it Stir you up to live more to his glory ? Let not our labours of love be the means of augmenting your guilt and misery. Force us not to be " swift witnesses against you" in the day of judgment: but rather seek, that we may have you as our joy and crown of rejoicing in that day.
In the meantime, " pray for us." Our responsibility is great and fearful. It is no light matter to answer for our own souls: but to have your souls also required at our hands, is formidable in the extreme. May God pity our infirmities, and pardon our insufficiency ! Yea, may he so " perfect his own strength in our weakness," that, through our feeble mini- strations, his name may be glorified, and your souls be saved !]
2 Cor. iii. 2, 3. Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, knoivn and read of all men : forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God ; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
HATEFUL and detestable as boasting is, there are occasions whereon it may be proper, and even neces- sary. As far as a man's own reputation merely is concerned, he need not be forward to vindicate himself from false accusations : if he be a holy and consistent character, he may safely leave himself in God's hands, indifferent about the censures of an ungodly world : but where the honour of the Gospel is at stake, and there is danger of its influence being undermined by the falsehoods that are circulated, it is by no means unworthy even of an Apostle to refute the calumnies that are raised against him. There were at Corinth false teachers, who sought by all possible means to destroy the character of the Apostle Paul, and who even denied his claim to apostolic authority. In answer to their malignant accusations, St. Paul, in his former Epistle to the Corinthians, says, ** Am I not an Apostle ? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord ? Are not you my work in the Lord ? If I be not an Apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you : for the seal of mine apostleship are ye