A FUNERAL SERMON

ON THE DECEASE OF THE REV. A. REDFORD,

BY

WILLIAM HARRIS,

On the Morning of Lord's day, the 12th of July, 1840.

II TIMOTHY IV. 7 AND 8.

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

Paul the apostle was a zealous and faithful servant of Jesus Christ. In early life he had persecuted the christian church with unprecedented vigour. But after his conversion, he exerted all his powers to build up that holy edifice for the demolition of which he formerly laboured. "To me to live is Christ" was perpetually his motto.

This noble sentiment was not merely a temporary effusion, under the early influence of divine grace: it was the fixed principle of his judgment, and became the most natural feeling of his heart. In his breast, with the lapse of years, it acquired new strength; and even at a period of life when heart and flesh with most men begin to fail, his mind appeared to derive new vigour, from the influence of this magnanimous devotion to his Lord.

Paul loved his Redeemer with a degree of ardour which no sufferings could repress, nor any allurements beguile. Love to Christ was the predominent feeling in his heart, while he fled with seraphick zeal from city to city, from the provinces of Asia to the islands of the Archipelago, from the Archipelago to the countries of Europe, proclaiming, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Thus this apostle faithfully discharged the trust committed unto him, and cheerfully awaited the arrival of that hour,

when his Lord would say "Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." In anticipation of that solemn, yet delightful hour, he said, "I have fought, &c."

But while the sentiments expressed in this declaration were peculiarly adapted to the general conduct of the apostle, and to the reward that awaited him, they are also highly appropriate to the cases of many believers in our own day, who, like the apostle, have been long trained and exercised in the school of Christ. Such was the venerable minister whom God has removed from us by death. My design is not to panegyrize him, but rather to offer a few words on the text, which his experience corroborated. O that he who said to our deceased friend and father "Come up hither," would shed on every heart his heavenly influence to make us all meet for his kingdom of glory! that when the summons for our departure shall arrive, we may close our eyes in peace and die the death of the righteous. The words of my text constitute

THE AGED CHRISTIAN'S RETROSPECT OF LIFE, AND PROSPECTS

BEYOND THE GRAVE.

The text is applicable only to a real christian, and more especially to an aged christian. Not merely to an aged person who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, but to the aged believer who has had long experience of the grace and faithfulness of God; and most of all to an aged minister, such as your departed pastor, whose religious course extended through a term of about sixty-five years. We are to consider,

I. The aged christian's retrospect of life.

Its several parts stand arranged by the apostle in the most connected and perspicuous form: we cannot, therefore, do better than investigate their contents in the order in which they are exhibited on the page of inspiration :First, "I have fought a good fight."

grace, he re

When a sinner becomes a convert of divine linquishes the world as his portion, and its wicked inhabitants as his friends: he resolves, through strength derived from his Lord, to mortify the various lusts of the flesh: he renounces his vassalage to Satan, and vows allegiance to Jesus Christ, as King of kings and Lord of lords. Thus every subject of converting grace enters on a conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and becomes a champion of truth, and holiness. In this character he has to maintain a vigorous contest with

those hostile powers whose cause he has renounced.

On earth there are no neutrals: all are belligerent. They, therefore, who enlist under the banner of the cross, must calculate on sustaining a close, determined and painful warfare with the combined forces of sin. Impenitent sinners will express under a variety of forms, their antipathy to the gospel, and hatred of its professors. The latent depravity of the heart will find in the allurements of wealth, honour, or sensuality, a constant stimulus to avarice, ambition, or concupiscence. The Devil, whose subtle chicanery is equalled only by his malice, labours with a degree of ardour and decision worthy of a better cause, insidiously to betray the christian warrior into acts of treachery, or, by a vigorous attack to foil him in the contest. With these enemies Paul had to contend, and with them every real christian is required to maintain a constant warfare.

Again, this declaration "I have fought a good fight," indicates more than is fully expressed! I have not only contended with my spiritual enemies, but have also been made victorious. The apostle Paul was severely persecuted for his inflexible attachment to the cause of Christianity. Both Jews and Gentiles concurred in pronouncing him worthy of stripes, imprisonment, and death. The depravity of his nature was another source of trouble, for he said "The good that I would, I do not but the evil which I would not, that I do." The same sentiment is yet more pathetically expressed in his exclamation, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" The venerable apostle was also no stranger to the persecuting malice of Satan. After his vision of the third heavens, a thorn in the flesh was given to afflict and humble him. The specifick nature of that grievous affliction is not known; but it originated, like Job's calamities, in the malignant agency of Satan. Paul denominates it,

The messenger of Satan sent to buffet him.

Thus we see that the affectionate and indefatigable apostle of the Gentiles knew by personal experience the nature of the christian warfare, and its painful influence on the feelings of the mind; yet a period arrived when he could look back on the scenes of his conflict and with holy exultation exclaim 'I have fought the good fight and strengthened by my Redeemer am become victorious."

But observe further that the animated style of language adopted by the apostle warrants even a bolder inference than the preceding. It intimates that his conquest was absolute. That he had contended with opposing powers would have been

small cause for triumph, if the occasion had not been lawful. Or even though the occasion were lawful, and he had fought the good fight, his exultation would have been unwarrantable, if he had been foiled in the contest. Or even though his cause were good, and the apostle a victor, his triumphant language on having fought the good fight would not have been sanctioned by the nature of the conquest, unless it were permanent in its effects. These energetick words, therefore, convey the sentiment, "I have entered the lists against the world, the flesh, and the devil: I have been made victorious over them, my conquest is absolute."

Secondly:"I have finished my course.

"So run

The christian's life is also represented as a race. that ye may obtain." Ye did run well, who did hinder you "? There are in the christian life and the course of the racer several coincident properties which warrant the comparison.

A racer is limited to a certain length of ground, and he who exhibits the prize appoints the boundary of the course.

Thus the christian race is limited to an appointed time. To some persons it is of a very short duration: they speedily enter into rest. In the experience of others, it extends through a long succession of years. Paul's course was long: so likewise was that of our friend and father. And surely if "these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," he who most eminently glorifies God under the experience of them, shall receive the more abundant blessedness. He who holds on his way the longest, and runs the heavenly race with the greatest degree of devotedness to him who has promised to bestow the prize, will find that prize an ample recompense for all his toil.

In this there is still the fullest exercise of free and sovereign grace. He who selected Paul from among the other disciples of Gamaliel, and your deceased pastor from among his early connexions, acted as a sovereign; and in the grant of long life to each, as well as in the dispensation of his grace unto them, conferred favours which neither of them could have previously merited. It was the prerogative of the Lord of the Church to prescribe for each the boundary of his course, and equally so to ordain the nature and measure of their reward.

A race requires exertion.

It was a practice among the ancient Greeks frequently to exercise themselves in running, that by habit they might acquire agility. When the day of competition arrived they

divested themselves of everything superfluous or burdensome, and at the given signal started for the goal. In the act of running every muscle contributed its strength and energy to render the competitor successful. In those exercises the lethargick and supine could have no part: their feeble efforts instead of obtaining reward would have provoked contempt. Thus, also, the heavenly race requires exertion, in consequence of the number, malignity, and vigilance of our spiritual enemies. They are perpetually striving to impede our progress, and most anxiously wish to see us finally come short of the goal, whither we are hastening.

A race demands a temporary sacrifice of comforts.

Among the Greeks their youth were regularly trained to the four gymnastick exercises. But among these the race obtained the precedence. Hence we find that the name of the successful racer distinguished the Olympiad in which he obtained the crown. As that high degree of honour was attached to success, many comforts were cheerfully sacrificed to obtain the desired object. Surely in this conduct of the ancient racers, christians may find a stimulus to sacrifice any temporal comfort to obtain success in the heavenly race. us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us." How impressively does the appeal of the apostle Paul on this point meet us again, "know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible."

A race is wearisome and requires perseverance.

"Let

In ancient Greece the exercise of racing at first consisted in running from one end of the stadium to the other, a distance of about 630 English feet. But the course was afterwards doubled and in the latter stages of the Olympick games, a successful competitor was obliged to pass the goal, three, six, or even twelve times before he could be entitled to the prize. Probably the apostle alludes to this fact when he says" let us run with patience the race that is set before us." It may be wearisome, but this inconvenience should be cheerfully endured, since it will be very transient. It requires perseverance: let us, therefore, look unto him from whom all our supplies of grace are received; and pray for strength to proceed on in our christian race, until we arrive at the end of

our course.

:

Finally the racer had in prospect the obtaining of a prize. In the early ages of the Olympick race, the racer's prize