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the time when this great event shall occur. It remains only that we make a practical APPLICATION of our subject.

Beloved friends, and brethren :-To what an amazing destiny are we all reserved! Every one of us will arise from the dead, and continue to exist, soul and body, forever! How should we be affected by this solemn fact?

1. What should be its influence upon the wicked? You, too, dear friends, must "hear his voice and come forth." Will it be to "the resurrection of damnation?" This question you will yourselves decide, by your conduct in this world. If you continue in your sins, how, at the judgment seat of Christ, will you be able to bear the shame of your sins, and the contempt which they will bring upon you? He who is "the resurrection and the life," now offers to receive and pardon you. Will you now go to him? He will, and he alone can, deliver you from impending destruction.

In view of this condition of our friends, does it appear, brethren and sisters, that we have no duty to perform in relation to them? Do not their future prospects alarm you, and call forth your sympathies? Many of those who are dearest to your hearts, are yet in sin. Trace in thought, their fearful future. See, they die, impenitent and unpardoned; they arise, all polluted, and criminal, and at the bar of God,

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unveil their aspect! On their brow

The thunder scars are graven; from their eyes

Glare forth the immortality of hell!"

Up then, dear christians, and seek to save them. O, plead their cause before your God; plead with them to turn and live; give them no rest until they are won-until they repent, believe, and are made with you participants in the grace of Jesus Christ.

2. To those of you who seek salvation, our subject, today, must present a theme singularly full of encourage

ment.

You are laboring to gain a glorious resurrection, eternal life, and the companionship of happy saints and angels, in the skies. To sustain you, there are innumerable motives, all of boundless strength. The merits of the Redeemer are ample for you. You cannot fail in your purpose. Victory

a glorious victory over death, hell, and the grave shall be Trust in Christ, and fear not.

yours.

"Death shall never harm thee,
Shrink not from the blow,
For thy God shall arm thee

And victory bestow.

Then death shall bring

To thee no sting,

The grave no desolation;

Tis sweet to die

With Jesus nigh,

The rock of our salvation."

3. Upon the heart of the christian, how excellent is the effect of the doctrine of the resurrection.

It reconciles us to the loss of friends. Contrast our condition, in this respect, with that of those who are shrouded in the darkness of paganism. The affectionate parent, or friend, upon whose mind the word of God has never shone, carries to the tomb those, who, of all others, are dearest to him in this world-say, for example, an only, and affectionate son, in the bloom of life. He gazes for the last time, with a bursting heart, upon those wan features, cold in death. The grave closes over him, and he is gone! No hope enters his agitated bosom, that he shall ever again behold that countenance, as he has so often seen it, glowing with life, and lighted up with the beams of love. With unutterable anguish he turns away, exclaiming-Farewell, foreverfarewell, my dear boy, forever, FOREVER! With us, how changed is the scene! "Life and immortality are brought to light, by the Gospel." Our thoughts are irresistibly carried forward, from the grave, which swallows up all our earthly joys, to a day, not very distant, when our friends shall be fully restored to us. Then shall we be able to say :—

"See, truth, love, and mercy, in triumph descending,

And nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom;

On the cold cheek of death, smiles and roses are blending,
And beauty, immortal, awakes from the tomb."

Our farewell is but for a few days. As we look upon the grave, we can exclaim: Lightly rest the clay upon thy bosom,

my son-we shall meet again! Then death can no more reach us. We are beyond the boundaries of his dominions. We are safe-forever safe.

The doctrine of the resurrection enlarges our conceptions of the grace of God; regulates our affections for earthly things; and moderates the desires that might injure our spirituality. Why should this world engross our love, when the prospect is so near us of a better, and an eternal life?

The resurrection reconciles us to death-it does more— it really makes death desirable. The putrescence of the tomb is robbed of its repulsiveness, by the recollection that it is a part of the process through which our bodies are sanctified and fitted for heaven. There is no path to glory, but through the grave. Nor shall our bodies be long detained in that dark valley. It is a short sojourn, and the iron dominion of the last enemy is broken. Come, then, death, we will not shrink; come the day of judgment, we will not fear; since it will awaken our pale slumbers, and bring us to heaven, where we will rejoin all those we have loved; and where we

"The sons of ignorance and night,
Shall stand in uncreated light,
Through the eternal love."

Glorious consummation! "This corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass, the saying that is written-Death is swallowed up of victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." AMEN.

THE

BAPTIST PREACHER.

VOL. IV.

December, 1845.

NO. 12.

THE CO-OPERATION OF THE CHURCHES WITH THE MINISTRY:

A sermon, delivered before the Bethel Association, at its annual meeting, held in Russellville, Kentucky, September 27, 1845, by THOMAS G. KEEN, Pastor of the Baptist Church, Hopkinsville, and published by request of the Association.

"That we might be fellow-helpers to the truth."-3 JOHN, 8.

The church, my brethren, is Christ's representative on earth. He sacredly bequeathed to her the honor of appearing in his behalf, amid the desolations of a sinful world. While he was on earth, he was the light of it-the embodiment of the divine effulgence, scattering his healing rays upon the surrounding darkness. When he ascended up on high, he gave to his people the elements of the same light, and now they stand forth as the light of the world. Light, in the presence of which, all material splendor is eclipsed and dies away. And this light was imparted with a solemn charge to dispense it, that the world may rejoice in its beams. The fiat has long since gone forth-"Let your light so shine among men, that they may be so dazzled and charmed with your brightness, as to glorify God." To accomplish this purpose, christians are brought together into a social compact; they are collected around the standard of the cross. Their forces separated could effect but little; yet when detached from the world and formed into a visible society, they are at once elevated into the rank of power. If we wish to render an object conspicuous, we take it from surrounding objects and place it apart. The light of the sun is composed of particles inconceivably minute, which, if taken separately and placed at a distance from each other, 29 Vol. IV.

would be lost in the surrounding darkness; but when brought together into the great orb of day, it attracts the notice of ten thousand worlds, and becomes a fit image of the glory of God himself. Believers are to shine as lights in the world; they are to throw off the gloom of surrounding darkness; but they can best secure this end when they become fellow-helpers, by bringing their respective lights into the orb of a christian church.

We should never lose sight, my brethren, of the aggressive character of the church. She is to throw her rays upon the darkness of earth. In her militant state, she is engaged in a war of extermination; nothing short of universal triumph will meet the aspirations of the sacramental host; the kingdoms are all to be given to Christ for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession; and in this conflict, the leagued forces of satan are to be fairly met and vanquished. The victory will be so signal as to excite the applause of a wondering universe. It is a mischievous error to suppose that christians may remain at ease and look for triumph. To conquer, they must fight. God promised Canaan to Abraham; but Israel must fight for it. God has promised to the church complete victory; but christians must fight for it.

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That the church may bring the encounter to a speedy and successful issue, she has appointed her proper officers to execute her plans. This is her policy, and this is the arrangement of Christ himself. The commission which he gave when he stood fresh and triumphant from the tomb, was given to his own church-"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Every one could not, in person, execute this order; but as a community, they appoint such as are competent to carry out the design-to present the claims of religion, and to refute the errors of an infidel world. As a well regulated soldiery select their leaders, under whom they are marshaled, so the church appoints her officers, who lead on the forces to contest and to triumph. He who is thus set apart

"Stablishes the strong, restores the weak,
Reclaims the wanderer, binds the broken heart;
And arm'd himself in panoply complete,
Of heavenly temper, furnishes with arms
Bright as his own, and trains by every rule
Of holy discipline, to glorious war,
The sacramental hosts of God's elect."

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