and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead-- Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
(8) Such, too, should be the piety of any church. The church at Thessalonica evinced the true spirit of religion; 1 Thessalonians 1:7-9. Its light shone afar. It sent out those who went to spread the gospel. Its members, when they went abroad, showed that they were influenced by higher and purer principles than those which actuated them before conversion, and than were evinced by the pagan world. Those who visited them, also, saw that there was a reality in religion, and bore an honorable report of it again to their own lands. Let any church evince this spirit, and it will show that it is “chosen of God,” or a true church; and wherever there is a church formed after the primitive model, these traits will always be seen.