other place where similar exposures exist), yet most certain it is that this village would become the bond-slave of mammon, a forum of the dissipated, a stronghold of rowdyism, and a plague spot and source of corruption to the entire region around; a place where the lovers of strong drink shall drain the intoxicating glass; a place where the voice of profane scoffing and blasphemy shall drown every other voice; where infidelity shall hold up the most sacred things of religion to low mockery and contempt; where gamblers and theatrical performers, and the importers of other debasing amusements, shall draw in and corrupt the young, and the great enemy of souls prepare an easy harvest for the second death.

Upon you it rests, in a great measure, beloved hearers, to say to which of these destinies this place shall be given. While you toil for the better destiny, the youthfulness of the place is in your favor, the Sabbath and the truth will work with you and for you, the sympathies and prayers of all the good are with yon, and above all, the Lord Jehovah himself, will be with you while you be with him. And the promise, from his own lips to you, is, "they that seek me early, shall find me."

SERMON DCXXXV.

BY REV. SAMUEL SAWYER.

ROGERSVILLE, TENN.

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S JOY.

"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? For ye are our glory and joy."-1 THESS. ii. 19, 20.

THIS is the language of the great Apostle of the Gentiles to a band of disciples he had gathered into the church. The salvation of men was his great object. Around it were centred all his affections, and to it he gave all his energies. The encouragement of his heart was the prospect of bringing a multitude in the final day saved by his instrumentality. For this he was willing to toil; for this he cheerfully consecrated his life; for this he endured persecution, and even martyrdom. When christian converts walked worthy of their vocation, they were his "hope, and joy, and crown of rejoicing."

Let us inquire WHAT ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WHICH ENCOURAGE A MINISTER'S HEART; or, when christians are his hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing?

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I. A minister's heart is encouraged when christians manifest that their great and absorbing aim in life is to walk in the fear and love of God. When christians manifest a steady and uniform piety; when the prevailing disposition is to glorify God; when they all fear to offend, and take pleasure in obeying the precepts of Christ; then the minister's heart is encouraged, and he can go forward cheerfully in his work. He can point to the people of God, and say, "Behold the transforming power of the religion of the cross in the lives of these christians. They are becoming more and more holy; more and more like God in singleness of purpose and excellence of character. They walk by faith, and not by sight. Their conversation is in heaven. Once bold transgressors, they lived as though the soul had its everlasting repose in the grave-as though there was no eternity and no world of retribution; now they are obedient disciples pressing toward the mark for the prize of their high calling, and looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith." When the minister can thus speak of his people, then, like one of old, he can exultingly exclaim, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." For then the Gospel does what it proposes. It fills a darkened soul with light. It changes enmity to love. It displaces sin and imparts holiness. It takes away all grovelling and debasing aims, and substitutes for them the will of God as the grand and governing purpose of life. It makes And when christians man like God and earth like heaven. exhibit the fear and love of Jehovah, then they are the hope and joy and crown of rejoicing to the faithful minister.

II. A minister's heart is encouraged when christians abound in the spirit of prayer, SECRET, FAMILY, and SOCIAL. When they thus continue in fervent and effectual supplication, he feels that he is not laboring alone; that others sympathise with him, and would hold up his hands and gladden his heart, by united efforts to promote the interests of Zion, and he girds up the loins of his mind and brightens his armor, and with Immanuel's banner of love waving over him, he leads forward the sacramental host through the varied scenes of tribulation and conflict, by the green pastures and along the still waters of salvation to the Canaan of eternal rest and reward.

III. A minister's heart is encouraged when his people attend the sanctuary, and sustain the Gospel, and defend his reputation. The church of Scotland, for three hundred years, has been the hope and joy, and crown of rejoicing to its ministry, and no church on earth puts a higher estimate on the preached Word, or sustains the Gospel with more efficiency. Men, women, and children, especially the consecrated children of believing parents, throng the temple gates, and as in the time of Christ, the lame, and the halt, and the blind, and the paralytic, and those of long

infirmities and diseases, were brought by their friends to him, so the aged, and the infirm, and afflicted, are brought by their friends to the house of God, to be enlightened by the truth and cheered by the promises, and animated by the hopes of a preached Gospel. They thirst for saving knowledge, and desire to be taught the way of life still more perfectly. This reverence for the sanctuary gives dignity and honor to the heralds of the cross, and clothes their message with solemn and superhuman power. It sometimes happens that a minister of Christ is assailed by sectarian zeal, or by those reproved by his faithful admonitions, or by some fluttering and twittering members of his own church, who hastily condemn that very conduct in respect to which he has most earnestly prayed for the wisdom that cometh from above to direct him; and then his spirit is heavy, and he goes and tells his Savior of the weight upon his heart. He opens the Bible for comfort, and there he reads: "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." In these things which are incident to the minister's position, and which come to humble him, and to try his faith, and call out his virtues, how grateful to his heart to find his people ready to hold up his hands, and encourage him in his work of saving the lost, and of building them up in faith. When he gives his toils and prayers, and tears to a people, and their trials are his, and their afflictions and reproaches his, it is one of the most pleasant things in his experience, and one which most deeply affects him, that they show their gratitude and love in return. Then they are his glory, and joy, and crown of rejoicing. With this he can labor on unceasingly in his commission.

IV. A minister is encouraged when christians have a proper denominational spirit to go forward as one man to do whatever will promote their own prosperity and the glory of God. A minister may be satisfied in his own mind as to what course will best advance the interests of his church, but unless his people co-operate with him in his plans and efforts, his efforts will be to little purpose. They may pursue a course which will hinder a healthy denominational development. But when christians feel that the denomination to which they belong is not guilty of schism in occupying a distinct and separate existence, but is called of God to fortify itself, and lengthen its cords, and strengthen its stakes, and increase its influence; and when it is willing to cooperate with the minister in all proper methods of church extension, then is he encouraged by their course.

V. A church is the glory and joy of a minister when its members walk in love towards each other, and towards them that are without. "How pleasant," exclaimed the Psalmist, "it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." When they are united in faith and have one great object, namely, the glory of God by the

enlargement and piety of the church, harmony will prevail. It is most gratifying to the heart of the minister, when christians are thus united and ready to co-operate in every good work. It gives him unaffected joy when brotherly love abounds, when christian charity prevails among the members of his flock. Then his exhortations to follow Christ are not in vain. They will have power, and the spirit which kindly looked upon Peter notwithstanding his denial, and melted him to tears, and which prayed, "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do," will become more and more predominant, until showers of divine grace will be poured out to refresh the vineyard of the Lord.

VI. A church is the hope and joy of the minister when their light shines with converting power. Christians are called the light of the world and the salt of the earth. They are exhorted to let their light so shine before men, that others seeing their good works, may be led to glorify our Father which is in heaven. When they feel their responsibilities, and try to meet them; when they hunger and thirst for the word of life, and so profit by it as to bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness in their daily walk and conversation, then the Gospel message falls with new power on the church and the world. When the father and mother so live before their children as to convince them that they prize their coming to Christ more than their introduction into the circles of wealth or fashion or fame, and that the dearest object of their heart is to witness their growing attachment to the things which make for their everlasting peace, and so commend the beauty and excellence of the religion of Jesus to them, by exhibiting its purity and glory in their every day life, as to gather them early into the fold of the Redeemer; when the wife is so exemplary in her deportment towards her husband as to convince him of her sincerity, and of the value of the christian's hope, and to lead him to wish for her enjoyment in reading the Bible, and in prayer, and every religious duty, and at length to seek and find an interest in atoning blood, and join his efforts with hers to train the children committed to their care in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; when the friend speaks to his friend of the love of God, and the joy of pardon, and the bright prospect of heaven-that world where sin is unknown and death never comes, and friends meet to part no more-and of the society of angels until his eyes moisten, and his heart relents, and his lips breathe forth the prayers of the contrite, and the dead is made alive, and the lost found; when religion thus commends itself in the conduct and life of its professors, then is the minister's heart filled with joy, for he sees his labor is not in vain in the Lord.

VII. A minister is encouraged when many are converted under his ministry. When a distinguished servant of Christ, in Virginia, after thirty years of unwearied toil and self-denial, and consistent christian walk, was blessed with a revival of reli

gion which embraced a good part of his own household, his soul was so filled with joy, that he remarked to some of his brethren, that he was amply repaid, and could labor thirty years more if it should please the Master for another such revival." If there is joy over one sinner that repenteth in the presence of the angels, why should not the minister rejoice when he sees many converted under his labors? He may and does rejoice in the goodness of God which permits him to reap so glorious a harvest. His heart swells with holy joy and gratitude. There is no vanity or pride in his bosom, but humility. He thanks God that the weary and heavy laden, as they come to Christ, find rest. He is made humbler and better and more faithful, or should be, under such a blessing. His heart is full. He stands by the cross, and gets near to the throne. He weeps with them that weep, and rejoices with them that rejoice.

Lastly. Christians will be the hope and joy, and crown of rejoicing to the minister, when he shall stand with them in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming, to receive his welcome and reward. Whatever comfort and happiness a christian people can give a minister in this world, the cup of his joy will be full only when he stands with them on the shores of immortality, their trials and sorrows all over, and their redemption complete. To be able to say, "Here, Lord, I am, a sinner saved by grace myself, yet honored in saving others. Here are fathers and mothers, and sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters, and some whole families, saved under my ministry by the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. Blessed Savior, thou didst lay down thy life for me, I have given all but life for these. These are the seals of my ministry which thou hast given; all praise to thee." This will be a happy day to the faithful servant of Christ. Shall it be to us? Shall we be there, as sinners saved by grace? Will you, then, be our glory and joy? You, for whom our years are passing away, our supplications continue to go up, our tears of affection or solicitude fall; you, for whom we study the sacred Word, and preach its tender or alarming truths; first in our waking thoughts and last; will you, then, be our crown of rejoicing? O, christian friends, think often of this approaching day, and live nearer the throne of grace; be more entirely consecrated to God, that all of you may then stand accepted in the Beloved, and be the hope and joy, and crown of rejoicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, of all these servants of his who have ministered to you in holy things.

But here are some unreconciled to God. What shall be our relations to them in that searching day! Will you be our hope, our joy, our crown of rejoicing, our glory? Can you be, if you resist the Gospel, instead of yielding to its power? O that you would give yourselves up to God as others have done, that in the morning of the resurrection you, too, and all of us might be found to the praise of his glorious grace.