is but another
form of a yet graver question--How far do we feel ourselves bound to be
followers of the Son of man in the regeneration, in the reconstruction
of man's nature and of human society, in the working out of His benign
plans and purposes for mankind? "_Be ye followers of me_," said Paul,
"_as I am of Christ_." The apostle's life was simply the most Christlike
life, and those who care to follow Christ must drink of the same
springs, and aim at the same ends, while they pursue the various
callings by which society is sustained and developed. To be Christian is
to have in us the same mind which was likewise in Christ Jesus. The
measure of our Christian vitality is the measure in which that mind is
in us, and in which we are able thereby to enter into this language of
the apostle Paul. Those that can enter into it perfectly, and can live
it, following Paul as Paul followed Christ, are the heaven-sent leaders
and ministers of mankind. It is a sacred line which God keeps unbroken
through all the ages, the men of apostolic spirit and self-devotion to
the good of their fellows. But those who follow can only follow through
sympathy. They must be able to believe in this spirit, to make it the
aim of their lives to work it out in their limited spheres, with feebler
it may be, but with honest and manly effort; or Christianity becomes
simply the efflorescence of civilization, and the sad world has to seek
its helper, teacher, and saviour still. Clearly then Paul was ready for
this, and far more than this, if thereby he might effectually help a
weak brother on his way.

II. Actually, as far as we have the means--and we have some means--of
knowing, Paul continued to eat meat to his dying day, while the
difficulty still remained a pressing one, and the stone of stumbling
still continued to block many a weak Christian's path.

What was the difficulty? How did the offence arise? The meat spoken of
here is meat which had been offered in an idolatrous temple, and which
might be supposed by those who had not the lofty intelligence of the
apostle to have contracted some moral contamination thereby. Under all
systems the meat offered in sacrifice was in some measure the perquisite
of the priest. (Lev. vii. 7-19.) The abuse of the custom is thus
described:--"_Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the
Lord. And the priest's custom with the people was, that, when any man
offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came,