[April 21th, 1864.]
Fidelity is that disposition of the mind and purpose of the will which secures the punctilious (or scrupulous) discharge of all our obligations. A faithful parent, a faithful magistrate, a faithful servant, a faithful Christian, and a faithful minister, is one who desires and endeavors to discharge all the obligations arising out of his peculiar relations.
I. Fidelity requires a knowledge of our obligations, and, therefore, those who wish to be faithful will endeavor to obtain clear and correct views of what they are bound to do.
II. It requires an enlightened view of the grounds of those obligations. Without this there can be no rational desire or fixed purpose to discharge them.
III. It requires superiority over all conflicting tendencies. A man may have a desire to do his duty, and he may have a general purpose to perform it, but these may be too weak to withstand temptation. A son, a citizen, or a minister may have a desire to be faithful, and a general purpose to discharge his duty, but indolence, the love of pleasure, the desire of gain of some kind, may tempt him to disregard or neglect his most sacred obligations.
Fidelity in the service of God requires, therefore, 1. A knowledge of what he would have us to do, as men, in all our relations of life, as Christians or as ministers.
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Such views of our relation to Christ and of our obligations to him, as shall awaken in us the desire to do his will, and lead us to form the purpose that we will in all cases endeavor to perform it.
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Such a strength of this desire, and such firmness of this purpose as render them actually controlling over our whole inward and outward life.
IV. From this statement of the duty it is plain,
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That it is a very simple one. There is no difficult point of casuistry about it. It is the desire and purpose to do what Christ requires, to carry out his will.
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It is no less plain that it is a very comprehensive duty. It in fact includes all others. In saying that a servant is faithful, you say that he is diligent, honest, obedient, in short, that he performs all his duties as a servant. To say that a Christian is faithful, is to say that he receives God’s truth, that he is assiduous in all his religious and social duties. So of a minister; to say that he is faithful, is to say that he is diligent in study; that he dispenses the truth, and nothing but the truth; that he does this in season and out of season; that he conscientiously discharges his obligations as a minister, to the ignorant, to the wicked, to the sick, to the suffering, to the young and to the old. It is also to say that he is devoted to his work; that he gives himself wholly to it; that he does not serve God and mammon, Christ and Belial, himself and his Master, but that his eye is single and his life undivided.
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It is also plain, that as this duty is simple and comprehensive, so it is one of constant obligation. It is not a debt to be paid and forgotten. It is not a service to be rendered at a particular time or place, but one which lasts as long as we live. We are to be faithful unto death. If a man could be faithful for years, and become unfaithful, his former fidelity would count for nothing.
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This duty being thus simple, comprehensive and permanent, is obviously exceedingly difficult. It supposes renunciation of ourselves and of the world. It supposes the mastery over all the evil principles of our nature, over our indolence, our passions, over the love of the world, over the fear of man, over the desire of wealth or applause. It supposes an entire consecration, not as a momentary act, as we might consecrate a votive offering, but as the surrender of our whole being unto Christ.
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It is very clear that this cannot be done unless we have, (a.) The clearest apprehension of, and the strongest faith in, his divine majesty and glory. (b.) The firmest conviction of the value and absolute necessity of what he has done for our salvation. (c.) And thirdly, the scriptural hope and assurance that we are objects of his love, and reconciled to God through him.
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It is, finally, more clear than anything else, that we cannot be faithful, that we cannot discharge this high though simple duty, unless we are at all times filled by the Holy Ghost. It is only as he lives in us that we can live in Christ. “Yet not I,” says the faithful Paul, “but the grace of God which was with me.”
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The encouragements to fidelity are abundant.
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