as well, and indeed, to the whole Church. Building up stalwart Christian character, setting before the scholars the privileges of service; endeavoring to instill into them the desire to be themselves workmen, efficient, trained; for these things every Sunday-school should stand.

Edification or building up every convert in strong Christian character is another mark of the Sunday-school which is organized for service.

All of these things we have considered are in greater or less degree within the reach of every Sunday-school, everywhere. Not all can attain to the same degree of efficiency because of the circumstances under which they exist; but all can endeavor to keep close to the One who has promised to be our guide and helper.

Invitation, preparation, evangelization, giving, instruction, salvation, edification. Let us keep these things in our hearts and ponder them well, for they are the marks, and the essential marks, of every Sunday-school which is thoroughly organized for service.

The Great Apostle

BY THE REV. DR. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN

"I am not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles" are words used by Paul in the midst of boasting of which he was evidently ashamed, but which was necessary in defense. of truth. There is no surer sign of modesty than the absence of mock modesty. When a man is able to boast in vindication of his appointment to service by his Lord he proves his humility.

The greatness of Paul as an apostle is now conceded, yet during his exercise of the apostolic vocation he had perpetually to defend his right to the title. In his letters, sometimes with a touch of satire, he defended his apostleship against the misunderstanding—that is the kindest word to use of the other apostles. In the Galatian letter he

declared that he went up to Jerusalem and gained nothing from them. He referred to those whom he found there as persons "who were reputed to be somewhat," then absolutely denied that they ministered to him in any way, either by original authority, or subsequent counsel. He received his gospel from his Master. He received his commission from him. He did his work under his immediate direction. He remitted his case and cause to his judgment.

In defense of his apostleship he always adopted two lines of argument. First, he insisted upon his divine appointment. Second, he claimed that the fulfilment in his ministry of the true apostolic function proved that divine appointment.

Wherein lay the greatness of this apostle? The simplest and most inclusive answer to that inquiry is to be found in a statement of the deepest facts of his life in their relation to Christ. I desire now to make that statement quite briefly and only by way of introduction, for I propose another method of approaching the subject. I cannot, however, entirely pass over these fundamental and inclusive matters.

The greatness of the apostle was created in the first place by the absoluteness of his surrender to Jesus. On the way to Damascus, surprised, startled, and stricken to the earth by the revelation of the living Christ, he in one brief and simple question handed over his whole life to Jesus. "What shall I do, Lord?"

The greatness of Paul as an apostle is further to be accounted for by his attitude, consequent upon that surrender, toward all the things of his former life. "What things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ."

Finally, his greatness is to be accounted for by the resulting experience, which he crystallized into one brief sentence, "To me to live is Christ."

These things being stated and granted, I desire to consider certain attitudes of the mind of this man which reveal the strength which made him the great apostle, the pattern missionary for all time. These attitudes of mind are

revealed, not so much by the formal statements of his writings as by the incidental and almost unconscious utterances thereof. I particularly desire to make clear my own discrimination between these two things. In his letters there are certain paragraphs which are formal statements concerning himself. I do not propose turning to these for this reason-I say this with all respect to Paul, and with recognition of the fact that these are inspired writing-men do not reveal themselves in their formal utterances half so clearly as in their incidental words.

I have recently been going through the writings of Paul and gathering out some of the incidental things he uttered concerning himself. I propose to take seven of them, without any set sequence or order, hoping the effect may be cumulative, helping to an understanding of the attitudes of mind which made this man a great apostle.

The deepest thing in human personality is not mind, but spirit. The spiritual life of Paul commenced when he said, "What shall I do, Lord?” was continued when he said, "What things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ," was perfected as Christ was formed in him and shone out through his life. That is the spiritual fact. I desire now to deal with the mental, that is, with the attitudes of mind which were natural to him, and which were baptized by the Spirit into life and fire and power.

In the midst of his classic passage on love, he declared, "Now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things." Comparing love with knowledge, and showing how knowledge passes away, the richer and fuller for ever more making obsolete the smaller and the incomplete, by way of illustration he wrote, "Now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things," or more literally, "I have made an end of childish things." In that declaration there is revealed an attitude of mind, consisting of a sense of proportion. It is a recognition of the fact that the ways of a child are right for a child, but that the ways of a child are

wrong for a man. There are men who when they become men do not put away childish things. There are people who make advance in certain directions, and carry up with them into the new region of their life things which ought to have been left behind. Should the butterfly cling to the shell in which it had been but a grub, what disaster! When it became a butterfly, it put away the things of the former life. "Now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things." That is to say, toys gave place to tools. Playtime was succeeded by worktime. Instruction began to express itself in construction. This is a principle of greatness in all Christian service, and lack of it is inimical to progress. It is a sense of proportion and readiness to answer new conditions whenever they arise.

My second illustration is taken from the Galatian letter, "I conferred not with flesh and blood." That is a revelation of the sense of spiritual compulsion. He had already declared that he had received a double unveiling of Jesus Christ. Mark the twofold fact. Christ was unveiled to him, and in him. He had seen a vision of Christ external to himself on the way to Damascus; and he had seen a vision of Christ as part of his inner, deepest, and profoundest life. That vision, that unveiling of Jesus Christ, became the master principle of his life. In a moment all the lower motives were cancelled. The spiritual truth breaking in upon his soul by the revealing of Christ to him and the revealing of Christ in him, came not only as light but as fire, not only illuminating, but destroying every other motive that existed within.

Now mark the fine scorn of his word, "I conferred not with flesh and blood," that is to say, material motives at their very highest and best were for ever more out of court and out of count. "I conferred not with flesh and blood," quite literally, I did not take advice with flesh and blood, I did not take counsel with flesh and blood, did not seek the guidance of flesh and blood. First, his own flesh and blood.

He never took counsel with his material life from the moment when God revealed his Son in him. He took counsel with the revealed Son. He did not take counsel with the apostles of flesh and blood. He took counsel only with the spiritual truth which had broken upon him through. the inner and spiritual conception of Christ.

Turn to another of these declarations, "I know how to be abased and I know also how to abound." That is a sense of detachment from circumstances. Did ever apostle pass through more varied circumstances than this one? Was ever man less affected by them than he was?

This is not the detachment of absence. That is the ascetic, monastic ideal which is anti-Christian. The man who says, I will escape the possibility of abasement, the possibility of abundance, by hiding myself from the commonplace affairs of life, is not realizing the apostolic ideal, which is ability to stay in the midst of circumstances of abasement, and to dwell amid abundance.

Neither is it the detachment of indifference. It is not the stoicism of the Greek which steels the heart and says, abasement shall not affect me, abundance shall not appeal to me. Far from it.

It is rather the detachment of mastery and of use. "I know how to be abased, and I know also how to abound." I am not afraid of abasement. I will not escape from it. I am not afraid of abundance, I will not avoid it. I do not imagine that in the hour when my Lord gives me abundance there is something wrong in my inner life. "I know also how to abound." I know how to suffer hunger. I know how to suffer need. Abasement without dejection. Abundance without tyranny. That is one of the greatest sentences Paul ever wrote as revealing his absolute triumph in human life. It is the picture of a man so absolutely detached from all the circumstances of his life that he was able to take hold of them and press them into the making of his own character, and what is more, into the service