The apostle Paul felt it a great privilege to be allowed to preach the gospel. He did not look upon his calling as a drudgery, but he entered upon it with intense delight. Yet while Paul was thus thankful for his office, his success in it greatly humbled him.

The fuller a vessel becomes, the deeper it sinks in the water. Idlers may indulge a fond conceit of their abilities, because they are untried; but the earnest worker soon learns his own weakness. If you seek humility, try hard work ; if you would know your nothingness, attempt some great thing for Jesus.

If you would feel how utterly powerless you are apart from the living God, attempt especially the great work of proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ, and you will know, as you never knew before, what a weak unworthy thing you are.

Although the apostle thus knew and confessed his weakness, he was never perplexed as to the subject of his ministry. From his first sermon to his last, Paul preached Christ, and nothing but Christ. He lifted up the cross, and extolled the Son of God who bled thereon.

Follow his example in all your personal efforts to spread the glad tidings of salvation, and let “Christ and Him crucified” be your ever recurring theme.

The Christian should be like those lovely spring flowers which, when the sun is shining, open their golden cups, as if saying, “Fill us with thy beams!” but when the sun is hidden behind a cloud, they close their cups and droop their heads. So should the Christian feel the sweet influence of Jesus; Jesus must be his sun, and he must be the flower which yields itself to the Sun of Righteousness.

Oh! to speak of Christ alone, this is the subject which is both “seed for the sower, and bread for the eater.” This is the live coal for the lip of the speaker, and the master-key to the heart of the hearer.

The most joyous moment in the life of the bride ought to be the moment when she loses her own name and self-dependence at the marriage altar, taking her husband’s name instead of her own and merging her life in his.

And the most blissful moment of our life ought to be that in which we, by renouncing our right to self-ownership, become the bride of Another, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In marriage the wealth of the husband is, of course, placed at the disposal of the wife. Many will recall the story of the Earl of Burleigh, which Tennyson has immortalized. Under the guise of a landscape painter, the Earl won the heart of a simple village maiden. Imagining they were going to the cottage of which he had spoken, in which they were to spend their happy wedded life, they passed one beautiful dwelling after another, until . . .

. . . a gateway she discerns With armorial bearings stately, And beneath the gate she turns, Sees a mansion more majestic Than all those she saw before: Many a gallant gay domestic Bows before him at the door.

And they speak in gentle murmur, When they answer to his call, While he treads with footstep firmer, Leading on from hall to hall.

And while now she wonders blindly, Nor the meaning can divine, Proudly turns her round and kindly, “All of this is mine and thine.”

So by the union of hearts and lives the simple village maiden became the Lady of Burleigh, and all her husband’s wealth was hers.

Who shall tell of the wealth which they inherit who are truly united to Jesus?

“The incomparable riches of his grace” (Ephesians 2:7).

“The boundless riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8).

Oh, sacred union with the Perfect Mind, Transcendent bliss, which Thou alone canst give; How blest are they this Pearl of Price who find, And, dead to earth, have learnt in Thee to live.

Go then, and learn this lesson of the Cross, And tread the way the saints and prophets trod: Who, counting life and self and all things loss, Have found in inward death the life of God.

Give up your identity!

We . . . rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.—I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.—Believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

In a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.—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.

Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?—God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

Behold, a greater than Solomon is here.—The Prince of Peace.

Scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

The love of Christ passeth knowledge.

Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

The unsearchable riches of Christ.

Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord , thoughts of peace, and not of evil.

My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

How precious . . . are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

Lord , how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward.

Not many mighty, not many noble, are called.

Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom?

Having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

The unsearchable riches of Christ.