communications that we revive both in ourselves and others those sublime affections, which constitute the basis of Christian friendship. The Apostle, when writing to the Corinthians, was constrained to sound forth, as it were, his own praises, in order to answer the calumnies that had been circulated respecting him : but in this epistle he speaks only out of the fulness of his heart to those whom he regarded with the most endeared affection : and the whole of what might be called boasting was nothing but the effusion of a mind glowing with love, and animated with the noblest sentiments.
From what he says of himself in the words before us, we shall take occasion to shew,
I. What are the dispositions and habits of a faithful minister —
Ministers are represented in the Scriptures under a great variety of characters. Sometimes they are called shepherds, whose office is to search out the straying sheep, and bring them to the fold of Christ : and, when once brought thither, to watch over them with all imaginable care, " strengthening the dis- eased, healing the sick, binding up the broken, bring- ing back again any that have been driven away:" and as to the lambs, they are to " carry them in their bosom, and gently to lead those that are with young3."
But they are designated by a far more exalted character, even that of a father ; which comprehends in it every thing that is tender and endearing b. How much of care and responsibility is involved in this relation, may be judged from the complaint which Moses poured out before God, when he was called upon to stand, as it were, in this relation to all the people of Israel0.
There is however a still more tender image by which God is pleased to represent his own stu- pendous love to his people, and by which also the
a Ezek. xxxiv. 2, 4. and Isai. xl. 11. b 1 Cor. iv. 14, 15.
c Numb. xi. 1 1—14.