SERMON men, civilized and uncivilized alike. We must be XVII. saved from unchristian selfishness, not by the increased decorum of the age, nor by the progress of knowledge and refinement, for with these it is quite compatible, but by believing that Christ died to reconcile us to God, and by learning from His Spirit the glory of His example.

ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, CALCUtta,

1862.

XVIII. DESPISING GOD'S SPIRIT.

SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT.

I THESS. IV. 8.

He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us His holy Spirit.

SERMON

XVIII. First epistle to the Thes

salonians.

I

THE first epistle to the Thessalonians is of a simple practical character, not occupied with an exposition of the great doctrines of the Christian religion, like those to the Romans and Galatians, but rather with the assertion and explanation of certain plain points of faith, and hope, and moral conduct, to the converts of a great commercial city, who had turned 1 Thess. i. to God from idols to serve the living and true God. 9. Some of the Jewish inhabitants, of the devout Greeks Acts xvii. a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few, 1-4. had received the word joyfully amidst trials and persecutions, but a tumult raised by the unbelieving Acts xvii. Jews had forced St Paul to quit Thessalonica; and afterwards, as he was unable to revisit his converts Acts xviii. there in person, he first sent Timotheus to enquire into 5 their spiritual and moral condition, and then wrote 1, 2. to them such advice as was required by the report which he received. The main object of the epistle

5, IO.

I Thess. iii.

XVIII.

1 Thess. iv. 13 ff.

8.

SERMON is to exhort them not to swerve from the principles which he had taught them. He speaks of Christ's return in glory to judge the quick and the dead; consoles them by that happy expectation for the loss of friends who had fallen asleep in Him; and addresses to them a few earnest words of affectionate exhortation on the temptations to which, in their position and circumstances, they were most exposed. Thessalonica, as I have said, was a large commercial city. "Before the founding of Constantinople, it was virtually the capital of Greece and Illyricum, as well as of Macedonia, and shared the trade of the Ægean with Ephesus and Corinth." Hence St Paul Thess. i. could say that from it sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place the faith of its converts to Godward was spread abroad. But if the Christians of this city enjoyed the advantages, they were also exposed to the moral dangers of a great provincial capital and emporium of trade. I need hardly remind I need hardly remind you, brethren, that as now, so then, among the evils of such a city, the temptation to an unchaste life was one of the most deadly. You will remember too, more generally, that the heathen of all times, and especially of the age in which our Lord came to purify the world, were sunk in this fatal sin. Thus, as St Paul says elsewhere, Rom. i. 24. God had given up the Gentiles to uncleanness, through the lust of their own hearts: for indeed they had drawn upon themselves that fearful rejection by the

* Conybeare and Howson, L 346.

29.

XVIII.

actual consecration of vice with religious rites, in SERMON many of their most refined cities, at Paphos, for example, and at Corinth, whence St Paul wrote this. very epistle to the Thessalonians, and where he would be reminded at every turn of that mysterious connection, which all history, ancient and modern alike, shews to exist, between idolatry and fleshly sin. Hence doubtless it was that when the apostles Acts xv. and elders met at Jerusalem to arrange the terms on which the Gentiles were to be received as members of Christ's Church, they were expressly warned that it was a necessary condition of their admission that they should abstain from fornication, as the sin to which their previous education had especially exposed them, and which, above all others, they would find it difficult to shake off. Hence, too, although the Thessalonians had past from the darkness of heathenism into the light of Christian truth, yet as it was feared that they might be still entangled in the impure habits of their earlier life, the apostle thought it necessary to set before them the eternal contradiction which exists between the sin of uncleanness and the holiness to which they were called.

This is the main subject of the somewhat obscure passage which has been selected for to day's epistle. I will first paraphrase it and endeavour to remove one or two of its difficulties: and I will then say a few words first on the particular lesson which it teaches, and then on the more general instruction

SERMON which we derive from the last verse of it, which I have chosen as my text.

XVIII.

I Thess. iv. 2.

I.

Para

phrase of the epistle.

Explanations

We beseech you, brethren, says the apostle, and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, (for so we should read the passage instead of by the Lord) in Him without whom I do nothing, in communion with whom I live, and desire you to live, that as ye received the word of God from us when we were with you, and were taught how to please God in your daily life, ye would abound yet more in the effort so to please Him. For ye know what commandments we gave 3. you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God concerning you, that you should be holy, and therefore 4. that you should abstain from fornication; that each

2.

of you should know how to procure for himself his 5. own wife in sanctification and honour, not in the passion of lust, as do the Gentiles who know not God, and therefore have never been taught to obey any 6. higher principle than their own impulses, that no one among you should set at nought and overreach his fellow Christian in the matter of which I am speaking, because the Lord Jesus Christ is the avenger of all such sins as these, as also I before told you and 7. constantly protested. For God did not call us to be 8. Christians for the purpose of uncleanness, but in sanc

tification. Wherefore then the despiser of his brother in such a matter despises not a man only, but God Himself, who also gave His own Holy Spirit unto you, as a witness and a guardian against sin.

3. In the paraphrase just given, there are two