The deep and serious consideration of that our future most solemn meeting is certainly most suitable at such a time as this; there having so lately been that done, which, in all probability, will (as to the relationships we have heretofore stood in) be followed with an everlasting separation.
How often have we met together in the house of God in this relationship! How often have I spoken to you, instructed, counseled, warned, directed and fed you, and administered ordinances among you, as the people which were committed to my care, and whose precious souls I had the charge of! But in all probability, this never will be again.
The prophet Jeremiah (chap. xxv. 3), puts the people in mind how long he had labored among them in the work of the ministry: “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the Lord came unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking.” I am not about to compare myself with the prophet Jeremiah; but in this respect I can say as he did, that “I have spoken the word of God unto you unto the three and twentieth year, rising early and speaking.” It was three and twenty years, the 15th day of last February since I have labored in the work of the ministry, in the relation of a pastor to this church and congregation. And though my strength has been a weakness, having always labored under great infirmity of body, besides my insufficiency for so great a charge in other respects, yet I have not spared my feeble strength, but have exerted it for the good of your souls.
I can appeal to you as the apostle does to his bearers, Gal. iv. 13, “Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you.” I have spent the prime of my life and strength in labor for your eternal welfare. You are my witnesses, that what strength I have had I have not neglected in idleness, nor laid out in prosecuting worldly schemes and managing temporal affairs, for the advancement of my outward estate, and aggrandizing myself and family; but have given myself wholly to the work of the ministry, laboring in it night and day, rising early and applying myself to this great business to which Christ appointed me. I have found the work of the ministry among you to be a great work indeed, a work of exceeding care, labor, and difficulty: many have been the heavy burdens that I have borne in it, which my strength has been very unequal to. God called me to bear these burdens; and I bless his name, that he has so supported me as to keep me from sinking under them, and that his power herein has been manifested in my weakness; so that although I have often been troubled on every side, yet I have not been distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; cast down, but not destroyed.
But now I have reason to think my work is finished which I had to do as your minister: you have publicly rejected me, and my opportunities cease.
How highly, therefore, does it now
become us to consider that time when we must meet one another before the
Chief Shepherd! When I must give an account of my stewardship, of the service I
have done for, and the reception and treatment I have had among, the people he
sent me to: and you must give an account of your own conduct towards me, and
the improvement you have made of these three and twenty years of my ministry.
For then both you and I must appear together, and we both must give an account,
in order for an infallible, righteous, and eternal sentence to be passed upon us
by him who will judge us with respect to all that we have said or done in our
meeting here, all our conduct one towards another, in the house of God and
elsewhere, on Sabbath days and on other
days; who will try our hearts and manifest our thoughts, and the principles and
frames of our minds, will judge us with respect to all the controversies which
have subsisted between us, with the strictest impartiality, and will examine
our treatment of each other in those controversies.
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