5Mi 2 CORINTHIANS, VI. 11—13. [2027.
In the discharge of this high office they have many difficulties to encounter —
[The Apostle here, with astonishing enlargement, sets them forth, and adduces them as evidences of his fidelity to God and man. He had " approved himself as a minister of God " in the diversity and i7itenseness of his sufferings ; " in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fast- ings." He had approved himself, also, in the zvhole of his spirit and conduct; " by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left." He had given yet further evidence of his fidelity, in the different kinds of reception he had met with ; " by honour and dishonour, by evil repoi't and good report; as a deceiver, yet true ; as unknown, yet well known ; as dying, yet, behold, he lived ; as chastened, yet, contrary to all human expectation, not killed." Lastly, he had shewn himself a true minister of God, in the supports and consolations that had been administered to him ; " as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing ; as poor, yet making many rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." The eloquence of this passage has perhaps never been surpassed: and it pi'oceeded, not from the richness of his imagination, but from the fulness of his heart; as he says: "O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged."
And were these things peculiar to the Apostle? Has not every faithful minister a 7neasure of the same ? What, if we ' have not to experience bonds and imprisonments, have we not to go " through honour and dishonour ; through evil report and good report ; as deceivers, and yet true ; as unknown, yet well known ?" Yes, and under the lowest pressure of adverse circumstances, we trust we can say, "As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing ; as poor, yet making many rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."]
But difficulties, of whatever kind, are of no account with them, if only they may be rendered subservient to the progress of the Gospel, and the salvation of immortal souls —
[It was not in away of complaint, and much less in a way of boasting, that the Apostle dilated thus on his experience: no ; it was for the purpose of convincing the Corinthians that he longed for their welfare, and accounted not his life dear unto him, if he might by any means promote their eternal happiness. He had himself obtained, by the Gospel, re- conciliation with God ; and he panted to make them also