of others his pious thoughts; and he would sing with the spirit, yet so as to unfold in the hearts of others the devout feelings of his hymn. Only children in the spirit, those who were weak, and babes, in religious intelligence and knowledge, would prefer the ostentatious display of mystic utterance to the awakening appeals and the clear instructions of the Prophet and the Teacher. And it was not in this respect that the Church of God was to resemble children. "Brethren, be not children in insight and understanding: in your knowledge of evil, indeed, and in the innocency of your hearts, be children, but in understanding be men." This Section of the Epistle opens to us many interesting views of the influences and constitution of the first Churches. And, first, it leads us to doubt whether, exclusively of the Apostles, it was ever intended to be conveyed that there was any supernat ural operation of the Spirit of God on the early believers. We find here that divine energy which produces the various forms of Mind, following the same Laws of manifestation which universally obtain,-in one man exhibiting the productiveness of a creative spirit, and in another the penetrating and reflective powers of Judgment and Discretion. The same relation that Genius holds to the Critical Faculty did the Prophet hold to the Discerner of Spirits. I need not remind you that in the Scriptures the usual sense of the word Prophet is not a Predicter of future events, but the earnest utterer of awakening and elevated moral Discourse. The man who could penetrate the Heart, and speak to the Conscience, was the Prophet of the Scriptures. In the Prophets mentioned in this Chapter, it is evident that St. Paul did not recognize "pure organs of the spirit of God, in whom the divine and human might not easily be confounded. On the contrary, the excesses of such a mixture, and the delusions which might prevail from regarding the suggestions of human feeling as the promptings of God, are distinctly guarded against."* The Prophet submitted himself to the judgment of the Church; and a distinct class of minds was recognized, whose function it was to determine what really proceeded from the mind of God, and to apply a sound discretion to test the worth of the utterances of Impulse. We see, also, the free and equal spirit that prevailed among the first Communities of Christians, with no mingling whatever of the Ecclesiastical element. The meetings of the Church were evidently those of a Popular Assembly; - and, no doubt, were liable to the evils and abuses of so free a constitution. Its members would naturally occupy themselves with those offices for which they possessed peculiar qualifications, but every form of the religious mind and life was permitted the utmost freedom of expression. The passage from the twentysixth to the thirty-third verses is a vivid description of the confusion that might arise from so popular a constitution, unless each individual was under the habitual direction of the spirit of Love and of a sound Mind. * Neander. The only exception to the perfectly unlimited constitution of the Primitive Church, was in the case. of its female Members. But in this respect, Christianity created no restriction;-it only gave a sacred voice to the almost universal feeling of Mankind, and sanctified the dictate of Nature. And, lastly, we find everywhere instilled, as the essence of all well-being, and well-doing, without which the wisest Constitution is but a lifeless formula, and the highest Powers of individual endowment profitless or pernicious, the spirit of a divine Sympathy with the happiness and rights, with the peculiarities, gifts, graces, and endowments of other minds; which alone, whether in the Family or in the Church, can impart unity, and effectual working together for Good, to the communities of Men. It is this which produces the highest and the lowest virtues, and cements them in the unity of one spirit and one purpose, which represses the impatience of selfish eagerness, which secures what St. Paul calls "the decency and order" of the Christian mind, — which takes the sting of envy out of the heart, and blesses it with the cordial enjoyment of whatever in others is Good or Great, with that loving Coöperation which assimilates the temper of each man's heart to the spirit of Providence itself, — and through its action gives him at once the full sweetness of his life, and the full use of himself, uncankered by self-seeking. |