glorify their Father who is in heaven6." There is no eminence to which it is not their duty and their pri- vilege, to attain. And, if Timothy, at his early age, was to be " an example," not to the world only, but "to believers" also; so should every young person endeavour to be, in the place and station where God has appointed him to move.
Let every one of you, then, be an example even to believers,
1. In word — [The statements of Timothy were to be made in perfect accordance with God's revealed will : and so should yours be also. Your adversaries will be glad to take advantage of any thing that is unsound in your sentiments ; and, in order to find occasion against you, they will be urging you upon diffi- cult questions, and on matters of doubtful disputation. But, in all your intercourse with them, I would advise you to take your stand on ground that is utterly unassailable. That to seek the salvation which God offers us in the Gospel, is of indispensable moment to every child of man ; and that so to live, as, at the hour of death, we shall wish we had lived, is the part of sound wisdom. These, and such like topics, I should re- commend to the young when conversing with their seniors who are of an adverse mind : it will be time enough to enter into deeper subjects, when the ears of persons are open to hear, and their hearts are also open to receive, the truths which you may be able to lay before them. To spread pearls before persons who are disposed only to trample them under their feet, is at all times inexpedient and unwise : and even when young persons do make fuller statements of their views, they should do it with modesty, and caution, and moderation.]
2. In conversation —
[The whole of a young person's deportment, too, should be such as becomes the Gospel of Christ. Every thing of levity and folly should be put away, and nothing admitted but what is consistent with " sound wisdom and discretion " ]
3. In charity —
[Nothing should be said or done that is contrar}7 to "love." Whether in judging others, or in acting towards them, we should breathe nothing but love. True it is, that the treatment which persons in the exercise of early piety are likely to receive, is calculated to generate somewhat of resent- ment in their minds : but they must be much on their guard
e Matt. v. 16.