To "stand" is to be and to continue upright in the Christian life, and they truly stand whose character and habits agree with their profession. To "fall" is to act with inconsistency, to yield to the tempter, to stumble over the stone of offence, to be caught by the snare which is spread; and this, either temporally or permanently. Life is a probation, and is as much so to the Christian as to others. The apostle puts all his readers upon their guard, reminding them that this is a scene, a period, of probation, and that the true preparation is not to be found in self confidence and boastfulness, but in watchfulness, humility, and prayer. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

I. THE DISPOSITION AGAINST WHICH THIS ADMONITION IS DIRECTED, It is self confidence.

1. Reliance upon outward privileges. As Israel was a chosen nation, so Christians are God's "peculiar people;" and there is danger lest this should be adduced, perhaps to one's self, as a ground for presumption and arrogance.

2. Reliance upon personal strength and purity of character. A man is assured that he can take good care of himself, that no temptation can overtake and overmaster him, that he is clad in armour proof against the fiery darts of the wicked. No need to warn him; he is safe!

3. Boastfulness. The man who thinks himself so secure is likely to glory in his own position, his strength of character, his superiority to infirmities, - to make a loud profession, and to regard the timid with a compassionate disdain.

II. THE PERILS ACCOMPANYING SUCH A DISPOSITION. Paul knew how necessary and appropriate was his counsel; his own experience of human nature and life, elevated and cleared by a Divine inspiration, led him to this most wise and salutary admonition.

1. Such a peril is suggested by the facts of human nature. It is supposed that there is an inflated, unguarded state of mind; that a violent and sudden temptation comes in the way; and that there follows an unexpected and grievous fall. What a self confident spirit is more dangerous because more liable to temptation than a lowly spirit, distrustful of self, is well known to all who have experience of human nature. Those who boast of sinlessness are on the verge of sin.

2. Notable examples recorded in Scripture prove the assertion now made. Hazael was indignant at the very supposition that he could be guilty of barbarities and cruelties such as the prophet foretold; but when the temptation came, he fell into the snare. Peter was vehement in his protestations, "Though I die with thee, I will not deny thee!" Yet when he was tempted by cowardice, he denied his Lord.

III. THE EFFECTUAL REMEDIES AGAINST A SPIRITUAL FALL. If self confidence is of no avail, where is safety to be found?

1. In self abasement and distrust.

2. In a simple trust, in the protecting, preserving, delivering power of God.

3. In watchfulness; for the Christian soldier must never be off his guard; he must arm himself, watch, and withstand his foe.

4. In prayer, which is a confession that we are exposed to danger, and is a waiting upon God and seeking his providential interposition and his spiritual aid. - T.

I. A FALL IS POSSIBLE. Consider —

1. Human weakness.

2. The force and variety of temptation.

3. The many admonitory examples.

II. THE MOST SECURE IS IN THE GREATEST DANGER.

1. Through pride.

2. Carelessness.

3. Unwatchfulness.

III. CAUTIOUS IS THE ONLY WAY OF SAFETY.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

It is possible to begin in the Spirit, and to end in the flesh; it is possible to be seriously hindered; it is possible to come short of the promise of the grace of God. Clouds sometimes obscure the brightest evening and the sunniest morning. A slight atmospheric change may transform an Alpine ascent from a safe excitement into an imminent peril. It is thus in the natural world; and so is it in the realm of grace. There are numberless causes, arising from the circumstances of external things, or from the inbred and unsubdued corruption of our own traitorous hearts, which may endanger the constancy of the Christian, and cause his goodness to be even as the morning cloud and as the early dew, goodly and sparkling in promise, but, by the fierce heat of the sun, very speedily exhaled.

(W. M. Punshon.)

I. MAN IS EVER IN DANGER OF A MORAL "FALL" Whatever else the record of "the Fall" may teach us, it is certainly an instructive warning that no state on earth places us above the reach of temptation and the possibility of fall. The Jews spelt that awful word in the desert; Adam and Eve spelt it in Paradise. To all it meant the same.

1. A. departure from the morally erect attitude of heart that God designed for man.

2. A prostration of the manhood that was meant to be upright, vigorous in goodness. There is no garden here, be it church, college, or even home, that has not a serpent in it.

II. THERE ARE MEN WHO CONSIDER THEMSELVES ABOVE THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH A MORAL "FALL." They consider themselves as safe whoever is in peril; as "standing," whoever is falling. This misconception arises —

1. From a faulty moral standard. If that is flexible he cannot tell whether or no he is standing or falling. A ship at sea does not measure her course by another ship in motion, or still less by ever restless waves, but by star, or headland, or lighthouse. So we must measure our moral distances by the inflexible and inviolable.

2. From inattention to the true standard, even though it be recognised.

3. From self-delusion as to one's own condition. There are moral intoxicants, and under their influence many a backslider is unconscious of his egregious lapses from right, and so considers himself in no danger, though at the very moment he is falling.

III. SUCH MEN ARE IN THE GREATEST DANGER OF A MORAL FALL. All are, even those who really are standing, but especially those who "think" they are standing. It is the self-consciousness that this "thinking " involves, the self-satisfaction it implies, the self-gratulation it engenders that is the source of peril. No traveller is so likely to stumble as the Pharisee. His whole attitude and temper conspire to imperil his spiritual safety. "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

(U.R. Thomas.)

I. THE MATTER OF CIRCUMSPECTION. Be careful —

1. Over your secular vocation.

2. Over your own heart.

3. Because of your enemies.

II. ITS NECESSITY. Be circumspect especially in times of —

1. Temporal prosperity.

2. Spiritual triumph.

3. Public usefulness.

III. MOTIVES TO IT.

1. Our heavenly vocation.

2. Our circumstances.

3. Our dispositions.

4. Our character and reputation, do not exempt us — beware of little and secret sins.

(Biblical Museum.)

1. Paul has been reminding the Corinthians that Israel had religious privileges which might have been blessings if they had used them rightly, but which, being abused, did them more harm than good. So with them. Hence the conclusion of the text.

2. The men whose fall the Bible has recorded for our warning, fell just when they seemed most strong. Moses was the meekest of men, and yet he sinned unadvisedly with his lips. Peter was brave, and yet for want of moral courage he denied his Lord. John was the apostle of love, but he desired to call down fire from heaven against his enemies. Elijah was not afraid to rebuke a king to his face, but he fell into such a fit of cowardly despondency that he asked God to take away his life. When a man commits some great sin, his friends often say, "Well, I never would have thought of him doing that. He is the last man in the world to have done it." And that is just why he did it, because he thought that he was quite safe, and as a consequence he took no precaution against falling.

3. Our subject, then, is the danger the best of us are in of falling into sin if we are not forearmed by being forewarned, and how much further a sin yielded to will carry us in the ways of wickedness than we thought at first that it would. In both these respects "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." A man was being served with a writ for debt. Knowing that if he got beyond the boundary of his county he could not be obliged to take it, he ran from the bailiff, and escaped. On coming up to him the bailiff said, "You have given me a good run, and no mistake, but don't let us part enemies, let us shake hands." The man did so, and the bailiff pulled him over the fence and then arrested him. That is what sin does for us if we are not on our guard against it.

4. Consider the character of the first and last in a series of temptations. The first time the temptation occurs, there is a shudder and a feeling of impossibility. "I cannot do it," we say. The next time it is treated with greater civility. We begin now to reason with it, and ask, is it really so bad after all? At last the evil thought passes into the evil act, and the second transgression becomes easier by recollecting the pleasantness of the first. We now plunge daily down the precipice on the brink of which we once trembled. The power of habit "first draws, then drags, then hauls." That temptation which in the beginning was no stronger than a cobweb, was so strengthened by indulgence that it became a cable, and we were forced to "draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope." This is every day illustrated by the liar and the drunkard. But, indeed, all sin approaches in the same gradual way. George Eliot gives in "Romola" the picture of a man, good, generous, handsome, with all the appliances and means of doing good, who, "because he tried to slip away from everything that was unpleasant, and cared for nothing so much as his own safety, came at last to commit some of the basest deeds such as make men infamous."

5. The holy man who exclaimed, as he saw a criminal led to execution, "There goes me but for the grace of God," was not exaggerating, but only speaking from observation and experience. All men who know themselves are conscious that a bias towards evil exists within them. When we see a man fall from the top of a five-storey house, we say the man is lost. We say that before he has fallen a foot; for the same principle that made him fall one foot will undoubtedly make him complete the descent by falling other eighty or ninety feet. The gravitation of sin in a human soul acts precisely in the same way.

6. In the Zulu and Afghanistan wars some of our forces suffered disaster, not because they were weak or cowardly, but because they felt so strong and brave that they thought they might be careless.

(E. J. Hardy, M.A.)

The vices are the counterfeits of virtues. Whenever God sends from the mint of heaven a precious coin of genuine metal, Satan will imitate the impress, and utter a vile production of no value. God gives love. Satan also fashioneth lust. God bestows courage. Satan inspires foolhardiness. The saving grace of faith ripens into confidence. Satan palms upon us the vice of presumption. Let us —

I. FIND OUT THE CHARACTER OF THE MAN WHO THINKS HE STANDS. I could find men in business who, because they have in one speculation been successful, will risk their all — and lose it too. I might mention others who, presuming upon their health, are spending their years in sin because they think "all men mortal but themselves." I might speak of men who will venture into the midst of temptation, confident in their boasted power. But my business now is to uncover the causes of presumption in a Christian.

1. Worldly prosperity. Give a man wealth, or, if not wealth, continued health, and the consequence, let him be the best Christian who ever breathed, will be presumption; and he will say, "I stand." "In my prosperity," says David, "I said, I shall never be moved." And we are not much better than David, nor half as good. Bless God, then, for our afflictions; but for them we might become too secure.

2. Light thoughts of sin. When we are first converted, our conscience is so very tender, that we are afraid of the slightest sin. But alas! very soon the sensitive plant of young piety turns into a pliant willow. It is sadly true that even a Christian will grow by degrees so callous, that the sin which once startled him does not alarm him in the least. By degrees we get familiar with sin. The men who work in those huge vessels, the hammering of which causes immense noise, cannot at first sleep for the continual din; but by and by they think nothing of it.

3. Low thoughts of the value of religion. We none of us value religion enough. We have nought with which to compare the soul; therefore we cannot tell its value. It is because we do not know this that we presume. Doth the miser scatter his gold on the floor that his servant may steal it? Doth the mother trust her babe by the river-side? Oh! no; what we esteem most precious, we guard with the most anxious care. So, if Christians estimated religion at its proper rate, they never would presume.

4. Ignorance of what we are, and where we stand. We say, "I have a good disposition, and none of those passions that some have; I can stand secure." Take heed, Christian, thou hast a heart of unbelief; therefore watch thou both night and day.

5. Pride —(1) Of talent. How many that flamed like comets in the sky of the religious world have been quenched in darkness!(2) Of grace. A man says, "I have great faith, I shall not fall." "I have fervent love," says another, "there is no danger of my going astray." He who boasts of grace, has little grace to boast of. But there are some who think their graces can keep them, knowing not that the stream must flow constantly from the fountain head, else the bed of the brook shall soon be dry, and ye shall see the pebbles at the bottom.(3) Privileges. "I take the sacrament, I have been baptized; I attend such and such a ministry." Take heed, pride cometh before a fall.

II. SHOW THE DANGER. He who thinks he stands is in danger of a fall. Because such a man —

1. In the midst of temptation will be sure to be more or less careless. He is off his guard; he is not ready to parry the stroke of the evil one.

2. Will not be careful to keep out of the way of temptation, but rather will run into it. Presumptuous men will say they can go into sin, they are so full of moral strength.

3. Will not use the means of grace. I know some professedly religious people who stop away from the house of God because they conceive they are so advanced that they do not want it. They fancy that means are intended for weaker Christians; and leaving those means, they fall.

4. Quenches the Spirit who delights to dwell in the low places. He leaves every heart where pride dwelleth; that evil spirit of Lucifer he abhors.

III. GIVE THE COUNSEL. "Take heed," because —

1. So many have fallen. Could I take you into the wards of that hospital where lie sick and wounded Christians, I could make you tremble.

2. A fall will so much damage the cause of Christ. Nothing has hurt religion one thousandth part so much as the fall of God's people.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

One of the saddest incidents connected with the disastrous fire at Chicago is that so many trusted not only their goods but their lives to buildings that were regarded as fireproof, and that they perished together. Dr. Goodall records similar incidents connected with the great fire at Constantinople in 1831, and makes a suggestive reflection, "We, like many others, fared the worse for living in houses which were considered fire-proof. In the great burning day may no such false confidence prove our ruin."

(Christian Age.)

1. This is a godly fear, and "blessed is he" which "standeth in fear," not of God's mercy, but of his own frailty (Proverbs 28:14), as Job did (Job 9:28). We must have confidence towards God, but diffidence towards ourselves; for God will be true to us if we be true to Him. This fear is not contrary to faith, but cannot stand without it.

2. The apostle warneth us that we are all in a house ready to fall, all in a ship ready to sink, and all in a body ready to sin. Who can say what he will do when he is tried? "Take heed" is a good staff to stay upon, and so often a man sins as he casts it from him; all go astray.

3. Who would have said that the chosen people should become the cursedest upon the earth? Who would have thought that Noah, when he builded the ark, because he believed in God, would have given the first example of sins to his own sons? Who would have thought that David, when he was persecuted for his godliness in the desert, would have murdered Uriah, when the blessings of God did call him to thankfulness? Who would have thought that Solomon, the wisest man, would have taken more concubines unto him than any heathen the world? "How are the mighty overthrown!" Like Peter, which said he would never forsake Christ, and forsook Him first. These strong oaks lie in the dust, that they which think they. stand may take heed lest they fall. Can I look upon these ruins without compassion, or remember them without fear? Who am I that I should stand like a shrub, when these cedars are blown down to the ground? They which are charged like Hazael (2 Kings 8:13) blush to hear thus of themselves, and would have scorned sometime at him which should once have said. when they were zealous and studious preachers, that the time would come when they should be time-servers, lovers of the world, and persecutors. What Shall we do then when we hear of other men's thoughts? Not talk as we do, but beware by them, and think, Am I better than he? am I stronger than Samson? wiser than Solomon? firmer than Peter, if God should leave me to myself? There is no salt but may lose his saltness, no wine but may lose his strength, no flower but may lose his scent, no light but may be eclipsed, no beauty but may be stained, no fruit but may be blasted, nor soul but may be corrupted.

4. So earnestly must we call upon our souls, that we be not weary of well-doing; for happier are the children that never began, than Judas, whose end was worse than his beginning.

(H. Smith.)

It is a very affecting truth, that of all the thousands who left Egypt, there were none, only Joshua and Caleb, entered the promised land. And there is something peculiarly solemn in the thought that the apostle has brought them forward as a warning to the Church. Note —

I. THOSE FALLS TO WHICH A CHILD OF GOD IS EXPOSED. A child of God may fall —

1. In doctrine.

2. In his own personal religion. Hen may get into a cold and heartless state.

3. In the outward conduct. Low principles lead to low practice.

II. THAT THERE MAY BE THE STATE OF MIND IN WHICH A MAN MAY THINK THAT HE STANDS, i.e., that he is secure. He sees others fall, and he reasons, "I am not exposed to the same falls as they were." What does it arise from? An overweening confidence in his own strength, wisdom, experience. And how does self-confidence evince itself? In the Church of old it showed itself by a state of sleep; in boasting expressions, in the case of Peter. Distinguish, however, between self-confidence and confidence in Christ. Paul was very confident in the latter sense (2 Corinthians 5:6; Philippians 3:3; 1 Corinthians 1:13, 31).

III. THE NEED FOR CAUTION IS GIVEN US IN THE TEXT.

1. There is in you a perpetual proneness to fall. It is well for a man, when he rises in the morning, to have this in his soul as a certain principle, "I have in me the seed of all evil, and my prayer through this day must be, 'Hold Thou me up and I shall be safe.'"

2. Any of our outward circumstances, even the most prosperous, may prove occasions for falling (cf. Hezekiah). So with adversity (Psalm 73).

3. Our very lawful occupations — things that are positively commanded by God — yea, our very spiritual exercises, may have something in them which takes our heart from God.

IV. HOW TO BE PRESERVED FROM FALLING.

1. Keep ever in mind your perpetual tendency to depart from the living God.

2. Watch over the first declensions.

3. When the Holy Ghost unfolds to your souls where, in what, and from what you have fallen, take it to Jesus — to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness.

(J.H. Evans, M.A.)

I. WHAT IT IS THIS HEED REFERS TO, OR WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE DUTY TO WHICH MY TEXT DIRECTS. It denotes that heedfulness and circumspection a person would show who apprehended anger to be near. More particularly this circumspection relates —

1. To a man's outward circumstances and calling in life. Choose rather to be called unneighbourly, stiff, precise, and what not, than to sacrifice religion and conscience for a little worldly pelf, or a mere empty compliment.

2. This circumspection and care relates to a man's heart. God complains of Israel, that His heart was divided (Hosea 10:2). The true fear of God has always its seat in the heart (Jeremiah 31:33). Hypocrisy seeks a cover, but truth and sincerity begin here; if this be rotten, all your faith is vain, your hope is vain, ye are yet in your sins. It is an awful word in Hosea 7:16, and yet it is a true representation of every man's heart: "They return, but not to the Most High; they are like a deceitful bow." Alas! how ellen do our hearts fail us when we have thought we took them with us at the beginning of a duty? Take heed to your hearts, if you would stand your ground against the evil one.

3. This circumspection and care relates to the way in which our enemies are opposed and resisted by us. Take heed how you walk, if you would stand your ground; how you fight, if you would keep the field. You have the great law of arms set down (Ephesians 6:10).

4. This circumspection and care relates to a believer's life and conversation after such a conquest; take heed to your walk after any advantages you have gained against your enemy. It is Peter's advice, and his experience cost him dear (1 Peter 5:8). Pride and self-applause are apt to shove themselves in, though our own arm hath not gotten us the victory. Paul's thorn in the flesh was given to keep him humble. Take heed of a vain, wandering, loose conversation after sweet communion; pray that you may not fall from your steadfastness.

II. WHO ARE THE PERSONS THE DUTY IS DIRECTED TO? In general, it is to them that think they stand, them whose fall is least expected. Paul gives this special direction to Timothy (1 Timothy 4:16). Ministers may soon pull down in their life and conversation what they are building up in their doctrine. Some that have stood it out manfully against the storms of persecution, have been easily drawn aside from their steadfastness in a calm of liberty.

III. WHY SUCH AS THINK THEMSELVES MOST SAFE AS TO THEIR STATE SHOULD TAKE HEED LEST THEY FALL; or what are those motives and arguments contained in the term "wherefore."

1. Because many have so fallen (see ver 5). Where there are many cautions and memorandums there must be great danger; here a post and there a pillar to give warning; sure there must be some pits in the way which we are not well aware of. It is reported of a Grecian commander that wherever he went, though he was alone, he was still considering all the places he passed by, how an enemy might possess them, and lay ambushes in them to his disadvantage, should he command an army there. Oh! that Christians were half so cautious! "A prudent man seeth the evil, and hideth himself."

2. Because there is nothing in your circumstances, gifts, station of life, experience, or attainments, that will of itself keep you from falling. Corrupt nature is corrupt nature in one as well as another. Temptation meeting with approbation and acceptance in the heart, like a violent land-flood rushing down a steep place, carries all before it. When sin is committed a man wonders he should be so overtaken, so sadly soiled; he can scarcely believe that it is he that has sinned.

3. Sin, when it is committed, hardens, whoever be the person sinning (Hebrews 3:13).

4. Should you be restored after your falls the fruit of sin will be exceeding bitter.Inferences:

1. If the heedful are in so much danger, what must become of poor heedless souls!

2. Is he that thinketh he standeth in danger lest he fall? How humble should this make us in our own eyes! how pitiful and tender towards them that are fallen?

3. What a blessing is the care and watch of a gospel-church, when so many are our temptations, so great our dangers.

(J. Hill.)

The dangers to which religion and virtue are exposed during the whole of our Christian course are enough to excite the care and to exercise the prudence and fortitude of a Christian. The passions and appetites implanted in our nature, if not strictly restrained, will rise into irregularity and lead us into criminal excess. The pernicious examples with which the world abounds, unless they be carefully guarded against, will easily corrupt the heart, and seduce us into sinful practices. No inconsiderable degree of danger arises from that cheerfulness of heart and gaiety of temper which, though innocent and agreeable in themselves, may lead us inadvertently beyond the bounds of innocence. The desire of riches and wealth, that love of money which is the root of all evil, has carried away numbers of mankind, and landed them in destruction.

1. The first and most essential preservative of virtue is to maintain a lively faith in the principles of religion. By frequently recollecting the evidences of the gospel, which are the proper grounds of faith, revive that essential principle, and by reflecting on the consequences of religion keep alive a deep sense of its importance. Often call to mind the goodness of God, especially as displayed through Jesus Christ; exercise your faith in those great and precious promises which are made to good men in the gospel, and never lose sight of those awful threatenings which are denounced against impenitent sinners.

2. As another excellent mean of safety, which should be employed in the preservation of innocence, cultivate a lively sense of virtue and vice, by attending to the dictates of conscience. Never stifle the admonitions of your own minds; regarding them as so many warnings from heaven, attend to their voice and follow their directions. Allow conscience to strip vice of those artificial disguises which it assumes in the world, and which lessen the sense of its guilt and danger. Always regard sin, even under its most flattering appearance, as the reproach of human nature, as subversive of society, as peculiarly offensive to God. Nor let your abhorrence of evil be confined to those flagrant vices which expose men to shame, which lay waste the conscience, and are an outrage on religion. Look even upon less instances of vice as proportionably guilty in the sight of God and dangerous to your own souls.

3. It will greatly conduce to our spiritual safety to maintain a sense of the weakness of human nature, and of an absolute dependence upon God. Remember the imperfection of the understanding, the power of prejudice, the perverseness of the will, and the deceitfulness of the heart.

4. As a natural consequence of human weakness, and another excellent preservative of virtue, carefully avoid the occasion of sin. Allow not yourselves to proceed to the utmost bounds even in things lawful. From the utmost boundary of virtue there is but one step into the regions of vice; and he who continues to take this dangerous liberty will sometimes make the fatal transition. Make yourselves well acquainted with your own abilities, dispositions, and inclinations; that you may encounter no temptation which you are unable to resist, that you may undertake nothing to which you are unequal. But do not think it enough merely to avoid the occasions of sin. If you would effectually secure your integrity, you must make diligent use of the means of virtue. Attend with seriousness and regularity the public institutions of religion. Be as regular in your private as in your public devotions. There call your past ways to remembrance, deliberate concerning your future conduct, and ask assistance and direction from the eternal fountain of wisdom and goodness.

(A. Donnan.)

Dr. Talmage tells a story of an experience-meeting held in Louisville, Kentucky, that is not without its lessons. It seems to have been a meeting where what our Transatlantic friends call "high falutin' talk" was in the ascendant. A man rose up and said, "I'm a ship steaming right ahead for glory. I can tell ye I'm going along at a spanking pace, and soon expect to enter the blessed haven of eternal felicity." Another man, whose jealousy seems to have been excited by this very high-sounding profession, immediately rose and said, "Yes, friends, like our brother who has just sat down, I also am a ship in full sail, steaming straight and fast for the heavenly shore. I'm going along at the rate of forty knots an hour, and soon shall hail the mountaintops of Immanuel's land. Glory! glor!" An aged sister who was present, and whose experience of Christian life extended over many years, rose and said, "Well, you are all gettin' 'long mighty fast. I have been a-goin' to heaven for seventy years, and I've had to walk all the way, and have often stumbled and fallen, but have got up again, and if I ever get there at all I expect I'll have jest to walk the rest of the way. As to you men who are going so fast, all I've got to say is, that if you get to goin' much faster you'll bust your bilers and never git there at all." Dr. Talmage naively adds, "There are a good many folk whose bilers have busted, all about."

A wild beast tamer boasted that he was the entire master of the animals committed to his charge. They were completely his slaves. On entering the cage in which they were confined, he was immediately set upon, and but for timely assistance would undoubtedly have perished. So men often boast themselves masters over evil habits. They can drink without becoming slaves to it. Beware, lest in an unguarded moment the so-called slave becomes the master.

(Ellen K. Tripper.)

Corinthians, Israelites, PaulCorinthBeware, Careful, Doesn't, Fall, Falling, Fear, Firm, Heed, Lest, Observe, Safe, Securely, Seems, Stand, Standeth, Standing, Stands, Thinketh, Thinking, Thinks, Wherefore1. The sacraments of the Jews are types of ours;
7. and their punishments,
11. examples for us.
13. We must flee from idolatry.
21. We must not make the Lord's table the table of demons;
24. and in all things we must have regard for our brothers.

1 Corinthians 10:12

     5186   stumbling
     5191   thought
     5810   complacency
     5813   conceit
     5879   humiliation
     5942   security
     8329   readiness
     8493   watchfulness, believers
     8803   pride, evil of

1 Corinthians 10:1-12

     6223   rebellion, of Israel

1 Corinthians 10:11-12

     1613   Scripture, purpose

1 Corinthians 10:12-13

     6249   temptation, universal
     8251   faithfulness, to God
     8707   apostasy, personal

Ninth Sunday after Trinity Carnal Security and Its vices.
Text: 1 Corinthians 10, 6-13. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 9 Neither let us make trial of the Lord, as some of them made trial, and perished by the serpents. 10 Neither murmur ye, as …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

December the Twelfth Relating Everything to God
"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God." --1 CORINTHIANS x. 23-33. And so all my days would constitute a vast temple, and life would be a constant worship. This is surely the science and art of holy living--to relate everything to the Infinite. When I take my common meal and relate it to "the glory of God," the common meal becomes a sacramental feast. When my labour is joined "unto the Lord," the sacred wedding turns my workshop into a church. When I …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Mental Prayer.
"Pray without ceasing."--1 Thess. v. 17. There are two modes of praying mentioned in Scripture; the one is prayer at set times and places, and in set forms; the other is what the text speaks of,--continual or habitual prayer. The former of these is what is commonly called prayer, whether it be public or private. The other kind of praying may also be called holding communion with God, or living in God's sight, and this may be done all through the day, wherever we are, and is commanded us as the …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

Doing Glory to God in Pursuits of the World.
"Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."--1 Cor. x. 31. When persons are convinced that life is short, that it is unequal to any great purpose, that it does not display adequately, or bring to perfection the true Christian, when they feel that the next life is all in all, and that eternity is the only subject that really can claim or can fill their thoughts, then they are apt to undervalue this life altogether, and to forget its real importance. …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

The Limits of Liberty
'All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. 24. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth. 25. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake. 26. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. 27. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed togo, whatsoever is set before you eat, asking no question for conscience sake. 28. But if any man …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Men Often Highly Esteem what God Abhors.
Ye we they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts for that which is highly esteemed among men, is abomination in the sight of God." -Luke xvi. 15. CHRIST had just spoken the parable of the unjust steward, in which He presented the case of one who unjustly used the property of others entrusted to him, for the purpose of laying them under. obligation to provide for himself after expulsion from His trust. Our Lord represents this conduct of the steward as being wise in the …
Charles G. Finney—Sermons on Gospel Themes

God's Glory the Chief End of Man's Being
Rom. xi. 36.--"Of him and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever." And 1 Cor. x. 31--"Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." All that men have to know, may be comprised under these two heads,--What their end is, and What is the right way to attain to that end? And all that we have to do, is by any means to seek to compass that end. These are the two cardinal points of a man's knowledge and exercise. Quo et qua eundum est,--Whither to go, and what way to go. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Communion with Christ and his People.
AN ADDRESS AT A COMMUNION SERVICE AT MENTONE. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread."--1 Cor. x. 16, 17. COMMUNION WITH CHRIST AND HIS PEOPLE. I WILL read you the text as it is given in the Revised Version: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ?" …
Charles Hadden Spurgeon—Till He Come

The Rock of Ages
(Ninth Sunday after Trinity.) 1 Corinthians x. 4. They drank of that Spiritual Rock which followed them; and that Rock was Christ. St. Paul has been speaking to the Corinthians about the Holy Communion. In this text, St. Paul is warning the Corinthians about it. He says, 'You may be Christian men; you may have the means of grace; you may come to the Communion and use the means of grace; and yet you may become castaways.' St. Paul himself says, in the very verse before, 'I keep under my body, and …
Charles Kingsley—Town and Country Sermons

Heaven on Earth
1 COR. x. 31. "Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." This is a command from God, my friends, which well worth a few minutes' consideration this day;--well worth considering, because, though it was spoken eighteen hundred years ago, yet God has not changed since that time;--He is just as glorious as ever; and Christian men's relation to God has not changed since that time; they still live, and move, and have their being in God; they are still His children--His …
Charles Kingsley—Twenty-Five Village Sermons

Touching Jacob, However, that which He did at his Mother's Bidding...
24. Touching Jacob, however, that which he did at his mother's bidding, so as to seem to deceive his father, if with diligence and in faith it be attended to, is no lie, but a mystery. The which if we shall call lies, all parables also, and figures designed for the signifying of any things soever, which are not to be taken according to their proper meaning, but in them is one thing to be understood from another, shall be said to be lies: which be far from us altogether. For he who thinks this, may …
St. Augustine—Against Lying

But, as I had Begun to Say, Whether the Fruit an Hundred-Fold be virginity...
47. But, as I had begun to say, whether the fruit an hundred-fold be virginity dedicated to God, or whether we are to understand that interval of fruitfulness in some other way, either such as we have made mention of, or such as we have not made mention of; yet no one, as I suppose, will have dared to prefer virginity to martyrdom, and no one will have doubted that this latter gift is hidden, if trial to test it be wanting. A virgin, therefore, hath a subject for thought, such as may be of profit …
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

Here Peradventure Some Man May Say, "If it was Bodily Work that the Apostle...
14. Here peradventure some man may say, "If it was bodily work that the Apostle wrought, whereby to sustain this life, what was that same work, and when did he find time for it, both to work and to preach the Gospel?" To whom I answer: Suppose I do not know; nevertheless that he did bodily work, and thereby lived in the flesh, and did not use the power which the Lord had given to the Apostles, that preaching the Gospel he should live by the Gospel, those things above-said do without all doubt bear …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

Nor, Because I Called Ruth Blessed, Anna More Blessed...
10. Nor, because I called Ruth blessed, Anna more blessed, in that the former married twice, the latter, being soon widowed of her one husband, so lived long, do you straightway also think that you are better than Ruth. Forsooth different in the times of the Prophets was the dispensation of holy females, whom obedience, not lust, forced to marry, for the propagation of the people of God, [2242] that in them Prophets of Christ might be sent beforehand; whereas the People itself also, by those things …
St. Augustine—On the Good of Widowhood.

Perseverance of Saints.
FURTHER OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 4. A fourth objection to this doctrine is, that if, by the perseverance of the saints is intended, that they live anything like lives of habitual obedience to God, then facts are against it. To this objection I reply: that by the perseverance of the saints, as I use these terms, is intended that, subsequently to their regeneration, holiness is the rule of their lives, and sin only the exception. But it is said, that facts contradict this. (1.) The case of king Saul is …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

The Saint Resumes the History of Her Life. Aiming at Perfection. Means Whereby it May be Gained. Instructions for Confessors.
1. I shall now return to that point in my life where I broke off, [1] having made, I believe, a longer digression than I need have made, in order that what is still to come may be more clearly understood. Henceforth, it is another and a new book,--I mean, another and a new life. Hitherto, my life was my own; my life, since I began to explain these methods of prayer, is the life which God lived in me,--so it seems to me; for I feel it to be impossible that I should have escaped in so short a time …
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

Of Resisting Temptation
So long as we live in the world, we cannot be without trouble and trial. Wherefore it is written in Job, The life of man upon the earth is a trial.(1) And therefore ought each of us to give heed concerning trials and temptations, and watch unto prayer, lest the devil find occasion to deceive; for he never sleepeth, but goeth about seeking whom he may devour. No man is so perfect in holiness that he hath never temptations, nor can we ever be wholly free from them. 2. Yet, notwithstanding, temptations …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Man's Chief End
Q-I: WHAT IS THE CHIEF END OF MAN? A: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. Here are two ends of life specified. 1: The glorifying of God. 2: The enjoying of God. I. The glorifying of God, I Pet 4:4: That God in all things may be glorified.' The glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all our actions. I Cor 10:01. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' Everything works to some end in things natural and artificial; …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

But one Sometimes Comes to a Case of this Kind...
24. But one sometimes comes to a case of this kind, that we are not interrogated where the person is who is sought, nor forced to betray him, if he is hidden in such manner, that he cannot easily be found unless betrayed: but we are asked, whether he be in such a place or not. If we know him to be there, by holding our peace we betray him, or even by saying that we will in no wise tell whether he be there or not: for from this the questioner gathers that he is there, as, if he were not, nothing else …
St. Augustine—On Lying

Indeed in all Spiritual Delights, which Unmarried Women Enjoy...
27. Indeed in all spiritual delights, which unmarried women enjoy, their holy conversation ought also to be with caution; lest haply, though their life be not evil through haughtiness, their report be evil through negligence. Nor are they to be listened to, whether they be holy men or women, when (upon occasion of their neglect in some matter being blamed, through which it comes to pass that they fall into evil suspicion, from which they know that their life is far removed) they say that it is enough …
St. Augustine—On the Good of Widowhood.

For that Both History of the Old Testament...
8. For that both history of the Old Testament, and ætiology, and analogy are found in the New Testament, has been, as I think, sufficiently proved: it remains to show this of allegory. Our Redeemer Himself in the Gospel uses allegory out of the Old Testament. "This generation," saith He, "seeketh a sign, and there shall not be given it save the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so also shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights …
St. Augustine—On the Profit of Believing.

W. T. Vn to the Christen Reader.
As [the] envious Philistenes stopped [the] welles of Abraham and filled them vpp with erth/ to put [the] memoriall out of minde/ to [the] entent [that] they might chalenge [the] grounde: even so the fleshly minded ypocrites stoppe vpp the vaynes of life which are in [the] scripture/ [with] the erth of theyr tradicions/ false similitudes & lienge allegories: & [that] of like zele/ to make [the] scripture theyr awne possession & marchaundice: and so shutt vpp the kingdome of heven which is Gods worde …
William Tyndale—The prophete Ionas with an introduccion

The Lord's Supper
And as they did eat, Jesus took bread,' &c. Mark 14: 22. Having spoken to the sacrament of baptism, I come now to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is the most spiritual and sweetest ordinance that ever was instituted. Here we have to do more immediately with the person of Christ. In prayer, we draw nigh to God; in the sacrament, we become one with him. In prayer, we look up to Christ; in the sacrament, by faith, we touch him. In the word preached, we hear Christ's voice; in the …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

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