THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER AND HIS WORK.* BY REV. DAVID S. DOGGETT, D. D., OF THE VIRGINIA CONFERENCE. (Meth. Capispal. South.) Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which, from the beginning of the world, hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.-Ephesians, iii, 8—11. While the apostle John is not surpassed by the apostle Paul in sublime views of the person of Christ, the apostle Paul, it is likely, surpassed all the other apostles in his statements of the vastness and grandeur of the economy of redemption. This fact is due, perhaps, to the combined superiority of his sanctified intellect, and "the abundance of the revelations" which he received. Be that as it may, it is altogether probable that the human mind could not soar more highly, or sweep more widely over the territory of revealed truth, than did his. I have observed, with respect to this apostle, that while there is no appearance of effort in his conception of divine things, there is every appearance of effort in his attempt to express them in human language; an effort which frequently betrays itself in the formation of new compounds, and in the most astonishing accumulation of epithets, piling them one upon another in a mighty climax, as if some of those mysteries which he had learned in "the third heavens," and which it was "unlawful for man to utter," were, nevertheless, struggling to render themselves intelligible to mortal ears. *This sermon was delivered in the Fourth Street Church, Lynchburg, Va., Sunday, November 20, 1859, on the occasion of the ordination of deacons. The greater part of this epistle may be taken as an example of this wonderful conflict between the wealth of inspired ideas, and the poverty of even inspired words suitably to announce them. Our text is undoubtedly a specimen of this peculiarity in the style of Paul. With no expectation of its complete exposition, I propose, by the help of God, to call your attention chiefly to THE ESTIMATE WHICH THE APOSTLE ENTERTAINED OF HIMSELF AND OF HIS COMMISSION RESPECTIVELY. I hope this theme will be deemed appropriate, especially to the solemn event which will close these services. We will accordingly examine; I. THE APOSTLE'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF. It is thus expressed: "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints." Let us endeavor, for a moment, to realize it. What an utterance, my brethren, of self-depreciation! How different from that self-laudation so common amongst us! The term "saints," in this sentence, is but another word for all true Christians, without any special reference to the degree of their holiness. The phrase, "least of all saints," denotes the lowest possible grade in the church of God. To be "less than the least," it would seem, is to be absolutely nothing at all, in this respect; is to be reduced to a mere cipher in the evangelical arithmetic. Such, at least, appears to be the logical construction of the apostle's words. This self-diminution, or rather self-annihilation, excludes either all actual or all noticeable position amongst the genuine disciples of Christ. It was not intended to signify the former, inasmuch as the apostle considered himself as belonging to the general category of Christians, and rejoiced in the distinction. He undoubtedly meant the latter; that is, that he was too insignificant to be personally recognised as one of them. Although he had been saved by grace, and introduced into their fellowship, yet, after surveying their numbers and their ranks, he could assign himself no other place than at the feet of them all, and there only on the condition that it be universally and forever understood that he did not deserve to occupy so honorable a station. Such was Paul's estimate of himself. As a matter of fact, according to our ordinary modes of judging, he was not only the chief of the apostles, but the holiest of Christians. We put him, by the consent of all Christendom, in the front rank of the servants of Christ, We must not forget, however, that, in this instance, he was giving his opinion of himself. And this opinion was neither affectedly humble, on the one hand, nor sentimentally morbid, on the other. It was the simple, truthful, and healthful result of his religious consciousness. On what grounds, it may be inquired, could he honestly entertain such an opinion of himself? We answer, on several. First, he considered himself to have been, previously to his conversion, "the chief of sinners," especially on account of his bigoted and malignant persecution of the early church; a crime which, at no period of his subsequent history, he could either forget or forgive. He ever recalled it as a reproach which no repentance and no zeal could efface. Secondly, the condition of any man, as an awakened sinner, and the terms on which he is saved, are such as necessarily to produce in him the spirit of total self-abnegation in the sight of God. From this stand-point he must inevitably contemplate himself, and from it make all his comparisons with his fellow Christians. Thirdly, the more enlightened any one becomes by the grace of God, the clearer are his discoveries of the depth of his degradation, and the extent of his indebtedness to divine mercy; and though these discoveries may, in reality, be no greater in him than in others, they must of necessity always appear so to himself, since it is not possible for any one to know another in the same sense, or to the same degree, in which it is possible to know himself. Consequently, no Christian can give a strictly accurate opinion of himself, without depreciating himself, with perfect sincerity, below any other true member of the church of God; without, in the very words of this apostle, "esteeming others better than himself." Fourthly, Paul's idea of his inferiority, as a Christian, was greatly intensified by the overwhelming majesty of his commission as an apostle; for which, it appeared to him, an angel would not have been sufficient, much less so sinful and imperfect a being as himself. This allusion he evidently makes in the language before us. These several reasons, to adduce no others, fully sustain the fitness and propriety of Paul's apprehension of himself; and it affords a most useful lesson to all Christians, and particularly to all Christian ministers. The true and the only standard of self-estimation, to both, is absolute humility. "He that humbleth himself," says Christ, "shall be exalted, and he that exalteth himself shall be abased." What a rebuke are these words to our pride; to that ambition which induces one "to think of himself more highly than |