“Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”—Matthew xxv. 23.

There is something very solemn in the death of any one, but peculiarly solemn in the death of a minister of God; for when he dies he resigns not his life only, but his ministry.  He gives back the ministerial trust committed to him.  So our revered, and honoured friend, has not merely fallen asleep in the Lord Jesus; but he has, as it were, handed back to Him who gave it the sacred stewardship of God’s ministry committed to him by God.

Thus this text seems very appropriate, for it contains the words of a master who had been faithfully served, to two servants who had faithfully served him.  When they met him face to face, and resigned the trusts committed to their care, the master said to each of them, “Well done thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”  And it is no unwarranted stretch of the imagination to believe that a similar welcome was given to our honoured friend when he breathed forth his spirit, and yielded up his ministry to Him who had called him by His grace, and commissioned him for his service.

I take the words therefore as addressed to him at the end of his course, and we may consider them at expressing the master’s verdict, and the master’s welcome.

May God be with us in the study, and may He grant that when we are gathered into his presence, the same words may be addressed to ourselves!

I.  The Master’s Verdict.  “Thou hast been faithful.”