2 Corinthians 12:1 Visions and Revelations. The words carry us at once to an age of miracle. They place us in the midst of a time when the eye and the ear were each occasionally opened to sights and sounds not of this earth, when the ordinary perceptions were in abeyance, and the soul, if it did no... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:2 St. Paul's Vision of Paradise. I. It is not difficult to conceive the impossibility of conveying any adequate impression of the component elements of heaven to minds encumbered with the grossness of mortal nature, an impossibility resembling that of communicating problems of astr... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:7 The Gospel of the Body. A good life of St. Paul would be the best possible exponent of Christian experience. I do not mean an external biography for that we have but a full transcript of his thoughts and feelings. But we have this in a greater degree than we suppose. These epist... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:7 The Thorn in the Flesh. I. The first lesson which is suggested by these words is this: that the thorn in the flesh comes for a specific end. Of course it does not come by chance; nothing does. It comes by God's appointment or permission. But more than this, God does not send it o... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:8 Strength in Weakness. I. We have here the instinctive shrinking from that which tortured the flesh, which takes refuge in prayer. II. We have, next, the insight into the source of strength for, and the purpose of, the thorn that could not be taken away. III. Lastly, there is t... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:9 The Quietness of True Power. Paul speaks in these verses of his own weakness and his thorn in the flesh. He says that he glories in his infirmity, and that in his weakness God had manifested His strength, as though he had been the empty channel which God filled. He teaches us in... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:10 Strength in Weakness. I. What was it that caused the heart of St. Paul to overflow in this now familiar paradox? It was some special personal temptation of a very painful kind, which he calls a thorn in the flesh. He was attacked by some kind of trial so severe that he speaks of... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 12:14 The Property Right we are to get in Souls. I. God evidently means to make every community valuable to every other, and so far at least every man to every other. We see this on a magnificent scale in the articles of commerce. Here we find the nations all at work for each other i... [ Continue Reading ]