"And I will very

am weak, then am I strong." gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved." The speciality of the likeness lies in this power of selfsacrifice; the power to lose all selfish thought and consideration in tender care for his brethren and for mankind.

It may seem a strange truth to this age of keen, intense competition, when the commercial idea rules so absolutely that nations are chary of moving in any cause, however righteous, except their own interests, in the narrowest sense, are very plainly involved. But it is well worth one's while to take note of the fact that these men, whose lives have been so noble, rich, and fruitful, who in a great sense are living still among us, whose presence the world with righteous instinct will not suffer to vanish, had absolutely no thought of any interest but Christ's, and were ready at any moment to lay down their lives on the altar of sacrifice, if by death, they too, like their Master, might win a blessing for mankind.

We are not likely, any of us, to become altogether as Paul, even by the most intense study and admiration of his character, but we may follow him as he followed Christ; and it may help us to live a little less selfishly, and to be more bold and large in our ministry to our fellow men, to see where such a life as his was rooted, and what was the secret of the mighty power which he, and such as he, have wielded over men. It is to have no self-will, to be absolutely open to the will of God.

It is a hard saying-no self-will; about which some will be ready to ask, "what on earth does it mean? Are we to have no will of our own, no thought and care for ourselves and those belonging to us?" God forbid! Paul had a very mighty will of his own, and had to express it and to bring it to bear, again and again, in defiance of the whole secular and religious world of his time. But he had purified the current of that will by deep inspirations of the heavenly air which a man breathes in prayer, and in meditation on the word and the ways of God.

It was his own will, and yet not his own; it had been refined and moulded into harmony with a higher will; he willed what was also the will of God. "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." He had laid his spirit bare to the stream of Divine influence; and just as the blood gets purified from its carbonic dross as the vital air breathes through it in the lungs, so the will of Paul-those desires, aims, hopes, loves, which are the springs of action-was purged of the acrid leaven of self by wrestling, conquering prayer; the prayer that God would search him to the most hidden depths of thought and will, and purify him, and would use him as an instrument for the fulfilment of His own holy and blessed purposes, making the instrument keen and strong, no matter how fierce might be the furnace fires; the prayer, above all, that God would strengthen him to follow his Master in the path of self-denial and self-sacrifice, and teach him to find the true delight and glory of his spirit in spending himself in the service of mankind, like God.

Do not think, I pray you, that a man must adopt formally the calling of an apostle or an evangelist, to enter into the fellowship of such a life as this. There have been very daring and successful soldiers, very able and masterly statesmen, very prudent and prosperous merchants, the deepest thought of whose hearts has been, "I am not my own, I am bought with a price, and I am bound therefore to glorify God with my body and with my spirit, which are His." Hard as it may seem, it is the beginning of peace to say it, and to try to live it. You may have your own way, and rule as absolute lord in your own little kingdom; other wills may feel themselves compelled to bow to your will, and you may exult in the sense of your power to sway them at your pleasure; but you will find yourself in the end miserably heart-sick and weary of your own way, when you have got it. While, on the other hand, you may give up your own will, deny yourself, and make it your steady purpose and effort to care for the welfare of others, to bear their burdens, to lighten their cares, and to minister to their joys-which is none the less beautiful and heavenly because philosophers call it by a fantastic name in these days— and a glow of heavenly peace and joy will pass into your spirit in the effort, and will abide there as a foretaste of the joy that you will share with God, with Christ, and with the great assembly and church of the Firstborn, in heaven.

"Followers of us, and of the Lord," said Paul, because he followed Christ so boldly, so utterly;

because none of the things which the men of this world strive for could lay their chain upon his spirit, neither did he count his life dear unto himself, if he might finish his course with joy, and the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus to testify the Gospel of the grace of God. The likeness to Christ lay expressly in the power of self-sacrifice; in the large, loving, ministering heart which could renounce its dearest, yea, even its eternal hope, if men might but be blessed. And this is to grasp perfectly the difference between blessedness and happiness which the text expounds to us, and to the consideration of which in fuller detail we will now proceed.

II. They entered into this fellowship by receiving the word "with much affliction, and joy of the Holy Ghost."

Confession, or profession as we call it, is in these days cheap work: so cheap that it is difficult to find any true gauge of its reality. Then it was dear work, and at any moment might cost dear life. It is not good to be out of fellowship with the struggles and sufferings which have won for us prosperity and peace. How many a stout citizen in past ages has stained his own hearth-stone with his life-blood, that you may sit with your dear ones around yours, no man daring to make you afraid. An age which feels no fellowship of spirit with the martyrs is not a noble age, is not a blessed age, however the elements of material prosperity may abound. Christian brethren, ask yourselves what you have in common with the

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noble army of martyrs, in your peaceful, happy homes, with your ample resources, with your wide circle of friends and kindred, and your prosperous, life to which your religion just adds an ornament of grace and a crown. Remember the men who won the inheritance for you; consider at what cost they won it, and at what cost they kept it; and understand how receiving the word with much affliction, may be one very constant condition of the purest joy of the Holy Ghost.

We learn from the narrative in the 17th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, that Paul had troubled work at Thessalonica. "The Jews who believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort," and stirred up a persecution against him. They expelled him from Thessalonica, and not content with that, followed him with their persecutions to Berea. We gather from the epistle that the persecution was prolonged, and that the Thessalonian Christians had literally to take their lives in their hands, when they professed themselves the disciples of the Lord Jesus.

We read about this calmly, and as almost matter of course. But strain your imagination to realise these “afflictions." Feel the cords tightening round your limbs, and the blood beginning to start under the strain; see the glaring eye of the African lion blazing on his victim, and his savage jaws opening to champ his prey; hear the hiss of the red-hot iron, or the swing of the executioner's axe; and then bethink you in the last dread moment, of a