II.The voice of LOVE.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

1. Both adopt the Christian name.

2. Both utter the same shibboleth.

3. Both are active in preaching Christ.

II. WHERE THEY DIFFER.

1. In heart. "Contention" moves the one; "love" reigns in the other.

2. In spirit. "Envy and strife" move the one; "goodwill" actuates the other.

3. In source of strength. Love of party animates the one; confidence in the Lord emboldens the other.

4. In aim. That of the one is to advance, it may be, a lifeless Church; that of the other to propel the gospel of Christ.

5. The depth and accuracy of conviction. The one "supposing to rid," etc. (ver. 16); the other "knowing that," etc. (ver. 17).

(G. G. Ballard.)

1. An imperfect apprehension of Christ's mission.

2. A total absence of Christ's Spirit.

3. Thought and sympathy, narrowed by early prejudice and preconceived ideas.

4. Christ made subservient to the doctrines, ritual, and history of a system.

II. THE RESULTS INSEPARABLE FROM IT.

1. The cross degraded into a rallying point for party strife.

2. The basest spirit indulged under the pretence of fulfilling a sacred office.

(1)"Envy" — displeasure at another's good.

(2)"Strife" — selfish rivalry which seeks to gain the good belonging to another. Christ preached merely to advance a party.

4. Zeal for propagating a creed, greater than to save a lost world.

III. THE GERM OF IT.

1. May exist in those who zealously preach Christ.

2. Consists in a moral contradiction between the heart of the preacher and the theme of his discourse — contentiousness and Christ.

3. Produces impurity of motive in Christian work — "not sincerely."

4. Biases the judgment to expect results which are never realized — "supposing."

5. Inspires aims which are unchristian — "to add affliction."

(G. G. Ballard.)

II. THE MOTIVE. Sometimes impure; as sectarian, mercenary, ambitious — sometimes sincere; from love to God and man.

III. THE RESULT. Some good every way — Christ is exalted — the faithful rejoice,

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. THE PREACHING OF CHRIST. No preaching can bear this designation which does not constitute Him the grand object of it. From the first the holy men who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit pointed to Him. All the Scriptures lead, remotely, perhaps, but certainly, to the Cross of Christ. He is to be preached as the only object of faith, and the sole source of salvation. Opposition must not hinder, nor heresy divert this.

II. THE SCALE ON WHICH CHRIST IS TO BE PREACHED.

1. To all peoples — Philippians and Romans, Europeans and Africans.

2. By men of all views and denominations, Jewish and Gentile Christians; Roman Catholics and Protestants; Anglicans and Dissenters, etc.

III. THE SPIRIT IN WHICH THIS SHOULD BE RECEIVED. There are two classes interested.

1. Ministers should rejoice when they see the gospel spreading on all sides and among all denominations. Let it not be said of them, "Ye know not what spirit ye are off." No jealous or envious feeling at others' successes should be cherished by them.

2. Congregations while loyal to their own Church should put a generous construction on the work of others.

IV. THE GLORIOUS RESULTS ARISING OUT OF THIS.

1. In time.

2. In eternity.

(W. B. Collyer, D. D.)

1. Negatively.(1) Toleration is not an enforced forbearance with men who teach error. Some keep their hands off errorists because they cannot touch them; like boys who will not pluck ripe fruit because there is a high wall in the way.(2) Nor is it a recognition of the right of men to freedom of thought and experience, which is only part of it.(3) Still less is it indifference to error. There are men who do not care whether you teach God or Jupiter, heathen mythology or Christian theology.

2. Positively. It is a generous confidence in the vitality of truth and its ultimate victory, born of hope, nursed by courage, adopted by love.

II. IF PAUL'S SPIRIT BE RIGHT THEN WE NEED TO AMEND OUR VIEW OF SOCIAL AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY. He saw bad men taking his place yet he let them go on, rejoiced in their work, though not in the motive of it. Had he lived in our day he would have been told, "You cannot afford to sit in a Church where these men teach or you will be responsible for their teaching." He would have replied, "Who made you a judge; to their own master they stand or fall." Every man is responsible for bin own conduct and belief to God. If I please to work with men who are heretical on some points of theology, but who are right in the point in which I work with them (Unitarian temperance reformers, e.g.), I am not responsible for their wrong beliefs, but only for that part which I take. Paul was grieved at the amount of error that was in these men, but the small amount of truth he saw pleased him more.

III. THIS CHRISTIAN TOLERATION FOUNDED IN FAITH AND LOVE, LEADS TO THE REAL AND ONLY REAL UNION POSSIBLE TO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. External formulas are not unimportant, but there never will be Christian union in this world until men feel that the invisible, spiritual elements of truth, the interior experience of soul, are transcendently more important than the idea forms, or the government forms, or the worship forms of the Church. Humanity is our common bond outside; why should not Christianity be within? "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

(H. W. Beecher.)

II. IT IS KEEN IN PERCEIVING, EVEN IN CHAINS, THE WILL OF GOD. "Knowing that I am set."

III. IT IS QUICK IN COOPERATING TO ACCOMPLISH THE WILL OF GOD WHEN KNOWN.

IV. IT BINDS THE HEART IN SYMPATHY TO ALL WHO SUFFER IN THE DEFENCE OF THE GOSPEL.

V. IT IS THE MIGHTIEST FORCE THAT MEN CAN WIELD FOR THE GOSPEL'S TRIUMPH.

(G. G. Ballard.)

1. The exhibition of Jesus as the Messiah sent to save a guilty world."(1) Such a messenger had been set forth by prophecy and types from the beginning.(2) He was exhibited as truly human, sinless, Divine.

2. The publication of His great work, and ultimate design in visiting this world.

(1)To atone for sin.

(2)To confer eternal life.

3. The assertion of His claims on all mankind.

(1)To their love.

(2)To their obedience.

II. GLORIOUS AS THIS THEME IS, YET MANY PREACH IT FROM CORRUPT MOTIVES.

1. Some for gain — money, position, influence.

2. Some for victory in a controversial battle.

3. Yet if Christ is really preached, whatever may be the condemnation of the preacher, Christ's end will he secured.

III. THE REASONS WHY THE PREACHING OF CHRIST, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, IS A JUST OCCASION FOR HOLY JOY.

1. By this means the enemies of Christ are made to bear unequivocal testimony to His dignity and glory, and to promote the interests of truth without intending it: as the heathen writers quoted by Paul, and the devils' confession of Christ.

2. As the world can only be renovated by the preaching of Christ, so even His enemies who preach Him contribute to this event. Think of the heathen world; the acceptance of Christ in any sense and from any hands cannot but better it.

3. We may be assured that God will certainly overrule the preaching of Christ, even by wicked men, to accomplish His purpose of mercy. In much inferior matters God controls the movements of bad men for His own glory. He did so in the case of Judas. Is it not then correct to argue that if God sub ordinates the malignity, ambition, and haughtiness of men to the accomplishment of His providential purposes, He will also overrule them to serve His designs of mercy? Witness the Reformation under Henry VIII.Application:

1. Our cause for rejoicing is exceedingly great. Notwithstanding there are many parts where the gospel is imperfectly preached, yet there are thousands of holy men who preach Christ from the purest motives.

2. Let us manifest our gratitude to Him who is preached by a more lively zeal in His cause.

3. Let us who love Christ draw into closer union with one another. If we allow bickering and strife while Christ's cause may prosper we shall be ruined.

4. Let the despondent be encouraged — anyhow Christ is preached. The gospel is advancing in spite of our fears.

(Isaac Mann, M. A.)

(Lord Bacon.)

1. The apostle had, by nature, a temper that could not bear very much being abused. He was naturally sensitive and aggressive. In prison and helpless no doubt there were slight heavings of the old volcano at the conduct of his opponents. Moreover his conscience was an inspired one, and he must have felt, "Who is a judge of orthodoxy if I am not?" Did he then rouse the alarm and denounce these preachers of envy and strife? No, he rejoiced where few could have rejoiced, viz., in prison, and at what few could have rejoiced, viz., that his enemies were doing good.

2. Paul might have felt that his life was thrown away, that God had need of him. Many feel that everything must be done, and that there is none to do it hut themselves. Paul had a right to feel so if any man had. But the thought never seems to have occurred to him. No doubt he felt the cowardliness and the cruelty of these men, but the feeling was swallowed up in the reflection that they were doing his work when he could not do it himself.

3. Paul held that so precious is this truth of Jesus that no man can present even a particle of it that is not worth presenting. You cannot preach Christ so that it is not worth while to have preached Him thus. It is better that He should be preached by bad men for bad purposes than not preached at all.

4. It would have been enough in Paul to have said less than he did, such as "I trust all will be for the best. I hope it will do some good, but I fear it will do much harm. Of course I cannot associate with them." On the contrary he exults over the certain good of the issue. The hounds of love are better than the hounds of theology to hunt heretics with. How painful not to know the difference between conscience and combativeness.

5. Consider in a few deductions the temptations to which men who are working for religious ends are liable.

I. THE DANGER OF SUBSTITUTING ACTIVITY FOR THE LOVING GRACES. The bee that goes buzzing about the flowers in the spring is very useful; but, after all, I think the flowers, that never stir or buzz, are full as interesting and far more important. The buzzing bee gets a good deal of honey, but he would not get a particle if it were not for the silent flowers which contain it all. There is a great peril of an external rattling activity leaving the heart cold, mechanical, and even malevolent.

II. THE DANGER OF ARROGANCE.

1. There are a great many people who say that all Churches must be constituted, work, and believe as their own.

2. Many of us have got beyond that, but how many of us can rejoice in the Church whose services has swallowed up ours. But all that Paul wanted was that work should be done, whoever did it; and even rejoiced that others would have the credit for the work he did. Conclusion: From the beginning until today the power of preaching has been and henceforth mill be, not in ideas but in disposition.

(H. W. Beecher.)

II. It may be that envy had inspired them with the thought, that BY LABOURING IN PREACHING THE GOSPEL THEY SHOULD OBTAIN A PART OF THE APOSTLE'S GLORY, and that by making good use of the time of his imprisonment, to establish themselves in the minds of the disciples, they should by degrees take away the credit and authority which he possessed; and judging of him by themselves, they imagined that it would be an immense increase to his affliction to see them thus enriched and decorated with his spoils. Such or such like were the thoughts of these wretched men. Judge by this what is the nature of vice, and how horrible its impudence in daring thus to profane the most sacred things, and to abuse them so vilely for, its own ungodly purpose. Thus Satan sometimes clothes himself as an angel of light to further the works of darkness. From which you see that it is not enough that Our actions be good and praiseworthy, if our intentions are not pure and upright. It is to profane the good to do it with a bad end in view.

2. See how the thoughts of vice are not only impudent, but even foolish and vain. These deceivers, judging of St. Paul by themselves, believed that their preaching would vex him. Poor creatures! how little you knew of this high-minded man, to imagine that so small a thing could trouble him!

(J. Daille.)

(Boree.)

I. Because thereby THE RENOVATION OF FALLEN MAN IS INTELLIGENTLY PROPOSED.

1. High time, by common consent, something was done in that direction, and many are the projects suggested for it.

(1)Give the people a sound secular education.

(2)Give them remunerative employment.

(3)Confer upon them honourable enfranchisement.

(4)Take care to raise them into better and more civilized habits by better dwellings, food, etc.

(5)Educate their tastes, open museums and art galleries.

2. Can you look at these laudable secondary considerations without marking their fatal defect? They deal with man externally and say not a word about his internal renovation. If you leave a man's heart untouched there is that there which will laugh all your culture to scorn. If his heart be right all will be right, but not otherwise.

3. The gospel aims at making the heart right, and succeeds wherever it is accepted.

II. Because thereby THE RENOVATION IS GRACIOUSLY GUARANTEED.

1. With the preaching of Christ God has formally connected the exertion of His power. "With God all things are possible." The preacher is a fellow worker with God.

2. With this preaching God has been pleased to associate the accomplishment of His purposes.

3. He has identified with preaching the manifestation of His sympathies.

(W. Brock, D. D.)

1. The spirit characteristic of all God's will towards men.

2. The spirit manifested by His Son.

3. The spirit of the gospel message.

II. IT IS YIELDED TO AN HONOURED BROTHER.

1. To him as a man — his character, aims, and life.

2. To his labours in the cause of Christ.

3. To his future success.

(G. G. Ballard.)

II. IS IMPERATIVE upon its professors, whether ministers or people.

III. MUST BE MAINTAINED IN LOVE to the truth, its advocates, and even its opponents.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)