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joy and glory, is abundantly evident from his history and is writings. Rom. 1,5. 11,13. 15,15.10. 1 Cor. 15, 9. 10. Gal. 1, 15. 16. Eph. 3, 8. The difference, therefore, here expressed between (ckwv and aKwv), willing and unwilling^ is not the difference between cheerfully and reluctantly, but be- tween optional and obligatory. He says he had a dispensation or stewardship {otKovofxta) committed to him. These stewards (otKovo/xot) were commonly slaves. There is a great difference between what a slave does in obedience to a command, and what a man volunteers to do of his own accord. And this is the precise difference to which the apostle here refers. The slave may feel honoured by the command of his master, and obey him gladly, still it is but a service. So Paul was com- manded to preach the gospel, and he did it with his whole heart ; but he w^as not commanded to refuse to receive a sup- port from the churches. The former, therefore, was not a ground of boasting, not a thing for which he could claim the reward of special confidence ; the latter was. He could ap- peal to it as a proof, not only of his obedience, but of the purity of the motive which prompted that obedience. A phy- sician may attend the sick ' from the highest motives, though he receives a remuneration for his services. But when he at- tends the poor gratuitously, though the motives may be no higher, the evidence of their purity is placed beyond question. Paul's ground of glorying, therefore, was not preaching, for that was a matter of obligation ; but his preachmg gratuitous- ly, which w^as altogether optional. If, says he, my preaching is optional, I have a reward / not in the sense of merit in the sight of God, but in the general sense of recompense. He gained something by it. He gained the confidence even of his enemies. But as preaching was not optional but obligato- ry, he did not gain confidence by it. Mere preaching, there- fore, was not a (Kavxwo) ground of boasting, but preaching gratuitously was. A dispensation of the gospel is committed to me ; in the Greek it is simply, ' I am intrusted with a stew- ardship (comp. Gal. 2, V, i. e. an office), which I am bound to discharge. I am in this matter a mere servant.' The princi^ pie on which the apostle's argument is founded is recognized by our Lord, when he said, '" When ye shall have done all those things Avhich are commanded you, say. We are unprofit- able servants : we have done that which was our duty to do," Luke 17, 10.