lineal descendant of the man who wrestled with Jehovah and prevailed an Israelite. 3. IJis supe1'ior apostleship. "Are they ministers of Christ? (I spe~k as a fool) I am mor~." '!'hey .call~d themselves "mi~isters of Christ," and_ belonged, perhaps, to the party m the Cormthl!l.n Church who s111d they were "of Chnst"-Christites. But he was more an apostle of Christ than they were. Of this he Wl'\B conscious. In touching this Paul says, "I speak as a fool," or BB one beside myself. Here his great soul seems to flash. o~t i~ the fire of indignant irony. '£here is an egotism here, say some. True, but 1t 1s a Just, manly, necessary egotism. II. HIS BISTORIO SKETCH OF IDB EXTRAORDINARY TRIALS. He was scourged "five times," in "prisons frequent" and in "deaths oft," thrice "beaten with rods,'' once "stoned," "thrice suffered shipwrecks,'' in "perils in the sea" and on land, midst foes and friends, in the "wilderness" and in cities, tried by " weariness and painfulness, in watcbings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." Besides all this, he refers to the trials that came "daily" upon him in "the care of all the Churches." The Churches were dea.r to his heart, and all the dissensions, heresies, unchastities, immoralities, that appeared from time to time in the C'burches would carry anguish into his heart. Why he should refer in the last verse to the event that happened at Damascus, when he was let down "through a window in a basket," has been a puzzle to commentators. But as it was amongst his first trials as an apostle, it, perhaps, made the greatest impression on his mind. The trials here sketched indicate several things. L The mysteriousness of G~s procedure with his servants. One might have thought that the man inspired with supreme love to God, and receiving a commission from him, involving the salvation of souls, would have bad his way made clear and safe and even pleasant for him; that in his path no enemy should appear, no peril should threaten, no pain should be endured, that all things would be proritious; that he who embarked in such an enterprise as Paul's would sail in a bark absolutely secure, under a sky without a cloud, with every billow and every breeze propitious. But not so. The more important the Divine work entrusted to a man, and the more faithful he is in its discharge, the more trials will embarrass and distract him. For an explanation of this we must await the great explaining day. 2. The unconquerableness of Christly love in the soul. What stimulated Paul to embark in such an enterprise as this'! What urged him on through innumerable difficulties and dangers? What bore him up under distressing and ever-thickening trials ? Here is the answer : "The love of Christ constraineth me." This is the love that is unconquerable and all-conquering, the love that makes the true hero. 3. The indelibility of the impres- sions which trials produce. The trials in this long catalogue, so varied and tremen- dous, had long since transpired, but they were fresh in Paul's memory. Each one stood before the eye of his memory in living reality. It is a law in our nature that our trials make a deeper impression on us than our mercies. Why should this be so? Because they are the exceptions, not the rule. 4. The blessedness which the memory of trials rightly endured produces, In Paul's case it did two things. (1) It generated sympathy with the woes of others. "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?" No man can sympathize with the trials of others unless he has passed through trials himself. The sufferings that Christ endured qualified him to sympathize with the woes of the world. He who hUDgers for sympathy in his sufferings will go in vain to the man who has never suffered. (2) It inspired the soul with true rejoicing. "If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities." The reminiscence of the trials he had endured, the foes he had encountered, the perils he had braved, in the cause of Christ were now for him subjec~s for congratulation and glorifying. They had exerted such a beneficent influence on hu!. character, and were endured in such a. noble cause, that he rejoiced in them. In_ declaring all this Paul makes a solemn appeal for its truth. "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for ev'll'more, knoweth that I lie not."
HOMILIES BY q ARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. 1-6.-Relations of the apostle to the Corinthians; ground of anxiety. How shall we read this chapter? TQ read it aright it is certain that we must do more than U. CORlNTIIIANB, T 274 THE SECOND EPISTLE 'l'O 'l'HE CORIN'l'HIANS. [on. x1. 1-33,