nearness of heavenly glory was with him a most animating principle.

This hope cheered his fainting spirit; this prospect not only regulated, but almost annihilated his sense of suffering. Invisible things were made so clear to the eye of faith; remote things were brought so near to one, who always kept up in his mind a comparative estimate of the brevity of this afflicted life with the duration of eternal happiness; faith so made the future present; love so made the labour light; the earnest of the Spirit was given him in such a measure, that mortality seemed, even here, to be swallowed up of life. His full belief in the immediate presence of God in that world in which he was assured that light, purity, holiness, and happiness would be enjoyed in their most consummate perfection, not only sustained his hope but exhilarated his heart.

If it does not support us under our inferior trials in the same manner, it is because we have rather a nominal than a practical faith, rather an assenting than an obeying conviction; it is because our eyes are not fixed on the same objects, nor our hearts warmed with the same affections; it is because our attention is directed so sparingly to that Being, and to that state, to which his was supremely devoted. Ought we to complain, that we enjoy not the same supports, nor the same consolations, while we do not put ourselves in the same way to obtain them?

But though Saint Paul was no disciple of that metaphysical theology, which makes such untaught distinctions, as to separate our love of God from any regard to our own beatitude; though he might have been considered as a selfish man, by either of the classes to whom

allusion has been made, yet true disinterestedness was eminently his characteristic. Another instance of a human being so entirely devoid of selfishness, one who never took his own ease, or advantage, or safety, or credit into the account, cannot be found. If he considered his own sufferings, he considered them for the sake of his friends. "Whe"ther we be afflicted, it is for your con"solation and salvation." The only joy he seemed to derive, when he was pressed out of measure, above strength, was, that others might be comforted and encouraged by his sufferings. So also of his consolations; the principal joy which he derived from them was, that others might be animated by them. This anxiety for the proficiency of his converts, in preference to his own safety; his disposition to regard every object in due subjection to the great design of his ministry; his humble, vigilant care, while exulting in

the hope of an eternal crown, that he might not himself be cast away;' form, in combination with the rest of his conduct, a character which we must allow has not only no superior, but no parallel among men.

The union of generosity and selfdenial, and without the one the other is imperfect, was peculiarly exemplified in our apostle. His high-minded independence on man had nothing of the monkish pride of poverty, for he knew "how to abound;" nor was it the worldly pusillanimous dread of it, for he "knew how to want."

In vindicating the right of the ecclesiastical body to an equitable provision, as a just requital of their labours, he nobly renounces all claim to any participation for himself. "I have used none of these "things!" This wise and dignified ab

stinence in the original formation of a church, which must be founded, before provision can be made for its continu ance, while it maintained the dignity of his own disinterestedness, enabled him with the better grace, and more powerful effect, to plead the legitimate claims of her ministers; and to insist, that it was the duty of the people to supply their temporal things to those from whom they received, their spiritual things. While he himself refused to claim emolument, lest it should be made a pretence for hindering the Gospel, he yet looked forward with an eye of kindness and justice, in thus stipulating, as it were, for the comfort of Christian ministers to the end of the world.

In a long expostulatory argument, illustrated by a variety of analogous instances, he shows the propriety of a provision being made for those who