DISCOURSE Χ. THE CHRISTIAN RACE. M I COR. CHAP. IX. PART OF VERSE 24. So run, that ye may obtain. x. OST important was the matter by DISC. the Apostles communicated to the world; the heavenly reward, and the way to obtain it. The manner of communication well deferves your notice and attention. It is not done in the dry didactic style. There is nothing dull and heavy. All is spirit, and all is life. Their ideas are clothed in such figures, as at once convince the understanding, strike the imagination, warm the heart, and excite the affections. 1 DISC. affections. It is impossible to continue Χ. cold and indifferent, while we read their epistles. They look around on the various scenes of life, and the customs that prevail among those to whom they write. From these they select images calculated to convey with effect to the minds of their difciples, the doctrines which they wish to impress. "The most splendid solemnities which " ancient history hath transmitted to us, "were the Olympic games. Historians, " orators, and poets, abound with refe"rences to them; and their fublimest " imagery is borrowed from these renown" ed exercises. The games were solem" nized every fifth year by an infinite con" course of people from almost all parts of "the world. They were observed with "the greatest pomp and magnificence: "hecatombs of victims were flain in ho"nour of the heathen deities, and Elis was "a scene of universal festivity and joy. "We find that the most formidable and " opulent " opulent sovereigns of those times were DISC. " competitors for the Olympic crown. We " see the kings of Macedon, the tyrants of " Sicily, the princes of Afia Minor, and at " last the lords of imperial Rome and em x. " perors of the world entering their names among the candidates, and contending " for the envied palm; judging their feli"city completed, and the career of all " human glory and greatness happily ter"minated, if they could but interweave "the Olympic garland with the laurels " they had purchased in the fields of " war*." No subject could be more familiar than this was to the minds of the Corinthians, who were befides so often spectators of fimilar games, celebrated upon the Ifthmus on which their city was situated, and from thence denominated Isthmian. With the greatest propriety therefore the verse, of which my text is a part, is introduced by * Dr. HARWOOD'S Introduction to the Study and Knowlege of the New Testament, vol. ii. the DISC. the words, Know ye not-" Know ye not x. " that they which run in a race run all, " but one receiveth the prize? So run, " that ye may obtain." For every citizen in Corinth was perfectly acquainted with each minute circumstance of this solemnity; a folemnity every way so splendid and pompous, that there was no danger lest the allusions made to it in this and other parts of the apoftolical writings, should appear low and degrading. To unfold and difplay to you the truths and duties inveloped in such allusions, shall be the business of the following discourse, in the profecution of which I shall be often obliged, and therefore here make my acknowlegements, once for all, to the afore-cited ingenious writer. 1 Let us therefore observe, in the first place, that the comparison evidently intimates the Christian life to be a state of action, of strenuous, unremitted, unwearied action. The candidates, who were to engage in the |