February 4

Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints. - Ephesians 3:8.

DISTINGUISHED and honored as the Apostle had been, he does not he have himself unseemly. He does not think of himself more highly than he ought to think. He is not puffed up. “I am less,” says he, “than the least of all saints.” Bad grammar, but good divinity. The fact is, his feelings were often too powerful for expression-his meaning too big for common utterance; and therefore he used old words, or coined new ones, in order to produce an appropriate impression. The designation, “saints,” means “holy ones;” it is therefore of holiness he is speaking, not of his condition, of his natural talents, of his learning, nor of his knowledge, but of his holiness. He does not say, I am the least of all writers: the least of all scholars: this would have been falsehood and affectation in him; but “I am less than the least of all holy ones;” and the reason of this distinction is this, that all other qualities and excellencies may be known in their subjects and in their effects, but not so of holiness.

Holiness resides essentially within, and consists principally in the state of the heart, and in the rectitude of our motives and principles. For a man is not the more or less holy according to the number of religious actions he performs. These may be done without any love to God in the performance of them. They may he done even from an improper motive. It is possible for a natural man to surpass a real Christian in many things that are materially good. But we are holy in proportion as our heart is right with God, and as our motives and principles are pure and heavenly. We cannot know what is in the heart of another, nor the degree of his motives and principles. If our conduct is better than his, his motives and principles may be superior to ours, and therefore in the view of God he may have more of moral and spiritual excellence.

It is thus we are to understand the admonition of the Apostle to the Philippians: “Let each esteem other better than himself.” This maxim will not apply universally; to use it in some cases would be folly; for a strong and healthy man to esteem a weak and sickly one as more able to do many things than himself, or for a rich man to esteem a poor man richer than himself, or a scholar to esteem an illiterate man wiser than himself. But it is otherwise with regard to holiness: there we should never presume in our own favour, but, with the Apostle, we should be disposed to consider ourselves “less than the least of all saints.”