our part." "Not to be against Christ" contained in itself the germ, from which the positive, "to be for Christ," might yet be developed. Though he did not as yet know Christ as the Apostles knew him, though he was still ignorant of the true significance and power of this name, and connected many errors with his belief in its efficacy; still it was a germ of faith not to be despised, a germ from which more might develope itself and be developed. It was a point of connection, from which one who had gained so much could be led still farther. It needed only that he should be brought to perceive what was implied in this, what must be presupposed in the strange efficacy of the invocation of Christ's name. Who must HE be, from whose name such power proceeds! In what relation must He stand to the kingdom of evil, when his name exercises such sway over evil spirits! It is clear that he who had once acknowledged so much was already in a position, from which, with patience and love, he might be conducted farther and farther in knowledge and faith. From him who as yet was only not an opposer of Christ, who knew and recognized Christ in some single point of view, might be formed by building upon that

which he had already attained, a positive disciple of Christ. But he might also, if not thus dealt with, if too much was required of him with his present attainments, be wholly repelled. Not only might he be hindered from farther progress by such harsh treatment, but be unsettled in regard to what he had already gained; and thus the germ of truth, in its yet imperfect development, might be wholly destroyed. Against such a course we are warned by those words of Christ ; and with these Paul accords when he rejoices that Christ was preached and acknowledged, even though in an obscured and defective manner.

We have already, before we saw clearly the relation which these opposers held to Paul, and regarding them merely in general as his personal enemies, felt ourselves constrained to acknowledge him as a model of self-denying zeal for the cause of Christ. We are now, after a more full and careful development of this relation, called upon to contemplate this great model under a new light. It implies a love purified from selfishness far above what is common, to be able to recognize and with joy to acknowledge the work of the Lord, when performed through the agency of a personal

enemy. But the power of this purified and exalted love reveals itself under still another view, when the truth lying at the basis of even an erroneous representation of the Gospel is recognized and welcomed; when the seed of truth is not rejected and spurned on account of the error, even though this may oppose itself to a purer, more complete, unmutilated conception of the Gospel as preached by ourselves, but is welcomed as one step towards the farther advancement of the Gospel. But how seldom do we find a like example! One who is capable, it may be, of joyfully welcoming the work of the Lord when advanced by means of a personal enemy, might yet not be able so far to forget self as to accept with cordial love, and to use for the common cause of the Lord, the truth lying at the bottom of the errors promulgated by his opponent, especially when in direct opposition to the pure truth which he is himself conscious of preaching. How different would it have been in the church, how many divisions might have been avoided, how many who have labored only to oppose each other might have labored together for the spread of the Gospel; how many who have hardened themselves in their

errors, and have lost by degrees even so much of divine truth as they had embraced, might from that partial view have been led farther and farther in the knowledge of the truth, and have been gradually made free from the bondage of error; if Christians, instead of demanding everything at once, with the impatient zeal of a love not sufficiently purified from self, had been more observant of the various grades of faith and knowledge, and had nurtured them with a forbearing charity!

The principle here expressed and acted on by Paul admits of numerous applications. But to what form of Christian labor is the immediate reference here? To that which most exactly corresponds to Paul's peculiar vocation, that where the first concern is to establish the church upon the one foundation, which is Christ; we mean the missionary work. Here should all, after Paul's example, fix their aim upon this single point, to make CHRIST everywhere known, to testify only of Him. Here, then, should the strife respecting differences in the form of representation and differences of creed find no place; and amidst all diversities on these points, there should be a union of labor for the one object of proclaiming Christ.

Whatever differences may exist on other points, ould all be made an offering to his cause. To ich one it should be matter of rejoicing that rough others also, and even such as in his view ave a less perfect knowledge of Christ, He, the reat centre of all, is made more and more widely nown. We may apply this example of Paul in still another view. There are times in which the church, even where it is already firmly established, is called on to exercise anew a missionary activity; times in which the ideas and tendencies to which Christianity first gave being and currency, though still exerting their influence upon society, yet deny their connection with Christianity, and even array themselves against it. Such are times of wide-wasting apostasy; when the culture, which has grown up under the fostering care of Christianity, rises up in opposition to it,— an opposition which may, however, have been first called forth by the impure mixture of human institutions with Christianity. Such periods occur in the history of all religions, when reason, matured to self-dependence, disunites itself from the faith under whose guardianship it has been nurtured. Nor could Christianity escape this fate.