not converse much, but his frame of mind was calm and often joyful. One of the attendants having asked him if the light did not incommode him, he laid his hand upon his head and said"Here there is light enough." Just as the day was beginning to break on the morning of the 24th of November, he was heard repeating the 51st Psalm. He stopped for a moment, and then, as if making one last effort, exclaimed-"Lord Jesus! come to my help!" At the moment when the sun appeared above the horizon the ransomed soul of the Reformer took its flight. Thus lived, and thus died, in his 39th year, John Ecolampadius, the Reformer of Basle.

ART. VII.-CHRISTIAN POSSESSIONS.

AN EXPOSITION.

"For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's."-1 Cor. iii. 21-23.

THERE

HERE are three consecutive propositions in this section remarkably related to each other. All things are subordinate to the church, the church is subordinate to Christ, and Christ is subordinate to God. Or, agreeably to the phraseology of the passage, we may use the word property. Arranging our thoughts by the scope of the text, we observe that—

I. ALL THINGS ARE THE CHURCH'S PROPERTY. "For all things are yours." The sense of the words requires to be fixed. Proprietorship, as ordinarily understood, is not the idea. Many who bear the name of Christ are in humble circumstances, and have quite a struggle to obtain the elements of comfort and outward decency. To say that all things are theirs, when they can hardly lay hands on what suffices to meet their passing wants, seems a mockery. We must, therefore, exchange proprietorship for subserviency. "All things are yours" subordinately, so that they shall all tend to your spiritual benefit and result in your eternal good. If you revolt at this limitation and conclude that it amounts to nothing, because you cannot have the unrestrained use of everything which cupidity might prompt you to desire, with a power to bar out all other claimants, it shows that you have no true sense of what is real and substantial. Some persons think that nothing is theirs unless they

have possession of it and hold it under lock and key, little thinking that many things in which they have no proprietary right are tributary to their interests. "As having nothing, and yet possessing all things." 2 Cor. vi. 10. Keeping in mind the idea of subserviency, we will apply it to the several particulars following. The first particular is,—

The ministry is the church's, "Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas." The ministry was appointed for the good of Christians, for their edification and profit, and not for the honour or interest, or even the spiritual benefit, of those who exercise it. If any good comes to ministers out of their work it is an accident that was not aimed at in the appointment of the office. Ye people of the Lord, it is your benefit that is contemplated, your conversion, instruction, consolation, and progress in grace, and in fitness for heaven. Hear the voice of concurrent passages,- "Who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?" ver. 5. "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesu's sake. For all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God." 2 Cor. iv. 5-15. "Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." Eph. iv. 8, 11, 12. The object of the ministry, it hence appears, is something external to the ministers. Their ministry looks away from themselves. The candle is not lighted on its own account, but is consumed and gradually burnt off for the accommodation and benefit of the household. Members of the church, the ministers are yours; not that they are in a position of inferiority or of subjection to you. They are at least equal with you and heirs of common privilege; and if a difference exists it is in their favour. They are over you in the Lord. Without attaching any degrading notion to the words, as if ministers were underlings, we are quite able to explain and apply the passage. Ministers are yours, i.e., their gifts are yours, their diverse aptitudes, and temperaments, and talents are yours. Paul's logic, Apollos's elocution, and Cephas's (alias Peter's) fire, are yours. The erudition of one, the free-flowing utterance of another, and the ardour and unction of a third, are yours. Each one cannot be as like another as if they had all been cast in a common mould. But if you have in number two, or three, or four, what is deficient in number one, and in number one what is lacking in some of the others, is it not well? Again, their discipline and trials have respect to you. "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of

mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; or, whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.” 2 Cor. i. 3-6. The providential drill which ministers pass through serves to quicken their sympathies and to put them in the way of speaking with advantage to such of their flock as are exercised in like manner. And further, ministers are for the church in the way of example. They are paradizms and copy-heads in the school of Christ. They head the camp. As the Levites, with the Ark mounted on their shoulders, went in advance of the thousands of Israel to indicate the course for the moving camp, so ministers show the way in the practice of all things that are lovely and becoming in the Christian character. "Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample." Philip iii. 17. "Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock." 1 Pet. v. 3. "Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us." 2 Thess. iii. 9. "In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works." Tit. ii. 7. Thus, then, ministers are yours, your instructors, comforters, examples, and "helpers." You have the benefit of their office, their gifts, afflictions, and example. You have what they have not-pastoral oversight and instruction. Their being in holy orders themselves by natural consequence shuts them out of the benefit of such an office. favour they must forego, and find a substitute for it how they can. The apostle does not include himself and say, "all things are ours;" but ignoring himself and his ministerial brethren, he says, “All things are yours." In the other items set down in this inventory the preachers may share with the members of the church, but in this first item they cannot, because they themselves are the subject. Those who have the honour of being ministers cannot have the benefit of the ministry.

That

The world is the church's. The world is a term sometimes importing men and at other times things. Sometimes it means the world of men, as in Heb. xi. 7, "By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." Although the world is hostile to the church and stands forth in sharp contrast to it, we may affirm subordination and subjection of it to the church. The church is first, and the world second. The church has

to act upon that world, to replenish itself out of it, and win members from it, and obtrude its principles and laws everywhere upon it, till its influence shall be felt all over. The promise of Abraham was, "that he should be the heir of the world," in virtue of the faith he held becoming prevalent among all nations. The vile world is dignified by its identification with the church. It must either yield to church influence and be ennobled (well for it if it do so), or hold out and be condemned and branded with everlasting inferiority. Let the following passages be considered as illustrative of our idea: "He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. "Psalm xlvii. 3. "Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling." Psalm xix. 14. "Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." Dan. vii. 22. "And Jesus said unto them,

Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Matt. xix. 28. "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?" 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3. "And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my Father." Rev. ii. 26. "And I saw thrones and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Rev. xx. 4. This nest of passages makes the church the head and the world the tail. Without defining the precise import of such language, we may see that it represents the church in the ascendant and the world in a subordinate position. The church is the noblest power on earth. The world must either come under its sway or sink into misery and contempt. There is hope that a considerable part of it, if not the whole, shall yet be incorporated in the noble fellowship of truth and love, since the church has a commission to conquer it in the name and behalf of Christ. Now let us change

the thought. The world, sometimes means the world of things. Does this belong to the church? In the sense aforesaid it does. The temporary property-right which worldings have in the soil and

G

in the "stuff" which they have accumulated must be acknowledged and remain undisturbed. Nothing but misapprehension of the nature of the Christian religion, could ever lead men to suppose that it warranted political revolution and authorised the church to seize all the posts and offices of civil government and arrogate power over property. Let those who have property hold it, however sinful they be. A good man's dominion over the world lies in his superiority to it. "Blest with the scorn of finite good" he feels himself a king. The love of the world being purged out of his heart, he is quite as happy as if he was a great proprietor. The world is his, inasmuch as he has a high capacity of appropriating and enjoying such good as it can give. Saints with limited means often have a world of enjoyment, because they have God's blessing, and have the right disposition and elements of character to make much of little. Contentment is the true wealth, if it be a godly contentment. The world is yours as much of it as falls to your lot, as much of it as you can acquire, and hold, and enjoy, with the divine approval and peace of conscience. More would be a curse to you and a snare. If you should ever become eaten up with a passion after it, then it is no longer yours but you are its, its victim and slave. Believers in Jesus, if you have little of this world, rejoice that Christ is all the world to you, and more; and if you have much use it lawfully and put it to its legitimate purposes and ends, for therefore was it given to you. The remaining items come out in pairs. The first pair is,

Life and death. "Or life or death." Life is yours to afford you time and opportunity to mature and develop your Christian character, to exercise yourself to godliness, to exhibit your graces and discharge your duties; all which being finished and secured, then death is yours, to end your liabilities and hazards and introduce you to heaven. The life and death of every child of God are so ordered by infinite Wisdom in respect to time and circumstance, that they shall both be conservative to his good. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." Psalm cxvi. 15. Correlatively, their life must be precious in his sight also, as the one is in a state of dependence on the other. He will lengthen their life and delay their death, or hasten their death and cut short their life, as his wisdom determines fittest. Life is yours. It is not in your own hand or subject to your own will to fix its length and arrange its circumstances. It is, however, not the less yours, as it is in the hands of One quite as deeply interested in you as you are in yourselves. Upon the same principle death is yours, the time and circumstances of it being subject to divine appointment. It is yours as it is your privilege to be raised above the dread of it. It is yours inasmuch as the penal quality is taken out of it by the death of your Saviour. It is yours inasmuch as it is the dark gate