2 Timothy 1:1-2 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.The dignity of preachers Preachers are to maintain the dignity of their persons. Because a good name is as precious ointment, above great riches, and more than the choicest silver and gold, to be regarded. It will rejoice the heart, whereas the contrary is a curse, and to be avoided. Otherwise, if ministers be ill reported of, their doctrine (be it never so sound or sovereign for the soul) will be despised, rejected. If the vessel be counted unsweet, who will with alacrity taste of the liquor: The Word will not speed if the preacher be despised. And for procuring a good report--1. Be diligent in the discharge of thy duty; avoid idleness in thy Calling. 2. Take heed thou be not justly accused of that which thou hast severely censured in others. 3. Speak not evil of others, for with what measure we mete it shall be measured to us again. Could we cover others’ infirmities, they would do the like for us. 4. Seek the glory of God in thy proceedings, for they who honour God shall be honoured of Him, whereas they who seek themselves shall be abased. The people also must take heed how they detract from the credit of their pastors. Nature, by a sacred instinct, will defend the head with the loss of the hand. Why, the preacher is the head of the people, and therefore to be respected; and it is an old axiom, “ Do My prophets no harm” (Psalms 105:15). (J. Barlow, D. D.) Life shaped by the will of God In 1798 a child was born at Rome, N.Y. His father was a mechanic. At school he showed good talents, and his father at length consented that he might attempt to get a liberal education. His heart was set on the law, but God made him a minister, turned his thoughts towards the Holy Scriptures as a field of study, and before he died (at the age of seventy-two years) a million volumes, of which he was the author, had been sold. This is a very brief sketch of the Rev. Albert Barnes. Now, did he do all these things of his own power and wisdom? Not at all. Hear his modest and truthful statement on the subject: “ I have carried out none of the purposes of any early years. I have failed in those things which I had designed, and which I hoped to accomplish. I have done what I never purposed or expected to do. I have known what it was to weep at discouragements. I have been led along contrary to my early anticipations. I can now see, I think, that while I have been conscious of entire freedom in all that I have done, yet that my whole life has been under the absolute control of a Higher Power, and that there has been a will and a plan in regard to my life which was not my own. Even my most voluntary acts, I can see, have been subservient to that higher plan, and what I have done has been done as if I had no agency in the matter.” (J. Plumer, D. D.) According to the promise of life. The promise of life The specific form of the whole gospel is promise, which God gives in the Word and causes to be preached. The last period of the world is the reign of grace (Romans 5:21). Grace reigns in the Word, only as promise. Grace has nothing to do with law and requisition of law, therefore the word of that grace can be no other than a word of promise. Hence χάρις and ἐπαγγελία form an indissoluble unity (Romans 4:16). For to this end Christ is the Mediator of the New Covenant, that we might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15). The promise of life in Christ-form is the word of the New Covenant (2 Timothy 1:1). The difference between the gospel of the Old Covenant and that of the New rests alone on the transcendently greater glory of its promise (Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 11:1-40. whole). That these great and precious promises are given to us (2 Peter 1:4; 2 Corinthians 7:1) establishes the position of a Christian man; if he calls himself a son and heir, he has no other title for this except that of promise alone, purely of grace (Galatians 4:28; Galatians 3:29; Romans 4:16). That, and how God for His own sake blots out our transgressions, and remembers our sin no more (Isaiah 43:25), is the substance of the word of promise in the New Testament, and which confirms that of the Old. (J. Harless.) Promise and payment Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; he promises honour and pays with disgrace; he promises pleasure and pays with pain; he promises profit and pays with loss; he promises life and pays with death. But God pays as He promises; all His payments are made in pure gold. (T. Brooks.) Through death to life An unusual addition to the opening formula of St. Paul’ s letters, probably rising out of the sense that the promise was near its fulfilment, and that he was about to pass through death to life. (E. H. Plumptre, D. D.) The unwavering certainty of St. Paul in respect of his call to apostleship1. Its foundation.2. Its noble value. Ministry in the gospel is no function of death, but a proclamation of life in Christ Jesus. (Dr. Van Oosterzee.) Which is in Christ Jesus. Ministerial relation with Christ This must teach us who have any relation with Christ highly to esteem it and greatly to rejoice in it. Think it no small thing to be an officer in His house, a labourer in His vineyard, and a member of His body, for this is true nobility, unconceivable dignity, and the direct path to eternal felicity. Paul, a preacher of Jesus Christ, is a name of greater price and praise than all human titles and time’ s adjuncts (though in their nature good) in all the world. (J. Barlow, D. D.) To Timothy, my dearly beloved son.-- Timothy, the pious youth Timothy is one of the unblamed youths of the Bible. He ranks along with Abel, Joseph, Moses, Josiah, and Daniel. I. Timothy’ s book. His father was a Greek and a heathen; but his mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois (who lived with them), were Jews and believers. They did their best for the godly upbringing of their bey; and they would be left to do as they liked in the matter. For heathen fathers gave more attention to their young dogs and horses than to their young children. Books were then very scarce and dear, and probably the Old Testament was the only book in their house. They used it well, and found it to be a library in itself, and the best children’ s treasury. II. Timothy’ s home. The boy would be strongly tempted to follow his dashing heathen father, whose amusements would be such as boys most delight in; yet he sided with and took after his devout mother and grandmother. That fact speaks volumes for him. I believe that he gladly gave himself up to all the best influences of his home. Thus his mother was his mother thrice over, for she gave life to his mind and to his soul as she had given life to his body. Obedience is only one of the outward signs of the true spirit of a child. A girl once heard a sermon upon this subject. On the way home, feeling uneasy, she said, “ Mother, do I always obey you?” “ You know best yourself, my dear,” the mother replied. “ Well. I never disobey you,” the girl continued, “ I always do what you bid me, but I sometimes go slow.” The Bible shows concern chiefly about the kind and spirit of your obedience. “ Children, obey your parents in the Lord.” The right feeling to parents is so like the right feeling to God that people have used one word for both. The noblest characters are found among those men who in youth yielded most to a mother’ s influence. You will find many striking proofs of my view in such books as Smiles’ “ Self-help” and “ Character.” The reason is soon found. Boys like Timothy unite in their characters what is best in roan and woman. They are rich in spirit beyond others, for Nature gives them manly strength, to which a mother’ s influence adds tenderness and sweetness. A well-known writer has said, “ In my best moments I find again my mother in myself.” Usually man is the son of woman in his best gifts. “ A kiss from my mother,” said West, “ made me a painter.” To love your mother well, then, is a liberal education of head and heart. III. Timothy’ s conversion. Some, like Samuel, ramjet remember a time when they did not trust God. Their love to the Saviour is not an after-love, but a first love. Others, like Timothy, have a well-marked and a well-remembered conversion. Paul calls him “ my own son in the faith … whom I have begotten in the gospel.” Often the successful preacher but reaps what the mother had sowed, and watered with her prayers, and brought to the verge of harvest. Timothy must have been a mere boy at the time of his conversion. For he was quite young when he was ordained, and even when Paul wrote his Epistle to him, he was so boyish-looking that people might easily despise his youth. His early conversion was one chief reason why Timothy did so much good, and why he still remains such an inviting example of grace. It made him like Newton, of whom Bishop Burnet says, that he had the whitest soul he ever knew, and was as a very infant in purity of mind. Than youthful piety God has no better gift for you but heaven. (James Wells, M. A.) The useful to be chiefly instructed Such persons as are likely to prove good and excellent instruments in the Church are principally to be instructed and encouraged. We will water that plant most, hedge about it, and prune it, which is likeliest to bring forth much and good fruit; the beast of best hopes shall be put in the rankest pasture, the other turned to run in the common field and barrenest ground. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.--The universal need of mercy The salutation in the three pastoral Epistles introduces between the customary “ grace” and “ peace” the additional idea of “ mercy.” It is a touching indication of the apostle’ s own humility, and reveals his deepening sense of the need of “ mercy” as he drew near the glory of the unveiled Face. It records the fact that if in Ephesus, Rome, or England there are any children of God who fancy they can rise above an utterance of the cry, “ God be merciful to me,” apostles and ministers of Christ, even in view of the martyr’ s crown, cannot forget their profound need of Divine “ mercy.” The association of Christ Jesus with God the Father as the common source of “ grace,” “ mercy,” and “ peace” shows what St. Paul thought of his Lord. As he commenced his Epistle with this blended petition, we are not surprised to find that his last recorded words were, “ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” This was the sum of all blessedness, and the exalted Lord, Christ, was Himself the source of it. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Salutations Salutations are not for compliment, but piety. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Conduits of grace Hear the Word, search the Scriptures, read good books, receive the sacraments, pray; confer, for these be as so many conduits whereby the Creator conveyeth grace into the soul of the creature. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Mercy and grace essential to true peace Dream not, then, that all is peace that seems so; for what peace can a profane person have within him that wanteth faith and grace? Nay, how ever he carry the matter, he is at war within himself. The wounded deer runs and skips and leaps, yet the arrow or bullet stings, pains, torments at the very heart, and before long will cause a fall, a death. So, under a cheerful look, the soul may be sorrowful, and all that laugh in the face are not at peace within. Who, then, is he that would have true and sound peace? Let him strive for mercy and grace; for as the shadow the body, heat the fire, these follow the one the other. Many imagine they have it, yet are foully deluded, deceived. I deny not but the wicked may have a peace; but it is not worth the naming, for it runs nor from a clear fountain, it springs not from a sweet root, and therefore one drop of this we have in hand is worth a thousand of that, as a little rose-water a whole glassful of mud. It is not constant neither, but often interrupted; every thunderclap will cause such to quake, to tremble, and at the last they shall certainly be consumed. Oh that men were wise to gather grace, so should they have peace at their latter end, and in the meanwhile be, like Mount Sion, unmovable! Grant that such may have outward troubles; yet they shall have inward peace that passeth all understanding. (J. Barlow, D. D.) 2 Timothy 1:3I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience.Serving God Fifty years ago, when a poor black man of Jamaica wishing to go to Africa to tell the glad tidings of salvation, was told that, among other difficulties, he might be a slave again, he replied, “ If I have been a slave for man, I can be a slave for God’ .” (Anon.) “ I serve” At the battle of Crecy, in 1346, when King Edward III. of England defeated Philip, King of France, the Black Prince led a portion of the attack. Thinking himself very hotly pressed in the midst of the combat, he sent word to his father to send him some reinforcements at once, or he would be flanked by the enemy. The king, who had been watching the pro gress of the fight from a neighbouring hill-top, sent down word as follows: “ Tell my son, the Black Prince, that I am too good a general not to know when he needs help, and too kind a father not to send it when I see the need of doing so.” The historian tells us that, reassured by this promise, the Black Prince fought nobly, and put the motto Ich Dien, “ I serve,” upon his crest, which is on the Prince of Wales’ s escutcheon to this day. (J. L. Nye.) Disinterested service After the completion of his great picture of “ The Last Judgment” for the altar of the Sistine Chapel (which had occupied him eight years), Michael Angelo devoted him self to the perfection of St. Peter’ s, of which he planned and built, the dome, He refused all remuneration for his labours, saying he regarded his services as being rendered to the glory of God. (W. Baxendale.) The spirit of true service My desire is that God may be pleased by me and glorified in me, not only by my praying and preaching and almsgiving, but even by my eating, drinking, and sleeping, and visits, and discourses; that I may do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving glory to God by Him. Too often do I take a wrong aim and miss my mark; but I will tell you what are the rules I set myself and strictly impose upon myself from day to day: Never to lie down but in the name of God, not barely for natural refreshment, but that a wearied servant of Christ may be recruited and fitted to serve Him better the next day; never to rise up but with this resolution- well, I will go forth this day in the name of God, and will make my religion my business, and spend the day for eternity; never to enter upon my calling but first thinking I will do these things as unto God, because He requireth these things at my hands, in the place and station to which He hath appointed me; never to sit down to table but resolving I will not eat merely to please my appetite, but to strengthen myself for my Master’ s work; never to make a visit but upon some holy design, resolving to leave something of God wherever I go. This is that which I have been for some time learning and hard pressing after, and if I strive not to walk by these rules, let this paper be a witness against me. (J. Alleine.) True and false service It is said of the Lacedoemonians, who were a poor and homely people, that they offered lean sacrifices to their gods; and that the Athenians, who were a wise and wealthy people, offered fat and costly sacrifices; and yet in their wars the former always had the mastery of the latter. Whereupon they went to the Oracle to know the reason why those should speed worst who gave most. The Oracle returned this answer to them: “ That the Laccdcemonians were a people who gave their hearts to their gods, but that the Athenians only gave their gifts to their gods.” Thus a heart without a gift is better than a gilt without a heart. (T. Seeker.) Deceitful service The observation of Augustine is founded on too much truth: “ There is often a vast difference between the face of the work and the heart of The workman.” (T. Seeker.) Strength required for religious service And to serve God, is it laborious? We must then be of good courage, gather strength, and quit us like men. He that hath a hard task will proportion his power according to the toil. The longer the ground hath lain fallow, the stronger must be the team to tear it asunder; and the farther we take a journey, the more pence must we put in our purse; so the more difficult this duty is, the more must we look about us, arm ourselves, and be prepared for the well performance of it. And for the better discharge thereof we must labour for two things: the one is knowledge, the other strength. For these are absolutely necessary for the doing of any action, the one to direct us, the other to enable us in this duty. (J. Barlow, D. D.) With pure conscience. The Christian profession adorned by a pure conscience And will not a pure conscience adorn our profession, give a comely gloss to our conversation? Red, purple, and scarlet add no more gloss to a piece of fine cloth than this purity doth to the life of a Christian. Conscience Conscience is the judgment which we pronounce on our own conduct by putting ourselves in the place of a bystander. (Adam Smith.) Conscience has a joint knowledge of life Conscience imparts a double or joint knowledge: one of a Divine law or rule, and the other of a man’ s own action. (J. South.) Conscience looking upon life I am, I know, I can, I will, I ought--such are the successive steps by which we ascend to the lofty platform from which conscience looks out upon human life. (W. T. Davison, M. A.) Conscience a delicate creature Conscience is a dainty, delicate creature, a rare piece of workmanship of the Maker. Keep it whole without a crack, for if there be but one hole so that it break, it will with difficulty mend again. (S. Rutherford.) Conscience in a Christian The Christian can never lind a “ more faithful adviser, a more active accuser, a severer witness, a more impartial judge, a sweeter comforter, or a more inexorable enemy.” (Bp. Sanderson.) Conscience in everything Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything. (Sterne.) Conscience makes saints Conscience makes cowards of us; but conscience makes saints and heroes too. (J. Lightfoot.) Conscience hurt by sin Hurt not your conscience with any known sin. (S. Rutherford.) A good conscience independent of outside opinion In the famous trial of Warren Hastings it was recorded that when he was put on his trial in so magnificent a manner in Westminster Hall, after the counsel for the prosecution, Burke, Sheridan, and others had delivered their eloquent speeches, he began to think he must be the greatest criminal on the face of the earth; but he related that when he turned to his own conscience the effect of all those grand speeches was as nothing. “ I felt,” he said, “ that I had done my duty, and that they may say what they please.” (J. C. Ryle, D. D.) Integrity of conscience Hugh Miller speaks of the mason with whom he served his apprenticeship as one who “ put his conscience into every stone that he laid.” (S. Smiles.) Obedience to conscience Lord Erskine, when at the Bar, was remarkable for the fearlessness with which he contended against the Bench. In a contest he had with Lord Kenyon he explained the rule and conduct at the Bar in the following terms: “ It was,” said he, “ the first command and counsel of my youth always to do what my conscience told me to be my duty, and leave the consequences to God. I have hitherto followed it, and have no reason to complain that any obedience to it has been even a temporal sacrifice; I have found it, on the contrary, the road to prosperity and wealth, and I shall point it out as such to my children.” (W. Baxendale.) Without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.-- The inner life of St. Paul These unstudied words tell us something of the inner life of such an one as St. Paul, how ceaselessly, unweariedly he prayed, night as well as day. (H. D. M. Spence, M. A.) St. Paul’ s delight in Timothy I. The signs of the delight and satisfaction which the apostle took in Timothy, as recorded in the text. St. Paul prays for Timothy with satisfaction, uniting thanks with his prayers (verse 3). This proves what a well-grounded satisfaction the apostle felt in Timothy. The delight and satisfaction which the apostle took in Timothy are also evinced in his strong desire to see him (2 Timothy 1:4). We cannot be surprised that the apostle craved the presence of Timothy. He was now a solitary old man, and a prisoner. Of his disciples and fellow-labourers, Titus was gone unto Dalmatia, Tychicus he had sent to Ephesus, Trophimus was sick at Miletus, Mark was absent, and only Luke remained with him. Besides, ingratitude and desertion had sorely tried his affectionate spirit: Alexander the coppersmith had done him much evil; Demas had forsaken him and the faith together; and when first brought up for trial before the imperial tribunal, none of the disciples had stood by him to cheer and second him. To Timothy, therefore, and to the remembrance of his pious and unfailing affection, the apostle clung very closely; and his presence he desired as his greatest earthly solace and support. The delight and satisfaction which the apostle took in Timothy he also testified by expressing his confidence in his Christian character, but especially in his faith, the root of all which is Christian in the character of any one (verse 5). St. Paul knew him well. During fourteen or fifteen years had this friendship endured, and many were the trials to which ii had been put--trials of the constancy of Timothy’ s affection, trials of the integrity of his principles. But Paul had found no decline in his affection, no instability in his Christian principles; he therefore trusted him unfeignedly. II. The causes of that delight and satisfaction.1. As the great cause, the first cause, the mover and originator of all secondary and inferior causes, St. Paul thanks God for the gifts and graces with which He had enriched Timothy. 2. But God works by means. The means which He employed, the causes to which as to instruments we must look in creating in Timothy such a trustworthy and reliable Christian character, were these three--maternal piety, early biblical education, and the ministry of the apostle. (H. J. Carter Smith, M. A.) The Christian near heaven praying for others I remember visiting a friend on his death-bed, who, besides being engaged in a life of business, had devoted a great amount of time and labour and thought to the benefit of his fellow-creatures. Visiting him on one occasion, he made to me this remark: “ I pray but very little for myself now. It seems to me that the battle is fought and the prize is in view, and my devotions with regard to myself are not so much prayer as thanksgiving. I praise God many an hour during the wakeful night. But do not suppose I do not pray. I believe I pray more than ever I did in my life, because now I have more time to pray for my fellow-men and for the nations of the world.” He went on to describe how each day, and certain parts of every day, were devoted by him as he lay there gradually sinking to his rest to prayer for those in whom he felt a special interest, and also for those whom he had never seen. A praying minister The Rev. I. F. Oberlin reserved stated hours for private prayer, which became known to the people; and it was usual for carters and labourers returning from the fields with talk and laughter to uncover their heads as they passed beneath the wails of his house. If the children ran by too noisily, these working people would check them with uplifted finger, and say, “ Hush! he is praying for us.” (Sword and Trowel.) Remembrance Remembrance hath in it four things--apprehension, reposition, retention, and production. A notion or thing is by the external or internal sense presented to the eye of reason; she perceives it, that’ s apprehension; then it is committed unto memory as a place of conservation, that’ s reposition; afterwards kept there in safety, that’ s retention; and lastly, when occasion is given, it is called out again, and that’ s production. A man takes a shalt in his hand, puts it in his quiver, retains it there for a time, and, when he would recreate himself, pulls it forth again, this is a plain emblem of remembrance. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Friendly love outwardly manifested This argueth that the love of many, as Lot said of Zoar, is but a little one. So weak a spring can have no deep fountain; so small branches no great virtue in the root; and so feeble a flame no abundance of fuel; for causes produce effects proportionable to their internal power, do they not? Try, then, as the truth, so the measure of thine own and thy friends’ affection by the outward effects. He that loves much will declare it by many prayers and sundry actions. (J. Barlow, D. D.) 2 Timothy 1:4 Greatly desiring to see thee.Things of like nature desire union Two flames will become one, and two rivers, if they meet, willingly make but one stream. And are not all the faithful baptized with fire, and of the like temperature and condition? A faithful man affecteth nothing above the Lord; His image is the only object of his love; and does not every good man in part resemble that, and carry it about with him? Do not the sparkles of grace and wisdom appear in their faces? Is there not a kind of Divine influence in their speeches? They in some measure resemble their father, as dear children; and from the contrary ground the wicked are an abomination to the just. They will build up one another in their holy faith, consult for the good of the Church, and tell one another what the Lord hath done for their soul; yea, the very sight of a good man in the morning, a dream of him in the night, will make one walk with more cheerfulness all the day following. The face of the faithful is like the loadstone, it conveyeth strength to many, and yet is never the weaker, poorer; and as the one is reputed a great wonder in nature, so is the other as great a wonder in grace. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The coming of an absent friend The chilling cold of winter makes the summer’ s sun more pleasant; so doth long absence a friend’ s personal presence. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The faithful found in companies And here may the profane learn a lesson or two, if they please, for this is the true cause why the faithful, like pigeons, flock to the house of God, and are to be found there in troops and companies. Is not that the congregation of the saints, and the royal exchange, where they all meet together? Again, they may see why some sigh in soul and desire to be loosed. For their best friends be gone to heaven before them, and Christ is absent from them (Philippians 3:20). (J. Barlow, D. D.) Mindful of thy tears. Tears He seems not merely to speak of the former tears of Timothy shed at bidding Paul farewell (for tears are usually elicited at parting, comp. Acts 20:37), but of his habitual tears under the influence of pious feeling. In this respect also he had him like-minded (Philippians 2:20) with himself. Tears, the flower of the heart, indicate either the greatest hypocrisy or the utmost sincerity. (J. A. Bengel.) The power of tears There is no power that man can wield so mighty as that of genuine tears. The eloquence of words is powerful, but the eloquence of tears is far more so. What manly heart has not been often arrested by the genuine sobs of even some poor child in the streets. A child’ s tear in the crowded thoroughfare has often arrested the busy merchant in his hurried career Coriolanus, who defied “ all the swords in Italy and her confederate states,” fell prostrate before the tears of his mother: “ Oh, my mother, thou hast saved Rome, but lost thy son.” (D. Thomas, D. D.) Tears described Tears have been described as the blood of the wounds of the soul, the leaves of the plant of sorrow, the hail and rain of life’ s winter, the safety-valves of the heart when too much pressure is laid on, the vent of anguish-showers blown up by the tempests of the soul. 2 Timothy 1:5 When I call to remembrance [R.., having been reminded of] the unfeigned faith that is in thee. Unfeigned faith Some recorded circumstance, some spoken words, some searching test, had convinced St. Paul that Timothy at the present time was shedding no womanish tears, that his faith had revealed its strength and reality. If put to a severe strain there was now no mistake about it. His faith was not a mask of unbelief, not a mere species of personal affection for the apostle, nor was it an unpractical faith, or one dependent on circumstances. St. Paul may once have entertained some transient doubt about Timothy. His fears may have exaggerated to himself the significance of Timothy’ s excessive grief. The words of despair wrung from his lips at their parting may have distressed the apostle; but now the ugly suspicion is suppressed and no longer haunts his nightly intercession. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Unfeigned faith practical A lady and gentleman were being shown over the Mint by the Master of the Mint, who took them from the gate where the rough gold came in until they saw it going out in the form of coins to the bank for distribution all over the country. When they were in the melting-room, the Master said, “ Do you see that pail of liquid?” “ Yes.” “ If you dip your hand into it I will pour a ladleful of molten gold into your hand, and it will roll off it without hurting you.” “ Oh!” was the remark somewhat sceptically made. “ Do you not believe me?” inquired the Master. “ Well; yes, I do,” replied the gentleman. “ Hold out your hand, then.” When he saw the boiling gold above his hand, ready to be poured out, the gentleman took a step back, and, in terror, put his hand behind his back. The lady, however, stooped down, dipped her hand into the liquid, and holding it out, said, “ Pour it into my hand.” She really believed, and could trust, but her friend had not the practical faith to enable him to trust. (J. Campbell White.) Timothy’ s faith I. The peculiar excellence for which Timothy 1s here commended--“ Unfeigned faith.” St. Paul goes to the root of all that was excellent in Timothy--namely, his faith. Not but that he could at other times dwell with pleasure on the fruits of that faith; especially when speaking of him to others. A beautiful specimen we have in Philippians 2:19-22. But in writing to Timothy himself, he thinks it most profitable to insist upon the source of that excellent character--his faith. II. The instrumental cause to which the faith of Timothy is here ascribed--namely, the previous faith of his pious mother, Eunice, and of his grandmother, Lois. The only effectual cause to which unfeigned faith can be ascribed, is the grace of Christ and His Spirit. Nevertheless, in conferring this precious gift, the Lord frequently works by instruments or means. The case of these excellent women, then, may lead us to observe the special honour conferred on the weaker sex, in their being often made--1. Foremost in faith and piety. Man fell by the woman’ s transgression; but it is by the seed of the woman that he is redeemed. The first convert in Europe was a woman--Lydia. In every period of the history of the Church women have been more open to conviction, more simple believers in Christ, more devoted in their zeal for His cause, than others. 2. Foremost in spiritual usefulness. Such they were in the case before us. Now this remarkable succession of piety, 1.n three generations of the same family, was a blessing from God, in honour of female faith--“ unfeigned faith.” “ Them that honour Me,” saith God, “ I will honour.” (J. Jowett, M. A.) The worth of faith All other graces do still accompany it. Where it is they all be. Faith may be compared to a prince which, wheresoever he pitcheth his tents, hath many rich attendants (1 Corinthians 13:1-13. ult.), as love, hope, zeal, patience, etc. Faith expelleth infidelity out of the heart, as heat doth cold, wind, smoke, for they he contraries. It cannot, nor will not, admit of so bad a neighbour; it shoulders out all unprofitable guests (Acts 15:9; Hebrews 4:2). And besides this, faith makes our actions acceptable to God; for without it it is impossible to please God: this is that true fire which cometh down from heaven and seasons all our sacrifices (Hebrews 2:6; Romans 14:1-23. ult.). What, then, are they worthy of, that neither respect it in themselves nor others; many have no care to plant this flower in the garden of their hearts; or, if they have it, to preserve it from perishing. Jonah mourned that his gourd withered, yet we grieve not if faith be destroyed. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Faith the chief thing The world cries, What’ s a man without money? but I say, What’ s a man without faith? For no faith, no soul quickened; heart purified, sin pardoned; bond cancelled, quittance received; or any person justified, saved. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Get faith I say that to all, which I do to one, get faith, keep faith, and increase your faith. A mite of this grain is worth a million of gold; a stalk of this faith, a standing tree of earthly fruits; a soul freighted and filled with this treasure, all the coffers of silver in the whole world. What can I more say? The least true faith is of more value than large domains, stately buildings, and ten thousand rivers of oil. If the mountains were pearl, the huge rocks precious stones, and the whole globe a shining chrysolite; yet faith, as much as the least drop of water, grain of sand, or smallest mustard-seed, is more worth than all. This will swim with his master; hold up his drooping head, and land him safe at the shore, against all winds and weather, storms and tempests; strive then for this freight; for the time and tide thereof serveth but once, and not for ever. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Faith works like effects in divers subjects The grandmother, the mother, and the mother’ s son, had the same faith; and the like fruits proceeded from them, else Paul would never have called it unfeigned, or said that it dwelt in them, or given them all three one and the same testimony. All three had faith, and unfeigned faith. For the likeness of actions were in them, and proceed from them, by the which it was called unfeigned, and equally appropriated to each particular person. And it is an undoubted position that faith produceth the like effects in all God’ s children; in truth, it must be understood, not in degree. For as faith increaseth, the effects are bettered. Many lanterns, with several candles, will all give light; but in proportion to their adverse degrees and quantities. Every piece hath his report, but according to the bigness, and, each instrument will sound, but variously as they be in proportion, and that for these reasons. Because faith differs not in kind, but in degree, and like causes produce like effects. Every bell hath its sound, each tone its weight, and several plants, their diverse influences; yet not in the same measure, though they may vary in kind. Again, faith is diffused into subjects, though several, yet they are the same in nature and consist of like principles. Fire, put into straw, will either smoke or burn, let the bundles be a thousand; life in the body will have motion, though not in the same degree and measure; and reason in every man acteth, but not so exquisitely. The constitution may not be alike, therefore a difference may be in operation natural, and also from the same ground, in acts spiritual. A dark horn in the lantern dims the light somewhat, (J. Barlow, D. D.) Unfeigned faith manifested From this point we may learn how to judge of the faith in our times which so many boast of; they cry, Have not we faith? do riot we believe as well as the best? But where be the fruits of faith unfeigned? hast thou an humble and purging heart? dost thou call upon God at all times, “ tarry His leisure, and rely upon His promise? art thou bold and resolute for good causes? canst thou resist Satan? cleave to God, and shun the appearances of evil? will neither poverty oppress thee by despair, or prosperity by presumption? Why, it is well, and we believe, that faith is to be found in thee, but if not, thou hast it not rooted in thee. For the tree is known by the fruit. Will not the flower smell? the candle give light? and the fire heat? and shall true faith be without her effects? Boast not too much, lest thou deceive thyself, taking the shadow for the body; and that which is not for that which should be. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice. Lois and Eunice Origen conjectured that Lois and Eunice were relatives of St. Paul. This is only conjecture. There is far more reason for believing that they were converts made by him on his first visit to Lystra. In the Jewish communities of these Asiatic towns there were elect souls who had begun to cherish larger hopes for humanity. If Lois had permitted her daughter to marry a Greek, and yet had retained her faith in the promises made to Israel, and if Eunice had so far yielded to her husband’ s views or habits as to have foregone for her only son the sacramental rite of admission to the Jewish nation, and yet, notwithstanding this, had diligently instructed him in the history and contents of Holy Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:15). We have a glimpse of light thrown upon the synagogues and homes of devout Israelites in Asia Minor. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Lois is the same with the more familiar Lois; Eunice is an equivalent of the Latin Victoria. (H. D. M. Spence, M. A.) The day of Christian faith Christian faith in its morning (Timothy), at noon (Eunice), and at the evening of life (Lois). (Dr. Van Oosterzee.) Celebrated mothers Like the celebrated mothers of Augustine, of Chrysostom, of Basil, and of other illustrious saints of God, the life, sincerity and constancy of Lois and Eunice became vicariously a glorious heritage of the universal Church. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Lessons 1. The infidelity of the father prevents not faith in the children. For if it had, Eunice and Timothy and many more should never have been found faithful (1 Kings 14:13; 1 Corinthians 7:14). 2. Succession of faith is the best succession. 3. Where we see signs of goodness, we are to judge the best. 4. When we give others instruction, we are first to possess them with the per suasion of our affection. For then they will take it in good part, and our words will have the deeper impression. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Memories of a mother Among the reminiscences of a great statesman, Daniel Webster, it is related that on one occasion a public reception was given him in Boston. Thousands of his country’ s citizens crowded together and paid him homage. Bursts of applause had been sounding all day in his ears. Elegantly dressed ladies had thrown bouquets of the rarest flowers at his feet. But as he ascended the stops leading to his mansion, crowned with the honours of the gala day, a little, timid girl stepped up and placed a bunch of old-fashioned garden pinks in his hand. At sight of these old, familiar flowers, and their well-remembered fragrance filled the air, the old memories were stirred. Just such pinks used to grow in his mother’ s garden when he was a child. Instantly that sweet face of the loved mother came to his vision; her tender, gentle voice sounded once more in his ears. So overcome was he with the tide of old memories that crowded into his heart that he excused himself, and went to his apartments alone. “ Nothing,” said he, “ in all my life affected me like that little incident.” John Newton in his worst days could never forget his mother, at whose knees he had learned to pray, but who was taken to heaven when he was but eight years old. “ My mother’ s God, the God of mercy, have mercy upon me!” was often his agonising prayer in danger, and we all know how it was answered. (Great Thoughts.) Mother’ s influence If we call him great who planned the Cathedral of St. Peter, with all its massiveness and beauty; if they call the old masters great whose paintings hang on monastery and chapel walls, is not she (the mother) great who is building up characters for the service of God, who is painting on the soul canvas the beauty and strength of Jesus the Christ? (A. E. Kittredge.) Christian mothers Give me a generation of Christian mothers and I will under take to change the whole face of society in twelve months. (Lord Shaftesbury.) Woman’ s influence A missionary in Ceylon writes as a “ noticeable fact” that where Christian women are married to heathen husbands, generally the influence in the household is Christian; whereas, when a Christian man takes a heathen woman he usually loses his Christian character, and the influences of the household are on the side of heathenism. Parental example We may read in the fable what the mother crab said to the daughter: “ Go forward, my daughter, go forward.” The daughter replied, “ Good mother, do you show me the way?” Whereupon the mother, crawling backward and sidling, as she was wont, the daughter cried out, “ So, mother! I go just as you do.” (Family Churchman.) Mother and child Sir Walter Scott’ s mother was a superior woman, and a great lover of poetry and painting. Byron’ s mother was proud, ill-tempered, and violent. The mother of Napoleon Buonaparte was noted for her beauty and energy. Lord Bacon’ s mother was a woman of superior mind and deep piety. The mother of Nero was a murderess. The mother of Washington was pious, pure, and true. The mother of Matthew Henry was marked by her superior conversational powers. The mother of John Wesley was remarkable for her intelligence, piety, and executive ability, so that she has been called the “ Mother of Methodism.” It will be observed that in each of these examples the child inherited the prominent traits of the mother. (J. L. Nye.) Mother’ s influence “ It was at my mother’ s knees,” he says, “ that I first learned to pray; that I learned to form a reverence for the Bible as the inspired word of God; that I learned the peculiarities of the Scottish religion; that I learned my regard to the principles of civil and religious liberty, which have made me hate oppression and--whether it be a pope, or a prelate, or an ecclesiastical demagogue--resist the oppressor.” (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Children to be taught young First, for then they will remember it when they are old (Proverbs 23:13). Dye cloth in the wool, not in the web, and the colour will be the better, the more durable. Secondly, to defer this duty is dangerous, for thou mayst be took from them. Who then shall teach them after thy departure? (2 Kings 2:24). Thirdly, besides, what if they come to faith? Will it not be with the more difficulty? Fallow ground must have the stronger team, great trees will not easily bend, and a bad habit is not easily left and better come by. If their memories be stuffed with vanity as a table-book, the old must be washed out before new can be written in. Fourthly, what shall I more say? God works strangely in children, and rare things have been found in them; and what a comfort will it be for parents in their life, to hear their children speak of good things, and at the last day, when they can say to Christ, Here am I, and the children Thou hast given me! (J. Barlow, D. D.) The secret of a good mother’ s influence Some one asked a mother whose children had turned out very well, what was the secret by which she prepared them for usefulness and for the Christian life, and she said, “ This was the secret. When in the morning I washed my children, I prayed that they might be washed in the fountain of a Saviour’ s mercy. When I put on their garments, I prayed that they might be arrayed in the robe of a Saviour’ s righteousness. When I gave them food, I prayed that they might be fed with manna from heaven. When I started them on the road to school I prayed that their faith might be as the shining light, brighter and brighter to the perfect day. When I put them to sleep, I prayed that they might be enfolded in the Saviour’ s arms.” (T. De Witt Talmage.) Training the young Rightly to train a single youth is a greater exploit than the taking of Troy. (Melancthon.) A good grandmother “ I owe a great deal to nay grandmother,” said a young man who was courageous and true above many in his Christian life. “ Why, what did she do for you? Oh, she just sat by the fire.” “ Did she knit?” “ A little.” “ Did she talk to you?” “ A little; but grannie was not much of a talker; she did not go in for all that, you know; but she just sat and looked comfortable, and when we were good she smiled, and when we were wild in our talk she smiled too, but if ever we were mean she sighed. We all loved her, and nobody did as much for us, really, as grannie.” (Marianne Farningham.) A godly household A household that fears God is another joy of my life. I would rather see it than the finest landscape. I can understand why Sir Walter Scott got his seat put down in his garden, within earshot of his bailiff’ s cottage, that he might always hear the sound of the psalms at morning and evening worship. There never was incense sweeter from morning or evening sacrifice! A home, where the father and mother walk in the narrow way, is pretty sure to find their children accompany ing them. Not that God’ s gifts are hereditary, but example goes a great way, and if the parent, who is the highest on earth to the child, live a Christian life, it is very seldom the child Will not follow him. It depends on the parent. If the mother, or father, or both, be real Christians, gentle, kind, reverent, pure, the little ones grow accustomed to these graces and catch them almost unconsciously. Suppressed lives A few years ago a gentleman died in Germany whose name was almost unknown both in Great Britain and on the Continent. A physician by profession, and an inheritor of a title, he lived a life of comparative seclusion. He was never in the front at any pageant or ceremonial of any court. He was never known when treaties and alliances were made between reigning sovereigns. In diplomatic circles his name was never prominently mentioned. And yet no man of his time in all Europe had more influence in determining the destiny of nations than he. He was the power behind thrones. He was the intimate confidant of princes. He rendered the most important services to England and to Germany. His was one of those “ suppressed lives” which are so often lives of commanding power. It was a suppressed life, expressed in kings, parliaments, and statesmen. Such lives are to be found in literary circles. It is often a matter of infinite surprise that such marvels of erudition and widest compass of reading in the domain of metaphysics, philosophy, theology, and ecclesiastical history, can be produced by a single man in the compass of so short a life as is given the world by many a German writer. But the secret is, that behind the life of the author, who may receive all the praise of the public, are scores of suppressed lives. These are the men of culture and training who are doing the toiling drudgery, wading through volumes, finding and verifying quotations. It is well known that in the business world these suppressed lives play a most important part. Many an employer is dependent upon the labours of faithful men, unknown to the world, who have mastered all the intricacies of a complex business, and upon whom they implicitly depend for advice in its management. St. Paul, after his somewhat depressing visit to Athens, found a home in the humble abode of Aquila and Priscilla, in the busy, sensual city of Corinth. In the house of this lowly artisan he found rest, refreshment, and strength. Working with him side by side, in the plebeian craft of tent-making, the great apostle to the Gentiles derived new zeal and energy for his great work from the life and conversation of this faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. In the same home the eloquent Alexandrian, Apollos, found shelter and instruction. In his life, full of eloquent thought and speech, and still more eloquent deeds, their suppressed lives found a brilliant and glorious expression. These two lives may justly stand for the lives of the great multitude of teachers in the Sunday Schools and other schools of our land. Suppressed lives mostly they are. Comparatively unrecognised is the influence these teachers are exerting upon the destinies of the millions of children intrusted to their care. In St. Paul’ s words to Timothy, as quoted in the text, we have the recognition of the power of suppressed lives in the charmed circle of the home. An ampler life has been opened to woman than heretofore in our day. The most thoroughgoing infidel cannot deny that Christianity above all other systems guards and glorifies the home; that it has given to the wife and the mother the unique and the peerless position they hold in the countries where the highest civilisation is enjoyed. This Bible before me loves to honour the home. Who can estimate the influence of the suppressed lives in these homes? In that obscure country rectory at Epworth lived the mother of the Wesleys. The husband was a dreamy, poetical, unpractical man. The household quiver was full and running over with children. She was the teacher of them all. John Wesley was taught by her the alphabet for the twentieth time, that in her own language, “ the nineteenth might not be in vain.” She kept up with the classical studies of her boys until they went away from home to school and college. She managed her large family with the economy extolled by “ Poor Richard,” with “ the discipline of West Point,” and yet in the loving spirit of the home at Bethany. She was the constant counsellor of her once seemingly stupid but now most gifted son John, and the earnest defender if not initiator of the greatest ecclesiastical movement of our day--the coming to the front in every Christian enterprise of the laymen of the Church. She stood in her old age by the side of that son when, as the foremost religions leader of the centuries, he preached on Kensington common the memorable sermon to twenty thousand persons, and “ the slain of the Lord” lay in windrows before him. The grey-haired, bent, and silent mother was speaking in the burning words and ringing tones of the great reformer. The mother of Washington lived and triumphed in the matchless deeds of the father of his country. (S. Fallows.) 2 Timothy 1:6 Stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.The graces of God’ s Spirit are of a fiery quality And here we must all learn a double lesson. First, to get this fire; and next, to keep it from quenching. This is that one thing necessary; and how should we rejoice if it be already kindled! For without it we are blind, corrupt, cold, yea, stark dead. We must make our hearts the hearth to uphold it, and our hands the tongs to build it; it must lodge with us daily, send out flame from us, and our lamps must be continually burning; then shall we glorify our God, give light to others, walk safely, as walled about with a defence of fire, in this pilgrimage; and the Lord, at length, shall send us fiery chariots to carry us to heaven, where our lamps shall burn day and night, and shine as the sun in the clear firmament for ever and ever. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The gifts of God are to be stirred up within us For if they be not, will they not perish? Have you not heard that they are of a fiery quality, and therefore subject, without stirring, blowing, to decay and be extinguished? The things that put out the fire of the spirit in us, are--first, evil cogitations; as smoke weakeneth the eye, cold frosts nip the tender bud, and stinking smells damp and dull the purest spirits, so do bad thoughts disturb, impoverish, and enfeeble the gifts of God that be in us. [Secondly, corrupt speech; that troubleth the fountain, and stoppeth the spirit’ s spring; it shakes the young plants of grace, as the boisterous winds do the late grafted scions: this will cause the new man to die before his time, and the best fruits he beareth to become blasted. Thirdly, wicked works; they raze the foundation, and, like the boar of the wood, root up all; when these break forth into action, then falls grace suddenly into a consumption; for they do not only wither the branches and change the complexion, but also kill the body, devour the juice of life, and destroy the constitution. Fourthly, loud company; this doth press down and keep under the gifts of God, that they cannot shoot up and spring; as water to fire, green wood to dry, this quencheth all; one grain of this leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Let the Israelites live among the Egyptians, though they hate the men, yet they will learn their manners; and Peter will grow cold if he warm his fingers at Caiaphas’ fire. Fifthly, the prosperity of the wicked; that will buffet the soul, wound the very spirit, and make grace to look pale and wan. How have the faithful fainted to see this, and the strongest foot of faith reeled, staggered! This mud hath made the men of God almost to turn out of the way. Sixthly, and finally, the pampering of the flesh. It will impoverish the spirit, and make it look lank and lean. If the one be cherished, the other will be starved. When one of these buckets is ascending the other is descending. Paul knew it well, therefore would beat down his body, and keep it in subjection. These be the greatest impediments that hinder the gifts of grace from stirring, growing. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Private helps to stir up grace First, reading either the Scriptures or other holy writings. This being done in a corner will refresh the spirit. It is like food to the fainting passenger. Secondly, meditation. He that sits long by the fire shall have his body to grow hot, and his cold spirits to become active, nimble. Let this be done thoroughly, and it will make grace to stretch itself beyond its ordinary wont, and the Christian to be rapt out of himself. Thirdly, prayer. Who ever in his secret chamber went to God by earnest prayer but he was ravished in mind, and in the strength of that action spent all that day without weariness? God giveth the greatest gifts in secret; and, like man, revealeth Himself apart. Yea, private prayer doth both stir up and increase grace mightily; and as secret meals make a fat body, so doth that a well-liking mind. Fourthly, observation, and that of the daily acts of God’ s providence. Fifthly, examples: not the worst, but the most excellent. Set before thine eyes the cloud of witnesses, that have far outstripped thee. Think what a shame it is for thee to come so far behind them. Will not a comely suite make some leap into the fashion? Sixthly, resolution; which must consist in propounding to ourselves a higher pitch of perfection. He that would shoot or leap further than before will cast his eye and aim beyond the mark. But if all these will not stir up this fire, then consider what a loss it is to be a dwarf and bankrupt in this grace. How God may forsake us, an evil spirit possess us, and Satan seek about to apprehend us, as the Philistines did Samson; so shall we pluck up our spirits, stir up our strength, rise out of this lethargy, and fly for our lives. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The ordinances of God are not without profit, if rightly practised It is not a trade, but the well using of it; not a farm, but the well husbandry of it, that will enrich the one and the other. Wherefore, be steadfast, immoveable, and abundant in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Increase of grace First, there may be an increase of grace in the best Christians. For Timotheus was an excellent man before this time; and were not his gifts now augmented? Secondly, that a minister hath need of more grace than a common Christian. This is the reason his gifts were increased. Thirdly, that the more worthy calling God sets us in, the greater portion of His spirit will He pour upon us. He did so by Timothy. Fourthly, that preachers may (above others) depend upon God for a blessing. For, are they not consecrated with great care and solemnity? enriched with extraordinary gifts and graces? Think on this, O ye, men of God, and in contempt of the world let the honour of your calling, and hope of good success in the faithful execution, comfort your souls, and breed an un-daunted resolution in you. (J. Barlow, D. D.) St. Paul’ s concern about St. Timothy The letter is a striking but thoroughly natural mixture of gloom and brightness … The thought which specially oppresses (the apostle) is “ anxiety about all the Churches” --and about Timothy himself. Dark days are coming. False doctrine will be openly preached and will not lack hearers; and utterly un-Christian conduct and conversation will become grievously prevalent. And, while the godly are persecuted, evil men will wax worse and worse. This sad state of things has already begun; and the apostle seems to fear that his beloved disciple is not altogether unaffected by it. Separation from St. Paul or the difficulties of his position may have told on his over-sensitive temperament, and have caused him to be remiss in his work, through indulgence in futile despondency. The words of the text strike the dominant chord of the Epistle and reveal to us the motive that prompts it. The apostle puts Timothy in rememberance “ that he stir up the gift of God which is in him.” Again and again he insists on this and similar counsels (see 2 Timothy 1:8; 2 Timothy 1:14; 2 Timothy 2:8; 2 Timothy 2:15; 2 Timothy 3:14). And then, as the letter draws to a close, he speaks in still more solemn tones of warning (2 Timothy 4:1-2; 2 Timothy 4:5). Evidently the apostle is anxious lest even the rich gifts with which Timothy is endowed should be allowed to rust through want of use. Timidity and weakness may prove fatal to him and his work, in spite of the spiritual advantages which he has enjoyed. The apostle’ s anxiety about the future of the Churches is interwoven with anxiety about the present and future conduct of his beloved delegate and successor. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Grounds of St. Paul’ s appeal to St. Timothy In encouraging Timothy to stir up the gift that is in him, and not suffer himself to be ashamed of the ignominy, or afraid of the hardships, which the service of Christ entails, the apostle puts before him five considerations. There are the beautiful traditions of his family, which are now in his keeping. There is the sublime character of the gospel which has been entrusted to him. There is the teaching of St. Paul himself, who has so often given him a “ pattern of sound words” and a pattern of steadfast endurance. There is the example of Onesiphorus with his courageous devotion. And there is the sure hope of “ the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” Any one of these might suffice to influence him: Timothy cannot be proof against them all. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Watching the heart flame The Greek word rendered “ stir up” literally means to kindle up, to fan into flame. We know that St. Paul frequently uses for his illustrations of Christian life scenes well known among the Greek heathen nations of the Old World, such as the Greek athletic games. Is it not possible (the suggestion is Wordsworth’ s) that the apostle while here charring Timothy to take care that the sacred fire of the Holy Ghost did not languish in his heart, while urging him to watch the flame, to keep it burning brightly, to fan the flame if burning dimly--is it not possible that St. Paul had in mind the solemn words of the Roman law, “ Let them watch the eternal flame of the public hearth” ? (Cicero, De Legibus 11.8). The failure of the flame was regarded as an omen of dire misfortune, and the watchers, if they neglected the duty, were punished with the severest penalties. (H. D. M. Spence, M. A.) A neglected gift enkindled Dr. Paley’ s great talents were first called into vigorous exercise under the following circumstances:--“ I spent the first two years of my undergraduate-ship,” said he, “ happily, but unprofitably. I was constantly in society, where we were not immoral, but idle and rather expensive. At the commencement of my third year, however, after having left the usual party at rather a late hour in the evening, I was awakened at five in the morning by one of my companions, who stood at my bedside, and said, ‘ Paley, I have been thinking what a fool you are. I could do nothing, probably, were I to try, and can afford the life I lead; you could do everything, and cannot afford it. I have had no sleep during the whole night on account of these reflections, and am now come solemnly to inform you, that if you persist in your indolence, I must renounce your society.’ “ I was so struck,” Dr. Paley continued, “ with the visit and the visitor, that I lay in bed great part of the day and formed my plan. I ordered my bed-maker to prepare my fire every evening, in order that it might be lighted by myself. I arose at five; read during the whole of the day, except during such hours as chapel and hall required, allotting to each portion of time its peculiar branch of study; and just before the closing of gates (nine o’ clock) I went to a neighbouring coffee-house, where I constantly regaled upon a mutton-chop and a dose of milk-punch. And thus on taking my bachelor’ s degree, I became senior wrangler.” (Life of Paley.) Individual gifts What if God should command the flowers to appear before Him, and the sunflower should come bending low with shame because it was not a violet, and the violet should come striving to lift itself up to be like a sunflower, and the lily should seek to gain the bloom of the rose, and the rose the whiteness of the lily; and so, each one disdaining itself, should seek to grow into the likeness of the other? God would say, “ Stop foolish flowers! I gave you your own forms and hues, and odours, and I wish you to bring what you have received. O sunflower, come as a sunflower; and you sweet violet, come as a violet; let the rose bring the rose’ s bloom, and the lily the lily’ s whiteness.” Perceiving their folly, and ceasing to, long for what they had not, violet and rose, lily and geranium, mignonette and anemone, and all the floral train would conic, each in its own loveliness, to send up its fragrance as incense, and all wreathe themselves in a garland of beauty about the throne of God. (H. W. Beecher.) Self-education Every man has two educations--that which is given to him, and that which he gives himself. Of the two kinds, the latter is by far the most valuable. Indeed, till that is most worthy in a man, he must work out and conquer for himself. It is this that constitutes our real and best nourishment. What we are merely taught seldom nourishes the mind like that which we teach ourselves. (A. Tynman.) The stirred up will I. It seems worth our while to remind ourselves that the source of all holy or vicious conduct is a virtuous or a depraved WILL. II. Next, in the review of our daily practice, it may be regarded as certain that we are wanting in our use of the most ordinary helps to a holy life, if we are infrequent and irregular in prayer, and in our study of the bible. III. The present may further be a very fitting season for a strict examination of ourselves with reference to all those seemingly indifferent habits, on which (as a very little attention shows) the vigour of our spiritual, life mainly depends. It is a point often overlooked by thoughtless persons, that a slow and undecided manner--habits of procrastination--sloth--want of punctuality and method--that these things, and the like of these, are fatal to the operations of the best-regulated will. (J. W. Burgon, M. A.) The Christian exhorted to stir up the gift of God that is in him We must infer from this language that Timothy had become somewhat remiss since the departure of St. Paul, and needed a word of admonition and rebuke. But we must remember also, in justice to Timothy, that his position in Ephesus was an unusually trying one for a man of his age. He had been left in the city for the purpose of checking the outgrowth of heresy add licentiousness which had just begun to manifest itself. His ordinary duties were anxious and heavy: he had to rule presbyters, most of whom were older than himself; to assign to each a stipend in proportion to his work; to receive and decide on charges that might be brought against them; to regulate the almsgiving and the sisterhoods of the Church, and to ordain the presbyters and deacons. But, in addition to all this, there were leaders of rival sects in the city--Hymenaeus, Philetus, and Alexander--men, probably, of considerable intellectual power, and certainly wielding great influence in the Christian community, who would exert themselves to oppose and to thwart the youthful bishop, and who would find in the absence of St. Paul their best opportunity of doing so with effect and success. Now Timothy, as it appears, was a man of a gentle and sensitive temperament. Lacking in the sterner fibre of character, he shrank from opposition and conflict. But although no mistake was made, as the sequel proved, the weaker nature of Timothy required on occasions the support and stimulus which the robust mind of the great apostle of the Gentiles was calculated to afford. One such occasion we have before us now. There came a visible slackening in the energy and vigour with which the youthful disciple held the reins of ecclesiastical government. St. Paul beard of this declension, and immediately spoke. The old man, ready to be offered, standing just on the confines of martyrdom, and just within reach of his crown, might well speak to his younger associate. And very touching are his words, The first thought ell which we shall enlarge will be this--that there is a “ gift of God” abiding in every one who names the name of Christ, and that this gift is “ a spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” The second thought will be this--that the gift in question may be permitted, through carelessness and neglect, to fall into decay; and that when this is the case, measures must immediately be taken to “ stir up the gift” --to impart to it, by the use of suitable means, the vitality and vigour which it seems to have lost. I. Now, according to St. Paul, a christian is one in whom the spirit of God--the personal Spirit, God the Holy Ghost--has taken up his abode, and become, as it were, a resident and inmate. What constitutes a temple is the inhabitation of Deity. It is just so with ourselves. Excellence of character and beauty of disposition are not things to be despised, but they only constitute the empty habitation; and the man is not a Christian unless the Spirit of God is dwelling within him. But, again, according to St. Paul, the Spirit of God does not supply to us the place of our spirit; but leaving the man in his completeness, pervades, animates, directs, that part of his nature by which he holds communion with the Divine. This gift of God “ which is in us” is in the direction of “ power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” What does he mean? He means this. The office of God the Holy Ghost is to take of the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to “ show” them to the true disciple. In other words, the Holy Ghost imparts to the soul a right understanding, a correct perception of Christian truth, and enables us to realise our own personal concern and interest in the things that are explained. II. The apostle tells us that this gift of God within us may be allowed to wane--may require to be “ stirred up.” Yes; interest abates; novelty ceases to be novelty; variety is sought for; the first flush of early love passes away; the impulse which set us a-going is expended; duties become wearisome; regularity is monotonous. And are we always aware of the process that is going on within us? Not always. We attribute it to others--to causes that are outside ourselves. I have frequently visited consumptive patients. The poor fellow, with his wasted frame, and hectic flush, and racking cough, tells you that he is a little worse to-day--A little feebler; but then he knows how to account for it--he sat inadvertently in a draught yesterday. On the occasion of your next visit he is worse; but then--he took something at one of his meals which disagreed with him. The next time he is still worse; but he sat up too late--he overstayed his usual hour of retiring to rest. He has always a reason to assign that is not the real, the right, the true one. You, watching him pityingly, can give a better account of the matter. You know that the bodily frame is decaying,--that death is stretching on with rapid strides to claim his victim. So with the symptoms of spiritual declension. The man has one excuse or another to account for his decaying interest, for his waning spirituality, for his neglect of Bible study, for his less frequent attendance at the house of God or at the table of the Lord. “ Business has increased” ; “ his health is not what it used to be” ; “ the preaching is not so interesting as it once was.” Well, that is his account of the matter, as the poor consumptive patient has his account of the matter. You, looking on, know that the chill torpor of worldliness has seized upon the soul, and is threatening to bring it into the icy stillness of spiritual death. I fear we are all of us subject to the waning of the life within us. Let us be on our guard, then. The “ gift of God” may be in us still; but it may need “ stirring up.” (G. Calthrop, M. A.) Our gifts, and how to use them I suppose that Timothy was a somewhat retiring youth, and that from the gentleness of his nature he needed to be exhorted to the exercise of the bolder virtues. His was a choice spirit, and therefore it was desirable to see it strong, brave and energetic. No one would wish to arouse a bad man, for, like a viper, he is all the worse for being awake; but in proportion to the excellence of the character is the desirability of its being full of force. There are many kinds of gifts. All Christians have some gift. Some have gifts without them rather than within them--gifts, for instance, of worldly position, estate, and substance. These ought to be well used. But we must go at once to the point in hand;--“ the gift that is in you,” we have now to speak of. I. First, then, what gift is there in us? In some there are gifts of mind, which are accompanied with gifts of utterance. The stones in the street might surely cry out against some religious professors who make the Houses of Parliament, the council-chamber, the courts of justice, the Athenaeum, or the Mechanics’ hall ring with their voices, and yet preach not Jesus--who can argue points of politics and the like, but not speak a word for Christ--eloquent for the world, but dumb for Jesus. If you have the gift of the pen, are you using it for Christ as you ought? I want to stir up the gift that is in you. Letters have often been blessed to conversions; are you accustomed to write with that view? Another form of gift that belongs to us is influence. What an influence the parent has. Many of the elder members of the Church have another gift--namely, experience. Certainly, experience cannot be purchased, nor taught; it is given us of the Lord who teacheth us to profit. It is a peculiar treasure each man wins for himself as he is led through the wilderness. May you be of such a sort as a certain clergyman I heard of the other day. I asked a poor woman “ What sort of man is he?” She said, “ He is such a sort of man, sir, that if he comes to see you you know he has been there.” I understood what she meant: he left behind him some godly saying, weighty advice, holy consolation, or devout reflection, which she could remember after he had left her cottage door. Another gift which many have is the gift of prayer--of prayer with power, in private for the Church and with sinners. There is another gift which is a very admirable one. It is the gift of conversation, not a readiness for chit-chat and gossip--(he who has that wretched propensity may bury it in the earth and never dig it up again)--but the gift of leading conversation, of being what George Herbert called the “ master-gunner” ; when we have that, we should most conscientiously use it for God. II. And this brings us, secondly to the consideration of--how we are to stir up our gifts.1. First, we should do it by examination to see what gifts we really have. There should be an overhauling of all our stores to see what we have of capital entrusted to our stewardship. 2. The next mode of stirring up our gift is to consider to what use we could put the talents we possess. To what use could I put my talents in my family? 3. But, next, stir it up not merely by consideration and examination, but by actually using it. 4. And then, in addition to using our gift, every one of us should try to improve it. 5. And then pray over your gifts: that is a blessed way of stirring them up--to go before God, and spread out your responsibilities before Him. III. Why is it that we should stir up the gift that is in us?1. We should stir up the gift that is in us, because all we shall do when we have stirred ourselves to the utmost, and when the Spirit of God has strengthened us to the highest degree, will still fall far short of what our dear Lord and Master deserves at our hands. 2. Another reason is that these are stirring times. If we are not stirring everybody else is. 3. And then, again, we must stir up our gift because it needs stirring. The gifts and graces of Christian men are like a coal fire which frequently requires stirring as well as feeding with fuel. 4. If we will but stir our selves, or rather, if God’ s Holy Spirit will but stir us, we, as a church, may expect very great things. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A missionary sermon: Our gift, and the Divine claim on it What is in us or in our possession through the Divine benevolence? And what is the call made upon us in Divine providence and by the Divine Spirit, for the exercise of that gift, in order to the enlightenment and salvation of our fellow-men? I. The ethnic or race gift. No people can have enjoyed a larger gift in this regard than our own. “ God hath not so dealt with any nation.” See how this island-race is spreading over the earth! God has said to this nation, “ Stir up the gift which is in thee--in thee by the slow deposit of My providence, by the sewings of centuries--stir up that gilt, and use it for the world’ s good.” II. There is also the family gift. All men receive from their ancestors something which goes into and becomes part of themselves, and this something has in it both help and hindrance. But to us, to most of this Christian assembly, the balance is largely on the side of help. It might have failed; for faith is not something mechanical, nor is it essentially and of necessity transmitted with the natural life. It might have failed, but it has not--“ And I am persuaded that in thee also.” “ First in thy grand mother.” Young men and maidens are apt to smile at the name of “ grandmother.” But the Scriptures glorify old age. So do the great poets. Seventy years ago some one lived, and loved, and was wedded, and listened to the music of her children’ s feet, from whom you have inheritance. Something lived in her which lives in you. “ Stir up the gift which is in thee.” Let the good thoughts of that far-off time live again. Let the tears then shed be a present tenderness in your breast. Let all the love of the old time have fulfilment and transmission, so that your children and your children’ s children may arise to call you blessed. In this life you are not atoms, units, severed personalities; but branches, links, conductors; receiving and giving, reaping and sowing, reaching back to the Eden behind you, and forward to the day of God that is coming. III. There is to each one a gift from God distinctly personal. There is something given to each, inhering in his own nature alone, not diffused, not shared by others, not flowing through his life from lives behind to lives before--something that begins and ends with himself. It is himself--the inner real self which presides over all outer relations of hereditary and historical kind. Stir up this gift of immortal life that is in thee by the creating Spirit, by the personal inbreathing of God. Be thyself. When a man is born, God gives him power to be something for his fellow-creatures and his God. That something may be like treasure “ hid in a field,” but never found. We know how certain great men have lived; how they became great by developing the inward energy. How then can a man truly and in the highest sense stir up his personal gift? Attila the Hun, “ the scourge of God,” had from God the gift which he developed, so that his life became like a stream of scorching fire. Napoleon had all that was masterly in his spirit from the God who made him; but the apostle would not have allowed that he stirred up his gift aright. And now, society is vibrating through and through with the action of various human gifts; statesmen striving against each other, and serving their country in the strife; prolific writers, working up to the full bent of their genius; merchants, making a very science of their commerce, and reaping ample harvest of the same. But beyond the stir and strife lies the question of spiritual motive, aim, tendency. From what fountain springs all this activity? To what goal is it tending? IV. The Christian gift. It is expressed in such a word as this: “ For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Or this: “ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Or this: “ If any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away, and all things are become new.” And: “ If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” Full religious development must take the form of Christian consecration. How much a mad--any one of you young men--might do, would, I believe, be a discovery even to yourself. Now and again God gives us to see this, to see how much one can do, not by great original powers, not by the help of favouring circumstances, but just by consecration, by stirring up the gift--it may be a gift composed of many gifts, a general capacity of service. What in you is its measure? How far will it reach? How long will it last? How much will it achieve? I cannot tell, no more can you, until you try. Timothy the lad in Lystra knows nothing of Timothy the bishop of Ephesus. We all go on to meet, and as we go we make, our future selves. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) Christian enthusiasm What Timothy seems to have wanted most was fire. St. Paul could have no doubt as to his gifts, nor of the fidelity with which he would use them. But the work and the times demanded something more than talent and conscientiousness; they required enthusiasm. Hence the apostle urges his friend to “ stir up the gift that was in him,” or, as his words might be better rendered, “ kindle the gift that is in thee into flame.” For the want of this enthusiasm men of splendid parts prove splendid failures, and, although otherwise qualified to fill the highest places and to lead the grandest enterprises, are never heard of, from sheer inability to push their way. But our subject is not enthusiasm in general, hut Christian enthusiasm in particular; and our text, with its context, supplies us with some useful hints respecting its subject, its nature, and its motive. I. Its subject. To be enthusiastic it is obvious that we must have something to be enthusiastic about, and something worthy of our enthusiasm. The enthusiasm of the Christian worker, like that of the poet, may be “ fine frenzy,” but, like the poet’ s, again, it is not aimless frenzy. It gathers round a definite object, which has sufficient force o! attraction to draw towards it the whole interest and strength of the man over whom it throws its spell. In Timothy’ s case this subject was a gift for the office of bishop and evangelist. Notice, then, that this capacity is--1. “ The gift of God.” We take the greatest pride in the products of our independent genius and industry, or in the purchases of our wealth. But here we have, as the bestowment of a generous benefactor, what all our money could not buy, and what all our skill could not fabricate. We serve God just because God has given us the ability to serve Him. In Christian work, therefore, boasting is shameful, and vanity ridiculous. 2. A constitutional gift. God has invested us with two classes of gifts--gifts external and gifts internal--gifts which go to make up what a man has; gifts which constitute him what he is. Our capacity for Divine service is one of the latter class. It is “ in” us. It is a soul faculty. It entered into the original plan of our being. Further, this capacity-- 3. Assumes different forms. It is a common gift, but the idiosyncrasies of the individuals to whom it is given invest it, in each case, with a peculiar shape. Thus painting and architecture, music and science, philosophy and poetry, statesmanship and wealth; that subtle thing called influence, and that dreadful thing called war, that prosaic thing called trade, and that humble thing called home, have each and all been pressed into the service of illustrating our text. And so Raffaelle in the Cartoons, Wren in St. Paul’ s, Handel in the “ Messiah,” Newton in the “ Principia,” Bacon in the “ Novum Organum,” Milton in the “ Paradise Lost,” Wilberforce in his Parliamentary achievements, Peabody in his munificent benefactions, Shaftesbury in the example he set before society, Gordon in the heroism with which he defended Khartoum, Moore in his work in the London warehouse, Susannah Wesley in hers in the Epworth rectory, and others in what they have done in the house, in the shop, or in the field, all seem to say, “ There, that is what I mean by the gift that is in me.” And that we should ascertain what our special talent is, and in what our capacity should be employed, is of the utmost importance for many reasons. How often do we hear the remark applied to some social failure--and true it is--“ he has missed his calling.” A man who might have made something out in a walk in life for which he was suitably endowed, makes nothing out, because he has chosen one for which he is totally unqualified. Once more, this capacity-- 4. Is intended for and must find employment in the service of the Church. St. Paul’ s injunction carries with it the broad principle just laid down, but we must remember that the apostle had in view the interests of Christ’ s Church, and urged Timothy to promote those interests in the way for which he was Divinely qualified. II. Its nature. We have the gift; with what shall we kindle it?1. Like the capacity it has to kindle into flame, Christian enthusiasm is the gift of God. No man ever purchased it; no man ever created it. It is not from beneath and human, it is from above, and Divine; “ God hath given us the spirit … of power, of love, and of a sound mind.” And that a Divine person should provide the materials for the kindling of a Divine gift arises out of the necessities of the case. Like produces like, and fire kindles fire. You have in your grates blocks of a cold black mineral, the last things in the world, as far as appearances go, from which you would expect light and heat. But you know that fire lies imprisoned and slumbering there. And you know, also, that neither the most careful arrangement of the coals, nor the most vigorous use of the fire irons, will be of the least service in awakening the element and setting it free. What you do, however, is to apply a light, and then the cold black mineral becomes fervent and radiant heat. Eighteen hundred years ago a few weak and unlettered peasants formed all that there was of the Christian Church. Who would have given them credit for a world-converting capacity? But within them lay dormant the Divine gift. They formed no elaborate organisation; they made no violent stir. They simply waited and prayed; and by: and by fire from without met its counterpart within. The Holy Ghost fell upon them, made them enthusiasts for Christ, and thus enabled them to kindle their gift into flame. 2. Christian enthusiasm is not “ the spirit of fear.” This is obvious. Until that spirit is laid there can be no enthusiasm. It can only be conquered by the Divine Spirit, who, as He subdues the craven or the diffident temper, will make us instinct with that Christian enthusiasm which is-- (1) The spirit of power. And being this, it is distinguished from excitement, which is the spirit of weakness. The two may, indeed, be confounded for a time, just as a meteor may, at first, be mistaken for a star. No; Christian enthusiasm is not a transient spasm of excitement; it is power, and that means stability, persistence, inexhaustible resources, unwearied and inextinguishable force. The spirit of power, however, although the first and basal element in Christian enthusiasm, is not the only one. For power, by itself, will make a man not an enthusiast, but a fanatic. Fanaticism is by no means weakness, it is force, often of the most vigorous kind, but force without regulation and control. Christian enthusiasm is, therefore-- (2) The spirit of love. We all know the mighty part that love has sustained in the purest human enthusiasms. Love of children; for what heroisms has that not qualified the weakest of mothers? Love of country; what flames has that not kindled in the most phlegmatic of citizens? Love of man; for what endurance and what effort has that not nerved some of the feeblest of our race? Analyse any given case of noble enthusiasm, and you will find the very life of it to be love; either the love which manifests itself in devotion to a person, or the love which finds expression in consecration to a cause. In Christian enthusiasm both of these loves find play, for it is first devotion to a person. Christian love is love to God, and if I love God I must cling to Him. But Christian enthusiasm is also (3) The spirit of a sound mind--A fact that is most frequently overlooked. Hence, by many, it is regarded as a symptom of goodness of heart, possibly, but certainly of weakness of head. In the world the enthusiast is not a mad speculator or simple dreamer; he is the man who, by the sagacity with which he lays his plans, the common sense lines on which he works them, the alertness with which he seizes every opportunity, and the tenacity with which he retains his hold on every advantage, builds up a colossal business and amasses a vast fortune. And we refuse to recognise as a Christian enthusiast the man who, by his wild vagaries neutralises the good of which he might have been otherwise capable, or the man whose sanguine temperament is imposed upon by impossible ideals. We claim for Christian enthusiasm rational as well as emotional qualities. It demands the consecration of the intellect at its freshest and its best, that it may help the body to render “ a reasonable service.” And what is this sound-mindedness? It is the self-control which conserves its energies, the patience which bides its time, the discernment which perceives that its time has come; it is the knowledge that understands its work, the judgment that determines where the work can be best done, the wisdom that suggests how to do it in the best way; it is the prudence which prepares for difficulties, the resolution which faces them, the tact which threads its way through them, or turns them to its own account. In one word, it is the mind in full health, in the health which consists of the wholeness, vigour, and harmonious activity of all the rational faculties; the intellect filled with the Holy Spirit of God. III. Its motives. We have the gift; by what considerations are we urged and encouraged to kindle it?1. Timothy was reminded of his responsibility in the very terms of our text. 2. Timothy was reminded of his ancestral traditions. Men of noble lineage are supposed to have stronger motives to do nobly than those of meaner origin. They have a family as well as a personal reputation to sustain. 3. Timothy was reminded of his share in the great salvation. That we might kindle our gift, God, if I may so say, kindled His. 4. Lastly, Timothy was reminded that he had been honoured with a Divine call to stir up his gift. He was “ called with a holy calling.” There was nothing meritorious in him, as the apostle is careful to remind him, to occasion this call. It was of God’ s grace, and God, who had entrusted him with the gift, now laid formal claim to the use of His own. (J. W. Burn.) An ordination sermon They that think that every Christian may be a preacher, and that the ministry, considered as a distinct calling or employ, is nothing but usurpation, and some ambitious men’ s affecting a superiority over their brethren, like the cynic of old trampling upon Plato’ s cloak, make themselves guilty of greater pride than that which they pretend to condemn. The church is called a building, and we know that every flint or pebble is not fit to be a foundation or corner-stone, much less to be set into the ephod, and there to shine in oracles and responses. It is called a body too, and this hath various members, and these various offices, which cannot be all eyes and overseers; if they were, where would be the hearing? An ecclesiastical jurisdiction lodged in Timothy, an overseer constituted and appointed by St. Paul, even by the laying on of his hands, whereof he puts him in mind in the text, and of the gift that was bestowed upon him by that imposition of hands, and of his duty to exercise it. And here, before I enter upon the apostle’ s exhortation, or the duty contained in it, I cannot but take notice of the softness and gentleness of his address, “ I put thee in remembrance.” Practical discourses and salutary admonitions to men of learning and good education are a refreshing of their memories rather than teaching or illuminating their understandings. Discourses of this nature may put you in remembrance of a duty, which multiplicity of business would not suffer you to think of, or contemplations of other matters tempted you to overlook. I. What the gift is which was in timothy, and may still be supposed to be in all those whom God calls to the same office. I shall particularise, the gift communicated to Timothy; and if we take St. Paul for our guide, we shall find this gift was a Divine power vouchsafed to this man of God, which enabled and disposed him to teach, and live, and act, and do, answerable to the duties incumbent upon him, as a governor of the house of God. The apostle in the following verse calls it the spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind; the spirit of Christian fortitude, of charity, and of sedateness and tranquillity of temper.1. The spirit of fortitude, which consists in being undaunted at danger, fearless of the frowns of men while we do no more than our duty, and a steady freedom to vindicate the truth of the gospel and the honour of Christ Jesus, whatever may be the effect or consequence of it. 2. The spirit of love. It was not without very great reason that our Saviour asked St. Peter thrice, “ Lovest thou Me?” and “ Lovest thou Me more than these?” 3. The spirit of a sound mind. This seems to be a temper able to curb the passions, inordinate lusts, desires, and perturbations of the mind, an admirable spirit! To know when to be angry, and when to be calm; when to be severe, and when to be moderate and gentle. The mind is then sound when it keeps the lower faculties in good order, and it is an argument of wisdom to judge of things without heats, or prejudice, or prospect of self-interest, and to keep the wild desires of corrupted nature in awe, and to do things with prudence and moderation. II. How this gift was anciently and is still bestowed and communicated. By the putting on of my hands, saith St. Paul; and in 1 Timothy 4:14 he adds, by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, i.e., of the whole apostolical college, or the greater part of the apostles, who it is like were present upon the place. This rite or ceremony of imposition of hands on a person designed for Church offices and the service of the tabernacle, Isidore and others derive from Isaac’ s blessing his son Jacob, which they suppose was done by the Patriarch’ s laying his hands upon Jacob’ s head; from Jacob’ s laying his hands on his grandchildren and blessing them; from Moses’ s laying his hand on Joshua, and communicating part of his spirit to him. The ancient Romans used to lay their hands upon their slaves when they made them free; and Numa Pompilius had hands laid on him when he was made High Pontiff; but it is probable that even these fetched it from the Jews. The Christian Churches, who retained what was good and praiseworthy among the Jews, seeing nothing in this rite but what was grave, and decent, and solemn, and serious, adopted it into their service. In sacrificing beasts to the honour of God the priest laid his hands on the victim’ s head, to show he dedicated it to God, and from common, separated it to a holy use, and dismissed it from the service of men into that of the most high God; all which significations did wonderfully well agree with the end of the ministerial function under the gospel, and therefore the Christians had no reason to reject this useful and decent custom. This imposition of hands was no physical cause of conveying the Holy Ghost, but an external assurance, that as surely as the hands were laid on the head of the person ordained, so surely would the spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind, light upon his soul if he did not obstruct it by wilful departing from the living God. That this rite hath lasted in the Church from the apostles’ time unto this day is what the concurrent testimonies of all ages witness. III. How this gift is to be stirred up, and what is the best and most proper way to do it. In the original it is ἀναζωπυρε͂ιν, which is as much as stirring up the fire, or blowing the coals, and making the fire burn that lies mingled with the ashes. So that the Spirit of God conferred upon sacred persons by the imposition of hands is lodged in the soul, as the treasure in the gospel was hid in the field, which required digging and searching to make it useful. It is like gold in the ore, which requires melting, and cleansing, and purifying; like a stock of money which requires improvement by trading; like seed sown in the ground, which requires watering and other labour and industry to make it come forth, and grow, and spread, and yield fruit, and strengthen man’ s heart. This stirring up of the gift of God respects either the means that are to be used, or the duty itself. The means hinted in this and the preceding Epistle are chiefly three--prayer, reading, meditating.1. Prayer. Who can live without it? Who can act or do anything of moment without the assistance of this spiritual engine? Nature teaches mankind to begin their works of concernment with God; grace therefore must be supposed to press this duty infinitely more, on you particularly, the heirs of Timothy’ s office, in order to this stirring up the gift of God that is in you, by the imposition of hands. God that gives you talents intends not that you should bury them in the earth, or lay them up in a napkin, but occupy and traffic with them, and be gainers by them; and to do this His help is necessary, who gives strength to the weak and power to the feeble; and this help is not to be had without importunate cries and solicitations. These prayers must have fire; it is their fervour that unlocks the secret cabinet of the Almighty. 2. Reading. This the apostle expressly recommends to Timothy (1 Timothy 4:13) in order to his stirring up the gift of God. Reading what? No doubt the Holy Scripture, and therefore our Church proscribes, delivering a Bible into the hands of the person upon whom episcopal hands are laid. The great examples you meet with here, the industry of Moses, the zeal of Elijah, the fervour of St. Paul, the vigour of St. Stephen, the courage of St. Peter, the assiduity of Apollos, the sincerity of Barnabas, what are these but so many motives to stir up the gift of God that is in you? Add to all this the glorious, the precious, the large, the sweet, the wonderful promises, promises of Christ’ s assistance, promises of comfort, of support, of eternal life and glory, which will animate and enliven, and prompt you to blow up the fire of the sanctuary and the coal of the altar, that it may consume the dross and tin, not only that which cleaves to your own souls, but that also which sticks to others, that see and hear you, and converse with you. 3. Meditating. This is also urged among the means, not to neglect the gift of God. “ Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them” (1 Timothy 4:15). The bare reading will make no great impression. Meditation digests and rouses the soul from her slumber. This quickens the faculties, sets all the wheels a-going, incites to labour, prompts to industry, and moves and even compels us to imitate the great examples set down in the Word of God, and to follow their faith, and wisdom, and hope, and love, and charity. But in what doth the stirring up of the gift of God consist? Chiefly in these three particulars. 1. Feeding the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God’ s heritage, but being examples to the flock. Ye are the captains, the generals in Christ’ s army, while you bear the heat and burden of the day, detract no labour, spare no pains, live like faithful stewards of the mystery of God, vindicate your Master’ s honour, act like persons who have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, and by manifestation of the truth commend yourselves to every man’ s conscience in the sight of God; you make good the glorious titles and the names which are given you, such as angels, and stars, and lights of the world, and the salt of the earth, and a city set on a hill, etc. 2. Labouring and making it your business to reform abuses. 3. Enduring hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, a duty very warmly recommended to Timothy (2 Timothy 2:3). In discharging your duty faithfully, you must expect obloquy, and slanders, and reproaches, and other inconveniences. (A. Horneck, D. D.) The latent spiritual force in man I. That there is in man some spiritual force which is in a special sense “ the gift of God.” Indeed, our very existence, with all its physical and mental attributes, is His gift. But this spiritual force is something special, and it may be said to comprehend at least three elements.1. The sentiment of religious worship. 2. The sentiment of moral obligation. He has an inbred feeling that there is an authority over him to which he owes allegiance, that there are laws which he should recognise and obey. 3. The sentiment of social love. The social love is something more than gregariousness, than mere animal sympathy, which seem to belong to all sentient life. It is benevolence, a well-wishing for the race. Indeed, our life, with all its attributes, is His gift, but this spiritual force is especially so. It is bestowed upon man only; it is something greater than intellect, imagination, genius. These it works as its instruments. It is in truth the substratum of his moral being, the former of his character, the controller of his destiny. II. That the urgent duty of man is to rouse this spiritual force into right action. To “ stir up” into right action this spiritual force is every man’ s paramount self-obligation. He has to rouse up into right action the spiritual power that lies within him and which is God’ s greatest gift. The command implies--1. That man has the power to do so. Every righteous obligation implies the existence of adequate power of obedience. But how can man do it? (1) How can he “ stir up” the sentiment of worship into healthy action? By devout meditations on the moral excellencies of the one true and living God. (2) How can he “ stir up” the sentiment of obligation? By contemplating the Divine will, which is the supreme law of life. (3) How can he “ stir up” into right action the sentiment of holy love? By a devout study of the claims and needs of his fellow men. In this way every man can “ stir up” this spiritual force, the gift of God that is within him. 2. On doing this depends his true dignity and bliss. Man can only become great by the right use of his great powers, by bringing out into right action all the great forces of his spiritual nature. The man who has not thus risen, has only risen as the stone has risen which has been hurled up into air, it must come down to the earth again. But he who rises by developing the spiritual forces of his nature, ascends heavenward, as the eagle that guides itself up from earth to heaven through clouds and sunshine. Conclusion: Man attend to thyself, not selfishly, and occasionally, but generously and constantly. There is an exhaustless field lying within thee fraught with countless germs of life and power. Throughout nature there are latent forces--fire mighty enough to burn up the universe sleeps in every atom of dust and drop of water. Powers sleep in the acorn sufficient to cover continents with majestic forests, and there is a spiritual force within us, rightly directed, that will build us into angels and lift us to the highest heavens of being. Let us, therefore, “ stir up” this spiritual force, this “ gift of God” within us. (David Thomas, D. D.) Latent spiritual power What is the course of the development of this spiritual gift, or, better, this gift of the Spirit? What is the manifestation and unfolding of this new energy of God in the highest branch of man’ s nature? It is quiet and gentle as all God’ s operations are in the hearts that yield to Him; only an earthquake does it become when opposed by rocky natures, a desolating whirlwind among the stubborn oaks and cedars. It unfolds in willing hearts as seed in congenial soil, always with a promise of more and more; the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear; the full corn in the ear multiplied thirty, sixty, an hundredfold, and each corn the promise and potency by a similar method of a hundred more. See how it increases. A young convert begins in an unobtrusive way to speak to a few wild boys whom he gathers together, one and another of whom become Christians; the number grows, and with growth of responsibility the convert receives increase of power. The class becomes a congregation; the few trembling, kind words he managed to speak at first become the powerful address; the boys are joined by men and women; the address becomes a sermon. That may be one way in which the gift of God may be developed and displayed. It is only one. For I hold the gift of the Spirit, which comes at conversion, to be also a gift for service. It is the same grace working through us to produce in other hearts precisely the fruits He has produced in us--repentance through our repentance, faith through our faith, love through our love, hope through our hope. The regenerated soul brings forth graces after their kind, just as the earth grass, and herb, and tree, yielding fruit whose seed is in itself, after its kind. But if all require His presence and help, none so manifestly require them as the minister who has to feed the flock of God. His nature ought to lie open to Divine influence at every point, and every call of his ministry should be a call to try and prove what the Spirit of Christ which is in him can accomplish for him and through him. He sometimes finds out the vastness of his supernatural resources through being made painfully conscious of the inadequacy of his natural powers for the work to be done. He sees the truth dimly, and therefore seeks for the light of the Spirit to be shed upon it and irradiate it. And here I would say that I am free to admit, as has been always held by those who intelligently believe that the God who created our natural powers is the same as He who sanctifies them and works through them, “ that the greater the gifts by nature and cultivation, the greater the number of points at which the Holy Spirit may move us, and that Divine power is conditioned by human receptivity.” The gift of the Spirit to Timothy was the same as to Paul; and yet since Timothy’ s measure was not as capacious as Paul’ s, and, perhaps, because he did not so diligently stir up his gift as Paul, his lifo, beautiful and useful though it was, lacked the luxuriant fruitfulness of Paul’ s. The condition of our doing our best is that we allow God to do the best He can through us. And be our other gifts few or many, brilliant or humble, the reason for stirring up the flame of the great gift is just the same in all cases. For you would not have your poor gift without the fire that can make even it glow with fervour, as I have often seen the lips of poor, illiterate, feeble-minded men burn with rapture which gave beauty and charm to all they said. And you would not have your finer gifts, if you possess such, bereft of that energy which is a touch of omnipotence, nor left without that inspiration which is a pulse of the heart of infinite love. No one can tell the wealth of his gift in the possession of the Spirit of God. Let us put ourselves in remembrance that we may stir up the gift of God. Let us remember the day of our first submission, and how it ought to have implied a life-long submission, a continual yielding up of self and self-will. Let us remember the day of our consecration, the hopes which then gleamed in our heaven, the vows which then trembled on our lips. If the promise of these times has been blasted or dimmed, let us seek the renewing of our hearts by the Spirit which dwelleth in us. If the promise has been fulfilled, or even more than fulfilled, still let us honour the Spirit by whom we have been kept, sanctified, and used. (J. P. Gledstone.) Ordination The poet Keble said on one occasion that he wished he could attend an ordination service every year of his life, that he might be reminded of first principles. The Nemesis of neglected gifts There is a terrible penalty attached to the neglect of the higher faculties, whether intellectual or moral; a penalty which works surely and unerringly by a natural law. We all of us have imagination, intellect, will. These wonderful powers must have an object, must have employment. If we do not give them their true object, viz., the glory of God, they will find an object for themselves. Instead of soaring upwards on the wings supplied by the glories of creation and the mercies of redemption, they will sink downwards into the mire. They will fasten upon the flesh; and in an atmosphere poisoned by debasing associations they will become debased also. Instead of raising the man who possesses them into that higher life, which is a foretaste of heaven, they will hurry him downwards with the accumulated pressure of an undisciplined intellect, a polluted imagination, and a lawless will. That which should have been for wealth becomes an occasion of falling. Angels of light become angels of darkness. And powers which ought to be as priests, conseorating the whole of our nature to God, become as demons, shameless and ruthless in devoting us to the evil one God’ s royal gifts of intellect and will cannot be flung away, cannot be left unused, cannot be extinguished. For good or for evil they are ours; and they are deathless. But, though they cannot be destroyed, they can be neglected. They can be buried in the earth till they breed worms and stink. They call be allowed to run riot, until they become as wild beasts, and turn again and rend us. Or, in the spirit of power, of love and of discipline, they may be chastened by lofty exercise and sanctified to heavenly uses, till they become more and more fit to be the equipment of one, who is for ever to stand “ before the throne of God, and praise Him day and night in His temple.” (A. Plummer, D. D.) 2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.Energy within right limits The first characteristic stands opposed to faint-heartedness: the two other qualities are added, apparently, by the apostle, so that it may be distinctly manifest that he recommends no wild, rough exhibitions of force, but only such as were confined within legal limits. The ἀγαπή renders us capable for the offering of the greatest sacrifice for the cause of the Lord; the σωφρονισμός is that Christian self-control which imparts power to a wise bearing in action, and in all things knows how to keep within true bounds. (Dr. Van Oosterzee.) Self-control A sound mind, rather self-control, which keeps “ a constant rein on all the passions and desires” (Trench), and would thus keep in check timidity and undue despondency. Some take “ sound mind” to signify here “ correction” of others, Church discipline, a meaning which the word will bear, but which is out of harmony with the other two elements of the special gift here enumerated, both of which are personal graces, not official powers. (Speaker’ s Commentary.) Self-mastery The Spirit of God, by supplying us with power and love, launches within us forces which are capable, if they are not well adjusted, of producing either arrogance or laxity; and which need, therefore, the central controlling energy of true self-mastery to harmonise them and save them from mutual destruction. We do not desiderate a neutral, colourless result, but a higher perfection, one in which both these forces have full play. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) The spirit of discipline If it be asked whether the discipline be that which Timothy is to enforce in ruling others, or that which he is to practice in schooling himself, we may answer “ Both.” The termination of the word which is here used (σωφρονισμός) seems to require a transitive meaning; and slackness in correcting others may easily have been one of the ways in which the despondency of Timothy showed itself. On the other hand the whole context here speaks of Timothy’ s treatment of himself. To take a more lively interest in the conduct of others would be discipline for himself and for them also. There may be as much pride as humility in indulging the thought that the lives of other people are so utterly bad that it is quite out of the power of such persons as ourselves to effect a reformation. This is a subtle way of shirking responsibility. Strong in the spirit of power, glowing with the spirit of love, we can turn the faults of others, together with all the troubles which may befall us in this life into instruments of discipline. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Christian courage These words, though originally addressed to a bishop, and with reference to the ministerial office, yet need not be limited in their application. For of all who are duly baptized into the faith of the Lord Jesus, it is unquestionably required that they manfully fight under His banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and continue His faithful soldiers and servants unto their lives’ end; wherein is implied, to say the least, that we strive earnestly and habitually to get rid of all mean cowardly fears, and go on in the path marked out for us by our Heavenly Guide, with all energy of conduct, and charity of heart, with such caution, too, and self-possession, as become persons who know what they are about. “ First of all,” says St. Paul, “ God has not given us the spirit of cowardice” --for that is the proper meaning of the word, which in the original is not the same with that which is generally translated “ fear,” but quite different. It is used also, in a few other places, in the New Testament; as, e.g. (St. Mark 4:40), when, after repeated demonstrations of the Almighty power and infinite compassion of the holy Jesus, His disciples were still weak and wavering, and alarmed at apparent danger, His gentle yet solemn rebuke was, “ Why are ye so fearful [cowardly]? how is it that ye have no faith?” Whence we learn that this spirit of cowardice is so inconsistent with the character, as even to prove a want of faith, so far as it influences the heart. Again, on another occasion (John 14:27), when our blessed Lord was encouraging and cheering the fainting spirits of His disciples, perplexed and alarmed: at the prospect of His leaving them: “ Let not your heart be troubled,” said He to them; “ neither let it be afraid” (cowardly). “ Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” And again, in the description of those who shall be judged liable to the second death, the first-mentioned are (in our translation “ fearful,” but originally) the cowardly, and then next, the unbelieving (Revelation 21:8). These are all the places where the word is used in the New Testament. The spirit of cowardice, then, is opposed to the spirit of faith. But, says the inspired apostle, God hath not given us--us Christians--this spirit of cowardice--this base unworthy disposition is not from Him, nor among the fruits of His blessed Spirit. Rather we are taught to expect from that heavenly source a spirit most opposite to that of cowardice--A spirit of energy, charity, prudence; enabling us to proceed and go forward in our Christian course under every circumstance, to serve the Lord without distraction, to oppose men’ s errors without enmity to their persons, to walk warily as in days of danger and perplexity. That the word here translated “ power” has this meaning, viz., of inspired energy and courage, we may know as from other passages in the New Testament, so from these two. In Acts 6:1-15. it is said of the holy martyr--“ Stephen, fall of faith and power” --as far as possible from any distrust or apprehension as to the holy cause of the gospel which he had undertaken. And in the Revelation of St. John, the Divine message to the Bishop of the Philadelphian Church, was, “ Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name;” a little strength, energy, or power--as not having like some others, altogether fallen away through indolence, or faint-hearted cowardly fear. Hence, we infer, that the spirit by which the faithful Christian is actuated is one of energy, resolution, and steady perseverance; and inferring this, we are hound to put it closely to our consciences, as follows:--Whether our life is one of diligence and activity, and this diligence and activity, not limited to this world, but actually in the cause and service of Almighty God. Whether we avoid, as much as possible, mixing in idle company, reading vain and trifling books, or other publications, indulging in useless, idle, unprofitable thoughts. Whether we try to knew, and feel, the value of our precious, irreparable time. Whether we endeavour, from day to day, in that state of life to which it has pleased God to call us, to do our duty--i.e., what in God’ s sight is expected of us; for very often much less will satisfy the world, and our own easy consciences. Whether we pray habitually, to be enabled to accomplish these our respective duties with resolution, steadiness, and perseverance; neither alarmed by danger, if it should happen, nor moved by scorn and contempt; but expecting such trials as part of God’ s discipline, to bring our hearts into a fit state for our admission into the everlasting habitations. We may further observe that the mean spirit of cowardice is always found in effect (in whatever way it is to be accounted for), a great hindrance to the growth of true charity, love for God and man. “ The fear of man bringeth a snare” --even so great a snare as to withdraw the heart from loving and trusting Almighty God. Cowardice is a selfish feeling, makes men think only of themselves, their own present interests and comforts--A state of mind quite repulsive of true charity and love. Hence (says St. Paul), “ God gives not His servants the spirit of cowardice, but of power, and also of love,” leads them both to be zealous and earnest in fulfilling their high duties, and at the same time tempers their zeal with meekness and love. If we would then know, whether we are such in heart and life as Christians ought to be, we must ask ourselves, not merely whether we are earnest in our religion, but also whether “ all our things are done with charity,” love to God and man. Again, you will observe that St. Paul intimates to us in the passage now considered, that it is not enough for the Christian to be zealous in his duty, even though his zeal be tempered and guided by love; unless also he be cautious and on his guard, so as in every emergency to retain his presence of mind, and always (as every person should who has any important matter in hand) to know what he is about. This, I say, is the spirit and disposition which as Christians we are still to labour and pray for, nor shall we seek it in vain--for to His faithful servants God gives, not only the spirit of power, and of love, but also of a sound mind; whilst by His grace He enables them to be harmless as doves, He would have them also wise as serpents, ever on their guard; on their guard, i.e., not so much against their earthly as their spiritual foes. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to “ Tracts for the Times.”) The threefold gift Our text presents to our view a striking contrast between that which constitutes the religion of a worldling, and that which constitutes the religion of a Christian. The religion of a worldling is a religion of slavish fear, but the religion of a Christian consists of a threefold gift, as specified in the language of my text. If you go to Pagan lands you will find all the Pagan tribes in possession of a religion of slavish fear; they fear their priests, and therefore they bow down to them as ii they were a superior race of beings to themselves. They fear the devil, and, therefore, they worship him lest he should do them hurt, for theirs is a religion of slavish fear altogether. There are three words, or three features, of our subject, so distinctly marked that I want your attention to them separately. “ God hath given us the spirit of power” --there is efficiency. “ God hath given us the spirit of love” --there is attraction. “ God hath given us the spirit of a sound mind” --that is a treasure in our vessels of infinite value. I. “ God hath given us the spirit of power.” I would have every person who is moved with the idea that God sends him to preach, “ tarry at Jerusalem, until he has been endued with power from on high.” II. Now a word or two about the attraction in the “spirit of love.” You will recollect reading that all the law is said by our blessed Lawgiver to be couched in this one word, “ love” ; and sure I am that all the gospel is couched in it, for “ God is love.” Hence it is the grand principle insisted on all through the New Testament. III. Now glance at the treasure in possession in earthen vessels, called a sound mind. It is one of the rarest things in existence--A sound mind. I can meet with puerile minds, I can meet with frantic minds, I can meet with enthusiastic minds, I can meet with fickle and varying minds, not a few, and some of these bad and sad qualities even among Christians; I lament over them. A sound mind--what is it There is not a child of Adam that possesses it until he gets it from above; it must be inspired. I grant that there are many men who have sound minds in temporal things; sound minds to judge rightly and consistently of worldly matters, so as seldom to make a mistake in matters of business; a sound mind to rule their house properly, to manage things with keenness and propriety, and with success; but, mark, I make a distinction between a sound mind, as the gift of God in a spiritual point of view, and a sound mind as existing in nature. A sound mind, as existing in nature, only regards natural things, and can rise no higher than its own level. I never knew a man of sound mind in spiritual things, until the Holy Ghost inspired it. (Jos. Irons.) Christianity: what it is not and what it is I. What genuine Christianity is not. It is not a “ spirit of fear.” The spirit of fear is that of a criminal and a slave. It haunts the minds of the guilty, and is only a prelude to those awful feelings which harrow up the soul that dies in a state of final impenitence. Such is not the spirit by which Christians are actuated. The great end for which our Saviour came into the world was to deliver men from their awful situation of exposure to the Divine wrath, and the fear consequent upon a knowledge of this state. But how are we to reconcile this passage with others, in which the spirit of fear is highly spoken of? Such as, “ Blessed is the man that feareth always” ; “ I will put My fear in their hearts,” etc. They are to be reconciled in this way. That spirit of fear which is not given to the people of God is a fear arising from a sense of guilt, a conviction that God is their enemy. But that fear which is implanted in the hearts of His people is a filial fear--A holy jealousy, lest by sin they should provoke the Lord to anger. II. What is the nature of genuine Christianity?1. Genuine Christianity is powerful and efficacious. “ God hath given us the spirit of power.” In 1 Corinthians 4:20 this apostle says, “ The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power” --it is not in anything external, but in the experience of all the powerful effects of the gospel. The gospel is powerful to the salvation of all that believe. 2. Genuine Christianity is benevolent and kind. “ God hath given us the spirit of love.” This enters most essentially into the system of Divine truth, and also into the experience of every child of God. This spirit is not natural to man. Whatever obtains the name of love is only a selfish principle. But by grace it is overcome, and a contrary spirit is bestowed. “ We love Him, because He first loved us.” Where this love is felt in the heart, it is impossible but a reciprocal feeling of love to God must spring up within us. And not only love to God, but to all that bear His image--our brethren in Christ. But the love of the Christian is not confined to his brethren in the Lord; it extends to all mankind. 3. Genuine Christianity is in the highest degree rational, and peculiarly suited to the exigencies and circumstances of mankind. When a sinner is called out of darkness into light, he often becomes an object of derision; he is represented as an enthusiast, and beside himself. This was the case with Paul; but with respect and justice he repelled the charge; and this every child of God may do; for He has conferred upon him “ the spirit of a sound mind.” What is enthusiasm? It is the power given to the mind by some sublime conceptions which have broken in upon it. We praise this in many things--we praise it in the artist; and one once said, when fault was found with him for having employed so much of his time, “ Art is a jealous thing, and requires the whole man.” And is not eternity, is not religion a jealous thing? Does it not require the whole man? That the Christian is acting a most rational part is evident, if we consider what are the principles by which the prudent men of the world are guided; they are the same as those by which the Christian is guided, only changing the motives and the ends. These are indemnity for the past, enjoyment of the present, security and provision for the future. (J. Henderson, D. D.) The spiritual endowment of the Christian Church I. The Church of Christ is endowed with the spirit of courage.1. In being a disciple at all courage was demanded.2. In proclaiming the gospel of God courage was manifested.3. In enduring hardness courage was developed, II. The Church of Christ is endowed with the spirit of power.1. The power of holy utterance is a spiritual gift.2. The power of Christian legislation is a spiritual gift.3. The power of righteous resolute volition is a spiritual gift. III. The Church of Christ is endowed with the spirit of love.1. Love Of kindred is a spiritual gift of the Inspirer.2. Love of country--patriotism--is a Divine spiritual gift.3. The love of Christ and of God is an endowment of the Spirit of God. IV. The Church of Christ is endowed with the spirit of soundness of mind or of health.1. The capacity and consequent appetite for knowledge are spiritual endowments.2. The energy of habitual holy action is a spiritual endowment.3. The restoring power of a righteous life is a spiritual endowment. (W. R. Percival.) The great purpose of Christianity Why was Christianity given? Why did Christ seal it with His blood? Why is it to be preached? What is the great happiness it confers? I read the answer to them in the text. There I learn the great good which God confers through Jesus Christ. “ He hath given us, not the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” The glory of Christianity is, the pure and lofty action which it communicates to the human mind. It does not breathe a timid, abject spirit. If it did, it would deserve no praise. It gives power, energy, courage, constancy to the will; love, disinterestedness, enlarged affection to the heart; soundness, clearness, and vigour to the understanding. It rescues him who receives it from sin, from the sway of the passions; gives him the full and free use of his best powers; brings out and brightens the Divine image in which he was created; and in this way not only bestows the promise, but the beginning of heaven. This is the excellence of Christianity. In reading the New Testament I everywhere learn that Christ lived, taught, died, and rose again, to exert a purifying and ennobling influence on the human character; to make us victorious over sin, over ourselves, over peril and pain; to join us to God by filial love, and above all, by likeness of nature, by participation of His Spirit. This is plainly laid down in the New Testament as the supreme end of Christ. In the prophecies concerning Him in the Old Testament, no characteristic is so frequently named as that He should spread the knowledge of the true God. Now I ask, what constitutes the importance of such a revelation? Why has the Creator sent His Son to make Himself known? I answer, God is most worthy to be known, because He is the most quickening, purifying, and ennobling object for the mind; and His great purpose in revealing Himself is, that He may exalt and perfect human nature. God, as He is manifested by Christ, is another name for intellectual and moral excellence; and in the know ledge of Him our intellectual and moral powers find their element, nutriment, strength, expansion, and happiness. To know God is to attain to the sublimest conception in the universe. To love God is to bind oneself to a Being who is fitted, as no other being is, to penetrate and move our whole hearts; in loving whom we exalt ourselves; in loving whom we love the great, the good, the beautiful, and the infinite; and under whose influence the soul unfolds itself as a perennial plant under the cherishing sun. This constitutes the chief glory of religion. It ennobles the soul. In this its unrivalled dignity and happiness consist. I fear that the world at large think religion a very different thing from what has been now set forth. Too many think it a depressing, rather than an elevating service, that it breaks rather than ennobles the spirit, that it teaches us to cower before an almighty and irresistible being; and I must confess that religion, as it has been generally taught, is anything but an elevating principle. It has been used to scare the child and appal the adult. The main ground of the obligation of being religious, I fear, is not understood, among the multitude of Christians. Ask them, why they must know and worship God? and, I fear, that were the heart to speak, the answer would be, because He can do with us what He will, and consequently our first concern is to secure His favour. Religion is a calculation of interest, a means of safety. God is worshipped too often on the same principle on which flattering and personal attentions are lavished on human superiors, and the worshipper cares not how abjectly he bows, if he may win to his side the power which he cannot resist. I look with deep sorrow on this common perversion of the highest principle of the soul. I have endeavoured to show the great purpose of the Christian doctrine respecting God, or in what its importance and glory consist. Had I time, I might show that every other doctrine of our religion has the same end. I might particularly show how wonderfully fitted are the character, example, life, death, resurrection, and all the offices of Christ to cleanse the mind from moral evil, to quicken, soften, elevate, and transform it into the Divine image; and I might show that these are the influences which true faith derives from Him and through which He works out our salvation. Let me only say that I see everywhere in Christianity this great design of liberating and raising the human mind. (W. E. Channing, D. D.) A Whit-Sunday Sermon Many readers of this passage, I doubt not, place the emphasis on the word us. They suppose St. Paul to say, “ An ordinary man, who occupied the position which you occupy, the overseer of a society which is composed of various and contradictory elements, in which strange doctrines are appearing, which is exposed to all the influences of a commercial and corrupt city, would fear and tremble. It is your privilege to be as free from fightings and terrors as I, your spiritual father, am.” What encouragement, then, could he give to Timothy? Precisely that which he had found necessary in his own case, precisely that to which he had been driven by the experience he has described to us. His spirit might be palsied with fear; but there was a Spirit near him and with him which was not a spirit of fear, to which he could turn as the Deliverer from fear, the Restorer of energy, the Quickener of hope. That Spirit had been given not to him (Paul), but to the Family of which he was a member;-if in any special sense to him, to him only because he was a servant of that Family, because he needed powers that were not his own, to make his ministries for it effectual. I. I suppose we have all felt tempted, at times, to use language which is just the reverse of the apostle’ s. We have read in records of the past--we have known on a larger or smaller scale among cur contemporaries--such instances of strange panic and cowardice, of counsel and heart failing just when the need for them was the greatest, that we have been ready to exclaim, “ Surely there is something Divine in this! We cannot attribute such a loss of nerve and energy to the pressure of outward circumstances; these often evoke the greatest courage when they are most appalling. We cannot attribute it merely to a natural want of courage; those same men, or bodies of men, at other crises, showed that they were capable of manly effort. Their fear is surely supernatural. God has given them this spirit of fear.” Such a mode of speaking is not uncommon; it is not without strong excuse. But I think also that our consciences wilt tell us that we pervert such passages of Scripture if we set them in opposition to the doctrine of St. Paul in the one now before us. We need not study the records of the past, or the actions of our fellow-men, to learn what the spirit of fear or cowardice is. Each has, perhaps, known something of that cowardice which springs from self-distrust, from the apprehension of lions in his path, from doubtfulness, which of several paths he should choose, from the foretaste of coming evils. II. The Spirit of God is said to be a Spirit of power. Consider the different kinds of power before which men bow, and those which they covet most to exercise. There is none more familiar or more wonderful than that of the orator. There is another power mixed frequently with this, but yet different in its direction and its nature, which also can be limited to no country, or circumstances, or stage of cultivation. The physician, the healer, is welcomed in all lands by different titles, but always for this reason, that he can in some way act on the life of men, can oppose the powers that are threatening life. In some regions his functions are hardly distinguished from those of the priest, because he too is conversant about life and death, a life or death that may continue when the resources of the ordinary physician are exhausted. The most simple, naked exhibition of human power is in that royal Will, which obtains supremacy by claiming it--which compels individuals and nations, they know not how, to own that it is meant to rule them, and that they must needs obey. That such a force as this exists, it is as idle to deny as to deny the force of sea or wind. We are certain that the most settled, organised tyranny is still a rebellion, and must end as rebellions end. What is the warrant for this conviction? Whit-Sunday says it is this, that the highest power, the all-ruling Will, was manifested in One who took upon Him the form of a Servant. It says that His noblest gift to men is His own Spirit of Power. It says that to that Spirit all spirits must at last bow; that any will which is mere arbitrary will--which does not seek to deliver and to raise those whom it rules--must be broken in pieces; that the only effectual power will be proved at last to be that which can give up itself. III. If the world was to be instructed that nil power of speech, of imparting life and wisdom to men, of governing societies, is of God, and is tits gift to His creatures, certainly no teachers could be so suitable as those Galileans. And yet I know not whether there was not something even more wonderful in the selection of these men to show that all Love is of God; that His Spirit is the author of whatever love men are able to exhibit in acts or to feel within. For as Jews they had learnt to despise and hate all the uncircumcised; as Galileans they must often have been jealous of that more favoured part of their own race, which looked down upon them. They had been chosen, indeed, by a Teacher who bore all their narrowness and ignorance; who educated them by a careful and gracious discipline for the work to which He had destined them. Their affection had been drawn out towards Him; that affection had been a bond to each other, though interrupted by continual desires in each of them to be the chief in His kingdom. But their affection had been tried, and had broken down. It had failed towards the Master; what strength could there be in it towards any of their fellows? If love was their own, or had its springs in them, it must be utterly dried up. Then reflect how it burst forth, how it poured itself out first upon Jews, who scorned them; next upon Gentiles, whom it had been part of their religion to scorn; to see what it could endure. So they were trained to understand that there must be about them and with them a Spirit of over-living, long-suffering love, the heights and depths of which they could never measure--of which they could only say, It is the Spirit of Him who died upon the Cross, and who in that death manifested the very nature of His eternal Father and His purposes to men. What is the original falsehood of all who speak of their love to God and man? This: they take credit to themselves for a love which is moving them to noble thoughts and good deeds, but which has another source than their hearts; which is Divine, not earthly; universal, not partial. IV. Finally, this Spirit is said to be the Spirit of a sound mind. You cannot make any estimate or guess of the wildness and madness into which man may be led. And therefore you cannot provide the remedy for this wildness and madness, or any adequate protection against it. Do you think you know of some adequate remedy or protection? Perhaps you will say it lies in the Church. May not this be, after all, the one security against these excesses? May not the Spirit of God keep better watch over those minds which He has taken into His guardianship, than you can keep? A Spirit who knows how all are tempted--who knows what temptation is strongest for each--who is seeking to unite them in a common fellowship--who is guiding them to the same haven--who will suffer none who would act rightly to be without the necessary aids to action, none that would seek truth to be lost in falsehood; who will continually assist the desire to do right in those who are conscious of the inclination to wrong--who will for ever kindle afresh the zeal for truth in those who feel that they are beginning to acquiesce in plausible lies? To tell men that such a guiding Spirit of Power, of Love, of a Sound Mind, has been given them, and is with them--this is not dangerous, but safe. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) On soundness of mind in religion The expression, sobriety, or soundness of mind, is used in the Scriptures in various senses. Sometimes it is opposed to madness; as where the demoniac was found sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. Madness disposes men to act irregularly, furiously, and extravagantly. Soundness of mind, therefore, implies recollection, calmness, and discretion, the guidance and control of reason. In other places, soundness of mind is opposed to levity and impropriety, as where women are required to adorn themselves in modest apparel, with sobriety; or to intemperance and sensuality, as where young men are exhorted to be sober minded, and, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live soberly. Sometimes it is contrasted with pride and self-conceit: thus the apostle forbids the Romans to think extravagantly of themselves, instead of thinking soberly, as they ought to do. In my text the same expression is used in a more general and comprehensive sense. The general characteristic of all unsoundness of mind may be said to be false perceptions. He whose mind is in this state dares not see things as they really are; they appear to him extravagantly magnified or diminished, distorted, or confounded with different objects. A sound mind, on the contrary, forms a just view of the subjects presented to it; it estimates correctly the relative value and importance of different subjects, and is not governed by prejudice, caprice, or idle imaginations. I. Soundness of mind is opposed to credulity. Credulity arises from a misapprehension of the nature and value of evidence. The credulous man believes on insufficient authority. He does not perceive the proportion which different kinds of evidence bear to each other. How many in the Church at this day receive the doctrines of Christianity, not on account of the evidence by which they are supported, nor because they are plainly delivered in Scripture, but because this or that particular man has held them! A man of sound mind will not indeed despise human authority, and, in the spirit of innovation, doubt a tenet because it has been generally maintained; but he will be very careful to found his faith upon the truth of Scripture rather than upon the opinions of men. II. Soundness of mind is opposed to superstition. A person in the dark sees nothing distinctly, and is therefore very apt to form confused and erroneous ideas of every object around him, his imagination giving to them what form and colour it pleases. Such is the situation of a superstitious man with respect to all objects of a spiritual or religious kind--he sees nothing in its proper form and proportion. A frequent and dangerous superstition is that which lays an undue stress on mere external religious observances. A man, therefore, of a sound mind, while he attributes to forms and ceremonies their true value, will not substitute them for more substantial good. He will manifest the soundness of his mind by preferring the substance to the form, and by endeavouring to possess the spirit of religion rather than the mere shadow of it. III. Soundness of mind is opposed to enthusiasm. Enthusiasm consists in unwarranted ideas of the nature of the relation between us and our Creator, A man of sound mind will cherish no extravagant notions of Divine communications. An enthusiast entertains lofty notions of himself, and degrading conceptions of the Deity; he conceives that the course of nature is to be regulated with a view to his interest. The ordinary rules, even of morality, must yield to his convenience. He and his immediate connections have a peculiar dispensation: they are the particular favourites of God, and all things are to minister to their exclusive good. IV. Soundness of mind is opposed to scepticism or infidelity. I am well aware that infidels arrogate to themselves the distinction of being the only sound reasoners, and charge believers with credulity and superficial views. But the charge may justly be retorted on themselves: they do not possess a sound mind; for the body of evidence by which Christianity is established is incomparably superior to that by which any historical fact, or any other tenets whatever, have been supported, V. Soundness of mind is opposed to insensibility, or indifference to the great objects of religion. If you saw a man bartering his estate for a childish toy, or labouring to accomplish some object in its nature evidently unattainable, or using the greatest exertions and the most powerful means to effect some frivolous or contemptible purpose; or, on the other band, struggling to accomplish some end really important by means wholly inadequate, you would say, without hesitation, that such a man had not a sound mind. The great doctrines which religion teaches must be either false, or doubtful, or true. That they are false can never be positively proved. “ Surely,” says Pascal, “ in a doubtful point of this most tremendous consequence, it is the duty of every rational person to endeavour, if possible, to obtain a solution of his doubts, and to remain no longer in suspense about a question of such immense consequence, in comparison of which all the sorrows or happiness of this life will not bear so much as a single moment’ s comparison. Yet we see persons, professing, too, to be wise, and raised above the vulgar herd, who not only doubt upon these points, but appear to be easy and composed, nay, declare their doubts with perfect indifference, and perhaps gratify their vanity in professing them. What words can be found to fix a name for such unaccountable folly? Yet you see the same persons quite other men in all other respects. They fear the smallest inconveniences: they see them if they approach, and feel them if they arrive. They pass whole days and nights in chagrin and despair for the loss of their property, or for some imaginary blemish in their honour; and yet these very same persons suppose they may lose all by death, and remain without disquiet or emotion. This wonderful insensibility with respect to things of the most fatal consequence, and that, too, in a heart so nicely sensible of the meanest trifles, is an astonishing prodigy, an unintelligible enchantment, a supernatural blindness and infatuation.” You believe the Scriptures; you believe that there is a future life, in comparison of which this is a mere point; sit down and contemplate the duration of it. Yet, O strange absurdity I we see everything reversed: persons not at all interested about these fleeting moments, on account of their relation to eternity, but very anxious about them in themselves! The Bible informs us of our danger, and must be our only guide how to escape it. Here, then, is folly and unsoundness of mind in the highest degree, that men will not search the Scriptures and be guided by the Word of God. (J. Venn, M. A.) Power in the Christian And here is condemned those, both preachers and people, who have it not themselves, neither can endure it in ethers. We commend the deep-mouthed hound, the shrill sound of the trumpet, the loud report of the piece; yet cannot away with, care not for the spirit of power and resolution in a Christian. Is not power appropriated to God? Did not Christ speak with authority and power, and not as the Scribes? For can a soldier be too strong? a traveller over-well limbed? then may a Christian be too well fenced, armed. Must he not wrestle with principalities and powers? combat with the sons of Anak? tread upon the lion and the ape? And who can tell what weight may be put on his shoulders for time to come? Will we not provander our beast for a long journey? rig our ships for a rough passage? build them strong for a long voyage? bead our staff before we leap? And shall we never fortify the inner man, repair the battered bark of our souls, nor try the truth of that stilt which must help us to heaven? Wherefore, gather spiritual greatness, strive for this strength, and purchase this power by all means possible, and that thou mayest do these things. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Sinful fear of God One of our poets gives a grim picture of a traveller on a lonesome road, who has caught a glimpse of a frightful shape close behind him-- “ And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head.” The dreadful thing is there on his very heels, its breath hot on his check; he feels it though he does not see, but he dare not face round to it; he puts a strong compulsion on himself, and, with rigidly fixed face, strides on his way, a sickening horror busy with his heart. An awful image that, but a true one with regard to what many men do with their thoughts of God! They know that that thought is there, close behind them. They feel sometimes as if its hand were just coming out to be laid on their shoulders, and to stop them. And they will not turn their heads to see the Face that should be the love, the blessedness, the life of their spirits, but is--because they love it not--the terror and freezing dread of their souls. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) A sound mind Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, gives, in one of his letters, an account of a saintly sister. For twenty years, through some disease, she was confined to a kind of crib; never once could she change her position for all that time. “ And yet,” said Dr. Arnold, and I think his words are very beautiful, “ I never saw a more perfect instance of the power of love and of a sound mind. Intense love, almost to annihilation of selfishness; a daily martyrdom for twenty years, during which she adhered to her early-formed resolution of never talking about herself; thoughtful about the very pins and ribbons of my wife’ s dress, about the making of a doll’ s cap for a child, but of herself--save as regarded her improvement in all goodness--wholly thoughtless; enjoying everything lovely, graceful, beautiful, high-minded, whether in God’ s works or man’ s, with the keenest relish: inheriting the earth to the fulness of the promise; and preserved through the valley of the shadow of death from all fear of impatience, and from every cloud of impaired reason which might mar the beauty of Christ’ s glorious work. May God grant that I might come within one hundred degrees of her place in glory!” Such a life was true and beautiful. But the radiance of such a light never cheered this world by chance. A sunny patience, a bright-hearted self-forgetfulness, a sweet and winning interest in the little things of family intercourse, the Divine lustre of a Christian peace, are not fortuitous weeds carelessly flowering out of the life-garden. It is the internal which makes the external. It is the force residing in the atoms which shapes the pyramid. It is the beautiful soul which forms the crystal of the beautiful life without. Latent power in churches It is impossible to over estimate, or rather to estimate, the power that lies latent in our churches. We talk of the power that was latent in steam--latent till Watt evoked its spirit from the waters, and set the giant to turn the iron arms of machinery. We talk of the power that was latent in the skies till science climbed their heights, and, seizing the spirit of the thunder, chained it to our surface, abolishing distance, outstripping the wings of time, and flashing our thoughts across rolling seas to distant continents. Yet what are these to the moral power that lies asleep in the congregations of our country and of the Christian world? (T. Guthrie, D. D.) True fearlessness When young Nelson came home from a birds’ -nesting expedition, his aunt chided him for being out so far into the night, and remarked, “ I wonder fear did not make you come home.” “ Fear,” said Nelson, “ I don’ t know him.” Fit speech for a believer when work ing for God. “ Fear? I do not know it! What does it mean?” The Lord is on our side? Whom shall we fear? “ If God be for us, who can be against us?” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Unwarrantable fearlessness When William Rufus heard of a rebellion at Le Mans, he flung himself, at the news of it, into the first boat, and crossed the channel in the teeth of a storm. When his followers remonstrated with him, he contemptuously replied, “ Kings never drown.” (H. O. Mackey.) Christian courage Some of the Indian chiefs having become the open enemies of the gospel, Mr. Elliot--sometimes called the Apostle of the American Indians--when in the wilderness, without the company of any other Englishman, was at various times treated in a threatening and barbarous manner by some of those men; yet his Almighty Protector inspired him with such resolution, that he said, “ I am about the work of the great God, anal nay God is with me; so that I fear neither you nor all the sachims [or chiefs] in the country. I will go on, and do you touch me if you dare.” They heard him and shrank away. (W. Baxendale.) Intellectual virtues 1. Intelligence, which is that act of reason whereby we understand every particular concerning everything. 2. Science, which is that act of reason whereby we know all truth in all things. 3. Sapience, which is that act of reason whereby we understand and perceive what will follow from everything. 4. Prudence, which is that act of reason whereby we observe the fittest opportunities for the effecting of all things. 5. Art or skill, which is that act of reason whereby we know how to effect everything most skilfully. (J. Barlow, D. D.) A sound mind not easily attained We may perceive that sound minds are not easily come by, whatsoever the world may judge. Some think themselves wise with a little wit, as others do themselves rich with no great wealth. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Power, love, and a sound mind are of absolute necessity for a resolute Christian, preacher, or private person For power without love can work, but will not. Love without power would work, but cannot. And power and love can and will, but a sound mind is requisite to guide both. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Contagion of fear Speaking of his experiences in battle, a soldier-writer says, “ How infectious fear is; how it grows when yielded to; and how, when once you begin to run, it soon seems impossible to run fast enough; whereas, if you can manage to stand your ground, the alarm lessens, and sometimes disappears.” (H. O. Mackey.) Needless fear A lady was wakened up one morning by a strange noise of pecking at the window, and when she got up she saw a butterfly flying backwards and forwards inside the window in a great fright, because outside there was a sparrow pecking at the glass, wanting to reach the butterfly. The butterfly did not see the glass, but it saw the sparrow, and evidently expected every moment to be caught. Neither did the sparrow see the glass, though it saw the butterfly, and made sure of catching it. Yet all the while the butterfly, because of that thin, invisible sheet of glass, was actually as safe as if it had been miles away from the sparrow.” It is when we forget our Protector that our hearts fail us. Elisha’ s servant was in great fear when he awoke in the morning and saw the city of Dothan eocompassed with horses and chariots and a great host; but when his eyes were opened at the prayer of the prophet, his fears vanished, for he beheld the mountains full of horses and chariots of fire. “ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.” “ The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and for evermore.” (James Inglis.) Love casting out fear The love of God casts out all other fear! Every affection makes him who cherishes it in some degree braver than he would have been without it. It is not degrading to this subject to remind you of what we see away far down in the scale of living beings. Look at that strange maternal instinct that in the lowest animals out of weakness makes them strong, and causes them to forget all terror of the most terrible at the bidding of the mighty and conquering affection. Look at the same thing on the higher level of our own human life. It is not self-reliance that makes the hero. It is having the heart filled with passionate enthusiasm born of love for some person or for some thing. Love is gentle, but it is omnipotent, victor over all. It is the true hero, and martyr if need be, in the human heart! And when we rise to the highest form of it--namely, the love which is fixed upon God--oh I how that should, and if it be right, will, strengthen and brace, and make every man in whom it dwells frank, fearless, careless of personal consequences. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Power of love Some time ago a poor fellow, who had been in penal servitude many years, came back to Manchester. He called on an old friend, a teacher of a ragged school, and in course of conversation said, “ Can you tell me where Mr. Wright lives?” The teacher replied, “ Did you know Mr. Wright?” The man answered “ Yes; after I was sent to prison I was hardened; I cursed God, and the judge and jury; I cursed myself, and I cursed the prison; and in my rage I tried to commit suicide; but that day Mr. Wright came into my cell, and knelt down and prayed for me. I would not kneel at first; but when I saw the old gentleman kneel down, and saw his tears trickling down his cheeks, I could not help myself, and I also knelt down and prayed; and that day I gave God my heart. When I came out of prison, I made up my mind to seek him and thank him for his kindness to me.” The teacher said, “ Ah, my friend, Mr. Wright has been dead a long time.” The converted thief exclaimed, “ Dead! Mr. Wright dead!” The teacher said, “ Yes, he is dead; but the same Spirit which prompted him to kneel down in your cell is in a Person whom I know, who can bless you in every time of need.” He exclaimed, “ Please tell me his name?” The teacher said, “ is name is Jesus Christ.” (W. Birch.) 2 Timothy 1:8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner.Not ashamed of Christianity It was natural and right that an old warrior whose armour was worn with use should charge the young soldier to bear himself bravely in the war. Cowardice is bad always, whether in the physical heroisms of the battle-field, or the moral heroisms of common duty. We are cautioned against being ashamed! And shame is the child of doubt as well as the child of fear! I. We should not be ashamed of a testimony for Christ, because Christianity gives the true reading of our moral nature. What are we? Apart from Christ, the world is just as much divided in its philosophical schools on this question as ever it was. The Utilitarian moralists enthrone the selfish instinct, and make the foundation of morals mere utility, or the greatest happiness principle; they test the morality of actions by their consequences, as if it were possible to trace them through all their sequences to their ultimate results, as if a man could thus judge, unless all the future ages were before him. But in setting up this standard, with one sharp and almost contemptuous sweep, they cut away the entire moral nature of man. Conscience has no place in their creed. “ My own belief,” says Mr. Mill, “ is that the moral feelings are not innate, but acquired.” Surely a fearful reading of human nature! “ Let us make man in our image” becomes only a morbid dream of some early dramatist of creation! How this theory of human nature would, if adopted, ultimately affect society may perhaps best be understood by another sentence of Stuart Mill--“ The proper limit to self-indulgence is that one shall neither hurt himself nor hurt others.” Imagine this, a man is not to consult conscience, or the sense of right and wrong, he is neither to be cheered by conscience nor to be scourged by remorse, but is suffered to take his stand amongst his fellow-beings, as a mere conscience-less, calculating machine, weighing not the moral wrong, but the outward harmfulness of self-indulgence. If I turn from the school of Buckle and Mill to the modern scientific school, if captivated by the discoveries of modern science, I sit as a disciple at the feet of Huxley or Darwin, my power to realise any lofty conception even of this present life is gone! I feel like a man who has saved his purse and lost his gold, or who has kept safely the golden frame but lost the portrait it contained. Let us look at their position! We are declared to be the last and noblest form of a long series of developments; we trace these back to the elementary types of life. It may constitute a theory of physical nature, it cannot constitute a theory of human nature. It has no explanation whatever of the past of our race. Yes, the gospel makes us feel the grandeur of life as life; its rewards here are moral, its punishments the same. Instead of bidding us to think alone on consequences, it reminds us that God searcheth the heart. Its garland of victory is the well done of conscience, its scourge of woe is the agony of remorse. II. We should not be ashamed of Christianity, because it gives the true reading of man’ s religious nature. Man must worship. We all admit that. History proves it. A nation without its altars is as undiscoverable as a firmament without its stars! But what says Paul to Timothy?--“ This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” “ This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy.” Yes! Yes! this was the message! Christ the Saviour of men! This it is that comes home to the heart and conscience of humanity everywhere. This is the great message we preach in the face of all modern endeavours to give the gospel only a place in the religions of the world. Yes! how that meets the soul-needs of man! Conscience is at rest beneath that cross where Christ the Lamb of God taketh away the sins of the world. Pardon, virtue, self-denial, sacrifice, peace, hope, joy, love, these are the growths of the Christian life--these blossom on no other tree but the Tree of Life. III. We should not de ashamed of Christianity, because it gives the true reading of man’ s human life. Whatever the old theologies may have said, human life is divine. I mean by that, that the world into which we are born finds place and play for all our varied human faculties. It is manifest that man’ s nature is a mistake, and the world a mistake, if a man is to move on in a region of Asceticism, or a transcendental region of Mysticism. Take this life! I say this is a beautiful world to live in. It is a world of colour! It is a world of sound! It is a world of mystery! It is a world of enterprise! It is a world of motion! It is a world of taste! It is a world, in fact, full of manifestations of adaptation to the being to be placed upon it by God. Now, if it were worldliness to touch all these things, then we are tempted to worldliness every hour, every moment, and the world is a cruel enchantress, that meets us at every step. Surely you know well that this is not worldliness, that Christ did not teach us it was worldliness. Man’ s nature too would be a mistake. He has not only eyes to lift to heaven and knees to bend to earth, he has hands to toil with, a home to care for, a country to serve, and a whole round of earthly duties to discharge. Still it is a charge brought against Christianity that it is indifferent to human culture and affection. Now, I do admit this, that a man’ s personal relation to God is the first question which the gospel of Christ deals with: he is to be brought nigh by the blood of Christ, to be a temple of the Holy Ghost, to rejoice in a spiritual sonship. But it is also true that all other duties and relationships are lifted into higher spheres, and ruled by higher motives. Christianity is not responsible for the perversion of ascetics, nor is it responsible for the abuse of worldlings. The Christians of Apostolic times must keep themselves unspotted from the world, not by avoiding the very possibility of its stains, but by a life in God which preserves them from the power of evil. And so must we: the difficulties of the case are the difficulties of moral life. Christianity consecrates the life of the family, the life of the city, the life of the state. IV. We should not be ashamed of a testimony for Christ, for Christianity gives a true reading of life, in Christ Himself. Christ is not only a Teacher; Christ is not only a Saviour; though He is both these. Christ is Christian life! He is His own religion alive and in action! When we study Christianity, we not only study the Evangels and the Epistles; we study Christ, Christ’ s life is the ideal of all Christian life! As such I ask you to mark its practical side; its human side; its relation to all the interests, physical, social, and divine of the world Christ came to ransom and to save. Christ’ s hours of prayer occupied much of His earthly life, but He was not one-sided in His life. How active He was--“ He went about doing good.” How reasonable He was--He reasoned with the Jews out of their Scriptures. How home-loving He was--He abode at the house of Martha, and her sister Mary. How life’ s cheerful pleasures found Him a sharer in them--His first miracle was wrought at the marriage feast of Cana in Galilee. How social He was--He dined at the house of the Pharisee. How actively compassionate He was--“ He healed all their sick.” How wonderfully He carried the golden thread of the heavenly through the warp and woof of the earthly life. Oh! it is something beautiful indeed to possess that life. In all your experiences of emotion, awe, reverence, tenderness, it is not enough to feel the thrill of mere sensation. As Christ was consecrated to His Father, so must we be to Him! V. We should not be ashamed of the testimony of Christ, for Christianity neglected wrongs our nature. All truth neglected wrongs our nature! I mean scientific truth, as well as religious truth. If I believe the world goes round, and if to propitiate priests, or to’ provide for some supposed protection of the Church’ s creed, I say the world does not go round, I wrong my mind. If I reject religious truth, I wrong my mind in the worst sense; I wrong my conscience and my heart. That man is to be pitied who bears about with him the murdered body of truth! There are such men, they know the gospel, they need no further commendations of it to the conscience and the heart. I say Divine demonstration has been made to the faculty of judgment, and to the faculty of feeling. And yet as the apostle says, “ They know not the truth.” They perpetuate that hideous immorality of bartering their souls for ease, pleasure, and sin! “ Verily he that knew his Lord’ s will and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.” VI. We should not be ashamed of a testimony for Christ, because Christianity in all these scenes stands alone. Its position is unique! This one thing we know, that a Saviour such as I have been speaking of, is none other but Christ. If there is, and we are to be confronted with some new Saviour, it is time that the criticisms of the day gave us a new Christ. We exhaust other subjects, but we never exhaust Christi With admiring and adoring homage we take our stand behind the Cross, and say to a world that wants a Saviour--“ Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” “ Produce your cause,” says the Most High to all who would now declare His Anointed One! “ Beside Me, there is no Saviour!” (W. M. Statham, M. A.) Power of personal testimony Mr. Blackwood was the means of my conversion twenty-four years ago. And what was it that laid hold of me? I was then as worldly a young man as any in London, but I went to hear him speak at Streatham, having given a promise to do so to the young lady who was afterwards my wife, and is now in heaven. The sermon did not produce much impression upon me, but afterwards Mr. Blackwood walked up to me, and put his hand on my shoulder, and in his own loving way said: “ Dear friend, I do not think that I have seen you at this meeting before. Are you a Christian? I know Christ; I have proved Him; do you know Him?” I had to say, “ No, I do not.” What the sermon did not do that testimony did, and I had no peace until I found the Saviour two days afterwards. Twenty-four years have passed since then; eighteen of them I have spent amongst the poor of the East of London, and I am more persuaded than ever that what the Church of Jesus Christ needs is not mere oratory, mere eloquence, mere wealth, but men who not only bear Christ’ s name, but come right out for Him, so that no one in their senses can doubt their being children of God. (A. G. Brown.) Cowardice rebuked Thirty years ago, more or less, there was a boy in Scotland who would go to sea. His name was James, and his father was a respected citizen of a good town six miles from the sea. On James’ s first voyage to Calcutta he kept up the habit of praying in the forecastle before turning in to his hammock, for he had been accustomed to do so regularly at home. Nobody said anything to him on the matter, but Bob Shearer, an able seamen, watched him. In Calcutta some of the seamen left the ship, and others were engaged in their place to work the ship home. One of these was a “ rough,” whose name was Robert. Hence he was called English Bob, and Shearer was called Scotch Bob. One night, soon after the homeward voyage began, James was on his knees, when the eye of English Bob happened to fall on him. “ I declare,” he cried, with an oath, “ here’ s a younker praying. Did you ever?” And thereupon he flung a heavy shoe at his head with excellent aim. Before James had time to rise Scotch Bob had the coward by the throat and told him to come upstairs and settle with him at once. The result was that English Bob got soundly and wholesomely thrashed. That night James went into his hammock without praying. But he had not time to fall asleep before Scotch Bob came and pitched him out. “ What do you mean, you young coward? Say your prayers like a man! Do you think I’ m going to fight for you and be disgraced in this way?” And so James never again failed to kneel before he slept, and feels to this day that his being ashamed of his Father in heaven and of the Saviour who died for him was well rebuked by the friendly courage of Bob Shearer. Long after, when his name had a title before it, and he was at the head of his profession, James had pleasure in finding Bob Sbearer’ s mother, and bringing her to visit the mother who had taught him to pray. This story is related by James himself. True friendship Let me ask you a question. “ What would you take for the greatest proof of downright friendship a man could show you?” “ That is too hard a question to answer all at once.” “ Well, I may be wrong, but the deepest outcome of friendship seems to me, on the part of the superior at least, the permission, or better still, the call, to share in his sufferings.” (Geo. Macdonald.) Definition of a friend What is a friend but one whom I can trust; one who, in sorrow’ s hour, will mingle his tears with mine; one on whose support I can reckon when my back is at the wall! (T. Guthrie, D. D.) According to the power of God. What power of God? has been asked. Not according to the power we get from God, but according to the power which God has displayed towards us in our calling and in our marvellous salvation. In other words, God with great power has succoured us; surely we may be confident that He will never leave us, never desert us; but in the hours of our sorest trouble incurred for Him will keep us and will bring us safely through it. (H. D. M. Spence, M. A.) 2 Timothy 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling.The people of God effectually called in time I. We may, in the first place, inquire wherein this heavenly and holy calling is, or what such are represented in scripture as called to.1. They are called, in the first place, it is said, “ out of darkness into marvellous light.” 2. And then they are said, again, to be “ called to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.” But then they are called to the knowledge of Jesus as “ the way” to eternal life, and to simple and humble faith in Him, and to see such glory in Him as shall lead them to find Him to be to them everything they can need, and possessed of everything they can receive and enjoy here and for ever. II. But then how is this accomplished? We say, by the Spirit; it is the Spirit’ s work. But then He condescends to work by means, though He can work without means or by means, as He pleases. Generally speaking, the means is the Word of God, applied by His own almighty power and influence to the soul. III. But then how are we to trace this? The text teaches us to trace it, not to anything in the creature, or any thing that distinguishes those who partake of that heavenly calling from those who never partake of it, but to the sovereign and rich and distinguishing grace of the great Jehovah. “ Not according to our works, but according to tits own purpose and grace which was given us” long before we were born or had any existence, “ given us in Christ Jesus” our spiritual Head, “ given us in Him before the world began.” You will find this great change described by emblems, which imply altogether the incapacity of man to accomplish it, and imply that he can have nothing in him to deserve it or merit it. It is called, you know, in one place, a resurrection--what none but God can possibly accomplish. (W. Wilkinson, B. A.) Effectual calling, with its fruits I. The nature and extent of the gospel-call.1. We read in Scripture of an universal or general call, directed to all that live under the gospel. The invitation runs in the most comprehensive terms, that none may think themselves excluded. Salvation by faith in Christ was first proposed to the Jews, but upon their peremptory refusal it was offered without distinction to the Gentiles, who received it gladly; from which time the partition-wall has been broken down, and in every nation, they that fear God and work righteousness may be accepted of Him. But here, it must be carefully observed, the gospel-call is of a moral nature, and addressed to our reasonable powers. The blessed Jesus does not force men into His service by offering violence to their understanding and will; but convinces the former by setting the important truths of religion before it in a just and amiable light; and influences the latter by motives and arguments proper to dispose it to act agreeable to such conviction. If men complain their powers are broken, and that of themselves they cannot comply with the calls of God in His Word, He has directed them where to seek for necessary assistance, and has exalted His Son Jesus to give repentance, as well as remission of sins. So that if men finally refuse the gospel salvation, it will appear to have been owing more to a want of will than of power. 2. Besides this general call of the gospel, there is a more particular and personal call, when the Holy Spirit shines into the mind with such irresistible light as convinces the judgment, awakens the conscience, and engages the will to a compliance with every part of its duty’ . II. We are to inquire into the author of effectual calling, which my text says is GOD. If ministers had the tongues of angels, they could not of themselves prevail with sinners to believe and obey the gospel. By the representation the Scripture gives of the deplorable condition of fallen man, it is further evident that his effectual calling must he from God; for it says, that his under standing is darkened, and “ alienated from the life of God.” That his will and affections are under invincible prejudices against virtue and goodness, and strongly biassed to sin and folly; nay, that he is a slave to the devil, and carried captive by him at his pleasure. Is it not reasonable to conclude the necessity of a Divine agency, in order to accomplish the mighty change? Besides, effectual calling is compared in Scripture to those wonderful works that are peculiar to God Himself. It is called a New Creation, and a resurrection from the dead; nay, ‘ tis compared to the mighty power of God, which was wrought in Christ when He was raised from the dead (Ephesians 1:19). III. We are now to consider the properties by which this call of the spirit is described.1. It is secret, God does not call sinners wish an audible voice, but by secret and powerful impressions upon their souls. 2. It is a personal call; ministers draw the bow at a venture, but the Spirit of God directs the arrow to the breast, where it is to enter. 3. Effectual calling is under the direction of She sovereign will and pleasure of God, as to the time, and manner, and means of it. Some are called into the vineyard at the third hour; others at the sixth, and others not till the eleventh hour. The manner of God’ s calling men into the kingdom of grace is no less various. The like variety may be observed in the means of effectual calling. Some have been awakened by a sermon, others by remarkable providence. Some by reading the Holy Scriptures, or heel,s of devotion; and others by religious conversation, meditation and prayers. 4. Effectual calling is without any regard to our works: so says the apostle in the text, “ He has called us not according to our works.” 5. The effectual calling of the Holy Spirit is always successful. IV. We are to consider the fruits and consequences of effectual calling. Before their conversion they were in a state of darkness, slavery, corruption and death; now they are delivered from all this misery, and made partakers of the privileges of the children of God. But the more immediate consequences of effectual calling may be comprehended under these three particulars.1. The first is, regeneration, or the new nature.2. Sanctification by the Holy Spirit is another consequence of effectual calling.3. A certain prophet of salvation. (D. Noel.) Effectual calling I. I am to show what the effectual call in the general is. All effectual call is opposed to an ineffectual one. An effectual call is the call that gains its real intent; that is to say, when the party called comes when called. To apply this to our purpose, all that hear the gospel are called; but,1. To some of them it is ineffectual, and these are the most part of gospel-hearers, “ For many be called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:10). They are called, invited; but it is but the singing of a song to a deaf man that is not moved with it (Proverbs 1:24). 2. To others it is effectual, and these are but few (Matthew 20:16). II. I come now to show who they are that abe thus effectually called. The text tells us that this effectual call is according to God’ s purpose and free grace in Christ.1. It is men, and not fallen angels, that are called. 2. It is some men, and not others, that are called effectually, and these naturally in as bad and sinful a condition as others (Ephesians 2:12). 3. It is for the most part those who have the least advantages as to their outward condition in the world (1 Corinthians 1:26-28). III. I proceed to show whence and whither they are called who are effectually called.1. Called out of the world that lieth in wickedness (1 John 5:19). And hence the Church has its name in the prophetical and apostolical writings, Ekklesia; i.e., a company called out from among others, a gathered congregation. 2. Called unto Jesus Christ, and through Him to the blessed society of another world. IV. I proceed to show what makes the call effectual to some, when it is not so to others. Negatively.1. It is neither the piety, parts, nor seriousness of those who are employed to carry the gospel-call to sinners (1 Corinthians 3:7). 2. Neither is it one that uses his own free will better than another does (Romans 9:6). Positively. We may say in this case, “ Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord.” V. It may be asked, what necessity is there for their being thus called? The necessity of it is manifest to all that know their natural case.1. They are far off (Ephesians 2:13), far from God, and Christ, and all good (Ephesians 2:12). Hence the call is, “ Draw nigh to God.” 2. They are hard and fast asleep, and they need this call, “ Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14). 3. If they were awakened they know not where to go to (Acts 2:37). 4. If they did not know where to go to, they are not willing to go thither (John 5:40). 5. If they are willing to go to Christ, yet being awakened, they dare not venture, guilt so states them in the face, “ Thou saidst, There is no hope” (Jeremiah 2:25). 6. If they durst come, yet they cannot come, unless they be drawn (John 6:44). VI. I shall more particularly explain the nature of effectual calling. It is the work of the Lord’ s Spirit.1. On the understanding. (1) An illumination of the soul from Mount Sinai.(2) An illumination of the soul from Mount Zion. 2. On the will of the sinner. This faculty of the soul needs also a saving work of the Spirit thereon, being fearfully depraved in the state of nature (Romans 8:7). Now, the Spirit’ s work on the will is, the renewing of it (Ezekiel 36:26). (T. Boston, D. D.) Salvation altogether by grace It is somewhat remarkable--at least it may seem so to persons who are not accustomed to think upon the subject--that the apostle, in order to excite Timothy to boldness, to keep him constant in the faith, reminds him of the great doctrine that the grace of God reigns in the salvation of men. I. Very carefully let us consider the doctrine taught by the apostle in this text.1. The apostle in stating his doctrine in the following words, “ Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” declares God to be the Author of salvation--“ Who hath saved us and called us.” The whole tenor of the verse is towards a strong affirmation of Jonah’ s doctrine, “ that salvation is of the Lord.” To say that we save ourselves is to utter a manifest absurdity. We are called in Scripture “ a temple” --A holy temple in the Lord. But shall any one assert that the stones of the edifice were their own architect? No: we believe that God the Father was the architect, sketched the plan, supplied the materials, and will complete the work. Shall it also be said that those who are redeemed, redeemed themselves? that slaves of Satan break their own fetters? Then why was a Redeemer needed at all? Do you believe that the sheep of God, whom He has taken from between the jaws of the lion, could have rescued themselves? Can the dead make themselves alive? 2. We next remark that grace is in this verse rendered conspicuous when we see that God pursues a singular method--“ Who hath saved us and called us.” The peculiarity of the manner lies in three things--first, in the completeness of it. The apostle uses the perfect tense and says, “ who hath saved us.” Believers in Christ Jesus are saved. This completeness is one peculiarity--we must mark another. I want you to notice the order as well as the completeness: “ who hath saved us and called us. What I saved us before He called us? Yes, so the text says. But is a man saved before he is called by grace? Not in his own experience, not as far as the work of the Holy Spirit goes, but he is saved in God’ s purpose, in Christ’ s redemption, and in his relationship to his covenant Head; and he is saved, moreover, in this respect, that the work of his salvation is done, and he has only to receive it as a finished work. In the olden times of imprisonment for debt, it would have been quite correct for you to step into the cell of a debtor and say to him, I have freed you, if you had paid his debts and obtained an order for his discharge. Well, but he is still in prison. Yes; but you really liberated him as soon as you paid his debts. 3. When a speaker desires to strengthen his point and to make himself clear, he generally puts in a negative as to the other side. So the apostle adds a negative: “ Not according to our works.” The world’ s great preaching is, “ Do as well as you can, live a moral life, and God will save you.” The gospel preaching is this: “ Thou art a lost sinner, and thou canst deserve nothing of God but His displeasure; if thou art to be saved, it must be by an act of sovereign grace.” 4. My text is even more explicit yet, for the eternal purpose is mentioned. The next thing the apostle says is this: “ Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our worlds but according to His own purpose.” Mark that word--“ according to His own purpose.” Do you not see how all the merit and the power of the creature are shut out here, when you are saved, not according to your purpose or merit, but “ according to His own purpose” ? 5. But then the text, lest we should make any mistake, adds, “ according to His own purpose and grace.” The purpose is not founded on foreseen merit, but upon grace alone. It is grace, all grace, nothing but grace from first to last. 6. Again, in order to shut out everything like boasting, the whole is spoken of as a gift. Do notice that, “ purpose and grace which He gave us” --not “ which He sold us,” “ offered us,” but “ which He gave us.” 7. But the gift is bestowed through a medium which glorifies Christ. It is written, “ which was given us in Christ Jesus.” We ask to have mercy from the well-head of grace, but we ask not even to make the bucket in which it is to be brought to us; Christ is to be the sacred vessel in which the grace of God is to be presented to our thirsty lips. 8. Yet further, a period is mentioned and added--“ before the world began.” Those last words seem to me for ever to lay prostrate all idea of anything of our merits in saving ourselves, because it is here witnessed that God gave us grace “ before the world began.” Where were you then? What hand had you in it “ before the world began” ? II. Show the uses of this doctrine. I would that free grace were more preached, because it gives men something to believe with confidence. (C. H. Spurgeon.) God’ s plan for man’ s salvation I. The origin of our salvation. Three facts claim our notice.1. It is with God. The last clause of the preceding verse shows to whom the pronoun “ who” refers--“ According to the power of God.” It is God the Father to whom the apostle alludes. The Bible everywhere preserves the distinction between the origin and the means of our salvation. The last it invariably ascribes to God the Son: the first it as invariably ascribes to God the Father. In Ephesians 2:4-7 we have a striking instance of this. In verse 5, it is “ with Christ” ; verse 6, “ by Christ” ; verse 7, “ through Christ.” But all these expressions are introduced by the statement in verse 4, “ But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith tie loved us,” etc. And so, in the text, the apostle says it is “ in Christ Jesus” ; but it originates so entirely with God the Father, that He is said to have “ saved us.” This Scripture distinction does away with the only apparently plausible objection that has been raised against the atonement of Christ--viz., that it represents the Father as unwilling to save sinners, or as needing to be appeased. The eternal Father, and the suffering Son, are united in one ascription of praise. In all our doctrinal statements, and in all our expressions of praise, let us give honour to both. 2. It is in His own purpose and grace. The idea of a purpose resulting from grace alone is prominent here. Our salvation not only originates with God, but in His gracious purpose alone. (1) It is not the result of necessity. Even acts of grace are sometimes necessary. The public voice demands them--the interests of the empire require them--the weakness of the government renders them expedient. Nay, the claims of justice itself may be satisfied, and grace steps forward. No voice in heaven--on earth--in hell--could have demanded salvation for guilty men. Believer, your damnation would not have tarnished His glory. Your salvation originated in His own purpose and grace. (2) It was not from the impulse of others. A generous heart is sometimes sluggish. It needs to be excited. One word from another has often stirred to benevolent action. Our merciful God needed no stimulus. It was not the offer of Jesus to die for us which roused Him to save us--ii only met His own gracious desire. No pleading of angels or of men impelled Him. His loving heart did not wait for either. A few years ago a vessel was wrecked on the coast at Scarborough. It was in the night. The signals of distress aroused the crew of the lifeboat; the men were on the cliff, looking out and pitying; but the danger was so great that they stirred not. As soon as it was light crowds gathered on the spot. One voice was heard. It was the voice of a stranger. Pointing to the wreck, it appealed to the lifeboat’ s crew. It reached the hearts of the men. The boat was launched and manned. Soon it returned, bearing the saved ones to the shore. About the same time another wreck occurred on the same coast. It was the dead of night. A daughter and her father were sleeping in the lighthouse. The signal of distress awoke the young woman. She saw the peril. No voice was near to stir her to the deed of mercy. She aroused her father. Solitary and unstimulated they entered the boat--the wreck was reached--the wrecked ones were borne back in safety. Both deeds were noble; but you see the difference. The impulse from another stirred the crew of the lifeboat. No impulse was needed to stir the heart of Grace Darling. All illustrations must fail us; but we are speaking of Him who needed no impulse--waited for none--but acted at once from His own gracious purpose. (3) It was not by the counsel of others. The phrase “ His own purpose” here is expressive. The generous heart is sometimes perplexed. It needs no stimulus, but it needs counsel. Difficulties stand in the way of following out its own promptings. Its language often is--“ Oh! tell me what I can do to save him.” How gratefully it welcomes the happy thought which removes all its perplexities. David’ s heart yearned towards Absalom, but his kingly office stood in the way of indulging a father’ s wishes. How welcome were the counsels of the woman of Tekoah, when she threw herself in his way to plead for the guilty one. But God was His own counsellor in man’ s salvation. He had no counsellor in creation--no architect. He was His own. He has no counsellor in providence. He needs no minister to advise, or privy council to deliberate--He is His own. It was yet more true as to man’ s salvation. It is “ the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath pursued in Himself” (Ephesians 1:9). He had no counsellor. No one can divide the honour with Him. 3. It is not according to our works. The apostle here intends to put good works in their right place; not to set them aside. By “ good works” he invariably means not charities alone, however benevolent--nor prayers alone, however devout: he includes the whole works of a holy life. The daughter of Jairus was raised by Jesus. Think you not that, as the thrill of returning life passed through her veins, her first emotion would be that of love to Him who had rescued her from the grave, and that ever after she would be anxious to show it by every act which gratitude prompted? But Jesus raised her from His own gracious purpose. Her subsequent acts were the effect, not the cause. II. The means or method of our salvation. Three facts deserve attention.1. It is in Christ. Paul teaches this: It is “ according to His own purpose and grace” ; but he adds, “ which was given us in Christ Jesus.” No views of God’ s purposes are right, then, which separate them from Christ Jesus. God has revealed no purpose except in Him. His very mercy, full as it is, knows no channel except through Him. Most men are ready to be saved--nay, wish it. The hard lesson for some to learn is, salvation by Christ. Strange that it should be so. The method which most honours God is the most suited to us. 2. It is by God’ s calling. 3. This calling is holy. The Apostle Paul has clearly explained his own meaning (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14). We pause not now to reason with those who would make it a salvation to sin, and not from sin. The text points higher than this. It is not enough to say that we are saved in the way of holiness: our very calling is holy--holy in its design, and holy in its spirit. It breathes spiritual purity, as well as life into the soul--A portion of the pure atmosphere of heaven itself. There is no calling by God which is not a holy calling. He stamps His own image as His own mark upon every soul He calls and saves. There are three classes to whom we wish especially to apply these statements. (1) To those inquiring after the way to salvation. Inquirer; we compared our text to a miniature map of the way of salvation. Take care that you follow it. John Bunyan’ s “ Pilgrim” found his way out of the City of Destruction easily enough when alarmed. But his own mistakes, and the misleadings of others, led him into many perils. Nor was it until Evangelist met him the second time, and set him right, that he found the wicket gate, and the only way to the Celestial City. Take this verse with you at the beginning of your journey. Study it well. It will preserve you from serious perils to your salvation. (2) To those who object to God’ s plan of salvation. Our reference now is to those who object on the ground of its supposed tendency. It is thought by some that a salvation so arranged will check a holy life. If rightly viewed, it stimulates to it. If holiness be not always the result of the doctrine, the cause of failure is not in the truth, but in the heart on which it falls. When the soft fertilising shower has fallen on your garden, old flowers give fresh signs of life, and new flowers begin to open their buds. Nay, the seed hitherto buried, but invisible appears. And yet in one part of the garden you look, and although the same pure rain has fallen upon it, and the same seed lies buried beneath it, no flowers appears. The cause is not with the rain, but the soil. It was the doctrine of salvation by grace which transformed the frivolous dissipated young soldier of Corfu into the consistent, holy, religious hero of the Crimea--Captain Hedley Vicars. 3. To those who despise or neglect this salvation. Does its simple easy method offend you? How is this? The accomplishment of great ends by the simplest means is usually regarded as the greatest achievement of wisdom. This plan is the result of Divine wisdom alone. No other wisdom could have devised it. (Samuel Luke.) A holy calling St. Peter (1 Peter 1:15) gives the full force of this epithet: “ As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.” (Speaker’ s Commentary.) God’ s call The voice of Divine grace prevailing upon the will. This is the ruling meaning of “ call,” “ calling,” etc., in the Epistles; while in the Gospels it means no more, necessarily, than the audible invitations of the gospel (see, e.g., Matthew 22:14) . (H. C. G. Moule, M. A.) A holy calling 1. For the causes of it are holy; God, Christ, the Spirit, and the Word are all said to be holy. And the ministers, for the most part, are holy, who be instruments in this action. 2. And in regard of the end too, and the subjects from which we are called, and to which we be called, it is a holy calling. For first, We are called from darkness to light. Secondly, From uncleanness to holiness. Thirdly, From wicked men and devils, to the communion of saints and angels. Fourthly, We are called from earth that is polluted, unto heaven the holy mountain of the Lord. 3. In the last place, this is to teach such as are called on this manner to walk worthy of their calling. Is it a holy calling? live thou holily. Shall a prince plod in the mire, defile his clothes, and pollute his person, by the base offices of poor subjects? How unseemly then is it for these holy brethren. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Christianity a holy religion To a young infidel who was scoffing at Christianity because of the misconduct of its professors, the late Dr. Mason said, “ Did you ever know an uproar to be made because an infidel went astray from the paths of morality?” The infidel admitted that he had not. “ Then don’ t you see,” said Dr. Mason, “ that, by expecting the professors of Christianity to be holy, you admit it to be a holy religion, and thus pay it the highest compliment in your power?” The young man was silent. Grace does not lightly esteem There is sometimes the thought that grace implies God’ s passing by sin. But no--quite the contrary; grace supposes sin to be so horribly bad a thing, that God cannot tolerate it. Were it in the power of man, after being unrighteous and evil, to patch up his ways, and mend himself so as to stand before God, there would then be no need of grace. The very fact of the Lord’ s being gracious shows sin to be so evil a thing, that man, being a sinner, his state is utterly ruined and hopeless, and nothing but free grace will do for him--can meet his need. (Anon.) Salvation by grace The late Rev. C. J. Latrobe visited a certain nobleman in Ireland who devoted considerable sums to charitable purposes; and, among other benevolent acts, had erected an elegant church at his own expense. The nobleman, with great pleasure, showed Mr. Latrobe his estate, pointed him to the church, and said, “ Now, sir, do you not think that will merit heaven?” Mr. Latrobe paused for a moment, and said, “ Pray, my lord, what may your estate be worth a year?” “ I imagine,” said the nobleman, “ about thirteen or fourteen thousand pounds.” “ And do you think, my lord,” answered the minister, “ that God would sell heaven, even for thirteen or fourteen thousand pounds?” Grace and free will Mrs. Romaine was once in company with a clergyman at Tiverton, who spoke with no little zeal against what he called “ irresistible grace,” alleging that “ such grace would be quite incompatible with free will.” “ Not at all so,” answered Mrs. Romaine; “ grace operates effectually, yet not coercively. The wills of God’ s people are drawn to Him and Divine things,. just as your will would be drawn to a bishopric, if you had the offer of it.” (W. Baxendale.) The sovereign grace of God Henry IV., King of France, was in every point of view a great man. It is said that on an anniversary of his birthday he made the following reflection: “ I was born on this day, and no doubt, taking the world through, thousands were born on the same day with me, yet out of all those thousands I am probably the only one whom God hath made a king, How peculiarly am I favoured by the bounty of His providence!” But a Christian, reflecting on his second birth, may, with greater reason, adore the free and sovereign grace of God. 2 Timothy 1:10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death.The appearing Remarkable as the only passage in the New Testament in which the word ἐπιφανεία ( = manifestation) is applied to the incarnation of our Lord. (E. H. Plumptre, D. D.) The simple act of the Incarnation by no means covers the “ appearing.” The “ appearing” (Epiphany) here includes not only the birth, but the whole manifestation of Christ on earth, including the Passion and the Resurrection. (H. D. M. Spence, M. A.) Living in the days of Christ’ s appearing Seeing that the days wherein we live are better than the days of old, we must thrive, and be better also. The more choice diet we feed on, the fatter and fairer should we be; the clearer light, the cleaner must we keep ourselves from pollution, contamination. When trees are removed to a more fertile soil, do we not expect that they should spread further, and be more fruitful than before? when cattle are put into a better pasture will we not look for better growth, more labour at their hands? Shall not we then grow strong, work mightily in the Lord’ s vineyard, and resolutely run the ways of His commands? Is not our light brighter, our spiritual food better, and our journey shorter? then why is there not some equal proportion? These things must be thought upon, made use of, or else our account one day will be the greater, the heavier; for unto whom much is given, shall much be required. They who have greater means for grace than others, must strive to be more gracious than others, or look for the more heavier reckoning. Our fathers were led in the night, the moon was their conductor; we are now in the day, when as the sun guideth us, shall we not then go faster, farther, with less fear, and more resolution, greater boldness? But alas! who taketh knowledge of these things maketh the true use thereof? We have the sun shining, yet sleep; or if awake, we cry, want we not light? I say no more, but with that our idleness cause not the Lord to remove our candlestick. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Who hath abolished death. Death abolished The article is used here emphatically and designedly. The article is often used to express a thing in the abstract. Death, not merely in some particular instance, but in all its aspects and bearings, and in its very essence, being and idea is abolished. (James Bryce, LL. D.) Death of none effect Christ Jesus is not only a living embodiment of the Eternal purpose and love of the Father, but He is also declared to be the Saviour who made death of none effect, abolished or rendered inoperative that death which is the universal curse of man, which “ has passed through upon all men” (Romans 5:12), and is grimly symbolised to us in the dissolution of the body. The Lord declared that those who lived and believed in Him should never die. St. John could never have recorded these words of the Master (John 11:26) when a whole generation of Christians, including all the apostles, with the exception of himself, had passed away and come under the tyrannous sway of the last enemy, unless he had supposed the words to imply something far more and other than the death of the body. Wiesinger, Huther, Ellicott, and others are right in understanding by the word thanatos, “ death,” the entire antithesis to zoe? or “ life.” Surely it is the entire principle of decay, corruption, and separation from God instituted by sin. It includes all the animosity that a living, self-conscious being feels against God for bringing him into a dying world, all the resistance to and departure from His supreme will. It is this otherwise irremediable curse, and painful looking for of condign punishment, this moral death and dissolution, which Christ has disarmed and rendered inoperative. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Death abolished Everybody can feel the fitness of saying that sin and death are two of the greatest enemies of the human race. Expressive and appropriate is the habit we derive from Scripture of speaking of them as persons, hostile powers, who make war on us. Between the two there is a terrible alliance. They are in league against us; and though, if we are even victorious over them, we are told that death will be the last to be destroyed, yet sin was the first, and sin is the greatest. Not that, except for sin, these material bodies would be immortal. Eventual dissolution and decay into their elements belong to their constitution, as much as to that of vegetables in autumn. “ We all do fade as a leaf.” “ All flesh is as grass.” But though dissolution seems a characteristic of human bodies, the doubt and terror which accompany death are due to sin, which has estranged us from our Maker, whom, in consequence, we have ceased to think of as our Father. Thus the sting of death is sin. The voyage across the Atlantic is one thing to the slave, hurried by a captor, he knows not whither, and quite another to the traveller returning home. These, then, are the two greatest evils which afflict humanity; and, now, is there any remedy for them--any deliverer from them? Christianity professes to bring a remedy,--to announce a Deliverer both from sin and death. Hence, its message is called the gospel--the good news. “ The Son of man was manifested, to destroy the works of the devil” ; and “ our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death.” I. Death made of none effect. Such is the meaning of “ abolished.” Not to do away with altogether, but to render imperfect, and in that sense to destroy. The entire destruction spoken of in the fifteenth chapter of the First of Corinthians will come later. Christianity has made no difference in regard to the dissolution and decay which befall all mortal bodies. It is still true that “ all flesh is as grass.” Its language, however, is not “ Death shall never again strike down a human being, or make a happy home a house of mourning,” but “ O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” “ Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.” “ To die is gain.” So death is made of none effect. II. Jesus Christ, our savior from death. We may well ask, “ By what rare enchantment can the king of terrors be transformed thus into an angel of light?” Who “ can make a dying bed seem soft as downy pillows are?” Even he who said to a sister weeping at a brother’ s grave, “ I am the Resurrection and the Life: whosoever liveth, and believeth in Me shall never die!” “ To depart is to be with Christ, which is far better.” But how so? Was He not the man Christ Jesus? And did He not Himself die in anguish? And was He not Himself laid in the tomb? Truly, if He was no more than man, our Christian hope of immortality is a baseless imposture. But the good news from God is that Jesus Christ was more; that He is the Lord of life, the King immortal and eternal, who wrapped Himself awhile in perishable human clay, but whom it was not possible that death should hold. And the reason of His coming is thus expressed in Scripture: “ Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death.” III. Through death He abolished death. By Himself passing down into the dark valley, into the silent tomb, He disarmed the grave of its terrors. And as we saw that death and sin are closely allied,--death the wages of sin, and sin the sting of death,-they are allied in regard to our deliverance from them. Our Saviour from the one, is our Saviour from the other. IV. Life and incorruption brought to light. A great shadow was spread over the world, and it lay the deepest over human life. Now, the great light, which the people who sat in darkness have seen in Christ, brings to view the novel and glorious fact of life associated with immortality, or incorruptibility. (T. M. Herbert, M. A.) Death abolished He must have had strong faith who, writing amidst the signs of death ever near him in a populous city, could write, Jesus Christ hath abolished death. He felt within him the inspiration of an immortal life; and it gave a new character to all things around him. In his prison in Rome, heaven was his home. Adhering to a religion whose first preachers were martyrs, he saw no death in martyrdom. Having finished his course, and ready to be offered up, his time of departure--not of death--was at hand. Let us meditate upon this great subject, and see if we can understand the apostle. There is one doctrine of Christianity to which our hearts have not done justice, because our faith has not felt its power; that doctrine is, that “ Jesus Christ has abolished death.” I. The fact--“ Jesus Christ hath abolished death.”1. If you observe the connection, you will see this was the consequence of an everlasting purpose of grace. See the preceding verse. This glorious truth is not a thought of yesterday, not a thought that entered the mind of God on occasion of the fall of man, but a purpose made before man fell, before the world began. And this everlasting purpose is the firm and immutable rock on which rests the whole fabric of our salvation. I know some persons are afraid to think of an everlasting purpose, an immutable decree of God, as if it were an awful, an unapproachable mystery. It is, indeed, awful, as is every attribute of Him who dwells in light inaccessible, but it need not be terrible. Observe the words: “ according to His own purpose and grace.” The purpose and the grace are intimately associated. The grace is as old as the purpose. Both are from everlasting. The purpose flows out of the grace, for the grace is the nature of the eternal God from which His purpose flows, and must be gracious like Himself. What is there to fear in a purpose of grace? Would you not be comforted in the trials of life, if you found in every emergency that your earthly father had made ample provision by a kind purpose before you were born? If for your infancy comforts were provided at his expense by a mother’ s care; and if you found a fund set apart to pay the expense of your good education, should any casuality deprive you of his immediate care; and when you came of age you found a sum insured at your birth to enable you to commence business with respectability and good success; and everywhere else, as parental forethought and love could foresee, a purpose appeared in a present supply of your wants;--would not all this he an assurance and perpetual memorial of your father’ s good will? would it not endear him the more to your heart? and would you not cherish the memory of him who with so much forethought had provided for you with affectionate and loving regard? Just so with the gracious purpose of God. 2. But the fact of the abolition of death, connected with an everlasting purpose, was manifested in time by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ. But how was it manifested? Wherein did Christ appear to abolish death? When did He accomplish this gracious purpose? We naturally look for the answer to His own death. Was that not really death? Was it a departure rather than a death? Did He ever say with regard to Himself that death was abolished? Did He meet death as if He had already destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil? Go to Calvary and observe. What signs are there but true signs of death? He died, He tasted death. But, then, in dying He abolished death for all believers. It is as if He absorbed all the venom of the sting of death into His own soul and left none to distress the souls of His people; so that death, so dreadful to Him, is to them without a curse, without a sting, and but a shadow. Scripture has found for it a new name, a name of pleasant association, and calls it sleep (1 Thessalonians 4:14). In saying Jesus really endured the pains of death, I refer not chiefly to the extreme bodily sufferings which He endured, but to the mental conflict and agony which to Him were the bitterness and curse of death. Christ hath abolished death, as every spirit in heaven feels with delight; and if we know it not now, we shall know it hereafter with rapturous delight. But must we wait till we reach the blissful life of heaven before we can say in the fulness of a joyful heart, “ Our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death” ? Well, I fear we must--at least, many of us. Our faith seems as if it could not grasp and feel this great text. We are but sorry Christians if thus we pass our lives grovelling in clay, in bondage through fear of death. Worldling! you are right in fearing death, for it will strip you of all your beloved and prized possessions. Unpardoned sinner! you are right in fearing death, for to you it will be the dreadful doom and beginning of endless woe. Lover of pleasure! you are right in your fear, for it will turn your pleasure into pain, remorse, consternation, anguish. Worshipper of Mammon! you are right, for it will take away your gods, and what have you left? But Christians, are we not ashamed of ourselves? Christians, unworthy of the name, are you afraid of death? Do you not believe that Christ hath abolished it? Yes, you believe it as a fact; at least, you say so, and you think so. But do you know it as an experience--A truth of the heart as well as of the creed--A truth in which you rejoice as the conquest of the last enemy? II. The experience that our saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death. Paul rose out of these earthly shadows, awoke from these carnal dreams; saw the world, not as we see it, a substantial form, but as an evening cloud whose tints were fading, as a flickering flame whose glory was passing away. New light from the excellent glory came around him and gave new colour and character to all things about him. His prison was fading, and he scarcely saw it in the surrounding glory; his chain was melting off his hand and he scarcely felt it, for the day of his great deliverance was rising. Caesar’ s tribunal, its attendants, pomp, lictors, sergeants, soldiers, executioners, what were they all in the full light of the great salvation all around him? They were virtually abolished too. Heaven was near, he could hear its sweet music. Eternal life was within him, he could feel its power. Immortality was brought to light, he could see it and rejoice in it. There was no more death, to obscure that light of unfading glory. They could not kill him, could not destroy that which he had learned to call himself, and which felt and knew everything in its relation not to time but to eternity. And there have been many others like him. (R. Halley, D. D.) Christ abolishing death “ All men,” says St. Paul,” are all their life- time, through fear of death, subject to bondage.” And every one, who has at all watched his own mind, knows that this is true. The very heathen, as our missionaries teach, tell us how death is known and feared, and looked forward to, with fearful expectation, as the great and universal enemy. Thus the fear of death is felt by all men, and is the fly in every pot of ointment, that, once found there, spoils and mars it: it is the sword hung overhead, whose keen point and sharp edge glitter ominously and threateningly in the light of every banquet; it is the hollow skull, with its eyeless sockets and its melancholy emptiness, that spoils every marble monument. I. Men always did and still do all they can to keep off the unwelcome thought. The Greek and Roman, as they bound their heads with the wreath of roses, and stretched their limbs on the soft moss under the green arbutus, and drank off their goblets of wine, tried to forget that all this would soon be over, and that there would come one day the last disease. But it always was vain, and always will be, to attempt to quench the thought, though it may he staved off; the wine and flowers and song cannot last for ever. II. But what 1s it that thus makes death an object of universal apprehension and dread? Is it always the act of death? is the mere dying always a dreadful thing? No! it is sin; it is the sense of accountability, and the solemn expectation of the account we have to render; it is “ the fearful expectation and looking-for of judgment” : it is these which make death dreadful and dreaded, so that, “ through fear of death men have been subject to bondage.” III. Our text says that Christ “ hath abolished death.” is, then, death dead? That cannot be. I see Christians die as well as other men. But the sting of death is drawn; for sin is taken away. Death, therefore, is not the summoner of God’ s court of trial, but the usher to call him into God’ s glorious presence-chamber. The Christian does not die when his body and his soul are for a time divided. He has in his spirit, that is, in himself, his truest self, a life which is eternal; from the moment he believes and trusts in Christ, from that moment “ he hath eternal life.” IV. But, is it only the Christian to whom death is thus abolished? “ The fathers, where are they?” Did life and immortality begin with Christ? Were Christians the first to share and to enjoy them? Righteous Abel, when he fell by a brother’ s hand, and his fainting soul departed from his mangled body, took possession of the paradise of God. Noah and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David and Hezekiah, the glorious company of the prophets, the whole line of penitent believers--however unknown to men, yet known to God--inherited at death the same life that the Christian now inherits. But they did not know, as we know, the life and immortality which they received. Life and immortality existed as surely then, as now; but they then were “ in the dark.” The light had not risen: it was night with them; and only the stars threw a trembling light on the things beyond the grave. The heathen had, indeed, their Elysian fields; but that shadowy world was only a reproduction of the most pleasing portions of this present life, where, as the Indian hopes to use his bow and arrows to hunt the shadowy deer, as the Chinese hopes to employ the ghost of his loved paper money in that spectral world, so the heathens of Greece and Rome saw their heroes engrossed in the employments and amusements of this world--throwing the quoit, or driving the chariot, or reposing on beds of roses, in those fields of their own creation. And the views of the pious Jews and patriarchs were dim and obscure. “ A land of darkness, as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness” (Job 10:22; Isaiah 38:10-11; Psalms 88:4-5). (W. W. Champneys, M. A.) The death of death I. The evil in question--It is death. We should suppose that this subject was very familiar to the thoughts of men, were we to judge from the importance and frequency of the event. But, alas! nothing is so little thought of. Let us examine what Nature teaches us concerning death; and then go to the Scripture for additional information.1. Suppose then there had been no revelation from God--what does Nature teach us concerning death? (1) It sees plainly enough that it is a cessation of our being. The lungs no longer heave; the pulse ceases to beat; the blood pauses and congeals; the eye closes; the tongue is silent; and the hand forgets her cunning. We are laid in the grave, where worms feed upon us. (2) It also teaches us the universality of death. (3) Nature teaches us that death is unavoidable. (4) Nature sees also that death is irreparable. It cannot, produce a single specimen of posthumous life. (5) We may also learn from it that death is uncertain an its circumstances; and that no man knows the place, the time, the manner, in which he shall expire. If it be objected that the generality of the heathen have had some other views of death than those which we have conceded, and had even notions of an existence beyond the grave--let it be observed, that the world always had a revelation from God; and that when mankind dispersed from the family of Noah, they carried the discoveries along with them; but as they were left to tradition, they became more and more obscure; yet they yielded hints which led to reflections that otherwise would have never occurred. And if wise men, especially from these remains of an original revelation, were led into some speculations bordering upon truth, it should be remembered that in a case like this, as Paley observes, nothing more is known than is proved: opinion is not knowledge; nor conjecture principle. 2. But how much more does the Scripture teach! Here we learn-- (1) Its true nature. To the eye of sense death appears annihilation; but to the eye of faith it is dissolution. (2) Its true consequences. Very little of death falls under the observation of the senses; the most awful and interesting part is beyond their reach. It is the state of the soul; it is the apprehension of it by devils or angels; it is the transmission of it to heaven or hell. (3) Its true cause. The Scripture shows us that man was not created mortal; and that mortality is not the necessary consequence of our original constitution; but is the penal effect of transgression. (4) The true remedy. What! Is there a remedy for death? Who said to His hearers, “ If a man keep My sayings, he shall never see death” ? He hath abolished death. But let us-- II. Consider this --for does not death continue his ravages? Does he not fall upon the people of God themselves? Where then is the proof of this abolition? It is undeniable that Christians themselves are subject to the stroke of death, as well as others.1. He abolishes death, spiritually; that is, in the souls of His people. To all these, without exception, it may be said, in the words of Paul to the Ephesians, “ You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” 2. He abolished death by His miracles while He was on earth. 3. He abolished death in His own person. His own rising from the dead is very distinguishable from all the former instances of resurrection. The ruler’ s daughter, the widow’ s son, Lazarus, and the saints in Jerusalem, were raised by the power of another; but He rose by His own power. They rose as private individuals: but He as the head and representative of His people: and because He lives, they shall live also. 4. He abolished death penally. Thus He has destroyed death as to its sting. He has not abolished going home, and falling asleep, and departing; but He has abolished death. This leads us to observe, that He has-- 5. Abolished death comparatively: I mean as to its terror. This is not the same with the foregoing particular. That regards all the people of God, and extends even to those who die under a cloud of darkness, and a load of depression; it belongs to a Cowper, who died in despair, as well as to a Hervey, who said, “ Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” All believers die safely; there is no curse for them after death, or in death. In this sense, their end is peace; peace in the result, if not in the passage. But their end is generally peace in experience as well as in result. There are, however, cases of constitutional infirmity that may not only exclude joy, but even hope. Sometimes the nature of the disorder is such as to hinder sensibility, or expression. Sometimes, too, God may allow the continuance of fear, even in those He loves, as a rebuke for loose or irregular walking; and as a warning to others. 6. He will do this absolutely. He will abolish the very state: “ He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (W. Jay.) Death abolished I. That we may feel the true impression of this Divine declaration, it will be necessary first to show what it is not intended to teach. The state of fact, no less than the express averments of Holy Writ, forbid us to entertain the thought, that the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ has arrested the progress of that law of mortality which followed in the train of disobedience. Our present relations are formed but to be dissolved; death, like a canker worm, preys at the root of all our comforts. We “ have here no continuing city” ; and soon “ the place that now knows us shall know us no more for ever.” Philosophy may attempt to solve this mysterious problem; may tell us that mortality is a law of our nature; may point us to the analogies of creation around us. But withdraw from our view the inspired record which connects death with Adam’ s sin, and which exhibits it in the light of a penalty entailed upon transgression, and philosophy has no satisfactory reason to assign for a catastrophe so overwhelming and so universal. It may, indeed, affirm the state of fact, and argue from thence that it is the nature of man that he should die; but how much more satisfactory is the philosophy of Scripture (which no sound philosophy ought to exclude), which tells us that man was made for life, that death is the forfeit of disobedience, and that but for sin the struggle of mortality would never have been beheld in our world! II. In our text we are taught to look upon death as in some practical sense a vanquished foe; and since it cannot be in the sense of staying its inexorable reign in our world, it becomes us to show the true and only sense in which it can be affirmed that “ our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death.” The expression is very remarkable; and the doctrine it contains is animating in the highest degree to all who embrace it with a realising faith. The idea conveyed by the original word is that of such an effectual counteraction of death, as involves a complete victory over it.1. When the apostle asserts that “ Christ hath abolished death,” we must understand him, first of all, as proclaiming Christ’ s own personal victory over it. 2. But we must not forget that the victory which our Saviour Jesus Christ achieved in His own person over death was intimately connected with the nature and ends of that “ decease which He accomplished at Jerusalem.” Death, we must never forget, entered our world as the mark of apostasy, as the penalty of transgression; if ever, then, it was to be “ abolished,” it must be by some dispensation which should effectually provide for the remission of sin, and for the restoration of apostate man to the favour and image of his God. In the hour of Messiah’ s deep agony, “ the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all” ; and when with His last breath He exclaimed, “ It is finished,” the mighty work was then performed upon which depended the reconciliation to peace and life of untold millions of the human race. Having “ finished the work which the Father gave Him to do,” met every demand which devolved upon Him as the sinner’ s Surety, it was impossible, upon all the principles of the Divine government, upon all the arrangements of covenanted love, that He should be holden of the bands of death. 3. When the apostle asserts that “ our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death” we may assure ourselves that the real members of His body, all true Christians, will share His own triumph. Of this joyful fact there is a series of progressive evidence. The moment that any sinner is quickened to spiritual life, he is “ quickened together with Christ,” and is brought to feel in that conversion “ the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings,” and is “ made conformable unto His death.” 4. The next stage of the proof that death shall be abolished will he supplied when believers are “ absent from the body and present with the Lord.” The fruition of the celestial paradise will divest them of every doubt or misgiving as to the resurrection of their mortal bodies. Every time they gaze on the glorified humanity of Him in whose presence they stand they will exult in the thought of that mighty exercise of power and love which shall quicken their tabernacles of clay, and unite them as spiritual bodies to their emancipated and happy spirits. They are waiting in glorious hope “ for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of their bodies” ; and, having received the first-fruits, they are looking forward to the harvest of the earth, when the number of God’ s elect shall be accomplished, and when all the objects of celestial hope shalt be fully realised. At last the bright moment of perfected bliss shall arrive when death shall be literally “ abolished” ; when all the regions of mortality shall be divested of their spoils; when the whole redeemed Church shall stand complete in her glorified Head; when all shall be perfectly conformed in body and soul to the image of Him whets “ the first-born among many brethren.” 5. But there is one view of this subject which yet remains to be taken by us: it is the proof which is so often afforded of the truth of the apostle’ s declaration that death is “ abolished,” in the feelings with which departing saints are often enabled to look forward to their great change. Some there are, indeed, of God’ s servants who “ through fear of death are all their lifetime subject to bondage” ; their minds are perplexed with doubts and fears, and they cannot realise their title to the everlasting inheritance. But it is matter of great joy and thankfulness when faith is triumphant in the dying moment; when it can sing with an unfaltering tongue, “ O death, where is thy sting,” thy boasted sting? “ O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (J. Morison, D. D.) Death abolished The question is, therefore, in what sense hath death been abolished by Christ. It means that He hath made death of none effect. In order to explain this we lay down three propositions. I. That the felt power of death over man is according to the state of his soul. The power of death over man is not in the unconsciousness which he produces. So far as unconsciousness is concerned there is death in every sleep. Not in the dissolution it produces. For physical dissolution is going on every day in the body. Where then is the power of death? It is in the state of our souls in relation to it. Let us suppose that we had no capacity for forming any idea of death. What power would death have over us? None until it came; like the beast or the bird we should lie down on the green turf, and breathe out our last breath without one regretful or apprehensive thought. Or, let us suppose that we had ideas concerning death, all of which were of a pleasing character. What power would death have over us in this case? None. We should rejoice in it. II. That the state of a depraved man’ s soul gives death its felt power.1. All the affections of his soul are confined to earthly objects. All men whose natures are unchristianised love the world and the things of the world. All they love, all they plan and toil and hope for, are here. 2. He has terrible forebodings as to the consequence of death to him. III. That Christ hath abolished this depraved state of soul in his disciples. How does He accomplish this? Not merely by the revelation of a future life, but by the impartation of a new spiritual life--A life of conscious pardon and of spiritual sympathy. This new life--1. Has a stronger sympathy with the spiritual than the material. The affections are set not on things below, but on things above. Hence, where is the dread of death to the true Christian? This new life. 2. Has a stronger sympathy with the failure than the present. Christ turns the hearts of His people to the future as their heaven. Who, therefore, would dread the dawn of the future into which the heart has gone? This new life-- 3. Has a stronger sympathy with the Infinite Father than with any other object. Christ sets the heart of His disciple upon the Infinite Father. Can death or any other event fill him with dread who loves the Infinite supremely? From this subject we learn-- (1) The value of Christianity.(2) The test of godliness. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The victor vanquished We have here--1. An agent referred to by the word “ Who,” that is Jesus Christ. 2. We have a work which He has done--“ abolished death.” 3. A glorious disclosure which He has made, “ brought life and immortality to light.” 4. The means by which this revelation is made known--“ the gospel.” I. The agent. When men have an important work to do, it is of great consequence to find a properly qualified person to do it. The Lord Jesus Christ possessed all the requisite qualifications for the great work of atoning for sins and reconciling man to God, since He was both God and man. Not merely that men might be pardoned and set free, but that they might be restored to the favour of God, and the long interrupted harmony and union between God and man re-established. II. Now let us glance at what he has Done--“ abolished death” (Romans 5:12). But there is a threefold division of death: Temporal, or the death of the body; spiritual, or being dead to spiritual things; and eternal death, or the separation of soul and body from God for ever. Death is represented as a sovereign exercising dominion over the world, for it is said “ death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’ s transgressions.” “ Death reigned,” says the apostle. The figure is a bold and striking one. It represents Death as a monarch exercising dominion or power. His reign is absolute. He strikes whom and where he pleases, there is no escape. All must bow beneath his sceptre. His reign is universal. Old and young, rich and poor, high and low, are alike the subjects of his gloomy empire, and but for the gospel, his reign would be eternal. The dominion of the gloomy tyrant has been shattered, and death itself has, as our text says, been abolished. Its terrors are abated and its sting removed. We come to consider how, and in what measure, this has been done. What is it to abolish anything? It is to cause it to cease, to put an end to it. Thus slavery was abolished in the British Empire and the United States. Its abolition cost Britain much, and cost the United States thousands of lives and millions of money. This whole accursed system of man-stealing, and all the horrors connected with it, is wiped out and destroyed. So has the Lord Jesus done with death. He has destroyed the stern tyrant by destroying that which is the cause of death--sin (Hebrews 2:9). Thus death was destroyed by dying; by His becoming obedient to the death of the Cross, He broke the empire and dominion of death for ever, and opened to man “ the door of eternal life” and His resurrection was proof that God’ s justice was completely satisfied with the ransom offered. “ Who hath abolished death.” The apostle here seems to speak in some measure by anticipation. Sometimes the sacred writers represent things which are certain to be done as if they were clone already. Sin, which is the cause of death, has been atoned for, and so death’ s empire has there received a fatal blow. Every evil habit, desire, and disposition overcome, every temptation to evil successfully resisted, every good word and work, all tend to lessen his power and wrest from Death his dominion. Thus life has prevailed over death so far as the gospel has made its way into the homes and hearts of men. So in various ways and on every side death has been losing his sway, and his empire is waning. Nowhere is the fact that “ death has been abolished seen in a clearer light than in the triumphant departure of God’ s children. Dr. Payson, a little before he breathed his last, said, “ The battle’ s fought, the battle’ s fought, and the victory is won--won for ever. I am going to bathe in an ocean of purity and benevolence, and happiness to all eternity, Why should I murmur,” said John Howard, the noble Christian philanthropist, when ending his journey in a strange land, “ Heaven is as near to Russia as it is to England.” “ My head is in heaven” (said the wife of Philip Henry, the Commentator); “ my heart is in heaven, another step and I shall be there too.” “ Almost well, and nearly at home,” said the saintly Richard Baxter, when asked by a friend how he did shortly before he died. And a lady, describing the last hours of that venerable patriarch of science, Sir David Brewster, says, “ The sight was a cordial from heaven to me. I believed before, but now I have seen that Christ has truly abolished death.” III. Now observe the next thing christ has done for us. He has “ brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (J. Reid.) Of the immortality of the soul as discovered by nature and by revelation In the handling of these words I shall-- I. Open to you the meaning of the several expressions in the text.1. What is here meant by “ the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ” ? The Scripture useth several phrases to express this thing to us. As it was the voluntary undertaking of God the Son, so it is called His coming into the world. In relation to His incarnation, whereby He was made visible to us in His body, and likewise in reference to the obscure promises and prophecies and types of the Old Testament, it is called His manifestation, or appearance. 2. What is meant by the abolishing of death. By this we are not to understand that Christ, by His appearance, hath rooted death out of the world, so that men are no longer subject to it. 3. What is here meant by bringing “ life and immortality to light.” Life and immortality is here by a frequent Hebraism put for immortal life; as also, immediately before the text, you find purpose and grace put for God’ s gracious purpose. Tile phrase of bringing to light is spoken of things which were before each either wholly or in a great measure hid, either were not at all discovered before, or not so clearly. I proceed-- II. To show what Christ’ s coming into the world hath done towards the abolishing of death, and the beinging of “ life and immortality to light.” I shall speak distinctly to these two:1. What Christ’ s appearance and coming into the world hath done towards the abolishing of death, or how death is abolished by the appearance of Christ. (1) By taking our nature upon Him He became subject to the frailties and miseries of mortality, and liable to the suffering of death, by which expiation of sin was made. (2) As Christ, by taking our nature upon Him, became capable of suffering death, and thereby making expiation for sin, so by dying He became capable of rising again from the dead, whereby He hath gained a perfect victory and conquest over death and the powers of darkness. 2. What Christ hath done towards the bringing of “ life and immortality to light.” It will be requisite to inquire, What assurance men had or might have had of the immortality of the soul, and consequently of a future state, before the revelation of the gospel by Christ’ s coming into the world. And here are two things distinctly to be considered. What arguments natural reason doth furnish us withal to persuade us to this principle, that our souls are immortal, and consequently that another state remains for men after this life. But before I come to speak particularly to the arguments which natural reason affords us for the proof of this principle, I shall premise certain general considerations, which may give light and force to the following arguments: By the soul we mean a part of man distinct from his body, or a principle in him which is not matter. By the immortality of the soul I mean nothing else, but that it survives the body, that when the body dies and falls to the ground, yet this principle, which we call the soul, still remains and lives separate from it. That he that goes about to prove the soul’ s immortality supposeth the existence of a Deity, that there is a God. The existence of a God being supposed, this doth very much facilitate the other, of the soul’ s immortality. For this being an essential property of that Divine nature, that He is a Spirit, that is, something that is not matter; it being once granted that God is, thus much is gained, that there is such a thing as a spirit, an immaterial substance, that is not liable to die or perish. It is highly reasonable that men should acquiesce and rest satisfied in such reasons and arguments for the proof of any thing, as the nature of the thing to be proved will bear; because there are several kinds and degrees of evidence, which all things are not equally capable of. Having premised these general considerations to clear my way, I now come to speak to the particular arguments whereby the immortality of the soul may be made out to our reason. And the best way to estimate the force of the arguments which I shall bring for it will be to consider beforehand with ourselves what evidence we can, in reason, expect for a thing of this nature. (1) That the thing be a natural notion and dictate of our minds. (2) That it doth not contradict any other principle that nature hath planted in us, but does very well accord and agree with all other the most natural notions of our minds. (3) That it be suitable to our natural fears and hopes. (4) That it tends to the happiness of man, and the good order and government of the world. (5) That it gives the most rational account of all those inward actions which we are conscious to ourselves of, as perception, understanding, memory, will, which we cannot, without great unreasonableness, ascribe to matter as the cause of them. If all these be thus, as I shall endeavour Άo make it appear they are, what greater satisfaction could we desire to have of the immortality of our souls than these arguments give us? 1. The immortality of the soul is very agreeable to the natural notion which we have of God, one part whereof is, that He is essentially good and just. (1) For His goodness. It is very agreeable to that to think that God would make some creatures for as long a duration as they are capable of. (2) It is very agreeable to the justice of God to think the souls of men remain after this life, that there may be a state of reward and recompense in another world. 2. Another notion which is deeply rooted in the nature of man is, that there is a difference between good and evil, which is not founded in the imagination of persons, or in the custom and usage of the world, but in the nature of things. To come then to my purpose, it is very agreeable to this natural notion of the difference between good and evil, to believe the soul’ s immortality. For nothing is more reasonable to imagine than that good and evil, as they are differenced in their nature, so they shall be in their rewards; that it shall one time or other be well to them that do well, and evil to the wicked man. III. This principle, of the soul’ s immortality, is suitable to the natural hopes and fears of men. To the natural hopes of men. Whence is it that men are so desirous to purchase a lasting fame, and to perpetuate their memory to posterity, but that they hope that there is something belonging to them which shall survive the fate of the body, and when that lies in the silent grave shall be sensible of the honour which is done to their memory, and shall enjoy the pleasure of the just and impartial fame, which shall speak of them to posterity without envy or flattery? IV. This doctrine of the immortality of the soul does evidently tend to the happiness and perfection of man, and to the good order and government of the world. This doctrine tends to the happiness of man considered in society, to the good order and government of the world. If this principle were banished out of the world, government would want its most firm basis and foundation; there would be infinitely more disorders in the world were men not restrained from injustice and violence by principles of conscience, and the awe of another world. And that this is so, is evident from hence, that all magistrates think themselves concerned to cherish religion, and to maintain in the minds of men the belief of a God, and of a future state. V. The fifth and last argument is, That this supposition of the soul’ s immortality gives the fairest account and easiest solution of the phenomena of human nature, of those several actions and operations which we are conscious to ourselves of, and which, without great violence to our reason, cannot be resolved into a bodily principle, and ascribed to mere matter; such are perception, memory, liberty, and the several acts of understanding and reason. These operations we find in ourselves, and we cannot imagine how they should be performed by mere matter; therefore we ought, in all reason, to resolve them into some principle of another nature from matter, that is, into something that is immaterial, and consequently immortal, that is incapable in its own nature of corruption and dissolution. I come now to the second thing I propounded, which is to show what assurance the world had, de facto, of this great principle of religion, the soul’ s immortality, before the revelation of the gospel. First, what assurance the heathens had of the soul’ s immortality.1. It is evident that there was a general inclination in mankind, even after its greatest corruption and degeneracy, to the belief of this principle; which appears in that all people and nations of the world, after they were sunk into the greatest degeneracy, and all (except only the Jews) became idolaters, did universally agree in this apprehension, that their souls did remain after their bodies and pass into a state of happiness or misery, according as they had demeaned themselves in this life. 2. The unlearned and common people among the heathen seem to have had the truest and least wavering apprehensions in this matter; the reason of which seems to be plain, because their belief followed the bias and inclination of their nature, and they had not their natural notions embroiled and disordered by obscure and uncertain reasonings about it, as the philosophers had, whose understandings were prefixed with infinite niceties and objections, which never troubled the heads of the common people. 3. The learned among the heathen did not so generally agree in this principle, and those who did consent in it were many of them more wavering and unsettled than the common people. Epicurus and his followers were peremptory in the denial of it: but, by their own acknowledgment, they did herein offer great violence to their natures, and had much ado to divest themselves of the contrary apprehension and fears. The stoics were very inclinable to the belief of a future state; but yet they almost everywhere speak very doubtfully of it. Secondly, What assurance the Jews had of the soul’ s immortality and a future state. And of this I shall give you an account in these following particulars:1. They had all the assurance which natural light, and the common reason of mankind, does ordinarily afford men concerning this matter; they had common to them with the heathens all the advantage that nature gives men to come to the knowledge of this truth. 2. They had by Divine revelation a feller assurance of those truths which have a nearer connection with this principle, and which do very much tend to facilitate the belief of it; as, namely, concerning the providence of God, and His interesting Himself particularly in the affairs of the world. And then, besides this, the Jews had assurance of the existence of spirits by the more immediate ministry of angels among them. And this does directly make way for the belief of an immaterial principle, and consequently of the soul’ s immortality. 3. There were some remarkable instances of the Old Testament which did tend very much to persuade men to this truth: I mean the instances of Enoch and Elias, who did not die like other men, but were translated, and taken up into heaven in an extraordinary manner. 4. This was typified and shadowed forth to them by the legal administrations. The whole economy of their worship and temple, of their rites and ceremonies, and Sabbaths, did shadow out some farther thing to them, though in a very obscure manner: the land of Canaan, and their coming to the possession of it, after so many years’ travail in the wilderness, did represent that heavenly inheritance which good men should be possessed of after the troubles of this life. But I shall chiefly insist on the general promises which we find in these books of Moses, of God’ s blessing good men, and declaring that He was their God, even after their death. 5. Toward the expiration of the legal dispensation there was yet a clearer revelation of a future state. The text in Daniel seems to be much plainer than any in the Old Testament: “ And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). 6. Notwithstanding this, I say that the immortality of the soul, and a future state, was not expressly and clearly revealed in the Old Testament, at least not in Moses’ law. The special and particular promises of that dispensation were of temporal good things; and the great blessing of eternal life was but somewhat obscurely involved and signified in the types and general promises. And so I proceed to the second thing I propounded, which is to show what farther evidence and assurance the gospel gives us of it than the world had before: what clearer discoveries we have by Christ’ s coming, than the heathens or Jews had before.1. The rewards of another life are more clearly revealed in the gospel. 2. The rewards of another life, as they are clearly and expressly revealed by the gospel, so that they may have the greater power and influence upon us, and we may have the greater assurance of them, they are revealed with very particular circumstances. 3. The gospel gives us yet farther assurance of these things by such an argument as is like to be the most convincing and satisfactory to common capacities; and that is, by a lively instance of the thing to be proved, in raising Christ from the dead (Acts 17:30-31). 4. And lastly, the effects which the clear discovery of this truth had upon the world are such as the world never saw before, and are a farther inducement to persuade us of the truth and reality of it. After the gospel was entertained in the world, to show that those who embraced it did fully believe this principle, and were abundantly satisfied concerning the rewards and happiness of another life, they did, for the sake of their religion, despise this life and all the enjoyments of it, from a thorough persuasion of a far greater happiness than this world could afford remaining in the next life. (J. Tillotson, D. D.) Life and immortality brought to light by the gospel But, supposing Moses or the law of nature to afford evidence for a future life and immortality, it remains to be considered in what sense the words of the text are to be understood, which do affirm that life and immortality were brought to light through the gospel. To bring any thing to light may signify, according to the idiom of the English tongue, to discover or reveal a thing which was perfectly unknown before: but the word in the original is so far from countenancing, that it will hardly admit of this sense, φωτίζειν signifies (not to bring to light, but) to enlighten, illustrate, or clear up anything. You may judge by the use of the word in other places: ‘ tis used in John 1:9 --“ That was the true light which lighteth [or enlighteneth] every man that cometh into the world.” Jesus Christ did not by coming into the world bring men to light; but He did by the gospel enlighten men, and make those who were dark and ignorant before wise even to salvation. In like manner our Lord did enlighten the doctrine of life and immortality, not by giving the first or only notice of it, but by clearing up the doubts and difficulties under which it laboured, and giving a better evidence for the truth and certainty of it, than nature or any revelation before had done. If we consider how our Saviour has enlightened this doctrine, it will appear that He has removed the difficulty at which nature stumbled. As death was no part of the state of nature, so the difficulties arising from it were not provided for in the religion of nature. To remove these was the proper work of revelation. These our Lord has effectually cleared by His gospel, and shown us that the body may and shall be united to the spirit in the day of the Lord, so that the complete man shall stand before the great Tribunal to receive a just recompense of reward for the things done in the body. (T. Sherlock, D. D.) Immortality brought to light I. Our Lord hath given us a clearer knowledge than without him we could ever have acquired of our state after death. For, first, the best arguments which human reason suggests for the immortality of the soul are founded upon right notions of God and of morality. But before the gospel was revealed the common people among the Gentiles had low and imperfect notions of these important truths, and consequently they were not persuaded upon good grounds of their future existence. The proofs of the soul’ s immortality, which are taken from its own nature, from its simplicity, spirituality, and inward activity, are by no means to be despised, they have much probability, and they never were or will be confuted. The moral arguments, as they are called, in behalf of the soul’ s immortality, as they are more familiar and intelligible, so are they more satisfactory. Now, it cannot be supposed that God, who is perfectly wise, would endue the soul of man with a capacity of well-doing, and of perpetual improvement, unless He intended it for other purposes than to live here for a very short space, and then perish for ever. He did not create the sun to shine for one day, and the moon to shine for one night, and then to be turned out of being. These sort of arguments, obvious and persuasive as they are, yet were usually overlooked in the Pagan world; polytheism, vice, and ignorance lind made men insensible of their force; these arguments shone forth along with Christianity, and were in a great measure owing to the gospel. They who argued justly enough to conclude from the nature of God and of man that it was reasonable to believe the immortality of the soul, and to hope that a future state of happiness should be the reward of a well-spent life, yet could not hence fairly draw any conclusions to their own full satisfaction. Many who believed the immortality of souls believed also a continual and successive removal of souls from one body to another, and no fixed state of permanent happiness. Our Lord hath opened to us a better prospect than this, promising us an incorruptible body, a life that shall not be taken from us, an unchangeable state, and a house eternal in the heavens. Some who in words acknowledged the immortality of the soul seem in reality to have taken it away, by imagining that the human soul was a part of the great soul of the world, of the Deity, and that upon its separation from the body it was reunited to it. 1. The gospel assures us that we shall rise again. 2. We are assured that the happiness of the good shall be complete, unchangeable, and endless. 3. We have also reason, from some places of Scripture, to suppose that the souls of the good are not deprived of thought, but are in a place of peace and contentment during their separation from the body. II. The second thing which we proposed to prove is, that Christ, by His resurrection, hath fully assured us that He can and will raise up his servants to eternal life. If it be certain that Christ arose from the dead, the consequence is plain and unavoidable that the religion taught by Him is true. I have only a few inferences to lay before you.1. Our Lord hath taught us that our souls are immortal. 2. Our Lord hath taught us that death is only the death or sleep of the body, that the souls of the good live to God, and that at the last day, when He shall appear, they shall be clothed with immortal and glorified bodies, and dwell for ever with Him. And to confirm these truths, He arose Himself in power and splendour, and became the first fruits of them that sleep. 3. The resurrection of Christ contains in it the strongest motives to cast off our sins, and to prepare ourselves for the glories which shall be revealed, and to take off our affections from this world, and to set them on things above. (J. Jortin, D. D.) Life and immortality brought to light by the gospel By the plain revelation of this state of immortality--1. Is most illustriously manifested to us the transcendent goodness and indulgence of our most merciful Creator, in that He will be pleased to reward such imperfect services, such mean performances as the best of ours are, with glory so immense, as that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive the greatness of it. 2. By this revelation of immortal life is farther demonstrated the exceeding great love of our blessed Saviour, who, by His death and perfect obedience, not only purchased pardon for all our past rebellions and transgressions, not only redeemed us from hell and destruction, to which we had all rendered ourselves most justly liable, which alone had been an unspeakable favour, but also merited an everlasting kingdom of glory for us, if with true repentance we return to our duty. 3. This especially recommends our Christianity to us, which contains such glad tidings, which propounds such mighty arguments to engage us to our duty, such as no other religion ever did or could. I. To those who would seem to doubt of this fundamental doctrine of a future life. II. To those who profess to believe it, but not fully and heartily. III. To those who do really and constantly believe it. I. Let us for once be so kind to the sceptical disputers against religion as to suppose what; they are never able to prove--that it is a very doubtful thing whether there will be another life, after this. We ought to believe and live as if all these doctrines of religion were most certainly true; for every wise man will run as little hazard as he can, especially in such things as are of the highest concernment to him, and wherein a mistake would be fatal and undoing. II. To those who profess to believe this immortal life, but yet do it not really and heartily. And this I fear is the case of the generality of Christians amongst us. Are any of those good things which men here court and seek after so desirable and considerable as the glories and joys of heaven? Or are there any evils in this world that can vie terrors with hell? III. To those who do heartily and constantly believe this great truth of another life after this; who not only assent to this doctrine with their understandings, but have made this future happiness their ultimate choice and desire. This will fortify our minds against all the temptations we may meet with from this world, or any of its bewitching enjoyments. This faith will inspire us with strength and activity, and carry us out even beyond ourselves; will animate us with such courage and resolution, as that we shall despise all dangers and difficulties, and think eternal happiness a good bargain, whatever pains or trouble it may cost us to purchase it. This conquers the love of life itself, which is most deeply implanted in our natures; for what will not a man give or part with for the saving of his life? Yet they who have been endued with this faith have not counted their lives dear to Him, so that they might finish their course with joy. This faith by degrees moulds and transforms the mind into a likeness to these heavenly objects; it advances and raises our spirits, so that they become truly great and noble, and make us, as St. Peter tells us, partakers of a divine nature. It filleth the soul with constant peace and satisfaction, so that in all conditions of life a good man can feast himself with unseen joys and delights, which the worldly man neither knows nor can relish. Nay, this faith arms a man against the fear of death; it strips that king of terrors of all his grim looks: for he considers it only as God’ s messenger to knock off his fetters, to free him from this fleshly prison, and to conduct him to that blessed place, where he shall be more happy than he can wish or desire to be, and that for ever. (Dr. Callamy.) Life and immortality revealed in the gospel Life and immortality here seem to refer both to the soul and the body, the two constituents of our person. As applied to the body, life and immortality signify that though our bodies are dissolved at death, and return into their native elements, yet they shall be formed anew with vast improvements, and raised to an immortal existence: so that they shall be as though death never had had any power over them; and thus death shall be abolished, annihilated, and all traces of the ruins it had made for ever disappear, as though they had never been. It is in this sense chiefly that the word “ immortality,” or “ incorruptibility” is made use of in my text. But then the resurrection of the body supposes the perpetual existence of the soul, for whose sake it is raised; therefore life and immortality, as referring to the soul, signify that it is immortal, in a strict and proper sense; that is, that it cannot die at all, or be dissolved like the body. In this complex sense we may understand the immortality of which my text speaks. Now it is to the gospel that we owe the clear discovery of immortality in both these senses. As for the resurrection of the dead, which confers a kind of immortality upon our mortal bodies, it is altogether the discovery of Divine revelation. As for the immortality of the soul, Christian philosophers find it no difficulty to establish it upon the plain principles of reason. But it should be considered that those are not the arguments of the populace, the bulk of mankind, but of a few philosophic studious men. But as immortality is the prerogative of all mankind, of the ignorant and illiterate, as well as of the wise and learned, all mankind, of all ranks of understanding, are equally concerned in the doctrine of immortality; and therefore a common revelation was necessary, which would teach the ploughman and mechanic, as well as the philosopher, that he was formed for an immortal existence, and, consequently, that it is his grand concern to fit himself for a happiness beyond the grave as lasting as his nature. Now, it is the gospel alone that makes this important discovery plain and obvious to all. It must also be considered that mere may be able to demonstrate a truth, when the hint is hut once given, which they would never have discovered, nor perhaps suspected, without that hint. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ 2 Timothy 1:11A preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.I. A public preacher is one who may discharge his office ever in one and the same place. II. An apostle goes about everywhere; but he would have fully satisfied the requirements of his apostolic office if he had once for all declared his message. III. Teacher. Here we have in addition diligence and perseverance in teaching: from which arose suffering. (J. A. Bengel.) The preacher a crier It is an argument, that the preacher brings not stolen stuff nor bad commodity. He whose fruit is best, as we see in cities, crieth loudest. A low voice in the street argueth either an ill-commodity or a false way of obtaining it. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Not to cavil with the preacher Again, this must teach the auditors not to cavil with the crier, but to hear the words of exhortation patiently. Some, like Festus, tell Paul, if he cry aloud, that he is beside himself; reputing the preacher rude, indiscreet, passionate. Why? Can a bell have too shrill a sound? a hound too deep or bass a mouth? a piece give too great a report? or a crier extend his voice too high? Shall not the shepherd shout when the sheep are wandering, or ready to be devoured by the wolf? Will ye not ring the bells awake, when the city is on fire? Discharge the greatest cannon, when the ship is in distress, and in danger to be lost in the haven? And shall not the preacher cry, roar, and, as John, bellow like an ox (for so the word is read), when men sleep and sink in sin, and be in hazard to be drowned and devoured by Satan, that cruel wolf, and pirate of the soul? (J. Barlow, D. D.) The servants of God take delight to dwell and discourse of good things (Acts 20:7):--It’ s no burden or wearisomeness to the saints to enlarge their speech on heavenly subjects. A traveller when he hath taken a view of the situation of many towns and countries, beheld the rare monuments that he hath met withal, rejoiceth to make relation thereof unto his friends after his return; and so is it with a Christian, who is a spiritual traveller: when he hath seen into the mysteries of religion, found out the great secrets therein contained, by the painful travel of his mind, he maketh it the joy of his heart largely to discourse thereof unto his brethren. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Love makes teachers But did they love the gospel they neither would or could be silent; for their word, like fire in straw, would burst forth. Will not the soldier speak of his wounds, the huntsman of his hounds, and the husbandman of his cattle and grounds? And shall we love the gospel and never make mention of it? No, no: this little speech of heavenly things argueth that the love of many is but cold. Love the word once, and say nothing of it, if thou canst. (J. Barlow, D. D.) A gospel preacher Bramwell was a plain preacher in the States, and to some extent an uncultivated preacher; but he was frill of faith and zeal, and his ministry was attended with marvellous power. He was preaching in a little village on one occasion, and the German minister, Trubner, was induced to go and hear him. Trubner was a very cultivated scholar, and a profound critic; and when some of Bramwell’ s friends saw him there they said, “ Alas! alas! for poor Bramwell, how Trubner will criticise him!” Precious little did Bramwell care for him, or for all the philosophers under the sun. He preached, and set before his audience the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ, and when Trubner went out of the church one of his friends said to him, “ How did you like him? Don’ t you think he wanders a good deal in his preaching?” “ Oh, yes,” said the old Lutheran, “ he do wander most delightfully from de subject to de heart.” (The Teacher’ s Cabinet.) 2 Timothy 1:12I also suffer these things.Pride in the profane causeth good men to suffer for well-doing The Pharisees were zealous for the law and ceremonies, and Paul preached the gospel, called them beggarly and impotent rudiments; told that if they were circumcised Christ profited them nothing. Why, this so took down the pride of man, that he should not be justified by his own works, but by another’ s, that Paul was persecuted, and hardly intreated of his own countrymen. If a skilful tailor take measure of a crooked and misshapen person, and fit the garment proportionable to the pattern, a proud piece of flesh will pout, swell, and wrangle with the workmen; so let the ministers and men of God do good, divide the Word aright, high and lofty spirits will be muttering, for they cannot endure the light, or to be told of their deformities. Thus Paul was reputed aa enemy for telling them the truth. A counterfeit and false glass is the fittest for old, withered, and wrinkled curtizans to view themselves in; for if it should show them their right shapes, all things to nothing, they split it against the walls. (Jr. Barlow, D. D.) For I know whom I have believed. The foundation of the Christian’ s hope I. One ground of the apostle’ s assurance was a persuasion that Christ is able to keep the souls committed unto him.1. It is implied that Christ is able to bring the soul into a state of salvation. 2. This persuasion of the apostle implied that Christ is able also to preserve the soul in a state of salvation. He added, as the other ground of his assurance-- II. A consciousness that he had himself committed unto Christ his own soul. However firmly he might be persuaded of Christ’ s ability to save the souls committed to Him, he yet could not be assured that He would save his soul unless he felt conscious of the fact, that it was really committed unto Him. Let us now see what things this consciousness also implied.1. It implied that he had knowingly given up all thoughts and hopes of saving himself by his own merits and doings. 2. It was further implied in it, that he now knowingly placed all his hopes and dependence on the sacrifice and mediation of Jesus Christ alone. 3. But it was also implied in it that, from the time in which he had thus renounced his own righteousness, and by faith had hoped in the righteousness of Christ, he had lived and acted consistently with such a faith and hope. (E. Cooper.) The Christian’ s confidence in Christ The faith of the Christian is here seen. I. In its object “ I know whom I have believed.” II. In its character. It is seen in many noble qualities and bearings, inseparably connected with each other in the triumphant profession made by the apostle.1. Knowledge is here the foundation of faith “ I know whom I have believed.” Yes, he knew by irresistible demonstration--such as extracted the venom of his heart against Jesus of Nazareth, and filled it with inextinguishable love and fervent devotedness to Him. 2. As knowledge is the foundation of faith, so faith is the reposing of an absolute trust--“ I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him.” III. In its consummation--“ against that day.” There is to be a consummation--when we shall receive “ the end of our faith, even the salvation of our soul.” The province of faith is but for a season, and it shall give place to the vision and fruition of God. (W. B. Collyer, D. D.) The internal evidence of experience The evidences for revelation have been commonly divided under two heads, external and internal. Under the head of external evidence, we may class all those proofs, which, though relating to what is found in the Scriptures, are nevertheless exterior to the Word of God; such, for instance, as the authenticity of the Books of Scripture, and the genuineness of their authorship, the miracles by which the truths that the apostles delivered were attested, and the sufferings and persecution which they underwent. But then the internal evidence is not less important. We might, first, take the internal evidence of Scripture which we gather from the Word of God itself--the harmony of one portion of it with another, and the circumstance that in our investigation of its bright and blessed pages, they seem at once to commend themselves, as what we might expect to come from the God of truth. And then there is the internal evidence, which may be gathered from the Christian’ s own experience--the attestation, so to speak, of a Christian’ s own experience to the truths which he finds revealed in the Scriptures of God. Now we believe that it is to evidence partaking of this character that the apostle alludes in our text. There was no confounding of his principles; there was no putting down of the truth which he maintained; nothing was able to terrify him out of what he had embraced as the truth of God. “ For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” Now this class of evidence, we believe, will, more or less, be the evidence of every believer in the Lord Jesus. I. The first point which is presented for our consideration is that the apostle believed the gospel. This is the first act of the sinner with respect to Jesus. II. But the believer goes further. He does not rest with dependence upon the promise, that the Lord will be with him unto the end of the world; but he is assured of this, because he finds that so far as he had trusted the promise, God has actually been with him. He has found Him true to His word by positive experience. III. The confidence which Paul had in the future gathered from his experience of the past. (H. W. McGrath, M. A.) The believer’ s confidence in the prospect of eternity I. The awful period. It is not mentioned by name; but the apostle only calls it “ that day.” What day? The day of death, when “ the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns unto God who gave it” ? Or the day of judgment? Doubtless the day of judgment. This is often in the Scripture called “ that day,” in order to show us that it is a very important, a very remarkable, a very distinguished day. II. What the apostle did in the prospect of this period. He deposited something in the Redeemer’ s hands; “ that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” What, now, was this deposit? You evidently see it was something personal, in which he acted as a believer. And it is not necessary, as far as I know, to exclude anything from the transaction; but principally we are to understand the eternal concerns of his soul. And if this required any confirmation, it may be derived from the example of poor Stephen, who, when he was dying, said, “ Lord Jesus receive my spirit” --and from the experience of David, who in an hour of danger said, “ Into Thy hand I commit my spirit; Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth!” It means, therefore, simply believing. The apostle’ s representation of faith here will remind us of several things.1. The committing our eternal all into His bands implies conviction. The man before was deluded by error and blinded by ignorance; but now “ the eyes of his understanding” are opened. (1) Now he is convinced of the value of his soul.(2) He is now convinced of the danger of the soul.(3) And now, too, he is convinced of his inability to save his soul. 2. And this act implies also a concern for its security and welfare. 3. The act of committing the soul to Christ also implies application to the Redeemer for the purpose of salvation. 4. It implies submission, III. The satisfaction felt in the review of the transaction.1. You see what the satisfaction is derived from: and, generally considered, you observe that it takes in the apostle’ s acquaintance with the great Depository himself--“ I know whom I have believed.” 2. You have seen the satisfaction generally expressed; but here is a particular reference with regard to it. “ And I am persuaded,” says he, “ that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” (W. Jay.) Acquaintance with Christ the Christian’ s strength Since the same source from whence Paul had all his high attainments is as open in all its fulness to each of us, as it was to him, let us consider the way in which that inexhaustible fountain was made available to him to draw supplies according to all his need, whether for support under the discouragement of his trials, or for direction under the perplexity of his difficulties. One word of the text will open the whole of this to us: “ I know” ;--“ I know whom I have believed,” says he. Knowledge was the substance of his power. Nay, then, says the unlearned Christian, it is too difficult for me. Such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent. It is high, I cannot attain unto it. It is not for me. How discouraging! will the poor and busy man say. I have neither the leisure nor the means and opportunity of gaining it. How heartless the attempt, then, will the weak-minded and humble Christian say, conscious of his weakness. How can I ever hope to reach even a measure of that, when I feel my weakness and inability every step I take. But to the most unlearned, to the busiest, to the most feebleminded, I say, that this knowledge and all the power it contains is for you. Mark the text. The apostle does not say, I know the support I shall receive, or the direction that will be given me, for I am wise and experienced, but, “ I know whom I have believed.” His knowledge was not of things, but of a person, and that but one. I. Here is mentioned his knowledge of the trustee. Let us consider some particulars of the more obvious but important kind, wherein the apostle knew, and we should know Him.1. He knew that He was faithful, therefore he believed Him. 2. He knew Him to be able. 3. He knew Him to be willing. 4. He knew Him to be all-wise, both to see his trouble, and the best way to get him out of it. 5. Nay, though clouds and darkness surrounded him, Paul staggered not at this, for he knew the ways of the Lord, that this is His method of dealing with His children. In a word he knew Him to be the sum of all happiness, the source of all strength, the pledge and faithfulness of all the promises, the depository of all power, the ruler of all events, the head over all things to His people, the Saviour both of soul and body. II. What was it that the apostle committed to him? What was that deposit (as it is in the original), he was persuaded He was able to keep? I answer in one word, his treasure. But that would assume many forms under different circumstances.1. When the guilt of sin would come upon his conscience, it would be the salvation of his soul. 2. When the power of temptation would come over him, it would be his integrity in serving God. 3. When personal dangers surrounded him, and left him no way of escape, it would be his self-preservation. 4. When assailed by the malicious insinuations of false apostles, and attacks upon his motives, as at Corinth, it would be his character. 5. When he heard of the entering in of grievous wolves into the flock he had fed so carefully, it would be the care of all the churches. Whatever it was, in short, that at the moment most occupied his thoughts and attention, that was what he had deposited for safe-keeping in the hands of Christ, and which he was persuaded He was able to keep against all assaults until that day, when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, and every man shall have his praise of God. (G. Jeans, M. A.) Grounds of confidence in the Saviour’ s ability We have here a strong expression of his confidence in the Saviour: let us consider, first, the nature, and then the ground of this confidence. I. Its nature. Some suppose the deposit, which the apostle mentions as committed to him, to denote the gospel trust in general: and this view is favoured by the similar expression in the context, “ that good thing, which was committed to thee, keep--hold fast the form of sound words.” But it seems more probable that he refers in the text to the interest of his salvation, the trust of his whole being, his body, soul, and spirit, which he had confidently committed to Christ, as Him who had “ abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light.” In the near view of martyrdom, dissolution, and eternity, his confidence remained unshaken. This is a trust unfit to be reposed in any created arm. No potentate can hold back his own spirit, much less another’ s, a moment from death no angel could under take such a trust; he would abjure it. Some portion of our interests we commit to others, but never think of committing our whole spirit to a creature. Hence we infer that Jesus Christ is truly God: else it were highly improper, and indeed accursed, thus to trust Him. II. The grounds on which the apostle trusts the Saviour. He saw that in His character which warranted such confidence, and he had a conviction of His ability. There was some peculiarity in Paul’ s case, to which we may advert, but which we need not anxiously separate from the general case of Christians.1. The first ground, peculiar to Paul, is his vision of Christ at Damascus: this penetrated him with reverence and attachment for the glorious person then revealed: his heart was melted like wax, and he cried, “ Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” 2. He was confirmed in his trust by his subsequent experience of the favour and power of Christ. His eyes were opened by Ananias at Christ’ s command. Miraculous powers of great variety were conferred on himself; so that he did perhaps even greater wonders than Christ had done. He was inspired to preach with power and boldness: “ the power of Christ rested on him.” In his soul such a renovation took place, as only Divine power could have effected: he was purified with humility and enlarged with love; his prospects were extended far beyond time: and all this was the effect of Christ’ s ascension, and His gift of the Holy Spirit. 3. Jesus Christ had wrought the great salvation, and reconciled it with all the attributes of God. 4. The rank which Jesus Christ holds in heaven assures us that He “ is able to keep that which is committed to Him.” 5. As Jesus Christ is the appointed Judge of all, so eternal life is at His disposal in His judicial character. (R. Hall, M. A.) A funeral sermon I. The sacred deposit which the apostle had made. All that concerned his soul, his hopes and his desires, his deliverance from guilt, and the enjoyment of the eternal favour of his God, comprised the whole amount of that deposit he had committed to the custody of his Redeemer. Now this transaction intimates--1. The perfect consciousness of a separate and immortal existence.2. A deep sense of the supreme value of the soul.3. A powerful conviction of the awful nature of death. II. The high satisfaction he felt with regard to its safety.1. He knew Him in the power of His arm. 2. He knew Him in His sacred relation to the Church, as Prophet, Priest, and King. 3. He knew Him, in all the promises of His Word. 4. This persuasion was founded upon the certain return of the Saviour as the Judge of all. Hence he speaks of his soul being kept in safety against that day. (J. E. Good.) The confidence of St. Paul I. His knowledge expressed--he knew whom he believed. It was not in himself he trusted, nor on his own foundation that he built; he staked nothing on his own reason or imagination or self-begotten opinions; nor had he any reliance on his own merits, or a high notion of the worth of his exertions, even for the cause of his fellow-creatures, or for the glory of God. It was not the world or the world’ s opinion that he trusted or followed, or any human judgment or conclusion that he rested upon, as apart from God’ s revelation.1. He knew Him as the revealed Saviour spoken of and promised from age to age. 2. He knew Him as the Almighty Saviour, the eternal Son of the Father, fully sufficient for the wants of fallen man, and entirely adapted to the very work of redemption which He came from heaven to fulfil. 3. And he knew and believed this on the personal experience of that power in his own heart; the presence of the Spirit of Christ in his own soul, having already revived and quickened him from the death of his former corrupt and blinded state. II. The trust he reposed in the object of his faith--“ I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day.” There was a persuasion, or, as the original describes it, a full reliance and settled repose in his mind on the object of his faith--the Saviour whom he believed. It is perhaps here a question, whether the apostle meant to say in these words, that Christ could and would keep that which he had committed to Christ; or, that which Christ had committed to him. Doubtless there is an interchange, as it were, an intercommunion between Christ and the soul of the believer; so that something is committed from Christ to the soul of His servant, and something also committed from the soul to Christ; and both are kept by the power of Christ alone. Christ committed His truth, His word, His gospel to the apostle, to be received in the heart and proclaimed throughout the world; and the apostle committed himself, his all, to Christ. By His grace alone could the purity and perpetuity of Divine truth be upheld in the world; and by His Spirit alone could the apostle be himself upheld amidst the shocks of temptation and the inroads of time and the world, and conducted surely forward unto that day. It was in the former sense perhaps that, in a following verse, the apostle said to Timothy--“ That good thing which was committed to thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.” But take the text rather in the view given to us by our own translation, and we shall find that apostle had been persuaded, and not in vain, to entrust to Christ and His grace, his credit, his peace, his soul for ever.1. His credit. He had to go forth truly, to Jew and Gentile, to preach what might seem a new religion--the one truth of God, hidden from ages and generations, and new made manifest by the gospel; and he had to pledge himself that it was true, and worthy their acceptance. He was persuaded Christ could keep the word he had given, and fulfil the promises he had made, 2. He committed to Christ his peace. Peace, such as the world valued and sought after, the apostle was not very likely ever to ensure: he had to meet danger and want, to face enemies and bear insult. Happiness under such circumstances must have been very different from what the world calls happiness: but it was not the less so for that, nor could he the less confidently trust his inward peace and even outward circumstances to Him who judged and maintained his cause, and who had said “ Peace I leave with you; not as the world giveth give I unto you.” 3. To Him, in fine, the apostle committed, doubtless, his soul, his all, for time and eternity. He acted here in the full spirit of his fellow-apostle St. Peter (1 Peter 4:19). (C. J. Hoore, M. A.) Faith illustrated I. The grandest action of the Christian’ s life. The apostle says, he committed himself into the hands of Christ. I saw the other day a remarkable picture, which I shall use as an illustration of the way of salvation by faith in Jesus. An offender had committed a crime for which he must die, but it was in the olden time when churches were considered to be sanctuaries in which criminals might hide themselves and so escape. See the transgressor--he rushes towards the church, the guards pursue him with their drawn swords, all athirst for his blood, they pursue him even to the church door. He rushes up the steps, and just as they are about to overtake him and hew him in pieces on the threshold of the church, out comes the bishop, and holding up the crucifix he cries, “ Back, back! stain not the precincts of God’ s house with blood! stand back!” and the guards at once respect the emblem and stand back, while the poor fugitive hides himself behind the robes of the priest. It is even so with Christ. The guilty sinner flies to the cross--flies straight away to Jesus, and though Justice pursues him, Christ lifts up His wounded hands and cries to Justice, “ Stand back! stand back! I shelter this sinner; in the secret place of My tabernacle do I hide him; I will not suffer him to perish, for he puts his trust in Me.” The apostle meant that he did make a full and free surrender of himself to Christ, to be Christ’ s property, and Christ’ s servant for ever. I must add, however, that this act of faith must not be performed once only, but it must be continued as long as you live. As long as you live you must have no other confidence but “ Jesus only.” You may take Him now to-day, to have and to hold through life and in death, in tempest and in sunshine, in poverty and in wealth, never to part or sunder from Him. You must take Him to be your only prop, your only pillar from this day forth and for ever. II. The justification of this grand act of trust. Confidence is sometimes folly; trusting in man is always so. When I exhort you, then, to put your entire confidence in Christ, am I justified in so doing? “ I have not trusted to an unknown and untried pretender. I have not relied upon one whose character I could suspect. I have confidence in one whose power, whose willingness, whose love, whose truthfulness I know. I know whom I have believed.” Paul not only knew these things by faith, but he knew much of them by experience. Our knowledge of Christ is somewhat like climbing one of our Welsh mountains. When you are at the base you see but little; the mountain itself appears to be but one half as high as it really is. Confined in a little valley you discover scarcely anything but the rippling brooks as they descend into the stream at the base of the mountain. Climb the first rising knoll, and the valley lengthens and widens beneath your feet. Go up higher, and higher still, till you stand upon the summit of one of the great roots that start out as spurs from the sides of the mountain, you see the country for sonic four or five miles round, and you are delighted with the widening prospect. But go onward, and onward, and onward, and how the scene enlarges, till at last, when you are on the summit, and look east, west, north, and south, you see almost all England lying before you. Yonder is a forest in some distant country, perhaps two hundred miles away, and yonder the sea, and there a shining river and the smoking chimneys of a manufacturing town, or there the masts of the ships in some well-known port. All these things please and delight you, and you say, “ I could not have imagined that so much could be seen at this elevation.” Now, the Christian life is of the same order. When we first believe in Christ we see but little of Him. The higher we climb the more we discover of His excellencies and His beauties. But who has ever gained the summit? Paul now grown old, sitting, grey hair’ d, shivering in a dungeon in Rome--he could say, with greater power than we can, “ I know whom I have believed!” --for each experience had been like the climbing of a hill, each trial had been like the ascending to another summit, and his death seemed like the gaining of the very top of the mountain from which he could see the whole of the faithfulness and the love of Him to whom he had committed his soul. III. The apostle’ s confidence. “ I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him.” See this man. He is sure he shall be saved. But why? Paul! art thou sure that thou canst keep thyself? “ No,” says he, “ I have nothing to do with that” : and yet thou art sure of thy salvation! “ Yes,” saith he, “ I am!” How is it, then? “ Why, I am persuaded that He is able to keep me. Christ, to whom I commit myself, I know hath power enough to hold me to the end.” Martin Luther was bold enough to exclaim, “ Let Him that died for my soul, see to the salvation of it.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Assurance I. THE OBJECT OF FAITH--“ I know whom I have believed.” Well, now, whom have you believed? Have you believed Juggernaut? Have you believed the Hindoo Brahmins? The glorious covenant Head of His Church--I have believed Him. “ He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not hath not life.” Where there is no believing of a saving description upon the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no salvation. It is in vain to tell me of all the excellencies of the creature, of all the attainments of moral philosophy, and of all the pride of superstition, it only just makes a pious road to hell for those who pretend to pursue it. There is no such thing as salvation, no such thing as safety, for time or for eternity, but by believing on the Son of God. “ I know.” I beseech you to mark the positive nature of the assertion. It is not, “ I hope, or trust” ; it is not, “ I can, or shall, or may, believe in Him” ; but, “ I know whom I have believed.” I do not like anything less than “ I know,” even in things temporal. If I were to ask my servant whether such and such a matter is safe, or right, or done properly, and I were to receive for an answer, “ I think so,” or “ Probably it may be so” ; “ Do not tell me that,” I should say, perhaps somewhat angrily; “ Do you know it? is it really so?” Surely, then, if I should require this in temporal matters, what should I look for in things spiritual You tell me God is merciful, and I shall do as well as others in the end. “ I know whom I have believed.” The question might be put to the persons who make such an assertion, “ What do you know of Him?” “ Well, I will tell you. I know very well that He is truly, properly, essentially, eternally God. I know enough of Him to be quite sure that He is truly, and properly, and sinlessly man. I know for certain of Him, that He is, in His complex character, as God and man, Mediator, Surety, Daysman for His Church, in official standing.” Do you know all this? Do you know Him personally? Can you say, “ I know that in His office He has accomplished all that is requisite for the salvation of His Church.” Look at the word “ believe” before we quit this part of our subject. “ I know whom I have believed.” What is believing? In the margin of our Bible we read “ trusted.” Well, believing is trusting, and trusting is believing. II. The nature of faith’ s actings--“ that which I have committed to Him.” There is something about this which enters at once into the daily experience of a child of God, and I think if it were more extensively practised in our experience, we should be happier Christians--the committing of everything to Him. I have committed to Him my soul’ s concerns; I have committed to Him the affairs of time; and I committed to Him His visible Church, which neither legislators nor monarchs care anything about, but to distract and to destroy. Look at these things for a few moments. I have committed to Him my soul’ s concerns. And these are of two descriptions; my soul’ s concerns for security, salvation, eternal life; and my soul’ s concerns in regard to spiritual existence, and spiritual prosperity, in my way to glory. I commit both to Him. Now the nature of faith’ s actings is to commit all to Jesus, in both these respects. If the filthy effluvia of human nature’ s risings annoy me, I shall cry, “ Lord, subdue all my iniquity.” I commit them all to Him; cannot do anything without Him, and I am sure it is no good talking about it. “ Lord, conquer my depravity. Lord, fulfil Thy promises, that ‘ sin shall not have dominion.’“ Then go on to mark, that it is faith’ s province to commit the affairs of this life to Him. They are not too little, they are not too mean for Him to notice, nor for Him to manage, and it may be viewed as the peculiar privilege of the Christian to carry to the throne of grace, and commit to Christ, every arrangement He may make, every bargain into which He may enter, every association He may form, and every companion He may choose. So with all His successes--to commit them all to Him, remembering that it is He who giveth power to get wealth. So, again, with regard to losses and crosses, painful events. III. The expectation of faith. “ He is able to keep “ it; and that is the point which fixes upon my attention. Blessings on His name, that He is as willing as He is able! He is interested in it. But this statement implies great danger or difficulty, or the Divine keeping would not be necessary. It implies that our beloved Zion is surrounded with every description of enemies and dangers, or it would not be said that it needs Divine keeping. Moreover, there seems in this expectation of faith enough to nourish assurance itself. “ He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him.” Well, then, assurance may lift up its head, and say, “ If it be the soul’ s concerns, I have nothing to doubt--I trust it all in His hands. If it be the affairs of my family, or my business, I have nothing to harass me concerning them.” One word more. “ Against that day.” We might mention the day of the termination of that trouble, the day of the accomplishment of that desire, the day of the consummation of a certain purpose or scheme in God’ s providence, relative to our spiritual or temporal affairs; but I must hasten to that day the apostle had immediately in view, “ that day” when Christ shall claim His own; “ that day” when all the election of grace shall appear before Him, and be presented to the Father “ a perfect Church, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.” (J. Irons.) The grounds of the believer’ s confidence What a noble picture have we here! Elsewhere we are told that the apostle was “ in presence weak, and in speech contemptible” ; but he does not appear so now. We see in him a courage and calmness more than human. “ What though my departure from this world be marked by infamy, and violence, and scorn--what though friends forsake, and the world revile, and foes pursue me with unresting hatred, I have one treasure of which they cannot rob me, one refuge to which I can always fly, one Friend who ‘ having loved me, will love me unto the end.’“ I. The terms in which the apostle makes this noble declaration of his confidence. The apostle does not say, “ what I have believed,” as if his hope stood in his creed, which might be very exact--or in his Church, which might be Very true--or in his labours, which were incessant and self-denying--or in his life, which was without reproach and blameless; but he says, “ The proper object of my confidence is a Person; my religion consists in having found a Friend--A Friend with whom all my interests for time and for eternity may be entrusted. I cleave to a living, infallible, Divine Protector. ‘ I know whom I have believed.’” The expression, as you perceive, is in true keeping with the entire spirit of New Testament theology. When a sinner awakes to the first sight of his danger, the first words to be addressed to him are, “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” This is a principle of the Divine procedure which would commend itself were it only for its beautiful and pure simplicity. When pressed with the terrors of a guilty conscience, when despair and fear seem to be coming in upon me like a flood, I want something to fly to at once; I want to he directed immediately to an altar of safety. Tell me not of things to be believed, or learned, or sought for, or done, but tell me of one simple act which shall bring me within reach of mercy. Do not lose time in considering how “ life and immortality are to be brought to light” --take Him as “ the life.” A convinced sinner cannot do better than embrace a theology of one article--“ I know whom I bare believed.” Again, let us look at the word “ believed.” In the writings of St. Paul the expression stands for the highest form of moral persuasion. It implies the strength of an all-pervading practical conviction--the reposing of a loving, perfect, and confiding trust. The advance of this upon a mere intellectual faith you will perceive--for not only is it believed that Christ came for man’ s salvation, but that this salvation has become individually applied to ourselves. “ I know whom I have believed.” My faith rests upon my knowledge, just as my knowledge reacts upon my faith. I am not making a plunge into eternity in the dark. I have looked to the soundness of my Rock to see whether it will bear me; I have “ tasted that the Lord is gracious,” and therefore am “ confident of this very thing, that He that hath begun a good work in me, will perform it unto the day of Christ.” The word points out to us the danger of taking our religion on trust; the duty of subjecting our opinions to a diligent and inquiring search. An uninvestigated faith can never be a happy faith. Christ’ s work for us must be believed, but Christ’ s work in us must be proved. Let us take the next words, showing to us the nature of the Christian’ s deposit--“ I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” To the trust here spoken of we can place no limit. How great the privilege of having this treasure locked up in safe Custody, feeling that whatever else is taken from us, our souls are enclosed in the sanctuary of heaven--that our Jesus puts His hand upon these and says, “ These souls are Mine” --“ Mine to be kept, Mine to be watched over, Mine to be purged from all dross and defilement, and to be rendered back each to his own,” at that day!” And the apostle mentions this day, in preference to the day of his death, because although the earlier period would abundantly vindicate the Saviour’ s faithfulness, yet the other is the day when Christ shall formally give up His great trust--when, in the presence of all the intelligences of heaven, He shall show how carefully He has watched over souls, through the conflicts of life, through the terrors of death, through the tong repose of the grave, now to hold them up as His jewels, and reward, and crown at “ that day.” II. The grounds on which the apostle rests his confidence. These, as we should suppose, must consist in the personal qualifications of Him who was the subject of such trust, in the attributes of His holy nature, in the efficacy of His atoning work, in the virtue of His meritorious obedience, in the continued exertions of His resumed Divinity now that He is seated at the right hand of God. Thus, let us look at the attributes of His nature--at His power, for example; does He not say, “ All things are delivered into My hand” ; “ all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth” ; “ I open, and no man shutteth; I shut, and no man openeth!” Who, then, can harm us, if we have secured such a Friend as this? But, further, we know Paul would have a ground of persuasion in the work of Christ, in the sufficiency of His obedience, in the infinite reach of His atonement. The apostle was one who felt painfully the greatness of his own deficiencies. His language ever was “‘ In the Lord Jehovah have I righteousness and strength’ My only trust is ‘ that I may be found in Him.’” But once more, the apostle would find a comforting ground of persuasion in the thought that the Saviour in whom he believed, lived for ever. It is a sad reflection with regard to our earthly friends, that however cherished or however tried, death will soon take them away. (D. Moore, M. A.) A safe deposit We sometimes believe in men whom we do not know. We think we know them; but we are mistaken. We may inquire; we may observe; we may ask for testimony and receive it: we may even put men to severe test: still we are sometimes mistaken and deceived, and we have to confess, “ I did not know the man whom I trusted.” The case presented by the text is the opposite of that. In this instance we have trust leading to increased and enlarged knowledge--knowledge strengthening trust, and both producing the expression of full assurance. You observe that the language of the text is somewhat metaphorical. We have certain facts in the Christian life put before us here under the figure of a deposit--A depositor--A depositary, and the confidence of the depositor. I. What is this deposit? Was it the soul of the writer? Was it the well-being of Paul in his persecution, the getting good out of his sorrow (1 Peter 4:19). Was it the work of his salvation--that work to which he himself refers, when, addressing some of his converts, he says, “ He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it” ? Was it his future crown--the crown of righteousness? Was it his converts, for whom he was perpetually praying? Was it his apostolate? Was it the welfare of the Churches? Was it the truth, and the proclamation of the truth? The great care of a man on a dying bed is himself, and this should be our great care in life; yet to take charge of himself no man is capable. Whatever capacity a man may have had, or human nature may have had before the fall, the loss of capacity which sinfulness and transgression have occasioned is immense; and there is a fearful loss of position. The soul is guilty, and needs pardon, righteousness, and restoration. The spirit is polluted, and it is dark, dim, dull, and deathly, through its pollution--it wants light and life. A physician is needed to whom this soul, conscious of its guilt and of the disease of sin, may commit itself. A priest is needed, who can undertake the work of atonement; and an advocate, who can make intercession. Such an advocate, such a priest, such a physician, Paul had found in Jesus Christ; and to Him, who unites in His own person all that a sinner needs to find in a Saviour, Paul had given up himself. II. The depositor. This is Saul of Tarsus. Did Gamaliel teach him this? Some of Gamaliel’ s strongest and most prominent lessons were self-reliance. The tendency of his teaching was to lead the young Saul to depend upon himself, and he had, as we know, from the story of his life, an immense amount of self-confidence. There is nothing committed to God to keep--the man only talks of his own virtues and good deeds, comparing himself with another. This is not Saul the Pharisee, it is Saul the Christian. It is Saul, but it is Saul born again, it is Saul born from above, it is Saul a new creation, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new! New, this confidence in another; old, that self-confidence. “ I can take care of myself,” would have been his language a few years ago; “ my prayers and alms-giving, and good works will save me,” he would then have said; now, he is entirely changed, and he represents the state of his heart in writing, “ I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” Saul of Tarsus took charge of himself, but Saul the Christian committed himself to another. And who is that other? III. The depositary. Does Paul here refer to God, whose name he mentions in the eighth verse, or to our Saviour, Jesus Christ, whom he introduces to us in the tenth verse? We think he refers to our Saviour, Jesus Christ--not, of course, that we can separate God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ--because “ God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” The depositary, mark, is Christ; the anointed Keeper of souls; one upon whom the unction of the Holy Ghost was poured out without measure, that He might take charge of souls; Christ--observe, Jesus Christ, the divine and devoted Keeper of souls. Now, to “ Jesus Christ, our Saviour, who hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light” ; to the “ Word made flesh,” “ God manifest in flesh,” “ God over all blessed for evermore,” to Him did Paul commit himself. It is in vain that you try to mingle these things--taking the responsibility of life upon your shoulders and committing yourself to another. You cannot do this; you must either madly and vainly try to bear the burden alone, or you must commit the whole to your Saviour, and all then that you are responsible for is, doing what He tells you, and not doing that which He forbids you. But, as to the charge, the charge is His; and as to the responsibility, the responsibility is His; and as to the care, all the care is His. Is there any danger of your abusing these truths? Is it possible that any of you can say, “ Well, if this be the case, I have certainly asked Christ to take the charge of my soul, and I may be as careless as I please.” When you put yourself into the hands of a physician, you feel that you are accountable for obedience to his instructions, and that his resources are made available to you just as you are submissive to his treatment. Just so with our Saviour Jesus Christ. IV. The confidence of the depositor. “ I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” The confidence of Paul relates to four objects:--1. The general character of the depositary. “ I know what He is, and what He can do; I see and I appreciate all the attributes of His nature; I know that He has an eye that never slumbers nor sleeps, an arm that is never weary, a working hand that is stretched out still, a heart of love--the extent and energy of which surpass knowledge. 2. Then it rests in the ability of the depositary with respect to this particular trust. “ He is able to keep” --able to keep. Few men had so seen the dangers of this world as Paul. God keeps some souls in a blissful, childish ignorance of their dangers, and they go through life with an amount of simplicity which is extraordinary, and which we cannot account for except upon the principle that God does literally hide them as in His pavilion. But there are others whose spiritual senses are so quickened, that they see almost every thing relating to their religious life--at least the many of the spiritual and evil influences to which they are exposed. 3. This confidence relates to the continuousness of the present assurance. “ He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day.” The fires of that day shall burn the wood, hay, stubble, and shall develop in grand contrast the gold, and the silver, and the precious stones. “ Against that day. ‘ He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him.’ He knows what the test of that day will be, and against that day He is able to guard my trust, and nothing that I have committed to His hands, shall even in that day be lost.” 4. Further, you observe, the apostle rests very much in the accuracy, and in the soundness of his own experience. “ I know,” he says, “ whom I have believed.” And how did he know? Did he know through having received the testimony of the prophets, who all bore witness to the Saviour? Did he know simply through having listened to Christian teaching, or to the teaching of such an one as Ananias? No; from these sources he did derive information, but he knew through following Christ, that He was able to keep that which he had committed to Him--he knew through taking advantage of Christ, that He was able--just as you know what a physician can do, by his attendance at your sick bed, or as you may know what a legal adviser is able to do, by the counsel he gives you in some time of temporal perplexity, or just as you may know a friend by his aid in the hour of adversity. He had, again and again, put Jesus Christ to the proof, and the proof had shown that not even God’ s words had fully described the Saviour. (S. Martin.) Christian confidence Let us look, first of all, at this persuasion, which I want you to be the subject of; and then we will see the ground on which it rested; and then the consequences of which it was productive.1. “ I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” You see, it amounts to a perfect persuasion of security here; here is absolute safety, and the experience of it. The word “ persuaded” is as strong as possible. It was the deep inwrought conviction of his soul; it was not liable to be disturbed; it was a settled fact, as you dispose of a thing, and say, That is done, it is settled. It was the persuasion of his mind, that all was safe for eternity. Observe the remarkable use in this text of the word that by the apostle, which is very instructive. He says, “ I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” He uses the word, you see, twice, with no antecedent in either case exactly, and no specific object mentioned to which it refers. There is something very striking about that. He takes for granted, that all will understand it; that no mistake can possibly exist about it; that no man will read the verse, and not at once interpret to what the word “ that” refers in both instances. “ Keep that!” Why, no child here doubts what he means. “ My soul.” “ Against that day!” No child can doubt what day--the great day of His own coming. They are the two things in comparison with which everything else sinks into absolute, utter insignificance. The beauty of this passage, I think, is in that word “ commit.” As expressive and explanatory of the meaning of the word faith, I do not know any more beautiful term. People seem at a less to understand what is meant at last by faith. The best interpretation, I think, is to be found in the idea which that word “ commit” conveys. You commit your goods to a person you can trust; you commit your body, your life, all you have got, exactly in proportion as you have grounds for trusting a man--your welfare, your character, your reputation, your honour. You say, “ I can leave my honour in your hands.” That is exactly the meaning of the word here: “ I have committed.” There is something very beautiful in it, and it seems practically to be this. I have put the matter out of my hands into His.” Now, I wish you would quietly enter into that idea, and thoroughly understand it. I do not know anything that could positively give real comfort to a man, like the certainty that he has put his soul’ s interests out of his own hands into safe keeping. I think this word “ commit” implies not only the apostle’ s sense of the value of the soul, but a man’ s practical inability to keep his own soul. Why do you commit your property to some one to keep? Because you feel that you cannot keep it yourself, for some reason--never mind what. Why do you commit your health into the hands of a physician? Because you feel that you cannot cure yourself. And so on with regard to anything else. You commit your child to an instructor, because you feel that you have more confidence in the instructor. So that the fact of committing anything to another supposes some inability on our part to do the thing. Just so with the soul. I dwell on that with unspeakable comfort. There is a relief to my soul in this idea, that with its tremendous responsibilities, with the awful destinies before it, I can hand it over into Jesus Christ’ s keeping, and that He will keep that which I commit unto Him. 2. But on what ground did the apostle arrive at this supposition--because there must be some ground for it? For instance: if I were to say to you to-morrow, “ Go and commit your property and your interests into the hands of some man,” you would say, “ Why that man? On what grounds? I know nothing about that man.” But if I were to say, “ That man that you know thoroughly well,” and you were thoroughly alive to his capability and power, what would you say? You would say, “ Yes, I know whom you call upon me to believe; I am persuaded that he is able to keep that, if I do commit it to him.” You see, it would altogether depend upon the knowledge you have of the man. So Paul says here: “ I know whom I believe; therefore I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” Now, then, what do we know about Him? What kind of knowledge is it that would warrant Paul, or that will warrant you and me, that we can commit all to Jesus Christ? There might be, of course, endless particulars specified. This is the reason why I call upon you so much to study the whole work and character of Christ. It is, depend upon it, being thoroughly acquainted with the work of Jesus Christ, it is having an intelligent understanding of all that He has done, that gives this kind of unqualified assurance and happy confidence. Therefore we read, “ This is eternal life, to know Thee.” It is not just a sort of glimpse; it is not merely saying, “ I believed Christ died” ; but it is understanding and knowing these things. I often tell you, and I am persuaded of it, that throughout eternity our study will be the cross of Christ. “ Against that day” --that is, right on from the present moment till that day comes. You will observe, that implies the state after death, as well as our present state. I have nothing to suffer in the intermediate state--no purgatory--no difficulties of any kind. He has kept me through life; He will keep me afterwards, for He will keep that which I have committed unto Him to that day. It runs on from the moment a man commits his soul to Christ. The expression is very striking here. It seems to teach us, and to prove by implication, that after that day there is no danger. Then security will not be a matter merely of promise, but of circumstances. When I am perfected in body and soul, where will be my danger? When I am in mansions where there is a gulf betwixt the mansions and hell where Satan is, and he cannot ferry it, all will be perfectly safe. Therefore we are to be as pillars in the temple of God, and to go no more out for ever. 3. Now, then, what was the consequence of it? “ I am not ashamed.” Why was he not ashamed? Because he was the subject of that glorious persuasion that all was safe. And I want you to believe, that there is the closest connection between boldness in a Christian’ s career and assurance in a Christian’ s heart; that no man will take the walk of a Christian, and occupy the path as he ought to do, boldly and consistently and in a straightforward way, unless he feels that all is safe with regard to his everlasting state. He says, “ For which cause I suffer.” For what cause? Because “ I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles; for the which cause I suffer.” When Paul was first brought to God, what did the Lord say about him? He said, “ I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name’ s sake.” It is very remarkable, He did not say, “ I will show him what great things he shall do,” but “ what great things he shall suffer.” If we are consistent followers of God, we must be sufferers. Having alluded to his sufferings, he says, “ I suffer” ; but he adds, “ I am not ashamed.” “ I stand manfully forward and confess Him.” Now, what is the ground? I have already mentioned it. It is because of that persuasion. That is the antidote. (C. Molyneux, B. A.) The use and abuse of dogma A good man at the present day, writing a letter, with death staring him in the face, to an intimate friend, would be likely to write, not, “ I know whom I have believed,” but, “ I know what I have believed.” It comes more natural to us to express our religious convictions so--to think more of the “ what” than of the “ whom” --to cling rather to the creed, or doctrinal system, than to the Living Person, to whom system and creed bear witness. Of course, the doctrinal system implies the Living Person; but the system is nearer to our thoughts than the Person. With St. Paul it was otherwise. To him the Living Person--God our Father, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour--was everything, was all in all; the system was nothing--nay, we may say, had no existence. Therefore it is, that, in view of death and judgment, and all that is most trying to human faith and courage, he writes, “ Nevertheless I am not ashamed” --I feel no fear for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day.” Now this is a matter which both requires and deserves the most careful elucidation. It has a very important hearing upon present difficulties and pressing questions of the day. St. Paul was trained up, as a boy and a young man, m an elaborate religious system, of which the Scribes were the expositors, and the Pharisees the devoted adherents. He was at one time, as he tells us, an enthusiastic votary of finis system himself. But the moment came at last when he found himself compelled to renounce this system utterly, to cast himself at the foot of the cross, and to consecrate his whole life to the love and the service of Jesus Christ. From that moment Christ was everything to him. Strictly speaking, he no longer had anything that could be called a religious system. All was Christ. Take one or two of his most expressive phrases, and you will feel how true this is: “ To me to live is Christ.” “ I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.” We, too, have been trained up, more or less carefully, in an elaborate religious system. Must we break with this system, as St. Paul broke with the religious system in which he had been educated, in order to find, as he found Christ? Must we learn to say with him, in the sense in which he said it, “ What things were gain to me, these I counted loss for Christ” ? Or is it given to us to travel by a road which was denied to him--to preserve unbroken the continuity of religious thought. Here we are in fact touching what I have called one of the most pressing questions of the day, the use and abuse of dogma. And here we find ourselves in presence of two conflicting tendencies--two tendencies which run absolutely counter, the one to the other; one, an impatience, a fierce intolerance of dogma; the other, an equally fierce insistance upon dogma, as almost the one thing needful for these latter days, and the sole antidote for their disorders. You know the battle-cries of the two contending parties; one, demanding definite, distinctive, dogmatic, Church teaching; the other, demanding not dogma, but religion. Observe, then, first of all, that it is impossible for us to put ourselves exactly in St. Paul’ s position, or to get at his result precisely in his way. Eighteen centuries lie between us and him--eighteen centuries of controversy, of division, of development. Dogma is an inevitable growth of time, as every one may learn from his own experience. The opinions of any person who thinks at all, and in proportion as he thinks, pass with lapse of time out of a semi-fluid state into one that is fixed and solid. Such conclusions are to the individual thinker what dogmas are to the Christian Church. St. Paul had never formulated to himself the dogma of the Trinity in Unity: but in the lapse of centuries that dogma became a necessity of Christian thought. But then, this development of dogma--necessary as it is, beneficial as it may be--must never be confounded with the reality of spiritual worship--the worship of the Father in spirit and in truth. It moves along a lower level altogether--the level of the understanding, not of the spirit or of the soul. Herein lies the peril of that vehement insistance upon dogmatic teaching, which is so common in these days. Unless it be most carefully guarded, it leads straight to the conclusion that to hold the right dogmas is to be in the way of life. The light of life, the light which quickens, the light which is life, can be ours only on condition that we follow Christ. Dogmatic developments, then, are one thing; the religious or spiritual life of the soul is another thing. And the former may, certainly, be so handled and used, as to give no help to the latter. Yet there is, undoubtedly, a relation between the two; and the former may be made to minister to the latter, it we will. And the question is, What is this relation? and, How may the dogmatic development be made subservient to the spiritual life? Christ says, “ I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Life, eternal life, salvation, redemption, righteousness: such words as these express the first and the last thought of the gospel of Christ, the aim of which is ever to touch and quicken and heal the souls of men. First in the historical order, and first in the order of thought, comes the spiritual reality, “ the word of life” ; afterwards the dogmatic form and framework. The latter is, as it were, the body, of which the former is the soul. The words of Jesus are, as we should expect they would be, the purest conceivable expression of spiritual truth, with the slightest possible admixture of anything extraneous and unessential. For this very reason it is often exceedingly difficult to grasp their import--always quite impossible to exhaust their fulness. When we pass from the words of Jesus to the words of His apostles, we trace the first beginnings of that inevitable action of the human intellect upon spiritual truth, of which the growth of dogma is the result. It could not be other wise. The disciple could not be altogether as the Master. But though we may thus trace in the Epistles of the New Testament the development of the first “ organic filaments,” out of which in time would be constructed the full-grown body of Christian dogma--the shooting of the little spikes of ice across the waters of life and salvation, which would eventually lead on to the fixity and rigidity of the whole;--yet are they so full of light, from proximity to the Fountain of all light, that the spiritual always predominates over the intellectual, and the spiritual elements of their teaching are visible on the surface, or scarcely below the surface, of the words in which it is couched. But, as time went on, the intellectual form began more and more to predominate over the spiritual substance; until, at last, it has come to be often no slight task to disentangle the one from the other, and so to get at that which is spiritual; and which, being spiritual, can be made food and refreshment and life to the soul. So far we have been dealing with the questions: “ What is the relation of dogma to religion?” and “ How may the dogmatic development be made to minister to the religious life?” And our answer to these questions may be summed up thus: Christ’ s own words, first and before all, go straight to the springs of the religious life, that is, the life of faith and hope and love, of aspiration and endeavour; and, after these, the words of His apostles. Christian dogma grows out of the unavoidable action of the human intellect upon these words, and upon the thoughts which they express. In order to minister to the soul’ s true life, such dogma must be translated back, by the aid of the Holy Scriptures, into the spiritual elements out of which it has sprung. When it becomes the question of the truth or falsehood of any particular dogmatic develop ment, the testing process with reference to it will take two forms. We shall ascertain whether, or no, it can be resolved or translated back into any spiritual elements--into any rays of that light, of which it is said, “ I am the light of the world.” And, again, we shall ascertain, if possible, what are its direct effects upon human conduct and character. Does it tend, or not, to produce that new life, of which Jesus Christ is the pattern? If it does; then, unquestionably, there are in it rays of the true light, though mixed, it may be, with much error, and crossed by many bands of darkness. It must be our endeavour to disengage the rays of light from the darkness which accompanies them. Each generation of Christendom in turn has seen something of those riches, which was hidden from others. No one generation has yet seen the whole. Now, that this should be so, has many lessons for us; one or two of which we will set down, and so bring our subject to a conclusion. First of all, it devolves upon each generation in turn a grave responsibility; for each in turn may be put to the necessity of revising the work of its predecessors--such revision being rendered necessary by the peculiar circumstances of the generation in and for which the work is done. And whilst saying this, and claiming this our lawful liberty, we can also do full justice to the generations which have preceded us, and recognise the immense debt of gratitude which we owe to them. They have registered, for their own benefit and for ours, that aspect of the “ unsearchable riches,” which it was given to them to see. Every succeeding generation is bound to take full and reverent account of the labours of its predecessors, on pain of forfeiting something--some aspect of truth--which it would be most perilous and damaging to lose. And this, last of all, teaches us a much-needed lesson of humility, charity, and tolerance. (D. J. Vaughan, M. A.) Faith In analysing those words I find three distinct ideas:--The faith of St. Paul expressed by the words, “ I have believed” ; the object of his faith which he recalls by saying whom he has believed; the certainty of his faith marked with so much strength and serenity by this expression, “ I know whom I have believed.” I. What is faith? Consult, on this subject the most widely spread opinion of this time and country. You will be told that faith is an act of intellectual submission by which man accepts as certain the teachings of religious authority. Faith would thus be to the intellectual sphere what obedience is to the practical. This idea early appears in the Church with the decline of Christian spirituality. Faith being thus understood, it resulted that the more numerous were the articles of faith which the believer admitted the stronger seemed his faith, and that the more difficult those articles were to admit it was the more meritorious. According to this way of seeing, he would be pre-eminently the man of faith who, refusing to know anything, to wish anything, to judge anything of himself, could say, “ I believe what the Church believes,” and he would have no other rule but absolute submission, without reserve, to the authority speaking by the voice of his spiritual director. I ask you if you there recognise the teaching of Scripture, if that is the idea which it gives us of faith? You have read those admirable pages in which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews passes in review all the believers of the ancient covenant, all those men of whom the world was not worthy. Now, in all those examples, is faith ever presented to you as an abdication of the intelligence, as the passive acceptation of a certain number of truths? Never. I know, however, and God preserve me from forgetting, that there is an element of submission and of obedience in faith, but at the same time I affirm that all of faith is not included therein. Faith, according to Scripture, is the impulse of the soul grasping the invisible God, and, in its highest sense, the faith which saves is the impulse of the trusting soul apprehending in Jesus Christ the Saviour and the Son of God. Why talk to us of abdication? In the impulse of faith there is all the soul--the soul that loves and thinks, the soul with all its spiritual energies. It is said to us, one must be weak in order to believe. Are you quite sure? This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ 2 Timothy 1:13 Hold fast the form of sound words.Systematic knowledge of the gospel While Paul was passing through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the Churches, he came to Lystra, where he found a certain disciple, named Timothy, who was highly esteemed by the Christian brethren in that city. This recommended him to the notice and acquaintance of the apostle; who being fully persuaded of his unfeigned piety and promising talents, determined to take him with him, and prepare him by proper instruction to preach the gospel. Timothy gratefully received and wisely improved this precious privilege, made great proficiency in theological knowledge, and soon became acquainted with the whole scheme of religious sentiments which the apostle embraced and taught. This form of sound words, or rather this system of sound doctrines, the apostle taught Timothy, and exhorted him to hold fast as a necessary and indispensable qualification for the gospel ministry. The opinion and practice of the apostle in this instance naturally leads us to conclude that a systematical knowledge of the gospel is still necessary to qualify other pious young men as well as Timothy for the same sacred office.1. Young men who are preparing for the ministry should understand the harmony and connection which run through all the peculiar and essential doctrines of the gospel. These are so intimately connected that they cannot be clearly understood separately considered. 2. A systematical knowledge of the principal doctrines of the Bible is necessary in order to understand and explain the true meaning of the Scriptures in general. 3. Young men who are preparing for the ministry should have a systematical knowledge of the gospel, that they may be able to guard themselves against the religious errors to which they are peculiarly exposed. 4. It is necessary that those who are preparing for the ministry should have a systematical knowledge of the gospel in order to be able to refute as well as to avoid religious errors. 5. A systematical knowledge of the gospel is no less necessary in order to qualify pious young men to preach both the doctrines and duties of Christianity in the most plain, instructive, and profitable manner. It now remains to point out some things which seem naturally to flow from the subject.1. The first thing suggested by the subject is that there can be no reasonable objection against all human systems of divinity. It is said that systems of divinity tend to promote religious controversies, which are highly prejudicial to practical religion. But it is very evident that they do not give rise to religious disputes, because religious disputes have always given rise to them. It is said that systems of divinity tend to prevent men from forming any real opinions of their own and to infringe upon their right of private judgment. No man can be said to have a real opinion upon any subject which is not derived from evidence; and if it be derived from evidence, it is totally immaterial whether he derives the evidence from his own investigation, or from conversation, or from reading, or from public or private instruction. It is said that systems of divinity are often the engines of designing men, and intended to propagate error instead of truth. It is not denied that theological systems may have been designed and employed to serve such an evil purpose. But it must be acknowledged, on the other hand, that they may have been designed and employed to counteract the baneful influence of error and to promote the cause of truth. 2. If the leading sentiment in this discourse has been sufficiently supported, we must conclude that it is generally improper for those to undertake to preach the gospel who have never acquired a systematical knowledge of it. In the next place, it appears from what has been said, that both an academical and theological education is highly necessary to qualify pious young men for the work of the ministry. 3. The whole train of the observations which have been made in this discourse now converge to a single point, and unitedly press the important duty of assisting pious and promising youths to furnish their minds with that literary and theological knowledge which is indispensably necessary to prepare them for the gospel ministry. (N. Emmons, D. D.) The form of sound words The numerous and conflicting creeds, confessions of faith, and systems of divinity which are spread over the religious world are but of human authority. What volumes of needless controversy, what angry passions, what words of strife, and what deeds of violence had the world escaped by attention to this simple, obvious, all-important principle! But does it follow from this statement that we ought to have no system of religious opinions whatever; or that, having a system, it is a matter of indifference what that system is? By no means. We are not indeed to assume infallibility, either for ourselves or for the peculiarities of our creed; but it does not follow we should have no fixed creed at all. He who has no creed has nothing which he believes; and he who has nothing which he believes is an unbeliever, an infidel. The evil lies not in having a creed, but in having a wrong one; or in holding and propagating that which we have with tempers that are unkind and by measures that are unchristian. What we design at this time is a brief and plain summary of those religious principles avowed by the community of professing Christians with which we are more especially connected. If, on examination, the form of words we lay before you should be proved “ sound,” we may be allowed to admonish you in the words of the apostle to “ hold it fast.”1. There exists an Infinite Being, the great first cause, whom we call God. There is but one God; but this one God subsists in three personalities or modes, commonly distinguished as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 2. The Holy Scriptures are the only sufficient and authorised rule of faith and practice. It is not intended to be affirmed that nothing is true but what is made known in the sacred writings; but that what is not there revealed cannot be required as an article of faith. 3. Man came out of the bands of his Creator in a state of perfect rectitude, holiness, and felicity. But man was at the same time constituted a moral agent; that is, he was put under a command or law which he had the power and liberty to obey or disobey. He disobeyed; and in consequence of that act of infidelity and rebellion fell from his primeval excellency; his nature became morally defiled; and that moral defilement he transmitted to all his posterity. 4. But mankind were not left to perish in this fallen, sinful, and wretched state: a great plan of redemption and salvation has been originated, and is now in actual existence and operation. This plan took its rise in the boundless benevolence of the eternal Jehovah; and the execution of it was laid on one that is mighty--on our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 5. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of mankind and the founder of our holy religion, is very God. Rut for us men and for our salvation the eternal Word became flesh and dwelt among us, so that the Saviour of the world is Man as well as God, or, in the style of the Scriptures, “ God manifest in the flesh.” 6. The sufferings and death of the man Christ Jesus are a proper and full satisfaction and atonement for the sins of mankind. 7. In that form of words which this Christian community has embraced, it is essential, not only that the blessed Jesus died for sin, but also that He died for the sins of all men; that in the design and appointment of Almighty God, the blood of the covenant extends its saving efficacy wide as the human race; and that, in consequence of the shedding of that blood, salvation is actually put within the grasp of every human soul. 8. We are justified before God and accepted into His favour, not by works of righteousness that we have done, but through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and through that alone. 9. It is the privilege of all who are thus accepted of God to have the assurance of it by the witness of the Spirit in their hearts. 10. As the nature of man is corrupt and sinful, before he can be admitted into the everlasting abodes of purity and bliss, he must undergo a great moral change--A change of disposition and desires--A change of heart and soul. This spiritual, happy revolution we are accustomed to express by such terms as “ regeneration,” “ conversion,” “ the new birth,” etc. 11. This regeneration and whatever else is necessary to the holiness and spiritual life of the soul is effected through the interposition and agency of the Holy Spirit. 12. The soul of man is immortal. 13. Perhaps no discovery of revelation is more stupendous or more consolatory than the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. 14. “ God hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.” 15. Finally, the solemnities of that great and final day of God will issue in the eternal blessedness and glory of the righteous, and in the endless punishment and misery of the wicked. Having thus submitted to you “ the form,” the plan, draught, or outline, as the word signifies, of what we consider “ sound words,” we solemnly request that it may be examined by that only proper test of religious truth, the Word of God. If it accord not with that standard, reject it; but if it do, then attend to the admonition in our text, and “ hold fast the form of sound words.” In the meantime, on this general admonition of the apostle, we may venture to establish the following exhortations.1. Beware and do not exchange “ the form of sound words” for the uncertainties and delusions of infidelity. 2. Beware of error in your religious doctrines. The mode of faith, the class of doctrines we espouse, cannot be a matter of indifference; for, as truth exerts an influence holy and happy, so the tendency of error is impure and destructive. 3. Finally, beware of holding “ the truth in unrighteousness.” Truth itself is of no value only as it influences to an upright, holy, and benevolent practice. (J. Bromley.) The sconce of the Scriptures In these words there is--1. The character of Scripture-doctrine; it is sound words--sound and pure in itself, and sound in its effect, being of a soul-healing virtue (Ezekiel 47:9). 2. The sum of it, faith, showing what we are to believe; and love, what we are to do (1 John 5:8; John 14:15). This love has a particular relation to Christ, all our obedience being to be offered unto God through Him, as our faith fixes on God through Him. This was what the apostle preached. 3. Our duty with respect to it; to hold fast the form of sound words. This signifies-- (1) To have a pattern of the doctrine in our minds, to which all that ministers teach must be conformable. (2) To hold it fast; to cleave to, and keep hold of it, without flinching from it, whatever dangers or difficulties may attend the doing so. Both these senses are implied in the words. I. Let us consider the nature of that faith and obedience which the scripture teaches, with the connection betwixt the two.1. As to faith. Divine faith is a believing of what God has revealed, because God has said it, or revealed it. People may believe Scripture-truths, but not with a Divine faith, unless they believe it on that very ground, the authority of God speaking in His Word. And this Divine faith is the product of the Spirit of God in the heart of a sinner, implanting the habit or principle of faith there, and exciting it to a hearty reception and firm belief of whatever God reveals in His Word. Hence we may infer-- (1) That there can be no right knowledge of God acquired in an ordinary way without the Scriptures (Matthew 22:29). (2) That where the Scriptures are not known, there can be no saving faith. (3) That there is nothing we are bound to believe as a part of faith but what the Scripture teaches, be who they will that propose it, and whatever they may pretend for their warrant. 2. As to obedience, it is that duty which God requires of man. It is that duty and obedience which man owes to God, to His will and laws, in respect of God’ s universal supremacy and sovereign authority over man; and which he should render to Him out of love and gratitude. (1) That there can be no sufficient knowledge of the duty which we owe to God without the Scriptures. (2) That there can be no right obedience yielded to God without them. (3) That there is no point of duty that we are called to, but what the Scripture teaches (Isaiah 8:20). As to the connection of these two, faith and obedience are joined together, because there is no true faith but what is followed with obedience, and no true obedience but what flows from faith. Faith is the loadstone of obedience, and obedience the touchstone of faith, as appears from James 2:1-26. II. I proceed now to consider the manner of the scripture’ s teaching.1. The Scripture teaches some things expressly in so many words; as, “ Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” etc. 2. The Scriptures teach but externally. It is the Spirit that teaches internally. III. I come now to consider the sense of the scripture. The sense of the Scripture is but one, and not manifold. (T. Boston, D. D.) The credenda of Christianity I. Let us consider the object of tenacious preservation: “ the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me.” What is this form of sound words?1. I should answer explicitly, and without hesitation, in the first place, the whole of God’ s inspired truth, contained in the writing of the Old and the New Testament. In the Scriptures are contained all things necessary to be known and practised; and, therefore, this Book must be held with a firm and a tenacious grasp. 2. By “ the form of sound words,” in the next place, it is not at all unreasonable to suppose that the apostle might intend a certain formulary, or system of Divine truth, which he might have given to Timothy, his “ son in the faith,” and a younger teacher in the Church. I say some formulary, or system of Divine truth, in which the great principles of the gospel might be condensed and epitomised. We have warrant in Scripture for such formularies, both in the Old Testament and in the New; and though, indeed, as composed by mere human minds, they are not the object of a Divine faith, any farther than they are found in strict coincidence with the Holy Scriptures; yet they are, nevertheless, profitable and desirable.1. In the first place, it is of great advantage to have a concise, harmonious, connected view of the truth as it stands revealed in Holy Scripture. 2. In the next place, order is known to be a powerful assistant of the memory. 3. In the third place, it is well to have a summary of Christian truth, in order that our testimony among our fellow creatures may be clearly understood and explicitly declared. 4. And finally, that those who are enemies either to the truth or the practice of Christianity, may have that which can be lifted up as a standard against them, so that they cannot mutilate, corrupt, or destroy, “ the truth as it is in Jesus.” It cannot be doubted but that these systems and formularies of Divine truth, rightly exhibited, and sustained by Holy Scripture, have proved in every age a mighty bulwark to the faith of the Christian Church. II. The duty which the Christian owes to the object which we have considered: to hold it fast with a firm and with a determinate grasp. And this implies the following things--1. An accurate acquaintance with the truth which they embody and exhibit. The understanding must be employed in ascertaining the sense and meaning of Holy Scripture, in comparing evidence, in deducing just conclusions from authentic premises, in tracing the harmony, the connection, and the bearing of one truth upon another, so that the various links of the chain may be held in their unbroken connection. 2. There must be a full persuasion of the truth. 3. Finally, there should be a conscientious determination to preserve the truth of the gospel at all hazards, and whatever consequences may possibly ensue with respect to ourselves, or our worldly interests. III. The manner and the spirit in which the tenacity of the truth is to be attempted. It is added, “ in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.” For there is always some danger lest human passion and infirmity should mix themselves even with our conscientious regard to the truth of God. We have to guard against the wrath of the angry polemic; the bitterness of the prejudiced bigot; visionary and fanatic wildness of the enthusiast.1. First, we are to hold fast the truth in faith, because faith is the only ground upon which we receive and retain the truth. We do not receive it by tradition from our fellow-men; we do not receive it upon the authority or credit of any merely human teacher, however much that teacher may be valued by us; but we receive it on the ground of God’ s authority. He has revealed it. We find it in His Book; a book of which the evidences fully substantiate the Divine original. Then we have a witness which is more valuable, in point of fact, than ten thousand theories, or ten thousand merely speculative arguments. This is the inward evidence which every real Christian derives from his own state of mind, his feeling, his character, his conduct; and by which he is able to demonstrate the truth of the blessed gospel. Then we are to maintain the truth in love--“ love which is in Christ Jesus.” I must show this determined and this courageous attachment to the truth, first, for the love of Jesus Christ, who came into the world both to reveal and to confirm it. I must maintain it from love to my own soul. Love to the souls of others should impel me to this courageous maintenance of the truth of the gospel. Could we conceive of a readier method of destroying the entire population of a city than by poisoning the aqueduct, or the fountain, from which they were supplied with their daily drink? What should we think of the guilt of that man who would knowingly drop poison into a living spring, that all who went to quench their thirst, instead of meeting with refreshment and health, should meet with their bane and their destruction? And I never can suppose that man to be under the influence of a candid, generous, and benevolent spirit, who sacrifices the truth, and fails to maintain that which is of infinite importance to God’ s honour, to the salvation of the soul, and to the existence of Christ’ s kingdom amongst men, based, as they are, upon the everlasting and immutable truth of the gospel. (G. Clayton, M. A.) The form of sound words I do not suppose that by this it is intended that Paul ever wrote out for Timothy a list of doctrines; or that be gave him a small abstract of Divinity, to which he desired him to subscribe his name, as the articles of the Church over which he was made a pastor. If so, doubtless that document would have been preserved anti enrolled in the canons of Scripture as one of the writings of an inspired man. I can scarce think such a creed would have been lost, whilst other creeds have been preserved and handed down to us. I conceive that what the apostle meant was this:--“ Timothy, when I have preached to you, you have heard certain grand outlines of truth; you have heard from me the great system of faith in Jesus Christ; in my writings and public speakings you have heard me continually insist upon a certain pattern or form of faith; now, I bid you, my dearly beloved son in the gospel, Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” I. What is a “ form of sound words” ? Ten thousand persons will quarrel upon this. One will say, “ my creed is a form of sound words” ; another will declare that his creed also is sound, if not infallible.1. We will not, therefore, enter into all the minutiae which distinguish creeds from each other, but just simply say, that no system can be a form of sound words unless it is perfectly Scriptural. 2. But since it is said that texts may be found to prove almost everything, we must remark that a form of sound words must be one that exalts God and puts down man. 3. We think, also, that we may judge of the soundness of doctrine by its tendency. We can never think a doctrine sound, when we see plainly upon its very surface that it has a tendency to create sin in men. 4. We shall, perhaps, be asked, what we do regard as a form of sound words, and what those doctrines are which are Scriptural, which at the same time are healthful to the spirit and exalting to God. We answer, we believe that a form of sound words must embrace, first of all, the doctrine of God’ s being and nature, we must have the trinity in unity, and the unity in trinity. 5. Now, we hold, that a form of sound words must look upon man aright as well as upon God aright; it must teach that man is utterly fallen, that he is sinful, and for his sin condemned and in himself altogether hopeless of salvation. 6. And next, we think that a doctrine that is sound must have right views of salvation, as being of the Lord alone, II. Now let me show you the necessity of holding fast this form of sound words, and keeping it for your own sake, for the church’ s sake, for the world’ s salve.1. First, for your own sake, hold it fast, for thereby you will receive ten thousand blessings; you will receive the blessing of peace in your conscience. 2. “ Hold fast the form of sound words,” because it will tend very much to your growth. He who holds fast the truth will grow faster than he who is continually shifting from doctrine to doctrine. 3. I would beseech you to hold it fast for your own sakes, from a remembrance of the great evils which will follow the contrary course. If you do not “ hold fast the form of sound words,” listen to me while I tell you what you will do. In the first place, every deviation from truth is a sin. It is not simply a sin for me to do a wrong act, but it is a sin for me to believe a wrong doctrine. If it be a sin of ignorance, it is nevertheless a sin; but it is not so heinous as a sin of negligence, which I fear it is with many. 4. “ Hold fast the form of sound words,” because error in doctrine almost inevitably leads to error in practice. When a man believes wrongly, he will soon act wrongly. 5. And now, for the good of the Church itself, I want you all to “ hold fast the form of sound words.” Would you wish to see the Church prosperous? Would you wish to see it peaceful? Then “ hold fast the form of sound words.” What is the cause of divisions, schisms, quarrels, and bickerings amongst us? It is not the fault of the truth; it is the fault of the errors. There would have been peace in the Church, entire and perpetual peace, if there had been purity--entire and perpetual purity--in the Church. Going down to Sheerness on Friday, I was told by some one on board that during the late gale several of the ships there had their anchors rent up, and had gone dashing against the other ships, and had done considerable damage. Now, if their anchors had held fast and firm, no damage would have been done. Ask me the cause of the damage which has been done to our Churches by the different denominations, and I tell you, it is because all their anchors did not hold fast. 6. Keep to your faith, I say again, for the Church’ s cake, for so you will promote strength in the Church. I saw lying between Chatham and Sheerness a number of ships that I supposed to be old hulks; and I thought how stupid Government was to let them remain there, and not chop them up for firewood, or something else; but some one said to me, those ships can soon be fitted for service; they look old now, but they only want a little paint, and when the Admiralty requires them, they will be commissioned and made fit for use. So we have heard some people say, “ There are those old doctrines--what good are they?” Wait; there is not a doctrine in God’ s Bible that has not its use. Those ships that you may think are not wanted, will be useful by-and-bye. So it is with the doctrines of the Bible. Do not say, “ Break up those old doctrines, you can do without them.” Nay, we want them, and we must have them. 7. “ Well,” says one, “ I think we ought to hold the truth firmly; but I do not see the necessity for holding the form of it; I think we might cut and trim a little, and then our doctrines would be received better.” 8. Again, I say, “ hold fast the form of sound words,” for the world’ s sake. Pardon me when I say that, speaking after the manner of men, I believe that the progress of the gospel has been awfully impeded by the errors of its preachers. I never wonder when I see a Jew an un-believer in Christianity, for this reason, that the Jews very seldom see Christianity in its beauty. For hundreds of years what has the Jew thought Christianity to be? Why, pure idolatry. He has seen the Catholic bow down to blocks of wood and stone; he has seen him prostrating himself before the Virgin Mary and all saints; and the Jew has said, “ Ah I this is my watchword--Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord; I could not be a Christian, for to worship one God is the essential part of my religion.” So the heathen, I believe, have seen a false system of Christianity, and they have said, “ What! is that your Christianity?” and they did not receive it. III. And now, let me warn you of two dangers. One is, that you will be very much tempted to give up the form of sound words that you hold, on account of the opposition you will meet with. But the greatest obstacle you will have is a sort of slight and cunning, trying to pervert you to the belief that your doctrine is the same with one which is just the very opposite. IV. I am to tell you of the great holdfasts, whereby you are to hold fast the truth of the gospel,1. If I might be allowed to mention one or two before coming to those in the text, I should say, in the first place, if you want to hold fast the truth, seek to get an understanding of it. A man cannot hold a thing fast unless he has a good understanding of it. I never want you to have the faith of the collier who was asked what he believed; he said he believed what the Church believed. “ Well, but what does the Church believe?” He said the Church believed what he believed, and he believed what the Church believed; and so it went all the way round.” Let me exhort you, parents, as much as lieth in you, to give your children sound instruction in the great doctrines of the gospel of Christ. I believe that what Irving once said is a great truth. He said, “ In these modern times you boast and glory, and you think yourselves to be in a high and noble condition, because you have your Sabbath-schools and your British schools, and all kinds of schools for teaching youth. I tell you,” he said, “ that philanthropic and great as these are, they are the ensigns of your disgrace; they show that your land is not a land where parents teach their children at home. They show you there is a want of parental instruction; and though they be blessed things, these Sabbath-schools, they are indications of something wrong, for if we all taught our children there would be no need of strangers to say to our children, ‘ Know the Lord.’“ I trust you will never give up that excellent puritanical habit of catechising your children at home. Any father or mother who entirely gives up a child to the teaching of another has made a mistake. 2. But then, Christian men, above all things, if you hold fast the truth, pray yourselves right into it. An old divine says, “ I have lost many things I learned in the house of God, but I never lost anything I ever learned in the closet.” That which a man learns on his knees, with his Bible open, he will never forget. 3. But the two great holdfasts are here given--faith and love. If ye would hold the truth fast, put your faith in Jesus Christ, and have an ardent love towards Him. Believe the truth. Do not pretend to believe it, but believe it thoroughly. And then the second holdfast is love. Love Christ, and love Christ’ s truth because it is Christ’ s truth, for Christ’ s sake, and if you love the truth you will not let it go. It is very hard to turn a man away from the truth he loves. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Service of the Church of England. I. Of the system of Divine truth which Timothy was, and, consequently, all faithful ministers of the gospel are, to “ hold fast,” we remark, in the first place, that it is called a form. The great truths of revelation are scattered over the whole of the oracles of God; and in order to present those truths in a comprehensive manner to the bulk of mankind, who have neither time nor inclination to seek them out themselves, the Church has, in all ages, retained a summary of Christian doctrine like that which we call the Apostles’ Creed. The apostles themselves knew well, that if they had left the doctrines of Christianity unguarded, or had depended on oral traditions to convey those doctrines uncorrupted to future generations, the Word of God would have been lost in an ungodly world, as was well-nigh the case with the Jews, who had made the Word of God void by their traditions. As it is, the truths of the gospel have had (if we may so speak) a narrow escape from the polluting hands of men. If our Reformers had not rescued the “ form of sound words” from the errors of ten preceding centuries, we should not now be exhorting you, with St. Paul, to “ hold fast the form of sound words which you have heard of us in faith and love.” But whilst we see in the writings of St. Paul an authority for forms, we are far from attaching, any importance to a form as such. To recommend itself to the heart and conscience of a believer, it must not be a mere form of words, but it must be a “ form of sound words” --“ sound speech that cannot be condemned.” In different places, and at different times, forms have been obtruded on the Church, framed according to man’ s device, and some peculiar interpretations of God’ s truth. But for a form to be worthy of being called “ sound,” it must be of sound words. We set up no standard of truth but the pure Word of God; but we do think that a form of doctrine taken from that Word is the readiest mode of preserving the faith; and the best and most precious legacy we can leave to our children is that sound form of words, in which we have been instructed--that sound form of worship, which, after all, is the glory of our land, and a powerful means of upholding Christianity amongst us. II. On what principle, and in what spirit our adherence to our forms is to be maintained. Timothy was to “ hold fast the form of sound words” heard of Paul, on the principle of faith, and in the spirit of love, “ that is in Christ Jesus.” The strongest objection we have ever heard against forms, even admitting them to be of “ sound words,” is, that they are liable to impart a false security to the worshipper, and to become lifeless to the greater number of those who profess adherence to them. We cannot deny but that there is a danger here: we must admit, that the very best system which could ever be devised for maintaining God’ s truth will be sure to have something in it to object to. But this is not owing to the form: we are always too ready to find the blame that belongs to us in anything but our own hearts. A man who holds fast a form, merely because it is respectable, and that other persons may be assured of his orthodoxy, does not hold fast the form on a right principle. He should hold it in faith. It should be something that has life, and not a mere body without a form. Unless we get to that which is within the ark, it matters but little to look at the bending cherubim. Unless our faith is exercised upon the object of all our hope, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ, our forms will but serve to condemn us. But, lastly, we speak of the spirit in which we should adhere to our forms. They are not to be held fast in the spirit of bigotry and exclusion. This is not the spirit in which St. Paul taught Timothy to “ hold fast the form of sound words” : he was to maintain his principles and his system of doctrine “ in love” ; in love no doubt to his Saviour who had loved him to the death, but of charity towards all those who might differ from him on certain points. (R. Burgess, B. D.) The Prayer-book a ready help in drawing near to God The Book of Common Prayer, which has guided the devotions of so many millions, in all lands, to-day, and which has been the comfort of a great multitude which no man can number, in ages past, has been welt described as “ The Sanctuary of our Faith and our Language.” Its words are familiar in every ear, and its ancient forms hallow our daily life. The Prayer-book speaks to us most tenderly of birth, baptism, marriage, and death. Forms of prayer and praise were used in the Jewish Church, by God’ s own appointment, and liturgies have given shape and permanence to the worship of the Christian Church since apostolic times. Our own Prayer-book is especially rich in its ancient treasures, from the fact that it embraces the choicest selections from those heirlooms of the past. It was not the work of a day, nor of a generation, but the legacy of saints and martyrs and confessors; and the words now uttered by God’ s children in this distant age were once spoken by those who faced the rack and the devouring flames, and whose only abiding-places were the dens and caves of the earth. The Communion Service, by itself, is a compact and complete summary of the Christian’ s belief, and a powerful and persuasive sermon enforcing holiness of life. In our every-day, struggling, checkered existence, the Prayer-book bears an important part. When Archbishop Cranmer had resumed his manly courage, and was ready to seal with his blood his faithfulness to the truth of God, he reverently began his dying testimony by reciting the Apostles’ Creed. John Rogers, as he was led in handcuffs through weeping crowds, to be burned at the stake, chanted, with loud and unfaltering voice, the thrilling words of the Miserere. The gentle and gifted Lady Jane Gray nerved herself to lay her head upon the fatal block by reciting the same sweet words, exchanging, in a moment, the earthly crown, with its thorns and trials, for an immortal diadem of glory. St. Augustine and St. Ambrose rise up before us when the grand Te Deum recalls the memorable baptism at Milan. Recent as are the historical records of the Church in this Western world, they are by no means lacking in interest and significance. On the sultry August day in 1583, when Sir Humphrey Gilbert landed on the craggy shores of Newfoundland, to take possession of the continent for England’ s queen, the Cross of Christ was set up, and the solemn offices of the Prayer-book were duly celebrated. Well may we rejoice that this Book of Common Prayer, so powerful for good, has been preserved, by God’ s kind providence, as the heritage of His people! The morning sun, as he rises successively on the nations of the earth, is ever followed by these prayers and praises of martyred saints, and he sinks, at close of day, behind no mountain nor plain nor ocean wave where these holy offices are not heard. After even so brief a summary of what might be said concerning this, the only meet companion volume for the Holy Bible, does not every one among us feel disposed to yield cheerful obedience to the apostle’ s direction concerning the preservation of the casket of sacred truth, “ Hold fast the form of sound words” ? The dying Hammond, amidst the most excruciating pains, stopped his friends, who were praying for him in irregular and unpremeditated words, saying, “ Let us call on God in the voice of His Church!” When the saintly George Herbert was asked what prayers should be offered in his death-chamber, he answered, With warmth, “ The prayers of my mother, the Church of England; there are no prayers like them!” Hannah Moore records her testimony that “ never, in the most rapturous moments of the saintliest minds, have they failed to find in the Prayer-book their most soaring and sustaining wings.” The most devoted Churchman is not disposed to place the Prayer-book above the Bible, but, like the moon in the heavens, it is only a satellite of the Church, borrowing all its light from Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. (J.N.Norton.) The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England The words which I have chosen for the text intimate to us the great importance of the words by which our religious ideas are expressed. The Scriptures, indeed, as indited by the Spirit of God, contain words, of all others, the soundest and the best, by which to express such truths as are necessary for mankind to believe or know. The great God being the author, He has, without doubt, expressed everything there, in a manner of all others the most fit and proper. Nothing else would be consistent with infinite wisdom and goodness, and whatever words we employ, are either true or false, sound or corrupt, as they agree or disagree with the words of the Scriptures. But still there never has been any error, or heresy, or schism in the Church, but its authors have pretended to ground it on the Scriptures. In this all heretics, Greek and Latin, old and new, agree. They all plead Scripture for what they say, and each one pretends that his opinion, be it never so absurd and ridiculous, is in accordance with the words there used. This at first may seem strange, but on further reflection it is not to be so much wondered at; it arises partly from the Scriptures being written in different languages to those with which most men are familiar; so that, if in the translation (admirable as that translation on the whole is) there be any word that seems to favour an erroneous opinion to which men may be inclined, it is too readily concluded that the Scriptures favour it. This arises partly again from the circumstance, that though others are acquainted with the original languages in which the Scriptures are written, they yet are not so fully acquainted with them as to clearly understand the full meaning of every expression. Then again, the rites and customs of countries far distant, and ages far remote, were so different to our own, that they occasion difficulties and obscurities. A large part of the Bible is also written in the highest poetical language, and abounds with metaphors and figures. All classes of individuals have therefore been agreed on the desirableness of some form of sound words, based on the Scriptures. Every one of the foreign churches, I believe, possesses such a form of its own; and those who in our own country left our own Church, also had such a form drawn up for themselves by the assembly of divines at Westminster, and still employ it as their catechism. There is, therefore, no difference of opinion as to the propriety of this--the necessities of the Church have established the approval of it. There are three especial excellencies in the articles, which deserve to be noticed, and which, perhaps, render them pre-eminent among all formularies of faith which have yet been drawn up. They are most eminently evangelical, moderate, and protestant. Evangelical in doctrine, moderate in discipline, and protestant in ceremonials. (J. Garwood, M. A.) The morning exercise methodised “ Hold fast” --Greek, Å÷å. The word hath a double signification, namely, “ to have,” and “ to hold,” and both of these the apostle commends to Timothy, namely--1. To have such a form or collection of gospel-doctrines, as a type or exemplar to which he should conform in his ministry. 2. To hold it, that is, to “ hold it fast,” not to swerve from it in the course of his ministry, but pertinaciously to adhere to it, not to suffer it to be corrupted by men of erroneous principles, nor to part with it upon any terms in the world, but to stand by it, and own it, against all opposition and persecution whatsoever. Doctrine I. Methodical systems of the main and special points of the Christian religion are very useful and profitable both for ministers and people. In the managing of the doctrinal part of this observation, I shall only give you two demonstrations:1. Scripture-pattern;2. The usefulness of such modules. Demonstration 1. Scripture-pattern. The whole Scripture is a large module of saving truth. The Word of God is full of such maps and modules of Divine truths necessary to salvation. The whole gospel, in general, is nothing but the great platform or standard of saving doctrine. But now, more particularly, we may observe that, beside this great universal map or synopsis of Divine truth, there are to be found in Scripture more compendious abstracts containing certain of the main heads and points of saving doctrine, methodised into lesser bodies and tables, for the help of our faith and knowledge; and we find them accommodated, by the penmen of the Holy Ghost, to two special ends and purposes.1. To inform the Church in the principles of religion. The Ten Commandments, a brief abstract of the whole law. Three modules delivered by Christ in His first sermon. The first module contains the beautitudes; a list of particulars wherein man’ s true and chiefest happiness doth consist (Matthew 5:3-11). The second module contains a list of duties; things to be done by every one that would be saved. This our Saviour doth by asserting and expounding the moral law (Matthew 5:17-48), confuting and reforming the false glosses which the scribes and Pharisees had put upon the Ten Commandments, thereby “ making the law of God of none effect.” (Matthew 15:6). And these we may call the facienda, “ things to be done.” The third module contains a list of petitions, which (Matthew 6:9-15) He commends to His disciples, and in them to all succeeding generations of the Church, as a form or directory of prayer. The holy apostles tread in our Saviour’ s steps. You may observe in all their epistles, that in the former part of them they generally lay down a module of gospel-principles, and in the latter part a module of gospel-duties. 2. A second sort of modules, or a second end and design of such modules, is to obviate errors, and to antidote Christians against the poison and infection of rotten, pernicious principles: for no sooner had the good husbandman sowed his field with good seed, but the envious man went out after him, and began to scatter tares (Matthew 13:25). In opposition whereunto, the apostles in their several epistles were careful to furnish the Churches with such modules and platforms of truth as might discover and confute those “ damnable heresies” (2 Peter 2:1). Demonstration 2. The advantages of such modules. Advantage1. For the ornament of the truth. Whether it be delivered from the pulpit or from the press, in such systems and platforms the hearer or reader may, as in a map or table (sometimes of one sort, sometimes of another) behold Divine truths standing one by another in their method and connection, mutually casting light and lustre upon each other. 2. Such types and exemplars of Divine truths are of great help to the understanding. As the collection of many beams and luminaries makes the greater light, so it is in the judgment, a constellation of gospel-principles shining together into the understanding, fills it with distinct and excellent knowledge. 3. Such patterns and platforms, whether of larger or of lesser compass, are a great help to memory. In all arts and sciences, order and method is of singular advantage unto memory. We do easily retain things in our mind, when we have once digested them into order. 4. Such modules serve to quicken affection. Sympathy and harmony have a notable influence upon the affections. 5. It is a marvellous antidote against error and seduction. Gospel-truths in their series and dependence are a chain of gold to tie the truth and the soul close together. 6. Growth in grace is one blessed fruit of such systems and tables of Divine truths. When foundations are well laid, the superstructures are prosperously carried on. Uses.1. In the first place, it serves to justify the practice of the Churches of Jesus Christ, which have their public forms and tables of the fundamental articles of the Christian faith drawn up by the joint labour and travail of their learned and godly divines, after much and solemn seeking of God by fasting and prayer; in the solemn profession whereof they all consent and agree. 2. It serves to show us the benefit and advantage of public catechisms. 3. Hence also I might commend to young students in divinity the reading of systems and compendious abstracts and abridgments. 4. It serves to commend methodical preaching. 5. It commends (not least) constant and fixed hearing. Especially when people sit under a judicious and methodical ministry. “ Loose hearing may please, but the fixed will profit,” ; skipping hearing, for the most part, makes but sceptical Christians. 6. From hence give me leave to commend to you the benefit and advantage of “ the morning exercise.” (T. Case, M. A.) Keep There is a fourfold keeping of this pattern, and all here meant. The first, in memory, not forgetting. Secondly, in faith, not doubting. Thirdly, in affection, not hating. Fourthly, in practice, not disobeying. And there can be none of the four without the first. Some read have; others, hold the pattern: all one in effect. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The pattern It is by some termed the true pattern, or perfect pattern, or form. It seems to be a word borrowed from a painter, who first draws but after a pattern, or from a carpenter that works by rule. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Of sound words A thing may be said to be wholesome or sound four ways. First, when it’ s sound in itself. Secondly, when it works soundness in another thing; or thirdly, preserves it being wrought; and fourthly, when it is a sign of soundness (John 3:12). And all these be in the words of this pattern. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Wholesome doctrine For if the words be not sound, the pattern cannot but be unsound. When poison is mixed with good meats and wines it spoils all; so when the words be not wholesome, the pattern and form of doctrine is defective. One rotten post maketh a weak building. We must be transformed into the doctrine; and as the spirit in the meat we eat is turned into ours, so must the word we read or hear be converted into us (Romans 6:17). And if our spiritual food be not wholesome, our souls will grow sick and die. (J. Barlow, D. D.) “ I pray you to fasten your grips” This sentence I met with in one of those marvellous letters which Samuel Rutherford left as a priceless legacy to the Church of God in all ages. Truly he hath dust of gold. I thought it would make a capital text for a prayer-meeting address, and so I jotted it down. It gripped me, and so I gripped it, in the hope that it might grip you, and lead you “ to fasten your grips.” But do not imagine that I have taken a text from Rutherford because I could not find one in the Bible, for there are many passages of Scripture which teach the same lesson. As for instance, that exhortation, “ Lay hold on eternal life,” or that other, “ Hold fast that thou hast,” or that other, “ Hold fast the form of sound words.” The things of God are not to be trifled with, “ lest at any time we let them slip.” They are to be grasped, as Jacob seized the angel, with “ I will not let thee go.” Faith is first the eye of the soul wherewith it sees the invisible things of God, and then it becomes the hand of the soul, with which it gets a grip of the substance of “ the things not seen as yet.” A man has two hands, and I would urge you to take a double hold upon those things which Satan will try to steal from you. Take hold of them as the limpet takes hold upon the rock, or as the magnet takes hold of steel. Give a life grip--A death grip. “ I pray you to fasten your grips.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Faith in the minister Whatever is held forth in the palsied hand of unbelief is itself made to quiver. Scepticism is a smoking lamp, which, while it gives no light, loads the atmosphere with a thick darkness, if not with a stench. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Creed and life I have heard people say that it cannot matter much what a man believes, so long as he lives up to right moral principles. They might as well remark that it does not matter if the beams of a house are rotten, so long as the door-plate is bright. Where will be the doorplate when the house falls? A hazy creed means a mazy life. A man’ s faith is the mainspring of his actions. He who believes nothing will do nothing, till the devil finds him work. I record as my own experience that when the foundations of faith rocked the superstructure of practice reeled. (Edwd. Garrett.) Men of unsettled creed “ I shape my creed every week,” was the confession of one to me. Whereunto shall I liken such unsettled ones? Are they not like those birds which frequent the Golden Horn, and are to be seen from Constantinople, of which it is to be said that they are always on the wing, and never rest? No one ever saw them alight on the water or on the land; they are for ever poised in mid-air. The natives call them “ lost souls,” seeking rest and finding none. Assuredly men who have no personal rest in the truth, if they are not unsaved themselves, are, at least, very unlikely to save others. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Faith and love So that faith is necessary to keep the pattern; for it purifieth the heart inwardly, and is the true ground of all outward and acceptable obedience. And for love, that’ s needful also. For love helpeth attention, strengtheneth the memory, setteth the will at work, uniteth to God and man, and therefore it is rightly said that by love we fulfil the law, for without this affection our best actions neither please the Creator, nor be profitable to the creature. Would we then practise the apostle’ s doctrine? then let us strive for faith and love. These two support the estate of a Christian, as the two pillars did the house of the Philistines. If these be removed, the foundation of our obedience and salvation fail and fall. He that would soar to heaven wanting either of these may as soon see a bird mount on high and take her stand who wanteth one wing. Faith, like the hand, takes hold on Christ, and love, like the feet, must carry us to Him. Thou wilt say, how may I know when an action is done in faith and love? If it be done in faith: First, Thou must be in the faith, that is, in Christ, and Christ in thee (2 Corinthians 13:5). Secondly, It must be guided by the rule of faith (2 Peter 1:19). Thirdly, It must be done with faith, not doubtingly (Romans 14:23). Fourthly, It must be done to the object of our faith, viz., in obedience to God in Christ, and for His glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). If an action be done in love: First, It is done so freely that there is not the least expectation of any future recompense (Genesis 23:15.) Secondly, So secretly that (if possible) none might ever come to the knowledge thereof. Thirdly, So cheerfully, as there is equal (or rather greater) joy in the doing, than receiving of the like favour. Fourthly, so affectionately, that the more good we do to any, the more we find our hearts enflamed with the love of that person. Which is in Christ Jesus. From the fourfold interpretation we may note so many doctrines. I. That faith and love are given to man of God through Christ Jesus. II. That faith and love in Christ should stir us up to keep the pattern. III. That the object of faith and love is Christ Jesus. IV. That faith and love are comprehended in Christ Jesus. And whereas our apostle hath now brought in this phrase five several times in this short chapter, we may note divers things worthy our instruction. I. That we are hardly brought to believe that all grace and mercy come through Christ Jesus. Divine truths are not easily believed. II. That the best things may often, for good ends, be mentioned. III. That when we speak of any grace or favour received, we should consider through whom it is conveyed to us, viz., Christ Jesus. IV. That the often repetition of the same thing is profitable. V. That what the people most naturally are prone to doubt of, that is principally and often to be preached. VI. That a holy heart is not weary in writing on speaking the same things often. (J. Barlow, D. D.) 2 Timothy 1:14 That good thing which was committed unto thee.The sacred trust I. The charge,--the truth, the Word of God, which--1. Unfolds the true God.2. Proclaims life and salvation through the Redeemer.3. Brings life and immortality to light. II. The duty. We should have--1. A correct knowledge of the Word.2. A devoted attachment to it.3. A desire to preserve it in its integrity.4. A willingness to communicate it freely to others.5. An abiding sense of its responsibility. III. The assistance.1. Our necessities are connected with the Holy Spirit’ s ability.2. Rejoice in His readiness to help. (A. Reed, D. D.) Good things Here are those reprehended who never had any care to possess these worthy things. Nothing in man, or out of him, that is of greater worth, and nothing less regarded. We do count that person blessed that hath his house hung with rich arras, his chests full of gold, and his barns stuffed with corn; and yet we never have esteem of these excellent and rare things. Truly, the least degree of faith is more worth than all the gold of Ophir; a remnant of true love than all the gay garments in the world. Hope of heaven will more rejoice the heart of David than his sceptre and kingdom. But men do not think so, neither will they have it so; yet the day of death, like an equal balance, shall declare it to be so. Are they worthy things? Then put them to the best uses, and abuse them not. And, in the last place, seeing these be worthy things, let us all labour to possess them, for of how much more value a thing is, by so much the more we should strive to obtain it. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Grace once gotten is to be preserved Because, if grace grow weak, the pattern will not be practised. When all the parts of the natural body be in a consumption, can we walk and work in the duties of our particular callings? And if the new man wax pale, and pine away, the paths of God’ s commands will not be run or trodden. For, as all natural actions proceed from the body’ s strength, and the purest spirit, so do all spiritual from the vigour of grace and the new man. When men have got some competency of wealth, they lie long in bed, and will not up to work, and so their riches waste. In like manner it falleth out with God’ s children; for when they have attained to some competency of gifts, they are highly conceited, grow idle, neglect the means, and so are over taken with spiritual poverty, than the which what greater loss? We must then learn here, not only to get grace, but to keep it. We will mourn if we lose our money, grieve if we be deprived of our corn, natural strength and earthly commodities. And shall the loss of grace never pinch us, pierce us? Shall Jonah be so dejected for his gourd, and we never be moved when grace is withered, ready to perish? Shall the earthworm sigh at the loss of goods, and we never shrink at the shipwreck of heavenly gilts? No greater damage than this, none less regarded, more insensible. Let our plants begin to pine, our hair wax grey or fall, it will make some impression. But grace may decay, the spirit faint, and few be wounded in heart. Yet to such a time shall come of great mourning. Then get grace, keep grace; so shall corruption be expelled, extenuated, and the pattern of sound words observed, practised. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The Holy Spirit dwells in man But He is infinite, therefore in all persons. True, yet He is in the faithful in a peculiar and special manner, both by His working and presence. Secondly, He is incomprehensible, notwithstanding, as we may say the sun is in the house, though a part of the beams be but there; so the Spirit is said to be in man, although He be not wholly included in him. We account it a fearful thing to pull down or batter a prince’ s palace, it is death to wash or clip the king’ s coin, and shall we not tremble to wrong and injure this building, for such cannot escape the damnation of hell. This is for the comfort of the faithful. For what greater honour than this, to have the high God to dwell in our hearts? Should our sovereign but come into a poor man’ s cottage, he would rejoice, and good reason, for that all his life long. And shall the King of Glory dwell with the sons of men make His chamber of presence in their hearts, and they want hearts to solace themselves in the remembrance of that? And here let man learn a lesson and wonder. Is it the spirit of God in Paul and others, where the spirit of all uncleanness not long before ruled? Admire His humility that would descend so low as to dwell in so mean a habitation. He that dwells in that light that none can attain unto, now dwelleth where was a palpable darkness. Thirdly, where He takes up His lodging there is holiness. This fire purifieth the heart, cleanseth the inward man, though never so full of filthiness in former time (1 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 5:18). Thou wilt say, Sir, by what way may I come to this thing? Why, thou must get a new heart, for He will never lodge in the old, for that’ s naught. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The indwelling of the Holy Spirit I. The author of life.1. Before Be dwells in us He quickens us (Ephesians 2:1; John 3:5-6; John 6:63).2. Believers are temples of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16).3. True of all believers (Romans 8:9).4. Christ’ s promise respecting it (John 14:16-17). II. The source of unity.1. His indwelling makes that unity a fact (Ephesians 4:4; 1 Corinthians 6:17; 1 Corinthians 12:13-20).2. That fact to be recognised and cherished (Ephesians 4:3).3. One building inhabited by one Spirit (Ephesians 2:22.) III. The pledge of glory.1. The salvation bestowed and the salvation yet to be revealed. Grace and glory (2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Peter 1:5; Psalms 84:2).2. The indwelling Spirit the earnest of our inheritance (2 Corinthians 1:22; 2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:14).3. Recognise His presence.4. Honour and obey Him (Ephesians 4:30). (E. H. Hopkins.) Real Christianity The providence of God requires all Christians and all Churches to show what Christianity really is. Christianity is a larger and better thing than Christendom yet knows. Still the Holy Spirit dwells in the apostolic succession of the whole true Church of Christ, showing it what the things of Christ are, and helping it realise them in Christianity. How, then, are we to understand what the Christianity is, which we are still called to make real on earth? I. The Christianity which the world needs probably transcends any single definition of it which we shall be likely to give. Philosophers have tried many times to define the simple word “ life,” and at best they have had only clumsy success with their definitions of what every one knows by his own healthy pulse-beatings. The definition is not made easier when we prefix the adjective Christian to the word “ life.” If we labour to define in words so large and divine a reality as Christianity, we shall be sure to narrow it in our verbal enclosures, and we can hardly fail to leave whole realms of Christianity out when we have finished our fences of system and denomination. II. Christianity is a larger thing than any one particular aspect or exemplification of it which men may be tempted to put in the place of it. Christianity, as a whole, is greater than the parts of it which men have hastily seized upon, and contended for as the faith of the saints. Christianity is that good thing which all the Churches hold in common, and it is greater than all. The Christianity of Christ is that good thing committed unto us, which is large enough to comprehend all the ideals of Christian prophets, and prayers of devout hearts, as well as the works of faith which have been done on earth. It would be easy to illustrate from current life and literature the natural tendency of the human heart to substitute some favourite part of Christianity for the divine whole of it. And the unfortunate contentions and hindrances to the gospel which follow from this mistake are all around us. Thus one class of persons are called to benevolent works by the Divine charity of Christ, but in their zeal for man they may not realise sufficiently that the charity of God is the benevolence of universal law, and the Christ is the Life because He is also the Truth. Others, on the contrary, impressed by the order and grandeur of the truths of revelation, repeatedly fall into merely doctrinal definitions of Christianity; and, even while defending from supposed error the faith once delivered to the saints, they narrow that faith into a theological conception of Christianity which may have indeed much of the truth, but little of the Spirit of Christ. III. Christianity is that good thing which we have received from Christ. In other words, Christianity is not a spirit merely, or idea, or influence, which we still call by the name of Christ, but which we may receive and even enhance without further reference to the historic Christ. Christianity is more than a spirit of the times, more than a memory of a life for men, more than a distillation in modern literature of the Sermon on the Mount, more than a fragrance of the purest of lives pervading history and grateful still to our refined moral sense. Jesus once said before the chief among the people, “ I receive not honour from men” ; and the patronage of culture cannot make for our wants and sins a Christ from the Father. Christianity is the direct continuation of the life and the work of Jesus of Nazareth in the world. Hence, it would be a vain expectation to imagine that the world can long retain the influence of Christ, the healing aroma of Christianity, and let the Jesus of the Gospels fade into a myth. Christianity, uprooted from its source in Divine facts of redemption, would be but as a cut flower, still pervading for a while our life with its charity, but another day even its perfume would have vanished. The Christianity of Christ is a living love. IV. Christianity is a changed relationship of human souls to God through Christ. Go back to the beginning of Christianity to find out what it is. It began to exist on earth first upon the afternoon of a certain day when the last of the Hebrew prophets, looking upon Jesus as He walked, said, “ Behold the Lamb of God.” And two of his disciples beard him speak, and they followed Jesus. These men are now like new men in another world; in Christ’ s presence all Divine things seem possible to them; they are changed from the centre and core of their being; they are verily born again, for they live henceforth lives as different from their former lives before they came to Christ as though they had actually died out of this world, and come back to it again with the memory in their hearts of a better world. After a few years in Jesus’ companionship, after all that they had witnessed of His death and resurrection, they are themselves as men belonging to another world, citizens of a better country, sojourning for a brief season here. “ Old things are passed away,” says the last-born of the apostles; “ Behold, all things are become new.” This, then, is Christianity--Peter, and John, and other men, living with Christ in a new relationship to God. It is a happy, hopeful, all-transfiguring relationship of human souls to God. Christ giving His Spirit to the disciples, disciples witnessing of the Christ--this, this is Christianity. What, then, is Christianity? It is, we say, the doctrine of Christ. What is the doctrine of Christ? Men sound in the faith; men made whole, men living according to Christ. The doctrine of Christ is not a word, or a system of words. It is not a book, or a collection of writings. He wrote His doctrine in the book of human life. He made men His Scriptures. His doctrine was the teaching of the living Spirit. The doctrine of Christ--lo! Peter, the tempestuous man, strong one moment and weak another, become now a man of steady hope, confessor, and martyr--he is the doctrine of Christ! The son of thunder become the apostle of love--he is the doctrine of Christ! The persecutor becomes one who dies daily for the salvation of the Gentiles--he is the doctrine of Christ! V. Christianity is the company of disciples in new relationship with one another, and towards all men, through Christ. The new redeemed society is Christianity. A man cannot be a Christian, at least not a whole Christian, by himself alone. To seek to live a Christian life by one’ s self, in the secrecy of one’ s own heart, is an endeavour foreign to the original genius of Christianity. Christianity, when it is finished, will be the best society gathered from all the ages, the perfect society of the kingdom of heaven. How can a man expect to fit himself for that blessed society by neglecting here and new to enter into the fellowship of believers who seek to prepare themselves for that final society of the Lord by meeting and breaking bread together at His table? To be a Christian, therefore, is to be actually a follower of Christ with His disciples. And to make real and not merely nominal work of it We shall need often with deliberate resolution to give ourselves up to our own faiths, to throw ourselves manfully upon their current, and to let them catch us up and bear us whither they will. (N. Smyth, D. D.) A sufficient endowment “ The influence of Mr. Moody is wonderful,” said a lady to her minister; “ he is not intellectual, nor eloquent, nor learned, and his appearance is not prepossessing.” “ Ah!” replied the minister, “ but he has the Spirit of God in him.” “ Yes,” she responded, “ and that is all.” “ All!” exclaimed the minister; “ is not that everything?” An essential provision of Christianity Is not this power of God, through the Holy Ghost, an essential provision of Christianity? Could the Word of God be “ a living Word” without it? We can no more conceive of Christianity as destitute of this Divine influence than as destitute of Christ. We look upon the face of nature and perceive that all its external forms are based upon one common principle of life; and were this withdrawn all things must die. So in like manner, looking upon external Christianity--its doctrines, its Sabbaths, its worship, its points of holiness, joy, and moral excellence, produced in perfect uniformity in all ages and amongst all classes--we perceive that there must exist beneath the surface some uniform power; and what can this be but the power of God through His Holy Spirit? And this belongs to the system, is inherent, permanent, certain. By the impulses of this power the “ Word of God” effects its glorious triumphs; and, when it is withdrawn, Christianity sinks into the condition of an empty form. (J. Dixon, D. D.) 2 Timothy 1:15 All they which are in Asia be turned away from me.To revolt and turn from our former profession is a foul fault and great offence For Paul doth complain against it, and sets it down as a sin to be abandoned of all men (John 6:66; 1 Timothy 1:19; 1 Timothy 5:11-12). For in so doing we dishonour God; yea, no way more. For will not profane men judge that there is no profit or comfort in serving the Almighty when such forsake their profession? For thus they will reason: if that religion had been good, they and they would never have cast it off. Again, we weaken, as much as in us lies, the Church of Christ; for cut off a member, will not the body be the less powerful? And it gives the devil and his instruments the more encouragement. What? and may such cedars shake, totter, and fall? Then let the weak willows and poplar take heed of the wind. For blessed is he whom other men’ s harms do make to beware. And it shall not be amiss here to lay down some causes of falling away. And they be either, first, inward, or, secondly, outward. The inward be four especially.1. Weakness. Thus many have fallen of infirmity.2. Some affection not mortified. For one such a Jonah in the ship will unsettle all.3. Infidelity. When men want faith, they are unstable in all their ways.4. Want of experience of that secret comfort which the Lord enfuseth into the hearts of such as stand resolutely for His truth in an evil time. The outward causes are principally these:1. Persecution. This hath turned millions backward, who in the days of peace had their faces to Sion-ward. 2. Some wrongs or injuries. 3. Scandal, or offences taken at some doctrine. “ From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him” (John 6:66). 4. The example of great men. Doth any of the rulers or pharisees believe in Him? This is a cord that pulleth thousands from the true path and rule (John 7:48). 5. When men have expected great promotion, but seeing their hopes frustrate, they turn aside. This is a great loadstone to draw an iron heart from the path to heaven. 6. Too much familiarity with men unsettled in the truth. Fearfully have some fallen by this stumbling-block. These be some of the main causes, both inward and outward, that have moved many to become back sliders. So that he that will go on constantly and with resolution must have an eye to all these things. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Fickle friendship What is sweeter than a well-tuned lute, and what more delightful than a faithful friend--one who can cheer us in sorrow with wise and affectionate discourse? Nothing, however, is sooner untuned than a lute, and nothing is more fickle than human friendship. The tone of the one changes with the weather, that of the other with fortune. With a clear sky, a bright sun, and a gentle breeze, you will have friends in plenty; but let fortune frown and the firmament be overcast, and then your friends will prove like the strings of the lute, of which you will tighten ten before yea will find one that will bear the tension and keep the pitch. (Christian Age.) Turncoats The flounder is an ill-looking, dark-coloured, flat fish, which creeps close along the bottom, and frequents, for the most part, banks of mad, from which it is almost indistinguishable. Mr. Agassiz has experimented upon young flounders and their power of changing colour. Placing them upon blackish tiles, they quickly turned mud-colour; moved thence to the “ sand” tiles, only a few minutes elapsed before their leaden skins had paled to dull, yellowish white; transferred to the mimic “ sea-weeds,” in less than five minutes a greenish hue overspread their skins, which would have served well in their native element to keep them unobserved against a mass of algae. (H. O. Mackey.) Necessity of constancy Without constancy there is neither love, friendship, nor virtue in the world. (Addison.) Great wicked men fall by couples (1 Timothy 1:20; 2 Timothy 2:17):--For the devil in all things seeks to imitate the Lord. If God have a Moses and an Aaron, he will have a Jannes and a Jambres. If Christ send out His true disciples by two and by two, Antichrist will do the like. We read of Joshua and Caleb, and of Sanballat and Tobiah: of Paul and Timothy, and of Philetus and Alexander. Because one will toll on and tempt another; for sin uniteth sinners, as grace doth the godly; and by couples they seem to be the less faulty, the more able to defend their false cause. Learn we hence to rise by couples; turn we and allure others to return. For woe to him that is alone when two strong men oppose him or a true cause. (J. Barlow, D. D.) 2 Timothy 1:16 The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus.Onesiphorus of Ephesus The man who now steps upon the scene does not reappear. One Epistle only mentions him, and in the Acts his very name is unrecorded. Let us mark, however, what letter it is which contains these references. It is the last of all the Epistles of Paul, written during his second imprisonment, and not long before his death. He is again at Rome, but not, as on the former occasion, in his own hired house, with liberty to receive whom lie will, and to speak all that is in his heart. Cold, and worn, and ill, Paul the aged lies in his prison cell; and, of all his many companions, only Luke is with him now. So it happens that the very epistle which is full of the moat, heroic confidence in Divine protection, is marked by the tenderest yearings after human sympathy; and the heart of the apostle is swayed like the sea before the rough wind of unkind desertion, and again under the soft breeze of faithful solicitude and care. Onesiphorus, it is clear, was an Ephesian; for Timothy was at this time resident at Ephesus, and there this man’ s household dwelt. There, then, Paul and he had made acquaintance, during the long-continued campaign of the apostle in the city, now ten years ago. That earlier time is not, forgotten. Every one knew, and Timothy had often heard, of what value his friendship had been. His house was one of the many which had opened to Paul and made him welcome. Children were there, now grown to manhood, who were taught to run to the door at his approach and to draw him joyfully in. Years passed, and they had not met. Business of some kind brings Onesiphorus at last to Rome. Paul is at Rome too, a prisoner, in close confinement, and it is not easy to get access to him. “ No man stood by me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it be not laid to their charge.” This good Ephesian, however, is made of sterner stuff. He applied to the brethren, and, to his astonishment, they have nothing to tell about the apostle. He goes to the government offices and inquires there; there information is scornfully refused. He makes his way, nothing daunted, to the prisons, and gets referred from one jailer to another, till he is almost tired out; but he perseveres, and at last here is a man who can tell him. But does he know the risk to his own liberty, perhaps to his own life? He knows; he is prepared to face it, if only he may see Paul. “ He sought me out very diligently, and found me” --found the solitary old man with the chains on his hands, and the damp, dark prison walls round him. What a meeting must that have been! Sunshine pouring into the mouth of a cave is a poor emblem of what the sight of that brave and cheerful countenance must have been to Paul. It was not, then, in vain, that Jesus had left the word on record for His disciples, “ I was in prison, and ye came unto Me.” Christian sympathy will find a way through every difficulty, and a key for every prison door. Paul has no silver or gold to give; he is so poor that he cannot buy a cloak to keep off the cold; but he has something to be prized far more--A good man’ s prayers. Those prayers he offers both for Onesiphorus himself and his family. “ The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus.” “ The Lord grant it unto him.” Nor is it Onesiphorus alone for whom Paul would pray. Let his household, too, be saved. Those sweet children, to whom he had so often spoken of the love of Jesus; those faithful servants, who had their master’ s example to guide them; the kinsfolk, who came to visit him; may they all be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord their God! See how great the blessing is of belonging to a godly home. Onesiphorus has been abundantly recompensed in time and in eternity for all that tie had done and dared for Paul. Need we fear to be overlooked? We have the servants’ prayers, We have the Master’ s promise. “ Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.” (W. Brock.) The brother born for adversity A good man in these verses counts up what his friend had done for him, and then, to the best of his ability, he makes a payment. I. What had Osesiphorus done for Paul?1. “ When he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently.” We cannot tell what it was that took Onesiphorus to Rome. Perhaps he was a merchant, and went there to buy and sell. Perhaps he was a scholar, and went there to listen to its poets and orators, and to acquaint himself with its works of art. But whatever he went for, he resolved to see his friend. It is possible that he was not at once successful. But he grudged no time, he spared no effort. And at length he succeeded. He found Paul. Some, perhaps, had they been in the place of Onesiphorus, would have been equally well pleased not to have found Paul. They would have reported to the Church, at their return home, that they had made various efforts, and had failed, and that probably the apostle was either dead or had been removed to another city. Their consciences would have been quieted, and perhaps their friends satisfied. But Onesiphorus was not anxious merely to quiet his conscience. What had Onesiphorus done for Paul? He had gone to see him not once, but many times. “ He oft refreshed me.” Perseverance in sympathy or in active kindness is more difficult than the being once sympathising, or once kind. Yet, though difficult, how valuable it is I 2. There is one characteristic of Onesiphorus’ visits to Paul which is well worth noticing. The apostle was refreshed by them. “ He oft refreshed me.” Visits to the sick and the poor may be very depressing. We may go to tell them our own troubles instead of listening to theirs, or we may go to chide and scold--to tell how that, if we had been in their places, debts would not have been contracted, nor sicknesses taken, or we may go and “ talk good,” and that by the hour, while the weary or the bereaved one listens in submission. And the intention in all this may have been very kind. We went--for we felt it was our duty to go--and we did our best. But, alas! our visits healed no wound--they brought no sunshine. Yet how refreshing are the visits of some, and among them those of Onesiphorus. “ He oft refreshed me.” Do the words suggest to us any other visitant who comes in dark moments with “ thoughts of peace and not of evil” ? Is there not One who says, “ Come unto Me, all ye that travail, and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.” 3. Further, says the apostle, “ he was not ashamed of my chain.” If our friends are under reproach, our going to visit them, or in any manner permitting their names to be associated with our own, is a proof of our constancy. Most men are willing enough to worship the rising sun. If we hear of any one, with whom we have a casual acquaintance, becoming suddenly distinguished by a literary production, or a work of art, or an act of heroism, we are very swift to put forth our claims to recognition or companionship. But if a friend become poor, how prone we are to “ cut” him, or, if he be dishonoured, to deny him. Onesiphorus despised the shame. 4. And be it observed that what was now done at Rome had been done elsewhere. For, says the apostle, “ In how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.” Perhaps at Ephesus the apostle had slept under his roof, had eaten, and that oft, at his table, had been helped by his purse, his time, his money. And now he shows that he had not become wearied in well-doing. And so he illustrated Solomon’ s proverb, “ A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” II. And now we will look at the payment the apostle rendered. “ The Lord,” says he, “ give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus.” May children, and wife, and servants--all who dwell within the house or cluster round it--share the Divine bounty. May mercy engirdle its walls and canopy its reel May it fall each night upon them that dwell therein as the soft dew. May it rise on them each morning as the blessed sun. In each breast may it settle like a gentle bird; in each car may it ring like the chime of church bells. May mercy take the ham] of each and guide him, and watch over the plans of each and prosper him, and light up the prospects of each and cheer him. And, at last, may mercy make the pillow of caeca soft and easy, and enable each to close his eyes in the conviction that all beyond is well; that the strange land to which he is going is still a land of mercy, and that in it there is a welcome waiting from Him who is the “ Father of mercies and the God of all consolation.” But a particular period is named to which the apostle’ s prayers pointed. “ The Lord grant that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.” How blessed will it be to find mercy of the Lord in that day, and to find it as the kindly recompense for deeds done in days gone by. Who would have thought that there was any connection between those visits paid by Onesiphorus to a lonely man in irons in a gloomy prison, in a gloomy street, in the capital of the Caesars, and the transactions of that period when the throne should be set and the books opened? What thread of connection is there between these? Only this: that seed bears its appropriate crop, that certain consequences follow certain antecedents to the end of time--yes, and after time! (J. F. Serjeant, M. A.) Onesiphorus Onesiphorus comes into view as a ship appears upon the ocean when she crosses the pathway of the moon. Very little is known of his life before or after this brief contact with the life of Paul. The radiance which the apostle casts upon the page of history makes Onesiphorus visible. In this light the beauty of a noble character, whose gentle ministrations were the solace of one of God’ s servants, is evident. The moon discovers the model of a ship, and also her course; and an acquaintance is formed with a stranger of the ancient time because he stands near to, and sympathises with, a notable man. So true is it that life depends for its efficiency and its estimate upon the relations which it sustains, and that obscurity and fame are determined by the perspective. The apostle was a prisoner in a Roman dungeon. The comforts of “ his own hired house” were no longer his. Nero was the Emperor. Christianity had been charged with political designs. The sword of the persecutor was red with blood. There was little hope of a favourable verdict at the bar of Caesar. One companion after another had found it convenient to leave Paul. “ Only Luke is with me,” was the sad announcement which Timothy read when he opened the last letter of his honoured friend. It was not safe to visit such a prisoner. He was a marked man. The caprice of the Emperor was ready to seize upon any protest. His spies filled the city. A single word from his lips meant instant death. He had determined to hold Christianity responsible for a great disaster which befell Rome upon the 19th of July, in the year 64. For then a fire broke out in a valley between the Palatine and Caelian Hills, and marched steadily on its downward course for six days and seven nights. Some one must be punished, and Nero selected the Christians as the victims of his wrath. While Christianity was thus enduring persecution, Onesiphorus, an Ephesian, who had befriended Paul in his own city, reached Rome. He learned that the apostle, aged now and infirm, was in prison and in chains. He determined to go to his relief. His courage was equal to his sympathy. As we read these few sentences of Paul’ s letter to Timothy, we are impressed with the unfailing courtesy of the apostle. He appreciates the attentions of his friends, and he never fails to acknowledge them with great delicacy. His letters are models of correspondence, so dignified, so sincere, so frank, so affectionate! They are filled with personal allusions, which exhibit the social character of this eminent man. “ The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day!” How heart-felt! How genuine! How delicate! This sturdy soldier of the cross, whose valour has been displayed upon many a battlefield, commends the truth of the gospel by his courtesy. He does not repel men, but wins them. One of the wise sayings of Hillel, the distinguished Jewish Rabbin, was this: “ Be thou of Aaron’ s disciples, loving peace and seeking for peace, loving the creatures and attracting them to the Law!” Hillel himself was a beautiful illustration of his own teaching. His gentleness of manner was associated with firmness of principle and strength of conviction. Paul, as a Pharisee, must have been familiar with the many traditions which were current among the Jews concerning the renowned teacher, and his own character must have been somewhat affected by his admiration for one whose virtues were praised in the schools of Jerusalem. “ Let a man be always gentle like Hillel, and not hasty like Shammai,” was an oft-repeated injunction. Gamaliel, the teacher of Saul of Tarsus, was the grandson of Hillel, and the school which the future apostle entered was pervaded with aa atmosphere of courtesy. Then, when our Lord taught that zealous Pharisee, and led him to realise the sinfulness of his mistaken zeal which had made him a persecutor, and gave him a new appreciation of the excellence of humble service and gentle ministrations, he advanced to a new recognition of the duty and the opportunity of courtesy. I regard courtesy as one of the efficient graces of the Christian life. It is the polished mirror which reflects the most light. Bluntness, coarseness rudeness, are not evidences of strength. The courtesy of Lord Chesterfield is not the courtesy of Paul. For Chesterfield, in his letters to his son, exhibits his lack of sincerity, his want of principle. His courtesy is only a thin veneer, which has received constant rubbing until it is worn out. Paul’ s courtesy is the real wood, which is solid down to the heart. The Christian heart is always ready to sustain the Christian manner; and the Christian manner is Christ’ s manner. He commended truth by his address. Can you wonder that such courtesy as his secured him many friends among the poor and suffering? Does it seem strange that a similar courtesy has led mankind as with magnetic power? And yet we carry too little of it with us into the practical work of daily life. There is many a man whose business hours never hear a single kind word--A “ thank you,” an “ if you please.” Service becomes drudgery. The rich and the poor draw apart. Hostile camps are organised. Men who should be friends look angrily at one another. There is a better way for the home, the shop, and the counting-room. It is Christ’ s way, and Paul’ s way, and the way of all who manifest with them the true spirit of love. There is something very fine about this conduct of the large-hearted Ephesian. He was evidently a man of substance, for he had the means at his command which enabled him to help Paul in Ephesus and in Rome. Yet, when he visited the imperial city, where a money value was placed upon almost everything, he went about through the streets and among the prisons to find a despised Jew--one Saul of Tarsus--whose name had become a by-word and a reproach. Social life needs an illustration such as this. We are apt to forget--alas! we are apt to despise--the poor. Yet but for the poor--God’ s own poor--social life would perish in its corruption. It is well for us to appreciate the intimacy of this dependence which it obtains. Spiritual treasures are to be regarded as wealth. We must traffic more. Gold and silver must be exchanged for sympathy and prayer. The material blessings of this life are to be distributed just as the spiritual blessings are. The rich are to live for the poor, and the poor are to live for the rich. The man whose talents qualify him to command armies is to be the protector of the weak, aim the man whose appreciation is sensitive is to be the teacher of the ignorant; the man who has this world’ s goods is to supply his brothel’ s need, and the man who can prevail with God is to realise his responsibility in prayer. The ministrations of Onesiphorus exhibit the watchfulness of God, which is exercised through His servants. The poor saints understand this better than the rich saints can. Their poverty affords many occasions for the manifestation of special providences. And in their lives these special providences are very numerous. God feeds them, as He did Elijah by the brook Cherith. There is a wonderful adaptation of supply and demand. Nor should we fail to discover the dignity which is ours when we are selected by God as His messengers. Subjects always appreciate the preference of a sovereign. God honours us if He makes us His almoners. Let us appreciate the honour, and let us seek to discharge such duties with considerate love. “ Blessed,” says the Psalmist, “ is he that considereth the poor.” This is something more than giving; for it includes the manner of the giving. England has forgotten many of the leaders of fashion who were in favour thirty years ago, but she will never forget that cultured woman who went as nurse to the soldiers of the Crimea. Florence Nightingale once wrote that “ the strong, the healthy wills in any life must determine to pursue the common good at any personal cost, at daily sacrifice. And we must not think that any fit of enthusiasm will carry us through such a life as this. Nothing but the feeling that it is God’ s work more than ours--that we are seeking His success, and not our success--and that we have trained and fitted ourselves by every means which He has granted us to carry oat His work, will enable us to go on.” Christianity waits for such service. When Onesiphorus came into helpful contact with the life of Paul, he secured an unconscious immortality. His is not a principal figure in the Scriptures. He is of secondary rank or importance. But he has secured a grand immortality, while other men, greater, wiser, more conspicuous then than he, are forgotten; and this immortality was secured by self-forgetfulness on the part of Onesiphorus. If we cannot work unless we are sure of a recognition, we shall have no part in the sweet charities which make life tolerable. We must learn of the coral insect, whose instinct teaches it to build until it dies, and which, by building, slowly lifts an island out of the seas, upon which flowers may bloom, and trees may wave, and man may find a home. This, my friends, is our immortality, sure and blessed. “ We are labourers together with God.” It may be that we can do but little. Never mind. We will do what we can. (H. M. Booth, D. D.) Was Onesiphorus dead? The only ground for the hypothesis of the death of Onesiphorus appears in the further reference to his household, rather than to himself, in the final salutations (2 Timothy 4:19). This might easily be explained on another supposition, as well as on that made by the advocates of the “ prayer for the departed.” If Onesiphorus of Ephesus had business in Rome, he may have had reasons for “ visiting Corinth, or Thessalonica, or Alexandria, or Spain, and may have been at too great a distance to receive personally the apostle’ s salutations. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) The balance of probability is decidedly in favour of the view that Onesiphorus was already dead when St. Paul wrote these words. There is not only the fact that he speaks here of “ the house of Onesiphorus” in connection with the present and of Onesiphorus himself only in connection with the past; there is also the still more marked fact that in the final salutations, while greetings are sent to Prisca and Aquila, and from Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, and Claudia, yet it is once more “ the house of Onesiphorus,” and not, Onesiphorus himself, who is saluted. This language is thoroughly intelligible if Onesiphorus was no longer alive but had a wife and children who were still living in Ephesus; but it is not easy to explain this reference in two places to the household of Onesiphorus, if he himself was still alive. In all the other cases the individual, and not the household, is mentioned. Nor is this twofold reference to his family, rather than to himself, the only fact which points in this direction. There is also the character of the apostle’ s prayer. Why does he confine his desires respecting the requital of Onesiphorus’ kindness to the day of judgment? Why does he not also pray that he may be requited in this life? that he “ may prosper and be in health, even as his soul prospereth,” as St. John prays for Gaius (3 John 1:2)? This, again, is thoroughly intelligible if Onesiphorus is already dead. It is much less intelligible if he is still alive. It seems, therefore, to be scarcely too much to say that there is no serious reason for questioning the now widely accepted view that at the time when St. Paul wrote these words Onesiphorus was among the departed. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Sympathy Like the sea anemone, which feels the first returning wave upon the rock, and throws out all its tendrils, so the tender nature of some individuals will give forth all its sympathies at the slightest intimations of woe. (J. Everett.) Sympathetic men What a blessing are rest-giving men and women! People upon whose strong sense and deep and delicate sympathy we can fling ourselves as on to a welcome couch! People into whose presence the worries and irritabilities of life seem afraid to enter! Cathedral-like souls, full of softened lights and restful shadows! Oh, what a refreshment to meet with such! Large, deep natures which have found for themselves rest in God, and whose very presence brings over others what Christ’ s word brought over the Sea of Galilee--A great calm. Souls that are like a vast forest, rich and cool, filled with speaking silences and peopled solitudes, where one can recline for hours or wander for days a stranger to the heat that wearies and withers outside! Such, in some measure, we can all be, and the need for such service to humanity is not sufficiently insisted on. (J. Dawson.) Prison fellow ship Who has not read the story of Picciola; how the prisoner knelt down and nursed the little flower which sprung up between the flagstones in his walk--how, in his loneliness, he talked to it as though it had a soul that could speak hack to him--and how, at length, the strong heart was broken within him, when, with the heat of the sun, it at last withered and died? Or that stranger illustration of the prisoner of the Bastille who knit his affections to a spider, weaving his web in a corner of the cell, and then wept, as one weeps for his first-born, when it was killed through the wanton cruelty of the gaoler? Far beyond this is the joy we have in the fellowship of our own kind. Religious friendship Onesiphorus means “ bringing profit.” The man’ s life was true to his name. He brought profit to himself, others, God. A model minister’ s friend. I. Religious frieindship is eminently practical in its service.1. Invigorating. “ Refreshed me.” Like dew to shrivelled grass and drooping flower. 2. Painstaking. “ Sought,” etc. 3. Courageous. “ In Rome.” “ Not ashamed of my chain.” False friends are swayed by the signs of the times. Like a shadow, they leave us when we pass out of the sunshine. True friendship, based on character, not circumstances, hence unalterable. 4. Continuous. 5. Personal. 6. Proverbial. “ Thou knowest very well.” The true man loves to recount deeds of kindness. 7. Immortal. Kindness is undying. II. Religious friendship is highly distinguished in its reward.1. It gained for him the influence of the mightiest Christian power. 2. It gained for him the influence of prayer for the best blessing “ Mercy.” (1) The most needed blessing.(2) Involves every other. 3. It gained for him the influence of prayer for the best blessing on the most momentous occasion. “ That day” --the judgment--the day of destiny--the final day of mercy. (B. D. Johns.) Refreshing the poorest And here the best may be taxed for omitting of the present occasion, or poor man’ s necessity. We are prone to commit sin instantly, and to put off good and charitable duties from time to time, and to do them lingeringly. But, beloved, this should not be so; we gather fruit when it is the ripest; cut down corn when it is the hardest; let blood when it groweth rankest; and shall we not refresh our brethren being poorest? (J. Barlow, D. D.) The needy not to be neglected We may run from the poor, and his homely bed and cottage; but God and His swift curse will one day overtake us. (J. Barlow, D. D.) A welcome visitor “ I have read recently that in one of the English prisons there was at one time an underground cell, which was used as a place of punishment. Its remoteness, loneliness, and darkness made it a place greatly dreaded. Among the prisoners there was a man of refinement and nervous temperament, to whom the horror of this penalty was a fright that haunted him day and night. At length there was some alleged offence against the prison discipline, for which he was sentenced to four and twenty hours in this dungeon. He was led by the wardens to the place; the door was opened and he had to go down the stairs into its depths. The door was shut. The steps of the wardens died away in the distance; the outermost door was heard as its slamming echoed in the hollow places. Then all was still--A stillness that oppressed with terror amidst a darkness that could be felt. Nervous and full of imagination, the man sank down paralysed with fear. Strange and hideous shapes came out of the gloom, and pointed at him. His brain throbbed as with fever, and mocking voices seemed to come from all sides. He felt that before long the terror must drive him mad. Then suddenly there came the sound of steps overhead; and in a quiet tone the chaplain called him by name. Oh, never was any music so sweet! ‘ God bless you,’ gasped the poor fellow. ‘ Are you there?’ ‘ Yes,’ said the chaplain, ‘ and I am not going to stir from here until you come out.’ The poor man could not thank him enough. ‘ God bless you,’ he cried. ‘ Why, I don’ t mind it a bit now, with you there like that.’ The terror was gone; the very darkness was powerless to hurt while his friend was so near--unseen, but just above.” And so beside us all ever is the unseen yet loving presence of our Master and Friend, and darkness and danger have no longer any power to frighten us. (G.R. Dickenson.) Was not ashamed of my chain. Chains worth wearing Here was Paul, in that large, grand company of men who, in all the ages, have been the victims of great ideals, of noble inspirations, of truth, of virtuous impulses, of high and generous purposes that reach out and beyond him; and there were a thousand men of all sorts coming against Paul’ s life, who appreciated his nobility, his gifts, his eloquence, his scholarship, his Judaism; and they saw nothing else in Paul or upon Paul but his chain, and then they walked away half ashamed and so sorry that so good a man as Paul had to wear a chain. There never was such jewellery in all the ages as that chain of Paul’ s. Never did any goldsmith melt together the rarest pieces from the mines and put them in such delicate and beauteous relationships with one another, as did the Providence of God, when, through countless years and by various circumstances, the prophecies worked out that chain for Paul. Here is a mother, and if she is really a mother she is far more certainly chained than the woman by her side who tosses her little head, for such heads are always small, and has no thought of responsibilities and cares; no thought about those relationships of life which ought to be the most sacred in the world. Here is a young man who has started out to make himself intelligent. He has only a few hours in which to do it. He takes those hours and by all the severe exactions of his noble spirit he is bound so to that ideal that he cannot do this, and he has not an evening for that, and he hurries to his work a chained man, but oh, how grand! Here is a girl who thinks, perhaps, that tomorrow she will begin to sew again, wearily but happily, chained to her work, because yonder in some lowly place in this city her mother is working and waiting, prayerfully doing what she can, for death to take her. But this brave girl is carrying that aged mother upon those weary arms as once the mother carried her, chained, but not with a chain bought at a jewellery store. She has not the kind of jewellery upon her that sparkles upon you at the great reception. No, her jewellery is made by Almighty God; it was mined in the vast secrets of goodness; it was brought out by the heat and fire of that eager life; and God has given her this chain as the mark that she belongs to that grand race of aristocrats. And I care not whether that girl lives in a garret, or lives in a mansion, she belongs to the aristocracy of heaven. In what contrast to these chains appear the chains that have rattled as you came here, my friend; for there are other chains of the most coarse and ignoble kind that bind us. Here is a man who comes and feels, when he sees the picture of that young man earnestly trying to become intelligent, that he is ignorant, and he never knows how much of a chain there is attaching itself to him. Other people do. His smartnesses are simply exhibits of his chain; every time he tries to perpetrate a joke the chain rattles and people see how bound he is to utter ignorance. Here are men and women bound by chains of selfishness. To save your life you cannot conceive of a noble inspiration, The other day, when somebody told you of some one giving some money to a great cause, you sneeringly measured your own soul when you thought you were measuring his, and you said: “ Well, he wanted to be advertised!” You know that is the way you would feel under the circumstances. Your chain rattled, and it rattled so awfully that those who were round about you saw the awful depths of selfishness into which you were about to fall. Here are men who are chained by habit. To save your life, you can’ t get home without feeling the pulling of a chain which you would rather break than to accomplish anything else in the world. But how different are these chains from the ones which Paul wore, as he stood there in the face of Israel and the whole world! That chain was rattling when he spoke, and he uttered that word with such eloquence that it has resounded through the centuries. “ For the hope of Israel,” he said, “ I am bound with this chain. Other men have been bound to the past; I am bound to the future. Other men have been bound to iniquity; I am bound to righteousness. Other men have been bound to low ideals; I am bound to lofty ideals. Other men are in slavery, abject slavery, to those carnal purposes of life that debase; I am in slavery which is sublime, to the true and lofty ideals that exalt. For the hope of Israel, I am bound with that chain.” (F. W. Gunsaulus, D. D.) 2 Timothy 1:18 The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.St. Paul’ s prayer for Onesiphorus I. Mercy is a word we are often using, especially in our prayers. But there are some of us, perhaps, who have no very clear ideas of what mercy is. I must remind you again, that it is not mere kindness or goodness. To ask God to show us mercy is not simply to ask God to do us good. Such a petition includes in it a confession of our wretchedness and our guiltiness; for observe, misery is the proper object of mercy. Mercy, in the strict sense of the word, is kindness exercised towards the wretched; but then there is another use of the term and a more common one. Because our guilt is our greatest misery, mercy often signifies in Scripture pity shown to the guilty; in other words the forgiveness of our sins. In some respects mercy resembles goodness. It is indeed the very same thing, only its object is different. God is good to all, and always has been so; but He was never merciful, till misery appeared needing His compassion. He is good in heaven; every angel there feels and proclaims Him such: but there is no mercy in heaven, for there is no guilt there or wretchedness. And then again mercy is closely allied to grace. If it differs from it at all, it is in this--when we speak of grace, we have respect chiefly to the motive of the giver; when of mercy, to the condition or character of the receiver. Look at God, and then we call mercy grace; look at a man, poor, abject, guilty man, and then we call grace mercy. You see, then, that mercy is the perfection of the Divine goodness. It is that branch or exercise of it, which goes the farthest and does the most. It is goodness blessing us when we merit cursing, and saving us when we are well-nigh lost. Hence, God is said in the Scripture to “ delight in mercy.” His goodness can expand itself in it. He finds in it the freest scope, the largest indulgence, of His benevolence. It is not merely the work, it is the enjoyment, the feast and triumph, of His love. And you see also here another fact, that no man can ever deserve mercy. We often put these two words together, but we ought not to do so; there is a positive contradiction between them. Mercy is grace. It is kindness towards one who has no claim whatever to kindness and is totally undeserving of it. II. Let us pass on now to the day the apostle speaks of. And observe--he does not describe this day; he does not even tell us what day he means: but there is no misunderstanding him: he means the last great day, the day when God will raise the dead and judge the world.1. The apostle’ s thoughts were often dwelling on this day; it was a day very frequently in his contemplation. His mind had evidently become familiar with the prospect of it, and so familiar, that he could not help speaking of it as he would of any well-known and much thought of thing. And so it seems really to have been in the early ages of the Christian Church. We put the day of judgment far from us; we regard it as a day that will certainly come, but after so great an interval of time, that the thought of it need not press on us; but not so the first believers. Their minds were fastened on this day. They “ looked for” it; that is, they were like men looking out anxiously in the east for the first dawn of some long wished for day, like men climbing the lofty mountain to get the first sight of the rising sun on some festal morning. They “ hastened unto” it; that is again, they would have met it if they could. But there is something else implied in this expression. 2. It intimates also that this day is a most important one. There is the idea of pre-eminence contained in his language. We feel as soon as we begin to think, that we cannot estimate as we ought the importance of this day. It will affect every body and every thing on the face of the earth, and to the greatest possible extent. Other days are important to some, but this wilt be important to all. III. Turn now to his prayer. He brings together in it, you observe, the mercy and the day we have been considering. We cannot enter into the spirit of this prayer, unless we keep in mind throughout the character of this Onesiphorus. He was evidently a real Christian. And these kind offices, we may fairly presume, he rendered to the apostle for his Master’ s sake. This kindness under such trying circumstances, this steadfastness and boldness in the face of shame and danger, were the fruits of his faith in Jesus. They are evidences that he was not only a sincere believer in the gospel, but a man of extraordinary faith and love. The inference, then, that we draw from this prayer is this obvious one--our final salvation, the deliverance of even the best of men in the great day of the Lord, will be aa act of mercy. It is sometimes spoken of as an act of justice, and such it really is, if we view it in reference to the Lord Jesus. Before he made His soul an offering for sin, it was promised Him that this stupendous sacrifice should not be made in vain. And the Scripture speaks of our salvation as a righteous thing in another sense--the Lord Jesus has led His people to expect it. But look to the text. The apostle implores in it mercy in that day for his godly friend; and what does he mean? If he means anything, he means this--that after all it must be mercy, free and abounding mercy, that must save that friend, if he is ever saved. He can talk of justice and of righteousness as he looks at his Master on His throne, and remembers what He has done and promised; but when he looks on a fellow-sinner, he loses sight of justice altogether, and can speak of mercy only. And observe, too, how this is said. It is not cold language. It is language coming warm from a most tender and deeply grateful heart. The good works of this man were all before Paul at this time--his boldness in Christ’ s cause, his steadfastness, his kindness; the apostle’ s mind was evidently filled with admiration of him, and his heart glowing with love towards him; yet what in this ardour of feeling does he say? The Lord recompense him after his works? No; he sees in this devoted Christian of Ephesus a miserable sinner like himself, one going soon to Christ’ s judgment-seat, and his only prayer for him is, that he may find mercy there.1. We all still need mercy. There is a notion that a sinner once pardoned, has done with this blessed thing; that he may cease to seek it, and almost cease to think of it. It is error, and gross error. We can never have done with mercy As long as we are in the way to heaven; or rather, mercy will never have done with us. And notice also this remarkable fact--in all his other epistles, the salutation of this apostle to his friends is, “ Grace unto you and peace” ; but when he writes to Timothy and Tiros, men like himself, faithful and beloved, eminent in Christ’ s Church, he alters this salutation. As though to force on our minds the point I am urging--A conviction that the holiest of men still need God’ s mercy--he adds this word “ mercy” to the other two. In each of these epistles his salutation runs, “ Grace, mercy, and peace.” (C. Bradley, M. A.) Paul’ s prayer for his friend To the Christian mind the painful feelings occasioned by the recollection of violated friendship become unspeakably more poignant and intense, when we discover that the claims of friendship and the obligations of religion have been cast off together--that he whom we loved has made shipwreck at once of his faith and of his affection--of his duty to his God and to his friend. An affecting instance of this kind is recorded at the fifteenth verse of the chapter. Was it wonderful, therefore, that from the cold, cruel, and treacherous conduct of these men, he should turn with such a glow of kind and grateful emotion to the faithful and affectionate Onesiphorus? I. There is a day coming, which, from its transcendent importance, merits the emphatic designation of “ that day.” And does not this day deserve the emphatic mention which is here made of it? Compared with every other period in the history of the universe, does it not stand out in unparalleled importance? There are days in the life of every one which, from the event s that transpire in them, are invested with great and merited importance to the individual himself--such as the day of his birth, and of his death. But there is something in the day of final and universal retribution that sinks into obscurity any other eventful period in the history of man. The day of our birth introduces us into a scene empty and shadowy, both in its joys and sorrows, and proverbially brief and transitory in its duration; that day ushers us into a state of being, in which we shall be conversant no more with the dreams only, but with the living realities of perfect felicity or woe, and conversant with them through a duration endless as the reign of the Eternal itself. The day of our death is chiefly interesting to ourselves, and to the little circle who have been connected with us by the ties of kindred or love; the day of judgment is supremely interesting to any rational being who has lived and breathed on the face of our world--A day when the eternal destiny of the whole human race shall be determined with unparalleled publicity and solemnity. How important are those days, in the opinion of men, which have witnessed the fall or the rise of empires. How important was the day that dawned on the tribes of Israel marching from under the yoke of their Egyptian bondage--A day that ever afterwards was held sacred to commemorate their deliverance! How eventful that day that rose on the fall of the Assyrian monarchy, and beheld the empire of the East pass from Belshazzar and his impious race into the hands of the mild and virtuous Cyrus! How painfully memorable, at least to the nation immediately concerned, was the day that beheld the final destruction of Jerusalem, and the rejection and dispersion of its devoted race! How important to these lands of our nativity, and how worthy to be held in grateful remembrance, that day which witnessed the consummation of the glorious struggle that terminated in the vindication and establishment of our civil and religious liberties! But do you not feel that all these days, whether of transient or permanent importance, are so utterly insignificant, when viewed in relation to that day, that the comparison involves in it a kind of incongruity, and is truly a lowering of the awful dignity of the subject? There are but two periods in the history of the world that can be consistently compared, in point of importance to men, with that day--the day that dawned on the creation of our race, which was hailed by the sweet acclaim of the angelic hosts and the day that shone on the birth of the Son of God. In every aspect in which we can view them, these were days big with consequence to the human family; but they were only the introductory scenes to the consummation of the mightiest drama that ever was, or will be, performed on the theatre of the world. II. On that day the mercy of the lord will de regarded by all as unspeakably precious. The mercy of the Lord is, in this world, regarded in a very different light by the various classes of men, if we may judge of their sentiments and opinions from their uniform practice. The great mass of mankind demonstrate by their conduct that, whatever may be their occasional fears and desires, the prevailing habit of their mind is an utter indifference either to the mercy or vengeance of God. But there are a few who are honourably distinguished by different sentiments, who avow it as their opinion, and evince their sincerity by a corresponding practice, that they esteem everything under heaven as utter vanity compared with the mercy of the Lord. And they who have practically esteemed the mercy of the Lord so highly in this world, will value it the more at that terrible day. With all their successful efforts, by the grace of God, to prepare their souls to meet the Lord in peace, and to be found without spot and blameless at His coming, they will impressively feel themselves still to be the objects of His mercy. Yes, and at that day Paul and his fellow-believers will not be singular in prizing the mercy of the Lord. Much as sinners have despised the mercy of the Lord here, they will then despise it no more. III. In the mind of a Christian, that day possesses tremendous consequence, and towards it his eye is habitually directed. Such consequence did this day possess in St. Paul’ s view, that the importance of everything on earth was estimated by its remote or immediate relation to it. Did he, from the hour of his conversion, despise all distinctions of wealth and honour when brought into competition with the knowledge of Christ? It was, that by any means he might attain to a blessed resurrection on that day. Did he practise the most painful and persevering self-denial; or, to use his own words, did he keep under his body and bring it into subjection? It was, that he might not be found disapproved on that day. Was he not ashamed of the sufferings he endured for the gospel? It was because he knew in whom he had believed, and was persuaded that He was able to keep that which He had committed unto him against that day. Did he labour in season and out of season, warning every man, and teaching every man? It was that he might present every man perfect in Christ on that day. Did he muse on the number and steadfastness of his converts? He thought of them as his hope and joy and crown of rejoicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coining at that day. Did he engage in prayer for his converts? It was that the Lord might make them to increase and abound in love, to the end that He might establish their hearts unblameable in holiness at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all His saints, on that day. IV. Enlightened Christian affection is especially solicitous about the eternal well being of its objects. Deeply did the grateful and generous heart of Paul feel the kindness of Onesiphorus. There is no doubt he loved him before as a disciple, and very likely as a personal friend; but his conduct, when he visited Rome, awakened still deeper emotions of gratitude and affection towards him in the bosom of the apostle. And how did he express this sense of the kindness of Onesiphorus? Did he employ all his influence to improve the temporal fortune of his benefactor? Did he request his noble converts in the palace--for some such there were of the emperor’ s household--to exert their power to procure for Onesiphorus some post of honour and emolument in the civil or military establishment of Rome? Or did he write to the Ephesian Church, to which this person probably belonged, enjoining them to prepare some temporal reward, to be given to their deserving countryman for his kindness to himself? No; Paul attached too much importance to the solemnities of the last day and its immediate consequences; he was too much influenced by the scenes of the world to come, to ask for his beloved comforter so poor, so miserable a recompense. He loved him too well to solicit for him a fading, when he might ask for him an unfading crown. He knew too well the worth of his soul, the importance of an eternal well-being, to overlook these for the trifles for an hour, in his desire to reward him. V. Genuine saints have it ever in their power to reward their benefactors. Looking at Paul as a poor despised prisoner in Rome, accused before the emperor of heresy and sedition, befriended by none but by a proscribed and despised sect, which was everywhere spoken against, with all the prejudice of the emperor, and the influence of the Jewish nation strenuously exerted against him--looking at Paul in this light one would speedily conclude, on the principles of the world, that he was a very unlikely person richly to reward his benefactors. But ten thousand times rather would I have laid this poor and apparently helpless captive under obligations to me by kindness to him, than have merited, by the most splendid civil or military services, the gratitude and reward of him who wore the imperial purple. What could Nero, even with a world at his nod, have conferred upon me? He might have lavished upon me all the favours of the imperial court. He might have made me the idol of fortune, and the envy of the proudest of the Roman nobility. He might have given me the conduct of the most honourable expeditions. He might have invested me with the command of the richest of the provinces. Paul had no imperial power or influence; he had even no imperial favour; but he was a favourite in a higher court, where he was every day, almost every hour, an acceptable visitant. He was one of those whose effectual fervent prayer reached the heavenly temple, and, through the channel of the atonement, drew down eternal blessings on his soul, and on the souls of those for whom he interceded. In conclusion, there is one inference very naturally suggested by the last remarks: If these statements are true, how wise it is, setting aside the pure love of benevolence altogether, to be kind to the people of God, especially to the pious poor! (J. Mc Gilchrist.) Mercy in that day I. That there is a day coming, in which to find mercy of the Lord, will be our only consolation and security.1. The day here meant is the day so frequently mentioned in Scripture; and in which we are all most deeply concerned. It is described by many different names, as “ the Day of Judgment,” “ the Day of the Lord,” “ the Last Day,” “ the Day of Wrath,” “ the Day in which God will judge the world.” In that day, then, what will be our only consolation and security? The text reminds us, “ To find mercy of the Lord.” Mercy is another word for grace. It is an act of free and unmerited favour. Men sometimes say that such a person deserves to have mercy shown to him! But this is a very incorrect and careless way of speaking. A man can never deserve mercy. There may be some circumstances in his case, which may make him more particularly an object of compassion. When a criminal by his offence has forfeited his life, and is condemned to die; the king, from pity to the offender, or from some other consideration best known to himself, may grant a pardon and remit the sentence. Here is mercy, an act of free, unmerited grace to the undeserving and the guilty. But to say that there could be anything in the criminal which gave him a claim to mercy, would be to talk absurdly. The very idea, then, of mercy naturally shuts out all idea of merit. These two things are totally contrary to each other, and can never exist together. It is to be feared that many, when they talk of hoping to find mercy, mean in fact to say that they hope to find justice in that day; and that their hopes of being favourably received then are built not on God’ s free mercy, but on their own merits, and on their secret claims to reward. II. That there will be some who in that day will not find mercy of the Lord. St. Paul, when he prays that Onesiphorus may find mercy in that day, clearly intimates it to be possible that he may not find it. And if it were not certain that Onesiphorus would find it, it is not certain that others will find it. Indeed, the Scriptures plainly tell us that all will not find it. We are expressly told that in that day some will say, “ Lord, Lord, open to us” ; to whom He will say, “ Verily, I know you not.” Let us see what the Scriptures teach us concerning those who will find mercy of the Lord in that day.1. They are now seeking mercy, and seeking it in that one way, in which alone God has promised to bestow it. 2. They are duly affected and properly influenced by the views and hopes which they have of the rich mercy of God in Christ. There is a sad propensity in man to abuse the Divine mercy, and to take occasion, from this most glorious perfection of the Almighty, to run the farther and continue the longer in sin. How differently did a sense of God’ s mercy work on the pious David! Hear what he says, “ O Lord, there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.” He felt that the goodness of God led him to repentance. The rich mercy of the Lord, far from hardening his heart, softened and overcame it. (E. Cooper.) Mercy in that day Let us consider the language of the text as showing that the exercise of mercy towards us, especially in the proceedings of the final day, is an object of highest desire and hope.1. The very nature of the occasion shows it to be so: the day of the end of the world. This will differ from all other days. On numbers of the days that are past, our eyes were never opened; they appeared to our forefathers, but fled away ere we had our being; while the days which we behold, they do not witness, for the darkness of death and the grave overshadows them. Thus different in their importance, ordinary days may be to different persons. The day of one man’ s prosperity may be the day of another man’ s adversity. For ancient days we are not responsible, and yet those days were concerned in the accountability of millions who have no concern with our own. But the day referred to in the text will be common to all the sons of Adam. If, then, we consider the period which it occupies, both as to what it follows and what it precedes, how manifest the need of mercy at that day. What recollections of time, what apprehensions of eternity will fill the mind! 2. As it will be the period when God will display the effects of His probationary dispensations, the worth of mercy will then particularly appear. Such effects will be strictly discriminative of character and condition. Events will have reached their issues; moral consequences will be brought together in vast accumulation, and will bear with all their weight upon the mind. Fruits will be reaped in kind and in degree, according to what we have sown. And while these effects will be so concentrated at that day, they will also be looked upon in their character of perpetuity. 3. As it will be the period when the Lord will reward His servants for all they have done in His name, the apostle could entreat mercy for his friend at that day. 4. It is also to be observed that the importance of an interest in Divine mercy at that day appears in the fact that if it be not then enjoyed the hope of it can be cherished no more. (Essex Remembrancer.) Mercy in “ that day” I. Whence arises our need of mercy?1. Our need of mercy arises from our guilt, for mercy is kindness or favour shown to those who are undeserving of it. Our guilt arises from our personal disobedience to the Divine law. We inherit a depraved nature, but it is not for this that God holds us responsible. We are responsible not for what we have inherited, but for what we have done, and therefore it is not by our depraved nature but by our actions we shall be judged. 2. Guilt exposes to the retributive justice of God. There is always the feeling that sin deserves punishment at the hands of God. We know indeed from Scripture that it does so. Nothing could be plainer or more solemn than its statements, than the sinner is even now under the curse of the law which he has broken, and that hereafter he will come under a righteous retribution. But it is not to Scripture that I would now appeal. A man who has violated the laws of his country knows that he deserves to suffer their penalties. It is right, he says, I have sinned, and must bear the punishment. So the sinner against God feels that he deserves to be condemned, and that if God’ s justice were to deal with him he could not escape. From this indissoluble connection between sin and punishment arises our need of mercy. Therefore it is, that the prayer of the publican is the universal prayer of poor, sinful, and perishing humanity. Therefore it is, that in the presence of God’ s holiness, or confronted with His law, or in the near prospect of an eternal world, we shrink back appalled at the consciousness of our guilt. II. Whether it is possible to obtain mercy? This is a question of grave importance; easily answered with the Bible in our hands, but, apart from it, filling us with strange perplexity.1. Without a Divine revelation, we do not know that God is merciful at all. Granting that there is much to excite our hopes, there is as much to awaken our fears. We are ready to say, “ God is good--His tender mercies are over all.” But when the pestilence is abroad in the city, and the tempest in the field--when the rivers overflow their banks, and the mildew blights the precious fruits of the earth--when the crimson tide of war rolls through a land--when men’ s faces are black with famine--when the sea is strewn with wrecks--then we are filled with alarm, and say, “ When I consider, I am afraid of Him.” Think again: What are the conceptions which have been formed of God by those who are destitute of revelation? One of the best and wisest of the heathen doubted whether it was possible for “ God to forgive sin.” The sceptre of the Supreme God was a thunder-bolt--He was cruel, harsh and vindictive Again: When we reflect on the nature of moral government, we perceive serious difficulties in the way of the exercise of mercy. Certainly this is not the end of government. The great object for which it exists is the administration of justice; that it may “ render to every man according to his works.” If mercy, not justice, be its ruling principle, it is not easy to understand why it should exist at all. The highest praise that can be given to an earthly ruler is, that he is “ the terror of evil-doers and the praise of them that do well.” Now apply this to the Divine government. Why does it exist?--whence its language and its laws? Is it not for the maintenance of order?--for the well-being of the creatures whom God has made? And, as far as we have an opportunity of observing, are not the laws of this government strictly carried out--in every case, sooner or later, exacting penalties from the disobedient? If you violate a physical law, there is no mercy for you. 2. But when we turn to the Scriptures, the subject is presented before us in a different light. (1) We learn, in the first place, that God is merciful in Himself. (2) We learn that this mercy is displayed to sinners through the atonement of Christ. III. Why is it that at the day of judgment we shall especially require the exercise of mercy? It is the day that will terminate this world’ s history. Whenever it dawns, time will cease, the world will be burnt up, the heavens will pass away, there will be “ no more sea.” Wonderful was the day of creation, when God called things that were not as though they were, and His Spirit moved over the chaos, and light dawned, and the earth appeared. But more wonderful still will be that day when the purpose for which the world has been created shall have been accomplished, and, like a faded vesture, it shall be folded up. Then the world’ s history will end--its sad tragedies of sorrow, its scenes of suffering; and its works of nature, its wonders of art, the monuments of God’ s power, the trophies of man’ s skill, shall pass away.1. Its absolute certainty. 2. Its scrutiny will be so strict. God will set our iniquities before Him--our secret sins in the light of His countenance. And that which we had forgotten shall be remembered; that which appeared to us but trivial shall assume a magnitude which will fill us with profound alarm; that which we supposed none had witnessed shall be proclaimed. 3. The award will be just and final. 4. It will come unexpectedly. All the representations given of the judgment-day describe it as a sudden and unlooked-for event. But what shall we say of the worldly, the ungodly, the profane? What sudden, destruction will overtake them! Where Pompeii was disinterred, there was discovered in the buried city the remains of those who still preserved the very attitude in which death had overtaken them. There was a skeleton before a mirror, another behind a counter; in the theatre, in the forum, in the temples, at a banquet, in every attitude and position they were found. It was the work of a moment, the burning lava fell, and they died. You are looking forward to many years of life, but the Judge may even now be standing at the door. Who then will find mercy? Those who have sought it and found it now--those who have confessed and forsaken sin--those who humbly rest on the merits of the Saviour’ s sacrifice. (H. J. Gamble.) Paul’ s good wish on behalf of Onesiphorus I. Men are all advancing towards a solemn and momentous period. II. At that period men will stand in need of mercy. When the apostle expresses a wish that his friend may receive mercy, it must be evident to every one that of course he needs it--that without its communication it is impossible that he can be happy. Another inference to be dragon from this principle is, that, in consequence of this transgression by which we are characterised, we are, of course, in danger of punishment by that great Almighty Being whom, in this manner, we have offended. But now, you must at once perceive the whole force of the statement from which these particulars have been deduced. For the purpose of escaping the condemnation of the last great day, there must be a communication of the mercy of the Lord. III. The mercy of God is diligently to be sought in the present world.1. A portion in the provision of Divine grace ought to be sought by you as a matter of intense and impassioned desire. 2. A portion in the full provision of Divine grace should be sought in the spirit of fervent and importunate prayer. We must remark-- IV. To receive mercy is to possess the enjoyment of a vast and incalculable blessing. I scarcely dare venture for a single moment to occupy your time by attempting to describe the blessed consequences of having the Judge for your friend on that day of eternal retribution, feeling, as I do, that the grandeur of the property may appear diminished by the feebleness of the description. V. Those who have the hope of mercy should desire its participation by others. It has already been observed, that the prayer of the apostle is that peculiar form of prayer which is known by the name of intercession. Here is a beautiful example of that spirit which we, as the possessors and heirs of mercy, should cultivate towards those in whom we feel an interest. (James Parsons.) Mercy in the day of judgment I. “that day.” Its date is not given. It would but gratify curiosity. Its length is not specified. It will be long enough for the deliberate judgment of all men. Its coming will be solemnly proclaimed. Ushered in with pomp of angels, sound of trumpet, etc., none will be ignorant of it. Its glory, the revelation of Jesus from heaven upon the throne of judgment this will make it most memorable. Its event, the assembly of quick and dead, and the last assize. Its character, excitement of joy or terror. Its personal interest to each one of us will be paramount. II. The mercy. To arouse us, let us think of those who will find no mercy of the Lord in that day:--Those who had no mercy on others. Those who lived and died impenitent. Those who neglected salvation. How shall they escape? Those who said they needed no mercy: the self-righteous. Those who sought no mercy: procrastinators, and the indifferent. Those who scoffed at Christ, and refused the gospel. Those who sold their Lord, and apostatised from Him. Those who made a false and hypocritical profession. III. To-Day. Remember that now is the accepted time; for you are not yet standing at the judgment bar. You are yet where prayer is heard. You are where faith will save all who exercise it towards Christ. You are where the Spirit strives. You are where sin may be forgiven, at once, and for ever. You are where grace reigns, even though sin abounds. Today is the day of grace; to-morrow may be a day of another sort, for you at least, and possibly for all mankind. The Judge is at the door. Seek mercy immediately, that mercy may be yours for ever. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Going to receive mercy When Thomas Hooker was dying, one said to him, “ Brother, you are going to receive the reward of your labors.” He humbly replied, “ Brother, I am going to receive mercy.” The Christian manner of expressing gratitude The enemies of Christianity, while stating its supposed defects, have asserted that it recognises neither patriotism nor friendship as virtues; that it discountenances, or at least does not encourage, the exercise of gratitude to human benefactors; and that its spirit is unfriendly to many of the finer feelings and sensibilities of our nature. But these assertions prove only that those who make them are unacquainted with the religion, which they blindly assail. Nothing more is necessary to show that they are groundless than a reference to the character of St. Paul. We readily admit, however, or rather we assert it as an important truth, that his religion, though it extinguished none of these feelings, modified them all. It infused into them its own spirit, regulated their exercises and expressions by its own views, and thus stamped upon them a new and distinctive character. It baptized them, if I may be allowed the expression, with the Holy Ghost, in the name of Jesus Christ. Hence, the apostle expressed neither his patriotism, nor his friendship, nor his gratitude, precisely as he would have done, before his conversion to Christianity. These remarks, so far at least as they relate to gratitude, are illustrated and verified by the passage before us, in which he expresses his sense of obligation to a human benefactor. He did not idolise his benefactor; he did not load him with flattering applauses; but from the fulness of his heart he poured out a prayer for him to that God who alone could reward him as the apostle wished him to be rewarded. It is more than possible, that to some persons this mode of expressing gratitude will appear frigid, unmeaning, and unsatisfactory. They will regard it as a very cheap and easy method of requiting a benefactor; and were the case their own, they would probably prefer a small pecuniary recompense, or an honorary reward, to all the prayers which even an apostle could offer on their behalf. It is certain, however, that such persons estimate the value of objects very erroneously, and that their religious views and feelings differ very widely from those which were entertained by St. Paul. But what is the precise import of the petition--that he might then find mercy--and what did it imply? To pray that any one may find mercy of him at the judgment day, is to pray that he may then be pardoned, or saved from deserved punishment, and accepted and treated as if he were righteous. St. Paul, when he prayed that Onesiphorus might find mercy of his Judge at that day, must then have believed, that he would at that day need mercy or pardon. And if so, he must have believed that, in the sight of God, he was guilty; for by the guilty alone can pardoning mercy be needed. The innocent need nothing but justice. A distinguished modern philosopher, Adam Smith, well known by his celebrated treatise on the Wealth of Nations, has some remarks relative to this subject, which are so just and apposite, that you will readily excuse me for quoting them. “ Man,” says this writer, “ when about to appear before a being of infinite perfection, can feel but little confidence in his own merit, or in the imperfect propriety of his own conduct. To such a being he can scarce imagine that his littleness and weakness should ever seem to be the proper object either of esteem or regard. But he can easily conceive how the numberless violations of duty of which lie has been guilty should render him the object of aversion and punishment; nor can he see any reason why the Divine indignation should not he let loose without any restraint upon so vile an insect as he is sensible that he himself must appear to be. If he would still hope for happiness he is conscious that he cannot demand it from the justice, but that he must entreat it from the mercy of God. Repentance, sorrow, humiliation, contrition at the thought of his past conduct, are, upon this account, the sentiments which become him, and seem to be the only means which he has left of appeasing that wrath which he has justly provoked. He even distrusts the efficacy of all these, and naturally fears, lest the wisdom of God should not, like the weakness of man, be prevailed upon to spare the crime by the most importunate lamentations of the criminal. Some other intercession, some other sacrifice, some other atonement, he imagines, must be made for him, beyond what he himself is capable of making, before the purity of the Divine justice can be reconciled to his manifold offences.” It may perhaps be said, if the apostle’ s views were such as have now been described, if he believed that justice must pronounce a sentence of condemnation on all without exception, on what could he found a hope that either himself, or his benefactor, or any other man, will find mercy of the Lord at that day? These questions are perfectly reasonable and proper, and it would be impossible to answer them in such a manner as to justify the apostle, were not a satisfactory answer furnished by the gospel of Jesus Christ. That gospel reveals to us a glorious plan, devised by infinite wisdom, in which the apparently conflicting claims of justice and mercy are perfectly reconciled. (E. Payson, D. D.) Remember the reckoning day What shall we think of such who never mind this day? Verily, they are much affected with earthly pleasures and profits, and have little regard of the greatest good. Many men in the inn of this world are like the swaggerers and prodigals in a tavern, who call freely, eat and drink, laugh and are fat, but never mind either the reckoning or the time of harvest; for they have sown no good seed, neither have wherewith to dis charge the shot: therefore suffer these things willingly to slip and absent them selves out from their minds, because they have or can expect no commodity by either. But the faithful man is of a contrary mind; for he is sparing in expense, and hath scattered much good grain, the which will bring a goodly crop at his Master’ s appearing, the great day of reaping, both of which cause him often to look upward. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Mercy on the judgment day I. An important season. “ That day.” The day is that which is elsewhere called “ the last day,” because then the end of this world’ s history, as a place of trial at least, will be come; it is called also “ the great day,” because then scenes unparalleled before in grandeur will be unfolded, and affairs that have never been surpassed in magnitude will be transacted--such scenes and affairs as will throw into the shade the most splendid spectacles and momentous transactions of time. II. An important blessing. For a man to find mercy even now, amid the trials and changes and imperfections of this present life, is to be truly blessed. It is to have guaranteed to him all that is included in eternal life--that gift of God--that munificent donation of infinite mercy. Nor will the largess be diminished, or the security invalidated, on the day of judgment.1. There are many considerations besides which go to illustrate the high importance and exceeding desirableness of mercy on that day; and one of these is, that it will then be felt to be peculiarly needful. 2. Another consideration, tending to enhance the value of the blessing, is that it will not be shared in by all. This is obviously implied in the apostle’ s intercessory petition. If the mariner who is saved from the wreck, when all his shipmates are lost, estimates his preservation more highly than he who has returned to the desired haven with them all in safety, must it not seem a glorious benefit to appear as “ vessels of mercy prepared unto glory,” when many fellow-sinners are found to be “ vessels of wrath fitted to destruction” ? 3. Another consideration still, which may well exalt the blessing in our eyes, is that if mercy be not found then, it will never be found. 4. And yet another circumstance which magnifies the value of the blessing is, that the condition of those by whom mercy shall not then be found will be pre-eminently wretched. Not to find mercy on that day is to be undone, altogether and eternally undone. Lessons:1. If mercy is to be found at last, it must be sought now. 2. Again, if mercy is to be found at all, it must be sought through the mediation of Christ. 3. And, in fine, if mercy is to be found of the Lord, it must be sought in His service. (D. Davidson.) The requited of friendship Paul was the friend of Onesiphorus, and how did he manifest his friendship? In carcerated and enchained, poor and destitute, he could not requite, in kind, his benefactor’ s generosity. But another mode of expressing friendship was left him, and as he was shut up to it by circumstances, so he turned to it with fondness. As the waters of a spring, when prevented from flowing forth in their natural channel, mount forcibly up towards heaven--as the portion that is prevented, by exhalation, from diffusing fertility along the course of the stream, descends afterwards in fertilising showers; so the emotions of his overflowing heart, being pent up in one direction by the tyranny of man, ascended in devout aspiration to God, and though seeming to vanish in the vapour of fruitless wishes, entailed the communication of invaluable blessings. (D. Davidson.) The value of a good man’ s prayers I would rather have the gift of a brother’ s faithful prayers than of his plentiful substance. And I feel that when I have given to a brother my faithful prayers I have given him my best and greatest gift. (Edward Irving.) Prayers for the dead That Onesiphorus was dead is a gratuitous assumption. The fact that Paul nowhere else prays for the dead is fatal to the notion here. (J. Bryce, LL. D.) In case even that Onesiphorus were really dead at the time of the writing of this Epistle, still the Roman Catholic interpreters are in error when they find in 2 Timothy 1:18 a proof of the lawfulness and obligation for intercessory prayers for the dead. The case here was altogether special, and cannot, without great wilfulness, be applied as the foundation of a general rule for all the dead. On the other side, it is often forgotten that the gospel nowhere lays down a positive prohibition to follow with our wishes and prayers, if our heart impel us thereto, our departed while in the condition of separation; and hence, in any case, it is well to distinguish between the Christian idea which lies at the foundation of such inward needs, and the form of later Church rite and practice. (Dr. Van Oosterzee.) Beneficent wishes for the dead On the assumption already mentioned as probable (that Onesiphorus was dead), this would, of course, be a prayer for the dead. The reference to the great day of judgment falls in with this hypothesis. Such prayers were, as we know from 2Ma 12:41-45, common among the Jews a century or more before St. Paul’ s time, and there is good ground for thinking that they entered into the ritual of every synagogue and were to be seen in the epitaphs in every Jewish burial-place. From the controversial point of view this may appear to favour the doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome, but facts are facts apart from their controversial bearing. It is, at any rate, clear that such a simple utterance of hope in prayer, like the Shalom (peace) of Jewish, and the Requiescat or Refrigerium of early Christian epitaphs, and the like prayers in early liturgies, though they sanction the natural outpouring of affectionate yearnings, are as far as possible from the full-blown Romish theory of purgatory. (E. H. Plumptre, D. D.) . 2 Timothy 2:1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.The connection Ïõ̓í points back to the defection of others, contrasting it with what St. Paul is satisfied will prove The faithfulness of Timothy. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Imitate the loyal It is as though he said, Imitate the one loyal follower (Onesiphorus), and make up to me for the faithless conduct of so many false friends. (H. D. M. Spence, M. A.) Strength through partnership with Christ Steven Gerard once told a poor cartman to purchase a cargo of sugar, promising to back him. From that moment the cartman’ s wisdom and credit were equal to Gerard’ s, for Gerard was his. If the cartman had forgotten his wise, rich friend, and acted on his own judgment and credit, he would have been weak again, and as foolish as weak. The cartman alone was nothing without wisdom or credit, but the cartman and Gerard were strong. Our strength is in partnership with Christ. Christians strong in Christ Jesus:-- I. Consider the duty incumbent on all who have a mind for heaven, namely, to be strong. What is it to be strong in the sense of the text? It presupposeth one thing, namely, they must be spiritually alive. To be strong imports three things.1. To be ready for action, according to the difficulties you may meet with in your way. 2. That you be resolved. Thus David exhorts Solomon, “ Take heed now,” said he, “ for the Lord hath chosen thee, to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong and do it.” That is, be fully resolved and peremptory, so as not to be diverted by any emerging difficulties. 3. That you be of good courage. What need is there to be strong?1. You have much work before you. The work of your own salvation is upon your hand (Philippians 2:12). You have also to serve your generation, by the will of God. 2. You will meet with much opposition in your work. I now proceed-- II. To consider the direction, namely, that those who would be strong, must be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. What is the grace that is in Christ Jesus?1. Relative grace, that is the free favour of God to poor sinners, by which they are embraced in the arms of His love unto salvation. 2. Real grace, that is the fulness of the Spirit, and His graces, lodged in Jesus Christ, as the fountain and head of influences, from which they are to be derived, into all His members. “ For it hath pleased the Father, that in Him should all fulness dwell. And out of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” What is it to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus?1. It is to be animated to duty by the faith of that grace that is in Christ Jesus for us, both relative and real. 2. It is to be strengthened to duty by supplies of grace derived from Christ Jesus by faith. Why must those that would be strong be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus?1. Because all those that would be strong must be strong as members of Christ, as branches of the vine. 2. Because the grace that is in Christ Jesus is only sufficient to bear us through. (H. Boston, D. D.) Strength of grace I. Multiplicity of arguments should provoke to obedience. “ Thou, therefore.” II. Men regard those most who are the likest minded to themselves. “ My son.” III. Strength of grace is necessary for a christian.1. Comeliness pleads for it. For is not Christ the root, we the branches? He the foundation, we the building? Our head, and we His members? And betwixt these ought there not to be an analogy, a just proportion, otherwise, would it not be unseemly? Should one finger stand still, would we not repute it a blemish? and shall we not do the same in this mystical body? 2. Necessity requires it. We must fast, watch, and pray, fight with principalities, powers, and spiritual enemies, which are in high places. And will not crosses come, thick and threefold--temptations, desertions, sickness, and death, too? What can or will do these, suffer these things, anything but strength of grace, spiritual power? What manner of men ought ministers to be, thundering in preaching, fervent in prayer, shining in life, burning in spirit? And what is necessary for a preacher is required of every Christian, strength of grace. Strength is tried-- (1) In prosperity: art thou humble in thine own eyes? Is thy heart, with the remembrance of the Lord’ s mercies, made hot? and is it thy greatest care, how to promote his glory? When the rain falls, the waters swell: the sun shines, the sweetest flowers smell the spring approacheth, all creatures revive. So when grace grows, our joy is full; our mouths are trumpets sounding aloud, and every member of the body is an active instrument, a never-wearied agent to fight the battles, and finish the great works of our Lord and Master. A willow bows with a small blast: an oak endures, stands upright in a storm. (2) In adversity: art thou patient? etc. The horse neighs at the trumpet; the leviathan laughs at the spear: so a strong man in grace, slights crosses, etc. Helps to grow strong in grace.1. Hast thou, in thy apprehension some seed of sanctification? then seriously think of it, highly esteem of it, and bless thou the Lord for it. 2. Resolve with thyself the highest period of grace, whereof a created nature is capable. Scholars aim at the highest degree; citizens, at the most honourable office; and all tradesmen, at the increase of goods: so should weak Christians to be rich in the grace of God: strong in the Lord. 3. Add to these two, practice: exercise thy talent; put it forth, for Thy own, and thy Master’ s advantage. Is it not written that many acts produce an habit, and to him that hath shall be given? 4. Neglect no means whereby grace is begun, or increased. IV. All grace is from Christ Jesus. Whether we consider the beginning, kinds, or degrees; all grace is in Him, and by Him. Is it not written, that Christ ascended on high; gave gifts unto men? Of His fulness, are we not said to receive grace for grace? that is of all the kinds which are in the Head, the same be derived to His members. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Moral energy I. Moral energy a Divine gift. This verse deals with the great motive power of the Christian religion, what imparts inward strength to frail humanity. Much besides is, so to speak, machinery, and this--the grace of Christ, is the steam, the driving force, without which the most perfect machinery is useless. Paul enjoins Timothy to obtain this force, this inward energy of the soul; and by calling it “ grace” the apostle teaches that it is not like the unconscious forces of nature--the power of wind, or water, or fire, or gravity-which human skill can have at command and direct; but a power of a different, a spiritual order, and bestowed on other conditions. For it flows from the grace or kindness of God, and it is, therefore, called “ grace,” just as an act prompted by kindness is called a kindness, and the same with a favour. II. Christ the source of moral energy. The Christian faith is that the Lord Jesus Christ is the fountain of all power, and the tire of all love, dwelling in the heart, as well as in heaven: “ Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” That is the faith of Christ; and it cannot be said of it that it is a weak, unsubstantial, and merely sentimental religion. It is based on the most sublime facts, for which it offers appropriate evidence; and the power of those facts to arrest, attract, rivet, and renew the hearts of weak and sinful men, and awaken in them an enthusiasm of trust, and gratitude, and devotion--the history of our religion for eighteen hundred years must declare, for no mere language can. III. The command to be strong in Christ. It is very characteristic of Scripture, and of its close conformity to human nature, even in its problems, that this great central thought, of the Divine source of moral energy, should be put into the form of a command to be obeyed--an injunction, for the observance of which man is responsible. It is not said to us, “ Lie helpless till the Divine energy of Christ flows into your soul” ; but, “ Be inwardly strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” “ I charge you to become empowered with that energy.” Such is our strange life, our mysterious nature. Dependent on God yet responsible to Him! “ It is God that worketh in you.” “ Work out your own salvation.” “ I, yet not I,” says Paul. “ By grace ye are saved” and healed; and this grace has its centre and fount in Christ. But it is your duty to have much of it. (T. M. Herbert, M. A.) Our true strength Luther relates concerning one Staupicius, a German divine, that he acknowledged that before he came to understand the free and powerful grace of Christ, he resolved and vowed a hundred times against a particular sin; yet could never get power over it, nor his heart purified from it, till he came to see that he trusted too much to his own resolutions, and too little to Jesus Christ; but when his faith had engaged against his sin, he obtained the victory. (J. L. Nye.) Christ qualifies His servants We are His “ servants.” A master does more than engage a servant: he also gives him the means whereby he may work. The tradesman does not put his servants into a shop wherein there are no goods to sell; the farmer does not send his servants into the field without plough, harrow, or spade; the surgeon does not withhold drugs; nor the lawyer parchment and pens from his servant. It is even so with our great Master. He calls us to work, and, if we ask Him, He will qualify us for it. (T. R. Stevenson.) Self-sufficiency A certain alchemist who waited upon Leo X. declared that he had discovered how to transmute the baser metals into gold. He expected to receive a sum of money for his discovery, but Leo was no such simpleton; he merely gave him a huge purse in which to keep the gold which he would make. There was wisdom as well as sarcasm in the present. That is precisely what God does with proud men, he lets them have the opportunity to do what they boasted of being able to do. I never heard that so much as a solitary gold piece was dropped into Leo’ s purse, and I am sure you will never be spiritually rich by what you can do in your own strength. Be stripped, brother, and then God may be pleased to clothe you with honour, but not till then. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Strong in Christ Jesus When Wingfield expressed his pity for Kirby, who was condemned to die for the truth, the undaunted martyr replied, “ Fire, water, and sword are in His hands, who will not suffer them to separate me from Him.” Here was power from on high perfected in human weakness. Nor was it less manifested in another who exclaimed, “ If every hair on my head were a man, they should suffer death in the faith in which I now stand.” It was in the exhaustion of age, and after long imprisonment, hardship, and ill treatment, that Latimer, when brought out to be burnt at Oxford, lifted his wrinkled hands towards heaven, and cried, “ O God, I thank Thee that Thou hast reserved me to die this death.” (C. Graham.) Christ’ s sufficiency never failing In travelling through the West of England, you come ever and anon upon large tracts of country, bleak, barren, and desolate; no tree, no flower, no blade of grass, no habitation of man. In these wild and dreary wastes you find proofs in abundance that the spots were not always desert. The deep, black, yawning shaft of many a mine; the broken or decaying timbers which still stand around, or over the mouth of those mines; the remains of cottages; all, all tell you that the place was not always a wilderness. But the mines have been rifled of their treasures, the last vein has been opened, the last bucket of precious ore has been drawn up to the surface of the ground; there is nothing more to be gotten from the once rich earth; and so the miners have all departed to seek a supply elsewhere. Now, as you stand there, in that solitude and desolation, hearing no more the miner’ s song, and missing the busy hum of labour, which perhaps years before had greeted you as you walked over those Cornish lands, you can scarcely help contrasting those empty mines with that ever rich and overflowing treasury of blessing which a gracious God has opened to all His people in Jesus Christ. (A. C. Price, B. A.) Strong through faith On an occasion of great drought, which the rain-makers attributed to the missionaries, a Bechuana chief with twelve spears came to command Robert Moffat to leave the territory on pain of death; but he said, “ You may shed my blood, you may burn my dwelling; but my decision is made: I do not leave your country.” And the cause of all this was his faith. He was a man of wonderful faith; he believed the Gospel was the power of God unto salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. He felt that his Master was ever as near to him, and as full of love, as the wife of his bosom; he felt that Christ must reign until He should put all things beneath His feet; and just because he was so strong in faith, he was so strong altogether. (J. C. Harrison.) The conflict and the strength (2 Timothy 2:1-7):--In these seven verses I see-- I. The apostle enumerating the sort of labours and sufferings which his young disciple Timothy would have to endure. II. The grace which is suggested to Timothy as sufficient to support him. (D. Wilson, M. A.) The holy calling of the minister of the Lord I. The extent of this calling (2 Timothy 2:1-7). Presented under figures1. Of the soldier.2. Of the athlete.3. Of the husbandman. II. Motives for the exercise of this calling (2 Timothy 2:8-13).1. A look backwards (2 Timothy 2:8).2. A look around about one (2 Timothy 2:9-10).3. A look orwards (2 Timothy 2:11-13). (Van Oosterzee.) 2 Timothy 2:2 The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses commit to faithful men, able to teach others also.How the Church is to be continued I. CARE IS TO BE HAD THAT THE CHURCH MAY BE . Art thou a ruler in Christendom, like Jehosaphat? Send Levites into the dark corners of the land. Rich? Found colleges, relieve the sons of the prophets, and repair the decayed walls of Jerusalem. Hast thou children? Nurse them up in the fear of God, teach them the principles in the holy letters, and, with Hannah, dedicate thy firstborn to the Lord. If thou be poor, yet pray for Jerusalem. II. By the Word preached the Church is continued. III. The more witnesses, the greater encouragement to well-doing. IV. All ministers are to teach the same things. AS there is but one true God, one Saviour, Redeemer, Faith, Love, etc., so but one law, gospel, doctrine, baptism, which is to be preached for their glory and our salvation. Thrash thy corn out of God’ s barn, beat it forth of the apostolical rick of the holy letters; bring thy grain into the market of the Church, which prophetical spirits have in former ages set to sale; and it shall feed thee and thine to life eternal, for be thou assured that the soundest testimony is this, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. V. Ministers must be faithful. And this faithfulness is in--1. Doctrine.2. Life. Thou hast known, saith Paul to Timotheus, my doctrine, manner of living. To be faithful in doctrine, the matter what, and the manner how, to be delivered are both to be regarded. For matter, it must be what we have received from the Lord. For the manner, a double condition is to be observed. First, that the word of truth be divided aright; each person have his portion, according to his spiritual estate and disposition. And secondly, the doctrine must be intelligible, else how should the people be edified? Now, as faithfulness in doctrine, so in life is required of a minister. What they preach they are to practice, for the vulgar sort be more led by examples than rules, patterns than precepts. Should ministers be faithful? Then let such as have in their power ordination, and induction, lay hands rashly on no man; make choice of faithful, able persons. VI. Ability to teach is necessary for a minister.1. Some knowledge of the tongues and arts is necessary. For as the form lieth closely couched in the matter, the kernel in the shell, so doth the truth in the several languages. 2. To be an able man requires a sound memory. For the truth being invented, orderly disposed, is then firmly to be retained. 3. A door of utterance is also necessary. When we have invented, judged, and methodically disposed of Divine truths, then we must clothe them with the garment of apt words. 4. And to omit many; an able minister must have his whole carriage in the delivery of his doctrine, suitable and correspondent to it. His countenance, elevation, pronunciation, gesture, and action, are to vary and be altered as the matter in handling requireth. And let all men make mention of them in their prayers. VII. The same truth shall be continued unto the end of the world. For Christ received it from the Father, the Holy Ghost from Christ, the apostles from Him, faithful men from them; and so by a successive communication it shall continue for ever. As one sun shall enlighten the world, so one gospel the minds of men, until Jesus returns to judge all the posterity of Adam. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Able teachers The apprentice, who has just entered the blacksmith’ s shop, may wear a leathern apron, and blacken his hands and face, but though he may try to make other boys think he is a blacksmith, everybody knows that it requires years of hard labour to make him an able workman; and even after an apprenticeship, some men are but very poor hands at their trade. So, the having one’ s name entered as a certified instructor does not certify that a man is an able teacher. Is not goodness higher than arithmetic, and is not virtue nobler than grammar? Is it not a glorious position to be a teacher of little children? A certain philosopher was often talking about the garden in which he studied and recreated, and one day a friend calling to see it, was surprised to find it consisted of only a few square yards. The friend said, “ Why this is a very small place; it is only a few strides across!” The philosopher replied, “ Small! Ah, you only look at the ground; but if you look up, you will see that it reaches to the sky!” So it is with a little child. It may be small; you have power to break its back across your knee, as well as break its heart; but in this little child there is a pathway to the heart of God, and angels walk therein. Lord Beaconsfield said of Greece, “ Let it be patient; it has a great future” ; so I say that you must be patient with every child, for it has a great future. Let us be gentle in the teaching of little children. Do you know how barbarous men teach bears to dance? Let me tell you. They play a flute, and put the bear on a hot iron. Do not let us teach children as if they were hears. Children have to be “ trained.” You know how a crooked plant is trained. It is held in its place by a soft band that will not hurt it, until it grows in the right direction. So children should be trained in mind and body, gently yet firmly, to be good and strong. No two children are alike either in body or mind, and individual peculiarities must be studied and accommodated. We should, one and all, become teachers of children by our example, which is far more powerful than precept; and we should take care that our faults do not turn them against the religion we profess. (W. Birch.) A faithful custodian The grand battlefield of Drumclog is where the hardy, faithful Covenanters routed the cruel Claverhouse. I have stood upon that battlefield and looked upon a schoolhouse erected there by a Scotchman, though there was not a house to be seen near it, because he wanted the faith and the zeal of his forefathers to dwell in those that might come afterwards. I went, after looking at that field, into the house of a poor weaver. I heard he had a relic of the great fight in his possession, and I thought I should like to purchase it. He unfurled a flag that had been held by his forefathers on the great day of the fight, and on that flag were these words, “ God and our sworn covenant.” I asked him if he would sell the flag. “ I will never sell the flag,” said he, “ except with my own life. I hold it as an heirloom, and, however poor I may be, I will hand it down to my children; and I hope they will hand it down to their children.” The incident reminds us that Christians carry a banner, and are pledged by their covenant relationship to Christ to seek the salvation of sinners, and thus be true to the memory of those who preceded them in the holy warfare. (A. McAulay.) The undying energy of truth Sir Bernard Burke thus touchingly writes in his “ Vicissitudes of Families” : “ In 1850 a pedigree-research caused me to pay a visit to the village of Fyndern, about five miles south-west of Derby. I sought for the ancient hall. Not a stone remained to tell where it had stood! I entered the church. Not a single record of a Finderne was there! I accosted a villager, hoping to glean some stray traditions of the Findernes. ‘ Findernes!’ said he, ‘ we have no Findernes here, but we have something that once belonged to them: we have Findernes’ flowers.’ ‘ Shew them me,’ I replied, and the old man led me into a field which still retained faint traces of terraces and foundations. ‘ There,’ said he, pointing to a bank of garden flowers grown wild, ‘ there are the Findernes’ flowers, brought by Sir Geoffrey from the Holy Land, and, do what we will, they will never die!’” So be it with each of us. Should our names perish, may the truths we taught, the virtues we cultivated, the good works we initiated, live on and blossom with undying energy. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Setting others to work Nasmyth says that when he introduced his great steam-hammer, it not only itself produced marvellous results, but “ its active rhythmic sound, by some sympathetic agency, quickened the strokes of every hammer, chisel, and file in his workmen’ s hands, and nearly doubled the output of work.” And is not ibis true of some noble workers whom we could name? More than half Mr. Moody’ s power consists in his capacity of setting other people to work by his own earnestness. (W. Fullerton.) The genius of the true teacher Speaking of art training, Mr. Ruskin says: “ Until a man has passed through a course of academy studentship, and can draw in an improved manner with French chalk, and knows foreshortening and perspective, and something of anatomy, we do not think he can possibly be an artist. What is worse, we are very apt to think that we can make him an artist by teaching him anatomy, and how to draw with French chalk; whereas the real gift in him is utterly independent of all such accomplishments.” So the highest powers of the teacher or preacher, the power of interpreting the Scriptures with spiritual insight, of moving the hearers to camest worship and decision, may exist with or without the culture of the schools. Learned Pharisees are impotent failures compared with a rough fisherman Peter anointed with the Holy Ghost. Inspiration is more than education. (H. O. Mackey.) The worth of colleges The great importance of the work none m our educational institutions for young ministers was never more strikingly emphasised than by the missionary Judson, who said, as he was approaching Madison University, “ If I had a thousand dollars, do you know what I would do with it?” The person asked supposed he would invest it in Foreign Missions. “ I would put it into such institutions as that,” he said, pointing to the college buildings. “ Planting colleges, and filling them with studious young men, is planting seed corn for the world.” An ignorant preacher Of the late Bishop Ames the following anecdote is told. While presiding over a certain conference in the West, a member began a tirade against the universities and education, thanking God that he had never been corrupted by contact with a college. After proceeding thus far for a few minutes, the bishop interrupted with the question, “ Do I understand that the brother thanks God for his ignorance?” “ Well, yes,” was the answer; “ you can put it that way if you want.” “ Well, all I have to say,” said the bishop, in his sweetest musical tone--“ all I have to say is, that the brother has a good deal to thank God for.” College life He whose spiritual life evaporates under processes of ministerial culture could hardly resist the temptations of any other form of life. (H. Allon, D. D.) 2 Timothy 2:3 Endure hardness as a good soldier.The Christian soldier Every Christian, and especially every Christian minister, may be regarded as a soldier, as an athlete (2 Timothy 2:5). as a husbandman (2 Timothy 2:6); but of the three similitudes the one which fits him best is that of a soldier. Even if this were not so, St. Paul’ s fondness for the metaphor would be very intelligible.1. Military service was very familiar to him, especially in his imprisonments. He must frequently have seen soldiers under drill, on parade, on gourd, on the march; most have watched them cleaning, mending, and sharpening their weapons; putting their armour on, putting it off. Often, during hours of enforced inactivity, he must have compared these details with the details of the Christian life, and noticed how admirably they corresponded with one another. 2. Military service was also quite sufficiently familiar to those whom he addressed. Roman troops were everywhere to be seen throughout the length and breadth of the empire, and nearly every member of society knew something of the kind of life which a soldier of the empire had to lead. 3. The Roman army was the one great organisation of which it was still possible, in that age of boundless social corruption, to think and speak with right-minded admiration and respect. No doubt it was often the instrument of wholesale cruelties as it pushed forward its conquests, or strengthened its hold, over resisting or rebelling nations. But it promoted discipline and esprit de corps. Even during active warfare it checked individual license, and when the conquest was over it was the representative and mainstay of order and justice against high-handed anarchy and wrong. Its officers several times appear in the narrative portions of the New Testament, and they make a favourable impression upon us. If they are fair specimens of the military men in the Roman Empire at that period, then the Roman army must have been indeed a fine service. But the reasons for the apostle’ s preference for this similitude go deeper than all this. 4. Military service involves self-sacrifice, endurance, discipline, vigilance, obedience, ready cooperation with others, sympathy, enthusiasm, loyalty. 5. Military service implies vigilant, unwearying and organised opposition to a vigilant, unwearying, and organised foe. It is either perpetual warfare or perpetual preparation for it. And just such is the Christian life; it is either a conflict or s preparation for one. (A. Plummer, D. D.) The minister a good soldier Ministers above all should be leaders and exemplars in this contest. For the apostle’ s fear of disapproval at last relates to him as a herald or preacher to others, calling them to the spiritual warfare. They should be like the statues of ancient heroes in the Palcestra, which the Roman youth were sent to admire and emulate, while they recounted the history of their achievements. (J. Leifchild, D. D.) The good soldier of Jesus Christ Fight, not as Joash, who smote the ground with the arrows thrice and stayed before he was bidden, for which he was denied a full victory. Fight, not as Israel in Canaan, who, instead of seeking the decreed extermination of all the ancient inhabitants, suspended their conquests, and allowed many of them to remain in their immediate neighbourhood and intercourse; for which they received not the promise of full rest and enjoyment. But fight as Joseph, who said, “ How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God!” Fight as Paul did, when he laboured to bring under his body and keep it in subjection. Fight as Christ told His disciples to fight, by cutting off the right hand and plucking out the right eye that causes them to offend. Fight as did your great Lord and Master Himself with the arch-traitor, when he sought to inject into His mind thoughts of discontent, of ambition, and of a debasing servility of soul: repelling him with a holy indignation, and saying, “ Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” (J. Leifchild, D. D.) Aggressive goodness The Saviour expects true saintliness will always be an aggressive thing. Where it is such, its activities rouse enmity. We have different views from the Saviour on this subject of aggressive goodness. We think saintliness is at liberty to be an unobtrusive, self-saving thing: carefully restricting its service to the quiet influence of its example, content to develop its own life sweetly. But the Saviour calls for something more vigorous than passive piety. Prince of Peace as He was, He proclaims: “ I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword” --to set a man at variance with those around him. He defines His object to be to “ send fire on the earth,” and tarries only until it is kindled. He assumes that evil must be assailed, that falsehood will be contradicted, and sin denounced. He intends a true peace to be reached by the disturbance of the false. He expects sanctity ever to have something of the soldierly quality, and that the life will be a fight of faith. He did not contemplate sanctity adopting a live-and-let-live policy in the presence of falsehood and evil Silence is the earth in which the talent of truth is buried. He expects us to be His witnesses; bids us say, “ Repent!” not merely to men in general, but to sinners in particular; expects us to reprove all evil, as well as to point to Him who is the source and pattern of all good. Wherever love is thus aggressive, truth thus bold, mercy thus active--hatred of the intensest kind must rise. For who can bear to have his ways denounced as evil; his views as false; his destiny--perdition; his duty--repentance? Moreover, the Christian has to be the reformer in a world of vested interests. And there is no evil under heaven, from idolatry to drunkenness, from gambling to gaiety, from heresy to vice, but some have an interest in maintaining it. You will not achieve any usefulness of any sort without the cry, “ This our craft is in danger!” rising to the lips of those profiting by others ignorance, or servitude, or evil. In these circumstances, however meek and peace-making the saint of God may be, if he is faithful to his Saviour, and to the interests of men, he will suffer from the bitter speech or the deed of hatred of those who resent his whole spirit and activity. (R. Glover.) Earnestness demanded During the Crimean War a young chaplain, newly arrived in camp, inquired of a Christian sergeant the best method for carrying on his work, among the men. The sergeant led him to the top of a hill and pointed out the field of action. “ Now, sir,” said he, “ look around you. See those batteries on the right, and the men at their guns. Hear the roar of the cannon. Look where you will, all are in earnest here. Every man feels that this is a life and death struggle. If we do not conquer the Russians the Russians will conquer us. We are all in earnest here, sir; we are not playing at soldiers. If you would do good, you must be in earnest; an earnest man always wins his way.” Such was the advice of Queen Victoria’ s servant to the servant of King Jesus. (A. A. Harmer.) A recruiting sergeant In writing the life of Uncle John Vassar, Dr. Gordon has so dealt with the materials at command that the successive chapters are made to pourtray the “ good soldier of Jesus Christ,” and to enforce the injunction--“ Fight the good fight of faith.” Uncle John not only deserves to be called a “ good soldier.” He was something more, for, while lighting the Lord’ s battles himself, he was an active recruiting sergeant, and never seems to have missed a chance of pressing home the question, “ Who is on the Lord’ s side?” Accosting a gentleman on one occasion with the familiar question, “ My dear friend, do you love Jesus?” he was met with the rejoinder, “ I do not know that that concerns you, sir.” Uncle John was too shrewd a tactician to be disconcerted, and at once followed up the assault with the remark, “ Oh, yes it does. In these days of rebellion does it not concern every citizen as to which side every other citizen may take? How much more when a world is in rebellion against God, should we be concerned to know who is on the Lord’ s side!” In this way he fenced the resentment which the obtrusion seemed likely to provoke, and justified his advance as the anxious inquiry of an interested friend. Resisted or repulsed in his spiritual warfare, Uncle John never appears to have been vanquished. The word defeat was not found in his vocabulary. Every Christian a soldier Not only ministers, but laymen, should be Christ’ s ambassadors. Must a soldier be an officer in order to fight well? By no means. Minus gold lace and cocked hat, he may do good service. Hard blows may be given, or a sure aim may be taken, by him who is quite destitute of ribbon and medal. Thus is it spiritually. Eminent talent and honourable position are non-essentials in benevolent effort. The humblest warrior in the Saviour’ s army can be valiant and victorious. And he ought to be. Excuse here is quite vain. None that are saved have a right to be idle; all are to evangelise. The work is not to be delegated to one order or class. Each is expected to take his share. What should we think of him who refused to rescue a drowning man because he was not connected with the Royal Humane Society? “ Let him that heareth,” as well as him that preacheth, “ say Come.” (T. R. Stevenson.) Enemies not to be depised It is said that the Duke of Wellington on one occasion, when asked why it was that he was so generally on the side of victory, replied that he never despised an enemy. Every convert a recruit As the young Hannibal was brought by his father to the altar of his country, and there sworn to life-long hatred of Rome, so should we be, from the hour of our spiritual birth, the sworn enemies of sin, the enlisted warriors of the Cross; to fight on for Jesus till life’ s latest hour, when all shall be “ more than conquerors through Him that hath loved us.” The Spartan mother, as soon as her child was born, looked upon the babe as having in it the possibilities of share; and the whole training of the Lacedemonians aimed solely at producing good soldiers, who would honour the race from which they sprung. So should we look upon every young convert as a recruit; not merely as one who has been himself saved, but as having within his new-born mature the possibilities of a good soldier of Jesus Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) “ In my shirt sleeves” I am much of the opinion of the soldier who, being brought before the Duke of Wellington and a committee of the House of Lords, on being asked if he had to fight the battle of Waterloo over again how he would like to be dressed, said, “ Please, your Lordship, I should like to be in my shirt sleeves.” And, depend upon it, the freest dress is the right costume of war. There is nothing like the shirt sleeves for hard gospel work. Away with that high stock and the stiff coat, in which you find it difficult to fight when you come to close contact with the enemy. You must dispense with pipeclay and bright buttons when it comes to blood, fire, and vapour of smoke. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ provides for His soldiers Our filthy garments are to be taken off; we are to go to the Royal Fountain and wash; we are to go to the Royal Wardrobe to be clothed; we are to go to the Royal Armoury for our equipment; we are to go to the Royal Banqueting House to be fed; we are to go to the Royal Treasury to be paid. Christ’ s soldiers have no reason to care about the future. (C. Garret.) A soldier always You cannot be a saint on Sundays and a sinner in the week; you cannot be a saint at church and a sinner in the shop; you can not be a saint in Liverpool and a sinner in London. You cannot serve God and Mammon. You are a soldier everywhere or nowhere, anti woe to you if you dishonour your King. (C. Garret.) The inspiration of a true leader The personal magnetism of General McLellan over his soldiers in the Civil War was a constant experience. Once when the tide of success seemed to go against the Union forces, and dismay was gradually deepening into despair, his arrival in the camp at night worked a revolution among the troops. The news “ General McLellan is here” was caught up and echoed from man to man. Whoever was awake roused his neighbour, eyes were rubbed, and the poor tired fellows sent up such a hurrah as the army of the Potomac never heard before. Shout upon shout went out into the stillness of the night, was taken up along the road, repeated by regiment, brigade, division, and corps, until the roar died in the distance. The effect of this man’ s coming upon the army--in sunshine or in rain, darkness or day, victory or defeat--was ever electrical, defying all attempts to account for it. (H. O. Mackey.) Enduring hardness It behoves thee not to complain if thou endure hardness; but to complain if thou dost not endure hardness. (Chrysostom.) The Christian must be prepared for trial and conflict Some of God’ s people seem to forget this. They think they are soldiers on pay days and at reviews: but as soon as the fiery darts begin to fall around them, and the road gets rough and rugged, they fancy they are deserters. A strange mistake this. You are never so much a soldier as when you are marching or fighting. I fear the fault of this mistake lies very much with some of us who may be called recruiting sergeants. In persuading men to enlist we speak much more of the ribbons, the bounty money, and the rewards, than we do of the battle-field and the march. Hence, perhaps, the error. But if we are to blame in this respect our great King is not. The whole of His teaching is in the other direction. He puts all the difficulties fairly before us, and we are exhorted to count the cost, so that we may not be covered with shame at last. (C. Garrett.) Christian courage Thomas Garrett, of America, when he was tried and heavily fined for concealing fugitive slaves, and his judge said he hoped it would be a warning to him to have nothing to do with runaway slaves for the future, replied: “ Friend, if thou knowest of any poor slave who is coming this way, and needs a friend, thou canst tell him I shall be ready to help him.” (C. Garrett.) Enduring hardness The old wrestlers did not decline ten months of laborious and abstemious training to make their bodies supple and their will indomitable; so much so, that “ a wrestler’ s health” became a proverb. If Plato challenged his disciples--“ Shall our children not have energy enough to deny themselves for a much more glorious victory?” (“ De Leg.,” 7:340), a greater man than Plato urged, “ Now they do it for a corruptible crown, but we for an incorruptible” ; and our ardour, self-denial, and moral training, or, as St. Paul calls it, our spiritual gymnastics, should exceed theirs, in some such ratio as our prize exceeds theirs; and thus, “ if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” (J. B. Owen, M. A.) No feather-bed soldiers A young Christian officer said, “ Our heavenly Captain wants no feather-bed soldiers. He wants those who are not afraid of camp bed and marching orders, who don’ t mind “ roughing it a little by the way, because they know that perfect rest awaits them when their home-call sounds, and their race here is ended.” A sham battle At the festival of Treviso, to which the neighbouring towns were invited, the chief feature was the storming of a fortress, defended by the most beautiful ladies and their servants, by noblemen who made war with fruits, flowers, sweetmeats, and perfumes. (H. O. Mackey.) A good soldier I remember a story of a French grenadier, who, in a war with the Austrians, was in charge of a small fort commanding a narrow gorge, up which only two of the enemy could climb at a time. When the defenders of the fort heard that the enemy were near, being few in number, they deserted, and left the brave grenadier alone. But he felt he could not give up the place without a struggle, so he barred the doors, raised the drawbridge, and loaded all the muskets left behind by his comrades. Early in the morning, with great labour, the enemy brought up a gun from the valley, and laid it on the fort. But the grenadier made such good use of his loaded muskets that the men in charge of the gun could not hold their position, and were compelled to retire; and he kept them thus at bay all day long. At evening the herald came again to demand the surrender of the fort, or the garrison should be starved out. The grenadier asked for a night for consideration, and in the morning expressed the willingness of the garrison to surrender if they might “ go out with all the honours of war.” This, after some demur, was agreed to, and presently the Austrian army below saw a single soldier descending the height with a whole sheaf of muskets on his shoulder, with which he marched through their lines and then threw them down. “ Where is the garrison?” asked the Austrian commander, astonished. “ I am the garrison,” replied the brave man, and they were so delighted with his plucky resistance that the whole army saluted him, and he was afterwards entitled the “ First Grenadier of France.” (Major Smith.) Luxury unfits for soldiership The Commons of England being very importunate with Edward IV. to make war with France, he consented to satisfy their importunity, though willing rather to enjoy the fruits of his wars and toils, and spend the rest of his days in peace. When he took the field he ordered to accompany him a dozen of fat, capon-eating burgesses, who had been most zealous for that expedition. These he employed in all military services, to lie in the open fields, stand whole nights upon the guard, and caused their quarters to be beaten up with frequent alarms, which was so intolerable to those fat gentry accustomed to lie on soft down, and that could hardly sit on a session’ s bench without nodding, that a treaty being desired by King Louis, none were so forward to press the acceptance of his offers, or to excuse so little done by the king with so great preparations. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A war for fireside “ Home guards to the front!” was the cry of ‘ 65. Look at them, slight lads stooping under their heavy muskets, decrepit men tottering on with cane in one hand and gun in the other; convalescent, furloughed soldiers rising like a wounded war-horse. And has war come to this? Yes, and worse. It has seen the nursing mother, and feeble, aged women, and delicate girls, defending the parapet. The hearth must be protected, and the husband, the little lad, and the white-haired father are gone, dead, dead in their blood! Women are to the front only because there are no men, none at all. But wait; there is a war for home and fireside, a war for rights more dear, and from foes more cruel, in which women face its fury, not because the men have fallen first, but because men shirk. Yes, men shirk the discipline, the hardships, the responsibility of this war. Not all men, thank God! yet many do. Happy in their homes, receiving the blessings of Christianity, they are willing to see the wives and mothers fight the battle. The hosts of hell, with black flag unfurled, surround us, menacing the peace of home, threatening slavery and death. With dreadful malice and cruelty they contend for every inch of ground. It is a battle remorseless, ceaseless, momentous. It appeals to all that is manly in men to take their places in it, to submit to its discipline, to endure its hardships, to shoulder its responsibility. (R. S. Barrett.) A good soldier of Jesus Christ I. A soldier must be enlisted. II. The soldier after having been enlisted has to be drilled--that is to say, he has to learn his business. A good soldier is not to be made in a day; there must be time and pains spent upon him; he must be trained and taught, and that very carefully, before he is fit to fight against the enemies of his country. And it is just the same with Christian soldiers. They have to learn to act together, so as to support and help one another in the conflict with evil. And then they have to learn the use of their weapons--of one more especially, which is called the “ sword of the Spirit.” III. We have enemies to fight with--real enemies, not imaginary ones: “ the world, the flesh, and the devil.” In order to enable you to understand what is meant by fighting against the “ flesh” and “ the devil,” I will tell you a story, or rather, two stories, both of them true. Some years ago there lived a good and holy man, who was a most useful minister of the gospel. This good man’ s Christian name was William. Now when he was a little boy, about four or five years old, he one day was left in the dining-room alone, and on the table was a plate of sweet cakes, of which he was particularly fond, but which he had been forbidden to touch. Somebody coming quietly into the room found the boy looking at the cakes, his little hands tightly clasped together behind his back, and saying to himself over and over again, as if he were saying a lesson, “ Willie mustn’ t take them, ‘ cause they are not Willie’ s own.” Now this was a victory over the “ flesh.” The flesh said, “ These cakes are very nice, Willie; just smell them. No one will see you, Willie, if you do take one. Mamma will not miss the cakes, Willie, there are so many of them.” But little Willie would not do wrong, although he was sorely tempted to it. He fought with the “ flesh,” and came off conqueror. But there was one sad occasion on which Willie, now grown up to be a tall, handsome lad of seventeen, was beaten by the enemy. There was a servant in the family who was a wicked man; and wicked men, whether they know it or not, are agents for the devil, and do his work. This servant, annoyed at his young master’ s goodness, said once, in a sneering sort of way, and in William’ s hearing, “ Oh! as for Master William, he’ s not man enough to swear.” The taunt--it was just like a fiery arrow shot from Satan’ s bow--stung the young lad beyond endurance; and for the only time in his life, I believe, he took God’ s holy name in vain, and swore a terrible oath. Whenever William spoke of the matter--years, long years, after--it was with expressions of the bitterest regret, though he felt in his heart that God had forgiven him. Well, that was a fight with the devil in which the devil was the victor. The Christian soldier was beaten, for the moment. Satan, through the mouth of one of his servants, triumphed over him. IV. The apostle tells us that we are to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. A “ good” soldier obeys orders strictly; does not get tired of his duty, but sticks to it; and never dreams of turning his back and running away when the enemy is coming. V. And now let me tell you by what means we are to become good soldiers. A good general makes good soldiers. He infuses his own spirit into them, and leads them to victory. And we have a good general, the Lord Jesus Christ. Put yourselves, then, into His hands, and He will make you what you ought to be. I wish you especially to notice that you cannot be a true Christian warrior without possessing that loyal devotion to Christ which springs from love. (G. Calthrop, M. A.) A good soldier Much as war is at variance with the spirit of Christianity, there are few things to which the Scriptures more frequently allude when treating of the spiritual life. There is reason for this; for, notwithstanding all that is objectionable in the soldier’ s occupation, there are many things in the personal qualities of the man which pertain to the very noblest type of character. That which makes him a good soldier would also, if combined with other elements, make him a higher style of man. I. The first thing required of a good soldier is hearty service. “ One volunteer is worth many pressed men.” The adage was singularly verified during the war between Austria and Prussia. The Austrian soldiers fought well, but not with the enthusiasm of men who cordially approve of the object for which they fight. Drawn from various nationalities--believing, some of them, that the war was hostile to the dearest interests of their country--they were not so much free agents as machines forced into the strife; and this fact, perhaps, more than bad generalship or insufficient equipment, accounted for their signal defeat. Whereas the Prussians, although not enlisted voluntarily in the first instance, nevertheless entered voluntarily into the conflict. With an appreciation of the purposes of the war which few gave them credit, believing that it was to promote the much-coveted unity of the Fatherland, they fought with an enthusiasm which is the surest pledge of victory; and to this, quite as much as to the superiority of their arms and their leaders, did they owe their splendid triumphs. And so to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ, we must freely and enthusiastically engage in His service. II. The second thing required of a good soldier is implicit obedience to his commander’ s orders. Much has been said of the drill and discipline of the Prussian soldiers as accounting for that marvellous succession of victories which, culminating in Sadowa, changed the map of Europe. The far-seeing men who contemplated and conducted the war, with a keen appreciation of the means by which their end was to be gained, had been drilling most severely for years, until the soldier had become a kind of living machine. And that is really what is required in order to good soldiership. III. A third quality essential to the good soldier is faith in his leader. In the war to which we have referred, the Austrian soldiers, after two or three defeats attributable to mismanagement, lost all faith in the capacity of their general, and not only ceased to fight with spirit, but were forthwith changed into a panic-stricken rabble. Even the brave Italians, with all their enthusiasm, recovered slowly from their defeat at Custozza, because of the manifest bungling which brought about the disaster. Whereas the Prussians, having in their leaders men whose clearness of vision and capacity for command were equal to their own fighting efficiency and power of endurance, do not seem ever to have faltered in their victorious career. Such confidence is manifestly indispensable. The private soldier knows little or nothing of the plan of the battle in which he is an actor, knows not why he is led into this position or that, or how he is to be led out of it, knows not why he is required to do this or that; but his general knows, and unless he has full confidence in the men who are directing the movements of the troops he will fight with very little courage, and prove himself but a poor soldier. And in our warfare we are equally required to have faith in our King. IV. A fourth quality is careful training. In the war referred to, the best trained and most intelligent men proved the best fighters. Intelligence consists with, and is conducive to, the highest state of discipline; and of the human machine, which the soldier must needs become, the thinking is by far the most efficient specimen. So in our warfare the best soldier, other things being equal, is the man whose mind is most thoroughly trained. The servants of Christ should seek to understand the requirements of their time, and prepare to meet them. The conditions of warfare and the works required of the Christian soldier now are not what they were once; and unless men have understanding of the times, they may, though with the best intentions, render very bungling service. The worthier the master, the more efficient should his servants be. V. Heroic effort and patient endurance are necessary. We cannot understand in what sense they are soldiers of Christ who enter His service simply with a view to their own comfort. Their notion is that they are to have a nice pleasant time, plenty of sweet experiences, and no trials, with temporal comforts to match the unruffled smoothness of their spiritual course. So much has been said of making the best of both worlds, that the highest con ception which many form of Christianity is that it is a system which rewards men in the next world for seeking to be comfortable in this. Young men should under stand that a soldier’ s life is one of warfare and endurance. In order to your being good soldiers of Jesus Christ, there must be-- VI. Concerted action. Union is strength, insomuch that one small band of men, acting together for one purpose and under one head, will scatter thousands who have neither leader nor organisation. (W. Landels, D. D.) A good soldier of Jesus Christ Many men, many minds. In reference to what a Christian is there have been very many and diverse opinions. Paul’ s description of a Christian in the text is that of a soldier, and that means something very far different either from a religious fop, whose best delight is music and millinery, or a theological critic who makes a man an offender for a word, or a spiritual glutton who cares for nothing but a lifelong enjoyment of the fat things full of marrow, or an ecclesiastical slumberer who longs only for peace for himself. The Christian is a self-sacrificing man as the soldier must be. A soldier is a serving man. A soldier is full often a suffering man. Once again, the true soldier is an ambitious being. Paul does not exhort Timothy to be a common, or ordinary soldier, but to be a “ good soldier of Jesus Christ” ; for all soldiers, and all true soldiers, may not be good soldiers. David had many soldiers, and good soldiers too, but you remember it was said of many, “ These attained not unto the first three.” Now Paul, if I read him rightly, would have Timothy try to be of the first three, to be a good soldier. I. We shall endeavour to describe a good soldier of Jesus Christ.1. We must begin with this fundamental--he must be loyal to his King.2. He is obedient to his Captain’ s commands.3. To conquer wilt be his ruling passion. Wellington sent word to his troops one night, “ Ciudad Rodrigo must be taken to-night.” And what do you think was the commentary of the British soldiers appointed for the attack? “ Then,” said they all, “ we will do it.” So when our great Captain sends round, as he doth to us, the word of command, “ Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” if we were all good soldiers of the cross, we should say at once, “ We will do it.” The passion for victory with the soldier often makes him forget everything else. Before the battle of Waterloo, Picton had had two of his ribs smashed in at Quatre Bras, but he concealed this serious injury, and, though suffering intensest agony, he rode at the head of his troop, and led one of the greatest charges which decided the fortunes of the day. He never left his post, but rode on till a ball crushed in his skull and penetrated to the brains. Then in the hot fight the hero fell. In that same battle one of our lieutenants, in the early part of the day, had his left fore-arm broken by a shot; he could not, therefore, hold the reins in his hand, but he seized them with his mouth, and fought on till another shot broke the upper part of the arm to splinters, and it had to be amputated; but within two days there he was, with his arm still bleeding, and the wound all raw, riding at the head of his division. Brave things have been done amongst the soldiers of our country--Oh, that such brave things were common among the armed men of the Church militant!4. A good soldier is very brave at a charge.5. A good soldier is like a rock under attack.6. He derives his strength from on high. This has been true even of some common soldiers, for religious men when they have sought strength from God have been all the braver in the day of conflict. I like the story of Frederick the Great; when he overheard his favourite general engaged in prayer, and was about to utter a sneering remark, the fine old man, who never feared a foe, and did not even fear his majesty’ s jest, said, “ Your Majesty, I have just been asking aid from your Majesty’ s great ally.” He had been waiting upon God. In the battle of Salamanca, when Wellington bade one of his officers advance with his troops, and occupy a gap, which the Duke perceived in the lines of the French, the general rode up to him, and said, “ My lord, I will do the work, but first give me a grasp of that conquering right hand of yours.” He received a hearty grip, and away he rode to the deadly encounter. Often has my soul said to her Captain, “ My Lord, I will do that work if Thou wilt give me a grip of Thy conquering right hand.” Oh, what power it puts into a man when he gets a grip of Christ, and Christ gets a grip of him! II. Thus I have described a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Give me a few minutes while I exhort you to be such.1. I exhort you who are soldiers of Christ to be good soldiers, because many of you have been so. Dishonour not your past, fall not from your high standing. “ Forward” be your motto. 2. Be good soldiers, for much depends upon it. 3. Good soldiers we ought to be, for it is a grand old cause that is at stake. 4. I implore you to be good soldiers of Jesus, when you consider the fame that has preceded you. A soldier when he receives his colours finds certain words embroidered on them, to remind him of the former victories of the regiment in which he serves. Look at the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and see the long list of the triumphs of the faithful. Remember how prophets and apostles served God; recollect how martyrs joyfully laid down their lives; look at the long line of the reformers and the confessors; remember your martyred sires and covenanting fathers, and by the grace of God I beseech you walk not unworthy of your noble lineage. 5. Be good soldiers because of the victory which awaits you. 6. Besides, and lastly, if I want another argument to make you good soldiers, remember your Captain, the Captain whose wounded hands and pierced feet are tokens of his love to you. Redeemed from going down to the pit, what can you do sufficiently to show your gratitude? Assured of eternal glory by-and-by, how can you sufficiently prove that you feel your indebtedness. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Fellow soldiers Let no one say that he has no taste for warfare. Each one of us is pledged to fight. Each one of us bears the sign of the Cross, which binds him to be Christ’ s soldier till his life’ s end. Once, in the old wars, an English drummer-boy was taken prisoner by the French. They amused themselves by making the lad play on his instrument, and presently one asked him to sound the retreat. The drummer answered proudly that he had never learnt how to do that! So in our warfare there is no retreating. It was the boast of Napoleon’ s soldiers--the guard dies, but never yields! We Christians are bidden to be faithful unto death, and Jesus promises us a crown of life. When Maximian became Emperor of the West he did his utmost to destroy Christianity. There was in the Roman army a famous legion of ten thousand men, called the Thebian Legion. It was formed entirely of Christians. Once, just before going into battle with the enemy, the Emperor commanded the Thebian Legion to sacrifice to idols. Their leader, in the name of his ten thousand soldiers, refused. The Emperor then ordered them to be decimated--that is, every tenth man to be killed. Still they were firm, and again, the second time, the cruel order was given for every tenth man to be slain. Fully armed, with their glittering eagles flashing on their helmets, the Christian soldiers stood in the perfect discipline of Rome, ready to die, but not to yield. Again they were ordered to sacrifice, and the brave answer was returned, “ No; we were Christ’ s soldiers before we were Maximian’ s.” Then the furious Emperor gave the order to kill them all! Calmly the remaining soldiers laid down their arms, and knelt whilst the other troops put them to the sword. So died the Thcbian Legion, faithful unto death! Each one of us is in one sense a martyr, a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. Those of us who bear hard words, and cruel judgments, and harsh treatment, patiently, rendering not evil for evil, are martyrs for Jesus. Again, as fellow soldiers, let us remember the Name under which we serve. To a Roman soldier of old the name of Caesar was a watchword, which made him ready to do or die. In the wars of the middle ages, when our countrymen went into battle the cry was, “ St. George for Merry England,” and every soldier was ready to answer with his sword. They tell us that the name of the great Duke of Wellington was alone enough to restore courage and spirit to the flagging troops. Once when a regiment was wavering in the fight, the message was passed along the ranks, “ The Duke is coming,” and in an instant the men stood firm, whilst one old soldier exclaimed, “ The Duke--God bless him! I had rather see him than a whole battalion.” The name of our Leader is one indeed to inspire perfect faith, courage, and hope. In all ages certain regiments have had their distinguishing names. Among the Romans of old time there was one famous band of warriors known as the Thundering Legion. In later times there have been regiments known as the “Invincibles,” the “Die-hards.” One famous corps has for its motto a Latin sentence meaning “By Land and Sea,” and another has one word for its badge, meaning “Everywhere.” These mottoes remind the soldier that the regiment to which he belongs has fought and conquered, served and suffered, all over the world. The proud badge of the county of Kent is “Invicta”--unconquered; that of Exeter is “The Ever-faithful City.” All these titles belong of right to our army, the Church of Jesus Christ. It is said that in New Zealand, some years ago, many of our troops were mortally wounded by concealed natives, who hid them selves in holes in the earth, and thence darted their deadly spears upward against the unsuspecting soldier. So our spiritual enemy, Satan, hides himself in a thousand different places, and wounds us with some sudden temptation when we are least aware. (H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, M. A.) The children’ s crusade I suppose many of you have read of those strange wars called the Crusades? They were undertaken to deliver the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus at Jerusalem out of the hands of the heathen. Thousands of brave men, besides their friends and followers, went to the Holy Land, at different times, to fight in the Crusades. The warriors wore a blood red cross on their clothing, from which they got their name of Crusaders, and their motto was, “The Will of God.” It was a very good motto, but not a very true one for them, for I am afraid they did many cruel and wicked things which certainly were not the will of God; and thousands of people perished miserably abroad, who might have been doing useful work at home. Well, amongst these Crusades there was one called the Children’ s Crusade. A boy in France went about singing in his own language-- “ Jesus, Lord, repair our loss, Restore to us Thy Holy Cross.” Crowds of children followed him, singing the same words. No bolts, no bars, no fear of fathers, or love of mothers, could held them back, they determined to go to the Holy Land, to work wonders there! This mad crusade had a very sad ending; of course young children could do nothing, being without leaders, or experience, or discipline, and they all perished miserably either by land or sea. Now I want you to think about another Children’ s Crusade, in which you are all engaged. What do you think is required of a good soldier? I. First of all he must be brave. We all like to hear about acts of bravery, like that of the little midshipman who spiked the Russian guns in the Crimean war; or of the boy Ensign, Anstruther, who at the battle of the Alma planted the colors of the 23rd Regiment on the wall of the great Redoubt, and then fell, shot dead, with the colours drooping over him like a pall. But the courage which is thought most of in heaven is the courage to do right. I have read a story of a wounded soldier lying on a battlefield, whose mouth had been struck by a shot. When the doctor placed a cup of water to his mouth, the man was eagerly going to drink, when he stopped and said, “ My mouth is all bloody, it will make the cup bad for the others.” That soldier, in giving up self for the sake of others, was more of a hero then than when charging against the foe. Try to remember that story, children, and if you are tempted to do anything selfish or wrong, stop and think, “ It will make it bad for the others.” II. You must expect to find enemies and difficulties if you do what is right. Every one was against Daniel because he prayed to God. Every one was against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, because they would not bow down to an idol. But God was on their side. There was once a famous man of God named Athanasius. He was bold enough to maintain the true faith of Christ against Emperors, and Bishops, and he was driven into banishment over and over again. Some of his friends advised him to give in, for, said they, the world is against you; “ Then,” answered Athanasius, “ I am against the world.” Now you must, as Christ’ s soldiers, “ learn to suffer and be strong.” To win a victory we must fight, to get to the end of a journey we must bear fatigue. Let me tell you a fable about that. Three animals, an ermine, a beaver, and a wild boar, made up their minds to seek a better country, and a new home. After a long and weary journey, they came in sight of a beautiful land of trees and gardens, and rivers of water. The travellers were delighted at the sight, but they noticed that before they could enter this beautiful land, they must pass through a great mass of water, filled with mud and slime, and all kinds of snakes and other reptiles. The ermine was the first to try the passage. Now the ermine has a very delicate fur coat, and when he found how foul and muddy the water was, he drew back, and said, that the country was very beautiful, but that he would rather lose it than soil his beautiful coat. Then the beaver proposed that as he was a good architect, as you know beavers are, he should build a bridge across the lake, and so in about two months they might get across safely. But the wild boar looked scornfully at his companions, and plunging into the water, he made his way, in spite of mud and snakes, to the other side, saying to his fellow-travellers, “ Paradise is not for cowards, but for the brave.” Dear children, between you and the Paradise of God there lies a long journey, the enemy’ s country, where the devil and his angels will fight against you, where there are deep pools of trouble to be gone through, rough, stony roads of temptation to be traversed, high rocks of difficulty to be climbed: but don’ t be afraid, only be brave, and go forward, and follow Jesus year leader, and you will be able to say, as St. Paul said, “ Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” III. Well, we have seen that soldiers must be brave, what else must they be? obedient. God told Saul to do a certain thing, and he did not, and God would no longer have him as a soldier. Do you remember what was said to him? “ Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.” (H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, M. A.) The good soldiers The question before us is,--How may we become good soldiers of Jesus Christ? I. We must wear the uniform of Christ. This uniform is not made up of different-coloured cloth, such as we see other soldiers wear. No; but it is made up of the tempers, or dispositions, which form their character. To wear the uniform of Jesus, then, is to have the same mind, or spirit, or temper that He had. II. The second thing for us to do, if we would be good soldiers of Jesus Christ, is to--obey the orders of Jesus. Some time ago, a largo ship was going from England to the East Indies. She was carrying a regiment of soldiers. When they were about half-way through their voyage, the vessel sprang a leak, and began to fill with water. The lifeboats were launched and made ready, but there were not enough of them to save all on board the ship. Only the officers of the ship, the cabin passengers, and some of the crew, could be taken in the boats. The soldiers had to be left on board, to go down with the ship. The officers determined to die with their men. The colonel was afraid the men would get unruly if they had nothing to do. That he might prevent this he ordered them to prepare for parade. Soon they all appeared in full dress. He set the regimental band on the quarter-deck, with orders to keep on playing lively airs. Then he formed his men in close ranks on the deck. With his sword drawn in his hand, he took his place at their head. Every officer and man is at his post. The vessel is gradually sinking; but they stand steady at their post, each man keeping step. And then, just as the vessel is settling for its last plunge, and death is rushing in upon them, the colonel cries,--“ Present arms!” and that whole regiment of brave men go down into their watery grave, presenting arms as death approached them. Those were good soldiers. They had learned to obey orders. But this is a hard lesson to learn. Several boys were playing marbles. In the midst of their sport it began to rain. One of the boys, named Freddie, stopped and said, “ Boys, I must go home. Mother told me not to stay out in the rain.” “ Your mother--fudge!” said two or three of the boys. “ The rain won’ t hurt you any more than it will us.” Freddie turned on them with a look of pity, and yet with the courage of a hero, while he calmly said, “ I’ ll not disobey my mother for any of you.” That was the spirit of a good soldier. After a great battle once, the general was talking to his officers about the events of the day. He asked them who had done the best that day. Some spoke of one man who had fought very bravely, and some of another. “ No,” said the general, “ you are all mistaken. The best man in the field to-day was a soldier who was just lifting up his arms to strike an enemy, but when he heard the trumpet sound a retreat, he checked himself, and dropped his arm without striking the blow. That perfect and ready obedience to the will of his general is the noblest thing that has been done to-day.” III. We must follow the example of Jesus. When Alexander the Great was leading his army over some mountains once, they found their way all stopped up with ice and snow. His soldiers were tired out with hard marching, and so disheartened with the difficulties before them, that they halted. It seemed as if they would rather lie down and die than try to go on any farther. When Alexander saw this, he did not begin to scold the men, and storm at them. Instead of this, he got down from his horse, laid aside his cloak, took up a pickaxe, and, without saying a word to any one, went quietly to work, digging away at the ice. As soon as the officers saw this, they did the same. The men looked on in surprise for a few moments, and then, forgetting how tired they were, they went to work with a will, and pretty soon they got through all their difficulties. Those were good soldiers, because they followed the example of their leader. (Richard Newton, D. D.) A good soldier I. What is implied in being a soldier?1. A soldier is a person wire has enlisted in an army. Had looked at the reasons for and against entering the army, and at last he enlisted. 2. He is the property of the king. Gives up his free agency. Gives up his very name. Known and called by the number he bears. 3. He is provided for by the king. Must take off his own clothes, whether of best broadcloth or corduroy. Must be clothed, and fed, and armed by the king. 4. He must always wear his regimentals. A soldier can always be recognised as such. 5. He is prepared for trial and conflict. Soldiers are the result of war, and if there were no war, there would be no soldiers. He enlisted to fight. For this purpose he is armed, and trained, and drilled. II. What is implied in being a soldier of Christ? It is implied that Christ is a King, that He has enemies, that He has an army, and that the person spoken of belongs to this army. I have to glance at the ground we have already passed--You have enlisted, etc. III. What is implied in being a good soldier of Christ? There are soldiers and soldiers. There are some who are idle and dissipated: a disgrace to the profession to which they belong. Others only swell the numbers and fill up the ranks, they look very well at reviews, but don’ t count for much in the battle-field. Others are so true and faithful that they cover the army to which they belong with glory.1. A good soldier is thoroughly loyal. Not a mercenary, fighting for pay. Proud of his uniform, his name, his king. 2. Patriotic. Loves his country. Every soldier is his comrade. The defeat of the army is his sorrow; its success his joy. 3. Obedient. He may be at home in the midst of his family--a telegram comes; by the next train he leaves to join the army, perhaps to cross the seas and perish in a distant land. 4. Earnest. 5. Brave. 6. Patient. Not enlisted for a day, but for life. Often put where there is nothing to excite or gratify ambition. There will be the long wearisome march, or the still more wearisome halt. While his comrades are assaulting cities and winning victories, he has to stand and watch, or lie and suffer. 7. Self-denying. 8. Modest. His motto, Deeds not words. It is said that the word “ glory” is not found in the despatches of the Duke of Wellington. He merely states what the army had done. So with the Christian. What are you? A rebel? Your defeat is certain. A deserter? Return. A penitent, longing to be enlisted in Christ’ s army? Come. A soldier? Be “ a good soldier.” (C. Garrett.) A good soldier of Jesus Christ The contrast between the saints of the Old Testament and of the New Testament is very great, especially in the relation which they bore to war. No great saint or apostle of the New Testament was a soldier. But in the Old Testament we read of the faith of Abraham, of the wisdom of Moses, of the courage of Joshua, of the nobility of David, of the piety of Josiah, of the zeal of Nehemiah; and all these had at some parts of their lives to go forth to the battle-field. But it was not so with Peter, James, John, Paul, and the rest of the early disciples. The distinction is to be accounted for partly by the circumstances in which they severally lived. In Old Testament and primitive times men had to obtain a footing for their very life, and to contend for national existence. But in the time of Christ the Roman Government secured the safety of person and property, and within certain limits left the Jew to indulge in his national customs. So, in the history of our own country, we see how greatly circumstances have changed. In the time of Queen Elizabeth Englishmen of every creed were compelled to have the soldierly spirit unless they wished to succumb to the Spaniard. And in the time of the Stuarts men were obliged to keep their armour bright unless they were prepared to put their liberties at the mercy of a tyrant. Thus we have in both periods of English history, and also during the struggles of Jewish history, saints who were also and literally soldiers. Bat there is a deeper reason for the change which has come about. And that reason is to be seen in the gentle and forgiving spirit which is inculcated by the Christian religion. The religion of Christ banishes war by taking away its occasions and its causes. It bids its adherents still enter on a battle. It utilises those pugnacious principles which exist in us all, by confronting us with the great moral struggle between good and evil, where every man must choose his side. There are certain plain and palpable qualifications of a good soldier of Christ which we will point out. I. A good soldier understands his captain. II. Understands his weapons. III. Understands his place in the battle. IV. Loves the cause in which he fights. (S. Pearson, M. A.) Christianity and soldiers The metaphor which the apostle here chooses to describe the work of a primitive Christian bishop cannot bat strike us as remarkable. Himself a servant of the Prince of Peace, and writing to another servant of the Prince of Peace, he might, we may think, have gone somewhere else for his metaphor than to the profession of arms. How are we to explain the honour which the apostle puts upon the military profession when he points to a soldier as embodying, at any rate, some of the qualities which he desires to see in a ruler of the Church of God? We cannot say, by way of reply, that the metaphor is so accidental or so singular that stress ought not in fairness to be laid on it, for there is a great deal more religions language with a military colour or flavour about it, not merely in the Old Testament, but in the New. The relation between the military profession and religion thus traceable in Scripture reappears in the history of the Church. If, in her higher moments, the Church has done her best to check or condemn bloodshed, as when St. Ambrose excommunicated the Roman Emperor Theodosius, at the very height of his power, for the slaughter of Thessalonica, she has distinguished between the immediate instruments in such slaughter and the monarchs or the captains who were really responsible for it. If, in the first centuries of the faith, Christians were often unwilling to serve in the Roman ranks, and in some eases preferred martyrdom to doing so, the reason was that such service was then so closely bound up with pagan usages that to be an obedient soldier was to be a renegade from the Christian faith. When this difficulty no longer presented itself, Christians, like other citizens, were ready to wear weapons and to serve in the wars, and so long as warfare is defensive--devoted, not to the aggrandisement of empire, but to maintaining the peace and the police of the world--the Christian Church, while deploring its horrors, cannot but recognise in it at times a terrible necessity. When the great Bishop Leo of Rome or the great soldier Charles Martel set their faces against the destructive inroads of barbarism, they had behind them all that was best and purest in Christendom; and the rise of the military orders, the Knights of the Temple and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, marks a yet closer intimacy, the form of which was determined, no doubt, by the ideas of the twelfth century rather than of our own, between a soldier’ s career and the profession of religion. We cannot pass that noble home of the law, as it is now, the Temple, without remembering that it was once tenanted by an Order of soldiers, bound by religious obligations, devoted to the rescue and the care of those sacred spots which must always be dearest to the heart of Christendom. Here, then, let us ask ourselves the question, What are the qualities which are common to a good soldier and to a good Christian? The answer will explain and will justify the language of the apostle. I. The first is, that each, the Christian and the soldier, does his work well in the exact degree of his devotion to his commander. The greatest generals have been distinguished by the power of inspiring an unbounded confidence in and attachment to their persons. This is true in different senses of Alexander, of Hannibal, of Caesar, of Napoleon. And what is the deepest secret of the Christian life if it be not an unbounded confidence in the Captain of our salvation, Jesus Christ our Lord, devotion to His person, undoubting belief in His Word, readiness to do and to endure whatever He may order? II. And the second virtue in a soldier is courage. In the conventional language of the world, a soldier is always gallant, just as a lawyer is learned, just as a clergyman is reverend. Whatever be a man’ s real character, the title belongs to him by right of his profession. There are virtues in which a soldier may be wanting without damage to his professional character, but courage is not one of these. III. And a third excellence in a soldier is the sense of discipline. Without discipline an army becomes an unmanageable horde, one part of which is as likely as not to turn its destructive energies against another, and nothing strikes the eye of a civilian as he watches a regiment making its way through one of our great thoroughfares in London more than the contrast which is presented by the unvarying, I had almost said the majestic, regularity of its onward movement and the bewildering varieties of pace, gesture, direction, costume of the motley crowd of curious civilians who flit spasmodically around it. Discipline in an army is not merely the perfection of form, it is an essential condition of power. Numbers and resources cannot atone for its absence, but it may easily with small resources make numbers and greater resources powerless. IV. And one more characteristic of the military spirit is a sense of comradeship. All over the world a soldier recognises a brother in another soldier. Not only members of the same regiment, of the same corps, of the same army and country, but even combatants in opposing armies are conscious of a bond which unites them, in spite of their antagonism; and the officers and men of hostile armies have been known to engage in warm expressions of mutual fellowship as soon as they were free to do so by the proclamation of peace. This generous and chivalrous feeling which survives the clash of arms confers on a soldier’ s bearing an elevation which we cannot mistake. When, in the later years of his life, Marshal Soult, who had been in command in the Peninsula, visited this country, he came to St. Paul’ s Cathedral, and the monument which most interested him, and which then had been recently erected in the South Transept, was that of Sir John Moore, the hero of Corunna. “ Soult,” says one who witnessed it, “ stood for some time before the monument; he could not speak; he could hardly control himself; he dissolved in a flood of tears.” Certainly it was meant to be so m the Church. “ By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one towards another.” But there is an important difference between the services. The one terminates, if not before, yet certainly and altogether at the moment of quitting this earthly scene. The last possible point of contact that even a Wellington can have with the profession of his choice is seen in the device on his coffin, in the epitaph on his grave. The other service--that of Jesus Christ--although under changed conditions lasts on into that world to which death is but an introduction, and which He, our Captain, has opened to us by His death on the cross, by His resurrection from the dead. (Canon Liddon.) Endurance Here the apostle is not thinking of the soldier on the field of battle engaged in conflict with the enemy. His exhortation to Timothy is not to fight well, but to endure, or, as the same word is rendered elsewhere (2 Timothy 1:8), to suffer affliction well. He thinks of the soldier being drilled and disciplined for the fight. As a prisoner at Rome he would be, very probably, a daily eye-witness of the severe training through which the emperor’ s troops had to pass. These were good soldiers of Caesar. They were true patriots, laying upon the altar of their country their very lives. Now Timothy was, like the apostle himself, a soldier; but the soldier of avery different King from Caesar, and had a very different warfare to wage than such wars as the Roman soldiery were so frequently engaged in. He was the soldier of Jesus Christ. I. Let me remind you that there is hardness to be endured by all of us. Christianity means to-day as it always did, continual cross-bearing. The word “ duty” has still a rough edge. For example, here is a Christian merchant who has so many shares in a concern which he has for some time back had good reason for thinking is in a rather shaky condition, and an opportunity occurs for his selling out, and that at a good price. Just at present a few hundred pounds in hard cash would be of immense service to him in his business. But no, he won’ t sell. He means to be the true Christian gentleman, and he feels that that he cannot be and sell as good that what he has his doubts about. Yet it is hard, especially if one can see at his back a wife and so many daughters inclining rather to be extravagant, and who cannot appreciate “ father’ s scruples.” This is his cross, and as a good soldier of Jesus Christ he bears it. Come what may, he will be honest--will not finger a shilling that does not come to him lawfully. I think, then, that in the region of commercial morality those of us who belong thereto will find occasion for the exercise of the precept, “ Thou, therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” II. Let me see if I can give the true word of direction; if I can at least indicate to you the spirit in which we are to endure. I think Paul does this himself for us. We are to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. That is, we also, like Timothy--and like those good soldiers at Rome which Paul saw--are to take to our task kindly. We are not to despise the cross that is laid upon us. We are not to run out of the way of duty. We are not to rebel when our Master chastens. III. Let me see if I can say anything that may help to stimulate us to dare and do the right, So that we may not repeat the mistakes of the past which have brought to us so much misery and unrest. Observe, then, what Paul says--“ As a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” That is, as a soldier under Jesus Christ. Think of that name--Jesus Christ. Can we for a moment suppose that He would give an unkind command or put upon us an unnecessary burden? Jesus! This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ 2 Timothy 2:4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.Roman soldiers were not allowed to marry or to engage in any husbandry or trade; and they were forbidden to act as tutors to any person, or curators to any man’ s estate, or proctor in the cause of other men. The general principle was, that they were excluded from those relations, agencies, and engagements, which it was thought would divert their minds from that which was to be the sole object of pursuit. (A. Barnes.) The soldier of Jesus Christ, enduring, and unentangled (2 Timothy 2:3-4):--Soldiers read and scan attentively the military orders which are put forth from time to time by their commanding officers. Let us see what, in the articles of Christian warfare, are placed here for our instruction to-day. I. The Christian soldier is to endure suffering for Christ. This is the true rendering of the expression, “ Endure hardness.” It means, suffer or endure for Christ’ s sake. The faithful soldier never deserts his duty. The hardships on the battle-field are fearful, but never, in his thought, unendurable. Officers in the Crimean war (as they themselves have told me) had for weeks nothing else than the hard rock for their pillow, and the sky (often obscured by deluging rain clouds) for their ceiling. Yet they “ endured” it, and the soldiers “ endured” it with them, and thus they “ suffered” or endured hardness together, as “ good soldiers” under a gracious queen!1. The good soldier of Jesus Christ will often “ endure” suffering by reproaches for Christ’ s name. 2. And you must not wonder, if you have to endure persecution also, by taunts openly spoken in your hearing. II. That Christian soldiers are not to “ entangle themselves with the affairs of this life.”1. The Christian is a warrior--is a “ man that warreth.” There is the daily watch to he kept over yourself, and to bar out Satan, and to keep out the world. Ay, and all is not done even then, for there are those occasional surprises, when the enemy would pounce upon us from an ambush; for the Christian knows that sometimes he is vigorously assaulted at the time, and from the point where he thought injury impossible, and when he deemed himself quite secure. Then, too, there is the well planned attack, when Satan brings all his legionaries to the fight, and the hosts of temptations are directed against you with unceasing violence. 2. Well, then, be mindful you do not entangle yourself. You need not be entangled--if you become so, you entangle yourself. (1) You may entangle yourself by a worldly spirit.(2) Or, you may become entangled by evil company.(3) Or, you may become en tangled by any business or any pleasure. How, then, are these dangers to be avoided? I answer--1. By watchfulness against first dangers. You know in an army, “ pickets” are sent to the very outskirts of the camp, who give signal of the earliest beginning of any attack. Be you always on your guard; let conscience have fidelity and watchfulness, ever on the alert to give notice of the least cause of danger. 2. Then, next, daily prayer is as needful to a Christian soldier as daily food is to the winner of the earthly fight. 3. And, lastly, you will do well to make a profession. A man is just as brave in fustian as in full regimentals, but it is a fact long ago established, that the ornament and distinctive dress are extremely useful. (Geo. Venables.) The military discipline 1. I begin with the particular matter suggested by the apostle; viz., the putting off or excision of the world, as an interruptive and disqualifying power. The only way to make great soldiership, as the military commander well understands, is to take his men completely out of the home world and have them circumscribed and shut in by drill, as being mortgaged in body and life for their country.. Trained to flinch at nothing, and suffer anything, he makes them first impassive, and so, brave. And under this same law it is that all Christian disciples are required to strip for the war, throwing off all their detentions, all the seductions of business, property, pleasure, and affection. All such matters must now drop into secondary places, for the understanding is, that no one gets the great heart, or becomes in any sense a hero, till his very life is drunk up in his commander, and his supreme care to please him that hath chosen him to be a soldier. 2. Consider next how the military discipline raises spirit and high impulse by a training under authority, exact and absolute. Does it reduce the soldiers and all the subordinate commanders of an army to mere cyphers, when they are required to march, and wheel, and lift every foot, and set every muscle by the word of authority; when even the music is commandment, and to feed, and sleep, and not sleep are by requirement? Why, the service rightly maintained invigorates every manly quality rather; for they are in a great cause, moving with great emphasis, having thus great thoughts ranging in them and, it may be, great inspirations. God’ s all dominant, supreme authority is our noblest educator. 3. How often is it imagined by outside beholders, or felt by slack-minded, self-indulgent disciples, that the military stringency of the Christian life is a condition of bondage. Liberty is not the being let alone, or allowed to have everything oar own way. If it were, the wild beasts would be more advanced in it than all states and peoples. No, there is no proper liberty but under rule, and in the sense of rule. It holds high sisterhood with law, nay, it is twin-born with law itself. 4. Ungenial and repulsive as the law of the camp may be, there is no such thing in it as enduring hardness for hardness’ sake, no peremptory commandment for commandment’ s sake. Such kind of discipline would not be training, but extirpation rather. And yet how many of us Christian disciples fall into notions of Christian self-denial that include exactly this mistake. As if it were a proper Christian thing to be always scoring, and stripping, and mortifying ourselves. The truth is, that our human nature is made to go a great deal more heroically than some of us think; and our soldiers in the field are just now making this discovery. Why, if the fires of patriotic impulse can help our sons and fathers in the field to rejoice in so great sacrifice for their country, what pain can there be to us in our painstakings, what loss in our losses, when the love of God and of His Son is truly kindled in us? 5. The military discipline has as little direct concern to beget happiness, as it has to compel self-abnegation. It is never altogether safe for such as we to be simply happy, and that may be the reason why the best and solidest of us never are. 6. There is yet one other point of this military analogy, where in fact it is scarcely any proper analogy at all, but a kind of universal law, running through all kinds of mortal endeavour, secular, moral, mental, and spiritual; viz., that whatever we get, we must somehow fight for it. What begins in the conflicts of tribes and empires runs down through all kinds of experience. Fighting a good fight is the only way to finish the course, and the crown of glory comes in nowhere, save at the end. (H. Bushnell, D. D.) The Christian warfare What are the things with which we are in danger of entangling ourselves?1. Doubtless we are in the greatest danger from our sins and especially from our besetting sin, i.e., that peculiar sin to which each one is liable either from some natural bias, or from acquired habit arising out of the evil within. We are in danger of entangling ourselves with our sins-- (1) From their deceitfulness.(2) From the power and force of habit.(3) Because we cannot be the slaves of sin and be the servants of God. 2. But the Christian’ s dangers arise not only from his sins, but also from the ordinary affairs of daily life. These are more especially meant in the text. And what snare can be greater? Actual sin we may generally know to be sin. But in the affairs of this life, our daily occupations and our lawful enjoyments, it is often hard to find where the entanglement begins. If as moralists say and as experience proves, the difference between things lawful and unlawful is frequently one of degree, it must require both an enlightened conscience and much self-examination to ascertain the middle path of safety. Then keep as your safeguard the motive the text supplies: “ to please Him who hath chosen you to be a soldier.” It is possible, we may think we do God service by acts which a more enlightened judgment would convince us do not; we cannot mistake a sincere desire to please Him. The old Crusader who, his heart aroused by the preaching of a Bernard or a Peter, laid his hand on his breast and swore to scare away the infidel from the holy sepulchre by his good broadsword, needed more light to learn that “ our weapons are not carnal” ; and yet who can doubt his desire to please his Saviour? Let us, then, see to it that we have this motive--Am I desirous to please Him who hath chosen me to be a soldier? (G. Huntingdon, M. A.) The affairs of this life may entangle us 1. From weakness of judgment. 2. From inordinate affection. 3. From the rebellion of the will. Let us use all helps to avoid the danger; and (1) We must get a sound judgment, to understand what is the chiefest good, and how we are to dispose of all inferior things, for the procuring of it. (2) Labour to see the vanity of all earthly and sublimary things, what, and wherein their natural worth consisteth. (3) Make the Lord thy portion, and be thou assured that He only can content thy heart. (4) Refrain things indifferent (if in thy choice), and watch over thy outward senses. (5) Strive for a taste of spiritual things. They who tasted of the grapes which came from Canaan, desired to see the land: coveted more. So will it be in better things. (6) Beat Satan with his own weapons, outshoot him in his own bow. Doth he show thee the glory of this world? Tell him, it is thy Father’ s; and in serving of Him He will give thee a better. Tempts he thee to wear two swords? Say that thou art weak, and one sufficeth. Art thou enticed by Rebecca’ s beauty? Consider the king’ s daughter, who is all glorious within. Saith he, thou art a sinner? Reply, else what needed I a Saviour? (J. Barlow, D. D.) Not entangled with the world St. Paul does not suggest that Christians should keep aloof from the affairs of this life, which would be a flat contradiction of what he teaches elsewhere (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12). He has a duty to perform “ in the affairs of this life,” but in doing it he is not to be entangled in them. They are means, not ends; and must be made to help him on, not suffered to keep him back. If they become entanglements instead of opportunities, he will soon lose that state of constant preparation and alertness which is the indispensable condition of success. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Carnal ease not becoming a soldier Milton excuses Oliver Cromwell’ s want of bookish application in his youth thus: “ It did not become that hand to wax soft in literary ease which was to be inured to the use of arms and hardened with asperity; that right arm to be softly wrapped up amongst the birds of Athens, by which thunderbolts were soon afterwards to be hurled among the eagles which emulate the sun.” Carnal ease and worldly wisdom are not becoming in the soldier of Jesus Christ. He has to wrestle against principalities and powers, and has need of sterner qualities than those which sparkle in the eyes of fashion or adorn the neck of elegance. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Wholly a soldier Let not the minister of the gospel have one foot in the temple and the other in the curia. (Melancthon.) Military service Those who regard relationship are not fit for military service. (Tamil Proverb.) Devotion to duty The Countess of Aberdeen, speaking at Millseat, said, “ If you have noticed Mr. Gladstone as I have done, he considers it a sacred duty never to think any part of his time his own while he is in office. He considers he has no right to have anything to do with his own private affairs. He has told me himself that he never reads a book which he does not think will help in some way to prepare his mind for the work which he has to do for the country. He never takes any relaxation, any recreation, but what he thinks is just necessary to prepare him in doing the work of his country. It is a life of hard and coutinuous work, and yet we all look upon that as the most honourable place in the country, that of being absolutely the servants of the country.” (British Weekly.) That he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. That I may please Him As we read his epistles, we feel that we know St. Paul better even than those who saw his face or heard his voice; and more and more the consciousness of his greatness becomes impressed upon us. There are two things in this greatness of his which strike us most forcibly. The first is his success in living the Christian life. What was the secret of this strength and success, making St. Paul’ s life so different from the lives of other men? Another thing which strikes us, as we read his writings, is his deep spirituality. What was the secret of this spirituality? Perhaps the text wilt furnish us with an answer. There you have the ringing key-note of St. Paul’ s whole life, the one thought that was ever uppermost in his mind, “‘ That I may please Him.” There are three aims, or motives, under which men act, and these three give birth to three different kinds of lives. Each of these principles of action is exclusive. I. Living to please self. This is the keynote of most lives--the central force into which they resolve themselves when they are analysed and dissected. The principle first manifests itself when the unconscious life of childhood passes into the conscious life of manhood or womanhood. II. The second type of life is that in which the first aim is to please others. The highest good, some say, is to sacrifice all for selfish pleasure. The highest good, say others, is to sacrifice all to gain the approbation and admiration of the world. Some men will give honour and reputation for gold. Others will give gold for honour and reputation. Here you have the distinction between these two motives. III. From the slavery of these two motives--living to please self, and living to please others--let us now turn to the glorious liberty of the third--St. Paul’ s motive--living to please Christ. The Christian religion is different from all other religions in this one respect: it is founded, not upon a system, but upon a person. Remember that this is not a dead person who lived eighteen hundred years ago, and then went back to heaven. It is not the memory of a life. It is a present life. II; is a living person--“ Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” Here is the fountain of spirituality--the constant contact of heart and soul with the living Christ. We Christians are men of but one principle. We, with that feeling of loyalty in our hearts to Christ, have hut one simple rule of action: Will it please Him? (H. Y. Satterlee, D. D.) One mind rules the army Nowhere else is it so true that the will of one becomes lost in that of another as in the case of the soldier. In an army it is contemplated that there shall be but one mind, one heart, one purpose--that of the commander; and that the whole army shall be as obedient to that as the members of the human body are to the one will that controls all. The application of this is obvious. (A. Barnes.) Heart devotion to Christ Ofttimes a commander is so beloved and idolised by his soldiers, that they know no higher wish than to please him for his own sake. A French soldier lay sorely wounded on the field of battle. When the surgeons were probing the wound in the breast to find the bullet, the soldier said: “ A little deeper, gentlemen, and you will find the emperor.” So heart-deep was his devotion to his captain. But there never, never was a captain who so held the heart and charmed the love of His soldiers as Immanuel does. For Him they fight, for Him they live, for Him they suffer, and for Him they die! if only they may “ please Him who hath called them to be a soldier.” This Commander loves to mention his beloved “ braves” in His despatches, and these are kept as a book of remembrance. (J. J. Wray.) Duty more than safety In evil times it fares best with them that care most careful about duty, and least about safety. (J. Hammond.) Erratic soldiers Erratic Christians, who dash about like Bashi-Bazouks, working according; to no law save the bidding of their own caprice, are sorry specimens of soldiers. (W. Landels, D. D.) Obey orders and leave results When Stonewall Jackson, who was personally a very tender man, was asked whether he had no compunctions in shelling a certain town, which had been threatened unless it surrendered, he replied, “ None whatever. What business had I with results? My duty was to obey orders.” (H. O. Mackey.) 2 Timothy 2:5 Not crowned, except he strive lawfully.Lawful striving The athlete who competes in the games does not receive a crown, unless he has contended law fully, i.e., according to rule (νομίμωςνόμος). Even if he seem to be victorious, he nevertheless is not crowned, because he has violated the well-known conditions. And what is the rule, what are the conditions of the Christian’ s contest? “ If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” If we wish to share Christ’ s victory, we must be ready to share His suffering. No cross, no crown. To try to withdraw oneself from all hardship and annoyance, to attempt to avoid all that is painful or disagreeable, is a violation of the rules of the arena. This, it would appear, Timothy was in some respects tempted to do; and timidity and despondency must not be allowed to get the upper hand. Not that what is painful, or distasteful, or unpopular, is necessarily right; but it is certainly not necessarily wrong; and to try to avoid everything that one dislikes is to ensure being fatally wrong. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Lawful diet The phrase “ lawfully” which is found in precisely the same connection in Galen (Comm. in Hippocrates 1.15) was technical, half-medical, and half belonging to the training schools of athletes, and implied the observance of all rules of life prior to the contest as well as during it. Failure to keep to the appointed diet and discipline, no less than taking an unfair advantage at the time, excluded the competitor from his reward. (E. H. Plumptre, D. D.) Regulations for athletic contests The following were among the regulations of the athletic contests. Every candidate was required to be of pure Hellenic descent. He was disqualified by certain moral and political offences. He was obliged to take an oath that he had been ten months in training, and that he would violate none of the regulations. Bribery was punished by a fine. The candidate was obliged to practise again in the gymnasium immediately before the games, under the direction of judges or umpires, who were themselves required to be instructed for ten months in the details of the games. (Conybeare and Howson.) Lawful striving I. A Christian is a striver.1. In the breast and forefront of this strife thou must contend with ignorance, which adversary, though his eyes be put out, and he be as blind as a mill-horse, yet his strength is like behemoths, his weapons Goliahs, his blows the batterings of a tearing cannon; for if this giant be not quelled, killed, he will lead you into mazes of error. 2. This monster being put to flight, you are to encounter with aged superstition. 3. Close after idolatry follows covetousness. 4. At the heels of every striver you shall have sloth and idleness. II. Eternal life is called a crown. For the worth and excellency of it. III. The lawful striver shall be crowned. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The lawful strife Man likes to choose his own way; but the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ has marked out a way for him: hence one reason at least of his unwillingness to go along it. The text tells us that we must put off this perverseness of the old man, and put on all the obedience of the new man, following the direction which the Lord hath given. Man’ s will is to have no change of his ways, no sorrow for the past, no amendment (but he will not call it amendment) for the future. All this is too humbling to his pride, too much of a curb upon his self-will. But our Lord’ s precept is repentance: you must come to Me, and receive that which I give along the road of repentance. The making repentance a step, and not a course, merely a gate of introduction, and not a road also of daily conduct, is one of the short cuts by which men think to arrive at the prize, without going through all the prescribed rules of the struggle. And not only must we bring our minds to submit to the rules which our Lord hath laid down, but also our hearts to understand them: indeed, we must first understand them before we can truly accept them. We cannot in any case effectually bind ourselves to a duty of which we know not the extent; we cannot be sure of accomplishing a thing of which we have not counted the cost. Now our blessed Lord bath set before us our course, both by example and precept. And what remains is to make up our minds to rise and follow. In His trials we have the model of our lawful strife. In His ascension unto glory we see the assurance of our crown. His flesh was crucified: so must we crucify the flesh. He rose again; even so we must rise again unto newness of life. He is seated in heaven: so we must set our affections on things above. The rules are plain; they cannot he confounded with the rules of strife for any worldly mastery. We see, then, what we have to contend against. It is a compliance with the course of a sinful world; a reluctance to change our course into one which is not in conformity with it, but even in a contrary direction. It is putting God’ s end, indeed, before us, even the prospect of eternal life, but not using His means, but putting our own in their place, because we find them much more agreeable: it is, in short, the indulgence of our nature. (R. W. Evans, B. D.) Lawful strife We gather from this figure that in spiritual things there is a striving lawfully and a striving unlawfully, and that the prize is not necessarily given to him who wins the race, if he has not complied with certain rules laid down. I think, then, we may say that there are three distinct ways of striving.1. There is an unlawful striving after unlawful objects.2. An unlawful striving after lawful objects.3. A lawful striving after lawful objects. I. As what is right is often more clearly shown by holding up what is wrong, I shall attempt to describe what it is to strive unlawfully after unlawful objects.1. To strive, then, after pre-eminence, to be a Diotrephes in a church (John 3:9). 2. All strife about vain and idle questions (2 Timothy 2:14). 3. To seek after a form of godliness, whilst secretly denying the power thereof, or to have a name to live when dead in sin. 4. To strive after fleshly holiness and creature perfection. 5. To seek to find an easier and smoother path than the strait gate and the narrow way. II. But now I come to another kind of striving, which is unlawful striving after lawful objects. Now God has laid down in His word of truth three solemn rules, laws you may call them if you like, which constitute lawful striving.1. The Holy Ghost must begin, carry on, and finish the inward work of grace. 2. The soul must be brought under His Divine teaching to be thoroughly stripped and emptied of all creature wisdom, strength, help, hope, and righteousness. 3. The glory of a Triune God must be the end and motive of all. Any departure from these three rules of striving makes a man strive unlawfully. III. But we come now to the only striving which the Lord crowns--a lawful striving after lawful objects.1. Now we will begin with the first rule, which is this, that the Holy Spirit must work in us all the power, wisdom, grace, faith, strength, and life, that we strive with. 2. The second rule of lawful striving is, that the runners in this race should have no strength. “ He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.” 3. And this enables you to comply with the third rule of lawful strife--to give God all the glory. Surely you can take no glory to self, when self has been proved, and found wanting. Now these lawful strivers after lawful objects are crowned, and they only. This crown is twofold--a crown here and a crown hereafter, a crown of grace set on the heart below, and a crown of glory set on the head above. (J. C. Philpot.) Lawful striving (2 Timothy 2:5 with 1 Corinthians 9:25):--Let us glance first at-- I. The fact that the Christian life is a warfare, a running and a wrestling, a course of self-restraint, and of earnest labour and striving after a great end. Let us consider-- II. The manner of the strife. There are two words which describe this, both of which are significant. “ Lawfully” is the one, and “ certainly” --or to put the double negative as the apostle has it, “ not uncertainly” --is the other; and the “ not as one that beateth the air” is only an expletive, or repetition of that.1. This “ lawfully” requires that all our effort and striving should be in accordance with Divine rule. And this implies at least two things-- (1) That it should be preceded by our trust in Christ. Nothing we can do is acceptable or valuable until by faith in Christ we have been reconciled to God. (2) In the efforts we put forth we are not to follow our own impulses or inclination, but to be directed by the will of Christ. 2. “ Certainly.” The certainty is secured by the lawfulness. Those who are guided by Christ’ s will are not in any doubt either as to what they ought to do, or as to the result of doing it. Let us notice-- III. The object of our effort and striving. The apostle defines this object in the words, “ I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection,” and in this he but describes the warfare of the spirit against the flesh, or of the new man against the old, which is characteristic of the Christian life. And this leads me to notice in the fourth and last place-- IV. The motive of the apostle’ s striving.1. That he might not be a castaway. “ A castaway.” Try to realise what that word means, if you would understand the full significance of the text, and the mighty force of the motive by which the apostle was actuated. “ A castaway.” There was a picture so designated painted some years ago, and engravings of it were frequently met with. One of these you may have seen, and the remembrance of it will help you to a conception of what the apostle dreaded. In that picture a gaunt figure with unshaven head and unkempt hair, badly clad and hunger-stricken, is seen seated on a raft in the midst of a raging rainy sea, sheltering his face with his arm from the blinding drift, straining his hollow eyes to descry a sail in the far distance. He is the very picture of umnitigated, hopeless, unpitied misery. He is not only alone in the universe, but tile whole universe, so far as it is visible, seems to be against him. The sky frowns on him; the rain descends on his unsheltered head, tile wind smites him; the sea dashes over, and threatens to engulf him; hungry monsters of the deep are waiting to make him their prey. There is no ear to hear his cry, no eye to witness his miserable and forlorn plight, no hand to help him, no haven near, no friendly star gleaming through the darkness to show him where he is. He is left alone of men, cast out by the world, persecuted by the elements. The only thing that befriends him is the raft to which he clings. Now to be a castaway in the spiritual sense is worse even than that--unspeakably worse. The word is fraught with all kinds of imaginable and unimaginable horrors. To be rejected by the universe of being, to be despised and spurned, to be expelled from any circle into which it is desirable to enter, to be disowned by all the good, tormented by ell the bad, to see every door of hope closed, to find everything in the universe hostile, every force operating unfavourably, every object wearing a frown, no eye to pity, no hand to help, no car to hear, no voice to utter one consoling word, no means of mitigating, no friendly raft even to bear up amidst the engulfing misery! What conception can be more horrible than that? 2. Paul was not only actuated by the desire to escape being a castaway, but also by the desire to gain a crown. “ They do it,” he says, of the competitors in the games, “ to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.” (W. Landels, D. D.) Law As the chemist, the navigator, the naturalist attain their ends by means of law, which is beyond their power to alter, which they cannot change, but with which they can work in harmony, and by so doing produce definite results, so may we. (Shorthouse, ”John Inglesant.”) Obedience If a boy at school is bidden to cipher, and chooses to write a copy instead, the goodness of the writing will not save him from censure. We must obey, whether we see the reason or not; for God knows best. (New Cyclopaedia of Illustrations.) Conquest the condition of entrance into heaven Many years ago the Turks and the Christians had a great battle, and the Christians were defeated, and with Stephen, their commander, they fled toward a fortress where the mother of the commander was staying. When the mother saw her son and his army flying in disgraceful retreat, she ordered the gates of the fortress to be closed against them, and the gates were dosed, and then the mother stood on the battlement and cried to her son, “ You cannot enter here except as a conqueror.” Then the commander rallied his scattered troops, and resumed battle and won the day--twenty thousand scattering like flying chaff two hundred thousand. Ah! my friends, defeated in this battle with sin and death and hell, there is no joy, no reward, no triumph for you. Only shame and everlasting contempt. But for those who gained the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ the gates of the New Jerusalem are open, and you will have abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Obedience and freedom The truest freedom is secured by the most implicit obedience. Those who profess themselves free in the sense of being superior to law do but make themselves the slaves of sin. It is in the observance of rule that we find the fullest scope for the development of our individuality and the improvement and elevation of all our natural powers. They soar highest, and act with the greatest vigour, and move with the greatest freedom, who keep themselves most completely subject to the restraints of law. Loyalty elevates. We are ensnared and deteriorated when we follow our own caprice; for the liberty which is lawless is essentially degrading. The worlds describe their brilliant course over the dark brow of night because of the force which binds them to their great centre; let that force be destroyed, and they are free to rush whithersoever the centrifugal force propels. Their movement may be swifter than the lightning, and their track more dazzling than its path, but it will soon end in darkness and destruction. And so it is with the mind and the law of duty which hinds it to God. The freedom which comes from the violation of that law is a freedom which, instead of securing its welfare and elevation, only lands it in deeper degradation and death. (W. Landels, D. D.) 2 Timothy 2:6 The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.The laboring husbandman The order of the Greek shows that the emphatic word is “ labours.” It is the labouring husbandman who must be the first to partake of the fruits. It is the man who works hard and with a will, and not the one who works listlessly or looks despondently on, who, according to all moral fitness and the nature of things, ought to have the first share in the fruits. This interpretation does justice to the Greek as it stands, without resorting to any manipulation of the apostle’ s language. Moreover, it brings the saying into perfect harmony with the context. It is quite evident that the three metaphors are parallel to one another, and are intended to teach the same lesson. In each of them we have two things placed side by side--a prize, and the method to be observed in obtaining it. Do you, ass Christian soldier on service, wish for the approbation of Him who has enrolled you. Then you must avoid the entanglements which would interfere with your service. Do you, as a Christian athlete, wish for the crown of victory? Then you must not evade the rules of the contest. Do you, as a Christian husbandman, wish to be among the first to enjoy the harvest? Then you must be foremost in toil. (A. Plummer, D. D.) The minister a husbandman 1. He must prepare good seed--i.e., sound doctrine. For in this sense we may truly say: what a man soweth, he shall reap; such as thy seed is, such will be thy harvest. 2. Understand the nature of the soil, the spiritual estate of thy people, and let the seed be in degree and measure suitable. Seed that is hot and dry must be sown in a cold and moist ground; if cold and moist, in a land that is hot and dry, else no multiplication. He that preaches mercy to the wicked is like him who soweth wheat on dry sandy mountains; judgment to the righteous, rye in wet and watery valleys--neither of both will, can prosper. 3. Get skill in the manner of sowing. 4. When the seed is sown, weeds will grow up with it. These must be plucked up, kept under, else the corn will not prosper. 5. In any case, go not thou beyond thy bounds, but sow in that soil where God commands thee. That great seedsman, Paul, had ill success among the Jews, being chiefly sent to teach the Gentiles. 6. Cast not off thy calling; wax not weary in this husbandry; and to encourage thee, consider the excellency of thy function. The husbandman waiteth long; be thou also patient, for a time of gathering will come--shall come. (J. Barlow, D. D.) What the Christian teacher can learn from the husbandman 1 No fruit without labour.2. No labour without reward. (Van Oosterzee.) The minister a husbandman 1. He must cultivate the people, and sow the good seed.2. He must not be discouraged if he does not reap fruit at once.3. As the fruits of the ground sustain the husbandman, so should the people sustain the minister. (W. Burkitt, M. A.) Reward of work A few years since, Motley shot up to the first position as an historian. Many wondered; but it was no wonder. He had wrought patiently for years in the libraries of the Old and New Worlds, unseen of men. The success of the great artist Dore was years of study in the hospitals, and practice in the studio behind it. This path to success is open to all. (New Cyclopaedia of Illustrations.) No work, no reward Gilbert Wakefield tells us that he wrote his own memoirs, a large octavo, in six or eight days. It cost him nothing, and, what is very natural, is worth nothing, You might yawn scores of such books into existence; but who would be the wiser or better? We all like gold, but dread the digging. The cat loves the fish, but will not wade to catch them. (J. Todd, D. D.) The pleasure of sloth inconsistent with the reward of toil They are utterly out that think to have the pleasure of sloth and the guerdon of goodness. (J. Trapp.) Work and joy Work is heaven’ s condition of prosperity and enjoyment in everything. A workless world would be a joyless world. (Homilist.) Partaking of the fruit A young man came to a man of ninety years of age, and said to him, “ How have you made out to live so long and be so well?” The old man took the youngster to an orchard, and; pointing to some large trees full of apples, said, “ I planted these trees when I was a boy, and do you wonder that now I am permitted to gather the fruit of them?” We gather in old age what we plant in our youth. Sow to the wind, end we reap the whirlwind. Plant in early life the right kind of a Christian character, and you will eat luscious fruit in old age, and gather these harvest apples in eternity. The present rewards of service Of the husbandman it is said that he first shall eat of the fruit of his labour. Here we have an intimation of the rewards of Christian life that come before the final distribution. The soldier must wait until the war is over; the contestant shall not be crowned until the games are over; but the husbandman has continuous incomings of the fruits of his labours all the time. He first partakes of the fruit of his labour. The loaf on his table, the milk in his dairy, the fruit of his storehouse--these are kept plenished and plentiful all the time. Then comes harvest and autumn, with their laden garners and their orchard spoil. So it is with the rewards of the Christian. Let him be as a soldier brave, as contestant striving, as a husbandman diligent and thrifty, and he shall have the reward of his labours even now--in grace and favour, in strength and peace, in hope and heavenly mindedness, and in the joy of doing good. Plenty to go on with, and a harvest to follow--the fruits immortal, that await the plucking from the bending branches of the trees of life! (J. J. Wray.) 2 Timothy 2:7 Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding.Reflection aids discernment The better rendering gives, “ For the Lord will give thee.” This gives also a better meaning: “ Make the effort to reflect; for if thou do, the Lord will give thee the discernment which thou needest.” (E. H. Plumptre, D. D.) Enlightenment aids personal application of truth De Wette and others object to this verse, that it is impossible to suppose that St. Paul would imagine Timotheus so dull of apprehension as not to comprehend such obvious metaphors. But they have missed the sense of the verse, which is not meant to enlighten the understanding of Timotheus as to the meaning of the metaphors, but as to the personal application of them. (Conybeare and Howson.) Consideration I. Consideration is a duty to be practised.1. For hath not God given man a discoursive faculty? What creature but he hath understanding, the angels only excepted? Were it not vanity to have an eye, and close it? an ear, and stop it? a hand, and not move it? And is it not wickedness to bare a faculty of discourse and not employ it? And wherein better than in consideration? 2. The life of man differs little from a beast without consideration? This soundly lessons those that approve of it but never practise it. Will you hear how they excuse, clear themselves? (1) It is a difficult duty. Grant it be so, what then? Is it to be rejected? But what hard things dost thou use for the love of this world? Take thou the like pains in this profitable action. (2) But I want time. Wonderful! Did God ever command a duty and allow no time to effect it? What! None to consider? to confer with thy Father? Lay thy hand upon thy mouth--say no more; for, for what end is the Sabbath? (3) I have no convenient place. Imitate David, commune with thyself in bed. But my children cry. Then with Isaac, to the field; Hannah, to the Temple; or get thee to some garden, solitary mount, as did thy Master. (4) I cannot bring my mind to it. Is it so with thee as thou sayest? Be the more humbled for it, and make that matter of consideration. Set thou thyself about this necessary duty; it shall recompense all thy painstaking. And-- (a) Wouldst thou love God? Then consider how He hath chosen thee, redeemed thee, given thee a being in these glorious days of the gospel, conferred on thee many earthly favours. Consider the many sins He hath pardoned, prevented; the evils spiritual, corporal, He hath removed; the petitions He hath granted; and of what great things thou art assured. (b) Is thy faith feeble? Consider the depth of God’ s mercy, the firmness of His promise, the might of His power, the unchangeableness of His nature. Shall not these relieve thee? (c) Art thou impatient? Do afflictions overlade thee? Consider the greatness of thy sins, whereby thou hast deserved far worse evils. Think, and think often, that they come from the hand of thy heavenly Father; how He hath an eye to thy weakness, that they shall not exceed thy ability; and at their departure, like an overflowing river’ s rich mud, leave a blessing behind them. (d) And what external action can, without consideration, be well discharged? Did magistrates take up their minds, exercise themselves in this duty, would it not make them resolute for the execution of their function? (e) Can ministers preach and neglect this action? (f) Why do men hear much, understand little, and practise nothing? It is want of consideration. The most run to God’ s house, as travellers to an inn, hear the Word as some well-told tale, not knowing, like that rude company, for what end they came together. (g) In a word, consideration will give us matter of prayer, and kindle the little spark of grace within us, put us in mind of our vow in baptism, and provoke us to perform it--yea, all our promises. II. GOD’ S WORD IS TO RE .1. For the Author’ s sake. Is it not the Book of God?2. And is not the matter holy, just, good?3. What admirable effects will it work? David hereby became wiser than his teachers--a man according to God’ s own heart. III. Exhortation is to be seconded with prayer, IV. God giveth man understanding, V. Men of much knowledge may better their understanding. Knowledge in a threefold respect may be increased--1. In the faculty.2. In the object.3. In the medium of it. VI. In all divine truths we are to have understanding. Had not Moses a pattern of the Tabernacle--to a broom, a snuffer, a curtain-ring? Shall we, then, be ignorant of any one principle in the whole frame of religion? (J. Barlow, D. D.) On hearing the Word I. Show in what manner we are to hear the word.1. Consider well the matter or import of what is spoken.2. Attend to the truth and propriety of what is delivered.3. Consider the weight and importance of what is delivered.4. Consider the personal concern you have in the truths delivered. II. The motives which should induce us well to consider what we hear.1. Think in whose Name the ministers of the gospel speak, and whose Person they represent.2. Consider the great end they aim at in their ministrations.3. By the Word that we hear we shall be judged at the last day. (B. Beddome, M. A.) The young invited to consider I. I begin by calling your attention to a thought which you should never have wholly absent from your minds- namely, for what purpose has life been given you? For what other purpose than to prepare for eternity, by loving and serving your Creator now, that you may serve and enjoy Him for ever? II. From this thought, then, which I beg you seriously to lay to heart, consider what provision God has made for your attaining this glorious end of your being. III. And this introduces another thought of vast importance. “ Consider,” then, “ what I say,” as to the fitting period for making this surrender of yourselves to God. When should it be done? Our answer is, it cannot be done too early. IV. Consider the happiness of a life thus early given to god, to be spent in His service, to end in His glory. (J. Haslegrave, M. A.) Consideration Consideration is the bed where the incorruptible seed is sown, and on the ground thus prepared the Sun of Righteousness doth shine, and by His warmth produces in the soul all manner of pleasant fruits. (Anthony Horneck.) Men need instruction A man’ s understanding is very much like a window. The sun-light is all of one colour; but all the light that goes through the window is not. Sometimes the audience have a scarf of yellow running over them, sometimes one of blue, and sometimes one of red, according as the window is painted. Man’ s reason being like a painted window, the light that goes through it and falls upon his conscience is bizarre, grotesque, wrinkled, bent, or distorted. I have known men whose understanding had in it hideous saints, crowned monsters, apocalyptic visions, and what not--things that took the colours which were painted on the window of that reason. It is very important, therefore, that men should be instructed. (H. W. Beecher.) God’ s teaching When the Prince of Wales landed at Portsmouth, after his tour in India, I was in the crowd with my little boys; and as the Prince and his Princess and children drove past, I lifted my younger boy on my shoulder, and this enabled him to see better and further than the tallest person around us. So those whom God teaches and helps will discern better and further than those who just look out for themselves, or merely get information from others. (H. R. Burton.) Instruction from God When a sceptic once went to a Christian minister to have his doubts and difficulties solved, the minister asked, “ Have you gone and asked God, the fountain of light and the source of all wisdom, for the solution of your difficulties?” On the perplexed man’ s replying he had not, the minister declined to try and assist him out of his perplexities till he had attended to this necessary and important duty. When we ask wisdom as well as light and instruction from God, He will give us mental and spiritual capacities, to prepare us for rightly apprehending truths; and He will also give us sufficient opportunities for gaining wisdom, and then aid and prosper us in our effort to acquire it. Wisdom is to knowledge like what the engineer is to the locomotive--a director, a controller, and a manager. Religion is the highest wisdom of all. (See Proverbs 4:7; Deuteronomy 32:29; Psalms 90:12; Proverbs 2:6; James 1:5.) (H. R. Burton.) Thinking of Christ Dr. Cullis tells, in one of his reports, of an aged Christian who, lying on his death-bed in the Consumptives’ Home, was asked the cause of his perfect peace, in a state of such extreme weakness that he was often entirely unconscious of all around him. He replied, “ When I am able to think, I think of Jesus; and when I am unable to think of Him, I know He is thinking of me.” Remembrance of Christ There is no Christianity where there is no loving remembrance of Christ. If your contact with Him has not made Him your friend, whom you can by no possibility forget, you have missed the best result of your introduction to Him. It makes one think meanly of the chief butler that such a personality as Joseph’ s had not more deeply impressed him--that everything he heard and saw among the courtiers did not make him say to himself: There is a friend of mine in the prison hard by, that for beauty, wisdom, and vivacity would more than match the finest of you all. And it says very little for us if we can have known anything of Christ without seeing that in Him we have what is nowhere else, and without finding that He has become the necessity of our life, to whom we turn at every point. (Marcus Dods, D. D.) 2 Timothy 2:8 Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead.“ Bear in mind,” the connection seems to be. But, with all its toils and sufferings, the gospel has also its stores of abounding consolation. The remembrance of the risen and victorious Saviour is the comfort and support of His ministers. (Speaker’ s Commentary.) Remember Jesus Christ Every Christian who has to endure what seems to him to be hardships will sooner or later fall back upon this remembrance. He is not the first and not the chief sufferer in the world. There is One who has undergone hardships, compared with which those of other men sink into nothingness; and who has expressly told those who wish to be His disciples that they must follow Him along the path of suffering. But merely to remember Jesus Christ as a Master who has suffered and who has made suffering a condition of service will not be a permanently sustaining or comforting thought if it ends there. Therefore St. Paul says to his perplexed and desponding delegate, “ Remember Jesus Christ as one risen from the dead.” Jesus Christ has not only endured every kind of suffering, including its extreme form, death, but He has conquered it all by rising again. Everywhere experience seems to teach us that evil of every kind--physical, intellectual, and moral--holds the field and appears likely to hold it. To allow one’ s self to be mastered by this thought is to be on the road to doubting God’ s moral government of the world. What is the antidote to it? “ Remember Jesus Christ as one risen from the dead.” When has evil ever been so completely triumphant over good as when it succeeded in getting the Prophet of Nazareth nailed to the tree, like some vile and noxious animal? That was the hoar of success for the malignant Jewish hierarchy and for the spiritual powers of darkness. But it was an hour to which very strict limits were placed. Very soon He who had been dismissed to the grave by a cruel and shameful death, defeated, and disgraced, rose again from it triumphant, not over Jewish priests and Roman soldiers, but over death and the cause of death; that is, over every kind of evil--pain and ignorance and sin. But to “ remember Jesus Christ as one risen from the dead” does more than this. It not only shows us that the evil against which we have such a weary struggle in this life, both in others and in ourselves, is not (in spite of depressing appearances) permanently triumphant; it also assures us that there is another and a better life in which the good cause will be supreme, and supreme without the possibility of disaster, or even of contest. What the Son of Man has done, other sons of men can do and will do. The solidarity between the human race and the Second Adam, between the Church and its Head, is such that the victory of the Leader carries with it the victory of the whole band. Once more, to “ remember Jesus Christ as one risen from the dead” is to remember One who claimed to be the promised Saviour of the world and who proved His claim. And this leads St. Paul on to the second point which his downcast disciple is to remember in connection with Jesus Christ. He is to remember Him as “ of the seed of David.” He is not only truly God but truly Man. The Resurrection and the Incarnation--those are the two facts on which a faltering minister of the gospel is to hold fast, in order to comfort his heart and strengthen his steps. This is the meaning of “ according to my gospel.” These are the truths which St. Paul has habitually preached, and of the value of which he can speak from full experience. He knows what he is talking about, when he affirms that these things are worth remembering when one is in trouble. The Resurrection and the Incarnation are facts on which he has ceaselessly insisted, because in the wear, and tear of life he has found out their worth. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Our Lord’ s resurrection The high value which the apostle attributes to the bodily resurrection of the Lord, here and in other passages, is, in a remarkable way, in contrast with the spiritualistic and indifferentistic evaporisation of this chief article of the gospel, on the side of the modern speculative rationalism of our days. (Van Oosterzee.) Remembrance I. Divine truths are to be remembered. Ii. Remembering is a reflecting of the eye of our mind on that which by the senses or the understanding hath been perceived. In remembrance are four things to be considered.1. The apprehension of an object by the external or internal senses.2. A reposing of it in the memory.3. A retaining of it there.4. A reflecting of the eye of the understanding on it. This last act is properly called remembrance. Helps follow.1. Get a true understanding of things.. 2. Meditate much on that thou wouldst remember. Roll the thing to and fro in thy mind, look often at it, mark it well; so shall it, like a bird by struggling in the gin or lime bush, stick faster. 3. Labour for love. Will a maid forget her ornament? a bride her attire? the covetous man his coin, lad long ago in some secret corner? Wherefore, love the Word once, and then forget it if thou canst. 4. Be jealous of thy remembrance. He who carrieth a vessel in his hand may suddenly let it fall; whereas had he feared he would have held it faster. For jealousy, though a bad getter, is an excellent keeper. 5. Use repetition. Have that oft in thy tongue thou wouldst hold in thy mind. For repetition, like a mallet, will cause the piles of Divine truths to stick fast in the soil of man’ s memory. 6. Study for method. Things in order laid in the head will with the more facility be held. Method (say some) is the mother of memory. III. The choicest of divine truths are chiefly to be remembered. Have thy senses exercised, through long custom, to discern betwixt things that differ--good and evil. (J. Barlow, D. D.) An appeal to the pattern In the words preceding this text the apostle Paul has been speaking of the labour and conflict and endurance involved in a true profession of faith in Christ. And now that he has on hand to prove the necessity of enduring hardness in Christian life, he is ready with example as well as argument. “ Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead, according to my gospel.” But there is more in these words than a mere confirmation of what has gone before. They are a fresh battery brought up to the siege, adapted especially for an assault upon that strong citadel, the human will. But we have not yet got to the bottom of the apostle’ s meaning. If we have yielded to the influence of his words they have carried our hearts beyond the subject they were first intended to illustrate. His theme was the endurance of hardship, and his object to brace up the soul of a fellow disciple to this trial; but, in doing so, by the example of the Master Himself, lie has done more; for he has reminded Timothy that Jesus Christ not only suffered, but died; and as elsewhere and often he has taught the necessity of our dying by union with Christ, he surely means no less than to put us face to face with the truth in the present passage. Christianity is the masterpiece of God, the wonderful fabric into which He has woven all Divine and eternal principles; and there is no principle or characteristic of Christianity more plain or more abundantly illustrated than the appointment and use of death for the production of a higher life than that which preceded it. It would be strange, indeed, if man, whose peculiar honour it is to be “ called into the fellowship of God’ s Son,” were an exception to this rule of death and life; or if, in his case, it were only to be known by the dissolution of his earthly body. But Scripture teaches otherwise. Christ has not merely given His life a ransom for ours. He has done this, indeed, and this is the great news of the gospel; but He has done more. He has put Himself at the head of an army which must conquer as He conquered when alone--by suffering. And thus only can we understand His words, “ If any man serve Me let him follow Me!” “ He that taketh not up his cross and followeth not after Me cannot be My disciple” ; “ He that loveth his life shall lose it, but he that loseth his life for My sake the same shall find it.” (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.) Remember Jesus Christ We know how one recollection, distinct and dominant in the mind, has often been the decisive force at a critical moment; how upon the battlefield, for instance, or under the almost overpowering pressure of temptation, the thought of a man’ s country, of his home, of his ancestral traditions, has reinforced, as with a fresh tide of strength, his faltering heart, and borne him on to victory, whether by success or death. We may recall the scene in one of our African campaigns, the scene preserved for us by a clever artist, where the thought of a man’ s old school, and the boyish eagerness anyhow to bring it to the front, was the impulse of a splendid courage. Yes, there are images in most men’ s minds which, if they rise at the right moment, will do much to make them heroes; a word, a glance, some well-known sight, some old familiar strain of music, may beckon the image out of the recesses of the memory, and if the man has in him the capacity of generous action he will use it then. It is on this characteristic of human nature that St. Paul relies as he writes to Timotheus the words of the text. He would avail himself of this; he would raise it to its highest conceivable employment; he would enlist it as a constant, ready, powerful ally on the side of duty--on the side of God. He may never see Timotheus, never write to him again; well then, he will leave dinted into his mind, by a few incisive words, one commanding and sustaining Image. For it is not, as it appears in our English version, an event of the past, however supreme in its importance, however abiding in its results, that St. Paul here fastens upon the memory of his disciple; it is not the abstract statement of a truth in history or theology, however central to the faith, however vast in its consequences; it is a living Person, whom St. Paul has seen, whose form he would have Timotheus keep ever in his mind, distinct, beloved, unrivalled, sovereign--“ Bear in remembrance Jesus Christ, raised from the dead.” Let us take two thoughts this Easter morning from the counsel which St. Paul thus gives. First, that he is trying to lodge at the heart of Timotheus’ s life and work that which has been the deepest and most effective force in his own. St. Paul was convinced that he had seen the risen Lord; and the energy, the effect, of that unfading Image throughout his subsequent life might go some way to prove that the conviction was true. Physical weight is sometimes measured by the power of displacement; and in the moral and spiritual sphere we tend, at least, to think that there must be something solid and real to account for a change so unexpected, so unworldly, so thorough, so sustained through every trial, so vast in its practical outcome, as was the conversion of St. Paul. Let St. Paul’ s conviction be taken in its context; let justice be done to the character it wrought in him; to the coherence and splendour of the work it animated; to the penetrating, sober insight of his practical teaching; to the consistency, not of expression, but of inmost thought and life, which is disclosed to any careful study of his writings; lastly, to the grasp which his words have laid upon the strongest minds in Christendom through all succeeding centuries, the prophetic and undying power which, amidst vast changes of methods and ideas, men widely different have felt and reverenced in these Epistles--let these distinctive notes of St. Paul’ s work be realised, together with its incalculable outcome in the course of history, and it will seem hard to think that the central, ruling impulse of it all was the obstinate blunder of a disordered mind. This, at least, I think, may be affirmed, that, if there were against belief in Christ’ s resurrection any such difficulty as the indisputable facts of St. Paul’ s life and work present to disbelief, we should find it treated as of crucial importance, and that, I think, not unjustly. “ Bear in remembrance Jesus Christ raised from the dead.” It is the form which has made him what he is, for life or for death, that St. Paul would with his last words, it may be, leave clenched for ever on the mind and heart of his disciple. The vision of that form may keep him true and steadfast when all is dark, confused, and terrible around him. May not we do well to take the bidding to ourselves? There are signs of trouble and confusion in the air, and some faint hearts begin to fail; and some of us, perhaps, “ see not our tokens” --so clearly as we did. But One we may see, as we lift our eyes this Easter Day; it is He who liveth and was dead; and behold He is alive for evermore; He who cannot fail His Church, or leave even the poorest and least worthy of His servants desolate and bewildered when the darkness gathers, and the cry of need goes up. (F. Paget, D. D.) The testimony of St. Paul St. Paul was a man who could have been trusted beyond perhaps any other man of his time to take a calm, clear, and accurate view of any alleged historical fact, and to estimate its practical hearings; and if, after the whole evidence for the Resurrection had been brought to bear upon his mind, he felt himself constrained to believe and proclaim it to the dire extremity of martyrdom--that fact becomes the strongest possible evidence for its truth. The testimony of St. Paul to the truth of the Resurrection has a double value. In the first place there is his personal witness, “ Last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.” It is allowed on all hands that Paul at any rate asserted simply what he believed to be the truth. It is, in the judgment of his hostile critics, a case of hallucination, not of wilful perversion of the truth. Well, men are subject to hallucinations, no doubt, especially men of genius. B at the world, the hard rough world, is a great dispeller of hallucinations. No man lives and works through a long and intensely active life as the victim of hallucination: either it vanishes and leaves him in free possession of all his faculties, or it makes him incapable of taking part to any real purpose in the business of his fellow-men. It must be remembered that this statement of Paul does not stand alone. It is in harmony with many appearances of Christ after the Resurrection, which rest on the incontestable evidence of numerous disciples; and it seemed real enough to make a vital change in the character, the beliefs, the aims, the life-work of one of the very ablest, most self.controlled, most masterly men whom we meet with in the records of universal history. But there is a second point of view from which the testimony of St. Paul to the truth of the Resurrection is so deeply important. It is the testimony of one who had mastered the whole argument in its favour, and who believed it to be irresistible. We cannot examine the witnesses, and sift their evidence; all the details are beyond our reach for ever; but we have the proofs sifted for us, weighed and stamped as valid beyond shadow of doubt or question by the regal intellect of St. Paul. His evidence has, however, a value beyond this, to which I must call your attention before I close. St. Paul not only was not a disciple, but he had been the most bitter and uncompromising enemy of the truth. Nor had he been a silent opponent. Though but a youth, by his brilliant powers he had already made for himself a name of renown among his country-men. He was the coming leader of the people, the rising man, on whom the hopes of the elders were set as the future champion of the oppressed nation in the perilous times which were manifestly coming on the world. I have said that the evidence is the evidence of disciples. I have explained how that is its strength and its glory. But one longs sometimes to know what was actually said in the Sanhedrim and in chief-priestly circles against it. We have no contemporary record of this; if any was written, no note of it has reached us, but St. Paul stands forth to supply the want. His is a voice out of the hostile camp, confessing that the opposition was in hopeless collapse. The fact that a man of such keen and eager intellect, who left no objection unanswered, no nook of argument unexplored, never condescends in any of his writings to notice the counter statements of opponents, is proof absolute that there was no validity in them. They evidently had left on his mind not a shadow of question, and brought forward nothing which it was worth his while to trouble himself to refute. Then, having borne his witness lifelong to the Resurrection, he died with the testimony on his lips. (J. B. Brown, B. A.) The resurrection of our Lord Jesus I. Let us consider the bearings of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.1. It is clear at the outset that the resurrection of our Lord was a tangible proof that there is another life. Have you not quoted a great many times certain lines about “ That undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns” ? It is not so. There was once a Traveller who said, “ I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go away I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I am there ye may be also.” He said, “ A little time, and ye shall see Me, and again a little time and ye shall not see Me, because I go to the Father.” His return from among the dead is a pledge to us of existence after death, and we rejoice in it. His resurrection is also a pledge that the body will surely live again and rise to a superior condition; for the body of our blessed Master was no phantom after death any more than before. 2. Christ’ s rising from the dead was the seal to all His claims. It was true, then, that He was sent of God, for God raised Him from the dead in confirmation of His mission. The rising of Christ from the dead proved that this man was innocent of every sin. He could not be holden by the bands of death, for there was no sin to make those bands fast. Moreover, Christ’ s rising from the dead proved His claim to Deity. We are told in another place that He was proved to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. 3. The resurrection of our Lord, according to Scripture, was the acceptance of His sacrifice. 4. It was a guarantee of His people’ s resurrection. 5. Once more, our Lord’ s rising from the dead is a fair picture of the new life which all believers already enjoy. There is within us already a part of the resurrection accomplished, since it is written, “ And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Now, just as Christ led, after His resurrection, a life very different from that before His death, so you and I are called upon to live a high and noble spiritual and heavenly life, seeing that we have been raised from the dead to die no more. II. Let us consider the bearings of this fact upon the Gospel; for Paul says, “ Jesus Christ was raised from the dead according to my gospel.”1. The resurrection of Christ is vital, because first it tells us that the gospel is the gospel of a living Saviour. We have not to send poor penitents to the crucifix, the dead intone of a dead man. Notice next that we have a powerful Saviour in connection with the gospel that we preach; for He who had power to raise Himself from the dead has all power now that He is raised. 2. And now notice that we have the gospel of complete justification to preach to you. 3. Once again, the connection of the Resurrection and the gospel is this: it proves the safety of the saints, for if when Christ rose His people rose also, they rose to a life like that of their Lord, and therefore they can never die. I cannot stop to show you how this resurrection touches the gospel at every point, but Paul is always full of it. More than thirty times Paul talks about the resurrection, and occasionally at great length, giving whole chapters to the glorious theme. III. The bearing of this resurrection upon ourselves. Paul expressly bids us “ remember” it. Now, if you will remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David rose from the dead, what will follow?1. You will find that most of your trials will vanish. Are you tried by your sin? Jesus Christ rose again from the dead for your justification. Does Satan accuse? Jesus rose to be your advocate and intercessor. Do infirmities hinder? The living Christ will show Himself strong on your behalf. You have a living Christ, and in Him you have all things. Do you dread death? Jesus, in rising again, has vanquished the last enemy. 2. Next remember Jesus, for then you will see how your present sufferings are as nothing compared with His sufferings, and you will learn to expect victory over your sufferings even as He obtained victory. 3. We see here, in being told to remember Jesus, that there is hope even in our hopelessness. When are things most hopeless in a man? Why, when he is dead. Do you know what it is to come down to that, so far as your inward weakness is concerned? You that are near despair, let this be the strength that nerves your arm and steels your heart, “ Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to Paul’ s gospel.” 4. Lastly, this proves the futility of all opposition to Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The resurrection of Christ I. I would first say a few words on the fact of the resurrection. It is a main point in our faith. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a pledge of ours. II. I would next direct your attention to the position of the believer in this life. As connected with the risen Saviour, the believer is regarded in the Word of God as “ risen with Christ.” We see, then, that Paul would stir Timothy by our text to remember his privileges. He would, in effect, say to him, “ Timothy, remember you have the life of Christ now; and it is His risen life which is to animate you to work and to suffer, and to ‘ endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.’” III. But there is another point to which I would direct your attention, and that is, union. It is most important to observe that this oneness of life between Jesus and the believer is just that which constitutes union. Nothing short of this is union. It is the resurrection life of Jesus that believers are united with; and this is possible only to the “ new creature,” only to the “ man in Christ.” We see, then, a little, I trust, of the force of the text. It is a wonderful text, and we see the power there is in it to comfort the believer and to strengthen him for service; and just as he understands in his own experience these things will he realise his privileges. In Jesus Christ he will see how the doctrine of the resurrection is calculated to make him “ endure hardness.” (J. W. Reeve, M. A.) The resurrection of Christ I desire to speak to you on the importance of connecting the fact of the Saviour’ s resurrection with two other facts, namely, first, that Christ was of the seed of David, and secondly, that the resurrection of Christ is so essential a part of the gospel of Christ that the one may be described as according with the other. There can be no dispute that it could not be needful for St. Paul to characterise Jesus as of the seed of David, in order to distinguish Him from any other being whom the name might recall to the mind of Timothy. I deny, therefore, altogether, that there is anything whatsoever of the fanciful or the far-fetched in our ascribing any particular emphasis to this casual introduction of the human lineage of Messiah. I look on the name of Jesus, and its every syllable seems to burn and blaze with divinity. I may explain and interpret it; I may expound it as promising salvation, as eloquent of deliverance to our fallen race; but in exact proportion as I magnify the wonder, I remove, as it were, the being unto whom it belongs from all kindred and companionship with the sinful tenantry of a ruined creation. The title of anointed Saviour, full though it be of magnificent mercy, consisting of attributes and principles bearing the impress of a superhuman greatness; and, however stupendous the truth, that Deity has interposed on behalf of the helpless, still the Saviour of man must be one who could hold communion and fellowship with man; He must not be separated from him by the appalling attributes which mark a Divine Creator. If there must be a celestial nature to afford the succour, there must also be a terrestrial nature to ensure the sympathy. Hence, I think it just to imagine that when the apostle sent to a beloved disciple this short compendium of Christian consolation, which he desired might be carefully borne in mind, he would not fail to interweave into such compendium a distinct reference to the complex nature of the Redeemer’ s person; and, not content himself with referring him to Jesus Christ, he would add some such description as this--“ of the seed of David,” in order to mark His real humanity. There is, however, a distinct allusion to other truths, as well as to the Redeemer’ s humanity, in this accurate specification. It is a wonderful thing to cast one’ s eye over the prophetic pages and behold how years past and years that are to come do alike burn with the deeds and triumphs of David’ s Son, under the name and title of a descendant from the man after God’ s own heart. It concerns not my argument to examine into the reasons which might induce the frequent introduction of the name of David whenever the triumphs of Messiah are the subject of discourse. I appeal simply to the fact, and demand of every student of Holy Writ whether there be any title under which prophecy tenders so vast revenue of honour as it does to the seed, or heir, or antitype of David. Truly, the more the mind ponders over the combination of ideas which are gathered into this apparently brief and superfluous message of Paul to Timothy, the more will it be struck with the beauty and consolation it conveys. Now, I have dealt at sufficient length on the first head of discourse; and much that I have advanced in illustration of the importance of the clause, “ of the seed of David,” applies equally to the other, “ according to my gospel,” which I would, in the second place, exhibit to you, as giving strength and emphasis to St. Paul’ s commemoration of the death and resurrection of our Saviour. You remember the strong terms in which St. Paul, when writing to the Corinthians, states the importance of the resurrection as an article of the Christian faith. He may be said to resolve the whole of our religion, all its truth, all its value, all its beauty, into the one fact that Christ Jesus had been raised from the dead. “ If Christ be not raised” --thus it is he speaks--“ your faith is in vain; you are yet in your sins: then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” By stating the fact that life and immortality have been brought to light by the gospel, to which I suppose St. Paul to allude when he speaks of Christ Jesus as “ raised from the dead according to my gospel,” I suppose him designing to remind his son Timothy, not so much of the simple truth of the Saviour’ s resurrection as of the colouring and character which this event gave to the whole system of Christianity. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The place of the resurrection of Jesus in the theology of the New Testament The resurrection was far more than any mere sign, though so unique and remarkable. Like the miracles of Christ, only in a still profounder measure, it was in itself a display of mercy--an instrument of His mighty and beneficent mediation. When the apostles taught it they not only bore witness, but they preached a “ gospel” ; they not only announced a wonderful fact, but they presented that fact to men as in itself at the same time a measure of Divine grace. Apart from the resurrection of Christ you could not construct the faith, impart the solace, urge the appeal, or sway the inspiration of Christianity. It is not simply that there would be no sign, but there would be no power. It is, so to speak, the blood “ which is the life,” the blood that circulates through every vein to every limb and member of the Christian system. This is the fact I want to impress in my present discourse. Perhaps it will surprise you to hear my full belief that, but for the resurrection, you would have had in your hands no such exposition as you now possess of who and what Christ was and did for men. Christ Himself did not write any book about His life; not a line. How, then, came we to know what we do about Him? Right down to the end of His life, to the end of the Gospels, the disciples remained strangely ignorant of the great work their Master came to achieve. Dull, ignorant, confused, bewildered, they were the last men in the world to take up a forlorn cause, redeem it, and carry it to triumph. Contrast with this state of mind the speech and conduct of those self-same men in the stirring scenes with which the Acts acquaint us. You may search all literature, I believe, and you will not find a greater contrast. How did this happen? The only book that gives the history lets us into the secret. I claim, then, on the authority of this only history, to say that but for the resurrection of Jesus we had had no portraiture of Christ, no Gospels, no Acts, no Epistles, setting Him forth to the world for its salvation and joy. No other writers of the age have depicted Him; and these who have all refer their knowledge and appreciation to the illumination of that Spirit whom He sent on His exaltation to heaven. Again. It is the constant representation of the writers of the New Testament that Christ offered Himself in some way as a sacrifice for sin, and that that offering was presented in His death. But what had that sacrifice been without Christ’ s revival from death? With the greatest force does the letter to the Romans teach us, “ He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification.” Paul does not hesitate to declare that apart from it there is no pardon: “ If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” Another point of our “ precious faith” at which the resurrection of Christ meets us with infinite power and solace is seen at death, when we bury our dead out of sight, or are ourselves laid in the grave. “ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.” None of the apostles had a higher standard of the Christian life than the Apostle Paul; none more keenly realised its contrast with the former habits of sin, or more acutely felt the struggle, fierce and constant, by which it alone was to be attained and maintained; none more clearly perceived the organic relation of one part of that life to another; and Paul strove by a most beautiful and expressive image to urge the believer to all vigilance and mortification of unworthy impulse and passion in its culture. Christ’ s death and resurrection furnished the image. “ We are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life,” etc. If Christ be not risen from the dead, the day of judgment, as solemnly delineated in the New Testament, is denuded of many of its most sublime and thrilling features. There is no judgment-seat of Christ; for though Christ has died, He has not risen and revived that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living. Neither, for the same reason, can we look for His appearing, or expect Him from heaven, since He is not gone thither. I should have to quote a vast number of passages from all the great sections of the New Testament Scriptures were I to set forth the claims, according to their teaching, of the Lord Jesus on our worship, His power and readiness to hear our prayers and satisfy our trust. But these are obviously of no authority and service to us if He did not rise from the grave. The writer to the Hebrews has repeatedly described Him as seated at the right hand of God, but of course he is mistaken; Christ is in the grave. He has imputed illimitable efficiency to His intercession. But he is mistaken; Christ is not capable of making any intercession at all. Believers are designated by Paul as those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; but they were all deluded, for Christ was not risen nor ascended. Nor would the example of Christ as an all-perfect pattern of holiness and love in a world governed by infinite holiness and power occasion us less hopeless embarrassment, if He be not risen, than the facts just dismissed. We should, in that case, have the frightful spectacle of a righteousness, truth, goodness, and mercy that never faltered or failed expending themselves to the very uttermost, and this without Divine acknowledgment and vindication. A greater shock to all virtue could not be conceived. And in this instance it would be aggravated by the very measure with which this Great Exemplar had indulged the hope of reward. The resurrection stands to us a pledge and pattern of our own; and while our dust may await its final recovery, our spirits shall be with Him. Nay, He will even be our convoy through the gates of death, and then receive us into the mansions of His Father’ s house, that where He is we may be also. (G. B. Johnson.) My gospel The apostle is not contrasting his gospel with that of other preachers, as if he would say, “ Others may teach what they please, but this is the substance of my gospel” ; and Jerome is certainly mistaken if what is quoted as a remark of his is rightly assigned to him by Fabricius, to the effect that whenever St. Paul says “ according to my gospel” he means the written gospel of his companion St. Luke, who had caught much of his spirit and something of his language. It would be much nearer the truth to say that St. Paul never refers to a written gospel. In every one of the passages in which the phrase occurs the context is quite against any such interpretation (Romans 2:16; Romans 16:25; cf. 1 Timothy 1:11). In this place the words which follow are conclusive: “ Wherein I suffer hardship unto bonds, as a malefactor.” How could he be said to suffer hardship unto bonds in the Gospel of St. Luke? (A. Plummer, D. D.) Each man has his own conception of the gospel We may be sure, then, that the phrase “ my gospel” is not used by St. Paul in the spirit either of the Pharisee or of the bigot. He is not one who refuses to recognise the excellence in those who may not exactly agree with him, or assumes that to him alone is committed a trustworthy form of the faith. Nevertheless, the phrase has a distinct force of its own. It suggests that St. Paul looked at the gospel from his own standpoint, and that the gospel as he represented it had aspects differing somewhat from the same gospel as represented by others. We need not be afraid to admit this. If you look at any great mountain from several points of view, its parts are at once brought into varying relations to each other. Standing here you see clearly great peaks, which from another position would be hidden. Nay, if you look at the same mountain from the same standpoint at different times, it will present different aspects--now dim and mysterious in the grey morning, and now rosy with the after-glow when the sun has set. Yet it is the same mountain, presenting itself in varying guise to different spectators. So with St. Paul. When he speaks of “ my gospel,” it is not another gospel in the sense of being contradictory, or even deficient as compared with the gospel proclaimed by other apostles. It is the same gospel, seen, however, from his own standpoint--“ the gospel according to Paul.” (T. B. Stephenson, D. D.) The unity underlying the various conceptions of the gospel The West Indies are a long chain of islands, seeming to be widely and completely separated from each other, each one a lovely jewel resting on the heaving bosom of the sea. But if you look below the surface of the ocean you discover that each of these islands is bound to all the others; that they are, in fact, the topmost points of one long mountain chain which has been submerged. So that whilst each island seems to be separate, all rest upon and are a part of the vast and substantial unity which lies far below. “ My gospel” : each one of the Churches may correctly use the phrase, yet these are not many gospels, but in essence and substance one. 2 Timothy 2:9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the Word of God is not bound.“ The Word of God is not bound” The apostle is imprisoned, but his tongue and his companion’ s pen are free. He can still teach those who come to him; can still dictate letters for others to Luke and the faithful few who visit him. He has been able to influence those whom, but for his imprisonment, he would never have had an opportunity of reaching--Roman soldiers, and warders, and officials, and all who have to take cognisance of his trial before the imperial tribunal. “ The Word of God is not bound.” While he is in prison Timothy and Titus and scores of other evangelists and preachers are free, Those who are left at large ought to labour all the more energetically and enthusiastically in order to supply whatever is lost by the apostle’ s want of freedom, and in order to convince the world that this is no contest with a human organisation, or with human opinion, but with a Divine word and a Divine Person. “ The Word of God is not bound,” because His Word is the truth, and it is the truth that makes men free. How can that of which the very essence is freedom, and of which the attribute is that it confers freedom, be itself kept in bondage? (A. Plummer, D. D.) God’ s Word free He perhaps changes the expression from “ my gospel” to the “ Word of God” in order to indicate why it is that, although the preacher is in prison, yet his gospel is free, because the Word which he preaches is not his own, but God’ s. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Suffering furthers the gospel The sufferings of the witnesses for Christ was, and is at all times, one of the most powerful agencies for the furtherance of the gospel (comp. Philippians 1:12-14; Colossians 1:24; 2 Corinthians 1:5-7). (Van Oosterzee.) .Suffering for the gospel I. The gospel may occasion trouble.1. For it bruiseth Satan’ s head, discovereth his plots, overturneth his kingdoms. 2. Besides, it pulleth down the pride of man, provoketh to repentance, presseth him to deny himself, put confidence in Christ, and its worth is not known in the world. II. The enemies of the church afflict the godly under a pretence of law.1. For the conversation of the godly is holy, honest, harmless; that without such pretences they could have no seeming cause to afflict them. 2. The wicked, in their generation, are wise; therefore, to cover and cloak their mischiefs they must have some pretence of law. III. Godly preachers may have great persecutions.1. Because not many wise, mighty, or noble men are called neither to embrace the gospel nor preach it. 2. And godly preachers speak with power, curb men’ s raging corruptions, wound their rebellious spirits, and never prophesy of peace unto them. IV. The liberty of God’ s word is greatly to be regarded.1. For it is the instrumental cause of man’ s conversion. 2. It increaseth grace, supports in trouble, and directeth to heaven. 3. And by the Word are not our adversaries foiled? V. The persecution of preachers doth not always infringe the liberty of the Word.1. Because then the Lord hath a special care to His own cause. 2. The example of some will embolden others. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The Word of God not bound 1. The first idea suggested by the words in their original connection is, that Paul’ s incarceration did not hinder his own personal exertions as a preacher of the gospel. The practical lesson taught by Paul’ s example, in this view of it, is obvious. It is a reproof of our disposition to regard external disadvantages, restraints, and disabilities as either affording an immunity from blame if we neglect to use the power still left us, or discouraging the hope of any good effect from using it. 2. It was still true, however, that Paul’ s bonds diminished his efficiency. While he avoided the extreme of abandoning all hope, he equally avoided that of foolishly imagining that he could personally do as much for the diffusion of the gospel in his own hired house at Rome, as in the wide sweep of his itinerant apostleship. His work, though not yet at an end, was interrupted, and how should his lack of service be supplied? The answer is a plain one: By the labours of others. This was a large ingredient in the cup of the apostle’ s consolation. He rejoiced not only in the labours of others during his comparative inaction, but in that inaction as the occasion, the exciting cause, of other men’ s exertions. Nay, he could even go so far as to consent to be wronged and dishonoured, if by that means his ruling passion might be gratified (see Philippians 1:12-21). What is the principle involved in this sublime profession of heroic devotion to the cause of Christ? Plainly this, that while Paul was ever ready to magnify his office as apostle to the Gentiles, and correctly appreciated both the honour and the difficulty of the work assigned to him, he never dreamed that it was meant to be entirely dependent upon his individual activity. It was not at himself, but at the word that he continually looked. Here, too, the lesson to ourselves is obvious. The apostle’ s example ought to shame us out of all undue reliance upon certain human agencies and influences. Especially ought this to be the case in relation to our own share of the work to be performed for the honour of God and the salvation of the world. 3. One of the most important lessons, couched in this significant expression or deducible from it, would be lost upon us if we went no further. I refer to the doctrine that the truth of God is independent, not only of particular human agents, but of all human systems of opinion, organisations, and methods of procedure. “ The Word of God is not bound” or restricted, in its salutary virtue, to the formal and appreciable power exerted upon Churches and Christian communities, or through the ordinary modes and channels of religious influence, however great this power may be, however indispensable to the completion of the work which God is working in our days. We may even admit that it is relatively almost all, but it is still not quite all; and the residuary power may be greater, vastly greater, than it seems to us before attentively considering the other less direct, less formal, less appreciable ways, in which the Word of God, the truth revealed in Scripture, is at this moment operating on the condition of society, apart from its constant and direct communication through the pulpit, the school, and the religious press. These are the agencies, indeed, by which sound doctrine is maintained in your Churches and impressed upon your youth; and this, in its perfection, is the highest end that can be wrought by the diffusion of the truth. But let us not forget that much may be effected even when this highest end is not attained. In many a heresy, for instance, how much truth maybe mingled, saving it from absolute corruption, and perhaps the souls of those who hold it, from perdition. Infidelity, in all its forms, affects to treat religion with contempt, as the offspring of ignorance; but its own discoveries are mere mutilations of the truths which it has stolen from its despised enemy. The attempt of infidelity to do away with the great doctrines of religion is the prowess of a dwarf mounting on a giant’ s shoulders to put out his eyes. The same thing is true as to those slighter and more trivial, but for that very reason more effective, forms of unbelief, which are propagated, not in philosophical abstractions, but in poetry, romance, and other current literature. The novelist or journalist who, with a scorn of Christianity only to be equalled by his ignorance of what it teaches, undertakes to Show his readers “ a more excellent way,” often brings them at last to some elementary truth, already wrought into the mind and stamped upon the memory of every child who reads the Bible. What a tribute is this to the pervading, penetrating force of truth, that it can find its way even into such dark places, and at least serve to make the darkness visible! Look, too, at the schemes of civil government and social order framed by irreligious men, or unbelievers in the Scriptures, and observe these two facts easily established: that every departure from the lessons of God’ s Word is a demonstrable evil or defect in relation even to the lower object aimed at; and that everything conducive to a good end in the system is an adaptation of some Christian doctrine to a special purpose. It would be easy to pursue the same inquiry through every field of science and every walk of art, and to show that even there the Word of God has first been followed as a guide, and then expelled as an intruder; that its light has first been used to kindle others, and then vain attempts made to extinguish it for ever; in a word, that its enemies have first resorted to it in their time of need, and then ungratefully forgotten or unblushingly denied the obligation. If this be a correct view of the influence exerted even indirectly by the Word of God; if over and above its certain and complete results, it shines through the interstices of unknown caverns, and mitigates the darkness of unfathomed depths; if in fertilising one spot it sheds even a few scattered but refreshing drops upon a multitude of others; if in doing all for some, it incidentally does some for all, let me ask, in conclusion, What should be the practical effect of this belief? 1. We need not tremble for the truth itself. 2. There is some hope for the world itself, and even for those parts of it, and those things in it, which otherwise might seem to be confined to hopeless, irrecoverable ruin. 3. It may teach us a valuable lesson as to the true spirit of philanthropy, as being not a formal, rigid, mathematical attempt to save men’ s souls by certain rules, and in the use of certain ceremonial forms; but a generous, impulsive, and expansive zeal for the glory of God in the salvation of the lost. And as the surest way of gaining this end, let us flood the world with the pure and unadulterated Word of God. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.) Not bound yet I. In what sense is it true, that “ the Word of God is not bound” ?1. It is not bound so that it cannot be preached. Paul could preach it even when in bonds, and he did preach it, so that the gospel was made known throughout Caesar’ s palace, and there were saints in the imperial household. Nineteen centuries after Paul we have still an open Bible and a free pulpit. When Hamilton was burned in Scotland, there was such an impetus given to the gospel through his burning that the adversaries of the gospel were wont to say, “ Let us burn no more martyrs in public, for the smoke of Hamilton’ s burning has made many eyes to smart until they were opened.” So, no doubt, it always was. Persecution is a red hand which scatters the white wheat far and wide. 2. “ The Word of God is not bound” so as to be no longer a living, working power among men. Sometimes the enemies of truth have thought that they had silenced the last witness, and then there has been an unexpected outburst, and the old faith has been to the front again. The enemies of the gospel have attempted also to bind it by the burning of books. I have in my possession an early copy of Luther’ s sermons, and I was told how very rare it was, because at first the circulation was forbidden, and afterwards they were bought up and burned as soon as ever they were met with. And what did they do? They only put fire into Luther when they burned his sermons; they drove him to be more outspoken than he otherwise might have been, and so they helped the cause they thought to destroy. As the sun is not blown out by the tempest, nor the moon quenched by the night-damps, so is not the gospel destroyed by the sophistries of perverse minds. 3. The Word of God is not bound so that it cannel reach the heart. God has ways of reaching the hardest hearts and melting them, and He can do it at moments when such a work is least expected. Sometimes it happens to those whom we love that they are removed from the means of grace, but even then the Word of God is not bound. Had we not, a little while ago, an instance of one whom we were praying for at a prayer-meeting, and that night, while we were praying, it was a moonlight night, and as he was walking the deck of the ship, the Lord met with him? When no tongue was able to reach him, the memory of what he had heard at home came over his soul, and he was humbled before God. I was telling, just a little while ago, at our prayer-meeting, a very singular instance of how, just lately, three or four sermons on Sunday evenings have been made most useful to a young friend. He was going away to Australia unconverted, and without God. He went on board to depart, and when the vessel steamed out of dock, it ran into another ship, and he was obliged to wait and spend almost a month here, whilst the vessel was being repaired. The Lord met with him on those Sunday nights, and he has gone now, leaving in his mother’ s heart the sweet persuasion that he has found his mother’ s God. But sometimes we are apt to think a case is more hopeless still, when, in addition to natural depravity, and the absence of the means of grace, there springs up a scepticism, perhaps a downright derision of the Word of God, and of things sacred. I knew a man who had lived a life of carelessness and indifference, with occasional outbursts of drunkenness and other vices. This man happened one day, on Peckham Rye, to hear a preacher say that if any man would ask anything of God, He would give it to him. The assertion was much too broad, arid might have done harm; but this man accepted it as a test, and resolved that he would ask, and thus would see if there was a God. On the Saturday morning of that week, when he was going early to his work, the thought came upon him, “ Perhaps there is a God after all.” He was ready to swoon as the possibility struck him, and there and then he offered the test petition, concerning a matter which concerned himself and his fellow-workmen. His prayer was granted in a remarkable manner, and he came then to be a believer in God. He is more than that now, and has found his way to be a believer in all that God has spoken, and has found peace through believing in Jesus Christ. 4. It is not bound as to its power to comfort the soul. 5. The Word of God is not bound in the sense that it cannot be fulfilled. I now allude principally to the promises and prophecies of God’ s Word. 6. The Word of God is not bound so that it cannot endure and prevail unto the end. II. What are the reasons why the word of God is not bound?1. It is not bound, because it is the voice of the Almighty. If the gospel be indeed the gospel of God, and these truths be a revelation of God, omnipotence is in them. 2. Moreover, the Holy Ghost puts forth His power in connection with the Word of God, and as He is Divine He is unconquerable. 3. If you wanted another reason less strong than these two, I should say, “ How can it be bound while it is so needful to men?” There are certain things which if men want they will have. I have heard say that in the old Bread Riots, when men were actually starving for bread, no word had such a terribly threatening and alarming power about it as the word “ Bread!” when shouted by a starving crowd. I have read a description by one who once heard this cry: he said he had been startled at night by a cry of “ Fire!” but when he beard the cry of “ Bread! Bread!” from those that were hungry, it seemed to cut him like a sword. Whatever bread had been in his possession he must at once have handed it out. So it is with the gospel: when men are once aware of their need of it, there is no monopolising it. None can make “ a ring” or “ a corner” over the precious commodity of heavenly truth. 4. The Word of God is not bound, because, when once it gets into men’ s hearts, it works such an enthusiasm in them that you cannot bind it. There is Master Bunyan; they have put him in prison, and his family is nearly starving, and they bring him up, and they say, “ You shall go out of prison, John, if you won’ t preach. Go home, and tag your laces, that is what you have to do, and leave the gospel alone; what have you got to do with that?” But honest John answers, “ I cannot help it. If you let me out of prison to-day, I will preach again to-morrow, by the help of God. I will lie here till the moss grows on my eyelids, but I will never promise to cease preaching the gospel.” III. One or two other facts run parallel to the text. Paul is bound, but the Word of God is not bound. Read it thus: the preacher has had a bad week, he is full of aches and pains, he feels ill: but the Word of God is not ill. “ What will become of the congregation when a certain minister dies?” Well, he will be dead, but the Word of God is not dead. “ Oh, but the worker is so feeble!” The Word of God is net feeble. “ But the worker feels so stupid.” But the Word of God is not stupid. “ But the worker is so unfit.” But the Word of God is not unfit. But you bitterly and truthfully lament that Christian men are nowadays very devoid of zeal. “ All hearts are cold in every place” ; the old fire burns low. But the Word of God is not cold, nor lukewarm, nor in any way losing its old fire. “ Yes,” says one, “ but I am disgusted with the cases I have lately met with of false brethren.” Yes, but the Word of God is not false. “ But they walk so inconsistently.” I know they do, but the Word of God is not inconsistent. “ But they say they have disproved the faith.” Yes, they have disproved their own faith, but they have not disproved the Word of God for all that. “ Oh, but,” says one, “ it is an awful thing to think of the spiritual ruin of so many that are round about us, who bear the gospel, and yet after all wilfully refuse it, and die in their sins.” Truly this is a grievous fact: they appear to be bound by their sins like beasts for the slaughter, but the Word of God is not bound or injured. It was said of old that it would be a sweet savour unto God in them that are saved, and in them that perish--in the one a savour of life unto life, and in the other a savour of death unto death. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Word of God not bound Liberal Christianity may be defined, not as any belief, nor as any system of opinions, but as something going deeper. It is a habit of mind; a way of considering all opinions as of secondary importance; all outward statements, methods, operations, administrations, as not belonging to the essence of religion. Liberal Christianity comes from that spiritual insight which penetrates the shell and finds the kernel; sees what is the one thing needful, and discovers it to be not the form, but the substance; not the letter, but the spirit; not the body, but the soul; not the outward action, but the inward motive; net the profession, but the life. Liberal Christianity began when the first struggle began between the spirit and the letter, and that was the great battle which emancipated Christianity from Judaism. It was thought, at first, that the Word of God was bound to Judaism, and that no man could be a Christian unless he were also a Jew. Paul rooted that weed out of Christianity, and won for the whole Ethnic world--Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Persians, Hindoos, Germans--the right of becoming Christians at once, just as they were, without first having to become Jews. But intolerance is the natural growth of strong soils. Out in the West, when the primeval forest is felled, there comes up in regular order, a whole succession of weeds, which are killed out, one after another, by culture. So it has been in the progress of Christian civilisation. This progress has killed off, one afar another, a similar series of weeds which came up in the Christian Church. The Jewish intolerance was the first weed. Paul weeded the Church of that so thoroughly that it never came up again. The next weed was the Church intolerance, which said, “ No man can be a Christian who is not a member of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and partakes of its sacraments, and submits to its authority.” Martin Luther weeded Christianity of this form of intolerance, and made it possible for man to be a Christian without being a Roman Catholic. But not being as liberal a Christian as Paul, he left another weed growing in its place--the weed of dogmatic intolerance. The dogmatists said, “ The Word of God is not bound to the Roman Catholic Church; but it is bound to certain essential doctrines--the Trinity, total depravity, the atonement, everlasting punishment.” This weed has also been nearly eradicated in our time. The principle of liberal Christianity has pervaded all denominations. It has taken the shells and husks and outward coverings from the Word of God, and these are now seen to be like those envelopes which God puts around the fruits of the earth, until they are ripe, but which then are taken off and thrown away. Nothing abides, nothing is permanent in Christianity, says Paul, but faith, hope, and love. The Word of God is not bound to any Church or to any creed; it goes outside of all Churches and all creeds. The same cool breeze which fans the hot cheeks of the labourers on the plains of Hindostan, sweeps on across the Indian Ocean, gathering moisture as it goes, and pours it down in rain on the parched regions of Central Africa. So God sends His prophets and teachers of truth to every race, to help them according to their separate needs; sends some knowledge of Himself, some intuitions of duty, some hopes of immortality, to all the children of men. The Word of God is not bound to the Bible. It is not the prophecies of the Bible which are essential--“ for whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.” It is not its verbal inspiration which gives to it its supreme importance--“ for whether there be tongues, they shall cease.” Nor is its vitality even in the doctrinal truth it teaches--“ for whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” But it is the faith, the hope, the love which are in the Bible which will abide, and will cause the Bible to remain always a permanent blessing to mankind. Nor is the Word of God bound to any belief we may have about the outward history of Jesus--His miraculous birth, His own miracles, or any particular outward facts of His life. The essential thing, even in His resurrection, is not the outward part of it, but the inward part; not the particular way in which He arose, as that He did go up to a higher life; that He is now alive, and that death has no dominion over Him. Faith in Christ is not believing this or that fact about Him, but it is faith in Himself, faith in the truth and love, which are incarnate in Him, and which were breathed forth in all He said and did and was. Deny His miracles, if you please; you cannot deny the great miracle of His influence on mankind. Such a vast effect must have its cause. If we have faith in the spirit of Jesus, in the Divine piety which made Him the well-beloved Son, dwelling always in the bosom of the Father; in the Divine charity which made Him the Friend and the Helper of the humblest of God’ s children; if we have faith in these as the true life to lead here and as salvation hereafter, then we have the real Word of God in our hearts, and believe in the real Christ. Finally, the Word of God is not bound to any particular religions experience. Men come to God in all sorts of ways--the important thing is to come to Him. Some are converted suddenly; others grow up, by an insensible process, into the love of God. God has a great many means of making men good. If a man find that formal and regular prayers help him, let him pray that way. If he finds that he comes nearer to God by endeavouring to live a pure and honest life, and leaning on God’ s help to do it, let him pray that way. He who loves truly prays well. Here is a poor woman who is obliged to be away from her children all day, working hard for their support. When she comes home at night she finds that her oldest boy has been sawing the wood and bringing the water, and that the oldest girl has been taking care of the little children all the time she has been gone. That pleases her more than all the affectionate words they could say to her. That is the best proof of their love. If we take care of God’ s poor, and His sick and His sorrowful children, that will be counted to us, I think, for faith and prayer and conversion and piety. (J. Freeman Clarke.) The Word of God not bound I. By any restrictions imposed by god. God may permit certain circumstances, but He has not imposed any restrictions. The Old Testament and New Testament, the voice of the prophets, and of Him who is greater than prophets, alike concur (Psalms 67:5; Psalms 98:3; Isaiah 49:6; Mark 16:5). The character of God, the end of the gospel, the state of man, confirm this. II. By any artificial or conventional restraints imposed by man. Look at the history and progress of Christianity (Acts 4:18; Acts 5:28; Acts 6:6; Acts 12:24; Acts 19:20); history of early Church--Reformation--of missionary labours. III. By any degree of human guilt or depravity. Look again at first days of gospel (Luke 15:2; Luke 19:1-11; Luke 23:39-44; 1 Corinthians 6:9-12. St. Paul himself a witness (1 Timothy 1:12-17). But if the Word of God is not bound, why do not all men receive it, and live by it? Not because the gospel is bound, but because the natural heart is bound. (E. A. Eardley-Wilmot, M. A.) The invincibility of the Divine Word As a word expresses a thought, and so places one in a definite relation to another, so the Word of God is that by means of which He places Himself in a definite or thinkable relation to us. It is an expression of the purpose of God; that purpose in accordance with which He seeks to place Himself in a relation of abiding concord with the children of men, on the basis of which all men may be brought into the perfect knowledge and love of God. By the declaration that the Word of God is not bound, I understand the apostle to assert that this word, as a revelation of the purpose of God to bless and save men, must infallibly succeed in making that purpose known, and must also, from the very nature of the case, effect in some sense and way the realisation of the purpose itself. In so far as the Word of God is concerned, there is nothing to prevent the salvation and everlasting blessedness of every human being.1. The Word of God is not bound by either of the two conditions of all created existence: the conditions of time and space. The Word of God is not bound as regards time, because it is the revelation of a purpose that runs through all time, originating in eternity and reaching unto eternity. It is true that the revelation is made in time. It moves in the line, works on the plane, and manifests itself through the sphere of the natural World; still its distinctive feature is this, that it is a revelation of that which exists in the supernatural: and, therefore, while existing in time, it also transcends time, and cannot, in the whole extent of its existence, be limited by time. And yet there are people who practically believe that the Word of God is bound as regards time. What is the error of all traditionalism, if it be not this, that nothing is good for us in the matter of religion, but that which has been handed down to us as a finished result from the past; and that, therefore, a new truth is necessarily not a truth at all, having no right to call itself a truth, except on the explicit understanding of its being the merest echo of an idea uttered long ago. Space, again, is that in which we have the notion of the comprehension of existence. It is that in which all things exist, and are held together, each in its own place. Space itself has no outline, but everything, as existing therein, has a Given outline, within which it exists. But the Word of God is not bound as regards space. And yet there are those who would confine the Word of God not merely to this earth, which is but a speck in the boundlessness of space, but would limit it still further to some particular spot of the earth. The people who believe in consecrated places, and make pilgrimages to them, in the hope of getting spiritual benefit thereby, are the unhappy dupes of the delusion that the Word of God is bound--bound as to place. 2. The Word of God is not bound by either of the two highest forms of supernatural existence, viz., Christ and the Church, It is in the person of Jesus Christ that God has placed Himself in a definite relation to us. Hence Christ is spoken of as the living or incarnate Word, God manifest in the flesh. Is not the Word of God, then, it may be said, as thus embodied in the person of Christ, in some sense limited or bound? It exists under the conditions of human nature; appears in a particular country; is spoken in a particular language; submits to the restrictions of a somewhat limited sphere, experience, and term of life; and have we not in all this that which fulfils, in the most complete sense, the notion of the conditioned or bound? In a word, is not the Incarnation at best a mere anthropomorphism, under which we have only a partial view of God? To this objection it may be answered in a general way that the supernatural is not necessarily bound when it moves in the line, works on the plane, and manifests its power through the sphere of the natural world, any more than a father is bound, when he freely stoops to take the hand of his child, and keeps pace, for a time, with the shorter step of the little one, in order that the child may ultimately be brought up, as nearly as possible, to the level of the father; and no more is God, as the self-existent One, bound when He reveals Himself under the forms of nature, or comes as Christ into a more definite relation to us, in order that we may be able thereby to think ourselves up to the ideas of God. At the same time, it must be admitted that if the supernatural came down into any form of permanent subordination to the natural, it would undoubtedly to that extent be bound. Accordingly, up to the time of the first advent, or prior to the ascension of our Saviour, to the right hand of God in heaven, there was a sense in which the supernatural was bound, to some extent, in its relation to the natural. That partial and temporary dispensation has given place to the dispensation of the Spirit, under which those former limitations and restrictions have passed away. If, then, the Word of God is no longer bound, even as it was by the circumstances of our Saviour’ s life upon the earth, how can it be bound by any other individual, such as an infallible Head of the Church upon the earth, by an historical succession of apostles, or priestly caste of any kind, in whose hands alone that Word is supposed to reside, and by whom alone saving grace can be communicated to their fellow-men? The exaltation of Christ to the right hand of God in heaven and to the absolute supremacy of the whole world, puts an end for ever to all such pre tensions. But the objection may still be pursued under the form of the Church. We require to lay hold of some clear idea of the Church in its relation to the Word of God. Undoubtedly it is the Divinely-appointed expounder of that Word; but so long as the Church is broken up into so many little sects, and so long as spiritual matters are disposed of by the merest majority, it may be even of a sect, it is difficult to see how the whole truth of the Divine word ever can be brought out before the world, the only organ through which the Holy Spirit speaks in fullest form being a truly Catholic Church. In the existence, then, of such a body there is no restraint put upon the Word of God, because the creed of that Church would be the ever-growing and ever-brightening expression of the mind of God as contained in the sacred Scriptures. 3. The Word of God is not bound by either of the two essential qualities of personal being; viz., thought and speech. If every idea is the identity of a thinking subject and an object thought, the one absolute law of thought is the law of identification. No doubt thought in its course reveals a number of opposites or contradictories, but its last function is to unite the whole. There cannot be legitimately different schools or types of thought, any more than there can be different laws of thought in different individuals, or different principles of understanding and reason in different parts of the world. Therefore, we deem it a fallacy to say that men cannot attain to unanimity of sentiment in regard to the highest of all subjects; because they have only to be true to the deepest principles of their own intellectual being in order to come to the most perfect harmony in respect of all these important matters. If so, the Word of God is not bound when it comes under the conditions of human thought, seeing that, in its essential principles, it is one with the very laws of thought themselves. But it may still be objected--and this is the last point with which we have to deal--that if the Word is not bound by the limits and laws of thought, it is so by the limits and laws of speech. As regards the Bible there need not be much difficulty. It is simply a record of spiritual facts. It merely notes the different points in the historical development of the Divine purpose. It professes, indeed, to be a veritable history of the supernatural, as a phenomenon working itself out, in, and through the natural. And it is altogether to be tested from the point of what it claims to be. The letter of the Bible is no more a fetter on the living purpose of God than any word or letter is to the thought of which it is the free and adequate expression. It is not so evident, however, that the Word of God is not bound, when we come to the written creed of the Church; and on that account some sections of the Church dispense altogether with a written creed. It becomes, therefore, a question as to what the creed of the Church is, and what the relation of the Church to her creed. And the whole question seems to resolve itself into this--that on a basis of perfectly clear and immovable conviction, about which no one can have any real difficulty, who believes in God at all, and without which the Church, as a whole, can have no existence, every one ought to be free to carry out in detail, to the minutest and remotest ramifications of thought, those subordinate shades of spiritual life and conviction that belong to the experience of one individual as compared with another. In such a case the creed would only be an arrangement, in their simple and natural order, of the leading conceptions of Divine revelation; and thus the whole mind of the Church would be left perfectly free to explore the depths, to bring out the riches, and to reveal the glory of the Divine Word. (F. Ferguson.) God’ s Word not bound Under the Church of Santa Maria via Lata, on the Corse, in Rome, is an ancient house which is said to have been St. Paul’ s “ hired house,” where be dwelt daring the two years of his abode in the Imperial City; and where, as tradition says, he converted his keeper, a soldier named Marcellus. In this house is to be seen an antique marble pillar and a rusty chain, hundreds of years old, riveted into it, bearing the inscription: “ Sed verbum Dei non est alligatum” --“ The Word of God is not bound.” Our Divine Master Himself was bound to the accursed tree, but His gracious words are heard throughout the world. St. Paul’ s bonds turned out to the furtherance of the gospel; and God’ s Word is set free by the endurance and sufferings of its preachers. The apostle’ s manacled hand still pointed to the cross of his Divine Lord. When Admiral Ver Huce, a Protestant of whom Buonaparte entertained the highest opinion, went over to London, a few years after the battle of Waterloo, to represent the Bible Society of France, at the annual meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society, he and Admiral Gambler met on the platform. The last time they had met was in deadly combat on the ocean; met as enemies, amidst the roar of cannon and all the accompaniments of a bloody conflict. Now they met, not simply as friends, but as brethren in the faith of a common Saviour, to advocate and help forward His glorious reign of righteousness and peace. As the two brave old men rushed into each other’ s arms, and wept aloud, the immense assembly arose with one accord, profoundly moved by a spectacle so unlooked for and so touching. Although the Bible is the best book in the world, it has always had enemies who have tried to do away with its teachings, if they could not succeed in destroying it. For three hundred years after our Saviour lived upon earth, the emperors of Rome did their utmost to hinder the advance of the gospel, by shutting up its ministers in prison, or by putting them to death. They stirred up dreadful persecutions against Christians, some of which lasted ten years; and during one of these, more than a hundred and fifty thousand followers of Jesus were slain. Diocletian was so confident that he had accomplished his purpose that he caused a medal to be struck, bearing this inscription: “ The Christian religion is destroyed; and the worship of the gods restored.” After the overthrow of the Roman empire, and the rise of the Papacy, stringent measures were inaugurated against the circulation of the Holy Scriptures. Fulgentio once preached in Venice from the text, “ Have ye not read?” “ If Christ were now to ask you this question,” said the bold friar, “ all the answer you could make would be, ‘ No, Lord, we are not suffered to do so.’” On another occasion, when preaching on Pilate’ s question, “ What is truth?” he told his hearers that he had been long searching for it, and had at last found it. Holding up the New Testament, he said, “ Here it is in my hand!” Then, returning it to his pocket, he observed, with an arch look, “ The Book is prohibited!” He was a little too venturesome in his zeal for the truth, and was burned alive. In 1553, when Pope Julius III. asked some of his counsellors as to the best mode of strengthening the Church, several bishops gave him this advice--the original document being still in existence--“ We advise that as little as possible of the gospel be read in the countries subject to your jurisdiction. The little which is usually read at Mass is sufficient, and beyond that no one whatever must be permitted to read. While men were contented with that little, your interests prospered; but when they read more, they began to decay.” A company of bigoted priests once met in Earl Street, Blackfriars, London, to consult together concerning an edition of the Bible which Wyclif had just published in the English tongue. As might be expected, they not only condemned this excellent clergyman as a bad man, but they passed this resolution: “ The Bible is a dangerous book. It shall not be circulated.” These instances of the efforts made to suppress the Holy Scriptures might be indefinitely multiplied; but, instead of dwelling on so painful a subject, let us rather ask, how have such attempts succeeded? It is certainly a wonderful ordering of Providence, that on the very spot where those misguided priests met to destroy the Bible, the building erected for “ The British and Foreign Bible Society” now rears its head. Aye, more than this, millions of copies of the Word of God are scattered abroad, every year, in all the languages of the earth. In Rome herself, where the Bible was so long a sealed book, it is now openly sold and distributed by colporteurs; and within a stone’ s throw of the place where St. Paul was imprisoned, a large apartment has been fitted up, where multitudes of soldiers gather every night to listen to the reading of the Bible, and to learn to read it for themselves. These men come from every part of Italy, and are generally from the better classes of the peasantry. After staying in Rome for three years, they will be removed to other parts of the kingdom, or go back to their homes, carrying the Bible with them. M. Guizot, the famous French scholar and historian, on taking his seat as president of “ The French Bible Society,” in Paris, truthfully and forcibly remarked, “ The more the Bible is contested, the greater the number of devoted defenders who arise to affirm it and to send it forth. The Bible renews itself through trials, and its battles lead only to new conquests.” “ The Word of God is not bound” to any person who preaches it. The weak and the unlearned often confound the wise and the mighty. In 1821, some wretched slaves were crowded into a Portuguese ship, on the coast of Guinea, and among them a boy of eleven, who, when the slaver was captured by a British cruiser, was carried to England. The boy manifested such excellent qualities of mind and heart that he was placed at school, where he occupied a high position in his class, and became a tutor, and then a clergyman. He returned as a missionary to his native land, and one of the first who heard the glad tidings of the gospel from his lips was his widowed mother. Converts multiplied, and a bishop was needed to govern and instruct this new community of Christians. All eyes were turned on Samuel Crowther; and on St. Peter’ s day, 1864, in the grand old cathedral of Canterbury, the slave-boy was consecrated to the high office which St. Paul himself had filled.2. “ The Word of God is not bound” to any form in which it is preached. 3. “ The Word of God is not bound” to any time, place, or circumstance. (J. N. Norton.) The Word of God not bound “ When I was cast into prison all knew that I was locked up because I had read the Gospel,” said Ratushny, a Russian Christian. “ When I was locked up for the second time people wondered again, and began to search after the gospel with greater zeal, and to read it. That is how our doctrines have spread, and not, as some people think, through my having propagated it.” (Sunday at Home.) Fame through opposition In 1834, there was a little book published by the Abbe de la Manuals, entitled, “ The Words of a Believer,” which began to make some noise because of its Republican sentiments. The reigning Pope, however, went out of his way to condemn it in an Encyclical letter, which gave it an additional popularity, caused it to be widely read, and translated into the principal European languages. (H. O. Mackey.) Useful though in prison The Earl of Derby’ s accusation in the Parliament house against Mr. Bradford was that he did more hurt (so he called good evil) by letters and conferences in prison than ever he did when he was abroad by preaching. (J. Trapp.) 2 Timothy 2:10I endure all things for the elect’ s sake.God’ s chosen ones, whether already in the Church, or to be called into it afterwards. (Speaker’ s Commentary.) The visible church for the sake of the elect If we were asked what was the object of Christian preaching and instruction, what the office of the Church, considered as the dispenser of the Word of God, I suppose we should not all return the same answer. Perhaps we might say that the object of Revelation was to enlighten and enlarge the mind, or to make us good members of the community. St. Paul gives us a reason in the text different from any of those which I have mentioned. He laboured more than all the apostles; and why? not to civilise the world, not to smooth the face of society, not to facilitate the movements of civil government, not to spread abroad knowledge, not to cultivate the reason, not for any great worldly object, but “ for the elect’ s sake.” And when St. Paul and St. Barnabas preached at Antioch to the Gentiles, “ As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.” When St. Paul preached at Athens, “ some mocked,” others said, “ We will hear thee again,” but “ certain men clave unto him.” And when he addressed the Jews at Rome, some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. Such was the view which animated, first Christ Himself, then all His apostles, and St. Paul in particular, to preach to all, in order to succeed with some. Our Lord “ saw of the travail of tits soul, and was satisfied.” St. Paul, as His servant and instrument, was satisfied in like manner to endure all things for the elect’ s sake; or, as he says in another place, “ I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” And such is the office of the Church in every nation where she sojourns: she attempts much, she expects and promises little. This is a great Scripture truth, which in this busy and sanguine day needs insisting upon. There are in every age a certain number of souls in the world, known to God, unknown to us, who will obey the truth when offered to them, whatever be the mysterious reason that they do and others do not. These we must contemplate, for these we must labour, these are God’ s special care, for these are all things; of these and among these we must pray to be, and our friends with us, at the Last Day. In every nation, among many bad, there are some good; and, as nations are before the gospel is offered to them, such they seem to remain on the whole after the offer--“ many are called, few are chosen.” And to spend and be spent upon the many called for the sake of the chosen few is the office of Christian teachers and witnesses. That their office is such seems to be evident from the existing state of Christian countries from the first. Christianity has raised the tone of morals, has restrained the passions, and enforced external decency and good conduct in the world at large. Still, on the whole, the great multitude of men have to all appearance remained, in a spiritual point of view, no better than before. Trade is still avaricious, not in tendency only, but in fact, though it has heard the gospel; physical science is still sceptical as it was when heathen. Lawyers, soldiers, farmers, politicians, courtiers, nay, shame to say, the priesthood, still savour of the old Adam. Human nature remains what it was, though it has been baptized; the proverbs, the satires, the pictures, of which it was the subject in heathen times, have their point still. The knowledge of the gospel then has not materially changed more than the surface of things. Our Saviour’ s words, spoken of the apostles in the first instance, relate to the Church at large--“ I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou has given Me, for they are Thine.” In like manner St. Paul says that Christ came, not to convert the world, but “ to purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” ; not to sanctify this evil world, but to “ deliver us out of this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father.” This has been the real triumph of the gospel, to raise those beyond themselves anti beyond human nature, in whatever rank and condition of life, whose wills mysteriously co-operate with God’ s grace, who, while God visits them, really fear and really obey God, whatever be the unknown reason why one man obeys Him and another not. It has laboured for the elect, and it has succeeded with them. This is, as it were, its token. An ordinary kind of religion, praiseworthy and respectable in its way, may exist under many systems; but saints are creations of the gospel and the Church. Not that such a one need in his lifetime seem to be more than other well-living men, for his graces lie deep, and are not known and understood till after his death, even if then. But in process of time, after death, their excellence perhaps gets abroad; and then they become a witness, a specimen of what the gospel can do. There are many reasons why God’ s saints cannot be known all at once;--first, as 1 have said, their good deeds are done in secret. Next, good men are often slandered; they are mistaken by those, whom they offend by their holiness and strictness. Then, again, their intentions and aims are misunderstood. It is no triumph, then, for unbelievers that the gospel has not done what it never attempted. From the first it announced what was to be the condition of the many who heard and professed it--“ Many are called, few are chosen.” Though we laboured ever so much, with the hope of satisfying the objector, we could not reverse our Saviour’ s witness, and make the many religious and the bad few. We can but do what is to be done. We cannot destroy the personal differences which separate man and man; and to lay it as a fault to baptism, teaching, and other ministrations, that they cannot pass the bounds predicted in God’ s Word, is as little reasonable as attempting to make one mind the same as another. There is nothing to hinder the poorest man from living the life of an angel, living in all the unearthly contemplative blessedness of a saint in glory, except so far as sin interferes with it. I mean, it is sin, and not poverty which is the hindrance. Such is the case with the poor; now, again, take the case of those who have a competency. They too are swallowed up in the cares or interests of life as much as the poor are. While want keeps the one from God by unsettling his mind, a competency keeps the other by the seductions of ease and plenty. The poor man says, “ I cannot go to Church or to the Sacrament of the Lord’ s Supper, till I am more at ease in my mind; I am troubled, and my thoughts are not my own.” The rich man does not make any excuses,--he comes; but his “ heart goeth after his covetousness.” No; such a one may be far other than a mere man of the world,--he may be a religious man, in the common sense of the word; he may be exemplary in his conduct, as far as the social duties of life go; he may be really and truly, and not in pretence, kind, benevolent, sincere, and in a manner serious; but so it is, his mind has never been unchained to soar aloft, he does not look out with longing into the infinite spaces in which, as a Christian, he has free range. A sort of ordinary obedience suffices them as well as the poor. Alas! and is it so? is the superhuman life enjoined on us in the gospel but a dream? is there no meaning in our own case, of the texts about the strait gate and the narrow way, and Mary’ s good part, and the rule of perfection, and the saying which “ all cannot receive save they to whom it is given?” God grant to us a simple, reverent, affectionate, temper, that we may truly be the Church’ s children, and fit subjects of her instructions! (J. H. Newman, M. A.) Sufferings on behalf of the elect The question doubtless arises, does St. Paul here, and also in Colossians 1:24, regard his own afflictions as a part of the redemptive suffering by which the elect should receive the gift of Christ’ s salvation and inherit their eternal glory? This would, undoubtedly, contradict the whole tenor of his teaching elsewhere. “ Was Paul crucified for you?” rings out (in 1 Corinthians 1:13) his own indignant disclaimer of any such position. Still he does assert his hope and conviction that direct and positive advantages may accrue to the elect of God from his own sufferings. The “ salvation” is “ in Christ Jesus” ; still there are “ things lacking” in the afflictions of the Lord which he and other saints are called upon to supplement, to fill up from another source. They are to be filled up in the persons of the members of Christ’ s suffering body. Because these bitter sorrows effectuate or tend to produce a closer resemblance to Christ, because they may lead to a more intense consecration on the part of the elect of God, he willingly endures them all. We take it that these θλίψευς of Christ are not His atoning or sacrificial agonies, but all the contumely and repression which He endured for us and with us, and also which He endured for us and with us, and also which He, in sublime sympathy, continues to suffer in His body the Church, and which will not be completed until the last battle has been fought and the last enemy overcome. Thus the Lord dignifies every patiently borne cross, every holy death, as part of His own affliction for the sake of the elect. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) The redemptive end of affliction I. Afflictions are the more willingly sustained when they further the liberty of the Gospel.1. For when the Word runs the plots of the wicked are prevented.2. The wandering sheep gathered.3. The body of Christ perfected.4. The kingdom of God enlarged. II. A grown Christian can suffer all kinds of afflictions.1. For experience have taught him that afflictions are good for him. 2. Many acts make a habit; whence it falls out that tribulation worketh patience. 3. He believeth that though sorrows be bitter at the entrance, they shall be sweet in the end. 4. The Lord assisteth him, by whose strength he can do and suffer all things. III. There be an elect people. Now concerning the elect, two things are not unworthy of our consideration--the one, their number, the other their prerogatives. For their number absolutely taken is great. The prerogatives are many, and all excellent, which are proper to the elect, for they be the objects of God’ s love. The redeemed of His Son; temples of the Spirit; and co-heirs with Christ of all things. IV. All the goodness of our sufferings is in respect of their ground and end. V. Of the two, a true christian man had rather save souls than prosper in this world. For such know, that to save a soul is more worth than to win the world; and that they shall shine as the sun for ever and ever. (J. Barlow, D. D.) A noble purpose A man’ s purpose in life should be like a river which was born of a thousand little rills in the mountains; and when at last it has reached its manhood in the plain, though, ii you watch it, you shall see little eddies that seem as if they had changed their minds, and were going back again to the mountains, yet all its mighty current flows, changeless, to the sea. If you build a dam across it, in a few hours it will go over it with a voice of victory. If tides check it at its mouth, it is only that when they ebb it can sweep on again to the ocean. So goes the Amazon or Orinoco across a continent--never losing its way or changing its direction for the thousand streams that fall into it on the right hand and on the left, but only using them to increase its force, and bearing them onward in its resistless channel. (H. W. Beecher.) Supporting others A curious old tree that supports other trees is described in a South American journal. It is stated that in Columbus there is a china tree that grew up very tall. Several years ago the top was taken off, leaving the main trunk of the tree about twenty feet high. On the top it has become somewhat decayed, but is making up for lost life by supporting a young forest. There are several different shrubs growing on its top, among others an evergreen three or four feet in height, a blackberry bush, which has put on leaves and flowers, and a water-oak which is about two inches in circumference. It is said that the spectacle is a very remarkable one, and arboriculturists take great interest in it. The old tree is a type of many lives. When God has withdrawn one of His children from active service, he is frequently able to continue his usefulness in another way, by supporting others, lifting them nearer to Heaven and sustaining them with his own stalwart spiritual growth. Enduring for the elect’ s sake An ordinary person may rest in his bed all night, but a surgeon will be called up at all hours; a farming-man may take his ease at his fireside, but if he becomes a shepherd he must be out among the lambs, and bear all weathers for them; even so doth Paul say, “ Therefore I endure all things for the elect’ s sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Suffering to help others Suppose that by some painful operation you could have your right arm made a little longer; I do not suppose you would care to go under the operation; but if you foresaw that by undergoing the pain you would be enabled to reach and save drowning men who else would sink before your eyes, I think you would willingly bear the agony, and pay a heavy fee to the surgeon to be thus qualified for the rescue of your fellows. Reckon, then, that to acquire soul-winning power you will have to go through fire and water, through doubt and despair, through mental torment and soul distress. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The believer’ s salvation obtained by Christ and connected with glory I. Let us consider the nature of this salvation.1. It is a salvation from the condemnation of a broken law.2. It is a salvation from the power and dominion of sin.3. It is a salvation from the bondage of Satan.4. It is a salvation from the temporary triumphs of the grave. II. Let us inquire in what respects this salvation is in Christ Jesus. Because it was with His Son Christ Jesus that God was pleased to enter into covenant, respecting human redemption, before the world was. III. Let us glance at the eternal glory with which this salvation is connected.1. The persons of the saints will then be glorious. The body will be no longer subject to hunger and thirst, to pain and weariness, or to disease and decay. And then in respect to the soul, it will be formed after the Divine image, in righteousness and true holiness, made to partake, so far as a finite creature is capable, of the image of God. 2. The mansions of which the redeemed shall take possession will be glorious. 3. The society to which they will be admitted will be glorious. 4. The employments of the believer will be glorious. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.) That they may also obtain salvation.--Rather, that they also may; they as well as we. (Speaker’ s Commentary.) Salvation in Christ Having Christ we have salvation also, while without receiving Christ Himself we can not have the salvation. Having the fountain we have its issuing streams. Cut off from the fountain the streams will not flow to us. Christ offers Himself to be the Bridegroom of the soul. The mistake is that of seeking the salvation instead of seeking the Saviour. Just the same mistake that the affianced would make if she should seek to have the possessions of him to whom she was engaged made over to her from him, without their union in wedlock, instead of accepting his offer of himself, and having the hymeneal bond completed by which he and all he has would become hers. (W. E. Boardman.) Salvation I. The nature of salvation.1. Salvation is the great and constant theme of the whole Bible, 2. Salvation is a word of pleasing import. 3. Salvation is a full and complete deliverance from all past guilt and condemnation. 4. Salvation is a glorious deliverance from all the miseries of sin and the bondage of Satan. 5. Salvation is a deliverance from the envenomed sting of death. 6. This salvation is a deliverance from the resurrection of damnation, the horrors of the judgment, and the miseries of the lost in hell. Now for the peculiar characteristics of this salvation. (1) It is free.(2) Suitable.(3) Present.(4) Gracious.(5) Eternal. II. The author and source of salvation. It is “ Christ Jesus.” III. Let us point out its method. Some persons try to mystify the plan. But it is simple. The way is easy. Some want to purchase the gift of salvation, but it is not to be bought. It is here--“ Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth.” Turn your eyes from the world and sin, and, by faith, look to Christ! (R. Key.) Heaven, or the final happiness of the righteous Let us attend to what notices we can gain from the scriptures of truth of the heavenly state, as coming under the notion of salvation and glory. Each of these sometimes is put alone for the whole of it; but being here joined together, they make the description of it more complete; the former directly signifies the negative part, a deliverance from all evil, and the latter the positive, the possession of the highest and greatest good our nature is capable of. And how significantly and emphatically is this salvation with eternal glory said to be in Christ Jesus? It is in Him, as possession purchased, in whose right we can only obtain it. It is in Him as an inheritance kept in truth, and to be conveyed by Him to the appointed heirs. It is in Him as the grand Exemplar in His human nature of the complete and final happiness of the saints. It is in Him both as a beatific object, and as a perpetual medium through which the blessed will see and enjoy God. I. The Christian shall obtain instantly on his arrival at heaven, and everlastingly possess, a complete salvation, a perfect freedom from all manner of evil.1. In heaven there will be a perfect and eternal salvation from all sin. 2. The salvation of heaven will be an absolute and perpetual deliverance from the temptations of Satan. In heaven, too, all wicked men, as well as evil angels, shall cease from troubling or tempting; for there shall be none of them there, no more than any matter of temptation in that blessed world. 3. This salvation will be a deliverance from all natural weaknesses; from slowness of apprehension, errors of judgment, slipperiness of memory, levity of will, a rashness or tardiness in resolving, and a heaviness in acting. 4. It will be a deliverance from all the diseases and pains which attend our mortal frame, together with the great variety of disagreeable accidents our life on earth is continually liable to. 5. It will be a deliverance from all God’ s wrath and anger. 6. It is a deliverance from all relative and sympathising sufferings and sorrows. 7. It will be a deliverance from death. But it is time now to say somewhat-- II. Of the positive felicity of the heavenly world, of which the less will suffice, as several of its ingredients are easily understood from the evils and miseries which they stand in opposition to, and because we can have but a general idea of this part, rather knowing what heaven is not, than what in particular it is. However, what belongs to this state is all great, excellent and glorious. It is glory itself. Now, the glory which continues the heavenly happiness is both objective and subjective, and these reciprocally influencing each other and inseparably concurring to form it. There is a glory without, objects of unspeakable lustre and glory which will be exhibited and presented to the saints in heaven to converse with. And there will be a glory within themselves. All the parts and powers of their nature will be rendered inexpressibly glorious, as by an elevation of them into a fitness to converse with the glorious objects before them, so by an actual exercise on them and the most satisfying gratification by them. Hence the frequent expression in Scripture of their happiness in heaven is their being glorified. And it is the glory of God either way, as it is often called. He realms all the glory of heaven; He is the principal object Himself of the saints’ beatific converse, and He forms all the other objects, as well as themselves, glorious. And here we may observe that all these glories will be revealed in a propitious and amiable light. God will manifest Himself to His saints as their own God, and all His perfections and operations are arrayed in love. No room will be left for terror and dismay from the full blaze of His Majesty above, as but a few beams of it breaking in on some of His people here have oppressed their souls with the most dreadful apprehensions. Again, the revelation of heavenly glories will be made to the blessed in a measure exactly suited to their faculties and capacities. There will be no deficiency to cause an uneasy and an unsatisfied craving; no excess to overpower and exhaust the spirits.1. There will be a perfect knowledge in heaven: a knowledge in the very best manner of the best and noblest things. This knowledge will in a great measure be intuitive, and so consequently very comprehensive, easy, clear, and satisfying. 2. In heaven there will be a perfect rectitude, and regular harmony in all the powers of the soul. As the understanding clearly and steadily beholds the beauties of holiness, the soul will naturally take and keep a correspondent impress, and be satisfied with this Divine likeness. 3. In consequence of this, the active powers will be fully and most delightfully employed in the incessant praises of God and of the Lamb, and in whatever unknown services may be assigned them, all noble and pleasurable. (J. Hubbard.) 2 Timothy 2:11-12 If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him.Union with Christ in death and life I. The first branch of this “ faithful saying” is, “ If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him.” There seem to be two ways chiefly in which the soul “ is dead with Christ.” If we look at the operation of the law as a manifestation of the justice of God, the law was the cause of the death of Christ--that is to say, the law being broken by the Church in whose place Christ stood, He, as a Substitute and a Surety, stood under its curse, and that curse was death. If, then, we are to die with Christ, we must die under the law just as Jesus died under the law, or else there is no union with Christ in His death. But further, Christ died under the weight of sin and transgression. Every living soul then that shall die with Christ spiritually and experimentally, must die too under the weight of sin--that is, he must know what it is so to experience the power and presence of sin in his carnal mind, so to feel the burden of his iniquities upon his guilty head, and to be so overcome and overpowered by inward transgression, as to be utterly helpless, and thoroughly unable to deliver himself from the dominion and rule of it in his heart. But there is another way in which the soul dies with Christ. Christ not only died under the law and died under sin, but He died unto the law, and He died unto sin. But in living with Christ, there will be, if I may use the expression, a dying life, or a living death, running parallel with all the experience of a child of God, who is brought to some acquaintance with the Lord Jesus. For instance, the apostle says, “ I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” II. But we go on to consider another branch of this vital union with Christ. “ If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.” There can be no suffering with Christ, until there is a vital union with Christ; and no realisation of it, until the Holy Ghost manifests this vital union by making Christ known, and raising up faith in our hearts, whereby He is embraced and laid hold of. And there is no “ reigning with Christ,” except there first be a “ suffering with Christ.” I believe that reigning not only signifies a reigning with Him in glory hereafter, but also a measure of reigning with Him now, by His enthroning Himself in our hearts. III. “ If we deny Him, He also will deny us,” that is the next branch. The words have a twofold meaning; they apply to professors, and they apply to possessors. There were those in the Church who would deny Him, for there were those who never knew Him experimentally, and when the trial came, they would act as Judas acted. And then there were those who were real followers of Him, but when put to the test might act as Peter acted. (J. C. Philpot.) Christ and the Christian In matters of great worth and difficulty prefaces are used: so here. Whence observe we, that-- I. Afflictions are not easy to be endured, II. God’ s word is faithful. III. Christ and a Christian are fellow-sufferers. IV. Christ and a christian shall live together. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Dead with Christ In the fourth century a young earnest disciple sought an interview with the great and good Macarius, and asked him what was meant by being dead to sin. He said, “ You remember our brother who died and was buried a short time since. Go to his grave, and tell him all the unkind things you ever heard of him. Go, my son, and hear what he will answer.” The young man doubted whether he understood; but Macarius only said, “ Do as I tell you, my son; and come and tell me what he says.” He went, and came back, saying, “ I can get He reply; he is dead.” “ Go again, and try him with flattering words--tell him what a great saint he was, what noble work he did, and how we miss him; and come again and tell me what he says.” He did so, but on his return said, “ He answers nothing, father; he is dead and buried.” “ You know now, my son,” said the old father, “ what it is to be dead to sin, dead and buried with Christ. Praise and blame are nothing to him who is really dead and buried with Christ.” (Christian Herald.) Dead with Christ “ Believe, my dear Pris, what I am just beginning to learn, and you knew long ago, that the death of Christ is far, very far, more than a mere peace-making, though that view of it is the root of every other. But it is actually and literally the death of you and me and the whole human race; the absolute death and extinction of all our selfishness and individuality. So St. Paul describes it in Romans 6:1-23. and in every one of his Epistles. Let us believe, then, what is the truth and no lie--that we are dead, actually, absolutely dead; and let as believe further that we are risen and that we have each a life, our only life, a life not of you nor me, but a universal life--in Him. He will live in us and quicken us with all life and all love; will make us understand the possibility, and, as I am well convinced, experience the reality, of loving God and loving our brethren.” (F. D. Maurice to his sister.) Suffering and reigning with Jesus I. Suffering with Jesus, and its reward. To suffer is the common lot of all men. It is not possible for us to escape from it. We come into this world through the gate of suffering, and over death’ s door hangs the same escutcheon. If, then, a man hath sorrow, it doth not necessarily follow that he shall be rewarded for it, since it is the common lot brought upon all by sin. You may smart under the lashes of sorrow in this life, but this shall not deliver you from the wrath to come. The text implies most clearly that we must suffer with Christ in order to reign with Him.1. We must not imagine that we are suffering for Christ, and with Christ, if we are not in Christ. 2. Supposing a man to be in Christ, yet it does not even then follow that all his sufferings are sufferings with Christ, for it is essential that he be called by God to suffer. If a good man were, out of mistaken views of mortification and self-denial, to mutilate his body, or to flog his flesh, aa many a sincere enthusiast has done, I might admire the man’ s fortitude, but I should not allow for an instant that he was suffering with Christ. 3. Again, in troubles which come upon us as the result of sin, we must not think we are suffering with Christ. When Miriam spoke evil of Moses, and the leprosy polluted her, she was not suffering for God. When Uzziah thrust himself into the temple, and became a leper all his days, he could not say that he was afflicted for righteousness’ sake. If you speculate and lose your property, do not say that you are losing all for Christ’ s sake; when you unite with bubble companies and are duped, do not whine about suffering for Christ--call it the fruit of your own folly. If you will put your hand into the fire and it gets burned, why, it is the nature of fire to burn you or anybody else; but be not so silly as to boast as though you were a martyr. 4. Be it observed, moreover, that suffering such as God accepts and rewards for Christ’ s sake, must have God’ s glory as its end. 5. I must mind, too, that love to Christ, and love to His elect, is ever the main-spring of all my patience; remembering the apostle’ s words, “ Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” 6. I must not forget also that I must manifest the spirit of Christ, or else I do not suffer with Him. I have heard of a certain minister who, having had a great disagreement with many members in his church, preached from this text, “ And Aaron held his peace.” The sermon was intended to pourtray himself as an astonishing instance of meekness; but as his previous words and actions had been quite sufficiently violent, a witty hearer observed, that the only likeness he could see between Aaron and the preacher was this, “ Aaron held his peace, and the preacher did not.” I shall now very briefly show what are the forms of real suffering for Jesus in these days. (1) Some suffer in their estates. I believe that to many Christians it is rather a gain than a loss, so far as pecuniary matters go, to be believers in Christ; but I meet with many cases--cases which I know to be genuine, where persons have had to suffer severely for conscience’ sake. (2) More usually, however, the suffering takes the form of personal contempt. (3) Believers have also to suffer slander and falsehood. (4) Then again, if in your service for Christ you are enabled so to sacri fice yourself, that you bring upon yourself inconvenience and pain, labour and loss, then I think you are suffering with Christ. (5) Let us not forget that contention with inbred lusts, denials of proud self, resistance of sin, and agony against Satan, are all forms of suffering with Christ. (6) There is one more class of suffering which I shall mention, and that is, when friends forsake, or become foes. If you are thus called to suffer for Christ, will you quarrel with me if I say, in adding all up, what a very little it is compared with reigning with Jesus! “ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” When I contrast our sufferings of to-day with those of the reign of Mary, or the persecutions of the Albigenses on the mountains, or the sufferings of Christians in Pagan Rome, why, ours are scarcely a pin’ s prick: and yet what is the reward? We shall reign with Christ. There is no comparison between the service and the reward. Therefore it is all of grace. We are not merely to sit with Christ, but we are to reign with Christ. II. Denying Christ, and its penalty. “ If we deny Him, He also will deny us,” In what way can we deny Christ? Some deny Him openly as scoffers do, whose tongue walketh through the earth and defieth heaven. Others do this wilfully and wickedly in a doctrinal way, as the Arians and Socinians do, who deny His deity: those who deny His atonement, who rail against the inspiration of His Word, these come under the condemnation of those who deny Christ. There is a way of denying Christ without even speaking a word, and this is the more common. In the day of blasphemy and rebuke, many hide their heads. Are there not here some who have been baptized, and who come to the Lord’ s table, but what is their character? Follow them home. I would to God they never had made a profession, because in their own houses they deny what in the house of God they have avowed. In musing over the very dreadful sentence which closes my text, “ He also will deny us,” I was led to think of various ways in which Jesus will deny us. He does this sometimes on earth. You have read, I Suppose, the death of Francis Spira. If you have ever read it, you never can forget it to your dying day. Francis Spira knew the truth; he was a reformer of no mean standing; but when brought to death, out of fear, he recanted. In a short time he fell into despair, and suffered hell upon earth. His shrieks and exclamations were so horrible that their record is almost too terrible for print. His doom was a warning to the age in which he lived. Another instance is narrated by my predecessor, Benjamin Keach, of one who, during Puritanic times, was very earnest for Puritanism; but afterwards, when times of persecution arose, forsook his profession. The scenes at his deathbed were thrilling and terrible. He declared that though he sought God, heaven was shut against him; gates of brass seemed to be in his way, he was given up to overwhelming despair. At intervals he cursed, at other intervals he prayed, and so perished without hope. If we deny Christ, we may be delivered to such a fate. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Deniers of Christ I. Difficult duties are greatly to be pressed. II. To conceive the estate of a Christian is to have an eye to his latter end. III. God’ s method and the devil’ s differ. He begins with death, ends with life: but Satan the contrary. IV. Christ is not to be denied. V. The deniers of Christ shall de denied. Helps against this sin--1. Deny thyself.2. Never dispute with flesh and blood.3. Look not on death as death: but on God’ s power, which is manifest in our weakness.4. Consider the examples of so many martyrs. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The encouragement to suffer for Christ, and the danger of denying Him “ It is a faithful saying.” This is a preface used by this apostle to introduce some remarkable sentence of more than ordinary weight and concernment. I shall begin with the first part of this remarkable saying: “ If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.”1. What virtue there is in a firm belief and persuasion of a blessed immortality in another world, to support and bear up men’ s spirits under the greatest sufferings for righteousness’ sake; and even to animate them, if God shall call them to it, to lay down their lives for their religion. 2. How it may be made out to be reasonable to embrace and voluntarily to submit to present and grievous sufferings, in hopes of future happiness and reward; concerning which we have not, nor perhaps are capable of having, the same degree of certainty and assurance which we have of the evils and sufferings of this present life. Now, granting that we have not the same degree of certainty concerning our future happiness that we have of our present sufferings, which we feel, or see just ready to come upon us; yet prudence making it necessary for men to run this hazard does justify the reasonableness of it. This I take to be a known and ruled case in the common affairs of life and in matters of temporal concernment; and men act upon this principle every day. The matter is now brought to this plain issue, that if it be reasonable to believe there is a God, and that His providence considers the actions of men; it is also reasonable to endure present sufferings, in hope of a future reward: and there is certainly enough in this case to govern and determine a prudent man that is in any good measure persuaded of another life after this, and hath any tolerable consideration of, and regard to, his eternal interest. In the virtue of this belief and persuasion, the primitive Christians were fortified against all that the malice and cruelty of the world could do against them; and they thought they made a very wise bargain, if through many tribulations they might at last enter into the kingdom of God; because they believed that the joys of heaven would abundantly recompense all their sorrows and sufferings upon earth. And so confident were they of this, that they looked upon it as a special favour and regard of God to them, to call them to suffer for His name. So St. Paul speaks of it (Philippians 1:29). If we could compare things justly, and attentively regard and consider the invisible glories of another world, as well as the things which are seen, we should easily perceive that he who suffers for God and religion does not renounce happiness; but puts it out to interest upon terms of the greatest advantage. I shall now briefly speak to the second part of this remarkable saying in the text. “ If we deny Him, He also will deny us” ; to which is subjoined in the words following, “ if we believe not; εἰἀπιστοῦμεν, if we deal unfaithfully with Him; yet He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself” ; that is, He will be constant to His word, and make good that solemn threatening which He hath denounced against those who, for fear of suffering, shall deny Him and His truth before men (Matthew 10:33). If fear will move us, then, in all reason, that which is most terrible ought to prevail most with us, and the greatest danger should be most dreaded by us, according to our Saviour’ s most friendly and reasonable advice (Luke 12:4-5.) (J. Tillotson, D. D.) If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. Suffering with Christ In the olden time when the gospel was preached in Persia, one Hamedatha, a courtier of the king, having embraced the faith, was stripped of all his offices, driven from the palace, and compelled to feed camels. This he did with great content. The king passing by one day, saw his former favourite at his ignoble work, cleaning out the camel’ s stables. Taking pity upon him he took him into his palace, clothed him with sumptuous apparel, restored him to all his former honours, and made him sit at the royal table. In the midst of the dainty feast, he asked Hamedatha to renounce his faith. The courtier, rising from the table, tore off his garments with haste, left all the dainties behind him, and said, “ Didst thou think that for such silly things as these I would deny my Lord and Master?” and away he went to the stable to his ignoble work. How honourable is all this! (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ’ s martyrs Christ’ s true martyrs do not die, but live. (E. Thring.) Ennobled in death “ Henry V. on the evening of Agincourt found the chivalric David Gamin still grasping the banner which through the fight his strength had borne and his right arm defended. Often had the monarch noticed that pennon waving in the foremost van of the men of England who that day pierced, broke, and routed the proud ranks of France. The king knighted him as he lay. The hero died, but dying was ennobled!” (S. Coley.) Cyril, the boy martyr Let me tell you of a young soldier of His, who bore much for his Lord. We must go back to the early days of Christianity, and picture a martyr being led to death in the city of Antioch. At the place of execution is the judge surrounded by a guard of soldiers. The man about to die for his love to his heavenly King says to the judge--“ Ask any little child here whether we ought to adore the many false gods whom you serve or the one living and true God, the only Saviour of men, and that child will tell you.” Close by there stood a Christian mother and her boy of ten years old named Cyril. She had brought her son there to see how a true servant of God could die for his Lord. As the martyr spoke, the judge spied the lad, and asked him a question. To the surprise of all, Cyril answered--“ There is but one God, and Jesus Christ is one With Him.” At these words the judge was very angry. “ Wretched Christian,” he said, turning to the martyr, “ it is thou who hast taught the boy these words.” Then more gently, he said to the child--“ Tell me, who taught thee this faith?” Little Cyril looked lovingly up to his mother, and answered, “ The grace of God taught my mother, and she taught me.” “ Well, we will see what this grace of God can do for thee,” cried the judge. He signed to the guards, who, according to the custom of the Romans, stood with their sheaves of rods. They came near and seized the child. Passionately the mother pleaded that she might give her life for that of her son. But none heeded her entreaties. And all that she could do was to cheer her child, reminding him of the Lord who loved him and died for him. Then cruel strokes fell upon the bare little shoulders of Cyril. In a tone of mocking, the judge said--“ What good is the grace of God to him now?… It can enable him to bear the same punishment which his Saviour bore for him,” answered the mother decidedly. One look from the judge to |he soldiers, and again the cruel blows fell on the tender flesh of the boy. “ What can the grace of God do for him now?” again asked the pitiless judge. Few of the spectators could hear unmoved the mother, who, with heart bleeding at the sight of her boy’ s sufferings, answered--“ The grace of God teaches him to forgive his persecutors.” The child’ s eyes followed the upward glance of his mother, as she raised her pleading for him in earnest prayer. And when his persecutors asked whether he would not now worship the gods they did, that young soldier answered--“ No, there is no other God but the Lord, and Jesus is the Redeemer of the world. He loved me, and I love Him, because He is my Saviour.” Stroke after stroke fell upon the boy, and at last he fell fainting. Then he was handed to his mother, and the question was once more repeated: “ What can the grace of God do for him now?” Pressing her dying child to her heart, she answered--“ Now above all, the grace of God will bring him gain and glory, for He will take him from the rage of his persecutors to the peace of His own home in heaven.” Once more the dying boy looked up and said, “ There is only one God, and one Saviour, Jesus Christ--who--loved--me.” And then the Lord Jesus received him in His arms for evermore. The boy martyr went in to be with his King, that Saviour “ who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” Suffering for Christ rewarded Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, once expressed a desire that his friend Caligula might soon come to the throne. Old Tiberius, the reigning monarch, felt such a wish, however flattering to Caligula, to be so little kindly to himself, that he threw the author of it into a loathsome dungeon. But the very day Caligula reached Imperial power, Agrippa was released. The new emperor gave him purple for his rags, tetrarchies for his narrow cell, and carefully weighing the gyves that fettered him, for every link of iron bestowed on him one of gold. Think you that day Agrippa wished his handcuffs and his leg-locks had been lighter? Will Jesus forget the wellwishers of His kingdom, who, for His sake, have borne the burden and worn the chain? His scales will be forthcoming, and assuredly those faithful in great tribulation shall be beautified with greater glory. (S. Coley.) Happy ending of a suffering life We have sometimes watched a ship entering the harbour with masts sprung, sails torn, seams yawning, bulwarks stove in--bearing all the marks of having battled with the storms, and of having encountered many a peril. On the deck is a crew of worn and weather-beaten men, rejoicing that they have reached the port in safety. Such was the plight in which many believers of old reached the haven of rest. They met with dangers and encountered difficulties. But if their course was toilsome, their end was happy. It was their joy to labour and suffer for their Lord’ s sake, and they are now sharing His kingdom and His glory. (Bp. Oxenden.) If we deny Him, He also will deny us.-- Denying Christ There are many ways of denying Christ, both by word and action. We may take the part of His enemies, or ignore His supreme claim to our allegiance; we may transform Him into a myth, a fairy tale, a subjective principle, or find a substitute in our own life for His grace; and we may assume that He is not the ground of our reconciliation, nor the giver of salvation, nor the sole Head of His Church. If so, we may reasonably fear, lest He should refuse to acknowledge us when upon His approval our eternal destiny will turn. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) 2 Timothy 2:13 If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful.Faithless “ If we are faithless” --that is, untrue to the vows of our Christian profession, the faithlessness implies more than mere unbelief in any of the fundamental doctrines of the faith, such as the resurrection of the Lord or His divinity. (H. D. M. Spence, M. A.) The unchangeableness and independence of Christ, proofs of His divinity If you open any professed treatise on the divinity of Christ, you will find that one series of proofs is deduced from the ascription to our Lord of attributes or properties which can belong only unto God. And the words which we have just read to you from the writings of St. Paul contain, as it would seem, two instances of this kind of evidence. Amongst the characteristics of the Creator, characteristics which can never be transferred to a creature, we justly reckon unchangeableness and independence. You may learn from the context, it is of Christ, “ the one Mediator between God and men,” that St. Paul affirms that “ He abideth faithful,” and that “ He cannot deny Himself.” And first, then, as to unchangeableness. You know that with the Father of lights “ there is no variableness neither shadow of turning.” When it is said of God “ He cannot change,” you should understand the phrase in its largest and most literal acceptation. We are as much borne out by reason as by revelation, in pronouncing it impossible that God should change. To suppose that He could change is to suppose that He could cease to be perfect, and we need not prove to you that an imperfect God would be no God at all. There is no passage in the Bible in which this unchangeableness is more distinctly ascribed to the Father than it is in our text to the Son. “ He cannot,” He is not able to “ deny Himself.” Such language could never have been applicable to Christ had He not been God. There is nothing in the nature of a creature, not even though it come nearest in glory and greatness to that unchangeable Being from whom its existence was derived--there is nothing, I say, in the nature of a creature which renders it impossible that it should deny itself. Now, unchangeableness is not the only attribute of Godhead which is here ascribed to Christ; a little examination will show you that independence is equally ascribed. Sublimely as God is enthroned on His own essential majesty, He depends neither on angel nor on man for one jot of His honour, for one tittle of His happiness. And you are to observe that this independence which is necessarily to be reckoned among the Divine attributes is actually incommunicable; that is, it can belong only to God, and cannot be imparted to what is finite and created. And yet the mode of expression adopted by the apostle in our text appears to me strictly to imply that the being of whom he speaks is independent. “ If we believe not,” what then? will it make any difference to Christ? must His purposes be altered, as though to meet an emergency? must the terms of His gospel be lowered, so as to square better with our prejudice or our infidelity? Nothing of all this. “ If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself.” Everything will follow the same course; we may turn the willing ear, or the deaf; we may march in the train of the Captain of our salvation, or we may fight under the banner of the apostate. “ Yet He abideth faithful” ; or, as the verse is paraphrased by an old prelate of our church, “ He loveth nothing by it; the misery and the damage is ours; but for Him, He is the same that He was, whatever become of us.” Now, we are very anxious that whenever a portion of Holy Writ on which we are meditating contains any indirect testimony to the divinity of Christ, such testimony should be carefully worked out and set before you in its strength and in its simplicity. And there is no doctrine to which there is a greater assemblage of these indirect testimonies than there is to the divinity of Christ. Passages occur in almost every leaf of the New Testament, which do not indeed assert the divinity of Christ, which do not even seem to allude to the divinity of Christ, but which, nevertheless, are stripped of aft force, yea, of all sense, if doubt be thrown on the divinity of Christ. In reading the Epistles we seem reading the writings of men who never thought of the divinity of Christ as of a questionable or debateable thing. They buckle on the armour of controversy when the sir, fatness of the human race is to be demonstrated, and when the method of justification is to be vindicated, and when the errors of Judaising teachers are to be exposed; but, except in one or two instances, there is nothing that looks like controversy in regard to the divinity of Christ. And we attach the greatest possible worth to this indirect kind of evidence, a specimen of which we have found in our text. Certain doctrines there may be, which rest only on certain passages, and which consequently we should find a difficulty in establishing if those passages were removed. But this cannot be affirmed of the main pillar of our faith, the divinity of Christ. The doctrine rests not upon isolated passages; leave us a page of the New Testament, and I think you will have left us proof of Christ being God. And now let us take a different view of the text. It contains much both of what is alarming and what is encouraging. The threatenings and the promises of Christ, each of these, as we may learn from the text, will take equal effect, whether we ourselves believe them or whether we disbelieve them. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Eternal faithfulness unaffected by human unbelief I. The sad possibility, and the consoling assurance--“ If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful.” I must take the sad possibility first--“ if we believe not,” and I shall read this expression as though, first of all, it concerned the world in general, for I think it may so be fairly read. If mankind believe not, if the various classes of men believe not--yet He abideth faithful. The rulers believed not, and there are some that make this a very great point. They said concerning Jesus, “ Have any of the rulers believed on Him?” Well, if our greatest men, if our senators and magistrates, princes and potentates, believe not--it does not affect the truth of God in the smallest conceivable degree--“ yet He abideth faithful.” Many, however, think it more important to know on which side the leaders of thought are enlisted, and there are certain persons who are not elected to that particular office by popular vote, who nevertheless take it upon themselves to consider that they are dictators in the republic of opinion. However, we need not care because of these wise men, for if they believe not, but becloud the gospel, yet God abideth faithful. Yes, and I venture to enlarge this thought a little more. If the rulers do not believe, and if the philosophical minds do not believe, and if in addition to this public opinion, so called, rejects it, yet the gospel is still the same eternal truth.2. Now, having spoken of our text as referring to the world in general, it is, perhaps, a more sorrowful business to look at it as referring to the visible church in particular. The apostle says, “ Though we believe not,” and surely he must mean the visible church of God. 3. Once more I will read the text in a somewhat narrower circle. “ If we believe not” --that is to say, if the choicest teachers and preachers and writers believe not, yet He abideth faithful. Here, then, is the fearful possibility; and side by side with it runs this most blessedly consoling assurance--“ He abideth faithful.” Jesus Christ abideth: there are no shifts and changes in Him. He is a rock, and not a quicksand. He is the Saviour whether the rulers and the philosophers believe in Him or refuse Him, whether the Church dud her ministers are true to Him or desert Him. And as Christ remains the same Saviour, so we have the same gospel. And as the gospel is the same, so does Christ remain faithful to His engagements to His Father. II. A glorious impossibility with a sweet inference that may be drawn from it. “ He cannot deny Him self.” Three things God cannot do. He cannot die, He cannot lie, and He cannot be deceived. These three impossibilities do not limit His power, but they magnify His majesty; for these would be infirmities, and infirmity can have no place in the infinite and ever blessed God. Here is one of the things impossible with God--“ He cannot deny Himself.” What is meant by that?1. It is meant that the Lord Jesus Christ cannot change as to His nature and character towards us, the sons of men. 2. His word cannot alter. 3. He cannot withdraw the salvation which He has presented to the sons of men, for that salvation is indeed Himself. 4. And then the atonement is still the same, for that, too, is Himself: He has by Himself purged our sins. 5. And the mercy-seat, the place of prayer, still remains; for if that were altered He would have denied Himself, for what was the mercy-seat, or propitiatory, that golden lid upon the covenant ark? What was it but Christ Him self, who is our propitiatory, the true mercy-seat? 6. And here is another sweet thought: Christ’ s love to His Church, and His purpose towards her cannot change, because He cannot deny Himself, and His Church is Himself. 7. Nor will any one of His offices towards His Church and people ever fail. 8. Now, my last word is about an inference. The text says, “ If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful” : it runs on that supposition. Take the other supposition: Suppose we do believe. Will He not be faithful in that case? And will it not be true that He cannot deny Himself? (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Divine immutability Weak as man is, all powerful as God is, there is one thing which weak man can do, and which Almighty God cannot do. Man can pass his word, and almost in the same breath can call it back again. God, on the other hand, cannot promise or denounce a thing without fulfilling it to the very uttermost. This is a doctrine which there are few el us, I fear, who thoroughly believe. Whilst there are many of us who are making light of the threatenings of God, and flattering ourselves with the profane idea that they will never be fulfilled, there are others again who are equally distrustful of God’ s promises. If we trust God in spirituals we mistrust Him perhaps in temporals. If we believe Him as the God of grace, we sometimes seem to doubt Him as the God of providence. If we trust Him for eternity, we are half afraid to rely on Him for time. (A. Roberts, M. A.) Faith in God ennobles reason; unbelief degrades reason 1. Faith in God involves, in its very act, a rational appreciation of evidence. Hence it is distinct from credulity, which is belief without evidence; from scepticism, which is unbelief, though evidence is at hand; and from infidelity, which is the rejection of evidence sufficient to convince. In each of these there is either the neglect or the abuse of the reason, and a consequent injury to the intellectual as well as to the moral powers of the soul. But faith in God, distinct from all these, is belief on sufficient evidence. 2. Faith in God promotes the highest exercise of reason, because also it rests upon the most substantial and durable foundation. If, in the investigation of natural truth, it is philosophical to seek for first principles, it is equally or more so to require them in the reception of revealed truth. Now to have faith in God is to rest on first principles, and to build up knowledge and hope on a sure foundation. 3. Faith takes in the sublimest truths, and the widest circle of thought. 4. If this be our philosophy we shall not stumble at miracles. While faith admits the miracles as facts, reason co-operates with faith by showing that they are wise and good. Moreover, the great first miracle displayed in the world’ s creation, which we receive by faith, prepare the mind for all other miracles, however stupendous they may be (Hebrews 11:1). 5. Guided by the philosophy of faith, we shall not stumble at mysteries. For what are mysteries? Grand truths as yet but palatally revealed; the first syllables of some vast volume to be unrolled hereafter. 6. Nor at alleged contradictions between science and revelation. We are free to admit that there are difficulties, real difficulties, between science and revelation; and there may be even greater still. What then? We are but in the position in which patriarchs and prophets were placed for ages. 7. Supported by the philosophy of faith, we shall not faint under the delay of promised good. “ One day is with the Lord as a thousand years,” etc. (W. Cooke, D. D.) Faith and the gospel I. Unbelief is a sin. What more in the holy letters checked, condemned? Does not Christ dissuade from it? His apostles forbid it? and God everywhere commands the contrary? May not arguments be produced, if any doubt of it, to confirm, ratify it? II. A man may not have faith yet possess the Gospel. To try the truth of thy faith, let these two rules following be well weighed of thee: First, he who hath faith receives Christ, as the wife does her husband. He will have Him and no other from this time forward, for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health, according to God’ s holy ordinance, till (and after that) death shall them part. In the second place, how does thy faith work? Faith, if true and sound, will embrace Christ, purify the heart, lift up the wing of thy soul and cause thee to soar on high. It will do what God enjoins, though it strip him of reputation, promotion, life and all. III. In preaching the word ministers are not to exclude themselves. IV. The Lord is faithful. V. The Lord is without change. (J. Barlow, D. D.) 2 Timothy 2:14 Put them in remembrance.Repetition I. Repetition of the same things is warrantable.1. For at the first delivery of a thing we may not fully apprehend it; the eye of our mind is but opened by degrees. 2. Our faith by often repetition may be confirmed. 3. It is a help to cause the truth in the soil of our memories to take the deeper impression. 4. We are slow to practise what we conceive, believe, and remember: therefore the reduplication of Divine things is profitable. II. The doctrine of christ is above all things to be desired. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Repetition A preacher must often repeat an exhortation, because we dwell in a land of forgetfulness. (Cramer.) A good memory Abraham Lincoln had a marvellous memory; nothing seemed to escape his recollection. A soldier once struck a happy description of him when he said, “ He’ s got a mighty fine memory; but an awful poor forgetery.” How many Christians have good “ forgeteries.” Charging them before the Lord. Preaching in the sight of God The whole section is applicable to ministers throughout the Church in all ages; and the words under consideration seem to be well worthy of attention at the present time, when so many unworthy topics and so much unworthy language may be heard from the pulpit. One is inclined to think that if ministers always remembered that they were speaking “ in the sight of God” they would sometimes find other things to say, and other ways of saying them. We talk glibly enough of another man’ s words and opinions when he is not present. We may be entirely free from the smallest wish to misrepresent or exaggerate; but at the same time we speak with great freedom and almost without restraint. What a change comes over us if, in the midst of our glib recital of his views and sayings, the man himself enters the room! At once we begin to measure our words and to speak with more caution. Our tone becomes less positive, and we have less confidence that we are justified in making sweeping statements on the subject. Ought not something of this circumspection and diffidence to be felt by those who take the responsibility of telling others about the mind of God? And if they remembered constantly that they speak “ in the sight of the Lord,” this attitude of solemn circumspection would become habitual. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Strive not about words to no profit.-- The spirit of controversy The spirit of controversy is a bad thing in itself; but the evil is intensified when the subject of controversy is a question of words. Controversy is necessary, but it is a necessary evil; and that man has need of searchings of heart who finds that he enjoys ii, and sometimes even provokes it, when it might easily have been avoided; but a fondness for strife about words is one of the lowest forms which the malady can take. Principles are things worth striving about when opposition to what we know to be right and true is unavoidable. But disputatiousness about words is something like proof that love of self has taken the place of love of truth. The word-splitter wrangles, not for the sake of arriving at the truth, but for the sake of a dialectical victory (see 1 Timothy 6:4). And here the apostle says that such disputes are worse than worthless, they tend to “ no profit” ; on the contrary, they tend “ to the subverting of those who listen to them.” This subversion or overthrow is the exact opposite of what ought to be the result of Christian discipline, viz., edification or building up. The audience, instead of being built up in faith and principle, find themselves bewildered and lowered. They have a less firm grasp of truth and a less loyal affection for it. It is as if some beautiful object, which they were learning to understand and admire, had been scored all over with marks by those who had been disputing as to the meaning and relation of the details. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Controversy It has been a favourite device of the heretics and sceptics of all ages to endeavour to provoke a discussion on points about which they hope to place an opponent in a difficulty. Their object is not to settle, but to unsettle; not to clear up doubts, but to create them; and hence we find Bishop Butler in his Durham charge recommending his clergy to avoid religious discussions in general conversation; because the clever propounder of difficulties will find ready hearers, while the patient answerer of them will not do so. To dispute is to place truth at an unnecessary disadvantage. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Strife of words Christians are not to strive about words.1. It wasteth time, consumeth good hours, which are to be redeemed.2. Prevents better matter.3. Kindles strife and contention.4. And for idle words we are to give an account. Now, for the avoiding of these fruitless disputes, observe these following directions:--1. Get a sound mind, a good judgment, to discern betwixt things that differ. 2. Root self-love and pride out of thy heart. 3. In matters of less moment reserve thy judgment; publish it not, lest thou trouble others. 4. Take heed of overmuch curiosity: pry not into God’ s ark; neither presume above that which is written. 5. Consider wherein thou and the party with whom thou hast to deal do agree, and let that consent make a stronger union than the dissent can a separation. 6. Abandon such companions as are always complaining of Church government. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The hydrostatic paradox of controversy If a fellow attacked my opinions in print, would I reply? Not I. Do you think I don’ t understand what my friend the Professor long ago called the hydrostatic paradox of controversy? Don’ t know what that means? Well, I will tell you. You know that if you had a bent tube, one arm of which was of the size of a pipe-stem, and the other big enough to hold the ocean, water would stand at the same height in one as in the other. Controversy equalises fools and wise men in the same way--and the fools know it. (Q. W. Holmes.) Controversy Controversy has kept alive a certain quantity of bitterness, and that, I suspect, is all that it would accomplish if it continued till the day of judgment. I sometimes, in impatient moments, wish the laity in Europe would treat their controversial divines as two gentlemen once treated their seconds, when they found themselves forced into a duel without knowing what they were quarrelling about. As the principals were being led up to their places one of them whispered to the other, “ If you will shoot your second, I will shoot mine.” (A. J. Froude.) Controversy a sign of moral poverty In the course of more than twenty-seven years, I never knew one exemplary Christian a disputer, whether amongst Dissenters or in our own Church; and it is a rule with me to conclude any person who can be taken up with a desire to make men converts to any notion, and not to Christ, or to be zealous for anything more than the life of faith and holiness from knowledge of Christ crucified, is a sounding empty professor, or, at best, in a very poor low state. (H. Venn.) Cavilling and disputation When Endamides heard old Xenocrates disputing so long about wisdom, he inquired very gravely, but archly, “ If the old man be yet disputing and inquiring concerning wisdom, what time will he have left to use it?” Controversy may be sometimes needful; but the love of disputation is a serious evil. Luther, who contended earnestly for the truth, used to pray, “ From a vainglorious doctor, a contentious pastor, and nice questions, the Lord deliver His Church.” Philip Melancthon, being at the conferences at Spires, in 1529, made a little journey to Bretton to see his mother. This good woman asked him what she must believe amidst so many disputes, and repeated to him her prayers, which contained nothing superstitious. “ Go on, mother,” said he, “ to believe and pray as you have done, and never trouble yourself about religious controversies.” (Sunday School Teacher.) 2 Timothy 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God.Approved The word which he uses (σπουδάζειν) is one which scarcely occurs in the New Testament, except in the writings of St. Paul. And the corresponding substantive is also much more common in his Epistles than it is elsewhere. It indicates that ceaseless, serious, earnest zeal, which was one of his chief characteristics. And certainly if the proposed standard is to be reached, or even seriously aimed at, abundance of this zeal will be required. For the end proposed is not the admiration or affection of the congregation, or of one’ s superiors, nor yet success in influencing and winning souls; but that of presenting one’ s self to God in such a way as to secure His approval, without fear of incurring the reproach of being a workman who has shirked or scamped his work. The apostle’ s charge is a most wholesome one, and if it is acted upon it secures diligence without fussiness, and enthusiasm without fanaticism. The being “ approved” implies being tried and proved as precious metals are proved before they are accepted as genuine. (A. Plummer, D. D.) The minister approved of God I. In what way and manner a minister ought to show himself approved of God. It appears to me that something more is required to convince men that a minister has the smile of God than his own belief. Our text evidently implies that by his work a minister must show that God is with him. In his work four things will be found which tend to show this.1. Its quality. It must be such as God commands.2. Its quantity; which shall evince diligence.3. The difficulties attending its performance; which is the trial of sincerity.4. The spirit in which it is done. It is a work which requires a spirit of compassion and kindness. II. What are the signs of a minister’ s approval of God which should be accepted by persons?1. I would place conversions as an evidence of Divine approval. They show Divine favour. The moral miracle of a true conversion evinces the Divine presence and power equally with any other miracle. 2. The convictions of truth and duty, which are made by his preaching to the consciences of sinners. 3. The last sign we shall notice of God’ s approbation of His minister, is the effects of his preaching on the hearts of them that believe. Those that are spiritual can judge whether his preaching is scriptural. (W. Moore.) God’ s approval Advert continually to His presence with reverence and godly fear; consider Him as always looking on the heart; trust in His almighty protection; believe in Him as a holy sin-hating God and reconciled to sinners of mankind only in Jesus Christ; value His favour above all the world, and make it the settled sole aim of your lives to approve yourselves to His pure eyes. (T. Adam.) Desire for God’ s approbation “ If you were an ambitious man,” said a person one day to a minister of talent and education, who was settled in a retired and obscure parish, “ you would not stay in such a place as this.” “ How do you know that I am not an ambitious man?” said the pastor. “ You do not act like one.” “ I have my plans as well as others--the results may not appear as soon, perhaps.” “ Are you engaged in some great work?” “ I am; but the work does not relate to literature or science. I am not ambitious, perhaps, in the ordinary sense of the term. I do not desire to occupy the high places of the earth, but I do desire to get near my Master’ s throne in glory. I care but little for popular applause, but I desire to secure the approbation of God. The salvation of souls is the work He is most interested in, and to the successful prosecution of which He has promised the largest rewards.” (H. L. Hastings.) “ Vibration in unison” “ Something is the matter with your telephone; we can hardly hear you,” was the response, that in a faint voice came to us from the Central Office when we had answered their signal ring with the usual “ Halloo!” A few minutes afterwards a young man from head-quarters stepped into our study, and taking the telephone in his hand commenced to investigate. “ Yes, here it is,” he exclaimed, as he began to unscrew the ear-piece. “ The diaphragm is bulged, and dust has collected around it to such an extent that it does not vibrate in unison with ours up in the office, and that spoils the sound. You see,” he added, while brushing the instrument, “ that the telephones at both ends of the wire must act in harmony or there will be no voice. There,” he said, “ it is all right now.” And sure enough the lowest word could be distinctly heard, There was, of course, nothing remarkable in this incident, and yet the words “ vibrate in unison,” “ must act in harmony or there will be no voice,” suggested higher thoughts as well. The human heart is God’ s telephone in man. Through it He purposes to speak to our inner consciousness; and when our conscience, our affections, and our desires “ vibrate in unison” with the breath of His lips we can hear His voice within us. A workman that needeth not to be ashamed. The single word which represents “ that needeth not to be ashamed” (ἀνεπαίσχυντος). is a rare formation, which occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Its precise meaning is not quite certain. The more simple and frequent form (ἀναίσχυντος) means” shameless,” i.e., one who does not feel shame when he ought to do so. Such a meaning, if taken literally, would be utterly unsuitable here. And we then have choice of two interpretations, either(1) that which is adopted in both A.V. and R.V., who need not feel shame, because his work will bear examination, or (2) who does not feel shame, although his work is of a kind which the world holds in contempt. The latter is the interpretation which Chrysostom adopts, and there is much to be said in its favour. Three times already in this letter has the apostle spoken of not being ashamed of the gospel (2 Timothy 1:8; 2 Timothy 1:12; 2 Timothy 1:16). Does he not, therefore, mean here also, “ Present thyself to God as a workman who is not ashamed of being in His service and of doing whatever work may be assigned to him” ? This brings us very close to what would be the natural meaning of the word, according to the analogy of the simpler form. “ If you are to work for God,” says Paul, “ you must be in a certain sense shameless. There are some men who set public opinion at defiance, in order that they may follow their own depraved desires. The Christian minister must be prepared sometimes to set public opinion at defiance, in order flint he may follow the commands of God.” The vox populi, even when taken in its most comprehensive sense, is anything but an infallible guide. Public opinion is nearly always against the worst forms of selfishness, dishonesty, and sensuality; and to set it at defiance in such matters is to be “ shameless” in the worst sense. But sometimes public opinion is very decidedly against some of the noblest types of holiness; and to be “ shameless” under such circumstances is a necessary qualification for one’ s duty. It is by no means certain that this is not St. Paul’ s meaning. If we translate “ A workman that feeleth no shame,” we shall have a phrase that would cover either interpretation. (A. Plummer, D. D.) The gospel workman I. Look, first, at the designation the Christian minister must try to earn for himself, to be “ a workman approved of God,” one whose work will bear trying in the fire; having nothing counterfeit about it, but discovering the fine gold of an unadulterated service--truthful, hearty, honest towards God and man.1. Such a man will strive to be approved of God for his diligence, his earnestness, the anxious concentration upon the duties of the ministry of all the powers which God has given him. 2. “ Approved of God,” again, a minister should strive to be for his faithfulness. Now, this faithfulness, in relation to the stewardship of souls, consists in a bold and unfaltering adherence to the terms of our gospel commission; in a jealousy, before all things, for the honour of the Lord we serve; in a deter mination that, neither in public nor in private, will we exercise any timid reservations whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. II. But the text invites us, in the next place, to consider the Christian minister in His office as a public teacher.1. Where note, first, it is the “ word of truth” he has to divide; an expression with which we may compare the language of the same apostle on another occasion, where he says, “ When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as is in truth the word of God.” This mode of speaking of Holy Scripture seems well calculated to meet that irrepressible craving for certainty on moral subjects, which is the first need of the awakened mind. 2. But this word or truth, we are told, is to be “ rightly divided” ; that is, we may interpret the expression, to have all its parts distributed and disposed after some law of connection and coherence and scientific unity. The general spirit of this injunction goes to reprove all that mutilated or partial teaching in which, through an over-fondness for particular aspects of theological truth, a man is betrayed into negligence, if not into culpable reticence, about all the rest. III. But I proceed to the last point which calls for notice in our text, or that which leads us to contemplate the Christian minister in his personal character and qualifications.1. “ Needeth not to be ashamed,” in regard of his mental culture, and attainments,, and general fitness to cope with the demands of an intellectual age. 2. “ Needeth not be ashamed,” once more, in regard of his personal and experimental acquaintance with the truths he is ordained to teach. Every profession in life has its appropriate and distinctive excellence. We look for courage in the soldier; integrity in the merchant; wise consistency in the statesman; unswerving uprightness in the judge. What is that which, before all things, should distinguish the Christian minister, if it be not pre-eminent sanctity of deportment, and the spirit of piety and prayer? (D. Moore, M. A.) Rightly dividing the word of truth.--Cutting straight Literally “ cutting straight.” The figure has been very variously derived; from a priest dividing the victim, the steward distributing the bread or stores, a stonemason, a carpenter, a ploughman, a road-cutter. The last has been most frequently adopted. Perhaps they are right, who, like Luther and Alford, consider that the figure had become almost lost sight of in common usage, and that the word had come to mean little more than to “ manage” or “ administer.” (Speaker’ s Commentary.) Fearless faithfulness The metaphor is taken from cutting roads. The characteristic of the Roman roads would be well known to the apostle, and this idea is given in the margin of the revision “ holding a straight course in the word of truth.” The expression denotes a fearless faithfulness--a simple straightforwardness in the proclamation of the truth of God, whatever may be the opinions or the conduct of men. The Word has to be preached whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. (R. H. S.) Defection dangerous I am disposed to think that we may perhaps class this among the medical words with which these Epistles abound, and see in it a reference to the work of the surgeon, in which any deflection from the true line of incision might be perilous or even fatal. The reference in 2 Timothy 2:17 to the gangrene or cancer seems to carry on the train of thought. (E. H. Plumptre, D. D.) Right handling The idea of rightness seems to be the dominant one; that of cutting quite secondary; so that the Revisers are quite justified in following the example of the Vulgate (recte tractantem), and translating simply “ rightly handling.” But this right handling may be understood as consisting in seeing that the word of truth moves in the right direction, and progresses in the congregation by a legitimate development. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Straight-forwardness St. Paul summons Timothy to a right straightforward method of dealing with the Divine word. He would have him set out clear lines for the intellect, a plain path for the feet, a just appeal to the emotions, a true stimulant of the conscience. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Rightly dividing the word of truth I. The Vulgate version translates it--and with a considerable degree of accuracy--“ Rightly handling the word of truth.” What is the right way, then, to handle the word of truth?1. It is like a sword, and it was not meant to be played with. It must be used in earnest and pushed home. 2. He that rightly handles the word of God will never use it to defend men in their sins, but to slay their sins. 3. The gospel ought never to be used for frightening sinners from Christ. 4. Moreover, if we rightly handle the word of God we shall not preach it so as to send Christians into a sleepy state. We may preach the consolations of the gospel till each professor feels “ I am safe enough: there is no need to watch, no need to fight, no need for any exertion whatever. My battle is fought, my victory is won, I have only to fold my arms and go to sleep.” 5. And, oh, beloved, there is one thing that I dread above all others--lest I should ever handle the word of God so as to persuade some of you that you are saved when you are not. II. But my text has another meaning. It has an idea in it which I can only express by a figure. “ Rightly dividing, or straight cutting.” A ploughman stands here with his plough, and he ploughs right along from this end of the field to the other, making a straight furrow. And so Paul would have Timothy make a straight furrow right through the word of truth. I believe there is no preaching that God will ever accept but that which goes decidedly through the whole line of troth from end to end, and is always thorough, earnest, and downright. As truth is a straight line, so must our handling of the truth be straightforward and honest, without shifts or tricks. III. There is a third meaning to the text. “ Rightly dividing the word of truth” is, as some think, an expression taken from the priests dividing the sacrifices. When they had a lamb or a sheep, a ram or a bullock, to offer, after they had killed it, it was cut in pieces, carefully and properly; and it requires no little skill to find out where the joints are, so as to cut up the animal discreetly. Now, the word of truth has to be taken to pieces wisely; it is not to be hacked or torn as by a wild beast, but rightly divided. There has to be discrimination and dissection.1. Every gospel minister must divide between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. 2. We need also to keep up a clear distinction between the efforts of nature and the work of grace. It is commendable for men to do all they can to improve themselves, and everything by which people are made more sober, more honest, more frugal, better citizens, better husbands, better wives, is a good thing; but that is nature and not grace. Reformation is not regeneration. 3. It is always well, too, for Christian men to be able to distinguish one truth from another. Let the knife penetrate between the joints of the work of Christ for us, and the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Justification, by which the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, is one blessing; sanctification, by which we ourselves are made personally righteous, is another blessing. 4. One other point of rightly dividing should never be forgotten, we must always distinguish between the root and the fruit. “ I want to feel a great change of heart, and then I will believe.” Just so; you wish to make the fruit the root. IV. The next interpretation of the apostle’ s expression is, practically cutting out the word for holy uses. This is the sense given by Chrysostom. I will show you what I mean here. Suppose I have a skin of leather before me, and I want to make a saddle. I take a knife, and begin cutting out the shape. I do not want those parts which are dropping off on the right, and round tiffs corner; they are very good leather, but I cannot just now make use of them. I have to cut out my saddle, and I make that my one concern. The preacher, to be successful, must also have his wits about him, and when he has the Bible before him lie must use those portions which will have a bearing upon his grand aim. V. One thing the preacher has to do is to allot to each one his portion; and here the figure changes. According to Calvin, the intention of the Spirit here is to represent one who is the steward of the house, and has to apportion food to the different members of the family. He has rightly to divide the loaves so as not to give the little children and the babes all the crust; rightly to supply each one’ s necessities, not giving the strong men milk, and the babes hard diet; not casting the children’ s bread to the dogs, nor giving the swine’ s husks to the children, but placing before each his own portion. VI. Rightly to divide the word of truth means to tell each man what his lot and heritage will be in eternity. Just as when Canaan was conquered, it was divided by lot among the tribes, so the preacher has to tell of Canaan, that happy land, and he has to tell of the land of darkness and of death-shade, and to let each man know where his last abode will be. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Appropriate truth Paul no doubt meant by this simile, that as a father at the dinner-table cuts and carves the meat, and divides it in proper shares to his family--a big piece for the grown-up son who works hard, and a small tender bit for the wee bairn who is propped up in a high chair next the mother--so all Christian workmen should divide religious truth, according to the capacity and the wants of the people amongst whom they labour. We are told in a fable that a half-witted man invited a number of creatures to a feast, at which he gave straw to the dog, and a bone to the ass. So, unless we think and reason, we shall be giving the wrong sort of food to the people who look to us for spiritual nourishment. When you are invited to visit the death-bed of a man whose life has been self-indulgent and occasionally vicious, and you see the tears of repentance in his eyes, it is a blunder to read him an account of the last judgment in the 25th of Matthew; but it is rightly dividing the truth to open the 15th chapter of Luke, and tell him the touching story of the father’ s love to his penitent prodigal son. If you are asked to preach religious truth to a sceptic, do not ask him to believe that the whale swallowed Jonah; or that, one day, the sun stood still while an army fought out its battle. It would be like giving straw to a hungry god. Tell the sceptic the Divine parable of the humane Samaritan, and say, “ If you copy the spirit of that man, you shall find it one of the gateways to God.” Would you influence for good a young man who is leaving home for the great city? Then, tell him the story of virtue as exhibited in the life of Joseph, who as a son, a brother, a slave, a servant, a overseer, a prisoner, and a prince, benefited man and glorified God. If you have to speak to children, tell them of the child Samuel, who prayed to God, and was consecrated to His service in one of the most illustrious lives of the Old Testament; and when you wish to impress upon a child that he should trust in God, read and expound to him the psalm which begins with the thrilling words, “ The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” ; and tell him of the sacred Saviour who took the little ones in His arms and blessed them, saying, “ Of such little children is the kingdom of heaven.” If you are asked to go to a prison and speak to the convicted wretches, tell them of the poor, naked, dying thief on the cross who saw Jesus, believed in Him, prayed to Him, and the same day was received into paradise. And are you moved to give a word to the outcasts? Then, give them their share of suitable spiritual food. Tell them of Mary Magdalene whose heart was cleansed from its impure demons and filled instead with sacred love. And when the penitent outcasts weep while you speak of the Divine love, one may reply, “ But, sir, no good woman will befriend such as we have been!” Then, tell them that when Mary Magdalene was converted she became the companion of the mother of Christ; and that if they trust in God and do the right, He will make a sacred path for them through the world and make them perhaps as useful and as honoured as the Magdalene whose service to Christ and His mother is the charm of the world. Yes; there is in this grand gospel history a share of food for everybody; and it should be for us to find it and bestow it according to the needs of the people. (W. Birch.) Rightly dividing the word of truth Truth is of various kinds--physical, mathematical, moral, etc.; but here one particular kind of truth is referred to, called the word of truth--that is, the truth of the Word of God--the truth of Divine revelation--theological truth. The Bible was not given to teach men philosophy, or the arts which have respect to this life; its object is to teach the true knowledge of God, and the true and only method of salvation.1. The truths of God’ s Word must be carefully distinguished from error. 2. But it is necessary to divide the truth not only from error, but from philosophy, and mere human opinions and speculations. 3. The skilful workman must be able to distinguish between fundamental truths, and such as are not fundamental. 4. Rightly to divide the word of truth, we must arrange it in such order as that it may be most easily and effectually understood. In every system some things stand in the place of principles, on which the rest are built. He who would be a skilful workman in God’ s building must take much pains with the foundation; but he must not dwell for ever on the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, but should endeavour to lead His people on to perfection in the knowledge of the truth. 5. A good workman will so divide the word of truth, as clearly to distinguish between the law and the gospel; between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. 6. Another thing very necessary to a correct division of the word of truth is that the promises and threatenings contained in the Scriptures be applied to the characters to which they properly belong. 7. But finally, the word of God should be so handled that it may be adapted to Christians in different states and stages of the Divine life; for while some Christians are like “ strong men,” others are but “ babes in Christ, who must be fed with milk, and not with strong meat.” (A. Alexander. D. D.) The right division of truth We will suppose a workman dealing with the yet unrenewed and unshapen material--with the unconverted of his hearers; and we will study to show you how, if he would “ rightly divide the word of truth,” and approve himself of his Master, he must use different modes according to the different characters upon which he has to act. To illustrate this we may refer to a passage in St. Jude, where the apostle thus expresses himself “ Of some have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.” Here you have gentle treatment prescribed; and you have also harsh treatment. Let us see how both will be employed by “ a workman, that needeth not to be ashamed.” Of some, the minister is to “ have compassion.” Is he not to have compassion of all? Indeed he is. Let him lay aside instantly the ministerial office; let him be pronounced utterly wanting in the very first qualification for its discharge, if there be the sinner whom he does not pity, for whom he is not anxious, or whose danger does not excite in him solicitude. All are to be regarded with a feeling of pity, but all are not to be treated with the same mildness and forbearance. Behold that young man whose family is irreligious, who, with perhaps a sense of the necessity of providing for the soul, is laughed out of his seriousness by those who ought to be urging him to piety--hurried to amusements which are only fitted to confirm him in enmity to God, and initiated into practices which can issue in nothing but the ruin of the soul. I could not treat that young person sternly. I could not fail, in any intercourse with him, to bear in mind his peculiar disadvantages. And though it would be my duty--else could I be “ studying to approve myself unto God” ?--to remonstrate with him on the madness of allowing others to make him miserable for eternity, the very tone of my voice must show that I spake in sorrow, and not in anger. Or, behold, again, that man in distressed circumstances, on whom press the cares of a large family, and who is tempted perhaps to gain the means of subsistence through practices which his conscience condemns--Sunday trading, for example. Could I go to the man in harshness and with severity? I must not, indeed, spare his fault. I must not allow that his difficulties are any excuse for the offence. I had “ need to be ashamed as a workman,” if I did this; but, surely, when I think on his peculiar temptations, and hear the cries of his young ones who are asking him for bread, you will expect me to feel great concern for the man, and so to “ divide the word of truth,” as to show that concern, by the manner in which I reprove his misdoing. Or, once more, a man of no very strong intellect, and no very great reading, is thrown into the society of sceptical men perhaps of brilliant powers, and no inconsiderable acquirements. Why, he will be no match for these apostles of infidelity! His little stock of evidence on the side of Christianity will soon be exhausted; and he will not be able to detect the falsehoods, and show the sophistries of the showy reasoners; and presently, by a very natural, though most unfair process, he will be disposed to conclude that what he cannot prove wrong must be right. Towards a man thus seduced our prevailing feeling will be compassion--a feeling which you cannot expect us to extend towards those who have seduced him, except in the broad sense that we are aware of their danger, and would snatch them from ruin. Again, it is melancholy to think how many an inquirer may have been repulsed, how many a backslider confirmed in apostasy, how many a softening heart hardened, how many a timid spirit scared by the mode in which the truth has been pressed on their attention. It requires great delicacy and address to deal successfully with a very sensitive nature; more especially where--to use the language of the world--there is much to excuse the faults which we are bound to rebuke. But if there be a right division of the word of truth, it is evident that whilst some of you may require the gentle treatment, others will need the more severe. There are cases of hardened and reckless men, reckless men, of the openly dissolute and profane--men living in habitual sin, and showing unblushing contempt for the truth of God. And we must not so speak as to lead you to suppose us sure that there are none amongst yourselves requiring the harsh treatment. There are men who cannot possibly be in any doubt as to the wrongness of their conduct, who cannot plead ignorance in excuse, or the suddenness of temptation, or the pressure of circumstances; but who have a decided preference for iniquity, and a settled determination to gratify their passions, or aggrandise their families--pursuing a course against which conscience remonstrates, and who would not themselves venture to advance any justification. And if we would “ rightly divide the word of truth,” what treatment must we try with such men? Oh! these men may yet be saved! The word of truth does not shut them up to inevitable destruction. We are not despairing of any one amongst you, and we will not. We can yet again bring you the message of pardon. And thus whilst directed to make an effort to save you, and, therefore, assured that you are not past recovery, the word of truth enjoins severe and peremptory dealing. These are those of whom St. Jude uses the remarkable expression--“ Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) Adaptation in preaching King Oswald, of Northumbria, sent for missionaries from the monastery of Iona. The first one despatched in answer to his call obtained but little success. He declared on his return that among a people so stubborn and barbarous success was impossible. “ Was it their stubbornness or your severity?” asked Ardan, a brother sitting by; “ did you forget God’ s word to give them the milk first and then the meat?” (H. O. Mackey.) Adaptation A divine ought to calculate his sermon, as an astronomer does his almanac, to the meridian of the place and people where he lives. (J. Palmer.) Close preaching Do you not know that a man may be preached to liturgically and doctrinally, and never be touched by the truth, or understand that to which he listens? Suppose I were to preach to you in Hebrew, how much would you understand? Now, when I preach so that a banker, who has all along been sitting under the doctrinal preaching, but has never felt its application to his particular business, feels the next day, when counting his coin, a twinge of conscience and says, “ I wish I could either practice that sermon or forget it,” I have preached the gospel to him in such a way that he has understood it. I have applied it to the sphere of life in which he lives. When the gospel is preached so that a man feels that it is applied to his own life, he has it translated to him. And it needs to be translated to merchants and lawyers, and mechanics, and every other class in society, in order that all may receive their portion in due season. (H. W. Beecher.) Eccentric souls to be saved Success in soul winning is only given to skill, earnestness, sympathy, perseverance. Men are saved, not in masses, but by careful study and well-directed effort. It is said that such is the eccentric flight of the snipe when they rise from the earth, that it completely puzzles the sportsman, and some who are capital shots at other birds are utterly baffled here. Eccentricity seems to be their special quality, and this can only be mastered by incessant practice with the gun. But the eccentricity of souls is beyond this, and he had need be a very spiritual Nimrod, a “ mighty hunter before the Lord” who would capture them for Christ. (H. O. Mackey.) False exposition Few sermons are more false or dangerous than those in which the teacher professes to impress his audience by showing “ how much there is in a verse.” If he examined his own heart closely before beginning, he would find that his real desire was to show how much he, the expounder, could make out of the verse. But entirely honest and earnest men often fall into the same error. They have been taught that they should always look deep, and that Scripture is full of hidden meanings; and they easily yield to the flattering conviction that every chance idea which comes into their heads in looking at a word is put there by Divine agency. Hence they wander away into what they believe to be an inspired meditation, but which is, in reality, a meaning less jumble of ideas, perhaps very proper ideas, but with which the text in question has nothing whatever to do. (John Ruskin.) “ Pray that sermon” A young beginner at preaching, after throwing off a highly wrought, and, as he thought, eloquent gospel sermon in the pulpit, in the presence of a venerable pastor, solicited of his experienced friend the benefit of his criticisms upon the performance. “ I have but just one remark to make,” was his reply, “ and that is, to request you to pray that sermon.” “ What do you mean, sir? I mean, literally, just what I say; pray it, if you can, and you will find the attempt a better criticism than any I can make upon it.” The request still puzzled the young man beyond measure; the idea of praying a sermon was a thing he never heard or conceived of; and the singularity of the suggestion wrought powerfully on his imagination and feelings. He resolved to attempt the task. He laid his manuscript before him, and on his knees before God, undertook to make it into a prayer. But it would not pray; the spirit of prayer was not in it, and that, for the very good reason--as he then clearly saw for the first time--that the spirit of prayer and piety did not compose it. For the first time he saw that his heart was not right with God; and this conviction left him no peace until he had “ Christ formed in him the hope of glory.” With a renewed heart he applied himself anew to the work of composing sermons for the pulpit; preached again in the presence of the pious pastor who had given such timely advice; and again solicited the benefit of his critical remarks. “ I have no remarks to make,” was his complacent reply, “ you can pray that sermon.” (Sword and Trowel.) In the closet Of Mr. John Shepherd, of the United States, it is recorded that he was greatly distinguished for his success in the pulpit. When on his death-bed he said to some young ministers who were present, “ The secret of my success is in these three things:1. “ The studying of my sermons very frequently cost me tears. 2. Before I preached a sermon to others I derived good from it myself. 3. I have always gone into the pulpit as if I were immediately after to render an account to my Master.” All who knew that devoted man would have united in expressing his secret in three words, “ In the closet.” (Sword and Trowel.) Nor by the depth either A young minister having preached for Doctor Emmons one day, he was anxious to get a word of applause for his labour of love. The grave doctor, however, did not introduce the subject, and the young brother was obliged to bait the hook for him. “ I hope, sir, I did not weary your people by the length of my sermon to-day?” “ No, sir, not at all; nor by the depth either.” (Sword and Trowel.) A useful preacher I know a clergyman who valued as one of the best testimonies to his pulpit ministry the remark of a servant, overheard by a friend, after a sermon specially addressed to servants: “ One would think he had been a servant himself.” (J. C. Miller, D. D.) Advice to preachers On the fly-leaf of a Greek Testament used by Dr. John Gregg, Bishop of York, are carefully written out the following memoranda for his own guidance. They will be found interesting to those who aim at speaking in appropriate language on a subject previously studied and thought over, and they will know that the hints given are the results of much experience: “ Much depends on vitality and vigour of body, much depends on the mood and spirit in which you are; therefore pray, and feed your mind with truth, and attend to health. Much depends on subject; therefore select carefully. Much on preparation; therefore be diligent. Much on kind and number of hearers. Much on method; therefore arrange. Much on manner; therefore be simple and solemn, spirit earnest, tender and affectionate. Much on language; therefore be choice. All on the Spirit; therefore invoke His presence, and rely on His power, that you may expect docere, placere, movere. Energy depends on the state of mind and body, ease on calmness and self-possession; lifts on constant intercourse with people and variety of ranks, and much practice. Read aloud various passages and portions. Think much, and read select authors. Converse with refined and well-informed persons. Prepare well for each public occasion. Exercise your powers in public often, and always do your best. Let your public manner be an enlargement of your private, and let that be natural and simple, graceful without awkwardness or affectation.” 2 Timothy 2:16 Shun profane and vain babblings.Shun The word rendered “ shun” is a strong one, and signifies, literally, to make a circuit so as to avoid; or as Alford paraphrases it, “ the meaning seems to come from a number of persons falling back from an object of fear or loathing, and standing at a distance round it.” The word is used in Titus 3:9. (H. D. M. Spence, M. A.) They will increase unto more ungodliness. Will increase προκόψουσιν. The metaphor is from pioneers clearing the way before an army, by cutting down all obstacles: hence to make progress, to advance. (James Bryce, LL. D.) A lax life connected with erroneous doctrine The close connection between grave fundamental errors in doctrine and a lax and purely selfish life is constantly alluded to by St. Paul. (H. D. M. Spence, M. A.) Error is of an encroaching nature Let the serpent but wind in his head, and he will quickly bring in his whole body. He that saith Yea to the devil in a little, shall not say Nay when he pleases. (J. Trapp.) The odium theologicum, the worst of social devils On approaching my subject I shall premise four things:1. I have no disposition to underrate the importance of right beliefs in religion. 2. I hold it to be the right of every man to endeavour to propagate his beliefs. 3. I recognise the value of a rightly-conducted theological controversy. 4. The controversy of which I have to speak is that of a conventional theology. By a conventional theology I mean a theology which a man has received from others, rather than reached by his own research; a theology which has been put into his memory as a class of propositions, rather than wrought out of his soul as spiritual convictions; a theology which is rather the manufacture of other men than the growth of individual reflection and experience; a theology which is more concerned about grammar than grace--symbol than sense--sign than substance. Now, such controversies, in the nature of the case, must always be marked by two features. (1) Technicality.(2) Personality. I. Such controversies develop the most impious arrogancy. All the arrogancy of mere worldly men pales into dimness in the glare of the arrogancy which that man displays who dares pronounce a brother heretic because he subscribes not to his own views. II. Such controversies develop the most lamentable dishonesty. The polemic of a mere scribe theology has ever been a cheat.1. He cheats by the representation he makes of himself. He would have his readers or hearers believe that he has reached the conclusions in debate by a thorough study for himself of the holy Book. It is false. It is a law that self-reached convictions expel dogmatism. But the polemic of a mere scribe-theology cheats also by representing himself as being inspired only in the controversy by love for truth. It is not lore for truth; it is love for his own opinions. 2. He is dishonest in his representation of his opponents, he imputes motives not felt--ideas and conclusions not held. III. Such controversies develop a most disastrous perversity. The conventional controversialist perverts the Bible, the powers of the intellect and the zeal of the heart. IV. Such controversies develop the most heartless inhumanity. They blind the polemic to the excellences of others. The technical theologue who looks at a brother through the medium of his own orthodoxy, will fraternise with a modern scoundrel if he is orthodox; but, like Caiaphas of old, will rend his robes with pious horror at incarnate virtue if it conform not to his own views. What inhumanities have not been perpetrated in the name of orthodoxy! What built the inquisition? What kindled the flames of martyrdom? What animated Bonner? What prompted Calvin to murder Servetus? What roused the Jewish rabbis to put the Son of God to death? The remarks made will suffice to justify the proposition that the controversies of a mere conventional theology are the most effective means of developing depravity. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Profane babbling to be avoided I. Profane vain babblings are to be avoided. How often does our apostle condemn them? Why are they to be avoided?1. Because the branches which bear them are evil; as weakness of judgment, frowardness of will, and disorder in tile affections. 2. And do they not blemish our reputation? obscure the gloss of grace? hinder the acts of it? kindle corruption? and turn from the faith? II. The causes which increase sin are to be removed. (J. Barlow, D. D.) 2 Timothy 2:17 Their word will eat as doth a canker.Gangrene The substitution of “ gangrene” for “ cancer” is an improvement, as giving the exact word used in the original, which expresses the meaning more forcibly than “ cancer.” Cancer is sometimes very slow in its ravages, and may go on for years without causing serious harm. Gangrene poisons the whole frame, and quickly becomes fatal. The apostle foresees that doctrines, which really ate out the very heart of Christianity, were likely to become very popular in Ephesus, and would do incalculable mischief. The nature of these doctrines we gather from what follows. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Unsound opintions I. The Church in all ages hath been pestered with vain babblers, II. Unsound opinions are of a spreading nature. And this is true of all sin, original and actual.1. For doth not corruption, like a disease, disperse itself, and pollute every power of the soul and member of the body? What part is not infected with that leprous contagion? Hath it not spread also, by natural propagation, to all Adam’ s posterity? 2. Will not all actual sin spread also? For unbelief, hath it not run into atheism? fear, into despair? anger, into fury? and that, to revenge? Foolish mirth will become madness; temporary faith, high presumption; and speculative lust, actual whoredom. Were not images, in the beginning, for civil use, to put men in mind of deceased friends; and are they not at this day, by the Romanists, religiously adored? 3. Shall we not see one error beget another? 4. Moreover, unsound opinions spread from person to person. III. Sin will destroy, if not destroyed. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Justification by faith This is a most striking and accurate description of the nature of heresy--it never remains inactive--it is sure to spread; an error in any essential point is sure, eventually, to corrupt the whole body of truth, just as a gangrene in the human body appearing, at first, as a small spot, gradually spreads, eating into the sound parts near it, and they, in their turn, infecting the rest, until the whole body is destroyed. The reason for this is very simple. The truths of religion are not a set of independent and unconnected notions bound up together in a creed, as men bind loose sticks into a bundle; they are closely connected parts of a great whole, arising one out of the other, so that you cannot deny one without denying or perverting a great many others; for once you admit a truth, you admit all its consequences; once you deny a truth, you must be prepared to deny, in like manner, all its consequences. God declares that false doctrine eats into the faith of the Church like a canker. Sacramental justification does this--therefore it is false. In order to show the injurious results of this false doctrine, we will take, for our example, that Church which most strongly holds it. The Church of Rome gives us the most awful instance of its effects. The Church of Rome holds that, at his baptism, every one is made perfectly holy; that if he remain in this state of grace, or if, after falling from it, he is restored to it again, so that he be in it at his death, then he is saved. Now let us suppose a church, as yet sound upon all other points, adopting this opinion. We shall see how it eats its way. And firstly, it must lead to the perversion of the doctrine of original sin. But further; every one knows that he is constantly committing little faults. “ In many things we offend all.” But Rome affirms that some sins are venial, while others are mortal. But the law of God commands as welt as forbids, and they must, by their good works, continue to deserve God’ s favour! Now, in such a system, every work must have its own proper value, it must be just so much merit towards justification: a man who works because he has been justified, does not stop to reckon or to price his good works; he works from love--he cannot do too much; but he who works that he may be justified, must keep count of his good deeds, and try to ascertain their value, that he may be sure he has really done enough to secure his justification. But this is not all. In such a system of external observances, it is clear that the man most remarkable for his lastings and his many prayers is the holiest man. But we may trace it further still. These holy men, who dwell apart from the common crowd, have clearly attained a degree of holiness greater than is necessary for their own salvation. May they not, then, bestow some of it on others? So far we have been tracing the effects of this false doctrine on those who believe that they are still in a state of justification because they have retained their baptismal purity. We have now to see its effects upon those who have reason to fear that they have lost their justification. Even when men have raised their own righteousness to the utmost, and lowered God’ s law to the lowest, still the uneasy doubt will intrude itself--What if, after all, I have not done enough? what if I have fallen into mortal sin? Now, in such a case, of whom would the anxious sinner seek advice and consolation? who shall decide for him each nice case of conscience, and say what is venial and what is mortal sin? what are good works and what are not? Who but his pastor, God’ s minister, whose province it is to study such matters? He wilt naturally ask him to decide for him what his state may be; but if so, he must confess all his sins to him: this spiritual physician must know all the symptoms of his case before he can give his opinion upon it; and, accordingly, the penitent will soon acquire the habit of auricular confession of all his sins to his priest. But what if this adviser, when consulted, shall decide that he has fallen from grace and is even in mortal sin? The priest cannot re-baptize him; how shall he regain his justification? This confessor has a right to declare God’ s forgiveness; he preaches remission of sins; what if he have a right to give it? it is but a step from saying “ You are forgiven,” to “ I forgive you.” The fears of the penitent, the ambition of the priest, soon take it; the inquisitor becomes a judge, the ambassador assumes the authority of the king, the minister of Christ attempts to give the sinner the peace he needs, by usurping the office of his Lord and Master, who alone tins power on earth to forgive sins. The canker eats its way! There may, however, be cases where time is too short for the performance of penance--death may be imminent. For such a state another provision must be made--it is ready. There is a scriptural and primitive custom, that the elders of the Church should pray over a sick man, “ anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” All that is necessary is, to make of this rite, a sacrament conveying to the insensible, sick man remission of sins, as baptism was supposed to have given it to the insensible infant; and then his salvation is secured. Mark, now, how the true doctrine of justification preserves from all this error. Being justified by faith “ I have peace” ; what need have I then to confess to man? I may come boldly into the holy of holies, through the new and living way; I need no man to tell me how great my sins may be; I can ask God to “ pardon my iniquity, for it is great!” If I address myself to my fellow man, it is for counsel and consolation, not for pardon. I have no need of extreme unction, I have “ an unction from the Holy One” ; I have no need of purgatorial fire, for “ the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin.” “ Being justified by faith I have peace with God.” (W.G. Magee.) 2 Timothy 2:18 Saying that the resurrection is past already.Error concerning the resurrection The resurrection of the body, always a difficulty in ancient modes of thought, was especially so to those who, with the Essenes amongst the Jews, the Neo-Platonicians, and most of the early sects which afterwards expanded into Gnosticism, had adopted the dualism of the East, and held matter to be evil--sometimes the Evil Principle or his embodiment. Hence they were ready to avail themselves of the other sense of resurrection, the rising of those who were baptized into Christ to newness of life (Romans 6:3; Romans 6:5; Colossians 2:12); and they denied that any further revelation was to be believed. This error had been early taught in the Corinthian Church (1 Corinthians 15:12). (Speaker’ s Commentary.) And overthrow the faith of some. Overthrowing the faith of others After an infidel had succeeded in sapping the foundation of his mother’ s faith in the Christian religion, he received a letter from her one day, informing him that she was near death. She said that “ she found herself without any support in her distress; that he had taken away that only resource of comfort upon which in all cases of affliction she used to rely, and that she now found her mind sinking into despair. She did not doubt that her son would afford her some substitute for her religion; and she conjured him to hasten to her, or, at least, to send her a letter containing such consolations as philosophy could afford to a dying mortal.” He was overwhelmed with anguish on receiving this letter, and hastened to Scotland, travelling day and night; but before he arrived his mother expired. Unreliable ministers A misplaced buoy caused the wreck of a steamer worth £25,000, the loss of a valuable cargo and peril to many lives recently. The steamer, which was called the City of Portland, left Boston on her voyage to St. Johns, N.B., with seventy passengers on board and considerable freight. The night was clear, and as the steamer passed the Owl’ s Head just before daybreak, the captain saw a striped buoy indicating the presence of a sunken rock. The course was altered in accordance with the position of the buoy, but in a few minutes the steamer struck a ledge. The pumps were started at once, distress colours set, and the boats cleared. The officers and crew retained their presence of mind, and despatched a boat for help. In a short time a steamer arrived, and took off the terrified passengers, but the steamer and cargo were a total loss. The captain of the ship was in no way blameable. The buoy, which was put there to be a means of safety, was by its displacement the cause of disaster. It had drifted. Similarly some preachers drift from orthodox positions, and their change of position may cause the wreck of the souls of those who flock to hear them. Ministerial responsibility During a voyage, sailing in a heavy sea near a reef of rocks, a minister on board the vessel made, in a conversation between the man at the helm and the sailors, an inquiry whether they should be able to clear the rocks without making another tack, when the captain gave orders that they should put off to avoid all risk. The minister observed, “ I am rejoiced that we have so careful a commander.” The captain replied, “ It is necessary I should be very careful, because I have souls on board. I think of my responsibility, and remember that, should anything happen through carelessness, souls are very valuable.” The minister, turning to some of his congregation who were upon the deck, observed, “ The captain has preached me a powerful sermon; I hope I shall never forget, when I am addressing my fellow-creatures on the concerns of eternity, that I have souls on board.” (Archbp. Benson.) 2 Timothy 2:19 The foundation of God standeth sure.Nevertheless We should give full force to the μέντοι. If the spirit of the apostle was perturbed with vain babblings, or cruel mortification, or the spread of plausible or perilous theories, he required to fall back upon great and deep principles. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) The foundation Rather, “ God’ s firm foundation stands,” i.e., the Church, the “ great house” of 2 Timothy 2:20, but here designated by its “ foundation,” because the antithesis is to the baseless fabrics of heresy. Other explanations have been: the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, the promises of God, the fidelity of God, Christ, the Christian faith, the election of God. But the context and the analogy of Eph 2:19-22 leave little doubt of the correctness of the first interpretation. (Speaker’ s Commentary.) The foundation of God The scene here is one of destruction and desolation. On all sides houses are shaken and overturned. The houses are individuals or communities professing to believe the gospel. The faith of some, of many diversely minded and diversely influenced, is overthrown. But, amid the storm and wreck occasioned by false principles issuing in corrupt practice, there is a building which standeth sure. Now it may be the Church collective of which it is said, the Church which has the Lord’ s promise that the gates of bell shall not prevail against her. But it may also be the individual believer that is intended; for the collective Church and the individual believer are on the same footing. For my present purpose I take the text in this latter view, and hold it to be descriptive of the Christian man, continuing steadfast and firm in his faith amid many surrounding instances of backsliding and apostasy. He is a tower, or temple, or building of some sort standing sure; being the foundation of God. And in token of that security he is sealed. He is doubly sealed; sealed on both sides. I. “ The Lord knoweth them that are His.”1. The Lord knoweth them that are His by signs or marks or tokens bearing on His interest or right of property in them, His ownership of them. Thus, He knows them as given to Him by the Father from before all worlds, in the everlasting covenant. The Lord knoweth them that are His as redeemed by Him. He knows them by the Spirit’ s work in them also. 2. The other class of marks or tokens by which the Lord knoweth them that are His, those bearing upon their interest or right of property in Him, do unquestionably come within the range and sphere of your consciousness and experience. They are, in fact, in the main, but an expansion, or unfolding, of the last of the three former ones, the work of the Spirit making you Christ’ s, and Christ yours, and keeping you evermore in this blessed unity. (1) The Lord knoweth them that are His, by the need they have of Him.(2) By the trust they put in Him.(3) By the love they bear to Him.(4) By the work they do for Him.(5) By their suffering for and with Him.(6) As waiting for Him. Now, put together all these marks by which the Lord knoweth them that are His, and say what must His thus knowing them mean? what must it imply and involve? Nay, rather, what will it not include of watchful care, tender pity, unwearied sympathy, unbounded beneficence and liberality and bountifulness? II. “ Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”1. Naming the name of Christ comes before departing from iniquity. This is the evangelical arrangement. And it is the only one that can meet the sinner’ s case. 2. Naming the name of Christ is to be followed by departing from iniquity: and that not only in the form of a natural and necessary consequence to be anticipated, but in that of obedience to a peremptory command. It is not said, He that nameth the name of Christ may be expected, or will be inclined, or must be moved by a Divine impulse, to depart from iniquity. But it is expressly put as an authoritative and urgent precept. “ Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” 3. Naming the name of Christ and departing from iniquity thus go together. They are not really twain, but one. There is not first a naming of the name of Christ, as if it were an act or a transaction to be completed at once, and so disposed of and set aside; and then thereafter a departing from iniquity, as its fitting consequence and commanded sequel. The two things cannot be thus separated. For, in truth, naming the name of Christ involves departing from iniquity; and departing from iniquity is possible only by naming the name of Christ. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.) The palace and its inscription I. The safety of the church is founded on God’ s immutability. Whether the truth is regarded as an abstract existence, or as personified in the Church, it takes its stand on this attribute of the Divine Being. All ecclesiastical history is but a commentary upon the fact that “ the foundation of the Lord standeth sure.” The pledge of Church safety rests on Fact and Promise. Time would fail us to trace out the former. We see it in that dark vessel ploughing the waves of an ocean-sepulchre, and settling on the crest of Ararat. We see it in those weeping tribes by the river of Babylon; for though their harps are silent, the very breeze that stirs the willow echoes the voice of Israel’ s God! We see it in that pillar of cloud and in that pillar of light. We hear Daniel rejoicing over it in the lion’ s den, and the faithful Hebrews proving it in the furnace of fire, and all the countless multitudes of Christ’ s confessors deepen the voice of confirmation! History is our stronghold of proof. We dare the sceptic to unbolt the door of the past, and show us wherein the Divine immutability has failed. Shall we turn to Promise, to show the Church’ s safety? It is like turning to a sky lighted with constellations of suns, or to a world bespangled with rarest flowers, or to a land flowing with milk and honey. To record the promises were a task almost equal to transcribing the entire Bible. II. The seal with which God has enstamped the Church partakes of his immutability. There is no mistaking it. Time does not obliterate it. The “ seal” cannot be successfully counterfeited in the eye of God. He knows His own.1. This “ seal” is ornamental. A monarch’ s star is a mere toy--give it time and it will rot. Young men, you seek after the decorative, here it is! It “ shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.” 2. This “ seal” is a passport to confidence. Christianity has won many compliments in its practical outworking, from those who effect to despise the evidence on which its claim to divinity is founded! 3. This “ seal” is an earnest of future glory. Such is the testimony of Scripture (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 4:30). III. The seal indicates discrimination and appreciation of character. “ The Lord knoweth them that are His.” What mean those strange words? In the wide sense of creation all men are God’ s--in the sense of Providence all are the pensioners of His bounty; and Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. There are standing places in the universe, from which all humanity may be regarded as the peculiar property of God. But there is an inner circle in which are found hearts differing from the majority--hearts bearing the “ seal” of God-property.1. The thought that God appreciates the Christian character, and will finally glorify it, is to the believer a source of comfort. 2. This thought, moreover, imparts a sense of security. 3. This thought, again, suggests principles of action. Fond as we may be of comfort, and anxious to be assured of security, there is something positive expected from our Divine relationship. If God knows me, the world must know me too. The Christian has a profession to maintain. IV. Distinctions in moral character may exist without the seal of divine appreciation. If all men were God’ s in the peculiar sense of the text, there would be no special meaning in its terms. A class is referred to, in contradistinction to all other classes. There are only two sections in the domain of moral being--the good and the bad; these again being broken up into almost endless sub-divisions, shades and stages of development. To make the leading proposition clearer, take a sample of instances:--1. Here is a man of keen religious sensibility. A tender heart is a great treasure, indeed, but let not a few tears be considered proof of penitence. 2. Here is the rigid formalist. Religion is a life, not a form: it is an actual power and not an elaborate creed. The Cross, and not the pew, is the true way to heaven. 3. A third hopes in the mercy of God. A benevolent God, he argues, will not destroy one of His own creatures. He forgets the harmony of the Divine attributes. Overlooking an outraged justice, he hopes in an insulted love. Terrible is the portion of those who bear not God’ s seal (Revelation 9:3-4). V. The church, as a palace, must have unity, completion, and design. The Church is not a broken fragment or a shattered limb. It is a whole, where individual members have their part to play. The largo stones and the small ones must be side by side. The position that each shall occupy in the temple must be determined by the wise Master-builder. If one member is jealous of another’ s position there is an end to unity and progress. We are each dependent on the other. (J. Parker, D. D.) The firm foundation The time in which we live presents two striking, and to many minds incongruous, features.1. There is great unrest in the realm of religious thought and life. On every side are heard voices of dissent from both theological and ecclesiastical dogmas. Schools and Churches are shaken with strife. Many are anxiously questioning concerning the stability of the Christian faith, and not a few are prophesying evil. There is a strong and increasing revolt against traditionalism. But With this commotion in the realm of religious thought there Isaiah 2. a great increase of practical Christianity. Missions both at home and abroad are pushed more vigorously than ever, and with larger results. Education for the people advances with leaps and bounds. Philanthropic enterprises multiply in number and increase in wisdom and efficiency continually. The Church is stripping off her dainty garments and grappling with social problems in a new spirit. There is a broadening application of Christianity to life, such as no past age has witnessed. In a word, the situation is this: The power of dogma wanes, but the power of truth waxes; forms are decadent, life is crescent; religious authority is challenged on every side, spiritual influence broadens and deepens. Here is a seeming contradiction or anomaly. Many do not understand the times. In their alarm over the upheaval in the realm of religious thought they fail to see or to appreciate the uplift in the realm of religious life. Can we not see that “ God fulfils Himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world” ? There is a “ firm foundation of God.” A careful study of the Scriptures, of history, and of experience makes clear-- (1) That the essential basis of Christianity is not an institution, nor even a book. Christianity was before the Church. Christianity was before the New Testament. It produced the Gospels and Epistles, as in the olden time the prophetic spirit and experience antedated and produced the prophetic history and literature. Men forget this. They forget that God and the soul, and God revealing Himself to the soul, precede the institutions and records of religion. (2) It is clear also that the essential basis of Christianity is not a creed. Faith existed before dogma. It terminates in a personality and not in a proposition or any series of propositions. Dogma is the result of an attempt to express and justify faith as an intellectual possession. It is natural and inevitable that men should make this attempt. But the process which goes on in the sphere of the understanding, or even its result, must not be identified with Christianity any more than physiology should be identified with the exercise of physiological functions, or dietetics with eating, or optics with seeing. Creeds change as life and thoughts change. They must change if there is life. Thought grows. Experience deepens. All creeds save the simplest, the most elemental, are left behind. They are not basal, but resultant. They belong to the sphere of the understanding. (3) The essential basis of Christianity is a personal revelation of God in and through “ the man Christ Jesus,” and a personal experience of a Divine communion and a Divine guidance. How do we know God? Not by argument, but by experiencing the touch of God on the soul. There is a Divine impact on the spirit of man. Argument is always subordinate to experience. How do we know God as Father? Through the revelation of the archetypal Divine Sonship in Christ and the experience of sonship through fellowship with Him. Spiritual experience underlies Christianity. The great spiritual verities comes to us always as experiences. They authenticate themselves in consciousness. “ How do you know that Christ is Divine?” said a Methodist bishop to a frontiersman whom he was examining for admission into the ministry. The brawny-limbed and little-cultivated but big-hearted man looked at the bishop a moment in silence, and then, as his eyes filled with tears, he exclaimed: “ Why, bless you, sir, He saved my soul!” It was another way of saying : “ I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him until that day.” This experience of God is inseparable from the perception and the acceptance of an inclusive ethical principle that makes life the progressive realisation of a Divine ideal of righteousness. The experience of a Divine communion and the attraction of a Divine ideal belong to the essence of Christianity. “ Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.” Christianity has its essential basis, then, in a personal revelation of God in and through the Christ, and a personal experience of God as life and love, as source and goal, as ideal and law. The Book, or the institution, may be a means to the experience, but the experience is fundamental. Along this line of experience lies the test of all doctrines. Truth is realised in being. This foundation stands sure. It is not shaken by changes in Church or creed. History is full of illustrations. The Reformation came shattering the mediaeval Church as with throes of earthquake. Many sincere souls cried out in dismay that Christianity was overthrown. But the convulsion passed, and Christianity put on new power to bless the world. Within the present century geology began to tell its marvellous story of creation, and many devout souls saw in it a deadly menace to religion. Genesis became a rallying-ground for the alarmed theological hosts. But truth had its way. Old ideas and interpretations of the Mosaic cosmogony fell away, and Christianity spread more and more widely among the people. Then came Darwin, with his appalling and atheistical ideas of evolution! Then, indeed, the ark of God was in danger! Doughty champions of the faith drew their weapons for battle, while the timid were ready to exclaim that Church and Bible alike were doomed unless the new foe were vanquished. The foe has proved the best of friends. Evolution soon appeared to be a great structural principle of thought in all realms of study. It has entered the domains of sociology, politics, history, philosophy, and even theology. Meanwhile Christianity, better understood by the very principle that seemed to threaten its life, increases in power continually. Nothing is shaken and overturned by human progress but what ought to be shaken and overturned. Nothing true ever perishes. Christianity has proved itself hospitable to every advance in knowledge, and to every social and political change that has been a step forward in the long battle-march of humanity. They are guilty of a great error who base the validity of the gospel of Divine love and eternal life on any theory of creation or inspiration, or on any fixed scheme of social and political organisation. They say; If this theory of inspiration or salvation or church order is discredited, Christianity is discredited. But a hundred theories have been discredited, and even disproved, and Christianity is better authenticated and has a wider and stronger hold on the world to-day than ever. “ The firm foundation of God standeth.” These are marks of abiding Christianity: The personal experience of God and the spiritual attraction of righteousness--God in the soul, a motive and an ideal. Cultivate the passion, not for safety, but for righteousness, the realisation of love in conduct. Strive not for fixedness, but for growth. Spiritual permanence is permanence of growth in knowledge and goodness. Love for God and man walks with sure feet through paths where selfishness stumbles and sinks in bogs of doubt and despair. Keep the mind open to the ever-teaching Spirit of God. There are withheld revelations that wait for the unfolding of capacity in man to receive God's disclosure. Be content with nothing. Let faith in God and love to man be the broad base on which to build the aspiring structure of an eternal life. That foundation standeth sure. Trust God for the future of humanity. The world was not made in jest, nor does the kingdom of God rest on a contingency. Faith, as well as love, casteth out fear. Two boys were talking together of Elijah's ascent in the chariot of fire. Said one; “ Wouldn't you be afraid to ride in such a chariot?” “ No,” said the other, “ not if God drove!” God drives the chariot of human progress, and it mounts as it advances. God is in His world, not outside of it. He is redeeming it from sin. He is making men. He is fulfilling His holy and beneficent purpose. Fear not, but believe and hope, for the power as well as the glory is His to whom be glory for ever and ever. (P. S. Moxom.) The foundation and its seal I. First, let us think of the lamentable overthrow which the apostle so much deplored.1. The apostle observed with sorrow a general coldness. It was in some respect coldness towards himself, but in reality it was a turning away from the simplicity of the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith (see the 15th verse of the previous chapter). 2. Furthermore, the apostle saw with much alarm that teachers were erring. He names two especially, Hymenaeus and Philetus, and he mentions the doctrine that they taught--not needlessly explaining it, but merely giving a hint at it. They taught, among other things, that the resurrection was past already. I suppose they had fallen into the manner of certain in our day, who spiritualise or rationalise everything. 3. In Paul’ s day many professors were apostatising from the faith because of the evil leaders. Sheep are such creatures to follow something that, when they do not follow the shepherd, they display great readiness to follow one another. 4. Paul also deplored that ungodliness increased. He says that the profane and vain babblings of his time increased unto more ungodliness. II. Now let us turn to the subject which supplied Paul with consolation. He speaks of the abiding foundation: “ Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure.” What is this foundation which standeth sure? Those who have interpreted the passage have given many meanings to it, but I believe that all those meanings are really one. For the sake of clearness I would give three answers to the inquiry: the foundation is, secretly, the purpose of God; doctrinally, the truth of God; effectively, the Church of God; in all, the system of God whereby He glorifies His grace. III. Now, we are to look at this foundation and observe the instructive incription. I think this figure best expresses the apostle’ s intent; he represents the foundation-stone, as bearing a writing upon it, like the stone mentioned by the prophet Zechariah of which we read, “ I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” The custom of putting inscriptions upon foundation-stones is ancient and general. In the days of the Pharaohs, the royal cartouche was impressed upon each brick that was placed in buildings raised by royal authority. The structure was thus known to bare been erected by a certain Pharaoh. Here we have the royal cartouche, or seal, of the King of kings set upon the foundation of the great palace of the Church. The House of Wisdom bears on its forefront and foundation the seal of the Lord. The Jews were wont to write texts of Scripture upon the door-posts of their houses; in this also we have an illustration of our text. The Lord has set upon His purpose, His gospel, His truth, the double mark described in the text--the Divine election and the Divine sanctification. This seal is placed to declare that it belongs to the Lord alone, and to set it apart for His personal habitation. If I might use another illustration, I can suppose that when the stones for the temple were quarried in the mountains, each one received a special mark from Solomon’ s seal, marking it as a temple stone, and perhaps denoting its place in the sacred edifice. This would be like the first inscription, “ The Lord knoweth them that are His.” But the stone would not long lie in the quarry, it would be taken away from its fellows, after being marked for removal. Here is the transport mark in the second inscription: “ Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” The first mark--1. Is concerning God and us. “ The Lord knoweth them that are His.” 2. The text teaches us that the Lord discriminates. Some who bear His name are not His, and He knows them not. 3. “ The Lord knoweth them that are His” signifies that He is familiar with them, and communes with them. They that are really the Lord’ s property are also the Lord’ s company: He has intercourse with them. 4. Further, the words imply God’ s preservation of His own; for when God knows a man He approves him, and consequently preserves him. The second seal is concerning us and God--“ Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” Observe how the practical always goes with the doctrinal in holy Scripture. Those whom free grace chooses, free grace cleanses. This is a sweeping precept as to the thing to be avoided: let him “ depart from iniquity” --not from this or that crime or folly, but from iniquity itself, item everything that is evil, from everything that is unrighteous or uuholy. The text is very decisive--it does not say, “ Let him put iniquity on one side,” but, “ Let him depart from it.” Get away from evil. All your lives long travel further and further from it. Do you know where my text originally came from? I believe it was taken from the Book of Numbers. Read in the sixteenth chapter the story of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. In the Septuagint almost the same words occur as those now before us. The Lord Jesus is exercising discipline in His Church every day. It is no trifling matter to be a Church member, and no small business to be a preacher of the gospel. If you name the name of Christ, you will either be settled in Him or driven from Him. There is continually going on an establishment of living stones upon the foundation, add a separating from it of the rubbish which gathers thereon. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The stability of God’ s purpose It may be asked, how did it happen that under the direct observation of the apostles themselves, standing as they did on such exclusive ground, acting in the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and clothed with all the awful powers of their high office--how happened it that so many and such dangerous errors arose? It might be permitted--1. To ascertain the faith and put to the test the obedience of the sincere. There must be heresies that these may be proved and made manifest. 2. To show that the claims of the religion of Jesus Christ are not guided or influenced by secular authority, and that men’ s minds are left perfectly free, at liberty to think and determine for themselves. 3. To illustrate the nature of the early discipline of the Christian Church. It was not such as affected men’ s properties or lives, as has too frequently been the case where ecclesiastical authority has been felt. Paul put down error by virtue of his authority as an apostle; but we find nothing carnal in any of his proceedings. 4. To furnish occasions for developing more clearly the essentials of Christianity. Three topics of reflection are suggested to us here-- I. The stability of God’ s purpose. The idea which we found on this part of the subject is, the certain continuance and continual accomplishment of God’ s purposes, spite of all difficulties, oppositions, and enemies. But it has respect chiefly--1. To the truth of God; and2. To the Church of God. II. The special objects of God’ s purpose. “ The foundation of God standeth sure; having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His,” etc.1. In speaking of the special objects of God’ s love, we shall notice chiefly the character under which they are described--they are “ His.” This implies knowledge, discrimination, approbation, acknowledgment. They are “ His” --His by dedication. 2. His in consequence of a gracious influence on their hearts. 3. His in consequence of an interest in Christ. But this question is naturally suggested: How are we to determine whether we are His? How are we to know that we belong to the number of the called, and chosen, and faithful? The answer is ready--“ Let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart from iniquity,” and this leads us-- III. To consider the Holy character which ought to result from Christian principles. Consider here--1. The profession assumed. They “ name the name of Christ.” This includes in it an admission of His authority--a reception of His doctrines--a public avowal of their sentiments and convictions. 2. The obligation enjoined. Let him “ depart from iniquity.” To depart from iniquity is to hate it--to be habitually opposed to the commission of it--to avoid it with the greatest circumspection--to seek and pursue whatever is opposed to it. 3. This is enjoined by the authority of Him whose name we bear. Can we think on that holy name without calling to mind the purity it should inspire? He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity. Think of His character--it was holy and heavenly: of His doctrines--every word of God is pure: of His institutions--they are all designed to promote our sanctification: of the great ends and designs of His government--these are all connected with our purity. There is not a doctrine, not a testimony, not a precept which Christ has laid down, not a promise which He has caused to be recorded, which does not lead to the inculcation of holiness. On all parts of the Christian system we see inscribed, “ Be ye holy, for I am holy.” 4. This is enforced by the peculiar discoveries of revelation. Can you mention a doctrine which does not lead to holiness? 5. This departure from iniquity is an essential and constituent part of the salvation of the gospel. 6. This is provided for by the continual agency of the Holy Spirit. 7. This is the design of all gospel institutions. 8. This is the great end of all providential dispensations. 9. It is that without which all our professions would be nullified and useless. (J. Fletcher, D. D.) What is religion We have come in our day into times precisely like those of the apostle, in which there is a great movement throughout the whole civilised world, and a great change of feeling, either of apprehension or of words, in regard to the stability of the Christian religion. I declare that the essential elements of Christianity were never so apparent as to-day; that they were never so influential; that they were never so likely to produce institutions of power; that they never had such a hold on human reason and human conscience; and that the religious impulse of the human race was never so deep and never so strong in its current. In the first place, then, we must recollect that there may be very great changes around about religion, in its external forms, without any essential interior change, nay, even with the augmentation of its interior power. Some men think that anything which is a revelation from God must be always one and the same thing; but God’ s revelation is alphabetic; it is a revelation of letters, and they can be combined and recombined in ten thousand different words, varying endlessly. The great facts which are fundamental to consciousness, once being given, are alphabetic; and these facts may be combined; and with the development of the human race in intelligence and moral excellence they go on taking new forms, and larger experiences must have a larger expression. It is said that men do not believe in virtue. Well, when a man tells me that the refinements of the schoolmen are lapsing on questions which relate to eternal regeneration through the Son of God, and that many of the fine distinctions between ability natural and ability spiritual are going outer men’ s thoughts and out of much use, I admit it; but I say that the great fundamental truths of religion, namely, the nature of man, the wants of man, and Divine love as a sufficient supply for human wants--instead of growing weaker are growing stronger in men’ s minds. After all the pother that is made about the doctrines of human depravity, and the need of regeneration by the power of the Holy Ghost, are they not true? Men kick them about like so many footballs; but do they not recognise them as true when they are stated in a different way from that in which they have been accustomed to hear them stated, and in a way which is suited to the experience of our times? Men think these truths are passing out of the world; but I say they are simply taking another form of exposition. The truths themselves are inherent, universal, indestructible. Religion is not one thing. It means the moving of the human soul rightly toward God, toward man, and toward duty. He who is using his whole self according to laws of God is religious. Some men think that devotion is religion. Yes, devotion is religion; but it is not all of religion. Here is a tune written in six parts, and men are wrangling and quarrelling about it. One says that the harmony is in the bass, another that it is in the soprano, another that it is in the tenor, and another that it is in the alto; but I say that it is in all the six parts. Each may, in and of itself, be better than nothing; but it requires the whole six parts to make what was meant by the musical composer. Some men say that love is religion. Well, love is certainly the highest element of it: but it is not that alone. Justice is religion; fidelity is religion; hope is religion; faith is religion; obedience is religion. These are all part and parcel of religion. Religion is as much as the total of manhood, and it takes in every element of it. All the elements of man hood, in their right place and action, are constituent parts of religion; but no one of them alone is religion. It takes the whole manhood, imbued and inspired of God, moving right both heavenward and earthward, to constitute religion. I ask you to consider what religion is according to the definition of Paul--“ The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” I do not care whether a man whitewashes or blackwashes his fence, or whether he uses guano or barn-yard manure, or what his mode of cultivation may be, the question is, Does he get good fruit? If he does, his method is good. Now, I take it that the apostle is speaking of religion when he speaks of the fruit of the Spirit; and the fruit of the Spirit is what? Orthodoxy? Oh, no. Conscience? Not a bit of it. One of the fruits of the Spirit is love; and is love dead? Another fruit of the Spirit is joy; and is joy gone? Peace, the strangest of fruits--is it not slowly coming to be that which is the unison of all other qualities with blessedness in the soul? Ye, then, who mourn because particular modes are changing, and think that religion is dying out, look deeper, and pluck up hope out of your despair, and confidence out of your fear; and to you that think religion is going away because of science, let me say that science is the handmaid of religion. It is the John Baptist, oftentimes, that clears the way for true religion. By religion I do not mean outward things, but inward states. I mean perfected manhood. I mean the quickening of the soul by the beatific influence of the Divine Spirit in truth, and love, and sympathy, and confidence, and trust. That is not dying out. (H. W. Beecher.) The sure foundations It is the nature of truth, as it is developed by human intelligence and used for practical purposes, to gather to itself instruments and institutions. The permanence of great fundamental truths, and the infinite variability of the exponents of truth, in the form of law, custom, philosophical statement--these are the two great truths with which we are to expound the past history of religion in the world, and by which also we are to prepare the way for its development in the days that are to come. After a while men lose sight of the truth in the instruments of it. They cease to worship the thing, and worship its exponent; so that, by-and-by, it is not the truth that men follow so much as its institutions. And so, as soon as this takes place, men, following their senses and their lower nature, begin a process of idolatry, of professionalism; and they become worshippers of the sensuous. So it comes to pass that all religions tend on the one side downward, and on the other side upward. The tendency to carry on truth to a higher and nobler form co-exists with another tendency to hold the truth in just the same confined forms with which it has hitherto been served. And so Churches find in themselves the elements of explosion and of controversy. Then comes revolution or reformation. Then comes sectarianism, or the principle, rather, from which sects grow. Now, in the time of St. Paul, vast changes were taking place. Mosaism, or religion as developed through the instrumentality of Mosaic institutions, had ripened and gone to seed, and was passing away; and in so far as the Gentile world was concerned, there was no further attempt on the part of the apostles to teach religion by the old forms and under the old methods. If you turn your eyes toward the Greek nation, which was the thinking nation of the world, they had knowledge, philosophy and art, but they had no moral sense. If you turn to the Roman empire, there was organisation, there was law, and an effete idolatry. Now came Christianity. But Christi-unity in itself, in its very origin, was vexed with schisms, with disputings; and it was in the midst of these confusions that Paul made the declaration of our text, that “ the foundation of God standeth sure.” No matter what this man thinks, or that man teaches; no matter what shadows come or go, be sure of one thing--that the immutable foundations of religion stand. They will not be submerged permanently, nor will they rot in the ground; and they have this seal or superscription, written, as it were, on the corner-stone: “ The Lord knoweth them that are His.” There is the great truth of Divine existence, and intelligence, and active interference in human affairs. God is not blotted out by men’ s doubts, or reasonings, or philosophies, themselves caused by the interpenetration of Divine thought upon human intelligence. “ God knoweth them that are His.” “ Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” That is the other seal--aspiration for goodness; departure from all evil; an earnest, thorough and persistent seeking after a godly manhood. There are the two elements. There are fundamental elements in a Christian Church which we ought to speak of, and which we ought to mean when we speak of fundamental doctrines, and there are those which are necessary for the formation of the individual character, and for the transformation of man from an animal to a spiritual being. These are the fundamental truths which stand connected with the existence, government, and power of God in the world; and also with the organised development of human nature, that it may rise toward God. Now, it so happens that there are a great many things fundamental to theology which are not at all fundamental to human nature; and it so happens, on the other side, that there are in human nature a great many things which are fundamental to the organisation of a noble and manly character, but are hardly recognisable in theology at all. We ought, then, to clear our minds of the misuse of the term fundamental doctrines. No doctrines are fundamental except those that teach the Divine existence and government, or that teach the condition and wants of human nature, and its reconstruction, its re-organisation into Christian manhood. Men cannot live without religion. They cannot be men without it. The State calls for it; art calls for it; home and domesticity call for it; the voice of mankind and the voice of the ages have called and are calling for it; and they are either ignorant or cowardly who fear that any great disaster is going to befall religion in consequence of the progress which is taking place in the investigation of truth. Do you believe in a providence? Is this great world floating without a rudder, without a pilot or a captain? is time made up of chance-drifts? or is there a God? If there is a God, has He a future, and is He steering time and the race towards that future? And will He sleep or forget, and allow the race to run to ruin? The Word of God, the foundations of God, stand sure. Now, this general fear will lead us to take into Consideration the necessity of a closer union and affiliation of true Christian people. It seems to me what we need is, not to go back to old systems, or to cling to the old Churches, but simply this: that we should search for the great fundamental facts and truths which stand connected with the development of human nature from animalism to spirituality, and work together on these common grounds. Not that I would abolish ordinances, days, or institutions. I say to every sect, “ Act according to your belief in regard to these things. Keep your theory; ordain as you think best; organise as you think best; let your ordinances be such as you think best; make your philosophical systems such as you think best; but stand with your brethren. Do not let the veins of your life run just as far as the walls of your church, and then come back again; let them go forth throughout Christendom.” (H. W. Beecher.) The foundations of the Christian faith The scepticism which we have to meet to-day concerns itself not with specific doctrine, but with the very roots and foundation of Christian faith itself. Time was when t, he foundation of Christian faith was the authority of the Church. The authority of the Church as the foundation of Christian faith has passed away. Nor is the Bible, the printed Book, in any true and profound sense the foundation of our Christian faith. Underneath the Bible there is a foundation on which the Bible itself rests. Now modern thought proposes, in lieu of these two foundations, another, the human reason, and it asks us to bring all our questionings and our faiths to the bar of the intellect, and have them adjudged and determined there. I shall not stop to argue whether reason be a sufficient foundation for our Christian faith; but I undertake to say that it is not the foundation of our Christian faith, and that we believe not because things are asserted by the Church, not merely because they are printed in the Book, not merely because they commend themselves to our reason. Deep down in the human life there is yet a foundation underneath all these. We do not object to bringing all Christian faiths to the bar of reason. We believe our Christian faith is not unreasonable; but there are truths which are not arrived at by argumentative processes; they are not reached by processes of logic; they are not demonstrated; they are known. AEsthetic truths, we do not prove them, we see them. All our moral beliefs rest on this foundation; we do not argue them, we know them. Love, patriotism, honesty, justice, truth, by what chemical processes will you analyse these? How will you put them into the scales and weigh them; by what logical demonstration will you prove they exist? Now that which is true in respect of all the aesthetic elements of life, that which is true in respect of the moral element of life is true in respect of the great spiritual realm. Our articles of Christian faith rest on our vital, personal, living experience in them. Why do I believe in God? Why do you believe in your mother? You have seen her. I beg your pardon; you never saw your mother. You have seen the eyes, the forehead, the cheeks, the face--that is not mother. If that be mother, then why, when the form lies prostrate, and you press the kiss upon the lips, and they give no answering kiss back, and you press the hand, and it gives no answering pressure back, why burst you into tears? Why wring your hands with grief? The lips are there, the brow is there, the cheeks are there, all that you ever saw is there. But mother is gone; and love, patience, fidelity, self-sacrifice, long-suffering--that is what makes the mother that you loved--that you have never seen. And we believe in God because we have known the tenderness of His love, because in times of great weakness He has strengthened us, and in times of great sorrow He has comforted us, and in times of great darkness He has guided us, because we have known in our inmost experience the power that is of God in life’ s struggle. Why do you believe in immortality? It is not because of the philosophical arguments that have been addressed to you; it is not because of the proof texts you can find in the Scriptures; we know that we are immortal, as the bird knows that it has power to fly while yet it lies in its nest, and waits for the moment when it shall soar off into the invisible air. There is no better argument for immorality than that of the French Christian to his deistical friend. When the deist had finished a long scholastic argument, the Christian Frenchman replied, with a shrug of the shoulders, “ Probably you are right; you are not immortal, but I am.” Now, when this view of the foundation of the Christian faith is employed, men sometimes object to it and say, “ You are appealing to our feelings, you are not willing to test Christian truth where all truth must be tested, in the clear light of reason; you are appealing to our feelings, to our prepossessions, to our desires, to our sentiments.” Not at all. I am putting our Christian faith on that foundation on which all our knowledge and all our belief rest, albeit our Christian faith stands closer to the foundation than anything else. All that science has taught us, all that travel, all that history, all that observation, either of our own or observations of others, all is based, in the analysis, upon this--the truthfulness either of our own personal consciousness, or of the consciousness of others. Now, we carry in our hearts the consciousness of a Divine presence outside ourselves. We look upon this life of Christ, and it stirs within us a new and a Divine life. We know the power there is in the pardoning and atoning grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we believe the Bible is an inspired Book? Because it is an inspiring Book, because it has given us comfort that no other book ever did, life that no other book ever gave, strength that no other book ever gave, because in our own personal use and experience of it it has been the life of God in our hearts. Moreover, our Christian faith rests not merely upon our own consciousness, it rests upon the concurrent consciousness of innumerable witnesses. But mark you one thing more. Our Christian faith rests on our consciousness, on the concurrent consciousness of witnesses verified by actual testimony. Christianity is not a theory. It proposes to do something for me. Compare old Rome with England or America of to-day with all our vices, with all our shortcomings, with all our corruptions, and behold what is the answer of history to the claim that Christ has made. Why, when Mr. Morse first proposed the magnetic telegraph it was not strange that men were sceptical. When he said “ By touching a little key here I communicate a message to a man a thousand miles yonder,” no wonder that wise and conservative people shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders, and said, “ Impossible!” But when the wire had been laid from Washington to Baltimore, and the first message was flashed through that wire, “ Behold what God hath wrought,” how could any man doubt when the work was achieved? Some of you will say, “ Ah! this will not give us a well-defined theology.” Well, perhaps not. But who can stand and look out into the vast future, and define immortality? Who can look up into the heavens and define God? Who can look into his own soul and define there the sins that have oppressed him, or the Saviour that has redeemed him from them? No, no; our experiences do transcend all our definitions, being beyond them. And some of you will say, “ This is well for those of you that have this experience, but I have it not.” Is that any reason why you should not believe? Now, let us reason this matter one moment. Because you do not enjoy the music of Beethoven will you therefore conclude that all musical enjoyment is a myth? Because you, standing on the deck of an Atlantic steamer, cannot see the light of the far-distant lighthouse which the ship captain with his better trained eye does see, will you conclude that he is mistaken and you are right? If it be true that there is a testimony coming from innumerable hosts of witnesses to the reality of God’ s presence, to the certainty of immortality, to the inspiration of God’ s Book, to the vital saving power of a living Christ, will you reject the light because you are blind? Will you deny the truth because you see it not? A father and his son stand on the shores of the Bay of Fundy. A great tidal wave forty feet in height comes roiling in, when the boy catches the father’ s hand in terror, and cries, “ Run, father, run; the ocean is going to wash us away.” The father looks and smiles upon the lad, and says, “ Wait, wait.” The great wave dashes itself into innumerable atoms of foam upon the great rock, and sweeps back into the ocean. And when this tidal wave of scepticism shall have expended its force it will be found broken into innumerable atoms of foam at the foot of a rock which shall stand through all the future, as in all the past, the Rock of Ages. (L. Abbott. D. D.) The Lord knoweth them that are His. All God’ s people favourites It is said of Tiberius, the emperor, that he never denied his favourite Sejanus anything, and often prevented his request; so that he needed only to ask and give thanks. All God’ s people are His favourites, and may have all that their hearts can wish, or their need require. (J. Trapp.) Affectionate remembrance At Bury St. Edmunds, I went to the infirmary of the workhouse, where, amongst other patients in bed, I conversed with an old m an, who, if I remember rightly, was over eighty years of age. As it lay outside the counterpane, I noticed that his arm from the elbow to the wrist was covered, after the manner of sailors’ tattooing, with numerous letters. On asking him what they were, he said, “ Why, you see, sir, I’ ve had nine children, and all are gone; some I know be dead, and some I don’ t know whether they be dead or alive, but they’ re all the same to me; I shall never see any of them again in this world. But I’ ve got all their initials here on my arm; and it’ s a comfort to me as I lie here to look at ‘ em and think of ‘ em.” It was all that this poor old man could do for his sons; but he held them in affectionate remembrance, though he needed not the sight of their initials to remember them by. Our heavenly Father knoweth and taketh pleasure in all them that are His. He bears them all on His heart, and His power to help and to bless them is as great as His wealth of love. (B. Clarke.) Hidden Christians There are stars set in the heavens by the hand of God, whose light has never reached the eye of man; gems lie covered in the dark abysses of earth that have never yet been discovered by the research of man; flowers which have grown in blushing beauty before the sun, that have never been seen by the florist; so there may be Christians, made such by God, who are hidden from the knowledge of this world. (John Bate.) Unknown, yet well known Many of the greatest saints have lived and died unknown and uncared for by the world. These are God’ s secret ones, unknown to men, well-known to God. About some of the saints and apostles we hear much; the lives and works of St. Paul and St. Peter are familiar to us all. It is not so with St. Bartholomew, and yet none of the martyrs worked more faithfully, or suffered more severely. He who laboured so successfully for Christ, and suffered so severely, is only mentioned four times in the New Testament, and then very slightly. There is no word to record his hard toil, his burning love, his patient suffering, and his noble death. And so it is with many of the greatest of God’ s saints. No one knows the name of Naaman’ s little servant, who brought her master to God. The names of the Holy Innocents appear in no earthly book. That pious widow who gave all she had to the Temple is not named; and there are thousands of others, who though “ unknown, are well known to God, whose names are not written on earth, but are written in heaven. There are many who are now living for God, and working for Him, and suffering for Him, of whom this world knows nothing. There will not be, perhaps, a paragraph about them in the newspapers, but “ the Lord knoweth them that are His.” God has hidden saints in everyplace, dwelling under cottage thatch, as well as in great houses. These are the gems which no earthly eye has ever valued, but they will shine none the less brightly on that day when God makes up His jewels. (H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, M. A.) The Lord knoweth them that are His The Church at Ephesus, at a very early age, suffered from that stumbling-block--the “ falling away” of professors. Oh! I do not wonder at the pain and the perplexity which the young missionary at Ephesus seemed to feel, at the thought of “ the falling away” of many whom he had been wont to teach, and love, and hope, and pray for. But mark the delightful emphasis of that “ nevertheless” --“ Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure.” Perhaps, of those who set out with you on the road to heaven, some years ago, it may have been your painful lot to see one after another stop, lie down, and go to sleep, and die. “ Nevertheless, nevertheless! the foundation of God standeth sure.” Or, look again at that “ nevertheless.” One by one the friendships and the happinesses of life have been melting away from you. And now every idol has been pulled down; and now almost the only hope of your earthly support is gone: oh! with what sweetness at such amoment will that thought come back to you, “ Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure!” You have a Friend that never can leave you. Or it may come closer than this. It may please God to bring trial more home to your heart. He may lead you through a long, dark cloud, where it may seem to you as if every trace of comfort was obliterated for ever,--“ Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure.” Beneath the feet the “ foundation” stands. The building may fall, but the “ corner-stone” is safe. There is pardon; though there is no sense of it. There is faith; though there is not “ the joy in believing.” There is Christ; though there is not the feeling of Christ. That cloud will roll over, and when the morning breaks, it will light up that “ foundation,” brighter, clearer, and more saving, for ever. For “ Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure.” You see, then, that the whole of a man’ s peace and all his security depend upon this,--What is his “ foundation” ? It is the plainest of all plain Scriptural truths, that the only “ foundation” of any soul’ s safety is the Lord Jesus Christ. “ Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus.” “ Other foundation” may have a momentary peace; but this only can support the super-structure for eternity. Now this truth the apostle carries out into a little more detail. In order to do it, his mind borrows an image from a ceremony common at the commencement of the erection of a public building, when a king, as he lays the foundation-stone, sets upon it the impression of the royal seal. In like manner, as if to give the believer’ s hope a two-fold security, God is said not only to “ lay the foundation,” but to “ seal” it; and when He “ seals” it, He seals it to Himself, by the “ oath” with which He “ confirms it” ; and to the believer, by the Spirit in which He gives it. Now, that “ seal,” with which God stamps every converted soul, is two-fold. Or, to speak more accurately, it is a single “ seal” which has two faces. Accordingly, on the heart of every child of God, on the ground of it, there will be found two inscriptions, which the hand or” seal” of God has engraven there. In other words, there are two fundamental principles which God has placed there. The one stands out clear, legible, and large--“ The Lord knoweth them that are His.” And the other is like unto it--“ Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” The “ seal” must have been twice stamped--both inscriptions must have been there--before the soul is safe, and stands quite “ sure.” Now, let us look at the two sides of that “ seal” ; first, separate; and then together. I. The first in the relation, as also the first that is laid upon the heart, is the impression of God’ s love. “ The Lord knoweth them that are His.” This records that truth of truths on which the whole gospel rests, as upon one base--that salvation is all of God’ s eternal, sovereign love. This must be held by every man who wishes to enjoy the peace of God: that it was God who “ knew” me, loved me, and cared for me, and drew me long before I ever had any thoughts of Him. The whole of a man’ s safety depends upon this: “ The Lord knew” me from all eternity; “ the Lord knew” me when He drew me to Himself; “ the Lord knows” me now--all my little thoughts and works: “ the Lord knows” I am trying to serve Him; “ the Lord knows” I wish to love Him. But as the one side of God’ s “ seal” is privilege, the other is duty. II. The one is God’ s love, the other is your holiness. “ Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” The two sides must never be divided. But as the stamp of God’ s love is laid, so must the stamp of man’ s obedience be laid. God’ s love first, to teach that there can be no real obedience till there is first a sense of God’ s love. Feelings often have deceived us, and they will deceive again. But the question is, practically, Are you “ departing from iniquity” ? Observe the expression. It is not one single act; but it is a gradual, progressive retiring back from evil, because, more and more, the good prevails. Now, bow is it? Say you have conquered the acts of sin, have you conquered the desires? Say you have conquered the desires, have you conquered the thoughts? Do you think that your temper is being every day more subdued? Is your pride lessened? Your worldliness, and your covetousness--are they receding? Would your own family--would your own dearest friend have cause to say, that you are growing every day in grace? Is it a “ seal,” think you, that can be “ read of all men” upon you? Could they see it exemplified? (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Inscription on foundation stones The figure is probably drawn from the practice of engraving inscriptions on one or both sides of the foundation-stone. So, in Revelation 21:14, the names of the twelve apostles are found on the twelve foundations of the mystical Jerusalem. “ The Lord knoweth them that are His.” Not as expressing the knowledge that flows from an inscrutable decree, but, as in 1 Corinthians 8:3; 1 Corinthians 13:12; John 10:14, the knowledge, implying love and approval, which Christ has of those who are truly His. This represents one side of the life of the believer, but, lest men interpret the truth wrongly, the other side also needs to be put forward, and that is found in personal holiness. (E. H. Plumptre, D. D.) The chosen known to God “ The Lord knoweth them that are His” is a citation from the Septuagint of Num 16:5, and a moment’ s consideration will show bow appositely the apostle quotes this passage. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram had gathered themselves together against Moses on the plea of the holiness of the whole congregation: “ all the congregation,” they said, “ are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye yourselves up above the congregation of the Lord?” Hero then certain bad men had got hold of a true principle, but were applying it wrongly and rebelliously. It was quite true that all the congregation were holy, but it was also true that God had especially sanctified the sons of Levi above the remainder of His people. Korah and his company came forward with specious pretensions to superior spirituality; they asserted that all the people of Israel were priests of God--a great truth in itself, but not, therefore, to supersede another truth, viz., that God had chosen a certain tribe to be specially His priests. So Hymenaeus and Philetus asserted a great truth, viz., the nature and importance of the spiritual resurrection; but because they so asserted it as to supersede by it another plainly revealed truth, they undermined and overthrew the very faith itself, and proved themselves to be the children of Satan, and not of God. (M. F. Sadler, M. A.) Inconspicuous lives related to heaven In modern times it has been found out that, by a wise adaptation of electricity, an organ can be played many miles away, under certain conditions. If the keyboard is connected with the battery, and the wires run, no matter how far, even hundreds and thousands of miles--if the battery be properly charged and the wires run, say, to New Orleans, the organist sitting here may thunder there the majestic tones of an anthem. And if you consider that the human soul is a battery, and that all its wires run into the heavenly land, there are many inconspicuous persons living in the world of whom we see and hear and know nothing, but from whom to heaven wires go, and around whose souls are angel assemblies gathered together chanting joyful songs; and there are many men a knowledge of whom the telegraph wires are busy communicating, and about whose fame the newspapers pile telegraph upon telegraph; there ate many noisy men respecting whom there is much ado made on earth, but there is not a single wire that runs between them and the other life. (H. W. Beecher.) God’ s knowledge of His children I remember a story of Mr. Mack, who was a Baptist minister in Northamptonshire. In his youth he was a soldier, and calling on Robert Hall, when his regiment marched through Leicester, that great man became interested in him, and procured his release from the ranks. When he went to preach in Glasgow he sought out his aged mother, whom he had not seen for many years. He knew his mother the moment he saw her, but the old lady did not recognise her son. It so happened that, when he was a child, his mother had accidentally wounded his wrist with a knife. To comfort him she cried, “ Never mind, my bonnie bairn, your mither will ken you by that when you are a man.” When Mack’ s mother would not believe that a grave, fine-looking minister could be her own child, he turned up his sleeve and cried, “ Mither, mither, diona ye ken that?” In a moment they were in each other’ s arms. All, the Lord knows the spot of His children! He acknowledges them by the mark of correction. What God is to us in the why of trouble and trial is but His acknowledgment of us as true heirs, and the marks of His rod shall be our proof that we are true sons. He knows the wounds He made when exercising His sacred surgery. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Pretended spirituality It is as if Paul said, “ Here are false teachers who, under a show of great spirituality, have overthrown the faith of some in the Church. They have come as angels of light. They have said, “ The only real resurrection is the resurrection of a dead soul to the knowledge of God. Why trouble yourselves about any other resurrection except this?” And by these specious words--words which apparently only highly spiritual men could say--they have opened the flood-gates of unbelief; but God, after all, knows who are sound and who are rotten at heart. The Lord knoweth them that are His. The Lord sees through every pretence of sanctity. The sure foundation of God standeth, for God knows the souls who really and truly belong to Him. He knows them infallibly, and no one knows them but He. You see, St. Paul evidently implies that these falsely spiritual teachers, and those who were led by them, were not in heart God’ s true people. We learn from this that our faith may be subverted and our souls ruined by pretenders to spirituality in religion. We may extend this to our doctrines of the faith besides the resurrection of the body. The two sacraments, for instance, have each an outward part, which touches the body, or which is received by the body; and God has made the reception of the inward grace of the sacrament to depend, ordinarily speaking, on the reception of the outward sign. And now I have to put you on your guard against another form of specious yet false spirituality, with which a very large proportion of our modern religious literature is saturated. Beware of books and tracts, and appeals and sermons, full of deep doctrine and evangelical statements, without any duty--any lowly, common-place, homely Christine duty, mixed up with such doctrine or Gospel statements. No book of religion can possibly be more spiritual than St. Paul’ s Epistle to the Ephesians. And yet, what sort of exhortations have we in the fourth chapter of this most spiritual Epistle? What I have said respecting the teaching of St. Paul is equally true of that of his brother apostles, SS. Peter, James, and John. Remember, then, that ii our standard of Christianity is the teaching of the apostles, then writings, full of high experience or sweet assurance, without any inculcation of lowly duty, are simply unscriptural, and so unspiritual. (M. F. Sadler, M. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ 2 Timothy 2:20-21 In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour and some to dishonour.If a man, therefore, purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honour. The house and its vessels The words imply a parable which is not formally interpreted. Rising as it does, however, from the thought of the “ foundation” in 2 Timothy 2:19, we shall not be far wrong in assuming that the “ great house” is (as in 1 Timothy 3:15) the Church of God. The sequel of the parable presents questions of greater difficulty. Are we, with the majority of interpreters, to identify the vessels made to honour with silver and gold, those of wood and earth with the vessels made to dishonour? In this case the difference between the two sets of vessels is, in the interpretation of the parable, purely ethical. All true members of Christ are as the gold and sliver, all unworthy members as the wood and clay. And, as the material of which the vessel is made does not depend upon itself, it might seem at first as if we had here, as in the parable of the tares and the drag-net, to interpolate the thought that the man whom the vessel represents may, by purifying himself, transmute his nature, and pass from the one class to the other. I venture to think that a different interpretation gives a far truer meaning. The classes of vessels correspond to the gifts which men have received (as in the parable of the talents we have the five, the two, the one), and each has its proper use and honour in the great house of the Church of God. But in each case, of the gold as of the clay, it is true that purity is the one essential condition of honourable use. The man of poorer gilts (to pass from the sign to the thing signified) may, if he keeps himself pure, be a vessel made to honour. If the silver and gold are allowed to be defiled by that which is unclean, if “ holiest things find vilest using,” then even they are in danger of serving only as vessels for dishonour, of showing (not ceasing even then to fulfil a Divine purpose) that the righteous judgment of God is against them that commit such things. In this case the words, “ If a man purge himself” retain their full significance, and we have no need to interpolate the idea of a self-transmuting process, changing the earthen vessel into gold. (E. H. Plumptre, D. D.) The Church a kingly house I. The true visible Church is like a great and kingly house. For, did net the King of kings contrive its platform? lay its foundation? rear its walls? and perfect its building? Doth He not protect it, dwell in it, and prescribe laws to govern it? For its circle, is not that also great, spacious? Doth it not extend itself to the four corners of the world? Who can number the inhabitants of it? or tell the tenth part of this household? Is not its provision wonderful? Do not its servants eat angels’ food, bread from heaven, and drink the choicest wines, the water of life? II. In the visible Church are good and bad persons. III. All God’ s servants are not equally sanctified. IV. Strong Christians are like vessels of gold. First, they are resembled to vessels, both good and bad persons; this is common to all. Secondly, unto vessels of gold and silver; this is proper to the good, not the bad. Why to vessels? Because they are capable to receive the water of grace and corruption, as vessels any liquid or solid matter. Again, they are of use in God’ s house, like vessels in man’ s. And grown Christians are like golden vessels; for they are rare, precious, pure, glorious; of honour, profit, and will endure the fire, hammer, and come out of the furnace the more purged from tin, dross, corruption. And, as noblemen engrave their arms on the one, so doth God imprint His image on the other. But you will say, How may I know myself to be such? Well enough; for golden vessels have the most fiery trials, endure much hammering, are strongest set on by the devil, have the hottest skirmishes in their captain’ s army, scatter the words of grace the farthest, and rejoice in the greatest tribulation. V. Weaker Christians are like vessels of silver. VI. The wicked are not equally corrupted. VII. Persons less profane are like wooden vessels. VIII. The basest sort of men be like earthen ones. IX. The final estate of men is but twofold. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The house of God and utensils of it I. What is the great house here spoken of? The Church is sometimes in Scripture called the house of God (1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 3:2), and here a great house. If the greatness of that material house of God, erected by Solomon, was measured by the number of workmen, which were 200,000, and of the years wherein it was a building, which were seven; much more may we conceive this spiritual house great, which hath been from the beginning of the world a setting up, both by God’ s own hand, and infinite numbers and millions of workmen, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, pastors, teachers, martyrs, confessors, professors, and holy men in all ages. And for the parts, the foundation is of pure gold, even Jesus Christ. The stones not dead, as in other houses, but living stones (1 Peter 2:5). And the whole house is, saith St. Peter, a spiritual house; so as great things are spoken, and might more be spoken, of this great house of God. II. What are these vessels of gold and silver, of wood and earth? As in the material house of God, the temple, were vessels for all services, both more honourable, of gold and silver, and others of baser matter; so in this spiritual house (typified by that) are vessels, that is, persons of sundry sorts, distinguished in our text.1. in themselves, by their matter, gold, silver, wood, earth.2. In their use and end, honour and dishonour. Now, out of each part observe somewhat.1. In that the Church is the house of God, and we all profess ourselves to be within this house, we learn two things: (1) To walk careful in God’ s presence, who dwelleth in it. In other great houses many things pass and are done, which the master knows not, for that he is not always at home, and, if he were, yet his eye could not be in all corners. But the owner of this house is never from home, and His eye pierceth into every part of His house, and is on every person, so that nothing can escape Him. (2) To acquaint ourselves with His will and directions. 2. In that the Church is the house of God, it follows every Christian is a part of this house (Hebrews 3:6). And therefore we must-- (1) Give the Lord possession of His house. (2) Having once given Him possession, beware of sacrilege. What was once dedicated to God might never be profaned. 1. Note that there must necessarily be a mixture of good and bad in the visible Church; vessels of divers sorts. 2. Note how the Lord esteems of a godly man, though he be good but in part. He calls him a vessel of gold and a vessel of honour, even where much dross remains to be purged. But how shall I know that I am indeed a vessel of honour?1. In respecter himself, he purgeth himself from these things. What is this purging or purifying? According to our former resemblance, we may conceive the metaphor to be taken from goldsmiths, who used to try and purify their metals from dross, before they can frame it to a vessel of honourable use and service. Even so doth the Lord with His chosen. Who must cleanse and purify? Every man himself, none excepted, that will be a golden vessel. This purging is all one with our sanctification; the whole work of which is God’ s, as appears-- (1) By His promise (Isaiah 4:4).(2) By Christ’ s testimony (John 15:2).(3) By His prayer for the whole Church (John 17:17).(4) By the prayers of all saints (Psalms 51:1-19). And yet we are said to purge ourselves; yea, to convert ourselves, and make ourselves new hearts. When--1. Being renewed by the Spirit, we co-operate with Him in using the means, In not resisting His work. From what must a man purge himself? From these things--that is, lusts and defilements, errors in judgment and practice, in faith and manners, of which he had spoken before; implying sin to be the foulest filthiness in the world, and that it defiles the whole man. But when must he purge himself? The apostle speaks in the present time, for there is no purgatory hereafter. Again, the present time noteth a continued act; so as every man must always while he liveth be purging away these things. 2. The second mark for the trial of such a one is in respect of God. He is meet for the Lord. Before God can use men as vessels of honour, Himself must first fit and prepare them to honourable services. We are His workmanship, created in Christ unto good works (Ephesians 2:10). 3. The third is in respect of godliness. Prepared to every good work. Where-- (1) The object works good in the author, rule and kind, piety and mercy.(2) The extent--every.(3) The readiness to it--Whence? of God. (T. Taylor, D. D.) The great house and the vessels in it “ After all,” says the apostle in effect, though in fewer words, “ it is not such a very great wonder that there should be persons in the Church who are not of the sterling metal of sincerity, nor of the gold and silver of truth, which endures the fire. You must not look at Hymenteus and Philetus as if they were prodigies, there have been many like them and there will be many more; these ill weeds grow apace, in all ages they multiply and increase.” Where beneath the skies shall we find absolute purity in any community? The very first family had a Cain in it, and there was a wicked Ham even in the select few within the ark. Isaac, with all his quiet walk with God, must be troubled with an Esau, and ye know how in the house of Jacob there were many sons that walked not as they should. “ I have chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil.” In the great field which Christ has sown, tares will spring up among the wheat, for the enemy takes pains to sow them; neither is it possible for us to root them up. In the king’ s garden briars will grow, thorns also and thistles will the most sacred soil yield to us. Even the lilies, of Christ grow among thorns. You cannot keep the best of churches altogether pure. Yea, lift your eyes even to the skies, and though there be myriads of stars, yet ye shall mark wandering stars among them, and meteors which are and are not, and are quenched in the blackness of darkness for ever. Until we shall come to the heaven of the Most High we must expect to find chaff mixed with the wheat. Coming to the text, the apostle suggests the encouragement I have already given, under a certain metaphor. The Church of God being ill the world has its common side and its common vessels, but being also a heavenly house has also its nobler furniture, far more precious than gold which perisheth though it be tried with fire. I. First let us consider the great house. The apostle compares the Church to a great house. We feel sure he is not speaking of the world; it did not occur to him to speak about the world, and it would have been altogether superfluous to tell us that in the world there are all sorts of people,--everybody knows that. The Church is a great house belonging to a great personage, for the Church is the house of God, according to the promise--“ I will dwell in them, and walk in them.”1. It is a great house because planned and designed upon a great scale. 2. Because it has been erected at great cost, and with great labour. 3. Because its household arrangements are conducted on a great scale. Speak of fine flour--behold, He has given us angels’ food; speak of royal dainties--behold, the Lord hath given us fat things full of marrow, wines on the lees well refined. What a perpetual feast doth the Lord Jesus keep up for all His followers. 4. For the number of its inhabitants. How many have lived beneath that roof-tree for ages. What a swarm there is of the Lord’ s children, and yet not one of the family remains unfed. The Church is a great house wherein thousands dwell, yea, a number that no man can number. 5. Because of its importance. The Church is a great house because it is God’ s hospice, where He distributes bread and wine to refresh the weary, and entertains wayfarers that else had been lost in the storm. It is God’ s hospital, into which He takes the sick, and there He nourishes them until they renew their youth like the eagle’ s. It is God’ s great pharos with its lantern flashing forth a directing ray so that wanderers far away may be directed to the haven of peace. It is the seat of God’ s magistracy, for there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. The great house of the Church is the university for teaching all nations, the library wherein the sacred oracles are preserved, the treasury wherein the truth is deposited, and the registry of new-born heirs of heaven. It is important to heaven as well as to earth, for its topmost towers reach into glory. II. We will now go inside the great house, and we at once observe that it is well furnished. Our text, however, invites us to note that it contains a number of meaner vessels, articles of the coarser kind for ordinary and common uses. Here are trenchers and buckets of wood, and pitchers and pots and divers vessels of coarse pottery. Some have thought that this figure of vessels to dishonour relates to Christians of a lower grade, persons of small grace and of less sanctified conversation. Now, although believers may from some points of view be comparable to earthen vessels, yet I dare not look upon any child of God, however low in grace, as a vessel to dishonour. Moreover, the word “ these” refers to the earthen and wooden vessels, and surely they cannot represent saints, or we should never be told to purge ourselves from them. Besides, that is not the run of the chapter at all. The real meaning is, that in the Church of God there are unworthy persons serving inferior and temporary purposes, who are vessels to dishonour. They are in the Church, but they are like vessels of wood and vessels of earth, they are not the treasure of the mansion, they are not brought out on state occasions, and are not set much store by, for they are not “ precious in the sight of the Lord.” The apostle does not tell us how they came there, for it was not his intent to do so, and no parable or metaphor could teach everything; neither will I stay to describe how some professors have come into the Church of God, some by distinct falsehood and by making professions which they knew were untrue, others through ignorance, and others again by being self-deceived, and carried away with excitement. The parable does not say how they got there, but there they are, and yet they are only vessels of wood and vessels of earth. The vessels in the great house are, however, of some use, even though they are made of wood and earth; and so there are persons in the Church of God whom the Lord Jesus will not own as His treasure, but He nevertheless turns them to some temporary purpose. Some are useful as the scaffold to a house, or the dogshores to a ship, or the hedges to a field. I believe that some unworthy members of the Church are useful in the way of watch-dogs to keep others awake, or lancets to let blood, or burdens to try strength. Some quarrelsome members of the Church help to scour the other vessels, lest they should rust through being peaceful. There is one thing noticeable, viz., that the wooden and earthen vessels are not for the Master’ s use. When He holds high festival His cups are all of precious metal. How sad it is that many Christians are useful to the Church in various ways, but as for personal service rendered to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in that they have no share whatever and never can have till grace changes them from wood to silver, or from earth to gold. Note that in these vessels of which the apostle speaks the substance is base. They are wood, or they are earth, nothing more. So are we all by nature of base material, and grace must make us into silver or into golden vessels, or the Master cannot Himself use us, nor can our use in the Church ever be to honour. These vessels unto dishonour, though turned to some account, require a good deal of care on the part of the servants. When our forefathers used to eat from wooden trenchers, the time the good wives used to spend in scalding and cleaning to keep them at all sweet to eat upon was something terrible, and there are members of the Church who take a world of time from pastors and elders to keep them at all decent; we are continually trying to set them right, or keep them right, in the common relationships of life. III. We are now going into the treasury, or plate room, and will think of the nobler vessels. These are, first of all, of solid metal, vessels of silver and vessels of gold. They are not all equally valuable, but they are all precious. Did you ever hear how vessels come to be golden?-- “ There stood a golden chalice wondrous fair, And overflowing with deep love for him. He raised it to His gracious lips, and quaffed ‘ The wine that maketh glad the heart of God,’ Then took the cup to heaven.” 1. On the vessels to honour you can see the hall mark. What is the hall mark which denotes the purity of the Lord’ s golden vessels? Well, He has only one stamp for everything. When He laid the foundation what was the seal He put upon it? “ The Lord knoweth them that are His, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from all iniquity.” That was God’ s seal, the impress of the great King upon the foundation-stone. Do we find it here? Yes, we do. “ If a man, therefore, purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honour.” You see that the man who is the golden or silver vessel departs from all iniquity, and that is the token of his genuine character. 2. Notice, however, that they are purged, for the Lord will not use filthy vessels be they what they may. 3. And then notice that these gold and silver vessels are reserved as well as purged. They are made meet for the Master’ s use. As Joseph had a cup out of which he alone drank, so the Lord takes His people to be His peculiar treasure, vessels for His personal use. 4. Oh, for a holy character and holy communion with God; then we shall be golden vessels fit for the Master’ s use, and so, according to the text, we shall be ready for every good work, ready for the work when it comes, and ready at the work when it has come, because completely consecrated to God and subject to His hand, IV. We must speak about the Master.1. He is introduced here, you see, as having certain vessels meet for His use, and this shows that He is in the house. Secondly, the Master knows all about the house, and knows the quality of all the vessels. And then reflect that the Master will use us all as far as we are fit to be used. What comes of this, then, lastly? Wily, let us bestir ourselves that we be purged, for the text says, “ If a man therefore purge himself.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Christian vessel 1. Vessels of gold and silver. We are reminded here of the vessels used in tabernacle and temple service, golden basins for the blood, golden dishes for the bread, golden flagons for the wine, golden snuffers, snuff dishes, and oil vessels, for the lamps. Then there were the silver sockets for the foundations of the tabernacle, silver fillets and hooks, silver vessels, attached to the brazen altar. To prepare these, the gold and silver needed refining theft the dross might be purged away by the fire. In figure we see the refining process through which God passes His people that they may be fit for His use (Malachi 3:2-3). He sits and watches until the reflection of Himself is visible in the hearts and lives of those whom He is refining. If we would be honoured in special service in the sanctuary, and be found prepared unto every good work, we must cheerfully and willingly submit to the refiner, and the refiner’ s fire. Self must be consumed, all impurity of motive must be purged away, all the faith that God esteems so precious must be tried to its utmost power of endurance. 2. Vessels of wood and of earth. These are the vessels for everyday and ordinary use--for the Master’ s constant use in His house. A wooden vessel is formed out of the rough timber, and must undergo the sharp cutting of saw, plane, and chisel. The Lord finds many knots and guarls in the rough material, from which He fashions these vessels, and He knows how to use the sharp tools of discipline and trial. He will shape our lives according to His own design, and the pattern after which we are made will be a heavenly one. An earthen vessel is made out of the clay under the hands of the potter. “ We are the clay” (Isaiah 64:8). Some are inclined to boast of superiority of ancestry, but after all it is only clay. To be made into vessels the clay must needs be soft to receive the impression of the hand of the potter. It must be free from grit and other hard substances, otherwise it will not yield to the hand. God would have us as the clay, able to take the impression, and yield to the pressure of His will. He must remove all the grit of self and pride, and the many hard substances that find their way in, otherwise “ the vessel will be marred in the hands of the potter” (Jeremiah 18:5). The wheel was a horizontal disk on which the clay was placed, and made to rotate rapidly. Day by day, the wheel of our life spins round, and God would fashion us by our daily circumstances and surroundings. When the wheel stops how will He find us? Finished or unfinished? Unto honour or dishonour? Complete or marred? Has He not frequently almost stopped the wheel, and, finding the vessel marred, has “ made it again another vessel, as it hath pleased Him” ? Many can thank God for the change in their lives, produced through sickness sanctified to their souls. 3. All the famous porcelain works have their private marks burned into the vessels they produce, so that they can be easily identified at any time. So the Great Potter has placed His private mark on all who are His handiwork, and the mark has been burned in by the fire of His love, thus becoming indelible, and easy of identification. 4. The vessel made and marked, and prepared in the furnace, is now fit for use, and is to be in constant use, by being filled with treasure. Look for a moment into yonder house. It is breakfast-time, and the little white earthenware mug stands full of milk on the table for little Mary. Afterwards it is washed and put away ready for use, and in the course of the morning her little brother asks for a drink of water. Mary fills her mug and give it to him. Again the vessel is put aside ready for use. A friend calls and leaves a nosegay of flowers. Down runs the child to fill her mug with water to revive the flowers, and the house is filled with their perfume. At the door later on a poor creature falls fainting and exhausted, and the mug, ready again, is quickly brought containing some wine or other restorative, that is poured down the sufferer’ s throat. It is only an earthen vessel, but it is prepared for every good work by being kept clean. What shall we be? Only vessels, to do one thing, only a Sunday-school teacher, only a tract distributor, only a church member. Let us ask the Master to use us in every way He chooses. Let us be for Him the basin wherewith He may wash some soiled ones, or a vessel wherewith He may give of the milk of the Word to His babes, or the bearer of the message of atoning blood, or all these, as He may have need. Let us purge ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit; be sanctified by the truth, and reserved absolutely for His use and for no other. 5. If not a “ vessel of mercy,” then a” vessel of wrath,” If not in His hand for His use in His household, then to be dashed in pieces, and to be but a potsherd cast away amongst the rubbish. (G. Soltan.) Holy vessels I. The vessels of honour are originally unholy. Were it not thus, why are we commanded to purge, to cleanse ourselves? II. The vessels of honour are to be purged. III. The holy are honourable.1. For, are not such the nearest unto the nature of God?2. Set apart for the most noble ends?3. Can any else truly hate evil? detest base courses?4. And who but they shall be crowned with immortal glory? IV. Sanctified men are meet instruments for the use of their master. V. The Lord hath use for his holy vessels. VI. Sanctified persons for every good work are prepared. Not for one, but all. They can fast, pray, hear, read, meditate; deny themselves, afflict their souls, give alms, do and suffer anything. What God affirms they believe, what He commands they obey, what He doth they approve. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Fitness for the Lord’ s service I. Our text describes the service to which Christians are called. It is described in three ways.1. A Christian in his service should be an honour to himself. Worthy of the nature God has given him, worthy of his capabilities, worthy of his privileges, and worthy of his position and opportunities and means. Now we naturally estimate all service by the heart there is in it. There are differences in true service; some lower and some higher. The supreme aim of Christian men must be spiritual service by spiritual means. 2. A Christian in his service must be useful to his Master. “ Meet,” etc. It is intimated in this view of our service that we do not work apart and alone as master-workmen, choosing our own work, choosing how to do it, and finishing and round-it off by ourselves. We work under a master, we receive out” work at his hands, we do it according to his directions, we do it under his eye, and when it is done we bring it to him that he may put it to its proper use. It is the glory of a master-worker that he can use the services of a thousand workmen, give full scope to their faculties, and then by the’ use he makes of their work double its value. 3. A Christian in his service should be “ prepared unto every good work.” Prepared for good work. There are stages in goodness. There is good desire, the conception and digestion of the plan for carrying out the desire, the provision of means, and, last of all, the actual work. Prepared unto every good work. The world is wide; human needs are great; God calls sinful men to a high destiny. The obstacles in the way are great and many; how great must the design be, and how manifold the work which embraces all. But our Master is prepared unto every good work, and He gives His servants power like His own. II. The preparation necessary for such service. In every department of God’ s kingdom fitness is the law of service. It is true that what man deems fit may be foolishness with God; and what God deems fit may be foolishness with man. In this sense the Cross, and the preaching of the Cross are foolishness. Again, it has pleased God to accomplish great results by slender human instruments, that He might teach us rightly to estimate the value of our own work and His. But all this does not alter the fact that so far as man’ s work is used, it is used according to its fitness. God does not employ ignorant men to teach wisdom, nor worldly men to produce spirituality, nor lovers of ease to conduct great enterprises, nor selfish men to generate enthusiasm of love. Wherein does preparation consist?1. In purity of life. Personal worth is the foundation of service, and the measure of personal worth is the measure of fitness for service. Two considerations show the need of eminent personal worth as a preparation. (1) We never do anything well till we have caught the spirit of it, till it possess us, till we live in it and find our joy in it. (2) Men are slow to believe in goodness--i.e., in goodness as the proper result of personal principle. They are apt to explain it as the result of circumstances, of a good natural disposition, of what is necessary to maintain with credit a Christian profession. This suspicion is often excessive and unreasonable, but there it is; and he who would win men to righteousness must have personal worth to overcome it. 2. Purity of doctrine is not less necessary than purity of life. Personal excellence enables a man to do good chiefly by enabling him to bear witness of Christ. John the Baptist was as eminent in personal worth as any man that ever lived; yet he spoke of himself as only a voice. It was needful for the work appointed him that he should be a man of sterling worth; but what would his personal worth have done for Judea apart from his witness to Christ? The personal worth of God’ s people does not enable them to save men; but it does enable them to bear witness to Him who can save. (John Pilhans.) The Master’ s use I. First comes meetness. In the renewed spirit, the chastened imagination, the energised conscience, the obedient will, we find the highest ineptness for spiritual service.1. Meetness comes from faculty patiently used. This is true of all faculty. Mr. Ruskin shows us how hard it is to draw a straight line, how none but an accustomed hand can do it. Men shrink from commencement. If you wish to skate, you must not mind a fall, the graceful curve is not a gift, but a growth. The most able musician once had the drill of exercises. The most perfect classic once toiled over unpoetical grammar-books. Christian service is not an easy service; to teach a child is not merely an inspiration, but an education. Of course faculty varies, and there are diverse adaptations. Talents are differentiated--ten, five, one--but all have talents. 2. Meetness comes through suffering patiently borne. Many of the Church’ s best angels are not the ablest or the cleverest, but the humblest. Sorrow often does what no other agency can achieve. Suffering creates sympathy and tenderness to the erring, and consciousness of our own frailty. Moreover the heavenly world becomes clearer to the eye that is purified by trial. 3. Meetness comes from instrumentalities faithfully employed. These are divine and wonderful. As soldiers, we have the perfect panoply of the heavenly armour. As stewards, we have each a many-acred farm to care for. As vine-dressers, we have the sun and shade and shower, and God has given us our own sweet vineyard of Church or home. If we do not the work nearest to us, we shall do no other. Reynolds, it is said, could sit thirty-six hours before the canvas without a break to bring out in beauty the human face divine. How seldom have we ever lingered enthusiastically at our work to bring out on the living canvas of the human heart the beautiful likeness of Jesus Christi Let us be diligent. Meetness will come through meditation which is prayer in preparation, and prayer which is meditation spoken; and, above all, from the consciousness of dependence on the spirit of the living God, who will strengthen us with all might in our inner man. II. Ministration. We come here to the word “ use.” Use characterises all the works of God. The running stream is more than a line of silver beauty in the landscape; it brings fertility and blessing with it. The sea bears the freight of commerce, and brings the healthful ozone on its bosom, as well as spreads its broad expanse of beautiful blue. The tree gives you shade in summer, and breathes out its air of oxygen. We cannot as yet discern all uses; but use there is, delicate and exquisite, in all the works of God.1. The Christian man is to be a useful man, not a self-indulgent one. We are under a Master. Alas! how many take Christ as a Saviour who do not take Him as a Master, and seldom ponder how much they can obey Him! 2. We are of use to the Master. He has condescended to link His kingdom in its extension with our poor endeavours. Christian work is not merely a kind of spiritual exercise. Your living and your loving heart, your sanctified energies, are useful to the Master. 3. We must give our best to the Master. It is sad, in this England of ours, to think how little faculty is cultured. The Scotch set us a splendid example in this respect, so do the Germans. Dr. Guthrie’ s autobiography shows what Scotch lads did and do to rise, not merely in position, but in attainment! They have had heroes other than those who fought at Bannockburn--heroes of the parish school and college. It is not lamentable to find faculty so little cultivated amongst us? How few fit themselves for higher posts! (W. M. Statham.) The holiness of use Who are they whom the apostle sees enthroned; his vessels unto honour; the people whom the law of creation praises and places on high? They are the “ sanctified,” he writes. A favourite epithet with him, which our translators frequently rendering thus, have sometimes rendered, “ hallowed” and sometimes “ holy,” and the fundamental idea of which is “ separation.” Hence its ancient application to the firstlings of the Hebrew flocks and herds as being animals taken out from the rest, and set apart for God, to be laid upon His altar. St. Paul’ s sanctified ones, then, are God’ s sacred ones--God’ s saints. But that is not telling us much. What is it to be a sacred person, we ask; what is a saint? They, you know, have been designated “ sacred” who have withdrawn from common mundane pursuits to occupy themselves mainly with religious exercises, in the performance of religious rites and ceremonies; and “ saint,” you may hear applied, not seldom, with half a sneer; to those who are interested in and zealous for theological dogmas, or scrupulous in abstaining from practices and amusements to which the generality are addicted, or given to church worship and pious talk. The real sacredness, however, the real sanctity in men, consists according to the implication and suggestion of the term employed here, in personal surrender to the Divine claims upon us; in separation from self-indulgence and self-will, from contrary inclinations and propensities, to be what Heaven would have us be, to cultivate conformity to the Divine ideal. This is glory, teaches the apostle; this is to enjoy rank and commendation; being good and doing nobly. But now, we have not advanced very far after all. Our explanatory words wait to be explained. What is it to be good and do nobly, to be worthy and act well our part, which St. Paul describes theologically as “ sanctification,” or devotion to the will of God? In whom is it exemplified? and our writer answers shortly: In those who are “ meet for the blaster’ s use,” or, more correctly, in those who are “ useful for the Master.” The saint, then, is eminently the useful person. Holiness is use. It is not in mere having, nor yet in being and doing, that it is reached; but in being and doing beneficially. But while without some use we are naught, there is a certain special use which it is necessary to yield in order to be a saint, and the yielding of which reveals and marks the saint. “ Useful for the Master,” says the apostle. He has been comparing society to a house containing divers kinds of vessels--of which house he has implied that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Head; and the hallowed vessels therein are the vessels, he tells us, that are profitable to Him. Now, we may be said to be profitable to another, as we are contributing to the fulfilment of his wishes and ideas, as we are instrumental in forwarding his views, in advancing his purposes. We are useful for Christ, can only be useful for Him in that way--by helping to promote His ends. And what are they? What was His grand passion, the object that burdened and consumed Him? Was it not, speaking broadly, and according to His own constant testimony, that men might be quickened and raised to live more abundantly? But here, probably, many an earnest, well-meaning soul will be moved to say, “ I really do not know, I really cannot tell, whether or no I am of any such use in the world, and, what is more, I seem to have so little chance or power; my scope is so narrow, my ability so small.” And as if to meet and answer these, and encourage and assure them, St. Paul hastens to add to the words, “ Useful for the Master,” the qualifying explanatory clause, “ being prepared or ready to every good work.” We do not know, we cannot tell, whether we are divinely helpful. Not a few are so to a considerable extent without perceiving it. They live sincerely and beautifully, and die wearily, unconscious of how noble or wide their effect has been. But while unable to decide concerning the amount of our helpfulness, we can tell whether we are ready to do every good work that may be done by us in our sphere; whether we carry about within us a spirit and disposition to serve; whether we are alive to each open door of opportunity and quick to enter in and occupy; whether we have a heart sensitively responsive to needs that appeal, to the calls and claims of the hour; whether our desire and aim is to make a good work of whatever is laid upon us to do, to do it according to our light and power in the best and perfectest way, let it be the painting of a picture or the sweeping of a room, preaching a sermon or managing a business. We can tell whether it is thus with us. But what then? Why the apostle implies that such alertness to do well at every step, on every occasion, is certain to involve the radiation from us of some helpfulness; that you may conclude you are for some use if only you are eager and anxious to discharge faithfully each duty as it presents itself, to answer duly to the requirements of the time and place, to the facts before you. And now a word in conclusion, concerning what is necessary in order to reach and maintain this hallowed state of use in preparedness for every good work. “ If a man purge himself from these,” says St. Paul, that is, from the vessels unto dishonour, of which he has been speaking, as mixed with others in the house--“ If a man purge himself from these, then shall he be a vessel unto honour.” It is intimated, you see, that none are found saints to begin with; that to become such and remain such we must need engage and persevere in effort, in effort to cleanse and emancipate ourselves; that there is that which has to be shaken off and risen out of. And there is, around us, morally adverse, morally opposing atmospheres, unavoidable contacts and intercourses that tend to deaden and depress, popular maxims and sentiments, prevailing ideas and fashions, the spirit of the world seeking other things altogether than the things which are Jesus Christ’ s, and encountered continually at every turn, insinuating and insidious. All this has to be resisted and surmounted. (S. A. Tipple.) Sanctifted and meet for tile Master’ s use For a moment the apostle drops the figure of the house and the foundation, to take it up again in the remaining portion of the sentence. Purification from vessels would be a very incongruous figure. What St. Paul says is--If therefore any man shall have purged himself from these evil associations or corrupting ideas, from persons whose words are like the deadly poison of contagious gangrene, then he will be a vessel unto honour, whether his faculties cause him to resemble the golden goblet or the silver lamp; the wooden bowl or the porcelain vase; if pure and conscientious, faithful and good, he will be consecrated to noblest uses, serviceable to the Master of the house, and prepared for every good work. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Fit for use I remember reading of a man who, having a grudge against a railway company, threw a bar of soap into their tank of water. The soap was dissolved, introduced into the boiler, and as soapy water does not generate steam, the engine by and by came to a standstill. The fires were all right but there was no steam; and we must, figuratively speaking, keep the soap out, or God cannot use us. Remember we owe allegiance to Him who needs every thought of the heart. (G. F. Pentecost.) A clean vessel If in haste we would give a draught of refreshing water to a traveller, we take from our shelf the first vessel which is clean. We pass over the elegant and richly-chased cup for the earthenware mug, if the latter has a cleanliness which the former lacks. And our Lord Jesus will gladly use us for His service, though we be but common ware, if only we are clean and ready for use. In our hospitals the instruments used in operations are constantly kept in carbolic acid, that they may not carry the slightest contagion to the open wound; and we cannot touch the open and festering wounds which sin has caused without injury to ourselves and others, unless we are ever in the flow of the blood and water of which St. John speaks. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Holiness and service Through the whole of Scripture we find that whatever God sanctifies is to be used in the service of His holiness. Holiness and selfishness, holiness and inactivity, holiness and sloth, holiness and helplessness, are utterly irreconcilable. Whatever we read of as holy was taken into the service of the holiness of God. Holiness is essential to effectual service. In the Old Testament we see degrees of holiness, not only in the holy places, but as much in the holy persons. In the nation, the Levites, the priests and then the High Priest, advance from step to step; as in each succeeding stage the circle narrows, and the service is more direct and entire, so the holiness required is higher and more distinct. It is even so in this more spiritual dispensation; the more of holiness, the greater the fitness for service; the more there is of true holiness the more there is of God, and the more true and deep is the entrance He has had into the soul. The hold He has on the soul to use it in His service is more complete. (Andrew Murray.) Various vessels All the vessels of Christ’ s house are not of one size. (S. Rutherford.) What service might have been done by greater sanctification When “ Nelson served under Admiral Hotham, and a certain number of the enemy’ s ships had been captured, the commander said, “ We must be contented: we have done very well.” But Nelson did not think so, since a number of the enemy’ s vessels had escaped. “ Now,” said he, “ had we taken ten sail, and allowed the eleventh to escape when it had been possible to have got at her, I could never have called it well done.” If we have brought many to Christ we dare not boast, for we are humbled by the reflection that more might have been done had we been fitter instruments for God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The stimulus of holiness Holiness is a source of every kind of human excellence. For it sets to work all our powers, and sets them to work in the best possible direction. It gives to intellectual effort its noblest aim, viz., to comprehend and to convey to others the life-giving truth of God; and it guards intellectual success from the perils which surround it. It gives the noblest motive for the care and development of the body; for it shows us that the powers even of our perishing body may work out eternal results. And it gives the only pure motive, and a very strong motive, for effort after material good; for it teaches that this world’ s wealth may be a means of laying up treasure in heaven. Thus holiness quickens, develops, and elevates all our powers. (J. A. Beet.) The beauty of service Once upon a time, says the legend, a dispute arose between three young ladies as to which had the most beautiful hand. One sat by a crystal stream and dipped her snowy hand into the water and held it up. Another plucked strawberries till the ends of her tapering fingers were pink. Another gathered violets till her hands were fragrant. Thereupon an aged woman passed by, hungry, emaciated, decrepit. “ Who will give me a gift,” said she, “ for I am poor?” All three young ladies denied her request; but a poor peasant girl, who stood near, unwashed in the stream, unstained by the pink of strawberries, unadorned with flowers, gave her a simple gift and cheered the aged pilgrim. Then, turning back, she asked the three young ladies what they disputed about. They told her, and lifted up their beautiful hands for her to decide. “ Beautiful, indeed!” exclaimed she, with radiant countenance. “ But which is the most beautiful?” asked they. “ It is not the hand that is washed in the purling brook,” said she; “ it is not the hand that is tipped with delicate pink; it is not the hand garlanded with fragrant flowers, it is the hand which gave a gift to the destitute that is most beautiful.” And as she spoke her body was slowly transfigured, her wrinkles gradually vanished, her staff suddenly dropped, and there flew up to heaven, in a blaze of glory, the radiant form of an angel of God. Yes, the sanctification of man means the sanctification of all that the man has to do. It means the sanctification of the hand, the feet, the brain, the heart, the temper, the disposition, the pocket, the whole man, inwardly and outwardly. It is the perfecting of the heart that makes the perfection of every state in life. The service of love We may be blameless without being faultless. If it be asked what practical difference there is in such a distinction, we may take, as an example, a little child whose loving heart is bent upon pleasing her mother. Her first little task of needlework is put into her hands. But the little fingers are all unskilled, nor has she any thought of the nicety required; still with intense pleasure she sets stitch after stitch, until at last she brings it to her mother; she has done her best and does not dream of failure. And the mother taking it, sees two things: one is a work as faulty as it well can be, with stitches long and crooked; and the other is that smiling, upturned face, with its sweet consciousness of love. Not for anything could she coldly criticise that work. She thinks of the effort to please, and how little she could expect in a first attempt. It is the child’ s best for the time being. So she commends her and even praises the poor, imperfect work, and then gently and most lovingly shows her how she may do still better. The child is blameless, but her work not faultless. It will be nearer and nearer faultless, as day after day she gathers skill, and even new ideas of care and faithfulness in her tasks; but still in her mother’ s eyes she is at first, as well as at last, her blameless child. (S. F. Smiley.) Reasons why you are not used You are admitted into a great house, along the walls of which are four shelves; on the lower shelf the gold, on the second the silver, on the third the wood, and on the fourth--high, way up where you would think the dust collected--the earthern vessel. Upon one of these four shelves there is each one of those in this congregation. You say, “ I am not gold, I am not silver, I am rather wooden if anything, or earthenware; my place is on the very top shelf,” and when I ask if you can tell which of those four shelves holds the vessels to honour, you say, “ Oh, I suppose those golden or silver ones beneath, and my lot will never be there.” The Master enters. “ Wilt Thou tell us to-day, for our hearts are all aflame to be used by Thee in the foreign mission or home mission field, where we may stand, to be vessels of honour?” And He says: “ I cannot tell by the outside appearance. I must look in.” He takes the gold, and says: “ That won’ t do, it is not clean.” He takes the silver one and puts it back with a sad look. It is not clean. Bat it may be He comes to those upper shelves, and takes down one of the very commonest of the vessels, and I see a smile come over His face as He lifts it, and He presses it to His lips, and says: “ This will do; this is a vessel to honour, this is a choice vessel, it is clean. If a man cleanse himself he shall be a vessel to honour.” “ Ah, but, Master, there is nothing inside of it.” “ That doesn’ t matter. I will put inside what has got to be put inside. I only want a clean vessel to put it in.” God says, “ My child, you have failed, not because you lack the talent or power, but are deficient in the one thing you might accomplish, having the cleansed heart.” (F. B. Meyer.) 2 Timothy 2:22 Flee youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace.Flee the passions of youth Timothy was no longer a young man, but he was still in the strength of his manhood, when he might easily suffer from desires and passions which are comparatively venial in a youth. The juvenilia desideria, the immoderate hilarity, the irregular longings of the flesh and mind, the rashness of judgment, the self-indulgence, the love of admiration, which are weakness and failure of youth, not its beauty nor its charm. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) The Christian young man To the word “ lust” a specific meaning is now popularly attached, which we do not find in the original; the term there used being much more extensive, and, with the addition of the epithet, “ youthful,” much more expressive. It signifies the inclination of the mind; and thus it includes what is evil in the spark as well as in the flame, in the blossom as well as in the fruit, in the deep, though still fountain, as well as in the rolling, turbid, and impetuous stream. And with good reason; for however small and obscure the beginning, the end may be most momentous, most irreparable. Hear it plainly stated: “ Lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Watch over inclination, lest it become desire; watch over desire, lest it become appetite; watch over appetite, lest it become passion; watch over passion, lest it become, in the evil and extreme sense, “ lust.” And this applies equally to voluptuousness, ambition, covetousness, revenge, and all the characteristic vices of youth. I. And this is to be done by avoiding, as far as it be possible, the companionship of the ungodly. On this subject, indeed, the wise man, teaching from experience, is earnest even beyond his wont; counselling with an emphatic iteration: “ Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men; avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.” It is against the first step that young men should be exhorted especially to guard; to beware of the first act, against which conscience enters and records its solemn protest. II. While, however, you “ flee youthful lusts” by avoiding companionship with the wicked, flee them also by cultivating companionship with the heart; and weigh well those associations, habits, and pursuits, which give a direction to the mind. Beware lest inclination assume the reins of action; beware lest interest or convenience usurp that supremacy over the purposes and the practices, which ought to be exercised only by conscience and by principle. Test all things by one standard; try all men by one rule; and let that be the Word of God. Whenever, therefore, in a judgment administered upon such principles, and directed to such an cud, the bent of the mind and the will are found to be in any particular instance opposed to the great purpose, for which all who bear, by their own consent, the name of Christian, must for that very reason profess to live, it is clear that the course of life must be altered, the stream of thought and desire must be turned, the current must be made to flow in an opposite direction. And if this only be done as soon as the necessity is discerned, it will be done effectually, and it will be done comparatively without an effort. III. Not only, however, are we exhorted in the text to “ flee youthful lusts,” but to cultivate those Christian graces and dispositions, which can never appear to greater advantage than when they are associated with the natural transparency ann ingenuousness of youth.1. Follow, then, after righteousness. Give God what is His due; and you will never withhold from man what is his. 2. Follow not only after righteousness, but, as the apostle exhorts his son Timothy, after “ faith.” Account, that as practical righteousness, the rendering of everything that is due to man, so faith is the expectation of all that is needful from God. 3. Next, you are exhorted to follow “ charity” or love. Love is the essence of righteousness, for it is “ the fulfilling of the law” ; it is also the evidence of faith, for “ faith worketh by love.” 4. Lastly, in the words of the apostle, “ follow after peace.” This, indeed, is the subject of one of the most earnest petitions that ever fell from human lips: “ Now the God of peace Himself give you peace always by all means.” Nor can the apostles of the Lord and Saviour better express the fervour of their love for the brethren than by the prayer that “ grace, mercy, and peace may be multiplied to them through Jesus Christ.” Yes, peace is indeed an object worthy to be followed by man, a blessing worthy to be multiplied by God. Follow after peace, then, and ye will find it, in all its varieties of excellency and of loveliness. Peace of conscience; for your sins, however multiplied and aggravated, shall be made as though they had never been. Peace of mind; for “ great peace have they that love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them.” Peace with man in life, for “ the work of righteousness is peace” ; and peace--the “ peace that passeth understanding” --in death, for “ mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.” Now we have looked upon four objects of moral excellency and social usefulness, which the young Christian is to follow--righteousness, faith, charity, peace. Let us contrast these with four “ youthful lusts,” desires, inclinations, or tendencies, call them which you will, from which he is to flee. The love of self, as opposed to righteousness; the pride of philosophical unbelief--unbelief that calls itself philosophical--as opposed to faith; covetousness, or the desire of accumulation, as opposed to charity; and the turbulence of mirth, revelry, and excess, as opposed to peace. (T. Dale, M. A.) Admonitions to the young I. Consider what you ought to avoid--“ Flee youthful lusts.” The objects of abhorrence are distinctly specified in this short but impressive caution. No palliating epithets are employed to divest them of their disgusting qualities. They are not pleaded for by being called, as too many in modern times represent them “ mere juvenile indiscretions,” --“ youthful follies,” which maturer age will correct; but they are marked by a term, which at once describes and condemns them. Lust, in the language of Scripture, has an extensive latitude of meaning; it is applied to evil desire in general--the desire of what is in itself unlawful and forbidden, or the intemperate desire of what is in itself lawful and allowed. This explanation accords with the assertion of the apostle John in his first Epistle, in which he gives an accurate classification of evil desires: “ All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world.” The passions and appetites of our nature are powerful principles of action. Were they always subjected to the government of enlightened reason, they would become sources of innocent gratification; indulgence would leave no stain, and remembrance would awaken no remorse. But from their fatal predominance over the convictions of the understanding, and the remonstrances of conscience, what streams of sin and misery have inundated the world! To these, as their immediate sources, may be traced innumerable diseases which ruin the body, by causing its premature debility, and securing its inevitable destruction. But their direst evil is that they “ war against the soul,” impair the mind, and pollute the heart. In order to render the impression more vivid, let us consider to what evil desires the young are peculiarly exposed; what are the unhallowed passions that require their utmost vigilance and opposition.1. I would first exhort you, my young friends, to guard against the seductions of sensuality; against what are emphatically termed “ fleshy lusts.” On no subject are the sacred writers more frequent, or more alarming in their denunciations than on this. Aware of the wide-spreading nature of the contagion, they continually remind us of its evil, and direct us to the means of counteracting and expelling it. 2. Beware of intemperance. By intemperance, I mean particularly the excessive indulgence of those appetites of our nature on which our existence depends. It is sometimes said that such indulgence, so basely irrational, places a man on a level with the brutes that perish. But it is insulting to brutes to make the comparison. The laws of animal instinct teach them moderation, and the dictates of universal conscience as well as the “ grace of God,” should teach men, that “ denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, they should live soberly in this present evil world.” Intemperance is the baneful source of most destructive evils; it is the powerful stimulus to the commission of crimes, which men would shudder to perpetrate in the cool moments of sobriety. 3. Amongst the evil principles which the apostle warns us to avoid, may be included also high-mindedness, for immediately after the exhortation in the text, he says, “ The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves.” And to enforce this impressive caution he predicts the approach of “ perilous times,” when all the symptoms of unhallowed self-exaltation should be manifest in the prevailing characters of men. I have adopted a term of extensive application, because it includes the various modifications of pride, haughtiness, conceit, vanity, and ambition. It is worthy of your attentive regard that the admonition in the text is levelled at the very seat and principle of iniquity. The tyranny of the passions is enthroned on the heart; and it is from that interior dominion they must be expelled. The axe is therefore laid at the root of the tree, that all its branches and fruit may be destroyed. The apostle does not merely say, Flee evil habits, impure connections, and all the scenes of temptation, but he says what virtually includes all this, by denouncing their pernicious origin: “ Flee youthful lusts” ; let not the desire be indulged; “ the thought of foolishness is sin.” As the venerable Elisha purified the waters of Jericho, by sprinkling salt on the fountain whence they flowed, so the apostle directs us to cleanse the springs o! action; persuaded that they will send forth wholesome streams when healed from the contamination of sin. II. Our next general inquiry respects the opposite principles and tempers which ought to form the objects of your constant and unremitting pursuit what should you follow? He was persuaded that in order to “ abhor that which is evil,” we must “ cleave to that which is good.” Let us attend to his wise and salutary directions.1. Follow righteousness. This term frequently occurs in the sacred writings, with various, though connected acceptations. In its most important reference it is applied to that perfect “ obedience even unto death,” by which our exalted Lord “ magnified the law and made it honourable.” The Scriptures which so clearly reveal this righteousness as the exclusive basis of acceptance with God, announce the method of obtaining its blessings. “ Not to him that worketh, but to him that believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.” This righteousness, the possession of which justifies a sinner in the sight of God, will infallibly secure as its invariable consequence, an inherent rectitude of principle--that personal righteousness, “ without which no man can see the Lord.” In conformity with this statement, I would earnestly exhort you, my young friends, to cultivate all the fruits of righteousness. Aim at the entire agreement of your spirit and actions with the unerring rule of righteousness, laid down in the sacred Word. There you behold its nature clearly defined, and its wide extent unfolded. It is not a variable, shifting principle, adapted to the changes of custom, and the fluctuations of caprice. Its nature and obligations are not dependent on views of expediency, which may happen to agree with its dictates to-day, and suggest an opposite rule of conduct to-morrow. Righteousness is the conformity of the heart and life to the immutable laws of equity which God has established; an equity, unbending in its decisions, and unalterable in its claims. 2. If you “ follow righteousness,” your character will be adorned by fidelity. This I conceive is what the apostle meant by “ faith” ; and the word has precisely this rendering, in the Epistle to Titus, in which servants are exhorted to “ show all good fidelity.” Fidelity is an important part of righteousness; it is one of the essential expressions of it, and all pretensions to rectitude without it are but as “ tinkling cymbals and as sounding brass.” 3. With “ righteousness and fidelity,” the apostle connects charity and peace. The principles and duties of justice are intimately blended with those of benevolence. The latter derive all their value and stability from the former, and give them in return “ an ornament of grace--a crown of glory.” Charity, or love, is of essential importance to Christian character. It is often referred to as a decisive test of real religion. It is well described by the apostle Paul as the “ bond of perfectness.” It unites and combines all the other graces, “ fitly framing them together,” giving them beauty, proportion, and effect. The apostle Paul has presented a full-length portraiture of Charity. Are you surprised that peace should spring from that charity which “ endureth all things” ? This is its rational and invariable result. The peace which flows from believing, and which consists in reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ, will be connected with a pacific temper and disposition. These are the objects of pursuit exhibited to your attention, in the exhortation of the text. You are commanded to follow them, wherever they may lead you; to aim at attaining them, whatever they may cost you; anti with unremitting diligence to persevere in the path which they have prescribed. With peculiar propriety has the apostle connected this wise direction with the preceding caution. Every disposition marked out as the object of pursuit, immediately tends to the subversion of those unhallowed desires which you are warned to avoid. You cannot indulge in one “ youthful lust” but you violate the claims of “ righteousness, faith, charity, and peace.” Let these holy principles exist, and you will be effectually armed against the enemies of your souls. III. with whom should you associate? “ With them that call on the Lord with a pure heart.” Religion does not extirpate the social affections of our nature; but it directs their exercise, and consecrates them supremely to the glory of God. The fellowship of a Christian Church is designed to bring them under the guidance of those laws which Christ has revealed in His Word, and to regulate all our voluntary associations. The influence of pernicious example is peculiarly felt in the circle of intimate friendship. There your opinions and practices receive their strongest confirmation; and your character and habits, if at first opposed to the prevailing complexion of those with whom you associate, will be almost imperceptibly changed. Consider the infinite importance of being now “ numbered with the saints,” “ on the Lord’ s side,” that you may not be “ gathered with sinners” at the day of final separation and unalterable decision! (Jos. Fletcher, M. A.) Purity Antony William Boehme, a German divine, once preached from Exodus 20:14 : “ Thou shalt not commit adultery.” A chevalier, who was one of his hearers, felt himself so much insulted that he challenged Boehme to fight a duel, because he thought his sermon designed entirely to offend him. Boehme accepted the challenge, and appeared in his robes; but instead of a pistol he had the Bible in his hand, and spoke to him in the following manner: “ I am sorry you were so much offended when I preached against that destructive vice; at the time I did not even think of you. Here I appear with the sword of the Spirit, and if your conscience condemns you, I beseech you, for your own salvation, to repent of your sins and lead a new life. If you will, then fire at me immediately, for I would willingly lose my life if that might be the means of saving your soul l” The chevalier was so struck with this language that he embraced him and solicited his friendship. A bold man was this preacher, and reminds you of another bold man in English history, Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, who presented to Henry VIII. for a new year’ s gift a New Testament, doubled down at the leaf where is written, “ Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). God’ s truth must be told, and not be kept back. The Seventh Commandment concerns our own and our neighbour’ s chastity: “ Thou shalt not commit adultery.” It forbids all acts of uncleanness, with all those fleshly lusts which produce those acts and war against the soul; and all those practices which cherish and excite those fleshly lusts, as looking in order to lust, which Christ tells us is forbidden in this commandment (Matthew 5:28). The eyes, like Jacob’ s cattle, too firmly fixed on beautiful objects, make the affections bring forth spotted fruit, and it is as easy to quench the fire of Etna as the thought fixed by lust. Lusting is often the result of looking, as in David, who saw Bathsheba bathing, and in Joseph’ s mistress, who set her eyes upon Joseph. Lust is quicksighted. How much better Job, who would not look, lest he should think upon a maid! He had learned to keep in his eyes from roving to wanton prospects. Samson’ s eyes were the first offenders that betrayed him to unlawful desire of carnal pleasure; therefore are his eyes first pulled out, and he led a blind captive to Gaza, where before he had with carnal appetite gazed on his Delilah. Among the things which in our baptismal vow we promised to renounce are the sinful lusts of the flesh. The text enforces that promise upon us. Carnal pleasures are the sins of youth; ambition and the love of power the sins of middle age: covetousness and carking cares the crimes of old age. “ Flee fornication,” etc. (1 Corinthians 6:18-19). He that commits this sin sinneth against his own body; and inasmuch as his body was created for God’ s Holy Spirit to dwell in, it is a defilement of the temple of God. This sin of fornication is, therefore, the more hateful, because by committing it a man sins both against himself, against his fellow-creature, and against his God. By indulging in this sin he debases his noblest faculties; he defiles and destroys God’ s handiwork; he makes vile that which God made holy. By the just judgment of God all these irregular and sinful connections are married to death. Neither prostitutes, whore mongers, nor unclean persons of any description can live out half their days. Parents! beware of the example of Eli! He was a good man himself, but his children were extremely wicked--he restrained them not. Parents! see that your children do not associate with corrupt companions--“ Evil communications corrupt good manners.” Indulged children, like Dinah (Genesis 34:1-31.), often become a grief and shame to their families. Her pretence was to see the daughters of the land, to see how they dressed, and how they danced, and what was fashionable amongst them; she went to see--she went to be seen too; she went to gain an acquaintance with those Canaanites, and to learn their way. See what came from Dinah’ s roving! The beginning of sin is as the letting forth of water--“ Give the water no passage, neither an unprotected daughter liberty to gad abroad” (Ecclus). Carefully avoid all occasions of sin and approaches to it. Parents! let your household arrangements be such as never to endanger your children’ s purity of character; never let the blush of shame be needlessly raised on their cheeks. Whatever sacrifice it may cost you in other ways, do not put them in jeopardy by crowding your family into too small a space, thus rendering it impossible that a sense of decency and modesty should be preserved. It is a false and fatal economy that would tempt you to do this. Much depends on you, landlords, masters, employers of labour. But whatever may be done by parents or by masters, to you, young men and young women, we must mainly look. The celebrated John Newton, as the commander of a slave-ship, had a number of women under his absolute command, and knowing the danger of his situation on that account, he resolved to abstain from flesh in his food, and to drink nothing stronger than water during the voyage, that by abstemiousness he might subdue every improper emotion. Upon his setting sail, the sight of a certain point of land was the signal for his beginning a rule which he was enabled to keep. (R. A. Taylor, M. A.) Helps against lusts 1. Get a sound knowledge of them.2. Mortify thy carnal members.3. Labour for a broken heart.4. Be diligent in thy calling.5. Abandon lewd companions.6. And strive to taste deeply of the water of life; favour the best things. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Youthful lusts And thy lusts of youth are principally these: pride, idleness, pleasure, wantonness. To avoid these See thou--1. Set a watch over all thy external senses. In presence, view not, touch not. In absence, talk not, think not on wanton affections. 2. Sleep little, eat little, work much, pray much; for take away the fuel and the fire will be quenched. 3. When wandering cogitations or suggestions reflect on thy fancy, divert them the contrary way. Forget not this. 4. Attend to good counsel, and follow it; and see before thou purpose anything what the best men advise thee. (J. Barlow, D. D.) A choice between the higher and lower life Thou hast a double nature. Choose between the worse and the better that is within thee. Thou hast it in thy power to become the slave of passion, the slave of luxury, the slave of sensual pleasure, the slave of corruption. Thou hast it in thy power to become the free master of thyself, to become the everlasting benefactor of thy country, and the unfailing champion of thy God. (Dean Stanley.) Passions to be early checked There was once an old monk walking through the forest with a little scholar by his side. The old man suddenly stopped and pointed to four plants close at hand. The first was beginning to peep above the ground; the second had rooted itself pretty well into the earth; the third was a small shrub; whilst the fourth and last was a full-sized tree. Then the old monk said to his young companion: “ Pull up the first.” The youth easily pulled it up with his fingers. “ Now pull the second.” The youth obeyed, but not so easily. “ And the third.” But the boy had to put forth all his strength, and to use both arms, before he succeeded in uprooting it. “ And now,” said the master, “ try your hand upon the fourth.” But lo! the trunk of the tall tree, grasped in the arms of the youth, scarcely shook its leaves, and the little fellow found it impossible to tear its roots from the earth. Then the wise old monk explained to his scholar the meaning of the four trials. “ This, my son, is just what happens with our passions. When they are young and weak, one may, by a little watchfulness over self, and the help of a little self-denial, easily tear them up; but if we let them cast their roots deep down into our souls, then no human power can uproot them, the Almighty hand of the Creator alone can pluck them out. For this reason, watch well over the first movements of your soul, and study by acts of virtue to keep your passions well in check.” The bloom of youthful purity There grows a bloom and beauty over the beauty of the plum and apricot, more exquisite than the fruit itself--a soft, delicate flush that overspreads its blushing cheek. Now, if you strike your hand over that, it is gone for ever, for it never grows but once. The flower that hangs in the morning impearled with dew, arrayed as a queenly woman never was arrayed with jewels; once shake it so that the beads roll off, and you may sprinkle water over it as you please, yet it can never be made again what it was when the dew fell silently on it from heaven. On a frosty morning you may see panes of glass covered with landscapes, mountains, lakes, and trees, blended in a beautiful fantastic picture. Now, lay your hand upon the glass, and by a scratch of your finger, or by the warmth of your palm, all the delicate tracery will be obliterated. So there is in youth a beauty and purity of character, which, when once touched and defiled, can never be restored-a fringe more delicate than frost-work, and which, when torn and broken, will never be re embroidered. He who has spotted and soiled his garments in youth, though he may seek to make them white again, can never wholly do it, even were he to wash them with his tears. When a young man leaves his father’ s house with the blessing of a mother’ s tears still wet upon his brow, if he once lose that early purity of character, it is a spot that he can never make whole again. Such is the consequence of crime. Its effects cannot be eradicated; it can only be forgiven. Righteousness Let me exhort you to put on the righteousness of Christ Jesus, as by application, so in imitation. When thou art to deal with God, and to appeal in His court, see thou have this wedding garment: clothe thy nakedness with the mantle of Jesus; cover thy sinful person with no other robe; wear not linsey woolsey; mix not thy pigeon feathers with this eagle’ s plumes; blend not thy flash water with this fresh wine, lest thy nakedness appear, and death be found in the pot. But with him, who knew what he did (Philippians 3:8-9), cast off thy rags, trample them under foot, and apparel thyself with the pure linen of Christ our Lord; for Solomon in all his royalty was not clothed like him, who hath put on Christ Jesus. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Faith By faith the righteousness of Christ is unfolded, apprehended, put on. Knowledge, like the eye, may direct us unto the wedding garment. But faith, as the hand, must take hold of it, apparel ourselves with it. What if we be said to live by faith? so are we by our hands. Yet doth any man eat his fingers? No; it is by that which faith applieth; and the motion of the hand procureth and receiveth. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Following peace For thy help take these directions:--1. Be at peace with God; for that will keep thy heart and mind in the acknowledgment and love of the truth (Philippians 4:7; Philippians 4:9). 2. Have peace with thyself. In all things be in subjection to the Spirit (James 3:14-15). For if wars be in us, peace will not be without us (Galatians 6:16), 3. Depart with part of thine own rights; so did Abraham to Lot (Genesis 13:9). Christ paid tribute to preserve peace (Matthew 17:1-27., ult.). And for peace sake we should suffer wrong (1 Corinthians 6:7). 4. Abandon self-love, and pray for peace. When men will have their own actions still go forward, without doubt, it is a work of the flesh (Gal_ 6:20). For motives--1. Are we not the sons of God? and is not He the King of Peace? (1 Corinthians 14:33). 2. Be we not subjects to Him who is the Prince of Peace? (Isaiah 9:6). 3. Is not a Christian called to live in peace? (1 Corinthians 7:15). 4. And if we continue in peace, will not the God of love and peace be with us? (2 Corinthians 13:11). (J. Barlow, D. D.) Self-control inspired by the thought of God A heathen may herein teach multitudes of unconverted men and many professing Christians a lesson. We read of Cyrus, that when, after one of his victories, a captive of singular beauty, Panther, the wife of Abradates, king of Susiana, was taken, he refused to see her, and entrusted her to the keeping of Araspes, giving him a very prudent admonition respecting his conduct, and was thus assured by him; “ Fear nothing; I am sure of myself, and I will answer with my life that I shall do nothing contrary to my duty.” This young nobleman was notwithstanding overcome by her beauty, and in danger of basely violating his promise, had not Panthea given Cyrus intelligence of his baseness. Araspes, when cited to appear before his prince, was overwhelmed with shame and fear, and spoke of the control over his desires which he had when in Cyrus’ presence, and his weakness when left to himself (see “ Rollin’ s Ancient History,” bk. 4., ch. 1., sec. 4.). If the presence of a fellow-creature, however marked by purity and moderation, availed to curb the passions of a heathen, how much more should the re collection of a pure and holy God! And if love constrain not, the fear of His displeasure should lead us to beware of danger, and to guard our eyes and our hearts, lest we fall into temptation. Avoiding danger Have you never heard the story of a lady who wanted a coachman? Two or three called to see her about the situation, and, in answer to her inquiries, the first applicant said, “ Yes, madam, you could not have a better coachman than myself.” She replied, “ How near do you think you could drive to danger without an accident?” “ Madam, I could go within a yard of it, and yet you would be perfectly safe.” “ Very well,” she said, “ you will not suit me.” The second one had heard the question upon which the other had been rejected, and therefore he was ready with his answer, “ Danger! madam, why I could drive within a hair’ s breadth, and yet be perfectly safe.” “ Then you will not suit me at all.” When number three came in, he was asked, “ Are you a good driver? Well,” he replied, “ I am careful and have never met with an accident.” “ But how near do you think you could drive to danger?” “ Madam,” he said, “ that is a thing I never tried, I always drive as far away from danger as ever I can.” The lady at once replied, “ You are the kind of coachman I want, and I will engage you at once.” Get such a coachman as that yourself, to guide your own heart, and lead your own character. Do not see how near you can go to sin, but see how far you can keep away from it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Abstinence A friend who, in the opinion of all who knew him, was very unlikely to take stimulants to excess, and who had very little sympathy with teetotalism, told me the other day that he had given up wine. When I asked him his reason he gave me this suggestive reply: “ Because I was beginning to like it and count on it.” It was the wise repression of incipient rebellion before it had asserted itself by overt act. (A. Rowland, LL. B.) Taken unawares We have read that “ a debtor seeing a bailiff in quest of him ran three miles to a boundary, beyond which he was safe.” The bailiff, seeming calmly to submit to his failure, stretched out his hand and said, “ Well, let us part good friends, at any rate.” The debtor, off his guard, accepted the offered hand, whereupon the bailiff, with a desperate effort, pulled him across the line, and clapping him on the shoulder, said, “ You are my prisoner.” So men may be overcome by the evil one when they least expect an assault from him, and think themselves most safe. (Sunday School Teacher.) Self-control Bishop Ryle, in his “ Young Men Exhorted,” makes some pungent remarks on this duty of self-control. “ Resolve at once,” he writes, “ by God’ s help, to shun everything that may prove an occasion of sin. It is an excellent saying of good old Bishop Hall: ‘ He that would be safe from the acts of evil must wisely avoid the occasions.’ Never hold a candle to the devil. He that would be safe must not come near the brink of danger. He must look upon his heart as a magazine of gunpowder, and be cautious not to handle one spark of temptation more than he can help. Where is the use of your praying, ‘ Lead us not into temptation,’ unless you are yourselves careful not to run into it?” “ Flee” :--Prayer is not enough. Many have prayed, and have not found it sufficient. Therefore the advice in the Bible is rational--Flee. The usual receipt for resisting sin is, Fight; but I venture to say the Bible and common sense recommend flight rather. There are many sins we must not even look at; to turn away and run is the only resource. The Bible says, “ Flee youthful lusts,” and “ Look not on the wine.” The brave thing, although it looks the cowardly, is to flee. But it is not into space we are to flee. We are to fly upward, to get into a higher mood, and breathe another atmosphere. (Prof. H. Drummond.) Temptation’ s deceits In the Fisheries Exhibition the nets were so beautifully hung and draped as to form graceful curtains. How many of Satan’ s nets are made to appear charmingly attractive. (H. O. Mackey.) The conquest of self The following epitaph was once placed over a soldier’ s grave:-- “ Here lies a soldier, whom all must applaud, Who fought many battles at home and abroad; But the hottest engagement he ever was in Was the conquest of self in the battle of sin.” The danger of success There is danger in success. St. Bernard astonished an immense congregation, intensely interested in his sermon, by suddenly exclaiming, “ Get thee behind me, Satan.” He felt that the devil was tempting him to be proud of his eloquence, as though he would win souls by his own enticing words. And when Lacordaire had enthralled thousands by one of his Lenten sermons in Notre Dame, the young monk who went to summon him to the refectory, found him kneeling before a crucifix, with the tears on his cheeks, and inquired, “ Oh, father, why are you so sad?” This was the answer, “ My son, I am afraid of success.” Be not high-minded, but fear. (Dean Hole.) Undiscovered character Every man has in himself a continent of undiscovered character. Happy is he who acts the Columbus to his own soul. (Sir Jr. Stephen.) Peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. This last “ peace” must be joined with the words immediately following: “ With them that call on the Lord,” etc. The “ peace” here signifies absence of contention; it is well paraphrased by, “ that spiritual concord which unites together all who call upon and who love their Lord.” (H. D. M. Spence, M. A.) The Christian young man It will be manifest, at the very first glance, that when the apostle expresses with whom his son Timothy should, he implies with what kind of persons he should not associate; with those who do not “ call upon the Lord,” and with those who do indeed appear to call upon the Lord, but not “ out of a pure heart.” First, the unbeliever, whether he be such in appearance, or only in practice; and next, the hypocrite, the formalist, the inconsistent, and the insincere.1. Our first character is that of the avowed and unblushing sceptic; that of the man who contemptuously characterises religion as the business of women, the trade of preachers, and the toy of men; one who mistakes adroitness in contending against truth in argument, for capability of disproving it, and who is as much delighted with himself, when he has hurled a sarcasm or a sneer against the gospel or the Church, as if he had invented an objection which must tend to the overthrow of them both. This class of persons may be ordinarily identified by one generic feature; namely, that they assume everything, and demonstrate nothing. Avoid, then, as far as possible, all intercourse, all communion, with persons such as these. If they interrogate you, answer; but when you have answered, do not argue. 2. I shall next describe the character of the man whose infidelity is practical; who is only not an atheist because he is nothing; who does not avow or advocate false principles simply because he has no principles at all; and who remains just as indifferent to all that concerns his moral responsibility or his religious duty, as if indeed he were the base degraded thing, to which he endeavours to assimilate himself; as if in truth he were “ the beast, whose spirit goeth downward to the earth” --not the rational, immortal, intelligible, accountable man, whose spirit, when dismissed from and disencumbered of its earthly tabernacle, must “ return to God that gave it.” The root of the evil is, that so far as the interests of the soul are concerned, persons of this class do not think at all. From such, then, as we have now described, such as “ separate themselves” front the assemblies of Christian worship, being “ sensual, having not the Spirit” ; such as do not “ call upon the Lord” in the house of prayer, and therefore cannot be presumed to call upon Him in the closet--you ought to separate yourselves as far as possible, on no other ground than the simple knowledge of the fact. They are far more likely to injure you than you are likely to profit them; for they have an ally, an accomplice, in your own sinful nature. 3. There is yet another class of characters, from whom in following out the spirit of the text, we are constrained to counsel separation. It is the inconsistent, the undecided, the manifestly insincere; those who “ call on the Lord,” but not “ out of a pure heart” ; those who observe proprieties, but who disregard principles; who conform to the ritual without imbibing the spirit of the Church; who profess with their lips that they know God, but in works do deny Him--disguising their practices by their profession, and masking their private vices by their public prayers. Those who “ call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” But then understand what this means--the heart of such persons is not innately pure; it is not pure from the first. No, nor is it inherently pure by any natural constitution or organisation peculiar to itself. Nor is it independently pure--without the aids of Divine and spiritual operation, or by influence of its own. Nor is it invariably pure--pure without any apprehension of or capability of change. Its purity is derived and imparted from above; purity in the comparative sense, for all human purity is comparative; and produced by the action of the Spirit of God upon the heart. It is first the purposed, attempted, desired separation from all iniquity--because we “ name the name of Christ” ; the ceasing to regard it with the heart, as well as admit it knowingly into the life. It is next the fixed, settled, honest purpose, to “ seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” ; and to postpone all considerations of present pleasure, interest, or inclination to the “ one thing” which is supremely “ needful,” even to “ win Christ and be found in Him.” Purity, indeed, is but another name for what is elsewhere called “ singleness of heart” ; that which St. Paul exemplified when he declared, “ One thing I do; forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” ; and what the Lord Himself delineated when He said, “ If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” I have already spoken to you about the prudence of avoiding companionship with the ungodly, but this example leads you one step beyond it--to the cultivation of fellowship with the pious. And for this reason: that every friendship, which is formed upon such principles and with such persons, is an additional barrier and defence against the encroachment or aggressions of the enemy. To form a new Christian connection or intimacy is like placing a new warrior within the citadel of the heart, a new sentinel upon the watch-tower, or, it may be, a new defender in the breach. (T. Dale, M. A.) 2 Timothy 2:23 Foolish and unlearned questions avoid.The Greek word translated “ unlearned,” is better rendered ignorant. These “ questions,” which the false teachers, with whom Timothy was so much thrown, loved to put forward for discussion, could hardly be termed “ unlearned” --much useless learning being often thrown away in these disputings of the schools--but were rather “ pointless,” “ stupid,” as well as foolish. (H. D. M. Spence, M. A.) Ignorant questionings I. Unadvised and unlearned questions are to be avoided.1. For the ground of them is not good: such spring either from curiosity or ignorance. 2. The fruit therefore will be bitter; for nothing profitable. II. Sin in the first causes is to be prevented. What of less motion or power than a word--a question? yet such of all men are to be regarded. III. The causes of sin once discerned are to be resisted, shunned. Thou knowest that fond reasonings, unadvised disputings, beget quarrels, stir up strifes: therefore reject them, flee from them. IV. Foolish questions raise contentions. It is a wonder to see what abundance of ill fruit one branch of fond reasoning hath produced. Like a bone cast amongst curs, an unlearned question will cause men to snarl, bite, and quarrel. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Foolish questionings A lady, of whom we beard in our travels, had worried several ministers who sought her good by always telling them that she could not believe till they could explain to her how God could be without a beginning. “ For,” said she, “ if He never began, then He has not begun, and there can be no God at all.” Very dexterous are certain persons in blocking up their own road, and yet, perhaps, there is no great dexterity in it, for the proverb says, “ A fool may put questions which a wise man cannot answer.” In the Vatican at Rome we saw the renowned statue of the boy who has a thorn in his foot, and is busy extracting if. He was doing this when we first saw him, and three years after he was attempting the same operation. We have good reason for believing that he is even now in the same posture, and will be found in like attitude fifty years hence. He is carved in marble, and therefore is excused for making no progress; but what shall be said of living, thoughtful individuals who year after year are trifling with imaginary difficulties, and never set foot on the road to heaven? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Unwise curiosity The over-curious are not over-wise. (Massinger.) Metaphysical subtleties “ Defend me, therefore, common sense, say I, From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up.” (Cowper.) Religious strife Huxley came to Baltimore to attend a general conference in 1820. A discussion arose on a question of order, whether presiding elders should be elected by preachers or not, and the dispute had waxed warm, not to say hot. Brother Huxley had said not a word through it all, but at the close of the session the Bishop called upon him to make the concluding prayer. He knelt and said, “ Now, O Lord, Thou knowest what a time we’ ve had here discussing and arguing about this eider question, and Thou knowest what our feelings are. We do not care what becomes of the ark; it’ s only who drives the oxen.” (Christian Age.) 2 Timothy 2:24 The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle.Conciliation It is noteworthy how, in these Pastoral Epistles--which contain, so to speak, the last general directions to believers in Jesus as to life, as well as doctrine of, perhaps, the greatest of the inspired teachers--so many careful suggestions are given for the guidance of Christians in all their relations with the great heathen world. Conciliation may be termed the key-note of these directions. St. Paul would press upon Timothy and his successors the great truth that it was the Master’ s will that the unnumbered people who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death should learn, by slow though sure degrees, how lovely and desirable a thing it was to be a Christian; should come at length to see clearly that Christ was, after all, the only lover and real friend of man. (H. D. M. Spence, M. A.) Gentleness becometh a minister He must not be a fighter, quarreller; but meek, quiet, easy to be entreated: for such are fathers, nurses, surgeons, physicians. Oh, how much pity, tenderness of affection is required of them! Lambs, sucking babes, bones out of joints, stand in need of a gentle heart and finger to feed, nourish, and rightly to place them. To be fierce, cruel, outrageous, better befits a dog than a shepherd. (J. Barlow, D. D.) True spirit of reform The temper and deportment recommended by St. Paul in the text to those who undertake to serve God in the instruction of man, or in advancing any reformation, approve themselves to our sober judgment as best suited to the work in view, and alone conformable to the example and precepts of our blessed Saviour. But then we look back upon the history of the Church, which is in great part an history of ignorance and instruction, of corruptions and reformations, and we find that among the most prominent of the servants of the Lord, among the most remarkable leaders in religious progress, were those who, though apt to teach were also very apt to strive, and so far from being patterns of gentleness, patience and meekness, were rather remarkable for qualities of an opposite description, for rudeness, for hastiness, and for intemperance of language and action. We ask, whether, considering the task which these men assumed, the obstacles which they were obliged to contend with, and the success which rewarded their efforts, they were not, after all, the right kind of men for the work and for the time; whether their severe and even martial characteristics were not necessary to the accomplishment of their purpose; and whether a different kind of men, of more peaceful sentiments, and moderate designs and measures, would have made any head at all against the torrent of sin and error which they might endeavour to stem. We think of Luther, of Calvin of Knox--fiery, arbitrary, and often abusive men. But were they more so than they ought to have been? Here is the gospel rule on the one side, and here, on the other, are these impressive facts. Now, in few of these facts, must not the gospel rule admit of exception and modification? If this has at any time been my opinion, longer reflection has induced me to renounce it; and I am now convinced that truth never requires the sacrifice of love, that wrath and violence are never necessary to reforms, that the cause of Christianity is never really advanced by the operations of an unchristian spirit. Do i then undertake to say, that what we have been accustomed to call reformations are not reformations, and that the leaders of them do not deserve the name of reformers, which has so long been awarded them? I say no such thing. But I do venture to affirm, that these reformations would have been attended with less suffering and evil, and would have been more extensive than they were, if the reformers had manifested more of the Christian spirit than they did. I would attribute the success of those reformers whom I have already named, such as it was, and it surely was great, not to their failings but to their excellences, not to their vices but their virtues. They possessed in great perfection the energetic virtues: through the force of these virtues, and the force of truth, they succeeded as they did. Their bitterness, their fierceness, did not promote, but on the contrary impeded, the progress of the truths for which they contended. A Christian reform cannot be caused or aided by a spirit which the law of Christ expressly and utterly condemns. The real causes which bring it about are of another character.1. There is, in the first place, the obviousness of the corruptions which the reformer would abolish, and which the pure and honest portion of society, when their eyes are opened, will unite in abolishing. 2. There is, in the second place, the equal obviousness of some good, which the reformer distinctly presents as an end, and which the well-disposed will assist him to establish. 3. There is, in the third place, the real virtue which the reformer manifests in the exhibition and accomplishment of his purpose. 4. In the fourth place, there is the vast amount of noble enthusiasm which is excited by the prospect of enormous corruptions on the one hand, and of great improvements and blessings on the other, and which enlists itself on the reformer’ s side. 5. And, to go no further in the enumeration, there is the help of God, which is always bestowed upon those who, with whatever imperfections, are labouring to accomplish a high and worthy object. I find that my opinion is supported by an authority which, on such a subject, is entitled to more than common weight. “ I know,” says the reformer John Wesley, speaking of the reformer John Knox, and of that fierce and barbarous spirit of his followers, which demolished the finest architecture of Scotland, “ I know it is commonly said, the work to be done needed such a spirit. Not so; the work of God does not, cannot need the work of the devil to forward it. And a calm, even spirit goes through rough work far better than a furious one. Although, therefore, God did use at the time of the Reformation sour, overbearing, passionate men, yet He did not use them because they were such, bat notwithstanding they were so. And there is no doubt He would have used them much more, had they been of a humbler and milder spirit.” Instances, in sufficient number, might be mentioned beside that of Wesley, of men who, charged with an important message, and meeting with rude and cruel opposition in delivering it, have still delivered it with a kind and loving, and withal a steady voice, and who have been heard and obeyed at last, when opposers grew ashamed of their own ferocity, and sank into quietness from the want of exasperation. But if there were no such instances, I see not what is to forbid our pointing to the Great Redeemer, and requiring that all who work in His name should work with His spirit; and moreover asserting that whatever contradictions of this spirit are manifested by them are to be counted, not among their excellences, nor among qualities which are necessary to their success, but among their defects, and defects which their cause, if a Christian cause, might easily have spared. (F. W. P. Greenwood, D. D.) Gentleness It is a suggestive fact that the dove, which is regarded as the emblem of gentleness, has no gall-bladder. (H. O. Mackey.) Power of gentleness St. Anselm was a monk in the Abbey of Bec, in Normandy, and upon Lanfranc’ s removal, became his successor as director. No teacher ever threw a greater spirit of love into his toil. “ Force your scholars to improve?” he burst out to another teacher who relied on blows and compulsion. “ Did you ever see a craftsman fashion a fair image out of a golden plate by blows alone? Does he not now gently press it and strike it with his tools; now with wise art, yet more gently raise and shape it. What do your scholars turn into under this ceaseless beating?” “ They turn only brutal,” was the reply. “ You have bad luck,” was the keen answer, “ in a training that only turns men into beasts.” The worst natures softened before this tenderness and patience. Even the Conqueror, so harsh and terrible to others, became another man, generous and easy of speech, with Anselm. (H. O. Mackey.) The quietness of Christ One feature of Christ’ s teaching which St. Matthew notices, is the quietness in dealing with those by whom it was misunderstood. There was no fighting, no contention of words, no hot disputing, where it could be avoided, but retirement. So we are told that when the Pharisees held a council against Him, how they might destroy Him, He withdrew Himself fulfilling, St. Matthew Sells us, the old words, “ He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets.” I must, however, draw your attention to yet one more feature, His teaching was positive, not negative. There was much in the religion of the day that was so small, contemptible, and even base, that it might have seemed right and wise to pull down first and then build. But He, by His actions and His words, was constantly justifying His express statement that He came not to destroy, but to fulfil. So far from fulminating against the dead formality of the temple worship, He tried to make it better by purging it and infusing fresh life into it. His life and words were a continual filling in with a new spirit all that was good and helpful. Where He could transform He would never discard. Could we catch something of His spirit by retiring from, instead of fighting with, determined enemies, by transforming instead of discarding, how helpful our service of man in this respect would be! (Prof. G. H. S. Walpole.) Christian gentleness I remember to-day two masters I was under at school. One was a huge, burly fellow, with a sharp, unkind word, and a sharper punishment for every boy, big or little, who was guilty of an omission or a fault: and every lad, little or big in the school, hated him, and longed for the time when they would see him no more. The other was by no means a weakling, for he was a splendid fellow in the cricket-field; but he was as gentle as a child. And the roughest and wildest lads, who would have scorned to allow their faces to tell what they suffered under a cruel beating from the first, used to dread a quiet five minutes’ talk with the second master, who in a sweet low voice always used to begin with “ my dear boy.” Few lads left the presence of that second master without having felt unable to repress the rising tears, and without a noble resolve to be better for the sake of the Christian gentleness with which the folly or the fault had been dealt with. (J. Bowker.) Kind words Kind words never blister the tongue or lips, and we never hear of any mental trouble arising from this quarter. Though they do not cost much, yet they accomplish much. They help one’ s own good nature and good will. Soft words soften our own soul; angry words are fuel to the flame of wrath, and make it burn more fiercely. Kind words make other people good-natured. Cold words freeze people, and hot words scorch them; and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words make them wrathful. There are such a number of other kinds of words, that we ought occasionally to make use of kind words. There are vain words, and idle words, and silly words, and hasty words, and empty words, and profane words, and boisterous words, and war-like words. But kind words soothe and comfort the hearer; they shame him out of his sour, morose, unkind feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance as they ought to be used. (Pascal.) Scholars to be considered rather than subjects If teachers could be convinced that every lesson in which a child, however it has increased its knowledge, has increased its dislike for knowledge, is a lesson worse than lost, then they would consider not only how subjects ought to be treated, but pupils. There are many who do great justice to their subjects, while they do great injustice to their pupils. The nature of the one is understood, but not the nature of the other. (Sunday School Teacher.) Patient (see Wis 2:19.)--Endurance of malicious detraction is one of the victories of grace. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Teaching better than controversy This is what the servant of God should really aim at being: the teacher rather than the controversialist--rather the patient endurer of wrong than the fomenter of dissentions and wordy strifes. (H. D. M Spence, M. A.) Impatience Antony, the hermit, heard praise of a certain brother; but when he tested him he found that he was impatient under injury. Quoth Antony, “ Thou art like a house which has a gay porch, but is broken into by thieves through the back door.” (C. Kingsley.) Provocation wisely used The oyster, when it is feeding, lies with its shell open a little way, so that the water may flow through it; and when any of the very little insects and animals on which it feeds comes floating in with the water, the oyster opens its mouth and swallows them. But it sometimes happens that things float in which the oyster does not want, and which it cannot swallow or eat. When it is lying quietly in the sunshine, and enjoying its meal, a little grain of sand may come inside the shell, so small that you and I could scarcely see it, but so hard and sharp, that if it gets under the oyster’ s soft, tender body, it would irritate and pain it. What does the oyster do? It has no hands to catch hold of it and throw it out. Well, it does not, as we should say, get into a passion, and knock itself about the shell; no, it lies quite still, and with some of that beautiful, white, smooth, glossy matter, with which it has lined the inside of its shell, it covers the sand all over, and so makes it smooth too. And more than that, when the oyster is caught, and its shell is opened, if one of these small round beads is found, it is taken out and called a pearl, and sometimes makes a very valuable and handsome ornament. So provocation should be the occasion of developing the pearl of patience. 2 Timothy 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God per adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.The phrase is difficult as it stands. Strictly translated it would be, “ lest at any time” ; but this would be out of harmony with the whole strain of the passage. Grave doubt is expressed, but hope is not extinguished. God is the giver of repentance. Scharlitz, quoted by Fairbairn, suggests “ whether God may not still give repentance.” Here is expression of the thought that there is room and necessity for the operation of the Spirit of God, over and above the normal action of the truth upon the understanding. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Timothy’ s ministry (2 Timothy 2:25-26):--Consider-- I. The characters among whom it was to re exercised--opposers not only of God, but of themselves. They oppose--1. Their duty.2. Their conscience.3. Their peace.4. Their safety. II. Its nature. It was a ministry of--1. Instruction.2. Meekness. III. Its design.1. That sinners may be led to repentance.2. Led to an acknowledgment of the truth.3. Recovered from the snares of the devil. (Anon.) Meekness in the minister He who cannot bear calmly and reply with dignity to contradiction, is just as little fitted for the ministry of the gospel as the physician would be for his profession who would allow himself to become moved by the abusive speech of a patient in fever delirium either to forsake the sick-bed, or to hurl back the abuse. (Van Oosterzee.) Thunder rare But you may reply that ministers must be Boanerges, Sons of Thunder, rattle in a congregation. True; notwithstanding, meekness is to be retained, practised. But to return an answer suitable to the objection.1. Every thin vapour, light exhalation, will not afford matter to cause a thunder-crack; so each text, subject, doth not give warrant to denounce terrors. 2. Before it thunder we apprehend a light, and then the voice striketh the organ of hearing, and the eye of the mind is to be enlightened in order ere that judgment be threatened. 3. Thunder is rare, not at every season; should the minister continually shoot the shafts of God’ s indignation, would not the vulgar begin to smile, laugh him to scorn? 4. After a great crack of thunder the heavens grow black and refresh the earth with sweet showers of water, and when the bolts of justice are cast among the people a preacher is to assume a doleful look, a sad countenance. These rules observed, cry aloud, Thunder and spare not l What shall I more say? In the cause of thy Master be bold, resolute; in thine own, let meekness have her perfect work. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The spirit of opposition It was written of Thoreau, the author, that “ He was by nature of the opposition; there was a constitutional ‘ No’ in him that could not be tortured into ‘ Yes.’” (H. O. Mackey.) The nature of religious truths I. Here is a supposition laid down--that truth is something real in itself and of importance to men; something that may be found, and which we ought to seek after. Wherever the Scripture speaks of truth it always means such truth as has relation to religion. All truth, of what kind soever it be, is real. But truth in matters of religion is always of the greatest importance; as being the foundation and the support of right practice. These truths of God are like an immovable rock, the basis and foundation of that true religion which approves itself to every man’ s understanding by clear reason, and glorifies God by making men like unto Him through virtue and righteousness in their practice. All false religions consist in changing these truths of God into a lie (Romans 1:25). II. Such is the corrupt state and disposition of mankind, that some there will always be who will set themselves to oppose the truth, Notwithstanding the native excellency and beauty of truth considered in itself; notwithstanding the strength and clearness of reason with which it is generally accompanied; notwithstanding the apparent benefit and advantage to which the knowledge of truth always brings, to mankind; yet so little sensible are men of the intrinsic excellency of things, so unattentive to the strength of the clearest reason, so apt to be imposed upon in judging concerning their own true interests; that nothing is more common than to see the plainest and most useful truths in matters of religion violently and passionately opposed. The principal causes of this opposition are--1. Ignorance. Meaning here by ignorance not a bare want of knowledge. There is a presumptuous ignorance which despises knowledge, and this makes men oppose the truth before they understand anything of it. 2. Carelessness. They blindly, and without any consideration, follow the customs of the place where they happen to live, and the knowledge of truth seems to them to be of no great importance. They take up their religion at adventures, not from the consideration of the laws of nature or of revelation, but merely from the company they chance to be educated amongst, and thus all religions are put upon an equal foot, varying according to the accidental temper, of the persons among whom they prevail. 3. Prejudice. They have accustomed themselves to found their belief entirely in an implicit reliance upon other men, instead of building it upon the evidence of things themselves which is the foundation of truth. 4. Rut the last and greatest reason of men’ s setting themselves in opposition to the truth is the wickedness and corruption of their manners, the love of unrighteousness and debauchery, the desire and power of dominion, the concern they are under for the defence and support of a sect or party without having any knowledge how far they are, or are not, in the right. III. The direction given us concerning our own duty, that we ought in meekness to instruct those who oppose themselves against the truth. “ We cannot always discern who they are that err through ignorance and through a vicious disposition. But if we would, yet meekness is at all times necessarily a fruit of the spirit, and we are commanded to be patient towards all men, towards them that oppose as well as towards them that are only ignorant of the truth. IV. A particular reason with regard to the persons to be instructed, why our instruction to them ought always to be accompanied with meekness. If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth. In the original it is, “ Lest God peradventure should give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth.” The meaning is, we are to instruct them with meekness, lest peradventure, by our heat and passion, we raise in them a just prejudice against us, when, by meek instruction, they might possibly have been brought to repentance, and to the acknowledgment of the truth, and so we, by our ill-behaviour become answerable for their miscarriage. For this reason we so frequently find repeated in Scripture the following admonitions, which may serve for a proper application of this whole discourse: 1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 3:15; 1 Corinthians 10:32; Colossians 4:5; 1 Timothy 3:7; Philippians 2:15; Philippians 4:5; Matthew 5:16. (S. Clarke, D. D.) Repentance the design of preaching 1. One principal end of the ministry is to bring men to repentance.2. By meek preaching God may work repentance.3. Repentance is hopeful and yet doubtful.4. Ministers are to preach and leave the success to the Lord. (J. Barlow, D. D.) Meekness in controversy When Dr. Swift was arguing one day with great coolness with a gentleman who had become exceedingly warm in the dispute, one of the company asked him how he could keep his temper so well. “ The reason is,” replied the dean, “ I have truth on my side.” A cobbler at Leyden, who used to attend the public dispulations held at the academy, was once asked if he understood Latin. “ No,” replied the mechanic, “ but I know who is wrong in the argument.” “ How?” replied his friend. “ Why, by seeing who is angry first.” (Sunday School Teacher.) Many qualities requisite in a minister The medical attendant of my brother has just been expressing his surprise to see how much I am worn within this last half year; I am very sensible of it myself, and expect that I shall be much more worn if my people continue in such a grievous state. I would that my eyes were a fountain of tears to run down day and night. Would you believe it? I have been used to read the Scriptures to get from them rich discoveries of the power and grace of Christ: to learn how to minister to a loving and obedient people; I am now reading them really and literally to know how to minister to a conceited, contentious, and rebellious people. Two qualities, I am sure, are requisite, meekness and patience, yet, in some cases, I shall be constrained to rebuke with authority. I have been used to sail in the Pacific. I am now learning to navigate the Red Sea, that is full of shoals and rocks, with a very intricate passage. I trust the Lord will carry me safely through; but my former trials have been nothing to this. (C. Simeon.) Plain instruction Who expects to find “ Bradshaw” full of Latin questions? You get it as a guide, and you want it to be as plain as possible. You have lost your way among some mountains one night, and are overtaken by some classic--who says, “ I will tell you the way to get home in sixteen different languages,” none of which you comprehend. I think you would reply, “ I would rather be told it, sir, in one that I could understand.” Or, if some profound professor should inform you that he could explain the geological strata and formation of the soil on which you were standing, I think you would say, “ If you could point me to my own abode, I should be more grateful.” And I think if some poor ragged girl or shepherd boy could tell you of a way by which you could escape that wood or yonder precipice and reach a hospitable shelter, such information would undoubtedly be more profitable to you. The sign-post that points the way by the side of the roads never have a quotation of poetry upon them, or sentences from Isocrates or Sophocles. There is just the word, and that is enough. (C. H. Spurgeon.) 2 Timothy 2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will--And that they may return to sobriety from the benumbing intoxication of false philosophy and bad habits, here represented as a snare of the devil, in which, though held captive, they were not yet killed--“ out of the snare of the devil, being made living captives of by him.” So far, there is no difficulty, but the last clause, “ according to the will of Him,” leaves the reader in doubt as to its meaning, since two pronouns are used which generally, if not universally, refer to two different subjects. De Wette, Huther, and Davidson disregard the difference of the pronouns, and make them both refer to the devil. But the contrast of the two pronouns is remarkable, and the sense of the passage very obscure, the “ will of the devil” being an otiose addition, unless it he translated, as by Davidson, “ to do his will.” If ἐκείνου refers to the more remote antecedent, then “ God’ s will” is suggested as the gracious accompaniment and occasion of this gift of repentance, or as the exposition of the state of new life, into which such penitents may be brought. The passage will read as follows:--“ Whether haply God would grant them repentance, and also whether haply they may return to society, into harmony with His will, out of the snare of the devil, seeing they have been made living captives by him.” (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Satan’ s temptations are like snares The devil is a fowler, beholds the world like a great and spacious forest full of all kinds of beasts and birds, and setteth snares and gins in every corner to catch them.1. In a snare there is subtlety, so in Satan’ s temptations. (1) He never propounds a temptation in his own name. No, should he do so, his plot would be discerned prevented. How cunningly crept he into the serpent and seduced the woman? He conveyed himself into such things as we are least suspicious of. Who would have thought that any snare had been in the words of the apostle, Master pity thyself? Yet doth not Christ reply, “ Get thee behind Me, Satan” ? (2) He can lay a snare in the very Scriptures. Though they be milk for babes, strong meat for grown men, he can poison all. Let Christ answer him by Scripture, straight he replies, tempting him by a place of Scripture. “ Cast thyself down; for it is written, God shall give His angels charge over Thee that thou dash not Thy foot against a stone.” (3) He can convey a temptation in the frame of a man’ s spirit. He conceives that some are apt to pride, malice, coveteousness, melancholy, mirth, silence, liberalness of speech, and according to our natural inclination he sets his gins for us. Thus he provides a wanton object in the time of idleness, a beautiful woman washing herself, and so the good king is caught in his net. What way the tree leans he thrusts it, and where the fence is weakest he seeks to enter. So subtley will he here lay a snare that we will hardly be brought to believe it is a temptation of Satan, but think rather it proceeds solely from our natural disposition. 2. In a snare there is cruelty; so here. He is called Abaddon, Apollion, a murderer, a destroyer. 3. In a snare is strength, and is it not to be found in Satan’ s temptations? 4. You shall find in Satan’ s temptations, as in snares, pleasures and suddenness. Were it not thus they were not snares properly. Was not the tree, in the eye of Eve, good for meat, pleasant, and to be desired to get knowledge (Genesis 3:6)? Were not the daughters of men fair (Genesis 6:2)? And in these was not a bait to catch the beholders? Have not fowlers a lure and call, as if they were birds themselves, to allure and deceive? Will they not scatter corn and all to seduce and bring within danger the little-suspicious birds? Do they not creep on their hands and knees, stand in close and secret places, and when the fowl is within reach how suddenly is the net pulled! Per adventure, when she is singing, playing, suspecting nothing, she is wound in. When Satan assaults, how eagerly, busily, and suddenly will he follow the prey? He sets a man’ s affections on fire, kindles such a heat within him that for the present the object of temptation seems wonderful fair, delightful, honourable; though when he is ensnared he perceives no such thing, but the direct contrary. (J. Barlow, D. D.) The deluded captives These words are the concluding portion of a solemn address to Timothy, in reference to the instruction of the ungodly, and is the end pointed out as resulting from that instruction--“ And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.” They present to the thoughtful mind a sad picture, bringing before us on the one hand the devil, in the character of fowler; and on the other hand his victims, as deluded, taken alive, under a hard bondage. I. The characters spoken of. II. The means by which they are held in bondage. III. The means by which they may be recovered from that bondage. I. They are spoken of as those who are ensnared by Satan, and “ taken captive by him at his will.”1. We must notice who is the captor. It is the devil, the murderer and liar, the destroyer of souls; represented here under the character of a snarer or fowler. It is very important to notice Satan in his character, because it manifests his subtlety. The fowler must be subtle in hiding his net, or otherwise he would miss his prey. It is plain from Scripture that sin was introduced through Satan’ s subtlety. 2. In the next place, see the awful force of the language. The expression, “ taken captive,” is rendered in the margin “ taken alive” ; it is an idea derived from fowling, in which the prey is taken alive in snares: so the devil takes men’ s souls alive by his subtlety: nay, more, unless they be recovered out of his snares, they must be alive for ever under his sway: lost, yet alive; hopeless, yet alive; tormented, yet alive; ever desiring to die, but never able. The other expression, “ at his will,” may bear a double interpretation. It may mean that they have been ensnared by Satan’ s arts unto his will; i.e., they were so influenced by him that they complied with his will. It is most important to notice this, because it at once brings out the humiliating truth, that the ungodly comply with Satan’ s will: The man who lives in drunkenness, who is a sensualist; or to pass on to sins which are thought little of in the world, the man who is untruthful, a backbiter, a slanderer or deceitful, is complying with Satan’ s will. The man who is a neglecter of salvation, who never prays, who is putting off the thought of eternity to a convenient season, is complying with Satan’ s will. Again, the expression “ at his will,” may have reference to the devil’ s will concerning his victims--viz., their destruction. Hence those who are taken alive by Satan at his will are taken alive by him for their destruction, he is leading them on, step by step, with the one end and the one object of dragging them alive into that pit of darkness and agony prepared for himself and his angels. Our look upon this other picture--while Satan wills your destruction, God wills your salvation. “ He would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 3. In the next place, notice the bondage itself. It is worse than Egyptian bondage. A sinner, taken captive by Satan, has his immortal soul in captivity, bound in fetters which none can break but the Lord of glory. But we may see the fearfulness of this bondage by looking at it in a threefold point of view. (1) The master whom the captive serves. Dread thought! it is not Jesus, the sinner’ s great Deliverer, but it is the devil, the sinner’ s great destroyer. Ah! and what a master! one’ who hates him; one who watches closely to prevent his victim’ s escape, binding around him every day tighter and tighter the cords of his destruction. Look again-- (2) At the state of the captive. It is one of misery and wretchedness. “ The way of transgressors is hard.” It is utterly impossible to experience true peace and happiness while walking in the pathway of the devil. Christ’ s yoke in opposition to Satan’ s; the one is perfect liberty while the other is the most galling bondage. Look again-- (3) At the end of this bondage. Now, Satan does not make his bondage felt, for fear of alarming the victim, and leading him to seek deliverance from it: but in eternity, when all hope of deliverance is past, he will make his bondage felt in all its overwhelming force. II. The means by which Satan keeps sinners captive. He does so by his snares. We must look at some of those principle snares by which he deludes and holds captive the unwary.1. The first snare of Satan which I shall mention is, his making sin pleasant, and hiding its awful consequences. He makes the sinner believe the command not to sin, to be a restriction of his liberty, and, therefore, one which he has no right to listen to. It is the present, and the present only, which the devil seeks to force on the captive’ s mind; the present and its gain; but the awfully mysterious future he puts out of sight, veiling from the sinner’ s mind his dread connection with it. 2. A second snare of Satan’ s is, his insinuating doubts into the mind as to the truth of God’ s Word. 3. A third snare of Satan’ s is, his presenting God to the soul as one made up of all mercy. 4. A fourth snare of Satan’ s is, by persuading the soul that the work of repentance is an easy work: that it need not be thought of till laid on a bed of sickness or a bed of death: and he will suggest to the sinner’ s mind examples from God’ s Word to bear out this delusion. 5. Another snare of Satan, by which he takes souls captive, is by making himself an object of ridicule. This is one of “ the depths of Satan” : he knows that the Bible puts him forward as an object of dread; he takes care, therefore, to put himself forward as an object of ridicule, so as to blind the ungodly, and keep them captive at his will. Mark the consequence: all the warnings of Scripture concerning him, all the representations of him as an adversary, a murderer, fall on the ear of his captives as unmeaning titles, they cannot comprehend why he is to be dreaded. And why is this? Just because they are ignorant of the real reason why they cannot comprehend it--viz., Satan has deceived them, deceived them as to his character, deceived them as to his object, deceived them as to their danger, deceived them as to their end, and, will deceive them to that very hour when, as lost and wretched, they shall open their eyes, to learn then, but, alas I too late, that though the devil appeared to them “ an angel of light,” yet he was indeed a deceiver, a liar, and a murderer. 6. Another snare by which Satan takes souls captive at his will is, by making them rest in outward forms instead of true conversion. III. The means by which souls may be recovered from his bondage. “ And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.” The word which is rendered “ recover” is in the margin, “ awake.” It properly means to become sober again, as from intoxication; to awake from a deep sleep; and then to come to one’ s self, or to a right mind. The idea is, that while men are under the bondage of the devil, they are like men intoxicated, or in a deep slumber, unconscious of their danger. How are they to be roused to a sense of their danger? The answer is given in the previous verse, we are to set before them the “ truth,” the simple truth of Christ, If peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of it.” Acknowledging, implying not merely confession of the truth, but a vital reception of it as it is in Jesus. It is the truth of Christ borne home to the heart by the Holy Ghost, which is the means of conversion. As long as Satan can spread over us the veil of darkness, so long are we his captives, but no sooner does the light of Christ’ s truth break in on the soul, than the darkness is dispersed, Satan is vanquished, and the sinner delivered out of darkness into light, and from the power of sin and Satan unto God. But mark you, it is God alone who can effect this transformation; it is God alone who can bear home the word to the heart, and make it a converting word. (A. W. Snape, M. A.) The snare of the devil Forbidden fruit is sweet. It is sweetened by the devil. One forbidden tree in Eden seemed better than a thousand trees allowed. That terrible magician has power to concentrate our gaze upon one object--power to withdraw our eyes from the pure and wholesome fruits of many trees, and rivet them upon that one forbidden thing. He so intensifies our thought upon that one desire that it outgrows all desires, and perhaps life itself for the time seems stale and flat unless that one desire be gratified. That is one of the supernatural powers of the serpent to charm his victims. This dreadful delusion, this deadly fascination, fills common objects with dazzling beauty. The coloured lights of hell are reflected upon earthly things and make them appear heavenly. Thus the gaming-table is made to assume attractions which make money and land and houses insignificant trifles in comparison. Thus a glass of liquor grows in beauty and power that will out-dazzle the love of family, or the joys of home, or even the hopes of heaven. (R. S. Barrett.) Snared through over-confidence Naturalists tell us that amongst birds and butterflies, the swiftest, strongest fliers approach man much nearer than those with weaker wings, feeling confident that they can dart away from any threatened danger, and this misplaced confidence brings them into the net of the collector. (W. L. Watkinson.) Caution necessary In mountain ranges there is often a loose detritus especially dangerous to mountaineers; these loose or crumbling stones being called “ the devil’ s stones,” for, owing to their treacherous character, if you step on one incautiously you may be precipitated into the depths. There are many such stones in the path of life. False maxims with sophistical colourings; license stealing the name of liberty; harmful speculations, luring as grand chances; methods of trade outlined square, yet full of betrayal; sandy doctrines simulating the rock; friendships which are flowery graves; occupations, recreations which promise rest and serve only to slip us into mire; these are the things of peril: life is full of them; and he only walks surely who walks discreetly. (W. L. Watkinson.) . 2 Timothy 3:1 Perilous times shall come.Perilous times I. The manner of the warning. “ This know also.”1. It is the duty of ministers to foresee and take notice of the dangers which the churches are falling into. 2. It is the great concern of all professors and believers to have their hearts very much fixed upon present and approaching dangers. 3. Not to be sensible of a present perilous season is that security which the scripture so condemns; and I will leave it with you under these three things-- (1) It is that frame of heart which of all others God doth most detest and abhor. Nothing is more hateful to God than a secure frame in perilous days. (2) A secure person, in perilous seasons, is assuredly under the power of some predominant lust, whether it appears, or not. (3) This senseless frame is the certain presage of approaching ruin. II. The evil itself. “ Perilous times” --times of great difficulty, like those of public plagues, when death lies at every door. III. The manner of introduction--“ Shall come.” Our great wisdom then will be to eye the displeasure of God in perilous seasons, since there is a judicial hand of God in them: and we see in ourselves reason enough why they should come. IV. The time and season of it--“ In the last days.” You may take it in what sense you will: the last days, the days of the gospel; the last days towards the consummation of all things; the last days following the days of the profession of churches; and the last days with many of us, with respect to our lives.1. The first thing that makes a season perilous is, when the profession of true religion is outwardly maintained under a visible predominancy of horrible lusts and wickedness (see 2 Timothy 3:2-5). (1) Because of the infection. (2) Because of the effects. When predominant lusts have broken all bounds of Divine light and rule, how long do you think human rules will keep them in order? (3) Because of the consequences--the judgments of God (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11). 2. A second perilous season is, when men are prone to forsake the truth, and seducers abound to gather them up that are so; and you will have always these things go together. If it be asked, how we may know whether there be a proneness in the minds of men in any season to depart from the truth? there are three ways whereby we may judge of it. (1) The first is that mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:3. When men grow weary of sound doctrine, when it is too plain, too dull, too common, too high, too mysterious, one thing or other that displeases them, and they would hear something new, something that may please. (2) When men have lost the power of truth in their conversation, and are as prone and ready to part with the profession of it in their minds. Do you see a man retaining the profession of the truth under a worldly conversation? He wants but baits from temptation, or a seducer to take away his faith from him. (3) The proneness to depart from the truth, is a perilous season, because it is the greatest evidence of the withdrawing of the Spirit of God from His Church. 3. A third thing that makes a perilous season is, professors mixing themselves with the world, and learning their manners. Such a season is dangerous, because the sins of professors in it lie directly contrary to the whole design of the mediation of Christ in this world. Christ “ gave Himself for us, that He might purge us from dead works, and purify us unto Himself a peculiar people” (Titus 2:14). “ Ye are a royal nation, a peculiar people.” 4. Another perilous season is when there is great attendance on outward duties, but inward, spiritual decays. 5. Times of persecution are also times of peril. Use1. Let us all be exhorted to endeavour to get our hearts affected with the perils of the day wherein we live. (1) Consider the present things, and bring them to rule, and see what God’ s Word says of them. (2) If you would be sensible of present perilous times, take heed of centring in self. Whether you pursue riches, or honours, while you centre there, nothing can make you Sensible of the perils of the day. (3) Pray that God would give us grace to be sensible of the perils of the day wherein we live. Use 2. The next thing is this, that there are two things in a perilous season--the sin of it, and the misery of it. Labour to be sensible of the former, or you will never be sensible of the latter. Use 3. Remember there is a special frame of spirit required in us all in such perilous seasons as these are. And what is that? It is a mourning frame of spirit. Use 4. Keep up church watch with diligence, and by the rule. When I say rule, I mean the life of it. Use 5. Reckon upon it, that in such times as these are, all of us will not go free. (John Owen, D. D.) Perilous times in the last days 1. The notification of an event as future--“ Perilous times shall come.” (1) Times wherein it will be hard for people to keep their feet, to know how to carry themselves, to keep out of danger, and keep a good conscience. (2) “ Shall come.” They will be on men, in the course of providence, to try what metal they are of; as darkness comes on after light, and adversity after prosperity; in their turn. 2. The time of that event--“ In the last days.” The days of the gospel are the concluding period of time. In these last days are several particular periods; the first of which was the last time of the Jewish state, beginning from the time of our Saviour, to the destruction of Jerusalem; and more periods followed, and some are yet to come; but from the time of our Saviour to the end of the world, is “ the last days.” 3. The notice to be taken of that event--“ This know also” ; rather, “ Now know this” ; consider it duly, and lay it to heart, that being fore warned, ye may be armed against the “ perilous times.” I. We shall consider “ the days of the gospel as the last days.” And so we may take them up in a threefold view.1. As the last days of the world, the latter end of time. With rela tion to them that oath is made (Revelation 10:6). The morning and forenoon of the world are over; it is afternoon with it now, and drawing toward the evening. 2. As the days of the last dispensation of grace towards the world, with which God’ s dealing with sinners for reconciliation shall be closed (Revelation 10:7). There have been three dispensations of grace in the world: the Patriarchal dispensation in the first days; the Mosaical dispensation in the middle days; and now the Christian dispensation in the last days. The first two are now off the stage, and shall never come on again; the third now is; and after it there shall never be another. 3. As the best days of the world in respect of the greatest advantages attending them. The last works of God are always the greatest, as ye may see in the account of the Creation (Genesis 1:1-31.); so the circumstances of the world to come are greater than those of this. The gospel-dispensation far excels the other two, in clearness, extensiveness, and efficacy, through a larger measure of the Spirit. II. The difficult and perilous times that come on in gospel days. We must inquire what makes these perilous times.1. An old controversy lying over untaken up. They that are in debt are always in danger. The Jews were from generation to generation murderers of their prophets; there was an old debt on the head of the generation in our Saviour’ s time (Matthew 23:31); and made their time perilous, for it was like a train lying, which at last came to blow them up (verse 35). So good Josiah’ s days were perilous times, by reason of an old controversy laid in the days of Manasseh his grandfather (2 Kings 23:26). Our times are so, by reason of the iniquity of the late times, which is like that of Baal-peer, that brought “ a plague on the congregation of the Lord” (Joshua 22:17). 1. Error or corruption of principles spreading. This was foretold to happen in the latter days (1 Timothy 4:1). 2. Immoralities abounding. (T. Boston, D. D.) Evil of the last days These (evil characters) will swarm like flies in the decay of the year. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Corruptions within Not so much on the account of persecutions from without as on the account of corruptions within. (M. Henry.) Traitors Two traitors within the garrison may do more hurt to it than two thousand besiegers without. (M. Henry.) Fidelity in evil times The worse the times we live in are, the greater will our honour be, if we be faithful. It was Lot’ s commendation that he was good in Sodom, and Job in an heathenish Uz. The more sin abounds, the more our grace should abound; and the more sin appears in the world, the more should we appear against it. The Lord hath done more for us of this last age of the world than He ever did for our forefathers, and therefore He expects more from us than He did from them; where He bestows much He looks for much again; where we bestow double cost, we look for a double crop. It is a shame for us if we do not do our work better by sunlight, than others that have had but twilight. (T. Hall, B. D.) Sin makes the times bad It is worth our noting that the apostle doth not place the peril and hardness of the last times, in any external calamity or penal evils, as sword, plague, famine, persecution; but in the prodigious sins and enormities of such as profess religion. Sin is the evil of evils, and brings all other evils with it. Let the times be never so miserable, and the Church lie under sad persecutions; yet if they be not sinful times, they are not truly perilous times, but rather purging and purifying times. (T. Hall, B. D.) Sinners swarm even in gospel days Vermin of this kind will then abound everywhere; weeds grow nowhere so rank as in fat soil. (T. Hall, B. D.) Prudence in perilous times This spiritual prudence can hurt neither pastor nor people, but will advantage us much. This pre-vision is the best means of prevention; in vain is the snare laid in the sight of a bird. Observe God’ s singular love unto His people, in that He warns them of perilous times long before they come. The people of God, and specially His ministers, His Timothies, should be so prudent as to know and observe when perilous times are approaching, as the prudent man foresees the evil of punishment before it comes (Proverbs 22:3-5). (T. Hall, B. D.) Time aiding proficiency in sin As it is in every art, by length of time, custom, and experience, it is improved to a greater degree of fineness and exactness; so it is in this of sinning; time and experience make men more cunning in ways of sin, and more subtle to defend them. (T. Hall, B. D.) Making the times better We should all make the times and places we live in the better, and not the worse, for us. (T. Hall, B. D.) 2 Timothy 3:2-5 Men shall be lovers of their own selves.The nature and kinds of self-love I. Self-love, considered in the general, abstracting from particular circumstances, is neither a vice nor a virtue. It is nothing but the inclination of every man to his own happiness. A passionate desire to be always pleased and well-satisfied, neither to feel nor fear any pain or trouble, either of body or mind. It is an instinct of nature common to all men, and not admitting of any excess or abatement. Self-love directed to, and pursuing, what is, upon the whole, and in the last result of things, absolutely best for us, is innocent and good; and every deviation from this is culpable, more or less so, according to the degrees and the circumstances of it. II. When we blindly follow the instinct of self-love, coveting everything which looks fair, and running greedily upon it without weighing circumstances or considering consequences; or when, to get rid of any present pain or uneasiness, we take any method which first offers, without reflecting how dearly we may pay for it afterwards; I say, when we do thus, then it is that our self-love beguiles us, degenerates into a vicious, or at least, silly appetite, and comes under the name of an overweening, excessive, and inordinate self-love. He suffers the natural instinct of self-love to carry him too far after present satisfaction, farther than is consistent with his more real and durable felicity. To understand the nature of this enchantment, and how it comes to pass that those who love themselves so well, can thus consent to ruin themselves, both bodies and souls, for ever; let us trace its progress.1. To begin with pride. All the happiness of life is summed up in two articles--pleasing thoughts and pleasing sensations. Now, pride is founded in self-flattery, and self-flattery is owing to an immoderate desire of entertaining some kind of pleasing thoughts. 2. Another instance of inordinate, ill-conducted self-love is sensuality. This belongs to the body more than to the mind, is of a gross taste, aiming only at pleasing sensations. It so far agrees with pride that it makes men pursue the present gratification at the expense of the public peace and to their own future misery and ruin. 3. A third instance of blind and inordinate self-love is avarice or self-interestedness. This is of larger and more diffusive influence than either of the former. So great a part of temporal felicity is conceived to depend upon riches, that the men of this world lie under the strongest temptations to this vine of any. If the case be such, that treachery and fraud, guile and hypocrisy, rapine and violence, may be serviceable to the end proposed; the blind self-lover will charge through all rather than he defeated of his covetous designs, or bear the uneasiness of a disappointment. Thus he comes to prefer his own private, present interest, before virtue, honour, conscience, or humanity. He considers not what would be good for him upon the whole and in the last result, but lives extempore, contrives only for a few days, or years at most, looking no farther. The height of his ambition reaches not beyond temporal felicity, and he miscalculates even in that. III. Considerations proper to prevent or cure it. It is very evident that the self-lovers are not greater enemies to others in intention than they are in effect to themselves. Yet it is not less evident that they love themselves passionately all the time, and whatever hurt they do to their own selves they certainly mean none. They run upon it as a horse rushes into the battle, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, and as a bird hasteth to the snare, and know not that it is for their life. It is for want of thinking in a right way that men fall into this fatal misconduct, and nothing but serious and sober thought can bring them out of it. I shall just suggest two or three useful considerations, and then conclude.1. We should endeavour to fix in our minds this great and plain truth, that there can be no such thing as true happiness, separate from the love of God and the love of our neighbour. 2. A second consideration, proper to be hinted, is, that man is made for eternity, and not for this life only. No happiness can be true and solid which is not lasting as ourselves. 3. To conclude, the way to arrive at true happiness is to take into consideration the whole extent and compass of our being; to enlarge our views beyond our little selves to the whole creation round us, whereof we are but a slender part; and to extend our prospect beyond this life to distant glories. Make things future appear as if they were now present, and things distant as if they were near and sensible. (D. Waterland, D. D.) Self-love 1. Self-love is vicious, when it leads us to judge too favourably of our faults. (1) Sometimes it finds out other names for them, and by miscalling them endeavours to take away their bad qualities. (2) Sometimes it represents our sins as weaknesses, infirmities, the effect of natural constitution, and deserving more pity than blame. (3) Sometimes it excuses them upon account of the intent, pretending that some good or other is promoted by them, and that the motive and the end sanctify the means, or greatly lessen the faultiness of them. (4) It leads us to set our good in opposition to our bad qualities, and to persuade ourselves that wharfs laudable in us far outweighs what is evil. (4) It teaches us to compare ourselves with others, and thence to draw favourable conclusions, because we are not so bad as several whom we could name; it shows us the general corruption that is in the world, represents it worse than it is, and then tells us that we must not hope, and need not endeavour to be remarkably and singularly good. 2. Our self-love is irregular, when we think too well of our righteousness, and overvalue our good actions, and are pure in our own eyes. 3. Our self-love is blameable when we overvalue our abilities, and entertain too good an opinion of our knowledge and capacity; and this kind of self-love is called self-conceit. One evil which men reap from it is to be disliked and despised. The reason why self conceit is so much disliked is that it is always attended with a mean opinion of others. From self-conceit arise rash undertakings, hasty determinations, stubbornness, insolence, envy, censoriousness, confidence, vanity, the love of flattery, and sometimes irreligion, and a kind of idolatry, by which a man worships his own abilities, and places his whole trust in them. The unreasonableness of this con ceit appears from the imperfections of the human understanding, and the obstacles which lie between us and wisdom. 4. Our self-love is irregular when we are proud and vain of things inferior in nature to those before mentioned, when we value our selves upon the station and circumstances in which not our own deserts, but favour or birth, hath placed us, upon mere show and outside, upon these and the like advantages in which we surpass others. This conceit is unreasonable and foolish; for these are either things which the possessors can hardly call their own, as having done little or nothing to acquire them, or they are of small value, or they are liable to be irrecoverably lost by many unforeseen accidents. 5. Lastly, our self-love is vicious when we make our worldly interest, convenience, humour, ease, or pleasure, the great end of our actions. This is selfishness, a very disingenuous and sordid kind of self-love. It is a passion that leads a man to any baseness which is joined to lucre, and to any method of growing rich which may be practised with impunity. (J. Jortin, D. D.) Self.love I. I shall endeavour to trace out more particularly the workings of this noxious principle, as it respects matters of religion; for it is said of these lovers of themselves, that “ they have the form of godliness, but deny the power thereof.”1. Self-love may carry men out in desires after Christ (see Mark 1:37; John 6:26). Many would partake of Christ’ s benefits, who reject His government; receive glory from Him, but give no glory to Him. If they can but go to heaven when they die, they care not how little they have of it before; and are unconcerned about the dominion of sin, if they can but obtain the pardon of it; so that their seeking and striving are now over. 2. Self-love may be the sole foundation of men’ s love to, and delight in, God. And indeed it is so with all hypocrites and formalists in religion. Many mistake a conviction of mind, that God is to be loved, for a motion of the heart towards Him; and because they see it to be reasonable that He should be regarded by them, they imagine that He is so. But the highest regard that a natural man can have to the Divine Being, if traced back to its origin, or followed to its various actings, will be found to be self-love. 3. Self-love may be the principle that first excites, and then puts fervour and ardency into our prayers. How coldly do some put up those requests, “ Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy kingdom come” ; but are much more earnest when they come to those petitions in which their present comfort and future happiness are so much inter ested: “ Forgive us our trespasses,” and “ Give us our daily bread,” “ Let me die the death of the righteous.” 4. Self-love insinuates itself into the severer acts of mortification; nay, it often runs through and corrupts the whole course of religious duties. It is like the dead fly which taints the whole box of precious ointment. From this principle some neglect duties as burdensome, and only seek privileges; a reward without labours, victory without fighting. 5. Self-love runs through all their affections, exertions, and actions, with respect to their fellow-creatures. If they rejoice at others’ prosperity, it is because they themselves may be benefited by it. If, on the other hand, they grieve at their calamities, it is because they are likely to be sharers in them, or some way or other injured by them. II. from what has been said, you see that self-love is an insinuating principle, appearing in various forms, even in the religious world, and under many artful disguises, hard to be discerned, but harder still to be guarded against. To stir you up to this, let me set before you some of the evils resulting from this easily-besetting, and alas, too universally prevailing sin.1. It is the root of hypocrisy. So far as self-love and self-seeking influence, we are void of sincerity and integrity. 2. It promotes pride, envy, strife, uncharitableness, and an evil temper and conduct towards all with whom we are conversant. A man who loves himself too well, will never love his God or his neighbour as he ought. 3. All evil may, perhaps, be reduced to this one point: All our desires, passions, projects, and endeavours, centred in self. This was the first sin: “ Ye shall be as gods” ; and it has continued the master-sin ever since. It is the corrupt fountain, sending forth so many impure and filthy streams. (B. Beddome, M. A.) A sermon against self-love, etc 1. What kind of self-love is it which St. Paul does here so severely censure? 2. By what manner of influence self-love makes times and seasons become perilous. 3. What times the apostle means by the Last Days; and whence it is that self-love operates with such successful prevalence in those days as to render them the Evil Days. 4. What reflections are fit to be made by us, upon occasion of this argument in relation to our age, and to ourselves, and our present affairs, in order to that which all ought to fast and pray, and labour for the stability of our times and the peace of Jerusalem? I. To consider what kind of self-love St. Paul speaks against as the fountain of public mischief; for there is a self-love which is a very natural and a very useful principle. No man ever yet hated his own flesh; no man, without the loving of himself, does either preserve or improve himself. If Almighty God would not have suffered men to love themselves, He would not have moved them to their duty by their personal benefit, and especially by so great a recompense as is that of life eternal. It would conduce to the felicity of men, even in this world, if they truly loved themselves; for then they would not waste their fortunes by an unaccountable profuseness, nor destroy their bodies by the extravagances of rage, and luxury, and lust. The self-love here condemned by St. Paul is that narrow wicked affection which either wholly or principally confines a man to his seeming personal good on earth. An affection which either opposeth all public good, or at least all that public good which comes in competition with man’ s private advantage. Of such lovers of themselves the apostle gives a very ill character in the words that follow the text. He says of them, in 2 Timothy 3:2, that they are covetous; their heart is like the mouth of a devouring gulf, which sucks in all into itself with deep and unsatiable desire. He continues to mark them, in 2 Timothy 3:3, as persons without natural affection, as people who have no bowels for the miserable part of mankind; as such who rejoice at a public wreck, not considering the loss of others, nor the dismal circumstances of it; but minding with their whole intention the profit which they may gather up for their inhuman selves. He adds, in the same verse, that they are despisers of those who are good. They vilify men of a public spirit. II. This straight and uncharitable affection is of so malignant an influence, that where it prevails no age can be calm, no government stable, no person secure. And that it is of such perilous consequence may be demonstrated on this manner. God, who is good and does good, designed, that whilst man was here on earth, it should be competently well with him in case of his obedience, though He intended not to give him all his portion in this life. He knew that men could not subsist apart with such conveniences as they might obtain by being knit into regular societies. He, therefore, united them in civil and sacred bodies, that by conjoined strength they might procure those benefits which, in a separate state, and by their single selves, they could not come at. For, consider, how void of comfort a life of entire solitude would have been to man; with what a life of fear would they have been crucified who had stood perpetually by themselves on their own defence; with what a life of labour and meanness would men have been burdened if every one of them must have been his own only servant; if every one had been obliged to build and plant, and till the ground, and provide food and physic and garments for himself by his own solitary power. And how could a man serve himself in any of these necessary offices in times of sickness, lameness, delirium, and decrepit old age? To such a perilous and laborious life as I have been speaking of, indiscreet and vicious self-love tends; for as far as men do mind and seek themselves alone, so far they dissolve society and lessen its benefits, being rather in it than of it. So that the soul which animates society, whose advantages are so considerable, is the great and generous spirit of charity. That violates no compacts, that raises no commotions, that interrupts no good man’ s peace, that assaults no innocent man’ s person, that invades no man’ s property, that grinds no poor man’ s face, that envies no man, that supplants no man, that submits its private convenience to the public necessities. Concerning this vile affection, St. Paul taught that it would possess the men of the last days. III. To consider what times he means by those days, and in what sense he speaks of self-love as the distemper of the last days, seeing it has been the disease of every age. By the last days he means the last age of the world, the age of the Messiah, not excluding that part of it in which he himself lived. There were several precedent periods: that of the fathers before the flood, that of the patriarchs before the Law, that of Moses and the prophets under the Law. But after the age of the Messiah, time itself shall be no more. To this age all evil self-love cannot be confined, for that dotage had a being in the world from the very beginning of it. The murder of Cain was so early, that he sinned without example; and from his selfishness his murder proceeded. We therefore misunderstand St. Paul, if we interpret him as speaking, not of the increase, but of the being; of self-love; for it is not its existence, but its abundance, which he foretells. What he wrote has been true in fact, from the times of Demas and Diotrephes, to this very hour. Light is come into the world, a glorious gospel which shines everywhere; and men love darkness rather than light, and shut up themselves in their own hard and rough and private shells. Selfishness cannot be the direct natural effect of the gospel of Christ, which, of all other dispensations, depresseth the private under the public good. The age of the Messiah is the best of ages in His design, and in the means of virtue which He gives the world; and if the men of it be worse than those of other generations, the greater is the aggravation of their guilt, whilst, under a gospel of the widest charity, they exercise the narrowest selfishness. But, however, so it is: whether it be that wicked men, by a spirit of contradiction, oppose charity where they are most earnestly pressed to it; or that the devil, having but a short time, is the more passionately industrious in promoting the interests of his kingdom; or that the further men are from the age of Divine revelations, the less firmly they believe them. It concerns us then-- IV. To make serious reflections upon this argument, and to suffer our selves to be touched with such deep remorse for the guilt of our partiality, that God may be appeased, and our sins pardoned, and our lives reformed, and that perilous times may be succeeded by many prosperous days. And--1. Let us give glory to God, and take shame to ourselves, upon the account of that selfish principle which hath long wrought among us, and still worketh. 2. May we not only bewail but amend this great defect in our nature, and in our civil and Christian duty. (1) The regaining of a public spirit is at all times worthy our care. We can do no greater thing than to “ follow God, who is concerned for all, as if they were but one man; and for every single person, as if he were a world.” God hath disposed all things in mutual subserviency to one another: the light, the air, the water, are made for common good; and because they are common, they are the less, but they ought, for that reason, to be the more esteemed. There is not an humble plant that grows to itself, or a mean ex that treads out the corn merely for his own service; and shall man be the only useless part of the creation? It is a most unworthy practice, upon the account of self-interest, to multiply the moral perils of the world, whilst there are inconveniences enough in insensible Nature. It is enough that the natural seasons are tempestuous; men’ s passions should not raise more storms. It is enough that famine can destroy so many; uncharitableness should not do it. What is it that is worthy the daily thoughts and the nightly studies of a man of under standing, and of an excellent spirit? Is it the supplanting of a credulous friend, or the oppressing of an helpless neighbour? Alas! these are designs so base and low, that he who calls himself a man should not stoop to them. But that which is worthy of a man is the service of his God, his Church, his country; the generous exposing of himself when a kingdom is in hazard. (2) A public spirit, as it is worthy our care at all times, so at all times it needs it. For it requires the utmost application of our minds, seeing self-love insinuates with great art and subtlety into all our designs and actions. (Thomas Tenison, D. D.) Self-love odious Here you see how far self-love is from being proposed to our practice, when you find it standing in the front of a black and dismal catalogue of the most odious and abhorred qualities. That I may contribute, if possible, to the making men less tenacious, and more communicative, I shall make it my present business to set the two characters in an opposite light, and to show-- I. The odiousness of self-love. II. The amiableness of a generous and public spirit. There is, indeed, a kind or degree of self-love which is not only innocent; but necessary. The laws of nature strongly incline every man to be solicitous for his own welfare, to guard his person by a due precaution from hurts and accidents; to provide food and raiment, and all things needful for his bodily sustenance, by honest industry and labour; to repair as far as he is able, such decays as may attend his bodily constitution, by proper helps and the best means that are afforded him; and much more to make it his grand concern to secure the everlasting happiness of his immortal part. Such a self-love as this goes little farther than self-preservation, without which principle implanted in us the human species would be soon lost and extinguished, and the work of our great Creator be defeated. But that which St. Paul speaks of with abhorrence is a love merely selfish, that both begins and terminates in a man’ s single person, exclusive of all tender regards for any one else: this is, in the worst and most criminal sense, taking care of one only. If we will but look into our own nature, and reflect on the end and design of our creation, the reach and extent of our faculties, our subordination to one another, and the insufficiency of every man as he stands by himself alone, we shall soon be convinced, that doing good and affording each other reciprocal assistance is that for which we were formed and fashioned, that we are linked together by our common wants, as well as by inclination, and that tenderness of disposition and natural sympathy that is implanted in us. That we are born and educated, that we enjoy either necessaries or comforts, that we are preserved from perils in our greener, or ever arrive at riper years, next under the watchfulness and protection of Almighty God, is owing to the care of others. And can anything be more just and reasonable than that we, too, in our turn, should give that succour we have received, and do, not only as we willingly would, but as we actually have been done unto? There is a certain proportion of trouble and uneasiness, as well as of pleasure and satisfaction, that must of necessity be borne by the race of men; insomuch that he who will not sustain some share of the former, is unworthy to partake of any of the comforts of the latter. But here the selfling will interpose, and say: “ It is true I have occasion for the help of others, and the help of others I have. I have occasion for the attendance of servants, and by servants I am attended. I want to be supplied with those conveniences of life which artificers provide in their respective occupations, and I am supplied accordingly. So long as I am furnished with sufficient store to pay them an equivalent, I am in no danger of being left destitute of anything that money can procure. This is the commerce I carry on in the world; thus I approve myself a social member of the commonwealth. But what have I to do in parting with my substance to them who can give nothing to me in return?” And sometimes we see it does please Almighty God to make examples of this sort: to humble such haughty and self-confiding men, by reducing them from their towering height, and all the wantonness of prosperity, to the extremity of want and misery. And whenever this happens to be the case, who are then so pitifully abjected? But the universal hatred which such a person naturally contracts will not always be suppressed, nor his former aversion to doing good offices be covered by a charitable oblivion, nor be lost under the soft relentings and a melting commiseration of his present sufferings. In short, since every man has an equal right to confine all his care and endeavours to the promoting his own separate interest, that any one man has, what must be the consequence if such a narrow way of thinking and acting should become universal? Love and friendship terminate at once if every man were to regard himself alone, and to extend his care no farther! Such a situation would put an end to all intercourse and commerce; men would be destitute of all confidence and security, and afraid to trust each other. And this may suffice to show that odious and malignant quality of selfishness, or mere self-love. Let us now consider-- II. The amiableness of a generous and public spirit. He who has a heart truly open and enlarged, over and above that reasonable thoughtfulness and contrivance with which every prudent man will be possessed, about providing for his own, and how to proportion his expenses to his revenue, as well as how to obtain more ample acquisitions, if fair and honourable methods of advancing his fortunes present themselves in his way; I say, beyond this domestic care, he will have room enough in his thoughts to let them be employed sometimes in the service of his friends, his neighbours, and his country; which have not only his best wishes and hearty desires for the success of their affairs, but he makes it his study to promote their welfare, and puts himself to a voluntary trouble and expense in order to extricate them from difficulties and free them from dangers. He has the pleasure of reflecting that a beneficial act is done, and that although he has not been able to animate others to promote it in the same degree with himself, he has, however, been instrumental in causing some good to be done, and the receivers are heartily welcome both to his pains and his contributions. This may appear but a poor satisfaction to little and grovelling minds, who have no idea of any joy that can arise from the reflection on anything that is not attended with present profit, and look upon everything as a losing bargain where more is expended than received. But large and capacious souls have far nobler sentiments; they know how to value and enjoy a loss, and find a secret pleasure in the diminution of their fortune when honourably and worthily employed. We are sure that God Almighty, who gives everything, and receives nothing, is a most perfectly blest and happy being; and the nearer we resemble Him in any of our actions, by so much we advance our own happiness. Such a friendly promoter of the good of others may survey the objects of his love with some degree of that satisfaction wherewith God beheld His workmanship when He had finished the several parts of the Creation, and pronounced that they were good. And as for a man’ s name and character, who would not rather choose not to have it mentioned at all, than not mentioned with respect? This seems to be the only end that is sought after by those who delight in show and pomp; and yet this very end might be much better compassed by another way than by that which they affect. For does it not give a sweeter fragrancy to a man’ s name? And does not every one speak of him with higher expressions of honour and esteem, who has been a common benefactor, and relieved a multitude of necessitous persons? (Andrew Snape, D. D.) Self-love the great cause of bad times 1. To inquire what this self-love is which the apostle here speaks of, and wherein the nature and evil of it consists. 2. To show that wherever such self-love spreads and becomes general there must needs be perilous or bad times. 3. To use several arguments to prevent men’ s being poisoned and over-run with this dangerous and pernicious principle of self-love. I. Let us inquire what this self-love is which the apostle here speaks of, and wherein the nature and evil of it consists. Now all self-love when taken in an ill sense, as it is plain this is here by the apostle, must come under one or other of these following notions.1. Self-love may be considered in opposition to a love of God, and a making His glory and the interests of religion the principal and ultimate end of all our designs and actions; to our loving Him with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds, and our seeking first, or before all other things, His kingdom and righteousness. And then we may be properly said to be self-lovers in this sense, when we are so very intent upon ourselves and our own interests as not to concern ourselves at all, or to be sure not much and chiefly about God and religion. 2. Self-love may be considered in opposition to that honest and commendable self-love which every man oweth to himself, which is a love of our whole beings, soul as well as bodies, and of every part of them in due measure and proportion to the excellence and worth of them; and then it signifieth a love only of one part of ourselves, or at least an immoderate and disproportionate love of one part above any or all the rest. And in this sense it is to be feared most men are guilty of self-love. And, agreeably to this notion, we find the word self used in Scripture to signify the sensual and carnal part of man. 3. Self-love may be considered in opposition to charity or a love of our brethren; and then it signifieth such a stinginess and narrowness of soul as will not suffer us to have any concern, or take any care for anybody but ourselves, such a temper as is the exact reverse of that which the apostle commendeth, which seeketh not its own, but the things of another, and hardly ever thinks, much less acts, but for itself. Nature has implanted in us a most tender and compassionate sense and fellow-feeling of one another’ s miseries, a most ready and prevailing propension and inclination to assist and relieve them; insomuch that pity and kindness towards our brethren have a long time passed under the name of humanity, as properties essential to, and not without violence to be separated from, human nature. And then as to reason, what can possibly be more reasonable than that we who are of the same mass, of one blood, members of each other, and children of the same Father, should love as brethren? That we, who live in a very fluctuating and uncertain state, and though rich to-day, may be poor to-morrow, should act so now towards others as we shall then wish others may act towards us? 4. And then, lastly, as to religion, especially the Christian, besides that this doth acquaint us with a new and intimate relation to each other in Christ Jesus, and consequently a new ground and obligation to love and assist each other. Nay, so great a value do the Scriptures set upon this duty of mercy or charity to our brethren, that wherever they give us, either in the Old or New Testament, a short summary of religion, this is sure to be mentioned, not only as a part, but a main and principal part of it. Nay, farther yet, it sometimes stands for the whole of religion, as that universal name of righteousness given to it is said to be the fulfilling of the law. 5. Self-love may be considered in opposition to a love of the public and a zeal for the common good, and then it signifieth a preferring of our own particular and private interests to those of the whole body. II. To show that wherever such self-love spreads and becomes general there must needs be perilous or bad times.1. I say, self-love will make men neglect the public and decline the service of it, especially in times of danger, when their service is most needed. And for this reason we always find it a very difficult task, if not impossible, to engage such men in any public service merely upon a prospect of doing public good. They will use a thousand little shifts and artifices to get themselves excused. Nay, and which is rare in self-lovers, who have always a good stock of self-conceit, rather than fail, they will speak modestly and humbly of themselves, and plead incapacity and want of ability for their excuse. But never is this so plainly to be seen as in times of public danger, when there is most occasion for their assistance. For self-love is constantly attended with a very great degree of self-fear, and this makes mere weather-cocks of such people as are acted by it, continually bandying them about, hither and thither, backwards and forwards, and never suffering them to fix any where till the storm is over, the weather begins to clear up, and they can pretty certainly discern the securest side. 2. That though they do pretend to serve the public, yet it is for their own private ends, and consequently their self-love will suffer them to serve it no farther or longer than these shall be advanced by their so doing. And this but a very poor and uncertain service, and even worse than none at all; for their supreme end being their own private interest, all other ends must of course crouch and become subordinate to this. 3. Their self-love will probably turn them against the public, and instead of preserving and securing it, make them undermine and destroy it; and if so, it is still better they should have no concern with it, because the more concern they have with it the greater will be their opportunity of doing mischief to it. Self-love is a very tyrannical and domineering principle, and generally makes perfect slaves of her subjects, and carrieth them on to all such excesses and extravagances as she shall think fit. For, alas! self-love is the blindest, as well as the greediest, and least able to deny itself of all loves, and will very hardly be brought to see any objections against itself; or at least, if it must see them, it will accept of very easy answers to them, and be a wondrous gentle casuist to itself; so, that, if there but come a good lusty temptation in our way, it is too much to be feared that our self-love will close with it, be it attended with never such hard terms, and that, out of eagerness for the bait, hook and all will go down. III. To use all the arguments we can to prevent men’ s being poisoned and overrun with this dangerous and pernicious principle. And--1. As to ourselves, there cannot certainly be a better argument than the danger which we were brought into by some men’ s immoderate love of their private interest in the late reign. 2. Let us consider that this principle of self-love is a very foolish principle, and really defeats its own end. For this, I take it for granted, I may lay down as a maxim, that every man’ s private good is best secured in the public, and, consequently, whatever weakens the public, doth really weaken every private man’ s security; and, therefore-- 3. This self-love is a most base, pitiful, and mean principle, and will certainly make us odious and contemptible in the sight both of God and man. (William Dawes, D. D.) Sin multitudinous See here what a concatenation of sins there is, and how they are linked together--self-lovers, covetous, boasters, proud, etc. Sins (especially great sins)seldom go alone. As great men have great attendance, so great sins have many followers; and as he that admits of a great man into the house must look to have all his ragged regiment and blackguard to follow him, so he that admits but one great sin into his heart must look for Gad, a troop of ugly lusts to throng in after. Sin is like a tryant, the more you yield to it, the worse it tyrannises over you. (T. Hall, B. D.) Self-love foolish This is, with the silly bird, to mind nothing but the building of our own nests when the tree is cutting down; and to take more care of our private cabin than of the ship itself when it is sinking. (T. Hall, B. D.) Self-love hereditary Hereditary diseases are hardly cured. Self-love is hereditary to us; we are apt to have high conceits of ourselves from the very birth; till grace humble and abase us, all our crows are swans, our ignorance knowledge, our folly wisdom, our darkness light, and all our own ways best though never so bad. (T. Hall, B. D.) Self-love a manifold disease This is a disease that hath many other diseases included in it, and so is more hard to cure. Hence spring all those errors and heresies which are so rife in these last days. (T. Hall, B. D.) Self-love self-deceptive As a man that is in love doth think the very blemishes in his love to be beautiful, so those that are in love with themselves, and dote on their own opinions, think their heresy to be verity, and their vices virtues. This will bring vexation at last; it troubles us to be cheated by others in petty matters, but for a man to cheat himself wilfully, and that in a matter of the highest concernment, is the trouble of troubles to aa awakened conscience. (T. Hall, B. D.) Self-love odious to God The more lovely we are in our own eyes, the more loathsome in God’ s; but the more we loathe ourselves, the more God loves us (Jeremiah 31:18; Jeremiah 31:20). (T. Hall, B. D.) Self-love a primary sin This sinful self-love is set in the front, as the leader of the file, and the cause of all those eighteen enormities which follow: ‘ tis the root from whence these branches spring, and the very fountain from whence those bitter streams do issue. (T. Hall, B. D.) Pious self-love communicative There is a pious and religious self-love, considered in relation to God and the common good; thus a man may love himself as an instrument of God’ s glory, and as a servant for the good of others, else our Saviour would never set our love to ourselves before us as a pattern of our love to our neighbours. Now, upon these grounds, and in relation to these ends, we may not only love ourselves, but seek ourselves too. This love spreads and dilates itself for God and the good of others. The more noble and excellent things, the more communicative and diffusive they are of themselves. The sun is herein a more noble thing than a torch, and a fountain than a ditch. Christ emptied Himself of His glory, not for His own, but for our benefit (Philippians 23:6); it will make us part with our own right for peace (Genesis 13:8-9; 1 Corinthians 6:7); it will make us condescend to those of the lower sort (Romans 12:16), not seeking our own profit, but the profit of many (1 Corinthians 10:33); yea, and though they be free, yet love will make them servants to all (1 Corinthians 9:19). On the contrary, self-love contracts the soul, and hath an eye still at self in all its undertakings. ‘ Tis the very hedgehog of conversation, that rolls and laps itself within its own soft down, and turns out bristles to all the world besides. (T. Hall, B. D.) On self-conceit Sometimes in our imagination we assume to ourselves perfections not belonging to us, in kind or degree. Sometimes we make vain judgments on the things we possess, prizing them beyond their true worth and merit, and consequently overvaluing ourselves on their account. There is indeed no way wherein we do not thus impose on ourselves, either assuming false, or misrating true advantages, so that our minds become stuffed with fantastic imaginations, instead of wise and sober thoughts, and we misbehave ourselves towards ourselves.1. We are apt to conceit ourselves on presumption of our intellectual endowments or capacities, whether natural, or acquired, especially of that which is called wisdom, which in a manner comprehends the rest, and manages them: on this we are prone to pride ourselves greatly, and to consider that it is presumption, hardly pardonable to contest our dictates: yet this practice is often prohibited and blamed in Scripture. “ Be not wise in thine own eyes,” saith the wise man; and “ Be not wise in your own conceits,” saith the apostle. If we do reflect either on the common nature of men, or on our own constitution, we cannot but find our conceits of our wisdom very absurd; for how can we take ourselves for wise, if we observe the great blindness of our mind, and feebleness of human reason, by many palpable arguments discovering itself? if we mark how painful the search, and how difficult the comprehension is of any truth; how hardly the most sagacious can descry any thing, how the most learned everlastingly dispute, about matters seeming most familiar and facile; how often the most wary and steady do shift their opinions; how dim the sight is of the most perspicacious, and how shallow the conceptions of the most profound; how narrow is the horizon of our knowledge, and how immensely the origin of our ignorance is distended; how imperfectly and uncertainly we know those few things to which our knowledge reacheth. If also a man particularly reflected on himself, the same practice must needs appear very foolish; for that every man thence may discover in himself peculiar impediments of wisdom; every man in his condition may find things apt to pervert his judgment, and obstruct his acquisition of true knowledge. Such conceitedness therefore is very absurd, and it is no less hurtful; for many great inconveniences spring from it, such as gave the prophet cause to denounce “ Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes.” It hath many ways bad influence on our souls, and on our lives; it is often our case, which was the case of Babylon, when the prophet said of it, “ Thy wisdom and thy knowledge hath perverted thee; for thou hast said in thy heart, I am, and none else beside me.” It is a great bar to the receiving instruction about things; for he that taketh himself to be incomparably wise, will scorn to be taught. It renders men in difficult cases unwilling to seek, and unapt to take advice; hence he undertaketh and easily is deceived, and incurreth disappointment, damage in his affairs. It renders us very rash in judging; for the first show of things, or the most slender arguments, which offer themselves, being magnified, do sway our judgment. Hence also we persist incorrigible in error; for what reason can be efficacious to reclaim him whose opinion is the greater reason? It renders men peevish; also insolent in imposing their conceits on others. Hence they become censorious of those who do not agree with their notions. 2. Again, we are apt to prize highly and vainly our moral qualities and performances, taking ourselves for persons of extraordinary goodness, without defects or blemishes; which practice is both foolish and mischievous. It is very foolish; for such is the imperfection and impurity of all men, even of the best, that no man who strictly searches his heart can have reason to he satisfied with himself or his doings. Every man is in some degree sinful; conceit therefore of our virtue is very foolish; and it breeds great mischiefs. Hence springs a great carelessness of correcting our faults, a contempt of any means conducive to our amendment, such as good advice and wholesome reproof. It breeds arrogance even in our devotions to God, like that of the conceited Pharisee; also a haughty contempt of others: it disposes men to expect more than ordinary regard from others; and as it causes a man to behave himself untowardly to them, so thence he behaves unseemingly towards himself, of whom he becomes a flatterer, and profane idolater. 3. Self-conceit is also frequently grounded on other inferior advantages: on gifts of nature, or of fortune; but seeing that these things are in themselves of little value, and serving no great purpose; seeing they are not commendable, as proceeding from chance; seeing they are not durable or certain, but easily may be severed from us, the vanity of self-conceit founded on them is so notorious, that it need not be more insisted on. (Isaac Barrow.) On vain-glory When a regard to the opinion or desire of the esteem of men is the main principle from which their actions do proceed, or the chief end which they propound to themselves, instead of conscience of duty, love and reverence of God, hope of the rewards promised, a sober regard to their true good, this is vain-glory. Such was the vain-glory of the Pharisees, who fasted, who prayed, who gave alms, who “ did all their works that they might be seen of men,” and from them obtain the reward of estimation and applause: this is that which St. Paul forbiddeth: “ Let nothing be done out of strife or vain-glory.”1. It is vain, because unprofitable. Is it not a foolish thing for a man to affect that which little concerns him, and by which he is not considerably benefited? Yet such is the opinion of men; for how do we feel the motions of their fancy? 2. It is vain, because uncertain. How easily are the judgments of men altered I how fickle are their conceits! 3. It is vain because unsatisfactory; for how can one be satisfied with the opinion of bad judges, who esteem a man Without good grounds, commonly for things which deserve not regard? 4. It is vain, because fond. It is ugly and unseemly to others, who despise nothing more than acting on this principle. 5. It is vain, because unjust. If we seek glory to ourselves, we wrong God thereby, to whom glory is due: if there be in us any considerable endowment of body or mind, it is from God, the author of our being, who worketh in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure. 6. It is vain because mischievous. It corrupts our mind with a false pleasure that chokes the purer pleasures of a good conscience, of spiritual joy and peace, bringing God’ s displeasure on us, and depriving us of the reward due to good works performed out of a pure conscience, etc. “ Verily they have their reward.” (Isaac Barrow.) Some general remedies of self-love 1. To reflect on ourselves seriously and impartially, considering our natural nothingness, infirmity, unworthiness; the meanness and imperfection of our nature, the defects and deformities of our souls, the failings and misdemeanours of our lives. 2. To consider the loveliness of other beings superior to us; comparing them with ourselves, and observing how very far in excellency, worth, and beauty they transcend us. (1) If we view the qualities and examples of other men, who in worth, in wisdom, in virtue, and piety, do far excel us; their noble endowments, what they have done and suffered in obedience to God, their self-denial, their patience, how can we but in comparison despise ourselves? (2) If we consider the blessed angels and saints in glory--their purity, their humility, their obedience--how can we think of ourselves without abhorrence? (3) Especially if we contemplate the perfection, the purity, the majesty of God; how must this infinitely debase us in our opinion concerning ourselves, and consequently diminish our fond affection toward things so vile and unworthy? 3. To study the acquisition and improvement of charity toward God and our neighbour. This will employ and transfer our affections; these drawing our souls outward, and settling them on other objects, will abolish or abate the perverse love toward ourselves. 4. To consider that we do owe all we are and have to the free bounty and grace of God: hence we shall see that nothing of esteem or affection is duo to ourselves; but all to Him, who is the fountain and author of all our good. 5. To direct our minds wholly toward those things which rational self-love requireth us to regard and seek: to concern ourselves in getting virtue, in performing our duty, in promoting our salvation, and arriving to happiness; this will divert us from vanity: a sober self-love will stifle the other fond self-love. (Isaac Barrow.) Self-centred Original cause of all wickedness, so that they make their own I the centre of their thinking, feeling, willing and doing. (Van Oosterzee.) Self-love Such a love of self as to lead us to secure our salvation is proper. But this interferes with the rights arid happiness of no other persons. The selfishness which is condemned is that regard to our own interests which interferes with the rights and comforts of others; which makes self the central and leading object of living; and which tramples on all that would interfere with that. As such, it is a base, and hateful, and narrow passion. (A. Barnes.) Selfishness common How many are there who occupy public places with private spirits? While they pretended to undertake everything for the good of others it has appeared that they undertook nothing but for the good of themselves. Such suckers at the roots have drawn away the sap and nourishment from the tree. They have set kingdoms on fire, that they might roast their own venison at the flames. These drones stealing into the hive have fed upon the honey, while the labouring bees have been famished. Too many resemble ravenous birds, which at first seem to bewail the dying sheep; but, at last, are found picking out their eyes. These people never want fire, so long as any yard affords fuel. They enrich their own sideboard with other men’ s plate. There is a proverb, but none of Solomon’ s, “ Every man for himself and God for us all.” But where every man is for himself, the devil will have all. Whosoever is a seeker of himself is not found of God. Though he may find himself in this life, he will lose himself in death. (T. Seeker.) Selfishness condemned by philosophy Plato anticipated one half of a Christian doctrine by saying, “ Ye are not your own, but the State’ s.” (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.) The Divine Nemesis It is a remarkable revelation of the Divine Nemesis, that they who, with the denial of the faith, begin not seldom with the beautiful phrase, that they are zealous for morality, and wish to maintain the morals of the gospel, while they reject dogma, just upon this road advance gradually to the most decided immorality. He who digs out the tree, cannot also enjoy the fruit. Emancipation from all authority theoretically leads practically to the promulgation of the rights of the flesh. (Van Oosterzee.) Covetous. Covetous If selfshness be the prevailing form of sin, covetousness may be regarded as the prevailing form of selfishness. Entering with the first transgression, and violating the spirit of the whole law, it has polluted and threatened the existence of each dispensation of religion; infected all classes and relations of society; and shown itself capable of the foulest acts. (J. Harris, D. D.) Covetousness seen in human life Commerce is covetous; competition is without bounds; rapid fortunes, sudden falls, speculations without end, hazards, excitements for gaining under all forms; such is the new mode of satisfying the old thirst for gold. Industry is covetous: those admirable inventions which are continually succeeding one another aim less at the progress of art than at the making of money; produced by the hope of gain, they hasten toward gain. Ambition is covetous; that solicitude for office which crowds all the avenues to authority aims less than formerly at honour, and more at money. The struggle of parties is covetous. Legislation is covetous: in it money is the chief corner-stone; money chooses the arbiters of our social and political destinies. Marriage is sometimes covetous: the union of man and woman becomes a secondary matter. Literature is covetous; impatient of producing, and more impatient of acquiring, the literature of the present day spends its strength in unfinished, defective, extravagant works, perhaps immoral and impious, which cater for the tastes of the multitude, and pour into the hands of their authors streams of gold unaccompanied by glory. (A. Monod, D. D.) Covetousness barren of grace We may as soon expect a crop of corn on the tops of barren mountains, as a crop of grace in the hearts of covetous cormorants. (T. Hall, D. D.) Covetousness rerealed in talk “ Out of the abundance of the heart doth the mouth speak.” (Matthew 12:34.) What is in the warehouse will appear in the shop, what is in the heart, the tongue tells you. As is the man, such is his language; as we know what countryman a man is by his language; a Frenchman speaks French, etc. So we may guess at men by their language; a good man hath good language, he speaks the language of Canaan; an evil man speaks the language of the world (Isaiah 32:6.), discourse with him of that, and he is in his element; he can talk all day of it, and not be weary: but talk to him of spiritual things, and he is tanquam piscis in arido, out of his element, he hath nothing to say. It is a sure sign men are of the world, when they speak only of the world (1 John 4:5). (T. Hall, D. D.) Boasters.-- Meanness of boasting Lord Bacon told Sir Edward Cooke when he boasted, “ The less you speak of your greatness, the more I shall think of it.” Mirrors are the accompaniments of dandies, not heroes. The men of history were not perpetually looking in the glass to make sure of their own size. Absorbed in their work they did it, and did it so well that the wondering world saw them to be great and labelled them accordingly. (S. Coley.) Vain boasting A gourd had wound itself around a lofty palm, and in a few weeks climbed to its very top. “ How old mayest thou be?” asked the new-comer. “ About a hundred years.” “ About a hundred years and no taller? Only look: I have grown as tall as you in fewer days than you count years!” “ I know that very well,” replied the palm; “ every summer of my life a gourd has climed up around me, as proud as thou art, and as short-lived as thou wilt be.” Boasters This sin is fitly linked to the former; for when men by covetous practices, have gained riches, then they begin to boast and glory in them (Proverbs 18:11; 1 Timothy 6:17), because of the supposed good which they think riches will procure them, as friends, honours, fine clothes, fine buildings. The Greek word is diversely rendered, yet all tend to one and the same thing, and are coincident; for he that is a boaster is usually a vain-glorious, lofty, insolent, arrogant man: it notes one that is inordinately lifted up with a high esteem and admiration of his own supposed or real excellencies; and thereupon arrogates and assumes more to himself than is meet; or, one that boasts of the learning, virtues, power, riches, which he hath not, and brags of acts which he never did. The proud man boasts of what he hath, and the boaster brags of what he hath not. This vice is opposed to verity; and in proper speaking it consists in words, rather than in the heart; for as pride, in exact and proper speaking, hath relation to the heart, rather than the words; so this sin of boasting hath relation to our words, rather than our hearts: so that this sin is the daughter of pride, for when pride lieth hid in the heart, it shows itself by arrogant boastings, and high-flown words. (T. Hall, D. D.) Boasters discontented Thus when men set a high rate upon their own parts and perfections, they be very impatient and discontented, if others will not come to their price, and because other men will not, they will canonise themselves for saints. (T. Hall, D. D.) Boasting of vice It is dangerous to excuse and defend sin, but to boast of vices, as if they were virtues, is the height of villany. (T. Hall, D. D.) Boasting no recommendation When men’ s mouths are so full of their own praise, it augurs an emptiness of grace within; full vessels make little noise, when empty ones sound loud. Empty carts make a great rattle, when the loaded ones go quietly by you; your poor pedlars that have but one pack, do in every market show all they have, when the rich merchant makes but a small show of that whereof he hath great plenty within. The worst mettle rings loudest, and the emptiest ears of corn stand highest. Labour therefore for the contrary grace of modesty. (T. Hall, D. D.) Proud.-- Downfall of pride A kite having risen to a very great height, moved in the air as stately as a prince, and looked down with much contempt on all below. “ What a superior being I am now!” said the kite; “ who has ever ascended so high as I have? What a poor grovelling set of beings are all those beneath me! I despise them.” And then he shook his head in derision, and then he wagged his tail; and again he steered along with so much state as if the air were all his own, and as if everything must make way before him, when suddenly the string broke, and down fell the kite with greater haste than he ascended, and was greatly hurt in the fall, Pride often meets with a downfall. (Cobbin.) Pride abounding And is not this the master-sin of this last and loose age of the world; when did pride ever more abound in city and country, in body and soul, in heart, head, hair, habit; in gestures, vestures, words, works? (T. Hall, B. D.) Pride hated by the proud It is so base a sin, that even the proud themselves hate it in others. (T. Hall, D. D.) The natural heart full of pride Naturally we are all as full of pride as a toad is of poison. The sea is not more full of monsters, the air of flies, the earth of vermin, and the fire of sparks, than our corrupt natures are of proud, rebellious imaginations against God. (T. Hall, D. D.) Pride poisons virtuous actions It is the poison of virtuous actions; the meat may be good in itself, but if there be poison in it, it becomes deadly. Praying, preaching, alms, are good in themselves, but if pride get into them, it leavens and sours the best performances. It is a worm that devours the wood that bred it. He that is proud of his graces, hath no grace; his pride hath devoured it all. (T. Hall, D. D.) Blasphemers.--Gradation in sin He tells us, men shall be self-lovers, silver-lovers, boasters, proud, insulting over their brethren, and, which is worse, they spare not God Himself, but are blasphemers of Him. (T. Hall, D. D.) Blasphemy ungrateful It argues the highest ingratitude in the world for a man, like a mad dog, to fly in the face of his master, who keeps and feeds him, and to Use that heart and tongue which God made for His praise, to the dispraise and disparagement of his Creator, to load Him with injuries, who every day loads us with mercies, and to curse Him who blesseth us. What greater ingratitude? (T. Hall, D. D.) Unthankful.--Enormity of ingratitude Philip, King of Macedonia, caused a soldier of his, that had offered unkindness to one that had kindly entertained him to be branded in the forehead with these two words, Hospes ingratus. Unthankfulness is a monster in nature, a solecism in manners, a paradox in divinity, a parching wind to dry up the fountain of further favour. (J. Trapp.) Connection of ingratitude with other evils There be three usual causes of ingratitude upon a benefit received--envy, pride, covetousness; envy, looking more at others’ benefits than our own; pride, looking more at ourselves than the benefit; covetousness, looking more at what we would have, than what we have. (Bp. Hall.) Ingratitude mars friendship It is a lump of soot, which, falling into the dish of friendship, destroys its scent and flavour. (Basil.) Without natural affection.--Want of affection Fontaine’ s character was such that it seemed incompatible with strong attachments. He married at the persuasion of his family, and left his wife behind him when he went to live at Paris at the invitation of the Duchess of Bouillon. His only son was adopted by Harley, the archbishop, at the age of fourteen. Meeting the youth long afterwards, and being pleased with his conversation, he was told that this was his son. “ Ah,” said he calmly, “ I am very glad of it.” Cruelty to children Twice in six months one father had to be sent to prison whom it seemed a shame to send at all. When he had gone his second time, there was found on his table “ The Floating Matter of the Air,” by Tyndall, With his book-mark at page 240, to which he had read. Had you passed him and his wife together in the street, you would have unconsciously felt a certain pride in the British workman; yet was he not ashamed to express openly a desire to be rid of the tasks and limitations his children set to his life, and twice in one night he gave an infant of fifteen months old a caning for crying of teething. His clenched fist could have broken open a door at a blow, and with it, in his anger, he felled a child three years and a half old, making the little fellow giddy for days, and while he was thus giddy felled him again; and because the terrible pain he inflicted made the child cry, he pushed three of his huge fingers down the little weeper’ s throat--“ plugging the little devil’ s windpipe,” as he laughingly described it. He denied none of the charges, and boldly claimed his right--the children were his own, he said. (Contemporary Review.) Natural affection A. team was running away with a small child, when a mother, seeing its danger, cried in agony, “ Stop that waggon, and save the child!” as loud as she could. A heartless man said, “ Silly woman I don’ t fret yourself; it isn’ t your child.” The woman replied, “ I know that; but it’ s somebody’ s child.” Truce breakers.-- Covenant proof They will make no more of a covenant than a monkey doth of his collar, which he can slip off and on at his pleasure. In the last days, men will not only be sermon-proof and judgment-proof, but covenant-proof; no bonds so strong, so sacred, but they can as easily break them as Samson did the bonds of the Philistines. It is not personal, sacramental, or national vows that can keep the men of the last times within the circle of obedience. (T. Hall, B. D.) How rightly to covenant Now that we may covenant rightly, we must do it--1. Judiciously.2. Sincerely.3. Unanimously.4. Affectionately, with-- (1) Fear.(2) Love.(3) Joy. (T. Hall, B. D.) False Accusers.-- Faults invented If they can find no faults, they will invent some, as the devil did by Job (Job 2:9-11; Job 2:5), and this properly is slandering. (T. Hall, B. D.) The backbiter As those buy at one place and sell at another, so these pedling devils make merchandise of their words, hearing a false tale at one house and selling it at another. The back-biter is a mouse that is always gnawing on the good name of his neighbour. Sometimes he whispers in secret, and anon he openly defames, yet subtlely covering all with a deep sigh, professing his great sorrow for such an cue’ s fall; when they should delight in the virtues of others, they feed upon their vices. (T. Hall, B. D.) Actions to be kindly interpreted It is a rule in heraldry, and it holds good in divinity, that in blazoning arms and ensigns the animals must be interpreted in the best sense, according to their noble and generous qualities--e.g., if a lion or a fox be the charge, we must conceive his quality represented to be wit and courage, not rapine and pilfering. So, and much more, in blazoning my brother’ s name, I must find out what is best, and mention that; if I meet with a sin of infirmity and humane frailty, I must conceal it; it is the glory of a man to pass it by (Proverbs 19:11.) (T. Hall, B. D.) Slander poisonous It is the custom in Africa for hunters, when they have killed a poisonous snake, to cut off its head and carefully bury it deep in the ground, a naked foot stepping on one of these fangs would be fatally wounded; the poison would spread in a very short time all through the system. This venom lasts a long time, and is as deadly after the snake is dead as before. The Red Indians used to dip the points of their arrows in this poison; so, if they made the least wound, their victim would be sure to die. The snake’ s poison is in its teeth; but there is something quite as dangerous, and much more common, in communities, which has its poison on its tongue. Indeed, your chances of escape from a serpent are greater. The worst snakes usually glide away in fear at the approach of man, unless disturbed or attacked. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ 2 Timothy 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power Form and power of godliness This form is a profession of religion; the outward appearance of piety; the external performance of holy duties. Its power is the inward experience of its saving efficacy; that is attested by a holy, heavenly walk. This power is denied, not merely by the declaration of the lips, but by all those actions which are inconsistent with it, and which prove that we do not feel its influence. I. A form of godliness is absolutely necessary if we would be saved. We are unequivocally commanded to assume the form of godliness; to testify by external acts our allegiance to the Lord; and to attend on those ordinances and sacraments which He surely did not appoint that we might with impunity neglect them. Say not that you secretly and in your hearts worship and love Him. It is impossible that there should be internal piety without some outward manifestation of it. If “ with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, with the lips confession will be made to salvation.” Besides, what right have you to withhold the acts of external worship from Him who is “ the God of all flesh,” as well as the “ Father of spirits” ; who made your body as well as your soul; who confers upon it daily mercies: who purchased it by the sufferings of His Son, who, when He was offered a sacrifice, not only endured agonies of soul, but was also crucified in His body; and who offers at the last great day to raise it up from the grave and crown it with immortality and glory! “ Glorify Him therefore in your body and your spirit, which are His.” Without the form of godliness, you will probably render yourselves guilty of the blood of souls; be accessory to the eternal perdition of some who are dear to you. There is no one, whose example has not some influence on those with whom he associates. II. But this form is insufficient, unless it be united with the power of godliness.1. This mere outward service is a worship not conformed to the nature of God. 2. It is not conformed to the commands of God (Proverbs 23:26) 3. It is not conformed to the design of the mission of the Saviour,and the gift of the Holy Spirit. 4. It is not conformed to the nature of that covenant which is the foundation of our hopes (Jeremiah 31:33.) 5. It is not conformed to the examples of the pious; all of whom have used language the same in substance with that of Paul, “ The God whom I serve in my spirit” (Romans 1:9). 6. It is not conformed to the example of the blessed Redeemer; concerning whom none can be so blasphemous, as to doubt whether His whole soul was engaged in doing and in suffering the will of God. 7. It is not conformed to the great ends of religion. These are to deliver the soul from guilt, to renew it, to re-impress upon it the image of God, to make us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. And how certain is it, that for these great purposes “ bodily exercise profiteth little.” (1 Timothy 4:8.) III. Yet notwithstanding the clear evidence of this truth, these are many who satisfy themselves with the form without the power of godliness.1. At their head must be placed the intentional hypocrite, who knows that he is utterly destitute of love to God and the Redeemer, who has no desire for holiness, but who assumes the mask of religion to cover his sinful purposes.2. The cold formalist.3. The vain enthusiast.4. The worldly-minded professor.5. The bitter sectarian.6. The censorious professor.7. The unfruitful professor. (H. Kollock, D. D.) Form and power I. True religion is godliness--i.e., moral likeness to God. II. Godliness has its form, or way of expressing itself.1. Towards God--confession, prayer, praise, worship. 2. Towards man--respect for the right, compassion for the miseries, and a loving desire for the happiness of all. III. The forms of godliness sometimes exist without its power.1. There is often a great deal of external worship where there is no godly devotion. 2. There is often a great deal of external philanthropy where there is no godly devotion. IV. Having the form without the power is practical infidelity. To have nothing but the mere form is to deny the power.1. The mere form misrepresents the power.2. The mere form counteracts the power. (Homilist.) Form and power. I. Every genuine existence has two characteristics--essence and form. II. The essence of every genuine existence is a power. This is true in the highest sense of godliness, which is eminently a “ power” ; and the greatest among men, because it is the channel whereby we communicate with the truth and love of God Almighty.1. It is a formative power. Originating. (1) Forms of conception (Romans 2:20).(2) Forms of words to express the conceptions (2 Timothy 1:13).(3) Forms of worship, using as handmaids the kindred fine arts.(4) Forms of society, embodying the grand principles of godliness, and of its cognate humanity. 2. It is a controlling power, especially over itself. 3. It is a benificent power over others for their instruction and quickening. III. Though there cannot be power without form, there may be form without power. A man may have the logic and words of godliness, the litany, music, architecture of godliness; but if he have not godliness itself! IV. The possession of the form without the power disposes to the denial of the power. He who has the form alone is apt to be deceived, and satisfied with appearances; he resents, as an impertinence to himself, the claims of anything further: he denies it. 1. He strives to ignore it (John 9:29). 2. When it is forced on his notice he denies its existence (John 9:32). 3. When this is impossible, when the power becomes an evident fact, he clothes it with misrepresentation, obloquy, ridicule (Matthew 12:22). 4. When the power becomes too formidable he persecutes it, and strives to counteract and annihilate it. “ Crucify Him!” (C. Wills, M. A.) Form of godliness I. There is such a thing as a form of godliness.1. It is natural.2. Beautiful.3. Advantageous. II. A form of godliness may exist without its vital power.1. This is possible. Church at Laodicea.2. A lamentable fact.3. Most alarming consequences. (1) There will be no searchings of heart.(2) No pungent sorrow for sin.(3) No love to truth.(4) No conformity to the Divine will. III. The possession of a mere form of godliness does not entitle a person to Christian fellowship.1. The formalist has no sympathy with the sentiments of true Christians.2. He would detract from their usefulness.3. He is unfit for any exalted pleasure. (J. H. Hughes.) The form of godliness In these words the apostle tells us--1. What these men have, viz., a form of godliness.2. What they want, viz., the power of it.3. How we must behave ourselves towards them, viz., we must shun their society; from such turn away. For the first, they have a vain and empty show of faith and holiness. They are not men without the pale of the Church, such as heathens and Jews, which are open enemies to the gospel; but they have a form of godliness, an external profession of religion in words, ceremonies, and gestures; they make great shows, and put on the vizard of piety; like stage players, they act the part of a king, but strip them of their robes, and they are beggarly rogues. They have not the true form and essence of godliness, which consists in an inward change, and doth denominate and give being to things: but they have formality or an outward show and shadow of holiness. Like pictures and images, which have an external show and shape of a man, whose lineaments and proportion may be so drawn to the life, that there wants nothing but life indeed to act them: they will be great professors, and look what a sincere Christian hath in substance, that have these formalists in semblance, they have no life, no power, no principle of operation in them. (T. Hall, B. D.) Profession in excess of sanctification The complaint is general, there is not that mortification, self-denial, and circumspect walking as formerly. There’ s more light, but less life; more shadow, but less substance; more profession, but less sanctification, than formerly. There is more fasting, praying, preaching; but where’ s the practice and power of religion? As Isaac said to Abraham, behold the wood, but where’ s the lamb? So behold the duties, but where, oh where’ s the life, the power, the truth of what is done? The voice is Jacob’ s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau; for they deny the power of religion not only in their hearts, but also in their works (Titus 1:16; 1 Timothy 5:8). They so live, as if godliness were but an airy notion, and a matter of fashion, without all force or efficacy. (T. Hall, B. D.) Self-love under a form of holiness The text may be considered two ways--relatively or absolutely.1. Relatively as it relates to the eighteen sins before mentioned; so this sin is the cloak to hide and cover them all; men will be lovers of themselves, but under a form of godliness. Hence observe--that a man may have a form of godliness, and yet live in all manner of wickedness. It is tree, the power of godliness cannot consist with the power of ungodliness; but the more ,the power of godliness is lifted up in the soul, the more the power of ungodliness will be suppressed; as the house of David grows stronger and stronger, so the house of Saul grows weaker and weaker. But yet the form of godliness may stand with the power of ungodliness. A man may be a glorious professor in the highest form, and yet a puny in the form of grace. He may be a blazing comet for profession, and yet be a devil incarnate in life and conversation. (T. Hall, B. D.) The fair covering the foul They put on a fair glove on a foul hand, and get on the vizard of holiness better to deceive. (T. Hall, B. D.) Satan covers sin The devil cannot endure that sin should be seen in its proper dress, for then it would be so odious that all men would abhor it; the devil, therefore, puts a garment and cover upon it. (T. Hall, B. D.) Profession cannot carry men to heaven This may as soon carry you to heaven as a dead horse can carry a man a journey, a painted ship save a man from drowning, a painted helmet save the head from wounding, or painted food keep a man from starving. (T. Hall, B. D.) Formalism 1. His knowledge is merely notional, discursive, and speculative, it is in his head, and not in his heart. Hence it is called a form of knowledge, i.e., a mere empty shadow and show of knowledge (Romans 2:20). But he that hath the power of godliness hath a rooted, affective, saving, sanctifying, experimental, practical knowledge. He knows Christ as the truth is in Him (Ephesians 4:21); he knows and doth Christ’ s will (John 13:17). It is a soul-convincing and converting, a sin-crucifying and conquering light (Ephesians 5:14). It is not a dim, glimmering, vanishing, light; but a thorough, soul-awakening, soul enlivening light. 2. The formalities, obedience and practice, is merely external in words and shows; in their deeds they deny the power of godliness, they live as if godliness were but an empty name and matter of fashion, void of all force and efficacy. Such are like a wicked minister in a white surplice, extime lineus, intime lanius, fair without, but foul within, or like an inn that hath an angel without and a devil within. Of such we may say as Erasmus said of a friar’ s cowl--it covers a multitude of sins. He comes short in all ordinances: if he read, pray, hear, or frequent the sacrament, it is all pro forma--God is nigh to their mouths, but far from their hearts. (T. Hall, B. D.) Helps against formality 1. Go unto God, who is a quickening Spirit, and beseech Him to quicken thy dead heart So did David, Psalms 119:1-176. God can make dry bones to live. 2. Act and use your graces, this is the way to increase and quicken them, bring good motions into resolutions and actions; blow till the spark become a flame. This stirring is painful, but gainful. 3. Delight in quickening company, get acquaintance with humble, holy, active men, and shun the company of dead, formal, earthly-minded men; we must stand up from the dead before Christ will give us life (Ephesians 4:14). There is a quickening virtue in the society of God’ s people. As one living coal sets his fellow on fire, so God hath ordained the gifts and graces of His people for the benefit of others, that those who dwell under their shadow might return (Hosea 14:7). 4. Get sincerity, for therein lies much of the very power of godliness. Let your faith, love, obedience, be unfeigned, and without hypocrisy. Be not only nominal and formal, but be real Christians, be Israelites indeed. Christ says to us as Alexander said to one of his name--either fight like Alexander, or never bear his name; so either act like Christians, or else put off that name. To quicken you, consider that this grace is: commanded, commended, rewarded. 5. It is the grace of our graces, it is not properly a distinct grace, but the perfection of them all. If a man have faith, repentance, obedience, if they be not sincere, they are worth nothing. A pearl if counterfeit is good for little. Gold, if mixed with brass or baser mettle, is debased. It is sincerity that puts a lustre on all our duties. It is the salt that seasons them and makes them savoury. 6. Let the noise of God’ s judgments awaken thee out of thy sleep] formality; if a man be in a dead sleep, a great noise will awaken him. God’ s judgments have a voice, and we should mark what it says. (T. Hall, B. D.) The form and the power of godliness Godliness, what is it? It is, as the very word implies, God-likeness. Godliness is the God in the man; godliness is the man being like his God; and seeing that this image has been lost, godliness in man now is a restored godliness--restored through the mediation of Christ Jesus, and by the ministrations of the Holy Ghost. I. In our text we read of the form of godliness without the power--without that power which belongs to the form, and which ought to be inseparable from that form. If you pick up an empty shell, you know that there has been a living creature in that shell: just so there is a power belonging to the external form of godliness; but the two things may exist apart. Many examples might be given of form without power. Take a statue representing some man; it is a form without power. There is the form of the eye, but no power of sight; there is the form of the ear, but no power of hearing; there is the form of the mouth, but no power of speech; there is the form of the arm, and of the hand, but no power of working; there is the form of the legs and of the feet, but no power of walking. There is the form that does embody life, but there is no power of life in that form. And a painting, if it be a portrait, is a form without power. Thus in the form of godliness there is the appearance of spiritual knowledge without the knowledge; the appearance of the soul listening to God and hearkening to the voice of His word, without the attentive ear; the appearance of a nature breathed into again by the spirit of life, although still dead in trespasses and sins, and therefore without life. The outward appearance of godliness--what then may it be?1. It is the appearance of faith in the doctrines which are according to godliness. And where shall we find the appearance of faith without faith? Why here. These doctrines may be held in some articles, or creeds, or theological writings, by the intellect alone. They may be understood as statements, and held by the understanding without being spiritually and religiously appreciated; and they may be held by the tongue. 2. The outward appearance of godliness may be the appearance of sympathy with the ordinances and institutions which are intended alike to express and to cherish godliness. 3. Or the form of godliness may be the appearance of obedience to the laws which are the requirements of godliness. Now these may be fulfilled in the letter and broken in the spirit. “ For example, f may love nay fellow-creature in word and in tongue, and fail to do it in deed and in truth. 4. There may be also the appearance of oneness with the godly through associating with such without communion of spirit. Many things may lead me to associate with the godly--things which are not Christian, considerations which are not Christian motives. I may associate with a man who is a godly man, because he happens to be very intelligent, a well-read man, a man of exquisite taste, and I may fancy that I make him my companion, because of his godliness. The godliness of the man is, however, an accident of my association with him. The probability is that if the man were ungodly, I should associate with him still for his intellectuality; for while he stands on my right hand, and I associate with him, there is a man on nay left, not so well educated, not so refined, who is more godly than my well-educated friend, and I pass him by. I might with immense advantage to myself associate with that man, but I do not; his godliness is no attraction to me. Now what does this show? Why it shows that I have the appearance of oneness with the godly, without the affection for the image of God, which would bring me into profitable contact with all who really have and who manifest that image. 5. Further, there may be the appearance of enjoyment of the blessedness of godliness; and this appearance may be made in speech and in tongue, and in a cheerful face on religious occasions. “ Having the form, but denying the power.” II. Now where is the power? The power of godliness is true faith in the doctrines which are according to godliness; the power of godliness is worship in spirit and in truth; is doing the will of God from the heart; is love for the godly as godly persons; is joy in God as God; and, I may add, the power of godliness is that external godliness which is the fruit of an internal godliness III. Now, listen to this exhortation: “ From such turn away.” You know that this is not fashionable advice. The advice nowadays given is, Turn away from no person, as a protest against the principles and character of that person--especially if that person be much thought of, or be in a high position; or be rich, or from any cause popular. Now, it strikes me that for our soul’ s health, and especially for our uprightness, we need translate into action some of these directions which demand separation. Let us, therefore, solemnly look at the conduct to be pursued.1. You see the precept before us requires us to form a judgment of the character of others. You must do so, or you cannot obey this precept. Elsewhere you are forbidden to judge, but you are to bring into harmony that prohibition with this direction. You are to do both. It often strikes me as exceedingly odd, that men who object very much to our forming judgments of the character of others in religious matters, do form judgments of the characters of others in commercial matters. A young man applies for a situation, and the employer, who happens to object to any judgment being formed as to the religious life of another, will thoroughly investigate the character of that young man--not his business habits merely, but everything about him--all his moral habits, and, it may be, even his religious tendencies and dispositions. Well, if the thing be right in one sphere, why is it not right in another? If it have God’ s sanction in one sphere, why has it not God’ s sanction in another? 2. By the text, too, we are required to act upon an unfavourable judgment when that judgment is unfavourable. You decide that certain persons have the form of godliness, but are denying the power, and from such you are to turn away. What does this show? This shows that, so far as we can secure it, the communion of Christians must be pure. But let us look again at this precept. “ From such” let the confessedly religious man “ turn away” --from the men who have the form of godliness without the power. 3. From such let the inquirer turn away, he will learn nothing of these. And from such, let the really religious man, as a matter of stern duty in every sphere, turn away where his association with such would seem to be a sanction. (S. Martin.) Religion more than formality I. The “ power” of godliness is here distinguished from the mere “ form” : and indeed it is easy to show the difference between them. The one is the name--the other is the thing; the one is the appearance--the other is the reality. The one is the body--the other is the soul, that inspires every member, and penetrates every particle of the frame. Behold then the life of the real Christian, and trace the operation of the power of godliness there.1. It appears with regard to the ordinances of divine worship. Others who have only the form, come without expectation and prayer, and return without reflection and concern; they are satisfied with their attendance--but he is not. He is anxious to derive spiritual advantage from it: he enters the closet before he approaches the temple, and his language is, “ O that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat!” 2. It appears with regard to the dissipations of the world. He voluntarily resigns those amusements in which he once placed so much of his happiness: and returns no more to them. And why? If he were mindful of the country whence he came, he has opportunity to return: he is surrounded with the same allurements as others--why then does he not engage in these diversions again? Because he has found something infinitely more noble and more satisfying. And a greater good has power to abolish the impressions of a less. When the sun arises, the stars disappear. And the grapes of Eshcol cause us to forget the leeks and onions of Egypt. 3. You may see it in the mortification of sin. He denies himself; he crucifies the flesh with the affections and lusts; he plucks out a right eye, and cuts off a right hand. You may see it in what he is willing to sacrifice and to suffer. Read history: read the book of martyrs; read the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews--and see what the force of this powerful principle can accomplish. 4. The vigour of this principle appears also in other sufferings. How many are there at this moment, enduring a variety of grief in private, whose names will never be published in history, but who, in the eye of God, are greater than the admired heroes of the age! II. Inquire whence it is that so many who deny the power are still disposed to maintain the form.1. The form of godliness requires no strenuous exertions; demands no costly sacrifices. It is the power of it that renders the Christian life a “ striving to enter in at the strait gate” ; a “ wrestling with principalities and powers” ; a “ running the race that is set before us” ; a “ fighting the good fight of faith.” And it is this, too, that incurs opposition from the world. It will indeed be acknowledged that sometimes the very form draws forth the rancour of others: and of all people those are most to be pitied who are persecuted for what they have not; who are reproached as Christians without deserving the honour. But upon a nearer inspection of these mere formalists, the world is generally made quite easy. They see that they were mistaken in the characters; they find that they are “ of their own,” though wearing a religious uniform. 2. Persons are sometimes induced to take up the form of godliness through the influence of their connections. From some of them they feel the influence of authority; from some, the influence of friendship; from some the influence of business. “ Hence,” says M. Henry, “ they assume a form of godliness to take their reproach, but not the power of it to take away their sin.” 3. They avail themselves of the form of godliness to preserve peace within. For, without something of religion, conscience would rage and clamour; but by means of this, it is amused and quieted; and this renders it so extremely dangerous. (W. Jay.) Godliness--its form and its power I. By the form of godliness may be properly understood, not only a specious practice of religious duties, exhibited to public notice, but all external acts of worship, all rites and ceremonies, all stated observances, and all compliance with temporary and local injunctions and regularities. In ages and countries in which ignorance has produced, and nourished, superstition, many artifices have been invented of practising piety without virtue, and repentance without amendment. As almost every man is, by nature or by accident, exposed to danger from particular temptations, and disposed to some vices more than to others; so all are, either by disposition of mind, or the circumstances of life, inclined or compelled to some laudable practices. Of this happy tendency it is common to take advantage, by pushing the favourite, or the convenient, virtue to its utmost extent, and to lose all sense of deficiency in the perpetual contemplation of some single excellence. II. The power of godliness is contained in the love of God and of our neighbour; in that sum of religion in which, as we are told by the Saviour of the world, the law and the prophets are comprised.1. The love of God will engage us to trust in His protection, to acquiesce in His dispensations, to keep His laws, to meditate on His perfection, and to declare our confidence and submission, by profound and frequent adoration, to impress His glory on our minds by songs of praise, to inflame our gratitude by acts of thanks giving, to strengthen our faith, and exalt our hope, by pious meditations, and to implore His protection of our imbecility, and His assistance of our frailty by humble supplication; and when we love God with the whole heart, the power of godliness will be shown by steadiness in temptation, by patience in affliction, by faith in the Divine promises, by perpetual dread of sin, by continual aspirations after higher degrees of holiness, and contempt of the pains and pleasures of the world, when they obstruct the progress of religious excellence. 2. The power of godliness, as it is exerted in the love of our neighbour, appears in the exact and punctual discharge of all the relative and social duties. He whom this power actuates and directs, will regulate his conduct, so as neither to do injury, nor willingly to give offence. III. How far it is necessary to the Christian life, that the form and power of godliness should subsist together. It may be with great reason affirmed that, though there may be the appearance of godliness without the reality, there can hardly be the reality without the appearance. The form of godliness, as it consists in the rites of religion, is the instrument given us by God for the acquisition of the power; the means as well as the end are prescribed; nor can he expect the help of grace, or the Divine approbation, who seeks them by any other method than that which infinite wisdom has condescended to appoint. (John Taylor, LL. D.) Of the form and the power of godliness The word μόρφωσις, which is here translated “ form,” signifies the show or image of a thing, which is dead and ineffectual: in opposition to the reality and life, which is quick and powerful. And, I think, this word is but once more used in the New Testament, and much in the same sense; viz., for an empty and ineffectual knowledge of religion without the practice of it (Romans 2:17-21). I. To snow wherein a form of godliness doth consist. In general it consists in an external show and profession of religion, or of any eminent part of it, or of that which is reputed to be so.1. An external devotion.2. An orthodox profession of the Christian faith.3. Enthusiasm and pretence to inspiration.4. A great external show of mortification.5. An imperfect repentance and partial reformation.6. The appearance and ostentation of some particular grace and virtue.7. A great zeal for some party, or opinions, or circumstances of religion.8. Silliness and freakishness, and either a pretended or real ignorance in the common affairs and concernments of human life.9. Much noise and talk about religion. II. Wherein the power of godliness doth consist.1. A due sense of God, and suitable affections towards Him. This is the principle and fountain of all religion, from whence all actions of piety and goodness do spring. 2. A sincere and diligent use of the means and instruments of religion, such as prayer, reading, and hearing the Word of God, and receiving the sacraments. 3. A firm and steady resolution of well-doing. This is the result of a true and sincere repentance, and the great principle of a new life; and if it be firm and steadfast, it will derive its influence into all our actions; but if it be wavering and inconsistent, it is only the occasion of a religious mood and fit, but not the principle of a religious state. 4. As the proper and genuine effect of all these, the practice of a good life, in the several parts and instances of it. (1) In the mortifying of our lusts, the lusts of intemperance and uncleanness, covetousness, and ambition. He that is a slave to any of these, his religion is but a form, how glorious a show soever it may make. (2) In the subduing of our passions, wrath, hatred malice, envy, and revenge. (3) In the government of our tongues. (4) In the several virtues of a good life, in opposition to these and all other vices; such as are the truth and justice, humility and meekness, patience and contentedness with our condition, peaceableness and charity to those that are in want and necessity, a readiness to forgive our enemies, and an universal love and kindness to all men. III. Some marks whereby we may know when these are separated, when there is a form of religion without the power of it.1. He hath only “ a form of godliness,” who minds merely the external part of religion, without any inward sense of it. 2. He that useth only the means of religion, without regard to the end and effect of it. 3. He that is grossly and knowingly defective in the practice of any part of it. IV. That a form of godliness, without the power of it, is insignificant to all the great ends and purposes of religion. The great ends that men can reasonably propound to themselves in being religious, are these three:1. The pleasing of God. 2. The peace and tranquillity of our own minds. 3. The saving of our souls. Now a form of godliness, without the power of it, is unavailable to all these purposes. V. That he who takes upon him a form of religion, without the power of it, doth not only lose all the considerable advantages of religion, but he hath two great disadvantages by it.1. He hath the trouble of making a show and appearance of religion, without the real benefit of it. 2. He incurs a heavier sentence upon this account, that he hath a form of religion, and yet is destitute of the power of it. Concluding inferences:1. To take heed of mistaking the form of religion for the power of it. 2. To take heed of being captivated and seduced by those who have only a form of godliness. 3. To persuade men to mind the life, and power and substance of religion. (Archbp. Tillotson.) The form of godliness without the power I. The men.1. What they had--“ A form of godliness.” (1) What is a form of godliness. Attention (a) to the ordinances of religion. (b) Attendance with the assemblies of God’ s people. (c) A great deal of religious talk Tongue-godliness is an abomination if the heart be destitute of grace. (d) More than this, some have a form of godliness upheld and published by religious activity. It is possible to be intensely active in the outside work of the Church, and yet to know nothing of spiritual power. (2) But now, as these people had not the power of godliness, how did they come to hold the form of it? (a) Some come by the form of godliness in an hereditary way. Their ancestors were always godly people, and they almost naturally take up with the professions of their fathers. This is common, and where it is honest, it is most commendable. But remember, not generation, but regeneration, makes the Christian. (b) Others have accepted the form of godliness by the force of authority and influence. There is danger lest we fail to have personal repentance and personal faith, and are content to lean upon the opinions of others. (c) So have I seen the form of godliness taken up on account of friendships. Many a time courtship and marriage have led to a formal religiousness, lacking heart. (d) I do not doubt that, in these silken days, many have a form of godliness because of the respect it brings them. (e) Certain persons assume the form of godliness from a natural religious disposition. They could not be happy unless they were attending where God is worshipped, nor unless they were reckoned among the believers in Christ. They must play at religion, even if they do not make it their life business. (f) From the days of Iscariot until now, some have taken up the form of godliness to gain thereby. To make gain of godliness is to imitate the son of perdition. (g) A form of godliness has come to many because it brings them ease of conscience, and they are able, like the Pharisee, to thank God that they are not as other men are. 2. What they did not have--“ The power.” (1) What is that power? God Himself is the power of godliness. The Holy Spirit is the life and force of it. (2) What is the general history of those who have not this power? Well, their course usually runs thus: they do not begin with denying the power, but they begin by trying to do without it. They try to persuade themselves that they have been changed: they accept emotion as regeneration, and a belief of doctrine for belief in Christ. It is rather hard at first to reckon brass as gold, but it grows easier as it is persisted in. At the first they are a good deal suspicious of themselves, but they industriously kill every question by treating it as a needless doubt. Thus, by degrees, they believe a lie. The next step is easy: they deceive themselves, and come to believe that they are surely saved. At last they take the daring step of denying the power. Being without it themselves, they conceive that others are without it also. They get on very well without any supernatural power, and others, no doubt, do the same; only they add a little cant to it to please the very godly folk. They practically deny the power in their lives, so that those who see them and take them for Christians say, “ There really is nothing in it; for these people are as we are. They have a touch of paint here, and a little varnish there, but it is all the same work.” Practically, their actions assure the world that there is no power in Christianity; it is only a name. Very soon, privately, in their hearts they think it is so, and they invent doctrines to match. By and by, in some cases, these people profanely deny the Divine power of our only faith, and then they become the greatest enemies of the Cross of Christ. II. The wicked folly of this hypocritical conduct.1. They degrade the very name of Christ. If there is no spiritual power in godliness, it is worth nothing. 2. There is no value in such a dead form. I have read that the swan was not allowed to be offered upon the altar of God, because, although its feathers are as white as snow, yet its skin is black. God will not accept that external morality which conceals internal impurity. 3. There is no use in mere formality. In the depth of winter, can you warm yourself before a painted fire? Could you dine off the picture of a feast when you are hungry? 4. There is no comfort in it. The form without the power has nothing in it to warm the heart, raise the spirits, or strengthen the mind against the day of sickness, or in the hour of death. 5. To have the form of godliness without the power of it, is to lack constancy in your religion. You never saw the mirage, but those who have travelled in the East, when they come home are sure to tell you about it. It is a very hot and thirsty day, and you are riding on a camel. Suddenly there rises before you a beautiful scene. Just a little from you are brooks of water, flowing between beds of osiers and banks of reeds and rushes. Yonder are palm trees and orange groves. Yes, and a city rises on a hilt, crowned with minarets and towers. You are rejoiced, and ask your guide to lead you nearer to the water which glistens in the sun. He grimly answers, “ Take no notice, it is the mirage. There is nothing yonder but the burning sand.” You can scarce believe him, it seems so real; but lo, it is all gone, like a dream of night. So unsubstantial is the hope which is built upon the form of godliness without the power. The white ants will eat up all the substance of a box, and yet leave it standing, till a touch causes the whole fabric to fall in dust: beware of a profession of which the substance has been eaten away. Believe in nothing which has not the stamp of eternity upon it. 6. In reality, this kind of religion is in opposition to Christ. It is Jannes and Jambres over again: the magician of hypocrisy is trying to work miracles which belong to God only. Nobody can do so much damage to the Church of God as the man who is within its walls, but not within its life. 7. This nominal godliness, which is devoid of power, is a shameful thing. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The power of godliness I. Godliness is powerful because it is the embodiment of God. II. Godliness is powerful because it is a new birth to righteousness, truth, and love. III. Godliness is powerful because it is a growth. II. Godliness is powerful because it is a personal property. You see upon the desk of that organ a music book; but the book does not sing. The gospel is like a music book. Here are the rules for the harmony of life. Godliness is singing from the book of Christ; it is playing upon the heavenly harp; it is putting the music of God into one’ s own life. (W. Birch.) Motives and dissuasives from familiarity with wicked men 1. Consider that familiarity with wicked men will make us like them, we are very apt to resemble those that we converse with, and as he that walks with wise men shall be wiser (Proverbs 13:20), so he that walks with wicked men shall be worse. The best mettles, when mixed with baser, are embased thereby; mix gold with brass or silver with copper, and you debase the coin; for saints to familiarly join with the limbs of Satan, not only endangers, but debaseth them. Man is a poor, weak, unconstant creature, and apt to go astray, and therefore we should shun temptations. 2. This familiarity with them may harden them in their sin, God hath ordained our separation, and withdrawing ourselves from them, as a means to humble them, and turn them from sin (1 Thessalonians 5:22.) 3. There is no comfort to be found in such society; when trouble comes, miserable comforters are they all. When Judas fell into trouble of conscience, he ran to his wicked associates, but see what miserable comforters they are to him in his extremity (Matthew 27:4). 4. It is a dishonour to our Lord and Master to be familiar with known traitors and rebels to Him. Every wicked man rebels against God. 5. It is impossible that ever we should be good so long as we delight in wicked company. 6. By familiarity with such we do not only endanger our spiritual, but our temporal estate also. (W. Birch.) Form and power I do not suppose that these words need much explanation. “ Godliness,” in the New Testament, means not only the disposition which we call piety, but the conduct which flows from it, and which we may call practical religion. The form or outward appearance of that we all understand. But what is the “ denying the power thereof” ? It does not consist in words, but in deeds. In these latter epistles we find “ denying” frequently used as equivalent to “ abjuring,” renouncing, casting off. For instance, in a passage singularly and antithetically parallel to that of my text, we read “ denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,” which simply means throwing off their dominion. I. Observe the sad frequency of such a condition. Wherever any great cause or principle is first launched into the world, it evokes earnest enthusiasm, and brings men to heroisms of consecration and service. And so, when Christianity was first launched, there was less likelihood of its attracting to itself men who were not in earnest, and who were mere formalists. As years go on, the primitive enthusiasms die out, and the cause which was once all freshly radiant and manifestly heaven-born becomes an earthly institution, there is a growing tendency to gather round it all sorts of superficial, half-and-half adherents. And every church has its full share of such people; loose adherents, clogs upon all movement, who bring down the average of warmth like the great icebergs that float in the Atlantic and lower the temperature of the summer all over Europe. They make consecration “ eccentric” ; they make consistent, out-and-out Christian living, “ odd,” “ unlike the ordinary thing.” And they pull down the spirituality of the Church almost to the level of the world. II. Think, next, of the underground working of this evil. These people about whom Paul is speaking in my text were, I suppose, mostly, though by no means exclusively, conscious pretenders to what they did not possess. But the number of hypocrites, in the full sense of the word, is amazingly small, and the men whom you would brand as most distinctly so, if you came to talk to them, would amaze you to find how entirely ignorant they were of the fact that they were dramatising and pretending to piety, and that there was next to no reality of it in them. A very little bit of gold, beaten out very thin, will cover over, with a semblance of value, an enormous area. And men beat out the little modicum of sincerity that they have so very thin that it covers, and gives a deceptive appearance of brilliancy and solidity to an enormous amount of windy flatulence and mere pretence. The worse a man is, the less he knows it. The more completely a professing Christian has lost his hold of the substance and is clinging only to the form, the less does he suspect that this indictment has any application to him. The more completely a man’ s limbs are frost-bitten the more comfortable and warm they are, and the less does he know it. I need say little about the reasons for this unconsciousness. We are all accustomed to take very lenient views, when we take any at all, of our own character; and the tendency of all conduct is to pull down conscience to the level of conduct, and to vindicate that conduct by biassed decisions of a partial conscience. The underground enemies of our Christian earnestness are far more dangerous than the apparent and manifest antagonists; and there are many men amongst us who would repel with indignation a manifest assault against their godliness, who yield without resistance, and almost without consciousness, to the sly seductions of unsuspected evil. The arrow that flies in darkness is more deadly than the pestilence that wasteth at noonday. III. Further, notice the ever-operating causes that produce this condition.1. I suppose that one, at anyrate, of the main examples of this “ form” was participation in the simple worship of the primitive Church. And although the phrase by no means refers merely to acts of worship, still that is one of the main fields in which this evil is manifest. Many of us substitute outward connection with the Church for inward union with Jesus Christ. All external forms have a tendency to assert themselves, and to detain in themselves, instead of helping to rise above themselves, our poor sense-ridden natures. Seeing that the purest and the simplest of forms may become like a dirty window, an obscuring medium which shuts out instead of lets in the light, it seems to me that the Churches are wisest which admit least of the dangerous element into their external worship, and try to have as little of form as may keep the spirit. I know that simple forms may be abused quite as much as elaborate ones. Let us be very sure that we do not substitute Church membership, coming to chapel, going to prayer-meeting, teaching in Sunday schools, reading devout books, and the like, for the inward submission to the power. 2. Another cause always operating in the tendency which all action of every kind has to escape from the dominion of its first motives, and to become merely mechanical and habitual. Habit is a most precious ally of goodness, but habitual goodness tends to become involuntary and mechanical goodness, and so to cease to be goodness at all. And the more that we can, in each given case, make each individual act of godliness, whether it be in worship or in practical life, the result of a fresh approach to the one central and legitimate impulse of the Christian life, the better it will be for ourselves. 3. And then, still farther, there is the constant operation of earth and sense and daily duties and pressing cares, which war against the reality and completeness of our submission to the power of godliness. Grains of sand, microscopically minute in the aggregate, bury the temples and the images of the gods in the Nile Valley. The multitude of small cares and duties which are blown upon us by every wind have the effect of withdrawing us, unless we are continually watchful, from that one foundation of all, the love of Jesus Christ felt in our daily lives. IV. So, lastly, let me point you to the discipline which may avert this evil.1. First and foremost, I would say let us cherish a clear and continual recognition of the reality of the danger. Forewarned is forearmed. Rigid, habitual self-inspection, in the light of God’ s Word, is an all-important help to prevent this sliding into superficiality of our Christian life. In a country which is only preserved by the dykes from being swallowed up by the sea the minutest inspection of the rampart is the condition of security, and if there be a hole big enough for a mouse to creep through the water will come in and make a gap wide enough to drown a province in a little while. And so, seeing that we have such dangers round about us, and that the most formidable of them all are powers that work in the dark, let us be very sure that our eyes have searched, as well as we can, the inmost corners of our lives, and that no lurking vermin lie beneath the unturned-up stones. 2. And then, lastly, and as that without which all else is vain, let us make continual and earnest and contrite efforts day by day to renew and deepen our personal communion with Jesus Christ. He is the source of the power which godliness operates in our lives, and the closer we keep to Him the more it will flood our hearts and make us real, out-and-out Christians, and not shallow and self-deceived pretenders. The tree that had nothing but leaves upon it hid its absence of fruit by its abundance of foliage. The Master came, as He comes to you and to me, seeking fruit, and if He finds it not He will perpetuate the barrenness by His blasting word, “ No fruit grow upon thee henceforward forever.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Forms of religion necessary 1. Forms are necessary to religion as the means of its manifestation. As the invisible God manifests His nature--His power, wisdom, and goodness, in visible material forms, in the bright orbs of heaven, in the everlasting hills, in the broad earth with its fruits and flowers, and in all the living things which He has made,--so the invisible soul of man reveals its convictions and feelings in the outward acts which it performs. A form is the flag, the banner, the symbol of an inward life; it is to a religious belief what the body is to the soul; as the soul would be utterly unknown without the body, so religion would be unknown without its forms, a light hidden under a bushel, and not set up in a candlestick that it may give light to all that are in the house. 2. Forms are necessary not only to the manifestation of religion, but to its nourishment and continued existence, h religion which expressed itself in no outward word or act would soon die out of the soul altogether. The attempt to embody truth and feeling, to express it in words and actions, is necessary to give it the character of living principle in the soul: in this respect forms are like the healthy exercise which at once expresses and increases the vigorous life of the body, or they may be compared to the leaves of a tree, which not only proceed from its inward life, but catch the vitalising influences of the light, the rain, and the atmosphere, and convey them down to the root. 3. What, then, is that formalism which is everywhere in the Scripture, and especially in the discourses of our Lord, described as an offence and an abomination in the sight of God? It is the substitution of the outward rite in the place of the inner spirit and life of the soul; it is the green leaf which still hangs upon the dead branch which has been lopped off. (Christian Age.) Form without power Some years ago the captain of a Greenland whaling vessel found himself at night surrounded by icebergs and “ lay-to” till the morning, expecting every moment to be ground to pieces. As the morning dawned he sighted a ship at no great distance. Getting into a boat with some of his men he carefully picked his way through the lanes of open ice towards the mysterious looking craft. Coming alongside he hailed the vessel with a loud, “ Ship ahoy!” but there was no response. He looked through the porthole and saw a man, evidently the captain, sitting at a table as if writing in a log-book. He again hailed the vessel, but the figure moved not. It was dead and frozen! On examination the sailors were found, some frozen among the hammocks, others in the cabin. From the last entry in the log-book it appeared this vessel had been drifting about the Arctic seas for thirteen years--a floating sepulchre, manned by a frozen crew. And there are souls to-day who have refused the Divine offer of life, forsaken the centres where they were warmed with hallowed influences, and drifted into the chilling regions of Arctic darkness and frost. Many of these have certain appearances of Christian life, and a name to live. (Christian Journal.) A deceptive form On the farm of Manorlees, in Fifeshire, and in the house of Mr. Alexander Gibson, a large and very tempting ham hung from one of the rafters running across the ceiling. In the same house there was a rat, whose taste lay strongly in the direction of ham, and this rat, with rare instinct, gnawed a hole in the woodwork directly over the tempting morsel, and, descending, ate itself into the inside of it. How long the excavating went on is not known, but one day the housewife found it necessary to commence operations on the ham, when, on lifting it down, out bolted the depredator. The ham was a perfect shell, skin and bone only remaining to show its form. The animal, after feeding sumptuously, had commenced to build a nest inside. This anecdote is not simply amusing; it serves well to illustrate the operation of secret sin, eating away our spiritual life till nothing remains but a deceptive form of godliness--the mere rind and shell of religion. (Christian Herald.) Form without power Across your path, and on the ground, lies stretched out in death, a mighty tree, tall and strong--fit mast to carry a cloud of canvas, and bear unbent the strains of tempests. You put your foot lightly on it; and how great your surprise when, breaking through the bark, it sinks deep into the body of the tree--a result much less owing to the pressure of your foot than to the poisonous fungi and foul, crawling insects that have attacked its core. They have left the outer rind uninjured--but hollowed out its heart. Take care your heart is not hollowed out, and nothing left you but the crust and shell of an empty profession. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Religion, false and true A painter has undertaken to portray on his canvas flames of fire. He does it so exactly that you can hardly detect it from real flames. But look! you see flies and other insects passing across it; they could never pass across real flames. Just so spiritual insects, in the shape of sins, will pass across the mere professor, which they could never do across one who had the power of real religion in his heart; the former has but the “ form” of flames “ of godliness,” the influential power is wanting. (Dr. Jenkyn.) Hollow professors Hollow professors are as hollow trees in an old wood--tall, but pithless, sapless, unsound. Their formality is fitly compared to a bulrush, whereof the colour is fresh, the skin smooth: he is very exact that can find a knot in a bulrush (Isaiah 58:5). But peel it, and what shall you find within but a kind of spongeous, unsubstantial substance? These, as if religion were a comedy, do in voice and gesture act Divine duties, in heart renounce them. Hypocrites only act religion, play devotion; like they are to the ostrich, saith Hugo, which hath wings, but flies not. The swan in the Law was rejected for sacrifice because of her black skin under white feathers. Art may take a man more than nature; but with God, the more art the less acceptance: He loveth truth in the inwards (Psalms 51:6). (J. Trapp.) Formalism not religion A hypocrite is a contemptible person, whether he is in the Church or out of it; whether he is deceiving in the name of respectability or religion. He is not a Christian any more than a crocodile is a nightingale or a fungus is a lily. Formalism in religion A gentleman once entered a hall with his son. They saw a number of well-dressed people--some of them standing together in groups, others apart; some sitting in various postures. The son’ s attention was fixed by a pleasant-looking gentleman, somewhat gaudily dressed. He said, “ Father, who is that gentleman? He seems a mild, pleasant looking person; but what a singular dress he wears! Who is he?” “ Ask the gentleman who stands near you,” said the father. “ If you please, sir, can you inform me who that gentleman opposite is?” No answer. The boy thinks it strange. At last the father tells him, “ My son, those are only wax figures: there is no life in them; they are all outside, very fair to look at, but there is no soul, no life: they are outside and nothing else.” So it is with those who have no internal religion. (Dictionary of Illustrations.) False profession Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, the king of Pontus, sending a crown to Caesar at the time he was in rebellion against him, he refused the present, saying, “ Let him first lay down his rebellion, and then I will receive his crown.” There are many who set a crown of glory upon the head of Christ by a good profession, and yet plant a crown of thorns upon His head by an evil conversation. (T. Secker.) Danger of the office of preacher There is always danger to those who have to talk much about religion that their religion may become that of the head, rather than the true religion of the heart. I have found it necessary myself to dedicate an hour or two at midnight to serious meditation, self-examination, and prayer. (Dean Hook.) Formalism Some may live upon forms, but there is no dying upon forms. Formalists, like Pharaoh’ s lean kine, are full-fed, yet lean. To pursue the ways of God with a guilty conscience is Satan’ s great receipt for perpetual failure. 2 Timothy 3:6 Lead captive silly women.Creeping into houses The expression “ which creep into houses,” although perfectly natural, and one which, even in these Western countries, could be used with propriety to express the method in which these deceiving and perverting men make their way into households, yet, when we remember the comparative state of seclusion in which women usually lived, and still live, in Eastern lands, the words used by Paul acquire an increased force. Special fraud and deceit was needful for these false teachers to creep into the women’ s apartments in Asia. (H. D. M. Spence, D. D.) Sneakiness Cheaters must get some credit before they can cozen; and all falsehood, if not founded in some truth would not be fixed in any belief. (T. Fuller.) Woman and sin There lies in the womanly character the foundation; as for the highest development of the power of faith, so also for the highest revelation of the power of sin (comp. Revelation 17:1-18.). Josephus also states that the Pharisees especially had found much support amongst women (“ Antiq.” 17:2). Compare the account, moreover, of the rich Fulvia of Rome, who was induced by two Jewish impostors to furnish a considerable sum of gold, under the supposition that it was for the temple at Jerusalem (“ Antiq.” 18:3). (Van Oosterzee.) Impostors 1. As they are impudent, so they are of a fraudulent, subtle, sly, insinuating temper; they vent not their errors openly (especially, not at first) but they secretly and slily creep into private houses, and there they sell their wares (Jude 1:4), they privily bring in damnable heresies (2 Peter 2:1; Galatians 2:4). Truth loveth the light and seeks no corners. 2. These impostors observe a method in seducing silly women, who being the weaker sex, are sooner won over to their way, as being less able to withstand the shock of a temptation. As warriors go about a city observing where the wall is weakest, lowest, and unguarded, and there they make their greatest assault; and as thieves set not upon strong, armed men, but upon weak, unarmed ones, so seducers love not to set upon strong, grounded, judicious, discerning Christians, but it is the weak and ignorant which cannot discern their frauds, but like children are tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, that become their prey (Proverbs 14:15; Romans 16:18; Ephesians 4:14); man is, or at leastwise should be, more strong and prudent to resist temptations than women are. They catch not grave and truly pious matrons, but light women which prefer their lusts before Christ. It is the light chaff which is tossed with every wind, when the massy wheat abides in the floor. (T. Hall, B. D.) 2 Timothy 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.Ever learning, never attaining This is one of the features of the “ perilous times” of the “ last days.” “ Men shall be selfish.” This lies at the root of all. Self enthroned where God ought to be--self pampered, to the neglect alike of duty and charity--this will explain anything in the longest and blackest list of vices. The text presents another characteristic of the perilous times. These selfish men, without natural affection, despisers of all that is good, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, yet tenacious of the form of that godliness of which they have utterly set at nought the power, shall exercise a strange empire, none the less, over the homes and over the lives and over the consciences of women. Professing themselves religious, calling themselves teachers of truth, they will insinuate themselves into houses, and captivate by their offers of an indulgent and accommodating Christianity, just those who need above all others a discipline of plain speaking--silly women laden with sins, led this way and that way by divers lusts. It is of these captives, these victims, of a debased and degenerate teaching, that the words of the text were written. There are those who, though they are ever learning, are never able to arrive at this sort of knowledge of truth. They are not careless hearers, they are not inattentive readers, they are not uninterested inquirers. If they were this, the wonder of the non-attainment would be at an end. But there is a wonder. The cry and the complaint is, “ I am always learning. I never allow a new book, which promises light upon some part of the truth, to escape my notice. I am athirst for knowledge; I would give all I possess to be quite sure.”1. There is in some minds an impatience of process and progress, fatal of itself to safe and solid attainment. “ By little and little” is the motto of the spiritual dealing, whether it be in the “ putting out of enemies” or in the discovery of truth. 2. Another cause of disappointment lies in confusion of thought as to the nature of spiritual certainty. If God speaks, certainly He will give me proof of it; but a proof in the same region and in the like material with the thing to be proved; not an evidence of sight, touch, or smell, as to things which, by their very hypothesis, lie outside it, but an evidence appealing to conscience, heart, and soul, as He made each; satisfying the whole (not one part) of me, that the thing of which He gives me the information is beneficial, is wholesome, is good for me--and, because good, therefore also true. 3. A further error contributes, in many, to this defeat of knowing, and it is the want of instant action on the footing of the thing learned. Many men listen to a sermon without the slightest intention of doing any one single thing in consequence. A man has been interested in a treatise upon Prayer, upon Inspiration, upon the Atonement. He closes the book with a feeling of satisfaction--now he can give a reason for the hope that is in him. Yet he feels that he has not “ come to the knowledge” of that truth. It is not a part of him. It does not enter into his thought, mind, and life. It does not influence him; it has not flowed into him--for that is influence; it will not flow out from him into any one else. Why is this? Because he has not acted upon the thing learned. He has not carried out the acquisition of the head into the heart, if that is its province; or into the conduct, if its region of operation is there. A man powerfully impressed with the reasonableness of prayer will instantly set himself to pray with a new stimulus and a new intensity. If he does not he may have “ learned” --as St. Paul would have us distinguish--but he cannot be said to “ know.” A man who has received a new instruction on the subject of inspiration, forthwith opens his Bible, kneels on his knees with it, feels the breath of God in it all as he reads, and echoes each sentence of it in earnest prayer. (Dean Vaughan.) Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth The case here represented may perhaps strike us as having something in it rather extraordinary. That they who take no pains to learn should never grow wiser is what we can readily understand, but that there should be those who do labour in the work of religion and yet never succeed is surely not a little remarkable. Strange, however, as it may on the first view appear, the case is by no means uncommon. It will, then, be useful to investigate the causes of this. We may lay it down for a certain truth, that it is not owing to anything unattainable in the object itself.1. The knowledge which is necessary to salvation is open to the most ordinary capacity. The great leading truths of the Bible are plain and simple, and, where the mind is in a right disposition, are easily understood. 2. The knowledge of the truth is not unattainable, because we have the promise of Christ that it shall be imparted to every one, be his condition what it may, who is sincere in seeking it. Without Divine illumination it is impossible for any human being to become wise unto salvation. But this illumination God is willing to pour upon the minds Of all who call upon Him for that purpose. The causes of their failure are to be traced entirely to themselves. (1) One great cause of their coming short of saving knowledge is this--that they do not seek it in the right way. In the Bible God’ s will is revealed to us, but to understand the Bible, and to derive effectual and saving information from it, we must have recourse to the Author of the Bible. But this method the persons of whom we are speaking do not pursue. Reason, with them, is all-sufficient. Reason, they think, is equal to the investigation of every subject; and the consequence is, that what reason cannot account for, what reason cannot comprehend, they refuse to admit. “ The meek will He guide in judgment; and the meek will He teach His way.” (2) Another reason why men, though continually learning, come not to the knowledge of the truth, is that they make a wrong use of the means of knowledge; that is, they mistake the means for the end--they mistake the means of religion for religion itself. They have hitherto satisfied themselves with the performance of the outward duties of prayer, reading, and hearing, without ever looking further; without ever asking themselves seriously, “ What do we these things for? Have the ordinances of religion produced in us any of the effects for which they were designed?” (3) The secret love of sin is another obstruction to the attainment of saving knowledge God tells the house of Israel that He will not be inquired of by them because they “ set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face.” “ If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.” “ The secret of the Lord is with them only that fear Him.” (4) They refuse to obey their convictions. They do not act up to the light they possess. (J. Boucher, M. A.) Caution against enticement from the truth 1. I wish this were not the sin of silly men as well as of silly women, to be always learning, yet never come to the knowledge of the truth; how many are men in years, yet children in understanding (1 Corinthians 14:20). And when for the time they might have been teachers, they had need to be taught the elements of religion (Hebrews 5:12). Though the knowledge of the best in this life be imperfect, and we are always learners here, yet we must strive toward perfection and not always stick in the place of bringing forth (Hosea 13:13); nor be like a horse in a mill, still going round in the same place; or like a picture that grows not, but is the same now that it was twenty years ago. Such barren trees are nigh to cursing (Luke 13:9), and such unprofitable learners are left by God justly to the power of seducers, as malefactors are to jailers. This is the true cause of all those errors and sins amongst us (Psalms 95:10; Jeremiah 9:3; Matthew 22:19). As for ourselves, let us inquire for the good way, and when we have found it, sit not still, but be walking from knowledge to knowledge, from grace to grace, and from strength to strength, till at last we come to our celestial Sion. 2. Since seducers are so ready to seduce women, how careful should that sex be to shun conversing or disputing with them. Let every one know his own strength, and, if he be wise, keep within his own bounds. 3. Since women often are Satan’ s instruments, by which he seduceth many, take heed of women; let not those syrens enchant thee so as to leap into the depths of errors. Consider how many of thy betters have fallen by them. Whosoever they be that seek to draw thee from thy God, let thy heart and thy hand be against them (Deuteronomy 13:6; Deuteronomy 13:8-9). (T. Hall, B. D.) Unsanctified education There is a right and wrong way of looking at everything. As a rule, whatever is most valuable in its use is most harmful in its abuse. The keener the surgeon’ s knife, the more serviceable it is in skilled hands, but the more dangerous in hands unskilled. Education--learning--is of the utmost value, rightly acquired and rightly used. Misapplied--used as an end, not a means--it is a cogent factor of evil.1. It is unsatisfactory and embittering. As a man who ascends the mountain-side far enough to enter the blinding mists, but not far enough to overlook them, so is the man of godless learning. 2. It destroys the humility and childlike simplicity so essential to a knowledge of real truth. 3. It is inefficient to cleanse from sin. Science, philosophy, all the learning of all the schools cannot, with out Christ’ s atonement, regenerate sinful man. Give us, then, education; but let it be complete, as far as it goes--moral building up as well as intellectual. Cried Grotlus, the eminent historian, on his death-bed: “ Ah! I have consumed all my life in a laborious doing of nothing. I would give all my learning and honour for the plain integrity of John Urick” --a poor man of remarkable piety. (Homiletic Monthly.) Resultless study What would be thought of a chemist who should conduct an experiment day after day, making a number of little variations in his method, but always withholding the deciding element from the crucible, or else persistently refusing to look at the result? Or what would be thought of a merchant always reckoning up his figures, but never writing down the final sums? Or what of a captain who should sail his ship in a circle? Or of a traveller always on the road, never reaching home or inn? (A Raleigh, D. D.) Activity without progress Two sailors happened to be on a military parade-ground when the soldiers were at drill, going through the evolution of marking time. One sailor, observing the other watching the movement of the company very attentively, with eyes fixed and arms akimbo, asked him what he thought of it. “ Well, Jack,” replied his comrade, “ I am thinking there must be a pretty strong tide running this morning, for these poor fellows have been pulling away this half-hour, and have not got an inch ahead yet.” No further on the road “ How wise I am!” cried the finger-post to a willow-stump by his side. “ Are you?” said the willow. “ Am I?” indignantly retorted the post. “ Do you see my arms? Are not the name to the great town, and road to it and distance from it, plainly written there?” “ Ah, yes!” said the willow. “ Then you must acknowledge how superior I am to you. Why! I am a public teacher.” “ True, indeed,” answered the willow, “ and learned you are; but, as to wisdom, I see little difference between you and me. You know the way to the city, I believe, and are the means of enabling many to find it; but here you have stood these twenty years, and I don’ t see that you have got a step farther on the road than I have, who don’ t profess to understand anything about it.” (Original Fables.) 2 Timothy 3:8-9 As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses.Jannes and Jambres I. The nature of the opposition offered by these men to Moses. You do not find that they tried to make light of the miracles of Moses, or call in question their genuineness, or anything of the sort. No, they simply tried by imitations to depreciate the value of the real. They so surrounded the true diamond with cut glass copies that in the eye of an undiscerning public it was difficult to tell the difference. This is the kind of resistance the Church has to struggle against in the present day. The old, rough, brutal, physical opposition has passed away. It would be folly on the part of Satan to try and use such weapons now. Like a skilful angler he suits the fly on his hook to the season of the year. Variety, if not pleasing, is profitable to him in this respect. Having failed to do away with Christians, he now seeks to make the whole world Christian after his sort. Stamping out the genuine having proved an utter failure, he now seeks to swamp them with imitations of his own manufacture. II. The influence of jannes and jambres. Jannes and Jambres wield an immense power in the present day, and it is no use shutting our eyes to the fact. Jannes is not to be got rid of with a laugh, nor Jambres with a smile of indifference. Their existence is a source of constant danger, and their presence in the professing Church does more to paralyze its testimony than all the outward opposition and persecution it has ever met. This form of Satanic resistance is an awful proof of the deep-sightedness of the great adversary. He knows that nothing can possibly deaden the power of the Church’ s testimony more than flooding it with a number of cold formalists, who in the eyes of the world can do as much as the genuine Christian. And then when the world detects they are but shams and finds that it has been deceived, so much the better for him, for he knows that the whole Church will be judged by the impostors, and all put down as belonging to the same family. Counterfeits destroy confidence. This is true in everything. It is unprincipled rogues that make it so hard for honest men to get their bread. It is quackery that keeps the true medicine out of the field. It is bubble joint-stock companies that eat out all commercial trust, and make the very name to many a synonym for fraud. Everywhere the true and real are suffering through the influence of the false and base imitations. I have heard an anecdote somewhere that so exactly sets forth the idea I have in my mind I cannot but tell it. One gentleman made a wager with another that if he stood on London Bridge with a tray full of sovereigns and offered them to the public for sixpence each, he would not sell half a dozen of them in the day. All day long the man cried out, “ Real sovereigns for sixpence,” and declared with all earnestness that he could guarantee their genuineness. Of course no one believed him and he sold none. Why? Because the public had so often seen sham sovereigns for sale that it never doubted they were the same. The gilt having come first had destroyed all faith in the gold. Just so in the spiritual world. The existence of Jannes and Jambres eats out all faith in the reality of any Christian life. III. The end of their resistance. They were put to shame (see Exodus 8:18). Ah Jannes, it must have been a bitter moment when you stood convicted before all of being an impostor! How complete the collapse of their pretensions. So shall it he with their followers of to-day. This Paul most distinctly states in the verse following our text, “ But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was.” “ Folly” ? No other word could better describe their resistance. The hypocrite is of all fools the greatest. He is almost certain to be unmasked in time, and even should he carry on the horrible deception unto the last, what shall it profit him when God calleth for his soul? Now just as Jannes and Jambres failed to do all that Moses did, so there are some things that the mere formalist can never accomplish. I will but mention two.1. He has no power to bear trouble with joyfulness. His whole life being one of externals, when he is driven by force of circumstances to seek his joy in the life within, he fails, and fails utterly, for there is no life there. A sham Christianity withers up in days of trouble. It has no arms to put beneath a man when the dark waters of sorrow roll and surge around him. No, it can do none of these. It fails like the magicians when needed the most. The “ form” may do for bright and sunny days when sorrow and sickness are unknown, but it requires the “ power” to triumph in the winter night, and to “ take joyfully the spoiling of the goods.” Put a Jannes or Jambres amidst a number of anxious souls, and tell him to speak to them and point them the way of peace. See how he fails. 2. If not, I pray you to remember that Jannes and Jambres were included in the doom of the Egyptians. When the angel of death walked through the streets of Egypt, there was no exception made. The form of religion does not save--the appearance of piety is of no avail. (A. G. Brown.) Men must guard against error This must teach us to keep our judgments pure, and our understandings clear, for it is our guide, and if that mislead us, we must needs fall into the ditch. Corruption in judgment (in some respects) is worse than corruption in manners, especially when the mind hath been enlightened with the knowledge of the truth; for this is the root of those corrupt manners that are amongst us. In the time of the Law, the leprosy in the head was of all other leprosies the most dangerous and destructive; the man that had it in his hand or feet was unclean, but if it were in his head then he was to be pronounced utterly unclean (Leviticus 13:44). Hence the Scripture gives so many caveats against errors and erroneous ones (Deuteronomy 13:3; Philippians 3:2; Colossians 2:8; 2 Peter 3:17; Matthew 7:13). Beware of false prophets; the word implies a diligent study and singular care, lest we be caught by such subtle adversaries. Keep your judgments pure.1. There have been false teachers in all ages to oppose the truth and the professors of it. As Jannes and Jambres here oppose Moses, a meek, a learned, a faithful servant in all God’ s house. 2. That as the devil hath his Jannes and Jambres to oppose the truth, so God hath His Moses and Aaron to uphold it. As the devil hath his domestic chaplains, so God hath His armed champions; and as the devil raiseth up oppressors, so God sends saviours. 3. A corrupt head and a corrupt heart usually go together; no sooner are men’ s minds corrupted, but presently it follows they are reprobate concerning the faith; and if once men make shipwreck of faith, they will soon part with a good conscience too. Corrupt principles breed corrupt practices; and corrupt practices teach men to invent corrupt principles. Be sure, then, to keep your heads free from error, if ever you would have your hearts and hands pure from sin. 4. That false teachers are very dangerous persons--they are not such meek, innocent, harmless persons as some imagine. The apostle here tells us that they are impudent, fraudulent, resisters of the truth, men of corrupt heads, hearts, and hands; and what could he say more unless he should call them devils? and so he doth (2 Timothy 3:3), in the last days, men, especially seducing men (for all these nineteen sins are applicable also to the false teachers of the last times, as appears by the context (2 Timothy 3:5-6). These study to please men, and therefore they are no servants of Christ (Galatians 1:10), all their fine speeches are but like poison given in honey, which destroys more swiftly. They set a gloss upon their false tenets as tradesmen do upon their bad stuffs to make them sell the better. They can cite Scripture to draw you from Scripture, and tempt you to be irreligious by religious arguments misapplied. This is the devil’ s great masterpiece which he hath now upon the wheel, he carries his deadliest poison in a golden cup (Revelation 17:4). 5. They wrest and abuse the Scriptures for their own ends. They do violence to the Law (Zephaniah 3:4), they wrest and wring it, they add, they detract, they change the sense, they set it on the tenters to fit it to their fancies, they turn it this way and that way as may best serve their purposes; they set it on the rack, and so make it speak what it never thought. They compel the Scriptures to go two miles, which of themselves would go but one. They deal with them as chemists do with natural bodies, which they torture to get that out of them which God and nature never put into them (2 Peter 3:16). 6. They seek their own glory, not God’ s. They cry up nature, and decry grace, they cry up a light within them (which is no better than darkness), and cry down God’ s word without them. Simon Magus sets up himself instead of God (Acts 8:9-10), they drive at self in all their actings (Romans 16:18; 2 Peter 2:3; 2 Peter 2:14). Impostors are always great self-seekers. These are contrary to God’ s faithful ministers. (T. Hall, B. D.) Resistance of the truth 1. Its weapons.2. Its sworn comrades.3. Its stubbornness.4. Its final fate. (Van Oosterzee.) Bounds set to spread of error As God set bounds to the sea, saying, Hitherto shall ye come but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed (Job 38:11), so He limits the malice and madness of men how far they shall prevail; He only can stop these seas of error, and bound these floods of false doctrine which are ready to overflow the face of the world. (T. Hall, B. D.) Deceivers subject to providence of God Our comfort is that both the deceivers and the deceived are ordered by the providence of God (Job 12:16); He sets down the time when they shall begin, and limits them how long they shall continue, He orders how far men shall deceive, and to what height they shall come and prevail, and when to stop them, that they may proceed no further: for as the maliciousness, so the deceivableness of men would know no bounds if God did not bound it; but because He doth, therefore though they would, yet they shall proceed no further. No man can do good till God assist him, and no man shall do hurt when God will stop him (Revelation 20:3). (T. Hall, B. D.) Heresies short-lived Heresies are seldom long-lived--such meteors last not long, such mushrooms soon vanish; witness Becold, Knipperdolling, Phifer, etc. Though for a time they may deceive many, yet in a short time God discovers their hypocrisy to their reproach. (T. Hall, B. D.) Error vanisheth, truth increaseth Heresy is like a cloud which for a little time darkens the Church, and then vanisheth. But truth, though it meet with opposition at first and hath few followers, yet increaseth and prevails against all opposition. It hath its plus ultra, it is perpetual and endures for ever. (T. Hall, B. D.) Impudent error near its end Pride and impudence, they do not only preach but print their blasphemy: a sign their end is near. Smoke, the higher it riseth the sooner it is scattered (Psalms 68:1-2). (T. Hall, B. D.) The fall of error They shall fall--1. Irrecoverably.2. Easily.3. Suddenly.4. Surely. (T. Hall, B. D.) False teachers exposed Observe, that God will overthrow false teachers, by discovering their coverings and making known their delusions to the world. As a disease discovered is half cured, so an error discovered is half conquered. Usually before God overthrows wicked men He discovers their vileness first, that the glory of His justice may be the more apparent, and His people may come out from amongst them. (T. Hall, B. D.) A faithful ministry the best safeguard against error When the sun ariseth the clouds scatter, and where the Son of Righteousness is powerfully preached and published, heretics hide themselves, and dare not make that open sale of their wares as they do in dark corners. Let us therefore pull off their masks of liberty, their sleeves of sanctity, and their trappings of hypocrisy: let us expose their error, stripped and naked in their own natural deformity, and they will soon be exploded by all, so that they shall proceed no further. (T. Hall, B. D.) Error utilised and subjugated at last He is infinitely just, though His ways be secret and full of darkness to us, yet they are always just. When clouds and darkness are round about Him, then righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne (Psalms 97:7). He can make a medicine of the poisonous oppositions of wicked men, their malice shall be as horse-leeches to suck out the bad blood, as a file to take off the rust, as rubbish to cleanse the vessel and wash away the filth, and as a touchstone to try the graces of His children. And though His providences seem to cross His promises, yet wait the conclusion, and you shall see and say He hath done all things well. We see in a clock though the wheels run cross and contrary one to another, yet they all conduce to the going of the clock. Joseph’ s imprisonment is the way to his preferment, and Jonah’ s drowning was the means to save him from drowning. We must not judge of God’ s actions before they be formed and finished. (T. Hall, B. D.) Their folly shall be manifest unto all--The efficiency of the Divine government seen in the limitations of wickedness 1. This is seen in the manifest folly of sin. Sin is always folly, but this is not always made manifest in the course of human affairs. But God’ s government is such that, though the folly of sin be not in every case made manifest, it is always made clear that God thwarts the designs of wicked men, no matter how ingenious they may be. Men play the knave, only to show themselves fools. Their deeds ever pass in review before the never-closing eye of Him who holds every destiny in His hand. Under every wise system of government sin is demonstrated to be folly, though it may not always be exposed. 2. One of the declared principles of this effective government is, that crime shall be its own warning. There are earnests of penalties and promises of penalties, no less pronounced, in every-day life, than in the written moral code, the latter to follow us hereafter. The trial and punishment of law-breakers remain unfinished here, though there are generally enough admonitions to associate sin with approach ing danger. Owing to the cross-workings of law upon law, here the danger is not so apparent; but the Divine economy marks its criminals before they are arraigned. 3. Sin is often limited by exposure, pain, and special judgments, so that God Him self becomes the greatest restraint. Destruction of Sennacherib’ s army. 4. Divine grace often limits sin in action. Conversion of Paul. Lessons:--1. If there is a limit to wickedness, and to wicked men, in their course, there must be a limit to individual sins. The believer has to struggle more or less with sin while in this world, but there will be an end of all that conflict. 2. Living under such a government, how unwise to lead wicked lives l 3. The Christian can be faithful and energetic in his work. Sin is sure to fail, and righteousness to succeed. (W. M. Barbour, D. D.) The true nature of scepticism Some time ago I was a little alarmed at the stealthy progress which that accursed system--secularism--was making in Lancashire. But God settled it. God sent us the cotton famine; that settled it: and secularism has never rallied since. When the secularists used to come out to meet us, they said to the people, “ Don’ t listen to these men; all they want is your money. All their talk is about the next world. They do not care about this. They do not care about your having food, clothes, and healthy homes.” And thus we were taunted everywhere. Then occurred the outbreak of that terrible cotton famine. Where were the secularists then? Like the Arabs of the desert, they folded up their tents and silently stole away. And they who had said it was their special mission to deal with temporalities, forgot all temporalities but their own, and came up to London to lecture upon anything--“ admission threepence.” (C. Garrett.) Manifest folly Dr. John Hall, in one of his sermons, compared the attacks of infidelity upon Christianity to a serpent gnawing at a file. As he kept on gnawing, he was greatly encouraged by the sight of the growing pile of chips, till, feeling pain and seeing blood, he found that he had been wearing his own teeth away against the file, but the file was unharmed. The folly of opposition to Christ You have heard of the swordfish. It is a very curious creature, with a long and bony beak or sword projecting in front of its head. It is also very fierce, attacking other fishes that come in its way, and trying to pierce them with its sword. The fish has sometimes been known to dart at a ship in full sail with such violence as to pierce the solid timbers. But what has happened? The silly fish has been killed outright by the force of its own blow. The ship sails on just as before, and the angry swordfish falls a victim to its own rage. But how shall we describe the folly of those who oppose the cause of Christ? They cannot succeed; like the swordfish, they only work their own destruction. (G. S. Bowes.) Error cannot stand Error is a palace of ice, which at last must melt and tumble down necessarily, when but one ray of the sunlight of truth penetrates it. (Van Oosterzee.) The gospel and its enemies Luther hoard one day a nightingale singing very sweetly near a pond full of frogs, who, by their croaking, seemed as though they wanted to silence the melodious bird. The Doctor said, “ Thus ‘ tis in the world; Jesus Christ is the nightingale, making the gospel to be heard; the heretics and false prophets are the frogs, trying to prevent his being heard.” (Table Talk.) 2 Timothy 3:10-11 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life.Apostolic imitation 1. Doctrine.2. Conversation.3. Purpose.4. Faith.5. Long-suffering.6. Love.7. Patience.8. Persecutions.9. Afflictions. (T. Hall, B. D.) Precedents better than precepts Now since we are more easily led by precedents than by precepts, the apostle propounds his own example for our imitation, wherein we have the lively pattern and portraiture of a faithful pastor, whose office it is not only to preach sound doctrine, but also to practise what he preacheth in his own life, that so he may be able to speak from the heart to the hearts of his people, and may not bring his food as birds do to their young ones--in their beaks, not in their breasts. (T. Hall, B. D.) The example of superiors powerful In that Paul propounds his own example for Timothy to consider and follow. That the pious example of the godly must be imitated by us. Younger ministers especially must observe the doctrine and conversation, the pious ways and walking of the elder and graver ministers, and must follow them. Aged Paul propounds his virtues to young Timothy for imitation. Many young men praise the gravity, solidity, wisdom, industry, mortification, and self-denial of ancient ministers, but they do not follow them. They deal by them as the world doth by honesty, they praise it, but they never practise it. As Gideon said to his soldiers (Judges 7:17), “ Look upon me, and do likewise” ; so you that are young and unsettled, rash, and conceited, look upon the doctrine, discipline, hair, habit, ways and works of the holy, and the grave; follow them now you are young, and then you will be good long. Great is the power of the example of superiors. (T. Hall, B. D.) A copy to write by God hath set them before us as our copy to write by, and our pattern to live by, and we must answer not only for sinning against the light of the word, but against the light of good example also. It will be one day said, “ You had such and such to go before you in paths of piety, and yet you would not follow.” The faithful are called witnesses (Hebrews 12:1; Revelation 12:1-17.). Now if we walk contrary to their light they will witness against us, as Noah and Lot did against the sinners of their age; but if we walk answerable to their light they will witness for us. Their practice may comfort and confirm us in God’ s way; they declare the possibility of obtaining such a grace, and make it thereby the more easy, when we have seen it done before us. If a man have a torch to light him in a dark and dangerous path, how glad is he: the godly shine like lights in the midst of a crooked generation (Philippians 2:15-16), their life is a commentary on the Scripture. Now since the nature of man is apter to be guided by example then precept, therefore God hath prepared abundance of glorious examples for our imitation, and thus the saints that are now at rest and triumphant in glory, their lives are to be our looking-glasses to dress ourselves by, our compass to sail by, and our pillar of a cloud to walk by. (T. Hall, B. D.) We must come up to the best patterns We can have no excuse in these days of light if we come not up to the best patterns, because we have more of the spirit, more light, and more clear manifestation of God than they had. (T. Hall, B. D.) The best patterns defective The saints have had their failings, and the best have a great deal of the old Adam in them. They are pillars of cloud for us to walk by, but this cloud hath its dark part, which if we follow we shall fall as they did. There are four sorts of actions which the Scripture tells us were done by saints. (T. Hall, B. D.) Both doctrines and graces must be good Our Saviour by the truth of His doctrine proved Himself to be sent of God (John 7:16-18; John 12:49-50). Paul commands Timothy to keep the pattern of wholesome words (2 Timothy 2:13), and Titus must be careful in appointing ministers for the Church, to choose such as hold the faithful word (Titus 1:7; Titus 1:9). Moral virtues may be found with a false faith; let not those apples of Sodom deceive you, for as there may be good doctrine where the life is bad, so there may be false doctrine where the life is seemingly good. Look, therefore, in the first place to the doctrine, and in the second place to the virtues which seem to commend it. So doth Paul here; first he tells you his doctrine was sound, and now he comes to declare his graces, and how he lived. (T. Hall, B. D.) Patience in ministers A little patience will not do, for we have no little enemies to oppose us--it must be all patience and all strength. This also is a virtue very requisite for a minister, who hath to do with all sorts of men; some are dull, some froward, some weak, some wayward; so that without patience there is no good to be done. It is for pusillanimous spirits to be always murmuring, complaining, and seeking revenge. The weakest creatures are most vindictive. This is an ornament of great worth, not only in the sight of man, but also of God (1 Peter 3:4). Without it we are unfit for duty, as the troubled sea unfit for voyage. Without it we double and increase our burthens; like a wild bull in a net, or the untamed heifer, we may gall our necks, but never break the yoke. Without patience no grace is perfect, faith hath but half its strength, and hope is feeble (James 1:4). By our patience we please God, displease the devil, rejoice the angels, and many times melt and convert our enemies. By this means we heap coals of conversion or coals of confusion upon their heads (Romans 12:20). This will keep us good in a bad condition, so that a man enjoys himself when he hath nothing else; and though he have nothing, yet is as one that possesseth all things. The consideration of this made Tertullian to cry, “ Farewell all, so I may but get patience.” (T. Hall, B. D.) Christian consistency Paul did not pull down by his living what he built up by his preaching. (M. Henry.) Life an eloquent sermon Of Donne’ s romantic career it has been said that his life is more poetical than his poetry. We might without exaggeration adapt this epigram to his preaching, and say that his life was a sermon more eloquent than all his sermons. If, then, I were asked to describe in few words the secret of his power as a preacher, I should say that it was the contrition and the thanksgiving of the penitent acting upon the sensibility of the poet. (Bp. Lightfoot.) The preaching that tells There is a legend which tells how a saint once in vision saw a band of Franciscan friars standing round Jesus in heaven. He noticed that the lips of each were crimson. He asked the meaning of this, and to him the Lord said, “ These are the great preachers of my Cross, for the story of My redeeming love only comes with power over lips that are red with My precious blood.” Yes; the preaching that will save preacher and hearers is the preaching that comes from crimson lips. (British Weekly.) The stimulus of example The other evening a gentleman told me that he went into the room where his son was taking lessons in singing, and found the tutor urging the boy to sound a certain note. Every time the lad made the attempt, however, he fell short, and his teacher kept saying to him, “ Higher! higher!” but it was all to no purpose until, descending to the tone which the boy was sounding, the musician accompanied him with his own voice, and led him gradually up to that which he desired him to sing; and then he sounded it with ease. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) “ Example is a living law, whose swayMen more than all the written laws obey.”(Old Poet.) Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other. (Burke.) The power of a godly life “ Whenever I read Scripture, a thousand atheistical thoughts were injected in my soul … Being in Mr. T, H.’ s house, a godly and prudent man, his company did me much good … For the universal carnality of professors, with their discouragements, living so short of their principles, did much help forward my atheism, as it made me think that a saint was but a fancy; but truly I thought mine eyes saw something of a saint and New Testament spirit in him, and was something persuaded, by feeling his holiness, his cheerfulness in God, and his deep reach in spiritual mysteries, that there was a God, and a holiness attainable.” (Life of James Fraser of Brea.) Cassock and character I like that remark of Whitfield’ s, when some one of a bad character wondered how he could preach without a cassock. “ Ah,” he said, “ I can preach without a cassock, but I cannot preach without a character.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Paul’ s path of suffering The path of suffering of the apostle Paul a revelation--1. Of the power of sin which pursued him.2. Of the greater power of faith which sustained him.3. Of the omnipotence of the Lord who delivered him out of all. (Van Oosterzee.) Commands should be enforced by example During the siege of Sebastopol Gordon was one day going the round of the trenches when he heard an angry altercation between a corporal and a sapper. On inquiring the cause, he learnt that the men were instructed to place some gabions on the battery, and that the corporal had ordered the sapper to stand on the parapet, where he would be exposed to the enemy’ s fire, and to place the gabious, while he, perfectly sheltered, handed them up from below. Gordon at once jumped upon the parapet, ordering the corporal to join him, while the sapper handed them the gabions. When the work was done, and done under the fire of the watchful Russian gunners, Gordon turned to the corporal and said, “ Never order a man to do anything that you are afraid to do yourself.” Wicked men hate the good All wicked men hate the good, as all wolves do the sheep. (T. Hall, B. D.) Persecution beneficial Such shakings make way for Christ (Haggai 2:7). The Church, like a quick-set hedge, grows the thicker for cutting, this vine is the better for bleeding, and this torch burns the better for beating. The more Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites the more they increased (Exodus 1:12). (T. Hall, B. D.) Deliverances, to be noted Not only our dangers, but also our deliverances must be observed and recorded by us. (T. Hall, B. D.) 2 Timothy 3:12 All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.A Christian is not a favourite with the world Who can help admiring the frankness of Scripture? It shows us the difficulties as well as the enjoyments of religion; the sacrifices it requires, as well as the rewards it insures. This is perfectly just, and in every way profitable. I. The life described. It may be taken with two distinctions.1. It is not merely a moral life, but a godly one. We by no means depreciate morality. A man cannot be religious without being moral, but he may be moral without being religious. It is well to be a good master, a good neighbour, a good subject--but how are you disposed towards God? 2. It is not merely a godly life, but a Christian one. We are not only to live godly, but to live godly “ in Christ Jesus;” i.e., in all our religious concerns--To be governed by the revelation of Jesus Christ--To be conformed to the example of Jesus Christ--To be actuated by the grace of Jesus Christ--And to depend on the mediation of Jesus Christ. II. The condition announced as the consequence of the life described. “ Shall suffer persecution.”1. That ever since the Fall there has been an irreconcilable enmity between the “ seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent” ; that “ man being alienated from the life of God,” loves nothing that reminds him of God; that the tempers and actions of the righteous necessarily reprove and upbraid the wicked; that their endeavours to save disturb them in their sins; that the gospel condemns the worldly as well as the vicious, and the formal as well as the negligent; that, as there is nothing in Christianity that flatters sin, so there is nothing that flatters self; and that every man is naturally as self-righteous as he is depraved. 2. To this we may add another source of the inevitableness of persecution. It is taken from the Christian himself. Suffering is necessary for his trial and his triumph. Without this how could he prove that he loves God better than friendship, reputation, wealth, or life? How could he overcome evil with good? It is warfare that makes a good soldier. A Christian is like the firmament, and it is the darkness of affliction that makes his starry graces to shine out. He is like those herbs and plants that best effuse their odours when bruised. Concluding reflections:--1. There are some who suffer persecution that do not live godly in Christ Jesus. The people of the world cannot easily distinguish between “ the form of godliness and the power,” and therefore the pretending and the sincere frequently fare alike. The hypocrite loses heaven for the sake of earth, and earth for the sake of heaven, and is of all creatures the most miserable. 2. With what caution and prayer should we assume a profession of religion! 3. If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. It gives you an opportunity to prove your thankfulness for His goodness, and your adherence to His gospel. 4. But what shall we say to persecutors? If you feel enmity against the godly, and would injure them were it in your power, it is “ a token of perdition.” You may now be placed above them in circumstances; and may love to misrepresent and to vilify them. But “ their Redeemer is mighty.” He is “ near that justifieth them.” He “ will plead their cause.” He that “ toucheth them, toucheth the apple of His eye.” (W. Jay.) Persecution of Christians by the world The greater part of our sufferings are not distinguishable from the common afflictions of life; and many of the trials that some foolish professors frequently charge on religion, religion would teach them to avoid, if its admonitions were regarded. But, on the other hand, it must be allowed--1. That human nature is essentially the same in every age; and that a tiger may be chained and not changed. Under every form of government “ the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” And where there is a strong active propensity against anything (as, in this case, there must be against real godliness), it will show itself as opportunity offers; and such opportunity there must be in a world like this. 2. That persecution admits of various degrees. It includes every kind of injury or vexation, from a fiery stake to a scornful sneer. How often has genuine religion produced the loss of friendship, or chilled the warmth of attachment into cold civility! Where power is possessed, it is frequently exerted as far as safety or a regard to appearances will allow. This is seen in the attempts of husbands, parents, and masters, to restrain from following their religious convictions their wives, their children, and their servants. With regard to relations, a Christian will sometimes find a greater trim in their affections than in their frowns. Here is a mother, in all other respects tender and kind; she takes her daughter aside, and weeps to think she should favour a doctrine “ everywhere spoken against.” 3. If modern Christians frequently escape persecution, may it not be asked whether, in many instances, it does not arise from their less fully exemplifying the spirit of their religion than the primitive Christians did? (1) The one is concealment. This is dastardly and mean. We should never be drawn out of a corner by the praise of man, nor be driven into a corner by the fear of man. (2) The other is accommodation. And it is awful to think how one doctrine and usage after another has been given up! Christianity, says one, will never be received by Jews and Mahometans, while you “ honour the Son as you honour the Father.” It will never be acceptable, says another, to men of taste and learning, till you abandon the barbarous notion of the atonement and of original sin. Now, upon this plan, what would be left after all the objectors were satisfied? Christianity allows of no alteration. It needs none. The change required therefore is, where it ought to be in the world. (W. Jay.) A good man a good mark for the arrow The better the man, the sooner persecuted; the devil shoots his arrows at the whitest marks. (T. Hall, B. D.) A good man a miracle of preservation It is a miracle of mercy to consider how the lily subsists in the midst of so many briars and thorns, how the Lord’ s wheat grows in the midst of so many tares, how His doves live in the midst of so many birds of prey, and His lambs in the midst of so many roaring lions. Were not the Almighty her defence, those bands of ungodliness would soon destroy her. (T. Hall, B. D.) God honoured by His suffering servants Hereby we honour God, and so bring honour to ourselves. God hath much honour by His suffering servants, when out of love to Him they can sacrifice their lives and estates for Him. God glories in such; as He suffers in their sufferings so He triumphs in their conquests. (T. Hall, B. D.) Best when worst God is pleased to reserve the sweetest manifestations from the bitterest afflictions. The fountain runs most sweetly when the cistern is broken. When comforts are most needed they will be most prized. The traveller in summer, when the sun shines, casts off his cloak, but in winter, or when the wind blows hard, he wraps it closer to him. So when we bathe ourselves in creature comforts we value not the promises of God, but when we are stripped of all then we look after God. When the salt waters are dried up, then there are fresh springs in God. (T. Hall, B. D.) The good man happy in adversity, the bad man miserable in prosperity See the happiness of a child of God. Take him at worst, and he is better than a wicked man at best. The one in prosperity hath no joy, the other in adversity is full of joy. (T. Hall, B. D.) Brave martyrdom At Perth, in 1554, there were three male prisoners and one woman--Helen Stirk--put to death for their adherence to the gospel of Jesus. The latter was taken to see her husband suffer before she followed him. They embraced under the gallows. “ Husband,” she said, “ we have lived together many joyful days; but this day in which we must die ought to be most joyful to us both, because we must have joy for ever. Therefore I will not bid you good-night. Certainly we shall meet again in the kingdom of heaven.” The executioners seized their prey, and she, too, was then led away to be drowned. When she reached the water’ s edge she gave the child to a nurse, she was hurled in, and the justice of the Church was satisfied. 2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse.Graduating in ungodliness 1. If we consider wicked men as they are in themselves, they are all strongly bent to apostasy; every day they grow worse and worse. As godly men are graduates in God’ s school, growing from strength to strength, and from one degree of grace unto another, till they become perfect men in Christ, every sermon makes them better, and every ordinance improves them. So wicked men are graduates also, and take degrees in the devil’ s school; they stand not at a stay, but they grow from evil to Worse. As he that is righteous will go on and be more righteous, so he that is filthy will go on in his filthiness (Revelation 22:11). It is the proper character of wicked men that they fall away more and more (Isaiah 1:5; Proverbs 1:22). 2. But secondly, let us consider them specifically and divisively for such evil men as are deceivers and impostors, and these we see experimentally grow worse and worse. They have no foundation to rest on; they know no stay when once they have passed the bounds of the word, no more than a violent stream doth when it hath broke over those bounds and bonds which before kept it in. Error knows no end; when once men forsake the way of truth they wander in infinitum. As it is in logic, grant one absurdity and I will infer a thousand, and as sin begets sin, blood toucheth blood, and one murder begets another (Hosea 4:2). So error is very fertile and prolific; it speedily brings forth a great increase. One error is a bridge to another; ill weeds spring apace and spread far, when good herbs grow thin and low. A little of this leaven will quickly sour the whole lump (Matthew 16:6). When once men begin to tumble down the hill of error they seldom rest till they come to the bottom. (T. Hall, B. D.) Deceiving others and being deceived in turn They cozen others, and the devil cozens them, leading them into far greater errors; and so they shall be punished on a double account.1. Because they err themselves and resist the truth. 2. Because they have drawn others into error. The participle of the present tense notes their assiduity and constancy; they make it their trade to deceive others: they are still deceiving one or other with their smooth, flattering language. As God loves to employ good men for the conversion of others (not that He needs the help of man, but), for the exercising of the graces of His servants, and for the greater manifestation of His own glory, so the devil, who is God’ s ape, loves to deceive men by men. He hath his agents and emissaries everywhere. As good men delight in converting others, so wicked men delight in perverting others: as those would not go to heaven alone, so these would not go to hell alone: and therefore they labour to make others twofold more the children of the devil than themselves. (T. Hall, B. D.) Satan the great deceiver As thieves when they would rob a man draw him aside out of the highway into some wood, and then cut his throat, so this grand deceiver and his agents draw men aside from the right way of God’ s worship into some bypaths of error to their ruin. The devil he is the cheater of cheaters, and deluder of deluders; it is his constant trade, as the participle implies. And this is the reason why many false teachers may die with boldness and courage for their opinions, viz., because they are blinded and deluded by the devil; they think themselves martyrs, when they are grand deceivers and grossly deceived. We had need, therefore, to pray for the Spirit of grace and illumination that we may see the methods, depths, and devices of Satan and avoid them. (T. Hall, B. D.) Worse and worse Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly. (Bacon.) Being deceived A man may tell a lie till he believes it to be the truth. (J. C. Gray.) Self-deception Mr. Robert Sutcliffe, a member of the Society of Friends, travelling in America early in the present century, had a tough argument with a man engaged in the slave trade, of whom he says: “ At length, being hard pressed, he gave up the point in a good deal of warmth, with this remarkable declaration: “ Why, sir, you can’ t suppose that the Almighty looks so narrowly into our actions as you do.” (Leisure Hour.) Changed by sin Allowed sin always masters a man in time. The man may loathe his master, yet he obeys him; he may fear his master, yet still he does his hateful bidding. But there is here an awful warning as to the sure change of the very being of a man under the once invited presence and the permitted occupation of the forces of evil. The man himself changes--imperceptibly at first to himself--others see it. He is often unaware of it himself, till the last stages are reached. It must be so--there must be a change. If you think there is no such thing as standing still in life--in spiritual, in natural life. As the solid tower reels and sways beneath the crashing of the ringing bells, so there is movement even in the most solid, calm-seeming life. (Canon Wilberforce.) Development of evil Secular history tells us that when Tiberius (Luke 3:1) became emperor of Rome, he was remarkable for his kindness, amiability, and moderation. But he became one of the most wicked and cruel of tyrants. Nero, too, was so affable and kind in early life, that he was quite popular at the beginning of his reign; but he afterwards caused his mother, his wife, his old tutor Seneca, with multitudes of Christians and others, to be put to death, many of them in excessively cruel ways; and he was guilty of such other enormities, that his people at length conspired against him, when, to escape their malice, he killed himself in the thirty-first year of his age. Robespierre, “ the tyrant,” and the leading spirit during “ the reign of terror” in Paris, through whom thousands of both his friends and foes were slaughtered or subjected to the greatest cruelties, was, in private and early life, amiable and kind. He once, when young, resigned his situation as a member of a criminal court, because he had such an objection to the barbarity of capital punishment, which he characterised as “ base assassination.” The devil and his angels, Cain, Henry Wainwright, etc., show to what evil an immortal spirit may fall. Wherefore avoid bad company, give up evil or doubtful habits, get God’ s restraining, converting, and preserving grace. (H. R. Burton.) Productivity of sin Referring to the terrible productivity of sin, Mr. Varley once mentioned that when in Tasmania, he had heard of a snake recently killed there which had given birth to thirty-seven young ones. “ But,” said he, quoting Joseph Cook, “ sin is an eternal mother.” Progressiveness of sin A gentleman was walking with a friend one day through his beautiful grounds, when they came to a fine large tree which was decayed to the very core. “ That tree,” said the proprietor, “ was destroyed by a single worm. A short time since it was as vigorous as any of its companions, when one day a woodworm was discovered forcing its way under the outer bark. A naturalist who was at that time my guest remarked on seeing it that if left alone it would ultimately kill the tree. It seemed so improbable, that the worm was suffered to remain. Gradually it bored its way into the fibre of the tree, slowly but surely doing its work. The following summer the tree shed its leaves much earlier than usual, and in the second season it was a dead, worthless thing. The worm which seemed so very insignificant had found its way to the heart of the once noble tree and destroyed its life.” How forcibly do we see this same thing illustrated in the common walks of every-day life. A young man is persuaded by his companions to take his first glass of wine. It seems like a little thing, but it is the beginning of a course of degradation and eternal shame. The clerk in the bank appropriates a few shillings of the funds entrusted to his care. One step leads to another, until at last he is arrested and cast into prison as a defaulter. A boy begins to practise little deceits at school or at home which, unless discovered and checked, will make him a base and unprincipled man. Such is the destructive power of little sins when the continued indulgence in them is practised. 2 Timothy 3:14-15 Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned.Service must be constant and faithful God’ s servants must continue constant in the truth received. They must not play fast and loose, be off and on; but they must be still the same, like well-tuned bells, which have the same note in foul weather as they have in fair (Job 1:21), we must hold fast the truth (1 Thessalonians 5:21), abide in it and walk in it (Revelation 3:3).1. This constancy is a note of sincerity, then are we Christ’ s disciples indeed, when we abide in the truth (John 8:32; Job 2:3), when no storms nor tempests can remove us from it, but we stand like Mount Sion, which never moves, and, like seasoned timber, never warps nor yields. 2. All the promises of heaven and happiness run only to such as are faithful to the death (Revelation 2:10), endure to the end (Matthew 24:13), and continue in faith (Romans 2:7; Matthew 10:22; Colossians 1:22-23; Hebrews 3:6; Hebrews 3:14). 3. Lay a good foundation, dig deep; he that will build high, must lay levy. Our learning doth not hinder but further the work of the Spirit in our souls. Timothy, that had a plentiful measure of the Spirit (for he was an Evangelist), yet must give himself to reading and meditation still. As Moses was faithful, and would not part with a hoof to Pharaoh, so we must not part with a tittle of God’ s truth to His enemies; for all truths, even the least, are precious; truth is like gold, which is glorious in the ray and spangle, as well as in the wedge. As it is in practicals, he that makes no conscience of little sins, will quickly be drawn to greater; so it is true, and holds in doctrinals, lie that admits of a little error, will soon be drawn to a greater. Though every truth be not fundamental, yet every truth is a guard to the foundation, the outer skin of an apple lies remote from the heart, yet if you pluck that off the heart will soon be rotten. The linger is not a vital part, but a gangrene in the finger will, in a short time, reach to the very vitals and corrupt the blood with the spirits. Not only the garment of truth, but the fringes thereof are useful, and must be preserved (Numbers 15:38-40). We experimentally see that those who forsake truth, in discipline, quickly fall to errors in doctrine. We shall hardly find a man that errs in the one, to be found in the other. As therefore we must count no sin small, so we must esteem no error small; for the least truth of God’ s kingdom doth in its place uphold the whole kingdom of His truth. 4. If you preserve the truth it will preserve you in the hour of temptation, as Solomon says of wisdom (Proverbs 4:8). 5. It is a great honour to a person or nation to be the conservators and preservers of the truths of God. It is not only our duty, but our glory. There are many spiritual cheaters abroad; the greater will our honour be in maintaining God’ s truth against them all. Say not I am but one, and a weak one too, but remember what great things the Lord did by Athanasius and Luther. (T. Hall, B. D.) The excellency of the teacher makes the doctrine the more taking This we see even in human and moral learning, the Platonic doctrine grew famous because it was professed by Socrates, and the Peripatetic by Aristotle. The scholars of Pythagoras did so confide in the dictates of their master, that when any one asked them a reason of what they held, they would give no other answer but “ Our master said so.” Young ministers should suspect their own judgments when they vary from a holy, aged Calvin Beza, and all the churches of God. As young lawyers and physicians observe the principles and practices of the serious and grave professors of their way, especially when grounded on maxims and rules of art, so should young divines. It ill becomes a young raw physician to contradict a whole college of physicians, or a puny lawyer a bench of judges, or a young divine a whole assembly of divines. (T. Hall, B. D.) Continuance in the faith I. The things in which we are to continue.1. We must learn those things in which we are to continue.2. The things in which we are commanded to continue are the things of which we have been assured. II. In what respects we are to continue in them.1. We must continue in the belief of them.2. We must continue to profess that truth which we believe.3. We must continue in the practical improvement of the truth. What is the chaff to the wheat? Such is every other doctrine to the doctrine of the Bible; and its energy and effects are proportioned to its excellency, when it is received with faith and love. (G. Lawson, D. D.) The necessity of correct belief Comprehensively, we may say that there are two things to be noticed in this passage: first, that the proper use and end of all religious know ledge is the promotion of good conduct and character; and, secondly, that there is a definite and important relation between certain truths and certain moral results. The same fruits will not follow as well from one set of principles as from another. Right belief has much to do with right conduct. Believing is the basis of all instruction and education. Every parent, every teacher, every moralist, as well as every preacher of righteousness, holds that human life and conduct will largely depend upon the things that men are taught to believe. There has sprung up a popular notion that it makes no difference what a man believes concerning religion if only he be sincere. There is just enough truth in the phrase, in some of its applications, to make it plausible, and to give it currency. And so it has come to be a proverb. When it is said, “ It matters little what a man’ s creed is if his life be right,” if it meant, “ It matters little what a man’ s head knowledge is, so that he is sound in his heart,” and by sincerity is intended, not sincerity in belief, but sincerity in life or godliness, a great truth is expressed--a truth that is not enough recognised. In education it is of great importance what sort of truth you employ, for some kinds of teaching are a great deal more likely to produce godliness than others. But, whatever the teaching has been, if the man is a good man, however strange it may appear that such a creed should have such a disciple, however far he may be from the average results which ordinarily follow the teaching of such things as he believes, his godliness is to be acknowledged in spite of the beliefs. There are thousands that are not half as good as they ought to be, considering the things that they believe. A man’ s creed does not necessarily make him good. And there are thousands that are better than their creeds. But generally this maxim does not mean sincerity of life in the form of godliness; it means that it does not matter what a man believes, so that he only believes it sincerely. The first question then, that arises, is this: What are we to understand by a man’ s belief? Do we understand by it simply those things of which he has an intellectual conception? Do they amount to a belief? Truth that touches a man not merely through a cold perception, but through some warm feeling--that is the kind of truth the Scripture teaches to constitute belief. It may be intellectually conceived; but no moral truth and no social truth is ever presented so as to be believed, unless it be presented in such a way as to carry sympathy and feeling with it--and that is not the case with all kinds of truth. Physical truths, scientific truths, do not touch the feelings, and do not need to. Arithmetic deals with truths that have no relation directly, except with the understanding. They never come with desire, sorrow, pity, or emotion of any sort. Bat all truths that relate to dispositions in men, to moral duties--they never stop with the understanding, but touch the feeling as well. A man cannot be said to believe a moral truth unless he believes it so that he carries some emotion with it. And, in this respect, it makes great difference what a man believes. Let us, then, look at this a little in the light of the experience of men in this world. In regard to the truths of the physical economy of the globe, does it make any difference what a man believes? Would it make any difference to a machinist whether he thought lead was as good for tools as steel? Would it make any difference to a man in respect to the industries of life if he thought that a triangle was as good as a circular wheel in machinery? In respect to the quality of substances, the forms of substances, the combination of substances, and the nature of motive powers, does success depend upon sincere believing or on right believing? Suppose a man should think that it made no difference what he believed, and should say to himself, “ I wish to raise corn, but I have not the seed; so I will take some ashes and plant them; and I believe sincerely that they are as good as corn,” would he have a crop of corn? What would his sincerity avail? Take one thing further. There are affectional and social truths. Does it make no difference what a man believes in respect to these? Is there no difference between pride, vanity, and selfishness on the one hand, and tenderness, sympathy, and love on the other? As it is with the lower forms of moral truth, so experience teaches us it is with the higher forms of moral truth. There is a definite and heaven-appointed connection between the things a man holds to be true, and the results that follow in that man’ s mind. All truths are not alike important, and all truths do not show the effects of being believed or rejected with equal rapidity. There are many truths which bear such a relation to our every-day life, that the fruit of believing or rejecting appears almost at once. These are spring truths, that come up and bear fruit early in the season. There are other truths that require time for working out their results. They are summer truths, and the fruit of belief or disbelief does not ripen till July or August. Other truths, in respect to showing the results of belief or disbelief, are like late autumnal fruits, that require the whole winter to develop their proper juices. Thus it is a matter of great importance whether a man believes in his obligation to God or not; whether he believes that he is sinful or not; whether he believes in the necessity of the influence of the Spirit in regeneration. A man’ s belief is not the only thing that works upon him. There is a great mistake in saying that as a man believes so is he, if you mean that his character depends upon his belief in any technical theological truth. What a man is depends in a great measure upon his father and mother, and brothers and sisters, and friends; that is, it depends partly on the things that he believes, and partly upon the influences that are working upon him in the family, in the society, and in the party to which he belongs. There are a thousand and one circumstances that have much to do with what a man is; and his character is not formed alone by his technical beliefs. Let us apply the foregoing reasonings and explanations to the more important truths which we are appointed to preach. We preach, then, that this life is a very transient scene; that we are strangers and pilgrims here; that we are started here to be transplanted; that we are undergoing a process of education in this life with reference to a life to come. We are taught in the Word of God that all men are sin-struck, and that every man that lives needs the grace, and forbearance, and forgiveness of God, and moral renovation at the hands of God. If a man believes that he is good enough, of course he becomes listless, and heedless, and inattentive. If another man by his side believes that he is sinful, and needs to be born again, with what a constantly quickened and watchful conscience must he needs live! and how, with all his moral power, must he perpetually strive to live a godly life? Does it make no difference what a man believes in respect to the character of God, the nature of the Divine government in this world, its claims upon us, and our obligations under it? What, then, is the application, finally, of this? It is just this: that, according to the tenour of the passage from which our text is taken, it makes all the difference in the world which you believe in respect to those truths that are connected with godliness--with purity of thought, purity of motive, purity of disposition. You must believe right about them. If there are any truths to be indifferent about, they are those that relate to your worldly good; and if there are any truths that you cannot afford to be indifferent about, they are those that relate to your character, to your immortality, and to the eternity that awaits you. Indeed, your character and destiny depend upon your beliefs in truth. If, then, any of you have hitherto been reading the Word of God as a book of curiosity, I beseech you remember that it is not made known to you for the purpose of curiosity. It is made known to you to be your guide from sin, from sorrow, from earthly trouble, toward immortality, and toward glory. Now when I sit in my house, where there is no gale, and with no ship, and read my chart out of curiosity, I read it as you sometimes read your Bible. You say, “ Here is the headland of depravity; and there is a lighthouse--born again; and here is the channel of duty.” And yet every one of you has charge of a ship--the human soul. Evil passions are fierce winds that are driving it. This Bible is God’ s chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbour is, and how to reach it without running on rocks or bars. Is is the book of life; it is the book of everlasting life; so take heed how to read it. In reading it, see that you have the truth, and not the mere semblance of it. You cannot live without it. (H. W. Beecher.) Value of personal conviction Without this subjective conviction of the heart, it would not have been possible for Timothy to hold out in the things he had learned, amid so many persecutions. (Van Oosterzee.) Continue The capital word in this injunction is doubtless “ continue.” Timothy’ s teachers had been his grandmother Lois, his mother Eunice, and the apostle Paul himself. From his childhood he had been taught in the Scriptures, and now the apostle urges him to remain steadfast in his early teaching. But was such an exhortation consistent with the greater light that would come to the young learner as he grew older and increased in knowledge? Might he not have occasion to change his beliefs, to revise his creed, as he made intellectual advancement? Let us see if he was right. What relation should subsist between “ the things learned” and the increasing light of greater knowledge? It should be kept in mind that, notwithstanding much shifting of positions in human thought, the essence of religion remains unchanged; it is fundamentally the same. There are those who seem to think that greater light will revolutionise all our beliefs, and that therefore it is folly to cling so tenaciously to the old orthodox positions in religion or anything else. Suppose for a moment that this were true. Then there could be no certainty, no assurance. We should not dare to pin our faith to anything in religion or science or common sense. Even those mathematical truths that have been so confidently held as axioms would stand on an insecure foundation, for who knows that further research might not shatter them, and raze to the ground the proud superstructure? Besides, these progressive thinkers themselves, who advocate certain theories with so much gusto, are guilty of folly; for, according to their own hypothesis, new light may change their beliefs, and prove them but the phantoms of a day. Do you see where this theory, that all our knowledge is in a fluctuating state, subject to constant change, will land us? In the harbour of nowhere? Let those who will sail tor that port. Many of us prefer a definite destination after the voyage of life is over, and a more reliable guiding star while it lasts. But let us look around us for analogies. Are there not many things that abide amid all changes? The zephyrs still blow softly on the blushing cheek, the storm still howls, the stars still twinkle, the waves still roll and dash upon the shore, men still breathe and eat and sleep and love, as they did in the olden times; that is, the fundamental things continue. And the like is true of the principles of Christianity; amid all fluctuations “ the foundation of God standeth sure,” and we still have “ hope as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.” (Christian Globe.) Things learnt at school 1. First among these special lessons of a public school, I will place the value of time. I know not how to express my sense of what we all owe to what I may call a life of compulsory order. Every little duty of the day has, with us, its place and its time. 2. I will mention as one of the lessons of a place like this, the forming a right estimate of yourselves. It is one of the greatest benefits of this kind of education, that it leaves you in no doubt as to your comparative powers and attainments. Be not presumptuous, be not arrogant, be not self-confident. Take a just, not a fanciful, estimate of yourselves, both ways. 3. A third important lesson learned here is, the necessity and the power of adapting yourselves to a variety of persons and circumstances. 4. A fourth lesson here learned is the meaning of a social as opposed to a selfish life. 5. There is a fifth thing taught here, as it can scarcely be but by a system of public education, and that is the great lesson of the consequences of actions. 6. All these things are true, and capable of much enforcement, but I hasten to that chief lesson of all, without which all else would be poor indeed--I mean, the Divine aspect of life; its relation to God Himself through Christ, as our present help, our one hope and object, the very stay and strength and life of our life. That surely is the meaning of all our meetings for worship. (Dean Vaughan.) Continue in the things learnt What are the things that you have learnt--what are the lessons that I would write upon your hearts in letters that the fire of experience shall bring to the light?1. The dignity of work. Try to realise how much you owe to the labours of others who have gone before you, and try to labour for others in your turn. Do not be mere triflers and spendthrifts. Lay one stone, if it be one only, in the temple of human progress. Seek to learn something and to do something that is good. 2. The sovereignty of conscience. The age in which we live is democratic. “ Vox populi vox Dei” is its watchword. Let me warn you against that great and fruitful error. There is no Divinity in numbers. God reveals Himself not to the many, but to the few. The greatest crime ever wrought was wrought by one who desired to do the people’ s pleasure. You may sympathise with the people as much as you like, you may hold it right that the will of the people should be done; but nothing that the people say or do can alter by one bait’ s breadth the law of right and wrong for you. 3. The duty of philanthropy. Every generation has its own duties and responsibilities. Nobody can tell why certain questions arise at a particular time and come to the fore; it is God’ s will. And there can be no doubt that the distinguishing duty of your generation will be to soften and hallow the lives of the toiling poor. 4. How shall you do this? What shall be your motive power in this great work? It shall be the fourth--the last--of the principles which I have impressed upon you, and which I leave with you as a legacy of remembrance--the paramount value of religion. “ I thank God,” said Lord Russell on the scaffold--“ I thank God for having given me a religious education; for even when I forgot it most, it still hung about me and gave me checks.” May it be so with you! May religion be your guide, controlling, inspiring, leading you ever to a higher and diviner life! (J. E. C. Welldon, M. A.) Paul’ s charge to Timothy Yield to the influence of authority in doctrine and life. “ But continue thou in the things which thou hast heard and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.” This advice is strangely unlike what we are accustomed to hear. Our time is impatient of authority. “ The new Timothy” is exhorted to be perfectly unbiassed in the formation of his religious opinions. He must go back to the sources of things, if he can; if he cannot, he must improvise opinions, and thereafter be his own authority. Unverified personal impressions, and conclusions hastily reached, are better than the testimony of the wisest and most faithful witnesses touching the doctrines and duties and experiences of Christ’ s religion. To Paul it seemed far otherwise. He would have Timothy strongly biassed in favour of the teaching which he received in youth, by the Christian character of those who taught him. Grandmother Lois and mother Eunice gave the testimony of experts. They knew whereof they affirmed. Religion was not to them a matter of opinion merely, it was a life. Their faith was “ unfeigned.” It had power to rule their lives. Why should not their teachings take on an authoritative quality from their lives? The limits of authority must be carefully set. Discriminations must be made. “ Profane and old wives’ fables” must be avoided. But the authoritative teaching of a holy life is not to be disregarded because unholy lives assume to be authoritative. Mental freedom is to be coveted; but the freedom which assumes that each age must begin anew the study of the “ ways of God” with men is too great. (Monday Club Sermons.) From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures. The Holy Scriptures So here what a largo encomium and high commendation the Holy Ghost gives of the Scriptures, even such as is given to no other book in the world besides.1. He commends them in respect of one special property and adjunct, viz, their holiness. The holy Scriptures. 2. From their effects: they are able to make us wise unto salvation. 3. From their authority, utility, perfection. Now the Scriptures are called holy in five respects.1. In respect of their Author and principal cause--viz., the most holy God. 2. In respect of the penmen and instrumental cause: they were holy men of God (2 Peter 1:21). 3. In respect of their matter: they treat of the holy things of God; they teach nothing that is impure or profane. They teach us holiness in doctrine and practice. 4. in respect of their end and effect--viz., our sanctification (John 17:17). By reading, hearing, and meditating on God’ s Word the Holy Ghost doth sanctify us (Psalms 19:8-9). 5. By way of distinction and opposition; they are called holy to distinguish them not only from human and profane, but also from all ecclesiastical writings. 1. This must teach us to bring pure minds to the reading, hearing, and handling of God’ s holy Word.2. Take heed of profaning the holy Scriptures by playing with thorn, or making jests out of them.3. Love the Scriptures for their purity; as God is to be loved for His purity, so is His Word. Many love it for the history, or for novelty, but a gracious soul loves it for its purity, because it arms him against sin, directs him in God’ s ways, enables him for duty, discovers to him the snares of sin and Satan, and so makes him wiser than his enemies. The Word of God alone is able to make us wise unto salvation (Psalms 19:7; Luke 16:28; Luke 16:19; John 5:39; John 20:31; James 1:22; James 1:25). No other knowledge can bring us to salvation, but only the know-lodge of the holy Scripture. The Word of God cannot save nor profit us without faith. Such is our blindness, deadness, dulness, yea, enmity against the Word, that without faith we cannot see, conceive, or receive it (1 Corinthians 2:14; Romans 1:16; Hebrews 4:2; John 3:19-20). If a man offer us never so good an alms, yet unless we have an eye to see it, with a hand and heart to receive it, we are never the better for the tender of it.1. Observe. Parents ought to instruct their children betimes in the Word of God. It is good seasoning the vessel betimes with goodness. It is a singular mercy to have good parents, and specially a good mother, for she being much about her children hath many opportunities of dropping good things into her little Lemuels, as Bathsheba did into Solomon (Proverbs 31:1). The mothers of the kings of Israel are constantly mentioned, and as they were good or evil, so were their children. But at what ago would you have parents begin to teach their children? So soon as over they begin to learn wickedness, we should teach them goodness; so soon as ever they begin to curse and swear, we should teach thorn to bless and pray. There are many reasons why youth should be seasoned betimes with good principles. 1. In respect of that natural rudeness and ignorance which cleaves so close unto them (Ecclesiastes 3:18; Job 11:12; Jeremiah 4:22; Jeremiah 10:14). We are all by nature like wild ass colts, unteachable, untractable. 2. The Lord oft blesses this seasoning in youth with good success. 3. It is usually blessed with continuance and perseverance; such as are good young are oft good long; what the vessel is first seasoned withal it will have a taste of it a long time after. 4. This is an excellent means to propagate goodness to posterity. As we see here, Timothy’ s grandmother teacheth his mother, and his mother teacheth him, and he teacheth the Church of God, etc. So if you teach your children, they will teach their children, and thou mayest be a means to propagate God’ s truth and honour from one generation to another. So that you may comfort yourselves when you come to die that yet your piety shall not die, but shall survive in your posterity, who shall stand up in your stead to profess God’ s name and truth before a sinful world. 5. Such well-bred and timely-taught children are usually great comforts and ornaments to their parents (Proverbs 23:15-16; Proverbs 23:24-25), as we see in Abol, Joseph, Samuel, Josiah (2 Chronicles 34:3), Obadiah (1 Kings 18:18; 1 Kings 18:12), David, Daniel, Jeremy. 6. Children are the seminary and nursery, of the Church and commonwealth; now, as our seminaries and seed-plots are, such is the nation; as the parents, house, and school are, such are towns and cities. 7. Youth is most teachable and tractable, like soft wax or clay fit to be formed and framed to anything, ready to take any impression. Like a tender twig you may bend it which way you please, but let it grow to be a tree, and you may sooner break it than bend it. We should therefore take this fit season of seasoning youth betimes with saving truths, and killing the weeds of sin which begin to appear in their lives. No creature so wild but it may be tamed if taken whilst young. We see those that would teach or tame horses, lions, hawks, dogs, bears, they begin with them betimes; the horse is broken whilst a colt, and the lion tamed whilst it is a whelp, etc. As in the Ark there was the rod and manna, so in every well ordered family there must be the manna of instruction and the rod of correction. It must stir up young persons to devote the flower and best of their days unto God, who is the best of beings. Show me any that can show better title to thy youth than God can do, and let him take it. He gives the best wages, and so deserves the best work; godliness hath the promise (Proverbs 22:4; Matthew 6:33; 1 Timothy 4:8). And if we serve Him in our good days, He will help us in our evil ones; if we spend our youth in His service, He will support us and supply us in our old age (Isaiah 46:3-4). If it were in our power, yet we may in no wise deal so disingenuously with our God as to give the devil the marrow of our youth, and reserve the dry bones of our old age for God. It is no wisdom to lay the greatest load on the weakest horse. Old age (though in itself it be a blessing) yet is accompanied with many troubles, sicknesses, and diseases; they are the dregs, the lees, the winter of our days. As all rivers meet in the sea, so all diseases meet in old age--hence it is called the evil day (Ecclesiastes 12:3-5), etc. Then the eyes grow dim, the ears deaf, the hands tremble, and the legs are feeble, and the memory fails. (T. Hall, B. D.) Religion in youth 1. It is more easy; anything taken when it is young is more easily wrought upon. A twig is easily bent; a disease taken in the beginning is easily cured, when everything by delay grows worse. When the fingers are grown stiff, it is ill learning to play on the lute. An old disease is hardly cured. The longer a tree grows, the harder it is to pull up. The further a nail is driven, the harder it is to pull it out again. The acting of sin strengthens the habit, and when sin is become habitual, connatural, and customary, it is hardly cured (Jeremiah 13:23; Isaiah 26:10). 2. It is more fruitful; we shall do more good, and receive more good; to him that hath shall be given. We shall bring forth much penitential fruit, which will bring much glory to God, and in glorifying Him lieth our glory (Job 15:8). Suppose a man should never repent till he were old and ready to die; though such a man may be saved, yet his graces are not so conspicuous, nor can he do that good, nor bring that glory to God as a young man that begins betimes to serve Him. It is a thrifty course to be an early convert; the sooner we submit to the Spirit’ s conduct the better, the more peace and liberty we shall attain. 3. It is more beautiful and lovely. Everything is beautiful in its season (Ecclesiastes 3:11); now God’ s usual season for repentance is when we are young. 4. We shall resemble the servants of God; all their obedience hath been prompt and speedy. They are endued with the wisdom which is from above, which is easily entreated to any goodness. 5. Consider the shortness and uncertainty of our days. It is a notable spur to speedy repentance; for as presumption of long life doth harden men, so realising of death, and looking on it as present, doth quicken and awaken men. Now our life in Scripture is compared to a span that is soon measured (Psalms 39:5); to a tale that is soon told (Psalms 90:9); to a vapour that quickly vanisheth (James 4:14); like a flower that soon fades (Isaiah 40:6-8; Job 14:2; Psalms 102:11; Psalms 103:15; James 1:10; 1 Peter 1:24); like a post or a weaver’ s shuttle that fly speedily (Job 7:6; Job 9:25). 6. The seasons of grace are short; time itself is short; but opportunity is much shorter. Every day in the year is not a fair day, and every day in the week is not a market day. Grace is not every day’ s offer, and therefore we should walk in the light whilst we have the light. 7. In this we may learn wisdom from the men of the world. The smith strikes whilst his iron is hot; the husbandman makes hay whilst the sun shines. The mariner observes his wind and tide, the lawyer his terms, the chapman his fairs and markets, and the gardener his seasons. Yea, shall the stork, the crane, and the swallow know the time of their coming, and shall we not know the day of our visitation? (Jeremiah 8:7). Doth the bee lose no fair day, and doth the ant in summer provide for winter? (Proverbs 6:8). And shall not we in the summer of youth provide for the winter of old age? 8. Neglecting the day of our visitation increaseth wrath, and provokes the Lord to cut off young persons in the flower of their days. If a man should every day be adding sticks to the fire, and oil to the flame, it must needs make the fire very terrible at last. (T. Hall, B. D.) The Christian education of the young 1. “ From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures.” That must have been a privilege of no slight importance in the estimation of Paul, which he considered worthy of peculiar mention, at such a time, and in his dying charge to his most beloved friend and companion. And when Timothy himself traced back the course of his life to his earlier years--when the memory of those youthful days rose upon his melting mind, as he perused the apostle’ s touching allusion, he too would most readily acknowledge the gracious hand of providence in having thus blessed him with the inestimable advantages of an early religious education. Men, who deem themselves philosophers, may sneer at the knowledge of a child, and the piety of a child, thinking it impossible that childhood can intelligently either know or love God. How soon can it comprehend the meaning of a father’ s authoritative and commanding frown, or the checking and controlling, yet affectionate smile of a mother! And, by the very simple process of combining these perceptions, and comparing in order to elevate them, how soon it may be taught to form some idea of a Being whose authoritative laws are similar, though vastly superior, to those of a father, and yet whose surpassing love, infinitely transcending that of a mother, shall endure when hers may have waxed cold, or waned utterly away, or been hid behind the darkness of the tomb! II. Consider what is the advantage of being trained to know the holy Scriptures. This Paul declares to be, that they are able to make us wise unto salvation. It might be shown, had we at present scope for the investigation, that the wisdom of the world is wholly ineffectual for accomplishing the moral regeneration of man; nay, effectual only, or at least chiefly, in cultivating and enlarging his capacity of evil. It is the knowledge of the holy Scriptures, and that alone, which can make men wise unto salvation. Results so strikingly different must proceed from originating principles not less diametrically opposed. Let us, therefore, briefly examine some of the leading principles of the wisdom of the world, marking the contrast between them and those of the Scriptures. Now, the main intention of the world’ s wisdom is, to fit men for living on this earth; that of the Scriptures, to prepare them for heaven. Plans constructed upon such very different principles, and for such very different ends, begin to diverge at their very commencement. The world trains children to a similarity with itself--with its pride, its luxury, its self-indulgence, its vanity, and its self-approbation; the Scripture principle is, “ the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” self-denial, humility, acknowledgment of sin, and dependence upon God alone for help. The world inculcates the love of gain, as a ruling object; the Bible declares that “ the love of money is the root of all evil.” The world is loud in its praises of these who acquire advancement and distinction in life; Christianity teaches us to be content with such things as we have, threatens the fall of the mighty and the proud, and pronounces a blessing upon the meek, the lowly, and the humble. The world allows, nay, inculcates, selfishness; Christianity bids us seek not our own welfare only, but also that of others. The world approves a bold, contentious spirit, as one likely to force it jostling way through all opposition; Scripture says, “ The servant of the Lord must not strive.” The world allows dissimulation, selfish delusion, petty fraud, and all the thousand knaveries of common life and business; Christianity requires that the whole life and conduct should be characterised by the very transparency of truth, as ever in the presence of the God of truth and holiness. III. We come now to offer some remarks on the principle of this saving wisdom--that by which it is accomplished, viz., “ Through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (W. M. Hetherington, M. A.) Knowledge of Bible in youth David Livingstone gained a New Testament in the Sabbath school when nine years old by repeating the 119th Psalm on two successive evenings with only five errors. (W. G. Blaikie.) John Wesley’ s estimate of the Bible I am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit, coming from God, and returning to God: just hovering over the great gulf; a few moments hence, I am no more seen; I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing--the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach the way. He hath written it down in a book. Oh, give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be a man of one book. Here, then, I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone; only God is here. In His presence I open, I read His book; for this end--to find the way to heaven. The Bible and the family One evening a man, who resided in Southwark, attended a missionary’ s meeting for the special purpose of lauding Paine and Voltaire as writers whose moral sentiments surpassed in beauty anything of the kind found in the Bible. What this objector to the gospel had to say was listened to with deference, and then he was asked if ever he had read the volume he contemned. Yes, he had read the Bible in common with other books. “ Have you a family?” asked the missionary who was presiding over the little assembly. Yes, the speaker possessed a wife and little ones. Which, then, would he recommend to them--the life companion who was dear to him and the children whom he loved--Infidelity or Christianity? The company may have looked curiously to see what shape the infidel’ s answer would assume, but they could little have suspected what its import would be. What was their astonishment when the champion of unbelief of a few minutes before burst into tears, and then cried, “ I never heard that kind of argument before. I would rather give them the Bible than any infidel book.” (G. H. Pike.) The Bible and the light of God Lord Byron and Mr. Hobhouse explored together a cavern in Greece. They lost themselves in its abysses, and the guide confessed in alarm that he knew not how to recover the outlet. They roved in a state of despair from cave to cell. They climbed up narrow apertures, but found no way of escape. Their last torch was consuming; they were totally ignorant of their whereabouts, and all around was darkness. By chance they discerned through the gloom what proved to be a ray of light gleaming towards them. They hastened to follow it and arrived at the mouth of the cave. Would that all the torches which are blinding men to the light of God would burn out, and that speedily! Blessed be darkness and despair if through them men discern the beams which shine from heaven and reveal salvation. (H. Batchelor.) Education of the youths A lady was once talking with an archbishop upon the subject of juvenile education, and, after some time, the lady said, “ Well, my lord arch bishop, as for myself, I have made up my mind never to put my child under religious instruction until he has arrived at years of discretion.” He replied, “ If you neglect your child all that time, the devil will not.” Early and lasting impressions In our great museums you see stone slabs with the marks of rain that fell hundreds of years before Adam lived, and the footprint of some wild bird that passed across the beach in those olden times. The passing shower and the light foot left their prints on the soft sediment; then ages went on, and it has hardened into stone; and there they remain, and will remain for evermore. That is like a man’ s spirit; in the childish days so soft, so susceptible to all impressions, so joyous to receive new ideas, treasuring them all up, gathering them all into itself, retaining them all for ever. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.--The Scriptures and Christ Christ is the central theme of the Bible’ s prophecies. The hope of Christ echoes through its Psalms. Every page gains new meaning when brought into relation with Christ. In the great light houses along our coast reflectors of immense power are placed around the lamps. They are composed sometimes of as many as a thousand pieces of highly polished crystal. Each of these sends out its own image of the central light. All combine to form the refulgent beam that shines a score of miles across the sea. So from each separate part of the Bible Christ is in some way reflected, and when we recognise Him throughout, it is all bright with interest and truth. The saving use of the Bible There are many people to whom the Bible does not amount to much. If they merely look at the outside beauty, why, it will no more lead them to Christ than the Koran of Mahomet, or Washington’ s farewell address, or the Shaster of the Hindoos. It is the inward light of God’ s Word you must get or die. I came up to the Church of the Madeleine, in Paris, and looked at the doors, which were the most wonderfully constructed I ever saw, and I could have stayed there for a whole week; but I had only a little time, so having glanced at the wonderful carving on the doors, I passed in, and looked at the radiant altars and the sculptured dome. Alas, that so many stop at the outside door of God’ s holy Word, looking at the rhetorical beauties, instead of going in and looking at the altars of sacrifice, and the dome of God’ s mercy and salvation that hovers over every penitent and believing soul. Oh, my friends, if you merely want to study the laws of language, do not go to the Bible. It was not made for that. Take “ Howe’ s Elements of Criticism” --it will be better than the Bible for that. If you want to study metaphysics, better than the Bible will be the writings of William Hamilton. But if you want to know how to have sin pardoned, and at last to gain the blessedness of heaven, search the Scriptures, “ for in them ye have eternal life.” (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.) Wise unto salvation through faith The addition is remarkable. St. Paul’ s experience had taught him that without that faith the study of the sacred writings might lead only to endless questionings and logomachies. Targums and the Talmud remain as if to show how profitless such a study might become. (E. H. Plumptre, D. D.) The faith-torch Faith in Christ is, as it were, a torch, by the light of which we can first read aright and understand the dim colonnades and mysterious inscriptions in the ancient venerable temple of the Old Covenant. (Van Oosterzee.) Wise unto salvation I. That the scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation. The Scriptures do, indeed, contain the truth that makes wise to salvation, but it is “ by faith that is in Christ Jesus.” It is when the Scriptures are believed, when they are received in the love of them, that man becomes a partaker of a blessing. Here it may be said, what strange language!--believe the Scriptures!--why, we always believed them! Those who utter such observations may imagine they believe, but they never believed “ faith worketh by love” --“ faith purifies the heart” --“ faith overcomes the world” --faith is not a fancy--faith is not something floating through the mind of man, but it is of the operation of God. If, then, a man is careless about his soul, he does not believe; if he thinks more highly of the testimony of the world than he does of the testimony of his God, he does not believe; if he depends on his own poor doings, and makes them the ground of his hope, he does not believe; “ for other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, Christ Jesus.” If a man neglects the various relative duties of life, and spends his time and money in satisfying in any way the lusts and desires of his flesh, that man, whatever he may be, or whatever he may say, does not believe. II. That Timothy was instructed in these scriptures from his youth. Here we have a direct answer given to those who would withhold from the young the book of God. No man of sense, or common understanding, or ordinary feeling, would withhold a medicine from his sick child, in consequence of that child being unable to ascertain the nature of the medicine, or calculate the effect of its operation. (P. Roe, M. A.) The blessedness of children Scripturally taught I. What the holy Scriptures can do. “ Make thee wise unto salvation.” Exceedingly high praise: can be affirmed of no other book. Were the Bible a book to teach men the art of becoming rich, many would read it who now refuse; all “ that will be rich” would then study their Bibles as diligently as their ledgers. If it taught men to be philosophers, another class would read it more than they commonly do. If it were a mere road book, many would consult it who now do not as they pursue the road of life. But the Bible proposes to make men rich towards God, wise unto salvation, pilgrims on the way to heaven. It teaches the best means of attaining the best end; and that is true wisdom. II. How the holy Scriptures produce such great effects. “ Through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” The Scriptures do not work as a kind of charm. It is not by having the Bible in the house, nor in the school, nor in the church; but it is by having the Bible in the heart, its contents heard, read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested--that they make us “ wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” The infidel can read them and scoff; the poet can read them and only admire their sublimity; the historical student can consult them only as ancient records; the formalist can read them just to get through a certain stated portion; yea, wicked persons have read them for bad purposes--to copy the sins which the Scriptures hold up to abhorrence. Of all such it may be said that the Word preached or read “ did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” The Word profits when we hear as Lydia heard,” whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.” Therefore the study of the Scripture should always be connected with prayer for Divine grace. III. The advantage of knowing the holy Scriptures, if possible, even from early youth. “ From a child” ; there is the time when Scriptural instruction should begin. The word here rendered “ child,” denotes childhood in its infantile stage. To early education, blessed of God in His own time and way, the Church has owed some of her greatest ornaments. Augustin, who made a noble stand for the gospel in the fifth century, always attributed his conversion to the prayers, the tears, and the instructions of his mother, Monica. God, in fact, appears to have remarkably honoured Christian mothers, whether they stood singly, or were supported in their endeavours to imbue their children’ s minds with Holy Scripture. Dr. Doddridge, one of the most eminently pious men among the Nonconformists in this country, used to relate that his mother taught him the histories of the Old and New Testament before he could read, by the aid of some Dutch tiles in the chimney of the room where they usually sat; and her religious instructions were the means of making good impressions upon his mind that were never obliterated. (J. Hambleton, M. A.) First duty of parents 1. Paul found Timothy, in their earliest acquaintance, a person who, though young in years, was fitted to enter the world in situations of great trust and confidence. 2. Paul had to think of Timothy, whilst employed in the onerous duties of his vocation, as one whose bodily constitution was sickly, and hence as one who was liable to severe illness or early death. 3. Paul had to experience the contemplation of being shortly separated from Timothy, having before his own eyes the certain prospect of martyrdom. Yet, in all his reflections, arising from the various circumstances attending his connection with this beloved disciple, one sufficient consolation filled St. Paul’ s affectionate heart. He knew that Timothy, even from his childhood, had known the Holy Scriptures; and this knowledge relieved him from all apprehension and anxious pain about his beloved friend. He could confidently trust him in the world; he could bear to lose him out of it; and he could with comfort leave him in it, when his own expected death arrived. And you who have children of your own, or are in any way entrusted with the guardianship of the young, will find that those three cases which I have cited concerning Paul and Timothy, may minutely represent your connection with the rising members of the human family.1. In the first place, many a parent’ s heart is often anxiously burdened with a conviction that soon the world must be opened to a son or a daughter; that the veil of domestic virtue and innocence, which has hitherto screened these children’ s eyes from a sight of the vanity and wickedness which exist in the highway of life, must be rent asunder; and that the allurements of pleasure, the fascinations of sin, the temptations of gain, the suggestions of ambition, will all assail their inexperienced feelings, with a force to which their own natural inclinations will only lend congenial aid; and this will be so, even with these who have been most carefully and religiously trained. How, then, are parents to defend their offspring, and how are the young to be secured from the corrupting influence of the ordeal through which, in entering the world, these inexperienced ones must necessarily pass? Shall they be supplied with money, to save them from the thirst of gain, when it will give them the means also of indulging in sinful pleasure? Shall they be highly educated, and taught all that the accumulated learning of the philosopher has discovered, when this may fill the head without cleansing one affection of a naturally depraved heart? Shall they be shut out from the world, when the devil has already taken possession of them in those bosom lusts and appetites which human flesh and spirit universally inherit along with breath? All these resources, and all which are like unto them, are useless, vain, and idle; and the only effectual fortification against the seductions of this world, which it is the duty of all men to enter and purify by a good example, is that Divine knowledge acquired in childhood, which Timothy, when a child, had been taught by a holy mother. Armed with this instruction, the parent may trust his child to the duties of life; and youth may boldly go into the world, to bless and be blessed by contact with its evil influences, to which he will neither conform nor yield. 2. It is the sad lot of many parents to see, in the early life of those for whom a mother’ s pangs bare been borne, the blighting shadow of infirmity, or the ravages of violent disease, appear, with ominous warning that sickness and death are no respecters of age. Even in the contemplation of a sickly or a dying child, there is a consolatory reaction from the grief which the spectacle presents, if father and mother can then conscientiously feel that, even from a child, their dear one had known the Holy Scriptures, whatever else they might have omitted in their instructions; and that whether renewed health come, or death carry off their treasure, they have thus made their young one wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 3. Parents constantly have the prospect before them of separation, by their own deaths, from those who, naturally, owe their lives to them. It were well, therefore, that they should make provision for this day of consternation and account. To leave riches without righteousness is the poorest of all inheritances; and poverty, though accompanied by patience and decency, will be no excuse for the want of that holiness which springeth only of faith. Happy only, therefore, can be the death of that parent, be he rich or poor, high or low, who can say, with his last breath, to each of his offspring, “ From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures.” (A. Garry, M. A.) Wisdom unto salvation (To children.) I am going to say something to you to-day about Timothy, and something about the knowledge which, St. Paul says, Timothy had from childhood. “ That the soul be without knowledge, it is not good.” All knowledge is good, but the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures is the best; for the Holy Scriptures are able to do for us what all other things are not able to do--to make us “ wise unto salvation.” How is it that man manages the wind, the water, the steam, the lightning, though once he was a little babe, knowing nothing and able to do nothing? Just because he gels knowledge and wisdom; by knowledge and by wisdom he can do all these things. If you get knowledge, and by knowledge wisdom, you may become like angels; but if you get knowledge and do not use it rightly, if you do not fear God and serve Him, if you lie, and steal, do you think you will be like angels? Oh I there are a great many children brought up to be wise in this world, but the greater number are allowed to be foolish. God says, “ Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom,” get it at any price, and do not part with it for anything. Remember, wisdom is of two kinds--wisdom for this world, and wisdom for the world to come. We have a short life here, but we will have a long eternity there. We have a very nice world here, but there is a beautiful world there. Timothy had wisdom for this world, and wisdom for the other world, too. Children, the way to be wise with the wisdom that is from God is to know the Scripture; the other wisdom will teach you about this world: how to get food for the body, which comes out of the ground; clothes for the body, they come out of the ground; a house for the body, and that comes out of the ground; how to get money, and it comes out of the ground. Look up; your treasure is above, not in the ground. The wisdom for this world we get out of the works of God; the wisdom for the next world we get out of the Word of God. The wisdom from the Word of God teaches us how to get bread for the soul--that is Jesus--raiment for the soul, shelter for the soul. All these we have in Jesus Christ; and this we know, and Jesus we know, by the Scriptures. So, then, the way to be wise unto salvation is to know the Scriptures. In order to understand the Scriptures we must have a new heart, and when we have a new heart we become wise unto salvation. The Scriptures make us “ wise unto salvation,” because they tell us what salvation is, and where salvation is. And where is it, children? I know where the light is--it is in the sun; I know where the water is--it is in the ocean; I know where nourish ment is--it is in food. But salvation, which is the best thing, and the sweetest thing, is not in the sun nor in the ocean, is not in the moon nor in the stars. Where--where is it?--in what place can we find it? There is nothing so good, nothing so great, nothing so lasting, nothing so enriching as salvation. Those who get it will never suffer, never sin, never sorrow, never die. This salvation is a grand thing! with it, you will be rich; without it, you will be poor. It will make you like God in holiness and happiness. Oh! salvation! where is it? It is in Jesus. I remember reading about a little boy who went to sea. One night a great storm arose, and the storm lifted up the waves very high, and the wind raged, so that the sails were torn; the masts were carried away, and the ship was tossed about like a cork on the waters; and then a great wave came and dashed the ship upon the rocks, and every one on board, big and little--all, all--went like a stone to the bottom! Two or three days after the body of a boy was found lying on the shore. He was in a sailor’ s dress; and when they searched his clothes they felt something hard in his bosom. It was a Bible! with the name of the Sunday-school where he got it, and the name of the teacher who gave it to him written in it; and the book had marks of being much read. Children, if that boy loved that book, and read it; if he knew Jesus and loved Him, though the night was dark and the sea was stormy, he had light in his mind and peace in his heart; and he has now a life that will never end, and a treasure that will never be spent. Though his body was dashed on the wild shore, his spirit will be with God in heaven for ever. Millions of such children are waiting in heaven for the morning of the resurrection, when they will get their bodies out of their little graves, and Jesus will change them, and make them like His own glorious body, and they shalt live and reign with Him for ever and ever. Would it not be a sad thing if any of you who are now hearing about Jesus should be lost! His blood can wash you; His Spirit can sanctify you. Go to Him--trust in Him--or you will perish. (J. Gregg, D. D.) The sufficiency of Holy Scripture I. The glorious purpose which God intended holy scripture to accomplish. To “ make them wise.” The very statement of such an object is fitted to commend the book that is to accomplish it to our appreciation and our love. What is there, that can be compared with wisdom? It is the greatest acquisition that immortal man can make. But to be made wise “ unto salvation” must be the supreme end and aim of all wisdom, worthy of the name. For if man be pregnant with immortality, to have meetness for heaven must be the chief end of man during the days of his pilgrimage here below. Salvation “ through Christ Jesus.” The end so glorious, how sure and simple the way! “ Faith which is in Christ Jesus.” II. The sufficiency of holy Scripture to accomplish this glorious object. “ Inspiration of God” : have you weighed the expression? What thanks we owe to our gracious Father, that He has not left us an imperfect, mutilated, shifting, and uncertain standard, but has given us a standard that in itself remains complete and unchangeable as His own eternal throne! III. The fitness of holy Scripture to accomplish that purpose even in one of the little lambs of the flock of christ. The Word of God is of all the books that the world contains the most suited to a child’ s mind and a child’ s heart. “ I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” (H. Stowell, M. A.) The gift of the Scriptures, and how it should be improved I. What you owe to the Scriptures in a way of privilege. Is truth valuable?--they are called “ the Word of truth.” Is righteousness valuable?--they are called “ the Word of righteousness.” Is grace valuable?--they are called “ the Word of His grace.” Is life valuable?--they are called “ the Word of life.” Is salvation valuable?--they are called “ the Word of this salvation.”1. Let us view these Scriptures as inspired. They claim no less a pre-eminence for themselves. And how delightful is it, in a world of uncertainties, conjectures, and errors, to find something concerning which we may say, Well, this is truth, upon which we may rely secure. “ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” 2. Let us view these Scriptures as preserved. 3. Let us view these Scriptures as translated. The first translation of the Scriptures was the Septuagint, executed by a number of learned men at Alexandria, who translated the Scriptures of the Old Testament into Greek. This was peculiarly overruled by the providence of God. Alexander, by his victories and dominion, was the means of spreading the knowledge of the Greek language, and thus the Scriptures could be easily read; and thus an expectation was commonly entertained of a future Messiah and Benefactor. The New Testament was, also, soon translated into several languages; hut it was a long time before the Bible was translated into our own language. When Elizabeth came to the throne, by an act of grace she opened the prisons, and a number of the citizens addressed her, thanking her for her generosity; but ventured piously and ingeniously to say, “ May it please your Majesty, there are four very excellent and worthy men who have been denied to walk abroad in the English tongue--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John” ; and from that time they have been allowed to walk at liberty, and to speak to you in your own tongue, in public and private, of the wonderful works of God. 4. Let us view these Scriptures as printed. A certain writer says, when London Bridge was first built, a copy of the Scriptures would cost nearly as much as one of the arches; and the whole of a labourer’ s work through life would not have been sufficient to have furnished him with a copy l How is it now? Now, you see, by means of this invention, they may be multiplied to any degree; and every family, yea, every individual, may be in possession of a Bible, either by donation or by easy purchase. 5. Let us view the Scriptures as expounded. Now we owe much to many of those who have thus written. 6. Let us view the Scriptures as preached. Nothing in the communication of knowledge has ever yet been found like a living address from man to man. Nothing can produce so much impression and effect. 7. Let us view the Scriptures as experienced. There are many who have the Scriptures without them, but not in them. There are many who have the Scriptures in their own country, in their churches, in their houses, in their hands, and some of them even in their mouths, hut not in their hearts. But there are others to whom they are as a “ well of water, springing up into everlasting life.” II. What you owe to the Scriptures in a way of duty.1. Surely you owe nothing less than to peruse them, and to value them, as David did. He said, “ I rejoice at Thy Word as those who find great spoil.” “ I esteem the words of Thy mouth,” says Job, “ more than my necessary food.” And, says David, “ The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.” And what said the celebrated Robert Boyle?--“ I would prefer a single twig of the tree of life to all the riches of the world.” But let it be remembered that the Scriptures will not profit unless they are “ mixed with faith in them that hear them.” 2. What less can this duty be than to understand them. 3. Surely this duty cannot be less than the practising of what the Scriptures teach. “ If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” : and even “ faith, without works, is dead, being alone.” We read of “ obeying the truth,” and of “ walking in the truth.” 4. Surely this duty cannot include less than your distributing them. The Scriptures were designed for all. The Scriptures are not given you as a blessing only to enjoy, but as a talent, also, to employ. (W. Jay.) The Sunday-school and the Scriptures I. The work of God’ s grace in Timothy commenced with early instruction--“ From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures.”1. Note the time for instruction. The expression, “ from a child,” might be better understood if we read it, “ from a very child” ; or, as the Revised Version has it, “ from a babe.” Babes receive impressions long before we are aware of the fact. A special vantage-ground is lost when even babyhood is left uncultured. The Holy Scripture may be learned by children as soon as they are capable of understanding anything. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.Inspiration of Scripture The word Inspiration itself is evidently a figure. It may be illustrated by another word. “ Inspiration” is a breathing into: “ influence” is a flowing into: neither word is self-explanatory; the former, like the latter, may clearly admit of degrees and modifications. The word Inspiration occurs twice in the English Version of the Bible. “ But there is a spirit πνεῦμα in man: and the inspiration πνοὴ of the Almighty giveth them understanding” (Job 32:8). “ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God θεόπνευστος, and is profitable for doctrine,” etc. (2 Timothy 3:16). In the one passage instruction is the chief thought, in the other edification. The word occurs twice also in the Prayer-book. “ Grant to us Thy humble servants that by Thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good,” etc. (Collect for the fifth Sunday after Easter). “ Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love Thee,” etc. (Collect in the Communion service). In both these sanctification is the end in view. Definition is still wanting. In several passages of the Epistles (as, for example, Romans 15:4, and 2 Peter 1:20-21) strong terms are employed to describe the objects and uses of Old Testament Scripture as a whole, and its source in the agency of the Holy Spirit. Nothing can be more inclusive than St. Paul’ s ὅσαπροεγράφη, nothing more emphatic than St. Peter’ s ἐλάλησανἀπὸΘεοῦ. Yet definition is still wanting alike of the word and of the thing. Theories of Inspiration have been many, but it is not in conjecture or in reasoning that our idea of it should be sought. The only true view of Inspiration will be that which is the net result of a lifelong study of Scripture itself, with all freedom in registering its phenomena, and all candour in pondering the question, “ What saith it concerning itself?” It is easy to see (and the Church of the present day is honest in avowing it) that the real truth must lie somewhere between two extremes--the extreme of verbal inspiration on the one side, and the extreme of a merely human composition on the other. I. Against the idea of a verbal inspiration of Scripture we are warned by many considerations. Amongst these we may place--1. Its utter unlikeness to all God’ s dealings in nature and grace. “ Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom” --freedom, not bondage; freedom, not rigidity. 2. The language of the New Testament as to the difference between “ letter” and “ spirit,” between γράμμα and πνεῦμα--the deadness of the one, the power of the other. As soon as Inspiration itself is tied to the clause and the sentence, to the precise shape and form of the utterance, and the black and white page of the written or printed book, it too is turned from the πονὴ into the χειρόγραφον, and has lost the very φορὰ of the Spirit which made it a προφητεία (2 Peter 1:21). 3. Such passages, for example, as the opening verses of St. Luke’ s Gospel, which speak only of diligent research and a thoughtful judgment as his guides in composing; or St. Paul’ s expressions in the seventh chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, as to his speaking not always with authority, but sometimes in the tone of suggestion and advice; or again, St. Peter’ s remarks upon the Epistles of St. Paul, which in the same breath he describes, by clear implication, as “ scriptures,” and yet characterises with a freedom which would be irreverent and almost impertinent if each line of those “ scriptures” had been verbally inspired. 4. The observation of differences of style and method between one Scripture writer and another; the employment, for example, by one of irony and sarcasm, by another of no weapons but those of simple persuasion. 5. The fearful importance attached to each reading and each rendering of each verse and clause of Scripture, if one was, and another was not; the very word dictated or the very thought breathed from heaven. 6. Also the utter grotesqueness of such an idea as the revelation of science, whether astronomy, geology, or ethnology--which yet there would have been if, where such objects are involved, the phrases and the sentences had been literally and verbally inspired of God; implying an anticipation, perhaps by many centuries, of discoveries for which God had made provision in His other gift of reason, and which it would have been contrary to all His dealings thus to forestall. “ Man’ s extremity is God’ s opportunity” ; that which lie had given faculties for finding out in time, He would not interpose, before the time came, to precipitate. 7. The terrible risk to mankind of pinning down the faith to statements utterly indifferent to spiritual profiting, which yet, if philosophically accurate, must for whole ages bear the appearance of error. And who shall guarantee the Bible, even if accurately written up to the science of the nineteenth century, from being condemned by the science of the twentieth? II. If such are the confusions and contradictions of the one extreme, the other extreme is yet more perilous. The practical elimination (now so common)of the Divine element in’ Scripture is fatal in every sense to its inspiration.1. It reduces Scripture to the level (at best) of works of human genius; and, when this is done, makes the question, for each book, a comparative one, in which some books would be exposed to a disparaging judgment. 2. It sends us back to human reasoning, which is on many topics (such, for example, as immortality, forgiveness, and spiritual grace) human guessing, for all our information on things of gravest concern. 3. It contradicts (1) express declarations of the New Testament Scriptures as to the Divine authority of the Old, as well as (2) express assertion of Divine illumination, promised and experienced, in the blew Testament writers themselves. 4. It does violence to the continuous doctrine of the Church of all ages, which has from the very first been express and peremptory in its view of the Divinity of the Scripture. 5. It leaves us practically destitute, even of a revelation. Because, though there might be a revelation without an inspiration (that is, a gospel of Christ, brought into the world by Him, and by Him communicated to His apostles, and by them to after ages, without a separate inspiration of the writers of its records), yet, as a matter of fact, it is by Scripture that we test our revelation, and that which shakes the authority of Scripture shakes the certainty of the revelation which Scripture enshrines. III. Between these two extremes lies somewhere the very truth itself about inspiration. It would be arbitrary to define it so precisely as to unchristianise those who cannot see with us. That there is both a human and also a Divine element in the Bible is quite certain. Some things we may say with confidence.1. Inspiration left the writer free to use his own phraseology, even his mode of illustrating and arguing. 2. It did not level the characteristic features of different minds, life one could imagine the Epistle to the Galatians written by St. John, or the Epistle of St. James written by St. Paul. 3. It did not supersede the necessity of diligence in investigating facts, nor the possibility of discrepancies in recording them; though it is more than probable that most or all of these would be reconciled if we knew all. 4. While it left the man free in the exercise of all that was distinctive in his nature, education, and habits of thought, it communicated nevertheless an elevation of tone, an earnestness of purpose, a force and fire of holy influence, quite apart and different from that observable in common men. 5. It communicated knowledge to the man of things otherwise indiscoverable, and also to the writer of things which it was the will of God to say by him to the hearer or reader. IV. While we refrain from definition, it is our duty as Christians to form a high conception of the thing itself for which inspiration is the name.1. Let us think what would have become of the παραφήκη itself, under whichever or whatever dispensation, if it had been left to depend upon oral transmission. 2. Let us give weight to the passages (some of them quoted above) which assert Inspiration in the strongest possible terms. 3. Most of all, let us live so much in the study of Scripture, as to acquire that reverent and devout conception of it which is ever deepest and strongest in those who best know it. A Christian man able to treat the Bible slightingly would be a contradiction in terms. (Dean Vaughan.) Inspiration The word which is here rendered “ inspired of God” is common enough in heathen writers, but this is the only place in which it occurs in Holy Scripture. As the word was common in heathen writers, so is the idea. “ Best,” says an ancient Greek poet, “ is the word of inspired wisdom.” Another Greek writer speaks of “ dreams inspired of God.” The Roman orator Cicero says, “ No man was ever great without a certain Divine inspiration.” This last example reminds us that in the Bible also inspiration is in the first instance the attribute of men, not of books. The prophet in the Old Testament is also called the man of the Spirit. Men from God, the Second Epistle of Peter tells us, spake as they were moved of the Holy Ghost. There is a spirit in man, we read in Job, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. The Divine breath, for that is the idea contained in the words “ inspired of God,” is first in a human soul; it is only through the soul that it can be communicated to any word or work. Scripture can only be a body of inspired writings because it is the work of a body of inspired men. Now let us approach the subject from this side, and I think it will lead us to some serviceable truths. All men are not equally capable of inspiration--some have a much greater fitness than others for receiving the Spirit of God. If we wish to see the perfect type of inspiration--inspiration not limited or hampered by any unfitness in its instrument--we must find one in whom there is no sin, but an entire and perfect sympathy with the mind and will of God. One such there is in Scripture, and one only--the man Christ Jesus. No one ever had the Spirit without measure except Him; in other words, no one ever walked the earth besides who was in the true and full sense inspired of God. The Divine breath was in Him, and Him only, the life of every thought and word. Hence the words of Christ have a solitary and supreme value. He says so Himself: “ The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” The difficulties which are felt at the present time in connection with inspiration should all be brought under review in this light. Every scripture, the text tells us, at least by implication, has a Divine breath in it; there is a Divine purpose which it has once served, and which, at a certain stage of human progress, it may profitably serve still; but not every scripture is equally inspired; not every scripture has the final and permanent validity of the words of Christ; and as long as these last find their way to our hearts and work the will of Christ in us, we need not disquiet ourselves because we cannot define the inspiration of Esther, for instance, or of Second Chronicles. When we take the words of Christ as the perfect type of inspired words, and the record of them as the perfect type of inspired Scripture, we see what the essential contents and purpose of inspiration must be. Christ’ s words are not monotonous; they are inexhaustible in their fulness; but in them all there is the undertone: One thing is needful. Christ is always saying the same things, and about the same things. The nature of God, the will of God, the true life and destiny of man--these and all that gathers round these are His theme. He aims at making men wise, but it is wise unto Salvation. He never taught a school of history or of science, or even of speculative theology. It was His meat to do the will of Him that sent Him, to declare that will, to win others to do it likewise. We cannot come nearer than the study of His words brings us to a true idea of inspiration; and if what I have said is true at all, it follows that inspiration has to do only with the will of God. The man of the Spirit is not necessarily an infallible observer, an infallible scientist, an infallible historian; in matters unconnected with his inspiration he may share the ignorance or the prejudices of his uninspired contemporaries; but he is, in the measure of his inspiration, an infallible interpreter of the will of God. Could anything be more true than that the words of Christ are profitable for doctrine, or to put it in commoner words, useful for teaching? The truth about God and man and all spiritual realities is revealed in them, and brought home to the mind and heart. They have filled and fertilised the intellect of Christendom for centuries. Are they not useful also for reproof, or more exactly, for conviction? Are there any words in the world that can quicken a dead conscience and make it sting, like His? How many of us have been revealed to ourselves as we listened to Him, and been compelled to cry like the woman of Samaria--“ Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did” ? Are they not profitable also for correction, for the putting right of what is wrong, and for discipline in righteousness? But, some one may say, though all this is plain enough in regard to Christ’ s words, it is very difficult to apply it to everything in the Bible--for instance, to the historical books; yet the text speaks of every scripture. That is true, and no doubt by every scripture the apostle has the Old Testament in view; there was no other scripture to speak of when he wrote. But I think a little patience and attention will show that this general and practical definition of inspiration is applicable to the whole of the Bible; and if the Bible, from first to last, has this inspiring and educative power for practical spiritual purposes, we must not deny its inspiration on other and alien grounds. Let us take examples from the historical books to make clear what I mean. There are parts of the Old Testament that belong to the clear daylight of history--for example, the story of the last years of David. That story is told in 2 Samuel, from chap. 11. onward. I hardly need to recall it even by mentioning the names of Bathsheba, Uriah, Amnon, Tamar, Absalom, Ahithophel, Joab, Shimei. No one knows who wrote it, but it is not possible to doubt that it rests on the authority of some one in immediate contact with the facts. Now consider how it might have been written. A newspaper reporter often has to deal with the same materials, and the chances are a thousand to one that in his hands they minister to the defilement and degradation of the community. A secular historian would probably handle them lightly, as the inevitable disorders of an oriental despotism--the natural result of such a situation as David occupied. In neither case would there be room to speak of inspiration. But as it stands in the Bible, that terrible record of crime and its consequences, is in the full sense of the word inspired. It is not written by a sensational reporter, or a pragmatical historian, but by a man of the Spirit. We see lust and blood in it, not with the sensual eye which feels the fascination of moral horrors, but with the holy eye of God. No man ever read it but was awed, shocked, disciplined in righteousness by pity and fear. It is in that sense that the story is inspired. The facts were not inspired; they were the common property of men with and without the Spirit. There could not be a more signal illustration of the power of inspiration than that a narrative like this--all of foulest crime compact--should have virtue in it, when told by an inspired man, to quicken the conscience, and educate the man of God. Take one example more, in some ways the most difficult of all, the first eleven chapters of Genesis. According to the usual chronology these cover a space of something like two thousand years. They do not contain many incidents--Creation, the Fall, the Flood, the origin and dispersion of the nations, are the chief. Now nobody lived through all that period, and at the very earliest these narratives were not written as we have them for centuries after it expired. To what extent they embody traditions; how nearly or how remotely, in any given case, tradition may be related to things as they actually happened; whether a primitive revelation survives in them here or there--all these are questions on which men have been very positive, but on which simple regard for truth precludes positiveness. And what I want to insist upon here, is that the inspiration of these chapters, like that of the rest of the Bible, is not affected by any decision to which we may come on these points. Inspiration has to do with the spirit of the writer, not with his materials. The inspiration of Luke did not provide him with facts about the life of Jesus; he had to learn them from eyewitnesses and catechists; he had to scrutinise and compare documents like another historian. Neither did inspiration, as I believe, supply the writer of Genesis with his materials. What is inspired in his story is what speaks to the spirit, what serves to convict, to correct, to discipline in righteousness; and judged by this standard, there is nothing in the Bible better entitled to claim inspiration than the story, e.g., of the Fall. Compare such a narrative with the use made of similar materials by a pagan writer--a comparison that can fortunately be made--and we see how wonderfully the author must have been filled and uplifted by a Spirit above his own. It is because his writing has this spiritual quality, this permanent power to reveal to us both God and our own heart, that it answers to the description given by Paul of every inspired Scripture. There is only one proof, in the long run, that the Spirit of God is in the Bible; and that is, that it exerts its power through the Bible. The perfection of Scripture is perfection for its purpose, and that purpose is the transformation of character. (James Denney, B. D.) The inspiration and utility of the Scriptures I. The inspiration of the scriptures.1. What is inspiration? It is not revelation, but the infallible record of an infallible revelation. 2. The extent of inspiration. How far were these men guided by the Holy Ghost in the composition of the Scriptures? To every line and word. Yet was not the self-control or intelligent consciousness of the writer destroyed. Each writer retains his own style (see 1 Corinthians 2:13; 1 Corinthians 12:6). 3. The object of inspiration. To give certainty to that written under its guidance. 4. The proofs of inspiration. Internal evidence. Arguments drawn from the history of these books, from their contents. Christ’ s appeal to the Old Testament as of Divine origin. The claim of both writers of Old and New Testaments. II. The utility of the scriptures. “ profitable for,” etc.1. As an unvarying standard of doctrine. Not a theological statement, but the germ of all true doctrine. From it all doctrine must be derived, and to it all doctrine must be referred. 2. Useful in the confutation of all religious error. “ Profitable for reproof.” 3. Useful as an infallible standard of right and wrong. We cannot trust a pope, a church. 4. Useful for instruction in righteousness. By following its teachings we are brought into fuller measures of perfection. Our sanctification is by the Word. “ Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth.” (James Hunter.) Inspired Scriptures, and their Divine purpose I. The nature of the writings here spoken of. II. The object for which the scriptures were written. This object is twofold; first, what the Bible would make man; and next, holy it would accomplish its purpose.1. What the Scriptures would make man. “ That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” It does this by first making him a “ man of God.” Religion is not an abstraction--it is a Divine life, and a life which in man makes him a man of God. 2. The standard after which he ever aims is perfection! 3. But we have not only the standard announced, we have also the style of the spiritual education determined--“ that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished.” III. How the scriptures propose making “ men of God, throughly furnished, unto all good works.” “ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable.”1. “ For doctrine” ; that is, for conveying those truths and that learning needful to salvation. 2. Becoming “ profitable for reproof.” This word “ reproof,” means “ conviction.” 3. It becomes “ profitable for correction.” This is equally necessary in a volume suitable to save men. 4. Lastly--by “ instruction of righteousness.” The unlearning of man’ s love to sin, the undoing of his evil habits--this is correction. But after all this is but the negative part of Christian character. It is the abegnation of evil. Christianity inculcates positive good. IV. The work which holy Scripture is yet destined to do.1. By the Bible the Church of God mast be purified. 2. By the Bible, as an instrument, the Jews must be converted.3. By the Bible the great apostasy must be destroyed.4. By the Bible, instrumentally, the heathen must be converted. (A. M. Brown, LL. D.) The Bible superhuman I shall content myself with stating some plain facts about the Bible, which can neither be denied nor explained away. And the ground I shall take up is this-- I. That these facts ought to satisfy every reasonable inquirer that the bible is of God, and not of man.1. It is a fact that there is a superhuman fulness and richness in the contents of the Bible. It throws more light on a vast number of most important subjects than all the other books in the world put together. It boldly handles matters which are beyond the reach of man when left to himself. 2. It is another fact that there is a superhuman wisdom, sublimity, and majesty in the style of the Bible. Strange and unlikely as it was, the writers of Scripture have produced a book which even at this day is utterly unrivalled. With all our boasted attainments in science and art and learning we can produce nothing that can be compared with the Bible. To talk of comparing the Bible with other “ sacred books” so called, such as the Koran, the Shasters, or the book of Mormon, is positively absurd. You might as well compare the sun with a rushlight--or Skiddaw with a mole-hill--or Saint Paul’ s with an Irish hovel--or the Portland vase with a garden pot--or the Koh-i-noor diamond with a bit of glass. God seems to have allowed the existence of these pretended revelations in order to prove the immeasurable superiority of His own Word. 3. It is another fact, that there is a superhuman accuracy in the facts and statements of the Bible, which is above man. Here is a book which has been finished and before the world for nearly 1800 years. These 1800 years have been the busiest and most changeful period the world has ever seen. During this period the greatest discoveries have been made in science, the greatest alterations in the ways and customs of society, the greatest improvements in the habits and usages of life. But all this time men have never discovered a really weak point or a defect in the Bible. Over and over again the enemies of the Bible have fancied they have detected defects. Again and again they have proved to be mistaken. The march of intellect never overtakes it. The wisdom of wise men never gets beyond it. The science of philosophers never proves it wrong. The discoveries of travellers never convict it of mistakes. Are the ruins of Nineveh and Egypt ransacked and explored? Nothing is found that overturns one jot or tittle of the Bible’ s historical statements. 4. It is another fact that there is in the Bible a superhuman suitableness to the spiritual wants of all mankind. It feeds the mind of the labourer in his cottage, and it satisfies the gigantic intellects of Newton, Chalmers, Brewster, and Faraday. It is the only book, moreover, which seems always fresh and evergreen and new. I place these four facts about the Bible before you, and I ask you to consider them well. Take them all four together, treat them fairly, and look at them honestly. Upon any other principle than that of Divine inspiration, those four facts appear to me inexplicable and unaccountable. Not only were its writers isolated and cut off in a peculiar manner from other nations, but they belonged to a people who have never produced any other book of note except the Bible! There is not the slightest proof that, unassisted and left to themselves, they were capable of writing anything remarkable, like the Greeks and Romans. Yet these men have given the world a volume which for depth, sublimity, accuracy, and suitableness to the wants of man, is perfectly unrivalled. How can this be explained? To my mind there is only one answer. The writers of the Bible were Divinely helped and qualified for the work which they did. II. Let us now consider the privileges which the possession of an inspired book confers upon us.1. It is a privilege to possess the only book which gives a reasonable account of the beginning and end of the globe on which we live. 2. It is a privilege to possess the only book which gives a true and faithful account of man. 3. It is a privilege to possess the only book which gives us true views of God. 4. It is a privilege to possess the only book which gives a clear account of the full, perfect, and complete provision which God has made for the salvation of fallen man. 5. Finally, it is a privilege to possess the only book which explains the state of things that we see in the world around us. III. Let us now consider the duties which the possession of God’ s oracles entails upon us.1. First and foremost, let us honour the Bible by making it the supreme rule of faith, the standard measure of truth and error, of right and wrong in our churches. 2. In the next place, if we believe the Bible to be “ the oracles of God,” let us show the reality of our belief by endeavouring to spread it throughout the world. (Bp. Ryle.) Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures I. In confirmation of this doctrine, we would ask attention to the following considerations and arguments.1. We would offer a short, clear, and strong argument, from Mr. Wesley. “ The Bible,” says he, “ must be the invention either of good men or angels, bad men or devils, or of God.” (1) It could not be the invention of good men or angels; for they neither could nor would make a book, and tell lies all the time they were writing it, saying, “ Thus saith the Lord,” when it was their own invention. (2) It could not be the invention of bad men or devils; for they would not make a book which commands all duty, forbids all sin, and condemns their souls to hell to all eternity. (3) Therefore we must draw this conclusion, that the Bible must have been given by Divine inspiration--that it is the work of God. 2. Our second argument is derived from prophecy. The ability to foretell future events, especially hundreds of years beforehand, belongs to God alone. 3. The declarations of the Scriptures themselves plainly prove this doctrine. But will not this be proving inspiration by inspiration? It would be so, indeed, did we assume the Bible in this argument to be inspired. But now we take it only as a book of truth, declaring true doctrines and true history; as such we receive it, and by itself prove its inspiration. II. We pass to consider some objections.1. The first, and one which is frequently in the mouths of infidels, is that there are contradictions in the Scriptures, and therefore they cannot be inspired. 2. Another class of objections against the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures is founded on the imperfect state of the text, its variations in the reading and punctuations. 3. Another objection which has been urged against plenary or verbal inspiration is founded on the individuality of the sacred writers. The following is our answer:--God speaks to man after the manner of men; and hence He uses human language, and, of course, human language with its imperfections. Inferences:1. If the Holy Scriptures are Divinely inspired, human reason ought to be held in abeyance to their teachings. 2. If Divinely inspired, they must teach us truth without any admixture of error. 3. We also infer that, if Divinely inspired, they contain a sufficiency of truth for our salvation. (Stephen M. Vail, M. A.) The Word of God commended to the man of God in the perilous times of the last days 1. The subject of this text is our own precious Bible. 2. And, assuredly, of the very deepest interest must such a subject be to the sort of person to whom in the text the Spirit, by Paul, addresses Himself, on the Divine inspiration, and authority, and profitableness of the Bible. For it is to “ the man of God” the apostle here speaks in commendation of the Word of God. It is to one he writes who (2 Timothy 3:14-15) had “ learned” and “ been assured” of “ the things” revealed in “ the Holy Scriptures,” which “ from a child he had known” --who had experimentally proved them to be “ able to make him wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” To that sort of person no theme could be more attractive of the deepest interest, than the incalculable preciousness of the Holy Bible (Psalms 19:7-11). One thing only could enhance such a man’ s estimate of their infinite value, and that one thing was the character of “ the times” in which, as peculiarly threatening of dangerous assaults on the Christian faith, the apostle commended the profitableness of the Scriptures and exhorted the man of God to continue to confide in the profitableness of “ all Scripture” as “ given by inspiration of God.” 3. And yet, though thus employed as the means of enforcing his exhortation to Timothy to “ continue in the things which he had learned,” the “ perilous” controversies of “ the times” are not suffered by any insinuation on the part of the apostle to disturb the certainty in which his young disciple had “ been assured” of “ the things which he had learned.” 4. Are we “ men of God,” “ taught of God” to know Him, and with profoundest reverence to acknowledge His authority speaking in His own Word? Then we are of those who spiritually see. To our renewed hearts, as to open healthy eyes, the light of Holy Scripture has come and entered in, carrying with it its own evidence of its Divine authority, and with a power that is irresistible. I. Whence have we the Bible? It is “ of God” --its authority is Divine. When God speaks the highest exercise of man’ s reason surely is, in silent submission, to believe and obey, simply because it is the Word of God that is spoken. It is the exercise of a prerogative the noblest birthright of man, to believe God’ s truth. In that submission of human reason to the authority of Divine truth, man escapes into freedom! The truth as nothing else can do, emancipates the mind from the debasing slavery to the opinions of men. It puts man as to unseen things in immediate and direct communication alone with God. No creature is allowed to intervene as the Lord of the conscience, when, for the authority of God speaking in it, the word in Holy Scripture is believed. God is then by His Word and Spirit in actual contact with your soul, for your enjoying the most ennobling fellowship with Himself, in the light of truth, and in the perfect freedom of a willing obedience of the truth. II. In what manner is it given us by God?--“ It is given by inspiration of god! “ The text here, you observe, does not point to such a mode of communication with man as was used in the Garden of Eden, when, in the cool of the day, the voice of God was heard by Adam talking with him. Nor yet does the text here refer to such a mode of writing down what the voice of God had uttered in man’ s hearing, as was once and again practised, when, on two tables of stone, the ten words of the Holy Moral Law were engraven by the immediate finger of God. The text does plainly testify to the Word of God being written, but observe, to that result being attained by what is called “ inspiration.” It is God-breathed. That, what is written in the Bible is the Word of God, results from the inspiration by God of men employed by Him to write it. The Word in Holy Scripture results from that miraculous operation of the Spirit of God, whereby He did so communicate Himself to the writers of these Scriptures for the revelation of His will to man, as to secure the infallible truth and Divine authority of what is written in the Bible. Of the manner of that miraculous operation of the Spirit of God we know nothing. III. To what extent is the Bible inspired?--“ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” It is thus that the Divine Author of the book Himself declares to what extent it is inspired. In whatever manner the Divine influence that “ gave the Word” worked--by whatever means, by means of however many varied manuscripts, as by many different compilers--the result we have in this Bible is throughout Divinely inspired. IV. With what design has it been given by inspiration of God? It was given to be profitable, in order “ that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works,” and for that end profitable in a way manifold and many-sided.1. The Bible is “ profitable for doctrine.” By its revelation of truth as an objective reality, it really gives man truth to love. It thus stands in the boldest contrast to the utterly unsatisfying vanity of modern rationalism, which gives you nothing but the question whether there be revealed truth at all. 2. The Bible is “ profitable, too, for reproof.” By its deep and searching spirituality the Bible deals with man’ s state as a sinner before God. It reveals the truth as to man lost. It reaches the deepest needs of his condition. It thus utterly dispels all the delusive fancies of modern rationalism, whereby man is tempted to think well of himself; and so to count that a gain to him which, if ever lie be saved, he must be content to count as loss for Christ. 3. The Bible is profitable, besides, “ for correction” of every such groundless hope in man. By the revelation of grace to us as fallen, and of deliverance from the guilt and power of our sin by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Bible gives a Divine contradiction to every rationalistic theory of human progress, by which redemption is attempted to be explained without the cross and the sacrifice of the Redeemer. 4. The Bible is profitable, finally, for instruction (or discipline) in the life and walk of righteousness. In direct opposition to the wild ravings of modern rationalism about “ emancipation from the external law of revealed truth” --for the solemn rebuke of that delusive licence which is sought in following the light within us, rather than the Word of God without us--the Bible plainly asserts that, “ under the law to Christ,” this is the love of the new life in Christ, that we keep His commandments--a life of obedience of “ the law of liberty” --even as Christ Himself “ kept His Father’ s commandments and abode in His love.” (R. H. Muir.) On the Scriptures I. Human ability has been inadequate to the production of anything which would justify us in attributing to it the production of the scriptures. II. God having graciously resolved to recover the human race from the state into which they had fallen, and to this end having spoke in times long past to the fathers by the prophets, and in the latter days to the world, by His Son, it is reasonable to suppose that, for the benefit of the generations to come for ever, He would cause a record to be made of the communications of His will. III. The connection and agreement of the several parts of the sacred volume, intimate strongly its divine inspiration. IV. Tradition has accompanied the holy volume in all ages and places of its being, testifying its claim to be considered as the word of god. V. The providential care of god over the holy scriptures may well lead us to believe that they are his offspring. VI. The completeness of the sacred writings, whereby I mean their sufficiency and perfection as a rule of faith and conduct; their adequateness to our necessities in this present state.1. This we may clearly deduce from what has already been established. Being “ given by inspiration of God,” the Scriptures must be perfect for the purpose whereunto He sends them; and if they are finished, so that no further addition to them is to be expected, they must be perfect in all generations for ever, for the use of the children of men. 2. And this, if we now advert to the sacred writings, will be found to be really the case. Upon every subject of a religious or moral nature, concerning which mankind have been inquisitive, we may here find ample information. And concerning the conduct which is proper, in every situation in which mankind may be placed, we may here find explicit instruction. 3. But, it may be objected, if the Scriptures are thus complete, whence is it that so many to whom they are sent, are brought by them neither to right faith nor to right practice? 4. And this brings me to observe in illustration of the completeness of the sacred volume, that if any who have access to it are deficient in knowledge or virtue, the cause of the deficiency is altogether in themselves. The Law of the Lord is perfect; and His Spirit is ready to render His Word efficacious to every attentive and humble mind. But we must approach it with docility. It is owing to men’ s lusts and passions, to the pride of their minds, to the perverseness of their hearts, to the carnality and viciousness of their lives, that they do not all perceive the excellence and perfection of the Word of God, and find it a savour of life unto life to their souls. VII. We find ourselves in possession of a volume, wonderfully adapted to the necessities of our nature, and “ given by inspiration of God.” It becomes us to inquire, what is the object for which it is given?1. And let me observe that it is for no purpose of benefit to the Almighty that the volume of His Word is given to our world. Neither our faith nor our obedience can profit the Most High. 2. I must also premise that whether any other beings than ourselves are interested in them, and whether their contents will be of utility to us in the other world, are questions which need not be discussed as essential to the inquiry we are about to consider. It is enough, in order to raise our estimation of them, to be assured that into the mysteries revealed to us the angels desire to look, and that by the dispensations of God to the Church on earth His manifold wisdom is made known to higher orders of beings. From the nature of things we may also be certain that those general principles of duty and virtue which have not respect to mutable stations and relations are the principles by which the conduct of perfect beings is regulated in all worlds. 3. But what I am now principally concerned to consider is the end or uses of the sacred volume to men, to whom it is given, in the present world. And this is nothing less than our recovery from the state of ignorance, sinfulness, and misery into which we are fallen, and our exaltation to the hope of eternal life. That I may more distinctly set before you the gracious design of the Almighty in giving us the volume of His Word, allow me more particularly to observe that it is the efficacious means of all those changes and graces by which the Christian character is formed and perfected. We are told, you know, that we must be born again in order to the knowledge and enjoyment of the kingdom of God. It is through the instrumentality of the Scriptures that this regeneration is accomplished. They are the seed of this new birth. Again: it is necessary that we should be sanctified and made holy in heart and life before we can enter into the kingdom of heaven. And the Holy Scriptures are the means by which the Spirit of God accomplishes this important part of our salvation. Further: it is required of us to grow in grace; and we have need to be constantly nourished in all goodness, if we would not relapse into our vile state, but advance to perfection in knowledge and virtue. The sacred writings are the granary from which this daily sustenance of our souls is to be obtained. They reveal the truths, they contain the virtues, they give efficacy to the ordinances, by which we are nourished into eternal life. Finally: it is necessary to our comfort, and to the full accomplishment of our deliverance from the miseries of our natural state, that we should have joy and peace in believing. And the reservoir of all spiritual joy is the Word of God--the gospel of our salvation. VIII. From these truths there are several inferences of a very serious nature and great practical importance to which I must now ask your attentive consideration.1. And from the views we have taken of the sacred volume we may perceive its claim to our highest estimation. 2. But if we value the Scriptures we shall also study them. The consequences of not reading the Holy Scriptures are of a more serious nature and greater in extent than you may suppose. It is to this, I apprehend, that we are to attribute, in a great measure, the total ignorance of religion in some and the decay of it in others. It is in this that we are to look for the cause of the instability of Christians. Here we may find the reason why error prevails. Here we may discover the source of fanaticism and of superstition. To this it is owing that the best seem unconscious of the degree of holiness to which they are called; and that all rest easy under imperfections of knowledge and deficiencies of virtue which a thorough acquaintance with the Scriptures would both reprove and correct. 3. In the course of our observations upon the Holy Scriptures, we have shown that God hath a merciful purpose in conferring them upon us, even to recover us from our ignorance, sinfulness, and misery, and exalt us to the hope of everlasting life. It behoves us, therefore, to inquire how far His desire and gracious intention have been accomplished in us? And this inquiry you will most safely answer, not by adverting to your occasional feelings and transient fervours, but by looking to your principles and your lives. Are you brought to a clear knowledge of the only true God, and of Jesus Christ whom He hath sent? Are those traits of excellence which are distinctly exemplified in the lives of the Scripture worthies, and which are all combined and perfected in the example of our blessed Lord, imitated by you in the several conditions and relations in which the Most High hath placed you? If, at the day of judgment, we shall be found, notwithstanding cur advantages, to have remained unchanged and unrenewed, the very heathens will rise up in judgment and condemn us. 4. On this solemn account I cannot forbear adding what is powerfully enforced by our subject, the importance of bringing to the oracles of truth, whenever we recur to them, becoming dispositions and conduct. Endeavour, if possible, to make it the standard by which you would regulate all your thoughts and actions. 5. The character of the sacred writings, and your privilege in possessing them, impose on you an obligation to extend the knowledge of them as far as you are able, and especially to make them the source from which you furnish your children with the principles and rules of life. (Bp. Dehon.) The true teachings of the Bible “ Every Scripture inspired of God,” is the declaration, “ is profitable.” Profitable for what? Well, “ for teaching, for reproof, for correction.” It is a good teaching-book. It is a good book out of which to get instruction, provided you seek the right sort of instruction--instruction in righteousness. What is righteousness? Right living. In the Old Testament and the New the ideal pattern is that of a man living right in himself, in his social and civic relations, in his whole orb of self. A man must have some ideal pattern before him, and he must live according to it. The Bible is said to be inspired--that part of it which is inspired. “ Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” For what purpose? Why, “ that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.” There are two radical views of the function of sacred Scripture. First, it is held that it is a book proceeding directly from the mind of God, in the same sense in which Milton’ s poems proceeded from his mind, or in which Newton’ s discoveries proceeded from his mind, or in which any legislation proceeds from the minds of the legislators, and that it contains a substantial revelation of God’ s moral government, both in this life and in the other world. In part, it is such a book; but that is not the genius of the Bible. Such is not the grand end of this book. The second view is the Scriptural theory. It is contained in the text. The Bible is a book that under takes to teach men how to live so that they shall live hereafter; and in regard to that aim and design of the Bible there is no divergence of opinion. All Scripture, then, is not inspired. Why should we suppose that the genealogies, and the land laws, or the laws of property, among the Jews, needed to be either inspired or revealed? Was it to supersede the natural operation of human reason that the Bible was given? If the division of property sprang up in the Hebrew commonwealth, and if there were many minute economies, all of which were of a nature such as that they could be born out of the human mind, and it was perfectly within the power of the human mind to write them down, what inspiration was needed for that purpose? No inspiration is necessary to record things that common human intelligence cannot miss, and cannot very well fail of recording. Proverbs and national songs, manners and customs, of the Hebrew commonwealth--all lay within the natural function of human reason; and when it is said, “ All Scripture that is inspired,” doubtless it was with the conception that many of these things were natural and not supernatural. The existence of God; a belief in the moral order of the universe, or supervising Divine Providence; conscience, or the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, and sensibility to that which is right as well as reaction from that which is wrong; the nature of things that are right and the nature of things that are wrong; sanctions for virtue, and sanctions also, penal, for vice, selfishness, wickedness, cruelty--all these things are constitutional, if I may say so, in the Bible. Here, then, is the life that you must not live, and here is the life that you must live. Was there ever a man that wanted to take anything away from that? The whole Bible is aa attempt to correct a man, and take him away from this under-passionate life of which we have been hearing the registration, and to persuade him to come out of it into the higher and spiritual life. The genius of the Bible is to lift men to righteousness, and to show the things to be avoided, and the things to be taken on. It is a book of instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished to every good work; and here are the work and the qualities. Now, I should like to know if there is any infidel in this world on that subject, or can be. A great many do not believe that God can exist in three persons; but is there anybody that ever doubted that love was beautiful, was true, was desirable? A great many men have had theories of the Atonement of Jesus Christ; there are some fifteen or twenty different theories or modifications on that subject; but did men ever have any difference of opinion as to love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, or any of these other qualities? About them there is absolute unity. (H. W. Beecher.) The Divine authority and perfection of the Scriptures I. That the scriptures are given by inspiration of God.1. In order to judge whether persons are inspired, we must carefully inquire into their moral character; into their doctrine or message; and into the credentials or proofs of their mission. 2. The other external proof of an inspired person is the fulfilment of prophecy. II. The perfection or sufficiency of the Scriptures.1. They are profitable for doctrine to acquaint us with our lost and miserable condition by the entrance of sin into the world, and the train of fatal consequences that attended it; with our recovery by Christ; the covenants of redemption and grace; the offices of Father, Son, and Spirit in the work of our redemption, and with all those other mysteries which were kept secret since the world began, but are now made manifest by the Holy Scriptures for the obedience of faith (Romans 16:26). 2. For reproof, or the discovery of our pernicious errors in doctrine and practice. 3. The Scriptures are profitable for correction of vice and wickedness. “ Wherewithal,” says the Psalmist, “ should a young man cleanse his way but by taking heed thereto according to the Word of God?” There we have a collection of all Christian graces and duties, with their opposite vices. The fruits of the spirit and of the flesh are distinguished with the greatest propriety; and the most engaging motives to the practice of the one, and awful threatenings against the other, are represented with the greatest strength and advantage. 4. For instruction in righteousness. That is, either in the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe, or in the practice of moral righteousness, the nature and excellency of which is better explained and illustrated in the sermons of our blessed Saviour than in all the writings of the ancient philosophers. III. The clearness and perspicuity of the Scriptures.1. They were written in the vulgar language, and therefore designed for the use of the common people. 2. Our Saviour, in His sermons to the people, appeals to the Scriptures, and exhorts His countrymen, the Jews, to search them. The Bereans are commended for this practice (Acts 17:11), and Timothy appears to have been acquainted with them from his childhood. If, then, it be proper to teach our children the Scriptures, and if it be the duty of grown persons to search them, it must follow that they are sufficiently clear in all points necessary to salvation. Lessons:1. Hence we may learn that the religion of a Christian should be his Bible, because it contains the whole revealed will of God, and is a perfect rule of faith and practice. 2. Let us be thankful that we have the Scriptures in the vulgar language. 3. Let Christians of all ranks and capacities revive this neglected duty of reading the Scriptures in their families and closets: it is both a delightful and useful employment. 4. When we read the Scriptures, let us consider them, not as the words of men, but as in deed and truth the Word of God. 5. In judging of controversies among Christians, let us not be carried away by the authority of great names or the numbers of them that are on one side, but keep close to the Scriptures. 6. When we read the Scriptures, let us pray for the instructions and teachings of the Holy Spirit, whose office it is to remove the prejudices and enlighten the understandings of those who are truly sincere. (Daniel Neal.) The inspiration of the Scriptures I. The nature of the inspiration. Inspiration means that which is breathed into the human mind of God. In the same way as Christ breathed upon the apostles, and said, “ Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” so inspired men receive that influence and power which enlightens, and purifies, and sustains their judgment and their capacity whilst they are writing it. Exactly in the same way as a musician, out of an instrument, by the touch of his fingers, will evoke such sounds, such harmonies, as his own skill, his own will, or his own pleasure may design, the writers of the Holy Scriptures are the instruments out of which the Holy Ghost evokes the melodies of truth--the harmonies of heavenly and Divine doctrine--that which makes us happy in time, and prepares us for the happiness of eternity. There is a slight distinction to be made between inspiration and dictation. Dictation addresses itself to the ear, and goes through the ear into the understanding and the heart; inspiration is more that which is within a man--it is a power dwelling in the interior of his soul, and influencing his thoughts and expressions accordingly.1. There is inspiration in matters historical--that which relates to the histories and biographies contained in the Bible. 2. We come to the inspiration which is doctrinal, or which has to do with abstract truth, such truth as the human faculties could never elicit, invent, or evolve; such truth as, if known at all by man, must be made known by God. 3. I advert to that inspiration which I denominate legislative--that which is associated with the giving of law and the enunciation of commandments. 4. There is the inspiration which is devotional. 5. I shall mention but one other form: that is, the form of prophecy--the inspiration which relates to the prophetic Word. I take this to be the fullest, most perfect, and unmingled of all the inspirations, because to man in no case is there vouchsafed any foresight. II. Some of the leading evidences, the more striking proofs, that the Bible does come from that sacred and celestial source to which we ascribe it.1. First it claims to be so; it says of itself that it is so. Moses did as the Lord commanded him. Again and again we read, “ the Lord spake unto Moses” ; and every prophet came with this annunciation, “ Thus saith the Lord.” We find Paul saying, “ I command; yet not I, but the Lord” ; “ The Spirit speaketh expressly” ; “ Ye have received the Word of God.” 2. There is another evidence which arises from the nature of its contents--from the original, exalted, enlightened, amazing principles, which it contains. I hold it as an axiom that God only can reveal God--that God is never known but by His own teaching and by His own inspiration. Here is God revealed. 3. There is also an argument arising from the self-evidencing power of truth. Light is self-evidencing. When a child sees light, it does not want any logical argument to say that it is light. When mind flashes, when intellect sparkles, when genius coruscates, you say, this is mind; you want no other evidence--the thing demonstrates itself. So does the truth in the book of God. Read out the doctrine, make known the precept, let us see the history; why, it is of God; it carries its own evidence. 4. Then there is the harmony of all its parts. 5. I must add the evidence of its holiness. The Bible, received in the heart and mind, makes a man pure, gentle, and Christlike; received into a family, it makes a scene of peace and unity; received into a nation, it purifies and elevates; and the world, did it receive the Bible and act upon its principles, would be paradisaical; almost all the miseries of it would be gone at a stroke; whatever is peaceful and felicitous for the glory of God and for the happiness of man would multiply, prosper, and abound. 6. There is one other argument, that arising from prophecy, in connection with the total want of human foresight, and the vastness and extent of this proof: “ We have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do well to take heed, as to a light shining in a dark place.” III. The use and purpose: “ That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” You note the expression, “ man of God.” I take it to be a very noble and magnificent thing to be a man; I glorify God every day of my life that I am a man; I mean, that I have the capacities, the mind, the thinking powers, the will of a man. Then it is said, “ man of God.” There are the faculties consecrated, the grace and light, the emanation and power of Deity beaming upon the man, making him a “ man of God.” (James Stratten.) The inspiration of Scripture We can form no more distinct conception of what inspiration is in itself than that implied in the word--the breathing of God upon, or into, the minds of His servants. He imparted to them an extraordinary degree of influence, whereby they were instructed what and how to speak and write. This special Divine influence distinguishes them from all other teachers, and their writings from all other books. The manner of inspiration is beyond our knowledge; indeed, the working and influence of the Divine Being anywhere are to us a profound mystery. Motion, life, and growth, the fruitfulness of the earth, and the order and harmony of all things must be traced to Him; but how they are produced we know not. In Him we live and move and have our being; He besets us behind and before, and lays His hand upon us; but His manner of doing this is too wonderful for us to understand. We are bound to recognise His influence in the mental power, wisdom, and goodness of men; but how He comes into contact with the mind it is impossible to explain. So also of the prophets and apostles. They were inspired of God; He breathed into their minds, and endued them with a supernatural power of seeing and teaching spiritual truth--this we know; but beyond this point we cannot pass. Observe a threefold effect of inspiration--the revelation of truth, intensity of feeling, and abiding power in the words. I. First, the inspired man was a “ seer” ; the veil was turned aside, and he was permitted to look into the sanctuary of truth. Think of the Hebrew prophets to whose writings the text refers. The unity, personality, and spirituality of God were revealed to them. They beheld His glory as others did not, and therefore spoke of it in sublime and incomparable language. The teaching of the Bible should be judged of by this: Do the prophets and apostles reveal spiritual truths in a clearer light than the ancient philosophers did? To this a thoughtful man can only return one answer--they do. Read, for instance, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and then turn to the Epistles of St. Paul, and I think you will be obliged to acknowledge that moral and spiritual truth shines in the verses of the apostle with a brilliancy and strength not to be found in the words, wise and beautiful though they are, of the imperial Stoic. Seeing, then, that the prophets and apostles speak with such deep spiritual insight, the question is, How this came to pass? They were not philosophers, scholars, and orators, as the great and learned men of Greece and Rome were. The true explanation is, “ holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” II. Their mental illumination was accompanied by deep and intense feeling. Their spirits were “ moved” --they felt the burden of “ the word of the Lord” --the truth was in their heart “ as a burning fire.” Therefore speech became a necessity, for by speaking they lightened the burden that oppressed them and gave out the fire that burned in their bosoms. When they had messages of peace and good tidings to deliver, their “ doctrine dropped as the rain, their speech distilled as the dew, and as the small rain upon the tender herb.” But when the sins of the nation and the judgments of heaven were their themes, they cried aloud, and their language was as terrible as a midnight alarm. To speak as the prophets spoke we also must be enlightened and “ moved” by the Holy Ghost. III. The abiding power in the words. They are instinct with the love, the pity, the sympathy, and the power of the Divine mind. “ They are spirit, and they are life.” The ancient sacred fire that descended from heaven continues to burn on the altar of the Bible. (T. Jones.) The Bible I speak of the Bible first as the great teacher of mankind, because it must ever continue to be of the supremest importance to the race of mankind. It contains the record of God’ s special revelations to one chosen people, and of that final all-inclusive revelation, wherein He has spoken and is speaking to us by His Son. The Bible is not by any means God’ s only revelation. It always has been an evil when it has been so considered. It contains, however, some of the clearest and directest lessons which God has ever spoken to man through the mind and utterance of his brother man. Take but one illustration of its unique supremacy. After all these thousands of years of the world’ s existence, after all splendours of literature in all the nations and in all ages, there is no book in the whole world which can supersede the Bible as an instrument for the education of the young. After all these millenniums it remains the most uniquely glorious book which the world has ever known. “ Its light,” says Cardinal Newman, “ is like the beauty of heaven in all its clearness, its vastness like the bosom of the sea, its variety like the scenes of nature.” Perhaps testimony from a religious teacher might be regarded as purely official. Let me, then, quote the testimony of an eminent living man of science; the testimony of a man like Professor Huxley on this subject will, at least, not be suspected. “ I have been seriously perplexed to know,” he says, “ how the religious feeling which is the essential basis of conduct can be kept up without the use of the Bible. The pagan moralists lacked fire, and life, and colour, and even the noble Stoic, Marcus Aurelius, is too high and refined for an ordinary child. For three centuries this book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history. It forbids the veriest hind who never left his village to be ignorant of the existence of other countries and other civilisations, and of the great past stretching back to the furthest limit of the oldest nations of the world. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ 2 Timothy 4:1-2I charge thee.An earnest charge Cold preaching makes bold sinners, when powerful preaching awes the conscience. Matters of greatest importance must be pressed with greatest vehemence. God putteth not forth great power but for great purpose (Ephesians 1:18-19). (T. Hall, B. D.) Charged before God The master’ s and the commander’ s eye make the servant and the soldier active (Matthew 6:6; Acts 10:4). (T. Hall, B. D.) Earnestness in preaching It is weakness to be hot in a cold matter, but worse to be cold in a hot matter. (J. Trapp.) The judgment Dr. John Brown, speaking of a minister’ s leaving his people for another pastorate, says that he mentally exclaims, “ There they go! When next they meet it will be at the judgment! “ (H. O. Mackey.) Ministers at the judgment Adalbert, who lived in the tenth century, was appointed Archbishop of Prague. This preferment seemed to give him so little satisfaction that he was never seen to smile afterwards; and on being asked the reason, he replied: “ It is an easy thing to wear a mitre and a cross, but an awful thing to give an account of a bishopric before the Judge of quick and dead.” (W. H. Baxendale.) An ordination charge I. Where faithful ministers stand--“ Before God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”1. Before God. (1) As a sinner saved by grace. Once far off, but brought nigh by the blood of Christ. (2) As a servant. In prayer, how sweet to kneel at His footstool, no veil, no cloud between the soul and God. In preaching, how sweet to say, like Elijah, when he stood before Ahab, “ I stand before the Lord God of Israel.” 2. Before Jesus Christ. (1) The faithful minister has a present sight of Christ as his righteousness. He, like Isaiah, saw “ His glory and spake of Him.” (2) The faithful minister should feel the presence of a living Saviour (Jeremiah 1:8; Acts 18:10). (3) Within sight of judgment. II. The grand business of the faithful minister.1. Preach the Word. (1) Not other matters.(2) The most essential parts especially.(3) More in the manner of God’ s Word. 2. Reprove, rebuke, exhort. Most ministers are accustomed to set Christ before the people. They lay down the gospel clearly and beautifully, but they do not urge men to enter in. Now God says, exhort; not only point to the open door, but compel them to come in. III. The manner.1. With long-suffering. There is no grace more needed in the Christian ministry than this. This is the heart of God the Father towards sinners--“ He is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish.” 2. With doctrine--the clear and simple statement of the truth preceding the warm and pathetic exhortation. 3. With urgency. If a neighbour’ s house were on fire, would we not cry aloud and use every exertion? If a friend were drowning, would we be ashamed to strain every nerve to save him? 4. At all times. Satan is busy at all times--he does not stand upon ceremony--he does not keep himself to Sabbath-days or canonical hours. Death is busy. Men are dying while we are sleeping. The Spirit of God is busy. Blessed be God, He hath cast our lot in times when there is the moving of the Great Spirit among the dry bones. Shall ministers then be idle, or stand upon ceremony? (R. M. McCheyne.) Urgency of the ministerial office In a visit which I once made, when a young clergyman, to the churches of Belgium, so remarkable for the grandeur and elaborate carving of their pulpits, my attention was especially attracted by one well suited to enforce a solemn lesson on every one who might occupy it. There arose from the back of it a gigantic figure of death, stretching its gaunt skeleton form over the head of the preacher, and holding in one hand a scythe, and with the other presenting a scroll on which was inscribed “ Hasten thou to gather in thy harvest, for I must soon reap mine.” Yes! it is the brevity of the opportunity and the inestimable interests at stake which render the ministerial office of such urgency that no season may be missed, no effort spared, in order that it may accomplish its work. (Bp. Baring.) Preaching in the sight of God Bishop Latimer having one day preached before King Henry VIII. a sermon which displeased his majesty, he was ordered to preach again on the next Sabbath, and to make an apology for the offence he had given. After reading his text, the bishop thus begun his sermon: “ Hugh Latimer, dost thou know before whom thou art this day to speak? To the high and mighty monarch, the king’ s most excellent majesty, who can take away thy life if thou offendest; therefore, take heed that thou speakest not a word that may displease. But then consider well, Hugh, dost thou not know from whence thou comest--upon whose message thou art sent? Even by the great and mighty God! who is all present! and who beholdeth all thy ways! and who is able to cast thy soul into hell! Therefore, take care that thou deliverest thy message faithfully.” He then proceeded with the same sermon he had preached the preceding Sabbath, but with considerably more energy. The sermon ended, the Court were full of expectation to know what would be the fate of this honest and plain-dealing bishop. After dinner the king called for Latimer, and, with a stern countenance, asked him how he dared to be so bold as to preach in such a manner. He, falling on his knees, replied, his duty to his God and his prince had enforced him thereto, and that he had merely discharged his duty and his conscience in what he had spoken. Upon which the king, rising from his seat, and taking the good man by the hand, embraced him, saying, “ Blessed be God I have so honest a servant!” At His appearing. The second advent I. The manner.1. In mystery.2. In glory.3. With universality. II. The purpose.1. To reveal the true judgment of righteousness.2. To proclaim open verdict on probationers.3. To ensure an effectual separation of character. III. The results.1. The vindication of righteousness.2. The triumph of love. (U. R. Thomas.) Preach the Word.--The ministry of the Word Preaching is God’ s great ordinance now, as it has been in the past. Its source and substance is the Word. The truth you are to preach is a Divine revelation, a written system of truth. Your teaching is not the tradition of men on the one hand, or their mysterious speculations on the other, but the revealed Word of the living God. You are not the inspirer or discoverer of truth, you are only its interpreter. It is no light matter to represent with freshness and force the truth when reached. Much work goes to that, not to elaborate but to simplify. The test of clear thinking is clear expression. Let the teaching of Christ be your pattern--words clear and simple as the light of heaven--thoughts deep as eternity. Have faith therefore in hard work. But labour is not enough. The mere interpreter can see but a little way into religious truth. The heart sees best. The rays of truth, that shine down into the closet, are the brightest and the best. Have faith in prayer as well as in toil. But while preaching the Word in its fulness, preach it also in its unity--that is, preach Christ. A Bible without Christ, a pulpit without Christ, would be a world without God. Give Christ the place in preaching that He holds in the Word: Christ’ s death--the sinner’ s only hope; Christ’ s life--the believer’ s only pattern; the righteousness of Christ--the ground of pardon; the grace of Christ--the riches of believers; the love of Christ--the power of new obedience. It is only from the height of the Cross that we can get a full view of the Word. Not that you are always to be preaching on the central doctrine of the Cross, just as you are not always looking right up to the sun; but as you view all things on earth in the light that streams from the sun, so should you see all truth in the light that streams from the Cross. That is no narrow theme, or soon exhausted. Christ can enter into everything, into all doctrine, all duties, all experience. Christian doctrine is just Christ’ s portrait, drawn at full length. Christian morality is just Christ’ s portrait, embodied in the life. Christian experience is Christ realised in the heart. Christian usefulness is Christ’ s glory, carried out into all the details of life. And, last of all, preach the Word, for it is the “ power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Preach it for salvation; not only for instruction, that you may save yourself and them that hear you. All its truths are revealed for this end. (J. Riddell.) Preach the Word I. We must preach the Word with reference to the Divinity of its Author. II. We must preach the Word with reference to the wonders of His love! III. We must preach the Word with reference to the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice. IV. We must preach the Word with reference to the sanctifying influences of His Spirit. V. We must preach the Word faithfully and fully, in its precepts, as well as its doctrines. VI. We must preach the Word in its catholic and evangelical spirit. VII. We must preach the Word as the grand means of promoting the Saviour’ s glory; and of accelerating the approach of the millennial day. (J. Parsons.) Conditions of success in working for Christ 1. A sound conversion is essential to successful effort. 2. An intimate association with Christ is an element of great success. Let a minister go out into the fields with Jesus to glean, and he shall come back at even, “ bearing his sheaves with him.” Let him go out helped by genius, by culture, by learning, by wealth, by position, leaving Christ behind, and his words are as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. 3. Christians must organise for victory. A sleepless vigilance and a tireless activity are as essential to success in the Church as in business. A progressive man holds fast to what has been attained, and reaches forth to possibilities laid bare to his eye. 4. A high ideal of a Christian’ s position and work must be kept in view. 5. The great fight is the preaching of the Word. The men of power and weight are men of the Book; such represent God. 6. Practise the Word. (J. D. Fulton, D. D.) Preaching the Word To rightly “ preach the Word” there is demanded a far-reaching preparation. Not for a work like that of the old alchemists and astrologers whose locks and beards grew grey as they bent over their crucibles or gazed at the stars, in the vain hope of solving mysteries. We have little to do with mysteries. It is for the simplicity of the gospel we search, and that leads us to heights and depths. We are to so think and pray and live that we may show to men plain paths for their feet. This makes the minister a student, but none the less a man. It is manly to follow the lead of heavenly lights over rough ways and into clouds. The richest ores and gems of Nature are guarded by her fortresses; so is it with truth, and no man but the sluggard complains that a full soul, like a full purse, comes through toil and trial. Newton was once asked, “ How do you make your great discoveries?” His reply was: “ I keep the subject constantly before me, and wait till the first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into a full, clear light.” This is the key to God’ s storehouse. The minister, who would be an approved workman, must mingle with those for whom he labours. Surrounding circumstances, bent of mind, temperament, culture, experiences of life, have given to each one of his people a standpoint for discerning truth. Now, the minister of Christ is sent to be the suggester of truth. How shall he be able to so hold it up that every one may get a grasp upon it, unless he understands the principles and something of the methods upon which the various activities of life are carried forward? To gain such a power as this and have it all sanctified, so that he shall neither materialise nor idealise, but rather stamp everything with God’ s own seal and illumine everything with God’ s own light, is a work before which the stoutest may tremble. “ Who is sufficient unto these things?” (E. R. Ingersoll, D. D.) Preach the Word, not sceptical objections The habit of perpetually mentioning the theories of unbelievers when preaching the gospel, gives a man the appearance of great learning, but it also proves his want of common sense. In order to show the value of wholesome food it is not needful to proffer your guest a dose of poison, nor would he think the better of your hospitality if you did so. Certain sermons are more calculated to weaken faith than to render men believers; they resemble the process through which a poor unhappy dog is frequently passed at the Grotto del Cane at Naples. He is thrown into the gas which reaches up to the spectators’ knees, not with the view of killing him, but merely as an exhibition. Lifted out of his vapoury bath, he is thrown into a pool of water, and revives in time for another operation. Such a dog is not likely to be a very efficient watch-dog or pursuer of game; and when hearers Sun day after Sunday are plunged into a bath of sceptical thought, they may survive the experiment, but they will never become spiritually strong or practically useful. It is never worth while to make rents in a garment for the sake of mending them, nor to create doubts in order to show how cleverly we can quiet them. Should a man set fire to his house because he has a patent extincteur which would put it out in no time he would stand a chance of one day creating a conflagration which all the patents under heaven could not easily extinguish. Thousands of unbelievers have been born into the family of scepticism by professed preachers of the gospel, who supposed that they were helping them to faith: the fire fed upon the heaps of leaves which the foolish well-intentioned speaker cast upon it in the hope of smothering it. Young men in many instances have obtained their first notions of infidelity from their ministers; they have sucked in the poison, but refused the antidote. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Be instant in season, out of season.--Never out of season Not that the Word is ever out of season in itself, for it is the bread of life; all other meats have their times and seasons, but bread is the staff of nature, and is never out of season. There is no season unseasonable for so seasonable, for so necessary a duty in the opinion of a natural man, and in the eye of carnal reason it seems sometimes to be out of season, as when it is preached on the week-day, when pastor and people have profits and pleasures and worldly employments to draw them off. Now a sermon seems like snow in harvest to such earthly souls, it is out of season with them, yet even these seasons which the world judgeth unseasonable must a minister redeem for preaching. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Not strawberry-preachers We must not be strawberry-preachers (as Bishop Latimer calleth them), which come but once a year and are quickly gone again. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Constant preaching You cannot give God’ s children too much of their Father’ s bread. (Old Puritan.) In season, out of season Who has not reproached himself for suffering opportunities of usefulness to pass unimproved seasons when “ a word fitly spoken” might have turned a sinner from the error of his way to the wisdom of the just? Why are we so reluctant to fill this department of usefulness? Who can tell the power of a word? Is it not often more effectual than a sermon? I once spent an afternoon in a family where a young woman had been employed for the day. I ought to have learned her spiritual state, but did not. At the tea-table she remarked that she had done her work. I replied, “ If your work is done for time, you must work for eternity.” She sat a moment speech less; then, bursting into tears, she hastened from the room. Surprised and startled at such an effect from a word, I sought to learn from her the cause of this sudden distress. Her heart was overladen with the burden of sin. She had struggled to conceal her sorrow from the family. The cup was full. One drop made it run over, and led to a discovery of her deep conviction. This season of usefulness would have been lost by a few moments’ delay, and that anguish of spirit have been to me unknown. (American Messenger.) The seasonable word not to be delayed Dr. Chalmers once lodged in the house of a nobleman near Peebles. He was the life and soul of the discourse in the circle of friends at the nobleman’ s fireside. The subject was pauperism--its causes and cure. Among the gentlemen present there was a venerable old Highland chieftain, who kept his eyes fastened on Dr. C., and listened with intense interest to his communications. The conversation was kept up to a late hour. When the company broke up they were shown upstairs to their apartments. There was a lobby of a considerable length, and the doors of the bed chambers opened on the right and left. The apartment of Dr. C. was directly opposite to that of the old chieftain, who had already retired. As the doctor was undressing himself, he heard an unusual noise in the chieftain’ s room. The noise was succeeded by a heavy groan! He hastened into the apartment, which was in a few minutes filled with the company, who all rushed in to the relief of the old man. It was a melancholy sight which met their eyes. The venerable white-headed chief had fallen in the arms of his attendant. It was evidently an apoplexy. He breathed for a few moments and expired! Dr. C. stood in silence, with both hands stretched out, and bending over the deceased. He was the very picture of distress. He was the first to break silence. “ Never in my life,” said he in a tremulous voice, “ did I see, or did I feel, before this moment, the meaning of that text, ‘ Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season,’ etc. Had I known that my venerable old friend was within a few minutes’ reach of eternity, I would not have dwelt on that subject which formed the topic of this evening’ s conversation. I would have addressed myself earnestly to him. I would have preached unto him and unto you Christ Jesus, and Him crucified. I would have urged him and you, with all the earnestness befitting the subject, to prepare for eternity. You would have thought it, you would have pronounced it, out of season. But ah! it would have been in season--both as it respected him, and as it respects you.” A word in season A poor blacksmith, bending with age and weakness, was passing through a country village; he stopped at a good woman’ s cottage, and rested himself on the railing before the door. The pious dame came out, and the weary traveller remarked that his time here would be short; he was often ailing; he added, “ Ah, Nanny! I sha’ n’ t be long for this world, I reckon!” She thought of his words, and replied, “ Well, John, then I hope you’ ll prepare for your journey!” The blacksmith passed on, and his call was soon forgotten by Nanny; but that simple sentence was impressed on his memory by the Spirit of God, never to be erased. He pondered it while walking home, and soon consumption laid him on a bed of pain. Again and again did he think about “ the journey,” and about being “ prepared” for it. He began to pray, and all around him were continually hearing the old woman’ s advice. No pious friends were near to converse with him, hut it is confidently believed that the aged sinner was led to look to the Saviour through the simple incident related above. Almost his last breath was spent in thanking God that the good old woman ever warned him “ Be instant in season, out of season” : sow beside all waters, that thou mayest reap a glorious harvest at the coming of the Son of Man. (Christian Miscellany.) Using an opportunity My good and kind friend, Dr. Sale, the late vicar of Sheffield, once gave me an affecting account of a conversation he had in a railway carriage with one of his parishioners, a manufacturer, who was returning from Epsom the day after the Derby, with considerable winnings. The faithful vicar struck home, and soon discovered that the man, with all his seeming elation, was consciously guilty; and showed it, not only by the changes of his countenance, but by his desperate attempts to “ change the subject.” It was in vain, however, that he strove to get out of the Christian preacher’ s power. The vicar pressed the charge of guilt, till the sweat started to the gambler’ s brow, and he cried, “ For God’ s sake, say no more! I know it is wrong.! dare not reflect upon it!” Yet the vicar did not shrink from his duty; but still urged his reproof, till he thought he had reason to believe that the man would give up his sin. (Thos. Cooper.) Making an opportunity The Mogul is a dirty little beer-shop, entirely supported by low and depraved persons. The tap-room was built in the yard beside a skittle ground, and was approached through a long passage. Upon entering it one evening the city missionary, John M. Weylland, found a crowd of at least forty juvenile thieves, vagrants, and bullies. As the noise was great, the only hope of doing good was an effort to enter into conversation with one or two individuals. This, however, was prevented, as many of them knew the visitor, and hit upon a device to get rid of him. A song was started by one of the men, and the chorus was taken up by the full company, who repeated with deafening effect the words, “ He’ s a jolly good fellow.” As the song proceeded the repetition became so boisterous that the visitor divined their intention to sing him out. He at once saw the difficulty of his position, as, if they had succeeded, the same practice would have been adopted in other tap-rooms to the hindrance of his usefulness. He, therefore, instead of leaving, took a seat in their midst inn most unconcerned manner. The chorus was kept up until many of the vocalists had bawled themselves hoarse; and as the yelling became feeble the visitor sprang to his feet, and said vehemently, “ And they were good fellows, but the magistrates commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely; who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.” These words changed the current of feeling. Nearly all in the room had been in prison, and those who had not had a deep sympathy with such. “ Who were they?” “ Where was it?” and “ What a shame I “ were the general exclamations. After a pause, which produced absolute silence, the speaker continued: “ And at midnight they sang praises unto God.” And then, opening his Bible, he, in a solemn, earnest tone, read the narrative of the imprisonment of Paul and Silas. When he came to the words, “ He set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house,” the reader closed the Book, and in a few telling sentences explained the nature of saving faith in Christ, and the result of that faith--being made “ new creatures.” After this visit the work was easy in that tap-room, and in the family of the landlord. Seasonable fishing The minister is a fisherman, and the fisherman must fit himself to his employment. If some fish will bite only by day, he must fish by day; if others will bite only by moonlight, he must fish for them by moonlight. (R. Cecil.) Unlikely opportunity used A gentleman one day observed a man in the dress of a clown surrounded by a crowd of some two hundred persons, who were amused at his foolish antics and pitiful jokes. After looking on for some moments with feelings of compassion towards the poor creature who befooled himself to make a living, he drew a tract from a parcel which he carried, and, pressing through the crowd, offered it to the clown. The latter took it, and at once began to read it aloud in mockery, for the further entertainment of the bystanders. It was short, and he read it through to the last words, which were: “ Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” Overcome with sudden and evident emotion, he left the crowd and hastened away. The giver of the tract followed him, and tried to converse with him; but all the response he could get for some time was, “ I’ m lost! I’ m lost!” However, the gospel was lovingly explained to him, and it entered into his heart. He became an earnest believer, and was soon among the regular labourers for Christ in the East End of London, in 1874. (J. F. B. Tinling. B. A.) Reprove.--Need of reproof He that minds his patient’ s health will not toy or trifle or play with his mortal diseases; the flesh must feel the plaster, or it will never eat up the corruption in it. Shouldest thou apply a healing plaster to skin the wound aloft, when there is need of a corrosive to take away the dead flesh, thou wouldest be false and unfaithful to thy friend. Reproof, like salt, must have in it both sharpness and savouriness. Admonition without serious application is like an arrow with too many feathers, which, though we level at the mark, is taken by the wind and carried quite away from it. Some men shoot their reprehensions, like pellets through a trunk, with no more strength than will kill a sparrow. Those make sinners believe that sin is no such dreadful evil, and the wrath of God no such frightful end. He that would hit the mark and recover the sinner, must draw his arrow of reproof home. Reproof must be powerful; the hammer of the Word breaks not the heart, if it be lightly laid on. It must also be so particular, that the offender may think himself concerned. Some in reproof will seem to aim at the sinner, but so order it that their arrows shall be sure to miss him; as Domitian, when a boy held for a mark afar off his hand spread, with the fingers severed he shot his arrows so that all hit the empty spaces between his fingers. Be the reproof never so gracious, the plaster so good, it will be ineffectual if not applied to the patient. (G. Swinnock.) Ministers must be faithful God never made ministers as false glasses to make bad faces look fair; such make themselves guilty of other men’ s sins. (T. Watson.) No harpoons on board A sailor just off a whaling expedition asked where he would hear good preaching. On his return from church his friend said to him, “ You do not seem to have liked the sermon?” “ Not much; it was like a ship leaving for the whale fishing--everything ship-shape, anchors, cordage, sails all right--but there were no harpoons on board.” Effectual reproof The Rev. Dr. John H. Vincent once reproved a swearer so powerfully and yet so tenderly that he not only subdued him, but melted him in tears. It was in a railway station; the room was full of passengers waiting for a late train. A man in the room was shocking everybody with his impiety, especially in profaning the name of the Lord Jesus. Suddenly Dr. Vincent began to sing-- “ Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to Thy bosom fly.” The song ceased; perfect silence followed. The swearer was reproved. After a time he came to Dr. Vincent and said, “ Could I see you for a moment outside?” They went out together. “ How came you,” said he, “ to sing that hymn just now? “ The Doctor replied: “ I heard you swearing and profaning the name of the Lord Jesus, and I thought I would let you know there was somebody there who loved that name.” “ That’ s very strange,” said the man. “ My sister, when she was dying, sang that very hymn, and she made me promise to meet her in heaven, Could you pray for me?” Down they knelt together, and the Doctor prayed for the penitent man, and asked that he might have grace and strength to keep the vow he had made to his dying sister. The train came; they were separated, to meet no more, in all probability, till they meet in eternity. Disciple of Jesus, witness for your Master. Bear His reproach. Confess His name before men. Personal rebuke best Men need to be reminded of their own sins much more than they do of Adam’ s sin. The soldier has a deeper sense of danger when the rifle ball rings close by his ears, than by the general roar of the battle; and so a sinner will have a much deeper sense of God’ s displeasure, when his own sin is brought home to him, than by listening to general remarks on the sinfulness of the race. (M. Miller.) Silent reproof One day, as Dr. Cutler was returning home, a poor woman, whose husband had been very intemperate, called after him, and holding up a pair of chickens, begged him to accept them. “ I told her,” said he, “ she could not afford to give away such a fine pair of chickens.” “ Mr. Cutler,” said she, with a sad expression, “ you will hurt my feelings if you do not take them. I have fatted and picked them on purpose for you. It is the only return I am able to offer for the very great service you have lately done me and my little children.” “ I am not aware,” said Mr. Cutler, “ of having done you any service of late.” “ Sir,” said the poor woman, “ you have reformed my husband,” “ There must be some mistake,” said Mr. Cutler. “ I knew your husband was intemperate; but I have never said a word to him on the subject.” “ I know you never have,” said she; “ if you had, his pride is such that it might have made matters worse. It has happened, oddly enough, that often, when you have stepped in to say a few kind words to us, he has been taking his dram, or taking down his jug or putting it back again. About two months ago, just after you went out, he went to the door, and to my astonishment poured nearly a pint of rum out of his jug on to the ground, and said, ‘ Debby, rinse out that jug with hot water. I’ ve done. I can’ t stand that man’ s looks any longer! If Mr. Cutler would look savage, I shouldn’ t mind it; but he looks so sad, and so benevolent all the while, when he sees me taking a dram, that I know what he means just as well as if he preached it in a sermon; and I take it very kindly of him that he didn’ t give me a long talk.’” (Memoir of Dr. Cutler.) Fruitful rebukes The Rev. John Spurgeon was going to preach at his chapel in Tollesbury, Essex. It was the Sabbath morning, and as he passed a cottage garden he saw a man digging potatoes. He stopped and said, “ Am I mistaken, or are you? I have come nine miles to preach to-day, thinking it was the Sabbath-day, As I see you are at work, I suppose I must be wrong, and had better go home.” The man coloured, and driving his spade into the ground, he said, “ No, sir, you are not wrong, but I am: and I will have no more of it. I will be round this afternoon to hear you preach. Nobody has ever spoken to me before, and you’ ve only done your duty.” He was at the chapel, and his wife with him. His wife became a member of the church, and he remained a regular attendant upon the means of grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Benefit of reproof There was one particular instance, in which a degree of severity on my part was attended with the happiest effects. Two young men, now blessed servants of the Most High God, came into my church in a most disorderly way; and as usual I fixed my eyes upon them with sternness, indicative of my displeasure. One of them was abashed; but the other, the only one that ever was daring enough to withstand my eye, looked at me again with undaunted, not to say with impious confidence, refusing to be ashamed. I sent for him the next morning, and represented to him the extreme impiety of his conduct, contrasting it with that of those less hardened; and warning him who it was that he thus daringly defied; “ He that despiseth you despiseth Me; and he that despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me” ; and I enjoined him never to come into that church again, unless he came in a very different spirit. To my surprise, I saw him there again the following Sunday, but with a more modest countenance; and from that time he continued to come, till it pleased God to open his eyes, and to lead him into the full knowledge of the gospel of Christ; and in a year or two afterwards he became a preacher of that faith which he once had despised. (P. B. Power.) Exhort.Zealous exhortation The following incident is known only to a few, but is deserving of a wider publicity. “ I shall always remember Mr. Moody,” said a gentleman, “ for he was the means of leading me to Christ. I was in a railway train one day, when a stout, cheery-looking stranger came in, and sat down in the seat beside me. We were passing through a beautiful country, to which he called my attention, saying, “ Did you ever think what a good Heavenly Father we have, to give us such a pleasant world to live in? “ I made some indifferent answer, upon which he earnestly inquired, “ Are you a Christian? “ I answered, “ No.” “ Then,” said he, “ you ought to be one at once. I am to get off at the next station, but if you will kneel down, right here, I will pray to the Lord to make you a Christian.” Scarcely knowing what I did, I knelt down beside him there, in the car, filled with passengers, and he prayed for me with all his heart. Just then the train drew up at the station, and he had only time to get off before it started again. Suddenly coming to myself out of what seemed more like a dream than a reality, I rushed out on to the car platform, and shouted after him, “ Tell me who you are.” He replied, “ My name is Moody.” I never could shake off the conviction which then took hold upon me, until the prayer of that strange man was answered, and I had become a Christian. (A Faithful Pastor.) 2 Timothy 4:3-4 They will not endure sound doctrine.Inclination the enemy of truth The reason is here assigned for this faithful ministry: one that has always been in force, since human nature has always been the same. Men’ s own inclinations will become the guide of their conduct concerning truth and duty. Because sound or salutary teaching about their own errors and sins is abasing to their pride and crucifying to their selfish passions, it will not be endured. Yet their minds crave stimulus, and even their moral natures demand some opiate. Hence they will resort to various so-called teachers, in order to obtain fancies that please and rules of life that suit their native tastes. And the effect of this will be that they turn themselves away from truth to falsehood, and are at last given up of God to the fixed delusion of believing a lie, to their own perdition. The picture is sad indeed, and common as sad, in this as in every century and land. None believe so wildly, and none are so hopelessly hardened, as those who finally reject the saving truth of God. (J. G. Butler, D. D.) Smooth things preferred Edward Irving found no favour as a preacher in the commencement of his ministry. After various disappointments, Dr. Chalmers heard and appreciated him, and invited him to be his assistant in Glasgow. Irving, in astonishment and doubt, replied: “ I will preach to them if you think fit, but if they bear with my preaching they will be the first people who have borne with it.” Dislike to the truth Aristotle writeth that vultures are killed with oil of roses. Sweet smells enrage tigers. Swine cannot live in some parts of Arabia, saith Pliny, by reason of the pleasant scent of aromatical trees there growing in every wood. (J. Trapp.) Sound doctrine forsaken 1. The grounds of their apostasy--viz., their hatred of the truth; they will not endure sound doctrine; they will reject it and cast it behind their backs; they hate and abhor it. They look upon it as a grievous burden, as Israel did upon the doctrine and visions of the prophets (Jeremiah 23:34; Jeremiah 23:36). It is not so much they cannot, but they will not endure sound doctrine; they love their lusts above the law, and therefore they hate him that reproves in the gates. Errors they can tolerate, and superstition they can tolerate, but the truth they cannot hear. 2. A second ground of their apostasy is their delight in false teachers; they so dote on them, that one or two will not content them, they must have heaps of them. They love their lusts, and therefore they seek out for such teachers as may not disquiet them. They wittingly and willingly suffer themselves to be deluded by them. The word signifies-- (1) An earnest desire of getting such teachers. (2) It notes an indiscreet and confused gathering together of such a multitude of teachers without wit or reason, without any respect either to their life or learning, head nor tail. The disciples create their doctors, the lusts of their followers are their call. 3. A third cause of their apostasy is that innate malice and inbred concupiscence which is in the hearts of men. But the word in the original is “ lusts,” which implies, not a simple desire or sudden motion, but a vehement, ardent, earnest desire and pursuit of a thing. 4. They have itching ears; this is another reason why they seek out for false teachers; they love not such as deal plainly and faithfully with them, they must have such as please their humours, tickle their fancies with novelties and curiosities, but they must in no wise touch their vices. 5. Here is the issue and consequences of their contempt of the truth--viz., the loss of truth, and following fables. This is the devil’ s method. First he stops the ear against sound doctrine, and then he opens it to error. Like a cruel thief, he draws the soul out of the right road into some wood, by-lane or corner, and there binds, robs, and rifles it.1. God not only knoweth what men do at present, and what they have done, but what they will do in time to come. He tells Timothy here what will be done many years after he is dead and gone. 2. The more perfidious the world is, and the more false teachers abound, the more careful must Christ’ s ministers be to oppose them by preaching sound doctrine. The badness of the times approaching must make us to redeem the present season. The sun will not always shine; tempests will arise, and the night will come when no man can work. Those that reverence Moses to-day, to-morrow are murmuring against him (Exodus 14:1-31, ult., and 15:14). 3. Saving doctrine is sound doctrine. 4. Unsound persons cannot endure sound doc trine. It is salt which searcheth men’ s sores and puts them to pain. It is light which these sore eyes cannot endure, nor these thieves abide. They do evil, and therefore they hate the light (John 3:20). They do not only fear, but hate the light. They cannot endure to have the law preached, their consciences searched, nor their sins discovered. But as for sound men, they love sound doctrine; they desire it (Psalms 43:3). They come to it (John 3:21), and bless God for it (1 Samuel 25:32-33). 5. In the last days there will be many false teachers. There will not be one or two, but there will be heaps of them, the world will swarm with them. Men will have variety of lusts, and those call for variety of teachers to uphold them. Good men, and especially good ministers, are rare, they are one of a thousand (Job 33:23), but wicked ones abound; there is much dross, but little gold; much chaff, but little wheat; many weeds, few good flowers. If the devil have any work to do, he wants no agents to effect it. If men once set open their doors, they shall not want deceivers. When men slight truth they shall have teachers which shall be God’ s executioners to bind them and blind them, and lead them into error. 6. Observe, as all other parts of man, so amongst the rest the ear hath its diseases. Salt is fitter for such than oil: though it be more searching, yet it is more sovereign. This itching disease was never so common as in our days. There is a sinful spiritual itch upon the soul which is sevenfold--viz., an itch of-- (1) Novelty.(2) Curiosity.(3) Singularity.(4) Popularity.(5) Flattery.(6) Disputing.(7) Quarrelling. (T. Hall, B. D.) Application in preaching objected to A farmer went to hear John Wesley preach. The farmer was not a converted man; he cared little about religion; on the other hand, he was not what we call a bad man. His attention was soon excited and riveted. John said he should take up three topics of thought--he was speaking greatly about money. His first head was, “ Get all you can.” The farmer nudged a neighbour and said, “ This is strange preaching. I never heard the like of this before. This is very good. Yon man has got things in him; it is admirable preaching.” John discoursed of “ Industry,” “ Activity,” “ Living to purpose,” and reached his second division, which was, “ Save all you can.” The farmer became more excited. “ Was there ever anything like this?” he said. Wesley denounced thriftlessness and waste, and he satirised the wilful wickedness which lavishes in luxury; and the farmer rubbed his hands, and he thought, “ All this have I been from my youth up” ; and what with getting, and what with hoarding, it seemed to him that “ salvation had come to his house.” But Wesley advanced to his third head, which was, “ Give all you can.” “ Ay dear, ay dear,” said the farmer; “ he has gone and spoilt it all.” There was now no further point of contact, no interest in the farmer’ s mind. (Preacher’ s Lantern.) Itching ears. Curious hearers Some come to the Word preached, not so much to get grace, as to enrich themselves with notions--“ Itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3). Austin confesseth that before his conversion he went to hear St. Ambrose, rather for his eloquence than for the spirituality of the matter. “ Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument.” Many come to the Word only to feast their ears; they like the melody of the voice, the mellifluous sweetness of the expression, the newness of the notion (Acts 17:21). This is to love the garnishing of the dish more than the food; this is to desire to be pleased rather than edified. Like a woman that paints her face, but neglects her health, so they paint and adorn themselves with curious speculations, but neglect their souls’ health. This hearing doth neither sanctify the heart, nor the Sabbath. (T. Watson.) Shall be turned unto fables.-- Truth hidden when neglected From these words we learn that there is such a thing as religious truth, and therefore such a thing as religious error. We learn that religious truth is one, and therefore that all views of religion but one are wrong. And we learn, moreover, that so it was to be that professed Christians, forgetting this, should turn away their ears from the one truth, and be turned, not to one, but to many fables. This is a most solemn thought, and a perplexing one. However, there is another which, though it ought not to be perplexing, is perplexing still, and perhaps has greater need to be considered and explained--I mean that men of learning and ability are so often wrong in religious matters also. Now, if we consult St. Paul’ s Epistles to the Corinthians, we shall find the same state of things existing even in the first age of Christianity. Even the apostle speaks of those who were blind, or to whom his Gospel was hid; and he elsewhere describes them, not as the uneducated and dull of understanding, but as the wise of this world, the scribe and the disputer. Does not our Saviour Himself say the same thing, when He thanks His Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that He hath hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes? Now it should not surprise us when men of acute and powerful understandings more or less reject the gospel, for this reason: that the Christian revelation addresses itself to our hearts, to our love of truth and goodness, our fear of sinning, and our desire to gain God’ s favour and quickness, sagacity, depth of thought, strength of mind, power of comprehension, perception of the beautiful, power of language, and the like, though they are excellent gifts, are clearly quite of a different kind from these spiritual excellences--a man may have the one without having the other. This should be kept in mind when Christians are alarmed, as they sometimes are, on hearing instances of infidelity or heresy among those who read, reflect, and inquire; whereas, however we may mourn over such instances, we have no reason to be surprised at them. It is quite enough for Christians to be able to show, as they well can, that belief in revealed religion is not inconsistent with the highest gifts and acquirements of mind, that men even of the strongest and highest intellect have been Christians; but they have as little reason to be perplexed at finding other men of ability not true believers, as at finding that certain rich men are not true believers, or certain poor men, or some in every rank and circumstance of life. A belief in Christianity has hardly more connection with what is called talent, than it has with riches, station, power, or bodily strength. Now let me explain what I mean by a further remark. Is it not plain that earnestness is necessary for gaining religious truth? On the other hand, is it not a natural effect of ability to save us trouble, and even to tempt us to dispense with it, and to lead us to be indolent? Do not we see this even in the case of children--the more clever are the more idle, because they rely on their own quickness and power of apprehension? Is indolence the way to gain knowledge from God? Though there is no art or business of this world which is learned without time and exertion, yet it is commonly conceived that the knowledge of God and our duty will come as if by accident or by a natural process. Men go by their feelings and likings; they take up what is popular, or what comes first to hand. They think it much if they now and then have serious thoughts, if they now and then open the Bible; and their minds recur with satisfaction to such seasons, as if they had done some very great thing, never remembering that to seek and gain religious truth is a long and systematic work. And others think that education will do everything for them, and that if they learn to read, and use religious words, they understand religion itself. And others, again, go so far as to maintain that exertion is not necessary for discovering the truth. They say that religious truth is simple and easily acquired; that Scripture, being intended for all, is at once open to all, and that if it had difficulties, that very circumstance would be an objection to it. And others, again, maintain that there are difficulties in religion, and that this shows that it is an indifferent matter whether they seek or not as to those matters which are difficult. In these and other ways do men deceive themselves into a carelessness about religious truth. And is not all this varied negligence sufficient to account for the varieties of religious opinion which we see all around us? How are the sheep of Christ’ s flock scattered abroad in the waste world! What religious opinion Can be named which some men Or other have not at some time held? All are equally confident in the truth of their own doctrines, though the many must be mistaken. In this confusion let us look to ourselves, each to himself. There must be a right and a wrong, and no matter whether others agree with us or not, it is to us a solemn practical concern not to turn away our ears from the truth. Let not the diversity of opinion in the world dismay you, or deter you from seeking all your life long true wisdom. It is not a search for this day or that, but as you should ever grow in grace, so should you ever grow also in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. ("Plain Sermons by Contributors to ‘ Tracts for the Tithes.") 2 Timothy 4:5 But watch thou in all things.1. But watch thou. The apostasy and looseness of the times we live in must make us the more watchful. Their falls must be our fears; their levity must quicken us to constancy, and their negligence must quicken our diligence in keeping the watch of the Lord. 2. Good men desire the Church’ s good after their departure. Paul is dying, yet he commands Timothy to improve his talents for the Church’ s good when himself was dead. Moses, before he dies, prays the Lord to set up a fit ruler instead (Numbers 28:16-17). Wicked men care not what becomes of the world, when they are dead and gone let heaven and earth come together, and all be in confusion, they care not. But good men have public spirits. 3. As all persons, so ministers especially must watch. The devil hath a special spite at them; he commands his agents, as the king of Aram did his followers, to fight neither with small nor great, but against the king of Israel; so he bends all his strength against the ministers of Israel. (1) The better the man, the more watchful must he be. The pirate sets on the laden ship, and the thief upon the wealthiest traveller. But we must watch as pastors too, and discover wolves that would destroy the flock. (2) We must watch at all times. (a) In prosperity, as pigeons when they fare best fear most. (b) Watch in adversity, the devil is busy then in laying snares, as the fowler doth for birds in frosty weather. (3) In all places, in public and private, at home and abroad; the world is full of snares. (4) Watch in all things, so runs the text. (5) Watch against all sins. We carry about us a proneness to all sin. (6) Watch over all thy senses; stop thine ears; make a covenant with thine eyes (Job 31:1). Set a watch before thy mouth. The whole soul is out of order, and therefore we must set a guard upon all its faculties. 4. Ministers especially must be hardy men. We are called soldiers, shepherds, watchmen, husbandmen, all which must endure summer’ s heat and winter’ s frost. (1) We must endure hardship in our preparatory studies; we must give up ourselves to reading, study and prayer. (2) He must endure hardship in the actual performance of his duty. (3) Most properly and genuinely this hardship in the text consists in a patient undergoing of those injuries and oppositions which we must expect from an ungrateful world. (4) The Lord Himself sometimes is pleased to exercise us, and to inure us to hardship, that we may be the fitter for His service. But let us, like good soldiers of Christ, endure hardship-- (a) Patiently. (b) Courageously. (c) Constantly. 5. The ministry is a work. The sweat of the brow is nothing to that of the brain; besides the dangers we are liable to for our work’ s sake. 6. Do the work or service of an evangelist. Observe, ministers are servants, and their office is service. 7. Of an evangelist. Observe, ministers must preach the gospel. We must publish the glad tidings of a Saviour (what in us lieth to all the world); this is to do the work of an evangelist, viz., soundly and sincerely to publish the gospel. 8. Make full proof of thy ministry. Ministers must fully and faithfully discharge all the duties of their calling. (T. Hall, B. D.) Christian watchfulness None are so likely to maintain watchful guard over their hearts and lives as those who know the comfort of living in near communion with God. They feel their privilege and will fear losing it. They will dread falling from their high estate, and marring their own comfort by bringing clouds between themselves and Christ. He that goes on a journey with a little money about him takes little thought of danger, and cares little how late he travels. He, on the contrary, that carries gold and jewels, will be a cautious traveller: he will look well to his roads, his horses, and his company, and run no risks. The fixed stars are those that tremble most. The man that most fully enjoys the light of God’ s countenance, will be a man tremblingly afraid of losing its blessed consolations, and jealously fearful of doing anything to grieve the Holy Ghost. (Bishop Ryle.) Endure afflictions. Endurance of hardship Some dyes cannot bear the weather, but alter colour presently; but there are others that, having something that gives a deeper tincture, will hold. The graces of a true Christian hold out in all sorts of weathers, in winter and summer, prosperity and adversity, when superficial counterfeit holiness will give out. (R. Sibbes.) Ministerial hardship I board with a poor Scotsman; his wife can talk scarcely any English. My diet consists mostly of hasty-pudding, boiled corn, and bread baked in ashes, and sometimes a little meat and butter. My lodging is a little heap of straw, laid upon some boards, a little way from the ground; for it is a long room, without any floor, that I lodge in. My work is exceedingly hard and difficult. I travel on foot a mile and a half in the worst of roads almost daily and back again; for I live so far from my Indians. I bare not seen an English person this month. These and many other uncomfortable circumstances attend me; and yet my spiritual conflicts and distresses so far exceed all these that I scarce think of them, but feel as if I were entertained in the most sumptuous manner. The Lord grant that I may learn to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ! (David Brainerd.) Do the work of an evangelist.-- The work of an evangelist We fancy we still see Dr. Wardlaw standing in the pulpit and beseeching the newly-ordained pastor to approve himself in all things as the faithful servant of God. Some of his sentences still linger in our recollection--“ Oh, my brother I” he said, “ never forget that the greatest triumph which can be accomplished on earth is the conversion of a soul; and a minister’ s labours are never so highly honoured as when men are born of God through his instrumentality. It may be of importance to polish the jewel after it has been found, but the chief thing is to dig it out of the mine. It may be, and it is, important to dress up the stone for the front of the building, but be does the greatest work who excavates it from the quarry in which it lay imbedded.” (Evangelical Repository.) An earnest evangelist While waiting on one occasion in a gentleman’ s parlour, Vassar opened conversation with his wife, a very fashionable and proud-looking lady, who was sitting in the room. With great concern he began at once to urge the necessity of the new birth and immediate acceptance of Christ upon her. She was thunderstruck, and protested that she did not believe in any of those things. Then followed a most fervent appeal, texts of Scripture, warning against rejecting Christ, the certainty of a wrath to come for any found in impenitence, till my friend said he was fairly alarmed at the boldness of the assault. Suddenly the gentleman came in for whom he was waiting, and called him out. When the gentleman returned to his wife, she said, “ There has been an old man here talking with me about religion.” “ Why did you not shut him up?” he asked gruffly. “ He is one of those persons that you cannot shut up,” was her reply. “ If I had been here,” he said, “ I would have told him very quickly to go about his business.” “ If you had seen him, you would have thought he was about his business,” was her answer. (Memoir of Uncle John Vassar.) Make full proof of thy ministry.--Fulfil thy ministry This word “ ministry” does not refer exclusively to what we are accustomed to call the Christian ministry, meaning the teaching and pastoral office in the Church. That is but one of ten thousand forms of ministration or service, which may be rendered to our fellows at the call of God. To minister to any one, is to help or serve him; and so every course of action by which we can help and serve others is a ministry, and every such service is truly a Christian work. And as we cannot all render the same service, but can each render particular kinds of service to particular people--relatives, friends or neighbours--that particular description of service which each of us can render is our “ ministry.” It is a ministry, the object of whose functions lies without us, in contrast to activities which centre in self as their object. And it is “ thy ministry,” because it is that particular form of helpful activity which it is open to each, separately, to prosecute. Paul’ s was different from Timothy’ s, and neither has belonged to anybody since; nor will your ministry, or mine, ever be allotted to anybody else; for no one will be situated as We are, or have exactly our opportunities. But, in some respects, our ministry is like Timothy’ s and Paul’ s. It is directed to the same objects: the spread of Christ’ s truth and Christ’ s Church. And we are summoned to it by the same Divine Lord, to whom also we shall reader an account of its discharge; All the high, sublime elements, then, which belonged to their ministry or service in life, belong to ours, though ours may take less striking outward forms, and be rendered with no eye but God’ s to watch our performance of it. The sublime considerations, moving to fidelity in it, which Paul urged on Timothy, bear, then, on us. “ I charge thee before God, make full proof of” --thoroughly fulfil--“ thy ministry.” (T. M. Herbert, M. A.) The appeal of the elder to the younger generation In the charge of the aged Paul to the young disciple Timothy, there seems to be an appeal which, though unexpressed, is perpetually addressed from the elder generation to the younger. What the one old man said to the single young one, all Christ’ s servants, whose work is nearly done, seem to say to all those whose work is just beginning. “ Fulfil thy ministry, for I am now ready to be offered.” Choose what time in the world’ s history you like, you will always find those two classes well represented; for it is always true that “ one generation passeth away, and another cometh.” And while the old are always passing to their rest, and the young rising to do their parts, the great aims for which Christian men strive and pray, and the great institution of the Church, through which they further them, lives on; and it is, or should be, the concern of each generation to hand it down invigorated and enlarged, to their successors. But if that is to be done, these successors must be ready to take up these toils and aims; to adapt them to the needs of the coming time, and engage in them with a spirit at least as devoted as that which their fathers showed. So they seem to hear from their father, “ Fulfil thy ministry, for I am now ready to be offered.” Now if we take our own time, and apply to it these considerations, which hold good of every time, what shall we say? New, as ever, there is a passing and a rising generation. And the great Church and kingdom of Christ, which has been in the hands of the fathers, will soon be in the hands of the children. That glorious institution will live, though the hands which now sustain it decay. But young hands must receive it from the failing hold of the elders, and by their efforts it must he upheld. Are they ready to take it? Are they prepared to “ fulfil their ministry,” because their predecessors will soon leave the task in their hands? (T. M. Herbert, M. A.) Fuelling one’ s ministry Several ancient rulers did not find management of their dominions sufficiently burdensome, and so one of them became a fiddler, another a poet, and another an orator. The world never had a worse fiddler than Nero, nor a more wearisome poet than Dionysius, nor a more blundering orator than Caligula; and we might fearlessly assert also that the world never had worse princes than these three. Such instances are exceedingly instructive, and remind us of the sculptor’ s advice to the cobbler to stick to his last. Each tub had better stand on its own bottom; for when tubs take to rolling about they spill all that they contain, be it either wine or water. (C. H. Spurgeon.) 2 Timothy 4:6-8I am now ready to be offered.The law of sacrifice The interest o the Second Epistle to Timothy is altogether exceptional. It is the interest of a heart-moving tragedy; and yet the tragic gloom which rolls above its heavens is relieved, is almost illumined with golden glory by a strain and temper of pathetic tenderness. It is, as far as we are concerned, the last earthly utterance of an altogether remarkable man; the last will and testament, so to speak, of one in whose character commanding ability, simple and unswerving purpose, unflagging energy, unselfish enthusiasm, and warm and wide and sunny sympathy were combined in a degree unrivalled in the history of our race. And then, too, St. Paul, as he writes, may indeed be “ the aged,” but age can scarcely slacken power in such a soul, and here, consequently, he wins the unforbidden homage we pay spontaneously to one who, in the fullest vigour and energy of life, looks straight and calmly into the eyes of death. The text is, I suppose, one of the best-known verses in the Bible, an utterance of profound humility and lofty courage and unvarying truth; it is to us altogether interesting--interesting, doubtless, because it reveals the character of such a one as Paul; but more, a word of worldwide import, for at such moments great men are themselves revelations. Paul was alone in a sense in which he had never been before. The dear Churches--that is, the dear souls, loved with such strength and joy as was in “ him to love with--were far away; their faces he would never gaze upon again; the old places were gone; no more would he see the Holy City so rich in memories, no more the long blue line of the Abarim bounding the land of the chosen race, no more the jagged hills of his native Tarsus, no more the dancing waters of the blue AEgean, no more the Aeroceraunian crests, only lately marking the path of his pilgrimage from Corinth to Rome. Nature had closed her doors to the wanderer; from his prison on the Esquiline, or from the cave near the Capitol, or wherever it was that, in their last days, his eyes closed and opened to the light of the Roman summer, those eyes were straining beyond even objects of human affection to the unimagined wonders of another world; he was looking forward. At such a time it is that great natures fall back upon the principles which have governed life; and to us their utterances then, are supremely interesting, for such principles are the exhibition, in fact, of universal law. St. Paul, in his words illustrated by his life, is indeed proclaiming a fundamental law of the Church of his Master. “ The Reign of Law!” Need I remind you that of that realm we are all the subjects? It is fundamental, it explains, as it has guided, the Church’ s influence; it teaches, as it has trained, souls to tread the only way of lasting usefulness. It applies to all. It is not the heritage of the peerless apostle, but also the rule of the quiet Christian; obedience to it decides indeed the value of our choice in crises of destiny, but it also ennobles the “ trivial round” of daily life. Here, indeed, it is thrown out in vivid colour from a dark background of death; here, indeed, in full force, it is borne in upon the mind, because it comes as no abstract statement, but the life-rule written in the heart’ s blood of a living and a dying man. In him it found a wonderful completeness: it is the fundamental law of the Church of Jesus--the Law of Sacrifice. And now, I ask, “ How for Paul was the grave transfigured?” and the answer is, “ By the same power by which life was governed, by the law of sacrifice.” What, then, is sacrifice? By sacrifice, speaking morally and spiritually, as now, I mean this: The willing surrender of legitimate desire in submission to a sovereign, an authoritative claim; and the interest of the text lies in this, not only that it expresses the rich result of that law operating in its completeness in a human soul, but also, it limits the stages of trial by which such completeness was achieved. What, let us ask, were some at least of those stages?1. First, then, he had wakened up to the reality and requirements of the spiritual life. Man is a creature of two worlds, but of one sphere of being; standing he is within the boundary of time, but one foot is planted across the frontier of eternity. Little we see of man’ s real working, just here and there a hint is given by the definite act which meets the senses, excites our blame or sets the chorus of praise re-echoing through the halls of history, but day by day and hour by hour man’ s spirit, shrouded, veiled from his fellow man, is at work in the spirit sphere. Now to waken up to this, and to the consequent requirements of duty in this interior life, is to be brought under the law of sacrifice, because it is at once to be under the necessity of war. “ The Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,” is no mere tendency to wrong, but a personal spirit, with a personal power. And surely it has been the experience not only of the saints--the giant explorers in the regions of spiritual life--but the experience of earnest, commonplace children of God, that besides their struggle with their own corruption, they have been conscious of sudden assaults, of well-timed suggestions of sin, alarming, astounding, distinctly to them distinguishable from any picture of imagination; painfully, evidently separated from themselves, and clearly coming with the force and horror of the agency of a personal tempter. The action of the hierarchy of evil was indeed perhaps more evident to the Christians when St. Paul taught and lived than to ourselves. The entire imperial system of Rome might well appear to him an organisation of evil; and indeed, so awfully had the creature forsaken his Creator--read the first chapter of the Roman Epistle and say was it not so?--that that splendid fabric sprung from the genius of Pagan civilisation had become little else than a series of well-worked agencies of sin. It is true that the life of the second Adam permeating the race of the Redeemed has made of modern civilisation a very different story. But tell me, is there not enough in modern life to witness to the presence of the same tremendous power? Can you open your newspaper any morning without being impressed by the fact that the world is trying to get rid of the incubus of the thought of God? without being conscious of tones of thought and views of life nowise condemned by society at large, which would, to say the least, have shocked apostles? Is there not an air of unruffled indifference, or a tone of quiet patronage assumed towards moral evil which give the lie to the brave, the necessary hostility taught us in the Catechism when we were children? Does not this subtle tolerance of sin flow through society, invade the Church, deprave the mind? Hence men lose all sense of the severe requirements of a righteous God, because they have first lost all sense of His character of severe essential holiness; hence, young men, you are the victims (are you not?) in business life of habits of language, alliance with, almost toleration of, which you feel to be inconsistent with any nobility of mind, not to say any sincerity of Christian character. Ah! how are you to escape? Certainly not without struggle. Roused to the facts, roused to the requirements of spiritual life, you find yourself in battle; self must be denied, duty must be done, strength must be sought (faithfulness is needed in sacraments and prayer--faithfulness, too, in using strength when given). You must submit, and heartily, to the law of sacrifice. Spiritual activity on the side of right and truth and purity and duty--this is a stage towards a complete achievement. Paul had learned it; whether his description is drawn from the racecourse or the battle it matters not; he had learned at any rate the necessity of struggle. “ I have fought a good fight.” 2. It is well, is it not, to awaken to the mystery, to recognise the reality, of the spiritual world? But there is surely a farther stage for the wayfarer in this path of sacrifice. What shall be the standard to measure and direct the struggle of life? To an earnest Christian what God forbids is bad--unutterably, inexcusably bad. Right is right and wrong wrong, without palliation or possibility of compromise. To do good is not merely wiser than to do ill; it is the place, calling, need of the creature; wilful sin, self-chosen evil, is the damnable, ruinous, and sorrowful thing, which may call for a tribute of sadness and pity, but admits of no defence. Need I say it? this necessary revelation of God’ s will is furnished by the moral law. Conscience speaks first. I do not now pause to define its office or assign its place, or dwell upon the limits of its dominion; only let me remark in parenthesis--Obey your conscience, respect its warnings, listen for its whispers, submit unhesitatingly to its commands; you will be all the wiser, better men. Here Paul had first read and obeyed the will of God, and because he had tong been trained in that sincere and accurate submission, he was ready, when the face of Jesus was flashed upon him from the flaming heaven, above the peaks of the Hauran, at once to recognise, and unconditionally to obey. The prophets, the psalmists, the teachers of Israel had for him enlarged upon and enforced the lessons of that primal instruction, as revelation of the Christ, and the New as well as Old Testament Scriptures have ever since done for us all; but for him and for each since his time, the larger laws of Divine guidance have been particularised and pointed by special providence and special trials. The requirements of that Will are often--at least to human frailty--severe. The heart’ s most fierce desires are not most easily assuaged, the world’ s most prized successes are not most surely secured, by obedience to the will of God. No. Splendid indeed the results, moral, spiritual, of such adherence and such submission, but the process is pain. Honestly and earnestly to choose Chat standard is to be subject to the law of sacrifice. Paul chose it, and, like him, each one who does, fulfils, though it be in pain, an allotted mission. “ I have finished,” says the apostle, “ the course marked out for me.” 3. But there is one further stage of conquest dependent upon the most stern self-discipline. If there be anything that a man would seem entitled to call his own, it is his thought. Surely in thought, at least, man is free; surely “ I can think what I like,” as it is the expression of a natural craving, so it is the statement of a truth. Scarcely; for thought, if untrained, undisciplined, and unrepressed, becomes a tyrant, not a slave; and thought, which shares the heritage of our nature’ s blight, can only fulfil its intended function when purified by submission to the law of sacrifice. My brothers, to plant the footstep of your thoughts on the track of Divine Revelation, to refuse to them the by-paths of ungoverned fancy, to restrain them in their wild impulsive leaps, is to start them, nay, far to advance them, on the journey which ends in God. Be sure that to “ learn obedience” to the truths of the Christian Faith, to bathe the mental habits in the cleansing waters of the Spirit, who gives light, humility, courage, and truth, is the one way possible for emancipating the mind from the thraldom of corruption; but to do this, how hard, how full of sorrow, how severe at times the trial and the strain; ah me I as in other things, in this also, “ obedience is learned by the things” we “ suffer.” To leave men’ s criticism, and desire the Revelation of God; to quit our own miserable inquiries, and choose the path of the Pathless One; to watch against the wilfulness that slights, the sin that weakens our power of believing; this, as it is an evidence of strength, and even of stern decision, is not lacking in an element of trial, requires submission to the law of sacrifice. “ Kept the Faith,” mark you; for as to reach the path needed some self-conquest, so to keep the track required unflagging earnestness and persevering power. To submit to the Faith, in such an one as Paul, meant moral earnestness; to keep it implied moral force; for him, as for all men, to govern thought by God’ s revelation implies obedience to the law of sacrifice. Paul, I say, did it, did it utterly, did it also in the face of extremest external difficulty, did it when to be faithful to conviction implied fierce persecution and inevitable death; it is a triumphant climax that last stage of struggle--“ I have kept the Faith.” So the saintly soul advanced to that completeness of surrender which is completeness of power, and finds expression in the text. In fact, spiritual activity, a creaturely temper, and a humble mind, were the stages of his self-sacrifice. One question remains--Whence came its impulse? whence its sustaining strength? The answer is easy. It came whence only it can come, from supernatural, but personal affection. My friends, we are not all St. Pauls: very much the reverse usually, almost infinitely short of him in spiritual vigour, most of us. But being all professed disciples of Jesus Christ, God demands of each of us in our degree, submission to the law of sacrifice. 1. We are under special trial when the soul is subject to the illumination of some new truth. A light comes--such a course long lived is wrong, or is not the best. We must obey, but to us--for man is very frail and only human--this is sharp. 2. Or we lose something very dear. It may be an old friendship, it may be an old friend; it may be old, long-cherished, long-loved dreams; it may be that the mystery of the freshness of early life, once making all things fresh, has fled. There is, remember, nothing lost without a something gained, if the soul walk by this law, mind this rule. 3. Or, as you may be this week, as you and I have often been, there may be a time of temptation. How sorely some of you are tried I know. How not seldom England’ s commercial greatness means that young souls must often choose between the loss of place, which means loss of maintenance--some-times too for wife and children dearer than self--and the loss of peace with God. This I am not forgetting. Oh brother, tempted, you or I, to wrong, in the interests of self-advancement, are we not after all only victims submitted to the law of sacrifice? Do not shrink. It is severe and painful, but it is the law of life. 4. And there is death. True, here we have no choice; but still, when that comes, how we shall comport ourselves may depend in very large, in very serious measure, oil our habit of sacrifice now. Every life, believe it, to be trained for God, for goodness, must be trained by sacrifice. Every work, believe it, that you do will be of lasting value in “ proportion to the amount of sacrifice entailed in doing. In fact, it is by submission to this law that the Church teaches you how to use the world. This world may be viewed in many lights, so many-sided it is, so strange! For instance, it is a burying-earth, a world of death, a huge and sombre grave. “ The world is full of death!” We tread on the dust of a thousand generations, and other pilgrims, children of our children, shall tread on ours when we lie low! Stop! A powerful principle can transfigure everything, even the horror of death. The world is an altar of sacrifice: lives have been lived, and therefore deaths have been died of abundant fruitfulness and unending power. Why? Because these souls, which live each an endless life, have expressed themselves in sacrifice, have lost, have strangled the only death-giving principle, the principle of self, in undying devotion to truth and holiness. Further, then: the world is the vestibule of a palace of complete achievement. However, all here seems stamped with imperfection, branded with the trade-mark of unfinished labour, yet death, on such terms, is in truth the entrance to essential life; sacrifice, the birth-throe of a spirit satisfied. (Canon Knox Little.) Ready to be offered I. Things which make it difficult to say this.1. The enjoyment of life.2. Attachment to friends.3. The anticipated pain of dissolution.4. Uncertainty about the future. II. Things which make it easy, at least comparatively, to say this.1. The sad experience of life’ s ills.2. The consciousness of having finished one’ s life-work.3. The pre-decease of Christian friends.4. An ever-nearing and enlarging prospect of heaven’ s glory. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Death anticipated 1. The godly, by a spiritual instinct and sagacity, foresee their ends; so did Jacob (Genesis 48:21), and Joshua (Joshua 23:14), and Christ (John 17:2), and Peter (1 Peter 2:14). They always watch and wait for their Master’ s coming. Their acts, diseases, and disquietments which they meet withal from the world are as so many petty deaths unto them. A man that dwells in an old crazy house where the walls fall down, the foundation sinks, the pillars bend, and the whole building cracks, concludes such a house cannot long stand. As for the wicked they are insensible and secure, and though grey hairs, which are signs of old age and death approaching, be here and there upon them yet they know it not (Hosea 7:9). 2. Death is not dreadful to good men. The apostle speaks of it here not by way of lamentation, but of exultation. Death to him was but a departing from one room to another, from a lower room to a higher, from earth to heaven, from troubles to rest, from mortality to immortality. They are long since dead to the world, and so can part with it more easily. The wicked look on death as a dreadful, dismal thing; but God’ s people looking on it through the spectacles of the gospel, see it to be a conquered enemy, having its sting taken out (Hosea 13:15), so that what Agag said vainly and vauntingly, a Christian may speak truly and seriously: “ The bitterness of death is past” (1 Samuel 15:32). 3. The soul of man is immortal. Death is not an annihilation, but a migration of the soul from the body for a time. 4. The death of the martyrs is a most pleasing sacrifice to God. 5. The death of the martyrs doth confirm the truth. The Church is God’ s garden, and it is watered and enriched by the blood of martyrs. (T. Hall, B. D.) Paul the martyr, Christian, conqueror I. The information here given of Paul’ s death as a martyr.1. He looked on his death as an offering on behalf of the gospel.2. He looked on his death as a departure from every temporal bondage. II. The declaration here given of Paul’ s labour as a christian.1. As a soldier in the army.2. As a runner in a race.3. As a faithful servant to his Master. III. The declaration here given of Paul’ s reward as a conqueror,1. The preciousness of this reward.2. The excellent Giver of this reward.3. The solemn time of obtaining this reward.4. The liberality of the Giver. “ Not to me only,” etc. (M. Jones.) Looking out toward heaven 1. He looks downward into the grave (2 Timothy 4:6) whither he was going, and there he sees comfort. 2. He looks backward and views his well-spent life with joy and comfort, and in a holy gloriation breaks forth, “ I have fought the good fight,” etc. 3. He looks upward, and there he sees heaven prepared for him. But doth not this savour of vain-glory and spiritual pride?1. Answer: Not at all, for the apostle speaks not this proudly, as if he had merited anything at the hand of God. 2. He speaks this partly to comfort Timothy, and to encourage him to walk in his steps, keeping faith and a good conscience. 3. To encourage himself against the reproach of his reproaching violent death, he eyes that heavenly reward and that crown of life prepared for such as have fought the good fight as he had done. (T. Hall, B. D.) The Christian’ s course, conflict, and crown I. The view in which the apostle represents his decease.1. He expresses neither terror nor reluctance, on account of the violent nature of the death which awaited him, but speaks of it calmly as a sacrifice and offering to God. His last and most solemn testimony would thus be given to the truths of God, which he had everywhere proclaimed; and his blood, when poured out, would simply resemble, as his words imply, the mixture of blood and wine which was poured upon the altar in the ancient sacrifices. His death would merely form the concluding part of that offering, which he had made of himself to the service of his Lord; and he seemed rather to welcome than to withhold the termination of the sacrifice. The decease of every Christian may be likewise called an offering. We are all required to “ yield ourselves to God” ; to present ourselves to him as living sacrifices; and in our dying hour, or in our devout preparations for it, we may bear our testimony to His perfections, by manifesting our firm faith in His promises and our full submission to his will. 2. But the apostle here speaks farther of his decease, in a sense still more applicable to that of all men; “ the time of my departure” “ is at hand.” Thus he teaches us to take a much more enlarged view of our existence than to regard our death as, strictly speaking, the last of its acts; and rather to consider the dissolution of our mortal frames as the transferring of that existence from the service of God on earth to the presence of God in heaven. II. The reflections with which the apostle here looks back upon his life on earth.1. Justly does he speak of his life as a fight, in which he had been engaged, and which he had maintained with the most unshaken resolution to that very hour. 2. This service he farther likens to a race, to one of those contests of bodily strength, or speed, or skill, in which it was common in those days for men to seek the prize of victory, and in which it was accounted the highest earthly honour to gain the corruptible crown. “ I have finished my course.” In this course of the Christian he had long and perseveringly run, and he is now approaching the goal with the prize full in his view. He was the more encouraged in his anticipation of the recompense placed before him by the consideration that he had “ kept the faith” ; that he had not only run the Christian race, but had duly observed the rules of the contest. “ If a man strive for mastery, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully” ; and the first law of the race here spoken of is to “ walk by faith,” “ to run with patience, looking unto Jesus,” to be animated in every step and turn of your course by a devout love to His name, a humble trust in His grace, a fervent desire of His glory. In this manner had the apostle kept his fidelity to his Lord, both in fulfilling with diligence the portion of service assigned to him and in his course of labour “ living by the faith of the Son of God.” By His grace and to his glory he has done the work given him to do; and, through his promised mediation, he now looked for the end of his faith, the salvation of his soul. III. The hopes by which the dying apostle is cheered in view of an eternal world. You are thus called to exercise a rational regard to your own true happiness, looking forward to an eternal blessedness, which can be compared to nothing less than crowns and kingdoms; a settled approbation of perfect righteousness, desiring to receive, as the sources of your felicity, the approbation and favour and future presence of the righteous Judge of all the earth; a benevolent sympathy in the best interests of others, delighting in the thought that so many of your fellow-creatures may participate in your company, in the same blessed inheritance; and finally, a devout sentiment of love to the Son of God, anticipating with joy His own appearing, as the consummation of all His felicity to your own souls and to multitudes of His redeemed of every age and people. (James Brewster.) A prisoner’ s dying thoughts I. The quiet courage which looks death full in the face without a tremor. The language implies that Paul knows his death hour is all but here. As the revised version more accurately gives it, “ I am already being offered” --the process is begun, his sufferings at the moment are, as it were, the initial steps of his sacrifice--“ and the time of my departure is come.” The tone in which he tells Timothy this is very noticeable. There is no sign of excitement, no tremor of emotion, no affectation of stoicism in the simple sentences.1. We may all make our deaths a sacrifice, an offering to God, for we may yield up our will to God’ s, and so turn that last struggle into an act of worship and self-surrender. 2. To those who have learned the meaning of Christ’ s resurrection, and feed their souls on the hopes that it warrants, death is merely a change of place or state, an accident affecting locality, and little more. We have had plenty of changes before. Life has been one long series of departures. This is different from the others mainly in that it is the last, and that to go away from this visible and fleeting show, where we wander aliens among things which have no true kindred with us, is to go home, where there will be no more pulling up the tent-pegs, and toiling across the deserts in monotonous change. How strong is the conviction, spoken in that name for death, that the essential life lasts on quite unaltered through it all! How slight the else formidable thing is made. We may change climates, and for the stormy bleakness of life may have the long still days of heaven, but we do not change ourselves. II. The peaceful look backwards. We may feel like a captain who has brought his ship safe across the Atlantic, through foul weather and past many an iceberg, and gives a great sigh of relief as he hands over the charge to the pilot, who will take her across the harbour bar and bring her to her anchorage in the landlocked bay where no tempests rave any more for ever. Such an estimate has nothing in common with self-complacency. It coexists with a profound consciousness of many a sin, many a defeat, and much unfaithfulness. It belongs only to a man who, conscious of these, is “ looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life,” and is the direct result, not the antagonist, of lowly self-abasement, and contrite faith in Him by whom alone our stained selves and poor broken services can ever be acceptable. Let us learn too that the only life that bears being looked back upon is a life of Christian devotion and effort. It shows fairer when seen in the strange cross lights that come when we stand on the boundary of two worlds, with the white radiance of eternity beginning to master the vulgar ell lamps of earth, than when seen by these alone. All others have their shabbiness and their selfishness disclosed then. III. The triumphant look forward. That crown, according to other words of Scripture, consists of “ life” or “ glory” --that is to say, the issue and outcome of believing service and faithful stewardship here is the possession of the true life, which stands in union with God, in measure so great, and in quality so wondrous that it lies on the pure locks of the victors like a flashing diadem, all ablaze with light in a hundred jewels. The completion and exaltation of our nature and characters by the illapse of “ life” so sovereign and transcendent that it is “ glory” is the consequence of all Christian effort here in the lower levels, where the natural life is always weakness and sometimes shame, and the spiritual life is at the best but a hidden glory and a struggling spark. There is no profit in seeking to gaze into that light of glory so as to discern the shapes of those who walk in it, or the elements of its lambent flames. Enough that in its gracious beauty transfigured souls move as in their native atmosphere! Enough that even our dim vision can see that they have for their companion “ One like unto the Son of Man.” It is Christ’ s own life which they share; it is Christ’ s own glory which irradiates them. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) A Christian’ s death I. We begin with making some observations on the sources of that consolation which supported this eminent servant of God at the time when his departure was at hand. It was the reflection upon a well-spent life; it was the consciousness of a strenuous and immovable fidelity in the religious warfare which formed his habitual preparation for death, and laid the foundation of his joyful hopes. The only sovereign and efficacious remedy against the fears of dissolution is to mortify the power of sin within the soul, and to make all our vicious appetites to die before us, for the sting of death is sin. He that hath risen above the influence of sin can live beyond all possibility of any great annoyance from the terrors of the last enemy. How animating a scene is the deathbed of the righteous man! What can disturb his last and peaceful moments The recollection of his trials and patience, the many acts of piety and benevolence which his memory can then suggest, all rise to view, to refresh his retiring soul, to smile upon his departing spirit, and render it superior to the frowns of death, which he is thus enabled to consider, not as a stern and inexorable tyrant sent to execute the vengeance of heaven, but as the messenger of love and peace commissioned to close a troublesome and mortal life, and to put him in possession of one glorious and eternal. II. From the manner in which the apostle expresses the foundation of his tranquillity and hopes, we may observe, in the second place, what is the nature of that service in which the Christian is engaged, and of that strenuous and immovable fidelity which is indispensably requisite to complete his character: “ I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” It is the uniform declaration of the Almighty to all the sons of men, that it is no easy thing to be a Christian, but that through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God. We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, with the rulers of the darkness of this world, with spiritual wickedness in high places. Our combat does not endure only for a little, nor is our security the reward of a few hours of steady opposition, but almost every step we take through the wilderness of life exposes us to some new attack; we are often assaulted by all the deceivableness of unrighteousness, and through the whole of life we maintain an unceasing struggle. Nor are all our enemies open and declared. Equally dangerous are our secret foes, these insidious passions which lodge within us, ever ready to catch at the bribes of an alluring world, and to open for it a secret passage to the heart. Thus surrounded with dangers on every hand, how absolutely necessary is it to be strong, to quit ourselves like men, to brace the mind with firmness and vigour, to keep the attention constantly directed to every quarter from which we may be assaulted? Thanks be to God, however, we are not left to struggle alone: there is an omnipotent grace which gives strength to the feeble. The law of the Christian dispensation is this: We are commanded to labour with as vigorous efforts as if the whole success of that work depended on ourselves alone, and, at the same time, with the humility and diffidence of a mind conscious of its own imbecility, and sensible of the necessity of Divine grace to render all its endeavours effectual. The man who is thus disposed has no reason to dread the greatest dangers: “ He who is with thee is greater than he who is against thee: the Lord is thy life and thy salvation, whom shalt thou fear? The Lord is the strength of thy life, of whom shalt thou be afraid? The sacred influence of His grace shall continually descend to guide thy doubtful steps, to invigorate every languid effort, to teach thy hands to war and thy fingers to fight, and to crown thee with final success and triumph. III. Which leads us naturally to turn our thoughts, in the third place, to that blessed and glorious reward, specified in the text, by the expression of a crown of righteousness. This expression has an evident allusion to those crowns bestowed by the ancients on brave and intrepid warriors; to those marks of honour and respect by which they were wont to distinguish particular feats of valour. It intimates to us that high and splendid triumph which shall be at last conferred on the faithful and undaunted servants of the Most High God; that ineffable dignity which shall be bestowed on them in the day of Christ’ s appearance; and recalls to our thoughts that most interesting period when the Judge of all the earth shall descend with ineffable pomp and majesty, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. How great, O God, is that goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that serve Thee, and wrought for them that fear Thy name before the sons of men. Thou shalt hide them for ever in the secret of Thy pavilion; Thou shalt defend them from the strife of tongues, and from the pride of men. Such honour shall all the saints of God possess; such shall be the reward of the steady friends of Jesus. Thus blessed shall they be who are found holy and undefiled in the world; they shall have a right to the tree of life; they shall enter through the gate into the city, and reign with Jesus for ever and ever. IV. Our last observation is founded on the declaration in the text, that this honour shall be conferred on those and those alone, who love the appearance of Jesus. Shall the treasures of Divine grace ever be prostituted to enrich the unworthy? or, shall the impious man ever be raised to that happiness which he hath always despised? No, the decree hath passed, a decree which shall never be reversed, that unless we are renewed in the spirit of our minds we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. This decree is no arbitrary law; it is founded in nature; it is implied in the very reason of things, that none but the pure in heart are qualified for relishing the pleasures of that immortal inheritance. For, what is heaven? Not a total alteration of state, but reason, and every pious and virtuous disposition dilated and expanded to its highest pitch. What are the immortal joys which it contains but the security, the increase, and the perfection of virtue? (J. Main, D. D.) Sayings of Christians at the end of life Rev. J. Newton, who lived to a good old age, used to tell his friends in his latter days, “ I am like a parcel packed up and directed, only waiting for the carrier to take me to my destination.” When Dr. Wardlaw was visited by Norman McLeod in his dying hour, and was asked by him if he could not wish, like Enoch, to escape the pains of death, “ No,” he said, most touchingly, “ I would enter heaven by the way that Jesus went.” “ I die no more,” were the exultant words of old Dr. Redford, as he fell down in death. The Rev. Dr. Punshon, working and suffering, fulfilled a sort of double life until his Divine Master called him home. Then, in deeply reverent tones, looking upward, he said, with a firm voice, “ Christ is to me a bright reality. Jesus! Jesus!” What a moment for his beloved wife when she saw a smile of rapture on his face, then marked him bow his weary head, and enter into the rest eternal! Readiness for death Sir John Burgh, a brave soldier, who received a mortal wound in the Isle of Rees, and being advised not to fear death, but to prepare himself for another world, answered, “ I thank God I fear not death; these thirty years together I never rose out of my bed in the morning, that ever I made account to live till night.” Contrasted deaths There is one more point of tremendous reminiscence, and that is the last hour of life, when we have to look over all our past existence. What a moment that will be! I place Napoleon’ s dying reminiscence on St. Helena beside Mrs. Judson’ s dying reminiscence in the harbour of St. Helena, the same island, twenty years afterwards. Napoleon’ s dying reminiscence was one of delirium-- Tete d’ armee “ Head of the Army.” Mrs. Judson’ s dying reminiscence, as she came home from her missionary toil and her life of self-sacrifice for God, dying in the cabin of the ship in the harbour of St. Helena, was, “ I always did love the Lord Jesus Christ.” And then she fell into a sound sleep for an hour, and woke amid the songs of angels. I place the dying reminiscence of Augustus Caesar against the dying reminiscence of the Apostle Paul. The dying reminiscence of Augustus Caesar was, addressing his attendants, “ Have I played my part well on the stage of life?” and they answered in the affirmative, and he said, “ Why, then, don’ t you applaud me?” The dying reminiscence of Paul the apostle was, “ I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge will give me in that day, and not to me only, but to all them that love His appearing.” Augustus Caesar died amid pomp and great surroundings. Paul uttered his dying reminiscence looking up through the wall of a dungeon. God grant that our dying pillow may be the closing of a useful life, and the opening of a glorious eternity. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Death a departure It is the most melancholy circumstance in the funerals of our Christian friends, when we have laid their bodies in the dark and silent grave, to go home and leave them behind; but, alas I it is not we that go home and leave them behind; no, it is they that are gone to the better home, and have left us behind. (Matthew Henry,) Bishop Ken in life and death Nothing could be more beautiful than Ken’ s life. His days at Longleat are amongst the treasured memories of one of England’ s fairest spots; and his last journeys derive a tender pathos from the singular fact of his carrying his shroud in his portmanteau--he remarking that it “ might be as soon wanted as any other of his habiliments.” He put it on himself some days before the last; and in holy quietness and peace, his death was as beautiful as his life. (J. Stoughton, D. D.) Passing on the torch Bengel says that Paul was about to deliver up to Timothy before his decease the lamp or torch-light of the evangelical office. Bengel alludes, remarks Dr. James Bryer, to the ancient torch-races of the λαμπαδήφοροι, in which the torch was handed by the runners from hand to hand. Carrying on the battle A brave soldier in the day of battle, if he hears that a regiment has been exterminated by the enemy’ s shot and shell, says, “ Then those of us that survive must fight like tigers. There is no room for us to play at fighting. If they have slain so many, we must be more desperately valiant.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The time of my departure is at hand. A last look-out I. Our departure. We loose our cable, and bid farewell to earth, it shall not be with bitterness in the retrospect. There is sin in it, and we are called to leave it; there has been trial in it, and we are called to be delivered from it; there has been sorrow in it, and we are glad that we shall go where we shall sorrow no more. There have been weakness, and pain, and suffering in it, and we are glad that we shall be raised in power; there has been death in it, and we are glad to bid farewell to shrouds and to knells; but for all that there has been such mercy in it, such lovingkindness of God in it, that the wilderness and the solitary place have been made glad, and the desert has rejoiced and blossomed as a rose. We will not bid farewell to the world, execrating it, or leaving behind us a cold shudder and a sad remembrance, but we will depart, bidding adieu to the scenes that remain, and to the people of God that tarry therein yet a little longer, blessing Him whoso goodness and mercy have followed us all the days of our life, and who is now bringing us to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. But if I have had to speak in a somewhat apologetic manner of the land from which we depart, I shall need to use many apologies for my own poor talk about the land to which we are bound. Ah, whither goest thou, spirit loosened from thy clay--dost know? Whither goest thou? The answer must be, partly, that we know not. None of us have seen the streets of gold of which we sang just now; those harpings of the harpers, harping with their harps, have never fallen on these ears; eye hath not seen it, ear hath not heard it; it is all unrevealed to the senses; flesh and blood cannot inherit it, and, therefore, flesh and blood cannot imagine it. Yet it is not unknown, for God hath revealed it unto us by His Spirit. Spiritual men know what it is to feel the spirit, their own new-born spirit, living, glowing, burning, triumphing within them. They know, therefore, that if the body should drop off they would not die. They feel there is a life within them superior to blood and bone, and nerve and sinew. They feel the life of God within them, and none can gainsay it. Their own experience has proven to them that there is an inner life. Well, then, when that inner life is strong and vigorous, the spirit often reveals to it what the world of spirits will be. We know what holiness is. Are we not seeking it? That is heaven--perfect holiness is heaven. We know what peace means; Christ is our peace. Rest--He gives us rest; we find that when we take His yoke. Rest is heaven. And rest in Jesus tells us what heaven is. II. The time of our departure, though unknown to us, is fixed by God--unalterably fixed; so rightly, wisely, lovingly settled, and prepared for, that no chance or haphazard can break the spell of destiny. III. The time is at hand. In a certain sense, every Christian may say this; for whatever interval may interpose between us and death, how very short it is! Have you not all a sense that time flows faster than it did? In our childish days we thought a year was quite a period of time, a very epoch in our career; now as for weeks--one can hardly reckon them! We seem to be travelling by an express train, flying along at such a rate that we can hardly count the months. Why, the past year only seemed to come in at one door and go out at the other; it was over so soon. We shall soon be at the terminus of life, even if we live for several years; but in the case of some of us, God knows of whom, this year, perhaps this month, will be our last.1. Is not this a reason for surveying our condition again? If our vessel is just launching, let us see that she is seaworthy. It would be a sad thing for us to be near departing, and yet to be just as near discovering that we are lost. I charge every man and woman within this place, since the time of his departure may be far nearer than he thinks, to take stock, and reckon up, and see whether he be Christ’ s or no. 2. But if the time of my departure be at hand, and I am satisfied that it is all right with me, is there not a call for me to do all I can for my household? 3. Let me try to finish all my work, not only as regards my duty to my family, but in respect to all the world so far as my influence or ability can reach. 4. If the time of our departure is at hand, let it cheer us amid our troubles. Sometimes, when our friends go to Liverpool to sail for Canada, or any other distant region, on the night before they sail they get into a very poor lodging. I think I hear one of them grumbling, “ What a hard bed! What a small room! What a bad look-out!” “ Oh,” says the other, “ never mind, brother; we are not going to live here; we are off to-morrow.” Bethink you in like manner, ye children of poverty, this is not your rest. Put up with it, you are away to-morrow. 5. And if the time of my departure is at hand, I should like to be on good terms with all my friends on earth. 6. If the time of my departure is at hand, then let me guard against being elated by any temporal prosperity. Possessions, estates, creature comforts dwindle into insignificance before this outlook. 7. Lastly, if the time of our departure is at hand, let us be prepared to bear our testimony. We are witnesses for Christ. Let us bear our testimony before we are taken up and mingle with the cloud of witnesses who have finished their course and rested from their labours. Let us work for Jesus while we can work for Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The dying Christian It is recorded of one of our most distinguished British essayists, that he addressed to an irreligious nobleman these solemn words, “ I have sent for you that you may see how a Christian can die.” Many critics have thought that the apostle’ s request to Timothy, “ Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me,” was prompted by a desire not only to have his companionship in the time of tribulation, but to impart religious counsel, and above all, that he might be a witness of the last moments of his aged father in Christ, the apostle. Whatever difference of opinion may be entertained of Addison’ s saying to the nobleman, who can doubt the wisdom and piety of Paul’ s wish? I. Life present, or the apostle’ s reflections on dying. How calm his mind! Whilst our views and feelings may be altered by the nearness of the last enemy, to Paul it seemed the same whether death was dimly seen in the distance, or the interval be measured by a single step. The words, “ I am now ready to be offered” probably contain an allusion to the heathen custom of pouring wine and oil on the head of the victim when about to be offered in sacrifice. The apostle felt himself to be as near to death as that very victim; every preparation having been made, he only had to await the fatal blow. How could such a man fear death when for years he had been a “ living sacrifice” in the service of his Master, and was now awaiting death as the consummation of the sacrifice? The other figure is not less beautiful. The apostle had hitherto felt himself bound to the present world as a ship to its moorings, but now anchor was to be weighed, fastenings to be loosened, and sails to be unfurled. But though the vast, the boundless ocean stretched out before him, he felt himself to be no mere adventurer--a Columbus going in search of an undiscovered land. Though known only by report, he knew that the report of this new world was not the speculation or idle conjecture of man. Thus, elsewhere, he is found saying, “ having a desire to depart [to loose cable] and to be with Christ, which is far better.” How does the repetition of these figures show that his feelings were not transient impulses, but the settled habits of his mind. How intelligent was this confidence! His was not the peace of ignorance, or of a perverted view of the mercy of God. Here was his assurance of a triumph over the last foe, “ I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” And is there not something sublime in this state of mind? What a contrast does it present even to some of those cases of supposed religions triumph over death which men of the world have quoted from classic antiquity, For what was it that made the apostle so resigned, so willing, so longing to meet death? Was it a feeling of misanthropy from the base treatment he had received from his fellow creatures, including even his professed friends? Was it disappointed ambition, the world refusing him its laurels? Was it anxious suspense from being in prisons and deaths oft? Was it the infirmity of old age, drying up all the sources of the enjoyment of life? Whilst these may be the secret motives which have urged many men of the world to desire departure, no such selfishness was enthroned in the apostle’ s breast, as you may learn from his reflections: “ For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better.” “ We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” II. Let us look at life past; or, the apostle’ s retrospect.1. Here is life reviewed in reference to its conflicts. Life is not only a race, but a conflict--not only a stretching forward for the prize, but one continuous struggle with besetting foes: it calls not only for activities, but resistance. Say you this is a repulsive view of religion? We reply, is not self-denial necessary for success in all the departments of life? Is it not, moreover, as salutary as indispensable? Instead of complaining of this battle of life, ask yourselves if the self-knowledge thereby obtained, the opportunity afforded for the development of graces, the vigour given by exercise to every virtue, be not more than a compensation? 2. Life is here reviewed in reference to the individual sphere of active duties. We might here propose several questions. Is a man sent into the world by his Creator only to follow out his own inclinations, or is he in any sense born to the fulfilment of some great end in the kingdom of God’ s providence? We might ask again if the individual believer sooner or later may not find out his particular vocation, and arrive at some satisfactory conclusion as to what end he was born, or for what cause he came into the world. Do not wants, gifts, counsels of friends, oft unmistakably point to the work assigned by the Disposer of all things? Will not the prayer, “ Lord, what wilt Thou have me to dot” be answered, so that the suppliant shall be able to say, “ This is my course.” If, then, there is a course prescribed by Divine providence for each of us, is it not our interest as well as our obligation to pursue it? 3. Life is here reviewed in reference to religious beliefs, or our fidelity to truth. By the word faith here is meant the Christian religion, so called because it is a revelation made to man’ s faith; “ the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” But all cannot say, “ I have kept the faith.” Could Phygellus, or Hermogenes, or Hymenaeus, utter such words? The patience and the faith of the saints are often severely tried, and blessed are they of whom it was said, “ Here are they that keep the faith of Jesus.” If any think lightly of adherence to the faith, let them ponder over the deathbed confession of one who had swerved from the truth. “ It seemed,” says a writer in the Quarterly Review, “ that Hume received a religious education from his mother, and early in life was the subject of strong and hopeful religious impressions; but as he approached to manhood they were effaced, and confirmed infidelity succeeded. Maternal partiality, however alarmed at first, came to look with less pain upon this declaration, and filial love and reverence seem to have been absorbed in the pride of philosophical scepticism: for Hume now applied himself with unwearied, and, unhappily, with successful efforts, to sap the foundation of the mother’ s faith. Having succeeded in this dreadful work, he went abroad into foreign countries, and, as he was returning, an express met him in London with a letter from his mother, informing him that she was in a deep decline, and would not long survive. She said she found herself without any support in her distress; that he had taken away that source of comfort upon which in all cases of affliction she used to rely, and that now she found her mind sinking into despair: she did not doubt that her son would afford her some substitute for her religion; and conjured him to hasten home, or at least send her a letter containing such consolations as philosophy can afford a dying mortal. Hume was overwhelmed with anguish, hastened to Scotland, travelling night and day, but before he arrived his mother had expired.” Is it nothing, then, to “ hold fast the form of sound words,” and, on a dying bed, to exclaim, “ I have kept the faith” ? III. Let us notice life to come, or the apostle’ s sublime anticipations. The race was nearly run, the conflict was well-nigh ended; it now only remained that the crown should be bestowed. The crown was to be one of righteousness. Not that the apostle felt he could claim it, for he who styled himself less than the least of all saints would be the first to cast his crown at the feet of the Royal Redeemer, exclaiming, “ Thou alone art worthy” ; but it was called “ a crown of righteousness” because won in the cause of righteousness, and conferred upon him by One who is “ not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed towards His name.” In every age the attainment of a crown has been the summit of human ambition. For it, usurpers have dethroned monarchs--warriors have stood in the breach--navigators have defied the fury of the deep--philosophers have strained intellect night as well as day; for it the foot-racer, and the boxer, and the charioteer have endured severest bodily discipline--all--all reaching after the goal of worldly honour, all trying to distance their competitors--all dissatisfied with the present, and reaching to that which is before. Now Christianity addresses such aspirants, and points them to something better, to crowns purer, brighter, and more enduring. But what may be the crowns which the Lord the righteous Judge shall bestow, we shall not venture to describe. Sure we are, they are not merely symbols of sovereignty, or ensigns of victory, or tokens of national gratitude to earthly benefactors. The conqueror there will not be crowned with olives, or parsley, or any other such fading leaves. It will not consist in the praises of men, or worldly elevation above the millions of our fellow-creatures. It will not be awarded for human merit, nor will the wearer be conscious of any feeling of claim: the weight of his glory will rather weigh him down. It will not be of such a character as shall endanger his holiness, or that shall afterwards require a thorn in the flesh lest the victor should be exalted above measure. It will not be the joy and rapture of an hour, awakened by the excitement of the novelty, to be followed by ennui and disappointment. It will not awaken envy among the millions of the glorified, but rather raise higher joy as they see one wearing a more brilliant diadem than the rest. The crown will consist in nothing that will divert the mind from the Eternal All, and cause it to seek satisfaction in self. The real joy will be that it has been awarded by God’ s own Son, placed on the brow by His own hand--that it will reflect higher glory on the Giver--that it will be prostrated at His feet. In a word, the honour will consist in the presence and favour and likeness of God. But we pause and tremble, lest we should darken counsel by words without knowledge. We must wait until we wear it, before we shall fully understand the words--“ a crown of life” --“ a crown of glory” --“ a crown that fadeth not away” --“ a crown of righteousness.” (J. S. Pearsall.) Ready for home I. As a departure to another country. As when the ship puts to sea, it is for the purpose of sailing to another port, so Paul looked forward to death as a “ departure” for another country. The sailor does not leave the port with the prospect of an eternal cruise in unknown seas, or for the purpose of ultimately losing himself somewhere in some mysterious, undefined nothing. II. As a departure to a better country. He was willing to sail. Now Paul was no misanthrope, who had become so sick of human society that he longed to be rid of it. He was not weary of life. Then why did he wish to go? Was he amongst those eternal grumblers who themselves do all the “ howling,” and then complain that the world is a “ howling wilderness” ? By no means! His desire to depart was not because this was bad, but because that was “ better” ; not because he had had enough of Christian society and Christian service--that was good--but because he wished to be with Christ, which was infinitely preferable. III. As a departure to a better country, which was his home. Paul compared himself to a sailor who, lying in a foreign port, was awaiting orders to sail for home. Such a man, though in a land of pleasure and plenty, would sit and long to be away. As he thought of friends beloved across the sea, he would count the weeks and days when he hoped to see them once again. Not unlike this are the Christian’ s dreams of heaven. IV. As a departure for home, the time of which was fixed. “ The time of my departure is at hand.” The Psalmist says, “ My times are in Thy hand.” “ My times!” --that is, all my future is with God. He knows--1. When I shall depart.2. Whence I shall depart.3. How I shall depart. Two Cistercian monks in the reign of Henry VIII. were threatened, before their martyrdom, by the Lord Mayor of that time, that they should be tied in a sack, and thrown into the Thames. “ My lord,” answered one, “ we are going to the kingdom of heaven; and whether we go by land or water is of very little consequence to us.” So our thoughts should be fixed on the goal rather than on the path by which it is reached; on the rest that remains rather than on the toil through which it is obtained. V. As a departure for home, the time of which was near. “ The time of my departure is at hand.” The sailor, lying in a foreign port, with his cargo complete, his sails “ bent,” and the wind fair for home, contemplates with joy the fact that the day is near when the order will come to bid him sail. Thus Paul waited for death. To him the disease, or the accident, or the martyrdom, would be but as the postman who brought the letter--the letter for which he longed with unutterable desire. VI. As a departure for home, for which he was perfectly ready. “ I am now ready,” said he. And so he was. As one by one he saw the cords being unloosened which bound him to this world--as loved ones were taken away--as sickness, disease, or age told him that the time was at hand when he was to depart, he viewed the whole with the complacent satisfaction of the sailor who sees his vessel being unmoored to sail for home. (W. H. Burton.) Joy of a faithful minister in view of eternity I. The character of a faithful minister.1. He loves the gospel which he preaches. 2. He does not shun to declare all the counsel of God, but endeavours to preach the gospel as fully and as plainly as possible. 3. He will uniformly and perseveringly perform the self-denying duties of his office, which are of a less public nature, but of no less importance, than his ministrations on the Sabbath. In visiting the sick and the dying, he will deal plainly as well as tenderly with them. Whenever he is called to converse with persons about the state of their minds, whether they are in stupidity, distress, or doubt, he will not daub with untempered mortar, nor endeavour to comfort those who ought not to be com forted, tie will contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. II. What reasons he may have to rejoice in the near prospect of eternity.1. He has good reason to rejoice that he chose the work of the ministry in preference to any other employment in life. The most useful employment must be allowed to be the most important and desirable. 2. He has good reason to rejoice in the close of life and in the view of eternity, that God has enabled him to be faithful. 3. He has good reason to rejoice in the close of his ministry, because God has given him assurance that all his faithful labours shall produce some valuable and important effects, either sooner or later. 4. He has good ground to rejoice when the time of his departure is at hand, because God has promised him an ample reward for all his sincere services. (N. Emmons, D. D.) A Christian’ s death I. The importance of preparation for our departure.1. This is the last and closing scene of human life. 2. How serious a thing it is to die. 3. Because disease and the period introductory to our dissolution are special seasons given to us in which to glorify God and bring credit to religion. 4. This is the last opportunity we have of doing anything for God, for the Church, for our families, and for the world. II. The manner in which a Christian should die.1. Amidst the darkness, languor, and pain of a sick bed, a Christian man ought to engage in com mending the ways of God and religion to those about him. The words of dying saints have been called “ living oracles” ; and so they should be. 2. We should then attend to the duty of exhorting others who are walking in the ways of the Lord. 3. We ought to commend ourselves and others to God in the devout exercise of prayer. 4. In the exercise of strong faith. (A. Waugh, D. D.) Calmness in death--its philosophy I. A soul-absorbing interest in the great cause of universal truth and benevolence. II. An accurate conception of what death really is to the good. III. Delightful memories of the manner in which he had spent his life. IV. A soul-enrapturing vision of the future into which he was about entering. (Homilist.) Good-bye to the world The way out of this world is so blocked up with coffin, and hearse, and undertaker’ s space, and screwdriver, that the Christian can hardly think as he ought of the most cheerful passage in all his history. We hang black instead of white over the place where the good man gets his last victory. We stand weeping over a heap of chains which the freed soul has shaken off, and we say, “ Poor man! What a pity it was he had to come to this.” Come to what? By the time people have assembled at the obsequies, that man has been three days so happy that all the joy of earth accumulated would be wretchedness beside it; and he might better weep over you because you have to stay, than you weep over him because he has to go. Paul, in my text, takes that great clod of a word, “ death,” and throws it away, and speaks of his “ departure,” a beautiful, bright, suggestive word, descriptive of every Christian’ s re]ease. Now, departure implies a starting-place, and a place of destination. When Paul left this world, what was the starting-point? It was a scene of great physical distress. It was the Tullianum, the lower dungeon of the Mamertine prison. The top dungeon was bad enough--it having no means of ingress or egress hut through an opening in the top. Through that the prisoner was lowered, and through that came all the food, and air, and light received. It was a terrible place, that upper dungeon; but the Tullianum was the lower dungeon, and that was still more wretched, the only light and the only air coming through the roof, and that roof the floor of the upper dungeon. It was there that Paul spent his last days on earth, and it is there that I see him to-day, in the fearful dungeon, shivering, blue with cold, waiting for that old overcoat which he had seat for up to Troas, and which they had not yet sent down, notwithstanding he had written for it. Oh, worn-out, emaciated old man, surely you must be melancholy. No constitution could endure this and be cheerful; but I press my way through the prison until I come up close to where he is, and by the faint light that streams through the opening I see on his face a supernatural joy, and I bow before him and I say, “ Aged man, how can you keep cheerful amid all this gloom?” His voice startles the darkness of the place as he cries out, “ I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.” Hark! what is that shuffling of feet in the upper dungeon? Why, Paul has an invitation to a banquet, and he is going to dine to-day with the King. Those shuffling feet are the feet of the executioners. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ 2 Timothy 4:9-11 Come shortly unto me.Companionship I. Human companionships are very necessary. The ear thirsts for a friend’ s voice; the heart hungers for a friend’ s love. II. Human companionships are very changing. Changes are caused by distance, death, depravity. III. Human companionships are often great blessings. Luke was with Paul. Mark was to be brought to him. Timothy was coming to him. IV. Human companionships sometimes prove great afflictions. Demas, Alexander. Men suffer most when “ wounded in the house of their friends.” V. Human companionships must sometimes fail us. Friends are sometimes scared by poverty, failure, shame. Besides, companionship can do little in our intense bodily pain, mental anguish, spiritual conflict, throes of death. (U. R. Thomas.) The society of good men desirable 1. Personal presence is to be preferred before writing. 2. The society and help of good men is much to be desired. There is much comfort and good to be gained thereby. 3. The strongest Christians sometimes may be helped by weaker. A Paul may stand in need of a Timothy. 4. A minister upon weighty and just occasions may lawfully be absent from his flock for a time. 5. We may love one friend more than another. Timothy was Paul’ s beloved son in the faith (1 Timothy 1:2). (T. Hall, B. D.) Best men--lessons from their life I. The best men, in the presence of death, are not disregardful of human sympathy. Even Christ took three disciples with Him to Gethsemane. II. The best men are sometimes exposed to great social trials. All of us are constantly losing friends, from one cause or another. III. The best men are subject to common needs. Men, if they are to be clothed, must procure their own garments; if they are to be educated and informed, must use their own faculties. IV. The best men are sometimes troubled by their inferiors. “ Alexander the coppersmith.” It requires no greatness to do mischief. The most contemptible characters are always the most successful in this work. Lessons--1. Value true friends.2. Anticipate social desertions.3. Do not look for miraculous interpositions to supply your needs. Do not be painfully surprised if you have enemies. (Homilist.) Friends in adversity To-day Colonel C. came to dine with us, and in the midst of our meal we were entertained with a most agreeable sight. It was a shark, about the length of a man, which followed our ship, attended with five smaller fishes, called pilot-fish, much like our mackerel, but larger. These, I am told, always keep the shark company, and, what is more surprising, though the shark is so ravenous a creature, yet, let it be never so hungry, it will not touch one of them. Nor are they less faithful to him; for, as I am informed, if the shark is hooked, very often these little creatures will cleave close to his fins, and are often taken up with him. Go to the pilot-fish, thou that forsakest a friend in adversity, consider his ways, and be ashamed. (G. Whitefield.) Man’ s craving for society Man is a social being. He is made to feel for, and with, his fellow-men. Sociality is a joy, a strength, a light to him. He is revealed, regaled, renewed, by fellowship. When there is community of views, sympathy of feelings, it causes a wonderful development of his nature, and gives it wonderful power. It is a lamp, a feast, a buttress of his being. It is everything whereby he can be ministered unto, or help to minister. God is social: “ The God of the spirits of all flesh.” Christ is social: “ The Head of the body, the Church.” Christianity is social: “ The fellowship of the gospel.” Man is social: “ Come shortly unto Me.” (A. J. Morris.) Isolation undesirable “ One man is no man.” True, there are some cold, misanthropic souls that shun their fellows, like some plants that shrink and shrivel at a touch, and that even take an awful pride in solitude and isolation; but this is disease, or sin, or both. The finest natures are furthest removed from it. (A. J. Morris.) Demas hath forsaken me.--Demas I. His previous history. (See Philemon 1:24; Colossians 4:14). You see from this noted instance of unfaithfulness how far a man may go in the profession of Christianity, how richly he may seem to be partaking of its privileges, and how highly he may be honoured by its most de voted friends, and yet have no part or lot in it at last. Trust not in mere professions, however loud--in mere external privileges, however distinguishing--in mere intellectual gifts, however excellent--in mere occasional impressions, however lively, in mere outward services to the cause of Christ, however zealous. You may be a fellow-labourer with Paul, and yet a castaway. II. His subsequent faithlessness. He refused to stand by the apostle in his hour of trial, withheld from him his former sympathy, withdrew from those Christian labours in which he had once been noted as a sharer with him, and shunned to be any longer seen in his society. He was not prepared to “ endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” That want or weakness of faith which he had hitherto concealed from others, and, probably, from himself also, could not be any longer disguised. That world which he had long loved secretly, without perhaps being aware of the strength of his attachment to it, he now openly clung to and embraced. III. The cause. Preferring his temporal interests to his Christian duties, he went back and walked no more with the apostle. To love the world, and the things that are in the world, is one of the chief sources of danger to our soul’ s welfare--of which we are taught in Scripture to beware. It is true there is no reason why a Christian should not engage as industriously as other men in the necessary business of life, and avail himself as thankfully of its varied blessings. It is one thing, however, to use this world in due subordination to religion, and it is quite another thing to serve if as our master, or to rest in it as our chosen portion. Even with those who do not thus love the world, its influence is hostile in many things to their spiritual welfare. Countless are the hindrances it places in their way--wily and ensnaring the allurements which it spreads for them. By its fair looks, and winning smiles, and flattering and crosses, entices them to sin; while, on the other hand, its frowns, and threats, promises, it and hardships, deter them from duty. Now, if such be the influence of the world even over those who do not set their hearts upon it, how much more powerful must its influence be on such as have yielded up to it their full affection! In them, alas! the wicked world without is fatally, seconded by the wicked heart within. The world no sooner knocks, than the kindred spirit is ready to open a wide and effectual door for its admission. Temptations to vanity meeting with a vain heart find it not only a sure but an easy conquest. So was it in the case of Demas. His worldliness of spirit led him to forsake the Christian cause, when he saw that he could not longer adhere to it without endangering or prejudicing his temporal interests. How many a fair promise has it blighted! how many a hopeful beginning has it checked! how often, when the good seed was ready to spring up, have “ the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches,” checked the rising plant, and rendered it unfruitful! (T. J. Crawford, D. D.) Demas I. Many of you are young men who have been religiously educated in some distant home, and have been sent here, or have come here, for the pursuits of business. II. Consider, dear friends, whose consciences declare you to belong to this class, what it is you have forsaken, or are forsaking.1. You are forsaking honour and conscience. 2. You are forsaking the company of those you most respect. 3. And not only so, but you are forsaking the pursuits which will most ennoble your natures. 4. But worst of all, in forsaking religion, you are forsaking you God and Saviour. III. To complete this subject, let us ask for what, considered at its very best, you leave all that is best and noblest and highest? Demas had forsaken Paul, because he loved the then present world. I suppose that, in some shape or other, is the reason why you have forsaken religion to the extent to which you have forsaken it. It is really Satan’ s trap into which you have gone; but the bait has been this present world. You do not love penury, disease, privation, remorse, anguish, death. Oh, not at all I you love pleasure, success, money-getting, if you can get it easily. All the other things, the dark sides of this present world, drunkenness, debauchery, covetousness, immorality, over-reaching, you are net in love with these. No! You are lovers of pleasure, according to your idea of pleasure. Suppose you could gain the world, the whole world (and at best it will be an utterly unnoticeable and infinitesimal portion of it you will ever get), and in the chase should lose your own soul! (R. T. Verrall, B. A.) The apostasy of Demas Now, whatever may have been the circumstances under which Demas first made profession of Christianity, it is very clear that that profession must have exposed him to hardship and danger, for he became a companion of St. Paul at the very time when that apostle was hunted down by persecution. It is not, therefore, to be supposed that, in embracing Christianity, Demas was conscious of acting with any insincerity. He must have considered himself a firm believer in Christ, and must have been so considered by those who had the best power of judging. Ah! it is in this that the case of Demas is full of melancholy warning. We do not find that he was scared by the perils which encompassed the profession of Christianity. It was love of the world which caused this promising disciple to make shipwreck of faith, and of a good conscience. He who could scorn danger or endure hardship could not withstand the blandishments of the world, which plied him with its pleasures. We have no security but in constant prayer, in constant war” and it should make you more diligent than ever in supplication, more vehement than ever in resistance, to hear St. Paul say of Demas--Demas who ministered to him in prison, Demas whom he called his fellow-labourer--that Demas had forsaken him, “ having loved this present world.” And now we would turn your thoughts from the progress which Demas must have made in Christianity to the advantages which he enjoyed. We wish you to observe him, not merely as forsaking St. Paul, but as forsaking him when that apostle was on the very eve of martyrdom. Who can question that there came to him, in the solitude of his prison, glorious visitations from the invisible world, that the consolations of God abounded towards him, and that, whilst the fetters were on the body, the spirit soared as with an eagle’ s wing, and gazed upon the inheritance that fadeth not away. Oh! to have been with him as he had to tell of the comforts and satisfactions thus vouchsafed, to have stood by him as the soul came back from its sublime expatiations, laden as it were with the riches of Paradise! Who could have doubted the truth of Christianity--who could have refused to adhere to its profession--who could have hesitated between its promises and any present advantage--with the prisoner Paul for his preacher, with the prisoner Paul for his evidence? Ah, be not too confident! It was the prisoner Paul whom Demas forsook. Forsook? Why, one would have thought the common feelings of humanity would have kept him constant! To desert the old man in his hour of trial--to leave him without a friend as the day of his martyrdom approached--who could be so ungenerous? Ah! pronounce not a hasty judgment. Demas did this--Demas who had for a long time been assiduous in ministering to the apostle--and Demas did this only because, like many--too many--amongst ourselves, he loved this present world. Learn ye, then, how weak are those extraordinary advantages when the heart is inclined to yield to the fascinations of the world--how these fascinations may be said to steal away the heart, so that he who is enslaved by them loses, to all appearance, the best sensibilities of his nature. And let no hearer henceforward think, that because he may have delight in hearkening to the pathetic or powerful speech of a favourite minister, he must be rooted in attachment to Christ and His religion. Let no minister henceforward think, that because he has gained an influence over men’ s minds, he must have gained a hold on their hearts. And in what mode may Christians hope to deliver themselves from love of the world? This is an important question. It is useless to show how fatal is the love, if we cannot show also how it may be subdued. There is no denying that the world addresses itself very strongly to our affections, and that the correspondence which subsists between its objects and our natural desires, gives to its temptations a force which can hardly be exaggerated; and we are sure that these temptations are not to be withstood, unless love of the world is dispossessed by love of something better than the world. You will not cease to love the world, you will not grow weaker in attachment to the world, through the influence of any proof, however elaborate, that the world is not worth loving. It is only by fixing the affections on things above, that they can be drawn from things below. There may be weariness, there may be dissatisfaction, there may be even disgust with the vanities of earth, but nevertheless these vanities will occupy the heart, unless displaced by the realities of heaven. You see, then, what you have to do. You have to meditate upon God and upon heaven, striving to acquire higher and higher thoughts of Divine majesty. There is not one of you who will become a Demas, if you keep this in mind. This is what you may call a recipe against apostasy. It is not a recipe composed upon abstract and speculative opinions, but drawn from the known workings and pleadings of the heart. The heart will attach itself to what it feels to be a greater good in preference to a lesser. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The apostasy of Demas In the long line of the Doges, in the grand old palace in Venice, one space is empty, and the black curtain which covers it attracts more attention than any one of the fine portraits of the merchant kings. From that panel, now so unsightly, once smiled the sallow face of Marine Falieri, afterwards found guilty of treason against the state, and blotted out, so far as might be, from remembrance. The text reveals the fate of one who had filled a much more honoured place, and who, yielding to temptation, sank to still lower depths. Poor, foolish Demas has gained for himself a most unenviable notoriety. Once he was not only a Church-member, but he was accounted as no ordinary man among his brethren. Twice in the friendly salutations with which St. Paul usually closes his epistles he mentions Demas with honour (Philemon 1:24; Colossians 4:14). Two years later he wrote in sorrow of heart, “ Demas hath forsaken me,” etc. It was neither cowardice nor self-indulgence which had caused his ruin, but simply the love of the world; the very danger to which so many are exposed in our own day, when the beguiling blandishments of sin, rather than the terrors of persecution, are the devil’ s most successful devices. There is no shadow of a reason to suppose that Demas had not devoted himself at the outset in downright sincerity and earnestness to God’ s service; but his weakness was such as might prove the ruin of any one who does not keep every avenue to his heart diligently guarded, lest an inordinate love of temporal things force an entrance there. It is recorded of the King of Navarre, then claiming to be a good Protestant, that being urged by Beza to behave himself in a more manly way for the cause of God, he made answer, that he was “ really the friend of the reformers, but that he was resolved to put out no further to sea than he might get safely back to shore in case a storm should unexpectedly arise.” In other words, he would not hazard his hopes of the crown of France for the sake of his religion. You know the sequel of his story. Like Demas, he loved “ this present world “ better than he loved God. He proved a traitor to his religion, and bartered his heavenly crown for a fading one of earth. Some years ago, a young woman was hanged in England for murder, who had been tempted to commit the awful deed for the sake of a five pound note, and this note proved to be a counterfeit! To run such a risk, and to receive such bitter wages! Do those people fare better than this wretched woman who desert God’ s service for the world’ s poor bribes? Can the possession of hoards of wealth, or the fading memories of past enjoyments, bring peace in a dying hour? An Arab lost his way in a desert, and was in danger of perishing from hunger, when he was fortunate enough to reach a brackish well, and close by he discovered a little leather bag. “ Ah! here’ s just what I need,” he cried, with joy; “ dates, or nuts, to appease my gnawing hunger!” He hastily opened the bag, but only to east it away with contempt. It was filled with pearls! What value did they possess for one who was about to die? Just as much as the world will be to those who have sold everything else to gain it. (J. N. Norton, D. D.) Demas the deserter I was very much affected--as probably you have been affected--by reading the accounts of the punishment of deserters in the army. Nothing in battle is so blood-chilling and horrible. It is so cool, so individual, so premeditated a life-taking. The leading forth of the offender before his whole regiment; the rehearsal of his disgrace to all his comrades; the pinioning of his arms; the bandaging of his eyes that he may not see what comrade takes his life; the open coffin beneath him hungry for its prey; the file of soldiers all aiming at one poor fluttering heart (as if sportsmen should shoot a bird already caged); the ringing volley; the lightning-like death under a dozen wounds--all this is enough to drive the kindred of the deserter to the verge of madness. The mother whose son lies in the sacred mould of Gettysburg or Chattanooga is happy in comparison with her whose hapless boy was blown into eternity from the coffin of a deserter! And why is the deserter’ s doom made so awful? Simply because the crime is so great and the consequences of the crime so fatal to the interests of an army and of the cause for which an army fights. If desertion will destroy an army, then the army must destroy desertion. His crime is punished so fearfully that other men will be deterred from imitating his bad example. Now history has marked to infamy more than one deserter of his country, or of a sacred cause. Benedict Arnold stands already in American history, bandaged, pinioned, shot through with the volleys of a nation’ s abhorrence! In Scripture history hangs Judas the arch-deserter. In our text we read of another. Paul has pilloried the unhappy man. Every man who has ever brought disgrace on his Christian profession, or has fallen out of his church-standing had some secret reason for his fall. He deserted under the seduction of some besetting sin. If we could come at the sad roll of all the backsliders or open apostates we might read over the specifications like these: “ Deserted from moral cowardice,” or “ Deserted through neglect of prayer,” or “ Deserted from love of the wine-bottle,” or “ Deserted through the enticements of irreligious associates,” or “ Deserted through unbelief.” Demas’ s name has the Holy Spirit’ s specification beside his name. He deserted for “ love of the world!” “ Whoso loveth the world, the love of God is not in him!” This is the last we read of poor Demas. Tradition says that he sank so low as to become a priest in an heathen temple! But if this were so or not we need not discuss. We do know that he forsook his Master’ s cause in its hour of peril, and preferred the “ world” to Christ. Paul encountered the world; went into its thickest, saw its brightest allurements; met its fiercest assaults, and its most attractive lures to his ambition. He never deserted. Why? He never loved it; he so loved Jesus that he could not love the world. Demas loved the world. It would have done him no harm if he had not. It will do you none as long as you keep it out of your heart. But when it works into the soul it eats out the loyalty to Christ and consumes the spirituality of the soul. Do you remember reading in your childhood, in that favourite volume of Oriental stories, about Sinbad’ s voyage into the Indian Ocean? Do you remember that magnetic rock that rose from the surface, surrounded by a placid and a glassy sea? Silently the ship was attracted towards it; silently the bolts were drawn out of the vessel’ s sides one by one, by the magnetic rock! And when the fated vessel drew so near that every bolt and clamp was unloosed, the whole structure of bulwarks and masts and spars tumbled into helpless rubbish on the sea, and the sleeping sailors awoke to their drowning agonies! So stands the magnetic rock of worldly enchantments! Its attraction is silent, slow, but powerful to the soul that floats within its range! Under its spell, bolt after bolt of resolution, clamp after clamp of Christian obligation is drawn out. One neglect of duty paves the way for another. One desertion accustoms the man to the path of evil, until he is used to what a Christian never should “ get used to” --sinning! A backslider gets so accustomed to neglect of secret devotion that he passes by the bolted closet-door with as little concern as he passes by the doors of his neighbours in the street. He becomes habituated to a deserted Bible, a deserted sanctuary, a deserted Sabbath-school, to a neglected heart, to a deserted Saviour. At length he finds that the Friend he has deserted, deserts him. The God whom he has offended withdraws His presence. This is the penalty of sin! No deserter from Jesus escapes unpunished. And a most invariable penalty which the forsaker of God suffers is--a sense of God’ s frowns, which sometimes drives the transgressor to recklessness, sometimes to despair. Then does the unfaithful Christian find that “ it is an evil thing and a bitter to depart from the living God.” His by-path meadow leads to “ Doubting Castle” and the dungeons of “ Giant Despair.” (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) Demas I. Let us see what is told us concerning this Demas.1. This man was no hypocrite. He had not turned Christian for some selfish hope of worldly good or gain. There never are many of these. In those days probably there were none. 2. Nor was he a timid follower of Jesus. It was rather bleak and stormy for Mr. Facing both ways to show himself, who is usually a very dainty and delicate fellow and cannot stand much exposure. Like the cuckoos and the swallows his season is the summer, and the first touch of frost is enough to send him away. 3. Nor was he moved only by a passing glow of enthusiasm. It is not unlikely that some were--the devotion of an impulsive nature to the noble and the good, especially to the noble and the good in persecution. They receive the seed of the Word with joy, but anon the sun is up and it is withered, for it has no root. 4. And further, it was not that Demas had no religious opportunities and fellowship. That little company, knit together as it was by such bonds of sympathy and fellowship constantly met in Paul’ s house. Think how the soul of Demas was stirred by the great utterances of St. Paul. II. What was it that ruined him? Having loved this present world.1. Was it avarice?--the cursed love of gold?--That vice that grows with the years and fattens on its gains: that creeps from prudence to saving, from saving to scraping, from scraping to grubbing, from grubbing to gripping the gold more than life. So clutching his money-bags does Demas go forth, leaving Paul the aged forsaken. The love of money makes many a Demas still. If that was it, pity him. Of all pitiable, ill-tempered, miserable people in the world, this is the worst. Of all fools hell laughs most loudly at the miser, who could not use it when he had it and then left it behind. But how can we warn him? Alas, Demas is the first to sigh and shake his head, and say how dreadful it is, and never suspect that you mean him. The miser never thinks himself rich. 2. Was it love of pleasure, of the world’ s ways and the world’ s approbation? The world kills more men with its smiles than with its frowns. Samson can kill the young lion that roars against him, but is himself coaxed to death by Delilah. 3. And yet again, it may have been neither avarice nor worldliness that killed him, but a gradual process of spiritual neglect. So away on the coast I have seen some projecting crag, bold and mighty, joined, as it seemed, and rooted with all the solid continent: one with the ground that stretched down through the round world and away under the seas to the shores of the far west, and inland bound to the hills that were topped and crested with the granite crags--there it stood facing the blasts of the Atlantic, defying them and looking proudly forth on the wild seas that stormed and tossed below it. Yes, winds and waves would never have fetched it down. But within were hollow places, tiny streams that washed the deepening water-courses: then came the silent frosts that gnawed at it, crumbling underneath it; so hollowed out within; then came some day the crash and din of thunder and clouds of dust that darkened heaven and the proud headland was hurled far down below, dashed by the tumbling seas and swept triumphantly by the wild waves. Oh, are you the man, whose prayers were once fervent pleadings with God, and now they are an empty round of phrases? Thy danger is great. A little longer--only that, a little longer, and of thee too it must be spoken--he hath forsaken me. 4. Here is the record of the basest ingratitude. A black ingratitude that rouses our indignation. St. Paul had most likely been the means of bringing him to the knowledge of the truth. He could not have failed to lead him to the richer enjoyment of the truth. Now when his company would have cheered the apostle in his dungeon loneliness we find the record--“ Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.” Ah, thou Demas of to-day, think how the Lord Jesus Christ hath come down from His glory in very love to thee. He sighs--He saith, Thou hast forsaken Me. Oh, Demas, thou hast made a bad bargain. Thirsty ambition in place of quietness and rest. The devil as thy master in place of the loving Lord. The bondage instead of the life of goodness. And for wages at the last heaven given up for hell. Thou hast a thorn in thy pillow. Thy religion is dead, buried; but its ghost haunts thee still and will haunt thee. It meets thee in still and lonely places and whispers of what used to be. Thy religion gone and thyself spoiled for this world, and undone for the world which is to come. (M. G. Pearse.) The damager of backsliding I. It is the lot of God’ s dearest children to be oftentimes forsaken of those that have been most near unto them (Matthew 26:56; Psalms 119:87; Psalms 27:10; 1 Kings 19:10).1. That they may be made conformable to their head, Christ Jesus, who was left alone of His beloved disciples, and had none to comfort Him. 2. That they may fly to Christ, in whom all true comfort lies. II. Those that have gone far in religion may yet, notwithstanding, fall away, and become apostates.1. Because they rest on their own strength, and there is no support in man to uphold himself. 2. Because Satan, that grand apostate, is fallen from the truth himself, and he labours to draw others to fall back with him. III. How shall we persevere in goodness?1. Labour for a true grace. 2. Get a strong resolution against all oppositions. 3. Labour to know the truth, and to practise what thou knowest. 4. Get the love of God in thy heart. 5. Strive to grow daily in a denial of thyself. 6. Labour to have Divine truths engrafted in thee, that so they may spring forth in thy life. 7. Grow deeper and deeper in humiliation. IV. The love of christ and the world cannot lodge together in one heart. They are two masters, ruling by contrary laws. (R. Sibbes.) The falling away of Demas 1. The expression, “ Demas hath forsaken me,” etc., probably means, in the first instance, that he loved his life too well to risk it by farther companionship with one, all but condemned, and whose martyrdom might be the signal for his own. 2. But the expression involves something more. That “ love of this present world,” which assaulted Demas under the lone roof of the apostle, is what we can all understand, and a snare which is more or less laid for us all. It was the result of not having counted the cost of what might be required of him; a perilous “ looking back,” after “ having put his hand to the plough,” and therefore being “ unfit for the kingdom of God.” In his former home at Thessalonica there might be a comparative security to be obtained. There he might find a comparative easement from a confessor’ s labour; a retirement from the responsibility of a more marked and active disciple. There, at all events, he might not be called upon to defend his faith; to sustain it against the onset of impiety and false doctrine; but might indulge the illusion of adhering to it in what the world calls “ peace.” There, in short, freed from the severer claims of an appointed trial, he might live as seemed best in his own eyes; and cling to the vain hope of reconciling the duty of a Christian with the divers conflicting habits and temptations, which beset the man of “ this present world.” (Canon Puckle.) Demas Observations:1. It is lawful (in some cases) to name men. The apostle, to make others fear apostasy, names this backslider. Our application must be as a garment fitted for the body it is made for: a garment that is fit for everybody, is fit for nobody. What is spoken in general to all, few will apply to themselves. The only way to benefit our people is to apply the plaster to their particular sores. This made Ahab to put on sackcloth (1 Kings 21:20), and brought in so many thousand converts (Acts 2:37). One preacher that thus faithfully applieth the Word to his people, shall do more good in one year than another that preaeheth in a general way, and never cometh home to the consciences of the people, shall do in many. 2. The godly must look sometimes to be forsaken by their bosom friend. Demas was Paul’ s intimate acquaintance and coadjutor, yet “ Demas bath forsaken me.” True friend ship is like a well-built arch which standeth at first at a greater distance, and thence leisurely groweth up into a greater closure at the top, and so it will stand the better for weight. 3. Eminent professors may become grand apostates. Demas is a preacher of the gospel, Paul’ s coadjutor, and is joined with Luke the evangelist (Colossians 4:14), yet for all this “ Demas hath forsaken me.” Nothing but sincerity can pre serve us from apostasy. Let us therefore, especially at our first setting forth, dig deep, lay a good foundation, consider what the truth may cost us, and ask ourselves whether we can deny ourselves universally for Christ. If we cannot, or will not, we are not fit to be Christ’ s disciples, we shall shrink in the wetting, and start aside like a broken bow when a temptation comes (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11). 4. The inordinate love of this present world is the highway to apostasy. It is not the world or the creatures which are good in themselves, but the excessive and inordinate love of them, which ruins men. 5. This world shall have an end and all things in it, it is not an everlasting world, it is but this present world, whose pomp and pleasures soon vanish away (1 Corinthians 7:29-31). 6. Sin blotteth a man’ s name, and blemisheth his reputation. Demas, for his worldliness, had a brand set on his name to the end of the world. 7. It is an aggravation of a man’ s sin to sin deliberately against light and conviction. Demas doth not sin here through passion or fear, but deliberately. (1) He sinned against great light, he being a professor, yea, a preacher of the gospel, could not offend (in this kind especially) through ignorance. (2) Demas sinned against great love. God had enlightened him, and made him a preacher of the gospel, gave him a room in the affections of his chosen vessel Paul, who made him his coadjutor. (3) He sinned against the light of good example. Paul went before him in doing and suffering, and glories in all as comfortable and honourable, yet Demas deserts him, and is not this our sin? (4) To sin upon a light temptation aggravateth a sin. Now Demas had no just ground for flinching. If he feared suffering for Christ, he knew the promise, That he who forsaketh father, or mother, or lands, or life, for Christ, shall have a hundred fold in this present world, and could he have brought his life and estate to a better market? If he loved the world and found sweetness in that, is there not more sweetness in Him that made the world? (5) To draw others into sin, aggravateth sin. Demas, by his evil example, brought an evil report on the gospel, and did tacitly and interpretatively say there is much more sweetness in the world than in Christ, and so drew others from the truth. (6) The greater the person that sins the greater is his sin. Theft in a judge is worse than in an inferior person; for Demas, a teacher of others, to teach apostasy, draws men into sin. Such cedars fall not alone, but crush the shrubs that be under them. (T. Hall, B. D.) Demas I. The Christian life according to demas. Chrysostom, assuming that Demas left Paul in order to go back to his friends, expressively describes his purpose by saying, “ He chose to luxuriate at home.” If that was so, he did only what most Christian people are doing now. He still believed in Jesus as the Saviour of sinners, and hoped to be accepted for His sake; he purposed to abstain from the things forbidden by the law; and, this done, he thought himself at liberty to seek and enjoy the full measure of worldly good which he was able to obtain. In other words, he wished to lead a Christian life, but with the least possible quantity of self-denial. He wished, in the selfish acceptation of the phrase, to make the best of both worlds. His Christian ideal was a negative one, and consisted in not breaking the gospel commandments, rather than in laboriously doing, or being, anything great or good. It may often happen--in our case it will generally happen--that the best service we can render to others and to Christ is to be done at home; yet it is possible, it is common, to remain at home, and not to render it, but simply to luxuriate there, our lives regulated by that love of this present world which Demas showed. Indeed, whatever the sphere may be in which we are best able to serve others and Christ--whether the home circle, or the wider arena of social life, or the haunts of business, or the Sabbath-school, or the sick, or the poor--are we not tempted to occupy it after the manner of Demas? II. The christian life according to Paul. Not, how little can I do, but, how much, was the ruling principle with Paul. Not, what would be easiest for me, but, what most acceptable to Christ. Not a cold calculation in the interest of self, but a warm devotion to the welfare of all. Loyalty, gratitude, generous enthusiasm, are its features; and, surely, they are among the noblest qualities of human character. Cold and grudging selfishness marks the other conception. They hardly deserve to be called two forms of the Christian life, for only one has the Spirit of Christ at all. Yes, let us remember even the nobleness of Paul was but a reflection of the nobleness of Christ. It was at that source the flame of his soul was kindled: “ The love of Christ constrained him.” III. the Christian life begun with paul and ended with Demas. The Spirit which founded the Christian Church was the spirit of Paul; but, as soon as the days of its freshness and persecution were over, the spirit of Demas prevailed. And the history of individuals is apt to be similar. (T. M. Herbert, M. A.) Demas In old times your London Bridge and our Netherbrow Port in Edinburgh were garnished with human heads; and in days when tyrants and persecutors were on the throne, alongside those of many notorious criminals, many a good and patriotic head hung there to bake and wither in the sun. That may appear to you a barbarous custom; in a sense it Was; notwithstanding, it came down, in a way, almost to our own times. Years ago, yet in our time, in sailing down your Thames, you saw certain strange and fearful objects standing up within tide-mark on the shore, between you and the sky; they were gibbets, with dead men hung in chains. Contrary as such a custom is to the feelings and sentiments of the present day, the object of those who observed that custom was a good one. They had a better end in view than merely the frightening of those who, happening to pass that way by night, heard the wind whistle though the holes in the empty skull, or the rusty chains creak as the body swept round and round. Piracy, with all its awful atrocities on men and women, was a much more common crime in those days than it is now; and the sailors who dropped down the river and passed these frightful objects, carried away with them a salutary lesson. They were pirates who were hung in chains, and they who looked saw in them the abhorrence with which society regarded, and the vengeance with which justice would pursue the perpetrators of so great a crime. “ Rebuke before all,” said the apostle, “ that others may fear” ; and these men were thus hung in chains that others might see and be afraid. Nevertheless, these monuments of sin and of justice, however offensive they may be to our taste, or however suitable they might be to the ruder customs of ruder times, were not perpetual. The work of decay went on, and bone dropping away from bone left empty the chains; mother earth received into her bosom the last relic of her guilty child, and the crime and the criminal were soon forgotten. More enduring monuments of sin and its punishment than these have perished in the wreck of all things. For long ages the stony figure of a woman stood, with her cold, grey eyes turned on the sea that had buried the sinners, but not the saints, of Sodom. Lonely and awful form--the travellers that skirted the shores Of the Dead Sea, and the shepherds that tended their flocks on the neighbouring mountains, regarded her with all horror and terror; and never did living creature deliver such a sermon on the words, “ Whoso putteth his hand to the plough and looketh back, is not worthy of the kingdom of God,” as did that dumb statue! But time that destroys all things destroyed that, and now travellers have sought in vain for even the vestige of a relic that, were it found, would be far more interesting and far more impressive than all your Greek and Roman marbles, anything dug out of quarry or carved by sculptor’ s chisel. She who, loving the world too well, looked back on Sodom, has ceased to exist in stone: she lives, however, in story, and we would do well, in and amid the temptations of this world, often to “ remember Lot’ s wife.” The purpose our fore fathers had in hanging pirates in chains, and the purpose God Himself had in turning that woman into a pillar of salt, the Apostle Paul had in his treatment of this man whom he holds up here as a beacon to all future ages. He did not write this of Demas to revenge himself on Demas; he was above that. He did not write, “ Demas hath forsaken me, having loved the present world,” out of spleen or anger against this poor and pitiable apostate. Nothing of the kind. Nor was Demas the only man that at one time forsook Paul. There were others stricken with such panic, as will sometimes seize the bravest troops. All his friends deserted him. Ah! but even then there was an essential, and now there is an eternal difference between them. I donor deny that others fled, but then they returned, they rallied; they washed out with martyr’ s blood the stains of their disgrace. They fled, I grant; they fled the field, but only for a time--Demas for ever; they abandoned the fight--Demas the faith. Theirs was the failing of the disciples for whom our Lord pled the kind apology, “ The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Demas’ s was the sin and crime of Judas. He abandoned for aye and for ever the cause of Jesus. I. Demas’ s history and Demas’ s fall. Men live after they are dead, I do not mean merely that they live in another world after they are dead, but that, in a sense, alter they are dead they live here--some in their good works, and others in their bad. Many a man would never have been heard of in this world at all but for his crimes. His crimes are the salt, wherewith his memory is salted; he lives in them. But for them he had passed a happy life, obscure, no doubt, but happy; and when he died had gone down to his grave unnoticed and unknown. Now that is not the case of Demas. The truth is, if this Second Epistle to Timothy had never been written, or if it had pleased God to have let this Second Epistle to Timothy perish, like some other writings of the apostles, perhaps you might have called this church after Demas; Demas might have had his name in the calendar of saints. This man fell from a height which few of us have reached or ever will reach, and all the more impressive, therefore, is the story of his fall. He was indeed a fallen star! The reverse of Paul, who fell a persecutor and rose an apostle, this man was an apostle, but is an apostate now; he was a professor, but he is a renegade now; he was a brave soldier of the cross, but he is a base deserter and traitor now, having deserted and abandoned all for which a man should live. What a fall was there! Scripture drops the curtain on Demas just where we see him here, like a dishonoured knight from whose heels the spurs he has won have been hacked--just where we see him as a soldier who, his facings plucked from his breast, is dismissed as a deserter. No other word in Scripture about Demas after that; the curtain drops, and he vanishes. But let tradition lift her curtain, and if she speaks the truth--and there is no reason to doubt her story--it happened that Demas, as I could have prophesied, or you or any one else--went from bad to worse, down and down, and lower still, from one depth of infamy to another, till in the last sight we get of Demas, there he is yonder, a priest in a heathen temple, offering sacrifices to dead stocks and stones! Unhappy, miserable man, whether he died, as he might have died, with a recollection of better days, stung with remorse, howling in despair, or whether he died defiant of Christ, like Julian the royal apostate, who, when vanquished by the Christian hosts, caught the sword from his mortal wound, and tossed it up to heaven, and cried, expiring in the effort, “ The Nazarene has conquered!” Unhappy man, whether he died one way or the other! II. What made Demas fall? what brought him down from his high position? Sailing once on a Highland loch where the crags went sheer down into the water, the boatman called my attention to a very remarkable fragment of rock. There it stood, tilted up on its narrow edge, threatening destruction to every one below it, and to all appearance ready, at the touch of an infant’ s finger, to leap with a sudden plunge into the depths below. What had tilted that enormous table into that upright position? No arms of brawny shepherds had set it there; no earthquake, rolling along the mountains and turning it upward, as earthquakes sometimes do, had turned it, nor had lightning, leaping from a cleft on the mountain’ s summit, struck it, split it, shivered it, or raised it on its narrow edge. The task belonged to a much quieter and less obtrusive agent than these. Borne on the wings of the tempest, or dropped by some passing bird, a seed fell into a crevice of the rock; sleeping the winter through, but finding there a shelter and a congenial soil, it sprang with the spring, fed by rains and by dews it grew, and put up its head and spread out its branches, and struck deep its roots, worming them deep into the crannies of the rock, and wrapping it round and round. That table, as they grew, and thickened, and strengthened, was slowly and silently raised and separated from its bed, and then one clay there came a storm roaring down the glen, and seizing the tree, whose leafy branches caught the wind like sails, turned that tree into a lever, and working upon the rock, raised it and set it where I saw it just on the edge of the dizzy crag, and there it stood, waiting till another storm should come to hurl it over into the mossy waters of that wild mountain lake. Whether that stone has fallen yet I do not know, but it will fall; and just as that shall fall, so fell Demas; so many have fallen, and so you and I, but for preserving grace, would fall too. Do not mistake the Bible. The Bible does not say a word against the world. It is not the world, it is not riches, it is not fame, it is not honour, it is not the innocent enjoyment of the world that the Bible condemns; it is the love of the world. Beware of that! Let it once enter, let it get lodgment in your heart, though it is simply a tiny seed, let it grow there, let it be fed by indulgence, let it strike its roots, let it worm them into the crevices and crannies of your heart, and it will do this so silently that you will never suspect it, and you will never know it, and others will never know it, till one day the storm shall come. What was it that brought on Demas’ s fall? Why was it that persecution destroyed Demas? Why, because persecution acted on Demas just as the storm did on the tree that got its seed into the rock. But that that tree had its seed and its roots round about that rock, the rock had defied all tempests, though they blew their worst; and Demas--persecution might have made him a beggar, persecution might have cast him into the deepest dungeon Rome had, persecution might have brought him to the scaffold, but if Demas had never loved the world, all that persecution had done would have been to destroy his wealth, to destroy his health, and to destroy his life, but it had never destroyed him; and on that day when Paul stood with his grey head before a mighty crowd coming to see him die, Demas had stood at his side; they bad stood together in the battle-field, they had stood together in the pulpit, they had stood together before Jews and heathens, and that day had they stood together again; one chain of love, as of iron, binding them still, they had fought together and they had fallen together, their heads had rolled on the same scaffold, one chariot had borne these brothers to the grave, and over their mangled remains, carried by devout men to burial, a weeping church had raised one monument, and I will tell you what she would have put on it; copying the words of David she might have said, “ They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided.” Alas! I have an epitaph for Demas, taken from the same touching lament, but consisting of other words--“ How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!” Such is the epitaph of Demas! He was laid in an apostate’ s grave, and, not excepting a drunkard’ s, there is no grave the grass grows on so hopeless as the apostate’ s. Lessons:1. “ Put not your trust in princes,” says David. “ Put not your trust in preachers,” says Demas. A blazing star quenched in darkness, oh! how does Demas teach them that stand high to walk humbly, and them that are high-placed not to be high-minded. It is well to carry a low sail, even when the wind blows strong. 2. Have you a pious father or mother, a pious wife or children, pious brothers or sisters--are you a servant in a pious family, or are your friends pious and your associations good? Ah! how does this teach you not to count too much on man! Why, there is Demas; what is your society to his? Demas lived in the holiest society out of heaven; Demas was the bosom friend and associate of one of the holiest, and I will say of one, in point of soul, of the noblest and loftiest men that ever lived--the Apostle Paul. There is no man in this house so little likely to be engrossed with the business, to be entangled with the cares, to be fascinated with the pleasures of this world, as was that man Demas; and yet he fell; he fell, and if he fell, who of us is to stand? Oh! how does his history sound in my ear like that old prophet’ s voice, “ Howl, fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen!” 3. Ah, what a lesson is this for you and me, and all those who live under the best religious influences, for us to take care that we do not reckon upon them, but that we watch and pray lest we enter into temptation. The world’ s smiles are more to be dreaded than its frowns; its sordid sophistry, than its sharpest sword. Let the love of the world get into a man’ s heart, and there is no pleader, no counsel, no man that ever made the worse appear the better, so successful as that is; for the world has a tongue to convince the man who has the love of it, that virtue is vice, and vice is virtue. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) The relapsed Christian He reminds us of the piteous spectacle of a man emerging from the watery element in which he has been plunged, and for a moment gaining a footing upon the shore, but caught by the retiring wave, or losing his hold, he is once more carried into deep water with the danger of being finally engulfed in the waves, unless by another strenuous effort he should regain the shore and reach a standing above the power of the surge. (J. Leifchild, D. D.) Having loved this present world-- The connection between love of the world and apostasy Love of the world--love of the world’ s opinions, and the world’ s habits, and the world’ s tastes, and the world’ s privileges, and the world’ s dispositions, for their own sakes, diminish faith, by bringing us more into contact with visible things. It is the privilege of faith to gaze upon the invisible, to behold and to lay hold of those things which the natural eye sees not, which the natural intellect comprehends not, and which the natural powers cannot grasp. But if the love of the world constrains me to grovel in the dust, to be busied and exercised and made careful over much with the things that are seen, soon may the far-scanning sight of faith be impaired and enfeebled, till at length it scarcely deserves the name, and brings not the comfort and imparts not the joy. Do we not know that the natural eye, when engaged upon minute visible objects which have to be brought near to it, accommodates itself to the distance; and the strong and healthful eye at length becomes short-sighted, and cannot gaze upon the distant prospect in its brightness, and looks confusedly on the landscape that woos admiration? And so it is with the spiritual perception. Let me be em ployed in the minute things of this world--the poor trifles after which the men of this world toil--and I may look upwards in vain; the spiritual sun may be shining upon me, in its meridian splendour, but my sight may be so dimmed, that with my purblind spirituality I shall be forced to look up and say--Where is it? The love of the world also diminishes our hope; because it induces us to seek, and in a certain sense enables us to find, satisfaction in present enjoyment. The young heart gazes upon the world and upon its enticements, and is it not constrained to say--“ How delightful--how attractive” ? And the grey-headed worldling, who has luxuriated in worldly enjoyments, has no range of hope beyond that which the little limited circle of his present existence gives him. Let me be content with present enjoyment--let me be content with worldly success--let me be satisfied with all I can perceive while passing as a traveller rapidly through this world, and I apprehend I should not be over-much anxious to build up a “ hope” that is “ full of immortality” ; I should be inclined to say--“ I want no better heaven, I do not wish for anything beyond this, I do not desire to hope for more.” How it becomes us to entreat you, with all earnestness and affection, to beware of a Christian profession which does not separate you from the world! Nothing is more delusive than to become acquainted with the letter of God’ s Word, to feel desires after the experience of its comfort, to make a Christian profession, to join Christian assemblies, to mingle in Christian ordinances, and yet to be still numbered with those who say to the world by their conduct--“ Thou art my God!” But if you find your profession has been genuine--if you have “ tasted that the Lord is gracious” --beware of the first symptoms of decline. (G. Fisk, LL. B.) The foolish love of the world Judge in thyself, O Christian! is it meet To set thine heart on what beasts set their feet? ’ Tis no hyperbole, if you be told, You delve for dross with mattocks made of gold. Affections are too costly to bestow Upon the fair-faced nothings here below: The eagle scorns to fall down from on high, The proverb saith, to pounce a silly fly; And can a Christian leave the face of God T’ embrace the earth, and dost upon a clod! (John Flavel.) Worldliness fatal to religion In Brazil there grows a common plant, which forest dwellers call the matador, or “ murderer.” Its slender stem creeps at first along the ground; but no sooner does it meet a vigorous tree than, with clinging grasp, it cleaves to it, and climbs it, and, as it climbs, keeps at short intervals sending out arm-like tendrils that embrace the tree. As the murderer ascends, these ligatures grow larger and clasp tighter. Up, up, it climbs a hundred feet, nay, two hundred if need be, until the last loftiest spire is gained and fettered. Then, as if in triumph, the parasite shoots a huge, flowery head above the strangled summit, and thence, from the dead tree’ s crown, scatters its seed to do again the work of death. Even thus worldliness has strangled more Churches than ever persecution broke. (S. Coley.) Danger of the world As you love your souls, beware of the world; it has slain its thousands and ten thousands. What ruined Lot’ s wife?--the world. What ruined Achan?--the world. What ruined Haman?--the world. What ruined Judas?--the world. What ruined Simon Magnus?--the world. What ruined Demas?--the world. And “ what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” The world pictured by fancy In the mirage of the desert, objects are said to become strangely distorted--a mud-bank exhibiting the appearance of a magnificent city with domes and towers, a few stunted bushes are transformed into a forest of stately trees. Is not the world with its hollow, fading distinctions thus transformed in our idle, foolish fancy? We attach an importance to its treasures, praise, ambitions, pleasures, utterly false and exaggerated. (W. L. Watkinson.) The border-land between Christ and the world Centuries ago it was dangerous for any one to live on the border-land between England and Scotland. Let us take care not to dwell on the border-land between Christ and the world. Counteractives to worldliness Let the declining Christian strive against the deteriorating and retrograding tendency to worldliness. Let him exercise his faith in strong realisations of celestial things, which alone are able to counteract the debasing impressions of terrestrial ones. Let him accustom himself to look upon all things here in the light of eternity. The fascinations of the world will then appear to him as a brilliant bubble, which will soon burst, and its troubles but as a dark vapour that appeareth but for a little while and then vanisheth away. For his warning, let him contemplate the fearful catastrophe threatened to those who draw back from God to the world. He has only to open his eyes to see in what numerous instances this passage of Scripture has been verified: “ They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare,” etc., resembling covetous merchants, who overload their vessel with a freight which impedes its course and endangers its safety. What a fatal shipwreck of faith and a good conscience have many suffered from this cause: and who can tell whither it may carry him who surrenders himself to its influence? Upon the principle of a relapse being more difficult to cure than the original disease, let him be doubly on his guard against this tendency. (J. Leifchild, D. D.) Crescens to Galatia.--Crescens is gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia 1. Good men will be doing good wherever they are. Paul was now a prisoner, yet he preached constantly in prison, and there converted Onesimus (Philemon 1:9). 2. Though some may forsake us and the truth, yet God hath others that are faithful. What if Demas be gone, yet Crescens, Titus, Timothy, Mark, and Luke abide constant; no storms nor tempests can beat them off; if Saul oppose David, yet Jonathan will stick to him. (T. Hall, B. D.) Only Luke is with me.--The beloved physician I. The inducements to remain with St. Paul.1. There was the power of friendship. From the earlier references to Demas, we may conclude that he had been associated with the apostle in companionship in trial and labour. Intimacy and affection were motives to stay with him. 2. There was the sense of chivalry. However Demas might be tempted to go, a noble spirit would have said, Not now, when it is a time of comparative loneliness, need, and danger. 3. Interest in the faith. From his former relationship with St. Paul we must assume knowledge and admiration for the faith. He had seen Christianity, accepted it, and had been privileged to witness its power in the personal piety and devotedness of St. Paul. II. The temptations to go.1. The world’ s temptation of Demas was probably not through her seductive glitter of pleasure and pomp, but through her frowns. The apostle was under a cloud. Few seem willing to take him by the hand. Notice how joyously he recognises the courageous kindness of Onesiphorus (2 Timothy 1:16-17). 2. Perhaps we may hazard a conjecture respecting the character of Demas. May he not have been one of those whose religious life is just strong enough, or rather weak enough, to live in a religious atmosphere, but utterly unable to live when unsupported by Christian society? 3. The way in which such a character would desert. Not openly, but by degrees. Excuses to omit dangerous duties, and even at the last perhaps only leave St. Paul on some plausible pretext to go to Thessalonica. The old apostle saw through it: “ Having loved this present world.” III. The contrasted conduct of St. Luke.1. While Demas at Thessalonica, St. Luke at Rome. His helpfulness to St. Paul. The knowledge of the physician, with its frequently induced sympathetic power and insight. The spiritual refreshment of a brotherly heart. Demas lives the life of him who seeks to save life, but loses it in all its nobility and opportunities of doing kindness. Luke is ready to lose life, but saves its true vitality. 2. For the retrospect of Christendom tells us that St. Luke in his devotedness has saved his life, while Demas has lost it. The latter is a beacon-warning; the former a guiding light, a name in the Church--loved where Christ is loved, honoured where the apostle is honoured, for constancy, kindliness, and intrepid faith. Learn therefore that--1. Chivalry is not strong enough against the world-spirit. 2. A religion which is only dependent on the personal influence of others will prove faulty in the time of trial. 3. Thus only the inner strength supplied by Christ can keep us strong; not Paul, not Apollos, not the wisdom of men, but Christ. For the difference between St. Luke and Demas was not in outward circumstances. They were equally tried. It is Christ in us which is the hope of glory, a glory the earnest of which is seen in the scorn of earth and the triumph of faith over her frown or her smile. (W. B. Carpenter, M. A.) St. Luke the Evangelist We know but very little, historically, of St. Luke. His birthplace appears to have been Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, and, from his profession as a physician, we conclude him to have been, as indeed his writings prove him, a man of liberal education. Antioch was distinguished as the seat of literature; and St. Luke had probably availed himself of the advantages presented by his native place. We have no information in regard to the calling and conversion of St. Luke, and of his becoming a physician of the soul as well as the body. Many suppose him to have been converted by St. Paul at Antioch, and so to have had no acquaintance with Christianity until after the death of its Founder. Others again maintain that Luke was one of the seventy disciples whom Jesus sent forth to publish the gospel. However this may have been, it is in connection with St. Paul that St. Luke is first mentioned in the New Testament. From Act_16:-28, we learn that he accompanied St. Paul in many of his labours and journeyings, and was with him at Rome daring his two years’ imprisonment. We are wholly without authentic information as to the after life of St. Luke. Various spheres of labour are assigned to him by various writers, and much obscurity rests on the time, place, and manner of his death. The most ancient authors, however, say nothing of his martyrdom; and this would seem to show that he died a natural death; though others, indeed, allege that he went out of life stretched on an olive tree. But whilst so little material is furnished by the biographers of St. Luke, we are in possession of his writings, and by these “ he, being dead, yet speaketh.” There has never been debate in the Church that the Gospel which bears his name, and the Acts of the Apostles, were written by St. Luke. These were his legacies to all after ages, and for these must he be held in honour so long as there is any love for the gospel. And with these writings in our hands, who that has any sense of the worth of revelation will hesitate to describe St. Luke as “ a brother whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches” ? Or who, like St. Paul, if he had no other companion, would not feel that, in having this evangelist, he had books on which to draw that he could never exhaust, and which would continually furnish him with spiritual information, so that he could never be in loneliness, never at a loss for guidance and instruction, even though he should have to say with the apostle in our text--“ Only Luke is with me.” And what we venture to assert is, that the history which he has produced outweighs, in value to ourselves, either of the other three which the New Testament contains. We venture to affirm that, if only one Gospel is to be preserved, that that Gospel should be the Gospel according to St. Luke. The debate must lie between the Gospels of St. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ 2 Timothy 4:13 The cloke … the books … the parchments.Paul--his cloak and his books I. Let us look at this memorable cloak which Paul left with Carpus at Troas. Troas was a principal seaport-town of Asia Minor. Very likely the apostle Paul was seized at Troas on the second occasion of his being taken before the Roman emperor. The soldiers usually appropriated to themselves any extra garment in the possession of an arrested person, such things being considered as the perquisites of those who made the arrest. The apostle may have been forewarned of his seizure, and therefore prudently committed his few books and his outer garment, which made up all his household stuff, to the care of a certain honest man named Carpus. Although Troas was full six hundred miles’ journey from Rome, yet the apostle Paul is too poor to purchase a garment, and so directs Timothy, as he is coming that way, to bring his cloak. He needs it much, for the sharp winter is coming on, and the dungeon is very, very chilly.1. Let us perceive here with admiration, the complete self-sacrifice of the apostle Paul for the Lord’ s sake. Remember what the apostle once was. He was great, famous, and wealthy. Ah! how he emptied himself, and to what extremity of destitution was he willing to bring himself for Christ’ s name sake. The Saviour must die in absolute nakedness, and the apostle is made something like Him as he sits shivering in the cold. 2. We learn how utterly forsaken the apostle was by his friends. If he had not a cloak of his own, could not some of them lend him one? No; he is so utterly left, that although he is ready to die of ague in the dungeon, not a soul will lend or give him a cloak. What patience does this teach to those similarly situated I In your greatest trials do you find your fewest friends? Have those who once loved and respected you fallen asleep in Jesus? And have others turned out to be hypocritical and untrue? “ Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me.” So now, when man deserts you, God will be your Friend. 3. Our text shows the apostle’ s independence of mind. Why did not he borrow a cloak? Why did not he beg one? That is not the apostle’ s taste at all. He has a cloak, and though it is six hundred miles away, he will wait until it comes. A Christian man would do well to remember that it is never to his honour, though it is not always to his dishonour, to beg. 4. We see here, how very little the apostles thought of how they were dressed. Paul wants enough to keep him warm; he asks no more. When good Bishop Hooper was led out to be burnt, he had been long in prison, and his clothes were so gone from him, that he borrowed an old scholar’ s gown, full of rags and holes, that he might put it on, and went limping with pains of sciatica and rheumatism to the stake. We read of Jerome of Prague, that he lay in a damp, cold dungeon, and was refused anything to cover him in his nakedness and cold. Every saint is an image of Christ, but a poor saint is His express image, for Christ was poor. So, if you are brought to such a pitch with regard to poverty, that you scarcely know how to provide things decent by way of raiment, do not be dispirited; but say, “ My Master suffered the same, and so did the apostle Paul” ; and so take heart, and be of good cheer. 5. Paul’ s cloak at Troas shows me how mighty the apostle was to resist temptation. “ I do not see that,” you say. The apostle had the gift of miracles. Our Saviour, though able to work miracles, never wrought anything like a miracle on His own account; nor did His apostles. Miraculous gifts were entrusted to them with gospel ends and purposes, for the good of others, and for the promotion of the truth; but never for themselves. II. We will look at his books. We do not know what the books were about, and we can only form some guess as to what the parchments were. Paul had a few books which were left, perhaps wrapped up in the cloak, and Timothy was to be careful to bring them.1. Even an apostle must read. He is inspired, and yet he wants books! He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books! He had seen the Lord, and yes he wants books! He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books! He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a man to utter, yet he wants books! He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books! The apostle says to Timothy, and so he says to every preacher, “ Give thyself unto reading.” The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted, lie who will not use the thoughts of other men’ s brains proves that he has no brains of his own. 2. Paul herein is a picture of industry. He is in prison; he cannot preach: what will he do? As he cannot preach, he will read. As we read of the fishermen of old and their boats. The fishermen were gone out of them. What were they doing? Mending their nets. So if Providence has laid you upon a sick bed, and you cannot teach your class--if you cannot be working for God in public, mend your nets by reading. If one occupation is taken from you, take another, and let the books of the apostle read you a lesson of industry. III. We now want to have an interview with the apostle Paul himself, for we may learn much from him. The poor old man, without his cloak, wraps his ragged garment about him. Sometimes you see him kneeling down to pray, and then he dips his pen into the ink, and writes to his dear son Timothy. No companion, except Luke, who occasionally comes in for a short time. Now, how shall we find the old man? What sort of temper will he be in?1. We find him full of confidence in the religion which has cost him so much. 2. But he is not only confident. You will notice that this grand old man is having communion with Jesus Christ in his sufferings. 3. Triumphant. 4. In expectation of a crown. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The cloak at Troas Doubtless the cloak was an old companion; it may have been wetted many a time with the water torrents of Pamphylia, and whitened with the dust of the long Roman roads, and stained with the brine of shipwreck, when, on the rocky cliffs of Malta, the Euroclydon was driving the waters into foam; he may have slept in its warm shelter on the uplands under the canopy of the stars; it may have covered his trembling limbs, bruised with the brutal rods of the lictors, as he lay that night in the dungeon of Philippi; and now the old man thinks, as he calls himself, with a passing touch of self-pity, an ambassador in chains, and as he sits shivering in some gloomy cell under the walls, or, it may be, on the rocky floor of the Palladio, in the wintry nights that are coming on, he bethinks him of the old cloak, and asks Timothy to bring it with him. “ The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments” --the Biblia and the papyrus books, few we may be sure and yet old friends. Perhaps he had bought some of those very books in the school of Gamaliel at Jerusalem, or had received some of them as presents from his wealthier converts. Perhaps among them may have been some of those books in which, as we can trace from his Epistles, he had read the poems of his native poet, Aratus, or some of the pamphlets Of Plato, or the wisdom of Solomon. The papyrus books, then, “ but especially the parchments,” that is, especially the works inscribed on vellum--what were these? Was there any document amongst them which would have been useful to prove his rights as a Roman citizen? Were there any precious rolls of Isaiah and the Psalms, or the lesser prophets, which father or mother may have given him as a life-long treasure (for in those days parchments were valuable things)in the far-off days when, little dreaming of all that awaited him, he played as a happy boy in the dear old Tarsian home? Dreary and long are the days; longer and drearier still are the evenings in that Roman dungeon, and often the rude legionary soldier, who detests to be chained to a sick and suffering Jew, is coarse and cruel to him. And he cannot always be engaged in the sweet session of silent thought, even in the sweet hopes of the future or the remembrance of the past. He knows Scripture well, but it will be a deep joy to read once more how David and Isaiah, in all their troubles, learned, like his own poor self, to suffer and be strong. Who, as he reads this last message, can help remembering the touching letter written from the damp cells of his prison by our own noble martyr, William Tyndale, one of the greatest of our translators of the English Bible: “ I entreat your lordship,” he writes, “ and that by the Lord Jesus, that, if I was to remain here for the winter, you would beg the Commissary to be so kind as to send me, from the things of mine which he has, a warmer cap; I feel the cold painfully in my head; also a warmer cloke, for the one I have is very thin; also some cloth to patch my leggings. My overcoat is worn out, my shirts even are threadbare. The Commissary has a woollen shirt of mine if he will be so kind as to send it. But most of all I entreat your kindness to do your best with the Commissary to be so good as to send me my Hebrew Bible, grammar, and vocabulary, that I may spend my time in that pursuit. William Tyndale.” The noble martyr was not thinking of St. Paul; but history repeats itself, and what is this fragment from the letter which he, too, wrote so soon before his death, but the same thing as “ the cloke which I left at Troas with Carpus, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments” ? I. Does it not show us that this great and holy apostle was first a man like ourselves; a tried and suffering man with human wants and human sympathies; aye, and human limitations, and with transcendentally severer trials, yet with no greater privileges than we enjoy? Does he not call to us with more clear encouragement, “ Faint not, dear brother, dear sister in the Lord; I, too, was weak; I, too, was tempted; but thou, no less than I, canst do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us” ? II. Then, in what a lovely light of manliness, good sense, and contentment does this place the apostle’ s character! The sword, he well knows, is hanging over his head whose flash shall slay him, but life is life. Until the Lord calls him, there is no reason at all why life should not go on, not only in its quiet duties, but also with such small blessings as it yet may bring. There is no flaring fanaticism, no exaggerated self-denial, here. The wintry nights will be cold and dull; there is no sort of merit in making them colder and duller. That is why he writes for the cloak and the dear old books. God, for our good, sends us all trials enough to bear, but it is only for our good. There is not the least reason--it is not even right--to create tortures and miseries for ourselves which God has not sent us. We are allowed to take and we ought to take every harmless and every innocent gift which God permits to us, and to thank Him for it. III. Then, look at the matter in one more light. What is it that a life of ceaseless ungrudging labour has left to St. Paul? What earthly possessions has the apostle gained as the sum total of services to the world, unparalleled in intensity and unparalleled in self-denial? Perhaps he wants to leave some small memento behind him, some trifling legacy by which some true heart may remember him “ ere the rippled sea of life flows smooth once more over his nameless grave.” Just as the hermit St. Antony left the great bishop St. Athanasius his one sole possession, which was his sheep-skin cloak, so St. Paul, perhaps, might have liked to leave to the kind and faithful Luke, or to the true and gentle Timothy, the cloak, the books, the parchments. But, oh, how small a result of earth’ s labours, if earth were everything, worth far less than a dancer gets for a single figure in a theatre, or an acrobat for a fling on the trapeze; not worth one-millionth part of what a patent brings in for some infinitesimal invention! Oh, the work and the reward are not the same for eternity. It is not for such rewards that the great high service of the world is done. Earth’ s rewards, observe, have marvellously small relations to intrinsic values. The singer who has a fine note in her voice may blaze in diamonds worth a king’ s ransom. But the thinker who has raised the aim and nature of nations may die unnoticed; and the poet, who has enriched the blood of the earth, may be left to starve. Paul pours out his whole life as a libation on God’ s altar, in agonies for his fellow-men; he cleanses the customs, he brightens the hope, he purifies the life of men; he adds, for centuries, to the untold ennoblement of generations; what is the sum total of his earthly reward? What is the inventory of all his earthly possessions as he sits upon his prison floor? Just “ the cloke that I left at Troas, and the books, but especially the parchments.” Would that content you? Do you think that he sighed or was envious of evildoers, when he contrasted his solo possessions--that cloak and those few books, which were all that he had--with the jewels of the adventurer Agrippa, or the purple of the execrable Nero? Not one whir. They were not what he had aimed at. He sat loose to those earthly interests on which men’ s minds are sometimes to the last so deplorably and so hideously fixed. No; better as it is. He will thank God for such warmth as he may find in the cloak and such consolation as the books may bring him, and, for the rest, he will trust death, and he will throw himself on God. (Archdeacon Farrar.) Note-books of his own making or collecting: these are highly prized by students. Julius Caesar, being forced to swim for his life, held his commentaries m one hand above water, and swam to land with the other. (J. Trapp.) A great love of books An incident of my own experience has often interested me, and may not be without interest to you. I learnt one evening in London--it was at an evening party at which many persons were assembled--from a friend of mine that a friend of his and mine was lying dangerously, and, as it turned out, fatally ill in his chambers in the Temple. That friend of mine was the late Sir David Dundas, who was for many years in Parliament, and with whose friendship for many years I was favoured. I went down the next morning to ask after him, and, if it were proper, to see him. He invited me, through his servant, into his room, and I found him upon his bed of sickness, feeble, not able to talk much, and scarcely able to turn himself in his bed. We had some little conversation, and in the course of it he offered to me something like a benediction. He said--I remember his words very well--“ I have never pretended to be a learned man or a scholar, but God has given me a great love for books.” He then referred to the writings of the celebrated Lord Bacon, and taking a quotation from a letter which that eminent person had written to a friend, he turned to me and said, “ May God lead you by the hand.” That was one of the passages fixed in his mind from his reading of the words of Lord Bacon. Now, that was a solemn hour with my friend--if I may quote a very expressive and beautiful line from one of Scotland’ s real, but one of her minor poets, Michael Bruce--“ When dim in his breast life’ s dying taper burns.” At that solemn hour, reviewing his past life, reviewing the enjoyment he had partaken of, he thanked God for having given him “ a great love of books.” Two days after that--I think the second or third after that interview--that “ dying taper” was extinguished, and my friend passed into the unseen world. (John Bright.) A good book a lasting companion Truths which it has taken years to glean are therein at once freely but carefully communicated. We enjoy communion with the mind, though not with the person of the writer. Thus the humblest man may surround himself by the wisest and best spirits of past and present ages. No one can be solitary who possesses a book; he owns a friend that will instruct him in moments of leisure or of necessity. It is only necessary to turn over the leaves, and the fountain at once gives forth its streams. You may seek costly furniture for your homes, fanciful ornaments for your mantelpieces, and rich carpets for your floors; but, after the absolute necessaries for a home give me books as at once the cheapest, and certainly the most useful and abiding embellishments. (Family Friend.) Choice of books What books you will choose as your intimate friends will depend upon your humour and taste. Dr. Guthrie’ s choice seemed to me charming. He told me that he read through four books every year--the Bible, “ The Pilgrim’ s Progress,” four of Sir Waiter Scott’ s novels, which he reckoned as one book, and a fourth book, which I have forgotten, but I think it was “ Robinson Crusoe.” You will choose some books because they soothe and quiet you; some because they are as invigorating as mountain air; some because they amuse you by the shrewdness of their humour; some because they give wings to your fancy; some because they kindle your imagination. (R. W. Dale.) Mental occupation in prison Exile and imprisonment are among the darkest tragedies of existence. But Ovid, banished from the luxurious and learned capital to the barbarians of Tomis, in the inhospitable waste along the Euxine, stripped of property, wife, and children, saved himself from despair by labour, and, surrounded by hopeless savagery, produced some of the finest of his works. Boethius, the last and noblest of the ancients, before the darkness of the Middle Ages fell on Europe, lying under unjust sentence of death in the tower of Pavia, forbidden books, intercourse with fellow-scholars, preserved his sanity and fortitude to face a cruel death by writing “ The Consolation of Philosophy.” “ Don Quixote,” which convulsed a nation with merriment, was the solace of an undeserved imprisonment, which bodily suffering made more unendurable. The dungeon of Waiter Raleigh was his calm study. In the condemned cell Madame Roland, less moved by the certainty of her own fate than by apprehension for her beloved husband, fortified her mind against possible madness by the composition of her memoirs. Lady Jane Grey and Mary Queen of Scots beguiled imprisonment of half its terrors with hard study and careful writing. (Harper’ s Bazaar.) An affection for a cloak Newman tells us (in 1840) how he kept an old blue cloak which he got in 1823, and “ had an affection for it,” because it had “ nursed me through all my illness. I have it still. I have brought it up here to Littlemore, and on some cold nights I have had it on my bed. I have so few things to sympathise with me that I take to cloaks.” An endeared garment A shawl with a strange history was buried with the late Professor Cocker, of Michigan University. Shortly before his death, Dr. Cocker called the attention of his pastor to a worn and faded shawl spread on his bed, and requested to have it wrapped around his body and buried with him. He had made it himself when a young man in England; had worn it in all his journeyings to and from over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, when residing in Australia, when he escaped from the Fiji Islanders as they were preparing to kill and roast him, and when he was ship wrecked. It accompanied him when he landed in the United States, and even clad the remains of his dead child when, penniless and disheartened, he first arrived in Adrian. It is not surprising that a garment with such associations had, though worn and faded, become precious to him, and his desire that his body should be enshrouded in it is easily understood. Use of a cloak John Welch, the old Scotch minister, used to put a plaid across his bed on cold nights, and some one asked him why he put that there. He said: “ Oh, sometimes in the night I want to sing the praises of Jesus, and I get down and pray. Then I just take that plaid and wrap it around me to keep myself from the cold.” Cloak, books, and parchments Winter was coming on, and his somewhat emaciated frame was less able than formerly to withstand the cold. He remembers that when he was last at Troas, he left his heavy overcoat there, in charge of his friend Carpus, probably because he preferred to take a portion of his journey on foot. He will be sure to need it as the weather becomes more severe, so he requests Timothy, who is now at Ephesus, to bring it with him when he comes west to Italy. I. Take care of your bodily health. Young men are often particularly neglectful on this matter. Many is the man whose constitution has been undermined for life by his own carelessness as a youth in respect of food, rest, and clothing. II. Maintain the culture of your mind. Do not be so engrossed with business, that you rarely open an instructive book. Do not forget that your intellect wants to be stimulated and fed, as it cannot be if you think of nothing but bills, and accounts, and orders, and invoices, and what is vulgarly and expressively called “ shop.” A sailor, who had circumnavigated the globe with Captain Cook, was pressed by his friends to give them some account of the wonders he had seen, and at last consented to do so on a certain evening. A large and eager company assembled, in expectation of a great intellectual treat; when the rough mariner thus began and ended his description of his travels: “ I have been round the world with Captain Cook, and all that I saw was the sky above me and the water beneath me.” And, truth to tell, there are young men who show little more discernment than that blunt sailor. They have no intellectual ambition, no thirst for knowledge, no passionate desire for self-improvement. If business is going on well, and their salary is regularly paid, and they have enough to eat and drink, they are content. There is no systematic study; no training of the mind, no whetting or sharpening of the intellectual faculties. I warn you, young men, against so ignoble a use of what is, in some respects, the best part of life. Lord Bacon’ s opinion upon books he thus expressed: “ That histories make men wise, poets, witty; mathematics, subtle; natural science, deep; moral philosophy, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to debate.” As you would possess such qualities, then, your reading must be catholic and extensive. III. Especially see to the welfare of the soul. However limited be your reading, see that the Bible has its rightful place. It is said that in the British Museum alone there are so many books that the mere mechanical reading of them would demand a thousand years. So you cannot read everything--you must make your selection; but oh! let this peerless volume reign supreme in your library. Let it be the monarch of your bookshelves. There is an old Latin proverb, which is good enough so long as the Bible is out of account, “Cave ab homine unius libri”--i.e., “ Beware of a man of one book.” But when that one book is the Book of God, the counsel may be inverted; for there is no man more to be sought after than the man who daily feeds from this table, and drinks from this well. “ Especially the parchments.” Let no general reading, however excellent and instructive, elbow this to one side. Be diligent students of God’ s Word, “ and,” as Dr. Doddridge said, “ you shall be excellent scholars ten thousand years hence” ; whereas, however proficient in secular knowledge, if the Bible be neglected, you shall be unfitted for the occupations of the redeemed in heaven. You have a richer Bible than ever Paul possessed. Those clumsy, greasy “ parchments,” written by laborious scribes, would form a strange contrast to such triumphs of modern skill as are now sent out in millions from the great repository in Queen Victoria Street; and you can place in your waistcoat-pocket treasures of inspiration, which in the apostle’ s time would have taxed the strength of a man to carry. The greater, then, your responsibility. Oh, make good use of your Bibles! Above all, accept without delay the Divine salvation revealed. (J. T. Davidson, D. D.) The cloak and the parchments; or, man’ s needs We have here--1. A striking illustration of the manner of Divine inspiration. The divinest communications of truth appear in connection with things of personal and secular concern. 2. A beautiful display of spiritual self-possession. 3. An affecting utterance of human needs. With all his present principles, past achievements, and future destiny, he has yet necessities as well as resources. Spirituality did not destroy his physical sensibilities; heroic courage and independence did not deaden his social affections; supernatural illumination did not make him depreciate the ordinary means of information and excitement. I. physical. “ The cloak.” Paul needed a garment, and wished for one. To slight the body is a mark of heretics; to destroy it is to be a murderer. What a world of need is caused by its possession! What urgent demands does it make on care and effort, skill and labour! But the thought here is, that the body is a source of trouble, inconvenience, dependence;--that small things may lead to its discomfort and injury. Let but the ordinary laws of nature be broken; let but the ordinary operations of life be suspended; let there be but a little accident, a slight mistake, a temporary forgetfulness; and how bitterly are we made to feel the pressure and responsibility of our material charge! We cannot afford to trifle with or ignore it. The most spiritual and independent must remember the mislaid or forgotten dress. II. The social. “ When thou comest.” “ Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me.” Man is a social being--made to feel for and with his fellow-men. He is revealed, regaled, renewed by fellowship. It is a lamp, a feast, a buttress of his being. It is everything whereby he can be ministered unto, or help to minister. Fellowship in woe, in joy, in work, in thought, is a rich delight, and in most cases a great necessity. III. The spiritual. “ The books, especially the parchments.” We know not what these were, but are sure they were books tending to cultivation of mind and heart. What a field of thought is opened up by these words I See the ministry of minds; see their working and results preserved and propagated by the use of letters; see the labours and rewards of some made the inheritance of others; and all this beyond the sphere Of personal presence and immediate influence see it done for men and ages unborn. What a debt we owe to books! What information and stimulus! what means of growth! what instruments of knowledge, joy, and power! “ Especially the parchments.” Some think these were a kind of commonplace book, in which the apostle put his own reflections and precious passages met with in his reading. If so, we have an important thought. That is most a man’ s own which he has originated, or thoroughly appropriated by meditation. Books are nothing but as they are “ read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested.” Lessons:1. The subject teaches humility.2. Gratitude.3. Benevolence.4. Self-interest. (A. J. Morris.) The cloak at Troas It appears to us that Paul’ s request for his cloak left at Troas affords an undesigned proof of a striking feature in his character--viz., that sobriety of mind which, on the one hand, never separates the things of earth from the things of heaven; nor, on the other hand, ever esteems spiritual-mindedness, and the ardent contemplation of unseen things, to be inconsistent with attention to the ordinary ongoings, the common duties, and little details of every-day life. Paul was not further removed from the worldliness which never seeks to ascend in heart to heaven, than from the fanaticism and morbid pietism we sometimes witness, which only condescends to visit earth. The “ light of life” which he enjoyed filled and blended into one common glory the things of earth and heaven, of time and of eternity! At one moment, for instance, we hear him exclaim (2 Timothy 4:6-8). Yet, when his course was being finished, his death near, his reward sure, and while he sees the glories of heaven opening before his enraptured eye, it is even then that he expresses his anxiety to obtain his cloak from Treas. What evidence does this coincidence afford of calmness, peace, and sobriety of mind! Such we have sometimes witnessed, too, in aged Christians of long experience, who, on their deathbeds, could gaze upon the unseen world of everlasting rest, on which they were entering with perfect peace and full assured hope, while, at the same time, they attended with cheerful spirit to those common household duties and family arrangements from which, in person, they were soon to be for ever severed. (Edinburgh Christian Magazine.) 2 Timothy 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil.Indignation an important quality in a true man At a party at Dalkeith Palace, where Mr. in his mawkish way was finding palliations for some villainous transaction, Adam Smith waited in patient silence until he was gone, then exclaimed, “ Now I can breathe more freely. I cannot bear that man; he has no indignation in him.” (W. H. Baxendale.) Of whom be thou ware 1. We must shun the society of incurable sinners. Whilst men are hopeful and curable we must try all means to win them. 2. Opposing of the truth is very grievous to a gracious soul. “ For he hath greatly withstood our words.” God’ s people are baptized with fire as well as with water, and must be hot and not lukewarm or indifferent in the things of God. 3. Wicked men do not so much oppose our persons as our preaching. They hate us not as men, but as ministers, because we publish the truth that condemns their wicked practices. (T. Hall, B. D.) 2 Timothy 4:16-18 All men forsook me.Paul, a Christian’ s example I. Paul forsaken, and yet forgiving those who had withdrawn from him.1. The apostle was forsaken by his friends when most he needed them.2. Paul’ s friends leaving him, made him the more helpless.3. Paul’ s friends leaving him, discovered their frailty.4. The apostle’ s forgiving spirit is particularly worthy of our notice. II. Paul upheld, and therefore preaching.1. Paul was upheld by Divine grace.2. The Lord was present with His servant.3. The Lord stood by the apostle that his kind of preaching might be fully known.4. We who are Gentiles have heard the apostle’ s kind of preaching. III. Paul delivered, and so acknowledging.1. This was a seasonable deliverance.2. This was a great deliverance.3. The Lord was the accomplisher of this deliverance.4. Paul gratefully acknowledges his deliverance. IV. Paul encouraged, and therefore glorifying.1. The apostle was encouraged to look for a glorious destination--heavenly kingdom--the kingdom of glory. 2. The apostle was encouraged to look for Divine preservation--shall deliver still. 3. The apostle was encouraged in his expectations by former deliverances (2 Corinthians 11:24-27; 2 Corinthians 11:31-33). 4. In the whole, Paul glorified the Lord. Conclusion:1. To those who question us with regard to our hope, we should be able to give an answer. 2. We should exercise a forgiving spirit towards our brethren. 3. When we feel our own weakness, this should lead us to look to the Lord for assistance. 4. We should glorify God for all our deliverances. 5. We should remember that the Lord alone can save and preserve us. What will those do who forget this? (John Miller.) The adversity of the good I. That great adversity frequently befalls the rest of men. This shows--1. That neither adversity nor prosperity is any test of character.2. That there must come a period of retribution. II. That great adversity exposes the weakness of our rest friendships. III. That great adversity developes the magnanimous in the heart of the good. “ I pray God,” etc. Like Stephen under shower of stones, and Christ on cross. IV. That great adversity demonstrates ever more the faithfulness of God. “ Notwithstanding the Lordstood by me” (Job 5:19). (Homilist.) Man’ s extremity is God’ s opportunity 1. All men forsook me, but the Lord stood by me. Hence, observe: that man’ s extremity is God’ s opportunity, or when man’ s help faileth then God appeareth, He then cometh in as an Auxiliary. The Lord only is immutable, He never faileth His at their need. God’ s people are never less alone than when they are most alone; never less forsaken than when they are forsaken of all. 2. Strengthening grace is the gift of God. “ And strengthened me.” He doth not only give us renewing grace and then leave us to our own free-will, but He giveth us persevering grace also. As He is the Author of our grace by vocation, so He is the finisher of it by preservation. 3. Whilst God hath any work for His servants to do, He will assist and uphold them in spite of all oppositions. “ That by me the preaching might be fully known.” Though Nero rage against Paul, and all men forsake him, yet God will assist him that He may preach the gospel to the world. Our comfort is, that our times are not in our enemies’ hands but in the hands of a gracious God. 4. God would have His truth revealed to the sons of men. “ And that all the Gentiles might hear.” He would have the gospel known--fully known--to the Gentiles. Truth is good, and the more common it is the better. Where it getteth ground, Satan’ s kingdom falleth like lightning from heaven suddenly and irresistibly (Luke 10:18). Let none then hide their talents, but as the sun freely communicateth its light and heat to us, so let us freely impart our gifts unto others. 5. The Church’ s enemies ofttimes are lions. “ And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” Lions for potency, lions for policy (Psalms 17:12), lions for cruelty, lions for terror. Be serpents for policy, and not for poison, lions for prowess, and not for rapine. Be not familiar with these lions, come not near their-dens lest they make a prey of you, have no fellowship with such unfruitful works of darkness but reprove them rather. 6. God many times suffers His dearest children to fall into the mouths of these lions, so that to a carnal eye they seem hopeless and helpless. 7. That God will deliver His from this great danger. He that brought thee into the mouth of the lion will bring thee out again (Daniel 6:22). ( T. Hall, B. D.) God’ s goodness in the greatest distresses I. Paul’ s experience of God’ s loving care for him in his past deliverances.1. The enemies of the truth are oft for power, always for malice--lions.2. God suffers His dearest children to fall into the mouths of lions.3. In their extremities God delivers them-- (1) By suspending the malice of their foes.(2) By raising up one lion against another.(3) By diverting them from their intended prey.(4) By changing their nature to lambs.(5) By showing Himself a lion.(6) By making them lions to themselves.(7) By making them friends, putting some conceit or fancy into their heart.(8) By making His own people lions to their adversaries. II. Paul’ s assured hope, built upon his experience.1. “ The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work.” God preserves from evil works by planting the graces of faith and fear in us. 2. “ And will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom.” By Himself, and by inferior agencies. III. The issue of both his experience and his hopes. As they flow from God’ s grace, so he ascribes to Him the glory. We honour ourselves when we honour God; our praising God causes others to do so. (R. Sibbes, D. D.) Deliverance and salvation through death “ Deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever. Amen.” So our Lord taught us to pray. Is there not an echo of the prayer in these words of the prisoner? Surely it is not accident that so many of the keywords of the closing petitions of the Lord’ s Prayer recur here. And this burst of triumph is his very last word to his friend Timothy, with the exception of one or two closing personal salutations. That bird could sing in a darkened cage, and had the firmest and brightest hopes when all seemed darkest. I. Consider then, first, the prisoner’ s confidence. It is quite clear that he expected nothing but death. Only a few verses before he has said, “ I am now in the very act of being offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.” And yet, with death staring him in the face, and with nothing more clear to his anticipation than that his work was done, and that there only remained for him to wait for the crown, he breaks into this rapture of triumph, and says, “ The Lord will deliver me from every evil world, and will preserve me,” or, to take the pregnant expression of the text, “ save me into His heavenly kingdom.” May we not learn from this what the true meaning of deliverance from evil is; and what therefore is meant by the petition when it occurs in the pattern prayer? It is not exemption from trial, not escape from even the uttermost severity of it. Whosoever is able in the midst of all, to keep firm hold of his faith and, by his faith, of his Saviour, has received deliverance from the evil which pours all its vials of plagues upon his head. For the only thing that really does us harm is that which drags us away from God. “ He shall deliver me from every evil work” ; not because the sword will not fall upon my neck, but because, when it does, it will not part me from my Christ. “ He shall deliver me from every evil work” ; not because I shall not taste the full bitterness of the cup that is commended to my lips, but because in the very act of drinking the most nauseous potion I shall take it as a cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. That is deliverance. The same line of thought may be suggested in reference to the other clause of this expression of confidence, which teaches us to look at the last of the so-called evils. Paul expects to be “ delivered from” and to be “ saved into.” The former phrase contemplates removal from the sphere of evil, the latter, the bringing safely into another sphere where evil is unknown, even that kingdom in the heavens over which Christ serenely held sovereign sway, while Nero afflicted the earth with a delirium of blood and lust. And what was the prose fact which presented itself to Paul’ s faith, thus radiantly clad in robes of triumph? Nothing else than that grim form of Death, feared and hated of men as the worst of all calamities, seems to him a deliverer and angel-messenger of salvation, who came “ not to destroy men’ s lives, but to save them,” not to drive them into the gloomy dominions of the grave, but to lead them safe into the heavenly kingdom of his Lord and theirs. For Christ’ s servants Death is the lackey who opens the doors of the presence-chamber of the King. The apostle employs in my text a different preposition to describe this ultimate deliverance from that which he does when he says, “ I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” In one case he represents the peril as though he was, as it were, dragged from between the teeth that threatened to devour him. In the other case the deliverance is more complete, and implies complete removal away from the sphere in which evil works. Taken together, the two prepositions in the two clauses, from and into, present the idea of change of place, or, as we may say, a migration from one realm and order of things to another. Thus the final saving is here regarded as a deliverance which lifts us out of the lower levels of the atmosphere, where evil, like some wild cyclone sweeps howling and destroying, and carries us into the quiet regions above, where loud winds never call, but “ all the air a solemn stillness holds,” though stagnation is as far away as tumult. II. A second consideration is suggested by these words--namely, the ground of the prisoner’ s confidence. The “ and” at the beginning of the text is very probably spurious, but none the less is the confidence expressed in the text based upon the experience narrated in the preceding sentence. There Paul thankfully tells Timothy, “ I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” Therefore he is sure that the future will be like the past--“ I was delivered” --“ the Lord shall deliver.” That experience, then, is the first ground of his confidence. God’ s “ hitherto” has always wrapped up in it a “ henceforth.” All that He has been He will be. There are no tenses in His verbs. The past and the future are smelted down into one eternal and unchangeable present. But there is another ground of confidence on which I may touch for a moment. If I am at all correct in tracing any kind of connection between the words of my text and the Lord’ s Prayer, that very prayer is the basis of the confidence which is here expressed, and Paul is sure that God will deliver, and that he will come to Christ’ s heavenly kingdom because Jesus Christ taught him to pray, “ Deliver me from evil.” So he makes his prayer into a promise, and out of all these Christ-taught petitions he wins the assurance of Christ-given hopes. Happy they who so pray as that out of their prayers they can construct confidences! III. Lastly, note the praise that springs from the confidence. “ Unto Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Paul’ s thankfulness arises from his anticipation, and not from the realisation, of deliverance. So completely did this man’ s faith make real to him at the moment the future deliverance that irrepressibly there bursts from his lips this great thanksgiving and doxology. If the anticipation led to such sweet music of praise, what would the reality do? Ought we not to entertain our yet unreceived blessings with as full a welcome and credence, and with as lively a gratitude, as speaks here? Should we not draw them to ourselves before they come, in the exercise of a hope based upon God’ s faithful promises which will open our lips to show forth His praise? We should note still further in this doxology the unconditional attribution of Divine honour to Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who is here called “ the Lord,” and while the word does not necessarily imply Christ’ s divinity, the ascriptions of praise here unhesitatingly laid at His feet can neither be explained nor justified, unless the speaker owned Him as Divine. Paul’ s Christ was not a Christ who had once done sweet and great things, and could do such no more, but a Christ working to-day for His servant. Note, too, that the ascription to Jesus of glory that shall shine through ages of ages is here connected with Paul’ s salvation. He did not think himself as of such exceptional importance that his salvation would bring more glory to Jesus Christ than that of others would do. Lowly self-oblivion and wondering gratitude, not arrogance, speak here. Precisely because he is so unworthy and weak does the apostle think that the power and love which would and could save him call for endless praise. The poorer the material the more the artist’ s glory. For ever and ever the praise of the glory of God’ s grace in Christ will ring through the universe. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Conserving grace 1. The experience of God’ s former deliverances must make us rest upon Him for future? “ From every evil work.” Though God doth not save His people from suffering, yet He will save them from sin; and though He leave in them infirmities, yet He will free them from enormities, and from total apostasy. 3. God is the preserver of His people. “ And He will preserve me to His heavenly kingdom.” But especially He keeps their souls in an holy frame till He bring them to glory. It is not sufficient that we light a lamp, but there must be a continual supply of oil, else the light will go out. So it is not sufficient that we have preventing, preparing, renewing grace, but we must also have subsequent, conserving, perfecting, persevering grace daily given in to preserve us from apostasy. We have always need of a Divine maintenancy till we have finished our course (Psalms 73:23). And this He will do in despite of all our enemies; if anything destroy us it is sin, and for that we have God’ s hand here that He will deliver us from every evil work that might any way ruin us, and so preserve us till He have brought us to heaven. He keeps heaven for the saints, and the saints for heaven. 4. God’ s goodness to His people is wholly free. All His dispensations to His are free grace and pure mercy. 5. God is a good and bountiful Master to His people. 6. In our deepest distress we should have an eye to this heavenly kingdom. So doth Paul here. Whatever thy sorrows or sufferings be here, yet remember there is a heavenly kingdom will pay for all. 7. God will bring His people to a kingdom, to an heavenly kingdom. (T. Hall, B. D.) Never a friend Paul might have said, as Socrates did, My friends, I have never a friend. And as Plato, A friend is a very mutable creature. (J. Trapp.) Why earthly props are removed “ See, father I” said a lad who was walking with his father, “ they are knocking away the props from under the bridge; what are they doing that for? Won’ t the bridge fall?” “ They are knocking them away,” said the father, “ that the timbers may rest more firmly upon the stone piers which are now finished.” God only takes away our earthly props that we may rest more firmly upon Him. (Elon Foster.) Folly of persecution In the Indian legend a mighty, wicked sorcerer seeks, with very poor success, to keep the sun, moon, and stars in three separate chests; and those who have sought to suppress God’ s servants have succeeded no better. John was banished to Patmos, but, far from sinking out of view in the solitary sea, he stands before the world amid sublimest illuminations, like his own “ angel standing in the sun.” They drove Luther into the Wartzburg; but there, in translating the Scriptures into German, he became the cynosure of all eyes. Bunyan’ s enemies consigned him to Bedford Gaol, and so he became known to the race, one of the foremost of the immortals of Christendom. (W. L. Watkinson.) Divine protection Mr. J. G. Oncken was the Baptist pioneer in Germany, and in his younger days suffered for the truth’ s sake, both fine and imprisonment. We remember his pointing out to us the spot upon the Alster where he baptized his converts at dead of night, and we shall never forget his story of the burgomaster of Hamburg, who held up his finger and said, “ You see that finger! As long as that can move I will put you down.” “ Sir,” said Oncken, “ I see your finger, but I also see an arm, which you do not see, and so long as that is stretched out you cannot put me down.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Confidence in God John Wesley once stood out very nobly in disregarding the eyes of men so long as he stood acquitted in the sight of God. Among his many persecutions are to be numbered the falling back of former friends, including his wife. These turned against him, and published many spiteful things, even defaming his character in a shocking manner. Brother Charles hastened off in alarm and indignation to inquire what defence Brother John would set up. There was no time to lose! The eyes of the world were upon him, and God’ s enemies and his own would be glad to make capital out of so contemptible a business What was Charles’ s surprise to find that John was resolved on doing simply nothing! The great preacher was calm and comfortable in mind, being entirely free from any concern for the future. Why should he be perplexed when he had entrusted God with his all--even with his reputation? None are so safe as those whose characters are in God’ s keeping. Such often consider that they dishonour God by setting up puny defences of their own against the cavils of the wicked. They think more of that one eye of God which is ever looking on them than of the eyes of men. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The faithfulness of Jesus It is recorded of a good man that his last day, with the exception of a few intervals, was passed in unconsciousness. Seeing a look of returning intelligence, one asked, “ Are you thinking of Jesus to-day” His reply of loving trust was never to be forgotten: “ When I am conscious I am thinking of Jesus; when I am unconscious Jesus is thinking of me.” Looking up for help One morning, not long after my arrival at Llandrindod, the artist was showing me a “ printed proof” of a likeness of myself recently taken, when, in reply to a remark, he said, “ You see, sir, you have such a habit of looking up.” The words came to me with a meaning he did not intend them to convey. I quite rejoiced to hear them. (J. T. Wrenford, M. A.) Prayer and trust This is the true inmost essence of prayer--not that we should prescribe to Him how to answer our desires, but that we should leave all that in His hands. The apostle Paul said, in his last letter, with triumphant confidence, that he knew that God would “ deliver him and save him into His everlasting kingdom.” And he knew, at the same time, that his course was ended, and that there was nothing for him now but the crown. How was he “ saved into the kingdom” and “ delivered from the mouth of the lion” ? The sword that struck off the wearied head that had thought so long for God’ s Church was the instrument of the deliverance and the means of the salvation. For us it may be that a sharper sorrow may be the answer to the prayer, “ Preserve Thy servant.” It may be that God’ s “ bowing down His ear” and answering us when we cry shall be to pass us through a mill that has finer rollers, to crush still more the bruised corn. But the end and the meaning of it all will be to “ rejoice the soul of the servant” with a deeper joy at last. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) 2 Timothy 4:19 The household of Onesipherus.An extensive blessing As the dew that falleth on the mountains runs down to the valleys, and the precious ointment that was poured upon the head of Aaron ran down to the skirts of his clothing (Psalms 133:1-3.), so the blessing which God pours on governors extendeth itself to such as are under them. (T. Hall, B. D.) 2 Timothy 4:20 Trophimus sick.Unaccomplished aims How many broken-down servants of God are there to-day, Christian men and women, who have proved their sincerity, who do prove their sincerity, but whose thin hand can do little or nothing in raising the stones of the shrine they so passionately desire to build? As in the busiest thoroughfares of great cities we behold wistful faces looking down from hospital windows, longing to share in the strong life of the streets; so are there frail, broken-down watchers of the work of God who long to share the toil and sacrifice of God’ s workmen. (W. L. Watkinson.) Use of sickness Hannah More made the following entry in her journal (Jan. 21, 1798): “ Many temptations this week to vanity. My picture asked for two publications. Dedications--flattery without end. God be praised, I was not flattered, but tired--twenty-four hours’ headache makes me see the vanity of all this.” (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.) 2 Timothy 4:21 Come before winter.Winter voyages I. The voyage to the eternal city.1. The departure.2. The voyage.3. The guidance of the helmsman.4. The propulsion of all progress must come from the winds of heaven.5. Industry on board the ship.6. The shipping of the anchor.7. The end of the journey. II. The avoidance of winter risks. Put not off to old age, etc. III. The adventure of diligence. Make haste. There is no time to lose. (S. H. Tyng, Jr. , D. D.) Friendships Of such friendships biography happily furnishes us with many examples:--Gray, the poet, and Mason; Cowper and Mrs. Unwin; Tennyson and Arthur Henry Hallam; Keats and Severn; Elizabeth Carter and Bishop Seeker; Mrs. Taft and Miss Marsh. This collocation of names reminds us of the old fallacy that true friendship can subsist only between individuals of similar character and disposition. Never was there a greater delusion! A man’ s friend is never his counterpart, but his complement; supplies that which is wanting in himself. And this is the use and value of friendship, it is like an offensive and defensive alliance between two equal powers, in which the one undertakes to furnish a military and the other a naval force, it provides for each party to the bond that which he or she most needs. (The Fireside.) Eubulus and Pudens, and Ltuus, and Claudia. Eubulus is mentioned here only. It has been thought possible that Pudens may be the friend of the poet Martial, whose marriage with Claudia, a foreign lady, he celebrates in Epigram 8. lib. 4., supposing that other epigrams which are not favourable to the moral character of Pudens were written before his conversion. An inscription found at Colchester mentions a site given by one Pudens for a temple, built under the sanction of a British king, Claudius Cogidubrius; and it has been conjectured that this was the same Pudens who was a centurion in the army, and who may have married the daughter of Cogidubrius, whose name would consequently have been Claudia. The Claudia Rufina of Martial was a Briton, and may have received the name of Rufina from Pomponia, the wife of Aulus Ptantius, commander in Britain, who was connected with the Ruff family, and was accused of holding foreign superstitions. All this, however, is very uncertain. Linus is probably the same Roman Christian who became the first bishop of the Church there, according to Ignatius and Eusebius. (Bp. Jackson.) 2 Timothy 4:22 The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit.The highest wish of true friendship I. Man has a spiritual nature. Spirit is something that is unlike matter--indivisible, self-active, self-conscious, religious. That man has a spirit is--1. A fact most demonstrable.2. A fact most practically ignored.3. A fact the most distinguishing--marking us off from all mundane existences. II. Man’ s spiritual nature needs the companionship of Christ.1. Christ alone can centralise its affections.2. Christ alone can enlist unbounded reliance. III. Companionship with Christ is an attainable blessing. (Homilist.) Christ with us I. Let us inquire in what sense the Lord Jesus Christ is with His people. We cannot hope to enjoy His bodily presence. It was expedient that He should go away; and still it is expedient that He should remain away. Yet in His spiritual presence He can be with us. II. He is with us when, as the universal ruler, He governs all things for our good. But the prayer of Paul for Timothy is, “ The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit.” What we need is a consciousness of Christ’ s presence--the enjoyment of fellowship with Him. As the eagle soars towards the sun, so he soars towards God. The spirit of man needs God; especially God manifest in the flesh. It is only as He is with us--filling us with all the fulness of God, that our spirits find rest. Then we are assured of reconciliation, forgiveness, and eternal blessedness. III. The requirements of our earthly state cause us to need the presence of Christ. We are exposed to temptation; how shall we resist it unless He help us? IV. Have you ever thought of the great and manifold blessings which the presence of Christ brings to us? No visitor brings such gifts.1. How largely He increases our store of knowledge! What glorious revelations He makes of His own beauty and worth, shining before us, like the sun, in the brightness of His own light! 2. Then, among the blessed results of Christ’ s presence, and not the least, is assimilation to His image. (W. Walters.) The presence of Christ with His people desirable All who desire the ministry, which Christ has established amongst them, to be useful, and wise, and successful, ought frequently to pray, “ The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit.” Nor is it less important in respect to their own individual piety, their growth in grace, and their preparation to go into eternity, that the Lord Jesus Christ be with their own spirits. This will appear: I. From a consideration of the inquiry. In no other way, except by the presence of Jesus, can we arrive at a purifying and sanctifying knowledge of the Word of God. II. The importance of praying, the Lord Jesus be with our spirits, will be manifest from the necessity of His presence in our devotions. This alone can cause our prayers to go up before God as a sweet savour. III. The importance of praying for the presence of Christ is manifest from its influence on our intercourse with the impenitent. Do we desire to set an example such as Christ set, and to have such an influence as He shed around Him, and to cause the mite of our moral power to fall into the current of that which our God, and the Lamb, and all the saints, have poured forth on an ungodly world? And shall we not desire that the Lord Jesus Christ would be with our spirits? IV. What can we do in our intercourse with the Church without the presence of Christ? V. What can we do in sickness without the presence of Christ? Conclusion:1. From the subject we learn the reason why so many are fluctuating in their religious characters. It is because the Lord Jesus Christ is not with their spirits. 2. The subject shows why there is so little effort for the salvation of the impenitent amongst us. It is because the Lord Jesus Christ is not enough with our spirits. 3. The subject explains some facts, which we have long witnessed but have not understood. (1) It explains why so many, who have named the name of Christ, do not appear to be Christians. (2) It explains why so many, who occasionally appear to be Christians, are generally without any evidence of piety--The Lord Jesus Christ is not with their spirit. (3) It explains why so many are changing their religious views and feelings, while they do not appear to wish to abandon religion itself--The Lord Jesus Christ is not with them. (4) It shows why the impenitent have so little respect for the Christian character amongst us--The Lord Jesus is not with us, as a Church. (5) It shows why, when so many persons in the Church and around it profess to be full of faith and love, there are few or none converted. (6) It shows what is necessary to a genuine revival of religion--That the Lord Jesus be with us. (7) It shows that all who are not labouring for one, seeking for one, and praying for one, are without Christ--He is not with them. (J. Foot, D. D.) Grace be with you. Continual grace The acts of breathing which I performed yesterday will not keep me alive to-day; I must continue to breathe afresh every moment, or animal life ceases. In like manner yesterday’ s grace and spiritual strength must be renewed, and the Holy Spirit must continue to breathe on my soul, from moment to moment, in order to my enjoying the consolations, and to my working the works of God. (Toplady.) .