2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

2. The salutation. He uses the same words as in the First Epistle; he could find no more suitable terms to express his good wishes for his converts. He could desire nothing better for them than grace, and peace; grace, the origin, the source, of every highest blessing; peace, the sweet and holy end, the very crown, of the Christian life. It is from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that these and all other blessings flow. St. Paul joins together the two Divine Persons; they could not be thus associated as the one ultimate source of grace and peace, were they not both alike Divine. Peace is the fruit of the Spirit; with the Holy Spirit whom the Lord Jesus sends unto us from the Father comes the sacred gift of peace. Grace and peace come from God the Father by the incarnation, atonement, intercession of God the Son, through the indwelling presence of God the Holy Ghost. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God flow into the Christian heart through the fellowship of the Holy Ghost. All that the Christian can desire for himself, for his friends, for the whole Church, comes from God; he seeks it of God in prayer; he knows that God will hear. "This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us."

II. THE THANKSGIVING.

1. The duty. Thanksgiving is a debt which we owe to God, a debt which we must always acknowledge, which we can never fully discharge. It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks for all things unto God. We must thank him for his grace given to ourselves; and if that grace abides in us, we shall feel ourselves bound to thank him for the working of the same grace in others. We shall regard every true conversion, every increase of grace in others, as a blessing granted to the whole Church and to ourselves. We shall feel a keen, living interest in each soul that is gathered into Christ's flock, and so share the angels' joy over one sinner that repenteth. For the welfare of each member affects the whole Church; when "one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it." Such was the feeling of St. Paul. "We are bound," he says—we owe it as a debt—"to thank God always for you." He fulfils his own precept; he gives thanks always. The thanksgiving of the faithful Christian must be continuous, never ending.

2. The ground of St. Paul's thanksgiving.

3. The expression of his thankfulness. He not only gives thanks to God; he glories before men. "We ourselves," he says—"we glory." Though his deep humility might have withheld him from glorying over a result which was due, under God, to his own zealous labours, the rapid growth of their faith and love so filled him with exuberant gladness that he could net refrain his lips. "God forbid," he says elsewhere, "that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." But he is really glorying in the cross now; he glories, not in his own achievements, but in the triumphs of the cross. It was the work of God in real truth, not his work; he knew it well. Indeed, he had laboured abundantly—that he knew, he could not help knowing it; but he gladly explains the abundance of his labours by the abundance of grace that was vouchsafed unto him. "Yet not I," he says, "but the grace of God that was with me." The faith, hope, and love of the Thessalonians proved, as he said in the First Epistle, their election. God had chosen them to be his own; his grace worked mightily in them. And now St. Paul was glorying in the faith and patience of his converts. They were in great affliction; he sympathized with them, he comforted them; but yet he rejoiced over them. Their affliction by the grace of God was turned to a blessing; it proved the steadfastness of their faith and their patience, and it strengthened them.

LESSONS.

1. Thankfulness is the Christian's duty; thank God always. 2, Especially thank him for his grace working in his people.

3. Glory in the victories of grace, not in worldly successes.

4. Pray for continual progress in faith, love, patience.—B.C.C.

2 Thessalonians 1:5-7.—The persecutions of the Thessalonians.

I. THE MEANING OF AFFLICTION.

1. It does not mean, that God is angry with us. Job's friends thought so. So did Asaph once; but when he went into the sanctuary of God his eyes were enlightened; he understood then that God himself is the Portion of his people; that there is nothing upon earth to be desired in comparison with him; that though heart and flesh may fail, God is enough, and more than enough, for his chosen in this world, and in the world to come will receive them to glory. God's dealings with men are often misinterpreted; people use the word "judgment" carelessly and without knowledge. Affliction would be almost intolerable, if it were indeed always a proof of the Divine wrath. But, God be thanked, he himself has told us it comes in love.

2. It is a trial of our faith. Satan said, "Doth Job serve God for nought?" The world often says so now; it imputes lower motives; it refuses to believe in unselfish goodness. The man who can say in the midst of troubles, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord," is a living proof of the reality, of the sustaining power, of the presence of God; one of those miracles of grace which, thank God, are still daily wrought around us in the world. These things are among the facts registered by the observer of spiritual truths—facts as real as the facts of external nature, and of far deeper and more abiding moment.

3. It worketh patience. The trial of God's saints is more precious than that of gold which perisheth. Gold is tried by fire; God's people are tried in the furnace of affliction. Affliction, meekly borne, hath a refining power; it elevates and refines the whole character; "it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby." Faith is strengthened by trials; patience is acquired by the habit of enduring affliction. Without endurance, without suffering, there is no opportunity of developing the grace of patience.

II. THE ULTIMATE ISSUE OF PERSECUTION.

1. To the persecuted. Rest—rest with all saints; with St. Paul who had been the means of their conversion, who was then writing to comfort them. The weary and heavy laden who come to Christ, as he bids them, find in him rest for their souls even in this present life. There is an inner rest of the spirit, amid outward unrest and trouble, which is the pledged possession of the soul that hath found Christ and resteth in faith on him. "Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength;" or rather as in the margin "the Lord Jehovah is the Rock of ages." The only rest for the penitent, for the sorrowful, is on the breast of Jesus. We find rest there now; but the truest, deepest rest is yet to come in the kingdom of God. "Requiescat in pace," we say of the departed. They are found worthy of that rest in the kingdom of God who have endured affliction in faith and patience. God is pleased, in his gracious condescension, to call them worthy. "They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy." That worthiness is of God; it is his gift; he makes them worthy by his grace. He called them not because they were worthy, says St. Augustine; rather by his choice he makes them worthy. It is not their merit but his election, not their goodness but his grace, that makes them what they are. They have not chosen him, but he hath chosen them that they should bring forth much fruit. They are not wise, or strong, or holy; but Christ their Lord is all. He is present with them, abiding in them by his Spirit, purging away their sins, communicating to them more and more of his own holiness and love. As he is, so are they in this world; and they know that, when he shall appear, they shall be like him, for they shall see him as he is. For his sake they are counted worthy of the kingdom of God, and in the hope of that kingdom they are willing now to suffer. But these present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory. They know it, and they suffer patiently, for they recognize that great truth that only by the way of the cross can we enter into the kingdom of heaven.

2. To the persecutors. God will recompense affliction to those who afflict his saints. They who persecute the Lord's disciples persecute the Lord himself. It pertains to his justice that such must receive the due reward of their deeds. It is right; and because it is right, it must be so. Christians must pray for their persecutors; they must do what lieth in them to soften their hearts, to save their souls, to avert the coming judgment. But when the judgment comes they can but stand by, and recognize in solemn awe the justice of the most holy God.

LESSONS.

1. Chastisements are sent in mercy; be patient, be thankful.

2. Chastisement is only grievous if we do not understand its meaning; accept it as sent from God; take it as a cross; be careful not to lose its blessed fruits.

3. Think of the great joy of those who are counted worthy of the kingdom of God; let that high hove be your comfort in trouble.

4. Envy not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.—B.C.C.

2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.—The great day.

I. THE JUDGMENT OF THE WICKED.

1. The revelation of the Judge. It is the Lord Jesus, who once was despised and rejected of men; he is ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. He shall come as God once came down on Mount Sinai, in the like awful glory.

2. The lost. Two classes are mentioned here.

3. The punishment. The Lord Jesus will award vengeance. "Vengeance is mine; I will recompense, saith the Lord." Terrible thought, that vengeance must come from him, the most loving Saviour, who loved the souls of men with a love so burning, so intense in its Divine tenderness! But it must be so. The exceeding guilt of sin is manifest in this; it turns the chiefest of blessings into an increase of condemnation; the cross is utter death to the impenitent and the ungodly. And that vengeance takes effect in destruction. The destruction is eternal; then it is not annihilation. It is the destruction of all gladness, hope, all that makes life worth living; it is the exclusion from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. Only the pure in heart can see God. The lost souls cannot see his face. The exclusion is eternal; is it endless? It continues through the ages; will those ages of misery ever end in restoration? Can a soul, once so hardened in guilt that it must be shut out of the presence of God, ever repent in that exclusion? It sinned obstinately against light during its time of probation; can it recover itself now that the light is withdrawn? It is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin and the power of evil habits; can it break those chains of darkness now? These are dark, awful questions. We may ask, on the other hand, how can "God be all in all," if sin is to exist forever? how can it be that "in Christ shall all be made alive," while there is still a hell in the universe of God? The subject is beset with difficulties and perplexities; it excites bewildering, harrowing thoughts. We must leave it where Holy Scripture leaves it. We would gladly believe, if it were possible, that there is hope beyond the grave for those who die unblest; but such an expectation has no scriptural authority beyond a few slight and doubtful hints. Who would dare to trust to a hope so exceeding slender? No; if we shrink in terror from the thought of being one day shut out of God's presence into the great outer darkness, let us try to live in that gracious presence now.

II. THE GLORY OF THE RIGHTEOUS.

1. Its time: when he shall come. They suffer now; sometimes they are persecuted, their name is cast out as evil. But they have their consolation; they see indeed through a glass darkly, but yet they do see by faith the glory of the Lord; they are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Lord the Spirit. They have a glory now; but it is an inner spiritual glory derived from the indwelling of the blessed Spirit whom the world seeth not, neither knoweth. Now they are the sons of God; when he shall appear, they shall be like him, for they shall see him as he is.

2. Its nature: the unveiled presence of Christ. He shall be glorified in his saints. "I am glorified in them," he said, when about to leave them. When he comes again, that glory shall shine forth in all its radiant splendour. He shall be admired in all them that believe. The glory of his presence abiding in them shall arouse the wondering admiration of all. The lost spirits will wonder; they will be amazed at the strangeness of the salvation of the blessed. "This is he" (Wis. 5:3, 5) "whom we sometimes had in derision… how is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints?" The very angels will wonder at the exceeding glory of the Lord shining in his saints. For he will change the body of their humiliation, and make it like the body of his glory.

LESSONS.

1. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; let us keep that awful day in our thoughts.

2. Think on the fearful misery of eternal separation from God; live in his presence now.

3. We hope to be like him in his glory; let us take up the cross.—B.C.C.

2 Thessalonians 1:11, 2 Thessalonians 1:12.—St. Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians.

I. ITS PURPORT.

1. He prays that God's favour may rest upon them. That he may count them worthy. We feel that we are all unworthy—unworthy of his grace and presence. We are not worthy that he, the blessed One, should enter under our roof, into our heart. But whom he loves, those he makes worthy of his love. He counts them worthy, though they are in themselves unworthy; his grace makes them worthy in Christ. He calls them; they through grace obey the calling. He calls them ever higher, nearer to himself, till they reach at length the prize of the high calling.

2. That God who began the good work in them would complete it. He prays

II. ITS FINAL END—THE GLORY OF GOD.

1. That the Name of the Lord Jesus might be glorified in the Thessalonians. That men might see their good works, and glorify the Lord that bought them, the Father that called them. We say in our daily prayers, "Hallowed be thy Name." We have been baptized into that great Name; that holy Name is upon us. Very weak and sinful as we are, that great Name may be hallowed, glorified in us, if we do all things, great or small, in the Name of the Lord Jesus; if we always give thanks to the Father by him; if we show in our daily walk before men the power of his grace. It is the great end of the Christian life. "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

2. That they might be glorified in him. His saints share his glory. "The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them." He dwelleth in them, and they in him. His glory is theirs, for they are his. "Ye are Christ's." And he is theirs. The Father gave the Son, the Son of God gave himself for us, to us. Hence it is that his true people, beholding (though now in a glass darkly) his glory, are changed into the same image from glory to glory. And that according to the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ. All our blessings come from his grace; he is our God, therefore we can trust in him. He is able to save to the uttermost, for he is Almighty. He is our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore we may cast all our care upon him, for he will save us; he loveth us even to the end.

LESSONS.

1. Our salvation is of God; its beginning, course, end—all is of grace.

2. Every good desire comes from him; ask him to strengthen the desire, to develop it into action.

3. Seek power from him—power to fight the good fight of faith, and win the victory at last.

4. Let the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ be the one great aim above all other motives.—B.C.C.

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12.—Manifestation of solemn interest.

Address and salutation. "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." The address is the same as in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, with the exception of the substitution of "our Father" for "the Father." The salutation is also the same, with the addition of the twofold source from which grace and peace are invoked, which is the same as in many of Paul's Epistles, with the exception of the substitution of "the Father" for "our Father."

I. RECOGNITION OF THE SATISFACTORY CONDITION OF THE THESSALONIAN CHURCH.

1. Before God. "We are bound to give thanks to God alway for you, brethren, even as it is meet, for that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the love of each one of you all toward one another aboundeth." We are to understand that information had reached Paul and his companions from Thessalonica since the despatch of their first letter to that place. It was information of faith and love on the part of the Thessalonian converts, of such a nature as to make Paul (taking him as representative)feel inwardly bound to thank God alway for them. This inward feeling answered to an outward fitness of circumstances. In the previous letter he had shown a deep interest in the perfecting of the lacking elements in their faith. We may think of a tree that has not come to its full proportions. It could now be said of them, after an interval of less than a year, that their faith was growing exceedingly. It was exhibiting such increase as a healthy faith always exhibits, and this in a marked degree. For such large realization of his wishes in the time it was only meet that he should thank God. He had also expressly prayed that the Lord would make them to abound in love one toward another. It could now be said that this was in the way of fulfilment. Their love was in process of enlargement as all love should be, and in a marked degree as the word would seem to imply. Their love was markedly individual. There was love toward the circle as a whole which was real and commendatory, but there was also personal attachment between the various members of the circle, individual toward individual. Their love was also markedly universal within the circle. The abounding was in the love of each one of them all toward one another. That testified to a harmonious circle. "When we love in part," says Theophylact, "this is not love, but division. For if it is for God's sake thou lovest, see that thou love all." There is a symmetry in love which requires that, loving our heavenly Father, we should love all his children; that, loving Christ, we should love the whole Christian circle. In the Thessalonian circle no exception is made of the busybodies afterwards referred to as loved or loving. In being busybodies they were not doing their duty by the other members of the circle; but the obstacle thus presented to their brethren loving them was commendably surmounted. As for the love of the busybodies themselves, it was not sufficiently characterized by wisdom, and did, therefore, contain something to be subtracted. Still, his prayer had been in so large a degree answered that it was only meet that he should give thanks to God for them. What obstacles there are to our loving in the Christian circle let us try to surmount, and let us not ourselves present any obstacles. And let us be thankful before God for what harmony is enjoyed.

2. Before the Churches. "So that we ourselves glory in you in the Churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which ye endure." Formerly there was no need to say anything of their faith to God-ward. Their conversion to Christianity, with joyfulness in attendant persecution, was widely known. It was not now that others were behindhand; for they had warm friends, and these not a few, who gloried in them. But Paul and his companions were so overjoyed that they were moved to join with others in glorying in them. The sphere of glorying was the Churches of God, i.e. Corinth, from which this letter was written, and other Churches with which they had correspondence. What they especially gloried in was the patience of the Thessalonians. Persecution had come upon them after persecution; they were then enduring afflictions. But they had nobly stood their ground. Their patience was sustained by faith—faith in a kind and wise Providence that was watching over them, that made use of their afflictions for the spread of the gospel, that would not leave them in the end unrewarded. This patience sustained by faith, Paul and his companions held up before the Churches for their encouragement in like circumstances. This being their motive, there was no breach of modesty in the instructors of the Thessalonians themselves glorying in them.

II. RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT OF GOD.

1. With reference to the Thessalonians. "Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God; to the end that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer." The patience sustained by faith, which was held up for the encouragement of the Churches, is now used for the encouragement of the Thessalonians themselves. Let them think of the judgment of God that was coming. That judgment would be righteous in dealing with men according to character. The character they possessed left no doubt as to what the righteous judgment of God would be. It looked forward to their being in the end counted worthy of the kingdom of God. For that kingdom they were suffering; but let them know that they who thus suffered would also reign.

2. With reference to their persecutors. "If so be that it is a righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you, and to you that are afflicted rest with us." The persecutors had no source of encouragement in their character. They also had to pass under the judgment of God; but what could righteous judgment mean to them? Their character was that of cruelly afflicting God's people. Could it be a righteous thing with God to place them alongside of patient sufferers as worthy of the kingdom? That would be to have no regard to distinction in character, to make God the friend of cruelty as much as of patience, and in that way to contradict the very idea of righteous judgment. The incontestably righteous thing could only be that with what measure they meted it should be measured unto them; that, giving affliction, there should be given back to them affliction; while, to the afflicted Thessalonians, the righteous opposite would be release from the strain of affliction—release in company with Paul and Silas and Timothy in like manner afflicted.

III. JUDICIAL PROCEDURE UNDER WHICH DEALING WITH THE THESSALONIANS AND THEIR PERSECUTORS FALLS.

1. Toward the ungodly.

2. Toward the saints. "When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and be marvelled at in all them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day." Contemporaneous with his judicial action toward the ungodly, is to be his judicial action toward his own. They are here called his saints, answering perfectly to that description then as they only imperfectly do now. As his saints, they shall be acknowledged on the day of judgment; and their reward shall be to have their outward condition brought into perfect correspondence with their inward character. This is called their glorification. The Lord, having given grace, will also give glory. We may think of the glory as the blossoming forth of the grace. As the flower comes to beauty of form, so they shall be made beautiful to look upon in their higher order of being. Their glorification is here presented under the special aspect of the glorification of Christ in them. As Judge, he is to carry out his own word. "And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them." As he is in them as the source of their holiness, so is his beauty to shine forth in their outward form. From heaven we "wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself." This glorification of Christ in the saints shall call forth the wonder of the assembled universe. They shall marvel at the infinite benignity and power of him who out of darkness has made light, who upon rebels against his Father's authority has stamped his own glorious image. In connection with the marvelling, is brought in the condition of our future glorification. With a look back from judgment it is said, "in all them that believed." And believing is taken up and connected particularly with the Thessalonians—"because our testimony unto you was believed." In keeping with this language, faith is defined by Bishop Pearson "as an assent unto truths credible upon the testimony of God delivered unto us by the apostles and prophets." Let us give cordial assent to the facts and truths of the gospel, which we have upon the best of testimony, that we may not come short of the glorification which shall be the marvel of the universe. There was not needed further predication of time, but it is emphasized by the addition of the words, "in that day." The day when the Lord is to render vengeance to the ungodly, that is to be the day when he is to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed.

IV. PRAYER IN CONNECTION WITH THE GLORIFICATION OF THE THESSALONIANS. "To which end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfil every desire of goodness and every work of faith, with power; that the Name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Toward their glorification the wishes, and not only the wishes but the prayers also, of Paul and his companions were directed, and always directed. As believing, God was calling them to glory. Our God, say the petitioners, grant to the Thessalonians at the last to be counted worthy of their calling. For this end let power sufficient be granted to bring to completion every inward desire and the outward work appointed them. They had aspirations after goofiness; let these receive fulfilment. They had a life to live before the world according to the faith by which they were actuated; let it be as a finished piece of work. Thus, having real excellence, would they be adjudged worthy of glory. The final end of their glorification is emphasized by repetition, with some modification of form. There is brought in "the Name of our Lord Jesus," i.e. as he is revealed to men as Saviour, exalted to sovereignty. And, as they are to he the clement in which his Name is to be glorified, so reciprocally is he to be the element in which they are to find their glorification. Thus is identification with Christ in glory made cleat' as clear can be. This final end of glorification is looked for in prayer on behalf of the Thessalonians, not according to their deservings, but, say the petitioners, according to the grace (undeserved and rich) of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ (in his superabundant merits).—R.F.

2 Thessalonians 1:2.—Grace and peace.

St. Paul opens his Second Epistle with the expression of the same good wishes which he expressed in his earlier Epistle. There is no need of a spiritual parsimony for reserving highest benedictions. The best can be breathed freely, because there is no end to the resources of God. But we need not fear to repeat them, inasmuch as they are always suitable to Christian needs. Though we may tire of the words, "grace and peace," and shall do so if we do not enter into the spirit of them, we can never tire of the things themselves, for they are large as the universe and fresh as eternity. Grace and peace represent the origin and the perfection, the foundation and the pinnacle, the root and the fruit, of Christian prosperity. It begins in grace and rests on grace and draws its supplies from grace; it grows into round, ripe fulness in peace.

I. GRACE IS THE SOURCE OF CHRISTIAN PROSPERITY.

1. Christian grace is essentially God's free favour. This is the first characteristic of the new covenant It starts with mercy to the sinner; it continues with grace to the saint. It is beyond nature which leaves us to our own devices, and law which directs but does not aid, and justice which rewards according to our works, because it offers its blessings to the undeserving "without money and without price." Grace is the key note of the anthem of the Bethlehem angels.

2. Christian grace is an active energy of God. It is not the bare negative mercy that lets off penalties, that withholds the hand of justice from striking the blow of doom. Nor is it only a kindly disposition. It is the highest Divine energy and the most vigorous fruitful activity. God works upon us in grace.

3. Christian grace works through the whole of the Christian life. We do not simply depend upon God's grace for the pardon of our sins and the renewal of our hearts at the commencement of our better life. We continue to live upon grace. It begins by delivering us from our Egyptian bondage; it continues by supplying our daily bread. Christians would as surely perish without these supplies of grace, even after the first forgiving act of salvation, as the Israelites would have perished without the manna even after they had crossed the Red Sea.

II. PEACE IS THE CROWN OF CHRISTIAN PROSPERITY.

1. Peace is the first interest of a nation, a Church, a soul. We cannot enjoy wealth, pleasure, or comfort if we have not peace. For peace we pine and yearn.

2. Peace is the most perfect of blessings. When this is rich and full we want little else. We can afford to suffer if we bear our lot with interior peace. It may be said of peace, as it is said of love, it "suffereth long."

3. Peace is the greatest outcome of grace. It cannot be had without grace. Grace restores us to peaceable relations with God, gives us peaceable dispositions to bear and forebear one with another, and breathes into us a spirit of content, submission, and holy calm. We may advance far in activity, etc., before we gain this precious gem of grace. Inward serenity in all weathers of outward circumstance is the last product of spiritual culture.

III. GRACE AND PEACE ARE ENJOYED THROUGH OUR UNION WITH GOD AND CHRIST. The twofold benediction has a twofold reference.

1. Grace originates in the Father. The first thought of redeeming the world arose in the bosom of God. The secret of these wonderful blessings is a Father's love.

2. Peace is found in union with God. We enjoy the peace that is never absent from the Spirit of God when we approach his holy, serene presence.

3. Both are received by us through Christ. He is the incarnation of God's grace. He makes a way by his sacrifice for us to enjoy it. He is also "our peace." When we learn the "secret of Jesus" we shall have the peace of God which passeth all understanding.—W.F.A.

2 Thessalonians 1:3.—Growing faith.

In his former Epistle St. Paul congratulated the Thessalonians on the fruits of faith, love, and hope which he saw among them (1 Thessalonians 1:3), and he prayed for the increase of their love (1 Thessalonians 3:12). Now he is thankful that their faith continues to grow, and that their mutual affection is full and overflowing. Let us consider the first of these two signs of progress. (For the "increase of love," see on 1 Thessalonians 3:12.)

I. THE SIGNS OF GROWING FAITH. Faith is an invisible spiritual grace. How, then, did St. Paul know that it was increasing in the distant Church of the Thessalonians? We need not suppose that he possessed any supernatural insight for reading the hearts of men. If faith grows the fruits of faith grow. A feeble faith makes a feeble life. When the whole heart is faint the whole head is sick (Isaiah 1:5). Faith is always known by its works, and the health and vigour and stature of faith by the character and measure of Christian activity. Note some of the signs of growing faith.

1. Brighter cheerfulness. We are less distressed with doubt, have little torment of fear, bear present ills patiently, when we trust the goodness of God more fully.

2. Deeper devotion. Slight faith means cold prayer. We are near to God just in proportion as we have faith in him.

3. Fuller activity. We work half-heartily when we believe half-heartedly. A strong trust in the grace of God gives a strong energy for doing the work of God.

4. Warmer love. Faith worketh by love (Galatians 5:6). When we trust Christ more truly we feel the force of his love more deeply and love him more warmly in return, and then our love to Christ shows itself in love of the brethren.

II. THE SECRET OF GROWING FAITH. Faith flows from the grace of God. It is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). Nevertheless, God is always willing to bestow this gift, and our reception of it depends on what we do. Faith will not grow without cultivation. Two most important truths, too often ignored, help us to the secret.

1. Faith grows by means of what it feeds on. This is in harmony with a law of all growth. Nothing can come from nothing. If a child is not fed it will die, certainly it will not grow. Growing plants take nourishment from air and soil. Faith will not grow by our wishing it to grow, nor by any manipulation with it. Yet people, so to speak, take out their faith and try to do something with it in order to improve it. The great mistake is to think of increasing our faith by any consideration of the faith itself. We must forget our faith and look at Christ, and then our faith will grow unconsciously. We have too much introspection. An intelligent consideration of the grounds of faith, especially a study of Christ, reading of Scripture, prayer, "means of grace," etc., help faith to grow.