might but be employed as instruments to " turn us from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God." Most remarkable is that declara- tion of St. Paul, to this effect, to his Gentile converts at Philippi : " If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all : for the same cause do ye also joy and rejoice with men." To understand this aright, we should bear in mind, that, when burnt- offerings were presented to God under the Law, meat-offerings of flour and oil were consumed with them, and drink offerings of wine were poured out upon them0. "Now," says the Apostle, " I regard your faith as a sacrifice and service to the Lord : and if my blood be poured out upon it as a libation," (that is the meaning of the word which we translate ' offered,') " so far shall I be from complaining of my persecutors, or accounting it hard that I am called to suffer, that I shall congratulate myself, and expect to be congratulated by you, on the honour and happiness conferred upon me." Such was his love towards the Gentiles. And should there not be some measure of the same spirit in us, towards the Jews ? But what self-denial have we exercised for them ? or what labour have we endured for their benefit ? Instead of willingly pouring out our blood for them, (as all the Apostles, except John, did for us,) have we even shed a tear for them before God, or poured out a prayer for their deliverance ? To us they have been the greatest benefactors : all that we know of God and his Christ, we have learned from them : and all on which our hopes of eternal happi- ness are founded, we derive from them. Do these things call for no return at our hands ? If we have received so abundantly of their spiritual things, is it not our "duty" to impart to them of oursv1 When they have manifested such enlargement of heart towards us, what can we think of ourselves, if we are so straitened towards themq?
If any one object, that " the benefits conferred on
n Phil. ii. 17, 18. ° Numb. xv. 3—11.
P Rom. xv. 27. * 2 Cor. vi. 11—13.