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of manhood, in the bloom of youthful beauty. Pain and disease will be unknown; exhaustion or weariness will never be felt. "The tree of life" flourishes in heaven, though it no longer grows on earth; "it yields its fruit every month, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations." Moral evil being annihilated, all physical evils, of which it is the only but prolific source, will be annihilated also. There will be nothing in external nature to operate with an influence unfriendly to corporeal health. The elements will not, as now, be impregnated with the latent causes of disease. No lurking poison will lie concealed in any of the flowers or fruits or fountains of the celestial paradise. The very atmosphere will be "the breath of life." Every thing we shall see, or hear, or touch, will put forth a benign virtue. There will be no satiety, no disgust. Duration will not impoverish but multiply our pleasures; and every repetition of the same engagement will be with new perceptions of its power, to interest the feelings, and to pour the tide of rapture through the still delighted soul.

But who can think of eternity and not lose himself amidst its sublimities! To be for ever advancing in know. ledge and happiness-to be incessantly climbing to loftier elevations-to be conscious of a perpetual enlargement of mind-of spiritual faculties constantly expanding-and of corporeal powers coincident with them, in all that is worthy to distinguish an intellectual and immortal creature, the purchase of a Saviour's blood, and the image of his glorified person:-This is the high destination of believers in the future state.

There, where the wing of holy toil aspires,
Where the just mingle with celestial quires,
May I, composed in consecrated rest,
Enjoy the eternal sabbath of the blest:
There, while a purple glory veils my face,
Feel my mind swell to fit her heavenly place;
And, smiling at my life's successful fight,
Exult and brighten in ethereal light.

What prospects thus open to the believer! and for these prospects let him not forget that he is indebted to his dying and risen Lord.

Printed by C. Roworth and Sons, Bell Yard, Temple Bar.

THE FAITHFUL STEWARD.

No. 1. -PERSONAL TALENTS.

A SERMON

BY THE

REV. T. E. HANKINSON,

AT DENMARK HILL CHAPEL,

On Sunday Morning, November 5, 1837.

TEXT." It is required of stewards that a man be found faithful."-1 Cor. c. 4, v. 2.

SAINT Paul in these words was speaking of himself, justifying apparently on the ground of faithfulness, the line of conduct he was pursuing towards the Corinthian church. His second epistle to this church shows us what it had cost him to write the first, how his heart bled over the sins, that his fidelity as a Christian minister compelled him to rebuke and correct. But he might not decline the task assigned to him. He had cast in his lot with the Gospel, and no human feeling, no private partiality was to be listened to when the rights and interests of the Gospel were at stake. He was a steward of the mysteries of God, and moreover he felt that it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. To this requirement every thing must yield; his own ease and comfort-the judgment and approbation of others, all must give way when a matter of truth and principle was concerned. St. Paul was not indifferent to the opinion in which he was held by those among whom he ministered; judging from his writings, no man less so. But he loved his Master better than he loved them, and when any disrespect was shown to Christ and his Gospel, he must take the straightforward path of a plain and uncompromising protester against it. And if the Corinthians, or the dearest earthly friends he possessed, stood in his way, he could say to them "with me it is a very [No. 29.]-VOL. II.

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small thing to be judged of you or of man's judgment." Now, my brethren, this is conduct which the Christian believer is bound to admire and to imitate. We are not indeed all apostles, nor all prophets, nor all pastors and teachers. But this is not necessary to bind upon our conscience the duty which the Apostle was fulfilling when he wrote the words before us. In some very important sense, God accounts of us all as "ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." The Holy Ghost has divided unto every one of us severally as he will; but from none of us has he withheld his portion of entrusted goods. We are all his servants, whatever place in his household may be called our department of service; and if we would be found of him in peace, we must show all good fidelity in the management of the business, or improvement of the talent, entrusted to us. The duty of faithfulness will appear in its strongest light, if we contemplate the Being who enjoins it upon us. It is the faithful God-" A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." His mercies to us flow through the channel of his faithfulness. They are not unconditional mercies proceeding from no assignable cause, and guided by no definite law. They are as systematic as it is possible for a recognized principle to make them. They are bound up with an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure. And thus God is called simultaneously, "The God who keepeth covenant and mercy." Now we are not going to hang the original covenant mercies of God upon our faithfulness. Utterly independent of that or any other virtue that might be supposed to reside in us, "of his own grace, wherewith he loved us when we were dead in sin, he hath quickened us." He has brought to us all the blessings of salvation undeserved, unsought, unthought of by us. He comes and seals those blessings as our property of his own accord, with an oath "that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us." Does he not then require faithfulness from us. He undoubtedly does. But mark how that faithfulness in us is to be produced. It forms a part of the covenant which he himself has stipulated to perform. These are

his own words: "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which covenant they broke, though I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it upon their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Well then may we give a spiritual sense to that acknowledgement of the Psalmist: "Thy faithfulness and truth shall be my shield and buckler." Thy new covenant pledges thee to shield me from the power of evil, to take away the unsound, unstable, unfaithful propensities that now cause me to start aside like a broken bow; and instead, to write thy law upon my heart, which is a transcript of the holiness and truth of thine own character. There are many who will not enter into covenant with God. They do not wish to be made faithful by his Spirit. Perhaps they have no regard for faithfulness at all. Perhaps they think they are sufficiently faithful in themselves without any assistance from him. Both these are, I was going to say, equally to be pitied; for both are very far indeed from the righteousness of God; both have as yet no share whatever in the privileges of the Gospel. They are unfaithful to themselves, for they rob their own souls in refusing God's covenant mercies. They can know nothing of the joy with which the humble Christian dwells upon the text, "I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." It may be asked then, is there no such thing as an unfaithful Christian? Alas! brethren, such an individual is too common, so common that Christianity itself is often brought into discredit by its professing but unfaithful votaries. If it be possible to refuse to enter into covenant with God, it is equally possible to transgress the covenant after it has been embraced. God's faithfulness pledges him to every one of his people in the words, "my grace is sufficient for thee." It is enough to support thee throughout the whole of thy journey, to give thee

the victory over every enemy, and in short to keep thee faithful unto death; but it must be sought by thee, and used by thee, prayed for, and watched for, and looked for in every circumstance of life. Thou hast been taught to pray, Give us this day our daily bread; and a prayer for daily grace is even more necessary than that for daily bread. We will proceed then to show, when the Christian is faithful to his own privileges, i. e. when he makes all the use he can of the grace bestowed upon him, what results we may reasonably expect. We behold him then in the position of a steward, whom his master has raised as a matter of personal favour to a station of great trust and responsibility, and besides permitted to call in to his assistance his master's wisdom, and his master's influence, in order to the proper outlay and improvement of the intrusted talents. If therefore the property be mismanaged you see how fairly he is left without excuse. Other stewards may say, "I did according to my judgment and power, but have unfortunately failed of my object." He cannot thus excuse himself, for his master would rejoin "Then why did you not use my judgment and my power, which would have prospered you whithersoever you went." I hope then, dear friends, that you will not mistake your situation. You are every one of you "ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God; moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." Now what is the first step that a practical man would take in your cir cumstances? He would surely make an inventory of the goods entrusted to him. Have any of you attempted to do this? How many a man goes out of the world without being able to tell his employer for what portion of his property he was responsible; and, awful as it may seem, this voluntary ignorance is the only source of peace upon many a death-bed: False peace! to be full soon broken by disclosures that will overwhelm their unhappy subject with confusion and disgrace. We read of persons who perish for lack of knowledge. There are those persons who know not the grace to which they were called, but who might know if they would make inquiry: May none of us be of their number. Perhaps you think that I can tell you that of which you want to be informed;-I can, my

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