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SERMON XXI.

THE TRIUMPH OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER.

2 CORINTHIANS, ii. 13.

Now thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

Ir is a peculiar encouragement to the Christian minister to contemplate the example of the holy Apostles; for, whatever difficulties he may now meet with in the discharge of his high office, he perceives that they were assailed by much greater. He knows also that the power of divine grace is not less at the present time, than at the first propagation of the Gospel. He believes that the doctrine of the cross of Christ remains the same; and that, though the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit have long ceased, yet that his ordinary and most important operations still continue in the church. He hopes, therefore, to recur to the allusion in the text,that he may also be carried forward, in some measure like the Apostle, in a spiritual triumph, whilst the vivifying fragrance of the knowledge of Christ is scattered around him as he proceeds.

The immediate occasion of Saint Paul's expressing this sentiment was the glad tidings which he had

received of the church at Corinth, together with the door opened to him of the Lord at Troas. These auspicious circumstances drew forth from him the striking expressions of gratitude and praise which we are now to consider. We may notice then,

I. The Christian minister's triumph.

II. The special blessing which he communicates. III. The gratitude which he offers to God for it.

I. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S TRIUMPH-Now, thanks be to God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.

The Roman triumph to which the Apostle refers is well known. It was the celebration of a victory gained in war. The procession advanced through the streets of Rome to the Capitol, conducting the successful general and his army; whilst the attendant captives followed the triumphant car. The altars smoking with incense, and the applauses and benedictions of the multitude, proclaimed its approach. Thus the Apostle describes himself as led, from city to city, from province to province, in a moral triumph over the powers of darkness and the idolatrous opposition of the heathen world, whilst the name and grace of Christ his Saviour, as a sweet savour of life, was diffused wherever he came. The Christian minister also in every age partakes, in his more limited measure, of a like exultation, in proportion as vice and ignorance are overcome, and the spiritual dominion of Satan is vanquished and destroyed.

For if the idea of a triumph implies that there has been a conquest achieved, surely the success of the Gospel of Christ has now, as well as in the days of St. Paul, the best title to this distinction. For what is conversion to God but the submission of the understanding and will of fallen sinners to the law of holiness, the conquest of the inner man, the es

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tablishment of the doctrine of Christ on the ruins of self-righteousness and of pride, and the erection within us of a kingdom of grace, and peace, and joy? In effecting this, we have not now indeed, like the Apostles, to resist the authority of learning, and rank, and power, of intellectual habits and social usages openly marshalled against Christianity. But we have still the ignorant and obdurate heart of man to conquer. We have still to remove settled prejudices against spiritual religion. We have still to cope with the love of the world, the dominion of passion, the force of evil customs, the maxims of corrupt nature, the inertness and blindness and enmity of the human mind. We have still to subdue the pride and presumption of men, and to induce them to be saved by faith in the death and sacrifice of Christ. The drunkard, in short, is to be made sober, the unjust righteous, the careless thoughtful, the arrogant meek, the proud humble, the formal devout, the dead alive. In doing this, we have often to encounter misrepresentation and reproach, we have to instruct those that oppose themselves, we have to endure all for the elect's sake. And is there no triumph in accomplishing this? Is it nothing to be the means under God of overthrowing the kingdom of darkness, and of setting up the reign of religion and purity? Is it nothing to be the instrument of binding the strong man armed; of taking away his armour in which he trusted, and in dividing the spoil? Is it nothing to follow the Saviour in vanquishing principalities and powers, and in making a show of them openly?

We admit, indeed, that To THE EYE OF SENSE

THERE APPEARS NO SPLENDOUR IN ACHIEVING THESE VICTORIES. But what was there of external glory even in the case of the Apostle? Was he not in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft? What is

there of triumph here? Does he not say, Of the Jews received I forty stripes save one, thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeyings often, in perils of waters in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren? What is there of the earthly conqueror in all this? Follow him to Damascus, Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Ephesus, Jerusalem, Rome-in all these places the entrance and the departure of the Apostle, triumphant as they really were, were perhaps little regarded. The philosopher of Greece or Rome, no doubt, considered the life and actions of an unknown Jewish zealot as altogether contemptible. The cross of Christ, which he preached, was to the Jew a stumbling-block and unto the Greek foolishness.

But still TO THE EYE OF PIETY AND FAITH there was, amidst all, A TRIUMPH. God gave testimony to the word of his grace. A great multitude of Jews and Greeks believed. The Lord added unto the church daily such as should be saved. As many as were ordained unto eternal life, believed. The Apostle's entrance in was not in vain, but men turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Many were washed and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. These effects were infinitely momentous, and presented to the mind of the intelligent Christian, a spectacle of bright and surpassing splendour. To those who could estimate aright the value of the soul, the importance of redemption, the glory of the cross, and the nature of eternal salvation, no circumstance of outward display would appear requisite in order to constitute the noblest triumph. Nay,

the very external ignominy and sufferings and infirmities of the Apostle, contrasted with the effects of his preaching on the hearts and lives of men, would only the more illustrate the surprising victory of the grace of God.

In like manner, at the present period, the minister of Christ celebrates, in the ordinary course of his duties, an equally real, though, like St. Paul's, a spiritual conquest. It is true, he may be unknown to men in the quiet discharge of his high office, he may be exposed to the obloquy of an ill-judging world, and to the contempt perhaps of the more indolent part of the visible church; but, in the midst of all, he continues to preach a crucified Saviour, and his labour is not in vain. The blessed Spirit makes the word of God effectual to the conversion of sinners; for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation: and the holy conduct and Christian order of the converts attest the change. And is not this a real triumph? Is not captivity here led captive? Is not the fortress of the human heart taken? Are not the weapons of such a warfare, not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ? Do not the humility and tears and sufferings and weakness and difficulties of the minister, who is the means of achieving all this, together with the very prejudices and opposition which seemed to impede his success, display more conspicuously the glory of the triumph?

And in cases of REMARKABLE REVIVALS OF RELIGION, when the word of God runs more rapidly and is glorified, when the minister comes among his people in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ; when there is a copious effusion of the grace

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