By the grace of God I am what I am.” HEN the Apostle Paul wrote these words, he had long been employed in preaching Christ, and his preaching had been made very useful. He had been a burning and a shining light. But his burning zeal and his shining graces did not beam forth for his own honour. Paul never forgot that it was God who first kindled the light within his soul. He knew that he had been called to be an apostle; he knew that, as an apostle, he had laboured abundantly; he knew that his abundant labours had been greatly blessed; but he also knew that the call had been given by grace, that the work had been enabled by grace, that the blessing had been bestowed by grace. 'By the grace of God," he said, “I am what I am.' There are few who can use these words as Paul could write them. The idle, selfish, coldhearted man, who calls himself a Christian, but who does not show himself to be like Christ, could not rightly use these words. But those who are Christ's, and who are seeking to bear Christ's image, may in a measure make the words their own. When Mr. Newton, the clergyman, had grown old, he had a text given him every day by one of his family. He would sit in his arm-chair thinking it over; and sometimes he would tell his thoughts about it. When this text had been given, "By the grace of God I am what I am," he said, 'I am not what I ought to be; I am not what I desire to be; but, thank God, I am not what I once was.' "Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness. ."-PSALM Xxi. 3. HE we use it, we always use it in the sense of hindering. But when we read it in old books, we often find it in the sense of being beforehand with a person. It is in this sense that the word is almost always used in the Bible. Thus our text teaches that God, when He gives the blessings of His goodness, gives them so as to be beforehand with His people. Sometimes He gives blessings before they are desired. He is found of them that sought Him not. Paul was not wishing to know Jesus of Nazareth; but Jesus appeared to him as the Lord of glory. Sometimes, when blessings are desired, God gives them before they are asked. "It shall come to pass," He says, "that before they call, I will answer. He can answer the wish, before it has time to put itself in words. When Christ's disciples could not understand what He had been saying to them, He "knew that they were desirous to ask Him," and without waiting for their question, He gave them the teaching they wished for. Sometimes, when blessings have been sought, God gives them before they are expected. He has said, "While they are yet speaking, I will hear." Daniel was still in the act of prayer, when the angel appeared to him with a message from God. Surely, blessings which come to us before we expect them, before we ask them, and even before we desire them, may well be called "blessings of goodness." AN "In honour preferring one another." ROMANS Xii. 10. N anecdote will best explain this to you. Perhaps you have seen, in your atlas, a curious-looking map of the world, said to be drawn according to " Mercator's" plan. Gerard Mercator was very fond of studying geography and making maps. In his days, there was no complete atlas of the then known world. The idea came into his mind, and he set about preparing such a book. Just then, a friend of his, who happened to have thought of the very same thing, was also getting one ready. When Abraham Ortelius had half finished the work, he told Mercator what he was doing. "The very thing I have been thinking of, and working at," said Mercator; "only there is this little difference,-mine is DONE!" It was clear that the honour belonged to Mercator. And if he had got his printed directly, he would have secured the honour at once. But Mercator was a rich man, and could afford to wait. Ortelius was a poor man, and could not afford to lose his time and pains. The rich friend acted a friendly part. He let Ortelius finish; he let Ortelius publish, and get the first credit for the plan; he waited till the book had gone through two editions, before he let his own be printed; and when he did print it, he praised his friend's book, instead of taking all the honour to himself. Ortelius was not ungrateful, but publicly told how kind his friend had been; and thus Mercator, after all, got the honour which he had been so unwilling to grasp at. These two friends in honour preferred one another. "Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now withering on the ground; So flourish these, when those have pass'd away." "We all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."-ISAIAH Ixiv. 6. "See the leaves around us falling, "Youths, though yet no losses grieve you, |