Excerpt from Substance of a Discourse: Preached at Wilbraham, Mass;; On Occasion of the Death of Rev. Edward Hyde, Who Fell Asleep in Christ, March 16, 1832

Huner was a most prominent trait in the character of the apostle Paul. Though'among the most eminent and the most highly favored of God, of his or of any age, he esteemed himself least of all. This low estimate of himself was not merely the result of his personal experience, as a child of God which grace he had, in common with other Christians - nor yet was it owing wholly to the deep conviction he had 'of his former guilt, on account of his having been a bloody persecutor, and by reason of which, he said, he was not meet to he called an apostle - hut his was the humilitjr of the minister of Christ, as well as of the disciple of Christ. This ministerial humility was the fruit of his deep con viction, that in all his labors and successes, (and who was more laborious and successful than Paul?) the excellency of the power was of God. Weighed in the balance with the truth of God and the power of the Holy Ghost, he found himself to he comparatively noth ing. As an exhibition of this feeling, hear him, while rebuking his brethren for their partial attachments to their favorite teachers, demanding, Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? Ihave plant ed, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. Sothen, neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. I labored, he truly says, more abundantly than they all but he adds, yet not I, but the grace of God, that was with me. He contrasted the richness and glory of that gospel which he had so successfully preached, with the weakness of his, ' ownmind, and the frailty of his own body, and exclaimed, in terms as indicative of 5 the vigor of his intellect, as oi}. The lowlinesiof his heart We have this' treasur'é'jn 'earthen vessels, that the qftlwpowermaybeqod, andnotqfus.

How appmpriate is this subject to the oc'caaion1 that has called us together. A minister of Christ is fallen, a vessel, in which was deposited the gospel treasure, is stoken, - in view of whose ministerial character, and success in preaching the word, contrasted with his frailty and death, we may well say, and must certainly feel, that 'f we have this treasure in earthen vessels; and in view of whose unostentatious ministrations and hum ble character, we have, so far as the grace of humility is concerned, a striking illustration of the apostle's ex patience and doctrine.

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