Things had come to a pretty pass up at Corinth, when Paul felt it incumbent1 upon him to write to the members of the Church, imploring2 them to be reconciled to God. ‘Now then,’ Paul said to those recalcitrant3 believers, ‘now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech4 you by us, we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.’ I used to wonder what he can possibly have meant; but now I think I understand.
I
Claudius was wealthy. He dwelt in a beautiful house on the top of a hill, on the eastern side of the city of Corinth. From his spacious5 balconies he looked down upon the blue, blue waters of the Adriatic as they lapped caressingly6 the sands of the bay on the one side, and on the spreading sapphire7 of the island-studded Aegean gleaming most charmingly upon the other. Away in the distance he commanded a magnificent prospect8, and could clearly make out the towers and domes9 of Athens as they pierced the sky on the far horizon. The Acropolis could be seen distinctly. It was a delightful10 home, 69delightfully situated11. Claudius was a member of the Church; but he was not very happy about it. Claudius had prospered12 amazingly of late years, and his prosperity had involved him in commercial and social entanglements13 from which it would be very difficult now to escape. The life that Claudius had set before himself in the early days of his spiritual experience seemed to him later on like a beautiful dream. That is to say, it seemed to him like a dream when he thought about it; but he did not think about it more often than he could help. Claudius knew perfectly14 well that the life of which he used to dream was worth some sacrifice; and he knew that he was really the poorer, and not the richer, for having abandoned that radiant ideal. He occasionally attended the assembly of worshippers, it is true; but he derived15 small satisfaction from the exercise. It seemed like exposing his poor withered16, emaciated17 soul to the limelight; and he saw with a start how starved and famished18 it had become. And so the inner experience of poor Claudius became a perpetual battle-ground. At times the old dream seemed within an ace19 of being victorious20. He was more than half inclined to break away from all his later entanglements, and to renew the ardour of his youthful aspirations21. But he had scarcely reached this devout22 determination when the glamour23 of his later life once more began to dazzle him. Alluring24 70invitations, temptingly phrased, poured in upon him. It is horrid25 to be discourteous26! How could he bring himself to offend people from whom he had received nothing but kindness? Surely a man owes something to the proprieties27 of life! And so the fight went on. But in the depths of his secret soul Claudius knew that that fight was a fight between Claudius on the one hand and God on the other. He knew, too, that in that stern conflict Claudius was altogether wrong, and God was altogether right. And he knew that, if he persisted in the unequal struggle, nothing but shame and humiliation28 awaited him. Claudius knew it, and Paul knew it. Paul knew it, and proffered29 his good offices as mediator30. ‘Now then,’ he wrote, with Claudius in his eye, ‘now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.’ And the words brought to the heart of poor Claudius just such a surge of vehement31 emotion as a lover feels at the prospect of once more embracing the beloved form with which he had so angrily and hastily parted.
II
Polonius and Phebe were in a very different case. Polonius dwelt close to the city in order to be near his work, and his windows commanded no view of any kind. He was not a slave, but 71sometimes he said bitterly that the slaves were as happy as he. The world had gone hardly with Polonius. The stars in their courses seemed to be fighting against him. He had tried hard to be brave, but circumstances sometimes conspire32 against courage. Polonius, in spite of the most commendable33 endeavours, was poor; yet if poverty had been his only misfortune he could have borne it with a smile. But, in addition to poverty, troubles came thick and fast upon him. Like Claudius, he was a member of the church at Corinth; and it was in connexion with his labours of love for the sanctuary34 that he had first met Phebe. She was young and fair in those days, and her loveliness was glorified35 by her devotion. But his love for her had fallen upon her tender spirit like a malediction36. It was as though his fondness for his sweet young wife had woven a malignant37 spell about her early womanhood. He would have died a thousand deaths to make her happy; yet since first they linked their lives they had known nothing but incessant38 struggle and ceaseless grief. Phebe herself had been ill again and again. Four little children had stolen like sunbeams into their home; only, like sunbeams, to vanish again, and give place to tempests of tears. Then came a long blank; and they fancied they were doomed39 to spend the rest of their sad lives childlessly. But, at length, to their unspeakable 72delight, their little home once more resounded40 with the shout of baby merriment and the patter of baby footsteps. It was as if the four children who had perished had bequeathed to this new treasure all the affection that they had excited in the breasts of their poor parents. And then, after seven happy years, it too faded and died. Polonius and Phebe were broken-hearted. Never again, they said, would they go to the assembly at Corinth. How could they believe in the love of God after this? And so their hearts grew hard, and their souls were soured, and all sweetness departed from their spirits.
There is a story very like this in our own literature. In the old house at Kettering, Andrew Fuller was lying ill in one room, whilst his only surviving daughter—a child of six—lay at the point of death in the next. He tried hard to reconcile himself and his poor wife to the impending41 calamity42. But their spirits revolted. The thought that, after having buried first one child and then another, this one too might be snatched from them was more than they could bear. But, ‘on Tuesday, May 30,’ says Fuller in his diary, ‘on Tuesday, May 30, as I lay ill in bed in another room, I heard a whispering. I inquired, and all were silent! All were silent!—but all is well. I feel reconciled to God.’ That is a fine saying. ‘I feel reconciled to God.’ But poor Polonius and Phebe could as yet enter no such 73brave words in their domestic record. ‘Wherefore,’ writes Paul, with a thought, perhaps, of Polonius and Phebe, ‘wherefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.’ And when Polonius and Phebe heard that touching44 appeal they resolved no longer to kick against the pricks45. ‘Renew my will,’ they prayed, anticipating the language of a later hymn46:
Renew my will from day to day;
Blend it with Thine; and take away
All that now makes it hard to say,
‘Thy will be done!’
And, like Andrew Fuller and his wife at Kettering, Polonius and his wife at Corinth were able to say, ‘I feel reconciled to God.’
III
To the south of Corinth, just where the great main road begins to ascend47 the ridge48 of the mountains, lived Julia. Julia was a widow, comfortably circumstanced. Her husband had died years before, leaving her with the charge of their one young son. And as the days had gone by, and time had sprinkled strands49 of silver into Julia’s hair, she had built her hopes more and more upon the future of her boy. 74Julia’s husband had died before either he or she had so much as heard the name of Jesus. But after his death Paul came over from Athens to Corinth in the course of that first memorable50 visit to Europe, and Julia had been among his earliest converts. After her conversion51 Julia often thought of her husband, and was ill at ease. But, like a wise woman, she determined52 to work for the things that remained rather than to weep over those that were lost to her. And so she devoted53 all her love, and all her thought, and all her energy, and all her time to her little son. When Paul’s first letter to the Christians55 at Corinth was read to the church, she caught a phrase about being ‘baptized for the dead.’ She did not quite know what Paul meant by the words; but at any rate she would try to instil56 into the heart of her boy the lovely faith that she felt certain her husband would cheerfully have embraced. And wonderfully she succeeded. The boy listened with eyes wide open to the tender stories that Julia told him, and his heart acknowledged their profound significance. At the same age at which Jesus went with Mary to the Temple, and was found in the midst of the doctors, young Amplius went with Julia up to the church at Corinth, and was found in the midst of the deacons.
From the very first the soul of Amplius prospered. He was like those trees of which the psalmist sings 75which, ‘planted in the courts of the Lord, flourish in the house of our God.’ From the time of his baptism and reception into the sacred fellowship, the child Amplius grew, like the child Jesus, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Then, after about six years of happy Christian54 experience, Amplius confided57 a wonderful secret to Julia. He told her that he had resolved, with her consent, to devote himself to the sacred office of the ministry58. And at that word the soul of Julia died within her. She knew what those early preachers and teachers had suffered. She knew of the martyrdom of all those first apostles. She had heard that even Paul himself had been ‘in journeyings often, in perils60 of rivers and in perils of robbers, in perils by his own countrymen and in perils of the heathen, in perils of the city and in perils of the desert, in perils of the sea and in perils among false brethren.’ And Julia’s heart failed her as she thought of Amplius faced by such dangers. Moreover, Julia had other plans for Amplius. She had fondly dreamed of him as holding a great place in the city of Corinth. When she had seen rulers and governors performing exalted61 functions on State occasions, she had said within herself, ‘Some day, perhaps, Amplius will wear those robes,’ or ‘Some day, perhaps, Amplius will make that speech.’ And now all such dreams were rudely shattered. 76Her son would fain be a minister, an outcast, perhaps even a martyr59. And at that thought the soul of Julia rebelled, and she began to fight against God.
There is a case like this, also, in our own literature. Grey Hazelrigg was the only child of Lady Hazelrigg, of Carlton Hall. Her ladyship intended her son for the army, but he failed to pass the tests. She then sent him to Cambridge University. There he came under deep religious influences. He began, as opportunities presented themselves, to preach the gospel. His efforts met with immediate62 acceptance, and he wrote to his astonished mother to say that he desired to become a minister of the old Strict Baptist Communion! The request struck Carlton Hall like a thunderbolt, and the spirit of Lady Hazelrigg rose in instant revolt. But Grey prayed in secret, and preached in public, and pleaded with his mother whenever a suitable opportunity occurred. Then came an experience of which, the Rev43. W. Y. Fullerton says, he spoke63 with sparkling eyes seventy years afterwards. He was on a journey when his mind was suddenly and strangely arrested by the words of Jeremiah, ‘Verily, it shall be well with Thy remnant.’ He took it to refer to Lady Hazelrigg’s opposition64 to his call; and, surely enough, ‘the very next letter that he received from his mother bore the joyful65 tidings that she was, as she herself phrased it, reconciled to God.’ Mr. Grey Hazelrigg 77lived to be nearly a hundred, and his work, both as a writer and a preacher, will be remembered in England with thankfulness for many a day to come. There can be no doubt, therefore, that, in those earlier days, Lady Hazelrigg was fighting against God. And there can be no doubt, either, that, in those early days, Julia was fighting against God. And therefore Paul wrote as he did, perhaps with Julia specially66 in mind. ‘Now then,’ he said, ‘we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.’ And, like Lady Hazelrigg, Julia made her peace with God, and her son adorned67 the Christian ministry for many a long day.
IV
‘Be ye reconciled to God’—Paul the Peacemaker wrote to the Christians at Corinth. It is vastly important. We so easily drift away from early attachments68 and early friendships; and even the divine friendship is not immune from this cruel and heartless treatment. We drift away from it, and must needs be reconciled. ‘Be ye reconciled to God,’ says Paul the Peacemaker ‘for unless you yourselves are reconciled to God, how can you reconcile to God those who are without?’ How can I reconcile hearts that are alienated69 if, between either of those hearts 78and mine, there exists some embarrassing estrangement70? ‘Be ye reconciled to God,’ said Paul the Peacemaker to the church at Corinth, for he knew that the Church’s ministry of reconciliation71 would stand stultified72 and useless so long as the Church herself was out of touch with her Lord.
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incumbent
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| adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的 | |
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imploring
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| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
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recalcitrant
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| adj.倔强的 | |
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beseech
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| v.祈求，恳求 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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caressingly
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| 爱抚地，亲切地 | |
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sapphire
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| n.青玉，蓝宝石；adj.天蓝色的 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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domes
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| n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 )；像圆屋顶一样的东西；圆顶体育场 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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prospered
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| 成功，兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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entanglements
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| n.瓜葛( entanglement的名词复数 )；牵连；纠缠；缠住 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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emaciated
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| adj.衰弱的，消瘦的 | |
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famished
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| adj.饥饿的 | |
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ace
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| n.A牌；发球得分；佼佼者；adj.杰出的 | |
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victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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devout
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| adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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alluring
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| adj.吸引人的，迷人的 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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discourteous
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| adj.不恭的，不敬的 | |
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proprieties
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| n.礼仪，礼节；礼貌( propriety的名词复数 )；规矩；正当；合适 | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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proffered
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mediator
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| n.调解人，中介人 | |
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vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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conspire
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| v.密谋，（事件等）巧合，共同导致 | |
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commendable
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| adj.值得称赞的 | |
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sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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35
glorified
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| 美其名的，变荣耀的 | |
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malediction
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| n.诅咒 | |
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malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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40
resounded
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| v.（指声音等）回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 )；产生回响；（指某处）回荡着声音 | |
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impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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pricks
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| 刺痛( prick的名词复数 )； 刺孔； 刺痕； 植物的刺 | |
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hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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strands
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| n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 ) | |
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memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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54
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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instil
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| v.逐渐灌输 | |
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confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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attachments
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| n.（用电子邮件发送的）附件( attachment的名词复数 )；附着；连接；附属物 | |
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alienated
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| adj.感到孤独的，不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等） | |
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estrangement
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| n.疏远，失和，不和 | |
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reconciliation
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| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
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stultified
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| v.使成为徒劳，使变得无用( stultify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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