O ye, who have never yet been converted by the labours of your minister, let him now prevail on you to turn unto the Lord with your whole hearts
And let those of you who look up to him as your spiritual Father, hold fast the truth ye have received, and endeavour to shine more and more as lights in the world, that his joy in you may be complete in the last days. Yes, we would address you in the words of Paul to his Philippian converts ; " My brethren, dearly beloved, and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand ye fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved*."]
p 2 Cor. i. 14. i 2 Thess. ii. 1. « Col. i. 28.
s Phil. ii. 15, 16. l Phil. iv. 1.
1 Thess. iii. 8. Now we live, if ye standfast in the Lord.
THERE is nothing that more strongly characterizes a faithful ministry, than the mutual affection that is VOL. xviii. x
found to exist between the minister and his stated hearers. The people, while they retain any just regard for their Lord and Saviour, will love those who have been his instruments for good to their souls3: and those who are instrumental in bringing others to the knowledge of salvation, will consider their converts as their children, " whom they have begotten to God," and " with whom they have tra- vailed in birth V We see this exemplified in all St. Paul's epistles, especially in that before us. After a short stay at Thessalonica, he was driven from thence by " certain lewd fellows of the baser sort," who sought to kill him ; and who, on hearing that he was fled to Bersea, followed him thither with the same intent, and drove him thence also. He was now at a great distance from them, and very appre- hensive on their account ; lest the sufferings which he had endured for them, and the trials which they themselves also experienced, should have deterred them from maintaining their steadfastness in the faith. "When therefore he could no longer forbear0," he thought it better to be left at Athens alone, than to remain any longer in uncertainty about them ; and accordingly he sent his only friend and companion, Timothy, to see them, and to report to him their state. Having heard a good account of them, he declares, that all sense of his own personal afflictions vanished, as soon as he heard of their spiritual ad- vancement ; and that his spirits, which had been ex- hausted by a long and painful suspense, were revived, so that he began, as it were, to " live" anew, since he was informed that they " stood fast in the Lord."
From the words before us we shall take occasion to shew,
I. What is that stability which all Christians must attain —
When any persons first receive the Gospel, so as to yield themselves up to its influence, they are said
a Gal. iv. 15. b 1 Cor. iv. 15. Gal. iv. 19.
c Twice mentioned, ver. 1, 5.
2198.] minister's joy in people's stability. 807
to " be in Christ :" when they make advances in grace, they are said to " walk in Christ :" and when they are established in a firm adherence to the truth, they are said, as in the text, " to stand fast in the Lord." This is that stability which is required of us ; namely, a stability in the faith, the profession, and the practice of the Gospel.
1. In the faith of the Gospel —
[There are many things which may occasion us to make
shipwreck of the faith d and many more, which may
rob us of the vital experience of it in our souls e But
all these must be withstood : we must " hold fast the form of sound words that hath been delivered to us ;" and, not con- tented with a barren orthodoxy, we must live altogether by faith in the Son of God, enjoying his presence, and " receiving out of his fulness grace for grace " ]