excellent in itself, will be remembered by him with everlasting love. While this man lives, he is a blessing to all around him. It is good for the world that he was born, and that he has sojourned here below. Throughout eternity, governed by the same spirit, he will prove an accession to the universe, a blessing to the great kingdom of Jehovah. Like the rest of mankind, he must however die. From this vale of tears he must be released, and death is the method of release appointed by his Maker. As a release he regards it, from pain and fear, from sin and sorrow. Familiar to his eye by daily contemplation, and disarmed by the mediation of Christ, death to him has ceased to be the king of terrors. On the contrary, he is considered as a messenger from heaven, rude indeed, and rough, and forbidding; but sent on a benevolent errand, and bringing merely the summons to call him home. With the peace which Christ left as a rich legacy to all his faithful followers, he closes his eyes in sleep, and calmly resigns up his spirit into the hands of his heavenly Father. This man, in my view, has so run in the race of life as to obtain the prize. SERMON XXII. MINISTERS AND THEIR CONVERTS, A MUTUAL To the Candidates for the Baccalaureate, in 1803 and 1813. 1 THESSALONIANS II. 19. "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, at his coming?" PAUL, with his fellow-labourers Silas and Timothy, being directed by the Holy Ghost to go from Asia into Macedonia, passed over to Philippi, and gathered a church in that city. Hence they went to Thessalonica, and gathered another. Here, however, they were persecuted by the Jews. Paul, the chief object of their hatred, departed therefore to Berea. His persecutors followed him thither, and forced him to betake himself to Athens. From that city he proceeded to Corinth. Thus for a long time he was absent from Thessalonica; and although exceedingly desirous to revisit the church, which he had founded there, was prevented by certain hindrances which he has alluded to, but not described. During his absence various objections, which he has specified in his Epistle, were by the Jews and Greeks of Thessalonica raised up against the divine origin and authority of the Gospel. Among these were his flight and the length of his 2 E VOL. I. absence. From these facts his adversaries argued, and endeavoured to persuade his converts, that he was an impostor, and not a messenger of God, nor a friend to them. His flight they seem to have urged as a proof of his cowardice, and his absence as satisfactory evidence that he was regardless of the Thessalonian Christians. 66 The efforts of these malignant men appear to have alarmed the fears of the Apostle. To prevent their effect on the minds of his followers, he replied in this Epistle to the objections made against him and against the Gospel. Among the answers to those made against him, the text contains one, remarkable for the extraordinary sentiment expressed in it, and for the affectionate manner in which it is communicated. "For "what is my hope, or my joy, or my crown of rejoicing? Are "not even ye, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, at his coming?" Look at my life, and behold it made up of labours and sufferings. What hope can I propose; what joy can I find, but in your conversion and eternal life. This world is only hostile to me, and yields me neither rest nor safety. If, therefore, I am disposed to indulge any hope, or to expect any reward, it must be beyond the grave. It must be furnished by you, my own converts, turned by my preaching from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. In you, of course, my affections must centre with a sincerity and strength, which distance cannot change, nor time impair. Vain, therefore, and groundless are the allegations of your enemies and mine, when they insinuate, that I do not regard you with the tenderness of a parent and the fidelity of an Apostle. It is not to be supposed that the Thessalonian converts were dearer to St. Paul than others who had become Christians under his ministry. Unquestionably he, who addressed the Romans, whom he had never seen, in terms so affectionate, could not but regard his own converts, universally, with the strongest attachment. Accordingly, he addresses the very sentiment contained in the text to the Corinthians: "As also 66 ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, " even as ye are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus." To the Philippians he addresses it again. "Among whom ye shine 66 as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life; that "I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run "in vain, neither laboured in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice " with you all." Indeed, the text itself very obviously holds out to us the same truth. "For what is our hope, or joy? “Are not naì ìuês ye also? ye, as well as others, who else"where under my preaching become followers of the Re"deemer." This was the construction of Theophylact; and gives, I apprehend, the true meaning of the original. It is to be observed, that Sylvanus or Silas, and Timothy, united with Paul in sending this epistle to the Thessalonians, and of course coincided with him in all the declarations which it contains. Accordingly, the language of the text is, “What "is our hope." These excellent men, therefore, who had been the Apostle's fellow-labourers in converting the Thessa lonians, certainly expected to find the same glorious crown, and their own share in the same elevated joy, in the final day. That their expectations were well founded, the Spirit of inspiration, who dictated this epistle, has left us the amplest proof. It is also to be observed, that Paul exhibits the Corinthians as rejoicing in him, and Timothy, who united with him in writing the second epistle to that Church, even as they did, in the members of that Church. To the same joy in him he directs the Philippians, in the verse following the passage already quoted," For the same cause, also, do ye rejoice, and "be glad with me." The foundation of the Apostle's joy in his converts is particularly expressed in the whole of this passage taken together. "That ye may be blameless, and harmless, the sons of God, "without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse na❝tion, among whom ye shine as lights in the world: holding "forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of "Christ that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain." The blameless, harmless, unrebukable character of these converts, the lustre of their example, and the glory which it cast around the word of God, constitutes the source of that peculiar happiness which he expected to find in the day of Christ. This exemplary piety, seen in their lives with such beauty and lustre, while it allowed those who beheld it to follow them in the way to endless life, was, at the same time, a glorious proof of the faithfulness and efficacy of his own labours for their conversion. In the text, thus considered, are contained the following doctrines. I. Those who have been intimately connected in the present world, will at the day of judgment be known to each other. II. Faithful ministers of the Gospel, and those who, under their ministry, have embraced the Gospel, will be mutual causes of joy in that day, and, by consequence, through eternity. I. Those who have been intimately connected in the present world, will at the day of judgment be known to each other. Of the truth of this doctrine there can, I think, be little doubt. The Apostle, his fellow labourers, and their converts, were to rejoice with each other at the day of Christ with a peculiar joy. To these ministers of the Gospel neither the saints of ancient times, nor those of succeeding generations, were to be their hope, or their joy, or their crown. This character is in the text, and the parallel passages which have been mentioned, expressly confined to their own converts. In the same manner these converts are exhibited as peculiarly rejoicing in Paul and Timothy, as ministers by whom they believed. But if these preachers and their converts were thus to rejoice in each other, it follows of course, that they must be mutually known; and known in their mutual connection as instruments and heirs of salvation. St. Paul, therefore, and Timothy and Silas, will know the members of these churches for whom they wrote, and be known by them in the day of Christ. Nor can there be any reasonable doubt that other ministers and their converts will be known in the same manner; nor by parity of |