Titus 1:1 Paul, a servant of God A servant of God “ Servant of God,” “ servant of Jesus Christ” --this is the title by which each one of the writers of the Epistles of the New Testament describes himself in one place or another. The title indicates their work in life, the place they hold in the world, and the definite object to which all their powers are devoted. For them God had tasks as much above the tasks and trials of Christians generally as the tasks of a great servant of State are above the responsibilities of those whom the State protects. St. Paul had parted company with what men care for and work for here, as the enthusiast for distant travel parts company with his home. I. This character is exclusive in its object and complete in its self-dedication. St. Paul knew no other interest here but the immense one of his Master’ s purpose in the world; this scene of experience, of pain and pleasure, of life and death, was as if it had ceased to be, except as the field on which he was to “ spend and be spent” in persuading men of what his Master meant for them. II. It contemplates as the centre of all interest and hope, the highest object of human thought and devotion, a presence beyond the facts of experience, the presence of the invisible god. What St. Paul lived for, so whole-hearted, so single-minded, was to be one with the will and purpose of Him who had chosen him from the millions of mankind to bear His name before the world. III. It accepts, as the measure of its labour and its endurance, the cross of jesus christ. For such a life a price had to be paid, and St. Paul’ s price was the acceptance of the fellowship of the cross of Christ. The likeness of the cross pervades every life of duty and earnestness--in lifelong trouble, in bereavement, in misunderstanding, in unjust suffering, in weary labour, in failure and defeat--God’ s proof and test of strength is laid upon us all. But we must not confound with this that partnership in their Master’ s sufferings which was the portion of servants like St. Paul, and for which he sought expression in the awful language recalling the Passion--“ I am crucified with Christ” ; “ I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ,” etc. There is no reason why, without extravagance, without foolish or overstrained enthusiasm, we should not still believe that a life like St. Paul’ s is a natural one for a Christian to choose. We still reverence his words; and his words have all along the history of the Church found echoes in many hearts. There is a great past behind us--a past which is not dead, but lives--lives in every thought we think and every word we speak, lives in our hopes, in our confidences and joy in life, lives in those high feelings which thrill and soothe us at the grave. May we not be unworthy of such a past! (Dean Church.)The honour of being a servant of God This being the first title whereby the apostle would get himself authority, teacheth that the very name of a servant of God is full of honour and authority. The apostle, comparing the glory of Christ with the glory of the angels (Hebrews 1:14), advanceth them as far as possibly he can, that Christ’ s glory, being so much more excellent than theirs there described, might be most highly exalted; and yet the highest ascent of their honour which he can rise unto is to title them “ ministering spirits” standing about God, from which service they are honoured with glorious names, of thrones, dominations, powers, rulers, principalities; and although the Scriptures most usually under this title express the low and humble condition of Christ, “ who took on Him the form of a servant,” yet also thereby the Lord would sometimes signify His great glory, as Isaiah 42:1. 1. This serves to teach ministers their duty, that seeing the Lord hath so highly honoured them as to draw them so near unto Himself, as it were admitting them into His presence chamber--yea, and unto His council table--they are in a way of thankfulness more straightly bound to two main duties (1) Diligence;(2) thankfulness. 2. This doctrine ministereth comfort unto those that are faithful in their ministry, whom, howsoever the world esteemeth of them, their Lord highly respecteth, admitteth them into His privy councils, and employeth in a service which the angels themselves desire to pry into. 3. Teacheth people how to esteem of their ministers, namely, as the servants of God, and consequently of their ministry as the message of God, which if it be, Moses must not be murmured at when he speaks freely and roughly; and if Micaiah resolve of faithfulness, saying, “ As the Lord liveth, whatsoever the Lord saith, be it good or evil, that will I speak,” why should he be hated and fed with “ bread and water of affliction” ? Is it not a reasonable plea, and full of pacification in civil messages--“ I pray you be not angry with me; I am but a servant” ? 4. Let every private Christian account it also his honour that the Lord vouchsafeth him to become His servant; and hereby harden thyself against the scorns and derisions of mocking Michals, who seek to disgrace thy sincerity. If the ungodly of the world would turn thy glory into shame, even as thou wouldest have the Son of man not to be ashamed of thee in His kingdom, be not thou ashamed to profess thyself His servant, which is thy glory. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Willing service Before the time when Abraham Lincoln emancipated three millions of coloured people in the Southern States of America, there was one day a slave auction in New Orleans. Amongst the number was a beautiful Mulatto girl, who was put upon the “ block” to be sold to the highest bidder, like a cow or a horse. The auctioneer, dilating on the graces of the girl, her skill in working, and the beauty of her form, asked for a bid. The first offer was five hundred dollars, and the bids quickly rose to seven hundred dollars. Then a voice called from the outside of the crowd, “ Seven hundred and fifty dollars!” The slave owners thereupon advanced their bids to eight hundred, eight hundred and fifty, and nine hundred dollars. The bids continued to rise, but whenever there was a pause the unseen bidder offered fifty dollars more, and at last the girl was knocked down to him for 1,450 dollars. He then came forward, and, paying the money, arranged to receive delivery of the lot in the morning. The slave girl saw that her purchaser was a Northerner, one of the hated “ Yankees,” and was much disgusted to become his slave. The next morning her new owner called at the house, when the poor girl said with tears, “ Sir, I am ready to go with you.” He gently replied, “ But I do not want you to go with me; please look over this paper!” She opened the paper, and found that it was the gift of her freedom. The Northerner said, “ I bought you that you might be free!” She exclaimed, “ You bought me that I might be free! Am I free? Free! Can I do as I like with myself?” He answered, “ Yes, you are free!” Then she fell down and kissed his feet, and almost choking with sobs of joy, she cried, Oh, sir, I will go with you, and be your servant for evermore!” And an apostle of Jesus Christ High office means chief service in the Church The apostle, by joining these two together, a servant and apostle, teacheth us that the chiefest offices in the Church are for the service of it. Was there any office above the apostles in the Church? And yet they preached the Lord Jesus, and themselves servants for His sake. Nay, our Lord Jesus Himself, although He was the Head of His Church, yet He came not into the world to be served, but to minister and serve.1. Ministers must never conceive of their calling, but also of this service, which is not accomplished but by service; thus shall they be answerable to Peter’ s exhortation (1 Peter 3:3) to feed the flock of God depending upon them, not by constraint, but willingly; “ not as lords over God’ s heritage, but as examples to the flock.” 2. Would’ st thou know what ambition Christ hath permitted unto His ministers? It is even this, that he that would be chief of all should become servant of all. (T. Taylor, D. D.) According to the faith of God’ s elect God’ s elect I. God hath some who are elect and chosen, and others are not. Men may be called the elect of God three ways.1. In respect of some temporal function or ministry to which the Lord hath designed them (John 6:70). 2. In regard of that actual election and choice of some people and nations above others, unto the true means of life and salvation, so to become the people of God’ s election. 3. In respect of that eternal election of God, which is according to grace, whereby of His good pleasure He chooseth from all eternity, out of all sorts of men, some to the certain fruition and fellowship of life eternal and salvation by Christ. These elect of God are here meant, the number of which is comparatively small; “ for many are called, but few chosen” --a little flock, and a few that have found the narrow way. II. These elect have a special faith, distinct by themselves.1. For there is an historical faith, standing in an assent and acknowledgment of the truth of things written and taught. 2. There is also an hypocritical faith, which passeth the former in two degrees. First, in that with knowledge and assent is joined such a profession of the truth as shall carry a great show and form of godliness. Secondly, a kind of gladness and glorying in that knowledge; for it is ascribed to some, who in temptation shall fall away, “ to receive the Word with joy.” To both which may be joined sometimes a gift of prophecy, sometimes of working miracles, as some in the last day shall say, “ Lord, have we not prophesied and cast out devils in Thy name?” and yet they shall be unknown of Christ. Neither of these is the faith of the elect here mentioned, but a third kind, called saving faith, the inheritance of which is the property of the elect; for the just man only liveth by this faith, which in excellency passeth both the former in three worthy properties. (1) In that here, with the act of understanding and assent unto the truth, there goeth such a disposition and affection of the heart as apprehendeth and applieth unto it the promise of grace unto salvation, causing a man to rejoice in God, framing him unto the fear of God and to the waiting through hope for the accomplishment of the promise of life. (2) In that whereas both the former are dead, and not raising unto a new life in Christ, what shows soever be made for the time, the sun of persecution riseth, and such moisture is dried up. This is a lively and quickening grace, reaching into the heart Christ and His merits, who is the life of the soul and the mover of it to all godly actions, not suffering the believer to be either idle or unfruitful in the work of the Lord. (3) Whereas both the former are but temporary, this is perpetual and lasting. The other, rising upon temporary causes and reasons, can last only for a time, as when men, for the pleasure of knowledge or the name of it, by industry attain a great measure of understanding in Divine things, or when, for note and glory or commodity, true or apparent, men profess the gospel. Let but these grounds fail a little, or persecution approach, they lay the key under the door, give up the house, and bid farewell to all profession. Thus many of Christ’ s disciples, who thought they had truly believed in Him, and that many months, when they heard Him speak of the eating of His flesh and drinking His blood, went back, and walked with Him no more. But the matter is here far otherwise, seeing this faith of the elect hath the promise made good to it that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it. III. This peculiar faith is wrought in the elect by the ministry of the word.1. If this be the principal end of the ministry, let ministers herein employ their first and principal pains to bring men unto the faith. 2. The minister ought to propound before him God’ s end in performance of every ministerial duty, and that is by enlightening, converting, confirming, comforting, to bring and stablish men in the faith. 3. The Lord having set out the ministry for this use, let every hearer acknowledge herein God’ s ordinance, and yield themselves with all submission unto the ministry and the Word there preached, that thereby they may have faith wrought in their hearts. 4. Every man may hence examine himself, whether in the use of the ministry he finds saving faith begotten and wrought in his heart; and by examination some may find their understandings more enlightened, their judgments more settled, their practice in some things reformed; but a very few shall find Christ apprehended and rested in unto salvation, seeing so few there are that live by faith in the Son of God, for of all the sins that the Spirit may and shall rebuke the world of, this is the chief, because they believe not in Christ. (T. Taylor, D. D.) And the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness On the gospel being the truth after godliness Here we have a full though compendious account of the nature of the gospel, ennobled by two excellent qualities. One, the end of all philosophical inquiries, which is truth; the other, the design of all religious institutions, which is godliness; both united, and as it were blended together in the constitution of Christianity. Those who discourse metaphysically of the nature of truth, as to the reality of the thing, affirm a perfect coincidence between truth and goodness; and I believe it might be easily made out that there is nothing in nature perfectly true but what is also really good. It would be endless to strike forth into the eulogies of truth; for, as we know, it was the adored prize for which the sublimest wits in the world have always run, and sacrificed their time, their health, their lives, to the acquist of; so let it suffice us to say here that as reason is the great rule of man’ s nature, so truth is the great regulator of reason. I. Now in this expression of the gospel’ s being “the truth which is after godliness,” these three things are couched.1. It is a truth, and upon that account dares look its most inquisitive adversaries in the face. The most intricate and mysterious passages in it are vouched by an infinite veracity: and truth is truth, though clothed in riddles and surrounded with darkness and obscurity; as the sun has still the same native inherent brightness, though wrapped up in a cloud. Now, the gospel being a truth, it follows yet further that if we run through the whole catalogue of its principles, nothing can be drawn from thence, by legitimate and certain consequence, but what is also true. It is impossible for truth to afford anything but truth. Every such principle begets a consequence after its own likeness. 2. The next advance of the gospel’ s excellency is that it is such a truth as is operative. It does not dwell in the mind like furniture, only for ornament, but for use, and the great concernments of life. The knowledge of astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, music, and the like, they may fill the mind, and yet never step forth into one experiment; but the knowledge of the Divine truths of Christianity is quick and restless, like an imprisoned flame, which will be sure to force its passage and to display its brightness. 3. The third and highest degree of its perfection is that it is not only operative, but also operative to the best of purposes, which is to godliness: it carries on a design for heaven and eternity. It serves the two greatest interests in the world, which are, the glory of the Creator and the salvation of the creature; and this the gospel does by being “ the truth which is after godliness.” Which words may admit of a double sense (1) That the gospel is so called because it actually produces the effects of godliness in those that embrace and profess it. (2) That it is directly improvable into such consequences and deductions as have in them a natural fitness, if complied with, to engage the practice of mankind in such a course. II. There are three things that I shall deduce from this description of the gospel.1. That the nature and prime essential design of religion is to be an instrument of good life, by administering arguments and motives inducing to it. (1) Religion designs the service of God, by gaining over to His obedience that which is most excellent in man, and that is the actions of his life and continual converse. That these are the most considerable is clear from hence, because all other actions naturally proceed in a subserviency to these. (2) The design of religion is man’ s salvation; but men are not saved as they are more knowing or assent to more propositions, but as they are more pious than others. Practice is the thing that sanctifies knowledge; and faith without works expires, and becomes a dead thing, a carcase, and consequently noisome to God, who, even to those who know the best things, pronounces no blessing till they do them. (3) The discriminating excellency of Christianity consists not so much in this, that it discovers more sublime truths, or indeed more excellent precepts, than philosophy (though it does this also), as that it suggests more efficacious arguments to enforce the performance of those precepts than any other religion or institution whatsoever. (4) Notwithstanding the diversity of religions in the world, yet men hereafter will generally be condemned for the same things; that is, for their breaches of morality. 2. That so much knowledge of truth as is sufficient to engage men’ s lives in the practice of godliness serves the necessary ends of religion; for if godliness be the design, it ought also, by consequence, to be the measure of men’ s knowledge in this particular. 3. That whatsoever does in itself or its direct consequences undermine the motives of a good life is contrary to, and destructive of Christian religion. (R. South, D. D.) The doctrine of the gospel I. The doctrine of the gospel is the truth itself 1. Because the Author of it is truth itself, and cannot lie, it being a part of His Word, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. 2. Because the penmen of it were inspired by the Holy Ghost, and spake and wrote as they were moved by Him, who is called “ the Spirit of Truth” (John 14:17). 3. Because it is a doctrine of Christ, and aimeth at Him who is the Truth principally, as well as the Way of our salvation. II. The knowledge of this truth is the ground of faith.1. Then slight is the faith of most, whatsoever men profess. 2. Waverers in religion and unsettled persons in their profession may hence be informed to judge of themselves and their present estate. We hear more than a few uttering such voices as these: “ There is such difference of opinion among teachers that I know not what to hold or whom to believe; but is not this openly to proclaim the want of faith, which is not only assuredly persuaded of, but certainly knoweth the truth of that it apprehendeth?” 3. If the elect are brought to the faith by the acknowledging of the truth, then, after long teaching and much means, to be still blind and not to see the things of our peace is a most heavy judgment of God; for here is a forfeit of faith and salvation. III. Whosoever in truth entertain the doctrine of the gospel, the hearts of such are framed unto godliness.1. If this be the preeminence of the Word, to frame the soul to true godliness, then it is a matter above the reach of all human learning; and therefore the folly of those men is hence discovered who devote and bury themselves in profane studies, of what kind soever they be, thinking therein to obtain more wisdom than in the study of the Scriptures. 2. Every hearer of the truth must examine whether by it his heart be thus framed unto godliness, for else it is not rightly learned; for as this grace “ hath appeared to this purpose, to teach men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly and justly and godly in this present world,” so it is not then learned when men can only discourse of the death of Christ, of His resurrection, of His ascension, except withal there be some experience of the virtue of His death in themselves. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Redemptive truth I. A grand enterprise.1. An enterprise devoted to the highest purpose. (1) The promotion of the faith of God’ s elect;(2) the promotion of the knowledge “ of the truth which is according to godliness.” 2. An enterprise employing the highest human agency. II. A transcendent promise.1. Transcendent in value.2. In certitude.3. In age. III. A gradual revelation.1. It was manifested at a proper time.2. By apostolic preaching.3. By the Divine command. IV. A love-begetting power. “ Mine own son.” The gospel converter becomes the father in the highest and divinest sense of the converted. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Lessons I. An honourable designation.1. “ Servant of God.”2. Apostle of Christ.” II. A glorious purpose--“ According to,” or rather, perhaps, “ with reference to,” the faith of God’ s people. Sent by Jesus Christ in order to promote the faith of “ God’ s elect.” III. The reasonableness of religion--“ The acknowledging of the truth.” Faith is the central doctrine of Christianity, but is to be distinguished from blind credulity. The faith of the Christian is based on knowledge, on fact, on truth (2 Peter 1:16; 1 John 1:1-3). IV. The practical character of religion--“ The truth which is after godliness” ; that is, piety. Original word probably derived from one signifying “ good, brave, noble.” Paul was himself emphatically a model of manliness and devout courage. (F. Wagstaff.) The grandest end and means of life In this verse the apostle speaks of himself as 1. Possessing a character common to the good of all worlds--“ Servant of God.” All creatures are servants of God--some without their will, some according to their will. Paul served God freely, cordially, devotedly. 2. Sustaining an office peculiar to a few--“ Apostle.” Peculiar in appointment, number, and authority. 3. Engaged in a work binding on all Christians. To promote “ the faith of God’ s elect” --that is, of His people--and “ the knowledge of the truth which leads to godliness.” I. Godliness is the grandest end of being. In the Old Testament the good are called “ godly” (Psalms 4:3; Psalms 12:1; Psalms 32:6; Malachi 2:15). In the New Testament goodness is called “ godliness” (1 Timothy 2:2; 1 Timothy 4:7-8; 1 Timothy 6:3; 1 Timothy 6:5-6; 2 Timothy 3:5; 2 Peter 1:3; 2 Peter 1:6-7; 2 Peter 3:11). Godliness is moral likeness to God. II. Truth is the grandest means of being. All truth is of God, natural and spiritual. The truth here referred to is the gospel truth--“ the truth as it is in Jesus” --which, while it illustrates, vivifies and emphasises all other truth, goes beyond it, opens up new chapters of Divine revelation. It is not only moral truth, but redemptive truth, and redemptive truth not in mere propositions, but in a Divine life. This truth is the power of God unto salvation; it delivers from depravity, prejudice, guilt; it raises to purity, truth, peace. (Homilist.) Truth as a medium of godliness Suppose that a person wishing to send a message from London to Edinburgh by lightning knows how to construct an electric battery; but, when he comes to consider how he will transmit the impulse through hundreds of miles, he looks at an iron wire and says, “ This is dull, senseless, cold; has no sympathy with light: it is unnatural, in fact irrational, to imagine that this dark thing can convey a lightning message in a moment.” From this he turns and looks at a prism. It glows with the many-coloured sunbeam. He might say, “ This is sympathetic with light,” and in its flashing imagine that he saw proof that his message would speed through it; but when he puts it to the experiment, it proves that the shining prism will convey no touch of his silent fire, but that the dull iron will transmit it to the farthest end of the land. And so with God’ s holy truth. It alone is adapted to carry into the soul of man the secret fire, which writes before the inner eye of the soul a message from the Unseen One in the skies. (T. W. Jenkyn, D. D.) Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life Christianity a hope-inspiring promise I. It is an absolutely certain promise. It is God’ s premise, and God cannot lie. II. It is an infinitely rich promise. “ Eternal life,” i.e., eternal well-being. III. It is a very old promise. “ Before the world began.” (Homilist.) Hope reaching beyond the revolutions of time I. It is glorious in its object. “ Eternal life” --a life of eternal goodness. II. It is divine in its foundation.1. Inviolable.2. Eternal.3. Conditional. (Homilist.) Lessons I. A glorious prospect--“ Eternal life.” II. A truth-speaking god--“ That cannot lie” (Numbers 23:19; Hebrews 6:18). III. An old-standing promise--“ Before the world began.” (F. Wagstaff.) The covenant--its deathless life and hope I. The general doctrine.1. God, he tells us, who cannot lie, made a certain promise before the world began. Not, observe, formed a purpose merely. We know well, indeed, from many a scripture, that He formed a purpose. But the apostle says that He did more,--that He made a promise--and to this belongs the special character under which he presents the adorable God here, “ God that cannot lie.” But to whom was the promise made? It could only be to the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. It was “ eternal life” of which God, before the world began, made promise. The Son of God could not receive such a promise for Himself. He could receive it only as the predestined Mediator--the Head and Surety of a people “ given to Him by the Father,” to be in time redeemed by Him, and eternally saved. 3. And thus does there arise a third momentous truth, namely, that this promise could be made to Christ only on a certain condition--only on supposition, and in respect of His whole future obedience unto death in behalf of His people. II. A hope unspeakably glorious and stable in its character.1. Its glory. “ Hope of eternal life.” I cannot tell what this is. “ It doth not yet appear,” etc. This, at least, we know, that the “ eternal life” shall have in it the expansion to the full of all the faculties and affections of the renewed nature; the perfect harmony of those faculties and affections both among themselves and with the will of the adorable God; the end of the last remnants of sin; all tears forever dried up; body and soul reunited in a holy, deathless companionship, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity! 2. Its immovable stability. (1) First, the apostle says that it is built on the “ promise of God who cannot lie.” Ah, if that is not security enough, then farewell, at least, to all possible security in the universe! (2) Nor is this a promise of God merely--one among many; it is, in a sort, the promise, the promise pre-eminently, of Jehovah, as the words intimate, “ eternal life which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” So we read, “ This is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life.” And again and again we read of “ eternal life,” as of the grand central blessing--“ I give unto My sheep eternal life.” “ Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.” “ Whoso eateth My flesh, etc., hath eternal life.” (3) Again, the promise which this hope is built on was made by God “ before the world began.” See the immovable stability which lies here. For this world is one of ceaseless fluctuations, vicissitudes. Had the promise arisen amidst the changes and emergencies of time, then, one of them having begotten it, another might peradventure have made a final end of it. But it was anterior to them all--made in full foresight of them all--made an eternity before them all. And thus none of them can in any wise affect its stability. (4) The promise this hope is built on is, as we have seen, the promise of a covenant--a promise made only on express and determinate conditions. And own that these have been to the uttermost fulfilled, it has become matter of justice no less than truth--of rectitude, as well as faithfulness. Concluding inferences: 1. See the absolute security of the ransomed Church of God, and each living member of it. 2. Remember those words in Romans, “ Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed.” That is to say, there is an open entrance for all of us, sinners, into the whole inviolable security of this covenant of promise, by faith alone, without the deeds of the law--“ it is of faith, that it might be by grace.” 3. I end with the “ hope” (daughter of the faith)--the undying hope--the “ hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” What a hope this for storms and tempests--“ anchor of the soul” indeed, “ sure and steadfast” ! What a hope for afflictions, to sustain under them; for duties, to carry through them; for death and the grave, to give the victory over them! (C. J. Brown, D. D.) The grace of hope I. Every faithful teacher must conceive it to be his duty to draw men’ s hearts from things below to the contemplation of things of an higher strain, and from seeking the things tending to a temporal, unto such as belong to life eternal.1. This was the aim of all the men of God, whose faithfulness the Scriptures hath recommended unto our imitation. All that pedagogy during the law was only to train men unto Christ, and to salvation by Him. 2. All other professions further men in their earthly estates, some employed about the health of the body, some about the maintaining of men’ s outward rights, some about the framing of tender minds in human disciplines and sciences; all which further our fellowship and society among men; only this, of all other professions, furthereth men in their heavenly estate, and fitteth them, yea maketh up for them their fellowship with God (Ephesians 4:11-12). 3. Hereby men lay a sure groundwork of profiting men in godliness, for this expectation and desire of life eternal once wrought in the heart, it easily bringeth men to the denial of themselves, both in bearing the cross for Christ, as Moses esteemed highly of the rebuke of Christ--for he had respect unto the recompense of reward--as also in stripping themselves of profits, pleasures, advancements, friends, father, wife, children, liberty, yea, of life itself. II. True faith never goes alone, but, as a queen, is attended with many other graces, as knowledge, love, fear of God; among which hope here mentioned not only adorneth and beautifieth, but strengtheneth and fortifieth the believer, and as a helmet of salvation, causeth the Christian soldier to hold out in repentance and obedience.1. The original of it. It is a gift of God and obtained by prayer as faith also is, whence the apostle prayeth that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ would give the Ephesians to know what the hope is of his calling. 2. The subjects in whom it is. The saints, for as the practise of believers before Christ to wait for His first coming in humility, as we read of Simeon, Hannah, and many others, so now believers as constantly wait for his second coming and the comforts of it (Revelation 22:17). 3. The object of this hope. Things to come, and, namely, after the resurrection, life eternal. In which regard the apostle calleth it a hope laid up in heaven, which is all one with that in the text, hope of life eternal, unto which it lifteth up the heart and affections. Where the excellency of the grace may be conceived from the excellency of the object; it is not conversant about momentary and fleeting matters, nor insisteth in things below, but about durable and eternal things to come; and not only comforteth the soul here below on earth, but crowneth it hereafter in heaven. 4. It is added in the description that this grace of hope doth firmly and not waveringly expect this eminent object, and this it doth, both because it is grounded not upon man’ s merit, power, or promises, but upon the most firm promise of God, as also in that the Holy Ghost, who first worketh it, doth also nourish it, yea, and so sealeth it up unto the heart as it can never make ashamed; it may, indeed, be tossed and shaken with many kinds of temptations, yet in the patient attending upon the Lord it holdeth out and faileth not. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Eternal life I. What is that eternal life which is the object of faith and expectation? Complete deliverance from all evil, and the positive and perfect enjoyment of all good forever. II. Why do we relieve in it?1. God has promised it. 2. Christ has actually taken possession of it. 3. The Holy Spirit, given to them that believe, is expressly said to be the earnest and first fruits of eternal life. 4. The real Christian has an undoubted and undeceiving foretaste of this blessedness. III. The influence which our relief of this great truth should have upon our spirit and conduct.1. It should influence us to a due consideration of, and a diligent preparation for, the eternity to which we are destined. 2. It should influence us to a decided consecration of ourselves to that blessed Master whose service on earth is connected with so great and so substantial a reward in heaven. 3. It should induce us to a cheerful renunciation of the world as our portion. 4. It should influence us to cheerful and patient suffering under all the ills which can possibly crowd upon us in the present state of existence. 5. It should influence us to indefatigable diligence in seeking the salvation of the human soul. 6. Lastly, what comfort may not this subject inspire in the prospect of our departure hence, our descent into the cold grave, and our introduction into that state, of which we have feebly enunciated the reality. (G. Clayton, M. A.) The inspiration of hope “ Look up!” thundered the captain of a vessel, as his boy grew giddy while gazing from the topmast,--“ look up!” The boy looked up, and returned in safety. Young man, look up, and you will succeed. Never look down and despair. Leave dangers uncured for, and push on. If you falter, you lose. Do right, and trust in God. God, that cannot lie What God cannot do Truth once reigned supreme upon our globe, and then earth was Paradise. Man knew no sorrow while he was ignorant of falsehood. Falsehood is everywhere; it is entertained both by the lowest and the highest; it permeates all society. In the so-called religious world, which should be as the Holy of Holies, here too, the lie has insinuated itself. We have everywhere to battle with falsehood, and if we are to bless the world, we must confront it with sturdy face and zealous spirit. God’ s purpose is to drive the lie out of the world, and be this your purpose and mine. After wandering over the sandy desert of deceit, how pleasant is it to reach our text, and feel that one spot at least is verdant with eternal truth. Blessed be Thou, O God, for Thou canst not lie. I. The truth of the text.1. God is not subject to those infirmities which lead us into falsehood. You and I are such that we can know in the heart, and yet with the tongue deny; but God is one and indivisible; God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all; with Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 2. The scriptural idea of God forbids that He should lie. The very word “ God” comprehendeth everything which is good and great. Admit the lie, and to us at once there would be nothing but the black darkness of atheism forever. I could neither love, worship, nor obey a lying God. 3. God is too wise to lie. Falsehood is the expedient of a fool. 4. And the lie is the method of the little and the mean. You know that a great man does not lie; a good man can never be false. Put goodness and greatness together, and a lie is altogether incongruous to the character. Now God is too great to need the lie, and too good to wish to do such a thing; both His greatness and His goodness repel the thought. 5. What motive could God have for lying? When a man lies it is that he may gain something, but “ the cattle on a thousand hills” are God’ s, and all the beasts of the forest, and all the flocks of the meadows. Mines of inexhaustible riches are His, and treasures of infinite power and wisdom. He cannot gain aught by untruth, for “ the earth is the Lord’ s, and the fulness thereof” ; wherefore, then, should He lie? 6. Moreover, we may add to all this the experience of men with regard to God. It has been evident enough in all ages that God cannot lie. II. The breadth of meaning in the text. When we are told in Scripture that God cannot lie, there is usually associated with the idea the thought of immutability. As for instance--“ He is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent.” We understand by it, not only that He cannot say what is untrue, but that having said something which is true He never changes from it, and does not by any possibility alter His purpose or retract His word. This is very consolatory to the Christian, that whatever God has said in the Divine purpose is never changed. The decrees of God were not written upon sand, but upon the eternal brass of His unchangeable nature. There is no shadow of a lie upon anything which God thinks, or speaks, or does. He cannot lie in His prophecies. How solemnly true have they been! Ask the wastes of Nineveh; turn to the mounds of Babylon; let the traveller speak concerning Idumea and Petra. Has God’ s curse been an idle word? No, not in one single case. As God is true in His prophecies, so is He faithful to His promises. His threatenings are true also. Ah! sinner, thou mayst go on in thy ways for many a day, but thy sin shall find thee out at the last. III. How we ought to act towards god if it be true that he is a “ god that cannot lie.”1. If it be so that God cannot lie, then it must be the natural duty of all His creatures to believe Him if I doubt God, as far as I am able I rob Him of His honour; I am, in fact, living an open traitor and a sworn rebel against God, upon whom I heap the daily insult of daring to doubt Him. 2. If we were absolutely sure that there lived on earth a person who could not lie, bow would you treat him? Well, I think you would cultivate his acquaintance. 3. If we knew a man who could not lie, we should believe him, methinks, without an oath. To say “ He has promised and will perform; He has said that whosoever believeth in Christ is not condemned; I do believe in Christ, and therefore I am not condemned,” this is genuine faith. 4. Again, if we knew a man who could not lie, we should believe him in the teeth of fifty witnesses the other way. Why, we should say, “ they may say what they will, but they can lie.” This shows us that we ought to believe God in the teeth of every contradiction. Even if outward providence should come to you, and say that God has forsaken you, that is only one; and even if fifty trials should all say that God has forsaken you, yet, as God says, “ I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” which will you take--the one promise of God who cannot lie, or the fifty outward providences which you cannot interpret? 5. If a man were introduced to us, and we were certain that he could not lie, we should believe everything he said, however incredible it might appear to us at first sight to be. It does seem very incredible at first sight that God should take a sinner, full of sin, and forgive all his iniquities in one moment, simply and only upon the ground of the sinner believing in Christ. But supposing it should seem too good to be true, yet, since you have it upon the testimony of One who “ cannot lie,” I pray you believe it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Lessons: 1. If God cannot lie, then whatsoever His ministers promise or threaten from Him, and out of His Word, is above all exception; seeing He hath spoken it, who cannot lie, deceive, or be deceived; which should stir up every man to give glory unto God (as Abraham did) by sealing to His truth--that is, by believing and applying unto his own soul every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, for whosoever thus receiveth His testimony hath sealed that God is true, than which no greater glory can be given unto Him. Whereas not to believe Him on His Word is as high a dishonour as any man can cast upon Him, for it is to give God the lie; he that believeth not hath made Him a liar, which in manners and civility we could not offer to our equal, and which even a mean man would scorn to put up at our hands. 2. Seeing God cannot lie let every one of us labour to express this virtue of God--first, and especially the minister in his place, seeing he speaketh from God; nay, God speaketh by him, he must therefore deliver true sayings worthy of all men to be received, that he may say in his own heart that which Paul spake of himself, “ I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not,” and justify that of His doctrine which Paul did of his writings, “ the things which now I write unto you, behold I witness before God that I lie not.” (T. Taylor, D. D.) God cannot lie I. An argument for trust. God, in all views of His character, may be safely trusted. He is wise, mighty, good, and faithful. II. An argument for truth. God, who cannot lie Himself, hates lying in others. Be truthful, for God cannot be deceived. (J. Edmond, D.D.) Promised before the world began All the promises, promises to Christ St. Paul speaks only of the promise of “ eternal life,” but you will admit at once that such a promise must be regarded as including every other. In promising “ eternal life,” God is to be considered as promising whatsoever is required for the attaining eternal life. The promise of eternal life is a sort of summary of all the promises; for every other promise has to do with something which is helpful to us in our course; with those assistances in duty, or those supports under trial, without which eternal life can never be reached. To whom, then, did He make the promise? If He promised before the world began, He must have promised before there were any human beings, with whom to enter into covenant. If the promise were then made, the two contracting parties must have been then in existence or intercourse; whereas there was then certainly no Church, no man, to form a covenant with the Almighty. There can be little debate that it must have been to Christ, the second Person in the ever-blessed Trinity, that God made the “ promise of eternal life before the world began.” “ Before the world began” the apostasy of our race was contemplated and provided for in the councils of heaven. A solemn covenant was entered into between the Persons of the Trinity, each undertaking an amazing part in the plan for our redemption; and though the Mediator had not then assumed human form, He already acted as the Head or Representative of the Church, engaging to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin, and receiving in return the promise that the sacrifice should be accepted, and should prevail to the full salvation of all such as believe on His name. Eternal life was promised to Christ, on behalf of the Church; it was promised to the Church for the sake of Christ; or, rather, it was promised to Christ, as that result of His obedience and endurance in the flesh, which He might bestow on all those who should have faith in the propitiation. But whilst this seems sufficient to explain the strangeness of our text, you can hardly fail to observe that the explanation involves a great general doctrine or truth; even the same doctrine or truth which is elsewhere announced by St. Paul when, speaking of Christ, he says that “ all the promises of God are in Him yea and amen” ; in other words, that God has promised nothing to man, but in Christ or on account of Christ, and that all that He hath thus promised hath on His account been fulfilled. In order to the clearing and understanding of this, you are to observe that Adam, as the father of all men, steed federally in their place. And when the whole race had thus fallen, in the person of their representative, there were no blessings and no mercies for which man could look. Human nature had become so necessarily and entirely exposed to Divine vengeance that there was no room whatsoever for promise. Therefore, if He promised at all, it could only have been in virtue of His having covenanted with another Head; with One who had put the race which He represented into such a moral position, that it would no longer be at variance with the Divine character, to extend to them the offices of friendship. Because it was His own Son who had undertaken to be this Head of humanity, and because it was therefore certain that the required ransom would be paid to the last farthing, God could immediately open to man the fountain of His benevolence, and deal with man as a being who stood within the possibilities of forgiveness and immortality. But if this be the true account why, after his transgression, man could still be the object of the promises of God, it follows distinctly that, according to the doctrine of our text, these promises, however announced to the sinner at or after the time of his sin, were promises originally made to another; and that, too, “ before the world began.” There could have been no promises, it appears, had not “ the Word which was in the beginning with God, and which was God,” previously engaged to become the Surety for the beings who had just woven death and woe and shame into their inheritance. Assuredly it follows from this that whatsoever is now promised to man is not promised to man in himself but to man in his representative. It must have been promised to Christ before it was promised to man; or rather, the promise must have been made unto Christ though the thing promised should be given to man. Fix not, then, as the origin of a promise, the occasion when the promise was clothed in human speech; associate not the making of that promise with the human being to whom it was first uttered. The promise was made before man was created; the promise was given to a higher than man, to a higher than any finite being. And when you have taken, as you justly may, all the promises of God, and gathered them into the one emphatic summary, the “ promise of eternal life,” you are not to say, “ This clause of the promise was made to Adam, this to Moses, this to David, this to Paul” ; you are to say, generally, of the whole, with the apostle in our text, that “ God, which cannot lie, promised it” --and to whom could He then promise but to Christ?--“ promised it before the world began.” Now we have been so occupied with the great doctrine of our text, with the fact of all God’ s promises being promised to Christ, and to us only for the sake of Christ, and in virtue of His merits, that we have made no reference to what St. Paul here says of God’ s truthfulness--“ God, that cannot lie.” He uses a similar expression in his Epistle to the Hebrews: “ That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation.” It is one of Satan’ s most frequent and dangerous devices, to put before you your unworthiness, and to strive to make this hide the rich provisions of grace. It looks so like genuine humility, to think oneself unworthy to have a promise made good, that the Christian will almost fancy it a duty to encourage the suspicion which the devil has injected. But you are to remember that your own unworthiness has nothing whatsoever to do either with the making or the performing the promise. God did not originally make the promise to you; He made it to His own dear Son, even to Christ, “ before the world began” ; and the performing the promise, the making good His own Word, is this to be contingent on anything excellent in yourselves? Nay, it is for His own sake, for the glory of His own great name, that He accomplishes His gracious declaration. He is faithful, He “ cannot lie” ; heaven and earth may pass away, but not one jot nor one tittle can fail of all which He hath covenanted with Christ, and, through Christ, with the meanest of His followers. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Titus 1:3 But hath in due times manifested His Word through preaching A timely revelation I. A timely revelation--the purpose of salvation through Christ Jesus. II. A sacred trust--to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. III. A divine commission--to preach “ according to the commandment of God.” (F. Wagstaff.) Salvation revealed I. That salvation is more clearly revealed than in former ages appeareth in that all the time of the law was but the infancy and nonage of the Church, which then was as a child under tutors and governors; and as a child was initiated in rudiments and elements of Christian religion, and endued with a small measure of knowledge and faith, because the time was not come wherein the mysteries of Christ were unfolded. II. The Lord (who doth not only by His wisdom order His greatest works, but every circumstance of them) effecteth all His promises and purposes in the due season of them. III. The manifestation of salvation is to be sought for in the preaching of the Word. Which point is plain, in that the preaching of the Word is an ordinance of God.1. To make Christ known, in whose name alone salvation is to be had. 2. To beget and confirm faith in the heart, by which alone, as by an hand, we apprehend and apply Him with His merits to our salvation. (T. Taylor, D. D.) God’ s Word manifested through preaching I. The manifestation of god’ s word. This was gradually made to men--to all nations, both Jews and Gentiles--in general, and to particular places. II. The instrumentality employed for that manifestation. We should imitate the simplicity, zeal and affection displayed in the apostle’ s preaching. (W. Lucy.) Preaching in God’ s name An American gentleman once went to hear Whitefield for the first lime, in consequence of the report he heard of his preaching powers. The day was rainy, the congregation comparatively thin, and the beginning of the sermon rather heavy. Our American friend began to say to himself, “ This man is no great wonder, after all.” He looked round, and saw the congregation as little interested as himself. One old man in front of the pulpit had fallen asleep. But all at once Whitefield stopped short. His countenance changed. And then he suddenly broke forth in an altered tone: “ If I had come to speak to you in my own name, you might well rest your elbows on your knees, and your heads on your hands, and sleep; and once in a while look up, and say, What is this babbler talking of? But I have not come to you in my own name. No! I have come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts” (here he brought down his hand and foot with a force that made the building ring), “ and I must, and will be heard.” The congregation started. The old man woke up at once. “ Ay, ay!” cried Whitefield, fixing his eyes on him, “ I have waked you up, have I? I meant to do it. I am not come here to preach to stocks and stones. I have come to you in the name of the Lord God of Bests, and I must, and will, have an audience.” The hearers were stripped of their apathy at once. Every word of the sermon was attended to. And the American gentleman never forgot it. (J. G. Ryle.) The best ally in Christian work Frederick the Great was once in company with a number of French wits, and there was a brave Scotchman also at the table, who was the ambassador of England. Frederick the Great was then contemplating a war, in which he would be dependent upon English subsidies, and by and by the ambassador, as he listened to the king and these French wits making fun of religion, and speaking of its certain and sudden decay, said, “ By the help of God England will stand by Prussia in the war.” Frederick turned round and said, rather sneeringly, “ By the help of God! I did not know that you bad an ally of that name.” But the Scotchman turned round to the king, and said, “ May it please your majesty, that is the only ally England has to whom England does not send subsidies.” Now, let me say, that we as a Christian Church and as a missionary society have an ally of that name. Our ally is the Lord of Hosts, and it is because His name has been upon our banners that we have succeeded in the past. (T. H. Hunt.) Which is committed unto me, according to the commandment of God our Saviour The Christian ministry I. Every minister called by God is one of Christ’ s committees, unto whom He betrusteth now after His departure the care and oversight of His spouse, who is dearer unto Him than His own life, appeareth in that they are called stewards of this great house, having received the keys to open the kingdom of heaven, and to distribute to the necessity of their fellow servants; chosen vessels, as Paul, not to contain, but to carry the pearl and the treasure of the kingdom; feeders, as Peter, husband men, to whom the vineyard is let out till His return.1. The honour of a minister is faithfulness in the diligent and careful discharging himself of that trust committed unto him; the principal part of which repose standeth in the faithful dispensing of Christ’ s legacies to His Church, according to His own testament; which as it is his duty enjoined (1 Corinthians 4:2), so is it his crown, his joy, his glory, that by his faithful pains he hath procured the welfare of his people, and bringeth with it a great recompense of reward; for if he that showeth himself a good and faithful servant in little things, shall be ruler over much; what may he expect that is faithful in the greatest? 2. The ministry is no calling of ease, but a matter of great charge; nor contemptible, as many contemptuous persons think it too base a calling for their children; but honourable, near unto God, a calling committing unto men great matters, which not only the angels themselves have dispensed sundry times, but even the Lord of the angels, Jesus Christ Himself, all the while lie ministered upon earth; the honour of which calling is such, as those who are employed in the duties of it, are called not only angels, but coworkers with Christ in the salvation of men. II. Whosoever would find comfort in themselves, or clear and justify their callings to others, or do good in that place of the body wherein they are set, must be able to prove that they are not intruders, but pressed by this calling and commandment of god: that as Paul performed every duty in the Church by virtue of his extraordinary calling, so they by virtue of their ordinary. For can any man think that a small advantage to himself, which our apostle doth so dwell upon in his own person, and that in every epistle, making his calling known to be committed unto him, not of men, nor by men, but by Jesus Christ? (See Galatians 1:1; Galatians 2:7; Ephesians 3:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:4)1. Let no man presume to take upon him any office in the Church uncalled; no man taketh this honour to himself. Christ Himself must he appointed of His Father. 2. Let none content himself with the calling of man separated from God’ s calling; for this was the guise of the false apostles against whom our apostle opposeth himself and calling almost everywhere, who were called of men, but not of God. 3. In all other callings let men be assured they have God’ s warrant, both in the lawfulness of the callings themselves, and in their holy exercise of them; passing through them daily in the exercise of faith and repentance, not forgetting daily to sanctify them by the Word and prayer. III. Ministers may and ought to be more or less in the commendation of their calling, as the nature and necessity of the people to whom they write or speak do require.1. As the apostle here magnifieth his authority in that he is a servant of God. 2. An apostle of Jesus Christ, 3. That he received his apostleship by commission and commandment of Christ Himself; and 4. All this while hath by sundry other arguments amplified the excellency of his calling: the reason of all which is not so much to persuade Titus, who was before sufficiently persuaded of it; but partly for the Cretians’ sake, that they might the rather entertain this doctrine so commended in the person of the bringer; and partly because many in this isle lifted up themselves against him and Titus, as men thrusting in their sickles into other men’ s fields too busily; or else if they had a calling, yet taking too much upon them, both in correcting disorders and establishing such novelties among them as best liked them; so as here being to deal against false apostles, perverse people, and erroneous doctrines he is more prolix and lofty in his title; otherwise, where he met not with such strong opposition, he is more sparing in his titles, as in the Epistles to the Colossians, Thessalonians, etc. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Titus 1:4 To Titus, mine own son after the common faith Lessons I. A spiritual relationship (Cf. Acts 15:1-41; Galatians 2:2; 2 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Corinthians 7:6, etc.) II. A threefold blessing.1. “ Grace,” the source of our redemption.2. “ Mercy,” displayed in our redemption.3. “ Peace,” the result of our redemption. III. The source and medium of the blessing. God the Father from whom it comes, and Christ the Son through whom it comes. (F. Wagstaff.) Spiritual parentage I. That ministers are spiritual fathers to beget children to god, appeareth in that the Hebrew phrase not only styleth them by the name of fathers.1. Who indeed are so properly by the way of blood and natural generation? 2. Neither, only those who are in a right descending line, though never so far off. 3. Neither, only those who adopt others into the room and place of children. 4. But those also that are in the room of fathers, either generally, as all superiors, in age, place, or gifts; or more specially such as by whose counsel, wisdom, tenderness and care, we are directed as by fathers; who in these offices and not in themselves (for sometimes they be inferiors otherwise) become fathers unto us. Thus was Joseph an inferior, called a father of Pharaoh; that is, a counsellor. Job, for his tenderness and care, called a father of the poor. Scholars of the prophets, called sons of the prophets. Elisha, saith of Elijah, my father, my father; and Jubal was the father of all that play on harps. But much more properly is the minister called the father of such as he converts unto the faith, because they beget men unto God, as Paul did Onesimus in his bonds, in which regeneration the seed is that heavenly grace whereby a Divine nature is framed, the instrument by which it is conveyed, is the Word of God in the ministry of it. Now if any be desirous to carry themselves towards their ministers, as children towards their parents, they must perform unto them these duties.1. They must give them double honour (1 Timothy 5:17), reverencing their persons, their places. 2. They must partake in all their goods, as the Levites in the law did; yea, if need be, lay down their necks for their sakes (Romans 16:4) in way of thankfulness. 3. No accusations must be received against them under two or three witnesses; a dutiful child will not hear, much less believe, evil reports of his father. 4. In doubtful cases of conscience resort unto them for counsel, as children to their father. 5. Obey them in all godly precepts, endure their severity, be guided by their godly directions, as those who have the oversight of souls committed unto them, even as the child ingeniously imitateth and obeyeth his father. II. Faith is one and the same in all the elect, and is therefore called the common faith (Ephesians 4:5), there is one faith which is true. Which grace is but one, and common to all the elect, notwithstanding there be diverse measures and degrees of it peculiar to some. Hence the apostle Peter calleth it the like precious faith.1. In respect of the kind of it being a justifying faith, by which all that believe have power to be the sons of God (John 1:12; Galatians 3:26). 2. Of the object of it, which is one Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever; who dwelleth in the hearts of every believer (Ephesians 3:17), whom, although the fathers of former ages beheld Him to come, and the latter ages already come: yet both rejoice in seeing His day with the same eye of faith: the difference is, that one seeth it somewhat more clearly than the other. 3. Of the same end of it, which is salvation, common to all believers; called therefore by Jude the common salvation. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Spiritual children Calvin’ s three children all died in infancy. Of the last he wrote to a friend: “ The Lord gave me another son, and the Lord hath taken him away; but have I not thousands of children in the faith of Christ?” Grace, mercy, and peace Grace bringing peace I. The grace of god is the whole sufficiency of his people. The first, middle, and last cause of every good thing conveyed unto them, or issuing from them: not once did the Lord enforce this point upon His own people, teaching them by things temporal, their spiritual estate and condition (Deuteronomy 7:7). II. Only they that are by grace and mercy accepted of god have their portion in this peace here mentioned.1. Peace, that is all kind of prosperity, is promised only to the godly. They shall prosper in everything; and the apostle pronounceth it, only upon the Israel of God. 2. It is accordingly bestowed upon those only that are justified by faith; seeing they only have peace with God, which is the principal part of it. 3. To show it to be a fruit of God’ s grace, sundry phrases in Scripture might be alleged; as that it is called the “ peace of God,” and that God is called the “ God of peace” ; as also that difference which is worthy to be observed between the salutations of the Old and New Testament. In, the Old Testament, grace and peace are never joined. The ordinary form of salutation was, “ peace be with thee,” “ peace be to this house,” “ go in peace” ; but the apostles, after the mystery of redemption was revealed and perfected before the ordinary salutation, prefix this word--grace, or mercy, or both; that as they are never joined in the Old Testament, so are they never separated in the New, to show that we cannot look to have one of them alone, or separate them, no more than we can safely sunder the branch from the root, or the stream from the fountain. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Peace through Christ A minister was asked to visit a poor dying woman. The messenger being ignorant could give no account of her state, except that she was a very good woman and very happy, and was now at the end of a well-spent life, therefore sure of going to heaven. The minister went, saw that she was very ill, and after a few kindly inquiries about her bodily condition, said: “ Well, I understand you are in a very peaceful state of mind, depending upon a well-spent life.” The dying woman looked hard at him, and said: “ Yes, I am in the enjoyment of peace. You are quite right; sweet peace, and that from a well-spent life. But it is the well-spent life of Jesus; not my doing, but His; not my merits, but His blood.” Yes; only one man has spent a life that has met all the requirements of God’ s holy law, and on which we rest before God. (Preacher’s Lantern.) Titus 1:5 Set in order the things that are wanting Church order I. In every christian community there should be the maintenance of order. Confusion in a Church is a calumny of Christ, and obstructive at once to its peace, power, prosperity, and usefulness. II. The maintenance of church order may require the ministry of special superintendents. The words elder, bishop, pastor, etc., all refer to the same office--that of overseer. Such a one is to maintain order, not by legislating but by loving; not by the assumption of authority, but by a humble devotion to the spiritual interests of all. III. The superintendents should be men of distinguished excellence. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Perfecting the order of the Church 1. It noteth what was the special work of an evangelist; namely, that being the companions of the apostles, they were to bring on the work of the Lord to perfection, both by establishing that foundation they had laid, and building on further by their direction where they left off. The office was middle between the apostle and the pastor: the calling was immediate from the apostles, as the apostle was immediate from Christ. 2. Notwithstanding many defects and wants in this Church and those great ones, and that in constitution, for we see their cities were destitute of elders and Church governors; yet was it neither neglected by Paul, nor separated from by Titus as a cage of unclean birds; teaching us not presently to condemn a number and society of men (much less of Churches) for want of some laws or government (for no Church is not wanting in some), if they join together in the profession of truth of doctrine and worship; for so many of the Churches, planted by the apostles themselves, might have been refused for wanting some offices for a time, although they were after supplied. 3. We learn hence, that no Church is hastily brought to any perfection. The apostles themselves, the master builders, with much wisdom and labour, and often in long time, made not such proceedings; but that, had they mot provided labourers to follow them with a diligent hand, all had been lost. Much ado had they to lay the foundation, and prepare matter for the building; and yet this they did, by converting men to the faith and baptizing them; but after this to join them into a public profession of the faith, and constitute visible faces of Churches among them, required more help and labour, and for most part was left to the evangelists. So as the building of God’ s house is not unlike to the finishing of other great buildings, with what labour are stones digged out of the earth? with what difficulty depart they from their natural roughness? what sweat and strength is spent ere the mason can smooth them? As it is also with the timber; and yet, after all this, they lie a long time here and there scattered asunder and make no house, till, by the skill of some cunning builder, they be aptly laid, and fastened together in their frame. So every man’ s heart, in the natural roughness of it, is as hard as a stone; his will and affections, like the crabbed and knotty oaks, invincibly resisting all the pains of God’ s masons and carpenters, till the finger of God in the ministry come and make plain, and smooth way, working in their conversion. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Titus left in Crete I. The power left to titus. “ I left thee” --I, Paul, an apostle of Christ. II. The use and exercise of this power.1. To set in order things that are wanting.2. To ordain elders in every city. III. The limitation of these acts. “ As I had appointed thee.” Titus must do nothing but according to commission, and by special direction. (W. Burkitt, M. A.) Ministers as moral leaders I. That ministers have special work as well as general. Ii. That the work of the best of us needs revision by others. “ Set in order,” lit., “ revise, make straight.” III. That every company of christians should have a leader or overseer. “ Elders in every city,” is suggestive of the widespread influence of the gospel in Crete, which was famous for its cities. Homer, in one place mentions, that the island had a hundred cities, and in another ninety. (F. Wagstaff.) Ordain elders in every city An embertide sermon Our Lord Himself is the sole source and origin of all ministerial power. He is the Head of the Church--none can take office in the Church except with His authorisation; He is our great High Priest--none can serve under Him, unless by His appointment; He is our King--none can bear rule in His kingdom, except they hold His commission. This ministerial power our Lord conferred upon His apostles. In the Acts of the Apostles and other parts of the New Testament, we learn how the apostles carried out this commission. Their first act after the Ascension was to admit another to their own ranks. St. Matthias was co-opted into the room of the traitor Judas. After a time the needs of the growing Church required them to appoint subordinate officers, they themselves still retaining the supreme control. These officers were, in the first place, deacons, whose special duty it was to attend to the due distribution of the Church’ s alms, but who also, as we learn from the subsequent history of two of them, SS. Stephen and Philip, received authority to preach and to baptize; and in the second place, elders who were appointed to still higher functions, to be pastors of congregations, to feed the flock of God and have the oversight thereof. We read of the elders first in Acts 11:30. The word “ elder,” wherever it occur in the New Testament, is a translation of the Greek word “presbuteros,” from which our words “ presbyter” and “ priest” have come, the latter by contraction. If the word had been left untranslated, as the words “ bishop,” “ deacon,” and “ apostle” were, and appeared as “ presbyter” or “ priest,” the English reader would have been saved from much perplexity, and much danger of erroneous inferences. Thus the apostles, in order to keep pace with the requirements of the Church, shared, by degrees, their functions with others, admitted others by prayer and the laying on of hands into the sacred ministry. But one prerogative they still retained in their own keeping, that was, the power of ordaining others. Yet if the Church was to be continued, if the promise of Christ was to be fulfilled, “ Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,” this power also must be transmitted. And so we find that the college of apostles was gradually enlarged. One there was, St. Paul, who had received the apostolate, with all its prerogatives, directly from heaven. Others, such as St. Barnabas, were also admitted to the apostolic ranks and placed on an equal footing with the original Twelve. And, finally, in the Pastoral Epistles we come to the last link of the chain which connects the apostolic rule of the Church with the episcopal superintendence which followed. As the apostles travelled through the whole known world, and established Churches and ordained clergy in every city to which they came, they found at last that the oversight of all these Christians of whom they were the spiritual fathers had become too much for them. It was felt to be a necessity to place over each Church a local superintendent, who, within a fixed district, should be armed with full apostolical authority--with power to rule the Church, to administer discipline, to ordain clergy. When we open the Pastoral Epistles we find that it was to just such an office that SS. Timothy and Titus were appointed. And history informs us that immediately after the apostles’ times the Christian Church in all parts of the world was governed by bishops, who claimed to be successors of the apostles, and who alone bad the power to ordain, with priests and deacons under them. Why the bishops did not retain for themselves the name of apostles we know not; but probably they thought themselves unworthy to share that title with such eminent saints as those who had been called by Christ to be His original apostles, and therefore they adopted a designation which had less august associations attached to it, having formerly been borne by clergy of the second order. For more than 1,500 years no other form of Church government was known in any part of Christendom. Turn where we will, north or south, east or west, or take any period of history previous to the Reformation, and we can discover no portion of the Church which was not governed by bishops, or where there were not these three orders of ministers. By the good providence of God, in the great crisis of the sixteenth century, we were permitted to retain the ancient organisation of the Christian Church. The Reformation in these islands was the act of the Church itself, which, while it rejected the usurped supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, and returned in other respects to the purer faith of primitive times, carefully maintained unimpaired the three Orders of the Ministry. There was no severing of the link which bound us to the men to whom the Great Head of the Church said, “ As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” What abundant reason have we, clergy and people alike, to be thankful to God for this! We clergy can go about our work with no misgivings as to whether we are indeed ambassadors for Christ or no. We know that in all our ministerial acts He is with us, that He indeed is acting through us, and that our feeble, unworthy efforts to advance His kingdom and glory are backed and supported by an infinite Power which can turn our weakness into strength. And the people, too, should bless and thank God that, through His great goodness towards them, the sixteenth century proved in these islands a true Reformation in religion--not a Revolution, as it did elsewhere; that you belong to the very Church founded by the apostles, and that Church, too, released from medieval corruption, and saved from those debasing modern superstitions into which Roman Christianity has fallen; that you have free access to the means of grace which Christ appointed for His people; that the Sacraments which are generally necessary to salvation are here duly ministered according to God’ s ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite for the same; that you have a ministry which can speak to you in Christ’ s name, and hear to you His message of reconciliation; for they have been set apart to their office by Himself--by Him to whom alone all power has been committed in heaven and in earth; that you are “ fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.” On a valid ministry depends the very existence of a Church. On a faithful ministry depends the well-being of a Church. And how largely does the character of the ministry depends upon the people? How largely is it in the power of the people to assist the bishop in making a choice of fit persons for Holy Orders? I am not now alluding to the direct power the people possess to prevent the ordination of an unworthy man. It is for this express purpose that the Si quis, as it is called, of the candidate is appointed to be read in the parish church previous to the ordination. The name of the candidate is published, and the people are invited to object if they can allege any impediment. And another opportunity of the same kind is given at the ordination itself. I am now alluding specially to your prayers. “ Brethren, pray for us,” was the earnest request of St. Paul to the Christians of his day, and surely the successors of the apostles now need no less the prayers and sympathy of their people. (J. G. Carleton, B. D.) Directions regarding the appointment of elders 1. It is Titus himself who is to appoint these elders throughout the cities in which congregations exist. It is not the congregations that are to elect the overseers, subject to the approval of the apostle’ s delegate; still less that he is to ordain any one whom they may elect. The full responsibility of each appointment rests with him. Anything like popular election of the ministers is not only not suggested, it is by implication entirely excluded. 2. In making each appointment Titus is to consider the congregation. He is to look carefully to the reputation which the man of his choice bears among his fellow Christians. A man in whom the congregation have no confidence, because of the bad repute which attaches to himself or his family, is not to be appointed. In this way the congregation have an indirect veto; for the man to whom they cannot give a good character may not be taken to be set over them. 3. The appointment of Church officers is regarded as imperative: it is on no account to be omitted. And it is not merely an arrangement that is as a rule desirable: it is to be universal. Titus is to go through the congregations “ city by city,” and take care that each has its elders or body of elders. 4. As the name itself indicates, these elders are to be taken from the older men among the believers. As a rule they are to be heads of families, who have had experience of life in its manifold relations, and especially who have had experience of ruling a Christian household. That will be some guarantee for their capacity for ruling a Christian congregation. 5. It must be remembered that they are not merely delegates, either of Titus, or of the congregation. The essence of their authority is not that they are the representatives of the body of Christian men and women over whom they are placed. It has a far higher origin. They are “ God’ s stewards.” It is His household that they direct and administer, and it is from Him that their powers are derived. As God’ s agents they have a work to do among their fellow men, through themselves, for Him. As God’ s ambassadors they have a message to deliver, good tidings to proclaim, ever the same, and yet ever new. As “ God’ s stewards” they have treasures to guard with reverent care, treasures to augment by diligent cultivation, treasures to distribute with prudent liberality. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Titus 1:6 If any be blameless Lessons I. Character, the primary qualification for office is the church. II. Domestic and social relationships, conducive, rather than hindrances, to christian service. III. Good family government, a guarantee for church government. (F. Wagstaff.) A man of scandalous life is unfit to be a minister 1. Our apostle here first insisteth upon the life of him that is to be chosen, and afterwards requireth his fitness for doctrine: and so in his charge to Timothy that he should lay hand on no man rashly, addeth, that some men’ s sins go beforehand, and some men’ s sins follow after judgment: as though he had said more largely, Use all the circumspection thou canst, yet some hypocrites will creep into the ministry. Some are inwardly profane, and such close sinners thou canst not discern, till afterward they manifest themselves. Others are open sinners, of which thou mayest judge aright; these latter thou art to hinder, the former reclaim, or seasonably remove, and so salve up the sore again: for how requisite is it that such a sweet and favourite doctrine should be matched with a sweet and savoury Christian conversation! 2. That such an high calling is to be graced with an unreprovable life was typified in the law sundry ways, as after we shall more clearly see in the positive virtues required, especially in that prohibition that none of Aaron’ s sons, or seed, that had any blemish in him, might once press to offer before the Lord, neither come near the vail, nor stand by the altar. 3. A scandalous and obnoxious person shall never do good in his calling. For although the things of Christ, as the Word, sacraments, and doctrine, depend not upon the person of the minister, but on the ordinance of Christ, neither in themselves are the worse in bad men’ s hands, no more than a true man’ s piece of gold in the hands of a thief; yet by our weakness, in such a man’ s hand, they are weaker to us: and although no man can answer or warrant the refusing of pure doctrine (which is not to be had in respect of persons) for the spotted life of the minister, who, while he sitteth in Moses’ s chair (be he Pharisee, be he hypocrite) must be heard, yet can it not be but that the wickedness of Eli’ s sons will make the people abhor the offerings of the Lord, which what a grievous sin it was before the Lord (see 1 Samuel 2:17). Again, how can he benefit his people whose hands are bound, whose mouth is shut, and cannot utter the truth without continual galling and sentencing of himself? and when every scoffer shall be ready to say to him, “ Art thou become weak like one of us?” and the word shall be still returned upon himself, how can it be expected that he should do good amongst them? 4. It is a most dangerous condition to himself to be a good teacher of a bad life, for such a one is in the snare of the devil, that is, when he seeth his life still more and more exprobrated, and himself more despised every day than other (for it is just with God that with the wicked should be reproach), then he begins to grow so bold and impudent, as that he casts off all shame and care, and as one desperate and hardened in sin, prostituteth himself remorselessly unto all lewdness and ungodly conversation. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Rules to keep a man unreprovable 1. Labour with thy heart to see itself still in the presence of God, and this wilt be a means to keep it in order; whores otherwise an unruly heart will break out one time or other. 2. Have a care of a good name, as well as a good conscience; not so much for thy own as for God’ s glory: neither because thyself, but ethers stand much upon it. 3. Avoid occasions of sins, appearances of evil, seeing thy motes become beams. 4. Study to do thy own duty diligently, meddle not with other men’ s matters. 5. Curb and cover thine own infirmities, buffet thy body, and bring it in subjection (1 Corinthians 9:1-27). 6. Daily pray for thyself, with a desire of the prayer and admonition of others. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Importance of good ministerial character Personal character is of the utmost moment in the work of admonition. We must not try to remove motes from the eyes of others while we have beams in our own. Quarles reminds us that “ He who cleanses a blot with blurred fingers, makes a greater blot. Even the candle snuffers of the sanctuary were of pure gold” (Exodus 37:23). We may not urge others to activity, and lie still like logs ourselves. A quaint old preacher of the sixteenth century has put this truth into homely, pungent words: “ Beloved in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, it is a very monstrous thing that any man should have more tongues than hands. For God hath given us two hands and but one tongue, that we might do much and say but little. Yet many say so much and do so little, as though they had two tongues and but one hand; nay, three tongues and never a hand. Such as these (which do either worse than they teach, or else less than they teach, teaching others to do well and to do much, but doing no whir themselves) may be resembled to divers things. To a whetstone, which being blunt itself, makes a knife sharp. To a painter, which being deformed himself, makes a fair picture. To a sign, which being weather beaten, and hanging without itself, directs passengers into the inn. To a bell, which being deaf and hearing not itself, calls the people into the church to hear. To a goldsmith, which being beggarly, and having not one piece of plate to use himself, hath stores for others which he shows and sells in his shop. Lastly, to a ridiculous actor in the city of Smyrna, who pronouncing ‘ O coelum,’ O heaven, pointed with his finger toward the ground. Such are all they which talk one thing and do another; which teach well and do ill.” (C.H. Spurgeon.) The secret of a blameless life Archbishop Beusou, speaking after Earl Granville had unveiled the memorial to his predecessor, adorned the occasion by a reference to the secret of the beautiful life of the late Archbishop Tate. “ I have heard,” he said, “ and I believe it is true, that on the first day of his wedded life he and his bride pledged themselves to each other that they would never quarrel with any one, and I believe that, with God’ s blessing and help, that pledge was kept to the end.” Husband of one wife:--In the corrupt facility of divorce allowed both by Greek and Roman law, it was very common for man and wife to separate, and marry other parties during the life of each other. Thus, a man might have three or four living wives, or women who had successively been his wives. An example of this may be found in the English colony of Mauritius, where the French revolutionary law of divorce had been left unrepealed by the English Government; and it is not uncommon to meet in society three or four women who have all been wives of one man, and three or four men who have all been husbands of one woman. Thus, successive rather than simultaneous polygamy is perhaps forbidden here, (Conybeare and Howson.) The husband of one wife The family arrangements in the Isle of Crete were the result of heathenism, and, of course, polygamy had prevailed. Many believers had several wives, as is often the case in heathenism at the present time, and one of the most difficult questions of modern missions is how to treat such cases. When a man and his two wives, for example, all at the same time become Christians, and demand baptism and the Lord’ s supper, what am I to do? There is no passage that I know of in the Word of God to guide me in the matter; and I am left to the general rules of Scripture, to the dictates of wisdom and prudence, and to the leadings of Divine Providence. If, however, such a man wished to become an elder, I would say, No, for a bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, and not of two wives, according to the decision of the apostle Paul (W. Graham, D. D.) Titus 1:7-9 Yet a bishop must be blameless An ideal bishop I will try in five words to set before you the ideal of a bishop: humility, self-sacrifice, simplicity of heart, undaunted courage, moral faithfulness. Of holiness and of diligence I need hardly speak--no bishop could ever imagine himself to be a true bishop without these; but glance for a moment at the others, for they go to the very root of the matter.1. First, utter humility--“ not lording it over God’ s heritage,” etc., Pride is a sin foolish and hateful enough in any man, but it seems doubly so in a bishop. How instructive is that story of Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury. When he summoned the other bishops to meet him, they asked a holy hermit of Bangor how they might know whether Augustine was or was not a man of God, and he answered that they might follow him if they found him to be of a meek and humble heart, for that was the yoke of Christ; but if he bore himself haughtily they should not regard him, for then he was certainly not of God. They took his advice, and hastened to the place of meeting, and when Augustine neither rose to meet them nor received them in any brotherly sort, but sat all the while pontifical in the chair, they would not acknowledge him or denote that they owed him any obedience but that of love. One of the noblest men the Church has ever seen--St. Thomas Aquinas--was also one of the most truly humble. Once a celebrated cardinal was seen passing to the high altar of his cathedral in scarlet robes and jewelled pectoral, in the midst of magnificent ecclesiastics; but one who knelt behind him, seeing a little stream of blood trickling where he knelt, observed that under the sweeping silken robes the great cardinal had been walking with bare feet over the flinty path, that his heart might be mortified amid the splendour of his state. Deep humility within--a violet which scarcely ever grows except at the foot of the cross--should be the mark of a true bishop. 2. Nor is utter self-sacrifice less necessary. If pride is detestable in a bishop, greed is no less so. The bishop who uses the revenues of his church to enrich his family, is false to one of the first duties of his post. The brother of the Bishop of Lincoln, in the twelfth century, complained that he was still left a ploughman. “ Brother,” said the great bishop, “ if your cow dies, I will give you another, and if your plough wants mending I will have it mended; but a ploughman I found you, and a ploughman I mean to leave you.” The income of the see should be spent upon the see. Poverty is never so honourable as in men who might be rich. When Archbishop Warren, Cranmer’ s predecessor, was told on his deathbed that he had only thirty pounds in the world, he answered with a smile, “ Enough to pay my journey to heaven.” 3. Simplicity of heart. None but small and unworthy men would lose by it. Neither pomp, nor wealth, nor office--prizes of accident as oft as merit--ever made any small man great. Once I was staying as a boy in a bishop’ s house, and there was dug up the brass plate from the tomb of one of his predecessors, and I have never forgotten the inscription on it: “ Stay, passer by! See and smile at the palace of a bishop. The grave is the palace they must all dwell in soon!” 4. Unbounded courage. Scorn of mere passing popularity should be among his first qualities. When that persecuting emperor, Valens, sent his prefect to threaten St. Basil, and was met by a flat refusal of his demands, the prefect started from his seat and exclaimed, “ Do you not fear my power?” “ Why should I?” answered Basil. “ What can happen to me?” “ Confiscation,” replied the prefect, “ punishment, torture, death.” “ Is that all?” said Basil. “ He who has nothing beyond my few books and these threadbare robes is not liable to confiscation. Punishment! How can I be punished when God is everywhere? Torture!--torture can only harm me for a moment; and death--death is a benefactor, for it will send me the sooner to Him whom I love and serve.” “ No one has ever addressed me so,” said the prefect. “ Perhaps,” answered Basil, “ you never met a true bishop before.” You may think that bishops in these days have no need for such courage. They will not have to face kings and rulers, I dare say; but I wish all had the bolder and rarer courage to face the false world; to tell the truth to lying partisans, religious and other; to confront the wild and brutal ignorance of public opinion; to despise the soft flatteries of an easy popularity; to know by experience that Christ meant something when He said, “ Blessed are ye when all men revile you for My name’ s sake.” 5. Again, I ask, are bishops never called upon by their duty to exceptional moral faithfulness--to be, as it were, the embodied conscience of the Christian Church before the world? That was the splendid example set by St. Ambrose. Theodosius was a great, and in many respects a good, emperor; but in a fierce outburst of passion he had led his soldiers into the amphitheatre of Thessalonica, and had slain some five or six thousand human beings, the innocent no less than the guilty, in indiscriminate massacre. Courtiers said nothing; the world said nothing; civil rulers said nothing; then it was that St. Ambrose stood forth like the incarnate conscience of mankind. For eight months he excluded the emperor from the cathedral, and when he came at Christmastide to the Communion, he met him at the door, and, in spite of purple and diadem and praetorian guards, forbad him to enter till he had laid aside the insignia of a guilty royalty, and, prostrate with tears, upon the pavement, had performed a penance as public as his crime. (Archdeacon Farrar.) Qualifications for the eldership St. Paul had never shown himself indifferent to the local organisation of each little community which he founded. On his very earliest missionary tour, he and Barnabas had ordained presbyters over the Gentile Churches at Derbe, at Lystra, at Iconium, and at Pisidian Antioch. It seems likely that, as he grew older and realised how soon both he and the other temporary chiefs of the new society must be withdrawn, he only came to feel more strongly than at first the importance of providing for its permanent administration through stationary office bearers who could be continually replaced. Such a case as this which had come to his knowledge in Crete must have sharpened that conviction. As error spread, and especially such error as led to lax morals, the office of ruler in the young community grew to be of the higher consequence, and it became more important to secure that those who were admitted to office possessed the requisite qualifications. It throws a good deal of light on this point to observe where the stress is laid in Paul’ s catalogue of these qualifications. Ability on the elder’ s part to argue with Jew and heathen, or even to edify disciples, is not put in the foreground. On the contrary, the qualification insisted upon with most detail is one of character. Among the little companies to be found in the towns of Crete few men would probably be found competent to discuss points of theology, or to hold their own on subtle questions of Mosaic law with glib talkers of “ the circumcision.” Certainly there could not as yet exist a class of professional divines, expert in controversy or specially educated to instruct their brethren. What was to be had was just a few men of some years’ Christian standing and of grave and approved Christian character, who, knowing from experience that the true faith of the Lord Jesus was a faith “ according to godliness,” could bring new-fangled doctrines to this plain test: Did they contribute to promote wholesome manners, or did they betray an evil origin by their noxious influence upon practice? In effect, it was by their pure example, by the weight of their character, by the sober and balanced judgment which Christian experience forms, and, above all, by that instinct with which a mature Christian mind, however untrained in theology, recoils from morbid views of duty, dangerous errors of mischievous speculation: it was by the possession of gifts like these that the elders were fitted to form a salutary force within the Church; and the best service they could render it at that conjuncture would be to keep the flock in old safe paths, guarding its faith from poisonous admixture, that, amid the restlessness of a fermenting period, men’ s minds might be settled in quietness upon the simple teaching of the gospel. It cannot surprise us therefore to find, when we come to look at the qualifications Paul desires in the Cretan elder, that the condition first insisted on is, not simply character, but reputed character. He must be a man against whom public rumour lays no scandalous charge, either within or without the Christian society. There may have been something in the condition of the Cretan Church which rendered it specially desirable that its representatives should stand well in the esteem of their neighbours. But it is plain that upon this qualification must always depend in every Church the real value and influence of the eldership. It matters comparatively little how active or zealous or even devout a church ruler be, if men cannot respect him because they either see, or imagine that they see, such flaws as seriously detract from the total impression his character ought to make upon them. However useful in other ways a man of blemished estimation may prove, he is not likely to lend dignity to sacred office or attract to it the confidence and reverence of the people. The general conception of “ blamelessness” St. Paul breaks up into eleven particulars; of which five describe what the elder must not be, and six what he ought to be. Of the negative requirements, the first and the last need not surprise us. Many a good man exhibits an unconciliatory and unpliant temper; but such a disposition is a peculiarly unfortunate one in the official who has to act along with others in the management of a large body of brethren, and to preserve that peace which is the bond or girdle of perfection. The stubborn man who insists on having his own way at too heavy a cost makes a bad elder. So of the fifth negative. The instance of the false teachers at Crete showed how readily in that age a greedy man might take unworthy advantage of the confidence of the Church, not to say by downright peculation, but at all events by making a good thing out of his position. Such a temptation lay near to a trader in one of the Greek seaports, as many among these new-made presbyters would be. But the spirit of covetousness is hard to exorcise from the ministry at all times; the harder now, because the ministry has come to be a “ profession.” Let us hope that the modern ecclesiastic stands in less danger of the group of things forbidden which lies between these two: “ not soon angry; not given to wine” (or in the R.V., “ no brawler” ; literally it means one who is not rude over his cups), “ no striker.” All three expressions picture for us a type of character with which Paul and the Church at Crete were possibly too familiar; a hot-tempered man, apt to get excited, if not a little tipsy, on jovial occasions; and, when heated with wine, only too loud in his talk and too prompt with his fists. The seaboard of these Greek islands must have offered plenty of specimens of this sort of fellow; but we should scarcely have supposed it needful to warn a Christian congregation against making an “ elder” of him. Although the temptation to drink drags too often even presbyters from their seats, we should not elevate to that position a quarrelsome tippler if we knew it. I suspect that the surprise we feel when we meet such items in a list of disqualifications for office, serves in some degree to measure the progress in social manners which, thanks to the gospel, we have made since these words were written. Our holy religion itself has so raised the standard of reputable behaviour, at least among professors of the faith, that we revolt from indulgences as unworthy even of a Christian which Cretan converts needed to be told were unworthy of a presbyter. When we turn to the positive virtues which Paul desired to see in candidates for sacred office, we are again reminded of our altered circumstances. No modern writer would think of placing hospitality at the top of the list. But in times when travelling was difficult, and the inns few or bad, those Christians, whom either private business or the interests of the gospel compelled to visit foreign cities, were exceedingly dependent on the kindly offices of the few who in each chief centre owned and loved the same Lord. At heathen hands they could count on little friendship; the public usages of society were saturated with the associations of idolatry. The scattered members of the Christian body were therefore compelled to form a little secret guild all over the Mediterranean lands, of which the branches maintained communication with each other, furnishing their members with letters of introduction whenever they had occasion to pass from one port to another. To receive such stranger disciples into one’ s house, furnish them with travelling requisites, further their private affairs, and bid them God speed on their journey, came to be everywhere esteemed as duties of primary obligation, especially on the official leaders and wealthier members in each little band of brethren. Hospitality like this would be a part of the elder’ s public duty; it was to be wished that it should spring out of a liberal and friendly disposition. Hence to the word “ hospitable” the apostle adds, “ a lover of good men,” or of all noble and generous acts. The main emphasis, however, in Paul’ s sketch of the good “ bishop” rests on the word our Authorised Version renders, not very happily, “ sober.” This favourite word of the apostle throughout the Pastoral Epistles describes, according to Bishop Ellicott, “ the well-balanced state of mind resulting from habitual self-restraint.” As he grew older St. Paul appears to have got very tired of intemperate extravagance both in thought and action, even among people who called themselves Christians. He saw that mischief was threatened to the Christian cause by wild fantastic speculation in theology, by the restless love of novelty in matters of opinion, by morbid one-sided tendencies in ethics, and generally by a high-flying style of religiousness which could minister neither to rational instruction nor to growth in holiness. Sick of all this, he never wearies in these later letters of insisting that a man should above all things be sane--morally and intellectually; preserving, amid the bewilderment and “ sensationalism” of his time, a sober mind and a healthy moral sense. If the new elders to be ordained in Crete did not possess this quality, they were likely to effect extremely little good. The unruly Jewish deceivers, with their “ endless genealogies,” legal casuistry, and “ old wives’ fables,” would go on “ subverting entire households” just as before. It certainly pertains to this balanced or sober condition of the Christian mind that it rests firmly and squarely on the essential truths of the gospel, holding for true the primitive faith of Christ, and not lending a ready ear to every new-fangled doctrine. This is the requirement in the presbyter which at the close of his instructions St. Paul insists on with some fulness (Titus 1:9). The mature and judicious believer who is fit for office must adhere to that faithful (or credible?) doctrine which conforms to the original teaching of the apostles and first witnesses of our holy religion. Otherwise, how can he discharge his twofold function of “ exhorting” the members of the Church in sound Christian instruction, and of “ confuting” the opponents? (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) As the steward of God Ministerial stewardship I. First, the word implieth thus much, that God is a great Householder (Matthew 21:33); that his house is his church, where He as a great personage keepeth His residence, more stately and honourable than the court or standing house of any earthly king in the world, in that herein He pleaseth to manifest His presence by His Spirit working in the Word and ministry; and as it is with other great houses, so the Spirit of God speaketh of this as committed not to one but many stewards, who take the charge of it to order and govern it according to the mind of the Master and unto His greatest honour and advantage. And these stewards are the ministers, so called 1. Because as the steward in a house is to dispense all necessaries unto the whole family according to the allowance and liking of his lord, even so the minister receiveth from God power to administer according to the necessities of the Church all the things of God, as Word, sacraments, prayer, admonition, etc. 2. As the steward receiveth the keys of the house to open and shut, to lock and unlock, to admit or exclude out of the house, for so is it said of Eliakim (Isaiah 22:22), even so every minister receiveth the keys of the kingdom of heaven to open and shut heaven, to bind and loose, to remit and retain sins, as Matthew 16:19. 3. As the steward sitteth not in his own as an owner or freeholder, but is to be countable and to give up his hills monthly or quarterly when the master shall call for them, so every minister is to be countable of his talents received, and of his expenses, and how he hath dispensed his Master’ s goods (Hebrews 13:17). “ They watch for their souls as they which must give account.” II. The second thing in this similitude to be considered is the force of the argument, which is this: that because every minister is called to a place so near the lord as to be his steward, therefore he must be unblameable. Where we have the ground of another instruction. Every man as he is nearer unto God in place must be so much the more careful of his carriage: that he may both resemble Him in his virtues, dignify his place, and walk more worthy of Him that hath drawn him so near Himself. Besides that, every master looketh to be graced by his servant; and much more will the Lord be glorified either of or in all those that come near Him (Leviticus 10:1-20). For as the master quickly turneth out of his doors such disgraceful persons as become reproachful to the family, even so the Lord, knowing that the infamous courses of the servant reacheth itself even to the master, turneth such out of His service which are the just subjects of reproach. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Stewards of God It is worthy of remembrance that Archbishop Tillotson and Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, considered their large revenues as trusts committed to their care. Accordingly they set aside what remained after their maintenance in a plain way for bettering the condition of the poor clergy and repairs in churches, besides using hospitality to the poor. It is said of Burner that when his secretary informed him he had in hand about £500, he remarked, “ What a shame for a Christian to have so much money unemployed!” and ordered its immediate distribution for useful purposes. A faithful steward The other day I received a communication from a lawyer, who says that a very large owner has discovered that a very small piece of property belongs to him and not to the small proprietor in whose possession it has for a very long time remained. The matter seemed a trifling one. We had a conference, and there came the steward with the lawyers, and he was furnished with maps, and, putting on his spectacles, examined them with great care. Why? It was a small matter to him, but because he was a steward he was expected to be faithful. And when he found that this small piece of ground belonged to his lord he was determined to have it. So let me say--as stewards of the gospel of God--never give up one verse, one doctrine, one word of the truth of God. Let us be faithful to that committed to us, it is not ours to alter. We have but to declare that which we have received. (S. Cook, D. D.) Not self-willed Frowardness most dangerous in a minister 1. It is the mother of error in life and doctrine, yea, of strange opinions, schisms, and heresies themselves; and it cannot be otherwise, seeing the ear of a self-conceited person is shut against all counsel, without which “ thoughts come to nought, as where many counsellors are is steadfastness.” And as everywhere almost the wicked man is termed a froward man, and a wicked and ungodly heart a froward heart, so is it generally true which the wise man observed, that such a froward heart can never find good, but evil and woe cleaveth unto it: and therefore David, when he would shut the door of his soul against much evil, said, “ A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know,” that is, affect and act, “ evil.” 2. Whereas men think it a note of learning and wisdom not to yield an inch in any opinion they take up, the Spirit of God brandeth it with a note of folly: and it is no other than the way of the fool which seemeth good in his own eyes. Indeed, neither minister nor ordinary Christian may be as shaking reeds, tossed hither and thither with every blast of wind; but yet is it a wise man’ s part to hear and try and not stick to his own counsel as a man wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can give a reason: for there is greater hope of a fool than of such a one. 3. There are many necessitudes and occasions between the minister and people: he must admonish the inordinate, raise with comforts the afflicted, restore those that are fallen, and set their bones again tenderly by the spirit of meekness, and privately encourage those that do well. Again, they must consult with him, ask him sometimes of his doctrine, lay open unto him their grief as to their physician under Christ, and seek for particular direction in special cases from him: in all which and many more mutual duties they may not by this inordinate humour be deterred and hindered, but rather with all meekness and lenity be allured, lovingly entertained, and contentedly dismissed from him. Use 1. The minister must learn to be docile and affable: the former fitteth him to learn of others, the latter to teach others; for none can be apt to teach others who is not apt to learn of others; and in the minister especially a tractable and teachable disposition is a singular inviting of others by his example more easily to admit his teaching, whether by reprehension, admonition, or howsoever. 2. So hearers (seeing frowardness is such an impediment to instruction) must learn to cast it from them, which in many (otherwise well affected) is a disposition hard to please: in some making them seldom contented with the pains, matter, or manner of their ministry; but having a bed in their brain of their own size, whatsoever is longer they cut off, whatsoever is shorter they stretch and rack it: for their own opinions may not yield, not knowing to give place to better. Others are secure, and therein grown froward against the Word. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Not soon angry Hastiness to anger a great blot in a minister For 1. Whereas a minister ought to be a man of judgment, knowledge, and understanding (for these are most essential unto his calling), yea, a man of such wisdom as whereby all his actions, ministerial and common, should be ordered; this flashing anger overturneth for the present, yea, and drowneth all his judgment, for what other is it than a little fury and a short madness? 2. The pestilent effects and fruits of anger, and the natural daughters resembling the mother are such, as in a minister of all men are intolerable: as, swelling of the mind so high, and so full as there is no room for good motions and meditations (which should wholly take up the minister’ s heart) to dwell by it: the often arising of God’ s enemies, and harming and wounding of His friends, for anger is cruel and wrath is raging: it cares not for any, nor spares any that come in the way of it; for who can stand before envy? And from this indignation of heart proceed usually impiety against God, for all prayers and parts of His worship are interrupted; contumely against men, for the bond of love is broken; clamour of speech, violence of hands, temerity of actions, late repentance, and many more such symptoms of this desperate disease: for he hath lost all the bridle and moderation of himself. Now what government is he worthy of, especially in the Church of God, that ordinarily loseth all the government of himself? 3. The minister standing in the room and stead of God ought to be a mortified man, for till he have put off this filthy fruit of the flesh can he never lively express the virtues of God, who is a God of patience, meekness, much in compassion, slow to wrath; and much less can he fitly stamp and imprint that part of His image on others, yea, or teach them to withstand such hot and hasty affections which so suddenly surprise and inflame himself. 4. As the minister is to be a means of reconciling God unto man, so likewise of man unto man; which commendable duty a hasty man can never to purpose perform: nay, rather he stirreth up strife and marreth all: whereas Solomon observeth that only he “ that is slow to wrath appeaseth strife,” for this unruly passion will disable a man to hear the truth of both parties indifferently, nor abideth to hear the debate, but it will be thundering threats before time serve to take knowledge of tim matter. 5. This vice prejudiceth all his ministerial actions. (1) In his own heart. For the minister shall often meet in his calling with those, both at home and abroad, who in many things are far different from him both in judgment and practice; yea, some of weakness, and others of obstinacy, loathing even his wholesome doctrine. Now his calling is, and consequently his care should be, to gain these to the love and liking of the truth: to which end he is not presently to break out into anger: for thus he sets them further off, and scandaliseth such as otherwise he might have won, no more than the physician is or may be angry though the weak stomach of his patient loathe and cast up his wholesome physic, for that would set the patient into further distemper; but such must be restored by the spirit of meekness. (2) In his people’ s hearts, by alienating their love and affection, which are easily worn away with the distasteful fruits of this hasty anger: let him instruct, admonish, reprove, every one findeth this evasion, one he doth in anger, another not in love, and so his whole work is lost and become fruitless: whereas by loving usage he might have pierced his people with a permanent and lasting affection, and won better entertainment to all his proceedings. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Means to repress rash anger The means to bridle and stay this rash and unadvised anger stand partly in meditations, partly in practices.1. For the former (1) Meditate on the providence of God, without which not the least grief or injury could befall us, for even the least is a portion of that cup which God’ s hand reacheth unto us to drink of. (2) On the patience and lenity of God, who with much mercy suffereth vessels ordained unto destruction. How long did He suffer the old world? how loath was He to strike if in a hundred and twenty years He could have reclaimed them! And add hereunto the meekness of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath commanded us to learn it of Him: His voice was not heard in the streets; a bruised reed He would not break: how long bare He with Judas, being no better than a devil within His family! (3) On the unbounded measure of God’ s mercy, whose virtue His child must endeavour to express. God forgiveth to that man which injureth thee much more than thou canst; He forgiveth him infinite sins, and canst not thou pass by one offence? and thou hast more reason, for thou knowest not his heart nor his intention; it may be he meant better unto thee: neither art thou acquainted with the strength of his temptation, which perhaps was such as would have overthrown thyself, nor the reason why the Lord suffereth him to be overcome and fall by it. And yet if all this cannot bridle the headiness of this vile lust, apply this mercy of God to thyself: thou standest in need of a sea of God’ s mercy for the washing of so many soul offences; and wilt not thou let one drop fall upon thy brother to forbear and forgive in trifling wrongs. (4) Upon the danger of retaining wrath, which is an high degree of murder, thou prayest to be forgiven as thou forgivest: the promise is, forgive and it shall be forgiven you: the threatening is, “ that judgment merciless shall be to him that showeth not mercy” : and be sure that what measure thou metest unto others shall be measured to thee again and returned into thine own bosom. 2. And for the practices (1) In thine anger make some delay before thou speakest or doest anything, which point of wisdom nature hath taught her clients to observe. That of Socrates to his servant is better known than practised, “ I had smitten thee but that I was angry” : and memorable is that answer of Athenodorus to Augustus, desiring him to leave him some memorable document and precept, advised him that when he was angry he should repeat over the Greek alphabet before he attempted any speech or action. But although this be a good means, yet will it be to no purpose without the heart be purged of disorder: therefore (2) Apply to thy heart by faith the death of Christ, to the crucifying of this lust of the flesh: nothing else can cleanse the heart but the blood of Jesus Christ, who, as He was crucified, so they that are His have also crucified the flesh and the lusts of it. (3) After the inward disposition use outward helps, as (a) Avoid occasions, as chiding, contentions, multiplying of words, which, though they be wind, yet do they mightily blow up this fire. (b) Depart from the company of the Contentious, as Jacob from Esau, and Jonathan avoided the fury of his father by rising up and going his way. (c) Drive away with an angry countenance whisperers, tale bearers, flatterers, who are Satan’ s seedsmen, by whom he soweth his tares everywhere, and his bellows by whom he bloweth up these hellish sparkles, desirous to bring all things into combustion and confusion.(4) Pray for strength and grace against it, especially for the contrary virtues of humility, meekness, love, and a quiet spirit which is of God much set by: and having obtained strength and victory against the assaults of it, forget not to be thankful, but break out into the praises of God as David (1 Samuel 25:32-33). (T. Taylor, D. D.) Not given to wine Drunkenness has been the ruin of multitudes of the most learned and gifted ministers of the Church of God. It has slain its thousands and tens of thousands in all ages, to the scandal and ruin of the Church of God. If there was a danger in the wine country of Crete, what must be the danger in the spirit countries of the north? But a man may be πάροινος (Titus 1:7; 1 Timothy 3:3)--viz., by wine, sitting long by his wine--without being a drunkard; and this, also, is condemned by the apostle. A man once said to me, “ I drink wine regularly; I like it, and require a bottle or two daily, but I never drink to excess; I am no drunkard, and in all my life I have never been rendered incapable of doing my duties by wine.” Very likely, but yet you are πάροινος. You like your wine, and sit long by it, and therefore you are condemned by the apostle. Generally speaking, the more simply and abstemiously we live the better; and bishops especially should in this, as in all others, be examples to the flock. (W. Graham, D. D.) Why a minister should not be addicted to wine 1. To be addicted to the wine or strong drink “ taketh away the heart” (Hosea 4:11), that is, troubleth the understanding, confoundeth the senses, and equalleth a man to the brute beast without understanding: and thus disableth the man of God in all the practice of his calling. As the wise man therefore saith (Proverbs 31:4), so much less is it for the minister and pastor set over God’ s people, lest he forget God’ s decrees and change His judgments as Aaron’ s sons did. 2. This sitting at wine calleth him from the duties and means of his fitness unto his calling; he cannot attend to reading, exhortation, doctrine, which is straightly enjoined (1 Timothy 4:13). 3. Such a man is so far from performance of any faithful duty, that he cannot but become rather an enemy to those that do. Thus the love of wine makes them fail in vision: and the sitting at wine lutleth them asleep, “ even on the top of the mast” (as Solomon speaketh of the drunkard), that in times and places of most present and desperate dangers, they see none nor fear any. 4. It disableth all the duties that such a one in his most sobriety can perform (suppose them never so commendable), seeing he hath made himself and calling so contemptible: for what authority can an oracle have out of s drunken man’ s mouth, which is so accustomed to speak lewd things? and one who hath shaken hands with the most base and wicked companions in a country, which is another inseparable companion of this sin (Hosea 7:5). (T. Taylor, D. D.) No striker “ No striker” It is said of Bishop Bonner, of infamous memory, that, when examining the poor Protestants whom he termed heretics, when worsted by them in argument he was used to smite them with his fists, and some times scourge and whip them. But though he was a most ignorant and consummate savage, yet from such a Scripture as this he might have seen the necessity of surrendering his mitre. (Adam Clarke.) Not given to filthy lucre Rules for the subduing of covetous desires 1. Meditate (1) On God’ s commandment (Proverbs 23:4; Matthew 6:25). And reason there is, that seeing distracting and solicitous thoughts are the ground of covetous practices, the care of a Christian must be to walk diligently in his calling, but leave all the success and blessing of it unto God. (2) On God’ s promises (Psalms 55:24; 1 Peter 5:7). Make these promises thy purchase and possess them by belief, and they shall be instead of a bridle unto all covetous and greedy desires of gain. And thus the apostle dissuadeth it (Hebrews 13:5). Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with things present. They might ask, but how shall we attain hereunto: have we not cares and charges upon us? True; but you have where to lay them: for He hath said, “ I will not leave thee nor forsake thee.” (3) On thy own deserts: whereby Jacob in want stayed his mind, “ I am less than the least of Thy mercies.” (4) On the inordinancy of thy desire: for how little is nature con tented with! and a very little above a little choketh it: and yet grace is contented with much less: it careth not how little it see about it, for it believeth the more, hopeth the more, trusteth the more, prayeth the more, and loveth the more. All the labour of a man (saith Solomon) “ is for his mouth” ; the mouth is but little and strait, soon filled, “ yet the desire is not filled” : noting it to be an unnatural desire in many men, who labour not as men who were to feed a mouth but a great gulf fit to swallow whole Jordan at a draught, or such a mouth as the Leviathan which receiveth the cart and drawers of it. 2. Practise these rules following (1) Carry an equal mind to poverty and riches, and aim at Paul’ s resolution, “ I can want and abound,” I can be full and hungry, in every condition I can he content. If the world come in upon thee, use it as not using it; if it do not, yet account the present condition the best for thee, because the Lord doth so account it: and the way to get wealth is to give it up into God’ s disposition, as Abraham by offering up Isaac to the Lord kept him still. (2) Turn the stream of thy desires from earthly to heavenly things, makings, with David, God thy portion; then shalt thou be better without these than ever thou weft or canst be with them. (3) Thou must go one step further, daily to cross the affection directly (a) By daily seeking the assurance of the pardon of sin. (b) By daily prayer against this sin especially. (c) By daily reading the Scriptures, which are the sword of the Spirit to cut off such lusts, wisely observing and applying such places as most cross it. (d) By being ready to do good, and distribute, and exercising liberality upon all good motions and occasions. (T. Taylor, D. D.) A lover of hospitality The true hospitality By this is not meant what is called keeping a good open table, of which we have, and have ever had, many examples in England, and much money, time, and health have been spent at these luxurious and hospitable banquets. The apostle does not mean the great dinners of friendship, such as we have now, when luxuries are drawn together from the ends of the earth, to renew the sated appetite, and anticipate not only the real but the imaginary wants of the guests; he refers not to the sparkling of the wine, or the brilliancy of wit when the spirit is high, or those postprandial exhibitions which have been called the feast of reason and the flow of soul. No; this is not his meaning: but the bishop must be a lover of hospitality in a higher and far nobler sense of the word; his house and his heart ever open to the poor and needy (Luke 14:13); if he has two coats, the first naked man whom he meets gets one of them; if the Lord has given him wealth, he actually realises the 25th of Matthew, by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting those that are in prison. He loves to see the learned and the good, the advanced Christian and the weak believer, assembled round his table, in free and full and unrestrained conversation; it is his noble privilege to meet with all classes, mix with all classes, and still be a blessing to them all; he can fare with a peasant or feast with a prince, and be equally satisfied with either. (W. Graham, D. D.) Hospitality in ministers I. The occasion of this precept was the distressed estate and condition of the church, which by reason of many tyrants and persecutors was driven into many straits, partly perceived in present and partly foreseen by the prophetical spirit of the apostle, not only in the ten persecutions then imminent, but also in the several afflictions of the world, in which they were to find tribulation even to the end of it. For as it is in this aspectable world, which is subject to so many changes and mutations, because it standeth in the vicissitudes of years, months, days, and nights, so much more is it in the spiritual world of the Church, which in the earth is acquainted with her winter as well as summer, her nights as well as days: sometimes the Sun of Righteousness most comfortably shining and imparting His heat and light by His near approach unto her; yea, and sometimes there be two suns in this firmament, for together with the sun of the Church, the sun of the world affordeth warm and comfortable days for the full beauty, liberty, and glory of the Church. But sometimes, again, this sun departeth in displeasure and carrieth the sun of the world with him, then is a black winter of the Church, nothing but storms and tempests, persecutions and trials, one in the neck of another, and scarce one fair gleam between. Now in such times the poor Church is driven to travel for rest, and the innocent dove of Christ cannot find in her own land any rest for the sole of her foot; well may she fly abroad to seek her security. In all which times every Christian is bound by this and such like precepts to give her harbour and safe conduct till the dash and storm be over. Besides, suppose the Church in general at her best estate, yet the particular members of the Church are for most part poor and needy, and even then subject to many troubles for keeping the faith and good consciences, by means whereof they are often driven from house and home, and sometimes are in banishment and exile, sometimes in prison and bonds; all whom the Lord commendeth to the charitable and Christian devotion of Christian men, and bindeth them to the cheerful receiving and relieving of them in such necessity; let them be strangers yet, if they be of the household of faith, they have right to harbour and relieve, and in the practice of this duty the apostle requireth that the minister be the foreman. II. It will be inquired whether every minister must be harbourous and hospitable, and if he must, what shall become of them whose livings are scarce able to harbour themselves; and much more of the swarms of our ten-pound men, and very many scarce half that to maintain their family? it seemeth that every minister ought to be a rich man. I answer, that the poorest minister may not exempt himself from this duty, neither is altogether disabled from it; a poor man may be merciful and comfortable to the distressed some way or other, as if with Peter and John he have not money or meat to give, yet such as he hath he can give--counsel, prayers, and his best affections. III. The reasons enforcing this precept upon the minister especially.1. In regard of strangers he must take up this duty whether they be strangers from the faith, that hereby he might win them to the love of true religion which they see to be so merciful and liberal, or else if they be converted much more that he may comfort and confirm such as are banished, or otherwise evil entreated for the confession and profession of the truth, for if every Christian, much more must the minister be affected to those that are in bonds, as though himself were bound with them, and consequently look what kindness he would receive if he were in their condition, the same to his power he is to bestow upon them. 2. In regard of his own people, upon whom by this means he sealeth his doctrine sundry ways; but especially if he keep open house for the poor Christians in want he bindeth the souls of such receivers to obey the Word, and encourageth them by his entertainment in their entertainment of the gospel. IV. The use.1. It teacheth that it were to be wished that the maintenance of every minister were competent, certain, and proper unto himself, that he might have wherewith to perform this so necessary a duty. 2. In regard of poor strangers, to stir up ministers and people to a liberal heart towards them all, but especially if they be such as, the land of whose own possessions being unclean, come over unto the land of the possession of the Lord, wherein the Lord’ s tabernacle dwelleth. How few children hath Abraham, the father of our faith, among us, who sit in the door of their tent to watch for and enforce strangers to receive their best entertainment! Few be our Lots, who will undergo any loss, any indignity, before strangers shall sustain any harm at all; he will offer his own daughters to their violence, he will use reasons, they had known no man, and that which would have persuaded any but the Sodomites he used last, that they were strangers and were come under his roof. Few Jobs, who will not suffer the stranger to lodge in the street, but open their doors to him that passeth by the way. (T. Taylor, D. D.) A lover of good men The lover of the good 1. A good man is always deeply sensible of the opposite of goodness--of moral evil--in himself and in the world around him. The inner cry of his heart often is, “ O wretched man that I am,” “ When I would do good, evil is present with me!” It is present, but not allowed; hated rather, mourned over, repented of, put away in purpose. The goodness of the man is shown in this internal preference--a preference of which, in the first instance, only the man himself is conscious, but which is certain to become apparent to others. For, be sure of this, that what we most deeply regard in our own hearts cannot be permanently hidden from others. Exactly so it is with regard to evil in the world around him, that is, the evil that is in other men. A good man cannot look upon evil with favour or allowance; the instinct that is within him will put him in a moment in moral opposition to the evil that is in the world. Conscience says, with Luther, “ Here I stand. I can do no other. So help me, God!” The world’ s way is a way of universal conciliation and compliance and apology. 2. A good man, while standing in direct moral opposition to evil will, at the same time, be pitiful and compassionate towards the subjects of it. He will be like God in this. God hates evil. God pities those who are caught in its toils, and who suffer its penalties and are loaded with its curse. He pities them and comes to save them. 3. A good man is humble, modest, moderate in his own esteem. He has the sense of his frailty, of his sin, and all the limitations of his nature, and the sorrows and troubles of this earthly life to keep him humble. A proud man is foolish, in the deepest sense, and ignorant. 4. A good man is one who does good. As the righteous man is one who doeth righteousness; as the merciful man is one who “ sheweth mercy,” and the generous man one who gives at some self-sacrifice; so in a larger sense the good man is one who does good, as he has opportunity, at his own cost, with some intelligent purpose for the benefit of his fellow men; who does good from a grateful sense of the great goodness of God to him; does good from a real love of the action, and a love of the people to whom he does it;--who, in one word, is like God Himself, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not--“ who sends His rain on the lust and on the unjust.” A good man is one, in short, who has the active and passive virtues more or less in exercise. They are not in perfect exercise: some of them may be scarcely in sight at all, but he is inclined to all the virtue and set, in the temper of his mind, against all evil. 5. There is on the whole not much difficulty in distinguishing such a man from a man who is not good--who is not true, who is not faithful; who is not generous, nor humble, nor helpful; who has no likeness to Christ, who is not morally a child of God. The difficulty is greater when we come to compare this real Christian goodness with some of the more promising types of natural amiability. Some men are made to be loved. They are so kind, so bright, so helpful, so full of sympathy, and they carry all this somehow so much in their temper, and in the whole habit of their life, and even often on their very countenances, that they make their way at once wherever they wish to be. After all some of them may be good and true in the deepest and most essential sense; many of them may be good up to the point of their knowledge--“ He that doeth righteousness is righteous.” He that doeth good is good; and without any fear we may be “ lovers of” such good men. 6. If we love good men, we shall observe them thoughtfully, we shall look at their spirit and character, their aims and their purposes in life. Love will soon die, love of any kind, unless it be fed by thought and kindled anew by remembrance. “ Therefore will I remember Thee from the land of Jordan.” “ When I remember these things” --the privileges and joys of bygone days--“ I pour out my soul in me” ; in distress and apprehension lest they should never be renewed, and yet in fervent hope that they may; that I shall again ascend the hill of Zion, and sing at her feasts among the bands of the faithful and the good. 7. If we love good men we shall associate with them. They will be our hearts’ aristocracy, the very uppermost circle of life to us, “ our joy and crown.” By such association we shall get social and spiritual advantages that could not otherwise come to us. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) Good companionship This is no doubt intended to rebuke the tendency in many most hospitable men to surround their tables not with the good but the bad; not with the sober, the wise, and the saintly, but the vilest, because they may be brilliant, and the most immoral, because they may be attractive and refined. The Christian bishop should be a lover of good men: his house should be a magnet to attract the just, the generous, and the holy from all quarters; not a scene of luxurious revelry to attract the riotous and the profane. Except in the pulpit the apostolical bishop has nowhere so great an influence as in his own house and at his own table; and his example in privacy being noble and Christian is even more attractive and influential than in his public ministrations. His guests have generally an open ear, and the faithful bishop has a word in season for them all. A godly bishop (if he had the means), in the neighbourhood of a university might influence in this way the minds of hundreds of young men who are to be the future lights and guides of the nation. (W. Graham, D. D.) Just, holy, temperate Good ministerial qualities 1. Just refers to the principles of equity in our conduct with one another. In the entire management and government of his Church, but especially in discipline, the bishop or elder requires this qualification. He must look upon the poor and the rich, the ignorant and the learned, in this respect with an equal eye. 2. Holy, on the other hand, expresses more especially our relations towards God, who is so often called in Scripture “ the Holy One of Israel.” He is a saint, and rejoices to be numbered with the company of those that are sanctified. His external conduct, which is altogether just, is not superficial but real, and flows from holiness of heart; and all his noble actions in the sight of man are based on the new heart, the new nature, and the new hope within him. He is holy: his presence rebukes the ungodly, and the tongue of the wicked is silent before him; the atmosphere around him is pure, salubrious, and serene; his words when he speaks are like ointment poured forth; his holy exhortations and heavenly prayers are full of the blessing of the Lord; and his whole walk in the midst of the people is like the sun, brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. This twofold relation of man to his neighbour and to God was known to the heathen, for Polybius says (23:10, 8), “ Just in respect to our fellow man, and holy in things pertaining to God.” Both of these meet in the Christian bishop and form the greatest perfection of his character. He is distinguished by justice among his fellow creatures on earth, and his holiness connects him with his Lord and Head in heaven. 3. He is also temperate, ἐκρατῆς, (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:9; 1 Corinthians 9:25) --powerful, master of himself, having self-control, and hence continent, which is undoubtedly the meaning of it here. He has renounced the world, the devil, and the flesh, and he will not be drawn away from his high calling by sensual pleasure. (W. Graham, D. D.) Holding fast the faithful Word The characteristics of a successful preacher I. Personal conviction of the truth. II. Aptness to teach others. III. Power of persuasion and conviction. (F. Wagstaff.) The faithful Word I. The word of god is a faithful word, and infallible.1. The author is holy and true (Revelation 3:7; Revelation 3:14). 2. The instruments were led by the immediate direction of the Holy Ghost (2 Peter 1:21). 3. The matter of this Word is an everlasting truth; the law an eternal rule of righteousness as ancient as God Himself; the gospel an everlasting gospel, containing promises of eternal truth, etc. 4. The form of it, which is the conformity of it with God Himself, maketh it appear that if God be faithful this His Word must needs also be so; in that it resembleth Him in His omnipotency, for this power and arm of God never returneth in vain but doth all the work of it. In His wisdom giving most perfect and sure directions, resolving all doubtful eases, and making wise unto salvation. In His purity and perfection being an undefiled and perfect law. In His omniscience it searcheth the heart, discovereth the thoughts, divideth between the marrow and bone (Hebrews 4:12). In His judgment acquitting believers, to whom it is a sweet savour of life to life; condemning infidels both here and much more at the last day (John 12:48). In His truth and verity as here, and Colossians 1:5, it is called the word of truth. 5. The ends shew the certainty and faithfulness of it, it being the only means of regeneration (1 Peter 1:21), of begetting faith, (Romans 10:1-21), and, consequently, both of freeing men from hell and of assuring them of that freedom; the only word that can supply sound and firm consolation, yea settled and assured comfort unto distressed consciences, none of which ends could it ever attain if itself were unsound and uncertain. II. Now as it carrieth with it all these grounds, so are there a number without it more whereby we may confirm the same truth, as 1. It is the foundation of the Church (Ephesians 2:20), against which if hell gates could ever prevail the Church were utterly sunk. 2. Hereunto hath the Lord tied His Church, as to an infallible direction, to the law, and to the testimony, without which there is nothing but error and wandering; ye err not knowing the Scriptures. 3. This truth hath been above all other oppugned by Satan, heretics, tyrants, yet never a whir of it was ever diminished; Solomon’ s books may be lost, but not these of the true Solomon, Jesus Christ. 4. This Word hath been so certainly sealed in the hearts of the elect of all ages that where it once was harboured in truth it could never be shaken out by any kind of most exquisite torture and torment. (T. Taylor, D. D.) The faithful Word to be improved Unto hearers this doctrine affordeth special use of instruction.1. If it be so faithful a Word every man must attend unto it (2 Peter 1:19); we have a surer word, to which ye do well that ye attend. 2. To lay up this Word surely, as being the sure evidence of thy salvation, and of thy heavenly inheritance among the saints. Men lock up their evidences or conveyances of land in sure and safe places, delight often to read them, suffer no man to cousen them of them, whatsoever casualty come these are by all means possible safeguarded, and shall any man carelessly neglect such an evidence as this is, without which he hath no assurance of salvation, nor the tenure (out of his idle conceit) of one foot in heaven; a lame man, if he hold not his staff, falleth; and whosoever loseth his part in the Word loseth his part in heaven. 3. Here is a ground of thankfulness, in that the Lord hath not only vouchsafed us life and glory and immortality when we were dead, and when nothing could be added to our misery; but hath also given us such a constant guide and direction thereunto. Now what can we do less than in way of thankfulness (1) Yield up ourselves to be directed by this faithful Word. (2) Believe it in whatsoever it commandeth, threateneth, or promiseth, in that it is such a faithful Word; and hereby we set also our seal unto it. (3) Constantly cleave unto it in life and in death, and not to be so foolish as to be soon removed to another gospel, nor so fickle as children, to be carried about with every wind of doctrine, but hold fast such a stable truth, so full of direction in all the life, and so full of comfort at the time of death; for it is as a fast and faithful friend, tried in time of adversity, standing closest to a man in his greatest necessity. (T. Taylor, D. D.) The Bible inflexible in its requirements When I was a boy I was engaged in the building trade. I didn’ t know much about it, and I was set to do any odd jobs, any work in a dark corner that could not be much seen. I worked by the side of a man who on one occasion made a sarcastic remark that I shall never forget. It made me so angry, nearly as angry as you are when you are hit hard from the pulpit. He said, “ Tom, when I go home I will call at the saddler’ s and order a leather plumb rod for you.” He meant that my work was so crooked that I wanted a bending and not a straight plumb rod. Builders use a wooden plumb that will not bend at all. The Bible is not a leather plumb rod to be accommodated to us, but is like a wooden one, inflexible in its requirements, and to which we must accommodate ourselves. (T. Champness.) That he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince Sound doctrine and faithful exhortation 1. In that the Word is called doctrine, and no doctrine is without a teacher; it behoveth every man to repair to the teachers of it. 2. As this doctrine implieth teachers, so doth it also learners and scholars. Teaching us that we must all of us become learners of this Word and doctrine, for so long as there is doctrine and teaching on God’ s part so must there be an hearkening and learning on ours, and the rather, both because that which is said of all knowledge, that it is infinite, is much more true of this, for God’ s commandments are exceeding large, as also seeing in this school we are to become not only more learned but better men. 3. In that the apostle calleth that here wholesome doctrine, which in the words before he called a faithful Word, and fitted for doctrine. Note that the men of God, when they fell into speech of the Word of God, they spoke not slightly of it and away, but were hardly drawn from it without leaving behind them some notable eulogy or other upon it (Romans 1:16): the gospel the power of God to salvation (John 6:68). Peter saith not, Master, Thou hast the word of God, but Thou hast the words of eternal life; and what a number of glorious things are ascribed unto it (Hebrews 4:12). Hence according to their several occasions are all those excellent epithets ascribed unto it through the Scriptures, some of the penmen looking at the author, some at the matter, some to the qualities, some to the effects, and accordingly invest it with titles well beseeming it. 4. Whereas the apostle is not contented that the minister should teach but exhort also; it teacheth ministers to labour for this gift whereby an edge is set upon their doctrine, and wherewith as with a goad they prick on the affections of those that are under the yoke of Christ. A difficult thing it is, for teaching is an easy task in comparison of it, and yet so necessary as that all the ministerial work is called by this name (Acts 13:15). 5. Whereas the apostle addeth that exhortation must go with wholesome doctrine, we note that then is exhortation powerful and profitable, when it is firmly grounded upon sound and wholesome doctrine. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Victory through preaching sound doctrine Seldom has a better answer been rendered to the enemies of Christ than that given by Pastor Rolland in a Catholic canton, where the gospel has but recently gained a footing. The incident is thus described: Absolutely discarding controversy he preached the simple, clear gospel. The Capucine monks came to preach a mission against the “ heretical invasion,” the “ Vaudois venom” permeating the canton; and, in no measured language, thundered their calumnies and anathemas. People came to the pastor: “ You surely will not let this drop, but roundly answer them?” “ Only you come next Sunday,” replied he, “ and you will hear how I will serve them out!” The church was filled, and the pastor preached on the love of God through Christ Jesus, and on the love He sheds abroad in our hearts towards all men--not an allusion throughout to the bitter words which had been spoken. The contrast was immensely felt. The writer goes on to say that the people who had crowded the church were profoundly touched, and a grander victory was won than by any amount of hard words. The simple story of the love of God in Christ moved and melted the hardest hearts. The incident is worth noticing as an example which might well find followers. Titus 1:10-11 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers--The conjunction “ for” showeth that the words following contain a reason of the matter preceding, viz., why the minister should be a man so qualified with able parts, both to maintain the truth and censure the falsehood. The reason is drawn from the description 1. Of teachers, in these two verses; and2. Of hearers, in the twelfth. The teachers are described by three arguments.1. From their indefinite number, there are many, not two or three, who are easily set down, but many. 2. By their adjuncts, which are two. 1. They are disobedient or refractory, such as will not submit themselves to the true doctrine and discipline of the Church. 2. They are vain talkers; that is, such as being given to ostentation and vanity, contemn the study and delivery of sound and profitable doctrine, and search out words and matters of wit and applause, both of them of more sweetness unto the flesh than soundness unto the soul and spirit. 3. By their most dangerous effects, and these also are two. 1. Their deceiving of minds; for which ungodly practice he especially brandeth them of the circumcision; that is, either by metonymy, the Jews themselves circumcised, or else Gentiles Judaising, embracing Jewish opinions, mixing the law and gospel, Moses and Christ, circumcision and baptism together, making indeed an hotchpotch of religion by confounding things that can never stand together. The second effect of them is their subversion of whole houses; that is, they poison and infect whole houses, yea, and where the grounds and foundation of religion hath been laid they overturn and overthrow all. This last effect is declared by two arguments. 1. From the instrumental cause of it, and that is by their false doctrine, teaching things which they ought not. 2. From the final cause of it, that is, covetousness, for filthy lucre sake. Now these teachers being so many, so dangerous and hurtful, their mouths must needs be stopped. Which is a common conclusion set between the two verses, as having reference unto them both, as a common remedy against all the mischief which anyway may be let in by them, and therefore those that are to be admitted into the ministry must be of ability to stop their mouths. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Hindrances to religion I. The chief hindrances to religion are often in the church itself. The persons alluded to were members and professed teachers.1. Words without sincerity are “ vain.” 2. Great attention may be paid to the letter of the law, while its spirit is violated--“ they of the circumcision.” 3. The distinction between good and bad preachers--the former live to preach, while the latter preach to live. II. Hindrances in the church must be removed. “ Whose mouths must be stopped.”1. Discipline must be exercised in love. 2. The prosperity of the Church of God must be considered before that of individuals. 3. Every age has its own obstructions to the truth--intemperance, covetousness, selfishness, the chief hindrances of the present. III. Communities are affected by the conduct of individuals. The characters of men are transferred to their country; here the Cretians became a byword. So, drunken Englishmen abroad, compromise the character of their fellow countrymen. Four vices 1. Untruthfulness.2. Passion--“ evil beasts.”3. Sensuality.4. Slothfulness. (F. Wagstaff.) The characteristics of false teachers 1. In that the first thing taxed in these false teachers by the apostle is disobedience, we learn that disobedience commonly is the ground of false doctrine. For 1. It is just with God to give up those to errors and delusion that receive not the truth in the love of it, for wheresoever it is received in love obedience cannot but be yielded unto it. 2. The nature of sin is ever to be excusing itself, and is loath to be crossed, although never so justly, but studieth how to defend itself as long as it can, even by wresting the Scriptures, and by taking up one error for the maintenance of another. 3. The tenor of Scripture joineth these two together (2 Peter 2:1; 2 Peter 2:10; 2 Peter 2:12; Acts 13:8; Acts 13:10; 3 John 1:9). II. Preachers who themselves are disobedient unto the word, for most part become in their ministry no better than vain talkers.1. In regard of themselves, being vain glorious persons, affect applause rather than godly edifying, which is a most vain thing. 2. In respect of their labour, which is all in vain, never attaining the end and right scope of the preaching of the gospel unto salvation; for he that soweth vanity what else can he look to reap? 3. In regard of the hearers, who also spend their pains in vain: they hear a great noise and pomp of words, and a glorious show of human wisdom, which may wrap the simple into admiration, but they are left without reformation; their ear is perhaps a little tickled, but their hearts remain untouched; neither are their souls soundly instructed nor fed with knowledge, but they go away as wise as they came. These Paul calleth vain talkers and vain janglers (1 Timothy 1:6), and again, profane and vain babblers, and that justly.1. Because their puffed discourses proceed from the profanity of their hearts. 2. They are as strange fire from the Lord’ s altar, opposed to that which the Lord hath sanctified to the salvation of His people. 3. They are so far from the edifying of the Church that they cause men to increase unto more ungodliness and profaneness. III. How did these false teachers deceive men’ s minds?1. By suppressing the truth; for by their vain jangling and speaking, liker poets, philosophers, historians, than prophets, apostles, or any successors of theirs, they made a cleanly conveyance of the light from the people, and, withholding the truth and light, they led them from Christ, from the right knowledge of the Scriptures, from sound godliness and religion in judgment and practice, and so they remained as dark in their understanding, as erroneous in their judgments, as froward in their affections, and as wicked in their lives as ever before. 2. By flattery; for they would not deal directly against the sins of the age, as godly ministers do, but deceitfully, that they might not displease; herein imitating Satan himself, who was wont of old to answer in riddles, as he answered Cresus, that if he would transport himself over the river Halys he should overthrow a most mighty kingdom, namely, his own. But Micaiah will not deceive nor flatter with Ahab, although it stand upon his life. 3. By letting men see their estate in false glasses, so as they never see the truth of it, for people taught by fables and novelties think, and are borne in hand, that they are in heaven’ s highway; their souls are brought on sleep, and coming from such frothy discourses, they sit down and please themselves in that they have done their task required, especially if they can bring home a jest or some witty sentence, when perhaps they scarce heard a word of Christ, of their justification, of their mortification, or of their glory. 4. By placing religion in bodily exercises, not in matters of spirit and truth (Colossians 2:20); thus did the Pharisees in their times, the Papists in these, and whosoever urge the decrees of men more than the commandments of God. IV. But whose minds are deceived.1. First their own and then others, for they are blind leaders of the blind, deceiving, and being deceived, and although our apostle expresseth not here who they be that are deceived, yet elsewhere he doth, as Romans 16:18, “ they deceive the hearts of the simple,” and 2 Timothy 3:6, “ they lead captive simple women,” and 2 Peter 2:14, “ they beguile unstable souls,” whence we see that ignorant, inconstant, and unsettled souls, which hand over head receive any doctrine without examination or trial, whose simplicity disableth them to judge between truth and falsehood, and whose levity makes them like shaken reeds, these are the carouses on which such vultures do seize. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Danger from false teachers Herodotus tells of a Scythian river having marvellous sweetness till a little bitter mingles with it, and gives it ever after an uncommon bitterness. So evil counsel, in some emergencies of the soul, will poison the whole current of its existence. You may poison a well from which a neighbourhood drinks, and yet be less guilty than to contaminate the flow of eternal thought. There are times when the greatest trust which one human being can repose in another is the confidence of wise direction. Confiding in the integrity of others, men sometimes commit their credit, their wives and children, to their keeping, and are guided by them through fiery coursers over the land, or by steam vessels over the seas; but when a man goes with his soul, and trusts that to what a fellow being may direct, the trust is as momentous as eternity itself. Yet this is done, for as by man came death, so by man comes life. Oh, ye who watch for souls, as every Christian should, see to it that you ask of God that which is profitable to direct, before you point out the way for a deathless mind to travel in. Example is said to speak louder than words. Whose mouths must be stopped Faithful teachers must oppose seducers The duty of every faithful minister is, when occasion is offered, timely to oppose himself against seducers, and stop the mouths of false teachers, wherein also the Church ought to back and strengthen him. For 1. The example of Christ must be our precedent, who most bodily and freely vindicated the law from the corrupt glosses and expositions of the Pharisees, and that in His first sermon. 2. In regard of the particular members of the Church, that they may be preserved in soundness from starting away and forsaking of the truth. And this is made one end of the precept; the madness of the false apostles must be made manifest, that they may prevail no longer. 3. In regard of the false teachers themselves; fools, saith Solomon, must be answered, lest they be wise in their own conceit; neither shall the labour be wholly lost upon them, for it shall be a means either to convert them and bring them to the knowledge of the truth, or else so to convince them as they shall be made excuseless. And further, the Church must strengthen every minister’ s hands in this contending for the faith, and so manifest herself to be the ground and pillar of truth, which is committed to her trust and safe keeping, against all gainsayers. This ministerial duty requireth a great measure of knowledge, and a man furnished with gifts of variety of reading and soundness of judgment. (1) He must be well read and skilful in the Scriptures, that by them in the first place he may be able to shut the mouth of the adversary. (2) To all this knowledge is required a sound judgment, that he may be able to infer good and necessary consequence upon the granting of the truth he standeth for, and on the contrary, the absurdities and inconveniences which necessarily follow his adversaries’ false positions. (T. Taylor, D. D.) The silencing of evil talkers Whose mouths must be stopped, does not mean that you are to throw them into an inquisition and gag their mouths, as was, and is, the practice of the Papacy. The heathen persecutors adopted the same method of dealing with the faithful martyrs of the Lord; for, in order to prevent them speaking of His grace, they cut out their tongues. The Moslems have the same bloody principle from their Koran; so that the Pope, the heathen, the grand Turk, are, on principle, persecutors. This is neither taught in our text, nor in any other part of the New Testament. On the contrary, the saints are persecuted, but they never persecute; they are to follow their Lord and Master to the cross, not the example of those who crucified Him. But their mouths must be stopped in a quite different manner from gagging; they must be opposed by reason, faithfulness, and love; their influence must be destroyed by the faithful preaching of the gospel; and if they be members of the Church, they must be silenced by discipline, and if still refractory, cast out of the communion of the faithful. (W. Graham, D. D.) Stopping foolish speech The heights and recesses of Mount Taurus are said to be much infested with eagles, who are never better pleased than when they pick the bones of a crane. Cranes are prone to cackle and make a noise (Isaiah 38:14), and particularly so while they are flying. The sound of their voices arouses the eagles, who spring up at the signal and often make the talkative travellers pay dearly for their impudent chattering. The older and more experienced cranes, sensible of their besetting foible and the peril to which it exposes them, take care before venturing on the wing to pick up a stone large enough to fill the cavity of their mouths, and consequently to impose unavoidable silence on their tongues, and thus they escape the danger. Persons troubled with unruly tongues may learn a lesson from the elder cranes. All Christians ought to bridle their tongues by watchfulness and prayer. The Psalmist formed a noble resolution: “ I said, I will take heed to my way, that I sin not with my tongue.” Titus 1:12-13 The Cretians are always liars A classical quotation It is not often that St. Paul quoted from the treasuries of classic literature, and when he did so he did not draw upon the most celebrated of the Greek poets. The Hymn of Cleanthes gave him a text in his speech on Mars’ Hill; the treatise of Epimenides “ concerning oracles” furnished him with another. Epimenides was a Cretian poet of religious character and prophetic claims, who visited Athens 599 b.c., and who shortly afterwards died, at the advanced age of a hundred and fifty. He appears to have uttered a terse drastic proverb, a bitter epigrammatic characterisation of his fellow countrymen, a portion of which, “ The Cretians are always liars,” was quoted by Callimachus in his hymn to Zeus. Theodoret attributes the whole quotation to Callimachus. Jerome, Chrysostom, and Epiphanius, agree to refer this severe indictment against the Cretians to Epimenides, the semi-mythical and prophetic minstrel and priest. The severity of the condemnation did not interfere with the tradition preserved by Diogenes Laertius, that the Cretians did sacrificial honour to him as a god. According to Diogenes, stories manifestly fabulous are told of Epimenides, and he is credited with having written numerous treatises and poems. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) The character of the Cretians The charge of falsehood is repeated undoubtedly by Callimachus, and this characteristic must have been deserved, if we are to trust the host of testimonies to the same effect from other sources. The very word “ Cretize” was invented, meaning, “ to play the part of a Cretian,” and was identical with “ to deceive, or to utter and circulate a lie.” “ Evil beasts” is a phrase expressive of untamed ferocity, truculent selfishness, and greed; while “ idle bellies,” or “ do nothing gluttons,” completes a picture of most revolting national character. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Falsehood I. Falsehood and deceit in word and deed is condemned, not only by the light of the Scriptures, but by the light of nature itself. Which appeareth expressly not only by the testimony of this Pagan poet, but by other lights in nature; for the natural conscience of man accuseth and checketh for it; yea, in children themselves, it maketh them blush at the report of a lie. Besides, the most graceless of men account it the highest disgrace to have the lie given them, the infamy of which vice is such as none will take to it, none will confess it. And on the contrary, the heathen so extolled truth, in word, in practice, as of all other virtues it was said to be the only daughter of Jupiter, as whom most nearly it resembled. II. How should we who would be reputed god’ s children abhor that practice, which even the sons of men are ashamed of? Shall the sparkles of natural light make the natural conscience of a heathen, and graceless man accuse him of this sin; and shall not the clear light of grace force the conscience of professed Christians to reprove them? Is it justly reputed a disgrace to common men, to be taken with a lie, how disgraceful should it be to Christian men? Shall the heathen profess truth to resemble God so expressly, as that it is His dear and only daughter, and shall Christians who find in the Scriptures the whole image of God, styled by the title, and comprehended under the name of truth, in their practice scarce express it as a part of that image? 1. Every lie is hurtful whether in jest or earnest, for evil or for good, because it is an enemy to truth, and against the ninth commandment. 2. For jesting or sporting lies, the threatening is general (Psalms 5:6), untruths may not be spoken although they be not thought. And many of the heathen themselves saw the silliness and folly of this shift; we read of the Lacedemonians, that they would not suffer their laws to be gainsaid in jest, and yet the law of the Lord may be controlled, and gainsaid in jest of Christians. When Thespis, the first stage player, was asked if he were not ashamed to utter so many lies in such a worthy audience, he answered, he did it in sport. But wise Solon replied, If we approve and commend this sport we shall find it in earnest in our contracts and affairs; and even so by God’ s just judgment it befalls Christians, who, using to lie in sport, got an habit of lying in earnest, and by his jesting lies, raiseth a suspicion of his words, that he cannot be believed, be he never in such earnest. 3. For officious lies, so called, there can be no such, because in every lie some office or duty is violated. But they hurt no man; yes, if they hurt not another, they hurt a man’ s self many ways; again, if they hurt not the parties for whom, yet they hurt the parties to whom they are told, who are abused, and urged to believe a lie, and were not this, yet they hurt and prejudice the truth which ought to prevail. But the end of them is good, Yea, but that which is evil in the nature and constitution may never be admitted, let the end be never so good which is pretended. The least evil may not be committed for the greatest good; to help man we may not hurt God. Nay, we may not tell the least lie for God’ s greatest glory, and much less for man’ s good (Job 13:9-10). But they be not against charity. Yes, for charity rejoiceth in truth, and if they were not, yet are they directly against piety, which two loving friends may admit no divorce. III. And to help ourselves in this duty meditate on these reasons.1. All falsehood and lies are directly against God Himself, who is truth itself; so as by them a man becometh most unlike unto God, and most like to the devil, who is the father and first founder of them. 2. That therefore the liar casteth himself into the gulf of God’ s displeasure, seeing as He hateth all the works of the devil, so hath He testified special hatred against this. A lying tongue is one of the six things which the Lord hateth, and is abomination unto Him (Proverbs 12:22), and therefore doth with them as we do with the things we abhor; either removeth them out of sight by barring them out of heaven, or destroyeth them (Psalms 5:6). 3. That although that be the greatest plague to have the face of God set against them here, and to be cast from out of His face and blessed presence of joy hereafter, yet there are other inferior evils not to be contemned which wait at the heels of this sin. (1) That it maketh the sinners of this suit justly hateful even unto men, as those who are the main enemies unto human society, which is upheld by truth and faithfulness. (2) Such deceitful and fraudulent persons are occasions of the multiplication of oaths and perjuries among men, for which the land mourneth. (3) In themselves it argueth the want of God’ s Spirit in their hearts, who, being the Spirit of truth and light, cannot abide to dwell in a heart that is pleased and delighted with nothing more than darkness and falsehood. (4) They lose justly their own voice and credit, and are worthy not to be believed when they speak truth; and men must deal with them as with their father the devil, whose works they accustom themselves unto, suspect even the truth from them, and not receive any as from them. (T. Taylor, D. D.) The punishment of liars When Aristotle, a Grecian philosopher and tutor of Alexander the Great, was asked what a man could gain by uttering falsehoods, he replied, “ Not to be credited when he shall tell the truth.” On the contrary, it is related that when Petrarch, an Italian poet, a man of strict integrity, was summoned as a witness, and offered in the usual manner to take an oath before a court of justice, the judge closed the book, saying, “ As to you, Petrarch, your word is sufficient.” From the story of Petrarch we may learn how great respect is paid to those whose character for truth is established; and from the reply of Aristotle the folly as well as the wickedness of lying. In the country of Siam, a kingdom of Asia, he who tells a lie is punished, according to law, by having his mouth sewed up. This may appear dreadful; but no severity is too great against one who commits so great a sin. We read likewise that God Almighty struck Ananias and Sapphira dead for not speaking the truth. The gospel offered to the worst This is indeed a fearful character, which the apostle says is perfectly true. The island must have been in a fearful condition, for the apostle is always in the habit of speaking mildly even of those who are blameworthy. If their guilt had not been enormous, he would never have rebuked them so severely, nor given such stringent commands to Titus to rebuke them sharply, that they might be sound in the faith; And here we should remark how wonderful the love of God is, which reaches down to the lowest of the species, and elevates such brutish natures into the likeness of the Son of God, and lifts them up to the throne of His glory! In the midst of that pandemonian isle is the Church of God planted, like an oasis in the desert waste, like a lighthouse in the raging seas, to give rest and direction to all who will listen to the calls of Divine mercy. Oh, how admirable, how glorious, is that God, who, like the father of the lost son, opens His house and His bosom to a vile, wretched, prodigal world! Art thou a Cretian? art thou a liar, a glutton, and a brute? then the message of the love of God is to you--even to you; and if you receive it you shall shine among the saints in light forever! The world says perhaps of you, as the proverb did of old, “ The three worst C’ s in the world are Cappadocia, Crete, and Cilicia” ; yet unto these habitations of iniquity and dens of devils the grace of God penetrated, and multitudes were drawn to the Lord. The gospel is for thee, brother, in all thy vileness and guilt; and Jesus, who loved thee, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Come to Him, and be saved. (W. Graham, D. D.) Evil beasts Bestiality in men 1. In becoming without understanding, and in all the things of God by nature as ignorant as the brute beasts (Psalms 73:22; Jeremiah 10:14; Proverbs 20:24). 2. By giving up themselves to be led with sensuality as brute beasts (2 Peter 2:12). This naturally arises out of the former; for when men are deprived of understanding, judgment, reason, as every natural man is in the things of God, they must needs be led by other guides, of lusts, appetite, sense, and sight, even as the beasts are. 3. By the practice of many beastly and brutish properties. For what properties have unregenerate men, which are not more beseeming evil and hurtful beasts than men? (1) If we consider the respect between God and him his heart knoweth no subjection; but as was said once of Israel, he is as an unruly heifer, he knoweth no yoke, acknowledgeth no master, lifteth up his heel against his feeder, and careth not for the owner of his fat pasture. (2) If we consider natural men in themselves, no beast is so unclean and foul as they whose filthy hearts are fit for nothing, but to be stinking cages and dens for filthy birds and beasts, wholly bespotted as the leopards (Jeremiah 13:23), swinish men, wallowing in the dirt and mire of sinful pleasures, and revolting from every good way as dogs to their vomits; for so the apostle termed such Jews as revolted from Christianity to circumcision, beware of dogs. (3) Consider them in respect of their neighbour, no evil beast is so cruel and venomous as they; in regard of the former the Scriptures ascribe the property of the devil himself unto them, calling them ramping and roaring lions, such as David and Christ Himself had to do withal (Psalms 22:13) such a one was Nero whom Paul had to do withal (2 Timothy 4:17). And for their savageness and greediness they are called dogs and wolves (Zephaniah 3:3). And for subtlety and craft to hurt they are termed foxes (Luke 13:32). In regard of the latter, namely, their poison and venom, Christ calleth them serpents and generation of vipers; their tongues are like stings, sharpened against good men, and the poison of adders and asps is under their lips (Psalms 140:3), hence doth the Lord threaten most cruel and inevitable enemies under such speeches (Jeremiah 8:17). Whereby he would describe and signify the implacable and virulent malice and rage of the Chaldeans. Now man being above all other born a sociable creature, and to live in society with God and men in the family, Church, and commonwealth, hath by his hostility against God, and enmity against man, after a sort put off the nature of man, and by such degenerating of good right hath lost even the name of man also. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Like a beast We have a common saying when we see ourselves overseen or overtaken in any temporal and outward thing, Oh, what a beast was I! but well were it if we would seriously thus accuse ourselves when we have failed in our godly course, and to say, Oh, what a beast was I to leave the direction of the Word; and suffer myself to be led by my appetite, or by the lust of my heart, or the sight of mine eyes to this or that sin? Alas, that I to whom God hath given reason, judgment, election, deliberation, yea, His Word and Spirit, should live all this while as one destitute of all these. I understand not what the good and acceptable will of God is, but am yet like the horse and mule without understanding. I have stepped my ears st the Word like the deaf adder, and have refused the things of my peace; I have barked against God and godliness; I have wallowed in my uncleanness like a swine in his own filth; I have been unmerciful and cruel as any lion or wolf; I have spared no prey, and as subtle as any fox to deceive my brethren. I have spit Out my venom both to the face and behind the backs of my neighbours, and especially against the household of faith, the professors of religion. Oh, what a beast was I in all this! But now seeing my understanding is restored unto me again, I will never hereafter carry myself but like a man, not making my lusts my law any longer, but reason shall be my guide; nay, nor that only, but, like a Christian man, I will by God’ s grace suffer myself to be guided henceforth by renewed reason, yea, by the Word and Spirit of God. If I must needs in anything resemble the beasts it shall be the ox and ass, in knowing my Lord and Master; the stork, and crane, and swallow, in acknowledging the seasonable time of my repentance, the serpent in Christian wisdom, the lamb and dove in Christian meekness and innocence, and thus resembling them, I neither shall be nor accounted a beast, nor yet be condemned by any of them. But if any, loath to leave his brutish properties, will be a beast still and follow his lust, it is fit he should see the end of his way in one of his predecessors (Proverbs 7:22). (T. Taylor, D. D.) This testimony is true Ministers must not be discouraged from their duty, though they have to deal with a brutish and wretched people This testimony being true, Titus might have been discouraged, and occasioned hereby to meditate his departure from them as a hopeless people, or to repine that the apostle should place him among such a company of beasts rather than men. But yet Titus muse and does with courage go on in his work among them, and plough up to the Lord even this stiff ground. It is the lot of many gracious ministers to be called and planted among rude, barbarous, and beastly people, such as these Cretians were, yea, among viperous broods who will reward their faithful pains and travail in begetting them to God with extremity of wrong and violence (Jeremiah 26:8). And little comfort find they, unless the Lord give them a breathing time by the means of some Ahikam or other (verse 24) Now what must the minister do in this case? Surely, as he came not of his own head, so now is he not at his own hand to remove himself at his pleasure. And if he should depart upon this ground, he should perhaps meet with less comfort in leaving an uncomfortable people than in staying amongst them. If God bid Jonah arise and go to Nineveh, but he will betake himself to a ministry of more credit and less labour, the Lord will teach him, before he get to Tarshish, that he is not his own man, and that no creature shall shelter him from trouble whilst he flieth it as fast as he can. If Moses be called to speak to Pharaoh, he must not excuse the matter, saying, “ But they will not believe me.” The Lord is said to hold the ministers in His hand, and Christ the “ seven stars in His right hand” (Revelation 1:1-20). First, in regard of His disposition of them here and there at His pleasure. Secondly, of His protection of them in their labours. And some He sendeth, and all the heartening they have of Him beforehand is, “ But they will not receive thee,” as Moses and some of the prophets; and that is not all, but they must prepare brows of brass, their shoulders to bear reproaches and wrongs, their backs for stripes, their feet for fetters and stocks, yea, their necks for the very block itself. In like manner Christ, sending out His disciples, forbids them to possess gold and silver, and wisheth them to possess patience, for they should stand more in need of that than the other; and telleth them, that if Himself, the green tree, could not be spared, much less should they the dry branches; and that if the master be called Beelzebub, the servant must not look to escape scot free. And therefore ministers called to such an uncomfortable condition must imitate Paul who, although he knew that bonds and imprisonment did abide him in every city, yet forward he must, and provoketh his own readiness and cheerfulness not only to be bound, but to suffer also the pains of death, for the testimony he beareth: considering well 1. That the disciples themselves, sent from the side of Christ, must make account to be hated of all men for His name’ s sake. 2. That although they see no great comfort or fruit of their works with men, yet their work is with the Lord. 3. That the Lord Jesus, foretelling His death at Jerusalem, yet went forward, and would not pity Himself for all Peter’ s friendly counsel, but pitied His flock, His body, His Church, more than Himself: a worthy example for the practice of all His ministers. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Rebuke them sharply Sharply Here we have another adoption of the phraseology of health or “ soundness” in relation to the faith. Probably it was suggested to the apostle by the previous adoption of phrases indicative of disease, and of severe remedies. A sharp knife, instruments of cautery, firm handling, free incisions, are needed for some poisonous and putrefying sores; and as in former days Titus had to show the Corinthians how to purge out the old leaven, to deliver wicked persons to Satan, to rebuke pretentious sciolism and proclaim “ no quarter” to certain kinds of vice, so once more he had to lift up his voice like a trumpet, and out of sheer kindness was commanded not to spare them. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Different modes of dealing with different sins According to the nature of sins and sinners we must set an edge upon our reproofs and sharpen them; for all sins are not of one size, nor all sinners of one strain; but some sins are more enormous than others, and some sinners are more obstinate than others. Some sins are of ignorance, some of malice; some secret, some open; some sinners are as wax to work on; some are stony and stiff-necked; some have here and there their freckles and frailties on them: others are spotted all over like leopards, or, like the Ethiopian, they never change their hue; no washing doeth them good. Now, we must wisely put a difference between both. Compassion must be showed upon some; and others, whom love cannot allure, fear must force. Some must be saved by love, and some be pulled out of the fire. Some sores need but a gentle lenitive, some a sharper drawer; some require but the prick of a needle to open them, others a more painful lancing and cutting; and some a cutting off. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Christian reproof I. Christian reproof should always be based on a certain convicting. Mere hearsay insufficient; general rumour unreliable. Inquisitorial curiosity different from faithful watchfulness. II. Christian reproof should be thorough and effective. A cutting rebuke need not be unkind. Sarcasm, satire, scorn--these are unbecoming a Christian teacher. Soft words break hard hearts; warmth melts, while coldness freezes. III. Christian reproof should be for the sinner’ s good--“ That they may be sound in the faith.” Wrong motives: 1. To save appearances.2. To maintain dignity.3. To gratify revenge. Right motives: 1. To save the purity of the Church.2. To prevent the spread of contagion.3. To restore to spiritual life and privilege. (F. Wagstaff.) The object of rebukes The sharpest rebukes in the Church ought to aim at this end, the recovery of diseased Christians to soundness in religion both in judgment and practice; which appeareth in that the greatest ordinary censure in the Church is not mortal but medicinal. For as a surgeon cuts off arms and legs that the body and heart may be saved, so in this body, parts and members are cut off that themselves may be saved as well as their whole body. Paul excommunicateth the incestuous person that his spirit might be saved. Hymineus and Philetus were cast out to Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme. Those whom Jude wisheth to be pulled out of the fire by violence, must be saved thereby. If any object against this that in 1 Corinthians 16:21, “ If any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be had in execration to the death.” And therefore edification and salvation is not the end of this censure. I answer, “ It is one thing for the Church to excommunicate, another to curse and execrate; the one is an ordinary censure, the other very extraordinary and rare; the one against those who may be friends of the Church, the other only against desperate enemies, and open and obstinate apostates, even such as Julian, whom the Church judgeth to have sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost, and therefore execrateth and accurseth.” (T. Taylor, D. D.) Sharp rebukes sometimes needed The words is a metaphor taken from surgeons, who cut out dead flesh to the quick, but it is in order to healing. Cutting words have done great cures: many a diseased, festered soul has been made sound, both in faith and manners, by severe reprehension. Learn hence, that although, generally speaking, we ought to temper our reproofs with much gentleness and meekness, yet there is a time when we must reprove sharply, that men may be “ sound in the faith.” We may, we must speak cutting words when kind words will not do. (W. R. Burkitt, M. A.) A sharp rebuke A young clergyman came to the house of his sister, and found quite a company round the table--among them a talkative military gentle man, who rather freely flavoured his wit with perverted Bible quotations and anti-Christian innuendos. A bantering remark about God that amounted to no less than a parade of his atheism aroused the hostess at last. “ You seem to forget that my brother here is a minister of the gospel,” she said. “ Oh!” quoth the unabashed officer, “ my clerical friend and I understand each other” ; and turning to the young man, with patronising impudence he asked, “ Is it not so, sir? Your office requires you to tell the old story, which for the ignorant may do very well to believe, but as a man of culture you yourself cannot put faith in these worn-out doctrines.” The clergyman eyed his questioner a minute, and then said, “ Sir, before answering your question, I must ask you three. You are an atheist. Such people have always been in the world. One class of these are thinkers who have speculated and groped till they have fallen into despair, and said, ‘ There is no God.’ Do you belong to that class?” “ No,” laughed the officer; “ thinking is not to my taste. I am no philosopher.” “ Another class are those who speak frivolously of God merely because they learned to do it where such talk was the fashion. Are you one of them? No, sir,” said the officer, slightly reddening; “ I am not a blind follower of others.” “ There is but one more class of atheists,” quietly continued the minister--“ those who have wallowed in sin till they must either expect the horrors of remorse or kill their conscience; and, as the shortest way to get rid of it, they declare that there is no God.” This time the clergyman did not utter his question; but the eyes of the whole company, turned on the confused scoffer, made both question and answer needless. Fidelity in administering reproof The Rev. Joseph Alleine was very faithful and impartial in administering reproof. Once, when employed in a work of this kind, he said to a Christian friend, “ I am now going about that which is likely to make a very dear and obliging friend become an enemy. But, however, it cannot be omitted; it is better to lose man’ s favour than God’ s.” But, so far from becoming his enemy for his conscientious faithfulness to him, he rather loved him the more after, as long as he lived. The reproof of a good man The reproof of a good man resembles fuller’ s earth; it not only removes the spots from our character, but it rubs off when it is dry. Titus 1:14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables The perverting power of trivialities Trivialities, and mere human conceptions, exert a perverting power (1) by distracting attention from the essentials of religion;(2) by dissipating the strength of the mind;(3) by attributing to the human an authority belonging only to the Divine. Truth, in its essence, always of more importance than the form in which it is clothed. The “ spirit” is greater than the “ letter.” (F. Wagstaff.) Jewish fables to be rejected I. Although all fables in matter of religion are to be rejected, yet especially he mentioneth these of the jews, because they were most dangerous of all.1. Because they directly opposed themselves as the overthrowers of the whole doctrine of the gospel and the merit of Christ. 2. They were persuaded under most strong pretences, for they came as from God’ s own mouth, and from His own people, from such as were born under the law, so as they were urged as things of surest ground and strongest authority from God Himself and His greatest prophet Moses. II. But what were these fables?1. Under this head may be comprehended all the false glosses and false interpretations of the law of Moses, urging the external and literal, but not the internal and spiritual meaning of the law; for which corruption Christ challengeth the Jewish teachers (Matthew 5:1-48; Matthew 6:1-34; Matthew 7:1-29). 2. All their fabulous invention in their Talmud, such as that concerning the coming of the Messiah, and the great feast at His coming; and of the fruitfulness of the earth, which at that time shall bring forth instead of ears of corn, loaves of bread; and a number such, of which St. Paul saith, they are for number infinite, and for use unprofitable. 3. But the context in the verse following pointeth us to expound them of some other than these, namely, of all those doctrines of the Jews which conceived the legal and ceremonial observation of days, meats, drinks, garments, washings, persons and peoples: for the Jews taught that the same difference remained to be obtained still, as Moses from the Lord commanded it; so as yet some meats were common and some clean; some days were more holy than others; so garments and persons much more lay open to legal pollution by issues, touchings, etc., whereas the appearing of Christ procured final freedom from all such impurity, so as, according to Peter’ s vision (Acts 10:1-48), no man, no thing is to be called polluted or unclean. III. But why doth the apostle call such doctrines fables seeing 1. They were from God. 2. Necessarily imposed upon God’ s own people in pain of death and cutting off from His people in case of contempt, yea or omission. 3. They included in them that evangelical truth whereby both they and we are saved. Yet for all this he termeth them so.1. Because even these legal constitutions of God Himself, when they were at the best, were but actual apologies, or shadows of things to come, carrying a show or figure of truth, but not the body, nor the truth itself: to the same effect, saith Paul (Galatians 4:24), that they were allegories; that is, being the things that they were, signified the things that they were not. 2. Because those constitutions, although they had their times and seasons, yet now were they dated: and now to teach or urge them was as vain, as void of ground out of Scripture, as void of profit, as void of truth, as if they had taught the most vain, fictious, and unprofitable falsehoods that men could possibly devise. (T. Taylor, D. D.) That turn from the truth Rules to preserve us from being turned from the truth 1. Entertain it not for outward respects; neither for the laws of the land, nor the encouragement it hath, etc., as very many do, but for the love of itself: for that we affect, we easily turn not from it, no, nor are driven from it; and if we love it for outward respects, as those outward respects change, so will our affections. For example, if we love it for the prosperity of it, times of persecution will make us fall off, with Demas. If we hold it because we would hold our temporalities, the loss of it will be light in comparison of loss of goods, dignities, country, world, liberty and life, the least of these will the heart fasten upon, although with the loss of the truth, and with it of salvation also. 2. Practise so much of it as thou knowest, and the more thou practise, the more thou knowest, and the more thou knowest thus, the more thou lovest, and the surer dost thou bind it upon thyself; and this is the surest hold (John 7:17), when as in religion, faith and good conscience are joined together, for such as thy conscience is, such shalt thou be found in religion; without which, hear every hour a sermon, read over the Bible as often as he did, who gloried that he had read the text and gloss also fourteen times over, all this knowledge will not lift thee up to heaven. 3. Call no ground of this Divine truth into question, suspect not that which thou canst not reach, but accuse thine own weakness and ignorance: our first parents yielding at the first onset of Satan to call into question the truth of God, were turned away from all that image of God which stood in truth and holiness. 4. Beware of indifference in God’ s matters; many think it good wisdom and policy to be on the yielding hand, and as wax fit to take all forms and the print of any religion; but the truth is, that such persons as are not rooted and stablished in the truth, when winds and storms arise, or the evil day approach, they shall not be able to stand; but as they have been long tottering, so their fall shall be great. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Titus 1:15 Unto the pure all things are pure The supreme importance of moral character 1.There is an essential difference in the moral characters of men.2. The outward world is to men according to this difference. I. The morally pure in relation to all things.1. In relation to appearance. A good man is neither given to suspicion nor censoriousness; he sees some good in all men. 2. In relation to influence. A good man, like the bee, can extract honey from the bitterest plant; or, like the AEolian harp, can turn the shrieking wind into music. 3. In relation to appropriation. A corrupt soul appropriates, even from the most strengthening and refreshing means of spiritual improvement, that which weakens and destroys. II. The morally defiled in relation to all things.1. The sphere of the defilement.2. The cause of the defilement.3. The hideousness of the defilement. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Purity For the evils of this world there are two classes of remedies--one is the world’ s, the other is God’ s. The world proposes to remedy evil by adjusting the circumstances of this life to man’ s desires. The world says, give us a perfect set of circumstances, and then we shall have a set of perfect men. This principle lies at the root of the system called socialism. Socialism proceeds on the principle that all moral and even physical evil arises from unjust laws. If the cause be remedied, the effect will be good. But Christianity throws aside all that as merely chimerical. It proves that the fault is not in outward circumstances, but in ourselves. Like the wise physician, who, instead of busying himself with transcendental theories to improve the climate, and the outward circumstances of man, endeavours to relieve and get rid of the tendencies of disease which are from within, Christianity, leaving all outward circumstances to ameliorate themselves, fastens its attention on the spirit which has to deal with them. I. The principle that St. Paul has here laid down is, that each man is the creator of his own world; he walks in a universe of his own creation. As the free air is to one out of health the cause of cold and diseased lungs, so to the healthy man it is a source of greater vigour. The rotten fruit is sweet to the worm, but nauseous to the palate of man. It is the same air and the same fruit acting differently upon different beings. To different men a different world--to one all pollution--to another all purity. To the noble all things are noble, to the mean all things are contemptible. In its strictest sense, the creation of a new man is the creation of a new universe. Conceive an eye so constructed as that the planets and all within them should be minutely seen, and all that is near should be dim and invisible like things seen through a telescope, or as we see through a magnifying glass the plumage of the butterfly, and the bloom upon the peach; then it is manifestly clear that we have called into existence actually a new creation, and not new objects. The mind’ s eye creates a world for itself. Again, the visible world presents a different aspect to each individual man. One man sees in that noble river an emblem of eternity; he closes his lips and feels that God is there. Another sees nothing in it but a very convenient road for transporting his spices, silks, and merchandise. To one this world appears useful, to another beautiful. Whence comes the difference? From the soul within us. It can make of this world a vast chaos--“ a mighty maze without a plan” ; or a mere machine--a collection of lifeless forces; or it can make it the living vesture of God, the tissue through which He can become visible to us. In the spirit in which we look on it the world is an arena for mere self-advancement, or a place for noble deeds, in which self is forgotten, and God is all. Observe, this effect is traceable even in that produced by our different and changeful moods. We make and unmake a world more than once in the space of a single day. In trifling moods all seems trivial. In serious moods all seems solemn. II. There are two ways in which this principle is true.1. To the pure, all things and all persons are pure, because their purity makes all seem pure. There are some who go through life complaining of this world; they say they have found nothing but treachery and deceit; the poor are ungrateful, and the rich are selfish, yet we do not find such the best men. Experience tells us that each man most keenly and unerringly detects in others the vice with which he is most familiar himself. Persons seem to each man what he is himself. One who suspects hypocrisy in the world is rarely transparent; the man constantly on the watch for cheating is generally dishonest; he who suspects impurity is prurient. This is the principle to which Christ alludes when He says, “ Give alms of such things as ye have; and behold all things are clean unto you.” Once more, to the pure all things are pure, as well as all persons. That which is natural lies not in things, but in the minds of men. There is a difference between prudery and modesty. Prudery detects wrong where no wrong is; the wrong lies in the thoughts, and not in the objects. There is something of over-sensitiveness and over-delicacy which shows not innocence, but an inflammable imagination. And men of the world cannot understand that those subjects and thoughts which to them are full of torture, can be harmless, suggesting nothing evil to the pure in heart. Here, however, beware! No sentence of Scripture is more frequently in the lips of persons who permit themselves much license, than the text, “ To the pure, all things are pure.” Yes, all things natural, but not artificial--scenes which pamper the tastes, which excite the senses. Innocence feels healthily. To it all nature is pure. But, just as the dove trembles at the approach of the hawk, and the young calf shudders at the lion never seen before, so innocence shrinks instinctively from what is wrong by the same Divine instinct. If that which is wrong seems pure, then the heart is not pure but vitiated. To the right minded all that is right in the course of this world seems pure. 2. Again, to the pure, all things not only seem pure, but are really so because they are made such. (1) As regards persons. It is a marvellous thing to see how a pure and innocent heart purifies all that it approaches. The most ferocious natures are soothed and tamed by innocence. And so with human beings, there is a delicacy so pure, that vicious men in its presence become almost pure; all of purity which is in them is brought out; like attaches itself to like. The pure heart becomes a centre of attraction, round which similar atoms gather, and from which dissimilar ones are repelled. A corrupt heart elicits in an hour all that is bad in us; a spiritual one brings out and draws to itself all that is best and purest. Such was Christ. (2) Lastly, all situations are pure to the pure. According to the world, some professions are reckoned honourable, and some dishonourable. Men judge according to a standard merely conventional, and not by that of moral rectitude. Yet it was in truth, the men who were in these situations which made them such. In the days of the Redeemer, the publican’ s occupation was a degraded one, merely because low base men filled that place. But since He was born into the world a poor, labouring man, poverty is noble and dignified, and toil is honourable. To the man who feels that “ the king’ s daughter is all glorious within,” no outward situation can seem inglorious or impure. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Purity I. Who are meant by pure persons. The persons here called pure are such as by faith are set into Christ, by whose blood they are justified, and by whose Spirit, through the means of the Word, that immortal seed of regeneration, they are sanctified and reserved unto life everlasting. And hence to both these is the purifying and cleansing of sinners ascribed in the Scriptures. 1. Because by faith every member of the Church layeth hold upon Christ’ s most absolute purity. 2. The spirit of regeneration hath washed every part, although in part only, nor so clean as it shall be, yet so as that perfect purity is sealed and assured to the soul by it. 3. The Lord doth account every such believer pure even for the present, and imputeth never a spot unto them, but reputeth in His Christ all fair. 4. Hath promised them that for time to come they shall become so absolutely clean as though they had never been defiled. II. How all things are pure or impure.1. Seeing all things were pure in their creation, we may herein, as in a glass, behold the purity of God in all His creatures, admiring that goodness of His which bewrayed itself even in the meanest of them; yea, provoking ourselves to love, reverence and fear before Him, the image of whose goodness shineth out not only in angels and men, but even in the silly worm and fly, yea in the lifeless creatures themselves. And further, hence we may gather our own duty towards the creatures, namely (1) Reverently meditate and speak of them.(2) Purely to use them.(3) Mercifully to deal with them. All which we shall the easier do if we can spy out some part of God’ s image in them. 2. Consider our misery, and the woeful fruit of our sin, which hath debarred us from all comfort in heaven and earth, from God or any of His creatures. The sweetest sins would carry a bitter taste, if we would but remember what sweet comfort of the creatures we have forfeited for them. 3. The restitution of us to our former right is only from our Lord Jesus Christ, and our first right is recovered to us in this manner. First, as we were at odds with the Creator, and consequently with the creature, even so first we are reconciled unto God through Christ, and then to the creatures; for when Christ (who is our peace) hath wrought our peace with God, He bringeth back our peace, both the inward peace of our own consciences, which before could do nothing but accuse and terrify, as also peace with others, friends and enemies, yea even with the beast of the field, and stone in the wall, and everything striketh a covenant of peace with him who hath entered into league with the Creator of it. II any man, then, would have any right in any creature he useth, he must not hold it by the broken title in the first Adam, but by a recovered and new purchase in the second Adam, who is the Lord of glory, blessed forever. III. How all things are pure to the pure. That we may rightly and properly conceive the apostle’ s meaning, we must know 1. That the universal particle “ all things” admitteth restraint, and may not be extended beyond the apostle’ s intendment, who speaketh only of such things as are not forbidden by the law of God, or nature; or rather only of things of an indifferent nature, which in themselves are neither commanded nor forbidden, and neither good nor evil in their substance and nature, but are to be used or not used according to the circumstances and occasions of them; such things as these are meat, drink, apparel, recreation, sleep, marriage, single life, riches, poverty, bondage, freedom, etc. And it may not seem strange thus to restrain this general proposition, seeing we have it thus limited in sundry other places (1 Corinthians 6:4). “ All things are lawful, but not profitable” (1 Corinthians 10:23). “ All things are lawful for me, but not expedient” (Romans 14:20). “ All things indeed ere pure, but destroy not for meats,” etc. 2. By pure is meant nothing else but that all such things are free now to be used in good conscience, without scruple, by means of our Christian liberty. 3. In that he addeth “ to the pure,” he showeth how we come to have title in this liberty, even by becoming believers and getting our hearts purified by faith. In one word, all indifferent things are pure, and free to be used of the pure and believing person, with this one condition; so they be purely and rightly used. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Purity of mind indispensable I. The import of the terms. By “ the pure” is not meant sinless. Evangelical purity is connected with faith (1 Peter 1:22; Acts 15:9). The mind and conscience are governing powers; if they be polluted, all the man is so. II. Illustrate the sentiment.1. On a believing mind the doctrines of Christ will have a sanctifying effect, and the contrary on an unbelieving mind. 2. On a believing mind precepts and even threatenings produce a salutary effect. 3. Mercies and judgments humble, melt, and soften some, but harden others. 4. The evils which occur amongst men, differently influence different characters. 5. The treatment received from men brings out the state of the heart. (A. Fuller.) Purity A pure lake is beautiful as it reflects the loveliness of the heavens, but a pure heart is more beautiful as it reflects the loveliness of God. (W. M. Statham, M. A.) Even their mind and conscience is defiled The faithlessness of conscience That the conscience is so perverted in our present condition, that no confidence can be placed in its decision, is evident. I. From the fact that these decisions can be correct in no other cases but those in which Divine truth is fully understood. II. That the decisions of conscience are not always in accordance with the truth is evident from the fact that sinners are pot always convinced of sin. III. This position is also sustained by the fact that the agency of the Holy Spirit is requisite to convince the world of sin. IV. The faithlessness of conscience is apparent in the fact that hypocrites have not always an appalling sense of their hypocrisy. V. This view of the subject is strengthened by the fact that even Christians do not always detect their own sins. VI. This doctrine is evident from the fact that there is no command in the Scriptures to follow the dictates of conscience. VII. And while there is no direction to follow the dictates of conscience, it is true that the Scriptures designate different consciences, and perhaps different states of the same conscience, by different and directly opposite terms. VIII. This view of the subject is confirmed by the fact that the way to ruin seems to be the way of peace and eternal life. This is a very common and perhaps a general trait of the human family. The light that is in them by nature is darkness. They discern not the way in which they should go. Lessons:--From this subject I infer I. That God has placed no rule of duty within ourselves. Our reason was never designed to be our guide in spiritual things. Its only office is to understand the things which God has revealed in His Word, and in all cases reverently to bow to His authority. So long as its eyes are not opened by the power of the Holy Spirit, the understanding is in deplorable darkness. And even if it were capable of discerning all the principles of duty, its office is to gather them from the Word of God. II. The subject teaches us that to live conscientiously is not in all cases to live godly. Conscience in its decisions has respect to some principles of life. These principles may be the fruit of our own reason. In this case, the decision will approach no nearer to truth than the principles are according to which the decision is made. Or it may decide according to the maxims of duty which it has learned from others. In this instance, as in the former, its decisions can claim no higher authority or greater correctness than the maxims according to which they are made. Or, if even the Scriptures be the rule according to which the decisions are made, then it will follow that the decisions themselves must be affected by the blindness of the understanding and by the weakness of conscience itself. And hence, to live conscientiously may vary widely from living accordingly to the commands of God. III. The subject teaches what estimate to set on professions of acting conscientiously. IV. The subject suggests the importance of praying for the purification of our conscience. V. The subject suggests that our condition is very deplorable. We are exceedingly inclined to rely on our understandings to discover the way of life, and on the testimony of our consciences that we are walking in it. But not only are our natural understandings too blind to discover it, but our consciences are exceedingly apt falsely to decide that we are walking in it, even while we are wandering in darkness. Thus we are liable to think we are something when we are nothing. The way which we take may seem right unto us, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (J. Foot, D. D.) Pollution of mind and conscience By the mind is meant the whole understanding part of the soul, which, being the eye of the soul, carrieth with it reason, judgment, and election. The pollution of which, is, to be taken up with darkness and blindness (1 Corinthians 2:14); to be filled with vanity (Ephesians 4:17); with fleshliness (Colossians 2:18); in so much as all the natural wisdom of man is fleshly and devilish. By conscience is meant that faculty of the soul which, by applying particular things judged of and done, doth determine them either with or against them; which, depending upon the former, must necessarily be led into the errors of it, no otherwise than one blind man is led by another into a ditch. The pollution of it is when it is either idle or ill occupied; the former, when it is sleepy, senseless, or seared, doing nothing at all, neither accusing, nor excusing; the latter, when it doth both these, but neither of them as it ought, but accuseth where it should excuse, and excuse where it ought to accuse. I. We have here a good argument of the divinity of scripture, in that it can, and doth (as God Himself) enter upon, and judge the thoughts of men; and of men themselves (not as men) from things without, but from things within, even according to their cleanness or uncleanness before God. From this argument the apostle proverb the same thing (Hebrews 4:12). II. We learn further, what is the estate of a man unregenerate, whom the apostle setteth out thus.1. He is one that is unclean.2. An unbeliever.3. One to whom nothing is pure.4. His mind.5. His conscience is polluted. In all which respects he is a most odious person, in whom is nothing but filthiness of flesh and spirit, the which the pure eyes of the Lord cannot abide. III. Before this natural uncleanness be purged everything is unclean unto a man; the unbeliever tainteth everything that he toucheth; nothing within him, nothing without him, which is not polluted, although not in his own nature, yet unto him and in his use. Let a natural man turn him to any action, word, or thought, all of them, not excepting the best, are against God, because they proceed from unclean minds and consciences.1. His actions spiritual, even his best services, as praying, hearing, reading, receiving the sacraments, alms, all these being the sacrifices of the wicked, are abomination unto the Lord, who first looketh to the person, and then to the gift, who if he turn his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is abominable; if he choose his own ways, let him kill a bullock for sacrifice, it is all one as if he slew a man; if he be a polluted person that toucheth any of these holy things, shall they not be unclean? Yes, surely, the most Divine ordinances are turned to him to sin; for the Lord first requireth pure parts, and then pure actions (Ezekiel 36:26). 2. His civil actions, his honest dealing in the world, his buying, selling, giving, lending, his labour, care, yea, all the duties of his calling, are in and to him no better than sins. 3. His natural actions, as eating, drinking, sleeping, recreation, physic, all are unclean unto him. 4. All God’ s creatures and human ordinances, as meat, drink, clothes, goods, lands, buildings, marriage, single estate; in a word, “ the whole way of the wicked is abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 15:9). All these are witnesses of his sin and filthiness, all of them are enlargers of his woe and damnation, because he wanteth faith to lay hold on the Lord Jesus, whereby the just do live, have their heart purified, and so are made lords over the creatures. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Defilement of mind and conscience The “ mind” is more than the mere intellective faculty, and includes the activity of the will; and “ conscience” is the moral self-consciousness which brings self, and the fact, and the entire behaviour of the soul and spirit, into judgment. This conscience may be “ good” in the sense of being approving, or in the sense of being active; it may be “ evil” in that it is torpid, seared or dead, and also in respect of its being accusing or condemnatory. Defilement of “ mind” must mean that thoughts, ideas, desires, purposes, activities, are all corrupted and debased. Defilement of “ conscience” would mean that the sentinel sent to watch was bribed to hold his peace, or that the guide to loftier standard was eagerly applying some base-born, man-made perilous rule as all-sufficient. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) A pure conscience cast aside In the majority of cases conscience is an elastic and very flexible article, which will bear a deal of stretching, and adapt itself to a great variety of circumstances. Some people by prudent management, and leaving it off piece by piece, like a flannel waistcoat in warm weather, even contrive in time to dispense with it altogether; but there be others who can assume the garment and throw it off at pleasure; and this, being the greatest and most convenient improvement, is the one most in vogue. (Old Curiosity Shop.) Titus 1:16 They profess that they know God Conventional Christians I. Conventional Christians are professional atheists. II. Conventional Christians are practical atheists.1. They deny God’ s authority in everyday life; ignore the claims He has upon their existence, powers, possessions. 2. They deny His teaching, He teaches that spiritual interests are supreme. They declare in their daily life that temporal interest are paramount. He teaches that no man should live to himself, but should be inspired by that benevolence that will promote the common weal. But they practically declare that self-interests are supreme, that every man should work for himself, regardless of the common good. He teaches to honour all men on account of what they are. They declare that those only are to be honoured who are endowed with wealth, and move in the pageantry of worldly pomp and power. (Homilist.) The judgment of hypocrisy I. Hypocrisy the occasion of atheism. False and inconsistent professors cause more scepticism than the active propagandism of infidels. II. Hypocrisy is offensive even to the ungodly. III. Hypocrisy is practical disobedience. The law is first for the spirit, then the letter: for the life through the heart. IV. Hypocrisy universally condemned. Though in appearance full of “ good works,” the hypocrite is condemned as destitute of any. (F. Wagstaff.) Hypocrites in the Church I. There will always be hypocrites in the church. Although the Lord could easily and at once purge His floor of them, yet in great wisdom He suffereth them.1. In regard of His own glory, that His holiness might appear in the daily discovering of them and purging His Church; for he cannot abide that hypocrites should go in the tale and account of His children. But one time or other, one way or other, will be sanctified in all them that come near Him; at which time His glory also shineth out unto others in their just judgment. 2. In regard of the wicked, that they should the more stumble at the truth by reason of some hypocrites among professors. 3. In regard of the godly, that they should partly be exercised by this means, and partly driven to examine what truth is in them. 4. In respect of the truth itself, which getteth some testimony hence, as Christ on the cross by the very title of His enemies, affirming that He was the King of the Jews. II. The character of the hypocrite.1. The hypocrite is a great professor of religion, and hence cometh to be answerable to his name, in seeming to be, and sustaining the person that he is not. As a clown or knave on a stage playeth the part of a noble, or king, but is well known to be the next remove from a rogue, so these fellows whom the apostle noteth have often in their mouths the name of God and of Christ, the title of the Church, and pretend great knowledge of God and cunning in the Scriptures, and other ecclesiastical writings; yea further, make a great show of faith and pity, and if bare profession would lead to heaven, these could not be the least or last there. And to make this a little more plain, an hypocrite can carry himself so level and even in his course, as no man shall be able outwardly to accuse him, or impute anything unto him, no more than the disciples could accuse Judas, when every man said, “ Master, is it I?” but none of them said, Master, is it Judas? 2. The second note is in these words, But indeed they deny him. That is, all the religion of an hypocrite is only in outward profession, separated from the inward sincerity of the heart. All that we have spoken of him is but a lifeless form of godliness, in which the power of it is denied (2 Timothy 3:5). Men may be said to deny a thing three ways. 1. With the tongue.2. With the heart; thus the atheist denieth God (Psalms 24:1).3. With the life or actions, which is here properly meant. For ask the tongues and words of these men concerning their courses, all will appear to be fish whole, but ask their lives, and you shall hear their works (which are far more evident witnesses with or against a man, than his words) speak otherwise. Or, grant they do many glorious works to the eye, yet even herein after a sort God is denied, in that they are lame, and, indeed, carcases of good actions, without any soul to quicken them; all is external, and in such works they may be very busy, but spiritually they perform nothing. 3. The third note or character, is in a further degree of the sin, in that they are said, rebellious to God’ s commandment, and disobedient to the doctrine of God. The Word giveth us to discover two vices in these titular Christians. (1) Infidelity.(2) Rebellion, or in one word, the want of the obedience of faith. True it is they make a great show of faith, but the apostle distinguisheth of faith; one kind is feigned, another is unfeigned: the former may be joined with much knowledge, much talk of piety, but never with a pure heart and good conscience, as the latter. Now this unfeigned faith, being the mother and mistress of unfained obedience, and the only root whence this fruit can bud and blossom, whosoever are destitute of the former cannot but be barren of the latter. What are the fruits of unbelief, see Acts 17:5; 2 Thessalonians 3:2; Hebrews 3:12. 4. The fourth note is yet in a further degree of the sin, and goeth near the detection of him; when after long custom in sin, and cracking his conscience checking him, he becomes as a crazy pitcher which is unfit to hold water; so is he reprobate to every good duty; now can he do nothing but rush into sin thick and threefold, and dowse himself over head and ears in impiety. III. The miserable condition of the hypocrite. They are abominable to God, which appeareth both 1. In their persons.2. Their actions.3. Their punishment. For their persons, they are but half Christians, neither hot nor cold, and therefore the Lord cannot digest them, compared to cakes but half baked (Hosea 7:10), and not turned on the other side. Seeing, therefore, they are such as withdraw their best part from God, the soul of God can take no pleasure in them. Their actions, although never so good in themselves, never so specious unto others, yet are abominable unto God. Yea, in their most devout services, they do nothing but (as Ephraim) compass the Lord with lies, and deceit (Hosea 11:12). Their punishment showeth them to be every way abhorred of God; for as men deal with things they hate, so the Lord 1. Casteth them out of His sight (Job 13:16). The hypocrite shall not come before Him, the workers of lies shall not enter within the walls of that holy city. Yea, sometimes they are cast out of His presence, as Cain was, even out of the visible Church, as they are ever out of the invisible, to show that they shall never be endured hereafter. 2. Destroyeth them; for their destruction from the Lord sleepeth not, but shall surprise them; perhaps while they are in the body, as Ananias and Sapphira, but certainly hereafter. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Professing God, but denying Him Here learn 1. That hypocrites are generally great professors: they profess great knowledge of God, and great zeal for Him. 2. That to deny God is a very heinous sin, and an abominable wickedness: there is a twofold denial of God; first in words, expressly and openly; secondly, in practice, closely and consequentially; “ They profess that they know God; but in words they deny Him.” There may be at once a professing of God, and a denial of Him; many a man’ s practice speaks loud, that there is no God, when he makes a fair confession and profession of Him with his mouth and tongue. 3. That no sorts of persons are so odious to God, and abominable in His sight as those who make a profession of His holy name and truth, but walk contrary in their lives to that profession. (W. Burkitt, M. A.) A tarnished Christian “ I laid aside a coin one day but did not remember just where I had put it, till one day I found it in a comer, encrusted with rust. At first, I thought it was copper, but careful examination proved it to be silver. It had lain there so long that it was tarnished and unrecognisable. Just as many Christians, alas I are so covered with the grime and filth of this world that it is no wonder that the unconverted and Christians look upon them as copper instead of being good silver.” Inconsistencies of Christians In true kindness of heart, sweetness of temper, open-handed generosity, the common charities of life, many mere men of the world lose nothing by comparison with such professors; and how are you to keep the world from saying, “ Ah! your man of religion is no better than others; nay, he is sometimes worse!” With what frightful prominence does this stand out in the answer--never-to-be-forgotten answer--of an Indian chief to the missionary who urged him to become a Christian. The plumed and painted savage drew himself up in the consciousness of superior rectitude; and with indignation quivering on his lip and flashing in his eagle eye, he replied, “ Christian lie! Christian cheat! Christian steal!--drink!--murder! Christian has robbed me of my lands, and slain my tribe!” adding, as he turned haughtily away, “ The devil, Christian! I will be no Christian.” Many such reflections teach us to be careful how we make a religious profession! And having made the profession, cost what it may, by the grace of God let us live up to it; and act it out. It is better not to vow, than, having vowed, not to pay. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Religion not to be rejected because of hypocrites Many people are offended with the profession of religion, because all are not religious who make a profession. A little consideration will correct this error. Does the sheep despise its fleece because the wolf has worn it? Who blames a crystal river because some melancholy men have drowned themselves in its streams? The best drugs have their adulterants. And will you refuse an opiate, because some have wantonly poisoned themselves with it? Though you have been cozened with false colours, yet you should not dis-esteem that which is dyed in grain. He is a bad economist who, having a spot in his garment, cuts off the cloth, instead of rubbing off the dirt. God rejects all religion but His own. (T. Seeker.) . Titus 2:1 But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine Connexion with previous chapter: on the true pastor in contrast with the false Titus’ duty is laid down by way of opposition, and knit to the former matter and chapter by the conjunction, But teach thou. As if he had said, Although the false teachers whom I have described dote upon dreams, and feed their hearers with fancies and doctrines of men, to the corrupting and poisoning of souls, and turning men away from the truth, thou must be utterly unlike them in thy preaching; they speak pleasing things, but thou must speak profitable; they, by despising the simplicity of the gospel, fall not only into dangerous errors which they broach, but into loose and idle discourses which bring diseases upon the soul; but thou, on the contrary, must plainly and familiarly discover unto all estates of men and women their estates and duties, that thereby they may be brought to soundness; they cannot but speak and teach as they are; but let them trifle as they will, and live as they list, thou hast betaken thee to another service than that of man, and must carry thy ministry as becometh a sound teacher of the truth, which is according to godliness. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Lessons for ministers I. No Christian minister nor man must be so shaken at the ungodly courses of others in their rank as that they either give over or give back from their uprightness in their duties, for Titus, although he might seem to be cried down by the general voice of false and pompous teachers, yet must he not be silent; and though he might be troubled and opposed, yet must he not be timorous or sluggish; and though his doctrine was not received nor obeyed, yet he must not be weary of tendering and teaching it; yea, be it that the world would rather applaud mockers and time servers, yet must not he discontentedly with Jonas turn another way, but look unto his own duty in serving God, his Church, and men’ s salvations. Let others stand or fall to their own masters, it is safe for every man so to lay his counters as that his Master may find him doing, yea, well-doing. II. The scope of every minister in his teaching must be to feed the people of God with wholesome doctrine, such as may bring the souls of men to health and soundness. For 1. If the common talk of Christians must be edifying, ministering grace, bring sweetness to the soul, and health to the bones; if it be required of every righteous man that his lips should feed many, nay, more, if the law of grace must sit under the lips of every virtuous woman, much more must the minister’ s, whose office in peculiar bindeth him to be a pastor or feeder, and that according to God’ s own heart, he having for this purpose received his calling, gifts, and approbation of God. 2. Otherwise he perverteth the whole course of his life and calling, and is no better than those false apostles who, turning themselves from sound teaching to unfruitful discourses, called vain jangling, are said to rove and err from the right aim, like unskilful darters or shooters. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Sound doctrine I. We have only to look at the remaining part of this chapter to learn what paul means by “ sound doctrine.” In this first verse he states the subject generally, and then branches it out into its various parts. Through the subsequent verses he directs Titus to explain to his flock the duties of their several stations, and to enforce these duties from motives suggested by the gospel. He was to exhort the aged and the young, masters and servants, male and female, to acquit themselves of every obligation which their situations imposed, and thus adorn the doctrines of God their Saviour. The performance of all their duties as Christians forms the perfection of holiness.1. The apostle Paul says (Titus 3:8), “ This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.” The same apostle in another place, distinguishing between true and false professors, says, “ For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things but our conversation is in heaven, from whence, also, we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” “ We are His workmanship, created in Christ unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.” The whole of the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is written to show that the true end of the doctrine of grace is to sanctify men. But to mention particularly all the passages which oblige us to holiness would be to recapitulate almost all the Bible; the whole book enforces obedience to the precepts of our Divine Master. It is sufficient to recollect His own words, “ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” “ Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.” The religion of Christ, which is intended to bring us into communion with God, brings us first to holiness, without which this communion is not to be attained. Believers are temples of the Holy Ghost; but, while we live in sin, can the Spirit of God dwell in us? Can He dwell in a man without producing the effects of His power and of His grace? Can He possess the heart, and yet leave the affections enslaved to sin? 2. From the tendency of its doctrines, considered as motives to action, the same thing is evident. There is no discrepancy betwixt the various parts of the gospel. While it inculcates purity and holiness of life, it affords us the most powerful motives to live soberly, righteously, and godly. Do we examine its precepts and rules of conduct? These give us an idea of holiness in a manner at once lively and impressive. Do we consider the manner in which the nature of vice is represented? Its miseries are described so fully and so well that we cannot but hold it in abhorrence; everywhere the Bible abounds with reasons most powerfully enforcing the necessary practice of a good life; all its mysteries point to this; all its doctrines are as strong bonds to hind our hearts to the obedience of faith--they are so many weapons of war, mighty through God to cast down imaginations and every high thing--to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. The gospel consecrates to holy uses even what the light of nature teaches us, as, that God is our Creator, who, at the beginning, called us into existence; that He is our Preserver, who, by a perpetual influence, supports us--that it is His providence that watches over the whole universe--particularly guards us, and furnishes us with whatever His goodness and wisdom judge needful for us. What can more forcibly incline us to the practice of obedience than these important truths, if well considered? Since God is our Creator, who gave us life, ought we not to devote that life to Him? Be it ours to view the mercies of God aright, and acknowledge that they all demand holiness unto the Lord. But these motives to holiness, however great and powerful, are as nothing compared with those which the gospel does net take from the light of reason, but from revelation. These latter motives, comprehended in Christ and His economy, are such as must affect every soul which is not dead in sin and insensible to every right impression. That the Almighty, after all our crimes, should be reconciled to us; that He should give His Son--give Him to be made man--to be our brother--our example; that He should give Him to die for us the most ignominious and cruel death; is not this love and mercy worthy of eternal praise? Are not these the strongest inducements to be holy in all manner of conversation? Who shall be found so ungrateful as to be capable of sinning against a God so merciful--of counting the blood of such a covenant an unholy thing? II. Let us next consider the manner in which sound doctrine is to be spoken. The view of the Christian revelation already given is a sufficient reply to allegations against the two common modes of preaching. Some complain that the explanation and enforcement of precepts is not preaching Jesus Christ, while others complain that doctrines are stated and enlarged upon which have no relation to practice. While we preach Christ crucified, or exhort to virtuous conduct, let none say that we overlook the end of revelation, for each part, properly stated, does, in the most explicit manner, promote the end of the gospel the sanctification of believers. Let it be remembered, then, that whether a minister enforces a precept or explains a doctrine, he is bringing that precept or that doctrine to take its share in the grand design of the whole--the salvation of mankind; and that, in choosing either as the subject of discourse, he does not lose sight of what the gospel constantly keeps in view--that men who would inherit the kingdom which cannot be moved must “ serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” III. We next consider with what mind and in what manner this “ sound doctrine is to be heard.” Though the preacher speak “ never so wisely,” if the hearers neglect the means of instruction, his labour must be vain. Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, to prayer. You ought to hear with serious attention, having repaired to the house of God with holy awe, having composed your spirits by prayer, lay aside each low and earthly thought, and earnestly devote your minds to learn the things that are profitable unto salvation. You must hear with meekness. Come to the house of God with modest and tractable dispositions, bring along with you the persuasion that you need frequently to be reminded of your duty. They only, who in good and honest hearts receive the Word, keep it, and bring forth fruit. You must hear with particular application. When you hear a vice reproved of which your conscience accuses you, apply the reproof to yourselves, “ O my soul, thou art the man.” Let the instructions which you hear be carefully laid up in your hearts, and reduced to practice in your lives. You must be “ doers of the Word and not hearers only.” Religion is not an empty amusement or an airy speculation; it is the science of holiness, a practical art, a guide and director of human life. Make your prayer before the Lord your God, that you may understand His truth; God alone can seal the instructions you may receive. Whoever may plant, it is God that giveth the increase. Ask, in faith, wisdom from above, and “ God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, will give it you.” (L. Adamson, D. D.) The minister’ s directory I. He should be a preacher. “ Speak.” II. He should be himself. “ Thou.” III. He should be a student. “ Sound doctrine.” IV. He should be practical. “ The things which become.” (F. Wagstaff.) Lessons for hearers Hearers are hence taught sundry duties. As 1. To desire only this wholesome food that their souls may be well liking, laying aside their itching ears, which hunt after novelties, for the ministry is not appointed to beat the ear as music, but to sink into the soul as the food and medicine of it, by becoming the means and rule of life. Athenian hearing is the cause of Athenian preaching, and the diseases running upon such hearers showeth the curse of God on them, who with contempt of the manna from heaven, with the onions, garlic, and flesh of Egypt; these things they have upon their desire, and with them more than they desire, for they rot even between their teeth. 2. To receive the wholesome doctrine, as for the body we receive wholesome food what soever it be, or from whomsoever; let it be bitter sometimes, or seem too salt, yet if it be wholesome hunger findeth it savoury; no man but will strive to receive a bitter potion to restore his body out of any weakness to soundness; and yet who is it that will suffer a wholesome reproof to the recovery of soundness to the soul? and others stand so much upon toothsomeness of their meat, and must know their cooks so well, that before they can be resolved in these two, the plausibleness of the doctrine and the friendliness of the person, their souls are well nigh starved to death. Hence is it that we hear so many complaints. Oh, saith one, be seeketh not the goodwill of his hearers, nor casteth to please them; he is of a tart and bitter spirit; he seeketh to wound and gall, but he healeth nor suppleth not. But what preacheth he, whether any errors or the pure doctrine of God? No, say they, we cannot except against his doctrine. True, for they never trouble themselves so far as to examine it by the Word or themselves by it. But then, say I, is it the Word of God thou hearest, and the truth by thine own confession? Why dost thou then not tremble at that Word? 3. Hearers must hold wholesome doctrine when they have received it (2 Timothy 3:14). Continue in the things thou hast received; buy the truth, but sell it not, and bind it fast upon their hearts. And good reason, for if the meat be never so wholesome, if the stomach of the soul keep it not, but it slip the memory, and is not by meditation digested, the soul is as surely diseased as is the body when no sustenance will stay to strengthen it. 4. Hearers must so desire, receive, and hold this wholesome food, as they may grow by it, showing by their thriving in grace that they have wholesome meat (Psalms 109:4), for as in the body, if meat, when it is digested, send not virtue whereby the operation of it appeareth in all the parts, the body is diseased, some obstruction or opilation hindereth the work of it, so is the soul obstructed with the itching ear, covetous thoughts, hardness of heart, formal worship, all which keep the soul barren and empty of grace, yea, lean and ill-looking in the eyes of God. Seeing, therefore, the Lord hath spread His table for us, and liberally furnished it with store of this wholesome food, let it appear in our souls, by our strength to labour in Christian duties to which we are called, to overcome the temptations unto sin, to carry our victory in our strife against our own lusts. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Genuine morality I. Genuine morality legislates alike for all mankind.1. Age.2. Sex.3. Relationship. II. Genuine morality reaches to the springs of the heart. III. Genuine morality is the grand purpose of gospel teaching. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Healthy teaching Sound teaching, according to Paul, is not teaching that has the conventional ring, not teaching that is divested of all freshness, originality, and stimulating force, but whatever goes to make moral fibre, whatever tends to build up strong men and women, whatever brings a healthy colour to the cheek, and gives life a true zest. I. It is the healthy mind alone that can impart healthy teaching. A healthy mind is a free and untrammeled mind; a mind that plays freely around all questions, and forms its own unbiassed conclusions. A mind that has the clear vision of health, a mind that has the keen appetite of health, a mind that has the unvitiated palate of health, a mind that has the hardy courage of health, a mind that takes the world as it finds it. An independent mind, a mind that makes its own observations, draws its own inferences, is not a mere servile echo of other minds. II. Healthy teaching is that which is healthful in its effects. Bad food cannot build up a robust frame. I will imagine that a mother has a puling, pining infant to rear. There is a question between divers kinds of diet. One authority says: “ You ought to use mine, because it has the correct label on it, and is done up in the proper regulation tins.” But the mother says: “ I have tried it, and the child starved upon it.” “ But it has all the requisite chemical constituents in their due proportions. It must have been the native perversity of the child which prevented its thriving. It is the recognised thing, endorsed and recommended by the entire faculty.” “ I cannot help that,” says the mother; “ labels or no labels, tins or no tins, faculty or no faculty, all I know is that I have tried that food, and that if I had gone on with it, my child would have been dead by this time.” And then she is induced, by some old wife, perhaps, to try another preparation, natural and simple, nobody’ s patent, with no label or endorsement whatever. But, lo, and behold! the child grows fat and plump, the hue of health comes gradually to its cheeks, and it weighs heavier every day! “ But this is not an accredited compound. The great authorities on diet have not prescribed it. It cannot be wholesome.” Once more the mother retorts: “ No matter. My child is alive and well.” Now, that is the true test to apply to religious teaching. What sort of men and women does it make? “ Sound doctrine” is that which produces a healthy, spiritual life, which builds up character. (J. Halsey.) Wholesome doctrine must be applied to the several ages and conditions of men Every faithful minister must fit and apply his doctrine to the several ages, conditions, and occasions of his people, that every man and woman, young and old, superior and inferior, may know not only what is lawful, but what is most expedient and beseeming our age, place, and condition of life. It is true that all virtues in general are commanded, as all vices in general are forbidden, to all persons, of what sex or estate soever; yet there be some special virtues which are more shining ornaments in some age and condition than others, as in young men staidness and discretion are special beauties, but are not (if wanting) such blemishes in their years, as in old men, because of their observation and experience. So there be some special vices (though all are to strive against all) which are fouler spots and stains to some ages than to others, and some to which men and women are more subject by reason of their age or sex, as youth to headiness and rashness; old age to testiness, frowardness, covetousness, etc.; women to curiosity, loquacity, etc., against all which the man of God must in special furnish and arm his people, instantly striving to root out such noisome weeds as of their own accord appear out of the earthy hearts of men, as also to plant the contrary graces in their stead. Examples of this practice we meet withal everywhere in the Epistles. Paul, in divers of his Epistles, as to the Colossians, but especially to the Ephesians, describeth in particular the duties of wives, husbands, children, fathers, servants, masters (see Ephesians 5:6). Peter, in the second and third chapters, is as large in the distinct offices of subjects, wives, husbands, servants. And from this practice the apostle John dissenteth not (1 John 2:12), where he giveth his reasons why he writeth to fathers, to babes, to old men, and to young men. Besides these examples are sundry weighty reasons to enforce the doctrine.1. As first, the faithfulness of a wise steward herein appeareth, namely, in distributing to every one of his master’ s family their own portion of meat in due season (Luke 12:42). 2. To this purpose is the Word fitted, to make every man ready and absolute to every good work; and thus the wisdom of God is made to shine to all eyes, who can behold such a perfect rule of direction in faith and manners. 3. Well knew our apostle, with the other men of God, that general doctrines (though never so wholesome) little prevail, are but cold, and touch not men to the quick, without particular application to their several necessities; till Peter come to say, “ You have crucified the Lord of glory,” we read of no pricking of their hearts. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Dealing with individuals Richard Baxter adopted the method of individual dealing with the parishioners of Kidderminster, bringing them to his house and taking them apart one by one. He tells us that, because of it, he had reason to believe that more than a third of the grown up inhabitants of the place were converted to God. The late Mr. Grant of Arndilly was so intent upon this habit of individual intercourse that in three months he had dealt with fifteen hundred souls, while the refrain of all his letters, as Mrs. Gordon says, was always this, “ Speak a word for Jesus.” Titus 2:2 That the aged men be sober The temptations and duties of old men I. Sins to be avoided.1. Indulgence in wine.2. Irreverence.3. Folly, “ Temperate” here is really prudent, sound minded. II. Virtues to be cherished.1. Stability.2. Love.3. Patience. (F. Wagstaff.) The duty of old men Our apostle exempteth not old men from being subject to the doctrine of God because of their age, but rather sendeth them first to school, notwithstanding all that knowledge and experience which they might pretend (1 John 2:13). For God’ s school is as well for old as for young, in which men are not only to be initiated in the principles of religion, but also to be led forward unto perfection of wisdom; and seeing no man can attain in this life unto perfection, therefore every man is still to press forward, and to wax old daily learning something. And there is great reason that as old men must first be instructed by Titus, so they should be the first in learning their duty.1. First, in regard of example, for their presidence prevaileth much, and would be a great inducement to the younger, who need all encouragements in the ways of God, which example not being generally given by oar elder men, besides that they entangle themselves in the sins of the younger, we cannot marvel at the licentiousness of our youth. 2. The honour of their age, yea, the ornament and crown of their years, is to be sound in the ways of righteousness, that is, in a life led holily and justly, which two can never be found but in a heart submitted to the Word of God, the rule of both. 3. Whereas old men are delighted with relations of idle antiquities, and things formerly passed as long as they can recall, the Holy Ghost recalleth them from such unfruitful spending of their time, and showeth them that Christ and His doctrine, both of them being from the beginning, are most ancient, and consequently the knowledge and remembrance of Him is a matter best beseeming them; to have their senses and tongues exercised herein should be the delight of their age; to be conversant in the holy exercises which witness of Him should be their chief business, as old Hannah went not out of the Temple, and old Simeon waited there to see his salvation. 4. Their time by the course of nature cannot be long to fit themselves to heaven, and therefore they had not need slack any opportunity which might hasten them thither. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Suitable characteristics for the aged Sobriety in all things is the peculiar character befitting age. Hasty, impulsive, intemperate speech, frivolous gaiety, thoughtless indulgence, are hateful in the old. The Christian elders should at least aim to possess the virtue without which hoary hair would be a disgrace rather than a crown of glory. They are not only to be “ sober,” but “ grave and discreet,” terms which nobly pourtray and illustrate the highest characteristics and the truest consecration of age, Age should fly concourse, cover in retreat Defects of judgment, and the will subdue; Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore Of the vast ocean it must sail so soon. “ Healthy,” or sound, must they be “ in respect to their faith, love, and patient endurance.” The apostle, in his earliest Epistle (1 Thessalonians 1:3), congratulated that Church on “ work” of theirs which originated in “ faith,” on “ labour unto weariness” which was dictated by “ love,” and on “ patient endurance” which was born of Christian “ hope.” In writing to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13:13), he says, “ Now abideth faith, hope, love.” The Lord, from His throne of glory, addressed the Ephesian Church (Revelation 2:2) thus: “ I know thy works, thy labour unto weariness, and thy patient endurance.” The passages throw light upon each other. Occasionally “ hope,” the child of faith, the source of patience, the secret of peace, and the wellspring of joy, is substituted by the apostle for one or other of the emotions with which it is so closely associated, either as antecedent or consequent. But, making allowance for this characteristic touch, it is profoundly interesting to trace in this--one of the latest of the Pauline Epistles--the vibration of a note struck by him in his earliest; an argument of no small weight in determining the authenticity of the Pastoral Epistles. Paul would have Titus cultivate among the aged men of Crete the root principles out of which all holy living proceeds. The peculiarity of the Pastoral Epistles--reference, i.e., to the being “ sound” or “ healthy” in these respects--suggests the possibility that “ faith” may be under mined or perverted; that “ love” may become irregular, sentimental, partisan, or hysterical; and that “ patience” may degenerate into listlessness, obstinacy, or stoicism, if it be not fed at the fountains of Christian “ hope.” Does not the reference here to the causes and sources of holy living, rather than to those effects of them on which he had enlarged when writing to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 1:3), suggest to us that the longer St. Paul lived, he more and more acquired the habit of putting confidence in Christian principles and “ sound” motives? (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Behaviour suitable for the aged He that hath received much must bring forth much fruit, as the servant that had five talents committed unto him gained five other talents. So old men must be grave and sober, and carry a majesty in their countenance, that they may after a sort resemble the majesty of God. As gravity and sobriety agreeth to every age, so most especially to the elder age, contrary to which is lightness, lasciviousness, and waywardness, which make them not honourable, but odious, not to be reverenced, but to be despised in the eyes of the younger sort. Let them adorn their years with those virtues which the apostle nameth. If they be careful to express these things which become wholesome doctrine, they shall manifestly show that their living so in the world hath not been in vain; but honour is not seemly for a fool. The wise man saith, “ The beauty of the young men is their strength, and the glory of the aged is the greyheaded,” that is, wisdom, counsel, experience, whereby they are more adorned than the young man is beautified by his bodily strength. For the ornaments of the mind are to be preferred before the properties of the body. Again, they must be examples of a godly life and holy conversation, that youth may stand in fear to commit any indecent and unseemly thing in their presence. Thus Job saith of himself (chap 29), “ When I went out of the gate, the young men saw me, and hid themselves.” But when the elder sort are ringleaders and examples of an evil and corrupt life, there is more gravity on their heads than piety in their hearts; in their white hairs than in their behaviour; and so the crown of honour is taken from them, and they are justly condemned, despised, and reproached of those of whom they should be honoured. For we may see old men so hardened in wickedness, that if a man would find whole heaps of wickedness, he need seek no farther but to them. We are all to honour the grey head and to magnify old age, for (as Solomon saith) “ Age is a crown of glory when it is found in the way of righteousness,” whereby he meaneth that old age, seasoned with a godly life and upright, bringeth with it as great glory as a crown on the head and a sceptre in the hand doth unto a king, and therefore such old men are greatly to be reverenced and highly to be esteemed. But many, except they should be honoured for their ignorance, superstition, frowardness, maliciousness, waywardness, covetousness, drunkenness, licentiousness, and self-will, there is nothing else to be found in them, to be learned of them, to be gathered from them. By these foul enormities they bring themselves into contempt, and bring shame and reproach upon their own heads, so that no man defameth and dishonoureth them so much as themselves. Surely, if young men misbehave and misgovern themselves, they are not to be excused, but to be reproved, because they ought to order their lives aright, and remember their Creator in the days of their youth, and not deserve to be evil spoken or reported of; but old folks are doubly worthy of the shame that men do them, if they be not honoured for their virtues. They should learn by their long life and old age to grow in the knowledge of God and His Son Jesus Christ, to hate sin, to delight in righteousness, and daily to die unto the world. (W. Attersoll.) The theological use of old age One of the uses of the aged is to keep our theology sweet. I should be very much afraid for evangelical doctrine if there were none but young men in the Church. Youth loves to speculate. Old age loves to rest in ascertained realities. Youth is destructive. You have seen a boy when he has got a gun. He goes popping at everything--sparrows, cats, barn doors. He can hardly resist levelling even at his own father. So, when a young man becomes conscious of the possession of reason, he is for exercising it upon everything. Nothing is so sacred as to be beyond the reach of this destructive weapon, and truths are often in danger of being swept away along with the falsities. But, on the other hand, old age is proverbially conservative, and so the needful counteractive is supplied. A man may have gone very wide in his young days, but, as a rule, he comes round again to the old starting point--comes home to the old centre when he is verging upon threescore years and ten. A soul that is consciously on the brink of eternity cannot do with the shallow fallacies that once passed muster as excellent substitutes for the old faith. It finds that, after all, the old gospel is the thing it wants. The late learned Dr. Duncan said to a student, “ I do not forbid you to speculate. I like speculation. I have speculated a great deal during my life, but now that I am turning an old man, I am in love with the facts.” Then he added in a quasi-humorous tone, “ Now that I’ m an auld man, I have just come back to the theology of the old wives and the bairns. I like that.” This is a useful element in the Church. Thank God for the aged and for their tenacious grasp of the essential verities of the gospel. (J. Halsey.) If age be blended with naughtiness, the older the worse An old river without water quencheth not our thirst. An old friend that hath lost his honesty is worse than an old picture that hath lost its colour. Old wine no man commends; when it is turned to vinegar, let them take it that like it. An old house is no safe harbour when it is ready to fall on the inhabiter’ s head. An old man that hath lost his experience is like a boulter; much good flour hath gone through it, but there is nothing left in it but bran. (T. Adams.) Temperate The limit of law and reason Notice the frequent occurrence of a single epithet which may almost be said to characterise Christian behaviour, as St. Paul, in his later days, came to conceive of it. The repetition of the word I mean is veiled from readers of the Authorised Version by variations in the rendering of it. In one form or another it really occurs in these verses four times. First, old men are to be “ temperate” : that is its first occurrence. Then, elderly females are to teach the young wives to be “ sober,” another use of the same word. Next, the younger women are to be “ discreet,” the same word. Finally, it is the solitary requirement for young men that they be “ sober minded,” where once more the same word is retained. What is this moral quality which Paul felt it to be so necessary to enforce upon every age and on both sexes? It denotes that moral health which results from a complete mastery over the passions and desires, “ so that,” in Archbishop Trench’ s words, “ they receive no further allowance than that which the law and the right reason admit and approve.” Self-control would probably come as near the idea as any single word we can employ. But it includes such moral sanity or wisdom of character as is only to be attained through the habitual control of the reason over loose, illicit, or excessive desires of every kind. It is by no means to be wondered at that St. Paul should have laid much emphasis on this virtue. Heathen society in its later periods was remarkable for the weakening of self-control. Self-indulgence became at once its danger and its disgrace. When religion came to be thoroughly divorced from ethics, no curb remained strong enough to restrain the bulk of men either from angry passion or from sensual gratification. Against this tendency of the later classical period philosophers and moralists were never weary of inveighing. The very word which St. Paul here uses was with them the technical name for a cardinal virtue, the praises of which, as “ the fairest of the gifts of the gods,” they were always sounding. But the foolish excess which heathen religion had failed to check defied heathen philosophy too. The time had come for Christianity to try its hand. The task was a hard one. I have no doubt Paul beheld with anxiety the growing inroads which, before his death, the loose and reckless habits of his age had begun to make even upon those little sheltered companies that had sought a new refuge beneath the Cross. In these latest writings he reiterates the warning to be sober minded with no less urgency than Plato or Aristotle. We may well thank God that he based the admonition on more prevailing pleas. It took a long time for Christianity to lay the foundations of a manlier and purer society; but it did so in the end. The old civilisation was past remedy and perished. Into the new, which should take its place, the gospel inspired a nobler temper. The restored authority of Divine law and the awful sense of the evil of sin, which were the Church’ s inheritance from Judaism, the value of personal purity which it learned at the Cross, the new conception of sanctity which Christ created, the hopes and dreads of the hereafter: these things trained our modern nations in their youth to a reverential sobriety of character, an awe for what is holy, and a temperate enjoyment of sensual delights, such as had utterly disappeared from the Greco-Roman world. It is for us to take heed, lest, amid the growth of wealth, the cheapening of luxuries, and the revolt against restraining authority which distinguish our own age, we should forfeit, before we are aware of it, some of that chastened decorous simplicity and manly self-control which lies so near the base of a noble Christian character, and which has been one of the gospel’ s choicest gifts to human society. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) Titus 2:3-5 The aged women The dangers and duties of women I. Women have peculiar dangers according to their age. The older ones are tempted to seek the excitement of stimulants, or of slander; the younger ones to instability of affection, to impurity of life, or other inconsistency of conduct. II. Women have duties peculiar to their age. The younger have duties of obedience; the middle-aged have the cares of home life; the aged have the instruction of the younger. (F. Wagstaff) Religious home life I. True religion is the foundation of home happiness. II. True religion is the secret of domestic prosperity. III. True religion at home can alone insure the esteem and respect of those abroad. (F. Wagstaff) Apostolic advice to the aged women The gospel revealed the lofty destiny of woman, and it is not surprising that St. Paul should continue his advice to Titus thus: “ Enjoin that the aged women in like manner, should preserve in their demeanour holy propriety.” As Jerome has it, “ Their gait and motion, their countenance, their speech, and their silence, should exhibit a certain dignity of sacred decorum.” The very word seems to convey the fine thought that there is a consecration, a sacerdotal eminence and sanctity, possible and even normal, in the life of woman. The aged woman should have in her looks and ways something better than the garment of the priest or the aureole of the saint. It is fitting and seemly that she should. The apostle adds a grim touch after this hint of saintly sacerdotal beauty. He knew the temptation of “ old women” of both sexes to be censorious, blundering, and self-indulgent, and so he adds, “ Let them not be slanderous, nor enslaved by much wine.” They are, moreover, to be “ mistresses of honour,” capable of “ beautifully instructing” by their word and example those who look up to them for counsel. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Holiness consists of little duties Did a holy life consist of one or two noble deeds--some signal specimens of doing, or enduring, or suffering--we might account for the failure, or reckon it small dishonour to turn back in such a conflict, But a holy life is made up of small things of the hour, and not the great things of the age, that fill up a life like that of Paul or John, like that of Rutherford, or Brainerd, or Martyn. The avoidance of little evils, little sins, little inconsistencies, little weaknesses, little follies, little indiscretions and imprudences, little foibles, little indulgences of self, little bits of coveteousness and penuriousness, little exhibitions of worldliness and gaiety, little indifferences to the feelings or wishes of others: the avoidance of such little things as these goes far to make up at least the negative beauty of holy life. And then attention to little duties of the day and hour in public transactions, or private dealings, or family arrangements; to little words, and looks, and tones; little self-denials and self-restraints and self-forgetfulness: these are the active developments of holy life, the rich and Divine mosaics of which it is composed. What makes yon green hill so beautiful? blot the outstanding peak or stately elm, but the bright sward which clothes its slopes, composed of innumerable blades of slender grass. It is of small things that a great life is made up; and he who will acknowledge no life as great, save that which is built up of great things, will find little in Bible character to admire or copy. The bloom of the aged A good woman never grows old. Years may pass over her head, but if benevolence and virtue dwell in her heart, she is as cheerful as when the spring of life first opened to her view. When we look upon a good woman we never think of her age; she looks as charming as when the rose of youth first bloomed on her cheek. That rose has not faded yet; it will never fade. In her neighbourhood she is the friend and benefactor. Who does not respect and love the woman who has passed her days in acts of kindness and mercy--who has been the friend of man and God--whose whole life has been a scene of kindness and love and devotion to truth? We repeat, such a woman cannot grow old. She will always be fresh and buoyant in spirit and active in humble deeds of mercy and benevolence. If the young lady desires to retain the bloom and beauty of youth, let her not yield to the sway of fashion and folly; let her love truth and virtue, and to the close of life she will retain those feelings which now make life appear a garden of sweets, ever fresh and ever new. (Great Thoughts.) Not false accusers. Rules to avoid false accusing 1. Look to thine own calling and the necessary duties of it, that so following thine own plough, thou mayest have no leisure to intermeddle in other men’ s affairs: busy bodies and prattlers are joined by the apostle. 2. Beware of envy, which is still hatching and inventing evil: the saying is true, “ Malice never spake well,” but is suspicious, and depraving the best persons and practices, and is one of the greatest enemies of truth, in which God’ s image chiefly consisteth. 3. Learn to esteem the good name of thy brother, the next thing to his life, considering the truth of that homely speech, that he that wanteth a good name is half hanged; and there is great reason that those who would have their names tendered by others should tender the good name of others, doing as they would be done unto, which is the golden rule of all equity. 4. In receiving reports excuse parties absent as far as well we can, as also facts done, so far as they may be well interpreted; and where we cannot do so to advise the reporter to look well unto and consider himself. (T. Taylor, D. D.) False accusation Often are the most painful wrongs inflicted through the medium of covert inuendoes and malignant insinuations. Half of a fact is a whole falsehood. He who gives the truth a false colouring by a false manner of telling it is the worst of liars. Such was Doeg in his testimony against the priests. He stated the facts in the case, but gave them such an artful interpretation as to impart to them the aspect and influence of the most flagrant falsehoods. It was through the same mode of procedure that our Lord was condemned. A perverse misconstruction was given to His words, so that what was spoken in loyalty to the highest truth, was transformed into treason worthy of death. (E. L. Magoon.) That they may teach the young women The education of young women The young women are mentioned here as under the teaching and authority of the aged. What now are some of the first elements which Paul insists on in the education of a Christian family? He omits many things which one would have supposed to stand high in the list of young ladies’ accomplishments; for example, music, dancing, and the art of binding themselves into the shape of sand glasses. Perhaps the apostle thought them sufficiently advanced in such acquirements, and that therefore he might pass them over in silence. He insists, however, that these aged governesses shall teach the following great elementary principles.1. That the young woman be sober, wise, of a sound mind, prudent and discreet members of the Church of Christ. The first element, then, in the education of your daughters is wisdom or prudence; and if you begin anywhere else with them, you begin at the wrong end. This wisdom or prudence is not easily defined, but it will appear in the entire character and conduct of their future life; it will enable them to avoid the snares which the ungodly lay for them, and conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the name and the religion of their Redeemer. This prudence is opposed to rashness, enthusiasm, and impulsive resolutions, to which the young mind, and especially the young female mind, is naturally inclined. 2. Then secondly, they are to love their husbands, for without this the house will become a pandemonium, and profligacy and impurity fill the land. Their love to their husbands should be ardent and unchangeable, yielding neither to the seduction of strangers nor to the husband’ s coldness and neglect at home. 3. To love their children. It may be asked, Is not this love natural? and if so, where is the necessity for teaching it? I answer, bad habits in society can eradicate many of the principles of our nature, and make us more degraded and unfeeling than the brutes. Edmund Burke relates that J.J. Rousseau would not keep his children in his house, but sent them to be brought up in an hospital; and then remarks, “ that bears love their young, and lick them into shape, but bears are not philosophers.” In India the natural love of our offspring was conquered by the tyranny of a terrible custom, and millions of female infants were destroyed in infancy by the mother’ s hands! Is the murder of infants altogether unheard of among us? Are there no Foundling hospitals within the bounds of Christendom? Then remember that the Isle of Crete was one of the wickedest places in the world, and the inhabitants mere heathen, and you shall see the force of the exhortation to “ love their children.” It is an awful fact, which I first heard of in Hamburgh, that in the continental cities there is a class of old wives, real old devils, who are called “ child murderesses,” and whose office it is to save the mother and destroy the child! In this way myriads of innocent infants are sacrificed, and no eye but the eye of God, the mother, and the murderess, ever knows anything about it! 4. They are to be discreet, which is the same as sober, mentioned in the fourth verse; chaste, viz., placing all their happiness in their husbands and families alone; keepers at home, that they may attend to the affairs of the household, and be an example to their children. It is not the duty of a married woman with a family to engage much in public business, even though it should be of the most important kind. Her place is the family circle, and her duty is to stay at home. We may say the same of much visiting. It is impossible to gad about and take care of the family at the same time; and as to the mother handing over her children to the care of servants, and then giving herself little or no concern about them, I say with Edmund Burke that such conduct would be a slander on the instinct of the brutes! 5. Good; they are to be good wives, faithful and diligent in their household duties. Good is a very expressive word, and is used to denote the highest excellence (Acts 11:24). Good (from which our word God comes, the Good One) I take in its most general acceptation to signify the disposition to bless; it is the fountain of kindness within, from which love, mercy, and all gentle and kind actions flow; “ obedient to their own husbands, that the Word of God be not blasphemed.” The great duty of the wife is obedience, and in this she is a type of the Church’ s obedience and submission to Christ. Love is common to both, though the natural order is that his should go before and hers follow after, as in the case of Christ and the Church; then obedience is her special duty, even as protection and defence are his. The command, probably, has a special reference to wives who were united to unbelieving or heathen husbands, and teaches that grace never delivers us from the obligations of nature--they are, though believing, to be obedient to their husbands though unbelieving, and the husband, though unbelieving, is bound to love, support, and protect his wife, though she is a believer in the gospel. (W. Graham, D. D.) Pastoral dealings with young women A delicate tact may be observed in St. Paul’ s management of the younger women. To them he does not bid Titus address himself at all. Although he thinks of them as already married, yet the admonitions of the pastor are to pass, as it were, through the lips of the senior matrons. Some of these may have been official “ deaconesses” (like Phoebe at Cenchraea), but this is by no means essential to the spirit of his instructions. Whether officially set apart to minister among her own sex, as was the salutary habit of the early Church, or not, it is in the privacy of the home, or the retired gathering for prayer and female industry, that the wholesome influence of a Christian matron of experience and weight of character may most advantageously be exerted. And it is through the familiar intercourse of such “ mothers in Israel” with their younger sisters that a Christian minister can most suitably and safely reach the maidens and young housewives of his flock. So at least St. Paul judged. The homely housewifely virtues which are here specified do seem to be best taught by female lips. In seven particulars has this unmarried old man succeeded in covering the circle of a young wife’ s duties. Her devotion to husband and babes, her discipline of herself into suitable decorum, her womanly purity, her household industry, her benign sweetness of temper, her due deference to her husband: such are the graces by which within her gracious realm of home the youthful matron is to glorify her Saviour and her God. What a surprising elevation did the gospel confer on woman at its first promulgation! The sudden discovery that “ in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female” might have a tendency at the first to relax somewhat those restraints which sex and marriage impose on woman; but, if the wholesome influence Paul desired could be exerted by matrons of maturer character, it is plain that so far from the Christian wife giving her husband (heathen though he might still be) any cause to speak ill of her new faith--her chastity, her meekness, her diligence, her obedience, would be certain to recommend the gospel in which her soul had found the secret of a behaviour so gracious and so beautiful. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) A husband endeared “ I am thankful to the Nihilists for one thing,” says the Czarina. “ They have made me love my husband dearly. Our home life has become so different since I began to look on him as though he were under sentence of death. You can’ t think how deeply his menaced state attaches me to him.” A heartless mother reproved by a sparrow Down in a London slum there lived a working man, his wife, and four children, all wretched and miserable through drink. The drunken wife one evening, wandering about in misery, saw a sparrow pick up a crumb and carry it to her young in her nest. The poor woman turned pale, trembled for a moment, and burst into tears. The day of repentance had come to her. “ Oh!” she exclaimed, “ that sparrow feeds her young birds, and I neglect my young children. And what for? Drink. Nothing but drink!” And she wrung her hands and wept. Then she arose and went home to pray. She cried unto God in her distress and He sent His message of forgiveness to her soul. Then her face wore a new beauty, and her husband and family looked wonderingly upon her. She kissed them all, one by one, and told them how she had become changed. The husband, under his wife’ s teaching, became a Christian, and a happy home, with comfort, peace, and plenty, soon followed. (G. W. McCree.) A faithful wife There is nothing upon this earth that can compare with the faithful attachment of a wife; no creature who for the object of her love is so indomitable, so persevering, so ready to suffer and to die. Under the most depressing circumstances, a woman’ s weakness becomes mighty power; her timidity becomes fearless courage; all her shrinking and sinking passes away; and her spirit acquires the firmness of marble--adamantine firmness--when circumstances drive her to put forth all her energies under the inspiration of her affections. (D. Webster.) Influence of a good wife Oftentimes I have seen a tall ship glide by against the tide as if drawn by some invisible bow line, with a hundred strong arms pulling it. Her sails unfilled, her streamers were drooping, she had neither side wheel nor stern wheel; still she moved on, stately, in serene triumph, as with her own life. But I knew that on the other side of the ship, hidden beneath the great bulk that swam so majestically, there was a little toilsome steam tug, with a heart of fire and arms of iron, that was tugging it bravely on; and I knew that if the little steam tug untwined her arms, and left the ship, it would wallow, and roll about, and drift hither and thither, and go off with the refluent tide, no man knows whither. And so I have known more than one genius, high-decked, full-freighted, idle-sailed, gay-pennoned, who, but for the bare, toiling arms and brave, warm-beating heart of the faithful little wife that nestles close to him, so that no wind or wave could part them, would have gone down with the stream, and have been heard of no more. Early Christian women “ What women these Christians have!” exclaimed the heathen rhetorician Libanius, on hearing about Anthusa, the mother of John Chrysostom, the famous “ golden-mouthed” preacher of the gospel at Constantinople in the fourth century. Anthusa, at the early age of twenty, lost her husband, and thenceforward devoted herself wholly to the education of her son, refusing all offers of further marriage. Her intelligence and piety moulded the boy’ s character and shaped the destiny of the man, who, in his subsequent position of eminence, never forgot what he owed to maternal influence. Hence, it would be no overstrained assertion to say that we owe those rich homilies of Chrysostom, of which interpreters of Scriptures still make great use, to the mind and heart of Anthusa. Another’ s love The intensity of maternal affection was illustrated in the observation of a little boy, who, after reading Bunyan’ s “ Pilgrim’ s Progress,” asked his mother which of the characters she liked best. She replied, “ Christian, of course: he is the hero of the story.” The dear child responded, “ Mother, I like Christiana best, because, when Christian set out on his pilgrimage, he went alone; but, when Christiana started, she took the children with her.” Christianity at home I have no faith in that woman who talks of grace and glory abroad, and uses no soap at home. Let the buttons be on the shirts, let the children’ s socks be mended, let the roast mutton be done to a turn, let the house be as neat as a new pin, and the home be as happy as home can be; and then, when the cannon balls, and the marbles, and the shots, and even the grains of sand, are all in the box, even then there will be room for those little deeds of love and faith which, in my Master’ s name, I seek of you who love His appearing. Serve God by doing common actions in a heavenly spirit, and then, if your daily calling only leaves you cracks and crevices of time, fill them up with holy service. (C. H. Spurgeon.) True marriage Husband, in our old Saxon speech meant houseband--the stay of the house; and a wife should be a “ help meet” for the husband. She should be a “ keeper at home.” Phidias, when he depicted a woman, made her to sit under a snail shell, this signifying, that like the snail she should never be far away from her home. (J. G. Pilkington.) Discreet Discretion A virtue before required both in the minister (Titus 1:8), and in elder men (Titus 2:2), and now in younger women, being a grace requisite for all estates, ages, sexes, and conditions of life; requiring that the reins of affections be subjected unto reason, and moderated by judgment, not suffering a thought to be entertained and settled in the mind which is not first warranted in the Word, without which, if the reins be slacked but a little, the mind is suddenly vanquished, taken, and lead captive of manifold lusts. This grace, then, is the watchman and moderator of the mind, keeping and guarding it from pleasures altogether unlawful, and in lawful curbing and cutting off excess and abuse. It watcheth also over the affections of the heart and actions of the life, resisting all light behaviour, all childish carriage, all unquiet and troublesome passions, such as are suspicions, jealousies, which are the fuels and firebrands of much mischief; and the distempers of flashing anger, rage, and unjust vexation. It suffereth not undutifulness to the husband, unnaturalness towards the children, unmercifulness towards servants, untowardness in her own duties, unthankful meddling with other folks’ affairs. It is a procurer and preservative of many graces, a bond of her own and others’ peace, a settler of the comfort of her life, an ornament of her head, and of her house; which once let her to be disrobed of, she may bid farewell to her family’ s welfare; for let any vile affection bear sway but for a little while, as of anger, impatience, excessive grief, intemperance, or any such, how is the whole house in a kind of tumult! which as a commonwealth in the commotion and rising of some one rebel, cannot be composed and settled till the rebel be subdued; which they find too true who in their match were left unto themselves, to make choice of such as wanted then, and yet bare not attained with the fear of God the practice of this virtue. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Keepers at home Home the place for women Not that a woman is never to be found without her house over her head, for many necessary and just occasions call her often abroad, namely 1. As a Christian, the public duties of piety and God’ s worship; as also more private duties of love, and works of mercy in visiting and helping the sick and poor. 2. As a wife, both with her husband when he shall require her, and without him for the necessary provision of the household--and such like. But the thing here condemned is the affection of gadding at any or all hours, with disposition of hearing or telling news, or affecting merriments, company, expense or excess, accounting the house rather a prison than a home, and so easily forsaking it without all just occasion. And justly is this course condemned, for 1. This is a forsaking and flying for the time out of the calling wherein they ought to abide, for their calling is commonly within doors to keep the household in good order, and therefore for them to wander from their own place, is as if a bird should wander from her own nest. 2. This were the highway to become busybodies, for what other more weighty matters call them out of their calling, but to prattle of persons and actions which concern them not? Whence the apostle (1 Timothy 5:13) coupleth these two together, they are idle, and busybodies; which if any wonder how they can be reconciled, thus they are easily: those that are idle in their own duties are busybodies in other men’ s; and these busybodies have two special marks to be known by to themselves and others, namely, their open ears and their loose tongues. 3. The Holy Ghost maketh this a note of an whorish woman, she is everywhere but where she should be, sometimes gadding in the streets with Thamar, sometimes in the fields with Dinah, sometimes without at her door, sometimes at her stall, but her feet cannot abide in her house: and if against her will her body be within doors, her heart and senses will be without. Jezebel must be gazing out of the window: whereas if the angel ask where Sarah is, answer will be made, she is in her tent; and the daughters of Sarah will be in their tents, not in the taverns, nor straggling so far abroad but that their husbands can readily answer where they be. 4. What desperate and unavoidable evils do they (and justly) lay themselves open unto, who make no bones of violating the commandment of God? how doth Satan watch all advantages to take them when they are out of their ways? and how easily doth he prevail against them when they have plucked themselves from under God’ s protection? Dinah was no sooner assaulted than overcome in her wandering; and Eve no sooner absent from Adam than set upon, and no sooner set upon, than vanquished. (T. Taylor, D. D.) A worker at home Here is a note written by Mrs. Garfield to her husband some years ago, and originally designed for no eye but his. It may be helpful to many others whose lot is hard work:--“ I am glad to tell that, out of all the toil and disappointments of the summer just ended, I have risen up to a victory; that silence of thought since you have been away has won for my spirit a triumph. I read something like this the other day: ‘ There is no healthy thought without labour, and thought makes the labour happy.’ Perhaps this is the way I have been able to climb up higher. It came to me one morning when I was making bread. I said to myself, ‘ Here I am, compelled by inevitable necessity to make our bread this summer. Why not consider it a pleasant occupation, and make it so by trying to see what perfect bread I can make?’ It seemed like an inspiration--and the whole of life grew brighter. The very sunshine seemed flowing down through my spirit into the white loaves; and now I believe my table is furnished with better bread than ever before; and this truth--old as creation--seems just now to have become fully mine, that I need not to be the shirking slave of toil, but its regal master, making whatever I do yield its best fruits.” (Christian Age.) Christian home life Home is specially Teutonic, word and thing. Teutonic sentiment, we know, from very early times, was proud, elevated, even austere, in regard to the family and the relations of the sexes. This nobleness of heathenism Christianity consecrated and transformed into all the beautiful shapes of household piety, household affection, household purity. The life of home has become the great possession, the great delight, the great social achievement of our race. The absence of this taste for the quiet and unexcited life of home is a formidable symptom in portions of our race across the Atlantic. And when home life with its sanctities, its simplicity, its calm and deep joys and sorrows, ceases to have its charm for us in England, the greatest breakup and catastrophe in English history will not be far off. (Dean Church.) Obedient to their own husbands A sermon to young wives I. Take an interest in all that concerns your husband. When he speaks, listen. When he is depressed try to cheer him. When he is exultant share in his rejoicing. When he is overwhelmed with work see if you can assist him; and certainly never, at such troubled and anxious times, increase his burden by any domestic disorder. Luther had such a wife. She entered into his enthusiasm. She read and prized his books. She surrounded him with the invigorating atmosphere of true love. She helped him in his labours. Lord William Russell had such a wife. She shared with him in all his efforts. Stood by his side in the time of his misfortune. Acted as his secretary when on his trial. Visited him in the Tower of London, and did her best to console him before he was beheaded. Then went back home to train her family to be worthy of the name of so courageous a father. Flaxman, the eminent sculptor, had such a wife. When he ventured on matrimony Sir Joshua Reynolds declared him to be a ruined man. But the future proved the opposite. For thirty-eight years his wife did her utmost to aid him in his calling. Her admiration of his work, and her devotion to his comfort, assisted to make him what Byron pronounced, “ the best translator of Dante.” Hood had such a wife. Though a woman of unusual cultivation and literary taste, yet she yielded gracefully to the whims and fancies of her husband. She good humouredly accepted his practical jokes, and became indispensable to his happiness. So much so that Hood could not endure her absence from home. Without her he was restless and impatient. Bishop Wilberforce had such a wife. She entered into his clerical duties and responsibilities. When, after thirteen years of unalloyed comfort, she died, the life of the bishop became tinged with sadness. Hence, referring to his wife, he once wrote, “ It is most sad going home. If I went home to her it were beyond all words.” The late Earl of Beaconsfield had such a wife. When, as Benjamin Disraeli, he published “ Sybil,” and dedicated it “ to the most severe of critics--but a perfect wife,” he let in a flood of light upon the character of the future countess. And nothing could be a stronger proof of her thorough devotion to her husband’ s interests, than that afforded by her conduct on one occasion when driving with him to the House of Commons. By accident her finger was crushed in closing the carriage door. Thinking that any cry of pain would disturb the mind of Benjamin, who was deep in the great speech he was that night to deliver, the faithful, sympathetic wife nobly endured the agony without a single word, till her husband was in his place in the House. II. Let it be manifest that home has the precedence in your thoughts and affections. Hume tells us, in his history, that in the reign of Henry VIII a proclamation was issued forbidding women to meet together for babble and talk, and directing husbands to keep their wives in their houses. Such a proclamation gives us a sorry insight into the domestic life of our ancestors. Society has improved since then. Still, there are now not wanting very strong temptations to gadding about. Never were there more numerous or more attractive exhibitions on view, never were there more frequent or more important public meetings for benevolent and religious purposes, and never were there greater facilities for transition from spot to spot. And, alas! there are some young wives who seem to feel it incumbent on them to be present and assist at every gathering designed to promote some useful enterprise. The result is that home is often neglected, the children run riot, the domestics grow careless, and the husband returns, after a day’ s activities and annoyances, to find, what should be a quiet refuge from the world’ s turmoil, a deserted, disorderly, cheerless spot. I ask you to remember, young woman, that a wife’ s true orbit is home. In ancient Rome a high compliment was paid a queen by the epitaph, “ She staid at home and spun.” The ancient Greeks suggested the same feminine duty by carving Venus on a tortoise. In ancient Boeotia, when a bride was conveyed to her husband’ s house the wheels of the vehicle in which she travelled thither were burned at the doors, as an intimation that they would not be needed again. So today in Turkey, in India, in Spanish America, and elsewhere seclusion is the true sign of respectability. To be high bred is to be invisible. Whilst, in our own land, though women enjoy freedom to think, and act, and speak, and are denied no rights of real and enduring value, yet they are most trusted and loved by their husbands and families who are good keepers of home, who make their first and foremost study the temporal and spiritual welfare of those nearest at hand and dearest at heart. There is something quaint, however questionable, in the observation of a clergyman who ventured to preach upon the subject of women’ s sphere. He chose for his text “ Where is thy wife? Behold, she is in the tent.” He started his discourse by the remark: “ There she ought to be, and the less she is heard outside the better.” I would qualify that preacher’ s words and say: “ By all means let her be heard and seen outside the tent if she have fully and faithfully discharged her duty inside the tent. But if to be seen and heard outside she must neglect her own household, then let her keep at home,” III. Do your utmost to retain the confidence and affection of your husband. As you examine the magnificent monument in Hyde Park, erected in memory of the late Prince Consort, you observe that the only figure that is represented twice is that of the celebrated Michael Angelo. Among the painters he leans upon the chair of Raphael. Among architects and sculptors, he is the middle of a far-famed group. And justly is he thus honoured, for his genius was exceptionally great. But far above his fresco in the Sistine Chapel, far above his “ Last Judgment,” far above his cupola of St. Peter’ s, far above his “ Sleeping Cupid,” which Raphael pronounced worthy of Phidias or Praxiteles, stands the sonnet to his wife. Angelo profoundly loved and adored Vittoria Colonna. When she died he lingered by her corpse, and kissed affectionately the clay-cold hand; his only regret afterwards being that he had not kissed her cheeks. And why such deep and enduring affection? Because the wife elicited it, and by constant care retained it. She impressed him with the preciousness of virtue. She elevated his thought and inspired him to write: “ For oh! how good, how beautiful, must beThe God that made so good a thing as thee.”Macaulay describes the painful scene at the death of Mary, wife of William of Orange. The king’ s agony was intense. Amid scalding tears he testified to the excellency of the departed Queen, saying to Bishop Burnet, “ I was the happiest man on earth, and I am the most miserable. She had no fault--none; you knew her well but you could not know, nobody but myself could know, her goodness.” Not unworthy of notice is the homely advice given by an old lady to her newly-married daughter, “ Never worry your husband. A man is like an egg, kept in hot water a little while he may boil soft, but keep him there too long and he hardens.” IV. Be governed in all your relationships by true religion. Let the sound, safe, significant principles of godliness guide you. Let the love of Christ constrain you in all your household and family engagements. Do what you are called to do heartily as unto the Lord. Remember that there is One greater, better, wiser, and more loving and loveable than your earthly husband--One who claims and deserves all the affection of your heart, all the homage of your mind, all the service of your life. “ Thy Maker is thy husband.” The Lord Jesus is the bridegroom of your soul. As a wife renounces old familiar scenes, customary engagements, and long-known associates for her husband, so you are asked to be ready to renounce all for Jesus. As a wife surrenders all her time, influence, and possessions to her husband, so you are asked to make a voluntary and joyful surrender of yourself and all your belongings to Christ. As a wife consents to share with her husband in all vicissitudes, in adversity as well as prosperity, so you are asked to follow the Lord whithersoever He may lead, through evil and through good report, counting it an honour to be partaker of His sufferings. As a good wife cultivates love for her husband so that every day augments the volume of her affection, so you are asked to foster and evince love for Christ. We have read in history how, when Edward I was wounded by a poisoned dagger, his wife Eleanor, from the deep love she bare her husband, sucked the poisoned wound, and so ventured her own life to save his. Such love you are asked to cultivate for Christ. If He be wounded by the poisonous tongues of the ungodly, by reproaches, blasphemies, and persecutions, do you learn to say, “ Let the reproach of Christ fall upon me” --“ Let me suffer rather than Jesus and His truth!” (J. H. Hitchens, D. D.) That the Word of God be not blasphemed. The highest motive to duty Here the great law of the family is put on the highest Christian ground. If those who profess the gospel of Christ fail in any of these respects, it is more than possible that the blame will be thrown upon God’ s Word (cf. 1 Timothy 6:1) . If Christians profess to be influenced by a supernaturally strong and sacred motive, and then fail to do what lower and ordinary motives often succeed in effecting, the world charges the failure on the lofty motive itself, and Christ bears once again the sins of His people: He is crucified afresh and put to open shame. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Titus 2:6 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded Sober mindedness I. What it is.1. You must be considerate and thoughtful, not rash and heedless. Take time to think; learn to think freely--to think for yourselves, of yourselves.2. You must be cautious and prudent, not wilful and heady. Fix rules of wisdom. Use reason and conscience. Be diffident of your own judgment. Study Scripture.3. You must be humble and modest, not proud and conceited. Be not above your business, above reproof, above religion.4. You must be temperate and self-denying, not indulgent of your appetites.5. You must be mild and gentle, not indulgent of your passions. 6. You must be chaste and reserved, not wanton or impure.7. You must be staid and composed, not giddy and unsettled.8. You must be content and easy, not ambitious and aspiring.9. You must be grave and serious, not vain and frothy. II. Considerations to enforce this exhortation.1. You are reasonable creatures.2. You are sinners before God.3. You are setting out in a world of sorrows and snares.4. Multitudes of the young are ruined for want of this sobriety of mind.5. You are here upon trial for heaven.6. You must shortly go to judgment. III. Application:1. Examine yourselves.2. Exhort one another.3. Contemplate the advantages of sober mindedness. You will (1) Escape vanity of childhood and youth;(2) Recommend yourselves to the favour of God and all wise men;(3) Prepare for a useful and comfortable life, and a happy death. 4. Directions to make you sober minded. (1) Espouse sober principles.(2) Meditate on serious things.(3) Choose sober companions.(4) Read sober books.(5) Abound in sober work. (Matthew Henry, D. D.) Sober mindedness I. The spirit and conduct to which this exhortation is opposed. Sober mindedness, if we are to take the primary meaning of the word, is to be “ safe” or “ sound minded.” But perhaps the best English equivalent for the word would be “ discreet” or “ self-restrained.” We have to restrain and keep ourselves in check as much as needful; and yet, at the same time, to cultivate such habits of thought that much check will not be required.1. This exhortation is opposed to undue self-esteem (see Romans 11:20; Romans 12:3-6; Philippians 2:3). There ought to be a certain amount of self-esteem or self-respect. Where that is wholly wanting, there will be little or no force of character. Where there is no self-respect, one of the strongest arguments against evil will be lost. If we do not respect ourselves, we shall not act so as to gain the respect of others. But the excess of this self-respect is as injurious as its want; and it is to this excess that youth is naturally prone. When we enter upon life it is with an exalted idea of our own attainments and importance. We are soon led to smart in consequence of this; we soon find our own level. But O! how much pain, how much humiliation should we be spared, if we did but learn at the onset to esteem others better than ourselves! And O! young men, when we look into our own hearts, how much there is there to humble us. 2. This exhortation is opposed to all rash speculations upon spiritual things. The forms of pride are very various; but in whatever form pride presents itself, it is still an evil against which we should be on our guard. There are some forms of pride which are simply despicable and ridiculous. For instance, the pride of dress, the pride of personal appearance, the pride of life, or the pride of birth. But there is another form of pride which does not appear so offensive as these--I mean, the pride of intellect of those faculties which God has given us, by which we are distinguished above the lower orders of creation, and by which when cultivated we are raised in the social scale. But still, this form of pride, like every other form is inexcusable. Why should we boast of those faculties which have been given us by God, and of which at any moment He could deprive us? And if under no circumstances it is excusable, it is more especially offensive if it lead us to cavil at the statements of this holy book, respecting the character, and the will, and the dealings of the Most High. 3. This exhortation is opposed to all ambitious efforts to amass wealth, and to rise unduly in the social scale. Do not suppose that I would object to any amount of progress, either intellectually or socially. To the young I would say, Do all the good you can, get all the good you can, and enjoy to the utmost all those good things which God has placed within your reach. But, at the same time, remember this, that anything, however good it may be in itself, ceases to be good as soon as it is used in excess, or when it interferes with your highest interests. Now, keeping that statement in view, just consider the result of the ceaseless striving of men in the present day, not only to accumulate wealth, but to imitate the habits, the customs, and the dress of the station above them. Shun--shun as a plague all those books which would render you dissatisfied with the position in which God has placed you. Rest assured that that position is the best possible position for you. Remember that this is but the first stage of your existence. Learn to look upon this as a training school--as a state of discipline in which you must bear much that you do not like, in which you must do much that you would rather not do, but in daring to do which you will be enabled to conform to God’ s will and to rise to a higher state of being. 4. This exhortation is opposed to all impatience and unwillingness to listen to the counsels and cautions of those who are older than ourselves. You know that one of our poets has observed: “ At thirty man suspects himself a fool Knows it at forty--and reforms his plan.”And oh! how much misery would be saved, if when we were young we were content to receive the experience of others, rather than gain that experience for ourselves by a very painful process. II. Some considerations by which this exhortation can be enforced. Be sober minded, and this will elevate your character. “ He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Be sober minded, and this will greatly increase your influence for good here below. Be sober minded, and you will escape many a snare in which others have fallen, and been destroyed. There is a passage which I would commend to the attention of young men; describing the death bed of an ungodly youth--“ Lest thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed” --the flesh of thy body consumed by indulgence in evil practices - “ and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despiseth reproof; and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.” That is the result of the spirit and conduct opposed to sobriety of mind. Cultivate this in the last place, because it will prove that your religion is a reality, and not a name. (R. C. Pritchett.) Sober mindedness as opposed to excitement The word sober minded has many meanings, or at least many applications; but I think that we should approach most nearly to a comprehension of them all, if we explained it as the opposite of excitement, and regarded the charge in the text, to exhort young men to be sober minded, as practically equivalent to a charge to exhort them to avoid excitement.1. There is the excitement of intemperance and of all approaches to it, of sensuality in all its forms; an excitement so strong, and for the moment so pleasurable, that he who has once yielded to it soon forms the habit of such indulgence, and he who has once formed the habit, almost always persists in it till his sin is his ruin; no persuasions and no convictions, no experience of misery and no resolutions of amendment, are of any avail; the man who has allowed the body to become his master is in this sense, as in all others, indeed a slave, that he cannot escape from his bondage, he must live on in it, and die in it too. The word intemperance may be too strong to express anything which you are at present in danger of, or anything indeed which the present fashions of society make perilous (speaking generally) for any one in your rank of life: but none the less would I caution you with the most anxious earnestness, against bodily excitement of a sinful kind: no change in national customs will ever make the body cease to be the chief enemy of the soul: other enemies come and go, temptations from companions, from occupations, from circumstances of life: this one alone is always with us, an enemy in the very camp, and able too to mask his assaults under the show of friendliness and good will. 2. As sinful excitement, so excessive excitement, even in forms not sinful, is here plainly forbidden. God has established a certain order and gradation amongst the parts of our nature. He bids us think of this intricate framework of human life as composed of three parts, which to our present comprehension we may best explain under the names of body, mind, and soul. Every one of these is most important: in each one a great work has to be done within a limited time: each one is destined to immortality, and has to be prepared for it by us. But, though each of these three parts is valuable, each immortal, each worthy of thought and care and culture, each the object (for our sakes) of God’ s special regard; yet they are not equally valuable: the soul stands first, far first, in this respect: that part of us which is capable of knowing and loving God, of resembling Him, of being His own dwelling place, ought always to be the first also in our own regard: we ought to think far more seriously of its hunger, or its disease, than we all do of that of the body: we ought to be far more vexed when our soul loses one of its meals, which are opportunities of prayer, public and private, opportunities of reading or hearing God’ s Word, or of joining in the Holy Communion, than when we are debarred by accident or want of appetite from a bodily meal: all these things are necessary consequences of the most elementary faith in God, and Christ, and eternity. Next to it comes the mind; that part of man which understands and judges, thinks and knows; that part which has to be stored and practised in youth, for the service of God and our generation in mature life. Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. Bid them, if you be a faithful minister of Christ, bid them, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, but with all earnestness of entreaty that they will listen, to think first of their souls, and next of their minds, and last of that which is bodily: tell them that, though God wills that their bodies should be active, hardy, and skilful, He does not will that every other part of them should be backward, awkward and stunted; that, because He loves them, because He desires their happiness, because He desires to bless them and to do them good, because He would have them with Him hereafter, and in order to do this must first fit them for His presence, therefore He exhorts them to be not excited but sober minded in things which are transitory and temporal; bids them set Him before them even in their amusements; bids them ask His blessing every day, as before they work, so also before they play; bids them accept their bodily pleasures, like all other, from Him, remember Him in them, moderate them for His sake, and above all use for His glory alone, in self-control, in temperance, in purity, those bodies upon which they bestow so much labour. 3. To be sober minded is, in other words, to have a sound mind; a mind neither trifling, nor giddy, nor inconstant, nor morbid; a mind just in its views, wise in its aims, moderate in its expectations, inflexible in its principles, authoritative in its self-control, right with God. It implies that we have a just view of life; that we not only profess but feel its true object, as a preparation for eternity, as an opportunity of doing the will of God and promoting His purposes towards us and towards all men. It implies that we neither expect to be able, nor feel it to be desirable, in all things to please ourselves, or to have our own way. It implies that we are thankful for whatever God gives, and patient under His withholding, controlling and even chastening hand. That we are willing to be what He would have us to be, even when our own inclination might point to a very different lot. All this it is, but more also. A sound mind, in the highest sense of the word, cannot be where the Holy Spirit is not; where God Himself is not present in the soul, through Jesus Christ, by His Spirit, as the Guide and Lord and Comforter, wisdom and quietness and strength, the life of our life and the hope of glory. Little can they who have not this be depended upon: natural cleverness and good sense may do much for us; it may cover up many faults, it may enable us to originate many good counsels; but it breaks down in the time of trial, when it is most of all important to be right, most of all fatal to be wrong. A sound mind, a sober mind, in the true sense, can only be where the soul of man has been changed (to use the Scriptural figure) into the spirit of man by the indwelling of the holy and blessed Spirit of God. (Dean Vaughan.) Sober mindedness I. To be sober minded is to be 1. Thoughtful and considerate, in opposition to giddiness and levity of disposition. 2. Humble and diffident in opposition to an assuming and self-sufficient spirit. 3. Temperate and self-denied, in opposition to the unrestrained indulgence of the passions. 4. To give an habitual preference to eternal over temporal things. 5. That we never put off to a future period that which ought to be done now. II. Reasons for urging to sober mindedness.1. You are reasonable creatures, and it is the office of reason to govern the passions, etc. 2. You are guilty creatures, but the means of salvation are placed within your reach. 3. You are dying and accountable creatures, but the means of eternal happiness are enjoyed only in this world. (W. Peddle.) Exhortation to young persons I. As for the reasons why sobriety of mind should in particular be recommended to youth, among others, we may assign these which follow.1. It will be acknowledged that it is impossible for a person, with any constant tenor, to act well that does not think wisely, or to think wisely that does not think soberly. But what is of constant necessity in every stage of life must be of special importance in that upon which the rest depend; and, by consequence, he that sets out with this advantage, is in the most probable method to go on and prosper. 2. The morning of our life, our early and flourishing years, ought especially to be armed with this precaution, because it is then we are exposed to the greatest dangers; when the passions are the strongest, and so the most apt to transport us with their violence; when the pleasures and entertainments of sense have their full taste and relish, and are therefore the more capable of betraying us into excess; when we are the most easy, credulous, and complying, and so the most open to the attempts of others, the likeliest to be insalted and overborne by the confident, or ensnared by the designing, or perverted by those that go astray. Wherefore, experience coming so late should, if possible, be supplied by more early consideration, and reason should invite us before affliction constrains us to be serious. 3. As most ornaments, whether of mind or body, sit best upon the young, flourish in the spring of life, and look with peculiar gracefulness in the bloom and beauty of Nature, so this excellent temper of which we speak, which is the chief attire of the soul, and to which most other good qualities that it can put on are but appendages, is then in the exactest manner fit and becoming; and if it be real and not counterfeit, natural and not affected, easy and not precise, it has indeed the finest lustre, and renders those who wear it the most amiable and charming. 4. As youth has many natural gifts and endowments that speak in its behalf, and entitle it to favour, so it has one natural disadvantage, in respect of time, which it would be glad, if possible, to balance or compensate. In this regard it has been excellently well observed of birth or quality, that it gives a person at eighteen or twenty the same esteem and deference which another of inferior rank acquires at fifty; so that the former has thirty years gained at once. Now, the privilege which custom and civility allow to the noble, reason and justice demand, and generally obtain, for the sober and discreet; and they are the happiest who possess it by a double title. II. This may the better suffice as to the offering some reasons why sobriety of mind should particularly be recommended to youth; since, by representing the benefits and advantages it then specially affords, we are to show the effect of those reasons, and of that particular application.1. Sobriety of mind confirms and settles the principles of religion. Great has been the happiness of your birth, and the advantage of your education, but that either of these should be lasting and effectual depends upon yourselves. What admonitions and advices you have heard, what cautions you have received from parents or friends, books or conversation, are a ready stock committed to your management and improvement: a treasure in which you cannot make too much haste to be rich, an inheritance which indeed renders them the happiest to whom it comes the soonest. You are left to make your first steps in the world, which being so rough and uneven ground, and so plentiful in occasions of falling, it imports you the more to have regard to Solomon’ s rule (Proverbs 4:15-16). To which you will give me leave to add that great and excellent lesson which he received from his father, and which some of you, I presume, have received from yours (1 Chronicles 23:9). 2. As sobriety of mind has such a power in keeping the principles of religion firm and stable, it has no less in rendering the practice of religion easy. We say all things are easy to a willing mind; but a sober mind is as willing as it is wise. For that which brings in most of the difficulties of a good life is our too late consideration, when having gone so far without thought, we cannot retire without pain. 3. It is a strong defence against temptations. “ I have written to you young men because ye are strong,” says St. John; “ Or what imports the same,” says an eloquent divine, “ because you are vigorous; that is, you are now in such a state of body and soul and affections as is most subservient to piety--most quick and governable, and most successfully applied to the offices of duty. Govern, therefore, your appetites before the evil days come. Now you may gird them, and carry them whither you will, but if you neglect the season, they will hereafter gird you, and carry you whither you would not.” 4. It affords the greater opportunities of eminent piety and virtue. For he that is thus armed is, we see, the fittest and most expedite not for defence only but for action; so that when occasions present themselves, he is ready to meet them with delight, and improve them to advantage. (B. Kennet, D. D.) Sobriety of mind urged on young men The word in our text, strictly translated, means “ sound minded,” or healthy minded, and implies the conviction that there is a certain standard of character, or condition of the mind which bears an analogy to health of body, a condition in which all the functions of the mind are in their right state, in which sound or healthy views of things are taken, in which no part of human nature is either inoperative or unduly developed. In this large sense, soundness of mind may serve as a description of the harmony or regular action implied in virtue; but inasmuch as the passions and desires, excited by objects which have strong influence over us in our present state of being, more than anything else destroy sanity of mind, the term is usually confined to the control over worldly desires, and to views of life which commend themselves to right reason. Thus, soundness of mind includes self-restraint and temperance, the former of which is the power of governing the passions, and the other the habit of using all pleasures without going to excess. But soundness or sobriety of mind is more radical than either of these, for it includes those just views of life, that appreciation of the value of enjoyment and of the world compared with duty and the higher life of the soul, without the sway of which in the soul it can neither exercise continence, nor self-control, nor temperance. Soundness or sobriety of mind, also, is far from stopping at the boundaries of the passions, especially the sensual; all the desires, even those which have little to do with the body, as the desire of fame, of power, of superiority, and the desire of wealth--the means of gratifying all other desires--are placed under its control. I. As thus understood, sobriety of mind is to be distinguished from. A native sluggishness or cautiousness which may conspire with it to prevent excess. If a man, for instance, can never become angry, he may be saved from many foolish and sinful acts, but it is many times better to have a power of subduing anger, which you have acquired by exertions which have cost you something, than to be a stone. Moreover, if such native sobriety of mind exists, it is rare. There is generally some weak spot, where passion can with success approach men who seem like icicles. What class of persons is more thoroughly worldly than many who are proof against the allurements of vice, but speculate with the gambler’ s intense excitement, or burn with a devouring lust for power. Perhaps the greatest insobriety of mind belongs to those who, in most respects, have an entire mastery over themselves--who view the world on many of its sides as it is, but concentrate all their forces on one object, with an untiring restless fever of soul which the votary of pleasure seldom knows. II. The apostle’ s sober mindedness is not to be confounded with that self control which springs from worldly prudence and shrewd calculations of success in life. There are men who live exclusively for earthly enjoyment, who yet have attained to a mastery over their own lusts. They know what the laws of health will allow, what the body will bear, how far they may go in pleasure consistently with prudence and economy, what degree of restraint is demanded to preserve their reputation. They will, therefore, keep themselves sober while their less discreet, and perhaps less corrupt, companions are intoxicated at their side; they live a long healthy life, while others die of the effects of vicious indulgence, and retain their good name while others ruin themselves in the opinion of society. Verily, they have their reward; but their sober mindedness is certainly no such virtue that even a philosopher could commend it. III. Sobriety of mind, being something more than a temperament averse to excess, something more than self-control on selfish principles may be looked at as a philosophical, or as a Christian virtue. In both cases, it is a subordination of the desires and passions to the higher principles of the soul; in both, it is a spontaneous self-government according to the rules of right living, not according to calculations of temporal advancement. When we speak of Christian sobriety of mind, we mean nothing generically different from the notion which philosophy had already formed. But we mean sobriety of mind sustained by Christian principles, enforced by Christian motives, and dwelling amid other manifestations of a Christian or purified character. Let us consider it when thus broadly understood, in some of its most prominent characteristics.1. It involves an estimate of earthly pleasure and good formed under the power of faith. With Christ’ s advent into the world, a new idea of life began, and the victory of the spirit over the flesh is rendered possible. 2. But it is not enough to have a standard of character; the young man, if he would be sober minded, must have rules of living calculated beforehand to resist the allurements of the world when they arise It is the part of Christian ethics to make known what rules are needed for our moral guidance, and to enforce them by the appropriate motives. In this place, no such thing can be attempted, and yet I cannot pass on without calling your attention to one or two parts of conduct, where it is peculiarly important to have well settled principles of action. (1) In regard to the bodily appetites, Christian sobriety begins to be lost as soon as they are made ends in themselves, without regard to something higher. (2) In regard to amusements and diversions, sobriety consists in keeping them in their place, as recreations after bodily and mental toil. They must not then usurp the rights of labour, unless we are resolved to destroy the earnestness and seriousness of character, which grows out of a conviction that life is full of meaning. 3. Need I add that rules must be followed by a settled purpose, by a resolution formed in the view of spiritual and divine truth to adopt such a course of life as sobriety of mind requires. (T. D. Woolsey.) Exhortation to sober mindedness I. The necessity of this exhortation. This arises from 1. The ignorance and inexperience of youth. 2. Those constitutional inclinations which predominate in some more than in others. 3. The temptations by which youth is surrounded. 4. The vast importance of commencing well a course of life. II. The character of that sober mindedness which the text recommends.1. Its basis. Reverence for God, contrition for sin, etc. 2. Its contrasts. Pride, rashness, obstinacy, petulance, sullenness, presumption, etc. 3. Its objects. It should make you moderate in all things, etc. III. The advantages which result from the possession and display of this sober mindedness.1. It will qualify you for your relations to society. 2. It will greatly contribute to your usefulness wherever you are placed. 3. It will greatly increase your comfort. (J. Clayton.) Discretion the safeguard of youth This concise statement as to the exhortation to be addressed to young men may be regarded as a summary of all youthful virtues. The sins and follies of youth largely arise from want of thought. This fact, while it is no excuse for the sins committed, is an indication of the remedy to be sought. Let youths be trained to cultivate discretion, and, humanly speaking, they will be kept safe from the follies so common to their age. In a sermon to young men, discretion may be commended thus: I. As the cultivation of the mental and moral powers with which God has endowed them. II. As the fulfilment of the destiny which they are to fulfil in life. III. As the fitting preparation for a higher life hereafter. (F. Wagstaff.) Sober-minded youth I. Some characteristics of this sober mind.1. A habit of moral thoughtfulness.2. Practical prudence and circumspection.3. A modest and humble deportment. II. Some particulars in which this grace of character should be displayed.1. In all your plans and schemes for worldly happiness.2. In all parts of your social intercourse--dress, discourse, Choice of recreations, etc. III. A valuable agency by which this sober mindedness may be promoted. (D. Moore, M. A.) On sober mindedness What is it that may properly be called “ sober mindedness” ? This is to ask, in other words, What is it that we are all charging the want of upon our fellow mortals, while we are all, on all hands, censuring, reproaching, or ridiculing them, for folly, absurdity, extravagance, for running into all extremes, for being the sport of fancies, tempers, and passions? Plainly, the effectual predominance of sound reason. That then is the general description of sober mindedness--that there be in habitual exercise a just judgment of things, and that this judgment be in real effective authority. But a little more particularly. There cannot be the required state of mind, unless there be some great master principles, decidedly fixed in the very habit of thinking and feeling--principles applicable to almost all things in our interests and practice--principles so general that many special ones will grow out of them for particular application. One is--that in all things and at all events, God is to be obeyed. Another--that there is the essential distinction of holiness and sin in all conduct, both within the mind, and in external action, and that sin is absolutely a dreadful evil. Another--that that cannot be right long in which there is no self-denial. Another--that must not be done which must be repented of. Another--the future should predominate over the present. Such things, we said, must be established firmly and operatively in the mind. But then how can this be without much and frequent exercise of serious thought? Do such principles grow and establish themselves spontaneously? Alas! let any young person look into his own mind and see Without much of serious thought, therefore, there cannot be “ sober mindedness.” And therefore, again, there cannot be this required state of mind, if principles are admitted, or practical determinations adopted, from mere impressions of fancy and feeling; perhaps from some casual situation into which a person is thrown; perhaps from the pleasing impression made by some new acquaintance, or a friend, while no account is taken of the whole comprehensive view of the matter; nay, perhaps, the judgment actually withheld from attempting this. Again, no principles can suffice for the true “ sober mindedness” in young persons or any others, unless as consciously held as under the sanction and as having the authority of the Supreme Power. For the term must imply a steady tenor of feeling and proceeding, not fluctuating, confused, alternating. And it implies a calm independence of spirit and conduct, not at the mercy of the winds and circumstances--the opinions and wills--of the surrounding world; which holds one certain plan and aim, right onward through all the causes of interference and perversion. But how can this be but by the vital connection of our governing principles with the unchangeable Spirit? Again, there cannot be a high degree of that well-ordered state, “ sober mindedness,” without the person’ s forming a sound judgment of his own mind. If there be an insensibility to the general corruption of the soul, throughout its very nature, how little to the purpose will any scheme of self-government be! And then there are the special and peculiar circumstances and tendencies; the particular weaknesses or wrong propensities; the liability to some one evil in a strong and dangerous degree. Without an attentive and deep cognizance of things so important, the person enjoined to maintain sober mindedness will not at all know what he has to do; not know against what he has to maintain it. We may add a most self-evident thing; that it is of the essence of sober mindedness to maintain a systematic strong restraint on the passions, fancy, temper, appetites. And this was probably the most direct object of the apostle’ s exhortation to young men. In these respects, it is the very first point of sober mindedness for youth to be aware how perilous their condition is. Let young persons observe what is actually becoming of those who surrender themselves to their passions and wild propensities. What numbers! Then, in themselves, observe seriously whither these inward traitors and tempters really tend; and then think whether soberness of mind be not a pearl of great price; and whether there can be any such thing without a systematic self-government. Young persons of any hopefulness will often have serious thoughts about what is to be the main grand purpose of their life. Immense interests are exhibited before them, as immortal natures. It is for them to consider, whether they will be consigned down just merely to this, to be gay and joyous creatures for a few years, and busy ones the rest? Or, whether they shall early in life have a greater purpose and concern, rising above the world, and extending beyond time. Now here is to be the application of those principles we were endeavouring to illustrate; and without them we have ample and deplorable manifestation what the notion and purpose of life in young persons will be. But again, this sober mindedness is quite necessary for the subordinate schemes and pursuits of life. In the want of it, a young person may form schemes ill adapted to his character, his qualifications, and abilities--or his circumstances. For want of it, many have rushed into wild ill-concerted projects, which have ended disastrously, or frustrated the most laudable designs. Companionship and friendly connections are among the most favourite interests of young persons. Sober mindedness is eminently important here. This would keep them clearly aware that the mere pleasure of friendly association is a trifle as compared with the influence and effect. Soberness of mind, again, would be of high value to young people, as to the terms on which they shall stand with what is called the world. This is the denomination for a sort of system of maxims, customs, modes, and fashions. And it takes upon itself a high and tyrannic authority, if we may judge from the number of submissive slaves. The firmly sober minded young person would, in numerous instances and considerable degrees, set at nought the prescriptions of the despot; would act just as he thought proper; and would have his reason to assign; “ I really have something else to do with my time and thoughts, than to study and follow your caprices, modes, and vanities.” So much for the situation of young persons in the world; it is almost too obvious to be added that for what concerns their preparation to go out of it, there is the utmost necessity for everything implied in sober mindedness. We conclude with a consideration or two for the enforcement of the exhortation. And let it not be forgotten that youth will soon be passed away. In the case of not a few young persons, their youth is appointed to be the whole of their life. Now supposing that in any particular instance this were certain and known: in that instance, all opinions would agree as to the propriety and necessity of sober mindedness: yes, the vainest, the giddiest, unless totally ignorant or unbelieving of the hereafter, say, “ Yes, certainly he or she should be sober minded.” But now judge soberly whether the propriety is reversed by the circumstance of uncertainty; that a young person may only have his youth for the whole of his life. When this may be the case, were it not infatuation to live as if it most certainly would not? But assuming that life will be prolonged into the more advanced stages, consider that then a great change of feeling from that of youth will certainly take place. Experience, disappointment, difficulty, will have begun their process. Now consider; is it not a most ungracious thing that the altered state of feeling in more advanced life should come just wholly as disappointment, as mortifying experience, as sober sense forced upon reluctant folly? Whereas, sober mindedness in youth might have anticipated a great deal; might, through wisdom, have made the change much more smooth; might have caused it to be much less, and less mortifying, and made it less reproachful in reflection on the sanguine delusion of early life. We would enforce one more consideration; namely, that things will have their consequences. If there be a vain, giddy, thoughtless, ill-improved youth, the effects of it will infallibly come in after life. If there be a neglected understanding, a conscience feebly and rudely constituted, good principles but slightly fixed or even apprehended, a habitual levity of spirit, a chase of frivolities, a surrender to the passions; the natural consequences of these will follow. And what will they be when a man is advanced into the field of important and difficult duties? when he shall himself be required to be a counsellor of youth? when he shall be put upon strong trials of both his judgment and conscience; when he shall have to sustain afflictions; when advancing age shall force him to see that he shall ere long have to leave life itself behind? We add but one consideration more, which we could wish to press on young minds with peculiar force. They love cheerfulness, spiritedness, vivacity; and they are right. But then! on the supposition of life being prolonged, would they be content to expend away the greatest portion of this animation in the beginning of life? Would they drink out the precious wine of life in the morning, and leave but the dregs for the evening of life’ s day? If there be any possible way of throwing a large portion of this vital element, this animation, into the latter, the latest part of life, were not that the highest wisdom? (J. Foster.) Hints to young men 1. Young men must take notice of that great bundle of folly which is naturally bound up in their hearts, the corruption of that age being such as needeth not any occasion without itself to cast it down. 2. That the means to redress it is the study of the Scriptures, unto the rules whereof they must have regard, and not to the example of men. 3. That if they will needs be given to imitation, then must they imitate not the most, but the best of that age; such as was young Daniel, who in tender years was able to utter knowledge (Daniel 1:4); young Samuel, who so soon as he is weaned, must stand before the Lord (1 Samuel 1:1-28); young Josiah, who at eight years old walked uprightly (2 Kings 2:1-25); young Timothy, who knew the Scriptures of a child; yea, of Christ Himself, who increased in wisdom as in stature, so as at twelve years old He was able to confound the doctors and great rabbis of the Jews. 4. That against all the discouragements they shall meet withal from men, as that they are too forward, soon ripe, and young saints, etc., they must oppose the Lord’ s good pleasure, who requireth firstlings, first fruits, firstborn of man and beast; the first month, yea, the first day of that month, for the celebrating of the passover; and delighteth in whole and fat offerings, not in the lame, lean, and blind sacrifices which His soul abhorreth:. for of all the sons of men, the Lord never took such pleasure as in such who were sanctified even from the womb. Some of the learned call men to the timely service of God, from the allusion of Moses’ s rod (Exodus 3:1-22), and Isaiah’ s vision (chap. 9), both of the almond tree, because of all trees that soonest putteth forth her blossoms. How sound that collection is, I will not stand to inquire; only this is true, that such as would be trees of righteousness, and known to be of the Lord’ s planting, laden (especially in their age) with the fruits of the Spirit, must with the almond tree timely bud, and blossom, and bear, that their whole lives may be a fruitful course, whereby God may be glorified, and themselves receive in the end a more full consolation. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Our young men “ Tell me,” said Edmund Burke, “ what are the prevailing sentiments that occupy the minds of your young men, and I will tell you what is to be the character of the next generation.” This is but an echo of the epigrams of the ancients. The modern statesman but repeats the wisdom of the past. The dominant power of the young men of a nation has been recognised in all ages. It was because he taught her young men, that Socrates was feared at Athens. Standing in the market place, visiting the gymnasia, or speaking from the porticoes, he wielded a power that senators viewed alike with envy and with dread. When Wesley was desired to leave Oxford to take a local parish, he refused, because, he said, the schools of the prophets were there, and he felt that in forming the sentiments of young men he was doing a greater work for the next generation than he could possibly do in any other locality. Rules for young men The Hon. Stephen Allen, who had been Mayor of New York, was drowned from on board the Henry Clay. In the pocket book was found a printed slip, apparently cut from a newspaper, a copy of which we give below. It is worthy to be engraven on the heart of every young man:--“ Keep good company, or none. Never be idle. If your hands can’ t be usefully employed, attend to the cultivation of your mind. Always speak the truth. Make few promises. Live up to your engagements. Keep your own secrets if you have any. When you speak to a person look him in the face. Good company and good conversation are the very sinews of virtue. Good character is above all things else. Your character cannot be essentially injured except by your own acts. If any one speaks evil of you let your life be so that none will believe him. Drink no kind of intoxicating liquors. Ever live (misfortune excepted) within your income. When you retire to bed, think over what you have been doing during the day. Make no haste to be rich if you would prosper. Small and steady gains give competency with a tranquil mind. Never play at any game of chance. Avoid temptation, through fear you may not withstand it. Earn money before you spend it. Never run into debt unless you see a way to get out again. Never borrow if you can possibly avoid it. Do not marry until you are able to support a wife. Never speak evil of any one. Be just before you are generous. Keep yourself innocent if you would be happy. Save when you are young, to spend when you are old. Read over the above maxims at least once a week.” Self-control “ In the supremacy of self-control,” says Herbert Spencer, “ consists one of the perfections of the ideal man. Not to be impulsive, not to be spurred hither and thither by each desire that in turn comes uppermost; but to be self-restrained, self-balanced, governed by the joint decision of all the feelings in council assembled, before whom every action shall have been fully debated and calmly determined--that it is which education, moral education at least, strives to produce.” This is the one determining quality on which success or failure in after life most depends. Failing here, your failure is absolute and irremediable. Success here is success assured hence forward. Here are two youths--the one college bred, but without self-government; the other was never in a college, but knows and possesses the power of self-control. For all worthy work in life the latter is immeasurably superior; he will make a better banker, manufacturer, legislator, general. Knowledge of Greek and mathematics and Latin is valuable, but placed in the balance against self-control, it has not the weight of a feather or the worth of a farthing. But true education embraces self-control, and, with other acquisitions, gives the scholar great advantage. Mr. Pitt was once asked what quality was most essential for a Prime Minister. One of the party said, “ Eloquence” ; another, “ Knowledge” ; another, “ Toil.” “ No,” said Pitt, “ it is Patience,” and patience with him had its real meaning of self-control. In this quality he himself excelled. There is an instructive monument to this great statesman in Westminster Abbey. Pitt stands erect with extended hand; another figure represents Anarchy writhing in chains at his feet, while a calm-brewed figure representing History is writing down the record of his victorious achievements for posterity to read. There is pressing need for other Pitts to conquer self, and then conquer their fellows in this disordered world. Anarchy and wrong yet ravage the land. They need strong, self-conquered men to put them in chains. And be assured, impartial history waits to immortalise the name of the great moral heroes of today. Titus 2:7-8 In all things showing thyself a pattern A good example Having propounded the several precepts fitted to all ages of men and women, the last whereof was unto young men, our apostle here inserteth a precept unto Titus himself, whence it is probably gathered that Titus was now a young man, as Timothy also was, in the same office of an evangelist; and being a minister, in him he closely again instituteth every minister, notwithstanding he hath been most ample in that argument, as though ministers could never sufficiently be instructed. In these two verses we will consider two things.1. A precept.2. An enforcement of it. I. The precept is, That Titus show himself an example to others. For as all the persons formerly taught, so more especially the last sort, namely, young men, for the slipperiness of their age need the benefit of good example as well as good doctrines and counsel. And this exhortation is enlarged by setting down wherein Titus must become an example, which is done, first, more generally, “ in all things,” we read it, “ above all things” ; others, “ above all men,” which readings may be true, and grounds of good instruction, but I take the first aptest to the place. Secondly, by a more particular enumeration of shining virtues, as 1. Uncorrupt doctrine. 2. Good life fruitful in good works; and these not one or two, or now and then in good moods, but there must be a constant trading in them throughout a grave and pare conversation. 3. There must be joined gracious speeches and words, for I take it fitliest interpreted of private communication, described by two necessary adjuncts. 1. It must be wholesome.2. Unblameable, or not liable to reproof. II. The enforcement of the precept is taken from the end or fruit of it, which is twofold.1. Shame.2. Silence to the withstanders and opposers. And thus the general scope of the verses is as if he had more largely said, “ That this thy doctrine, O Titus, thus aptly applied to all sorts of men, may carry more weight and authority with it, see thou that (considering thou art set in a more eminent place, and clearer sun, and hast all eyes beholding and prying into thee) thou show thyself a pattern and express type wherein men may behold all these graces shining in thy own life: let them look in thy glass, and see the lively image of a grave and pure conversation, which may allure them to the love of the doctrine which thou teachest: let them hear from thy mouth in thy private conferences and speech nothing but what may work them to soundness; at the least, keep thou such a watch over thy tongue, as that nothing pass thee which may be reprehended, and hence will it come to pass that although thou hast many maliciously minded men, seeking by all means to oppose thy doctrine and life, and to destroy the one by the other, these shall either be put to silence and have nothing to say, or if they take boldness to speak anything, it being unjust, the shame shall be removed from thee and fall justly upon themselves; and all the reproach shall return home to their own doors.” (T. Taylor, D. D.) That he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed Lessons I. It is the lot of faithful ministers to have opposites and adversaries: yea, such as are just contrary and directly opposite, for so the word is used (Mark 15:39). The case is clearer than needeth proof. How the prophets were entertained our Saviour showeth by that speech to the Jews, “ Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted and slain?” Moses was often resisted by the people, and before he shall go scot free, his own brother and sister shall withstand him; and as he was resisted by Jannes and Jambres, so in all ages to the end men of corrupt minds shall start up to resist the truth. That the disciples and apostles, notwithstanding their apostolical rod and power, were resisted, appeareth by Alexander the coppersmith, who was a sore enemy to Paul’ s preaching; and Elimas, who was full of subtlety to pervert the truth, and strongly withstood the apostles. How was Christ Himself, the chief Doctor, withstood by the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, rulers, and people, that He had never come into the world if He had not made His reckoning to give His back to the smiters, His face to shame and spitting, yea, Himself to the shameful and accursed death of the cross. If it was thus to the green tree, we shall need seek no further what was done to the dry, but rather to inquire into the reason hereof, and that is this: So long as there is a devil, darkness, and death in men’ s souls, so long will there be resistance unto God, His light, and life, in whomsoever it is; the devil not only suggesting, but working effectually in the hearts of reprobates, and natural men, to withstand God’ s work, as Sanballat and Tobiah used all means to hinder the building of Jerusalem. And so do his instruments, the spirits of devils, go about the world to provoke men unto war against Christ and His little flock. Those spirits of devils are graceless and wicked men, carried by devilish motion and violence against Christ and His kingdom, and the battle between Michael and his angels, and the devil and his angels, shall not cease till time be no more. II. These that oppose themselves to good ministers and men are ever speaking evil, and opening their mouths with reproaches against them and their Godly courses. Moses was charged, and that not in corners, but to his face, that he took too much upon him, whereas he was unwilling to undertake all that the Lord laid upon him. It went current in court and country that Elias troubled all Israel. Amaziah accuseth Amos to the king, that the land is not able to bear all his words. Diotrephes not only withstood the apostle John, but prattled against him. But what is the reason of all this, have they any cause given them? The reason is partly positive in themselves, and partly negative in the other.1. In themselves. (1) The malice of their heart is such as cannot but continually out of the abundance thereof set their tongues at work: the fire within sendeth out such smoke abroad. (2) With this malice is joined exceeding pride and swelling, which moveth them to seek the raising of themselves, although with the fall of others, and make the reproach of others as a ladder for themselves to climb by. (3) With this malice and pride is joined exceeding subtlety and policy in their generation. Well know they that they have gotten ever more conquests by the strokes of their tongues than of their hands, and seldom have they failed of their purposes. 2. Now the negative reason in good men themselves, why their withstanders speak evil of them, is set down (1 Peter 4:4). III. Every Godly man’ s endeavour must be to stop the mouths of such adversaries, and so make them ashamed. But it is an impossible thing they will have always something to say. Yet so live thou as thou mayst boldly appeal unto God. Let thine own conscience be able to answer for thy uprightness, and so thou openest not their mouths; if now they open them against thee, it is their sin and not thine, and thus this precept is expounded (1 Timothy 5:14). Give no occasion to the adversaries to speak evil. And is enforced with special reason (1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 2:15). This is the will of God, by well doing to silence the ignorance of foolish men. If any shall say, “ Why I care not what they say on me, they are dogs and wicked men,” and what are we to regard them? The apostle telleth us that yet for God’ s commandment sake we must not open their mouths, but perform all duties of piety and humanity unto them.2. Because they watch occasions to traduce, we must watch to cut off such occasions (Luke 6:7). The Scribes and Pharisees watched Christ whether He would heal on the Sabbath, to find an accusation against Him. Christ did the good work, but by His question to them cut off so far as be could the matter of their malice; by clearing the lawfulness of it. So out of their malice we shall draw our own good, and thus it shall be true which the heathen said, that the enemy often hurteth less and profiteth more than many friends. 3. What a glory is it for a Christian thus to slaughter envy itself? To keep shut that mouth that would fain open itself against him? To make him be clothed with his own shame, who sought to bring shame upon him and his profession? When a wretch cannot so put off his forehead as to accuse him whom he abhorreth, no more than he can the sun of darkness when it shineth; yea, when the Prince of the world cometh to sift such a member of Christ, yet He findeth nothing justly to upbraid him withal. (T. Taylor, D. D.) A scoffer silenced I remember a story connected with my native place. One of the most saintly of men lived there, Dr. Andrew Symington, a Cameronian minister, Professor of Theology to the Reformed Presbyterian body who represented the old Scottish Covenanters. He was one day walking down the streets of Paisley, and when he came to the Cross there was a knot of men lounging there, among whom was a sort of ruling spirit, a man who liked to scoff at spiritual matters, and at people who lived a spiritual life. Dr. Symington was passing through the group, with his grave, tender look, and as he passed by the crowd, with the scoffing man in their midst, an awe and silence came upon them. He went on; and the man who scoffed just looked after him and whispered, “ Enoch walked with God!” What a sermon to preach! and yet the good man never knew it! (Prof. Graham.) A consistent Christian A friend told me of a young man who was a true soldier of the Cross, and suffered much in consequence, not only from his companions, but from his own father, who was overseer in the same works. That young man showed forth Christ in all his actions, even when his companions who worked with him were unusually provoking in tormenting him about his religion, and, I am ashamed to say, were often encouraged in their wickedness by his own father. One morning, after enduring their cruel and insulting words for some time, he turned to them with a calm look and said: “ Friends, tell me, is there anything in my life that is not consistent in a Christian? If there is, tell it to me, and I will kneel in your presence and ask God to forgive me.” Complete silence fell on the men, not one dared to open his mouth as that, young man stood there and challenged them to find anything against him. (Major Mathers.) Titus 2:9-10 Exhort servants to be obedient The duties of servants I. Those duties enumerated.1. Obedience.2. Acceptableness of service. The idea is really, approbation based upon virtuous actions.3. Respectfulness of manner.4. Honesty.5. Fidelity. II. Motives of duty. That the religion of Christ might be honoured in the consistency of its professors. (F. Wagstaff.) Duties of servants I. The first and proper duty of every servant is subjection, or a stooping under the authority of his master. This consists 1. In an inward reverencing in heart the image of God in His superiority. This reverent subjection of the heart the Lord in His own example requireth in all His servants, “ If I be a master, where is My fear?” (Malachi 1:6), and is the first duty of that commandment, “ Honour thy father and mother.” The apostle (Ephesians 6:5) calleth for fear and trembling from servants toward their masters. 2. In the outward testimony of this inward reverence, both in speech and gesture before his master, and behind his back; but especially in the free obedience of all his lawful, yea, and unequal commandments, so as they be not unlawful (Colossians 3:22). 3. In patient enduring without resistance, rebukes and corrections, although bitter, yea, and unjust (1 Peter 2:18-19). II. The second virtue required of servants towards their masters is, that they please them in all things. How will this precept stand with that in Ephesians 6:6, where servants are forbidden to be men pleasers? To serve only as men pleasers, as having the eye cast only on man is hypocrisy, and the sin of many servants, pleasing man for man’ s sake, and that is condemned by our apostle; but to please men in God and for God is a duty in servants next unto the first; who, to show themselves well pleasing to their masters, must carry in their hearts and endeavour a care to be accepted of them, even in the things which, for the indignity and burdensomeness of them, are much against their own minds. For this is the privilege of a master to have his servant devoted unto his pleasure and will, for the attempting of any business, the continuance in it, and the unbending of him from it; and when the servant hath done all he can, it was but debt and duty, and no thanks are due to him from his master (Matthew 8:9). But wherein must I please my master or mistress? In all things, that is, in all outward things which are in different and lawful. I say in outward things, so Ephesians 6:5, servants obey your masters according to the flesh; wherein the apostle implieth two things.1. That the masters are according and over the flesh and outward man; not over the spirit and inward man, over which we have all one Master in heaven. 2. That accordingly they are to obey in outward things, for if the dominion of the one be bounded so also must needs be the subjection of the other. Again, these outward things must be lawful or indifferent; for they must not obey against the Lord, but in the Lord. III. Servants are in the third place prohibited crossly and stubbornly to reason, and dispute matters with their masters; but in silence and subjection to sit down with the worse, even when they suffer wrong; for as they are to carry a reverent esteem of them in their hearts so must they bewray reverence, love, and lowliness in all their words and gestures; neither are they here coped from all manner of speech, for when just occasion of speech is offered, as by questions asked, they must make respective answers and not in sullenness say nothing, for Solomon condemneth it as a vice and great sin in servants, when they understand, not to answer (Proverbs 29:19). IV. “Not purloining.” By the former, servants were taught to bridle their tongues; by this precept, their hands. The word properly noteth the setting somewhat apart to one’ s private use, which is not his, and is used (Acts 5:6). Ananias kept away and craftily conveyed to his private use that which should have gone another way. So that servants are forbidden to pilfer the least part of their master’ s goods to dispose to their own or other’ s use without the acquaintance of their masters. And herein, under this principle, all manner of unfaithfulness is inclusively condemned, as the opposition in the next words showeth. V. “ But showing all good fidelity.”1. In his master’ s commands, readily and diligently to perform them of conscience, and not for eye service, but whether his master’ s eye be upon him or no. Wherein Abraham’ s servant giveth a notable precedent. 2. In his counsels and secrets, never disclosing any of his infirmities or weaknesses, but by all lawful and good means covering and biding them. Contrary hereunto is that wickedness of many servants, who may, indeed, rather be accounted so many spies in the house, whose common practice is, where they may be heard, to blaze abroad whatsoever may tend to their master or mistress’ s reproach, having at once cast off both the religious fear of God, as also the reverent respect of God’ s image in the persons of their superiors. 3. In his messages abroad, both in the speedy execution and dispatch of them, as also in his expenses about them; husbanding his master’ s money, cutting off idle charges, and bringing home a just account; hereby acknowledging that the eye of his own conscience watcheth him when his master’ s eye cannot. 4. Unto his master’ s wife, children, servants, wisely with Joseph distinguishing the things which are committed unto him from them that are excepted. 5. Lastly, in all his actions and carriage, so also in every word, shunning all lying, dissembling, untruths, whether for his master’ s, his own, or other men’ s advantage; in the practice of which duties he becometh faithful in all his master’ s house. (T. Taylor, D. D.) “ Not answering again” A lady once, when she was a little girl, learned a good lesson, which she tells for the benefit of whom it may concern:--“ One frosty morning I was looking out of the window into my father’ s farmyard, where stood many cows, oxen, and horses, waiting to drink. It was a cold morning. The cattle all stood very still and meek, till one of the cows attempted to turn round. In making the attempt she happened to hit her next neighbour, whereupon the neighbour kicked and hit another. In five minutes the whole herd were kicking each other with fury. My mother laughed and said: ‘ See what comes of kicking when you are hit. Just so, I have seen one cross word set a whole family by the ears on some frosty morning.’ Afterward, if my brothers or myself were a little irritable, she would say, ‘ Take care, my children. Remember how the fight in the farmyard began. Never give back a kick for a hit, and you will save yourselves and others a great deal of trouble.’” Not purloining Honesty in little things I. The nature of the sin against which the text warns us. Stealing is a term applicable to the conduct of a man who goes to the house, or the farm, or the shop of another, and takes away his goods or other property. We turn an act of theft into one of purloining when a servant helps himself, without an understood allowance from his master or mistress, to that which is under his care, or to which he has access; or when a workman pockets, for his own use, what he thinks he may bear away without detection; or when a labourer carries away from his master’ s farm something to add to his own little stock, or to maintain his own family. To steal is to take what is not our own. To purloin is to take what is not our own too; but it is something we had in trust, or to which we had access. If purloining be practised on a large scale, it changes its name and becomes embezzlement. II. The exceeding sinfulness of this sin. There are many excuses which are brought forward in extenuation of this offence.1. The change of its name. There is a wonderful imposition in words; and many purloiners quiet their consciences by changing the name. Because it is not commonly called stealing, they think it does not involve the guilt of stealing. 2. Another plea is, that however great the amount may be in the course of months or years, you are pleased to make the depredations small in detail. It is a petty affair of every day, and so very little as not to be worth thinking about. It does not say, “ Thou shalt not steal much!” but, “ Thou shalt not steal!” 3. The next plea is, that the master is rich and will not miss it, and so it will do no harm. This law does not merely forbid them to steal from the poor, leaving them at liberty to steal from the rich. III. The motives which enforce the opposite conduct. The servants whom Titus was to exhort were those of his own congregation. They formed a Christian community; and however the title may be applied now, it was then given to these who had renounced Paganism. The admonition was to men who had embraced not only the profession of faith, but the faith itself. It is right that, for every kind of unrighteousness, men should be reproved; for “ the wrath of God is revealed,” etc. The more they are burdened with a sense of sin, the more will they feel the importance of repentance. (T. Chalmers, D. D.) Fidelity in a servant Selim, a poor Turk, had been brought up from his youth with care and kindness by his master, Mustapha. When the latter lay at the point of death, Selim was tempted by his fellow servants to join them in stealing a part of Mustapha’ s treasures. “ No,” said he, “ Selim is no robber. I fear not to offend my master for the evil he can do me now, but for the good he has done me all my life long.” That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour Servants adorning the gospel I. The doctrine of the gospel: the doctrine of the gospel is called the doctrine of Christ.1. Because He is the argument and subject of it. 2. Because He is the first and chief messenger and publisher of it. 3. Whosoever have been the teachers and publishers of this doctrine from the beginning, either by word or writing (not excepting prophets or apostles themselves) or shall be unto the end. They all do it by commandment from Him, yea, Himself preacheth in them and in us. 4. As it proceedeth from Him so it tendeth wholly unto Him, and leadeth believers to see and partake both of His grace and glory shining in the same. II. Christ is called God our Saviour.1. To prove His own deity, not only in express terms being called God, but also by the epithet agreeing only to a Divine nature, our Saviour. 2. To imply our own misery, whose infinite wretchedness only God could remove, and whose infinite good none but God could restore. 3. And especially in regard of this doctrine. (1) To confirm the divinity of the same, it being a doctrine of God and a doctrine of salvation proceeding from our Saviour. (2) To enforce the duty towards it, namely, that seeing the author of it is God, the matter Divine, the effect salvation, meet it is that such a saving doctrine a doctrine of such tidings, should be beautified and adorned. III. This doctrine is adorned when it is made beautiful and lovely unto men, and this by two things in the professors of it.1. By an honest and unblamable conversation, for carnal men commonly esteem of the doctrine by the life, and the profession by the practice of the professor. 2. By God’ s blessing which is promised and is attending such walking, whereby even strangers to the Church are forced to begin to like of the profession: for God’ s blessing upon His people is not only profitable to themselves, but turneth to the salvation of many others. So we read that when Licinius was overcome by Constantine, and the persecutions ceased, which had almost for three hundred years together wasted the Church, how innumerable of them, who before had worshipped their idols, were contented to be received into the Church. On the contrary, the gospel is dishonoured when the Lord is forced to judge and correct the abuse of His name in the professors of it (Ezekiel 36:20). IV. Servants adorn the gospel, when professing it, they, by performing all faithful service to their masters in and for God, seek and obtain the blessing of God in the condition of life wherein He hath placed them. (T. Taylor, D. D.) The duty of advancing the Christian religion I. The explanation of the terms used.1. By “ the doctrine of God our Saviour” the apostle means the Christian religion, or that institution of faith and manners which Jesus taught and published when here on earth. 2. To “ adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour” is to advance the credit and reputation of Christian religion in the world. It is so to govern and demean ourselves that we may reconcile its enemies to a good opinion of it; that we may procure and even force regard and veneration towards it. 3. By the “ they” in the text, the persons upon whom this duty is incumbent, we may fairly understand the whole body of Christians. II. The nature, acts, and exercises of duty. How a man may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour 1. As it is a rule of faith, or an institution of religion, which we believe and own as of Divine authority. By manifesting, beyond any reasonable exception, that we unfeignedly assent unto it, that we firmly believe it to be, what we pretend, of Divine original. And this will be evident to all (1) If our faith be perfect and entire. If we receive our religion as it is in itself, in all its parts, in every article, and in their plainest sense. (2) If we are steady, firm, and constant in the profession of it. (3) If we express an affection, a prudent zeal in the profession of it. 2. As it is a rule of life and manners. To this purpose it is absolutely necessary (1) That our obedience be entire and universal. (2) That our obedience be free and cheerful, (3) If in cases doubtful we determine our practice on the side of the law, and of our duty. (4) By an eminent practice of some particular virtues, as of mercy and charity. Wherever these are expressed to the life--habitually, bountifully, freely--all that observe it will esteem the religion from whence such a spirit flows. III. The reasons which oblige us, and the encouragements which may persuade us, to the practice of it.1. To adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour by such a faith and practice as I have now described is the most infallible assurance, both to ourselves and others, that our principle is sincere and perfect. 2. To live such a life as shall cause our religion to be esteemed and honoured in the world, is the greatest blessing, as well to ourselves as to others, that we can either imagine or desire. 3. Another encouragement to such a profession and practice of our religion as shall adorn it are the particular promises which are made to those who shall attain unto it. 4. The particular peace and satisfaction which will arise from such a faith and life. (J. Lambe.) Slaves adorning the doctrine of God As the number of slaves in the first century was so enormous it was only in accordance with human probability that many of the first converts to Christianity belonged to this class; all the more so, as Christianity belonged to this class; all the more so, as Christianity, like most great movements, began with the lower orders and thence spread upwards. Among the better class of slaves, that is those who were not so degraded as to be insensible of their own degradation, the gospel spread freely. It offered them just what they needed, and the lack of which had turned their life into one great despair. It gave them something to hope for and live for. Their condition in the world was both socially and morally deplorable. Socially they had no rights beyond what their lord chose to allow them. And St. Chrysostom in commenting on this passage points out how inevitable it was that the moral character of slaves should as a rule be bad. They have no motive for trying to be good, and very little opportunity of learning what is right. Every one, slaves included, admits that as a race they are passionate, intractable, and indisposed to virtue, not because God has made them so, but from bad education and the neglect of their masters. And yet this is the class which St. Paul singles out as being able in a peculiar way to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.” “ To adorn the doctrine of God.” How is the doctrine of God to be adorned? And how are slaves capable of adorning it? “ The doctrine of God” is that which He teaches, which He has revealed for our instruction. It is His revelation of Himself. He is the author of it, the giver of it, and the subject of it. He is also its end or purpose. It is granted in order that men may know Him, and love Him, and be brought home to Him. All these facts are a guarantee to us of its importance and its security. It comes from One who is infinitely great and infinitely true. And yet it is capable of being adorned by those to whom it is given. There is nothing paradoxical in this. It is precisely those things which in themselves are good and beautiful that we consider capable of adornment and worthy of it. Thus adornment is a form of homage: it is the tribute which the discerning pay to beauty. But adornment has its relations not only to those who bestow, but to those also who receive it. It is a reflection of the mind of the giver; but it has also an influence on the recipient. And, first, it makes that which is adorned more conspicuous and better known. A picture in a frame is more likely to be looked at than one that is unframed. Adornment is an advertisement of merit: it makes the adorned object more readily perceived and more widely appreciated. And, secondly, if it is well chosen and well bestowed, it augments the merit of that which it adorns. That which was fair before is made still fairer by suitable ornament. The beautiful painting is still more beautiful in a worthy frame. Noble ornament increases the dignity of a noble structure. And a person of royal presence becomes still more regal when royally arrayed. Adornment, therefore, is not only an advertisement of beauty, it is also a real enhancement of it. All these particulars hold good with regard to the adornment of the doctrine of God. By trying to adorn it and make it more beautiful and more attractive, we show our respect for it; we pay our tribute of homage and admiration. We show to all the world that we think it estimable, and worthy of attention and honour. And by so doing we make the doctrine of God better known: we bring it under the notice of others who might otherwise have overlooked it: we force it upon their attention. Moreover, the doctrine which we thus adorn becomes really more beautiful in consequence. Our acceptance of the doctrine of God, and our efforts to adorn it, bring out its inherent life and develop its natural value, and every additional person who joins us in doing this is an augmentation of its powers. It is within our power not only to honour and make better known, but also to enhance, the beauty of the doctrine of God. But slaves--and such slaves as were found throughout the Roman empire in St. Paul’ s day--what have they to do with the adornment of the doctrine of God? Why is this duty of making the gospel more beautiful specially mentioned in connection with them? That the aristocracy of the empire, its magistrates, its senators, its commanders--supposing that any of them could be induced to embrace the faith of Jesus Christ--should be charged to adorn the doctrines which they had accepted, would be intelligible. Their acceptance of it would be a tribute to its dignity. Their loyalty to it would be a proclamation of its merits. Their accession to its ranks would be a real augmentation of its powers of attraction. But almost the reverse of all this would seem to be the truth in the case of slaves. Their tastes were so low, their moral judgment so debased, that for a religion to have found a welcome among slaves would hardly be a recommendation of it to respectable people. And what opportunities had slaves, regarded as they were as the very outcasts of society, of making the gospel better known or more attractive? Yet St. Paul knew what he was about when he urged Titus to commit the “ adorning of the doctrine of God” in a special manner to slaves: and experience has proved the soundness of his judgment. If the mere fact that many slaves accepted the faith could not do a great deal to recommend the power and beauty of the gospel, the Christian lives, which they thenceforward led, could. It was a strong argument a fortiori. The worse the unconverted sinner, the more marvellous his thorough conversion. As Chrysostom puts it, when it was seen that Christianity, by giving a settled principle of sufficient power to counterbalance the pleasures of sin, was able to impose a restraint upon a class so self-willed, and render them singularly well behaved, then their masters, however unreasonable they might be, were likely to form a high opinion of the doctrines which accomplished this. And Chrysostom goes on to point out that the way in which slaves are to endeavour to adorn the doctrine of God is by cultivating precisely those virtues which contribute most to their masters’ comfort and interest--submissiveness, gentleness, meekness, honesty, truthfulness, and a faithful discharge of all duties. What a testimony conduct of this kind would be to the power and beauty of the gospel; and a testimony all the more powerful in the eyes of those masters who became conscious that these despised Christian slaves were living better lives than their owners! The passionate man, who found his slave always gentle and submissive; the inhuman and ferocious man, who found his slave always meek and respectful; the fraudulent man of business, who noticed that his slave never pilfered or told lies; the sensualist, who observed that his slave was never intemperate and always shocked at immodesty--all these, even if they were not induced to become converts to the new faith, or even to take much trouble to understand it, would at least at times feel something of respect, if not of awe and reverence, for a creed which produced such results. Where did their slaves learn these lofty principles? Whence did they derive the power to live up to them? Nor were these the only ways in which the most degraded and despised class in the society of that age were able to “ adorn the doctrine of God.” Slaves were not only an ornament to the faith by their lives; they adorned it also by their deaths. Not a few slaves won the martyr’ s crown. What slaves could do then we all of us can do now. We can prove to all for whom and with whom we work that we really do believe and endeavour to live up to the faith that we profess. By the lives we lead we can show to all who know anything of us that we are loyal to Christ. By avoiding offence in word or in deed, and by welcoming opportunities of doing good to others, we can make His principles better known. And by doing all this brightly and cheerfully, without ostentation or affectation or moroseness, we tan make His principles attractive. Thus we also can “ adorn the doctrine of God in all things.” “ In all things.” That all-embracing addition to the apostolic injunction must not be test sight of. There is no duty so humble, no occupation, so trifling, that it cannot be made into an opportunity for adorning our religion (1 Corinthians 10:31). (A. Plummer, D. D.) Christians making the gospel beautiful I. The wonderful possibility that is opened out here before every Christian that he may add beauty to the gospel. He may paint the lily and gild the refined gold. For men do quite rightly and legitimately judge of systems by their followers. The astronomer does not look directly up into the sky when he wants to watch the heavenly bodies, but down into the mirror, on which their reflection is cast. And so our little low lives down here upon earth should so give back the starry bodies and infinitudes above us that some dim eyes, which peradventure could not gaze into the violet abysses with their lustrous points, may behold them reflected in the beauty of your life. Our lives should be like the old missals, where you find the loving care of the monastic scribe has illuminated and illustrated the holy text, or has rubricated and gilded some of the letters. The best Illustrated Bible is the conduct of the people that profess to take it for their guide and law. II. The solemn alternative. If you look at the context you will see that a set of exhortations preceding these to the slaves, which are addressed to the wives, end with urging as the great motive to the conduct enjoined, “ that the Word of God be not blasphemed.” That is the other side of the same thought as is in my text. The issues of the conduct of professing Christians are the one or other of these two, either to add beauty to the gospel or to cause the Word of God to be blasphemed. If you do not the one you will be doing the other. There are no worse enemies of the gospel than its inconsistent friends. Who is it that thwarts missionary work in India? Englishmen! Who is it that, wherever they go with their ships, put a taunt into the lips of the enemy which the Christian workers find it hard to meet? English sailors! The notorious dissipation and immorality amongst the representatives of English commerce in the various Eastern eentres of trade puts a taunt into the mouth of the abstemious Hindu and of the Chinaman. “ These are your Christians, are they?” England, that sends out missionaries in the cabin, and Bibles and men side by side amongst the cargo, has to listen, and her people have to take to themselves the awful words with which the ancient Jewish inconsistencies were rebuked: “ Through you the name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles.” And in less solemn manner perhaps, but just as truly, here, in a so-called Christian land, the inconsistencies, the selfishness, the worldliness of professing Christian people, the absolute absence of all apparent difference between them and the most godless man that is in the same circumstances, are the things which perhaps more than anything else counteract the evangelistic efforts of the Christian Church. III. The sort of life that will commend and adorn the gospel.1. It must be a life conspicuously and uniformly under the influence of Christian principles. I put emphasis upon these two words “ conspicuously” and “ uniformly.” It will be of very little use if your Christian principle is so buried in your life, embedded beneath a mass of selfishness and worldliness and indifference as that it takes a microscope and a week’ s looking for to find it. And it will be of very little use, either, if your life is by fits and starts under the influence of Christian principle; a minute guided by that and ten minutes guided by the other thing--if here and there, sprinkled thinly over the rotting mass, there be a handful of the saving salt. 2. Remember, too, as the context teaches us, that the lives which commend and adorn the doctrine must be such as manifest Christian principle in the smallest details. What is it Paul tells these Cretan slaves to do that they may “ adorn the doctrine” ? Obedience, keeping a civil tongue in their heads in the midst of provocation, not indulging in petty pilfering, being true to the trust that was given to them. “ That is no great thing,” you may say, but in these little things they were to adorn the great doctrine of God their Saviour. Ay! The smallest duties are in some sense the largest sphere for the operation of great principles. For it is the little duties which by their minuteness tempt men to think that they can do them without calling in the great principles of conduct, that give the colour to every life after all. The little banks of mud in the wheel tracks in the road are shaped upon the same slopes, and moulded by the same law that carves the mountains and lifts the precipices of the Himalayas. And a handful of snow in the hedge in the winter time will fall into the same curves, and be obedient to the same great physical laws which shape the glaciers that lie on the sides of the Alps. You do not want big things in order, largely and nobly, to manifest big principles. The smallest duties, distinctly done for Christ’ s sake, wilt adorn the doctrine. 3. And then again, I may say that the manner of life which commends the gospel will be one conspicuously above the level of the morality of the class to which you belong. These slaves were warned not to fall into the vices that were proper to their class, in order that by not falling into them, and so being unlike their fellows, they might glorify the gospel. For the things that Paul warns them not to do are the faults which all history and experience tell us are exactly the vices of the slave--petty pilfering, a rank tongue blossoming into insolent speech, a disregard of the master’ s interests, sulky disobedience or sly evasion of the command. These are the kind of things that the devilish institution of slavery makes almost necessary on the part of the slave, unless some higher motive and loftier principle come in to counteract the effects. And in like manner all of us have, in the class to which we belong, and the sort of life which we have to live, certain evils natural to our position; and unless you are unlike the non-Christian men of your own profession and the people that are under the same worldly influence as you are--unless you are unlike them in that your righteousness exceeds their righteousness, “ Ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Religion adorned I. The purity of truth. The other day we read in the newspapers that in Berlin there is a wonderful gem, a sapphire weighing ten ounces, and said to be worth--if it were pure--a million pounds. But there is a flaw in it; it is not “ one entire and perfect chrysolite.” Ah, if it were only pure! We damage our cause and prevent people from joining us sometimes because we are not true to the principles we profess. Deceit is always ugly; truth is ever beautiful. To be pure and truthful in all we say or do cannot be accomplished by merely wishing; it will probably take an entire life for a man to become genuine as Jesus Christ was. Still, let us try; and though we fall, we should not despair. The finest trait of beauty in a man’ s character is when he is so true that his word may be trusted as much as his bond, and people remark of him, “ Well, if he says so, it must be true.” II. The rhythm of life. Not only wear a flower in your breast, but let there be the beauty of truth and the perfume of kindliness in your looks, words, and actions. Let me tell you of a famous soldier who went to the palace one day to have an audience of the king of England. Having to wait a little, he paced up and down the antechamber impatiently, and as he walked, his sword dragged and rattled behind him. The king opening the door, said to a courtier loud enough for all the others to hear, “ Dear me, what a nuisance that man’ s sword is!” The veteran exclaimed, “ So your Majesty’ s enemies think.” That was the “ retort courteous,” wasn’ t it? Of course the sword was powerful, and while the hand that wielded it was strong and the heart of the soldier true and brave, still I think he might have carried his sword quietly; though it was terrible in the battle, need he to make it a nuisance in the palace? Therefore, be thoughtful of the feelings of others. More unpleasantness is caused by want of thought than by want of feeling. Make your life as musical and poetical as possible, agreeable in passing and pleasant in remembrance. III. The glory of usefulness. In being useful you are adorning the religion of Christ; pluck up your heart, and seek out opportunities to do good. Be a true Christian minister; and remember that though you are a slave to circumstances, you may adorn religion more than a cathedral can do. When you thus live, prompted by love to God and love to man, life shall be a blessing, and your heaven shall be begun below. (W. Birch.) The grammar of ornament I. The grandeur of Christian doctrine. “ The doctrine of God.” If the gospel of Christ be the doctrine of God it ought to reflect the attributes of God. We venture to say it does thus reflect its Author; the New Testament bears conspicuously the grand characteristics of divinity.1. Think of the vastness of the gospel. We feel in it the infinitude of God. We are redeemed before the foundation of the world; the redemption disclosed is that of a race; it is worked out through the ages; its issues are in the great eternity beyond. 2. Think of the purity of the gospel. There is a strange purity in revelation. The Old Testament stretches like a stainless sky above the wild, sensual, corrupt nations of antiquity; the New Testament bears the same relation to the life of modern nations. As we look into the pure blue of the firmament far beyond our smoky atmosphere, so do we look up to the righteousness revealed in Christ as the body of heaven for clearness. 3. Think of the love of the gospel--comprehending men of all nations, languages, tribes, and tongues. 4. Think of the power of the gospel. We feel in revelation the energy of suns, the force of winds, the sound of many seas. There is a majestic moral power in the gospel that we do not find in the sublimest philosophies of men, that is also painfully missing in the noblest sacred literature of the heathen (Romans 1:16). 5. Think of the permanence of revelation. Science says, “ Persistence is the sign of reality.” How divinely real, then, is the gospel of God in Jesus Christ! It is the only thing on the face of the earth that does persist. Every now and then when a new heresy starts up there is a panic, as if the authority of revelation had come to an end; but if you wait awhile it is the heresy and the panic which come to an end. A gentleman told me that he was walking in his garden one day when his little child was by; suddenly the little one burst into tears and cried out in terror, “ Oh! father, the house is falling.” The child saw the clouds drifting over the house, and mistook the movement of the clouds for the movement of the house--the house was right enough, it is standing now. So sometimes we think that revelation is falling and coming to nought, but it is soon clear that the movement is elsewhere. Nations, dynasties, philosophies, fashions, pass like fleeting vapours and shadows, but the gospel stands like a rock. Ah! and will stand when rolling years shall cease to move. II. The supreme demonstration of Christian doctrine is found in Christian character. “ That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.” The gospel is not a mere speculation, a superb philosophy, a grand ideal; it is intensely practical; it is to prove itself the doctrine of God by making all who believe in it like God.1. “ Adorn the doctrine.” That is, reveal, display, make conspicuous and impressive the splendid contents of your faith. The doctrine of God is in the Testaments in suppressed magnificence, and the saints are to give it expression, embodiment: they are to flash out the unrevealed glory in their spirit and language and conduct. The vastness, the depth, the tenderness, the beauty of their creed is to be made tangible. Our creed must transfigure our life; our life must demonstrate the divinity of our creed. As the stars adorn astronomy, as the roses of June adorn botany, as the rainbow adorns optics, so our conduct must flash out the hidden virtue and glory of the doctrine of God. 2. Adorn the doctrine “ in all things.” The saints are to illustrate the doctrine of God in all its fulness--to do it justice at all points. And so we have much to do. Every system of morality outside the Christian Church: Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic, Epicurean, Utilitarian, Positivist; every system concerns itself with some pet virtue, or with some special class of virtues; but Christianity is most comprehensive--it concerns itself with whatever is just, true, lovely, or of good report; everything virtuous and praiseworthy is made an object of aspiration. We must do justice to the doctrine of God throughout our whole personality. At one end of our complex nature are the grand faculties of intelligence, conscience, will, imagination, linking us with the upper universe; at the other end of our being are basal instincts and affinities establishing a kinship between us and the world below our feet. We must see to it that our faith hallows our whole personality, that our splendid faculties are sacred to their lofty uses, that our inferior instincts are duly chastened, that we live sanctified in body, soul, and spirit. The ethics of Christianity comprehend the whole grammar of ornament. The faith of Christ is a salvation from all sin, a salvation into all holiness. As everybody knows, Shakespeare was a great lover of the old English flowers, frequently making them to spring forth in his poems with the freshness of nature itself, and so some years ago, when his admirers restored the cottage in which the dramatist was born, they resolved to plant in its grounds all the sweet things of summer found on the bard’ s immortal page: rosemary, ox-lip, wild thyme, pansies, peony, lily, love-in-idleness, cuckoo-buds, lady-smocks, freckled cowslip, daisies pied, eglantine, woodbine, nodding violets, musk roses, red roses--all were carefully planted out in the sun. What a catalogue of virtues could we compile from revelation! What a multitude of graces are here, and fine differentiations of sublime qualities and principles of moral life! Now all these we are to realise in actual life as season and opportunity may permit, until the whole range of our character and action is filled with beauty and fragrance as the garden of the Lord. In adorning the doctrine of God in all things we render that doctrine the most valuable service any may render it. The world is not persuaded by logic, by learning, by literature, but by life; the multitude believes in what it can see--in the eloquence of conduct, the logic of facts, the feeling and power of deeds. We may see this very clearly illustrated in another direction. Why do we all believe in astronomy? Why have we such a positive faith in a science which professes to give the true account of the distant mysterious firmament; which assumes to weigh suns, to analyse stars, to calculate the movements of endless orbs and comets? Do we believe in all this because we have read Sir Isaac Newton, mastered his reasonings, verified his calculations and conclusions? Not for a moment. The faith of the million rests on what it can see. Our common faith in astronomy is derived not immediately from Newton’ s Principia, but indirectly through the penny almanac. At the beginning of the year we learn that an eclipse of the sun or moon is predicted, and on the palpable fulfilment of that prediction rests the firmest faith of modern times--faith in astronomy. On the day or night of an eclipse myriads of people look into the sky who never look into it at any other time, and the exact fulfilment of the prediction brings conviction to their mind touching all the large assumptions of celestial science. People believe in what they see; the popular faith is based entirely on the darkened orb. So the faith of men generally in Christianity does not rest on theology, criticism, logic, but on Christianity as it finds expression in the spirit and life of its disciples. Once more men believe in what they see, only this time they are not called to look upon a darkened orb, but on a Church bright as the sun shedding on men and nations moral splendours like the light of seven days. (W. L. Watkinson.) The duty of adorning our Christian profession I. Take a general view of the doctrine of God our Saviour. It is not the doctrine of God, as our Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, Governor, etc., which is here meant, but the doctrine that concerns our salvation--our fall in Adam, and its consequences (Romans 5:12), ignorance, insensibility, sinfulness, guilt, condemnation, etc; our redemption by Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-3; Romans 5:6-10; 1 Peter 1:18) the means whereby we partake of this redemption, viz., repentance and faith (Mark 1:15; Acts 20:21); the effects produced, as justification, whereby we pass from condemnation and wrath to acquaintance and favour with God, and are entitled to eternal life (Acts 13:38; Titus 3:7); as renovation of nature, whereby we are qualified to bring forth fruit to the glory of God; the necessity of continuing in this state of salvation, and increasing in holiness (John 15:1; Romans 11:19-22); our enemies and hindrances--Satan, the world, the flesh (Ephesians 6:10-19; 1 John 2:14-15; Romans 8:12-13); our friends and helps--God (Romans 8:31), Christ (Hebrews 4:14-16; 2 Corinthians 12:9), the Spirit (Romans 8:26), angels (Hebrews 1:14), the people of God: that we are upon our trial for eternity, and many eyes upon us (Hebrews 12:1): the issue of all, the death of the body, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection, judgment, eternal life. II. Show what is meant by adorning it. Here is an allusion to the ornaments of dress. Dress may be fit or unfit for us, suitable or unsuitable: our temper and conduct must be suitable to the gospel. Instance, in the doctrine of our fall and its consequences. Does the gospel teach that we are fallen, depraved, etc.? then all high thoughts of ourselves, all self-confidence, and impenitence are unsuitable to this doctrine; humility, self-abasement, and godly sorrow, are suitable thereto. In the doctrine of our redemption; unbelief, diffidence, despondency, are unsuitable; faith, confidence in God, and peace of mind, are suitable thereto.2. Another end for which dress is used is to represent and exhibit the persons who wear it in their true character and proper loveliness. Just so, our temper and conduct should be calculated to set forth the doctrine of the gospel in the most correct and clear point of view. 3. A third end, which some have in view in adopting various kinds of dress, is to add to their comeliness and beauty, and make themselves appear more agreeable than they really are. We cannot possibly give greater beauty to the gospel than it has, but there are certain graces and virtues which are more calculated to set forth its beauty and amiableness, and to show it to advantage. Such are the graces and virtues recommended (Romans 12:9-18; 1 Corinthians 13:4-7; Colossians 3:12-17); and in the verses preceding the text, as truth, uprightness, justice, mercy, charity, meekness, gentleness, benevolence, sobriety, industry, frugality, liberality, cheerfulness, gratitude. III. How this must be done “ in all things.” In all persons, old and young, rich and poor, high and low. In all conditions and states, as married or single, parents or children, masters or servants. In all places: at home, abroad, alone, in company, in the church or market, with our friends or enemies, the righteous or wicked. In all employments: in religious, civil, and natural actions. At all times: on the Lord’ s days; on other days; at morning, noon and night; in childhood, youth, manhood, middle age, old age. (J. Benson.) Adorning Raphael, the prince of modern painters, made ten pictures of Bible scenes. Three of them were lost, and somehow the rest lay neglected and forgotten for more than a hundred years in a garret at Arras. There Rubens found them, and persuaded Charles I of England to buy them for his palace. They were put into good order, and by and by a room in Hampton Court Palace was built to receive them. They are now admired by thousands in the South Kensington Museum, and, by means of engravings, are better known, it is said, than any other work of art in the world. The gospel in Crete was like Raphael’ s pictures in the Arras garret. It was a despised thing, overlaid with frightful prejudices, under which its beauty was buried. But Paul feels that if the poor Christian slaves lived Christian lives, they would do for it what Rubens did for the defaced and dusty paintings of Raphael; they would rescue it from neglect, and discover its heavenly grandeur to admiring thousands who would multiply and spread it throughout the world. Every adorner of the doctrine walks along a highway which has these stages. I. Saving faith, a hearty faith. A doctrine in logic or metaphysics appeals only to my head: it has little or nothing to do with the heart; but “ the doctrine” must win the assent of the mind and the consent of the heart. The gospel plants all its artillery before the heart till the everlasting gates are lifted up that the King of glory may enter and reign without a rival. And you must obey Him; for, being God as well as Saviour, when He commands you must obey. You are like the wounded soldier on the battlefield, to whom healing is offered by the doctor, who has all the authority of the kingdom at his back. The sick man has no right to refuse, he must accept healing that he may be fitted for the Queen’ s service. The offers of mercy, so gentle, have behind them all the authority of heaven. Christ as Saviour wins the heart, and as God He claims obedience. II. True confession. Christ comes from heaven, and gives His testimony about God and yourself, about sin and salvation. You in your turn take up and repeat His testimony. You receive His record, and set to your seal that He is true. Your confession is to be as a true trademark, declaring the maker and quality of what is within. The foot, or the hand, or the eye must not contradict the lip. And you are to put away all mean shame; for no one ever adorned a doctrine of which he was ashamed before men. III. Daily duty, a heavenly morality. Some make much of duty, but think that they can get on well enough without doctrine. Were the captain of a steamer to say, “ I want steam, but don’ t bother me with coals--dirty, dull, heavy lumps; steam, but no coal for me,” you should think him a very foolish man. Now he is as foolish whose motto is, “ Not doctrine, but life. The apostle, you see, unites the two. He makes one thing of doctrine and piety, and one thing of piety and morality. To him duty is the adorning of the doctrine. (James Wells.) Adorning the truth The word “ doctrine,” as used here, means instruction--any or all of the great truths set forth in the Divine word. The word “ adorn” means to decorate or beautify, as with gems or garlands or goodly apparel. I. This exhortation applies first to all who, in any sense or sphere, are teaching Christian truths.1. It is largely violated in two opposite directions. (1) On the one hand, we find the doctrines of grace set forth as bold, ugly, and repulsive dogmata.(2) On the other hand, we find men attempting to render the gospel attractive to the carnal heart by simply leaving all its strong doctrines out of it. 2. Between these extremes, and equally opposed to both, lies the true method of teaching. It is not the work of a costumer, arranging either a harlequin for farce or a gibbering ghost for tragedy; but it is a blessed imitation of Christ, beautifying the whole heavenly body of truth by “ adorning its doctrines.” II. This exhortation applies equally to all Christians, bidding them make all these doctrines beautiful by the power of their daily lives. Let us only live as if the gospel we profess, instead of making us gloomy fanatics or self-righteous pharisees, made us rather kind and gentle, and lovely and joyous; never taking from us a single truly good thing on earth, but only adding to each a new charm and power. Thereby we shall wonderfully adorn that gospel. The humblest man in our midst, if he live imitating his Master, his life pervaded with the principles of his faith, truly glorifies the gospel. Behold these humble children of suffering and toil--that faithful-hearted woman, plying her needle into the waning night that she may earn scanty bread for her fatherless children, amid all temptations and trials keeping Christian faith and love unstained; and as she fashions that coarse garment she is working as well a lustrous robe for God’ s glorious gospel! See that weary toiler in shop or field, amid all antagonisms to good and solicitations to evil making exhibition of all that is honest and lovely and of good report; and while he plies the hammer, or holds the plough, he is making Divine truth beautiful, as with gems and fine gold fashioning a diadem for the gospel of Christ. Oh, what a beauty and glory it casts over this low world and this common life, just to feel that amid all weary labour and perplexing cares we are at work not merely for ourselves and our beloved ones, or for the higher good of our day and generation, but verily and directly as well for the infinite God and His glory; that there is not one of us so ignorant or obscure that he may not, in his own sphere and lot, be reflecting splendour on every Divine attribute, bringing forth nobler regalia for the coronation of Christ! (C. Wadsworth, D. D.) Gospel adornment I. A name of adornment for the gospel. “ The doctrine of God our Saviour.”1. It sets forth its greatness: “ doctrine of God.” (1) Our fall, ruin, sin, and punishment were great.(2) Our salvation and redemption are great.(3) Our safety, happiness, and hopes are great. 2. It sets forth its certainty. It is “ of God.” (1) It comes by revelation of God.(2) It is guaranteed by the fidelity of God.(3) It is as immutable as God Himself. 3. It sets forth its relation to Christ Jesus: “ of God our Saviour.” (1) He is the author of it.(2) He is the substance of it.(3) He is the proclaimer of it.(4) He is the object of it. The gospel glorifies Jesus. 4. It sets forth its authority. (1) The whole system of revealed truth is of God.(2) The Saviour Himself is God, and hence He must be accepted.(3) The gospel itself is Divine. God’ s mind is embodied in the doctrine of the Lord Jesus, and to reject it is to reject God. II. A method of adornment for the gospel.1. The persons who are to adorn the gospel. In Paul’ s day, bond servants or slaves; in our day, poor servants of the humblest order. Strange that these should be set to such a task! Yet the women slaves adorned their mistresses, and both men and women of the poorest class were quite ready to adorn themselves. From none does the gospel receive more honour than from the poor. 2. The way in which these persons could specially adorn the gospel. (1) By obedience to their masters (Titus 2:9).(2) By endeavours to please them: “ please them well.”(3) By restraining their tongues: “ not answering again.”(4) By scrupulous honesty: “ not purloining” (Titus 2:10).(5) By trustworthy character: “ showing all good fidelity.” 3. The way of adornment of the doctrine in general. (1) Adornment, if really so, is suitable to beauty. Holiness, mercifulness, cheerfulness, etc., are congruous with the gospel. (2) Adornment is often a tribute to beauty. Such is a godly conversation: it honours the gospel. (3) Adornment is an advertisement of beauty. Holiness calls attention to the natural beauty of the gospel. (4) Adornment is an enhancement of beauty. Godliness gives emphasis to the excellence of doctrine. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Living ornaments 1. I sometimes think that the doctrine of God our Saviour, may be likened to a guide book, which tells us how to attain a holy character. When buying a book, I always give preference to one that is illustrated. I prize my Bunyan’ s “ Pilgrim’ s Progress” as much for its charming pictures as for its letterpress. As pictures adorn a book, so let our kindly words and loving deeds be pleasant illustrations of the Christ who dwells within. Paul said, “ I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth within me” ; but people cannot see the Christ within you. They are like children, who cannot read the words of a book, but can understand it from the pictures. Therefore, let your life be an adorning picture of the doctrine that the gentle and loving Christ dwells within His disciples. 2. It may also be likened to a letter from a loved one. A month or two ago, I received a loving letter from Southport, from one of our orphan children who is now dangerously ill; and in her letter, she enclosed two or three beautiful flowers which she had begged from somebody’ s garden. The letter was not elegantly expressed or beautifully written, but those flowers spoke to my heart; they made the letter beautiful. Let us adorn the epistles of our lives with the beautiful flowers of peace and gentleness. Your life may be but humble and poor--some people may even call you vulgar; but still you may adorn yourself with the perfume of love, and your life shall lead men to God. 3. I think, too, that Christianity may be likened to a shelter in the wilderness of a prodigal’ s life. See him yonder, afar off, half naked, hungry, broken hearted, looking for home, and while he looks and longs for home, his father runs, and falls on his neck, and kisses him, and orders a feast to welcome him. But soon after, his elder brother drew nigh to the house, and hearing music and dancing, he cried, “ What means this?” When he was told that it was done to welcome his younger brother, he was angry and would not go in. The elder brother did not adorn, but blurred the doctrine of God our Saviour. The father adorned the doctrine that God loves the penitent sinner; and you should copy his spirit into your life. When you forgive men, do it kindly and thoroughly. A man or a woman--it may be your workmate, or your brother, or child--having been sorely tempted, the weak one has fallen, and comes to your door hungry, naked, friendless, and penniless. Take her in, of course, with a kindly welcome; and thus, adorn the doctrine that God freely and cheerfully pardons His human children. 4. The Christ life may be further likened to seed--it is a thing of growth, and generally of slow growth, as is the case with things that are to be lasting. While character cannot be wholly transferred, the seeds of love and purity can be planted in us. The seeds of truth are planted in the receptive soil of our heart, which has to be prepared for it, and kept watered by prayer and faith, and continually weeded of those wild inclinations which always choke the plant. Like a divine graft, the Christ-life of purity and self-sacrifice is joined to us, and becomes our life, our love, our delight. When His Spirit dwells within us, we grow like Him in our character, and our fruit is after His kind. 5. When we receive the truths of Jesus and practise them from day to day, our lives shall exhibit and adorn His doctrine of sacred charity. We need more charity; the charity which covereth a multitude of sins, and holds on to the erring ones to the very end, copying from Christ, who never forsook His wayward disciples. Let us show our charity when men need it most. If a man have plenty of friends fawning upon him, you need not bestow your friendship; but when he is hungry, naked, or sick, or in grief, then be to him the adornment of the doctrine of charity. Show men that you believe in Christ by carrying out His teaching in the friendship and charity of your life. It is said that Francis the Second, of Prussia, took as his motto these words: “ The king of Prussia shall be the first servant of his people.” If you would be great in God’ s sight; if you would be a power not only in this world but in the next, be a servant to your fellow men, especially in their sore distress. One day, when Napoleon was walking in the streets of Paris, a man came along bearing a heavy burden on his shoulder. Napoleon at once stepped from the footpath into the carriage road, and allowed the man to pass. Some of his officers were very much surprised, saying, “ Sire, why did you give way to that wretched man?” Napoleon replied, “ Should I not respect his burden?” So, let us respect the misfortunes of our fellow men. Let the men, women, and children in your street, through your noble life, be led to praise God; and let your light so shine that all men may see the goodness of the Lord through you and be drawn unto Him. (W. Birch.) Adorning the doctrine of God We have been so educated that we are apt to think of beauty as simply an attribute of matter. We are apt to think that it can be transferred to moral conduct only by a figure of speech. Now, while we do not deny that in the constitution of the human mind there is such a condition of faculty as that the perception of outline, or colour, or harmony in matter, or materialness, produces a certain enjoyment, or, as we call it, a certain sense of the beautiful, we affirm that that right conduct--moral excellence as well as intellectual excellence--produces upon the mind just as clearly a sense of beauty. I might appeal to every man’ s own experience in his home life--if his home life is fortunate--whether the qualities that he discerned in father and mother were not admirable to him in his childhood; and whether they were not admirable to him all the way up. And to many of you, I speak with confidence when I say that, when you have wandered far from technical faith, yea, when you have largely fallen under the chill of doubt and unbelief, there still remains to you a silver cord not yet loosed, and a golden bowl not yet broken, and that that cord which holds you to faith is the mother’ s heart, and that that bowl is the father’ s heart, and that you believe against reason and in spite of unbelief, because of the faith yet lingering in your soul in the moral qualities that you have witnessed in the household. Is not courage beautiful? Is not disinterested benevolence beautiful? There is the case of the engineer who would not abandon his engine, but stood steadfast because he knew he had a hundred lives behind him. He stood upon the board, obviously knowing that he was rushing into the darkness of death. Then there was that other engineer who, on the burning ship upon Lake Erie, stood by the wheel, and steered for the shore, amidst the gathering and gaining flames, refusing to escape, and perished in the wheelhouse, in the vain effort to save those who were committed to his charge. Are not such deeds grand? Are not the qualities that inspire them beautiful? Is there any temple, is there any sculptured statue, is there any picture, that thrills the soul with such enthusiastic admiration as acts like these? And what are they but moral acts? How do all men say of them--“ They are grand, they are beautiful, they are sublime.” Look at the disinterestedness of woman’ s love. She was won from the father’ s house and household with all that was hopeful before her, to begin a life of love. He was full of generosity, full of manliness, and full of promise. The buds of young developing life hung on the bough, and were blossoming, until the fatal snare was set for him: until the growing habit of intoxication fastened upon him, and degradation settled down upon him, and little by little her life, with anguish of foresight, and with anguish of love, is overclouded. And yet, though her father’ s door stands open to call her back, she will not abandon him. She thinks of her children, she thinks of their future, and she will not abandon him. He grows morose. More and more he becomes like the animals. The beauty which she first saw in him lives now only in memory. The recollection of the past, or some dimly-painted dream of the future, is all the source of joy that is left her; for the present to her is full of woe, and sorrow, and humiliation. Gradually his friends forsake him. He is abandoned by one and by another. He is cast out of work and out of position. More and more is he degraded and bestialized; and well might she cry, “ Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” But she cries no such thing. No angel in heaven ever ministered more patiently, more tenderly, or more indefatigably for a soul than does she for him. And when at last he dies, and every person in the whole neighbourhood breathes freer, and says, “ Thank God, he is gone, and she is free at last!” she is the only mourner; she is the only one that remembers the good that was in him; and she stands at his grave bowed down with real grief. She stood by him through good report and through evil report, as she promised; and love triumphed. Tell me, unbrutified men, is there no beauty in self-denial or in self-sacrifice? Take every single moral quality. Take those fruits of the Spirit recorded in the word of God which you will find in the fifth chapter of Galatians. Love--is not that beautiful? Is there anything that makes the face so seraphic as the full expression of a noble and high minded love? Joy--even a curmudgeon of avarice will look with admiration upon the cheery, face of outbursting joy in children. Peace, such as we often see when the passions are burned out, when the day and its heat are gone, and the soul in its old age sits waiting for the final revelation--this is beautiful. The beauty of the house is in the cradle or in the armchair. Long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control--are not these, when they exist in plenary power, esteemed by mankind honourable and beautiful? and do they not excite the involuntary exclamation of surprise? Now, it is on account of the intrinsic beauty of moral quality that piety and religious life, in their higher forms, are spoken of in the word of God as beautiful; and the consummation of piety in the social estate, in the Church, whether in the present or in the future, is celebrated all the way through the Bible as beautiful. When the beauty that is in moral quality shall be developed and made conspicuous; when not merely here and there a person, or a handful, or a household, are harmonious, all the others being relatively at discords; when not only single families in a neighbourhood, or single members in a Church are at peace; but when, in serried ranks, men shall shine with the beauty of holiness, and be lifted into a higher state in which they are able to give positiveness to the fruits of the spirit; when neighbour does it to neighbour, and it becomes the public sentiment, and the air is full of it--then will come the millennial day; then will be realized that enchanting vision which danced in the air before the prophet’ s eye; then shall men live together in righteousness; then shall that state be known which is symbolized by the lying down of the lion with the lamb; then all brute natures, all that live by vice, and cruelty, and wickedness, shall be cleansed out of the earth; and all men shall rejoice in the light, and in the glory, and in the supremacy of those spiritual experiences which belong to a religious life. It is often the case, when persons are brought into the Christian life--especially when in great numbers, and under great excitement--that the first thought of every one is, “ Now, what shall I do?” And some begin to think of tracts, and wonder if it would not be well for them to have a district. Others inquire if they had not better go out and see their young friends, and preach to them. They are taught explicitly that they must go to work. It is said to them, “ You are converted; now go to work. Start prayer meetings. Bring in the neighbourhood.” I do not say that these things are to be deprecated: on the contrary, in due degree, and with proper discretion, they all may be duties; but to represent a Christian life as having its first exhibition and its peculiar testimony in setting itself to work on and about somebody else is a grave mistake. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Titus 2:11-14 The grace of God that bringeth salvationThe gospel I. What is here said of its nature.1. The name. “ The grace of God.”2. The subject “ Bringing salvation.”3. The manifestation. “ Hath appeared.” (1) None are excluded from its benefits.(2) None are exempt from its appointments. II. Its influence.1. How the gospel teaches. (1) Precept.(2) Example.(3) Motive.(4) Real and spiritual operation and efficiency. 2. What the gospel teaches. (1) What it teaches us to deny? Ungodliness and worldly lusts. (2) What it teaches us to do? “ To live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world.” (3) What it teaches us to expect? “ Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” (4) What it teaches us to acknowledge? “ Who gave Himself,” etc. (W. Jay.) The gospel of the grace of God I. Its distisguishing characteristics. “ The grace of God.”1. The gift.2. Its objects.3. Its purpose. II. The universality of its appearance.1. Adapted for all.2. Revealed for all.3. To be proclaimed to all. III. The inestimable boon which it bestows. “ Salvation.”1. From the condemning power of sin.2. From the defilement of sin.3. From the love of sin.4. From the power of sin.5. From the punishment of sin. IV. Its practical influence. “ Teaching us,” etc. The way of salvation is the highway of holiness and of purity; the unclean may not pass over it; and within the gates of the celestial City “ there shall enter nothing that defileth, that worketh abomination, or that maketh a lie.” Wherever this gospel hath come, “ in demonstration of the Spirit and with power,” it hath swept away the obscure and execrable rites, the foul abominations, the detestable practices of paganism. Wherever this gospel hath come “ in demonstration of the Spirit and with power,” it hath purified the polluted, it hath made the dishonest honest, the intemperate sober, the licentious chaste. It has converted the monster of depravity into the humble, correct, consistent, temperate disciple of Christ. The abandoned woman it has purified and refined; and he who was at once the disgrace, the dishonour, of his family, of society, and of his country, renewed, reformed, sanctified, made holy, it has placed at the feet of the Redeemer, like the recovered maniac, “ clothed and in his right mind.” (T. Raffles, D. D.) The extensiveness of the gospel offers That the message which Jesus was anointed to deliver emanated from the sovereign goodness and everlasting mercy of Jehovah, whereby before all worlds He had devised a plan for the restoration of ruined man, and contains a revelation of His will, is a truth at once most animating and important. It is a firm conviction of this momentous truth which induces the believer to set a proper value on the gospel as the message of glad tidings of great joy. I. Our thoughts are directed, first, to the source of the gospel, and that source is the grace of God. The proper signification of the word “ grace” is favour--unmerited goodness and mercy in a superior conferring benefit upon others. The grace spoken of in the text is the revelation of the Divine will set forth in the gospel, which, in the strictest sense, may be termed “ the grace of God” ; it being a revelation to which man had no title, setting forth promises of which man was utterly unworthy, unfolding a plan of redemption which man had no reason to expect. This grace “ bringeth salvation.” Herein consists its importance. “ What shall I do to be saved?” “ What good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life?” “ Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?” These are vitally important questions--questions which will frequently present themselves even to the most careless, and they can be satisfactorily answered in the gospel alone. The gospel bringeth salvation, for it points out to man the means of his recovery from guilt and degradation. This salvation is complete and infinite, including all the blessings of the everlasting covenant--that covenant which displays to us the mercy and love of God the Father; the benefits of the incarnation, life, crucifixion, ascension, and intercession of God the Son; and all the enlightening, enlivening, and sanctifying influences of God the Holy Ghost. In the possession of these consists our salvation. The gospel directs man to a Saviour who has promised, and is able and willing, to bestow any blessing upon those who believe in Him: it promises pardon, reconciliation, peace; it unfolds the glories of the eternal world; and it invites and stimulates the sinner to strive, through grace, to become meet for the heavenly inheritance. II. Now consider the persons for whose benefit this grace of God hath appeared. The apostle says, “ The grace of God, that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men” ; or, according to the translation in the margin of our Bibles, “ The grace of God, which bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared” ; and this rendering I conceive to be the more correct. The gospel, then, is described as bringing salvation to all men; that is, as offering to all who accept it free and full remission of sin, through the blood of the Lord Jesus; as opening to all believers the gate of the kingdom of heaven. The gospel is precisely suited for all the wants of a fallen sinner; it meets him in the hour of difficulty; and, consequently, its offers of mercy are addressed to every sinner. In the manifestation of Jesus to the wise men, who came from the east to worship Him; in the prophetic declaration of the aged Simeon, that the Child whom he took up in his arms should be a light to lighten the Gentiles; in the rending of the veil of the temple, when Jesus had given up the ghost; in the unlimited commission “ Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” ; and in their qualification for this important work, by the miraculous gift of tongues, we discover that the new dispensation was designed for the spiritual and eternal benefit of the whole human race. The rich dispensation of mercy revealed in the gospel beautifully illustrates the gracious character of our heavenly Father. It is calculated to remove all erroneous views of His attributes, His mercy, His compassion, His tenderness towards the works of His hands. Why that gospel should not have been clearly manifested for so many ages after the fall of man--why eighteen centuries should have elapsed, and millions of our fellow creatures should still be immersed in the gross darkness of heathen superstition--is one of those secret things which belong to the Lord our God. It is not our province to sit in judgment on the wisdom of Jehovah’ s plans to weigh the wisdom of Jehovah’ s counsels; neither are we to seek to pry into the mysterious dealings of His providence. We are, rather, thankfully to acknowledge the blessings bestowed upon ourselves, and earnestly seek to improve them to the uttermost; recollecting that responsibility is commensurate with privilege. (T. Bissland, M. A.) The grace of God I. The original first moving cause of all the blessings we have from God is orate.1. Survey all the blessings of the covenant, and from first to last you will see grace doth all. Election, vocation, justification, sanctification, glorification, all is from grace. 2. To limit the point. Though it is of grace, yet not to exclude Christ, not to exclude the means of salvation. 3. My next work shall be to give you some reasons why it must be so that grace is the original cause of all the blessings we receive from God; because it is most for the glory of God, and most for the comfort of the creature. (1) It is most convenient for the glory of God to keep up the respects of the creature to Him in a way suitable to His majesty. (2) It is most for the comfort of the creature. Grace is the original cause of all the good we expect and receive from God, that we may seek the favour of God with hope and retain it with certainty. II. Grace in the discoveries of the gospel hath shined out in a greater brightness than ever it did before.1. What a darkness there was before the eternal gospel was brought out of the bosom of God. There was a darkness both among Jews and Gentiles. In the greatest part of the world there was utter darkness as to the knowledge of grace, and in the Church nothing but shadows and figures. 2. What and how much of grace is now discovered? I answer (1) The wisdom of grace. The gospel is a mere riddle to carnal reason, a great mystery (1 Timothy 3:16).(2) The freeness of grace both in giving and accepting.(3) The efficacy and power of grace.(4) The largeness and bounty of grace.(5) The sureness of grace. III. The grace of God revealed in the gospel is the great means of salvation, or a grace that tends to salvation.1. It hath a moral tendency that way; for there is the history of salvation what God hath done on His part; there are the counsels of salvation what we must do on our part; and there are excellent enforcements to encourage us to embrace this salvation. 2. Because it hath the promise of the Spirit’ s assistance (Romans 1:16). The gospel is said to be “ the power of God unto salvation,” not only because it is a powerful instrument which God hath appropriated to this work, but this is the honour God puts upon the gospel that He will join and associate the operation of His Spirit with no other doctrine but this. IV. This salvation which the grace of God bringeth is free for all that will accept it. God excludes none but those that exclude themselves. It is said to appear to all men 1. Because it is published to all sorts of men; they all have a like favour in the general offer (John 6:37). 2. All that accept have a like privilege; therefore this grace is said to appear to all men. There is no difference of nations, nor of conditions of life, nor of lesser opinions in religion, nor of degrees of grace. See all summed up by the apostle (Colossians 3:11). (T. Manton, D. D.) The Epiphany and mission of grace To this important statement the apostle is led up by the consideration of certain very homely and practical duties which fall to the lot of Christians in various walks of life, and these matters he refers to as “ the things pertaining to sound doctrine.” He has a word of practical counsel for several distinct classes of persons; for he knows the wisdom of being definite. In the connection indicated by that little word “ for” we have both an introduction to, and a striking illustration of, the great truth that the passage is designed to set forth. It is the gospel with its wondrous revelation of grace that is to provide us with new and high incentives boa life of practical virtue and holiness. It is because we are not under the law, but under grace, that the righteousness of the law is to be fulfilled in us. To destroy the works of the devil, and to restore and perfect the grandest work of God on earth, was indeed an undertaking worthy of such conditions as the Incarnation and the atonement. The apostle speaks of grace itself before he proceeds to indicate the effects of grace, and of the first grand object and work of grace before he proceeds to enlarge upon its ulterior effects. He begins with the assertion that “ the grace of God which bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared.” In these opening words, first our attention is invited to this central object, the grace of God, then to the fact of its epiphany or manifestation, and then to its first most necessary purpose and mission--the bringing of salvation within the reach of all men. I. All true and evangelical religion must have its commencement in the apprehension of divine grace, and therefore it is of no small importance that we should endeavour clearly to understand what is denoted by the word. Divine grace, we may say, is the child of love and the parent of mercy. The essential love of the great Father’ s heart takes definite form, and accommodates itself to our need; reveals itself in facts, and presents itself for our acceptance; and then we call it grace. That grace received rescues from the disastrous effects of sin; heals our inward diseases, and comforts our sorrows; and then we call it mercy. But grace does not exhaust itself in the production of mercy any more than love exhausts itself in the production of grace. The child leads us back to the parent; the experience of mercy leads us back to that “ grace wherein we stand” ; and the enjoyment of grace prepares us for the life of love, and for that wondrous reciprocity of affection in which the heavenly Bridegroom and His Bride are to be bound together forever. Thus of the three mercy ever reaches the heart first; and it is through accepted mercy that we apprehend revealed grace; similarly it is through the revelations of grace that we learn the secret of eternal love. And as with the individual so with mankind at large. Mercy, swift-winged mercy, was the first celestial messenger that reached a sin-stricken world; and in former dispensations it was with mercy that men had most to do. But if former dispensations were dispensations of mercy, the present is preeminently the dispensation of grace, in which it is our privilege not only to receive mercy, but to apprehend the attitude of God towards us from which the mercy flows. But let us remember that though specially revealed to us now, the grace of God towards humanity has existed from the very first. The Lamb was slain in the Divine foreknowledge before the foundation of the world. But the grace of God has in it a further and higher object than the mere provision of a remedy for human sin--than what is merely remedial. God has purposed in His own free favour towards mankind to raise man to a position of moral exaltation and glory, the very highest, so far as we know, that can be occupied or aspired to by a created intelligence. Such is the destiny of humanity. This is the singular favour which God designs for the sons of men. God’ s favour flows forth to other intelligences also, but not to the same degree, and it is not manifested after the same fashion. This eternal purpose of God, however, which has run through the long ages, was not fully revealed to the sons of men until the fulness of time arrived. It was revealed only in parts and in fragments, so to speak. From Adam to John the Baptist every man that ever went to heaven went there by the grace of God. The grace of God has constantly been in operation, but it was operating in a concealed fashion. Even those who were the subjects of Divine grace seem scarcely to have known how it reached them, or in what manner they were to be affected by any provision that it might make to meet their human sins. Before the full favour of God could be revealed to mankind it would seem to have been necessary first of all that man should be put under a disciplinary training, which should induce within him a conviction of the necessity for the intervention of that favour, and dispose him to value it when it came. Grace, we have already said, is the child of love and the parent of mercy. We discover now that the love of God is not a passive, inert possibility, but a living power that takes to itself definite form, and hastens to meet and overcome the forces of evil to which we owe our ruin. II. But further, the apostle not only calls our attention to Divine grace, but he proceeds to state with great emphasis that it has appeared or been made manifest. We are no longer left in doubt as to its existence, or permitted to enjoy its benefits without knowing whence they flow. In order to be manifested, the grace of God needed not only to be affirmed, but to be illustrated, I may say demonstrated, and then only was man called upon to believe in it. It might have been written large enough for all the world to see, that God was love. It might have been blazoned upon the starry heavens so that every eye might have read the wondrous sentence, and yet I apprehend we should have been slow to grasp the truth which the words contain, had they not been brought within reach of our finite apprehension in concrete form in the personal history, in the life, in the action, in the sorrow, in the death of God’ s own Son. When I turn my gaze towards the person of Christ I am at liberty to doubt God’ s favour towards me no longer. I read it in every action, I discover it in every word. Here is the first thought that brings rest to the heart of man. It has been demonstrated by the Incarnation and by the Atonement, that God’ s attitude on His side towards us is already one of free favour--favour toward all, however far we may have fallen, and however undeserving we may be in ourselves. You often hear people talking about making their peace with God. Well, the phrase may be used to indicate what is perfectly correct, but the expression in itself is most incorrect, for peace with God is already made. God’ s attitude towards us is already an assured thing. We have no occasion to go about to ask ourselves, “ How shall we win God’ s favour?” It is possible for a person to be full of friendly intentions to me, and yet for me to retain an attitude of animosity and enmity towards him. That does not alter his character towards me, or his attitude towards me; but it does prevent me from reaping any benefit from that attitude. And so, I repeat, the only point of uncertainty lies in our attitude towards God, not in His attitude towards us. III. Thus the apostle affirms that this grace of God ‘‘ bringeth salvation to every man.” Yes, God’ s free favour, manifested in the person of His own blessed Son, is designed to produce saving effects upon all. God makes no exception, excludes none. All are not saved. But why not? Not because the grace of God does not bring salvation to every man, but because all men do not receive the gift which the grace of God has brought to them. There are necessarily two parties to such a transaction. Before any benefit can accrue from a gift there must be a willingness on the one side to give, and a willingness on the other side to receive, and unless there be both of these conditions realised no satisfactory result can ensue. Here then is a question for us all: What has the grace of God, which is designed to have a saving effect upon all men, done for us? Has it saved us, or only enhanced our condemnation? Now we maintain that the enjoyment of the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins is needed before our experience can assume a definitely Christian form. The first thing that grace does is to bring salvation to me; and until I accept this I am not in a position to accept her other gifts. Grace cannot teach until I am in a position to learn, and I am not in a position to learn until I am relieved from anxiety and fear as to my spiritual condition. Go into yonder prison, and set that wretched felon in the condemned cell to undertake some literary work, if he is a literary man. Put the pen into his hand, place the ink and the paper before him. He flings down the pen in disgust. How can he set to work to write a history or to compose a romance, however talented or gifted he may be by nature, so long as the hangman’ s rope is over his head and the prospect of a coming execution staring him in the face? Obviously the man’ s thoughts are all in another direction--the question of his own personal safety preoccupies his mind. Give him that pen and paper to write letters which he thinks may influence persons in high quarters with a view to obtaining a reprieve, and his pen will move quickly enough. I can understand his filling up reams of paper on that subject, but not on any other. Is it likely that a God who has shown His favour towards us by the gift of His own Son should desire to keep us in uncertainty as to the effects of that grace upon our own case? Does not the very fact, that it is grace that has brought salvation to us, render it certain that it must be in the mind of God that we should have the full enjoyment of it? Let us rather ask, how can we obtain this knowledge of salvation, this inward conviction that all is well? The answer is a very simple one. Grace brings salvation within our reach as something designed for us. Not to tantalize us by exciting desires destined never to be realised, but in order that we may have the full benefit of it--the free favour of God has brought salvation within our reach to the very doors of our hearts. Surely we dishonour God when we for a moment suppose that He does not intend us to enjoy the blessing which His grace brings to us. All the deep and precious lessons that grace has to teach are, we may say, simply so many deductions from the first great object lesson--Calvary. It is through the Cross of Christ that the grace of God hath reached a sinful world; it is on the Cross that grace is revealed and by that Cross that its reality is demonstrated. But we may also add that it is in the Cross that grace lies hidden. Yes, it is all there; but faith has to search the storehouse and examine the hidden treasure, and find out more and more of the completeness of that great salvation which the grace of God has brought within our reach; nor shall we ever know fully all that has thus been brought within our reach until we find ourselves saved at last with an everlasting salvation--saved from all approach of evil or danger into that kingdom of glory which grace has opened to all believers. (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.) The grace of God in bringing salvation to all men I. The origin of salvation.1. Man did not deserve it.2. It was unsolicited.3. It was entirely the result of Divine grace. The grace of God (1) Made all the arrangements necessary for salvation. Devised the astounding plan. Fixed upon the means, time, etc. The grace of God (2) Brought the author of salvation. “ Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” etc. (2 Corinthians 8:9). (3) It brought the message of salvation. Gospel is emphatically the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24). (4) It brings the application of salvation to the soul. We are called by His grace--justified freely by His grace--sanctified by His grace--kept and preserved by tits grace--and the topstone is brought on amid ascriptions of Grace, grace unto it.” II. The extent of salvation. The grace of God bringeth salvation 1. To all classes and degrees of men. To the rich and the poor; noble and ignoble; monarch and the peasant; the ruler and the slave. 2. To men of all grades of moral guilt. It includes the moralist, and excludes not the profane. 3. To men of all ages. III. The influence of salvation on the moral character of man. It teaches and enforces the necessity of 1. The abandonment of ungodliness and worldly lusts.2. Sobriety of conduct.3. Righteousness of life.4. Godliness of heart. Application:1. How we should rejoice in the riches and fulness of Divine grace. 2. How necessary that we cordially receive the invaluable boon it presents. 3. And how important that we practically exemplify the moral lessons it communicates. (J. Burns, D. D.) The gospel described 1. A choice and excellent description of the gospel; it is the grace of God, that is the doctrine of God’ s free grace and gratuitous favour declared in Christ to poor sinners. 2. The joyful message which the gospel brings, and that is salvation; the gospel makes a gracious tender of salvation, and that universally to lost and undone sinners. 3. The clear light and evidence that it does hold forth this message in and by; it has appeared or shined forth like the day star or the rising sun. 4. The extent of its glorious beams, how far they reach. It is tendered to all without restriction or limitation. (1) As to nations, Jew or Gentile.(2) As to persons, rich or poor, bond or free.(3) Without restriction in reference to the degree of their graces. 5. The great lesson which the gospel teaches, negative and positive. (a) Negative, to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts; where, by ungodliness, understand all sins committed against the first table; by worldly lusts, all sins committed against the second table; called worldly lusts because the object of them is worldly things, and because they are the lusts of worldly men. (b) Positive, to live:(1) Soberly: he begins with our duty to ourselves, then to our neighbour, and last of all to God, and so proceeds from the easier to the harder duties: and observe the connection, soberly and righteously and godly, not disjunctively; as if to live soberly, righteously, or in pretence godly, were sufficient. A sobriety in speech, in behaviour, in apparel, in eating and drinking, in recreations, and in the enjoyment of lawful satisfactions. (2) Righteously, exercising justice and charity towards our neighbour; he that is uncharitable is unjust and unrighteous, and the unrighteous shall no more enter into the kingdom of God than the unholy; and all a person’ s pretences to godliness are but hypocrisy without righteousness toward our neighbour. (3) Godly, godliness has an internal and external part; the internal and inward part of godliness consists in a right knowledge of Him, in a fervent love unto Him, in an entire trust and confidence in Him, in an holy fear to offend Him, in subjecting our wills entirely to Him, in holy longings for the fruition and enjoyment of Him. The external and outward part of godliness consists in adoration and bodily worship; this is due to God from us; He was the Creator of the body as well as of the soul, and will glorify the body as well as the soul; therefore we are to glorify God with our bodies, and with our spirits, which are the Lord’ s. 6. The time when and the place where this lesson is to be learned, in this present world. Here is the place, and now is the time when this duty of living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world is to be performed by us. Learn, that a sober, righteous, and godly life in this present world is absolutely necessary in order to our obtaining the happiness and glory of the world to come. (W. Burkitt, M. A.) The grace of God Although the doctrine of the Churches of the Old and New Testament be the very selfsame in regard 1. Of the author, who is God;2. Substance and matter, which is perfect righteousness required in both;3. Scope and end to the justification of a sinner before God; yet are there diverse accidental differences between them which, that we may the better understand both the offices and the benefits by Christ, are meet to be known. Some of them we shall note out of these words as we shall come unto them.(1) The first difference is in that the gospel is called grace, which word the law acknowledgeth not; nay, these two are opposed, to be under the law and to be under grace. To be under the law is not to be under it as a rule of life, for so all believers on earth, yea the saints and angels in heaven, are under it; but to be under the yoke of it, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. For to omit the least part of the yoke, standing in the observation of 1. Many,2. Costly,3. Laborious,4. Burdensome ceremonies, what a killing letter is the law which commandeth inward and perfect righteousness, for nature and actions, and that in our own persons? which promiseth life upon no other condition but of works, “ Do this, and live” ; and these must be such as must be framed according to that perfect light and holiness of nature in which we are created, which wrappeth us under the curse of sin. Now to be under grace is to be freed from all this bondage; not only from those elements and rudiments of the world, but especially 1. When the yoke of personal obedience to justification is by grace translated from believers to the person of Christ our surety, so that He doing the law we might live by it. 2. When duties are not urged according to our perfect estate of creation, but according to the present measure of grace received; not according to full and perfect righteousness, but according to the sincerity and truth of the heart, although from weak and imperfect faith and love: not as meriting anything, but only as testifying the truth of our conversion, in all which the Lord of His grace accepteth the will for the deed done. 3. When the most heavy curse of the law is removed from our weak shoulders and laid upon the back of Jesus Christ, even as His obedience is translated unto us, and thus there is no condemnation to those that are in Him. 4. When the strength of the law is abated so as believers may send it to Christ for performance, for it cannot vex us as before the ministry of grace it could; which is another law, namely of faith, to which we are bound, the which not only can command us as the former, but also give grace and power to obey and perform in some acceptable sort the commandment. And this is the doctrine of grace which we are made partakers of. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Genuine Christianity I. A true and graphic outline of doctrine essential to salvation.1. How ancient the purpose of this grace.2. How great and glorious its nature.3. How benignant its design.4. How unrestricted its manifestation. II. A view of those works which accompany salvation.1. Vigilant self-denial.2. The right governance of the moral relations of life. III. Motives by which combined faith and obedience may be sustained and enforced.1. The temporary nature of the discipline.2. The self-sacrifice of Christ.3. The future manifestation of Christ. (Jas. Foster, B. A.) The soul culture of the world I. The instrument of true soul culture. “ The grace of God,” i.e., the gospel.1. It is the love of God.2. The love of God to save.3. The love of God revealed to all. II. The process of true soul culture.1. The renunciation of a wrong course.2. The adoption of a right course.3. The fixing of the heart upon a glorious future. III. The end of true soul culture.1. Moral redemption.2. Spiritual restoration to Christ.3. Complete devotedness to holy labour.4. The self-sacrifice of Christ. His gift teaches the enormity of moral evil. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The soul’ s rest When the illustrious, learned, and wealthy John Selden was dying, he said to Archbishop Usher, “ I have surveyed most of the learning that is among the sons of men, and my study is filled with books and manuscripts (he had 8,000 volumes in his library) on various subjects; but at present I cannot recollect any passage out of all my books and papers whereon I can rest my soul, save this from the sacred Scriptures: ‘ The grace of God that bringeth salvation,’” etc. Hath appeared to all men Love made visible I. The apostle sets forth, as the foundation of all, the appearance of the grace of God. Grace, the theological term which, to many of us, sounds so cold and unreal and remote, is all throbbing with tenderness and warm with life if we understand what it means. It means the pulsation of the heart of God pouring a tide of gracious love on sinful men, who do not deserve one drop of it to fall upon them, and who dwell so far beneath His loftiness that the love is made still more wonderful by the condescension which makes it possible. The lofty loves the low, and the love is grace. The righteous loves the sinful, and the love is grace. Then, says my text, there is something which has made this Divine love of God, so wonderful in its loftiness, and equally wonderful in its passing by men’ s sinfulness, visible to men. The grace, has “ appeared.” Scientists can make sounds visible by the symmetrical lines into which heaps of sand upon a bit of paper are cast by the vibration of a string. God has made invisible love plain to the sight of all men, because He has sent us His Son. II. Notice the universal sweep of this grace. The words should be read, “ The grace of God, that bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared.” It brings salvation to all men. It does not follow from that, that all men take the salvation which it brings. Notice the underlying theory of a universal need that lies in these words. The grace brings salvation to all men, because all men need that more than any thing else. In the notion of salvation there lies the two ideas of danger and of disease. It is healing and it is safety; therefore, if it be offered to all, it is because all men are sick of a sore disease, and stand in imminent and deadly peril. That is the only theory of men’ s deepest need which is true to the facts of human existence. III. Notice the great work of this grace made visible. It seems to be a wonderful descent from “ the grace of God which bringeth salvation to all hath appeared” to “ teaching us.” Is that all? Is that worth much? If by “ teaching” we mean merely a reiteration in words, addressed to the understanding or the heart, of the great principles of morality and conduct, it is a very poor thing, and a tremendous come down from the apostle’ s previous words. Such an office is not what the world wants. To try to cure the world’ s evils by teaching, in that narrow sense of the expression, is something like trying to put a fire out by reading the Riot Act to the flames. You want fire engines, and not paper proclamations, in order to stay their devouring course. But it is to be noticed that the expression here, in the original, means a great deal more than that kind of teaching. It means correcting, or chastening. Our Physician has in His great medicine chest balm and bandages for all wounds. But He has also a terrible array of gleaming blades with sharp edges, and of materials for cauterising and burning away proud flesh. And if ever we are to be made good and pure, as God wants to make us, it must be through a discipline that will often be agony, and will often be pain, and against the grain. For the one thing that God wants to do with men is to bring their wills into entire harmony with His. And we cannot have that done without much treatment which will inflict in love beneficent pain. No man can live beside that Lord without being rebuked moment by moment, and put to wholesome shame day by day, when he contrasts himself with that serene and radiant pattern and embodiment of all perfection. And no man can receive into his heart the powers of the world to come, the might of an indwelling Spirit, without that Spirit exercising as its first function that which Christ Himself told us it would perform (John 16:8). (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The universal offer of salvation Salvation is offered to all men I. Irrespective of their varying moral conditions. Though “ all have sinned,” yet all are not sinners in the same degree, or after the same fashion. Sinners are of many kinds--young, old, beginners in offences, hardened in crime, sinners through ignorance, against light, etc. II. Because all men need it. God recognises degrees of guilt and punishes “ according to transgression.” There are “ few stripes” and “ many stripes” ; yet all need salvation, and all men may have it. III. Because God loves all. He is no respecter of persons, and has no delight in the death of him that dieth. “ God so loved the world,” etc. IV. Because Christ died for all. (F. Wagstaff.) The gospel for all sorts of men It bringeth salvation to all men, that is, all kinds and conditions of men, not to every particular or singular of the kinds, but to all the sorts and kinds of men, to servants as well as masters, to Gentile as well as Jew, to poor as well as rich. Thus is it said that God would have all men saved, that is, of all sorts of men some. So Christ healed all diseases, that is, all kinds of diseases; and the Pharisees tithed all herbs, that is, all kinds; for they took not every particular herb for tithe, but took the tenth of every kind, and not the tenth of every herb. (T. Taylor, D. D.) The grace of salvation appearing to all men The grace of God is the prime mover in the work of salvation. It “ bringeth salvation.” Man had nothing to pay for it, and man could not merit it. I. But in what respects does the grace of God bring salvation? Here we remark generally, that it brought it forward in the decree from everlasting. Again, the grace of God brought salvation forward another stage, by publishing the promise of it to man after his ruinous fall. This promise was to be the ground of man’ s faith and hope in God; and these graces were necessary for giving sinners an interest in the Divine salvation. The grace of God advanced salvation work still further when it brought the First-begotten into the world. It was on this occasion that it was purchased. To gain it, Christ had to sustain the rejections of men, the malice and wrath of evil spirits, and the wrath of His heavenly Father. No less conspicuous is the grace of God in applying to the soul the benefits of purchased redemption. It is not when persons have ceased from the love and commission of sin, that the Holy Spirit comes with power to call them effectually, and to unite them to the Lord Jesus Christ. No; He addresses Himself to His work when sinners are dead in trespasses and in sins--alienated from the life of God--without God and without hope in the world. But there is still another stage of the grace of God that bringeth salvation, and it is the time when Christ will raise His people from the dead, and make them sit visibly as they now sit representatively in heavenly places with Himself. II. We shall now turn your attention to the nature of the salvation which the grace of God thus brings to sinners. And here you will notice in general that the term salvation implies a state of danger, or of actual immersion in suffering; and denotes the averting of the danger, or the deliverance from the suffering. We say of a man who has been delivered from a house on fire, that he has been saved. We also assert of him who has been drawn from a shipwreck and brought in life to land, that he has been saved, And in like manner, we affirm in regard to the man who has been set free from transgression and its train of consequences, that he has obtained salvation. More particularly, you will observe 1. That it is a salvation from the guilt of sin.2. It includes deliverance from the defilement of sin.3. Deliverance from the power of sin.4. Deliverance from the very being of sin.5. Liberation from the curse of God.6. Freedom from the wrath of God. III. We have thus given you an outline of the salvation spoken of in the text, we shall now inquire in what respects it appears to all men. There is one class of persons to whom salvation does more than appear; for they shall enjoy it in all its length and breadth. The chosen of God shall be set free from the guilt, the power, and being of sin, and redeemed from the wrath and curse of God. But there are some respects in which the salvation which they enjoy, presents itself to the view of others, who trover come to the actual enjoyment of its precious blessings.1. The grace that bringeth salvation appears to all, because time and space are given them for seeking and obtaining it. 2. The grace of salvation appears to all in the inspired Word and appointed ordinances. 3. The grace of salvation appears to all, inasmuch as mercy is offered to them with out distinction. 4. The grace that bringeth salvation appears to all, in the common operations of the Holy Spirit. From our subject see (1) Ground for accepting the salvation of the gospel. (2) Learn reason to fear lest we should not enter the heavenly rest through unbelief. (3) Ground of gratitude on the part of the people of God. They are distinguished above the rest of mankind. While salvation appears to others, it is possessed and enjoyed by them. We now propose IV. To inquire into what is meant by the terms “ all men.” As to the import of the terms “ all men,” you will observe 1. That they cannot mean every individual of our race. It is matter of fact that many, both in the days of the apostles were, and in our own time are, wholly unenlightened by the good news of salvation. 2. The grace of God appears to men of all countries. This is no contradiction of what we formerly said; for although salvation has not yet been shown to all the individuals of our race, yet some of almost every kingdom under heaven have been made acquainted with the gospel of God’ s Son; and it is matter of promise that all the ends of the earth shall yet see the salvation of our God. 3. The grace of God appears to all kinds of men. None are excluded from it who do not exclude them selves. It is presented to persons of all ages and all ranks, to men of every kind of culture and attainment. Nor does the gospel inquire into a man’ s character, in order to discover whether he is entitled to salvation. Grace is offered to the moral and immoral--to the virtuous and the vicious. V. We are now to investigate the respects in which the grace of God appears to men in general. Our text does not assert that the grace of God is enjoyed by all, but only that it appears to them. They behold in somewhat the same manner as Balaam said he would see the star that was to arise out of Judah: “ I shall see Him, but not now; I shall behold Him, but not nigh.” It is but a distant sight that the unregenerate obtain of the grace of salvation. It appears to them as a beauteous and glowing star in the remote horizon, which they may admire, but do not reach.1. Time and space are given them for accepting salvation. 2. The grace of God appears to men in general in their enjoyment of Divine ordinances. Ordinances are the appointed means of salvation. They are not effectual of themselves to the communication of saving benefit; but they are the medium through which spiritual blessings are im parted. 3. The grace of God appears to all in the offer of salvation to every individual. 4. The grace of God appears to men in general in the common operations of the Spirit. 5. The grace of God appears to men in general in the impressions of Divine truth upon the heart. (1) What a great privilege is possessed by the hearers of the gospel.(2) Reason for great anxiety. Look after the evidences of your real Christianity. (A. Ross, M. A.) All men must come to the grace of salvation The American officer who was appointed to measure the boundaries of Mexico and the United States tells us touchingly that the springs which occur at intervals of sixty or a hundred miles apart in the desert are perforce the meeting places of life. All living creatures must gather there or die in an agony of thirst. There comes the American panther, and laps luxuriously the stream beside the timid hare--the one tamed by thirst, the other made brave by thirst; and there come the traveller and the trader and light the campfire beside the wigwam of the scalp-clothed warrior of the prairie, civilised by thirst; they quaff the waters together. So the waters of life should be resorted to by all mankind. Teaching us that denying ungodliness Grace our teacher The apostle proceeds to state that grace not only saves but undertakes our training; and this, of course, is a life-long work, a work that will only be concluded when grace ends in glory. Now, obviously, if this work is to be done as it should be done, the soul must, first of all, be in a position to receive teaching. If grace is really to undertake our training, and to teach us such lessons as only grace can teach, surely she must first of all calm the tumultuous misgivings which fill our hearts; and until grace has done this for us, how can she instruct us? If I am learning my lesson with a view to obtain grace, it cannot be grace that is acting the part of the teacher, for she can only teach where she has been already obtained. Grace cannot at one and the same moment be my teacher, and also that to obtain which I am being taught, for this, of course, involves a contradiction in terms. Hence, as we have said, unless this first point be settled, and we know that we are in the enjoyment of God’ s salvation, we are not in a position to learn from grace, whoever else it be that we may learn from. And thus it comes to pass, as a matter of simple fact, that a large number of nominal Christians are taught, indeed, after a certain fashion, but they are not taught by grace. They seek to learn of Christ in order that they may obtain the grace of Christ; they endeavour to become conformed to Christ in order that their resemblance to Christ may dispose the heart of God to regard them with the same favourable consideration which He bestowed on Him whom they seek to resemble. Such persons are under the law. Grace, then, is to be our instructress, and she has plenty of work before her in the training and preparation of the human subject for the glorious destiny which lies before him. Then only is it possible, after the adoption has taken place, for the education to begin. With these thoughts in our mind we will proceed to consider grace as our teacher, and first we will point out the contrast between the training of grace and the operation of law. Before the grace of God appeared men were under another teacher, and his name was “ Law.” Grace is our teacher, and she teaches us far more powerfully, far more efficiently, and far more perfectly than law can ever teach us. But observe, she will not share her office of teacher with law. The Christian is not to be a kind of spiritual mongrel, nor is his experience to be of a mongrel type--part legal, part spiritual, part savouring of bondage, part savouring of liberty: but the design of God is that we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and never allow ourselves, even for a moment, to be entangled in a yoke of bondage. How many Christians are there who never seem to have perceived that we are no more to be saved by grace and then trained by law, than we are to be saved by law and then trained by grace? How many who need to learn that as we are to be saved by grace at first, so we are to be trained by grace afterwards, until at last the cornerstone is raised upon the wondrous structure which only grace has reared, amidst shouts of “ Grace, grace unto it!” All is of grace from first to last. Now in order that we may very clearly apprehend what the teaching of God’ s word is on this subject, let us just put side by side the teaching of law and the teaching of grace, contrasting them one with the other, and then we shall see how much to the advantage of grace the contrast is. Grace teaches better than law.1. She teaches better than law, first, because she delivers to us a fuller and more distinct exhibition of the mind and will of God as regards human conduct, based upon a more complete manifestation of the Divine character. Grace, as she takes possession of our heart, makes us acquainted with the mind and will of God in a manner in which we should never have become acquainted with these by the mere influence and teaching of law. If you reflect for a moment, you will see that the object of law is not to reveal the mind and the will of the Lawgiver, but to lay down certain positive precepts for the direction of those to whom the legislation is given, or for whom the legislation is designed. If an Act of Parliament is passed by the British Legislature, by both Houses of Parliament, and a person were to ask, “ What is the object of this Act?” nobody would reply, “ To reveal to the British public what is the mind and will of the members of our Legislature.” Nothing of the kind. The object of the Act is to meet some specific political need, or to give some specific political direction to those who are subject to its authority. Even so the law delivered from Sinai was not primarily designed to reveal the mind and will of God. The law contained only a very partial revelation of the mind and will of God. The law consisted of certain positive precepts, which were given in the infancy of the human race for the direction and guidance of mankind. The rules and precepts which are laid down in the nursery are not designed to exhibit the mind and will of the parent, although they are in accordance with that mind and will. They are laid down for the convenience and for the benefit of those for whom the rules were made. A child knows something of the mind and will of the parent from personal contact with that parent, but not from the rules, or only to a very slender degree from the rules, which are laid down for its guidance. But when we turn from law to grace, then we see at once that we now are dealing with a revelation of the mind and the will of Him from whom the grace proceeds. Each act of favour which a parent bestows upon his child, or which a sovereign bestows upon his subject, is a revelation, so far as it goes, of the mind and will of the parent towards that particular child, or of the sovereign towards that particular subject, as the case may be. And even so every act of grace which we receive from God is a revelation, as far as it goes, of the mind and will of God towards us who are affected by the act. 2. Not only is the teaching of grace in itself fuller and more complete, but we are still more impressed by the superiority of the mode in which the teaching is given--the form in which this new doctrine is communicated. In the decalogue you are met with, “ Thou shalt,” or, “ Thou shalt not” --and you observe at once that the command addresses itself directly to your will. Children are not appealed to so far as their understandings are concerned. They are told to act in a certain particular way, or not to act in a certain particular way; and if a child stops to reason with its parents, an appeal is at once made to parental authority. “ Your duty, my child, is to obey, not to understand.” Or, once again, the decalogue makes no appeal to the affections of those to whom it was delivered; it deals not with our moral states, or with the motives from which actions proceed; it simply concerns itself with those actions, and speaks to the will which is responsible for them. But when we turn from the decalogue to the sermon on the mount we find that all is changed. It does not begin with a direct appeal to the will, and yet the will is touched by a stronger influence, and moved to action by a more mighty force, than ever operated upon the will of the Israelites at Sinai. Grace is our teacher; and we observe that the first word that she utters in this lesson is a blessing. The law had summed up its all of teaching with a curse “ Cursed is he that continueth not in all things that are written in this book to do them.” 2. She does not say, “ Ye shall be blessed if ye will become poor in spirit.” Grace drives no bargains; but she explains to us that a state of experience from which most of us would naturally shrink is a state of actual blessedness. Here you will observe that she appeals to our enlightened understanding, indicating to us a new and a higher view of self-interest, showing that God’ s will, so far from being opposed to our truest well-being, is in complete and full harmony with it; for He is our Father, and He loves us, and therefore desires to see us supremely happy like Himself. Does she not teach better than law? Once again. Not only does she teach by giving us a fuller and a deeper revelation of the mind and will of God, and exhibiting these to us in such a way as that she appeals not merely to our own will, demanding action, but to our understanding, and, through our understanding, to our feelings, kindling holy desires, and so setting the will at work almost before it is aware that it is working; but she does more than all this. 3. Grace teaches us by setting before our eyes the noblest and the most striking of all exemplars. Grace speaks to us through human lips; grace reveals herself to us in a human life. Now we all know how much more we learn from a personal teacher than from mere abstract directions. To watch a painter, and to see how he uses his brush, and carefully and minutely notice the little touches that give so much character and power to the product of his genius, does far more for us in the way of making us painters than any amount of mere abstract study of the art itself. This in itself may suffice to show the superiority of grace as a teacher. While the thunder sounded from Sinai and the fiery law was given, God still remained concealed. When the yell was taken away, and God was made flesh in the person of Christ, human eyes were allowed to look at Him, and human ears heard the sound of His voice. Perfection stood before us at last in concrete form. When grace teaches us, she always teaches us by leading up to Christ--by exhibiting fresh views of His perfection, drawing out our heart in admiration towards Him. Happy they who thus set themselves to learn Christ as their life lesson, not as a mere duty--that is legality--but because they have fallen in love with Christ! Happy they who learn Christ just as the astronomer learns astronomy! Why does he study astronomy? Would a Newton tell you that he has spent all those hours in the careful examination of the phenomena of nature, or absorbed in profound mathematical calculations, because he thought it his duty to do it? And even so those who are under the teaching of grace learn Christ, not because they are under a legal obligation to learn Him, but because they are mastered by an enthusiastic admiration for the Divine object. There is a beauty in Christ which wins the heart. But grace does more than even this. 4. She not only sets before us the highest of all exemplars, but she establishes the closest possible relationship between that Exemplar and ourselves. Grace is not content with merely setting an example before us; she takes us by the hand and introduces us to the Exemplar, tells us not only that this Exemplar is content to be our friend, but, more wonderful still, that He is content to be one with us, uniting Himself to us, that His strength may be made perfect in our weakness. “ Know ye not,” says grace, “ that Christ is in you?” In you; not merely outside you as a source of power, not merely beside you as a faithful companion on life’ s journey, but in you. “ Christ is your life,” says grace. Do you prefer to be under the law? Do you really elect to be bondslaves? You say your prayers in the morning; it is your duty to do it. You do not feel comfortable if you do not say them. You go to church; but it is not because you love to go and cannot stay away, or because you want to know more and more of God, or delight in His worship. “ I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” You go because it is your habit. May God save us from such bondage as this! Let us remember that all the while that we are thus trifling there is within our reach, if we would but have it, the glorious liberty of the children of God. (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.) Our teacher’ s mode of teaching You will observe that inasmuch as grace proposes to form Christ in our nature, she proceeds upon an altogether different method from that which is followed by law. Grace purposes to make the tree good, and then concludes, reasonably enough, that the fruit will be good; whereas law aims, so to speak, rather at improving the fruit than at regenerating the tree. Grace deals with the springs of action, and not primarily with action itself. She deals with actions, but deals with them only indirectly. She begins her beneficent operations by setting right that part of our nature from which actions proceed, and so, from first to last, grace is chiefly concerned with our motives, checking the sordid and the unworthy, and developing the noble and the godlike. Now, the contrast here lies between an outward objective law exhibited to the human understanding, claiming the homage of the will, and an inward and subjective law which becames part and parcel, so to speak, of the nature of him who receives it. Now it is by the teaching of grace that this new state of things is introduced; it is by the operation of grace that the Father’ s Law is to be written upon the hearts of His once rebellious children. She effects this blessed result, first by opening up to us through His Son a revelation of the Father’ s heart, and by showing us how deep and strong is His love towards us; in the second place, by sweeping away all obstacles between the Father’ s love and our experience of it; and thus in the third place, by bringing our humanity under the mighty operation of the Holy Spirit of God, whose work it is to form within us the nature of Christ; and once again, in the fourth place, grace indelibly inscribes God’ s law upon our hearts in the very terms of her own manifestation. For it is from the Cross that Grace is manifested and it is involved in the terms of its acceptance, that to the cross the eye of him who accepts it should be turned. We have just said that the first effect of grace is to reveal the Father’ s love to us, and to sweep away all the barriers which interfere with our enjoyment of that love; by this first act of grace we are introduced into what may be described as the life of love--a life in which we are no longer influenced by mere considerations of moral or legal obligation. The love of God shed abroad in the heart, like the genial rays of the sun, produces a responsive love within us which is simply the refraction, so to speak, of those rays; and this love, the gospel teaches us, is the fulfilling of the law.1. But love fulfils the law, not by a conscious effort to fulfil it, but because it is the voluntary response of the soul to the Person from whom the law has emanated. Love fulfils the law, not by commanding me to conform my conduct to a certain outward and objective standard, but by awakening within me a spiritual passion of devotion for the Person of Him whose will is law to those who love Him. Love knows nothing about mere restriction and repression--love seeks to please, not to abstain from displeasing; and so love fulfils, not merely abstains from breaking, the law. Thus we see that love takes us up to an altogether higher level than law. I cannot illustrate this point better than by referring for a moment to our earthly relationships to each other. There are certain laws which are applicable to these relationships. For instance, there are certain laws of our land, and there are certain laws contained in the Bible, which apply to the natural relationships of the father and of the husband. It is obviously the duty of the father and the husband to care for his wife and his children, to protect them, to provide for them, to endeavour to secure their well-being so far as in him lies. A man who occupies that relationship is bound to do not less than this. But does a really affectionate husband and father perform those various offices because the law constrains him to do so, because it is his legal duty to do them? Does he perform acts of tenderness towards his wife and towards his child because the law demands them of him? Even so the man whom grace has taught finds a new law within his nature, the law of love, in surrendering himself to which he fulfils indeed the outward and objective law, not because he makes an effort to fulfil it, but because he is true to his new nature. So that I may say, to put the thing concisely, grace is not opposed to law, but is superior to law; and the man who lives in grace lives not “ under the law,” because he is above the law. We imprison the wife beater. Why? Because he has fallen from the level of love altogether, and thus he has come down to the level of the law, and is within the reach of the law. Even so here the only persons who are not under law are the persons who are above law. Is the law written within our hearts, or is it only revealed from without? In our attempt to do what is right, do we simply do, or endeavour to do, what is right because we have recognised a certain external standard of duty, and are endeavouring to conform our conduct to it? Or do we do what is right because we are living in happy, holy intercourse with an indwelling God in whose love we find our law, and in surrendering ourselves to the influence of whose love, our highest enjoyment? Herein lies the test of the difference between legal experience and evangelical experience. 2. But here let me point out that grace, whilst she teaches us gently and tenderly, and in a very different way from law, has nevertheless sanctions of her own. They are the rewards and punishments which are congruous to the life of love, whereas the rewards and punishments of legal experience are such as are congruous to the life of legal servitude. We shall detect in a moment what these sanctions are if we reflect upon the nature of our relation to Him who has now become to us our law of life. It is the glory of the life of love that we have something to love. Our love is not merely an empty abstraction, nor is it merely a wasted energy that wanders in infinity; it is attracted towards a living Person. In the enjoyment of His society, which to the real Christian is not a matter of sentiment, but a matter of practical experience, the soul finds its highest privilege. Ah! grace disciplines as well as teaches. She does not spoil her children. She is not like some fond and indulgent mother, who fancies that she is benefiting her children when she is really injuring them more cruelly than in any other way she possibly could, by always giving them their own way. Grace does not teach us to be negligent, thoughtless, heedless, careless. Grace does not whisper in our ears, “ Now that you are saved once you are saved forever. Go on, and never mind what happens to you.” But grace teaches us very delicately. “ I will guide thee,” says grace, “ with my eye.” Grace teaches us. She brings out the scales of the sanctuary, and into the one she puts our worldly idol--our love of popularity, our self-seeking, our slothfulness, our self-indulgence, our pride of heart, all those little and great things which we are so apt to set against the society of Jesus, or rather which we are so apt to allow to come in between us and the society of Jesus. Yes, grace has her sanctions. And I am afraid that there are only too many Christians who have often to feel the force of those dread sanctions. Their whole life has come to be a clouded, unsatisfactory, melancholy, woebegone life. How many Christians are there of whom it cannot be said that the joy of the Lord is their strength! And why? They are under the discipline of grace. Yes, God does not forsake them altogether. He has not left them to their own waywardness, but He has visited their offences with the rod and their sin with scourges. They cannot be happy in the world since they have tasted something better in Christ. Nor can they be happy in Christ while they cast longing looks towards the world. But grace has also her rewards, and I love to think of them. What are they? The eye, perhaps, wanders on towards the future, and we think of the glories that are to be revealed. In this present world, amidst all the trials to which the Christian may be exposed, the school of grace has its prizes. Grace has her prizes. “ The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace.” Grace teaches indeed, but she teaches by first of all correcting, nay, by regenerating, the secret springs of our actions. Unless these are set right, how can our actions be right? This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Titus 2:15 These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke The duties of the episcopal function In all this Epistle it is evident that St. Paul looks upon Titus as advanced to the dignity of a prime ruler of the Church, and intrusted with a large diocese. I. The duties of his place. In a word, it is every bishop’ s duty to teach and to govern; and his way to do it is, “ not to be despised.”1. The first branch of the great work incumbent upon a church ruler is to teach. It is a work of charity, and charity is the work of heaven, which is always laying itself out upon the needy and the impotent: nay, and it is a work of the highest and the noblest charity; for he that teacheth another gives an alms to his soul: he clothes the nakedness of his understanding, and relieves the wants of his impoverished reason. Now this teaching may be effected two ways: (1) Immediately by himself. Change of condition changes not the abilities of nature, but makes them more illustrious in their exercise; and the episcopal dignity, added to a good preaching faculty, is like the erecting of a stately fountain upon a spring, which still, for all that, remains as much a spring as it was before, and flows as plentifully, only it flows with the circumstance of greater state and magnificence. But then, on the other hand, let me add also, that this is not so absolutely necessary as to be of the vital constitution of this function. He may teach his diocese, who ceases to be able to preach to it; for he may do it by appointing teachers, and by a vigilant exacting from them the care and the instruction of their respective flocks. He is the spiritual father of his diocese; and a father may see his children taught, though he himself does not turn schoolmaster. (2) Mediately, by the subordinate ministration of others; in which, since the action of the instrumental agent is, upon all grounds of reason, to be ascribed to the principal, he who ordains and furnishes all his churches with able preachers is a universal teacher; he instructs where he cannot be present; he speaks in every mouth of his diocese, and every congregation of it every Sunday feels his influence, though it hears not his voice. That master deprives not his family of their food who orders a faithful steward to dispense it. 2. The second branch of his work is to rule. “ Rebuke with all authority.” (1) It implies exaction of duty from the persons placed under it: for it is both to be confessed and lamented that men are not so ready to offer it where it is not exacted. (2) Government imports a protection and encouragement of the persons under it, in the discharge of their duty. (3) Coercion and animadversion upon such as neglect their duty; without which all government is but toothless and precarious, and does not so much command as beg obedience. II. The means assigned for the discharge of the duties mentioned. “ Let no man despise thee.”1. We will discourse of contempt, and the malign hostile influence it has upon government. As for the thing itself, every man’ s experience will inform him that there is no action in the behaviour of one man towards another, of which human nature is more impatient than of contempt, it being a thing made up of those two ingredients, an undervaluing of a man upon a belief of his utter uselessness and inability, and a spiteful endeavour to engage the rest of the world in the same belief and slight esteem of him. He that thinks a man to the ground will quickly endeavour to lay him there; for while he despises him, he arraigns and condemns him in his heart; and the after bitterness and cruelties of his practices are but the executioners of the sentence passed before upon him by his judgment. Contempt, like the planet Saturn, has first an ill aspect, and then a destroying influence. By all which, I suppose, it is sufficiently proved how noxious it must needs he to every governor; for, can a man respect the person whom he despises? And can there be obedience where there is not so much as respect? 2. Those just causes, that would render them, or indeed any other rulers, worthy to be despised: (1) Ignorance. A blind man sitting in the chimney corner is pardonable enough, but sitting at the helm he is intolerable. If men will be ignorant and illiterate, let them be so in private, and to themselves, and not set their defects in a high place, to make them visible and conspicuous. If owls will not be hooted at, let them keep close within the tree, and not perch upon the upper boughs. (2) Viciousness and ill morals. Virtue is that which must tip the preacher’ s tongue and the ruler’ s sceptre with authority: and therefore with what a controlling overpowering force did our Saviour tax the sins of the Jews, when He ushered in His rebukes of them with that high assertion of Himself, “ Who is there amongst you that convinces Me of sin?” (3) Fearfulness of, and mean compliances with, bold, popular offenders. (4) A proneness to despise others. (R. South, D. D.) Hints to ministers The Christian teacher should always act with mildness, yet with firmness. There are gradations to be observed.1. Instruction: “ these things speak.”2. Expostulation: “ exhort.”3. Reproof: Rebuke with authority. (F. Wagstaff.) Teaching out of the Scriptures These things, saith our apostle: for this purpose hath the Lord in great wisdom furnished the Scriptures to make the man of God able both to teach, instruct, and improve, so as he need go no further to seek for profitable things. Which teacheth such as will stand in God’ s counsel, to fetch from hence all their doctrines, all their proofs, all their exhortations, and all their reproofs; for so shall they be just, so shall they be powerful to work a work of edification, and so shall they be unresistible in the consciences of men. These things if men would tie themselves unto, they should increase men with the increasings of God in spiritual wisdom, watchfulness, and the fear of God. Then should we not meet with so many pretors for sin and liberty to the flesh, straining their wits to legitimate bastardly broods of opinions, which the Scriptures never acknowledged here. Nor so many who in their reproofs glad the hearts of the impenitent, and make heavy the hearts of those to whom the Lord hath spoken peace; who strike at the best things and men; and so as soon as ever they have delivered a truth in these, lest they should leave it while it is true, misapply it in the hypothesis; girding at godliness as too much scrupulosity and preciseness; accounting conscience a hypocrite, and the fear of God dissembling before men. Hence are discovered as sinful all reproofs of sin by jesting, interluding, and stage representations, in which fools make a mock of sin, and open a public school of all lewdness and iniquity; and if any devil or sin be cast out there, it is by Belzebub, the prince of the devils. Further, all reproofs by satirising, and by slanderous libels, and secret calumniations (all which commonly wreck themselves rather upon the persons than sins of men) are here reproved; which, although they be indeed sharp and biting means, yet hath the Lord appointed fitter and sharper arrows to smite His enemies withal, even sound and sufficient convictions out of the Word, which is able to wound and daunt kings themselves; and prescribed them also to be publicly drawn, and shot in such grave, reverent, and seemly sort, as is befitting.1. Both the person and calling of the reprover.2. The things themselves, which are weighty and serious: as also3. The presence of God and His congregation, whose matters are debated, and whose sentence against sin is in denouncing and executing. Small wisdom, therefore, it is, for men in these cases of the salvation and damnation of men to suffer their wits to play upon sin so lightly and jestingly as becometh rather some vain spectacle, or professed jester; then either the errand of the Lord, or a messenger from the Lord of hosts. (T. Taylor, D. D.) A summary of the “ things” Titus was to “ speak” 1. The central idea of the passage appears to be a life of sobriety, righteousness, and godliness, issuing in and sustaining the practical advice previously offered to old men and maidens, to matrons, aged and young, to youths, and slaves of all degrees. 2. The subjective condition of this heavenly life on earth is explicitly stated--a denial of all godliness and worldly passions. 3. This “ life” and its “ conditions” are originated and promoted by a process of Divine discipline. Here are processes, mental and disciplinary, which augment and stimulate this life of godliness. 4. This entire subjective process rests upon two groups of sublime objective realities: (1) The historic epiphany of the grace of God in the Incarnation; (2) the anticipated and prophetic epiphany of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Thus it calls for the exercise of the twofold energy of “ faith” and “ hope.” 5. The “ grace” and the “ glory of God,” received and appropriated in Christian faith and hope, attain their highest expression in the redemptive self-sacrifice of the God-man. 6. By way of closing the circle of the thought, it is expressly stated that the end of the redemptive work is the creation of “ a holy people,” who are not only His “ peculiar treasure” and inheritance, but who have, as the law and charter of their incorporation, this grand distinction, that they are charged with the genius of goodness--the passion for godliness. They are the very “ zealots of goodness,” passionately eager for all that will help and move them to realise the ideal of the Divine life. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.) Care in presentment of Divine truth Philopoeman, a Grecian general, was so enamoured of military tactics, that when he travelled he used to be pointing out to his friend the difficulties of steep or broken ground, and how the ranks of an army must be extended or closed, according to the difference made by rivers, ditches, and defiles. By such observations, and acting upon them in real warfare, he became one of the most skilful and successful generals in his time. Were Christian ministers to attend with as much care to the arrangement of Divine truth in their public instructions; were they to consider with as much attention what plans, all things considered, are most proper to be adopted in order to extend their usefulness, it might be expected their lives would be more useful than they often are. Let no man despise thee The causes of disrespect in the character of a clergyman The esteem of mankind, especially that of the wise and good, who are competent judges of moral excellence, is certainly a valuable blessing. It confirms the testimony of conscience, gives a lively satisfaction to the mind, procures the respect and services of mankind, extends the sphere of our own utility, and increases the opportunities of doing good. If a respectable character, in the opinion of the best judges, was thought so necessary to an orator to conciliate the favour of his audience, and give weight to his speech, must it not, for the same reasons, be infinitely more requisite in a preacher of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ? Esteem is the natural ground of confidence and respect; and in proportion as we sink in the opinion of mankind, they will suspect our integrity, contemn our authority, and disregard our instructions. In pointing out the causes of disrespect in the character of a clergyman, I do not allude to those grosser vices which are an outrage against religion, and would expel men from the sacred office. I would point to those inconsistencies of conduct, or defeats of accomplishment, which fall not under the lash of discipline, but tarnish the reputation, and lessen the utility of a minister of the gospel.1. In the character of a minister of the gospel, ignorance is both a derogatory and a hurtful quality. 2. Another, and a still juster, cause of contempt is negligence in discharging the duties of his office. Ignorance, although always a humiliating circumstance, may sometimes proceed from defect of understanding; and whenever it arises from that cause, however deserving it may be of pity, it is neither the ground of censure, nor the proper object of contempt. But wilful negligence, as it proceeds entirely from ourselves, and always implies a defect of principle, justly lays us open to reproach, and must bring us down in the estimation of mankind. 3. Another ground of disrespect is bigotry and imprudence. As by neglecting the duties of our office we may suffer piety to decline and immorality to increase, so by an ignorant and furious zeal we may sow the seeds of superstition and folly, or promote a spirit of rancour, to the great prejudice of holiness and virtue. From the same rash and precipitate temper, by reproving vice at an unseasonable time, or in an imprudent manner, we may exasperate rather than reclaim offenders; or, by an unnecessary severity of discipline, we may drive men on to obstinacy, and confirm them in impenitence and opposition. 4. Another cause of contempt in a minister is servility. From false modesty, or from interested policy, from a desire of vain glory or a fear of reproach, we may be tempted to descend beneath the dignity of our character, and to be drawn into servile compliances. From an undue attachment on the one hand, or from a secret resentment on the other, we may be led into unbecoming partialities of conduct, treating the same offence with lenity in some, and with severity in others. From a vain desire to ingratiate ourselves with the great, or a servile dread of incurring their displeasure, we may comply with their follies, assent to their opinions, enter into their licentious conversations, and even connive at their vices. Such abject servility must be universally detested. Even those to whom we hope to recommend ourselves by our unworthy complaisance, though they may behave with civility to us, will despise us in their hearts as unworthy of our sacred office, and a disgrace to our profession. For however men may practise vice themselves, or be pleased with it in others, yet they universally detest it in a teacher of religion on account of its gross inconsistency. (A. Donnan.) Despising the preacher 1. Men will despise a preacher when his life and his doctrine do not agree. 2. When he delivers his message with half-heartedness, as one who does not really believe it himself. 3. When it is evident he has bestowed no pains or labour on preparation for his work. 4. When by his manner he makes it plain that he desires to give prominence to himself, and excite admiration. 5. When he is evidently influenced by other motives than God’ s glory and man’ s good. (F. Wagstaff) Lessons 1. Let no man despising thee prevent the full discharge of certain duty. “ He that despiseth you, despiseth Me, and he that despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me.” 2. If men will despise God and Christ, the human messenger may well consent to be despised along with them. Let them despise thee, but let not the effect be caused by cowardly suppression, or disingenuous corruption of the truth on your part. As a faithful messenger of God and an ambassador of Christ, let men despise you if they will, or if they must--let them despise you at their peril. But as a traitor to the truth and to its Author, let no man despise thee. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.) Ministers to be preserved from contempt 1. First, how people and hearers should entertain the ministers sent them of God, seeing they cannot without great sin despise them; for seeing the Lord, who could by Himself work the salvation of men, yet is pleased to use as His helpers herein weak and base men, whom He assumeth into fellowship with Himself, to become coworkers with Him, although not in the act of conversion, yet in the ministry of it. Who dare despise such whom the Lord so far honoureth? And therefore Calleth them His white horses--horses, in that He useth them in His battles against sin, the world, and wicked ones; and white, for the purity of their doctrine and integrity of their lives. Yea, His angels, namely, such as by whom He revealeth His good pleasure unto us; and His own voice, by whom He beseecheth men to be reconciled. 2. Secondly, how careful is the Lord to preserve His ministers from contempt, when He affirmeth that such as despise them, despise Himself that sent them. In which sense we read that the posterity of Cain, contemning the preaching of Noah, despised and contended against God’ s spirit; so Israel, murmuring against Moses and Aaron, Moses saith, “ He hath heard your murmurings against the Lord, for what are we that ye have murmured against us?” 3. Thirdly, how unnatural a part were it for children to despise their fathers: and what severity hath the Lord showed against it in His law. But godly ministers are the fathers of their people. “ I am your father,” saith Paul; and Onesimus, yea, and Titus here begotten by him unto the faith, he calleth his sons. Let no cursed Cham presume to scorn them, which is not so hurtful to them as dangerous to themselves, being the next way to bring themselves under the curse. On the contrary, let the natural children of the Church 1. “ Know them” (1 Thessalonians 5:12), that is, both in heart acknowledge them the ministers of Christ, and in affection, love them as His ministers, accounting their feet beautiful. 2. Render then double honour (1 Timothy 5:17), in which precept the Holy Ghost hath made (1) reverence,(2) obedience,(3) thankfulness,(4) comfortable maintenance, their due from their people. Ministers are hence taught so to order their lives and doctrine, as they lay not their persons open to reproach, nor prostitute their authorities unto contempt, and so lose it both from themselves and others. For this is the way for ministers to win authority and reverence in the hearts of men by their lives and doctrine, to become examples unto the flock. And thus shining in the purity of doctrine and conversation, they show themselves stars in the right hand of Christ. (T. Taylor, D. D.) A sermon to ministers of the gospel It is impossible for any man to keep himself from being hated. Hatred may exist without cause. There is another strange trait in human nature. Whenever injury has been done it is usually the injurer who hates. In general the ignorant hate the wise and the intelligent. This superior knowledge in others is like the sun’ s light to bats and owls and moles, painfully blinding--and they hate at once the knowledge and the man who knows. In general the bad hate the good, because goodness is always a most impressive and powerful rebuke of badness, even when good men are silent. But a man can keep himself from being despised. The rule is that only the despicable are despised. The exception is when a man, not in himself despicable, is despised by some one who does not know him. In that case it is not the real individual who is despised, but some ideal person. It is a greater misfortune to be despised than to be hated. A man may hate you now who, when his own character is changed, may come to love you with a passion strong and ardent as his former hatred. But if one despise you, even when he comes to know you better he will find it difficult to discriminate between you and the idea he has had of you. “ Let no man despise thee.” The plain meaning is--live in the ministry so that no man can despise you, however much he may hate and oppose your person and your ministry. A minister of the gospel makes himself despicable whenever he does anything which is proof that he himself does not believe the message he proclaims to others. No lie is noble. I. In the first place it may appear in a minister’ s assuming what does not of right belong to him. To hold a position for which one is evidently not capacitated by nature or grace or education, is to make one appear badly in the eyes of one’ s fellows. A man who undertakes small things and does them well, appears much better than a larger and stronger man who undertakes what he is obviously not able to accomplish, and what he should have done was beyond his depth. A minister of the gospel ought to know just what it is his position demands of him, and assume nothing beyond. He is a servant of the souls of men, to wait on those souls, bringing all spiritual help from the gospel to those souls. He is no more. II. Another cause of contempt for some ministers may be found in their claiming certain immunities which do not in right reason belong to thee so far as other men can see. Age, position, attainments, usefulness, are claims to respect, but the minister should share them with men of other professions. He should expect to be honoured simply in proportion to his abilities and his usefulness. A man who really is not respectable in his character cannot be rendered honourable by any office or position. III. Again: a minister may render himself despicable by relying upon worldly means alone in order to secure spiritual ends. When men detect that in a minister, it seems at once to convince them that the man never had a true faith in the existence of a spiritual world, and in the existence and offices of that Holy Ghost of whom the Bible speaks and of whom he must sometimes preach. When a minister makes his Church a mere secular establishment, which shall gratify and even in some sense educate the people in architecture, ecclesiastical decoration, classic music, oratory, liberal views, and polite manners--when he shall work as if the aim were simply to crowd the house with a large select audience, who should generate the necessary animal and mental magnetism to make all things pleasant, and whose pew rents should produce a large financial exhibit--when he shall have even succeeded in all that, as a lyceum manager he is splendid, but as a minister of Jesus he is despicable. The obverse fault is the use of one’ s position as a spiritual teacher to gain worldly ends, whether personal or partisan. A fair use of secular instrumentalities for the accumulation of money or fame perhaps no reasonable mind would censure. But when a man who professes to have devoted himself to the spiritual improvement of mankind clearly employs his place to enrich himself, he is despicable. IV. Again: a minister may make himself disreputable by neglecting to prepare himself for the proper discharge of the functions of his office. He has to deal with the most complex and profound questions of life and destiny; and he has to conduct these discussions not so as to merely entertain or even satisfy the intellects of his hearers. He is an utter failure if he do not make all those discussions profitable to their souls. A lawyer is a failure if he never carries a case, however much he may entertain the court and the jury. The world makes rapid progress in all science. No chemist expects a minister to be up in chemistry as he is; no political economist expects him to be “ posted” on all the minutiae which go to solve the great problems of civil and social advancement. But they do expect him to know something beyond a few dry theological propositions and a few dry jokes. They do expect him to be a worker. They work. V. Again: there is much to be learned from what Paul teaches Timothy in connection with the precept, “ Let no man despise thy youth,” when he adds, “be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” What will save a minister from loss of respect in his youth will keep him in honour through all his ministry.1. If other men spoil their reputation by loose tongues and careless and corrupt speech, how very careful of his speech must be a minister of the gospel, who is supposed to be always holding close to his own heart and conscience and to his fellow men the realities of a world which fleshly eyes do not behold. Nor do sensible men like canting parsons. Words are things. To him who uses them they may be empty things, and he is despicable who employs the divine gift of speech to scatter emptiness over the world. 2. Then the apostle holds that a minister’ s intercourse with society may make him despicable. A grasping, stingy, mean minister is contemptible. And so is a minister who allows others to cheat him just because he is “ a parson.” He ought to know his rights and dare maintain them. He who is not aiming to be a gentleman is not fit to be a minister. 3. The apostle instances charity also. He who preaches the gospel of love cannot be respected if men perceive that he is not animated by a real and deep love for God, and an earnest brotherly affection for all the race for which Christ died. And this temper must pervade his intercourse with society. 4. The apostle next instances spiritual mindedness; which does not mean a neglect of the things which are seen and a contempt for them, a voluntary humiliation and castigation of one’ s self. 5. The apostle enjoins fidelity, entire faithfulness to every trust, faithfulness toward God and man, faithfulness in allowing no evil to spread in the Church because it is the besetment of his special friends. He must deal honestly in the preaching of the Word and in the administration of the discipline of his Church. He must not be drawn from the discharge of any duty by fear, favour, affection, reward, or the hope of reward. 6. The last thing mentioned by the apostle is purity; and no one can confine this to mere chastity, a perfectly apparent indispensable to the ministerial position; it must cover his whole life. (C. F. Deems, D. D.) . Titus 3:1-2 Put them in mind to be subject Obedience to civil magistrates I. Who are to be understood by civil rulers. All those who are in the peaceable possession of civil power. II. It is the duty of subjects to obey their civil rulers.1. The Scripture expressly enjoins this duty upon subjects. 2. The duty of submission naturally results from the relation which subjects bear to their rulers. There would be no propriety in calling the body of the people subjects, unless they were under obligation to obey those in the administration of government. 3. All subjects ought to obey their rulers for the sake of the public good. III. Ministers ought to inculcate such submission to civil magistrates.1. Preachers are expressly required to press this plain and important duty upon the people of their charge. 2. It becomes the preachers of the gospel, in this case, to fellow the example of the inspired teachers--John the Baptist, Christ, etc. 3. It no less belongs to the office of gospel ministers to teach men their duty towards civil rulers than to teach them any other moral or religious duty. 4. There are some peculiar reasons why the duty of submission to civil authority should be more especially inculcated upon the minds of subjects. (1) Men are extremely apt to forget that they are under any moral obligation to obey the rulers of the land. (2) There is scarcely any duty more disagreeable to the human heart than submission to civil government. (3) The safety and happiness of the whole body politic more essentially depend upon each member’ s performing this, than any other duty. Where there is no subordination, there can be no government; and where there is no government, there can be no public peace nor safety. Concluding reflections:1. There is no ground to complain of the ministers of the gospel for inculcating political duties. 2. There appears to be no more difficulty in determining the measure of submission to civil government than the measure of submission to any other human authority. 3. It is extremely criminal to disobey civil rulers, and oppose the regular administration of government. 4. It is criminal not only to disobey and resist civil authority, but also to countenance, cherish, and inflame a spirit of disobedience and rebellion. 5. Those in executive authority are under indispensable obligation to give rebels and traitors a just recompense of reward. They are God’ s ministers to execute wrath upon them that do evil; and they ought not to hold the sword of justice in vain. (N. Emmons, D. D.) The Christian’ s loyalty to secular government I. Its nature.1. Subjection to the general government.2. Obedience to the local authorities.3. Readiness to help the government in times of emergency.4. Carefulness in respect to the reputation of their fellow citizens.5. Peaceful and order-loving. II. Its reasons.1. The spiritual change wrought upon believers.2. Some blessed features of the source of this change. (1) Its graciousness.(2) Its method.(3) Its abundance.(4) Its justifying power.(5) Its benefits and tendency. Lessons:1. The superiority of Christianity. (1) The best thing for the State.(2) The best thing for individuals.(3) The best thing for the family. 2. The unmistakable evidences of the Divine origin of Christianity. (1) In its love of man.(2) In its legitimate effects on man and on society. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.) The subject’ s duty I. The manner of propounding the counsel. Titus is here enjoined two things:1. To call back into their minds an old doctrine--not what they had newly learned since their becoming Christians, but what nature and reason had taught them long before. 2. To inculcate, or beat often upon this point. (1) Because men generally are ambitious of liberty, unwilling, if lust or pride of heart be listened to, to be subject to any yoke, whether of God or man; ever ready to think one man as good as another, and with Korah to suggest that every Moses and Aaron takes too much upon him. (2) Because the dispersed Jews (of whom there was no small number at that time in Crete) stood very much upon temporal privileges; as upon Abraham, the temple, the law, etc. And ever loath they were to stoop to the authority of the Gentiles. (3) Because the Christians at that time, both of Jews and Gentiles, stood as much upon spiritual privileges, not thinking it sufficient to be set free from the thraldom of Satan, and bondage of sin, and so to be made spiritual kings unto God and the Lamb; unless by a boundless (Christian) liberty, as they supposed, they might be at their own hands to do as they listed. II. The substance of the precept itself.1. The duties required. (1) By subjection is meant honour, reverence, and respect to the persons whom God has set in authority over us. (2) By obedience is meant a free voluntary readiness of mind to yield to, and to execute whatsoever lawful command of a superior. Where there is conscience of subjection, there will be cheerfulness in obedience. 2. The second considerable in the substance of the precept is (1) The persons to whom these duties belong, namely, to all magistrates, which are here distributed into two ranks, principalities, powers. By the former we understand such who have primary and plenary power under God, and by this their proper power and authority have an absolute command within their several dominions; such are Caesars, kings, and chief governors in free states. The latter signifieth such as exercise delegated authority, that is, hold from those higher powers; and such are all inferior officers, whether in Church or State, who have no authority to act in any public business, but what they receive from the supreme magistrate. 2. The persons from whom these dues are to be paid. This is soon decided. The persons solvent, are all Christians in general, without any exception, but of the supreme magistrate himself, clergy as well as laity--all who are under authority. The apostle includes all in the word αὐτους, put them in mind, that is, all inferiors. Every soul must be subject to the higher powers. Having thus far explained the subject matter of the apostle’ s command, I proceed to the observations arising out of it.1. Christian religion destroys not government or civil authority but ratifieth and confirmeth it. 2. The kingdom of Christ is not of this world, His authority divideth not civil inheritances, His sceptre swalloweth not up (as did Aaron’ s rod the others) the sceptre of worldly monarchs. His weapons are not carnal; the keys of His kingdom are no temporal jurisdiction. 3. One ordinance of God doth not abolish another. The laws of Christ in His Church bring not in lawlessness into the Commonwealth; nor is God the God of order in the first, and the Author of confusion in the latter. For one ordinance of God to destroy another would argue want of wisdom in God, the Ordainer. The very thought thereof is blasphemous. Nay, on the contrary, for the Church’ s sake (which He loveth) He keepeth order, and maintains government in commonwealths, that His Church, whilst it is agathering in the world, might find safe harbour therein; that this dove of Christ might have a place where to set without danger the sole of her foot. (John Cleaver, M. A.) Ministers remembrancers 1. The scope of the ministry is to put men in mind, and keep in them the remembrance of every Christian duty. Thus, ministers may be called the Lord’ s remembrancers, not only for putting the Lord in mind of His covenant towards His people, and of the people’ s wants, but also that they must not be silent, but restless in whetting the doctrine of God, legal and evangelical upon the people, and so be ever putting them in mind of their covenant and duty unto God. Paul acknowledged himself such a remembrancer (Romans 15:15). 2. None is so far instructed, but is wanting much in knowledge, and much more in the cheerful practice of that which he knoweth; and therefore every one hath need of quickening and stirring up. 3. None are so strong but they stand in need of this confirmation, as well as the former quickening, neither can any caution or any admonition be too much in things of such moment. 4. No man’ s memory is so sound, but as out of a leaking vessel good things are ever running out; and when such things are slipt away, they had need be renewed and recalled again. (1) Ministers must not desist from teaching and exhorting, as many that think a little enough; nor discouraged when people forget their wholesome doctrine; but encourage themselves in their duty, which is to keep in men’ s memories the mindfulness of their duties. (2) When they come to teach, they may not seek out vain and strange speculations, which were never heard of before, but teach plain things, yea, and deep mysteries in plain manner, as such who respect the weakness both of the apprehension and memory of their hearers. (3) An wholesome thing it is to teach the same things often, whereby things delivered are recalled into the memory. Curious men cannot abide repetitions, nor hear common things, notwithstanding these be excellent helps of memory, which is the cause of such gross and everywhere palpable ignorance in the most familiar principles of religion. But the wisdom of godly teachers will be not too much to yield unto the niceness of their hearers; nor to fear to do that which is the safest for them, as Paul speaketh; which if it be, let it be to us what it will or can, it will be our part that by our practice they may find the profit. We learn hence, also, what it is that should profess and take up the memories of Christians, namely, those lessons of Christianity which they hear in the ministry. For 1. The commandment must be bound up upon our hearts, and we ought to make our memories the statute book of our souls, and by diligent meditation, chain this book unto ourselves (Proverbs 4:21). 2. Herein standeth the sanctity of the memory, partly by retaining the rules of life, and partly in presenting and offering them unto the mind upon occasion of practice, both to direct and urge the conscience to obedience. Thus David hid the Word in his heart, the blessed fruit of which was that he did not sin against God; and indeed holy memory preserveth the holiness of the whole man. 3. Forgetfulness of the Word is everywhere in the Scriptures taxed as a grievous and hateful sin: “ Be not forgetful hearers, deceiving your own selves,” saith James; “ Have you forgotten how I fed so many thousand,” etc., saith Christ to the disciples; and the author to the Hebrews, “ Have ye forgotten the exhortation?” (T. Taylor, D. D.) Subjection to civil rulers I. Public authority presupposed. II. Subjection and obedience enjoined. Put them in mind to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work--intimating to us that we must show our obedience by our ready compliance in good works; for if the magistrate command what is evil, there is no obligation to perform it, because nothing can oblige us to do evil. But what if the thing commanded be neither good nor evil, but of an indifferent nature; what must we do in that case? Why then we must undoubtedly obey it; for otherwise there will be nothing left wherein the magistrate may use his power. What is good or evil in itself must be done or avoided for God’ s sake. What is not so in itself, but only in regard of the end for which it is enacted, being judged so by the magistrate for the good of the community, this must be observed, both for God’ s sake and his too, because God requires our obedience to Him in these things, But what then becomes of our liberty, if another must judge for us? It is where it was before; we must obey, and yet we are as free as Christ hath made us; nay, I doubt not to add, we are most Christ’ s freemen when we duly obey our governors’ just laws; for seeing Christ hath commanded us to be subject not only for wrath, but for conscience sake, that so we may avoid the guilt of sin, that obedience which keeps us from sin (which is the only vassalage of a Christian) can by no means infringe, but does rather advance our Christian liberty. III. The duty of pastors and teachers inculcated. Put them in mind, admonish them often of it, and bring it to their remembrance, as St. Peter does twice together in another case (2 Peter 1:12-13).1. Let us consider that obedience to magistrates is a prime duty of piety and religion, wherein the honour and authority of God are particularly concerned; not only because He requires it by manifold precepts, but because magistrates are His officers and ministers, by whom He governs the world and administers His providence towards men, and to whom He has given part of His own power for that purpose. 2. The exigence of our civil affairs, and the preservation of the public does exact this duty from us. For the execution of justice between man and man, the safe and quiet enjoyment of God’ s blessings, and the welfare and peace of the whole community, are extremely concerned and advanced by it. 3. Obedience to our governors is founded on the highest equity and reason; for day by day we receive invaluable benefits by the influence of their government and conduct; protection of our lives and estates, of our privileges, properties, and religion; secure possession of the gifts of God, and liberty to increase our substance by trade and traffic, and to eat the fruit of our labour, etc. 4. Obedience to our governors is a duty incumbent on us in point of ingenuity and gratitude. For in preserving the peace and prosperity of the nation, they do not only preserve ours, but for our advantage also they undergo many cares and troubles, great toil and labour, attending continually for this very thing (Romans 13:6). 5. No man can disobey his governors without breaking the most sacred laws of justice and honesty; without downright perjury towards God, and perfidiousness towards man. (Henry Dove, D. D.) Duty I. In relation to civil government.1. Man’ s social tendencies indicate it.2. Man’ s social exigencies indicate it. II. In relation to general society.1. Usefulness.2. Charitableness.3. Courteousness III. In relation to our moral self. It is a duty which every man owes to himself, to remember all the wrong of his past life 1. That he may be charitable towards others.2. That he may be stimulated to efforts of self-improvement.3. That he may adore the forbearance of God in His past dealings.4. That he may devoutly appreciate the morally redemptive agency of Christ.5. That he may realise the necessity of seeking the moral restoration of others. Lessons:1. The possibility of the moral improvement of souls.2. The obligation to the moral improvement of souls. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The authority of law I. Law is of God. Therefore godly men are obedient to human laws, when not inconsistent with the dictates of conscience, as being ordinances of God. II. Authority is derived from God. Therefore righteous lawgivers and just judges are to be esteemed as God’ s gifts to a nation. III. Obedience to law an essential preparation for good works. No amount of religious profession, and no degree of activity in the performance of Christian duties, can compensate for the neglect of social duties or disregard of the claims of citizenship. (F. Wagstaff.) The Christian citizen 1. Individual excellence is what makes national strength. St. Paul tells Titus that he must preach personal purity, obedience, and peace to all the citizens around him. 2. Charity to others is best promoted by an honest consideration of what we are ourselves. No man, who is conscientious, can fail to remember many a mean act he has during his life committed. 3. The apostle tells Titus that he will make the better citizen the oftener he recalls to mind how much he owes, and must forever owe, to sovereign grace, as a child of God and an heir of heaven. People nowadays are excessively diffident in attributing their successes or their virtues to their piety. Yet now and then the world will find it out for itself. “ Havelock’ s men” in campaigns wrote their record by their prayers as well as by their prowess. 4. The apostle adds a lesson for Titus about his preaching, which every Christian, trying to instruct others, might lay well to heart; namely, that the best of all teaching in truth is the teaching of a true life. He tries to lead him away from mere formulas, and force him to deal with real things in a real way for greatest good. “ After the first phase of Christian life,” remarks Merle d’ Aubigne, “ in which a man thinks only of Christ, there usually ensues a second, when the Christian will not voluntarily worship with assemblies opposed to his personal convictions.” That is a gentle way of saying that, after a new convert cools a little in piety, he takes a time of becoming denominational and belligerent. Perhaps the Apostle Paul imagined Titus was going to do that, and so told him he had better not. If there be any truth in the line, “ The child is father of the man,” it is manifest most plainly in religious life. The young believer perpetuates himself in the old. Maurice, son of William the Silent, at the age of seventeen, took for his device a fallen oak, with a young sapling springing from its root; to this he gave the motto, Tandem fit surculus arbor, “ The sapling will by and by become a tree.” It seems very trite to write all that out soberly; but really it is a thing most unfortunately forgotten. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Civil duties The rule of Rome, which then lay upon all those lands in which the gospel was being preached, was a rule which rested on the sword. Everywhere ancient nations had been subjugated, venerable thrones had been overturned, the freedom of commonwealths, jealous of their independence, had been ruthlessly suppressed; and, although it was the policy of Rome to leave the old forms of administration untouched wherever possible, it was of course as impossible to conceal from the conquered peoples the degrading tokens of their subjection, as it is for us to do so in our Indian Empire. Roman troops sentinelled the palaces where Roman proconsuls sat in the seats of dethroned kings; Roman judges administered the law; writs ran in the Roman tongue; oaths were sworn to the Roman Caesar; taxes were paid in Roman coin. The military power which imposed such subjection upon haughty and once mighty nations was at the best a heavy yoke. The imperial laws were on the whole just, but they were stern and could be mercilessly enforced. Nor were the imperial courts above the imputation of corruption. The imposts were very heavy. Provincial governors were usually rapacious. The provincial revenues were drained off to feed the monstrous dissipation of the capital. For the most part, therefore, the provinces groaned beneath a burden which the strongest of them was unable to shake off, but which was enough to goad the most passive into turbulence. It was into a society thus honeycombed with political disaffection, and ready at every point to burst into revolt, that Christianity entered with its new conceptions of human dignity and spiritual freedom. Its entrance could not fail to add to the ferment. It quickened in men’ s minds that sense of injustice which oppression breeds. It deepened their irritation at the insolence and wrong doing of the dominant race. It produced a longing for the happier era when the kingdom of God, which they had received into their hearts, should be also a kingdom of social equity and brotherhood. Hence it became an urgent duty with the leaders of the young society to warn their converts against political restlessness. Do as they might, the Christians could hardly hope, under a government like Nero’ s, to escape suspicion. They were pretty certain to be reckoned among the dangerous forces in a community which heaved with discontent. But to do anything to encourage such suspicion, or afford the authorities a pretext for repression, would have been foolish as well as wrong; for it would have compromised the gospel at its outset by mixing it up in matters with which the gospel has nothing directly to do. Indirectly, no doubt, the new faith was sure to affect in the long run political affairs, as it affects every province of human life. No community of brave men who are animated by the lessons of Christianity will always sit still, contented in a condition of vassalage. The gospel has proved herself the mother of freedom. The most resolute and successful resistance that has ever been offered to arbitrary power has been offered by men whom the truth had made free, and who carried their Bible beneath the same belt to which they buckled their sword. But personal and political liberty is a secondary effect of the gospel, after it has penetrated the structure of society and has had time to reform nations on its own lines. For the individual convert in the age of Paul to revolt against the emperor or to run away from his master, would have been to misrepresent his faith to his contemporaries. The question at what time or in what way a Christian state is justified in deposing its tyrant, in order to organise itself as a free commonwealth, is a question which, as it concerns the Christian community and not the individual merely, so it can only arise under a different condition of things altogether. What the gospel enjoins upon private citizens, so long as governments stand and a successful resistance by the people at large is out of the question, is--submission. They are to discern underlying all authority, so long as it is legitimate, a Divine ordinance, and to render such obedience as is due to the magistrate within his proper sphere, not merely through dread of consequences, but still more for the sake of a good conscience towards God. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) Christians should be taught good citizenship the schools should teach the children that their first duty and highest privilege is to become good citizens; and a good citizen, be he cobbler or manufacturer, tailor or senator, upholsterer or cabinet officer, will never condescend to become an incompetent or unworthy member of the community. Were all the boys and girls to leave school fully imbued with this knowledge, the country would be safe; the political firmament would be sustained upon shoulders firmer than those of Atlas, and its stars would shine with ever-increasing number and brilliancy. The third and highest form of spiritual power is moral and religious. Give me leave simply to state my belief that the only solid basis for an enduring nation is the Rock of Ages. Any other foundation is unstable and insecure as the sands of the seashore. Let the tower be built in obedience to God’ s laws, and it will reach unto heaven, the children of men will reunite in permanent harmony, science and religion will coincide, and the one universal speech will be of God’ s Word written on the sun, moon, and stars, on the solid earth itself, and in the gospel. (Professor B. Pierce.) Honouring authority It was held in the olden time, but is not now, that authority came from God to the king, and then descended, in the form of law, from the king to the people. We have turned that theory bottom side up, although there are texts of Scripture which run that way. Now we find no difficulty in this land, since we are republicans, in jumping those texts. “ Honour the king,” meant honour the king; but we say, “ Yes, honour authority; and the king represents authority.” So we bridge the difficulties without much trouble. When the people have committed their interests to the hands of individuals, they are justly jealous, because they have seen that human nature is fragile timber, like the slender supports of a bridge over which too much must not go, or it will break down under the pressure; properly, there is a wise watchfulness of those who are empowered to execute the law, and to represent, in the various spheres of magistracy, from the lowest to the highest, the will and interests of a great people; but the untaught and unbalanced way in which men exercise this proper watchfulness leads--somewhat in connection with the other things of which I have spoken--to what amounts to almost a universal suspicion. If there is one corrupt judge on the bench, ten judges suffer. If there is one bad senator, the whole senate suffers. If there are a score of purchaseable legislators, then the whole legislature suffers. There is no discrimination made in that matter. Our people have come to look upon those who are entrusted with power as being suspicious persons. The way men get that power rather tempts to this injustice. The rude and mischievous ways of partisans tend to inimical feeling in this same sphere. Men and brethren, do you ever reflect that he that hauls down a magistrate, except where there is absolute and assignable evidence of corruption; that he that deteriorates the authority of a judge; that he that takes from the responsibility and respectability of the representatives of the people, or of the members of the general government, or of governors; that he that makes an assault upon them which shall lower the respect and confidence of the community for them, is striking at the whole system of law and government? Worse than that, it is a blow aimed at the faith of whole classes of men in virtue, in patriotism, and in integrity. A class of men has grown up--and is growing up continually, with the spectacle before them, on every side, of rude and unjust criticisms and depreciations--who say that everybody is selfish, and that nobody but illusionists suppose that there is any such thing as a disinterested service of one’ s country. I am ashamed to see so many young men growing up with the feeling that heroism of patriotism is unknown except as a poetic adornment, or a mere spangle on the dress of pretentious patriots. (H. W. Beecher.) The Christian citizen The civic virtues planted and fostered by Christianity are a theme interesting and profitable for study. One of the credentials of its Divine origin is its usefulness for this world. Finding mankind individually and socially disordered, and full of painful suffering in consequence, it is an antiseptic, arresting deadly processes, a balm, full of gentle healing, and a tonic which strengthens every manly purpose, and enters integrally into all true life of the state. It first purifies and exalts, then it directs, though using only moral forces. I. Christians must be loyal subjects to government, ready for every good work. They must be often reminded of the obedience due to principalities, powers, and magistrates. The essential excellence and authority of human law can best be understood and appreciated by those who know the worth and heed the claims of the Divine. They know that the fabric of society is in some true sense a Divine institution. But, you say, government is corrupt, and God cannot be the author of political corruption. Very true, but the whole idea and framework of government is not corrupt. There is a sum of truth underlying the simple fact of government which is entitled to respect. Abuses should be keenly recognised, but remedies should be sought for them not by angry assault or disgusted contempt or sullen neglect. In healing the body politic, the laws of life must be respected, and employed as patiently and intelligently as when the physical body is to be healed. The practical side of Christianity in such teaching is specially timely and important today. Monetary values, domestic peace and security, time-honoured institutions, received ideas and principles, are assailed by influences and methods before which the wise, the good, and the strong well may stand somewhat in dread, if not in awe. What shall save the fairest portions of earth from such refluent waves of barbarism? The gospel is the only complete remedy. Bayonets and grapeshot may quell a temporary demonstration; but the only effectual cure is in that respect for government which Paul learned of Jesus Christ, and which Christian experience alone can fully understand. Then faithful reconstruction is possible by methods constructive, not destructive, in a spirit reverent to the essential dignity and claims of government. The Christian is not unmindful of the ills of the world, nor is he careless about their remedy. He is a man of affairs. He neither ignores nor scorns nor idly dreams about the ravages of sin wherever manifest. He deliberately and boldly grapples with them, but he uses methods which respect the laws of life and healing, laws written in the nature of things and the will of God. He knows meekness is compatible with manliness. The meek man thrusts no one aside, frowns not upon the humblest, but lives in abiding consciousness of the wants, powers, and claims of others. When this is the spirit of the world, there will be no more riots, forcible levies, assassinations; and it is only by cultivating this and kindred virtue, in the spirit of the gospel, that the world’ s peace will be secured. II. What are the motives and considerations upon which the apostle rests these urgent instructions? Not, as we might have expected, because such walk and conversation were useful and becoming, but he points (Titus 3:3-7) to the sad degradation of their own past lives, full of the opposites of all Christian virtues--foolishness, disobedience, lustful pleasures, malice, envy, and hatreds. From these they have just escaped; they must pity the moral ruin which stains and disables those yet blinded. He adduces a yet stronger consideration--their difference is all a pure gift, through “ the kindness and love of God our Saviour.” Out of such experience, all the more because it is exalted and refined, Paul admonishes to the most practical and assiduous performance of Christian duty under the general name of “ good works.” In these instructions to Titus, Paul was in full sympathy with the gospel in our Lord’ s time, in all time. Let us note the practical workings of Christianity for the individual and the state.1. Christianity is the only source and safeguard of lasting patriotism. Patriotism is more than aroused sensibility, or quickened emotions, however worthy. There must be loyalty to principles, and those principles take root in the teachings of Him who valued humanity not by its degradation, but by its possibilities, who revealed the law of self-sacrifice, and who enforced all his precepts by a corresponding life of voluntary humiliation and unfailing service. 2. Organised and efficient philanthropy is unknown apart from Christianity. Man is not by nature wholly regardless of the sufferings and wants of his fellow men; but sinful practices soon blunt and disable humane promptings. 3. Christianity promotes harmony, and the best conditions of growth in society and the state. Intelligence is also an incident to the prevalence of the gospel; and before it, the dark vagaries of demagogues and fanatics appear in their repulsive deformity. Patience and forbearance with those who oppose themselves are essential conditions of prosperous life in all circles from the neighbourhood to the republic. These virtues are permanently active only when inspired by Christian benevolence. “ Charity suffereth long and is kind.” In short, Christian doctrines and institutions are the foundation of all public utilities and perpetuity. (Monday Club Sermons.) Ready to every good work Christian duty I. Every Christian must make account with himself that every Christian duty belongs to Him.1. This doctrine first teacheth us to learn the rule of every good work, legal or evangelical. Content not thyself that thou canst say the commandments, nor if thou canst say that thou hast kept the whole letter of the law from thy youth; but study the whole Scripture, which is an exposition and large commentary of those ten words; hear it, read it diligently, meditate upon it, apply it to thy heart and life, else knowest thou not how to begin any good work. 2. If every good work belong to every Christian then may not men post over the matter to the minister. The common conceit is, that the clergy should be holy, hospitable, and so qualified as we have heard in the first chapter; but for common men and unlearned it will be acceptable enough if they be almost Christians, that is, as good as never a whir; whereas the Lord bindeth upon every Christian, of what condition soever, the practice of every good work which is offered him within the compass of his calling. 3. If a Christian must employ himself in every good work, then must men so cast and contrive their courses, and neither duties of piety hinder the duties of their calling, nor these stand in the way of the other. And he that hath the heart of the wise to know time and judgment, forecasteth both wisely, and knoweth one of these to be subordinate, but not opposite unto the other. Hence must Christians forecast, and remember the Sabbath beforehand, and so order and husband their times and seasons, that there may be place and time and opportunity for every good work in the weekday, and especially for the best works, whether public exercises of religion or private prayers and exercises in the family. II. That every Christian ought to keep in himself a fitness and readiness to every good work is plain in the Scriptures. For 1. In duties of piety, we are enjoined not only to come to the house of God, but to take heed to our feet, and to wash our hands in innocency before we compass the altar, and first to sanctify ourselves before God and reconcile ourselves to men, and then bring our gift. If we preach, we must do it readily, and of a ready mind, and then we have reward. If you hear, you must be wise to hear, and ready to hear, rather than to offer a sacrifice of fools. 2. In performance of duties of love and mercy unto men, we are called to readiness in distributing (1 Timothy 6:18), and mindfulness to distribute (Hebrews 13:16). 3. In private duties, when God giveth us peace and opportunity, we must serve Him with cheerfulness and good hearts (Deuteronomy 28:47). 4. In private injuries, we must be ready to receive, yea, to offer reconciliation, and to forgive, which is another good work, and so in the rest. Reasons 1. We herein become like unto God, whose nature is to accommodate Himself to our good; whose readiness to give bountifully and forgive freely is hereby shadowed. 2. Hereby we also beautify, and as it were gild our duties, when they come off without delays, without grudging, murmuring, or heaviness, but am from men inured to well-doing. 3. Hereby we may lay hold of Christian consolation, in that this ready and willing mind is accepted, where often power of doing good is wanting, and indeed the regenerate often want power and ability unto good, but to want will and desire is dangerous. III. Some rules of practice for the better setting us forward in this duty.1. Get into thy soul the conscience of this commandment, accounting it worthy of all thine obedience, being so often urged in the Scriptures, and made in the end of the former chapter, the end of Christ’ s purchasing of us. This reason drawn from the fear of God prevailed so far with Job, that thence he was moved to use mercifulness to all sorts of men; for God’ s “ punishment was fearful unto me, and I could not escape His highness.” 2. Take every opportunity of well-doing while it is offered, for else the opportunity may be cut off from thee, or thou from it. This is the apostle’ s rule, “ While we have time do good unto all” (Galatians 6:10), that is, take the present occasion of doing all the good thou canst. (1) In regard of thyself, perform the principal and main duty, know the day of thy visitation; slack not this thy term time, but get the oil of faith, knowledge of God, and obedience to His Word, that thy lamp may ever be shining to the glorifying of the Father which is in heaven; in one word, forget not while thou hast time to give all diligence to make thine election sure. (2) In regard of others, if now thou canst do them good in soul or body, delay it not. “ Say not unto thy neighbour, go, and come again tomorrow, and I will give thee, if now thou hast it” (Proverbs 3:28); and what knoweth any man, whether this may be the last day wherein he can do good to himself or others? 3. Go yet one step further, to seek and watch occasions of doing good, and be glad when thou hast obtained them, that so thou mayest ever be furthering thy reckoning. We read of the patriarchs, Abraham and Lot, how they sat at their doors watching to entertain strangers, that they espied them afar off, ran out to meet them, and most earnestly entreated them to abide and refresh themselves; show thyself herein the son of Abraham. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Christian usefulness I. The course specified. “ Every good work.” Every department of religion may be so denominated, repentance, faith, restitution, obedience, prayer, praise.1. There is the work of mercy to the bodies of our fellow men. Our fires will burn brighter, our clothes be warmer, our food sweeter, our slumbers more refreshing, if we tread in the steps of the blessed Jesus, who went about doing good. 2. There is the good work of compassion to the souls of our fellow men. How many are ignorant and out of the way. What can we do to win souls to Christ? 3. There is the good work of affection and kindness to the household of faith. II. The direction given.1. The qualification, “ Be ready.” (1) That we have the disposition. Naturally, we have not the disposition. But the grace of God always imparts it. If the heart be good, then we shall have dispositions of goodness. (2) That we do good cheerfully. That it is not our burden. Not a sacrifice. Not a painful, but easy yoke. (3) It is to do good promptly. “ To be ready.” To be at the call. Everything nearly depends upon being in season. (4) Includes perseverance. Never to wish to cease, till the Saviour says it is enough. 2. The extent of the direction. “ Be ready to every good work.” As you have ability and opportunity. 3. The motives which should influence us. (1) Our religion is emphatically one of goodness. It allows of nothing malignant, or malevolent, even to enemies. (2) Our spiritual improvement is connected with it. It is by acting that we are conformed to Christ. (3) Our happiness is inseparably connected with it. It is heaven on earth. The joy of angels, felt and realised by man. (4) Our future amount of glory is connected with it. We are to be judged by our work, not by our faith, gifts, etc. Application 1. Urge on the unregenerate the work of repentance.2. Urge believers to be ready, etc. (J. Burns, D. D.) To the active Christian I. The course of action enjoined.1. Good works to the bodies of others.2. Good works to the souls of others.3. Good works to the Christian Church. II. The qualifications supposed.1. Cheerfulness.2. Promptitude.3. Perseverance.4. Catholicity. III. The motives.1. The genius of our religion.2. The example of Christ.3. Personal improvement.4. Future reward of grace. (G. Brooks.) Readiness to good works explained and recommended I. What this advice implies. To “ be ready” is to be prepared, by laying a proper foundation in ourselves for doing good works. And this must be by the attainment of Divine knowledge and grace.1. Knowledge is first necessary. Ignorance unfits and hinders many from doing good works. They know not the nature of good works, their necessity, that without them “ faith is dead,” their utility, amiable character, the will of God on this subject, nor how they may perform their duty in this respect. 2. By the attainment of grace (2 Corinthians 9:8), pardoning grace; a consciousness of guilt burdening and discouraging the mind, and hindering good works; renewing grace; only a good tree bringeth forth good fruit; strengthening grace; enabling us to break, or shake off, the fetters of sin, which incapacitate us to do the will of God. II. The importance of being thus ready. The glory of God is herein greatly concerned (Matthew 5:16; John 15:8; Philippians 1:11). God is glorified by our holy tempers and heavenly affections, but especially by our substantial, good, and useful works. Great credit and honour is thus brought to the gospel. “ These things are profitable to men,” by lessening their miseries, or preventing or enabling them to obtain happiness. Our own good is involved herein. It is an evidence of our sincerity, and of the genuineness of our religion, to ourselves and others; an evidence of our repentance, faith, hope, love, our justification, regeneration, and growth in grace. Our own peace of mind, as well as our religious character, is involved in this point. It is the means of exercising our grace and gifts, and thereby retaining them (Matthew 13:12; John 15:2). III. The means to be used in order that this advice may be complied with. The Word of God is the chief means of knowledge and of grace, whereby we may have the preparation, inclination, and ability mentioned above for every good work (2 Timothy 3:15-17). This must be heard, read, searched, and diligently studied. It must also be received in faith and love, be obeyed in an humble and submissive spirit, through the influence and succour of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 9:8). This Spirit must be sought in sincere, fervent, and importunate prayer, without which we shall not possess either the right disposition, or sufficient ability to do good works. Christian fellowship is a further means. We must “ exhort one another” daily (Hebrews 10:25), and take example from such as appear, or have appeared, eminent in usefulness. (J. Benson.) To speak evil of no man On evil speaking I. There are several, reasons for which Christians ought to be exhorted to refrain from evil speaking.1. It is not only a mean and shameful, but a pernicious fault; it produces much harm in society, and is a cause why many live hateful and hating one another, and die in the same unfriendly disposition. 2. It is a common and widespread fault, and few, very few, are entirely free from it. It is not confined to wicked and profane persons; it is to be found in some measure even in those who have their virtues, their good and useful, and amiable qualities and accomplishments, who live soberly and honestly, who love their friends and are active to serve and oblige them, who are not uncharitable to the poor, who have a sense of religion, and worship God both in public and in private. 3. They who are addicted to it, either seldom reflect upon its odious nature, or are not sensible when and how often they thus offend, or have several plausible though vain excuses to justify themselves. II. Evil speaking consists in spreading reports to the disadvantage of our neighbour; and of this fault there are three distinct kinds or degrees.1. The worst kind of it is to spread lies of our own invention concerning others. 2. The next is to report things to their disadvantage, of the truth of which we are not sufficiently assured. 3. The lowest degree is to say of them that evil which we know to be true. III. There is no occasion to prove and expose the folly and dishonesty of the two former kinds. It would be losing time and words. I shall, therefore, chiefly discourse of the latter, and show how blamable even this is for the most part.1. We should not be too forward to publish the faults of others, because it is no sufficient excuse for us, that what we say is true, and that they against whom we speak deserve such usage. 2. Another argument against censoriousness is contained in this plain precept of the gospel--“ Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye so unto them.” 3. We should not accustom ourselves to discourse about the faults of our neighbour, because it may betray us by degrees into a worse kind of evil speaking. 4. We should not be forward to expose the faults of others, because by so doing we may bring upon them a punishment too heavy for the offence. 5. We should be cautious how we censure others, because we may misrepresent them, and yet say nothing of them that is not true. 6. To disclose the faults and indiscretions of others is often very pernicious to society, raises infinite variances amongst men, and tends to destroy the slender remains of love and charity which subsist in the Christian world. 7. Since for the most part we cannot discern the exact nature and degree of other men’ s faults, we may easily think too hardly and judge too severely of them. Their faults, when we know not the circumstances attending them, are like objects seen by us at a great distance, or at twilight: we see them neither in shape, nor in size or colour, such as they really are. 8. That we may restrain ourselves from talking of the faults of others, we should also consider that such discourse is produced by bad causes, and proceeds from a corrupted heart; and that all good and wise persons who hear us will judge of us accordingly. Speech is the child of thought; and a child it is which greatly resembles its parent. When the discourse is censorious and malicious, the mind which conceives it is no better. 9. Besides, this is an offence which seldom escapes correction. If human laws cannot chastise it, except in some few cases, the persons who are ridiculed or censured will fully supply that defect. 10. Lastly, we should be cautious not to give way to this inclination, because if we be once accustomed to it there is no probability that we shall ever leave it off. Of all bad habits, those of the tongue are, perhaps, the hardest to be cured. The reason is this: We deceive ourselves in thinking that words can do little or no hurt, and that the guilt of them is inconsiderably small, and consequently we speak at random what comes uppermost. (J. Jortin, D. D.) Evil speaking I. The nature of this vice. It consists in saying things of others which tend to their disparagement and reproach, to the taking away or lessening of their reputation and good name; and this whether the things said be true or not. If they be false, and we know it, then it is downright calumny; and if we do not know it, but take it upon the report of others, it is, however, a slander; and so much the more injurious because really ground less and undeserved. If the thing be true, and we know it to be so, yet it is a defamation, and tends to the prejudice of our neighbour’ s reputation; and it is a fault to say the evil of others which is true, unless there be some good reason for it; besides, it is contrary to that charity and goodness which Christianity requires, to divulge the faults of others, though they be really guilty of them, without necessity or some other very good reason for it. Again, it is evil speaking, and the vice condemned in the text, whether we be the first authors of an ill-report or relate it from others; because the man that is evil spoken of is equally defamed either way. Again, whether we speak evil of a man to his face, or behind his back: the former way indeed seems to be the more generous, but yet is a great fault, and that which we call reviling: the latter is more mean and base, and that which we properly call slander, or backbiting. And lastly, whether it be done directly and in express terms, or more obscurely and by way of oblique insinuation; whether by way of downright reproach, or with some crafty preface of condemnation; for so it have the effect to defame, the manner of address does not much alter the case: the one may be more dexterous, but is not one jot less faulty. II. The extent of this prohibition. In what cases, by the general rules of Scripture and right reason, are we warranted to say the evil of others that is true?1. It is not only lawful, but very commendable, and often our duty, to do this in order to the probable amendment of the person of whom evil is spoken. But then we must take care that this be done out of kindness, and that nothing of our own passion be mingled with it; and that under pretence of reproving and reforming men we do not reproach and revile them, and tell them of their faults in such a manner as if we did it to show our authority rather than our charity. 2. This likewise is not only lawful, but our duty, when we are legally called to bear witness concerning the fault and crime of another. 3. It is lawful to publish the faults of others in our own necessary defence and vindication. 4. This also is lawful for caution and warning to a third person that is in danger to be infected by the company, or ill example of another; or may be greatly prejudiced by reposing too much confidence in him, having no knowledge or suspicion of his bad qualities: but even in this case we ought to take great care that the in character we give of any man be spread no farther than is necessary to the good end we designed in it. III. The evil of this practice, both in the causes and the consequences of it.1. We will consider the causes of it. And it commonly springs from one or more of these evil roots. (1) One of the deepest and most common causes of evil speaking is ill nature and cruelty of disposition: and by a general mistake ill nature passeth for wit, as cunning doth for wisdom; though in truth they are nothing akin to one another, but as far distant as vice and virtue. And there is no greater evidence of the bad temper of mankind than the general proneness of men to this vice. (2) Another cause of the commonness of this vice is, that many are so bad themselves in one kind or other. For to think and speak ill of others is not only a bad thing, but a sign of a bad man. (3) Another source of this vice is malice and revenge. When men are in heat and passion they do not consider what is true, but what is spiteful and mischievous, and speak evil of others in revenge of some injury which they have received from them; and when they are blinded by their passions, they lay about them madly and at a venture, not much caring whether the evil they speak be true or not. (4) Another cause of evil speaking is envy. Men look with an evil eye upon the good that is in others, and think that their reputation obscures them, and that their commendable qualities do stand in their light; and therefore they do what they can to cast a cloud over them, that the bright shining of their virtues may not scorch them. (5) Another cause of evil speaking is impertinence and curiosity; an itch of talking and meddling in the affairs of other men, or any bad thing that is talked of in good company. (6) Men often do this out of wantonness and for diversion. But what can be more barbarous, next to sporting with a man’ s life, than to play with his honour and reputation? 2. The ordinary, but very pernicious consequences and effects of it, both to others and to ourselves. (1) To others; the parties I mean that are slandered. To them it is certainly a great injury, and commonly a high provocation, but always matter of no small grief and trouble to them. (2) The consequences of this vice are as bad or worse to ourselves. Whoever is wont to speak evil of others gives a bad character of himself, even to those whom he desires to please, who, if they be wise enough, will conclude that he speaks of them to others, as he does of others to them. But there is an infinitely greater danger hanging over us from God. If we allow ourselves in this evil practice, all our religion is good for nothing. IV. Some further arguments and considerations to take men off from this vice.1. That the use of speech is a peculiar prerogative of man above other creatures, and bestowed upon him for some excellent end and purpose; that by this faculty we might communicate our thoughts more easily to one another, and consult together for our mutual comfort and benefit, not to enable us to be hurtful and injurious, but helpful and beneficial to one another. 2. Consider how cheap a kindness it is to speak well, at least not to speak ill of anybody. A good word is an easy obligation, but not to speak ill requites only our silence, which costs us nothing. 3. Consider that no quality doth ordinarily recommend one more to the favour and goodwill of men, than to be free from this vice. 4. Let every man lay his hand upon his heart, and consider how himself is apt to be affected with this usage. 5. When you are going to speak reproachfully of others, consider whether you do not lie open to just reproach in the same, or some other kind. Therefore give no occasion, no example of this barbarous usage of one another. 6. Consider that it is in many cases as great a charity to conceal the evil you hear and know of others, as if you relieved them in a great necessity. And we think him a hard-hearted man that will not bestow a small alms upon one in great want. V. Some rules and directions for the prevention and cure of this great evil.1. Never say any evil of any man, but what you certainly know. 2. Before you speak evil of any man consider whether he hath not obliged you by some real kindness, and then it is a bad return to speak ill of him who hath done us good. 3. Let us accustom ourselves to pity the faults of men, and to be truly sorry for them, and then we shall take no pleasure in publishing them. 4. Whenever we hear any man evil spoken of, if we know any good of him let us say that. 5. That you may speak evil of any, do not delight to hear ill of them. 6. Let every man mind himself, and his own duty and concernment. Do but endeavour in good earnest to mend thyself, and it will be work enough for one man, and leave thee but little time to talk of others. 7. Lastly, let us set a watch before the door of our lips, and not speak but upon consideration; I do not mean to speak finely, but fitly. Especially when thou speakest of others, consider of whom and what thou art going to speak: use great caution and circumspection in this matter: look well about thee; on every side of the thing, and on every person in the company, before thy words slip from thee, which when they are once out of thy lips are forever out of thy power. (Archbishop Tillotson.) Detraction I. Consider that rash and inconsiderate censures are inconsistent with the justice which you owe to your brethren. The Author of our nature hath wisely ordained that approbation should follow virtue as its natural reward. This the virtuous are allowed to propose to themselves as an inferior motive of conduct; and this they expect as what belongs to them of right. The esteem which a man hath merited by his integrity and usefulness may be considered as a property of which he cannot innocently be deprived; and the extent of the injury done by detraction, is proportioned to the value of the possession which it invades. Now, what interest is dearer to the ingenuous than the preservation of their good name? You detest the villain who robs the industrious of their well-earned store; you abhor the oppressor who plunders the innocent and the deserving of the means of their support; yet how light and trivial are such injuries as these in comparison of the rum of their virtuous name, which, even in the midst of poverty, would ensure them respect. Would men weigh duly the mischiefs which detraction occasions, that pernicious humour would be less frequently indulged; for it is not always from malice and cruelty of nature that detraction proceeds: it arises, often, from an inconsiderate gaiety of mind, and means not to ruin the character which it delights to expose. The effects of such conduct are not, perhaps, obvious, because they are not immediate; but they are not, on this account, the less certain, or the less direful. With a man’ s reputation his usefulness and success are closely connected; and one unguarded expression may involve a deserving family in want and wretchedness. The only compensation which you can possibly make is to vindicate the violated character at the expense of your own; and this is an atonement most humiliating to yourselves, yet to the unhappy sufferer often of little avail; for many listen with avidity to the tale of slander, who will lend to your exculpation an indifferent ear; nor will your influence be sufficient to repair the reputation which your levity or your baseness hath ruined. II. That a censorious turn of mind is destructive also of your own felicity. The man who is addicted to this odious vice, acquires, by degrees, an unhappy acuteness in marking the imperfections of his brethren. To him, therefore, the society of men can have no charms; for he beholds in every human being an object of dislike. Is not that man’ s mind ill-formed for happiness, who, amidst the various appearances which nature exhibits, dwells always on such as are dismal and destructive; who observes only the inhospitable desert, the blasting lightning, and the wintry storm; but marks not the beauties which adorn the spring, the riches which descend in the shower, or the stores with which autumn gladdens the earth? Nor does his happiness suffer merely from the effect of detraction on his own disposition. His conduct renders him an object of general aversion. Even his gay companions, whom his destructive pleasantry may entertain for a season, despise and dread the promoter of their mirth. They know that the edge of his satire will soon be turned against themselves; and that their own characters are destined to bleed by the very same weapons by which others have been assailed. Those who have suffered by his calumny, are entitled to vindicate, at his expense, their injured reputation; and every friend of innocence will aid them in the attempt. Merely to refute his slander, implies a reproach to which no prudent man would choose to expose himself. But how rarely doth human resentment confine itself within such moderate bounds. The rage of the injured will probably prompt them to retaliate. The security of others will seemed to be concerned in the cause. It will not appear sufficient that the aspersion be removed. The character of the detractor is devoted to ruin. In the snare which he hath laid for others, his own feet are entangled, and he falls by the sword which he hath whetted against his brethren. (W. Moodie, D. D.) Evil speaking I. All evil speaking my be referred to two heads, for it is(1) either the uttering of false and evil things, or(2) of true things falsely and evilly. 1. The former. (1) When men speak upon no ground, as when men, present or absent, are accused of the evils which they never did (2 Samuel 16:3). (2) When men speak some evil of others upon weak and insufficient grounds, as when any either publicly or privately chargeth some other man before his face or behind his back with evil upon suspicions (2 Samuel 10:3). (3) When men cast railing, cursing, or reviling speeches upon another, present or absent, openly or secretly, and covertly by insinuation (2 Samuel 15:3) 2. The latter kind of evil speaking is in true things, as (1) When a man speaketh of something done or spoken, but destroyeth the sense (Matthew 26:61; John 2:19). (2) In uttering nothing but truth, but with wicked insinuations and collections of evil (1 Samuel 22:9-10). (3) In speaking of good things, but either lessening them or depraving them, as Gone of bad intent for bad ends in hypocrisy. (4) In speaking of things evil and not so well done. (a) By uncovering infirmities, which is the guise of cursed Chains, who are ever revealing to their brethren other men’ s nakedness, which an ingenious disposition, yea, humanity itself (if there were no religion), would cover and hide (Proverbs 11:13). (b) Whereas we can excuse our own faults twenty ways, by amplifying the faults and offences of others, be they never so apparent, we become evil speakers in a high degree, as sycophants who make the scapes of men far greater than they are, affirming often that to be done of deliberation which was done rashly and in hot blood, or presumptuously when it was perhaps done but weakly, and imputing that to want of conscience which perhaps was want Of heedfulness and foresight; and thus the sin is heightened when men so wickedly speak of that which they ought altogether to be silent in and not to speak at all. II. Now, because of all sins, there is not a more manifest and general mischief in all the life of man, wherein even Christians themselves are not exempted, who carry a very world of wickedness about with them, and yet wipe their mouths as though all were well with them; therefore will it not be amiss to take a little pains with this sin, scarce so accounted of, and to show 1. How unseemly it is for a Christian.2. How dangerous in itself.3. The means to repress and avoid it. 1. For the first (1) To utter slander, saith Solomon, is a note of a fool; and the slander itself is a fool’ s bolt, which is soon shot. And the apostle in so many places affirming it to be the practice of the old man, which must be cast off, maketh it hence an unbeseeming thing for Christians that profess new life to walk in such heathenish courses. (2) This cursed speaking, whereby our brethren are hurt in their names, is the devil’ s language, who thence hath his name, and argueth a venomous and hateful disposition not becoming the children of God: (3) True religion will not stand with such a tattling course as many Christians take up, who, like the Athenians, delight in nothing more than hearing and telling news; and once getting a tale by the end, they are in travail till they have delivered it to others, and with these all opportunity of good and edifiable speech perisheth. (4) Were it not most disgraceful for a Christian to be counted a thief, or a continual robber in the highway, or a continual breaker of the peace? and yet this sin is a greater breach of love than theft or spoiling of the goods, for a good name is more precious then gold, more sweet than the sweetest ointment. 2. The second point is the danger of this sin, which cannot but attend it, unless we conceive no danger in breaking such express commandments as we have (Leviticus 19:16; James 4:11). The defence of many a man is, I speak nothing but the truth, and so long I may speak it. But if that thou speakest be a tale true or false (as it is if without a calling thou playest the pedlar, and settest to sale the name of thy brother), these commandments cast and condemn thee. Others think it is a fault indeed, but not so great a fault to speak the thing we know by another; but look upon it, not as it may seem in thine eye, but in the penalty the Scripture hath set upon it; (Psalms 15:3) it hindereth the entrance into the holy mountain of God, and (1 Corinthians 6:10) railers and revilers shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven; and therefore it is no such small matter as many take it for. Others reply, What are words but wind? and God is not so straitlaced; if a man should go to hell for every word, who shall come to heaven? This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Titus 3:3 We ourselves also were sometimes foolish The transforming power of the gospel I. What even Christians were. Their lives and characters were distinguished by 1. Folly;2. Disobedience;3. Liability to deception;4. Sensuality;5. Passion;6. Unloveliness;7. Unbrotherliness. II. What Christians become. Their lives display 1. Humility of spirit;2. Gentleness in action;3. Truthfulness in word. (F. Wagstaff.) Before conversion and after This verse layeth down a weighty reason whereby our apostle would bow and bend the minds of Christian men to the practice of the former virtues, namely, of equity, lenity, long-suffering, and meekness towards all men, foes as well as friends, yea, the worst as well as the best. The reason is drawn frown the consideration of the present condition of converted Christians, compared with that estate they were in before their conversion and calling to the faith, to which purpose he is very large in describing.1. Our estate of corruption (Titus 3:3). 2. Our estate after conversion (Titus 3:4-6), from both which the apostle thus concluded the same thing thus: First, the former; if we ourselves were in times past in the self-same condition, which other men are not called out of, then ought we to be meek and merciful even to those who are not yet converted. But we ourselves were in times past as they are; we lay in the same puddle of corruption, were hewn out of the same pit, and though we may think we were never so graceless, as we see some others, yet we cannot charge them so deeply for time present, but they may come over us with the same in times past, as this third verse will teach us, and therefore we ought to show all lenity and meekness to all men. Secondly, from our latter condition of conversion, thus our apostle frameth his reason. If God have been so bountiful a benefactor unto us, when we were so unworthy, as the former verse describeth, that His mere and alone mercy saved us; then must we in imitation of our heavenly Father do the like to our brethren. But God hath done thus (Titus 3:4-5) so as from both we may well reason that a new condition requireth a new conversation; new men must have new manners; we being Christians may not carry ourselves so crookedly as in times past, nor so roughly towards those who now do the same things which then we did, considering our own selves. (T. Taylor, D. D.) The difference between the present and the past of life 1. The consideration of the common condition is a notable ground of meekness and moderation towards those who are yet uncalled to the faith. For (1) Whereas pride maketh the heart to swell against the brother, and is a root whence these bitter fruits arise, this consideration pulleth those peacock feathers, and humbleth the heart, so as when it can find no other reason of forbearance, here it never wanteth a most effectual one. 2. This consideration not only subdueth that violent affection of pride, but worketh the heart to such affections as not only beseem ourselves but befit the offender, and these are two (1) For time present pity and compassion.(2) Hope for time to come. 3. Whosoever are called unto the faith have experience of a double estate in themselves, one in time past, another for the present, the one of nature, the other of grace. Our apostle affirmeth it of all believers, of which there is none but he had his once, his time past, in regard of which he may now be said to be changed into another man (Romans 7:5-6). The time was when the Romans were in the flesh, when sinful motions had force in them unto death; and there was an aftertime when they were delivered from the law, and served God not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of spirit (Ephesians 2:3). Among whom the Gentiles we believers had our conversation in time past. “ Wherein ye walked also once, but now,” etc. (1 Corinthians 6:11). “ And such were some of you, but ye are washed.” And good reason there is that he that is now beloved should see that once he was not beloved, and that he who now is in the state of grace should see that he was once in the state of wrath as well as others, which will cause him to love much; and indeed the elect could not be elect, nor justified, nor washed, if they were always the children of God, and were it not for this once, and time past, wherein there was no difference between them and the reprobate, but only in God’ s counsel and possibility of calling. I add, further, that the converted may and must have experience of this change, for the conversion of a sinner is a miracle above all natural wonders; and therefore, except in some Jeremiah, John Baptist, and some few sanctified from the womb, is no such insensible thing as cannot be perceived. It is no such natural change as is effected by insensible degrees, as when he that was a child is now become a man; but a supernatural change by the Spirit of grace, such as when a man is born into the world, or when a blind man is restored to his sight, or rather a dead man unto life, which are things of much note and manifest alteration, and that of the whole man. Again, faith it is which as an internal instrument purgeth the Augean Stable, and purifieth the foul cage of the heart. Now this we may know, and must examine whether we be in the faith or no; know ye not that Christ is in you, unless ye be reprobates. “ Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). “ Know ye that ye are dead to sin, but are alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11). Labour to find this change in thyself and examine whether thou canst put difference between time past and time present, for otherwise I see not but thou must set thyself down without comfort, as one that hath no sound proof of thy conversion. Hence may many a one learn what to think of himself. Some profess they love God with all their hearts and have ever so done since they can remember; they always believed in Christ and never doubted but they were ever dear unto God. But all this is nothing but a deceitful skinning over the sores of their souls with peace, peace, whereas the case that was ever so good was never good at all; no, if thou canst not remember the time past, when thy state was worse than nought, I can never be persuaded that it is good for the present. Every Christian learn hence 1. If we see a change in ourselves or others to bless God that hath made this separation (Romans 6:17). God be thanked that ye were such, but now ye obey the form, and blessed be God for this unspeakable gift. 2. Not to deem of men as they were once in time past, when once this change is come, the Lord esteemeth of men according to the present grace received, and never casteth them in the teeth with that they were in time past; and why should we upbraid men with sins or infirmities past, which the Lord hath covered? Paul accounted not James, John, Peter, fishermen, as they had been in times past, but highly esteemed of them as apostles of Christ, being called thereunto. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Foolish 1. The main property of fools and silly bodies is that they know not the end of their lives, why God made them and put them into this world; even to ask many men why God did inspire the breath of life on their faces, how few would give this direct answer, that by glorifying God in my calling I might be led to a better life hereafter. Ask many a man concerning heaven, and earth, and sea, and other sensible things, and they will give some sensible answers, as that the earth was made for man and beast to live upon; the sea for fish and navigation; the air for man and beast to breathe in; the sun, moon, and stars for light, heat, and comfort; the beasts, fishes, fowls, etc., for man; but why thyself? Fewest would say for God; but if they speak true, some for themselves, some for their family, some for their pleasures, some for wealth, or some baser end, to which such a noble creature as man is should be destinated. 2. As fools live for the present time if they can get meat, drink, clothes, and necessaries for the present, they forecast nothing to come; even so ungodly men, if they can get wealth, and lay up things present for many years to come, they dream of no other heaven, they forecast no day of death, nor judgment; but oh, fool, what if thy soul be taken away this night? This was that which that fool thought not of; and as of their own, so they judge of all other men’ s felicity by things present, into which folly David himself was sliding, when he confesseth himself as ignorant as a beast in this point, until he went into the sanctuary. 3. Fools are indocible and incorrigible; so the natural man put him to school, he learneth nothing by the book of the creatures, nor of the Creator in the Scriptures. Let God the great schoolmaster whip him, and bray him in the mortar of His judgments. He is a fool still, be leaveth not his old wonts. 4. Fools are so wise in their own conceits as they will abide no counsel; the natural man is wiser in his own eyes than seven men that can give a reason. (T. Taylor, D. D.) A significant contrast The whole sentence is in form a contrast. It reminds the Cretans of what they had been in their unconverted conidition. Against that it sets their present position as Christians. It grandly magnifies the Divine grace which had made them to differ. Out of this little biographical sketch there sprang two arguments for a meek behaviour. In the first place, these heathen neighbours, whose abusive attitude is so irritating, are not at all different from what you used to be. Recall what you were before God’ s grace changed you: precisely such as they are today. You did not then see your own foulness--not then, before the light came; neither do they see theirs now. Yet contemplate, the hateful picture! What is pagan life?1. So dark on religious matters as to possess no true acquaintance with God nor any just apprehension of spiritual truth at all. 2. As a result in part of this ignorance, disobedient in practice to all the requirements of Divine law. 3. Deluded indeed and misled to false conceptions of duty and false superstitions in worship. 4. Worse than that, enslaved to the desire for enjoyment, given over to indulgence in what seems most pleasant, no matter how immoral. 5. Socially leading a life too selfish to be either just or generous to others, cherishing rancour against one another for imagined slights and jealousy on account of superior fortune. Is this a just picture of the natural life as it mirrors itself in the enlightened Christian conscience? Sum it up in a single word: Are not such men repulsive as well as repellant--hateful as well as hating? Yet such were you. By the recollection of your former state, remembering the old darkness out of which you indeed have been rescued but not they, bear with them tenderly, think of them kindly! To this argument, a second joins itself: Out of that universal degradation of unregenerate nature, how is it that you have been rescued? By an effort of your own, or by another’ s favour? Nay; not through any righteous actions or meritorious struggles to grow better, as you very well know; but through the mere mercy and cleansing and renewing power of “ God our Saviour” ; by a salvation which came to you unsought, found you helpless, surprised you with its benefits, and by its own virtue made new men of you in that day when you turned from your idols to become through Jesus Christ the heirs of life eternal! Saved thus by the sheer philanthropy of Heaven, have you none for your unsaved brothers? Changed by Divine mercy from a state like theirs, where is your mercy to them? They are as you were: treat them, then, as God treated you! How if He had been as resentful against us, as quick to take offence and ready to strike? Ah, how ill it becomes a Christian to speak evil of others, to brawl, to give back word for word and blow for blow! By the kindness your Saviour has returned for your wrong, show to your still wrongful fellows what is that love of God to man which has been manifested unto you; that they too may be won to taste that God is good! (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) Transforming power of the Holy Spirit Many years ago the people of Paris used to throw out the offal of fish and other garbage into the streets to be carted away as useless, but a clever man found out a way to extract from this filth a sweet scent, so pleasant and good that the Queen on her throne has it in her boudoir. This is an example of what men can do with vile materials; but God can do greater and mightier things with man than this, He can and will take the vilest person out of the mire and slime of sin’ s foul gutter, and make him glorious like His own Son by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. (J. Lawson.) Disobedient Frowardness This second degree of corruption of mind showeth that we are not only ignorant but froward in the things of God, and such as will not be persuaded, as the word in the original sounded; and this is nothing else but a perverse disposition which fighteth against the truth. Which a little better to understand, we must know that before our fall the mind of man had two faculties about the truth of God.1. The knowledge of it so far as was meet.2. An assent approving that knowledge. Instead of which are succeeded two contrary corruptions since the fall.1. Darkness instead of that light of knowledge.2. Frowardness or reasoning against it. For example: when the understanding of man, unconverted, conceiveth something of that we deliver out of the Word, whereas it should assent unto the law that it is good, and the gospel that it is the arm of God unto salvation, the wisdom of the flesh on the contrary, it becometh enmity to all this; it can find evasions to shift off the curse; it can covenant with hell and death. And for the gospel, it is to one foolishness, to another offence. Paul’ s preaching shall be counted madness, or malice, or something else which shall be reason and warrant enough to contemn it. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Deceived Various kinds of deceived persons I. First, what a fearful deceit is that of many who strengthen themselves in their sins, sometimes putting off all the fear of God’ s justice, and growing into contempt of His judgments; sometimes absolving themselves from the guilt and curse of sin in hope of impunity, as though the Lord were become an idle essence, who hath put off the power of judging the world and revenging the wickedness of it. Zephaniah noted in his time such a knot of ungodly men that were frozen in their dregs; but how came they to this settledness in sin? “ They said in their hearts, Tush! the Lord will do neither good nor evil.” And did this sin die with that age? II. A second and as fearful deceit as the former is that proud conceit of a kind of inbred and inherent righteousness of many reputed Christians, but indeed of such as wanting Christ’ s righteousness, seek to sew their own fig leaves together. The Pharisees in their time thanked God that they were not as other men; they were whole and needed no physician. The Laodiceans took themselves to be rich and increased and stood in need of nothing, but were deceived, and saw not themselves in a true glass, which would have showed their blindness and nakedness and poverty. So how many civil, just dealing, and harmless men everywhere are there at this day who overthrow themselves with this deceit, which ariseth sometimes by measuring themselves with themselves, as the proud preachers of Corinth seemed somewhat comparing themselves with themselves, and otherwhiles comparing themselves with others, whom they take greater sinners than themselves as the Pharisees did; but especially through ignorance, or a dead knowledge of the righteousness of the law, they see not what strict righteousness God requireth, not their own corruption boiling within them, and so neglect all the sense of their secret lusts rising up against the love of God or man and that incessantly in them? III. A third sort of men as far deceived as the former are secure persons, who being baptized into the name of Christ as yet never came unto Him, but plod on in all dirty and sinful ways with many pretences underpropplng themselves, but never examining duly whether they be right or no.1. Superstitious persons who take up a voluntary religion which hath some show of wisdom and humbleness of mind; worship God they think they do, but it is uncommanded; devout they are, but resist the truth as those devout women which resisteth Paul. 2. General or Catholic Protestants of all, any, or no religion, these content themselves with the Jews to say, “ the temple, the temple, the covenant, Abraham’ s seed,” etc., so these find a religion established, and they love it because it is crowned and bringeth in abundance of property with it. 3. A rabble of idle Protestants whose carnal hearts turn the grace of God into wantonness. 4. The fourth sort may well carry the title of crafty Christians, as also of free will Protestants, who for the present walk in a secure path and will not yet be acquainted with repentance for their sin they think. 5. The fifth sort of secure persons may be called sensible Protestants, who by outward things judge themselves high in God’ s books; and many, both rich and poor, tread in this path. Thus David observed of wicked rich men; their houses were peaceable without fear, and because they are not in affliction like other men, pride compasseth them as a chain; they seek not after God, nor sound and settled peace in Him, but little know they the end of that fat pasture. He learned at the sanctuary that they were lifted up above other, as felons on the ladder, to come down with a greater mischief and breakneck. But more marvellous it is that corrections and afflictions should become a pillow for security in many, which are God’ s spurs in the flank of the godly to prick them up, and rouse them from their drowsiness; and yet many determine hence, and conclude without further ground, the Lord’ s love towards them, because of long and durable afflictions, of which they could never come to make good use, nor take any profit by them, whom God loveth, say they, He chasteneth. And we are judged of the Lord, that we should not be condemned of the world, and when they are exceeding crossed in the world, and indeed cursed in their counsel and attempts, they thank God they have their punishment here in this life and so secure themselves from all future pains. But this is but a guile and stratagem of Satan to cast his poison into the Lord’ s cup, and bane and destroy men with that which might be a special mean of their good, even a special provocation to make them seek reconciliation with God in Jesus Christ. IV. The fourth and last sort of men who are deceived and wander out of the good way are some that seem to themselves and others to be very good Christians, at least none of the worst, and yet many of them little better than some of the former. And these are of two sorts; some are deceived in regard of their sins, others in regard of their graces or virtues.1. Of the former sort. There be some who, because they are not carried to such sins as they see others, they conclude presently that they are in the right way to heaven, whereas there may be a work of the Word and Spirit forcible against many sins, where there is no saving grace in the soul. 2. The latter sort are they that deceive themselves in turning their eyes from their sins to some virtues or graces which they find in their souls. Hence have we men that can be diligent in hearing the Word, and that gladly with Herod, and think that enough to dispense with their holding of their Herodias, some sweet sin or other. Others can rejoice and be affected as we have known soft-hearted Protestants, that could melt at sermons into tears with great affection, and yet have made little conscience of their ways, but not mortifying the deeds of the flesh, have yielded to their lusts the reins in all liberty. Others can receive the Word, talk of it, yield a seemly obedience unto it; any man would say they were surely good Christians, yet as bad ground they give it not depth enough; they give it the understanding and some affection, but the will and the whole joy is not carried unto it. If they talk of it, it is but as such as only have tasted it with their tongues, as cooks do their services, but they have not filled their belly with it, as they for whom it is prepared. Their sightly obedience is like Herod’ s, who did many things because John was a good man. In a word, they can be reverent and liberal to ministers, kind to professors, forward in good motions, can lend their hands or purses to help the godly out of trouble, and yet in all these commendable duties are like a deceitful bow, which being east and crooked, let the eye aim never so right at the mark, it casteth it quite besides all the way; even all these, proceeding from deep hypocrisy, and done not purely, but sinister respects furthering them, deceive the soul and keep it far from the happiness of it. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Serving divers lusts and pleasures Lusts and pleasures Sins are called lusts because they be indeed so many inordinate desires against the commandment. And pleasures, because of the imagination of them that commit sin, being carried away with the present pleasure and sweetness of them. And diverse pleasures 1. Because they are many in themselves, and though every man yield not service to every one, yet some serve this, and some that, and every wicked man some. Samson will be slave to his Delilah, in the lust of the flesh and uncleanness; Nabal to his wealth, in the lust of the eye; Herod to his vainglory, in the lust of pride of life. 2. Because they diversely carry men, even as a man in the sea is carried backward and forward and hurried with divers waves, for there is no stability nor settledness but in the fear of God. The wicked are like the raging sea, and there is no peace to them, saith the Lord; but as slaves having served one lust, they must presently be at the call and command of another, and if it command they must obey, although it call to the clean contrary course. (T. Taylor, D. D.) The slavery of sin What slavery is like the slavery of sin? In every other case there is hope; there are lulls, at least, and intervals of anguish; there are alleviations, though perhaps they may be few and rare; there is patience, there is prayer; there may be the comfort of the cherished Spirit of God in the inner heart; there is death, in which the consummation of earthly tyranny works its own cure, and the slave is free forever; but in the slavery of sin there is no hope, no lull, no check, no flight, no patience, no prayer, no inward peace of a religious spirit counterbalancing the outward misery of the fettered limbs; and death, the limit of the one slavery, is but the terrible “ beginning of the end” of the other; when sin, which has been allowed to rule in the heart and members during life, declares itself visibly and unmistakably to be the very tyrant of souls himself, the Prince of Darkness, to whose sway his slave is consigned to all eternity. (Bp. Moberly.) Living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another I. First, to distinguish the words. The first of them, malice, is an evil affection of the heart, which properly desireth the hurt of our neighbour and rejoiceth in his fall. Envy is a contrary affection, but as wicked, for it grieveth at the neighbour’ s good, and fretteth itself at his prosperous and fortunate success in anything. Hateful may to good purpose be taken either actively, as it is read, namely for such as are in such extremity of wickedness, as they in every way are abominable creatures in themselves; or else passively, and so may be read hated, that is, justly execrable and odious unto others, both God and men. And hating one another, as full of poison and venomous hatred towards others as they could be unto us, requiting like for like, all which, although they show a most godless and comfortless condition, yet we lived in this graceless course, that is, passed our days, or at least a great part of them in time past, before we came to know the grace of God. II. Now this being the estate of every natural man, that his whole conversation is monstrously depraved, so as he spendeth his days and consumeth his time in malice, envy, hatred, and such hateful courses, it may let many a man see how little they are escaped from the filthiness of nature. For 1. How do the lives of most men show that the spirit which lusteth after envy ruleth them? and how doth that bitter root of malice and hatred shoot forth buds and blossoms at all seasons? (1) In affection, when as men grieve at the good and greatness of another, and cannot look upon the prosperity of a man whom they wish not so well unto, but with an evil eye, and the more they look upon it, the sorer still groweth their eye, accounting themselves after a sort wronged by him, if they cannot attain to his estate. (2) In men’ s speeches, how doth Satan tip many men’ s tongues and set them on fire with all manner of malicious and murdering speeches? What is more common speech than detraction and impairing from the just praise of men? (3) In the actions of life, what a cloud of frivolous suits, and yet fiery enough, witness the malice and envy of men’ s hearts. If a man’ s beast look but over another man’ s hedge, and so make but offer of a trespass, or any other such trivial colour is sufficient to fire the gunpowder within, and to carry the controversy with such violence, as one must yield or both be blown up. But the most fearful and wretched work of this inbred corruption is most apparent in the pursuit of good men, because they are good; for who, be he never so good, can stand before envy, which feedeth even upon virtue and goodness itself? 2. This must teach us that profess ourselves to be the Lord’ s, So abhor all the sins of this suit, and to banish such filthy fruits of the flesh, which God giveth them up unto who are of a reprobate mind; and have nothing to do with such wicked inmates, which are ever plotting to set the whole tenement on fire, and which bring rottenness into their own bones and bowels. As well said a godly man of Cain, he had half killed and consumed himself with malice before he killed his brother. And not to urge the multitude of reasons which to this purpose offer themselves, I will only name those two which are couched in the verse. (1) Because that we profess that we were such in times past, but now are begotten unto God, which were it not a forcible reason, the apostle would not so often beat upon it (Colossians 3:8; 1 Corinthians 5:8; James 1:18). (2) These hateful sins make us justly odious (a) To God (Proverbs 14:32). The wicked is cast away for his malice both root and fruit.(b) To man, in that they wage battle against Christian love, which is the preservative of all society.3. Lastly, let every one learn timely to take in hand this crooked nature before he be accustomed to evil; for else as hardly as a blackamoor changeth his skin shalt thou become changed when wicked nature and worse custom have both barred thy repentance and bound thy sins faster upon thee. And because much of this folly is bound up in the hearts of children and servants, let masters and fathers seek seasonably to drive it out; fathers especially, because they helped their children into it, must by Christian instruction, godly example, and the rod of correction, labour to help them out, and thus do their best to make their children a part of amends. Zuinglius calleth this corruption the disease of nature. And herein it fitly resembleth the diseases of the body, the which the longer they continue the more incurable they are; and if they be let go too long they bring certain death; and therefore let parents and masters, many of whom are careful enough to prevent and seek out for help against the diseases which threaten the bodily death of their children and servants, take up some care to remove that everlasting death which this evil threateneth, and will certainly bring if in due season it be not repressed. Teach thy child and train him in the Scriptures from a child; teach thy servant the trade of Christianity and godliness, for thou art no less bound to deliver him the principles of this calling, as the particular to which he is bound. Use good means to get them the light of knowledge, opposed against this blindness of mind; work upon their wills to break them from the follies and vanities of youth, opposed to this rebellion of will; bring them at least to outward conformity in their conversation, opposed to this general depravation of manners. These things they will not forget in their age, or if they do, the peril is their own; thou hast done thy duty. One thing remember: thy servants, thy children are all poisoned, and have need of some present antidote. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Malice Malice is the devil’ s picture. Lust makes men brutish, and malice makes them devilish. Malice is mental murder; you may kill a man and never touch him. “ Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” (T. Watson.) Malice self-destructive A bee, in inflicting a sting, it is said, leaves it barbed weapon in the wound, and, being thus mutilated, inevitably dies. The bee stings itself to death in trying to sting some one else. Your stinging may hurt others and kill yourself. Malice and rancour Malice, in Latin, malitia, from malus, bad, signifies the very essence of badness lying in the heart. Rancour is only continued hatred; the former requires no external cause to provoke it, it is inherent in the mind; the latter must be caused by some personal offence. Malice is properly the love of evil for evil’ s sake, and is, therefore, confined to no number or quality of objects, and limited to no circumstances; rancour, as it depends upon external objects for its existence, so it is confined to such objects only as are liable to cause displeasure or anger. Malice will impel a man to do mischief to those who have not injured him; rancour can subsist only between those who have had sufficient connection to be at variance. (G. Crabb.) Titus 3:4-7 But after that the kindness and love of God The power of God’ s kindness In the incarnation of Christ, His life and miracles and mercies and divinest teaching; in His sacrificial death upon the cross, His resurrection and ascension, we have that manifestation of the kindness of God which is intended and calculated to lift us up out of our sins, and to bring us into His own most holy fellowship. And see how broad and far-reaching this kindness is; it is not for the elect nor for the Church, though these of course are included, but for man as such--for the whole human family, without exception. Wide as the world is Thy command, vast as eternity Thy love! We know something of this power of kindness to subdue the evil and develop the good even between man and man. It has many a time succeeded where everything else has failed, and where it fails we know of nothing else likely to succeed. Pinel, the celebrated Frenchman, was the first to introduce into Europe a more humane treatment of the insane. In the madhouse at Paris there had been confined for some twenty years a sea captain, furious in his madness, ferocious and untameable. Two of the keepers had been struck dead by him with a blow from his manacled hands. He was chained to his seat when Pinel approached him, and with cheerful face and kindly manner, said, “ Captain, I am going to release you and take you into the open air.” The mariner laughed out right and said, “ You dare not do it.” It was done, the poor wretch staggered to the door accompanied by Pinel, and lifting up his eyes to the blue heavens above, a sight he had not seen for twenty years, said, as the tears coursed down his face, “ Oh, how beautiful!” and from that hour became perfectly docile. If human kindness meets such returns, shall God’ s love go unrequited, no echo answering to the Divine from the human? (J.W. Lance.) St. Paul’ s gospel Note at the outset two points. First, the central words, on which as on a peg the whole structure both of thought and of expression hangs, is the proposition--“ He saved us.” In what sense is man lost? In what must his salvation consist? What is necessary in order to it? In proportion as these questions are answered in a profound or in a shallow way will be our appreciation of those redemptive actions of God--the mission of His Son and the outpouring of His Spirit. Next, let it be noted that in this saving of man by God three leading points have to be attended to: The source or origin of it; the method of it; the issues and effects of it. What we have to ask from St. Paul is a distinct reply to these three great queries 1. From what source did God’ s saving activity on our behalf take its rise?2. Through what methods does it operate upon us?3. To what ultimate issues does it conduct those who are its objects? I. The answer to the first of these need not detain us long. True, it is a point of primary importance for the immediate purpose of the writer in the present connection. What he is engaged in enforcing upon Cretan Christians is a meek and gentle deportment toward their heathen neighbours. With this design, it is most pertinent to observe that they have not themselves to thank for being in a better state than others--saved Christians instead of lost heathen; not themselves, but God’ s gratuitous kindness. It is worth remarking too in this connection, how singularly human are the terms selected to express the saving love of God. Two terms are used. The one is God’ s “ kindliness” or sweet benignity, like that gentle friendliness which one helpful neighbour may show to another in distress. The other is God’ s “ love for man,” literally, His philanthropy, or such special benevolence to all who wear the human form as might be looked for indeed among the members of our race themselves, but which it startles one to find is shared in by Him who made us. These curiously human phrases are chosen, it is to be presumed, because St. Paul would have us imitate in our dealings with one another God’ s behaviour towards us. In substance, however, they describe just the same merciful and compassionate love in God our Saviour, to which the whole New Testament traces back man’ s salvation as to its prime or fontal source. It is quite in harmony with this ascription of our salvation to God’ s love as its fountainhead, that, throughout his account of the process, Paul continues to make God the subject of his sentence, and man its object. All along the line God appears as active and we as receptive; He is the doer or giver, man the field of His operations and the recipient of His benefits. II. We pass next from the epiphany of God’ s unmerited kindness in the advent of the Saviour, to that process by which individuals, at Crete or elsewhere, become partakers in His salvation. The conversion of one born a heathen wears a conspicuous character, which is usually awanting to cases of conversion among ourselves. The day of their baptism, on which they sealed their conversion to the Christian faith, had marked a complete revolution in every department of their life. It had in many cases severed family ties. It had in all cases made them marked men in society. It had brought them into the circle of a strange community, and affiliated them to new comrades under the badges of a foreign religion. Outwardly, no less than inwardly, they were become new creatures; the old had passed away and all things were become new. The font at which they sealed their vows of discipleship had proved to be a second birth--the starting point for a changed life. Of course it is still the same among the converts who are won at our mission stations abroad; and we require to keep the condition of an infant missionary church well in mind if we would do justice to such language as St. Paul has here employed to describe the conversion of his readers. He speaks of the change in phrases borrowed both from its outer and inner side, its ritual and its spiritual elements. Inwardly, the convert was saved by the power of the Holy Spirit regenerating and renewing him. Outwardly, this spiritual second birth found its expressive seal in the bath or laver of holy baptism. Paul’ s language could not mislead his Cretan readers. But it was admirably adapted to revive their most touching recollections. As they read his words, each one of them seemed to himself to stand once more, as on the most memorable and solemn day of his life, beside the sacred font. Once more he saw himself descend into the laver to symbolise the cleansing of his conscience from idol worship, from unbridled indulgence, from a vain conversation, by the precious death and burial of his Lord. By that act how utterly had he broken once for all with his earlier life and its polluted associations, leaving them behind like a buried past! Coming up afresh to commence the new pure career of a Christian disciple, he had received the symbolic white robe amid the congratulations of the brotherhood, who thronged around to welcome the newborn with a kiss of love--to welcome him among that little band who, beneath the cross, had sworn to fight the devil in Jesus’ strength, and, if need arose, to shed their blood for Jesus’ name! How keenly, as all this rushed back upon the Christian’ s recollection, must he have felt that a change so wonderful and blessed was the Lord’ s doing. What power, save God’ s, could have turned backward the currents of his being, reversing the influences of education with the traditions of his ancestry and the usages of his fatherland? What hand but the Almighty’ s could have snatched him out of the doomed nations over which Satan reigned, to translate him into that kingdom of light--the kingdom of God’ s dear Son? Where was the spiritual force that could have opened his eyes, cleansed his conscience, quickened his heart, and made a new man out of the old one, save that Divine Spirit whose advent at Pentecost had been the birthday of a new era for the human family? The grateful praise which could not fail to mount to the lips at such a recollection, was a doxology to the Triune God, into whose name he had been baptized: to the Father unseen, eternal fountainhead of mercy; to the Incarnate Son, sole channel for its manifestation to guilty men; to the Holy Ghost, who, like a stream of life, had been plentifully poured forth from the Father, through the Son, to be the effectual giver of life in sinful souls! III. Consider, in the last place, whither this saving activity on the part of the Godhead is carrying such as surrender themselves to it. What is to be the outcome of His redemptive undertaking? In this alone, that the sinner is justified freely by His grace? Is the release of the guilty from condemnation and penalty the issue of all that God has done in His kindness? No; but that, “ having been justified, we should be made heirs.” Birth of the Divine Spirit involves sonship to God Himself. The privilege of sons is to inherit; “ heirs,” therefore, of “ life eternal.” The word is one which opens, as it were, a door into heaven. It is true that it is not yet apparent what the children of God shall hereafter be, for purity, for freedom, for wisdom, for felicity. But forth from that opened door, how there streams to meet us a radiance of the unseen glory, which in the twilight of this lifetime dazzles our earthly eyes! For that undiscovered heritage of the saints in light we can only hope. To this point, therefore, and no further, does the Christian gospel conduct its disciple. Here for the present it leaves him, sitting patient and expectant by the gate of Paradise, to await, with steadfast heart, the moment that shall disclose to him his patrimony of bliss. While he sits and waits, shall he not behave himself as a child of God, and strive to grow more meet for the heritage of the holy? (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) God’ s kindness The sun that shines on you shall set, summer streams shall freeze, and deepest wells go dry; but God’ s love is a stream that never freezes, a fountain that never fails, a sun that never sets in night, a shield that never breaks in fight. God’ s kindness only partially seen by the soul The sun appears red through a fog, and generally red at rising and setting, the red rays having a great momentum which gives them power to traverse so dense an atmosphere, which the other rays have not. The increased quantity of atmosphere which oblique rays must traverse, loaded with the mists and vapours which are usually formed at those times, prevents the other rays from reaching us. It is thus that but a few of the rays of God’ s love--like the red rays--reach the soul. Sin, passion, and unbelief surround it as with a dense atmosphere of mists and vapours; and, though the beams of God’ s love are poured out innumerable as the sun’ s rays, they are lost and scattered, and few of them shine upon the soul. (H.G. Salter.) God’ s love incomparable If an angel were to fly swiftly over the earth on a summer morning, and go into every garden--the king’ s, the rich man’ s, the peasant’ s, the child’ s--and were to bring from each one the choicest, loveliest, sweetest flower that blooms in each, and gather them all in one cluster in his radiant hands, what a beautiful bouquet it would be! And if an angel were to fly swiftly over the earth into every sweet and holy home, into every spot where one heart yearns over another, and were to take out of every father’ s heart, and every mother’ s heart, and out of every heart that loves, its holiest flower of affection, and gather all into one cluster, what a blessed love garland would his eyes behold! What a holy love would this aggregation of all earth’ s loves be! Yet infinitely sweeter and holier than this grouping of all earth’ s holiest affections is the love that fills the heart of our Father in heaven. (John R. Miller.) God’ s love to men I was leaving a gentleman’ s house where I had been paying a visit, said a minister of the gospel, when I put this question to the servant maid who was about to open the door: “ My friend, do you love God?” “ I am afraid not,” she answered, “ and I fear I never shall.” “ Well.” I said,” you may at least depend on this--it is certain that God loves you.” “ How can you possibly tell that?” asked the master of the house, who was going downstairs with me. “ This is the first time you have ever seen this woman; you know nothing about her character. You cannot tell whether she attends to her duties properly or not.” “ Never mind about that,” I said, “ It is certain that God loves her, and you too. I am quite sure of this, because God has told us that His love to us does Hot depend on what we are, or what we deserve. The Bible tells us, ‘ God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son’ to die for it; and again it tells us, ‘ Herein is love; not that we loved God; but that God loved us, and sent His Son to die for our sins’” (1 John 4:10). “ If that is so,” said the gentleman, “ and your words seem to prove it, what a shame it is that I don’ t love Him. May I say to myself, without any fear of making a mistake, ‘ It is certain that God loves me’ ?” “ Indeed you may,” I said; “ and I pray to God you may soon be able to say, ‘ It is certain that I love Him.’” And Jesus may well be called a loving messenger, because He came into the world, not only to tell us this great truth, but also to be Himself the proof of it. (Richard Newton.) The disposition of God God’ s forgiveness is unspeakably generous, and, if I may so say, unspeakably more fine, delicate, and full of strange gentleness than ours. I believe the more we come to know the disposition of Almighty God, the more we shall find in it, in magnitude and power, those traits which we call, among men, rare in their excellence. And when God undertakes for us, if we have thrown our selves upon His mercy, and we have really meant to be His, and are really striving to be His, I believe that His feeling toward us transcends that of the tenderest love, of the most generous parentage, and of the most romantic friendship in men; that He is not less than men in these emotions of friendship and of generosity in it, but transcendently more; that in Him they spread over a broader ground, and take on a more wondrous experience. And instead of being likely to over estimate the volume of the Divine goodness and mercy towards those who fear Him, we are always under the mark. We always think less of God, and more meanly of the Divine nature than we ought to do. (H. W. Beecher.) Not by works of righteousness Salvation, not of works, but of grace I. Works of righteousness we cannot performs and therefore they cannot save us.1. Could we render such works, they would save us.2. Without rendering such works, we cannot be saved. II. Redemptive mercy has been vouchsafed to us, and therefore we may be saved.1. The special work of this redemptive mercy. (1) Cleansing.(2) Renewal. 2. The Divine Administrator of this redemptive mercy--the Holy Ghost. 3. The glorious medium of this redemptive mercy--Jesus Christ. 4. The sublime result--“ That being justified,” etc. (1) This rectitude inspires with the highest hope.(2) Inaugurates the highest relationship--“ Him.” (Homilist.) The source of salvation I. Salvation based upon Divine mercy. “ Kindness” or goodness, “ Love.” Margin “ pity” Literally, “ philanthropy” ; that is “ the love of man” (John 3:16). II. Salvation independent of human merit.1. There is in the best of us an absence of good (i.e., meritorious) works.2. Redemption can only be attained by a new creation. “ Regeneration,” or “ new birth.” III. Salvation provided abundantly.1. Abundantly--as an exhibition of abundant mercy.2. Abundantly--as a remedy for great sin.3. Abundantly as a provision for all who will repent. IV. Salvation everlasting.1. Justification a ground of hope.2. Hope of eternal life. (F. Wagstaff.) The way of salvation I. Salvation is not effected by human agency.1. Where there is no salvation, there are no works of righteousness (Genesis 6:5; Galatians 5:19-21). 2. Works of righteousness, even where they exist, possess no saving effect. They are the evidences, not the causes, of salvation. 3. The Bible disclaims the merit of human agency in salvation (Isaiah 64:6; Daniel 9:7; Romans 3:20-28; Romans 11:5-6; Galatians 2:21; Ephesians 2:8-9). II. Salvation originates in the Divine compassion. “ According to His mercy He saved us,” etc.1. Our salvation accords with the tender sympathies attributed to that mercy (Psalms 25:6; Psalms 51:6; Isaiah 63:15; Luke 1:78; James 5:11). 2. It accords with the readiness ascribed to that mercy (Nehemiah 9:17; Isaiah 30:18; Micah 7:18). 3. It accords with the description given of the greatness, fulness, and extent of that mercy (Numbers 14:19 : Psalms 5:7; Nehemiah 9:19; Psalms 119:64; Psalms 145:9). 4. It accords with the perpetuity of that mercy (Psalms 118:1). III. Salvation is attended by an important chance. We are saved “ by the washing of regeneration,” that is, delivered from sin and all its tremendous consequences in the other world.1. Delivered from the love of sinful pleasures and carnal delights, by having the “ love of God shed abroad in our hearts.” 2. From the guilt of sinful practices, by having a knowledge of salvation by the remission of our sins. 3. From the prevalence of sinful habits, by the principles of holiness, and the power of the Divine Spirit. 4. From the commission of sinful acts, by the total regeneration of our natures (1 John 5:18). IV. Salvation is accomplished by a Divine influence. “ By the renewing of the Holy Ghost,” All the influences of God upon the human soul are effected by the agency of the Holy Ghost.1. The light and information which we receive on Divine subjects are communicated by the Holy Ghost (John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 2:11-12; 1 John 2:20). 2. The conviction we have of our personal danger is derived from the same source (John 16:8). 3. The change which is produced in the minds of Christian believers is attributed to the Holy Ghost (John 3:5-8; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 2 Corinthians 3:18). 4. The assurance of salvation is by the witness of the Holy Ghost--the Comforter (John 14:16; Romans 8:16). Inferences:1. How awful the delusion of those who depend on themselves or their works for salvation! 2. How deeply we are indebted to the Divine mercy for salvation! Let us sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. 3. How indispensable is regeneration! Salvation without it is impossible. 4. How deeply anxious should we be to secure the influences and agency of the Holy Ghost (Luke 11:13). (Sketches of Sermons.) Salvation I. Salvation is not by works.1. Because of our relation to God. We are His creatures; we owe Him everything always; and therefore never can acquire any surplus merit to place to the account of past shortcomings and offences. 2. Because of our moral inability to perform works of righteousness, on account of the depravity and corruption of our nature. 3. Because every attempt to procure salvation by works implies the principle of “ value for value,” and our works would be no equivalent for the salvation required. II. The true source and character of salvation.1. It has its origin in God’ s kindness and love toward man (Titus 3:4). 2. His kindness and love were manifested through Jesus Christ our Saviour (Titus 3:6). 3. This salvation includes justification by His grace, adoption into His family by His love, regeneration by the power of the Holy Ghost, the blessed hope of eternal life while here, and the blessed reality of eternal life hereafter (Titus 3:5; Titus 3:7). (O. McCutcheon.) Salvation by grace I. Previous character. Two great lessons 1. Adoring gratitude.2. Deep humility. II. Present state. Sinners saved by grace.1. The originating cause of salvation.2. The efficient means of salvation. III. Future expectations.1. This hope is supporting.2. Sanctifying. (Expository Outlines.) Salvation viewed from God’ s side In this passage, which is a brief but pregnant epitome of the gospel, the scheme of man’ s salvation is regarded only from the side on which it is wholly God’ s work, without taking note of the conditions and qualifications which, however much they too are God’ s work, are required from the cooperation of man. The apostle was dwelling on the truth that the change referred to in Titus 3:3 is not due to ourselves or our own merit, but to God’ s grace. He therefore had no occasion to allude here to the qualifications or stipulations required at baptism, nor to the faith by which man is justified, nor to “ the working out his own salvation,” which is one of the instruments by which the Holy Ghost renews us day by day, nor to the holiness which is the character and badge of the heirs of eternal life. All this is needed; but, viewed from God’ s side, it is not by anything which man has done or could do, but by His own free mercy that God has saved him. (Bp. Jackson.) Working hard for salvation A Christian lady was visiting a poor, sickly woman, and after conversing with her for a little she asked her if she had found salvation yet. “ No,” she replied, “ but I am working hard for it.” “ Ah, you will never get it that way,” the lady said. “ Christ did all the working when He suffered and died for us, and made complete atonement for our sins. You must take salvation solely as a gift of free, unmerited grace, else you can never have it at all.” The poor woman was at first amazed beyond measure, and felt for the moment as if all hope had been taken from her; but very soon the enlightenment came, and she was enabled to rest joyously on Jesus alone. When speaking afterwards of the friend who had been so helpful, she said, “ Oh, how I will welcome her into heaven, for she guided me to the Saviour.” Good work, no ground of acceptance with God A man whom I knew in Chicago failed in business, and got into difficulties. He had paid his creditors what proved to be worthless notes, for he had no assets. He coolly proposed to put matters right by handing to his creditors more worthless notes. Now, many of you are trying to act like that. You have no spiritual assets, you have nothing with which to pay, and yet you are proposing to pay God with what is worthless to save you. Suppose you owe a grocer £20, and you go and tell him that you are not going in debt in future, what answer would you expect? He would say: “ All very well so far as it goes; I’ m glad to hear it. But your keeping out of debt in the future won’ t pay what you owe me now. What about that £20 already due?” A hundred years ago, when Prince Charles the Pretender headed a rebellion, many risked their lives and property for his sake, feeling sure that if he succeeded he weald reward them handsomely. But he did not succeed. He lost, and so they lost. What could they get from him, when he had nothing to pay? At the close of our late American Civil War, between the Federals and rebel Confederates, a man in Georgia wanted to pay, as his tax, money issued by the Confederate Government. But of course the officer representing the revenue of the Federal Government said, “ That won’ t do. Your money is worthless. It was issued by rebels, and we cannot accept it.” The man who expects God to accept him on the ground of his good works, or of anything that he can do, is acting like that. In America no man lost his life or his estate through engaging in that great rebellion, because mercy was shown. But for all that the government could not recognise the currency of rebels. Mercy is offered to all men, but everything with which they hope to purchase pardon and peace is simply worthless. (Major Whittle.) Good works not to be relied on Though good works may be our Jacob’ s staff to walk with on earth, yet they cannot be our Jacob’ s ladder to climb to heaven with. To lay the salve of our services upon the wound of our sins, is as if a man who is stung by a wasp should wipe his face with a nettle; or as if a person should busy himself in supporting a tottering fabric with a burning firebrand. (T. Secker.) The washing of regeneration Regeneration The main thoughts which run through these verses are the cause and method of redemption. These are set against the old state of sin, in which we were “ foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.” I. Salvation as to its primary cause. The cause is Divine, lodged within the Divine heart, and is twofold.1. Love. The love of God for a “ world of sinners lost,” is the first cause of man’ s redemption. That love is like Himself--free, boundless, inexplicable, and eternal. “ For God so loved the world,” etc. “ God is love.” 2. Mercy. The object of love can only be touched by the hand of mercy. This speaks of the sinfulness of our nature, and that compassion which has found a way for love to operate on the human heart. The original of the gospel is not a human device, or the work of righteousness, but the gift of God to fallen man. II. Salvation as to its method. There are here also two observations made by the apostle.1. The removal of guilt. The washing of regeneration means the removal of the guilt of the soul, and the acceptance of the peace of the Father. It was the custom to sprinkle the proselytes with water, in token of their renouncing their idolatry, and be made clean to enter the service of the true God. 2. The renewal of Divine influences. The Spirit rests on believers to light them, and to guide them; also to comfort them. Regeneration must be followed by the indwelling Spirit. This is a comparison taken from nature, where all living things are renewed in the spring of the year. Thus we are reminded of the necessity for the constant power of the Holy Ghost in our daily life. (Weekly Pulpit.) Regeneration I. The renewing.1. It creates a new thing in man (2 Corinthians 5:17). Like a vessel with a new commander, steering a new course, by a now compass, to a new haven. The old nature remains, though the new nature has come, and there are now in the one man the carnal and the spiritual mind--the human and the Divine life--that which is born of the flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit--the old man of sin that is to be crucified, and the new man that is to be renewed daily in the image of Him that created him, until he shall come to the full stature of a man in Christ Jesus. 2. It is a restoration of a former state. That which was lost by sin is restored by regeneration, 3. It is a renovation of the whole man. Though every part be not thoroughly sanctified, yet the regenerate are sanctified in every part. They have a perfection of parts, though not of degrees. The renewing is going on in every part, though every part is not perfectly renewed. The seat and centre of this renewing work is the heart. The might of the Spirit is exerted in the inner man. And from thence He works outwardly to the utmost extremity. Just as the vital fluid is driven by the propelling power of the animal heart to every extremity of the body, so is the renewing energy sent forth from the centre of moral and spiritual life--the inner man by the power of the indwelling spirit. And so will He continue to work until the day of perfection shall come, when we shall be presented faultless before the throne of glory, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, II. The renewer. “ The Holy Ghost.”1. Not an influence, but a Person, having ascribed to Him in Holy Scripture the attributes and actions of a person, and that a Divine and omnipotent person. To Him is confided the work of carrying out the purposes of the Father by applying the truth and work of the Son. It is by the Spirit’ s overshadowing of the soul that the new creature is conceived and brought forth. The babe of grace can call no man on earth father. And while a man’ s regeneration is not of his fellow man, neither is it of himself. They which are born of the flesh contribute nothing to their own being, neither do they that are born of the Spirit; they are begotten of God. 2. But the Holy Ghost, in His renewing, uses--Instrumentality. The one grand instrument is the Word (James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23). (1) It may be by the Word read. Augustine and Luther tell us they were converted by the reading of the Word; so have many thousands of others. In Madagascar we have a striking illustration of this, in the conversion of many thousands by reading only fragments of the Word of God, left in their country by the banished missionaries. (2) It may be by the Word remembered. I read once of an aged man, who had lived an ungodly life, and had wandered thousands of miles away from his native home, who one day, while he was sitting under a tree, had suddenly brought to his remembrance truths he had read and heard when a child and youth, but which had been long forgotten. They came with such irresistible power that his conversion was the result. (3) It may be by the Word lived and acted out. There are those who will not read the written Word, neither will they go to hear the Word preached, but who are willing readers--unconscious readers of the lives of Christians among whom they dwell. God expects His people, whom He has regenerated, to be “ living epistles of Christ, known and read of all men.” Was it not in this sense that Paul exhorted believing wives to win their unbelieving husbands “ without the Word,” by their “ chaste conversation, coupled with fear.” (4) It may be by the Word spoken--as a man would speak to his friend. The kind and faithful teachings of friendship have often proved the instrument, in the hands of the Holy Ghost, for the accomplishment of this great object. “ I owe much to the public ministry of the Word,” said a recent convert to his minister; “ but it was the Word spoken by a friend that was made by God the immediate instrument of my conversion.” (5) But it is principally by the preached Word that God works. The public ministry of the Word is God’ s appointed institution for the accomplishment of this glorious end. The preacher is the spiritual husbandman, sowing broadcast the incorruptible seed of the Word, which shall spring up and bring forth fruit, some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundred-fold. This is all the minister can do; sow the seed in prayer, and faith, and hope--God must give the increase. (H. Quick.) The laver of regeneration I. We must conceive that in every sacrament there be three essential pasts, the absence of any of which destroys the whole.1. The sign.2. The thing signified.3. The analogy between them, which is the union of them both. The first is some outward and sensible thing; the second, inward and spiritual; the third, mixed of them both. As in baptism the sign is water, the thing signified the blood of Christ. The analogy or union standeth in this resemblance, that as the former outwardly washeth the filthiness of the body, so the latter inwardly purgeth the soul from all sin. By reason of which relation and near affection between the sign and the thing signified, it is usual in the Scriptures by an improper, but sacramental speech.1. To call the sign by the name of the thing signified, and contrarily. And thus baptism is called the washing of the new birth, because it is a sign, seal and instrument of it. 2. To ascribe that to the sign which is proper to the thing signified, and so baptism is here said to save, as also 1 Peter 3:21, which is indeed the property of the blood of Christ (1 John 1:7), but by the near affinity of these two in the sacrament it is said so to do, to note unto us (1) Not to conceive of the sacramental elements as bare and naked signs, so to grow into the contempt of them. (2) As we may not conceive them idle sins, so neither idle signs by insisting in them as though they were the whole sacrament, for they are but outward, whereas the principal matter of a sacrament is spiritual and inward. (3) That then we truliest conceive of a sacrament, when by looking at the one of these we see both, neither making the sign a vain symbol, nor yet ascribing anything to it transcending the nature of it, such as are the peculiars and the prerogatives of God, but in the sign and action, which is outward, be led to those which are spiritual and inward. II. How is baptism then the laver of regeneration?1. As it is an institution of God signifying the good pleasure of God for the pardoning of sin, and accepting to grace in Christ; for as the word signifieth this, so doth also the sacrament which is a visible word. And thus is it truly said of the Word and sacraments too that they save and sanctify, because they signify the good pleasure of God in saving and sanctifying us, even as we say a man is saved by the king’ s pardon, not that the pardon properly doth it, for that is the mere merciful disposition of the king, but because the pardon (written and sealed perhaps by another), signed by the king, is the ordinary instrument to manifest the merciful mind of the king in pardoning such a malefactor, 2. As it is a seal or pledge of our sanctification and salvation, as certainly assuring these to the soul of the believer, as he is or can be assured of the other, that as a man having a bond of a thousand pounds sealed him may truly say of it, here is my thousand pound, that is, a security, as surely confirming it unto me as if I had it in my hands, or as I have this even so may the believing party baptized say of his baptism, Here is my regeneration, here is my salvation. 3. As it is a means to excite and provoke the faith of the receiver to lay hold upon the grace of the sacrament, and apply it to these purposes, in which regard it be as truly said to renew as faith is said to justify, and that is only as it may be a means or hand to lay hold on Christ our righteousness; so baptism is a means helping forward our renewing by the true understanding and conscionable and serious meditation of it. 4. In that in the right use of it, it giveth and exhibiteth Christ and all His merits to the fit receiver, for then God’ s grace putteth forth itself, and after a sort conveyeth itself in and by this instrument into the heart of the worthy receiver. And thus principally it is the laver of regeneration, because in it and by it as a means and organ the Holy Ghost freely worketh His grace in such as in whom He delighteth. (T. Taylor, D. D.) The laver of regeneration On man’ s aide there is the washing with water; and on God’ s side there is the washing away of sin and pouring out of the Spirit. The body is purified, the soul is purified, and the soul is hallowed. The man is washed, is justified, is sanctified. He is regenerated: he is “ a new creature.” “ The old things,” his old principles; motives, and aims, then and there “ passed away” : “ behold, they are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Can any one reasonably doubt that, when the apostle speaks of “ the washing of regeneration,” he means the Christian rite of baptism, in which, and by means of which, the regeneration takes place? We are fully justified by his language here in asserting that it is by means of the baptismal washing that the regeneration takes place; for he asserts that God “ saved us through the washing of regeneration.” The laver or bath of regeneration is the instrument or means by which God saved us. Such is the natural, and almost the necessary meaning of the Greek construction. And there are numerous analogies which throw light upon the question, proving to us that there is nothing exceptional in God (who of course does not need any means or instruments) being willing to use them, doubtless because it is better for us that He should use them. In what way is the employment of perceptible means a help to us? In two at least. It serves the double purpose of being both a test to faith and an aid to faith.1. The acceptance of divinely appointed means is necessarily a test of faith. Human intellect is apt to assume that Omnipotence is above using instruments. “ Is it likely,” we ask, “ that the Almighty would employ these means? Are they not altogether beneath the dignity of the Divine nature? Man needs tools and materials; but God needs neither. It is not credible that He has ordained these things as conditions of His own operation.” All which is the old cry of the captain of the host of Syria. Therefore humbly to accept the means which God has revealed as the appointed channels of His spiritual blessings is a real test of the recipient’ s faith. He is thus enabled to perceive for himself whether he does sincerely believe or not; whether he has the indispensable qualification for receiving the promised blessing. 2. The employment of visible means is a real aid to faith. It is easier to believe that an effect will be produced, when one can perceive something which might contribute to produce the effect. It is easier to believe when one sees means than when none are visible; and it is still easier to believe when the means seem to be appropriate. The man who was born blind would more readily believe that Christ would give him sight when he perceived that Christ was using spittle and clay for the purpose; for at that time these things were supposed to be good for the eyes. And what element in nature is more frequently the instrument both of life and of death than water? What could more aptly signify purification from defilement? What act could more simply express death to sin and a rising again to righteousness than a plunge beneath the surface of the water and a re-issuing from it? Faith in the inward gift, promised by God to those who believe and are baptized, becomes more easy when the outward means of conferring the gift, not only are readily perceived, but are recognised as suitable. In this way our faith is aided by God’ s employment of means. Is the “ renewing of the Holy Ghost” the same thing as the “ washing of regeneration” ? In this passage the two expressions refer to the same fact, but in their respective meanings they are not co-extensive. The Greek construction is ambiguous like the English; and we cannot be sure whether St. Paul means that God saved us by means of the washing and by means of the renewing, or that God saved us by means of a laver, which is both a laver of regeneration and a laver of renewal. The latter is more probable: but in either case the reference is to one and the same event in the Christian’ s life. The laver and the renewing refer to baptism; and the regeneration and the renewing refer to baptism; viz., to the new birth which is then effected. But, nevertheless, the two expressions are not co-extensive in meaning. The laver and the regeneration refer to one tact, and to one fact only: a fact which takes place once for all and can never be repeated. A man cannot have the new birth a second time, any more than he can be born a second time: and hence no one may be baptized twice. But the renewing of the Holy Spirit may take place daily. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Spiritual washing The following is related in the life of the late Dr. Guthrie. James Dundee, a weaver, lived on a lone moor, where, beyond his wife’ s, he had no society but that of God and nature. James might have been a poet, though I don’ t know that he ever cultivated the muse; a man he was of such an impassioned nature, lofty thoughts, and singularly vivid imagination. On the morning of a communion Sabbath he rose, bowed down by a sense of sin, in great distress of mind. He would go to church that day, but, being a man of a very tender conscience, he hesitated about going to the Lord’ s table. He was in a state of great spiritual depression. In this state of mind he proceeded to put himself in order for church, and while washing his hands, no one being by, he heard a voice say, “ Cannot I, in My blood, as easily wash your soul, as that water does your hands?” “ Now, minister,” he said, in telling me this, “ I do not say there was a real voice, yet I heard it as distinctly, word for word, as you now hear me. I felt a load taken off my mind, and went to the table and sat under Christ’ s shadow with great delight.” The renewing of the Holy Spirit The word “ renewing” is used in the Scriptures in reference to the starting point of the Christian life--regeneration, and to the progressive development of it, day by day. Consider it now in the latter sense, that is in connection with the Holy Spirit’ s work in those who have “ life eternal.” I. Establishing.1. Bringing back the wanderer (Hosea 14:1-2; Job 22:23).2. Settling the unstable (Psalms 51:10; Psalms 57:7; Ephesians 3:17).3. Comforting the fearful (Psalms 23:3; Psalms 51:12). II. Strengthening.1. Separating us from the things that hinder our growth (2 Corinthians 6:16-18).2. Bringing us into closer contact with the Fountain of Supply (Isaiah 40:31; Ephesians 3:17).3. Enlarging our capacity and powers of reception (2 Corinthians 4:16). III. Transforming.1. Illuminating the mind (Romans 12:2; Colossians 3:10).2. Gladdening the heart (Romans 15:13; Romans 14:17).3. Energising the will (Ephesians 3:16; Ephesians 4:23).4. Transfiguring the character (2 Corinthians 3:18). (E. H. Hopkins.) Renewing of the Holy Ghost The renewing of the Holy Ghost I. Bring together some oe the more striking Scripture testimonies to the necessity of this agency.1. As embodied in the devotional sentiments of holy men. Hear David. “ Create in me a clean heart,” etc. “ Cast me not away from Thy presence,” etc. “ Teach me to do Thy will,” etc. “ Thy Spirit is good; lead me,” etc. And so Paul. “ Now the God of peace fill you with all joy,” etc. 2. As a fulfilment of ancient promise. “ I will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.” “ I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring.” “ A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” “ And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes.” If from these examples we pass to the New Testament, to consider how far the supposition of this great spiritual change enters into the pleas and arguments by which the sacred writers exhort their converts to the duties of practical godliness, we find the great promise of Whitsuntide sharing equally with our Lord’ s proper oblation a claim to be received as among the very necessities of our salvation. “ If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His.” “ Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God.” “ Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” “ Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.” These passages, with numberless others which might be quoted, show to us how completely the work of Christ for man, and the work of the Spirit in man, are looked upon by the inspired penman as joint and co-equal parts of a common salvation, the constituent elements of one great truth, successive and inseparable links in that chain of mercy by which sinners are to be lifted up from earth’ s lowest pit, and set down with Christ on heaven’ s highest throne. 3. As practically attested by the great facts of gospel history. The great miracle of Pentecost is one standing witness that without the agency of the Divine Spirit there never was, and never can be, such a thing as true conversion. It was not Peter’ s preaching that turned the hearts of those three thousand. He might have exhibited truth to the understanding of that great audience; he might have addressed powerful appeals to their consciences; he might even have lodged a deep conviction of the truth of all he said in their very souls; but so to convince them as to make them yield, so to prick their hearts that into its open pores there should be received and welcomed “ the truth as it is in Jesus,” this was a work to be done, “ not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.” The manner in which the notorious Earl of Rochester describes his conversion is strikingly illustrative of some great influence from without, acting upon, though still concurrently with his own natural faculties. He was reading, he tells us, the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, and his language is that there was some inward force upon him which convinced him that he could resist no longer, for the words had an authority which did shoot like rays or beams in his mind; and this power did so effectually constrain him that he did, ever after, as firmly believe in his Saviour as if he had seen Him in the clouds. II. How this renewing of the Holy Ghost in the soul of man is accomplished.1. First, we attribute to Him a true and proper indwelling in our souls (John 14:17). 2. Again, by the influences of this Spirit alone, are both produced and maintained within us all those affections and dispositions which constitute the renewed man. 3. Further, it is helpful to that renewing process which the Spirit of God carries on within us, that He testifies to the reality of His own work. Without raising the question of how much or how little of assurance must be inseparable from true conversion, the various expressions, witness of the Spirit, earnest of the Spirit, seal of the Spirit, must imply that one office of this Divine Agent is to supply some form of corroborative testimony to our own minds that we are the children of God. “ He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.” 4. Once more, the renewing power of the Holy Ghost is to be looked for in the daily sanctification of our souls, and the preparing them for a condition of endless life. (D. Moore, M. A.) The difficulty of removing the pollution of sin At Portland navy yard one of the United States ships came in for repair and fumigation, as yellow fever had broken out amongst her crew during her previous voyage. She was thoroughly scraped and repainted, and then put into commission again, but she was less than a month at sea when the fever once more appeared. It was decided to open her up and expose the fever spores to a thorough freezing during the winter, as medical men said that the spores could not live in cold weather. In the spring she was again painted and refurnished, but the fever appeared again. Then it was found that, though a noble-looking vessel, death was in her, and she was towed to sea and sunk. So is it with all who have not been born again; they carry within their hearts the seeds of a fatal fever, and unless they are completely cleansed from it by Christ they will one day go down in the sea of the Divine wrath. Which He shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ Abundant supply of grace I. The graces of the Spirit are plentifully poured out upon us as out of a full and rich mercy. For 1. We have the accomplishment of many prophecies and promises, as Isaiah 11:9; Daniel 12:4. Many prophecies were then sealed, and the book shut until the term of time; but then many should run to and fro, and knowledge should be increased. 2. We have the truth of many types and resemblances, as of the waters running from under the threshold of the sanctuary, still rising to increase; and of the proceedings of the New Testament, typified in the cloud which at the first appearance was no bigger than a man’ s hand, but after rose to that greatness as to cover the whole heavens. 3. If we compare our Church with that of the Jews’ we shall observe that the Lord did but drop and sprinkle these graces here and there upon a few persons where He pleased, but now hath poured out His Spirit and opened a fountain of grace to the house of Judah and Jerusalem, even for all true believers. (1) If such plenty of grace be poured out upon us, our care must be to be found answerable thereunto, that according to our proportion our increase may be; for we may not think the return of one talent sufficient if we have received five or ten, seeing where much is given much will be required. Hath the Lord so richly shed out His Spirit that whereas the most excellent patriarchs saw Christ only afar off, the most simple of our age may see Him in the Word and sacraments even crucified before his eyes, and will it not be expected that in all things we should be made rich in Him? And thus have we ministered unto us a ground of examination whether we find the fruits and work of these waters upon us. (2) If upon this examination we feel not this plenty of grace, we must beware of accusing God, but condemn ourselves in whom all the fault is, as who refuse and despise so great grace. If any ask how it can come to pass that such excellent grace should be refused, I answer there are three main causes of it 1. Ignorance and blindness of mind.2. Hardness of heart.3. Security, which three destitute us of so abundant grace as is offered. II. All the grace that is bestowed on us is by means of Jesus Christ, for with Him is the fountain and headspring; yea, He is the head which sendeth life, sense, motion, and direction into all the members, resembled in that holy ointment which ran down from Aaron’ s head and beard even to the skirts of his garment. The evangelist, after he had affirmed that Christ was full of grace and truth, addeth that of His fulness we receive grace for grace, so the apostle (Colossians 2:9-10).(1) Want we any grace? call upon God in the name of Christ. “ Whatsoever ye ask the Father in My name, He will give it unto you.” Get Christ to be thine own, become a true believer, that thou mayest in Him begin thy prayer with Our Father; this is the way to be rich in grace. (2) Hast thou received any spiritual grace? sacrifice not unto thine own net, but be thankful unto God in Christ. (3) Take heed of quenching that grace, neither grieve that good Spirit of God by thy sin, for thou camest hardly by it, for Christ must come down from heaven, humble Himself to the death, rise again, ascend, and now make continual intercession before He could procure thee the least grace. A thing very little thought of. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Eminent holiness Our text combines doctrine and practice, faith and morals, and makes the one the proper foundation of the other. That, being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs. This is a faithful saying--that they which have believed be careful to maintain good works. It is worthy of remark that there are four passages of Scripture in which the expression “ a faithful saying” is employed, and each faithful saying is worthy of all acceptation (1 Timothy 1:15; 1 Timothy 4:8-9; 2 Timothy 11:11-13; Titus 3:8). And they all mark out the connection between faith and obedience--between holiness and happiness--between principle and practice. I. That the doctrine of our acceptance in Christ, while it forms the only foundation of a sinner’ s hope, has a direct tendency to promote eminent holiness.1. The doctrine of justification by faith, through the merits and advocacy of Christ, constitutes the alone basis of our acceptance with God. We are said to be justified by His grace. This doctrine forms the only answer to the question which in every age has baffled the wisdom of the wise, and brought to nought the understanding of the prudent. How shall man be just with God? A cordial reception of Jesus Christ as the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, entitles the returning offender to life by a merciful appointment, and brings him into a state of personal acceptance with God. This doctrine may well be considered as the cardinal doctrine of Christianity, and as lying at the very foundation of all our hopes for eternity. So deep and aggravated is our guilt, that it is quite evident that if we be not accepted by the merits and righteousness of another we cannot be accepted at all; for it is clear we have no righteousness of our own. This therefore forms, as the text states, a singular exhibition of Divine benignity and grace. Grace provided the Saviour revealed in the gospel--grace accepted His substitution in the sinner’ s place--grace communicated the principle of piety implanted in the human heart--grace preserves that principle from extinction, amidst all the storms and tumults of this opposing world--and grace crowns the subjects of its influences with glory at last. 2. The doctrine of justification, so far from lessening the obligations to obedience, furnishes the most powerful of all inducements to eminent holiness. The pardoned offender is not rendered lawless; a justified state is not exempted from obligation. We are not without law to God, but under the law to Christ. It is no part of the Divine design to raise up one light in order to extinguish another. What was once truth is always truth; what was once duty is always duty. All the original grounds of moral obligation remain. If God was our Creator before our conversion, He is our Creator still--a faithful Creator. If God was our Judge before, He is our Judge still. Neither does Divine grace destroy or change any of the relations in which we previously stood to each other, nor cancel any of the duties arising out of those relations. Neither does Divine grace alter the nature of sin, nor render it one whir less than before the abominable thing which God hateth. The plague does not cease to be the plague because a remedy has been mercifully provided for it. The gospel has produced no change in our moral relation to God, nor in our relation to our fellow man; and, therefore, all the antecedent obligation to obedience remains unchanged; and they that have believed in God are enjoined carefully to maintain good works. The gospel superadds motives and inducements unknown before to induce conformity to the Divine will. The grace of God, that bringeth salvation, teacheth us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly. All false religions attempt to lower the standard of morals, in order to fall in with the weakness or wickedness of mankind. But Christianity presents us with raised views of the spirituality of the Divine law. It presents us with the most powerful motives to holiness--derived from the love of God--the Cross of Christ--the glories of the coming world, and especially from the great work of redemption. II. That these principles, in their connection with each other, are to be explicitly asserted and maintained. “ These things I will that thou affirm constantly.” They are to be affirmed in their connection with each other--that is, the doctrine of justification is to be affirmed--and the doctrine of sanctification is to be affirmed too: the one as the cause, the other as the effect; the one as the root, the other as the fruitful branch. And observe to what class of characters the exhortations and commands of the gospel are to be specifically addressed That they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works; plainly proving that the most advanced Christians require to be frequently admonished. Our text says these truths are to be constantly affirmed. These good works are to be expressly enjoined upon those who believe. We are not to leave them to implication and inference, as though we presumed that they would follow as a necessary result from the mere belief of the doctrine of justification, but they are to be plainly stated and enforced. This is to be done in defiance of opposition and contradiction, which supposes objection and denial on the part of some. The reasons why we should thus constantly urge these truths will be perceived at a glance.1. Because we are always liable to overlook and forget them amidst the active engagements and snares of life. The gospel ministry was instituted for this purpose. 2. Because the personal sanctity of Christians is the final object of the dispensation of mercy. To this everything in the Divine economy tends; in this everything terminates. It is no inferior degree of excellence to which we are taught to aspire; we are not to begin only, but to advance and persevere--we are to maintain good works, and to be careful to maintain them. The marginal rendering is more emphatic still--the force of the Greek word being to go before in good works--to excel, to emulate--to attain eminence in holiness and devotion. Plutarch tells us that it was the aim of Tully, that it was his ambition, to be eminent in all that he undertook. How much more should Christians desire to attain the highest measures of moral and religious excellence. 3. Because advancement in holiness is essential to the enjoyment of all genuine consolation. The state of grace is only evidenced by the sanctities of the Christian character. 4. Because the absence of these good works proves the destitution of Christian principle, and leaves the individual exposed to a fearful disappointment and a final doom. III. That from the faithful exhibition of these truths the happiest results are to be anticipated to the Church and the world. These things are good and profitable to men. They are good in themselves, and good in their influence upon the mind. Many things may be good that are not profitable, and some may be thought profitable that are not good; but these are both good and profitable. They are good in the Divine esteem--good as the transcript of His own infinite excellence--good as perfectly accordant with all His revelations to man--good in their origin--good in their progress--good in their end. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ Titus 3:8 Maintain good works - I.What we once were. A threefold set of evils is here described.1. The first set consists of the evils of the mind: “ We were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived.” We were foolish. We thought we knew, and therefore we did not learn. Every lover of vice is a fool writ large. In addition to being foolish, we are said to have been disobedient; and so we were, for we forsook the commands of God. We wanted our own will and way. We were unwilling to yield God His due place either in providence, law, or gospel. Paul adds that we were deceived, or led astray. We were the dupes of custom and of company. We were here, there, and everywhere in our actions: no more to be relied upon than lost sheep. 2. The next bundle of mischief is found in the evils of our pursuits. The apostle says we were “ serving divers lusts and pleasures.” The word for “ serving” means being under servitude. We were once the slaves of divers lusts and pleasures. By lusts we understand desires, longings, ambitions, passions. Many are these masters, and they are all tyrants. Some are ruled by greed for money; others crave for fame; some are enslaved by lust for power; others by the lust of the eye; and many by the lusts of the flesh. 3. We were also the bond slaves of pleasure. Alas! alas! that we were so far infatuated as to call it pleasure! Looking back at our former lives, we may well be amazed that we could once take pleasure in things whereof we are now ashamed. The Lord has taken the very name of our former idols out of our mouths. A holy man was wont to carry with him a book which had three leaves in it, but never a word. The first leaf was black, and this showed his sin; the second was red, and this reminded him of the way of cleansing by blood; while the third was white, to show how clean the Lord can make us. I beg you just now to study that first black page. It is all black; and as you look at it it shows blacker and blacker. What seemed at one time to be a little white darkens down as it is gazed upon, till it wears the deepest shade of all. Ye were sometimes erring in your minds and in your pursuits. Is not this enough to bring the water into your eyes, O ye that now follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth? 4. The apostle then mentions the evils of our hearts. Here you must discriminate and judge, each one for himself, how far the accusation lies. He speaks of “ living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.” That is to say, first, we harboured anger against those who had done us evil; and, secondly, we lived in envy of those who appeared to have more good than we had ourselves. II. What has been done for us?1. First, there was a Divine interposition. The love and kindness of God our Saviour, which had always existed, at length “ appeared” when God, in the person of His Son, came hither, met our iniquities hand to hand, and overcame their terrible power, that we also might overcome. 2. Note well that there was a Divine salvation. In consequence of the interposition of Jesus, believers are described as being saved: “ not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” Hearken to this. There are men in the world who are saved: they are spoken of, not as “ to be saved,” not as to be saved when they come to die, but saved even now--saved from the dominion of the evils which we described under our first head: saved from folly, disobedience, delusion, and the like. Whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth to be the propitiation for sin, is saved from the guilt and power of sin. He shall no longer be the slave of his lusts and pleasures; he is saved from that dread bondage. He is saved from hate, for he has tasted love, and learned to love. He shall not be condemned for all that he has hitherto done, for his great Substitute and Saviour has borne away the guilt, the curse, the punishment of sin; yea, and sin itself. 3. There was a motive for this salvation. Positively, “ According to His mercy He saved us” ; and, negatively, “ Not by works of righteousness which we have done.” We could not have been saved at the first by our works of righteousness; for we had not done any. “ No,” says the apostle, “ we were foolish, disobedient, deceived,” and therefore we had no works of righteousness, and yet the Lord interposed and saved us. Behold and admire the splendour of His love, that “ He loved us even when we were dead in sins.” He loved us, and therefore quickened us. 4. There was a power by which we were saved. The way in which we are delivered from the dominion of sin is by the work of the Holy Ghost. This adorable Person is very God of very God. This Divine Being comes to us and causes us to be born again. By His eternal power and Godhead He gives us a totally new nature, a life which could not grow out of our former life, nor be developed from our nature--a life which is a new creation of God. We are saved, not by evolution, but by creation. The Spirit of God creates us anew in Christ Jesus unto good works. We experience regeneration, which means--being generated over again, or born again. 5. There is also mentioned a blessed privilege which comes to us by Jesus Christ. The Spirit is shed on us abundantly by Jesus Christ, and we are “ justified by His grace.” Both justification and sanctification come to us through the medium of our Lord Jesus Christ. 6. Once more, there comes out of this a Divine result. We become today joint heirs with Christ Jesus, and so heirs of a heavenly estate; and then out of this heirship there grows a hope which reaches forward to the eternal future with exceeding joy. III. What we wish to do. “ Be careful to maintain good works.”1. This precept is full in its meaning. What are good works? The term is greatly inclusive. Of course we number in the list works of charity, works of kindness and benevolence, works of piety, reverence, and holiness. Such works as comply with the two tables of command are good works. Works of obedience are good works. What you do because God bids you do it, is a good work. Works of love to Jesus, done out of a desire for His glory, these are good works. The common actions of everyday life, when they are well done, with a view not to merit, but one of gratitude--these are good works. “ Be careful to maintain good works” of every sort and kind. 2. This precept is special in its direction. To the sinner, that he may be saved, we say not a word concerning good works, except to remind him that he has none of them. To the believer who is saved, we say ten thousand words concerning good works, beseeching him to bring forth much fruit, that so he may be Christ’ s disciple. For living works you must have a living faith, and for loving works you must have a loving faith. When we know and trust God, then with holy intelligence and sacred confidence we work His pleasure. 3. This precept is weighty in importance, for it is prefaced thus: “ This is a faithful saying.” This is one among four great matters thus described. It is not trivial, it is not a temporary precept which belongs to an extinct race and a past age. “ This is a faithful saying” --a true Christian proverb, “ that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.” Let the ungodly never say that we who believe in free grace think lightly of a holy life. 4. I am afraid that this precept of being careful to maintain good works is neglected in practice, or else the apostle would not have said to Titus, “ These things I will that thou affirm constantly.” There are still persons in our Churches who need to have the ten commandments read to them every Sabbath day. It is not a bad plan to put up the ten commandments near the communion table where they can be clearly seen. Some people need to see them; though I am afraid, when they come in their way, they wink hard at some of the commands, and go away and forget that they have seen them. Common morality is neglected by some who call themselves Christians. 5. This, mark you, is supported by argument. The apostle presses home his precept by saying: “ These things are good and profitable unto men.” Men are won to Christ when they see Christianity embodied in the good and the true. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The connection of faith and good works Truth is many sided. And though like a pure gem, it is on all sides equally bright, it cannot all be seen at once. No merely human mind can so take it all up as to give to every part the same sharp and well-defined outline. Truth in the mind of Christ was like light in the sun, pure and undivided, and ever came out in its glorious integrity. In the minds of his followers it was like light in the prism, in which the rays are separated, or like light in the bow, in which, according to certain laws, the rays are first refracted, and then reflected in the drops of rain, and in which we see the conquering splendour of the light in its struggle with darkness. Faith and works were never separated--not even in idea--in the teaching of Christ. In His own mind they were indissoluble, and so in His instructions. If faith did not express itself in corresponding action, He denied the existence of the principle, or rather He treated men as still on the side of the world and of self. His apostles, on the contrary, gave to all truth their own mental cast and colouring, and unless these various colours are allowed to meet and mingle, we shall lack the pure light. Though Paul and James are treating of one and the same subject, each has his own mode of statement; and the light in which he places it depends on his own individual state of mind. Both apostles are teaching and enforcing the same doctrine, but the parties whom they have in view are not the same. The teachers occupy exactly the same position; but those to whom they address themselves have assumed entirely opposite and conflicting points. The contrariety is not in the statements of the inspired men, but in the minds of Christian professors. Each is a firm believer in the article of justification by faith, but it has different phases, and according as it appears to the one or the other, is his representation. The aim of St. Paul is to set forth God’ s method of forgiveness and acceptance through the mediation of His Son;--that this is revealed for faith, and that through faith alone do we come to participate in all the provision of redeeming love. Faith, and not, justification, is his theme. There is but one ground of dependence--but one foundation on which the soul can rest her hope of eternal life, and from which all works are necessarily and forever excluded. But having been once brought to repose our faith in the Divine method of salvation, it remains that we give evidence of the fact. We cannot be in communion with the Redeemer of our souls without partaking His higher life; and we cannot be in communion with the Spirit of life without producing the fruits of the Spirit. Hence the challenge of St. James addressed in words of sharp-pointed irony to those who were boasting of their faith as something separate and separable from a life of practical holiness--“ Show Me thy faith without thy works.” If it have no outward expression, how is it to be known or discovered? “ As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” As the spirit is the inward animating and informing principle, and manifests itself in the outward acts and movements of the body, so faith has in it an element of life, which cannot but develop itself in practical godliness and holy activity. It follows that there is not one faith to justify a sinner and another faith to justify a believer. The same faith justifies both; or rather, the faith which brings a man to simple dependence on the propitiation set forth by God for the remission of sins, has in it such a force and vitality as ever afterwards to come out in those buds and blossoms which have their fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. If this simple fact had been but kept in view, no discrepancy would have been found in the statement of these two inspired men. The one wholly excludes the human element from the Divine method of reconciliation and life, and demands the most childlike faith in Heaven’ s revealed and published plan of mercy--the other sets it in the clearest light that wherever this pure unsophisticated faith has existence in the soul, it will ever manifest itself in a course of lofty and persevering righteousness. While faith, and not justification, is the subject treated of by both apostles, it may not be amiss just to glance at the doctrine commonly denominated justification by faith. There are two errors common on this subject. First, justification is confounded with acquittal; and, secondly, man is said to be treated as righteous for the sake of the righteousness of another. Now if he be acquitted, he needs not to be treated as righteous. He is righteous; and is entitled to be dealt with according to his rectitude. And if he be righteous, it is absurd and contradictory to speak of his acquittal. Man has sinned; and the proof of his guilt is overwhelming. With the sentence of condemnation lying heavy upon his heart, he may be pardoned, but he can never be declared to be innocent. But is not the righteousness of Christ said to be imputed to us, and that we become righteous on the ground of His righteousness? In creeds, and catechisms, and commentaries, it certainly is so, but nowhere in the Book of God. The righteousness of Christ is a phrase which never occurs but once in the whole of the Christian Testament. When the great apostle of the nations would heighten our idea of the grace of God, by setting the blessings of redeeming love over against the evils entailed upon our race by the introduction of sin, he says, “ As by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men unto condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” He does not represent the righteousness of the One, as something imputed or transferred from Christ to man, but simply as the procuring cause of our forgiveness and life. The righteousness is put for the whole work of the Saviour’ s mediation, and this is declared to be the sole ground on which the blessings of Divine mercy are extended to our fallen world. Nor is more than this to be extracted from the deep saying of this same apostle, when in words that breathe, lie thus expresses the inmost feeling of his soul: “ I have suffered the loss of all things, that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ--the righteousness which is of God by faith.” The idea here is, that he was supremely anxious to be kept from even the attempt of laying a foundation in his own strivings and doings for his acceptance with God, and that he might ever be led to repose by a simple faith in the one Divine method of forgiveness and salvation. The righteousness of God is God’ s revealed plan of saving man through the propitiatory offering of His Son. Faith in this propitiation involves an act of perfect self-renunciation, an acknowledgment of conscious sin and weakness, and a resting upon another for help and succour. Our justification introduces us into a new and loftier relation. Our Father in heaven may not treat us as righteous, but He will most surely bless us as His adopted ones. If we can prefer no claim we may yet possess all good. If salvation can never be of works it can ever be of grace. If life is not a right it is yet our high privilege and our mightier joy. This life is progressive. As the first ray of light that gilds the mountain’ s height predicts a meridian sun, and as the first blush of the opening flower promises a full and perfect bloom, so the faintest indications of the life of God in the soul assure us of continued growth and progress, till, from its fulness and exuberance, it burst into all the beauty and perfection of heaven. The power that quickens is the power that purifies. There are spots on the disc of the sun, only they are invisible through the effulgence and the fulness of his light, and there are but few spirits so highly sanctified and refined as to render indiscernible, through the glory which surrounds them, those sin spots which daily alight upon their renewed nature. Nor can the work of inward holiness be perfected so long as we are in this body of death. It is in the act of shaking mortality off that the Spirit puts forth his last and latest effort in the soul; and it is only when the soul has burst her prison wall, let fall the last link of the chain which bound her to earth, and is on her way to the great world of light, that she is conscious of her final and everlasting separation from sin. Up to that mysterious point we may become day by day more closely assimilated to God our Saviour. Our sanctification is inseparable from our justification. It is not enough that we live. It is the will of God that we should enjoy the fulness of life. Life can have fellowship only with life. We must, therefore, detach ourselves from every opposing element and influence. We must give up the material and the visible for the spiritual and the unseen. Enjoyment without activity would not be an unmixed good. It follows that as life is quickened and our nature is purified, we are freed from sloth and sluggishness. The soul moves with a freedom and a swiftness corresponding to the unconfined liberty of heaven. That is a world of never-ending activity, and, in proportion as we rise into conformity with the pure spirits that surround the throne of God, shall we, like them, employ all our renovated powers in holy and active service? Christianity is love--universal, unbounded love--and embraces within itself the present and the everlasting interests of man. And the more we partake its spirit, the more entire will be our consecration--the more unreserved our activity and our service. Let no one be startled and offended with the doctrine of good works. They necessarily flow from faith. They are faith in action. They are “ the living effluence of the tide of Divine love,” which refuses to be confined within any prescribed limits, and flows out in deeds of unwearied benevolence and piety. He who repudiates a life of well-doing in the dreamy belief that in the same proportion he is exalting the grace of God, is not the man whose character exhibits the closest correspondence to the pure and sublime requirements of the Book. It is a grand mistake to suppose that the law is repealed by the gospel. In Christianity the law reappears; only it is transfigured and glorified. Every utterance which was given in the thunder tones of Sinai, is re-echoed with heightened emphasis in the Sermon on the Mount, only it comes silent as the light and gentle as the dew from the lips of Incarnate Love. We hold that salvation is by grace and not by works; but where the works are wanting the grace cannot be present. Our activity and our service will be the everlasting recognition and expression of the fact that we have been redeemed by blood and saved by grace. We should be unfaithful to our ministry and to your souls did we dare to say that sin committed by a professed believer is less criminal or less damnable than what we discover in the unregenerate and the unholy. Sin is sin by whomsoever committed, and involves the same tremendous consequences. It is of infinite moment that they who believe in God should be careful to maintain good works--that their life should be pure, their character transparent, and their conduct patent. Their principles should be above suspicion, and their whole course of action such as may challenge the higher light of the world to come. (R. Ferguson, LL. D.) The practice of good works I. It is not enough to believe what God hath said to be true, and to give our assent to the certainty of Divine revelation, unless our belief influences our heart and life. Christ’ s laws, as well as any other, run in this disjunction--either do or suffer; either live holily, or perish everlastingly: nothing is therein promised, but upon condition of our obedience. The main thing our Saviour aimed at all His life was to restore human nature to its primitive purity and perfection, and to advance true piety and holiness in the world; to bring men to a good opinion of and a ready compliance with God’ s laws, so that it influences all their actions, faith not being enough to denominate a man a true Christian, unless he goes on to add to his faith virtue, etc. II. The practice of good works, taken either for piety towards God or charity towards man, is absolutely necessary for all unto salvation.1. They render our services more acceptable unto God. Purity and holiness in the heart, before these be or when there is no opportunity to work, are in themselves good; but when they are demonstrated by godly and charitable actions, then smell they sweet, and are sacrifices well-pleasing. 2. By them God’ s name is more glorified (Matthew 5:16). 3. By them we shall be the greatest gainers or losers, in that by them we make our calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10). III. Why those are more indispensably obliged to be exemplary in all good works, who have been more particularly acquainted with God’ s will, and early instructed in it. As we may be supposed to have been, whose parents were our spiritual guides, as well as fathers of our flesh, and under whose roof we were early seasoned with their daily instructions and good example. We shall, therefore, reflect upon their memory and care, we shall cause others to uncover their ashes with dishonour, unless we adorn that faith our fathers believed, which they taught us, and which we saw them practise. (Thos. Whincop, D. D.) On the necessity of good works I. The certain truth and credibility of this saying or proposition, that they which have believed in God ought to be careful to maintain good works.1. If we consider the great end and design of religion in general, which is to make us happy, by possessing our minds with the belief of a God, and those other principles which have a necessary connection with that belief, and by obliging us to the obedience and practice of His laws. 2. If we consider the great end and design of the Christian religion in particular, which was to reform the world, to purify the hearts and lives of men from corrupt affections and wicked practices, to teach men to excel in all kinds of virtue and goodness. II. The great fitness and necessity of inculcating frequently upon all that profess themselves Christians, the indispensable necessity of the practice of the virtues of a good life. (Abp. Tillotson.) Good works I. That believers are under obligations to maintain good works is so evident, not only from the text, but from the whole tenor of the Scripture, that I know of no sect of Christians that pretend to deny it. But, with regard to their place and importance as connected with our salvation, great mistakes have been made. It will certainly then be worth our pains to inquire from the oracles of God, “ How far and in what respect are our good works necessary to be maintained with regard to salvation.”1. In my negative answer to this question, I must first observe that we are not to do good works in order to change God’ s purposes and designs towards us; or to excite His benevolence and compassion to us. Our business is to come to Christ and learn of Him, to bow our necks to His yoke, to do good works from faith in Christ, and out of love and obedience to Him; and in that way to hope in God for mercy, for Christ’ s sake, and for His own sake, and not for ours. 2. We are not to do good works with a view to qualify us for our reception of Christ by faith, or for obtaining an interest in Him. The gospel brings glorious tidings of salvation to perishing sinners. It exempts and excludes none who will come to Christ for life, who will come to Him as lost sinners under a sense of their guilt and unworthiness, who will “ buy of Him wine and milk without money and without price, and who will take the water of Life freely.” 3. I must further add that we are not to do good works in expectation that we shall by them obtain a title to the future inheritance. Heaven is a purchased possession; our title to it, our qualification for it, our perseverance in the way that leads thither, and our eternal enjoyment of the glorious inheritance, are all purchased by the blood of Christ. In all these respects Christ Jesus is our Hope; and when we “ rejoice in hope of the glory of God,” we must “ rejoice in Christ Jesus, having no confidence in the flesh.” 4. I shall only add that we must not depend upon our good works for renewing supplies of grace, and for continual progress in holiness, and comfort unto God’ s heavenly kingdom. We are not only justified by faith, but we must be sanctified by faith too, and of Christ’ s “ fulness must receive even grace for grace.” II. I proceed now to show you in what respects good works are of necessity; and to that purposes they must be done by all those who would approve themselves Christians indeed.1. Good works are necessary as being one design of our redemption and effectual calling. Though not the fountain and foundation of a renewed nature, they are always the streams that flow from that fountain, and the super structure upon that foundation. Though they do not sanctify us they are the natural and necessary actings and operations of a sanctified heart. 2. Good works are necessary, as they belong to the way leading to heaven. “ Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” We must not only “ enter in at the strait gate, but walk in the narrow way which leadeth unto life.” They who would hope for heaven hereafter must have it begun in their souls here. Their hearts must be in some measure conformed to the Divine nature and will, that they may be qualified for the enjoyments and employments of the heavenly world. 3. Good works are necessary as acts of obedience to God’ s commands, and a just acknowledgment of His dominion over us. Our freedom from the curses and demands of the moral law as a covenant of life is so far from freeing us from our duty towards it as a rule of practice, or excusing us from a careful observation of its precepts, that the glorious liberty we are made partakers of is given us for this very end that we may serve “ God without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.” 4. Good works are necessary as expressions of our gratitude to God for all His goodness to us, more especially for gospel grace, and the influences of His blessed Spirit. They who have ever tasted that the Lord is gracious, and have any suitable sense of their obligations to Him, will study what they shall render to the Lord for all His benefits; they will delight in endeavours to glorify Him, they will be solicitously careful of a constant conformity to His will, and a peculiar delight in following after holiness. 5. Good works are necessary to honour our profession, to adorn the doctrine of God bur Saviour, and to bring glory to His name. 6. Good works are likewise necessary to our inward peace and comfort. A truly tender conscience will always remonstrate against the indulgence of any sin, either of omission or commission. And how unhappy and miserable must that man be to have his heart condemning him; to have a worm gnawing in his breast, to have conscience applying the terrors of the Lord, and representing to Him his guilt and danger! And yet this cannot be avoided without a life of good works. We cannot have grounds of rejoicing, but from “ the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God we have our conversation in the world.” (J. King, B. A.) Morality the proper subject of preaching Among the many causes which have concurred to render our holy religion thus unsuccessful, the indifference and neglect with which many sects of Christians have been accustomed to treat the moral precepts of the gospel deserves, I think, to be considered as none of the least. By giving an imaginary importance to subjects of speculation, concerning which wise and good men have always thought, and will probably continue to think, differently, they have turned aside the attention and zeal of mankind from those things in which their present and future happiness are really and principally concerned. My design is to counteract the influence of these prejudices, as far as I am able, by showing that the principal end of public preaching is to recommend the practice of virtue; and that those who attend upon it should be best satisfied with such discourses as clearly explain and strongly inculcate the several branches of morality as it comprehends our duty to our Maker, our fellow creatures and ourselves, without entering further into subjects of speculation and controversy than is of evident importance to the moral improvement and happiness of mankind.1. I observe, in the first place, that if the duties of morality and religion were made the principal subjects of public preaching, it would remove or prevent many evils which have arisen from the contrary practice. The divisions and contentions, the persecutions and cruelties, which have disgraced the Christian Church, from its first establishment to the present day, are so well known that I may be excused the painful talk of entering into a particular enumeration of them. The time, however, seems to be at length arrived, in which men are beginning to see the folly of hating and persecuting one another for a difference in opinion on subjects concerning which it is impossible that they should be agreed. And shameful indeed must be the weakness, and fatal the delusion of mankind in the experience of so many ages hath not been sufficient to teach them this one plain but important lesson, that all zealous contentions about particular modes of faith or worship are unfriendly to the interests of religion, and the happiness of the world. From these circumstances one may hope that the present time is the dawning of a happy day, in which all distinctions of sects shall be abolished and all dissentions and animosities will be forgotten; in which we shall all love one another with pure hearts fervently, and shall cordially unite in the worship of one God, the Father of us all. And what can be more likely to hasten the approach of this delightful period than for the ministers of religion to overlook and as much as possible discourage every party distinction and useless speculation, and constantly to direct the attention of their hearers to those subjects concerning which we are all agreed, and in which we are all immediately interested; I mean the great duties of morality and religion? 2. Another reason why these duties should be the constant subjects of public preaching is because we may speak concerning them with the greatest perspicuity and certainty. That we ought to venerate the most excellent and perfect of all beings; that we should devoutly and thankfully acknowledge the hand which feeds and clothes us, and gives us richly all things to enjoy; that we should cheerfully submit ourselves to the direction of that Being who ordereth all things well; that we should observe the great laws of equity in all our transactions with mankind; that we should pity, and, if possible, relieve a brother in distress; that we should love our friends, be grateful to our benefactors, and forgive our enemies; that we should behave with honour and generosity, kindness, and charity towards all men; that we should govern ourselves with prudence and discretion, and diligently cultivate the powers which God hath given us; these are truths as obvious as they are important; truths concerning which all mankind in every country, and of every sect, are agreed. They are, therefore, of all others, the most proper subjects of public discourse. 3. I add this strain of preaching is best adapted to the understanding and taste of the generality of mankind. If a preacher endeavours to establish received opinions, or if he takes pains to overturn them; if he recites the comments of the most learned and celebrated fathers of the Church on difficult texts of Scripture, and supports them; or, if on the other hand, he attempts to explain them in a different manner, and, on this explanation, to ground a more rational scheme of faith; he may perhaps amuse and please a few; but he will, most probably, offend some, soar above the understandings of many, and reach the hearts of none. But if he exhorts his hearers to maintain good works; if he appeals to their consciences for the reasonableness and importance of the duties which he recommends; if he gives them just and lively representations of the influence which the observance or neglect of these duties will have upon their peace and happiness; if he touches the springs of gratitude, benevolence and humanity, of self-love, of hope and fear in their hearts, and calls forth every power and passion within them to assist him in pleading the cause of virtue; he will generally find his audience attentive and serious, and may hope to send them away not only pleased but improved. 4. Further, we may remark, that to exhort Christians to maintain good works is the proper business of the Christian ministry. Jesus Christ was eminently a Preacher of righteousness. This character He supported during the whole course of His public ministry. All the doctrines which He taught; all the wonderful worlds which He performed; all the pains and sufferings to which He submitted, were with this immediate view, that He might take away sin and bring in everlasting righteousness. Now, by what means can the teachers of religion so properly merit the character of Christian ministers as by pursuing the same important plan with Him whom they acknowledge as their Lord and Master? 5. The last consideration which I shall mention to evince the reasonableness of making the duties of morality and religion the constant subjects of public preaching is, that they are of the highest importance to the happiness of mankind, and that, in comparison with them, all other subjects are unprofitable and vain. 6. I will conclude by earnestly recommending it to you to take heed that you hear with the same design with which your ministers do or ought to preach, that you may be confirmed in all goodness. Attend upon public preaching, not with a view to have your favourite opinions established, your curiosity gratified, or your imaginations amused; but to have your evil habits corrected, your good dispositions strengthened, and your characters continually improved. “ Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only.” (W. Enfield.) The maintenance of good works the fruit of faith This text places Christian morals upon a basis sufficiently firm and extended to support the fabric. Well aware of the absolute necessity of preaching sound principles in order to attain to a holy practice, and of the mighty influence which evangelical doctrine, if rightly understood and fairly stated, hath upon holiness in the life, St. Paul heaps privilege upon privilege, and within the compass of three short verses, enumerates the leading articles of our holy religion--giving such a view of them in their connection and influence upon practice, as must delight, constrain and ravish the heart of every believer. From hence I would humbly suggest this general remark, which, by the favour of our God, I intend to prosecute in the sequel of this discourse--whoever in the ministry would really advance the interests of holiness must be constant assertors and unwearied defenders of the doctrines of free grace. I. Glance at those things in the faithful saying which our apostle would have the ministers of Christ to affirm constantly, for the express purpose of promoting holiness. The very humbling doctrine of universal depravity (Titus 3:3). We have little reason to be proud or vainglorious, severe or censorious of others, or to despise those who have not obtained mercy with ourselves--a vice which frequently deforms the character even of a child of a God. But by frequently insisting upon the doctrines of universal depravity, the graces of humility, meekness, mildness, tenderness, and benevolence are perceived to be of the highest request for adorning the Christian character, and promoting the happiness of men; and hence the necessity as well as the advantage of affirming it constantly.2. The Divine benevolence to man (Titus 3:4). According to this statement, the gospel of our salvation is a system of love--of Divine love--of the love of God towards foolish, disobedient, and enslaved men. 3. Our salvation is all of grace (Titus 3:5). Men cannot be too diligently cautioned against seeking salvation by the works of the law, nor too distinctly taught to ascribe the glory of the whole to “ the Lord our righteousness.” 4. Grace displayed in regeneration (Titus 3:5). The reality and necessity of regeneration, the Divine Agent by whom the gracious change is accomplished, the manner in which this happy change is effected, with the unbounded mercy and love displayed, both by the Father and the Son, in giving the Holy Ghost for such a purpose. These things cannot be too constantly affirmed: for, till this change be wrought on the nature and the heart, no true reformation will ever adorn the life. 5. Justification only by grace (Titus 3:7). This is a cardinal article in the scheme of salvation, according to the Scriptures. Well may the preservation or loss of it be designed the mark of a standing or falling Church. It is the glory of the gospel, the melody of the joyful sound, the admiration and the joy of redeemed men, the most powerful motive to holiness which can be presented. 6. The title secured by justification to the enjoyment of eternal life (Titus 3:7). It is both pleasant and very encouraging to mark, in this statement preceding my text, how regeneration, justification, adoption, and eternal glory, are so linked together in the same chain, that by holding one of the links, the happy possessor is infallibly secured of all the rest. A most glorious and eternal truth--an assurance eminently calculated to enliven the believer’ s hope of eternal life in Christ. And “ whosoever hath this hope in Him purifieth himself,” as Jesus Christ, his hope “ is pure.” II. Show that the constant affirmation of the doctrines of the Gospel is the only scripture method of preaching good works. Good works is a general expression for the practice of holiness, or the performance of every part of new obedience, whether it respect moral, civil, or religious duty. To maintain good works, according to the signification of the original word, is to take the lead in the practice of them. The term is of a military illusion. As the officers of an army stand before, or a little in advance of the line, both to display heroism and preserve the order of the troops, so the believer in God is expected and commanded to stand forth, in the view of the world, in the sight of the Church, and particularly in the presence of younger disciples of Christ, as examples of regularity, sobriety, tenderness, and devotion. To be emulous to excel, so as to provoke one another to faith, “ to love and to good works.” An emulation this eminently worthy of being cherished! To be “ careful to maintain good works,” is to be wholly intent upon the study and the practice of new obedience; for, except the mind feel a deep interest in holiness, from a love to God and a desire to be like Him, the external performance of good works will be cold, formal, and remiss. Hence it follows that the constant affirmation of these doctrines, so happily calculated to cherish the exercise of faith, must be peculiarly friendly to the interests of holiness; nay, more, that the constant affirmation of these things is the only Scriptural and consistent plan of engaging the believer in God to be careful to maintain good works. This I hope to make manifest to your satisfaction from these four considerations.1. These doctrines contain the principles, powers, and privileges, by which alone any of the human race become qualified for maintaining good works. 2. In these doctrines the believer is presented with the most powerful and proper motives and inducements to maintain good works. 3. These doctrines, when firmly believed, excite an inveterate antipathy at everything contrary to the nature and holy will of God. 4. The constant affirmation of these things affords the Christian moralist every advantage to state his subject in all its force. (W. Taylor.) On the necessity of Christian morality I. The necessity of good works in regard to ourselves.1. The practice of good works is necessary to prove the reality and sincerity of our faith. Faith or belief is a hidden principle which no man can see, and there is no other way of testifying that we possess this principle, but by the benevolent sentiments which it breathes, and the good actions which it prompts us to perform. 2. Good works are necessary to promote our moral improvement, We know very well that there is such an indissoluble connection between a true faith and eternal salvation, that the man who is a sincere believer will be justified and sanctified and glorified; but his sanctification is entirely distinct from, and is only a consequence of, his faith and justification. It is therefore necessary that the principle of a Divine life should operate in transforming him from glory to glory, and from one degree of religious and moral improvement unto another, until he be conformed to the image of the Son of God, and attain to the measure of the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus. It is not merely necessary that he should cease to do evil; but he must learn to do well. In short, by a diligent and unremitting attention to the duties of religion and morality, he must cultivate the principle of universal righteousness and perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. 3. Good works are necessary to qualify us for heaven. They are necessary to form us to the temper and disposition of Christ, who went about continually doing good; in order that the same mind may be also in us that was in Him; for we may depend upon it, that if we have not the spirit of the Lord Jesus, we are assuredly none of His. II. How these things are good and profitable unto men.1. These works are good, because they flow from a faith or belief in the command of God, and are done from a principle of conformity to His will. 2. But the apostle trot only characterises these things as good, he also affirms that they are profitable unto men. We shall, therefore, conclude, by briefly pointing out how these good works are especially profitable to those to whom they are performed; and we are espressly enjoined in Scripture to do good to all men as far as we have opportunity. Now, all who believe in God have it in their power, more or less, to do good to the bodies and the souls of men. This is one substantial reason why we are required to prove our faith by our works. He has ordained many to be rich, and more to be poor, that those to whom He has been bountiful might glorify Him with His own. He has bestowed wisdom and knowledge upon many, that they should instruct the ignorant, reclaim the wandering, and those who are out of the way. He commands us to defend the fatherless and plead for the widow; to be the stranger’ s shield and the orphan’ s stay; to relieve the oppressed; to pour the balm of consolation into the wounded spirit; to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, that the blessing of those who are ready to perish may come upon us. (D. Stevenson.) Good works I. Define good works.1. That our works may be good, they must be (1) Performed by good persons;(2) Required by God’ s Word;(3) Done from a sound principle;(4) Done to a right end. 2. How these good works must be maintained (1) Attention to God’ s Word;(2) Solicitude to know God’ s mind;(3) Watchfulness against temptations;(4) Embracing every opportunity of doing good;(5) Pressing forward in knowledge;(6) Exciting others to do the same. II. The faith which produces good works.1. Knowledge of God.2. And of the Word of God.3. Faith is a composing grace.4. A receptive grace.5. An operative grace.6. A rooting grace.7. A humbling grace.8. An elevating grace.9. A strengthening grace. 10. A uniting grace. 11. A working grace. 12. A saving grace. III. How good works are profitable to men.1. As evidences of true faith.2. Testimonies of gratitude to God.3. Strengthening to assurance.4. Edifying to others.5. Condemning the world. (T. B. Baker, M. A.) Practical Christianity I. Practical Christianity is good in itself.1. It accords with the will of God.2. It is an object of moral approbation to all minds. II. Good in its influence. Nothing is so useful to men as a Christly life. (Homilist.) Some hints to preachers I. Fundamental truths are to be continually enforced. II. Practical preaching is ever out of season. III. Christian duties are of universal application. IV. Trivial questions out of place in the pulpit. Inferences 1. It is possible to have repetition without sameness: “ affirm constantly.”2. Belief that does not change the life is useless (James 2:17)3. The law is to be obeyed in spirit, rather than letter. (F. Wagstaff.) Creed and conduct The things that Titus is to “ affirm constantly,” as we shall see presently, are the doctrines of Christianity. What for? “ In order that they which have believed in God” might be orthodox? Guarded against heresies? Certainly! But something more than that. In order that they might “ give their minds to being foremost,” as the word might be rendered, “ in good works.” That is what you are to preach your theology for, says Paul; and the only way to make sure that your converts shall live sober and righteous lives is to see that they be thoroughly saturated in the great and recondite truths which I have taught you. I. The Gospel is degraded unless it is asserted strongly. “ These things I will that thou affirm constantly” ; or, as the word might be rendered, “ asseverate pertinaciously,” persistently, positively, affirm and assert constantly and confidently. That is the way in which Paul thinks it ought to be spoken. “ These things.” What things? Well, here they are (verses 4-7). There are all the fundamentals of evangelical Christianity packed into three verses. They are all there--man’ s sin, man’ s need, the Divinity of Jesus Christ, His sacrificial death, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the act of faith, the inheritance of eternal life. And these are the things which are to be asserted with all the energy and persistency and decisiveness of the speaker’ s nature. Paul did not believe in fining them down because people did not like them. He did Dot believe in consulting the “ spirit of the age,” except thus far, that the more the spirit of the age was contrary to the truth, the more need for the men that believed it to speak out. II. This positive assertion of the truths of revelation is the best foundation to lay for practical godliness. “ I will that these things thou affirm constantly, in order that they which have believed might be careful to maintain good works.” Rightly understood and presented, the great body of truth which we call the gospel, and which is summarised in the preceding context, grips daily life very tightly, while, on the other hand, of all the impotent things in this world, none are more impotent than exhortations to be good, which are cut away from the great truths of Christ’ s mission and work. The world has been listening to these ever since it was a world, and it is not a bit better for them all. There is only one thing that supplies the requisite motive power for practical godliness, and that is the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His indwelling in our hearts. The motives that the gospel gives for goodness, for holiness, for purity, for self-sacrifice, for consecration, for enthusiasm, for widespread sympathy and benevolence, for contempt of the material and the perishable--the motives that Christianity gives for all things that are lovely and of good report--are the strongest that can ever be brought to bear upon men, as regards their fulness, their depth, their sweetness, and their transforming energy. Then, if it be true that the best foundation for all practical goodness is in the proclamation and the possession of the great message of Christ’ s love, two things follow. One is that Christian people ought to familiarise themselves with the practical side of their faith, just as Christian ministers ought to be in the habit of insisting, not merely upon the great revelation of God’ s love in Jesus Christ, but upon that revelation considered as the motive and the pattern for holy living. And another consequence is that here is a rough but a pretty effective test of so-called religious truth. Does it help to make a man better? It is worth something if it does; if it does not, then it may be ruled out as of small consequence. III. The true test and outcome of professing faith is conduct. In the text the fact that these Cretan Christians “ believed in,” or rather, perhaps, we should translate simply, “ believed God,” is given as a reason why they ought to maintain good works. That is to say, those who profess to have Him for their Lord and Father, those who avow that they are Christians, are by that profession bound to a conduct corresponding to the truth which they say they have received; and to conformity to the will of the God in whom they say that they have believed. Religious knowledge is all very necessary, but what is it for? It is to make us like God. Religious emotion is very necessary, too, and very delightful. It is right that Christian men should feel the glow of love and gratitude, the joy of forgiveness, the lofty and often unspeakable delights of calm communion with Him. All these are essential parts of a deep and true Christian character, but all these are for a purpose. If we are Christians we know God and we feel the emotions of the religious life, in order that we may be and that we may do. IV. No one will keep up these good works who does not give his mind to it. “ That they … might be careful to maintain.” The word that the apostle employs is a very remarkable one, only used in this one place in the New Testament; and the force of it might be given by that colloquialism which I have ventured to employ--“ Giving their minds to maintaining good works.” You have to make a business of it if you would succeed in it. You have to make a definite effort to bring before you the virtues and the excellencies which you ought to possess, and then to try your best to have them. And my text suggests one chief means of securing that result, and that is, the habit--which I am afraid is not a habit with a great many professing Christians--the habit of meditation upon the facts of the gospel revelation looked at in their practical bearing on our daily life and character. We should bring ourselves into that atmosphere, and saturate our minds and hearts with the thoughts of God’ s great love to us in Jesus Christ’ s death for us, of the pattern in His life, of the gift of His Spirit, of the hope of inheritance of eternal life. We should, by frequent meditation, submit ourselves to the power of these sacred thoughts, and we shall find that in them, one by one, are motives which, twisted together, will make a cord of love that shall draw us up out of the pit of selfishness and the mire of sense, and shall attract us joyfully along the path of obedience, else too hard for our reluctant and unaccustomed feet. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Good works By flowers, understand faith; by fruit, good works. As the flower is before the fruit, so is faith before good works; so neither is the fruit without the flower, nor good works without faith. Faith and works--‘ Twas an unhappy division that has been made between faith and works. Though in my intellect I may divide them, just as in the candle I know there is both light and heat; but yet, put out the candle, and they are both gone; one remains not without the other. So ‘ tis betwixt faith and works; nay, in a right conception, fides est opus (faith is work); if I believe a thing because I am commanded, that is opus (work). (T. Selden.) Titus 3:9 Avoid foolish questions Foolish questions reproved I. Amongst the questions to be avoided, such as the following may be included.1. Those which savour of scepticism and unbelief, or which imply a doubtfulness of the truth of Divine revelation, or of any of its fundamental doctrines. Religion is not intended to gratify our curiosity, or to answer our speculative inquiries; its object is to renew and sanctify the heart, and to meeten us for heaven. 2. Intricate and controversial questions are in general to be avoided, as engendering strife rather than ministering to godly edifying. 3. Prying questions relative to futurity, and which tend only to gratify a vain curiosity, ought to be avoided. 4. Questions arising from impatience and discontent are generally in a high degree improper, and unworthy of a Christian. When the mind is disquieted and full of trouble, we are commonly dissatisfied with everything about us, and wish if it were possible to have it otherwise. But this is a spirit which the Scriptures condemn, as utterly inconsistent with submission to the will of God, and as savouring of presumption and unbelief. 5. Perplexing and disquieting questions, which have no tendency to promote the great objects of practical religion, but only to excite unnecessary doubts and fears, are also prohibited in the text. Instead of asking the anxious question, for example, Are we elected? our great concern should be to know whether we be effectually called? Not, are our names written in heaven, but is God’ s law written in our hearts? 6. Trifling and uninteresting questions which serve only to amuse and not to impart any useful information, ought by all means to be avoided. There is too great a disposition, even in serious people, to indulge in frivolous disputes, or in a strife about words rather than things, to the neglect of the weightier matters of the law, judgment, charity, and the love of God. II. Notice some things that are necessary to a profitable conversation.1. Beware of loquacity, or too much speaking. Let not your words go before your thoughts; think twice before you speak once. 2. Accustom yourselves to a sober way of thinking and talking, using at all times sound speech which cannot be condemned. 3. It may be proper to lay in a stock of interesting questions as matter for after conversation. Inquiries relative to our state, tending to promote experimental religion, both in ourselves and others, would at all times be useful and edifying. We cannot too frequently ask ourselves, Are we in a state of acceptance with God; do we grow in grace; do we hate sin and love holiness; are we more weaned from the world, and fit for heaven? An awakened sinner would naturally inquire, What must I do to be saved? and those who have believed through grace should be anxious to inquire, What shall we do that we may work the works of God? 4. Living as in the sight of God, and under a conviction that for every idle word we must give an account in the day of judgment, will exclude a great deal of light and trifling conversation, and give a savouriness to our speech, which will minister grace to the hearer. (B. Beddome, M. A.) Religious disputes Never was there a time wherein there was more talk or bustle and ado made about religion, and yet so little of the power of it seen in the world, whilst every one is most eager and busy in defending and propagating those doubtful doctrines which distinguish their several sects and factions, and so few mind those great and certain truths wherein they all are, or at least pretend to be, agreed. I. That our Saviour and His Gospel gave no real just occasion for those controversies, which since have been so hotly moved, will appear if we consider a little His doctrine and way of teaching whilst He was here on earth, for we shall find all along that He delivered His message not in any studied, artificial, spruce, and affected method, but with the greatest perspicuity and plainness imaginable. He accommodated not His discourses to the learned or wiser part of mankind only, but to the ignorant and simple. Thus also, if we consult the Acts of the Apostles, we shall find it was in the first and early times of the gospel. Much pains it cost them to convince Gentiles and Jews of the truth of our Saviour’ s religion, and to take off their prejudices against it and His person, and to resist and gainsay apostate Christians who would set up new religions of their own in opposition to Christ’ s, but little or none, in comparison, to make them understand the doctrine of it when once they were ready to follow and embrace it. They did not perplex their hearers with any quirks and intricacies, but avoiding all needless disputations, which engender strife and are not unto edification, told them plainly that Jesus commanded them everywhere to repent of their sins, and to forsake them, and to behove His gospel, and become His disciples, and obey what He enjoined in being temperate, humble, just, and charitable, and they should be forever happy in the other world; and that for the effecting of this the Son of God came down from heaven, and lived here amongst men, and died, and rose again, of which they were witnesses. II. It is true some disputes soon arose in the Church, and what gave occasion to them i am next to inquire. Some did arise even in the apostles’ days, occasioned either by that great respect and veneration the Jews had for Moses’ laws and institutions, or that fond presumption they had of God’ s particular inconditionate favour to them, and His absolute election of the seed of Abraham only; or else by the wickedness of those who for some private ends would pretend to Christianity, but, being unwilling to undergo the severities of it, invented such doctrines as might best serve to patronise their lusts or impieties. Thus though there were disputes, then, yet they were chiefly between Christians and their open and professed enemies, or such as had apostatised from them, or were but in part converted; but for some considerable time (whilst the persecutions lasted) the Christians amongst themselves lived in all love and peace, professing the same faith, joining in the same worship, and agreeing in the same principles and practices. But when once our religion had triumphed over all others and brought the greatest part of the world to its subjection, and the princes of the earth and the great and wise men became Christians, and there was no public enemy, either Jew or Gentile, to oppose, and find work for busy wits, then they began to fall out about their own religion; and this still increased more as the Christians grew more learned and idle, and less honest, and found time and leisure to study philosophy, the greatest part of which about that time was nothing else but sophistry, or the art of wrangling, and making plain things obscure. III. But yet by anything I have now said I would not be thought to persuade you that there was nothing in our religion that was difficult or mysterious. There are, without all doubt, some things contained in Scripture which are past our understandings, the particular modes and circumstances of which we cannot perfectly comprehend, but only that it would have been much more for the honour of God, the interest of Christianity, and the good of souls, if men would have suffered those things which were mysterious to have remained so, and also left those things that were plain in the same condition they found them. IV. Had I time in particular to show how such idle disputes in matters of religion are still continued in the world, i might tell you 1. Some men there are of a voluble tongue and of a talking, prating humour, who debate and dispute about everything, and therefore religion shall not escape if it ever comes in their way; you can say nothing but they presently contradict and oppose it. 2. Others there are that are pretty cool, tame, and calm, and can discourse freely and civilly about any ordinary common affair; but let the smallest and most inconsiderable point of religion be started, and they shall be presently all on fire, and as quarrelsome as if they had been born disputing, and as fierce as if at the pronouncing of every article of their belief their swords were to be drawn, and it was to be fought out. 3. Others there are who furnish themselves for dispute by reading a great deal of Scripture and getting it by heart, and so pouring it forth upon all occasions, interpreting it as peremptorily, and explaining it as confidently, as if they were guided by the same infallible spirit that the writers of it were endued withal. 4. Others there are who are very eager in maintaining a great many opinions, which are not to be found in Scripture, but in some authors they have great esteem of, or first chanced to read, or were directed to by those whose judgments they most valued; and these men’ s books such make their Bible, and from them fetch all their divinity. V. But whatever be, and many more there are, occasions of these quarrels and debates in religion, the inconvenience of them is great and notorious.1. This foolish contending consumes so much time of our lives, which ought to be spent in our honest employments, in serious devotions, and doing the offices of justice, friendship, and charity one towards another; and I doubt not but much of our religious brawling and disputing shall be accounted for at the last day as idle words, for which neither ourselves, nor neighbours, nor anybody else was anything the better. 2. That which is a greater mischief than this, from hence men’ s lusts learn to dispute, and from these controversies in and about religion men have found out how to quiet their consciences in a way of sin, and to go on securely and undisturbedly, hoping by the help of a distinction or two they shall for all that get to heaven at last. 3. These disputes have been the occasion of those great breaches that have been made amongst Christians, whose care it ought to be to be of one mind, of one faith, and of one Church, and to adorn the doctrine of our Saviour by their mutual good will and serviceableness to one another; but instead of this, Christians, by their several little models of faith and their passions, have made it their business to divide the Church, excluding as many from salvation and their communion as are not just of their own way and fancy. (B. Calamy.) Unanswerable questions to be avoided The writer remembers calling, late one Saturday evening, on a friend, an able theologian, whom he found seated at his writing table, evidently almost in a state of despair, and with tears in his eyes. “ Why are you so sorrowful?” he said to him. In reply, the theologian only smiled sadly, and pointed to his wastepaper basket, which was full of torn up manuscript. “ See,” he said, “ the remains of eighteen quires of paper, which I have written all over since Monday morning, endeavouring to get my thoughts into order for my sermon tomorrow. But now I am more stupid and perplexed than when I began. I wanted to show how the two truths can be harmonised, that God knows everything and is the cause of everything, and yet that man is a free agent.” It was no wonder that, notwithstanding all the intense thought and all the expenditure of paper, pens, and ink, that sermon did not get itself finished; for the more earnestly a man ponders on such problems the deeper and darker does the Divine mystery become. He who does not wish to lose his senses will postpone the consideration of such unanswerable questions to eternity, and then there will be no fear of his wanting occupation there. (Otto Funcke.) Profitless questions A story is told of a man who spent most of his time interpreting the mysteries of Revelation. He said to a friend one day, “ I can’ t quite understand about those seven trumpets, can you?” “ No,” was the answer; “ but if you would pay more attention to your seven children and less to the seven trumpets, more of your real problems would be solved.” The teacher must rule out unprofitable speculations and discussions. “ Let us call up a great logician to help us out,” said a pastor on one occasion, breaking in on such a debate in his class. “‘ Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.’ Now, when I eat fish, I don’ t wear myself out grinding on the bones. I just leave them and go for the meat. Now for some meat from this lesson. Brother,” turning to the combatant, “ what have you found in this Scripture to help you this week?” Avoiding unprofitable questions I once heard him tell an amusing story about a scientific man and popular author, who left a very celebrated minister for a seat in Bloomsbury Chapel. He brought a letter from Dr. H___ to Dr. Brock. “ Before you open it, sir,” said the author, “ allow me to state that I am a man of science, and that I have much to do with beetles, butterflies, and spiders. Well, I get tired of them in six days, and on the seventh, the Sabbath, I don’ t want to hear anything about them. But our good, genial minister is also a man of science, and he will talk about scientific topics in the pulpit to illustrate the Word. Well, last night, the Sabbath, you know, he gave us a sermon full of spiders! I could not stand it any longer, so I went into the vestry, and said, ‘ Doctor, that sermon on spiders has finished me; give me a letter to Dr. Brock.’“ “ So,” said the pastor, laughing, “ he came to us because he knew I didn’ t preach about spiders.” (Memoir of Dr. Brock.) The polemical and the practical Christian Two learned physicians and a plain honest countryman, happening to meet at an inn, sat down to dinner together. A dispute presently arose between the two doctors on the nature of aliment, which proceeded to such a height, and was carried on with so much fury, that it spoiled their meals, and they parted extremely indisposed. The countryman, in the meantime, who understood not the cause, though he heard the quarrel, fell heartily to his meat, gave God thanks, digested it well, returned in the strength of it to his honest labour, and in the evening received his wages. Is there not sometimes as much difference between the polemical and practical Christian? Controversy foolish and unprofitable As in the burning of some wet fuel we cannot see the fire for smoke, so the light of the Scriptures is dusked by the vapours of controversies. (T. Adams.) It is better not to try to understand too much He that would comprehend all things, apprehends nothing. As he that comes to a corn heap, the more he opens his hand to take, the less he graspeth, the less he holdeth. Where the Scripture hath no tongue, we should have no ear. (T. Adams.) Genealogies The right and wrong use of genealogies I. The second thing which Titus must resist are genealogies, which also must be rightly taken, because there always was, and yet is, an excellent use of them in Scripture. Before Christ they were so necessary, as the Jews were commanded to keep public and private records of their tribes and families--yea, and if there were any that could not tell or find his genealogy, he was not to be admitted, or, if inconsiderately he were, was to be deposed from public office (Numbers 1:18; Nehemiah 7:62); and to this purpose some holy writers of Scripture have set down for the use of the Church to the end whole books of genealogies, but especially that the Jews might be able to bring their descent from the patriarchs, as we read of Paul, who no doubt could bring his line down from Benjamin (Philippians 3:5). The use of these genealogies was to manifest the truth of God in the Scriptures. I. In the accomplishment of many special prophecies to particular persons. II. What is it, then, the apostle condemneth? Not any such as serve to the edification of the faith of the Church, whereof this of Christ a public person and Saviour of the world is the chief of all; neither the keeping of the descent so far as serveth to the preservation of right justice and civil peace. In which respect kings and nobles, yea, and other inferior persons, may inquire into that right which their ancestors have made their due, and must so hold their genealogy as they may hold their right against all claims. But here is condemned all that recounting of kindred and pedigree in all sorts of men, which proceedeth from a vain mind, and tendeth to worldly pomp and vainglory. For this was the sin of the Jewish teachers, that whereas now by Christ’ s appearance all distinction of families was in religious respect abrogated, and now was no such need of genealogy as before, unless it were before infidels and such as were not persuaded of the right descent of Christ, yet they out of their pride would be much and often in extolling of their tribes and kindred, and so not only for these accessories let go the substance of religion, but, as if they would build up that polity again which was now abolished, to the great hurt of their hearers, would much busy themselves in fruitless discourses. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Titus 3:10-11 An heretic … reject The treatment of heresy I. Heresy is not an unsound opinion, but an unsound life. A man may hold an erroneous opinion, and hold it sincerely; but the word used here denotes one who seeks to promote discord in the Church (See Romans 16:17). II. Heresy is to be dealt with firmly, but gently.1. Firmly--by admonition.2. Gently--by repeated admonitions. III. Hardened heretics are to be rejected.1. But this only applies to exclusion from Church fellowship.2. It is no warrant for persecution.3. Excluded heretics are to be deemed objects of pity. (F. Wagstaff.) Treatment of heretics Paul having exhorted Titus both to teach the truth according to godliness, as also to resist all such foolish and vain doctrine as might do hurt in the Church of God. Titus might object: This indeed is my duty wherein I extend to exercise myself with diligence; but when I have laboured and done all I can, many there are who will not yield to the truth, nor submit themselves to this ordinance of God; how am I to carry myself towards such? Answer: The apostle, careful to prevent all such things as he foresaw might be hurtful to the Church, giveth direction in these two verses how to proceed in this business also. The former, giving direction and laying down the duty; and the latter, enforcing the same by moment of reason. In the former are three things to be considered:1. The persons against whom Titus is to deal--here called heretics.2. The direction how he is to behave himself towards them--reject them.3. The orderly manner of proceeding, after once or twice admonition. The latter verse containeth the reason of this severity, because such persons are incurable and incorrigible; which is proved by two arguments.1. Such a one is subverted, that is, turned or cast off the foundation. 2. He sinneth against his own conscience, being damned of his own self, that is, he wittingly and willingly spurneth against that truth of which his conscience is by the former admonition convinced. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Heresy not to be trifled with I am asked sometimes to read an heretical book. Well, if I believed my reading it would help its refutation, and might be an assistance to others in keeping them out of error, I might do it as a hard matter of duty, but I shall not do it unless I see some good will come from it. I am not going to drag my spirit through a ditch for the sake of having it washed afterwards, for it is not my own. It may be that good medicine would restore me if I poisoned myself with putrid meat, but I am not going to try it: I dare not experiment on a mind which no longer belongs to me. There is a mother and a child, and the child has a book to play with, and a blacklead pencil. It is making drawings and marks upon the book, and the mother takes no notice. It lays down one book and snatches another from the table, and at once the mother rises from her seat, and hurriedly takes the book away, saying: “ No, my dear, you must not mark that, for it is not ours.” So with my mind, intellect, and spirit; if it belonged to me I might or might not play tomfool with it, and go to hear Socinians, Universalists, and suchlike preach; but as it is not my own, I will preserve it from such fooleries, and the pure word shall not be mingled with the errors of men. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Contagion of false doctrine Sin is like the bale of goods which came from the East to this city in the olden time, which brought the pest in it. Probably it was but a small bale, but yet it contained in it the deaths of hundreds of the inhabitants of London. In those days one piece of rag carried the infection into a whole town. So, if you permit one sin or false doctrine in a church knowingly and wittingly, none can tell the extent to which that evil may ultimately go. The Church, therefore, is to be purged of practical and doctrinal evil as diligently as possible That sour and corrupting thing which God abhors must be purged out, and it is to be the business of the Christian minister, and of all his fellow helpers, to keep the church free from it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Dilution of the truth I have likened the career of certain divines to the journey of a Roman wine cask from the vineyard to the city. It starts from the wine press as the pure juice of the grape, but at the first halting place the drivers of the cart must needs quench their thirst, and when they come to a fountain they substitute water for what they had drunk. In the next village there are numbers of lovers of wine who beg or buy a little, and the discreet carrier dilutes again. The watering is repeated, till, on its entrance into Rome, the fluid is remarkably different from that which originally started from the vineyard. There is a way of doctoring the gospel in much the same manner. A little truth is given up, and then a little more, and men fill up the vacuum with opinions, inferences, speculations, and dreams, till their wine is mixed with water, and the water none of the best. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Wilful heresy Heresy, in the New Testament, is most commonly used in an indifferent sense, and but seldom in a bad one. It generally signifies no more than a sect or party in religion. Thus we read of the sect, or heresy, of the Sadducees; of the sect, or heresy, of the Pharisees; St. Paul is styled a ring leader of the sect, or heresy, of the Nazarenes; and he says of himself that, after the strictest sect (where the same Greek word is used) of the Jewish religion, he lived a Pharisee. In this last passage particularly nothing can be more plain than that the word has an innocent meaning, since the apostle rather commends than charges himself with anything criminal for having been a Pharisee before his conversion to the Christian faith. And we find it applied in the same manner in Acts 28:22. I shall mention but one text more, and that is, “ For there must also be heresies among you,” etc. (1 Corinthians 11:19). The evident design of which is, that considering the various tempers of men, their different views, passions, prejudices, their selfishness, ambition, vanity, and the like, it was natural to expect that they would divide into parties about religion, as well as about politics, and the civil affairs of life; and that the providence of God wisely permitted this for the trial of their integrity, and to distinguish the indolent, careless, and insincere from the real friends of truth, persons of an honest, inquisitive, and ingenuous temper. Now, according to this account, the general notion of a heretic is no more than this, viz., one that sets up to be the head, or chooses to join himself to a particular religious sect. I say who makes this the matter of his choice because it is implied in the original signification of the word; and, besides, nothing can be supposed to have any concern with religion but what is a voluntary action. A heretic, therefore, in a bad sense, must be one who knowingly espouses a false doctrine, is insincere in his profession, and asserts and defends what he is convinced is contrary to Christianity, and, consequently, one who maintains and supports the interest of a faction, to serve some base designs. According to St. Paul’ s account in the text, a heretic is not only subverted or turned aside from the true faith, he not only entertains wrong sentiments of Christianity, but sinneth, i.e., doth this wilfully, and with an ill attention. He is one that makes religion a cloak for his immoralities, and espouses and propagates what he knows to be false, to promote the ends of his ambition, covetousness, or sensual pleasure; who, indeed, thinks it his interest to retain the name of a Christian, and in that circumstance only differs from a thorough and wilful apostate from Christianity, but which incurs the greater guilt may perhaps be hard to determine; for as the one rejects the Christian religion altogether, the other out of choice corrupts it, and opposes its true doctrines, even while he pretends to believe and reverence its authority. Such as these, I say, persons of such vile and dishonest principles, and of so flagitious a character, are the heretics condemned by St. Paul; and therefore to fix it as a term of reproach on any in whom there does not appear hatred of the truth, a sensual mind, and a profligate conscience, must be unChristian and scandalous. And if we examine other passages of the New Testament we shall find that they all concur in giving us the same idea of heresy. It is represented as a work of the flesh, because it has its foundation in the corrupt inclinations of human nature. It is reckoned among the most heinous and execrable vices--such as adultery, idolatry, hatred, variance, seditions, murders. And heretics are constantly described as men of no probity or honour, strangers to all the principles of virtue, and embracing such opinions only as were calculated for the gratification of irregular appetites, and advancing selfish and worldly views (1 Timothy 1:19; 2 Peter 2:1.)1. It appears from what has been said that no mere error of the judgment can be heresy. For heresy is a high degree of wickedness; and necessarily supposes irregularity of the affections and a depraved and vicious choice; whereas erroneous conceptions and apprehensions of things are no crime at all, but natural to mankind in the present weak and imperfect state of the faculties. 2. We may infer that no honest man can possibly be a heretic. He may, indeed, have errors (and who is there among us that has not?)--nay, he may err in points of importance too, but his mistakes cannot be dangerous while he takes care to maintain a good conscience. 3. If heresy be an error of the will, and such only can be guilty of it who are condemned of themselves, how can we certainly know, in most cases at least, whether a man be a heretic or not? Let each of us put this question to himself impartially, and if we cannot answer it to our satisfaction, let us, however, learn thus much from our ignorance, to be modest in the censures we pass upon others. If it be said that such wicked deceivers are generally known by their fruits, and that their vicious lives will show us by what views they are acted, and the vile design of their imposture, I answer that, even upon this supposition, I should think it better that they be rejected for their immorality, which is notorious and palpable, than for heresy, of which we cannot so certainly judge. 4. Though it be a point of great nicety to judge of heresy in particular instances, the persons who come nearest the character of the old heretics are violent party men, who confine Christianity to their own faction, and excommunicate all that take the liberty to differ from them; the rigid imposers of human schemes of doctrine and modes of worship, as essential branches of religion, and laws binding conscience, these, I say, are most like the heretics condemned in Scripture, notwithstanding their insolence and presumption. (James Foster.) I. What patience the Lord useth in His just proceedings, even against the worst men, whom He wilt. Not have condemned nor cast out of the Church upon suspicions, or surmises; nor nor presently after an open sin is committed; but there must be a time between wherein the Church must rightly inform herself, that she may know the nature and degree of the sin before she turn her to any censure or sentence. Yea, and further, the sin being apparent, she must not reject any, till all good means of reclaiming have been in vain used. Which may teach us, that to hasten excommunications ipso facto; or (as it is often) before the party can come to the knowledge or suspicion of any such proceeding, is to swerve from the rules of the Word, and those weighty reasons also upon which they are grounded. As namely:1. Some offenders are curable; and what man in his wits will cut off his arm or leg so soon as it beginneth to ache and pain him, and not rather use means of surgery and cure? is any member in the body so despised? 2. Ourselves must not be so uncharitable as presently, to despair of any man’ s conversion. God may in time raise the most desperate stoner unto repentance. 3. The means used are not lost; for if it attain no other end, yet shall it make them more inexcusable, the censure more just, and the Church’ s proceeding more equal and moderate. 4. Add here unto the Lord’ s example, who never striketh before He have sufficiently warned; He never precipitateth either sentence or execution, but first cometh down to see (Genesis 18:21), and hearkeneth and heareth (Malachi 3:16), and accordingly passeth sentence. II. Note that when a sinner is known to sin of obstinacy, the best way is to avoid him and cast him out.1. For labour is but lost on such a one. 2. He doth but tread holy things under his feet; of which holy things the Church is the keeper, and must be faithful. 3. He sins not only of judgment and reason, but of affection; and this is the reason why very few heretics are converted, when many unregenerate men and outrageously wicked in other kinds are, who sin not of affection and wilfulness, but of corrupt judgment only. 4. The Lord’ s example (Hosea 4:17). III. Note hence, also, what use the Lord maketh of a wicked conscience, even in desperate sinners. It shall be the accuser, witness, and judge to pronounce the sentence of death against his own soul; and so shall make way unto the Lord’ s most righteous judgment. Use.1. It letteth us see what an intolerable torment a wicked conscience is. Use. 2. This further teaches us not to neglect the checks of conscience, nor our own hearts reproving us of our ways; as those men who are resolved to hold on their lewd courses, let the word and spirit, yea, their own spirits, suggest what they will or can against it. For the time cometh when thou canst not set the voice of thy conscience so light, and then that conscience which hath checked thee shall judge thee, and that heart which hath reproved thee shall torment thee, and thou shalt never be able to turn off the charge of it, but shalt by it be accused and convicted to have been a wilful chooser of thine own destruction. Use. 3. This consideration also teacheth us to look that in everything we keep good consciences before God and all men, the use of which will be manifold. (1) To keep us from errors and heresies, and contain us in the profession of the true faith; for let good conscience be put away, there must needs follow a shipwreck of faith; as is to be seen in all heretics. Hence are we counselled to make pure conscience as the coffer to keep faith in (1 Timothy 3:9). (2) In doing any action lawful in itself, a good con science only maketh it good to the doer; for to do even the will of God against my conscience is sin to me, be the same in itself never so materially good. (3) In suffering or enduring anything for well doing (as not the pain, but the cause maketh a martyr so), not the cause so much as the conscience of the sufferer worketh out his boldness and peace in the midst of the combat, and giveth him security, in his conflict; whereas a bad conscience will betray the best cause. (4) In enjoying any condition of this present life, a good conscience is a sweet companion; even a dry morsel with peace of heart is better than a house full of sacrifices with strife and war within. In outward afflictions there is inward rejoicing, for let the heart be pacified in God, it can rejoice in tribulation. The disciples can go away rejoicing from the council that they were counted worthy to be beaten and suffer rebuke for Christ (Acts 5:41). The martyrs can kiss the stake, embrace the fire, and sing in the midst of the flames. (5) Yea, it doth not only through the whole life minister joy and comfort even in the remembrance of death, as in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, but it followeth a man after death, when all things else forsake him; and as a most faithful friend it goeth with him before God’ s judgment seat, and pleadeth for him at the bar of Jesus Christ; yea, testifieth with him, and cleareth, and quite acquitteth him from the judgment of the great day. All which being so, what pains and labour can be thought too much in the getting and keeping of such a jewel, which bringeth in so rich a recompense for so little labour, and how worthily doth he forfeit all these sweet fruits of it, who will be at no costs nor pains for it. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Heresy hunters You can imagine a husbandman who would neglect to care for his soil, and go out after squirrels and all manner of vermin that were eating his grain if he had any that they could eat--who would go out to shoot weasels in the wall, foxes in the field, wolves in the wood, and bears everywhere; and who, when he could find nothing to shoot, would lie out at night, watching for racoons, and range up and down through the day, searching for some stray dog, where there should be sheep, but where there are none. There are in the Church what may be called heresy hunters. They always carry a rifle--a spiritual rifle under their arm. You will find them forever outlying, watching for heresy--not so much in their own hearts, not so much in their own Church, not so much in their own minister, but in other people’ s hearts, in other people’ s Churches, in other people’ s ministers. If any man happens to hold an opinion respecting any doctrine which does not accord with their own peculiar views, they all spread abroad to run him down. They are taking care of and defending the faith! They are searching for foxes, and wolves, and bears, that they suppose are laying waste God’ s husbandry! They never do anything except fire at other folks. I have no doubt that Nimrod was a very good fellow in his own poor, miserable way, but a Nimrod minister is the meanest of all sorts of hunters. (H. W. Beecher.) Treatment of heretics In what way are the directions here given to Titus to be used for our own guidance at the present time? They do not apply to persons who have always been, or who have ended in placing themselves outside the Christian Church. They refer to persons who contend that their self-chosen views are part and parcel of the gospel, and who claim to hold and teach such views as members or even ministers of the Church. Secondly, they refer to grave and fundamental errors with regard to first principles; not to eccentric views respecting matters of detail. And in determining this second point much caution will be needed; especially when inferences are drawn from a man’ s teaching. We should be on our guard with regard to assertions that a particular teacher virtually denies the Divinity of Christ, or the Trinity, or the personality of God. But when both these points are quite clear, that the person contradicts some of the primary truths of the gospel, and that he claims to do so as a Christian, what is a minister to do to such a member of his flock? He is to make one or two effects to reclaim him, and then to have as little to do with him as possible. In all such cases there are three sets of persons to be considered: the heretic himself, those who have to deal with him, and the Church at large. What conduct on the part of those who have to deal with him will be least prejudicial to themselves and to the Church, and most beneficial to the man himself? The supreme law of charity must be the guiding principle. But that is no true charity which shows tenderness to one person in such a way as to do grievous harm to others, or to do more harm than good to the person who receives it. Love of what is good is not only consistent with hatred of what is evil; it cannot exist without such hatred. What we have to consider, therefore, is this. Will friendliness confirm him in his error? Would he be more impressed by severity? Is intercourse with him likely to lead to our being led astray? Will it increase his influence and his opportunities of doing harm? Is severity likely to excite sympathy in other people, first for him, and then for his teaching? It is impossible to lay down a hard and fast rule that would cover all cases; and while we remember the stern instructions which St. Paul gives to Titus, and St. John to the “ elect lady,” let us not forget the way in which Jesus Christ treated publicans and sinners. (A. Plummer, D. D.) Condemning of himself Ferdinand, Emperor of Germany, possessed a great number of watches, in collecting of which he had a fancy. “ It pleased him once,” says our quaint author, “ to put this, his variety of speaking gold, upon a table, as if he would expose it to sale: he then stepped aside. A stander-by, driven by a desire of stealing, filched one of them (a repeater), which the emperor espying aslant, called him, and without accusation, kept him in various discourse till the watch striking disclosed the hour and his theft. (Saturday Magazine.) Titus 3:13 Bring Zenas the lawyer Sermon to the legal profession This man of my text belonged to a profession which has often had ardent supporters of Christ and the gospel. Among them, Blackstone, the great commentator on English law; and Wilberforce, the emancipator; and Chief Justices Marshall, and Tenterden, and Campbell, and Sir Thomas More, who died for the truth on the scaffold, saying to his aghast executioner: “ Pluck up courage, man, and do your duty: my neck is very short; be careful, therefore, and do not strike awry.” Among the mightiest pleas that ever have been made by tongue of barrister, have been pleas in behalf of the Bible and Christianity--as when Daniel Webster stood in the Supreme Court at Washington, pleading in the famous Girard will case, denouncing any attempt to educate the people without giving them at the same time moral sentiment, as “ low, ribald, and vulgar deism and infidelity” ; as when Samuel L. Southard, of New Jersey, the leader of the forum in his day, stood on the platform at Princeton College commencement, advocating the literary excellency of the Scriptures; as when Edmund Burke, in the famous trial of Warren Hastings, not only in behalf of the English government, but in behalf of elevated morals, closed his speech in the midst of the most august assemblage ever gathered in Westminster Hall, by saying: “ I impeach Warren Hastings in the name of the House of Commons, whose national character he has dishonoured; I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose rights and liberties he has subverted; I impeach him in the name of human nature, which he has disgraced; in the name of both sexes, and of every rank, and of every station, and of every situation in the world, I impeach Warren Hastings.” Yet, notwithstanding all the pleas which that profession has made in behalf of God, and the Church, and the gospel, and the rights of man, there has come down through the generations a style of prejudice against it. So long ago as in the time of Oliver Cromwell, it was decided that lawyers might not enter the parliament house as members, and they were called “ sons of Zeruiah.” The learned Doctor Johnson wrote an epitaph for one of them in these words: “ God works wonders now and then, Here lies a lawyer, an honest man!” There is no man who has more temptations, more trials, or graver responsibilities than the barrister, and he who attempts to discharge the duties of his position with only earthly resources, is making a very great mistake. Witness Lord Thurlow, announcing his loyalty to earthly government in the sentence: “ If I forget my earthly sovereign, may God forget me,” and yet stooping to unaccountable meanness. Witness Lord Coke, the learned and the reckless. No other profession more needs the grace of God to deliver them in their temptations, to comfort them in their trials, to sustain them in the discharge of their duty. While I would have you bring the merchant to Christ, and while I would have you bring the farmer to Christ, and while I would have you bring the mechanic to Christ, I address you today in the words of Paul to Titus, “ Bring Zenas the lawyer.” By so much as his duties are delicate and great, by so much does he need Christian stimulus and safeguard. God alone can direct him. To that chancery he must be appellant, and he will get an answer in an hour. Blessed is that attorney between whose office and the throne of God there is perpetual, reverential, and prayerful communication. That attorney will never make an irreparable mistake. True to the habits of your profession, you say, “ Cite us some authority on the subject.” Well, I quote to you the decision of the Supreme Court of Heaven: “ If any lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.” There are two or three forms of temptation to which the legal profession is especially subjected.1. The first of all is scepticism. You get so used to pushing the sharp question “ why” and making unaided reason superior to the emotions, that the religion of Jesus Christ, which is a simple matter of faith, and above human reason, has but little chance with some of you. Scepticism is the mightiest temptation of the legal profession, and that man who can stand in that profession, resisting all solicitations to infidelity, and can be as brave as George Briggs of Massachusetts, who stepped from the gubernatorial chair to the missionary convention, to plead the cause of a dying race: then on his way home from the convention, on a cold day, took off his warm cloak and threw it over the shoulders of a thinly-clad missionary, saying: “ Take that and wear it, it will do you more good than it will me” ; or, like John McLean, who can step from the Supreme Courtroom of the United States on to the anniversary platform of the American Sunday School Union--its most brilliant orator--deserves congratulation and encomium. O men of the legal profession, let me beg of you to quit asking questions in regard to religion, and begin believing. If you do not become a Christian, O man of the legal profession, until you can reason this whole thing out in regard to God, and Christ, and the immortality of the soul, you will never become a Christian at all. Only believe. “ Bring Zenas the lawyer.” 2. Another mighty temptation for the legal profession is to Sabbath breaking. What you cannot do before twelve o’ clock Saturday night, or after twelve o’ clock Sunday night, God does not want you to do at all. Beside that, you want the twenty-four hours of Sabbath rest to give you that electrical and magnetic force which will be worth more to you before the jury than all the elaboration of your case on the sacred day. Every lawyer is entitled to one day’ s rest out of seven. If he surrender that, he robs three--God, his own soul, and his client. Lord Castlereagh and Sir Thomas Romilly were the leaders of the bar in their day. They both died suicides. Wilberforce accounts for their aberration of intellect on the ground that they were unintermittent in their work, and they never rested on Sunday. “ Poor fellow!” said Wilberforce, in regard to Castlereagh--“ Poor fellow! it was nonobservance of the Sabbath.” Chief Justice Hale says, “ When I do not properly keep the Lord’ s day, all the rest of the week is unhappy and unsuccessful in my worldly employment.” 3. Another powerful temptation of the legal profession is to artificial stimulus. The flower of the American bar, ruined in reputation and ruined in estate, said in his last moments: “ This is the end. I am dying on a borrowed bed, covered with a borrowed sheet, in a house built by public charity. Bury me under that tree in the middle of the field, that I may not be crowded; I always have been crowded.” 4. Another powerful temptation of the legal profession is to allow the absorbing duties of the profession to shut out thoughts of the great future. You know very well that you who have so often tried others, will after awhile be put on trial yourselves. Death will serve on you a writ of ejectment, and you will be put off these earthly premises. On that day all the affairs of your life will be presented in a “ bill of particulars.” No certiorari from a higher court, for this is the highest court. The day when Lord Exeter was tried for high treason; the day when the House of Commons moved for the impeachment of Lord Lovatt; the day when Charles I and Queen Caroline were put upon trial; the day when Robert Emmet was arraigned as an insurgent; the day when Blennerhasset was brought into the courtroom because he had tried to overthrow the United States government, and all the other great trials of the world are nothing compared with the great trial in which you and I shall appear, summoned before the Judge of quick and dead. There will be no pleading there “ the statute of limitation” ; no “ turning State’ s evidence,” trying to get off ourselves, while others suffer; no “ moving for a non-suit.” The case will come on inexorably, and we shall be tried. You, who have so often been advocate for others, will then need an advocate for yourself. Have you selected Him? The Lord Chancellor of the Universe. Lord Ashburton and Mr. Wallace were leading barristers in their day. They died about the same time. A few months before their decease they happened to be at the same hotel in a village, the one counsel going to Devonshire, the other going to London. They had both been seized upon by a disease which they knew would be fatal, and they requested that they be carried into the same room and laid down on sofas, side by side, that they might talk over old times and talk over the future. So they were carried in, and lying there on opposite sofas, they talked over their old contests at the bar, and then they talked of the future world upon which they must soon enter. It was said to have been a very affecting and solemn interview between Mr. Wallace and Lord Ashburton. My friends, my subject today puts you side by side with those men in your profession who have departed this life, some of them sceptical and rebellious, some of them penitent, childlike, and Christian. These were wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever, while these others went up from the courtroom of earth to the throne of eternal dominion. Through Christ, the advocate, these got glorious acquittal. In the other case, it was a hopeless lawsuit. An unpardoned sinner versus the Lord God Almighty. O what disastrous litigation! (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.) That nothing be wanting unto them Titus’ duty to his fellow ministers Ministers ought to abound in the fruits of kindness to one another, and most to those whose circumstances render the expressions of brotherly kindness needful. Probably Titus could not, from his own purse, furnish everything that was needful to his brethren who were travelling in the service of the Churches. But he might, through his influence, do by the hands of others what was not in his own power. The apostle had already said that the doctrine of salvation by grace teaches and constrains men who believe it to maintain good works. And here he calls on the believers under the care of Titus to embrace the occasion that was presented to them, of testifying their faith by their works, and learning to practise the duties by which they were to approve themselves unto God as faithful Christians. There are too many who form good resolves, but when opportunities offer of putting them into practice, suffer them to pass unimproved. They intend to do what they know to be right, but are in no haste to perform it. But let ours, those who belong to our holy society, learn not only to do, but to stand foremost in doing, good works, on all necessary occasions. An opportunity for doing good ought to be as much valued by us as an opportunity for receiving it, for we are sure that “ it is more blessed to give than to receive.” We know not what opportunities we may afterwards have to do good; but the present opportunity will not return; and we may feel the same disposition to neglect a second and a third as a first opportunity of usefulness. How then shall we approve ourselves fruit-bearing branches in the true vine, and not to be found among the barren branches against whom the terrible sentence is pronounced, that the great Husbandman will take them away, and they shall be gathered, and cast into the fire and burned? “ Bring Zenas the lawyer, and Apollos, diligently on their way,” and in supplying their necessities let our people learn to excel, or go before others, in good works, that they be not unfruitful. Zenas had probably been a Jewish lawyer. And against that class of men awful things had been spoken by our Lord. Amongst others, it is said that they took away the key of knowledge from men. But the grace of God can make a most effectual change in those from whom least good and most evil is to be expected. He was now travelling with the key of knowledge to open the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven to Gentiles as well as Jews. Apollos was a well known and an eminent labourer in the gospel. And those who were not ready to afford encouragement and facilities to such labourers for Christ, and for the souls of men, gave too much reason to suspect that they were themselves barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. Let us be fellow helpers to the truth, that we may not incur the punishment of those who are lukewarm in the cause of Christ (Revelation 3:1-22). (G. Lawson, D. D.) Christianity enjoins courtesy Christianity hindereth not, but commendeth and enjoineth civil courtesy and all kind of humanity. For 1. Whatsoever pertaineth to love and good report, that must believers think on and do (Philippians 4:1-23). 2. The wisdom which is from above is gentle, peaceable, full of mercy and good fruits (James 3:17). 3. Those many commandments, that Christians should salute and greet one another, and that with a holy kiss (1 Thessalonians 5:26), called by Peter the kiss of love; usual in those East countries, by which outward testimony they declared mutual love and kindness. 4. Outward courtesy is a necessary virtue even for the maintaining of the bond of Christian peace; yea, availeth much for the nourishing and increasing the communion of saints, and society with God’ s people. 5. How disgraceful a thing were it for the profession of Christ, that such as profess faith in the Lord Jesus should show themselves inhuman or hoggish, who should be as lambs and little children, for such are they who have entered into the kingdom of Christ, as the prophet witnesseth. Let this point, therefore, be well thought of, that as faith and love cannot be separate, so must good conscience and good manners go together. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Titus 3:14 Let ours also learn The mutual property and purpose of good men I. The mutual property of good men. “ Ours.”1. A mutual appreciation.2. A mutual accumulation. II. The mutual purpose of good men. “ To maintain good works.”1. What are good works? Works that grow out of supreme love to God, and tender and disinterested sympathy with man. 2. Why is the maintenance of good works so transcendently important? (1) Because they are essential to the building up of a true moral character. (2) Because they are necessary to the spiritual reformation of mankind. (Homilist.) That they be not unfruitful Christianity fruitful The metaphor implieth that as the Church is God’ s orchard or garden, and His ministers are His planters and waterers, so the faithful are the trees, even trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, and planted by the rivers of waters, that they might bring forth their fruit in due season; and teacheth that true Christianity is not a barren but a fruitful profession, unto which Christians are everywhere called. In Ezekiel 47:12, we have a notable resemblance of those manifold fruits, which by the power of the gospel should be by believers produced in the Church of the New Testament. The vision was of waters which ran from the Temple, and from under the threshold of the sanctuary. And wheresoever these waters should run, they should cause admirable fruitfulness, in so much as on both sides of the river shall grow all kind of fruitful trees, whose leaves shall not fade, and their fruit shall not fail. These waters are the gospel which issue from under the threshold: that is, from Christ the door, typified by that beautiful gate of the Temple; from the Temple at Jerusalem these waters were with swift current to run not only over Judaea, but all the world in a short space: hence was the Church mightily increased, for though these waters run into the dead sea, wherein (if we believe histories) abideth no living thing, yet such a quickening power they carry with them, as even there everything shall live; such as were dead in trespasses and sins are hereby quickened, and become trees of righteousness green and flourishing, yea, and constantly fruitful in all godly conversation. And this the same which our Saviour noteth (John 15:17), that His Father is the husbandman, Himself is the Vine, Christians are the branches of that vine, who if they be found, His Father purgeth that they may bring forth more fruit; teaching us hereby that it is the Lord’ s scope and aim that Christians should be abundant in fruits beseeming their profession. The Apostle Paul accordingly exhorteth the Philippians to be much in goodness, to abound in love, in knowledge, and in all judgment; yea, to be filled with fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. And the same apostle calleth rich men to be rich in good works. I. The conditions of this fruitfulness.1. Every Christian must be fruitful; for every fruitless branch is cut down and made fuel for the fire. 2. Every Christian must bring forth good fruit. 3. This fruitfulness must proceed from good causes. (1) The tree must be good, for men gather not grapes of thistles. (2) He must have a good root (John 15:4), (3) He must draw thence good sap and juice through the fellowship and communion of Christ’ s death and resurrection. (4) He must have the Spirit of the Son to be a principal agent in the setting and ripening of these fruits. (5) He must have the love of God within him, constraining him, which will be as the sun helping on these fruits to their perfection. (6) He must have good ends in his eye, viz., God’ s glory and man’ s good (Philippians 1:2). 4. Every Christian must bring forth much fruit, and not for clusters scarce berries, trees of righteousness are: laden with the fruits of the Spirit; and herein is the Father glorified, that ye bring forth much fruit (John 15:8). 5. Christians must continue fruitful, and grow daily more fruitful (John 15:2). II. Reasons to move Christians to this fruitfulness.1. God’ s pains and costs with us. 2. It is more than time to yield up our fruits. Let us consider how much we have already lost, and how little remaineth behind, and this cannot but be as a loud voice in our ears unto fruitfulness. 3. Heavenly wisdom which is from above is full of good fruits; which, if it have taken up our hearts, will bewray itself in love, in joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, and such like; and as naturally we rejoice to see everything about us fruitful--our fields, our cattle, our orchards--even so this supernatural wisdom would make it the delight of our souls to see our hearts and lives laden with the best fruits. 4. The barren condition hath little comfort in it, and the danger of unfruitfulness is very great; for God’ s fearful displeasure disburdeneth itself, and seizeth on such persons by sundry degrees. (1) The Lord rejecteth them. (2) Degree of God’ s curse on such fruitless branches is the withering which presently followeth their casting forth, and this the Lord bringeth on them two ways: sometimes by removing means of fruitfulness, and so having laid His vineyard waste, He threateneth, in the next place, that the clouds should not rain upon it (Isaiah 5:6): and sometimes by blowing upon the gifts He had given, he shall lose his sap and greenness he once had; the unprofitable servant after conviction must have his talent taken from him; and this curse is so eminent upon many men that, comparing them with themselves not long since, a man may say, as the disciples of the fig tree, against which the curse was passed from the mouth of Christ, “ How soon is the fig tree withered!” (3) Another degree is, that no means shall be able henceforth to do such a person any good; but the curse being passed against him, this is one branch of it, that he shall be like the heath in the wilderness, which shall not see when any good cometh. Now the heath it hath good coming upon it, the rain falleth, the sun shineth, the spring and summer season returneth upon it, but it seeth none of this good, but remaineth a dry and parched heath still; even so it is with a barren soul which God hath begun to curse--the rain, the sun, the season, the Word, sacraments, days of grace, Jesus Christ Himself do him no good; he sees no good towards him in all these; nay, the Word judgeth him, the sacraments are poison unto him, and Christ Himself is a rock of offence to him, on whom he breaketh the neck of his soul. (4) After all these cometh the heavy sentence, unto which by all these this sinner hath been prepared. Cut him down, bring now the are, for the pruning knife hath done him no good; hew him down by death from the ministry under which he hath been so long fruitless, bind him hand and foot, make a faggot of him, and east him into hell fire--cast, I say, that unprofitable servant into utter darkness, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth: and this is the woeful hire of unfruitfulness. III. The hindrances of this fruitfulness.1. Superfluity of lusts and inordinate desires, which are as dead branches, and therefore must be lopped off before fruit can be expected; the denial of a man’ s self so far as corrupt is the first lesson in Christianity. 2. The unfitness of the soil, as if it be stony, or near unto a rock where it cannot take deep roots; the hard and stony heart suffereth not any good seed to take root, and much less rise up to fruit. Or if the soil be a dry ground on which the rain falls not, or on a high and hilly ground on which the rain stayeth not; so the haughty and proud heart shutteth off the rain as fast as it cometh; it moisteneth the crust and outside a little, but it stayeth not to get within it to prepare it to fruitfulness. Or if the ground be shaded that the sun cannot, or seldom, look upon it; if the mind and affections are otherwise distracted, that seldom men set themselves under the means of instruction; the Sun of Righteousness shining in His Church not enlightening, not warming nor cherishing them, not bringing back a new spring upon them, how can we expect fruit from such, unless we can look that a tree which hath been fruitless all the summer should be laden with fruit in the midst of winter. 3. Sundry vain conceits suggested by the devil, and assented unto by men to keep them in unfruitful courses. (1) As many will not stick to object, I hope notwithstanding I have not been hitherto so fruitful as you speak of, yet I have done well enough all this while, and why may I not do so still? and thus resolve because God hath used patience and spared them, He will therefore spare them still in their unfruitfulness. But this is the devil’ s logic, the clean contrary whereof is the conclusion of the Scripture. Hath God spared thee the second and third year, and art thou still fruitless? He must now needs call for the axe, and this is that which thou must expect. (2) Another saith, “ Oh, but I am a member of the Church, and what talk you to me. I hear the Word, receive the sacraments, and though I be not so forward and strict, I hope I shall do well enough.” Which is all one as if a fruitless tree should reply to the master and say, “ I hope, master, thou wilt not cut me down, I am in thy orchard, and stand near thy house; if I were in the waste I should think thou should care less for me.” But will not the master reply, that “ Thou must rather go down, because thou standest unprofitable in my orchard.” (3) Others say, “ Oh, but we are not so fruitless as you take us, and what desire you more?” Whereunto I say, that such have great need to desire better evidences to allege for themselves than this. Thou must not be a privative, but a positive Christian, laden with the fruits of the Spirit, else thou hast lost all thy labour. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Fruifulness the true test It is with professions of religion, especially such as become so in a time of outpouring of the Spirit of God, as it is with blossoms in the spring; there are vast numbers of them upon the trees which all look fair and promising, but yet many of them never come to anything, and many of those that in a little while wither up, drop off, and rot under the trees, yet for a while look as beautiful and gay as others; and not only so, but smell sweet and send forth a pleasant odour, so that we cannot, by any of our senses, certainly distinguish those blossoms which have in them that secret virtue which will afterward appear in the fruit, and that inward solidity and strength which shall enable them to bear, and cause them to be perfected by the hot summer sun that will dry up the others. It is the mature fruit which comes afterward, and not the beautiful colour and smell of the blossoms, that we must judge by. (Jonathan Edwards.) Titus 3:15 Greet them that love us in the faith Christian love Hence note that religion bindeth man to man in the straightest bond; for 1. The Spirit is the tier of it; and hence is it called the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; and indeed it must be a wonderful bond that can reconcile such deadly enemies as men are before they come into the kingdom of Christ (Isaiah 11:6). 2. God’ s image, wheresoever it is, is exceeding beautiful, and a great binder, especially where renewed and repaired; which being once espied, let the outward condition be what it can be, a religious heart seeth sufficient matter of love, and will knit the soul unto the soul of such a one. 3. It addeth strength and firmness to all other bonds of nature, affinity, desert, etc., and maketh them more natural. What a true friend was Jonathan to David! Because he saw that God was with him his soul clave unto him; though the kingdom was to be rent from him for it, yet could he not rend his heart from David. If Joseph had not had more than nature, he could not but have revenged such infinite wrongs upon his brethren; whereas the grace of his heart made him say, “ It was not you, my brethren, but God sent me before you.” Consider also of the example beyond all imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself to the death for us when we were yet His enemies. 4. This love must needs be most lasting; for being love in the truth for the truth’ s sake, it shall continue so long as the truth doth; but the truth abideth with us, and shall abide with us forever; and this is the cause, that whereas the love of nature dieth with it, and the love of wicked men dieth with their persons, this love liveth in death, yea, when it goeth to heaven with a man, and getteth strength and perfection thee faith ceaseth, and hope vanisheth away. Use1. Whence we are taught most familiarly to embrace them that love us in the faith, and to make most account of their love. Many love in the face, many in the flesh, many in nature, only the love of Christians is a fruit of faith, a work of the Spirit, and therefore a surer bond than they all. Well knew the apostle that none was in comparison worth having but this; he calleth for no other, he careth for no other, he mentioneth no other. 2. Such as set into any society with others, if he would have it comfortable unto him, let him strengthen all other natural or civil bonds by this bond of religion; let him labour to begin his love in the faith, or, if he have begun elsewhere already, let him reform the same hereby if he look for any sound comfort in his estate; for this is the cause that men often have so little return of love from their wives, so little obedience from their children, so little duty from their servants, so slender respect from their equals, because they begin their love and duties at a wrong end, and have for other respects affected those with whom they live, but the least, if at all, for grace and religion, which of all is the soundest, most profitable, and most comfortable. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Shake hands Shake hands with somebody as you go out of church. The more of it the better, if it is expressive of real interest and feeling. There may be a great deal of the spirit of the gospel put into a hearty shake of the hand. Think of St. Paul’ s four times repeated request--“ Greet one another” --after the custom then in common use, and one which is expressive of even warmer feeling than our common one of handshaking. Why not give your neighbours the benefit of the warm Christian feeling that fills you to your finger tips, and receive the like from them in return? You will both be benefited by it; and the stranger will go away feeling that the Church is not, after all, so cold as he had thought it to be. Christian love A lady and her little daughter, passing out of church, the child bade goodbye to a poorly dressed little girl. “ How did you know her?” inquired the mother. “ Why, you see, mamma, she came into our Sabbath School alone, and I made a place for her on my seat, and I smiled and she smiled, and then we were acquainted.”