point; the covering is shoved aside from his breast, and you see, without disguise, the workings of his ingenuous, his upright, his mighty mind. This parting address to the elders of Ephesus well deserved a place in the holy volume; and deserves it in our best regards, in our most reverential remembrance.

I propose to give you, on this occasion, an analysis of part of the apostle's discourse. You will find it to contain, an account of the manner in which he discharged his ministry among the Ephesians, ver. 18-21; his extreme devotedness to the cause in which he was embarked, ver. 22-24; and his presentiment of its being the closing of his ministry, with an affectionate appeal to their consciences, and the ground of that appeal, 25-27.

I. An account of the manner in which he discharged his ministry among the Ephesians, ver. 18-21.

1. He served the Lord with all humility of mind. The apostles, unlike many of their pretended successors, aimed at no worldly honors, distinctions, nor titles. "Rabbi" is not to be met with in their whole vocabulary. The name of lords bishops was utterly unknown to them, nor would they have thought it a meet appellation for the followers of a crucified Master.

Whatever be its origin or use, the spirit

of the apostles disclaims it, and holds no fellowship with the temper which it is calculated to cherish. Servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, was their highest earthly designation, and rank, and glory. Paul had talents, and powers, and proficiency, which fairly entitle him to a pre-eminence among his brethren; but the only pre-eminence which he courted was a pre-eminence in dangerous service to the glory of his Master. Let little men sigh after these trifles; it suits their capacities; it is fit for their ambition; but neither an apostle, nor an apostolic man, wishes for any more dignified style, or holy occupation, than to be known in the church as serving the Lord.

There is a consideration which weighs much with every gracious heart, and is not, cannot be, easily forgotten-the immense distance between the Lord Jesus and his most faithful servants. He, the living God; they, creatures low in the scale of being, when compared with other creatures which excel in strength, yet obey his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word. The treasure is in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power might be of God. The angels, who look, with studious anxiety, into the mysteries of redemption by Jesus Christ, would thankfully have accepted the appointment of ambassadors of the cross. But God has seen fit to confer that honor upon men of like passions with others;

and commanded the angels to be ministering spirits. When we add, that these heralds of his truth were sinners like other men, called by divine grace out of the common condemnation, and sent to tell their fellow-sinners that there is forgiveness with God, how august the message! how humbling to the messenger! He cannot, or ought not to, forget one single moment, that by grace he is saved; and the more profound and lively his sense of this truth, the more completely will he enter into the feelings of Paul, who served the Lord with all humility of mind. Could Paul need a monitor to remind him that he was once a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; that he obtained mercy because the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was exceeding abundant, and obtained it for this end, that in him, first, the Savior might show forth all longsuffering to them who should believe on him to life everlasting? He could not open his lips to proclaim the riches of redeeming love, without at the same time exhibiting himself as a monument of that love. No wonder that his service was so strongly tinged with humility. There is nothing, my brethren, which can so humble and elevate a man's soul as a powerful experience of the love of Christ. Nor is any thing more unbecoming, more desolating to the holy charac

ter-more indicative of communion with the devil, than clerical superciliousness.

Unassuming as were the apostle's mannersinnocent as was his conversation-useful as was his whole life, his course was nevertheless a course of trouble. For,

2. His ministry was marked by many tears, and many temptations, which befell him by the lying in wait of the Jews.

The tears of an apostle have upon our minds a most melting influence. Our own are disposed to mingle with them upon the bare mention of his. But, after all, what called them forth? You do not hear of his weeping before the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem-before the Roman governor, into whose presence he was brought in chains. No! there was a proper scene for a spirit which neither the Sanhedrim, nor the Roman governor, in all his authority, could subdue or bow. He appeared before them less as the criminal than as the judge. His mind rose, his spirit towered, till all before him seemed to be, what indeed they were, comparatively very little What then could bring tears, and many tears, from the eyes of a man who could make governors tremble on their bench of justice? The overflowings of his own benevolent heart! When he saw how men slighted their own mercies-how they rejected, some with civil, some

men.

with contumelious air, as they do at this hour, the salvation of God, and put away from them the words of eternal life; having before him the perils which they encountered, and a full view of the ruin which they could not escape, his whole soul was dissolved in tenderness, and he wept his tears of bitterness over their infatuation. The terror of the Roman government could not extort from his firmness a single drop -the sight of an immortal soul, perishing in its iniquity, and pleased with its delusions, altogether unmanned him, and suffused his cheeks with tears, which in other cases would have been the sign of weakness.

Objections and oppositions were not the only impediments of the apostle's career. Many trials befell him by the lying in wait of the Jews. That Paul was their countryman, in whom they had prided themselves—that he was among the Pharisees, whom the nation almost idolized-that he had been their ring-leader in persecuting the new religion, all passed for nothing. He was now a follower of the crucified Nazarene, and nothing but his blood would assuage their wrath. All the world over, the disciples of the Lord Jesus have been singled out as objects of ultimate violence. It is not to be wondered at in a world under the influence of him who was a murderer from the beginning. And if their con