SECTION VI.

REJOICING IN SPIRIT.

PHILEMON.-EPAPHRAS.-TIMOTHEUS.

Philemon.-It is sure to end in most blessed results when we can take the encouragement and put in practice the advice which the Spirit of God gives: I have tried through the help of my God to follow on to know the Lord, as you admonished: I have used sincere endeavours; I have attended all appointed means of grace; I have let slip no time nor neglected any opportunity, either public or private, whereby my last convictions might be deepened, and knowledge increased.

I have found great delight in the exercise of prayer, and "what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?" My cup of joy is full to overflowing: O how precious are those words of the Lord to my soul, "hitherto ye asked nothing in my name, ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

Epaphras. It is good to trust God always, and to doubt his promises never: in their fulfilment there are never any insuperable impediments: what God undertakes, he is sure to do. There is no disagreement between his purpose and the performance, between his mind and the matter itself: nothing can resist his will, neither is there any obstacle or hindrance that can obstruct him in his way, and therefore there is

never just ground for suspicions: he is faithful to his word, and true to his promise; and remember, when he gave you (and all others who are sincere in seeking) the promise in question, it was given with the foresight of an all-knowing God; it was not a rash promise, but made deliberately.

Philemon.-Such has been its happy effect upon my heart, that I can now exclaim with Solomon, "a word spoken in season how sweet is it:" it has led me to seek his free favour, and thanks be to God I have found it: I am all joy and peace in believing all former doubts are fled, all fears are gone, all misgivings subsided; and I possess such inward comfort and spiritual consolation as worlds cannot give, or take away: I am now ready to undertake any duty; prepared for any sphere of usefulness which may open; I long to spend and be spent in the work of my blessed Master; the love of God is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost (Rom. v. 5.), and that love constraineth me: it renders my service, once painful and irksome, pleasant and easy: I seem to feel towards my Saviour, what Jacob felt towards Rachel (Gen xxix. 20.); were I to be spared to serve him fourteen years, they would seem but a few days.

Epaphras.-There can be no doubt but that love to Christ is a master feeling in the bosom of every true child of God: it is to the soul of man, and to the performance of duties, what oil is to the wheels of a chariot: it enables us to run cheerfully and smoothly in the way of God's commandments: it was this grace that put Peter

upon feeding Christ's lambs (John xxi. 15.): Paul, both upon doing and suffering, and all the disciples upon the jeoparding of their lives for his sake.

It is a great matter, however, for young Christians not to defer too much to feelings, nor trust too much to the ardour of their spiritual affections: it argues real grace to be able to maintain a happy equilibrium in divine things; neither to be uplifted on the one hand, or dejected on the other; not to be altogether insensible to the impulse of inward emotions, nor yet to be carried away by them. Nothing is more common than to witness contraries in young Christians; excess of one kind often leads to excess in another; and not unfrequently in the same character and sometimes in the same community, at different times, extremes meet the Jews, who were at one period addicted to the grossest idolatry, and to the worshipping of graven images, at another would not so much as allow even a painter or carver to live among them.

While, therefore, my young friend, I would not seek to damp your present glowing zeal, much less cool your ardent love to the Saviour, still painful experience has taught me how necessary it is not to confound herein the inward work of the Holy Spirit with the mere ebullition of natural and perhaps even corrupt feeling: not that I suspect your joy to spring from an earthly source: nevertheless, nothing is more easy, at least in a susceptible mind, than that strong feeling should be called out into action, and such is the infirmity of our nature, that our professed love to the Saviour is rarely wholly pure it partakes

for the most part of much imperfection, from various causes and different sources, and though you may not at present discover its want of purity, you will probably do so under altered circumstances.

Philemon.-But, dear Sir, surely we are not to take up with scanty measures of love to the Saviour: the store in him towards us is inexhaustible, and ours towards him capable of continual accessions: the most of love which any of us now bear to the Saviour is little in comparison of what we ought to possess, and the great stress which the sacred Scripture lays upon this quality in the renewed soul, sufficiently proves its vast importance. (1 Cor. xvi. 22.)

Epaphras.-What I would have you look to, is whether it is a grace of the Spirit; and whether it may prove lasting if it is of the right sort, it possesses the two following qualities: it will enable you to prefer the will of God to your own will, and the good of the whole flock of Christ to your own good and particular advantage: an example or two here will show you more clearly what I mean than the most lengthened arguments: how prominently did this disposition stand out in the character of Moses, (Exod. xxxii. 32.) and what depth of this feeling in St. Paul, when it led him to wish that himself were accursed from Christ for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh? (Rom. ix. 3.) What a rich display of disinterested love is here! what preference of the good of others to his own! Here is no ordinary feeling; nothing mercenary, and nothing of selfishness.

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Timotheus. Some of these remarks, I perceive, give you pain, but ought they to do so? Must we not be faithful? Are admonitions the less necessary, because they touch our tenderest feelings: our pastor speaks from experiences; he has been in the way long before you, and consequently has some knowledge of character; he knows well to what evils young Christians are most liable, and prevention in all cases is better than a cure: he sees that your natural sensibilities are great, your affection strong, your imagination quick and lively, and your inclination so powerfully drawn in one direction, that he fears it will blind your understanding, and warp your judgment concerning yourself.

We must all strive to cultivate more and more the grace of true humility; dread the risings of spiritual pride, and when we do rejoice in the Lord, it should always be accompanied with a measure of filial fear and trembling. (Psalm ii. 11.)

Philemon.-But, with all due deference to those to whom I am so much indebted, can I fail to rejoice in the Lord, who has dealt so bountifully with me? Where much is forgiven, do not we read the same loveth much? (Luke vii. 47.) and again, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh; (Matt. xii. 34.) and can we suppose God for Christ's sake ever gives us a blessing which he would not have us enjoy, or that he ever sets up the light of his glorious gospel in the soul without bidding us discern and rejoice in it? Does not David say, "rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous ;" and also, "my soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble