Paul's humility was not an occasional or transient feeling, but it was deeply ingrained in his whole character, and it tinged his whole life; and it grew with his growth in grace. When he wrote the words, "Unto me, the least of all saints, is this grace given," he had held the office of an apostle for nearly thirty years. That office he habitually recognised as a grace, not merited by himself, but freely granted to him by God while he felt also that all his eminent qualifications for the office must be ascribed, not to his own wisdom or power, but to the power of Divine grace working mightily in his soul. Sometimes he was compelled in self-defence to recount his manifold labours for Christ; but when he does so, he is careful to add, "Not I, but the grace of God which was with me!" And so also when he is forced to speak of his marvellous success in preaching the Gospel, and the evident and abundant seals of his apostleship, he takes no credit or merit to himself, but his language is, "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase!" And yet more, when he speaks of his sufferings for Christ, which were often severe and almost overwhelming, he plainly intimates that he was not sustained by any power in himself; but he says, "I can do all things through Christ strengthening me!" And even when he was compelled to

speak of himself in the language of commendation, because his enemies had maligned him, in order to injure through him the cause of his Divine Master, he employs language of this kind with evident reluctance and pain. We have an instance of this in 2 Cor. xii. 11, where, in giving proofs of his apostleship, not only from "the signs and wonders and mighty deeds" which he had wrought, but also from the sufferings which he had endured for Christ, and from the visions and revelations vouchsafed to him, when he was "caught up into paradise," he adds, but "I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you; for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing." This irrepressible burst of wounded feeling reveals the deep-toned humility of his spirit, and the pain and distress which it gave him to be compelled to speak of himself or of his own doings at all. Like a father speaking to his beloved children, he gently reproves his children in the faith for allowing him to be put into such a position, by their neglecting to speak in his defence, and leaving to him the irksome task of self-vindication. But lest, even in doing so, he should be misunderstood, he "begins by acknowledging that he had spoken as a fool, and ends by saying that he was nothing!"

Nor is it difficult to perceive why the apostle was kept so humble, even amid his greatest success. One

reason of it was the remembrance of his former enmity to the Saviour, and of the injury he had done to His cause and people. Many were the bitter tears he had shed, and the pangs of self-reproach which he had felt, in reflecting on his former conduct, when he had stifled his convictions, and done many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and breathed out threatenings and slaughter against His disciples; and he could truly say, like the Psalmist, even after his sin was pardoned, "My sin is ever before me." It was this that made him, and kept him, humble in his own estimation. Accordingly, whenever he was compelled to speak of his own attainments or services, he was careful to cast this dark shadow over the brilliancy of his past career; and thus, in writing to the Ephesians, he magnifies that grace of God which was given to him, by calling himself "less than the least of all saints." And in writing to the Corinthians, and referring to his abundant labours, he indulges in the same strain of selfdepreciation, saying, "For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God!" And just before his martyrdom, in one of the last epistles he ever wrote, he addresses his beloved Timothy in these remarkable words: "I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace

of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." What a touching exhibition of deep humility is presented in words like these, from the lips of one so highly gifted, and so eminently useful, as the great apostle was. Even at the very close of his laborious life, he confessed that he was "the chief of sinners," and that the only ground of his confidence was that Christ is mighty to save.

But while his humility was deepened by the recollection of his former sins, it was deepened still more by the consciousness of his remaining deficiencies and imperfections. This feeling is very strongly expressed in these well-known words, uttered within a few years of his death-Phil. iii. 12—“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." High as his attainments in Christian excellence unquestionably were, and eminent as his services had been during his laborious life, yet he still felt that he was very far short of perfection, and that everything he did was mixed and marred with sin. Though his character would bear a comparison with that of any other man, yet when he weighed his actions and motives in the balance of the sanctuary, and con

trasted them with the perfect example of his Master, he felt and confessed that he needed Divine mercy and grace no less than others. Realising the holiness of Him who cannot tolerate sin, and the strictness of that law which demands a perfect obedience, he felt that he had no ground for boasting, but much cause for humiliation and shame.

Now this painful consciousness of remaining imperfection is one of the surest evidences of living Christianity. Though it may seem paradoxical, yet it is nevertheless true, that the most advanced Christian is always the most humble in his own estimation. And the reason is, not because he is worse than other men, but because he knows his own heart better than other men know theirs; and because he tries himself by a higher and purer standard than they do; and that standard is God's unchangeable law. As he grows in grace, and advances in the divine life, his conscience becomes more tender, and his knowledge of God's law and of his own heart becomes clearer, deeper, and more extensive, so that he discovers sin where he never saw it before. Thus the holier he becomes, the more deeply sensible is he of his remaining defects. As in climbing a hill the prospect becomes more and more extensive; so the higher the Christian ascends in his heavenward path, the wider does the range of his vision become. Thus his past attainments dwindle into insignificance when con