tnesses that you
believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost and have the assurance
that through Christ you are redeemed and saved. This testimony is
what is written on your heart. The letters are not characters traced
with ink or crayon, but the living thoughts, the fire and force of
the heart."

7. Note further, that it is his ministry to which Paul ascribes the
preparation of their heart thereon and the inscription which
constitutes them "living epistles of Christ." He contrasts his
ministry with the blind fancies of those fanatics who seek to
receive, and dream of having, the Holy Spirit without the oral word;
who, perchance, creep into a corner and grasp the Spirit through
dreams, directing the people away from the preached Word and visible
ministry. But Paul says that the Spirit, through his preaching, has
wrought in the hearts of his Corinthians, to the end that Christ
lives and is mighty in them. After such statement he bursts into
praise of the ministerial office, comparing the message, or
preaching, of Moses with that of himself and the apostles. He says:

"Such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward: not that we are
sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but
our sufficiency is from God."

TRUE PREACHERS COMMISSIONED BY GOD.

8. These words are blows and thrusts for the false apostles and
preachers. Paul is mortal enemy to the blockheads who make great
boast, pretending to what they do not possess and to what they cannot
do; who boast of having the Spirit in great measure; who are ready to
counsel and aid the whole world; who pride themselves on the ability
to invent something new. It is to be a surpassingly precious and
heavenly thing they are to spin out of their heads, as the dreams of
pope and monks have been in time past.

"We do not so," says Paul. "We rely not upon ourselves or our wisdom
and ability. We preach not what we have ourselves invented. But this
is our boast and trust in Christ before God, that we have made of you
a divine epistle; have written upon your hearts, not our thoughts,
but the Word of God. We are not, however, glorifying our own power,
but the works and the power of him who has called and equipped us for
such an office; from whom proceeds all you have heard and believed."

9. It is a glory which every preacher may claim, to be able to say
with full confidence of heart: "This trust have I toward God in
Christ, that what I teach and preach