till he closed the tragical scene under the sword of the executioner-as St. Paul.

2. Nor were his converts exempt from a measure of the same tribulations. They also were "in trouble;""the sufferings of Christ abounded in them;" they" endured the same sufferings which he also suffered;" they were partakers with him" in them. In so proud, luxurious, and profligate a city as Corinth, proverbial throughout Greece for its corrupt morals as well as for its schools of science, philosophy, and rhetorical eloquence, the native convert must have had a fiery trial to endure from the combined hostility of Jew and Gentile. The same bigotry and indignation which pursued the apostle would follow also his new disciples, in the details of social and domestic life. The distractions also of heretics denying the faith of the Resurrection, and endeavoring to sap the authority of the blessed apostle, must have augmented the difficulties of their position. Whilst the fearful disorders in their own community; the spirit of litigation; the questions concerning marriage, and remaining with an unbelieving partner or not; the party-spirit; the profane contempt of some in celebrating the Holy Supper of the Lord; and the gross vices into which others fell,' must have presented temptations of the most complicated nature. These were the sufferings of Christ;" borne for his sake, incurred in his cause, and felt by the whole body of the faithful, as members in Christ the divine Head. Sufferings these, differing from the common classes of afflictions, which arise from our mortal nature, from the ordinary assaults of the world, Satan, and the flesh, and from the conflict with indwelling sin within and around us.

3. Need I say how much all this resembles that of the native convert now, except as the protecting

1 1 Cor. passim.

arm of a Christian government interposes between the hostility of idolatrous and superstious multitudes and their victim. The same infuriate and blind tumults would otherwise be excited now by those who are the successors, as it were, of Demetrius and his craftsmen, as were raised against the apostle and his converts. The bitterness and bigotry are not less; the pride of caste may probably be greater; the parent is not less disposed to abuse his authority over his child; the family are equally ready to prevent what they consider the disgrace of their wide domestic circle; the priesthood are ever at hand to stimulate the prejudices already too prompt to inflame. Cases are not wanting of cruelty and force being employed to crush the rising faith in Christianity. It is equally true now, at it was in the time of our Lord, that the gospel incidentally occasions divisions, when those who would obey, however meekly, its peaceful invitations, are forcibly impeded by those around them: Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, nay; but rather division: for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."

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4. But in these sufferings for Christ the ministers of religion and its missionaries in foreign lands will ever have to take the lead. As the feet of the priests who bare the ark were first dipped in Jordan, and then those of the people; so the sufferings of St. Paul and the rest of the apostles led the way in the afflictions of the first Christian Churches. And so in every age, the pastors and shepherds go on in the path of sorrow be

fore their flocks. Whenever persecutions arise in spots where no arm of law can penetrate, or in a manner which just evades the letter of statutes, the missionary has ever been the first to suffer.

5. But the sufferings of Christ extend further; they comprehend all the various afflictions of pastors and flocks in the most tranquil and established state of Christian usages and society, so far as they arise for Christ's sake. In this limited sense trials never cease. They render the road which leadeth to life ever narrow. They constitute the daily cross which we have to sustain in following Christ. In these more light afflictions, as well as in the heavier ones of which we have been speaking, the minister and flock share the same lot, descend into the like valleys of humiliation, and partake of the same sufferings; which sometimes also "abound” and rise high and overflow. There are places and seasons when clamor and reproach are doubled, when some division of truth is impugned and decried; when dangerous and heretical opinions fall in with the spirit of the age; and charges of fanaticism, overstatement, and folly are inflamed to contempt and outrage.

Scandals, also, at times increase the tribulation; by false brethren, by the relapses of some into sin and the world, into error and heresy, into disorders, and party-spirit, political heat mingled unnaturally with religion, the scorn of intellectual pride directed against the first principles of revelation.

Seasons also arrive, when because "iniquity abounds, the love of many waxeth cold;" when "a name to live" is substituted for spiritual life; and "the form" of knowledge and evangelical doctrine is put instead of "the power."

Such, then, are the common sufferings of Christ, in which pastors and flocks, whether in the apostolic age or our own, share. A foundation is here laid

for tender sympathy and fellow-feeling; ministerial relations and duties are steeped in sorrow; the attention and obedience of the people are softened and mollified by affliction and tears. But this is only to prepare for a yet more interior cement of affection and kindness, as we shall see, whilst we consider,

II. The consolation which Almighty God is pleased to pour in, through the channel of ministers "who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."

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St. Paul was himself first sustained and consoled. He was "comforted in all his tribulations." The so great death" which threatened him, did not fall. God delivered him from it; and was still continually delivering him; in whom he further trusted that he would yet deliver, as future emergencies arose. At this very city of Corinth, to which he is addressing the Epistle from which the text is taken, what consolations did he receive; "Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee, to hurt thee;" on which encouragement he "continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." On previous occasions also he had not been left destitute. At Lystra when the disciples stood around, supposing him to have been dead, we see him rising up, and after a short visit to Derbe, returning to the very spot where he had been stoned, "to confirm the souls of the disciples, and exhort them to continue in the faith." And when he was soon after cast into prison at Philippi, in company with Silas, he was engaged in "praying and singing praises to God at midnight, so that the prisoners heard them." And when, at a later period," forty men bound themselves

with a great oath that they would not eat nor drink till they had slain him; the Lord did not leave him comfortless; but their lying in wait was discovered to him; and he was conveyed safely to Cæsarea, in conformity with the assurance given him by a night vision, "Be of good cheer, Paul; for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou also bear witness at Rome." And in one of his very last struggles, when he appeared before Nero, and no man stood by him, but all men, especially they of Asia, forsook him," did not "the Lord stand by him and strengthen him, that by him the preaching might be fully known; so that he was delivered from the mouth of the lion ?"

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Such was the solid comfort, the inward courage, the fortitude and self-possession with which the apostle was sustained in all his tribulations. For the word "comfort" here, imports that kind of consolation by which the mind of man is rescued, alleviated, raised up and strengthened against sorrow. The afflictions were not, indeed, removed; but he was cheered and animated to bear up under them. There was light and joy within his heart, whilst all was dark without. He possessed his soul in patience. The peace of God garrisoned and guarded his heart and mind, in the midst of assaults the most violent and threatening.

2. And this consolation was vouchsafed not for his own sake only, but with the express design that he might be able to comfort them that are in any trouble, with the comfort wherewith he himself was comforted of God. The apostle's consolations were to be the channel through which Almighty God poured the tide of comfort into the hearts of the Corinthian flock. He could not have been able to communicate consolation with such tenderness and suitableness, if he had not himself passed through the same afflictions with those whom he addressed.