They held that the only resurrection to be looked for was a spiritual resurrection, a resurrection of the soul from sin to holiness; and that, as far as Christians were concerned, this resurrection had already taken place. As soon as ever the Apostle was aware that such opinions were broached at Corinth, he immediately set himself to correct them. He perceived at once that an enemy had done this, and that Satan had sent forth his sowers to scatter this seed of false doctrine, in order to destroy the truth, and remove the foundations of Christianity. He begins the chapter somewhat abruptly, as his manner is when his feelings are moved. He says, in the first and second verses, "Now I make known to you, brethren, the Gospel which I preached unto you, in what words I preached it unto you ;* which Gospel also ye received, wherein also ye stand, by which also ye are being saved, if ye keep it in memory, unless ye have believed in vain." Observe, he recalls to their memory not only the subject-matter of his preaching, but the

* The marginal translation is here to be preferred, and the words are best placed in this order.

SERMON I.

1 COR. XV. 3, 4.

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures :

"And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."

THERE were some amongst the Corinthians

who denied the resurrection of the dead. Who they were we are not told, nor on what grounds they denied it. They might be like the Sadducees amongst the Jews; or the philosophers at Athens, who thought the doctrine incredible, and the thing impossible; or like Hymenæus and Philetus, of whom St. Paul makes mention in his Second Epistle to Timothy, "who, concerning the truth, had erred, saying that the resurrection was past already." (2 Tim. ii. 17, 18.)

B

He was raised again the third day, according to the Scriptures.

There are three points here which stand out prominently, to which, with God's help, I will draw your attention. First, from whom St. Paul received the doctrine he here delivers; secondly, the doctrine itself; and, thirdly, its agreement with the preceding Scriptures. And, first,

I. From whom did St. Paul receive the doctrine which he here delivers?

1. He did not receive it from man. This he constantly and emphatically affirms. In his Epistle to the Galatians he writes, "I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man: for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it." He conferred not with flesh and blood, nor went up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before him, but was unknown by face unto the Churches of Judæa which were in Christ. It was three years after his conversion before he even saw an apostle, and then only Peter and James. (See Gal. i. 11, 12, 16, 19.)

very words in which it was conveyed; for the words were inspired as well as the doctrine contained in them. He reminds them that this very Gospel they had received; nay, in it they stood, and were still standing, and by it they were being saved, if they held it fast in their minds, unless, which he was most reluctant to think, any of them had believed in vain; or, as he words it in another place, had received the grace of God in vain. Take notice how, at the very entrance of this momentous and sublime subject, St. Paul, dr, rather, the Holy Ghost by St. Paul, warns us that we may "believe in vain." Certainly, a belief in Christ, without a belief in His resurrection and that of His people, is "a believing in vain."

Then he went on to repeat the very words in which he had declared those doctrines, in the hearty belief of which some of them were beginning to be shaken. "For I delivered to you first of all, as something of primary importance, that which I also had received," viz., that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that

He was not a whit behind the chiefest apostles, and some think that he was under Divine instruction during the whole of the three years which he spent in Arabia; but, however that may be, he received from the Lord Jesus that which he has here delivered to us.

II. Let us, then, secondly, inquire into the doctrine which he has delivered.

That which he delivered as of primary importance, that which he everywhere set forth first of all, and counted foundation truths, was, that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day. This was the inspired creed which he called upon all men everywhere to believe, and this in the name of the Lord. It consisted, you see, of three clauses :

1. First, that Christ died for our sins. He did not only die to set us an example of humility, patience, self-devotion, and submission to the will of God, but as a sacrifice for our sins. It is perfectly true that He did die to set us an example of the virtues I have mentioned, but this was not the only, nor,