It is not to be expected that every good man will preserve a good report, even when he has done his part to maintain it. Slander and calumny are ever, alas! too busy at their satanic work. Even the Son of God Himself did not escape the malice of them that delight to make others appear as bad as themselves. One is not to blame, when he incurs evil report in this way. Nay he is rather to rejoice when he suffers reproach for well-doing. And when it happens to any one to have his good deeds overlooked, or attributed to unworthy motives, he may console himself with the reflection, that he has a witness in heaven, and a record on high.

Last of all, the apostle commends to us whatever is virtuous and praiseworthy. Lest the things mentioned before might not include all that was necessary to a perfect Christian, he adds the general and comprehensive terms virtue and praise. Virtue is that assemblage of good qualities which go to form the character of a person whom we esteem, or on whom we bestow praise. "Whatever then," says the apostle, "may be omitted in my exhortation to you, I desire you to supply it yourselves; and in making this addition, let your minds be guided by the excellence of its tendency, and its capability of procuring esteem among those who are the best judges of what is right."

We have now, brethren, gone over briefly these eight things, which it is so necessary for the Christian to attend to. The apostle desires us to "think on these things." The duties we have mentioned, and the good qualities we have spoken of, are indeed of a very high order; so high indeed, that it is to be feared very few of us have as yet reached them. But we must not be con

tented until we have used all our efforts to become the persons which St. Paul would have all Christians to be. We may be encouraged to persevere in following up the duties which he have learned and received from St. Paul, by the promise with which he concludes his exhortation, that "the God of peace shall be with us.”

LECTURE XVIII.

PHILIPPIANS IV. 10-23.

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound every where, and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound, and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding, ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now ye Philippians, know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me, as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica, ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well

pleasing to God. But my God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren which are with me greet you. All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

WE cannot read this without being struck with the peculiarity of the expression-" I rejoiced in the Lord, that your care of me hath flourished." The words to rejoice in the Lord, standing by themselves, occur twice before in this epistle, and there the meaning obviously requires to be taken as equivalent to "being happy in the enjoyment of Christian privileges," or "being delighted at the thought of our union with Christ the Lord." But here, when something else is joined to the words, we must attach a different meaning to them.

It would not seem foreign to the object of the apostle in this verse, to take the expression as meaning, that he was filled with a joyful gratitude to the Lord, for the care which he had produced towards him in the hearts of the Philippians. Every event which befel the apostle made him turn his mind to the Lord, in whose service he delighted to employ himself. If happiness was appointed to him, he rejoiced with gratitude; and if trials were his lot, he viewed them as the means divinely appointed for securing a blessed state to him. in the world of glory.

When a fresh instance of love for him is exhibited by his children in the faith at Philippi, he thinks with

delight and grateful feelings of the advantage of being in the Lord, and of being associated in this union with Christ with those who were so mindful of him. He could not fail to be delighted by the strong proof afforded of genuine brotherly love. It was the high occupation of his life to recommend to the world the religion of the Blessed Jesus. Must he not then have been greatly delighted, when he saw the happy effects of that religion? The Philippians, as to temporal matters, were incapable of being benefitted by the apostle. Nay, while he was absent from them, making known the gospel, or suffering in the cause of it, in other places, they were even in a spiritual sense nearly independent of his assistance. How disinterested, then, their attention to his wants! What could have made them thus disinterested? It was their great love for the man who had been the instrument of their conversion to God, and also the anxious desire that many others should, through his means, be turned to the faith, that made them so careful in attending to the wants of the apostle. Who can refrain from admiring with the apostle the strong affection that binds together the hearts of those who have trusted for salvation in the same Saviour! What religion but Christ's could ever produce such disinterested kindness of feeling as this!

Observe the beautiful figure used by St. Paul,-" Your care of me hath flourished again." He regards their charitable assistance to himself as a fruit of their faith in Christ. This faith is something that does not lie hid, but shows itself by the blossoms which it puts forth, and by the useful fruit which springs from it. And this Christian faith is a tree which brings forth