The life and work of St. Paul

378 THE LIFE AND WOEK OV ST. PAUL.
curb and crucify passions which once they had consecrated under guise of
religion ; hard not to think all these temptations irresistible, and to see the
way of escape which God had appointed them for each ; hard to be bidden to
rejoice, and not to be suffered even to murmur at all these hardnesses of life.
And the voice which had taught them the things of God had now for so long
been eilent; for three years they had not seen the hand which pointed them to
Heaven. It was with some of them as with Israel, when Moses was on Sinai:
they sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. Many, very many
some in shame and secrecy, others openly justifying their relapse by the devildoctrines
of perverted truth had plunged once more into the impurity, the
drunkenness, and the selfishness, as though they had never heard the heavenly
calling, or tasted the eternal gift.
So much even Apollos must have told the Apostle ; and when he had
occasion, in a letter now lost l
probably because it was merely a brief and
businesslike memorandum to write and inform them of his intended, but
subsequently abandoned, plan of paying them a double visit, and to bid them
contribute to the collection for the poor saints at Jerusalem, he had, in a
message which required subsequent explanation, briefly but emphatically
bidden them not to keep company with fornicators. 8
And now a letter had come from Corinth. So far from dwelling on the
it was
ruinous disorders into which many members of the Church had fallen,
entirely self-complacent in tone ; and yet it proved the existence of much
doctrinal perplexity, and, in asking advice about a number of practical
subjects, had touched upon questions which betrayed some of the moral
and intellectual errors which the Church, in writing the letter, had so dis-
ingenuously
concealed. 3
1. After greeting him, and answering him, hi words which he quotes, that
"
they remembered him in all things, and kept the ordinances as he delivered
them," 4
they had asked him a whole series of questions about celibacy and
marriage, which had evidently been warmly discussed in the decided in very different senses.
Church, and
Was married life in itself wrong, or if not
wrong, yet undesirable ? or, if not even undesirable, still a lower and less
worthy condition than celibacy ? When persons were already married, was it
their duty, or, at any rate, would it be saiutlier to live together as though they
were unmarried ? Might widows and widowers marry a second time ? Were
mixed marriages between Christians and heathens to be tolerated, or ought
a Christian husband to repudiate a heathen wife, and a Christian wife to leave
a heathen husband ? and ought fathers to seek marriages for their daughters,
or let tiiem grow up as virgins ?
2. Again, what were they to do about meats offered to idols P They had
1 The spurious letter of the Corinthians to St. Paul, and hia answer, preserved in
Armenian, are perfectly valueless.
2 Seel Cor. x.5 14.
* The interchange of such letters (nY^H) on disputed points of doctrine between the
synagogues was common,
1 Cor. zi. 2.