SECTION III. PURE ST. SENSIBILITY TO HUMAN OPINION; ITS MORALITY. TRANSFIGURE SUFFERING AND MORTALITY. 1 CHAP. IV. 1-18. WHEREFORE, having this Ministry, as we have obtained 2 mercy, we faint not: but we have renounced the concealments of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the word of God, but by manifestation of the Truth commending ourselves to all consciences of men, in the 3 sight of God. And if our Gospel be veiled, it is veiled 4 to those who are losing themselves; among whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who 5 is the image of God, doth not shine clearly. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and our6 selves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the ex cellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 8 We are pressed, but not reduced to, straits; perplexed, 9 but not in despair; persecuted, but not deserted; cast 10 down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the killing of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be 11 made manifest in our body. For we while living are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 12 So that death works in us, but life in you. And having 13 the same spirit of Faith, according as it is written, "I believed, and therefore have I spoken, we also be14 lieve, and therefore speak: knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus, will raise us up also through Jesus, 15 and will present us together with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the grace which hath abounded may, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to 16 the glory of God. Wherefore, we faint not; but even if our outer man perish, yet the inner man is renewed 17 day by day. For our present light afflictions work for us, 18 ever exceedingly, an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: - for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. THE love of popularity, a desire for approbation, when made a principle of Action, is perhaps the most corrupting and the most disappointing of all the affections of our Nature. It is corrupting, because it turns the regards of the mind in a selfish direction, defiles the motives by substituting the love of Praise for the love of Praiseworthiness, * Psalm cxvi. 10. and destroys Truth and simplicity of Soul by introducing among the inward sources of Life temptations of a foreign and worldly character, that either interfere with the pure and natural movements of the mind, or dishonor and deform them by bringing to their aid the alien supports of selfish ends. A man desiring, on any question, to see where Right and Principle would lead him, can no more bring his own accommodation and indulgence into the foreground of his thoughts without corrupting his moral sight, than a man can introduce the love of commendation into the consultations of his soul, without at once insulting and silencing the divine oracle of his spirit. The praise of God is the only Praise the love of which can influence a pure mind; for there only the two motives, the love of approbation, and a supreme regard for the highest Truth of the Conscience, cannot interfere. We do not say that it is the only Praise which, when it comes as a Reward, is pure or sweet, but that when regarded as a Motive, as one of the determining influences of the character, it is, for Adults, the only Praise that is safe and holy. And the desire for estimation is disappointing, as it is defiling. It is one of the ret ributions of God, that if the rewards of Virtues are suffered to occupy that place in the affections, which in a genuine and holy mind is given only to the Virtues themselves, the self-seeking becomes transparent, and the end is lost. Honor and Love must follow us: we must not follow them. If we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, these are some of the things which are "added unto us." But if these secondary things become principal objects with us, not only will the Kingdom of God and His righteousness never be ours, but the very repu tation or estimation to which we made these spiritual things subservient, will flee from us; - we have lost the charm of Grace and Truth; we are no more genuine; the hollow and selfish motive looks out through the eager and restless eyes; the unconsciousness, the freedom from all self-reference, which is the winning Power of Goodness, is brought into contrast with the determined self-seeking of that artificial mind, and a character is contemplated with which no emotion of admiration or love can possibly coalesce. Yet no man with Christian affections can be insensible to opinion, or set at defiance the approbation of those with whom his life has connections. To live in opposition to those upon whom all the influences of our characters are spent, is the next saddest thing to living in opposition to our own hearts. The worldly vanity that overrates estimation belongs indeed to a weak and low nature; — but there is something dark and malignant, almost terrible, in the inhuman pride that can stand aloof from sympathy, and find the regard of others not necessary to its peace. The commendation of our fellow-men, it would thus appear, must never enter into our motives of Action, and yet is necessary both to the happiest states of our hearts, and to the most useful workings of our characters. If we are to do good in the world, there must be a moral sympathy between ourselves and those whom we bless, and yet, if we are to do good in the world, no sympathy but a sympathy with God must be permitted to influence or determine the spirit of our inward mind. These conditions can be reconciled, only as St. Paul reconciled them in his relations towards the Corinthians, by combining Holiness, or Truth of Mind, with a perfect disinterestedness of the Affections, by seeking the Good of others, not their Love or Praise, by desiring to be to them a source of blessedness for their sakes, not an object of interest for his own; having confidence in God, that only by adherence to His Truth can any real blessing be communicated to Man, and having a generous faith in Man, that those who never accommodate themselves to Wrong, nor corrupt a Principle, will have their place of acknowledgment among the true benefactors of the World. St. Paul had incurred the danger of losing the affections of the Corinthian Church. Their religious habits, and the make of their minds, demanded that he should permit them some other spiritual supports than the simplicity of the Gospel, some other approach to God than that communion which spirit holds with spirit, some other and more ostensible means of Salvation than the inward purification of the heart and life, some outward way of ceremony which the Materialist might tread with certainty, and make sure of Heaven, or some lofty and mystic Doctrine, conferring a privilege on the Speculatist to scale its heights by an intellectual path. In the midst of the animosities excited by the simple preaching of Jesus Christ the Saviour |