LITERATURE. Ainger (A.), The Gospel and Human Life, 30. in Anglican Pulpit of To-day, 344. Alford (H.), Quebec Chapel Sermons, vii. 104, 120, 133. Bonar (H.), God's Way of Holiness, 153. Bradby (E. H.), Sermons at Haileybury, 324. Brooke (S. A.), The Fight of Faith, 51. Brookfield (W. H.), Sermons, 96. Daplyn (E.), One with the Eternal, 9. Duncan (J.), In the Pulpit and at the Communion Table, 183. Grant (C.), A School's Life, 80. Jackson (G.), Memoranda Paulina, 47. Jones (H.), in A Lent in London, 134. Kingsley (C.), Sermons for the Times, 256. Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., ii. 167. Matheson (G.), Times of Retirement, 222. Moberly (R. C.), Christ our Life, 45. Moody (D. L.), Faithful Sayings, 41. Newman (J. H.), Parochial and Plain Sermons, iv. 307, v. 327. Nicoll (W. R.), Ten-Minute Sermons, 173. Robarts (F. L.), Sunday Morning Talks, 125. Salmon (G.), Sermons in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, 55. Sauter (B.), The Sunday Epistles, 134. Scott (M.), Harmony of Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, 66. Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xiii. (1876) No. 992. Wilson (J. M.), Sermons in Clifton College Chapel, i. 205. Cambridge Review, ii. Supplement No. 39 (Bradby); vi. Supplement No. 142 (Ainger). Christian World Pulpit, iii. 296 (Gasquoine), 406 (Bull); xvi. 20 (Statham); xxvii. 376 (Rogers); xxxv. 168 (Halsey); lxv. 97 (Henson); lxxix. 342 (Gordon). Church of England Magazine, xiii. 281 (Hodgson); xix. 273 (Horsford); xxxix. 200 (Hoare). Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd Ser., vii. 92 (Proctor). Contemporary Pulpit, 2nd Ser., i. 155 (Newman); ii. 142 (Drummond); v. 115 (Newman); vii. 120 (Alford). Preacher's Magazine, ix. (1898) 251 (Slater). THE ONE THING NEEDful. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.-1 Cor. xiii. 1. 1. THIS chapter, although a digression, is yet a step in the treatment of the subject of spiritual gifts (xii. 1, xiv. 40), and forms in itself a complete and beautiful whole. After the promise that he will point out a still more surpassing way, there is, as it were, a moment of suspense; and then jam ardet Paulus et fertur in amorem (Bengel). Stanley imagines "how the Apostle's amanuensis must have paused to look up in his master's face at the sudden change in the style of his dictation, and seen his countenance lit up as it had been the face of an angel, as this vision of Divine perfection passed before him." Writer after writer has expatiated upon its literary and rhythmical beauty, which places it among the finest passages in the sacred, or, indeed, in any writings. We may compare ch. xv., Rom. viii. 31-39, and -on a much lower plane-the torrent of invective in 2 Cor. xi. 19-29. This chapter is a Divine "prophecy," which might have for its title that which distinguishes Ps. xlv.-"A Song of Love" or "of Loves." And it is noteworthy that these praises of love come, not from the Apostle of love, but from the Apostle of faith. It is not a fact that the Apostles are one-sided and prejudiced, each seeing only the gift which he specially esteems. Just as it is St. John who says, "This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith," so it is St. Paul who declares that greater than all gifts is love.1 "The greatest, strongest, deepest thing Paul ever wrote." 2 ¶ I never read 1 Cor. xiii. without thinking of the description of the virtues in the Nicomachean Ethics. St. Paul's ethical teaching has quite an Hellenic ring. It is philosophical, as resting 1 Robertson and Plummer, 1st Corinthians, 285. 2 Harnack. |