was straightforward, open, honest, destitute of all guile or crookedness; "but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak ; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts." What a sublime maxim! You are to speak or to preach,for all Christians must, each in his sphere, speak to others the truths of the Gospel,-seeking not to please men, but to profit men. Please, if you can; but never sacrifice the truth in order to propitiate. You may be most charitable, and yet you may be most uncompromising. If you can conciliate by sacrificing what you prefer, do it; but never, to conciliate the whole world, sacrifice one vital truth in your enunciation of what God's Holy Spirit has revealed.

most desirable to please; and if the pleasing can be secured without sacrifice of truth, by all means desire to do it. The Preacher, it is said, sought out "acceptable words." The same truth may be conveyed in different formulas; one man will speak a truth so coarsely, and fiercely, and apparently in so irritated a temper, that his people will repel it and him also; another man will speak the same truth, not less purely nor less faithfully, in conciliatory, affectionate, and kind words, and hundreds will receive it and be profited by it. Seek men's profit rather than men's pleasure; but if you can please while you profit, thank God fo the gift, and persevere.

He adds, "Neither at any time used we flattering words," we did not praise you where praise was not merited, nor a cloak of covetousness;" we did not praise you in order to get yours; as he expresses it in another epistle, "We sought not yours, but you."

"The sin of flattery, at least when given way to and

allowed, cannot consist with the grace of sincerity (as in no man, so much less) in a minister: where a man enslaveth himself to please the sinful humours of people, and upon any terms not to irritate them, he will not spare to wrest the truth of God, to make it subservient to his base design by strengthening the hands of the wicked, and promising him life (Ezek. xiii. 22), for Paul denieth that he used flattering words, as inconsistent with that sincerity formerly spoken of, which appears by the casual particle for: 'For neither at any time used we flattering words.'

"Though flatterers be deep dissemblers, and bend their wit to make all men believe they respect and love them, when they but seek to prey upon them (Prov. xxix. 5), yet a man of understanding will easily discern them and it argues either great stupidity, or blind self-love, in the man who, when he is flattered to his face, knoweth it not, but taketh foulest flatteries for real praises for while he appealeth to themselves to judge if he used flattering words, he implieth they might easily have discerned his flattery, if he had been guilty of it: For neither used we flattering words, as ye know.'

"There is not any sin more unbeseeming to, nor inconsistent with sincerity in a minister, than the sin of covetousness. The man who is enslaved to it will make his gain of all things, if it were by making merchandise of Christ himself (Matt. xxvi. 15), of truth (1 Tim. vi. 10), and of a good conscience (Micah ii. 2); for Paul doth clear himself of covetousness, as inconsistent with that sincerity formerly spoken of: 'For neither used I a cloak of covetousness.'

"The sins of flattery and covetousness go oft to

gether. The covetous wretch is of such a servile temper, as to make his tongue a trumpet to sound out the praises of all by whom he may have the least advantage, even though he know there be no real worth in the person whom he so commends: for Paul insinuates so much while he purgeth himself from both these vices jointly: For neither at any time used we flattering words, nor a cloak of covetousness.'

"As foulest sins have ofttimes fair pretences, so there is not any sin that folk desire more to keep under a cover than the sin of covetousness. It is so base a sin, that though it may have many favourers because of the advantage it bringeth with it, yet no man doth willingly seem to be guilty of it, or is content to be upbraided with it; for he saith not, he used not covetousness, but 'a cloak of covetousness,' because it is often coloured over with some pretext.

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Though fair pretences may cover foulest sins from the eyes of men, yet not from the eyes of God, in whose sight all things are naked and uncovered; he not only perceives the sin which lieth hid from man under a specious pretext, but doth so much the more detest it that it dare disguise itself and appear in a pious dress; for his appealing unto God to judge if he used a cloak of covetousness, implieth that no cloak or pretext could hide his sin from the eye of God: 'God is witness.'

"Nor of men sought we glory." What an important thought is here: Paul says he preached not that men might praise him, but that souls might be saved, and that God might be glorified. If man praise us, let us be thankful; if men harshly abuse us, let us still be thankful; for you may be quite sure of this, if good men praise you, it ought to be taken as

encouragement; but if men that neither love the gospel, nor love vital truth, very roughly abuse you, then do what I have always felt it a privilege to do, take it as a sign that you are doing good. The moment that the world begins to abuse you, you may be sure that the world is beginning to feel what you say, and they have no alternative—they must either accept the truth that you preach, and live it, and love it, and thank you as the instrument of conveying it, or they must hate the instrument, because they hate the truth, and abuse, and caricature, and revile. But if our motive is what it should be, not to seek men's praise, when we do not get it we are not the least disappointed; and when we meet with the praise we shall not be elated or proud. God seeth and trieth the heart; and if we are conscious that we have faithfully and fully preached his truth, if all the world shout anathema, what does it matter? Let us imitate the Christian independence of the great reformer; when he was told, "Martin Luther, the whole world is against you," his reply was, "Very well; I am so sure that I am right, that I will be against the whole world." We have nothing to do with man's praise, and less still to do with man's censure; we have only to do right; and if Heaven justify us, what does it matter if this poor perishing world takes it into its weak head to condemn you?

"In our conduct towards you we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children." How beautiful is that; "gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children." That is the only way to win people. I am perfectly persuaded that you never can drive people to heaven, you never can terrify men into holiness. If you fail to win them to heaven as

a nurse wins her children to goodness, you will fail altogether. There is in man, even as a wreck, something so sovereign still surviving, that he will not be driven into a conviction- -some live fragments of his pristine character, that he will not submit to be forced into a conviction. The key to man's heart is love; the secret of power over him is love; it is by exhibiting Christ's love that we shall melt and move the obdurate. The terrors of the lost may scare for an hour, and exercise a scathing influence for a day; but love has a persistency that never fails, a force that is ever cumulative. It is not the violent thunder-shower that descends in a torrent that does the earth any good; it is the sweet early rains of the spring that saturate the earth, and make it fertile and fruitful. It is the result of wide-spread experience, that while violence can do nothing, the gentleness, the meekness, and the persistency of love exert a force Dr. Chalmers calls omnipotent. Paul goes on to say, "We were affectionately desirous of you; and such was our love that we could have imparted to you not only the gospel, which we did, but even our own souls, because ye were dear unto us." What a beautiful portrait of ministerial labour, feeling, and affection. "Ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail; labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you." Paul worked as a tent-maker, and he preached as an apostle; and it is a very important lesson we should learn, that he was as much a Christian making tents as he was preparing sermons. To be the Christian, and to show the Christian, does not require that you should go into the pulpit and preach; Christianity is meant to colour every act, to illuminate every