SERMON II.

1 COR. XV. 8-10.

"And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

"For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."

THE apostles did not follow cunningly-devised fables when they declared the resurrection of Christ from the dead. They had seen Him, heard Him, and conversed with Him, after He arose, during the forty days which He tarried on the earth. St. Paul, in the verses preceding our text, gives an account of various

appearances of Christ to His disciples, and, as it would seem, in the order in which they took place. Not that these were all the occasions on which Christ manifested Himself to His followers. For the apostle omits His interviews with the women and with the two disciples going to Emmaus. But he records some of the most remarkable in order. He says "that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve." They were now, by the defection of Judas, reduced to eleven, but still retained the name of the twelve, by which they had all along been distinguished. After being seen of the twelve, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained alive when the apostle wrote, and were ready to bear testimony to the fact; but some had fallen asleep, and fallen asleep (ver. 18) in Christ, and in the full belief of His resurrection. After that, He was seen of James, probably James the brother of our Lord; then of all the apostles. As he had before mentioned the twelve, he probably here includes the seventy apostles mentioned in the 10th chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, whom

our Lord had sent out two and two. "And last of all," says St. Paul, "He was seen by me also, who may be compared to one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and this grace of his towards me was not in vain; for I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me, continually strengthening and assisting me."

Let us from these words remark the low opinion which the apostle had of himself, and the high opinion which he entertained of the grace of God. The union of these two feelings in one so eminent for gifts is most instructive. May God Himself be with us and enable us to profit by the subject before us for the Redeemer's sake. Let us notice first

I. The low opinion which the Apostle had of himself.

St. Paul was by nature proud, bigoted, and intolerant. Like most other Pharisees, he thought more highly of himself than he ought

to think, and despised others. He was full of zeal against Christianity, and had persecuted the disciples with unrelenting hostility. But he was humble enough now. Divine grace had made him so. He knew himself. He had discovered that with all his boasted knowledge he had been miserably ignorant; that the things wherein he had trusted were no foundation to build his hopes of heaven upon; that his righteousness was no righteousness in God's sight; and that those against whom he had been directing his misguided zeal, and whom he had despised and hated, were the faithful servants of God, and that their Master was the true Messiah. It was this which had laid him low in his own esteem, and taught him to abase himself in the very dust. When he looked back upon his past life, which he had once deemed so blameless and praiseworthy, he saw that he had been a poor deluded bond-slave of the devil, hurried forward by that "murderer from the beginning" to imbrue his hands in the innocent blood of God's saints; and that the zeal which he had once thought so commendable was kindled from beneath, not from above,

and deserved God's wrath and damnation. He now marvelled at his past rage and fury against the Christians; and though it had been done ignorantly and in unbelief, and had been freely forgiven by that God who tries the heart and makes a difference between those who are simply in error and those who offend of malicious wickedness, yet he could not forgive himself, and to the end of his days he humbled himself before God because he had persecuted the Church of Christ. When he compared himself with the other apostles he did it to his own disadvantage. He contrasted their faith with his unbelief, their acceptance of Christ with his rejection of Him, and their wisdom in sitting meekly at His feet and learning the truth of the Gospel with his own pride, and prejudice, and wilful ignorance. The more he thought of it, the more he felt humbled. He remembered the blood of Stephen which was shed, and how he exulted in the death of that holy martyr, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. It might be that his conversion was owing to that martyr's prayers for his murderers. While he thought