EPISTLE FOR SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY.

2 CORINTHIANS xi. 19-31.

19, 20

GLADLY ye bear with the foolish, being wise. For ye bear with it, if any one enslaves, if any one devours, if any one entraps you, if any one exalts himself, if any one strikes 21 you on the face. I speak in the way of dishonour,1 as if that we were weak: but in whatsoever any one is confident— 22 in foolishness I speak-confident also am I.

they? I also. Israelites are they? I also.

Hebrews are

Seed of Abra

23 ham are they? I also. Ministers of Christ are they? beside myself I say it, yet more so am I; in toils more

3

2

abundantly so,3 in stripes surpassingly, in imprisonments 24 more abundantly, in deaths oftentimes: at the hands of 25 Jews five times received I forty stripes save one; thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned; thrice I suffered ship26 wreck; a night and a day have I spent on the deep 5: by journeyings often, by perils of rivers, by perils of robbers,

1 In assigning so powerful a position to your new teachers, I am using a disparaging, a needlessly disparaging, language with regard to myself. 2 In thus boasting, I know that I speak not foolishly only, but even as it were insanely.

3 In point of labours endured for His sake, I am a minister of Christ in a sense beyond that in which others are so.

4 In imminent risks of life I have often been proved a minister of Christ above others.

5 While escaping, perhaps, in an open boat from shipwreck.

6 Understand again, I have been proved a minister of Christ.

by perils from countrymen, by perils from Gentiles, by perils in city, by perils in desert, by perils on sea, by perils among false brethren, by toil and labour, in watchings often, in 27 hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Apart from the things besides,1 there is the daily crowding 28 upon me,2 the anxiety of all the congregations. Who is weak, 29 and I am not weak? who is caused to stumble, and I am

not on fire? If I must vaunt, I will vaunt the things of my 30 weakness. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus, He who 31 is blessed for ever, knows that I lie not.

1 Besides other things which I omit.

2 That which crowds upon me daily, namely, the anxiety occasioned by the charge of all the Christian congregations.

SERMON V.

GLORYING IN INFIRMITIES.

SERMON

31.

V.

2 CORINTHIANS xi. 30.

If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.

ST. Paul, with all his gifts and all his triumphs as

an Apostle of Christ, led a life of constant trial. I 1 Cor. xv. die daily, was his own brief description of it. There was one very peculiar trial to which he was subjected; that of constant disparagement. Scarcely had he planted the Church at Corinth, than another came after him to mar and deface his work. What made it worse was, that this enemy did not come avowedly as an enemy. He professed, like St. Paul, to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. He professed to have a better and a purer Gospel of Christ than St. Paul had brought with him. And no art of misrepresentation or calumny was wanting, to bring that devoted man into disrepute with those very persons and those very congregations which owed to him,

V.

not merely knowledge and happiness, but (to use SERMON his own expression to Philemon) their own selves besides.

These few words of necessary preface may serve to introduce us into the subject and connection of the Epistle for this day. It is full of topics. It might suggest matter for many sermons. The briefest glance at its contents must suffice us to-day; and then we will turn our thoughts more closely to the one verse which has been selected from the whole passage for special comment and special application.

The passage before us, extending from the 19th to the 31st verse, is a very remarkable one on many accounts. It is extremely difficult to express in a form readily intelligible to ordinary readers. And this, for reasons which will be incidentally mentioned at a later point. But perhaps the general sense of it may be given thus.

Philem. 19.

Ye Corinthians, so lately my attached friends and converts, have unhappily listened, since my departure, to a very different teaching. You have been flattered into a very high conceit of your own enlightenment, gifts, and graces. Wise in your own eyes, you have been taught to look down upon me, your original teacher, as on a far lower level, in all these respects, than your new instructors and even than yourselves. In your present estimate of me, I am a feeble man, a but half enlightened man, one who uses strong expres- 2 Cor. x.10.

V.

ment.

SERMON sions in writing, but in bodily presence is weak, and in speech contemptible. Be it so. I accept your judgYou are wise men, and I am a fool. I will speak as such. I will take the privilege of the foolish, and boast. There is no one else to sing my praises: I Verse 19. must do it myself. And you, I am quite sure, from the elevation of your supposed superior wisdom, can afford to bear for a moment with the weakness which Verse 20. you despise. You bear with worse things than folly in your new teachers. You bear with oppression, you bear with rapacity, you bear with deception, you bear with assumption, you bear with injury and with insult. Compared with these things, the innocent weakness of a little boasting must be a small matter to you. And let me tell you that, though I use the language of selfdepreciation and of self-disparagement, I have no need to shrink from the comparison with even the boldest and most confident of my rivals. Whatever they may be in the boasted purity of their descent from Israel or from Verse 23. Abraham, that am I also. And, whatever they may be in zeal or devotion as ministers of Christ, that, assuredly, am I, not equally, but above them all: in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I the forty stripes save one. Thrice was I

Verse 21.

Verse 22.

Verse 24.

Verse 25.

beaten with the Roman rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have Verse 26. I spent on the open sea: in journeyings often, in perils