Elizabeth Bales—a Pattern for Sunday 4
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Perfect felicity is evidently implied in this figurative description of a minister's reward. The crown of victory was worn on days of public rejoicing, and he who wore it was considered the happiest of the festive throng, and the center of the universal joy. He received the congratulations of the admiring multitude as having reached the summit of human happiness. The apostle, therefore, intended to include the idea of perfect happiness in his beautiful allusion. The holy pastor shall partake, in common with his people, of all those sublime felicities which the Father has prepared for those who love him. He shall see God face to face, and behold the glory of the Lamb; he shall possess a body glorious, incorruptible, and inhabited by a spirit perfect in knowledge, holiness, and love; he shall be associated with the innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect.
But, in addition, he shall have sources of felicity peculiar to his office. The consciousness of having spent his life in the service of Christ; of having stood, as it were, at the fountain of celestial radiance for so many years, to pour the streams of truth and holiness over the parched plains of this desert world; of having made known the glory of God to those who but for his instrumentality, must have remained in ignorance of his nature; of having scattered along his path to immortality the unsearchable riches of Christ, and sown the seed of righteousness for an eternal harvest; of having rescued many from everlasting death, and elevated them to the life that never ends; in short, of having been instrumental in accomplishing the lofty schemes of redeeming love, and lived in fellowship with the cross.
Such a reflection, when all the acquirements of ambition, of learning, of science, or of avarice, shall cease to be regarded with delight, will be a perennial spring of ineffable delight in the bosom of its possessor. It will be no small accession to the faithful pastor's felicity to see around him in heaven the souls whom he was the honored instrument of bringing to glory, the saints whom his labors prepared for their inheritance in light. How striking is the language which the apostle addressed to the believers in Thessalonica. "For who is our hope, or joy, or crown of boasting in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?
Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy!" Those of you who have tasted the rich emotions which benevolence excites in the bosom of the philanthropist, can conceive with what delight you would gaze upon a large company seated around your own table, all of whom owe their comfort in life to your exertions. But such a survey would be infinitely less gratifying than will be that of the minister of Christ, who, while he shall look around upon immortal souls, rescued from hell, and elevated to heaven by his instrumentality, shall hear them uttering his name in the excess of their rapture, as the means of their salvation, and shall behold them turning upon him, eyes expressive at once of their glory and their gratitude.
The hope of usefulness is the noblest stimulus to exertion, and the evidence of it is our richest reward. It is beyond expression delightful to behold the profligate reclaimed, reformed, and sanctified; and to see those who were hastening to the bottomless pit, and becoming every day more fit for it—transformed by the blessing of God upon our ministry, into humble, holy, spiritual followers of the Lamb. There is not a man on earth whom a minister can envy when he beholds around him those whom he has been the instrument of saving from eternal death. Still it is with mingled feelings that we look upon these pleasing indications of successful labor. Many a vernal blossom is now putting forth its petals to the sun, which shall never ripen into fruit; and we have so often seen such nipped by the frost and scattered by the wind, that even when the garden of the Lord puts on the most encouraging aspect, and most invites to gratitude and delight, we rejoice indeed, for even the hope of doing good is blissful—but recollecting how frail human goodness is, "we rejoice with trembling." The flow of our joy is often checked by the foreboding that some of our apparently most beautiful plants will never bloom in the paradise above. For experience makes us suspicious.
But none of these suspicious will arise to interrupt our felicity above. There, the good we have done shall be permanent and eternal. We shall see those sermons and those prayers, which we thought were utterly lost, obtain their reward in the glorified forms of redeemed sinners. We shall see the seed which we sowed often times amidst many tears, waving in a rich harvest of everlasting joy. And we shall survey the scene with unmingled feelings. No 'appearances of piety' will be delusive there. Never shall we sorrowfully exclaim over anyone, "Your goodness is as the morning cloud and early dew." The souls whom we there shall behold elevated to glory through our ministry will never deceive us; no inconsistency will ever awaken our fears or grieve our hearts; none will be seen falling like meteors from the church—but everyone will present the settled splendor of a fixed star.
Who can conceive of that delight which will arise from such a scene? What an incentive to our labor! What an excitement to our zeal! The mere plaudits of men expire upon the vibrations that bear them to the ear. Miserable is the man who is satisfied with the admiration instead of the salvation of his hearers, and wretched forever will he be when he shall hear the Judge say to him, "You have had your reward."
Eternal duration is ascribed by the Apostle to the honor and happiness promised in the text. The garland of the earthly victor soon withered; the amaranthine chaplet of the earthly hero, in spite of its name, lost its beauty; the diadem falls from the brow of the earthly monarch; but the pastor's crown shall "never fade away!" His reward shall be not only ineffable—but eternal. "What is lacking here?" exclaimed the flattering courtier to a royal conqueror, riding in the pomp of a triumphal procession. "Continuance," replied the moralizing emperor. But when amidst the splendor of celestial glory, one happy spirit shall ask another, "What is lacking here?" the answer shall be, "Nothing! for these scenes shall never fade!" The attribute of immortality to which, amidst the groans of creation, the human race have ever aspired, belongs to the joys which the Father has prepared for those who love him. These joys are all summed up in that one expression, most sublime to hear—eternal life. With us, who enjoy the benefit of revelation, immortality is not, as it was with the wisest of the heathen, a mere conjecture.
They looked across the sea of life, and thought they saw the mountains of another and better country—but all was dim; and whether what they saw was delusive or real, they could not tell. Judaism gave some assuring intimations of a state of future glory, yet clouds and shadows rested on the prospect. "Life and immortality were first brought to light by the gospel," and they are revealed and promised not to the philosopher only—but to the unlettered and the child. Deathless honors shall flourish on the brow of every servant of God, and eternal felicity settle in his bosom. He is ever advancing to "an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away." To this honor and felicity we feel confident our deceased friend has been advanced by his approving Lord.
Let us learn from this subject to look up amidst the mortality of ministers with joy and confidence to the perfections and immortality of the chief Shepherd. Let us be admonished by it to be ever ready for the last eventful hour of life. Let us learn the excellence of that religion which regenerates the heart, sanctifies the life, soothes the mind under all its sorrows, supports the soul amidst the decays of nature, throws a luster over the dark valley of death, opens the portals of the celestial city, and having conducted the disembodied spirit to the throne, returns again to earth to pour the balm of consolation into the minds of mourning relatives, and conduct them onward to that world where relationships strengthened and hallowed by religion shall be rewarded, perfected, and perpetuated! Amen.
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