The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Thessalonians — Section 65

II. Tim PURPOSE OP TmoTHY'B JUl!III01', 1. To stablish them. They were bul neophytee-Christi1rns of a few months. The first work of drawing men to t11.ke an interest in religion is often easier than the work which follows of 1tablisbing and building them up in the faith. It is hard to persevere; we know it from our own experience. It may be that by God's grace we have drawn nigh to the crucified One; we have felt something of the sweetness of bis precious love; our hearts have burned within us as we listened to his voice, "Come unto me." In such moments we have lelt, perhaps, that our work was well-nigh done, and our souls saved for ever; we thought that we could never fall from him whom we b11.d learned to love so dearly. ~ut a little while, and we found ourselves ~ieerably disappointed. The time of tempta- t10n came; or perhaps, w1t.hout any definite temptation, the freshness of those glowing feelings passed away; we lost our :fir11t love, and sunk back into that cold indifference which we hoped we had shaken off for ever. We lost all that we eeemeJ. to have gained ; we had to begin our work again. Al11.s I many are thus alw11.ys beginning; t.beir spiritual history ill a series of oscillations between permitted carelessness and feeble repentance. They make no real progress towards that holiness without which we cannot see God. They need a Timotheus to stablish them. It is one of the most important, one of the most difficult, duties of the ministers of God to persevere them- selves, to lead others to persevere. 2. fi cqmfort them, or rather, perhaps, to exhort them. They needed both, comfort and exhortation. The cross was coming. They were but babes in Christ; they shrunk from its sharpness. But "we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." The grace of perseverance is best acquired in the bracing air of afB.iction. "The trying of our faith worketh patience." Self-denial, the mortification of the flesh, are, alas I to many of us but empty sounds. They must become realities in our daily lives if we are to be Christians indeed. The sentimental religion of mere poetry and feeling i■ a weak and 1ickly exotic; it will never bear the cold blasts of temptation, it will not stand in the evil day. Timotheus was to comfort the Thessalonians in their troubles, to exhort them to patient endurance, that their faith might not fail them, that it might rather grow and increase. 3. To prepare them/or tribulation. (1) .Ajftictions must ccme. It is a law of Christ'■ king- dom. "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth." The Saviour endured the croar., despising the shame; the Christian must consider him, al ways " looking unto Jesus." "'We are appointed thereunto," St. Paul says; not himself only, but all Christians. It is God's ordinance; it is "the trial of faith, much more precious than of gold." The gold perisheth, the faith abideth; it will issue in praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. But "we are appointed thereunto." We must recognize this, and accept it cheerfully as the law of our Christian race. The cross is the very badge and emblem of our religion; the cross is a sacred object in the Christian's eyes ; but it will not profit UB unless we bear the inner cross, the spiritual cross of self-sacrifice wrought into our souls by the power of God the Holy Ghost. The Lord Jesus bore the cross first; his death upon the cross gave a deep and awful and blessed meaning to the word; it invested the cross with glory aud solemn beauty and attractive sweetness. His s&ints have followed him. One after another they have taken up the cross; they came out of great tribulation. From the quiet rest of paradise their voices seem to float around us yet, telling us of the power of the Saviour's cross and the high rewards of suffering for his sake. "We are appointed thereunto," St. Paul said to the 'l'hessalonians; he does not attempt to hide it from them. They were very young Christians, but, young as they were, they must experience the law of suffering. "Ye knew it," St. Paul says; for they knew the blessed story of the cross, and they knew the meaning of the cross. The Churches of Macedonia had a great trial of affliction. We are not called to suffer in the aame way, but the cross has the same meaning still. "In the world ye shall have tribulation." "We are appointed thereunto." We are IJOt in danger of the martyr's death, but the martyr's spirit is as necessary as ever it was ; its essence lies in the prayer which we daily use," Thy will be done." We must not be moved by these afflictions; they must not be allowed to disquiet UB, to disturb the steadfastness of our faith. Affliction is the ordinary atmo~phere of the Christian life. (:!) St. Paul had told them thu. When he waJI with them, short as the time was-three weeks or a little more-he warned them of the coming trial& It wu e. great help when the time c.ame. .A. ChryllOAOm says, if the physici&Jl Wll'D.8 h1s patient of the probable symp- OB. IIL 1-18.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 63