this terrible vice. (1) In the first place there is the cold, deliberate selfishness that refuses to move beyond itself, will not be troubled, has no sympathies, with any duty outside itself, is determined to consult always its own comfort in the way which comes most easy and lies nearest at hand. A man who is indolent from this reason is the most perfectly unlovely character that can be found, and the number of such tends to increase with our national wealth and prosperity. Such a man knows that life is likely to be tolerably comfortable for himself, he knows that he is free from the stern hand of daily necessity, and so he deliberately purposes to get the utmost out of what he has, he shuts the door against all high aims, for they might give him trouble; knowledge he despises and takes in its place a low selfish cunning; his fellowmen he estimates solely as they contribute to his own enjoyment; he will do nothing he can help; why should he? He will go on peaceably through life; for what can come to disturb him if he is only reasonably prudent? (2) But indolence comes from another cause-from thoughtless feebleness rather than low selfishness. A feebly indolent man knows dimly that life has a meaning, has duties. He believes somehow that there is a God who judges the world, that he himself has an immortal soul, and an account to give one day-believes it somehow, but believes it sleepily-believes it so that if he were awakened and formally asked these questions, he would give formally proper answers, but does not believe it in such a way that the truths to which he confesses take any real hold upon his life. He believes that life has a purpose, but that it need not be realized just yet. He grants that man is responsible for his own character, but then the fact that he wastes in idleness the precious years of opening manhood need not |