way of collecting money for various Church purposes is not to trust to special appeals and spasmodic efforts, but to make the laying by of our substance a regular and systematic thing, an integral part not only of Christian duty, but of Christian worship.

It is not enough to have a fixed day for making our offerings; this should be done on the Sunday, the Lord's Day, and in the time of Divine Service. And then, having summed up his advice to them in the words

Ch. xvi. 13: Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all that ye do be done in love;he concludes:

Ch. xvi. 21: The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. If any man loveth not the Lord, let him be anathema. Maran-atha (our Lord cometh). The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

HIS second letter to the Corinthian Church was written very shortly after the first. The first, you remember, was written from Ephesus, and sent by the same messengers that had brought the letter to which it was an answer. That first letter was written, so the Apostle tells us, in a time of "much affliction and anguish of heart, and with many tears."

He dictated it with a heavy heart, and with sad misgivings as to how it would be received.

So much did these misgivings disquiet him that he sent Titus to Corinth to see what was going on, and to bring word to him at Troas.

Just as we might expect, S. Paul reached Troas too soon. Titus had not yet come, and though a great opening for evangelistic work presented itself, the Apostle could not rest there, but crossed the sea to Macedonia. In one of the cities of Macedonia, perhaps in Philippi, he met Titus, and also it would seem Timothy and S. Luke. Titus brought him on the whole good tidings, or what S. Paul with his intense hopefulness contrived to consider good tidings. Titus had been well received; indeed, so great was the belief of the majority of the Church (however much they might listen to the disparaging comments of his enemies) in the power of the great Apostle, that his envoy was received with fear and trembling. The offender who had caused such great

scandal had been severely dealt with, at any rate by the majority of the Church; and had been brought to a sense of his sin, and was in danger of being swallowed up-being perhaps a weak rather than a high-handed sinner-with over-much sorrow.

But the report of Titus was by no means altogether satisfactory.

The Jewish party in the Church had apparently been reinforced by men from Jerusalem, and especially by one man who took the lead in their opposition to S. Paul. They showed letters of commendation from the Church of Jerusalem, perhaps even from S. James himself. They boasted of having had a personal knowledge of Christ. These men made a dead-set at S. Paul's authority. He was no real Apostle. He had not seen the Lord. He could produce no authority from the Twelve. He could be very bold, no doubt, at a distance; he could write letters weighty and powerful, but he was afraid to come himself. He had said he was coming, but he was always shuffling with his promises, and would not really come. Indeed, bold as he was, he had not the face to come, for he knew that he had been found out, that his hidden deeds of shame were known, that the Church would not endure any longer to be cheated and led astray by him. It was all very well for him to boast that he had taken nothing from them. What was this pretended zeal about the collection for the poor? It was part of his slyness and cunning; what he would not do openly he did in an underhand way; being crafty, he was trying to catch them with guile. Indeed, his refusal of a maintenance from the Church, which was always claimed by real Apostles, showed that he had no confidence in his own claims. Such were the sort of things that were being said of S. Paul at Corinth.

Can we wonder that his indignation was roused? Can we wonder at what seems like a fierce vindication of his authority?

We must remember that though nominally an attack upon himself, it was in reality a determined reaction against the truth. In vindicating his apostolic authority he was really fighting his Master's battle, and contending earnestly for the faith.

If he was not an Apostle, if Jesus had not sent him, what was he, what authority did he possess?

So you see he was forced into this controversy, he was compelled to assert his apostolic claims, he was compelled to speak of what he had done and suffered, though he did so under protest, as it were, and with a half apology for the apparent folly of doing so.

With these thoughts in his mind he dictated (probably to Timothy, his child in the faith) this second letter, which " of all his Epistles is the one which enables us to look deepest into his heart."

2 Cor. i. 1: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in the whole of Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound unto us, even so our comfort also aboundeth through Christ. But whether we be afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or whether we be comforted, it is for your comfort. . . . For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life.

You will notice in this opening of the Epistle how the Apostle rings the changes upon the two thoughts of affliction and comfort. Indeed, this is one distinct characteristic of the Epistle.

S. Paul then goes on to meet the charge that had been made against him, that he had shown fickleness in changing his plans, and that he was afraid to show himself at Corinth.

Ch. i. 15 In this confidence-that is in the rectitude of his intentions-I was minded to come before unto you ... but I call God for a witness upon my soul, that to spare you I forbare to come to Corinth.

Then referring to the letters of commendation which his opponents made so much of, and taunted. him with not possessing, he continues:

Ch. iii. 1: Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you? Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts known and read of all men; being made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of flesh . . . . Ch. iv. I: Therefore seeing we have this ministry we faint not.. for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake...

....

Ch. iv. 8: But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.

When S. Paul speaks of having the treasure in earthen vessels, it would seem as if he had in his mind the story of Gideon. You remember how Gideon equipped his men, not with sword and spear, but with trumpets and torches concealed in pitchers; and then at the critical moment the trumpets