What Christianity Does for a Man

I will tarry at Ephesus... there are many adversaries.... If Timotheus come, see that he may he with you without fear.... As touchingour brother Apollos, I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren. — 1 Cor. xvi. 8-12.

These sentences casually thrown in, as it were, at the end of letter, reveal incidentally, and therefore really, the spiritual quality and tone of the writer. It is one thing to make a formal statement of what Christianity has done in the purification and refinement of character, and another to show its results without any attempt at composition or effect. An incidental touch will show the whole man. A single word may be a great revelation. Looking, then, at the words before us, what did Christianity do for Paul, so far as his social relationships were

I. Christianity made Paul courageous. ^’ There are many adversaries,” A very good reason for leaving Ephesns, but some of us would have thought a bad one for remaining there. Paul knew, as we can never know, what the word ‘’^ adversary “really means. Paul looked at the “door” first, and at the ^’ adversary ‘’ next. Some men see the adversary, but not the door, hence there is but a feeble and trembling life. Are ive courageous? How do tve show our courage?

II. Christianity made Paul considerate. “See that Timothy be with you without fear.” He did not leave Timothy to do the best he could for himself. Paul knew that no man can show his best qualities when under the influence of fear. He wished the young man to have a good start at Corinth, knowing how much depends upon the beginning. Great men are always considerate. Christianity stoops to human weakness and consults human feeling. Do lue speak kind words for men? Do we make the young welcome to the use of our wisdom and our strength, without burdening them with our exacting patronage? As saints we belong to one another, and in the highest sense we are therefore to have all things common.

III. Christianity made Paul magnanimous. ‘^I greatly desired Apollos to come unto you/^ Apollos was ‘’ an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures,” yet Paul wished the Corinthians to hear him. Paul was “in speech contemptible ‘^ as in bodily presence he was “weak,” but he honoured the eloquence of his brother, and desired to extend his influence and his fame. It is sometimes hard to be magnanimous. Magnanimity is in the case of some men equal to martyrdom. Ministers have something to learn here; so have tradesmen; so have all rivals.

Ajplication. — We cannot put on Courage, Considerateness, and Magnanimity from the outside. They are the result of an inward and spiritual work. The Holy Ghost must be Inspirer and Guide, else will all our efforts be the flutters of ambitious impotence.