Christian missionaries, and which, for aught that appears, might, to an equal degree, be possessed by them.

I shall therefore leave out of the account, if he possessed them, as some imagine that he did, such remarkable talents as he seemed to display, his inspiration, the miraculous gifts and powers with which he was favored, and the very unusual consolations which were, at times, imparted to him.

I shall be excused, if any can think it objectionable, for making pretty copious quotations from the Scriptures of the New Testament. For this sure Record is at once the light by which we are to be guided, and the authority on which our conclusions

must rest.

1. Let us begin with the commencement of his missionary career, and mark the submission, the self-denial, the decision, and the promptitude, with which he devotes himself to this holy service.

This is set distinctly before us in the text, and is more fully illustrated in other parts of the New Testament scriptures. "But, when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." To estimate his character, in this incipient stage of its formation, with any tolerable justness, we ought to consider what great temporal sacrifices he was now called to make. All that he had been, as á

inan of uncommon popularity, among the most respectable of the Jews; all the alliances, he had formed and enjoyed; all the ties of consanguinity and friendship, that twined about his heart, which probably were as strong in him as in other men; all the prospects of honor and emolument, which were before him; and, what is much more, all the expectations of immortal rewards, which he had thought himself fully warranted to entertain, as a strict and conscientious Pharisee, must be forever relinquished.

How far the then future scenes of his labor and sufferings were disclosed to him, we cannot say. But he certainly well understood the offence of the cross; for he had been the perpetrator of the most horrid cruelties in his wrath against it. The Lord said of him to Ananias, "For he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." He knew the embittered hostility of his Jewish brethren against Christ, whom they had crucified as a vile impostor. He knew that the Gentiles could hardly endure the sight of a Jew; and that the devotees of a sensual and inveterate idolatry, the priest and the magistrate, the high and the low, would be exasperated at the attempt to spread a doctrine so spiritual, so peculiar, so unsocial and exclusive, as that of Christ and him crucified. Now, mark his conduct. He tears from his heart, in a moment, all these ties of nature and acquaint

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ance. He sacrifices upon the altar of his faith all these temporal interests. He denies himself in all that he had been, and had been seeking. He gives up family, country, and the immortal hopes he had so fondly cherished. In one word, he forsakes all. He takes up the cross with the most serious determination to bear it, heavy as it might be, through the residue of his days on earth. He counts the cost, and readily pays it down. Thou didst call, said he, Lord, and here I am. Tell me what thou wouldst have me to do, and I do it. Tell me where thou wouldst have me to go, and I go. Tell me what thou wouldst have me suffer, and I suffer it; be it hunger, thirst, cold, nakedness, stripes, imprisonment, or death, in the most frightful forms. Welcome all, if I may but have grace to be faithful. Not a Pharisee, or Rabbi, or relative, shall be his adviser. "I conferred not with flesh and blood." Henceforth he knows no man after the flesh. The evidence and the obligation were distinctly before him. And the obligation must be discharged. Said Luther, when his friends would dissuade him from appearing before the German Diet, on account of the great personal hazards which would attend it, "I would go to Spires, if there were as many devils in the city, as there are tiles upon the houses." Paul enters upon his mission with an undelaying promptitude. "Immediately, I conferred not." He does not hesitate, as if he were but half resolved. He does not spend months in a super

fluous preparation, as though he was going to be a mere traveller; as though there were no souls perishing, and it were a matter of little importance, after all, whether the Gospel be preached. He does not wait for associates, or a pleasanter sky. The service appointed him he embraced as a privilege, as a signal honor, of which he was infinitely unworthy, not as a hard and tedious business, which, though unwelcome, must be performed. The object before him was exactly suited to the strong benevolence of his heart. It was the greatest and noblest that ever wrought upon the energies of the human mind. It was such to him; and he was eager to be in his work.

Thus, at the outset, through the cross of Christ, the world was crucified to him, and he to the world. The anchor of his hope was cast within the vail, and it drew him strongly to itself. But he did not wish to arrive there, before he had faithfully performed the service assigned him.

2. Let us mark the steadfastness of his purpose, and his inflexible perseverance in his missionary labors, to the very end of his life; which was so prolonged that he styled himself, "Paul the aged."

"We are not," says he, "of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul." To the elders of the Ephesian Church he says, "And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things

that shall befal me there; save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying, that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me; neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." To the Philippians he says, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do; forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are before,

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press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Just at the close of life, and in the most serious review of the past, he says "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day." We discern his resolution to be shaken in no instance. We perceive no symptom of yielding the struggle to the demands of the adversary; no retreat from the post which circumstances required him to occupy; no regrets in the consideration of the choice he had made; no departure from the proper course of his missionary duty. Dangers did not appal him. Contradictions did not abash him. The menaces of authority did not stop his mouth, nor diminish his efforts. He says, "Necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel."