Philemon 1:9 Yet for love's sake I rather beseech you, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I. REVIEW HIS PAST HISTORY. 1. His character; and how, during this long period, he has conducted himself: what reputation he has spent so many years in building up, and in what estimate he is now held when grey hairs are upon him. 2. His labours. True, his toils are chiefly mental; but who knows not that, on this account, they are the more exhausting and wearing? 3. His usefulness. How many have been impressed by his example, enriched by his beneficence, blessed by his prayers, and instructed by his principles. 4. His trials. Ah, you know a minister's joys far better than you know his sorrows. You see his sails, but not his ballast. You follow him in his public walks of labour, but not in his Gethsemane retreat, where he goes to pray and agonise alone. He calls you to share his felicities, but he carries his perplexities and his griefs to his closet and his God. Look, then, at the hoary man over whom the clouds of fifty years have rolled. How many storms have burst upon that aged tree, tearing off its branches, stripping off its leaves, and dismantling it in some cases, till little else but the mere trunk and a few boughs remain of all that once umbrageous top. Still, however, the venerable trunk does remain, and there is life in it to the last. How much of Divine power and faithfulness and grace we associate with that sacred antique. 5. His temptations. A minister is the chief mark for Satan's arrows. II. ESTIMATE HIS PRESENT CLAIMS. 1. He is entitled, if a holy and faithful man, and in proportion to his sanctity and fidelity, to respect and veneration. 2. He is entitled to affection. It is not claimed for what he is in himself, but what he is to his people as their friend and counsellor; in fact, the instrument of their salvation and the promoter of their progressive sanctification. 3. He has a right to expect gratitude. 4. I next mention candour and forbearance as virtues which an aged minister is entitled to expect, and of which, in some cases, by the gathering infirmities of declining years, he will stand in need. 5. And has he not a claim upon your attendance upon his ministry? To desert him when he is old is a poor reward for the more effective services of younger and stronger days. III. ANTICIPATE HIS FUTURE DESTINY. Growth, decline, and death, are the law of all life on earth, from which there is no exemption on behalf of the minister of the gospel. The weary, worn out labourer goes to his rest and to his reward; goes to be associated with those who were his hope and joy on earth, and now are to be his crown of rejoicing in the presence of Christ; goes to meet his Maker, and hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of the Lord." (J. A. James.) Parallel Verses KJV: Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. |
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