Let us proceed then to consider,

III. The gratitude due to Almighty God for this appointment.

1. The whole passage is a burst of thanksgiving. Five verses of praise are poured out by the apostle, before the trouble which came to him in Asia, and his deliverance from it, which gave occasion to the hymn, is even introduced. "Blessed be God," exclaims the apostle, 66 even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us, &c." What a tide of consolation much have flowed into his own heart, to make him pause at the commencement of his narrative, to pronounce this act of solemn gratitude to God, to whom he owed, as he knew, all his own support, and all the ability of conveying it, as a channel, to his flocks.

2. Observe the titles here ascribed to the adorable God: "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ;" not "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" only, but "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," who had " fulfilled the promises made unto the fathers and remembered his holy covenant." Not the God of the Deist, or the Socinian, or the Mussulman, but the God of Revelation; the "God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," who had "so loved the world that he gave his onlybegotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life."

But this is not all. He is also "the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort." Not merely the God of patience, the God of peace, the God of hope; but, with an exuberance of grateful feeling, "the Father of mercies;" not mercy, but mercies in all their variety and fulness-and the Father of them, not the God only, to note more clearly his natural inclination and propensity to mercy, as a Ll

"Father who pitieth his own children." And "the God of all comfort," in whom all consolations are stored up, whose presence maketh joy, who is the one abundant ever-flowing spring of comfort to his faithful people, who can give comfort, all comfort, all degrees and all kinds of it, and who places his glory and his name in dispensing it.

No where, perhaps, in the whole compass of Scripture have we so rich and emphatic a description of the goodness of God, as in the language here uttered by the apostle from the depths of calamity, and adapted to the consolation of the dejected and persecu ted Corinthian Church.

3. To this God, then, reconciled in Christ Jesus, and become through him the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, the apostle chaunts his hymn of praise, in order that Almighty God might have the glory due unto his name, and that the Corinthians might know whence the stream of comfort flowed, what was the springhead of every blessing, and why he was so confident that "as they had been partakers of the sufferings of Christ, so they would be also of the consolation.”

We should delight in tracing out the goodness of God in his fixing the scenes of the duties of ministers, appointing their trials, sanctifying each event, pouring in the needful support, enabling them to console others, making all occurrences in their own lives and those of their flocks work together for their mutual good.

It is a wise and merciful dispensation of God thus to bind all his Church together in the bonds of sympathy and love. Their respective griefs and consolations, their intercessions and thanksgivings, their succors and woes abound in unutterable praise and glory, in the event, to the "God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort."

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But to conclude.

What a magnanimity, then, does this view of Christianity inspire, united with tender sympathy, and resulting in the most copious sources of felicity of which our nature is capable— these are the reflections which press upon the mind after such a subject, and which demonstrate the blessed tendencies of our religion.

For what true magnanimity doth our subject teach. It calls us to bear up under troubles, however complicated or severe. It invites us to all that train of hardships, reproaches, difficulties, sorrows by which greatness of mind is acquired and manifested. It bids us not to look for exemption from great trials, but for strength and consolation to sustain them. It commands us to be of good courage, because in them we are not only fulfilling our own duty and advancing our own salvation, but are becoming more capable of consoling others. To suffer in a great cause, is accounted noble even by the men of this world; but to suffer in a cause so preeminently great as that of Christianity, and in which we are benefiting others as well as ourselves, is the purest magnanimity.

Let the warrior, the statesman, the philosopher, the philanthropist hide their heads before the more exalted greatness of mind apparent in the minister, the missionary, the humblest native convert of the Christian faith. The world calls rashness, animal courage, confidence in natural talents, ambition of discovery, and conquest, by the name of glory-because the world knows of no higher pursuits. But real magnanimity is best seen in him, who, like the apostles, unapplauded and unnoticed, yea, despised and resisted by the world, and having no earthly objects to serve, endures firmly the conflict which Christ calls him to sustain, relying on invisible aid, and rejoicing to be the means of consoling others

at the expense of any sufferings or privations to himself.

And where is the least want of magnanimity in the apostle? Where any shrinking from suffering? Where is his distrust of his cause? Where his perturbation under the calamities, which, if he were a deceiver, must have sapped his spirit? No; his magnanimity is founded on a just confidence in the truth of his doctrine, and the mighty aid of Him who commissioned him to proclaim it.

It is thus in the present day. The internal magnanimity of faith sheds a holy calmness over the mind of the minister of Christ, especially in heathen lands, notwithstanding all discouragements and sorrows. He complains not, he retreats not; but still presses onward at the head of the converts and flocks to whom he is to be the channel of consolation, persuaded that "nothing shall separate him from the love of Christ; neither tribulation nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword. Nay, that in all these things he shall be more than a conqueror through him that hath loved him."

But what a soft sympathising tenderness is also united in the spirit of the Christian sufferer. The text breathes not only magnanimity, but tenderness, consideration for the sorrows of others. Fortitude and greatness of mind, if they stand alone, soon degenerate into obduracy and obstinacy. But the magnanimity of St. Paul is connected with humility, fellow-feeling for others, tears of sympathy. It is a magnanimity, not of nature, but of grace; it unites not only all the strong, but all the tender passions of the heart. It sustains with the fortitude of a hero, and compassionates with the pity of a parent.

We do not enough cultivate, perhaps, this affection between the pastor and his flock. Great success in

missions and in the ministry generally, more depends on this temper of love and sympathy, than on anything else; supposing always there is faithfulness to truth in the doctrine delivered. The most remarkable instances of eminent pastors in both departments, have been found in men of affectionate, humble, tender hearts, who have possessed true magnanimity as the substratum of their character, and evangelical light and truth as the guide of their exertions.

In this country, indeed, our first want is that of more ministers themselves-more men of God, more heralds of Christ, within our Christian communities and in our mission churches. The importance of that ministry which God makes the channel of life and consolation to souls, cannot be fully conceived. Nor can the prayers and supplications of Christians be directed to the Lord of the harvest with too much fervor, that he would be pleased to send forth more laborers into his harvest.

Our next want is, that those of us who are in the field of labor may be united with a more touching sympathy with our flocks, and enter more into the spirit of the apostle.

For this union of magnanimity with tenderness ensures the largest measure of real satisfaction and happiness of which our nature in this imperfect state is capable. We have joy in our prospect, and support in our pursuit. Notwithstanding all afflictions, the hymn of praise swells our hearts. We feel satisfied, tranquil, happy in our object, not indeed an unmixed satisfaction, or unalloyed happiness; but a satisfaction and happiness which outweigh all opposite considerations, which preponderate, which bring in by anticipation much of final triumph, and shed a glow of peace and benevolent satisfaction in the sense of the communication of consolation to others, at present.