THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPHANT IN DEATH:

A SERMON, &c.

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."

II. TIM. IV. 7, 8.

THIS, my brethren, was the testimony of a man, in the near prospect of death. But it was the testimony of a Christian; it could belong to no other. The language, too, rises so far above anything like fear, or even regret; it is so expressive of something much greater than simple tranquillity and satisfaction; it breathes so much of exultation and triumph, that we cannot hear it, without feeling that it must be the testimony of some highly distinguished Christian. Such a Christian was Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles. In writing to his spiritual son Timothy, he puts this testimony on record, not to fill him with exalted notions of the merits and attainments of his illustrious correspondent; nor for the purpose of securing to himself a posthumous fame in the Churches of Christ. No, but for the advancement of that one object, for which he had lived and laboured, the glory of the grace of God;-by that grace alone he elsewhere acknowledges he was what he was. Our Apostle was no vain boaster, no selfsufficient mortal, who sought to arrogate any commendation to himself. Nothing was more abhorrent from his feelings and habits, than self-glory, or arrogance. It is sufficiently evident from the spirit of his writings and the tenor of the whole of his apostolic life, that he was a man of deep, unaffected humility. I am," he says, "the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle;" and again, “I am less than the least

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He had had

of all saints." Well, but it strikes us forcibly that the testimony in our text must have been made at the close of a life eminently devoted to the cause of Christ. Nothing can be more true, than that the life of the Apostle was, to a very high degree, exemplary in this respect. He surpassed all his brother Apostles in the labours he accomplished, in perils of every variety to which he was exposed,-in the cruel persecutions he endured,— and in the anxious cares of all the churches, which daily came upon him. The time would fail us to enumerate the scenes of toil and watchings, of hunger and thirst, of cold and nakedness, through which he passed. It was the love of Christ-zeal for his glory, a benevolent longing for the salvation of perishing souls, that constrained and stimulated him to encounter them all. This champion of the Christian faith was now a prisoner at Rome. His eventful life is drawing to a close. He is about to die a martyr to the holy cause, in which he had so long and so arduously laboured. It became not him to flinch. death, in its most appalling forms, too frequently before his view, to fear it at the last. Christian heroism knows no fear, but that of offending God. But he does not approach death with a stoical indifference; nor brave its terrors with ostentatious contempt. He reasons correctly and justly on his state. Reflecting on his past history, and looking forward into futurity, he seems to say, "I was once a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy; and in the review of what Divine grace has done for me, and by me, I have the witness of the Spirit and my own conscience, that I have been enabled to war a good warfare in the cause of my Lord Jesus Christ. Sustained by his might, I have persevered in preaching the unsearchable riches of his gospel to all men, amidst buffeting, and stoning, and harsh imprisonment. The rich grace with which he has endowed me, the signs of his approval, and the abundant blessings with which he has followed my labours, fill me with joy and gladness; and now that I am ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand, I can say with all confidence, 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 to all them also that love his appearing."" But this language, exulting and triumphant as it is, is not claimed, as you see, by the Apostle, as his exclusive right. We bless God that it belongs to many of his humbler servants; though, for want of the same vivid apprehension of their future glory, they have not ventured to express it. For their encouragement the Apostle himself asserts, “and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing;" and the glorious Redeemer, whose right it is to bestow the crown, has said it, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my father in his throne."

course.

Thus did that servant of Christ, David Nasmith, finish his Soon, indeed, to the regret of his many friends-of the Church-of the world, soon was that course brought to a close; but not, till, through the grace of his Divine master, he had crowded it with numerous and distinguished services, for his glory and the best interests of men. Not to anticipate what we may have hereafter to say, I would now only observe, that, wherever he was known, it will be admitted that his dying testimony might well have been, "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." These words we now take up, as the triumphant exclamation of the Apostle Paul, in the view of a martyr's death for the cause of Christ.

In using the terms fight, and course, and crown, he alludes to the public games which were periodically celebrated in various. parts of Greece. In these were displayed feats of agility, skill, and muscular strength; for the entertainment of vast multitudes of spectators congregated on the occasion; and to obtain the honour of a crown of green leaves, and the empty applause of But the Apostle had spent his energies on nobler purposes. His had been a good fight, a high and holy course; and the crown before him was a crown of glory, that fadeth not away."

men.

Our text naturally divides itself into two parts; 1. The Apostle's GRATEFUL RETROSPECT; and 2. His DELIGHTFUL, SOUL

ANIMATING PROSPECT.

To these two leading thoughts let me beg your serious and prayerful attention; after which I shall endeavour to give you some account of the experience, labours, and death of our departed friend. May the Holy Spirit solemnize our minds, and bless our meditations !

I. We have in the words of the text, the Apostle's GRATEFUL

RETROSPECT.

I say grateful; for we have sufficient means of knowing the Apostle's feelings here. He was not one to say, “By the strength of my hand I have done it; and by my wisdom, for I am prudent." No; while he now writes as Paul expecting martyrdom for Christ, he forgets not Saul of Tarsus, who persecuted him in his members. He often thought of the life he led, before his memorable journey to Damascus, he thought of it, and was humble. His subsequent change of character and life; his powerful, persevering, successful preaching of the cross; the faithfulness and moral courage with which he endured all his labours, his conflicts, and grievous tribulations, he ascribed solely to the grace of God in Christ, through whose strength he felt he could do all things. He knew, and gloried in his obligations to his Lord. He seldom alluded to his doings, or his sufferings, without referring to Him all the glory redounding from them. Indeed, the letters of the words before us could hardly be dry, before the same pen that wrote them records in a few verses after, his grateful acknowledgment of the Divine support on which he had stood at a late critical hour. "At my first answer," says he, viz., before the Prefect of Rome, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: nevertheless the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me." The retrospect, then, which he took, at the end of his course, was one of gratitude. He had been serving a good and gracious master. He had ever found him faithful to his promises. The trials and tribulations that met him in his way, neither dismayed nor surprised him; for of these he had been apprised, at the outset. "I will show him," said his Lord, what great things he must suffer, for my name's sake." But in none of them was he ever forsaken: the Divine promise, "My grace is sufficient for thee," was on every occasion fulfilled. Well might he look back on a life like his, distinguished

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as it was by so many extraordinary marks of his Lord's approval, with a heart full of the warmest gratitude; and it is doubtless that holy emotion, so naturally rising from such a retrospect, which prompts the exulting language of our text.

Believers in Christ! you especially who have already run a great part of your course, is not this your experience? In looking back on the way you have gone, you can trace the goodness and the grace of God to you, ever since he called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; how he has borne with your infirmities-dissipated your fears-sustained you, in weakness-consoled you, in affliction-delivered you from temptation -and strengthened you with strength in your souls, for every service you had to discharge. And does not the retrospect fill your hearts with gratitude, and your mouths with praise? Yes, and it is well, at certain stages of your course, to pause and look back. If the review of past experience excite humility, and drive you to prayer, it is well; but it will not fail, if rightly taken, to call up grateful recollections also, and excite to songs of thankfulness and joy. Thus will you raise your Ebenezers, saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." You will thus graduate, so to speak, the line of your course, and correctly ascertain your progress. You will better know yourselves, and the dealings of your God with you. But let these inquiries be instituted with all seriousness and becoming humility: let them be conducted under the light of God's holy law; and in forming your conclusions, let impartiality be the judge. Look back upon your past vicissitudes-your trials-your conflicts, and say, when you passed through the waters, did they overflow you? When you walked through the fire, did the flame kindle upon you? If, on the contrary, you can testify to the faithfulness of God, in fulfilling his promise, then, O remember what he has told you, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me."

But remember also, my fellow-Christians, that, while in the body, the fight is still to be maintained. You are not yet putting off the harness. Your way to the kingdom is a continued warfare. The grand objects you have in view are the attainment of the image of God on your own souls: the promotion of his glory in the world, and a meetness for the inheritance of the saints in