Sermons Author:Thomas M'Crie Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SERMON II. THE CHARACTER OF PAUL. 1 Cor. xv. 10. BY THE GRACE OF. GOD I AM WHAT I AM. We have viewed Paul as an indefatigable preacher of the gospel,... more » as a great sufferer for it, and as an advanced and experienced Christian ; and, proceeding to take a nearer view of his character, we considered him as distinguished for humility and disinterestedness. Let me now call your attention to a higher quality. 3. He was of an elevated and enlarged soul. Of this, disinterestedness is an important and indispensable ingredient. He whose ruling passion is selfishness, or who forms his purposes, and regulates his conduct, chiefly with a view to his own interest, is incapable of noble efforts, or of generous and heroic deeds. But something more than this is necessary to constitute greatness of mind. Every good man is not a great man, and Paul was both. Some persons possess generous and benevolent dispositions, and, under their influence, are led to make sacrifices for the relief of others, or the promotion of a public cause; but, when they come to suffer hardships in consequence of this, and feel themselves unfit to conflict with " the sea of troubles" in which they are involved, they begin to " sigh and look backwards," regret the course which they have adopted, and, if they do not make good their retreat, sink into inactivity and dejection. If the apostle of the Gentiles had laboured under this want of firmness and elevation of mind, he would soon have desisted from his work, or have continued it with languor and reluctance, instead of glorying, as he did, in his labours, infirmities, necessities, and afflictions. Paul, as we have seen, was distinguished for humility; buthumility is not meanness of spirit, nor is pride to be confounded with elevation of soul. When we say that ...« less