Malta he escaped with his life. Through the preaching of his disciples the Gospel first reached to our shores. He was the Apostle of the Gentiles, but above all, the Apostle of Greece and of Europe. Let us ask, as in the case of St. John, what are the practical lessons we may learn from his life.

I will select four

I. He was first the Apostle, as I have said, of the Gentiles, that is, he urged that into the fold of the Jewish Church should be received those heathen nations who before had been kept out of it. It was the widest extension of the True Religion that had ever been made, or that has ever been made. In order to effect it, he had to struggle against the most obstinate prejudice in his own heart and in the hearts of his countrymen that we can possibly imagine. He was thus the great teacher and the great example of what in one word we call Toleration. Toleration of

the infirmities, of the errors, of the differences of others, is one of the most difficult of all human virtues. Intolerance is one of the most common and easy of all human vices. But S. Paul has taught us that in order to be religious we need not be intolerant; he has also taught us in what toleration consists. Read his speech to the Athenians, in the 17th chapter of the Acts, read the 14th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans and the 8th of the 1st to the Corinthians, and you will see that the way in which he contrived to attain this great Christian grace was by trying to be as considerate to the scruples and the weaknesses of others as if they were his own; by acknowledging the value of a good motive and a

good intention, even when the act itself was mistaken; by recognizing that within the same Christian community wide differences might exist without breaking the bond of Christian fellowship. It is

in this respect that the Church of England, to which we belong, is so singularly happy amongst the Churches of the world. It is in this sense the most Protestant and also the most Christian Church in the world, because it is the most comprehensive, and because in this respect it walks and bids us walk, in the footsteps of our Lord's great Apostle, S. Paul.

II. This is one lesson of S. Paul's life, both to Jews and Gentiles. Another is his constant protest against the peculiar sins of the heathen world. Because he was indulgent to their weaknesses, he was not therefore indulgent to their sins.

There were many deeply-rooted evils against which he lifted up his voice. I will mention one, namely, that gross sensual wickedness which was so common in heathen times, and which still in our times tempts thousands to their ruin. I know,—we all know, how difficult it is to speak of this; and yet the thought that S. Paul has spoken of it as he has, may encourage me to say, and induce you to hear, a few words on what so deeply concerns us all. Perhaps of all the forms of excuse and temptation which this sin assumes, the most common, the most persuasive, is this:-that we are but doing as others do; and that what others do we may do. I will not now ask how far the fact is so. I know not,-none of us know, how much better or how much worse than they seem our fellow men may be. But let everyone

sincerely ask himself whether the conduct of others really makes better what he knows in itself to be wrong, and wicked, and hateful? Though thousands on thousands fall away, S. Paul's words of strong condemnation, the truth of which we acknowledge in our own consciences, remains the same.

A bad temper is not more excusable, or less offensive, because others have bad tempers as well as we. A cruel unfeeling act is not less cruel or unfeeling because others, under strong temptation, have been cruel and unfeeling. The old heathen maxim'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,' was not less base and contemptible because thousands acted upon it. Neither is the impure word or the unclean act less impure, or less selfish, or less loathsome, or less widely mischievous, because it is shared by numbers around us.

And on the other hand, we know not the wide effects for good, stretching far beyond ourselves, from the firm and silent resistance to this great and sore temptation even by any one single person. We cannot measure the strength, and peace, and hope, and joy which is brought to many and many a troubled soul by the thought of any pure and blameless youth, even in the humblest station of life, struggling manfully and successfully against the evil influences which would lead him astray from the path of innocence. Such characters are indeed the salt of the world, which alone save it from sinking into utter recklessness and universal corruption. May God bless them, whoever and wherever they be, for the inestimable blessing which they unconsciously, but

most surely, confer on the world in which their lot is cast.

III. A third lesson of S. Paul's life and doctrine is his deep humility. By the grace of God I am 'what I am.' 'I am the least of the Apostles, that ' am not worthy to be called an Apostle.' It was not that he did not know how great were his gifts; but still he had behind and within a deep-seated feeling of his own shortcomings in times past and present, of his own profound unworthiness before God, of his constant dependence on the help of others, and, above all, on the help of God. This was a feeling which the Gentile world little appreciated, but it is a feeling which lies at the bottom of all true Christian excellence. To be humble; to be willing to hear of our faults, and to have them corrected; to know that we have that within us which needs to be constantly forgiven; to feel that we are always needing the help of One greater than ourselves, to lead us right; not merely to say that we are miserable sinners, like all the rest of the world, but to acknowledge some special miserable sin of which we have been guilty on one special year and day, and in which we feel that we are guilty as others are not guilty; to be on the watch for every opportunity of improvement and growth in goodness and wisdom-this is indeed the first beginning of a holy and a happy life, the first requisite to be truly followers of St. Paul.

IV. Fourthly and lastly, there is the Apostle's untiring, unconquerable energy. This is what makes him so exactly suited to be the Apostle of Europe — which makes us feel that when he passed out of the

indolence and inactivity of Asia into this Western world of action, and industry, and progress, he was for the first time, as it were, in his own element. He laboured more abundantly' than they all.' Backwards and forwards across these seas--through danger, through hardship, through heat and cold, through misunderstanding and persecution, in tumults and labours, in solitude and desertion, in spite of sickness and constant weakness, he never flagged; he left no stone unturned to do the work which was set before him. And what was that work? In the scenes and the recollections of these countries which for some of us have so vast an interest, he had little or none. Great as those recollections are, his own recollections were greater still. His work was to labour in his Master's cause. It was to do good to his fellow-creatures—it was to render them better and wiser to bring them more near to God, and make them more like to Christ. My brethren, although we are not Apostles, yet his work is really ours, and his energy ought in some measure to be ours also. To us, as to him, these visits to the famous and beautiful places of the earth are, after all, but the play and the ornament of life. Whether we now care for these things much or little, they are not on earth our main business. Our main business is in our own professions, our own homes,- our European life, our English life-our own special vocation, whatever it be, whether on sea or on land; above all, in that vocation which is common to all of us-the vocation of Christians, of being good ourselves and doing good to others.

These are interests which demand our