SERMON.

GALATIANS, I. 11, 12.

I certify you, brethren, that the gospel, which was preached of me, is not after man; for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

ST PAUL introduces this Epistle, in his usual manner, by announcing his authority as an apostle. It was in this character he addressed the Christians at Galatia, and wherever he had preached the gospel and planted a church. The condition and circumstances of the primitive Christians, and the conduct of the Jewish zealots, who were everywhere springing up, and, assuming the character of christian teachers, were endeavoring to incorporate something with Christianity, that did not belong to it, and to excite suspicion and jealousy against Paul as an apostle, made it necessary for him in all his epistles to assert his authority and to vindicate his character, as an ambassador and minister of Jesus Christ. So extraordinary were the circumstances attending his conversion, and the revelation which he had received from his divine Master, that he did not consider himself inferior to the very chief of the apostles. With equal confidence he appeals, for his ministry and apostleship, to Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. Convinced as he was of the truth and reality of the heavenly vision, which resulted in his conversion to Christianity, and in his knowledge of the nature and purpose of our Lord's mission, he is ready to certify to all the churches, that the gospel, which he had already preached to them, was not after men- that it was no human invention, and had no earthly origin-that he