who are called by the name of Christ are far from being " a joy and crown of rejoicing" to their minister. Even of religious professors, there are great multi- tudes " of whom we must stand in doubt," and of whom we cannot speak, but with grief1. Those who alone will ultimately prove the joy and crown of their ministers, are,
1. Those who embrace the faith —
[There must be a real conversion of the soul to God. It is not necessary that this conversion be sudden, or that it should be attended with such circumstances as shall enable a person to declare the precise time and manner in which it was accomplished: but it is necessary that every man should have an evidence within himself that he is " translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son." He must receive Christ into his heart, and build on him as the only foundation of his hope. " Christ must become truly pre- cious to his soul." Christ must be his life, his peace, his strength, his joy, his all. Till this be done, a minister can have no comfort in any man, because he has no ground to believe him truly and savingly converted to God : but when this change is manifest (for no natural man in the universe ever thus gloried in Christ alone,) then does the person in whom it is wrought become the joy and crown of his minister: he then, in the judgment of charity, is brought to the fold of Christ: and his minister, like a faithful shepherd, rejoices over him, as a sheep that was lost, and is found.]
2. Those who walk in love —
[If there be a mere adoption of Christian principles, without the attainment of Christian practice, this change will produce no satisfaction in the heart either of God or man. But if there be a corresponding change in the heart and life of a professor, and a suitable exercise of Christian graces and tempers, then the minister will feel a proportionable confidence respecting a work of grace within him : seeing the fruit to be good, he will conclude that the tree is good also. The grace of love in particular must be predominant. " This is the grace whereby all men are to know whether we be Christ's disciples." If pride, envy, malice, or any other temper contrary to love, reign in the heart, we only deceive ourselves in fancying our- selves Christians : we are yet in darkness, and children of the wicked one1. A minister can only weep over such persons:
h Phil. iii. 18.
' 1 John ii. 9 — 11. and iii. 10, 14, 15. and iv. 7, 8.