in prison. The conscience, "that sole monarchy in man," was supreme in his nature under the Lordship or Christ. I. IT WAS A 0LEANBEn CONBOIENCE, AND BO PURE. St. Paul is never weary of preachin'..( the great doctrine of the atonement-that we are redeemed and renewed through the precious blood of Christ; and he rejoices to know that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth from all sin. u. IT WAB AN OBEYED 0ONBCIENCE, AND BO PURE. We have to consider that the conscience may speak truly and authoritatively, and be enlightened by the truth, and yet we may not obey the truth; for duty may be recognized as duty, and yet not discharged as such. Conscience may not be pure as regards the question or accountability. III. 1T WAS FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT, AND 80 PUBE. "The Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us" is an expression of St. Paul's; and only so far as we have the "indwelling of the Spirit" in thought, imagination, conscience, and desire, can we be said to be pure within.-W. M. S. Ver. 6.-.A holy ancestry. "Thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice." We were constituted to be influenced through the family relationship, and it is sad indeed when the young break away from a religious ancestry, and forsake their fathers' God. 1. HERE 18 ALREADY AN ffiSTORIC PEDIGREE OF CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. The gospel had been long enough in the world to have a history in families. We find three yeneration.~ here. 'l'he grandmother Lois, the mother Eunice, and" thee also." II. HERE IS THE TRUE SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL MANIFESTED. Unfeigned faith, or undissembled faith. No mere creed. No mere appearance of piety. In that age men of education despised the pagan faiths which they yet professed. to believe. They kept up their actual adherence to heathen worship because of custom 9r family tradition, or because they believed religion in some sort to be the protective police ol society, without which there would be revolution. This unfeigned faith was the faith of conviction-the faith that so believed in the risen Christ that it could endure persecution and suffer loss, and live or die for the sake of Christ, with the sure hope of eternal life.-W. M. S. Ver. 6.-Quickening the memory. "I put thee in remembrance." Timothy was not to create a gospel, but to pr,,ach one. The facts and doctrines were matters of revelation, and Timothy had the humhler task of expanding and applying them. All through hie gospel was to be that of the faith once delivered to the saints. I. HEMEMBRANOE IB NEEDED. Why? Memory is liable to slumber and to sleep. Do we mourn over this fact, and ask why this precious faculty was not stronger? Consider! Could you live in peace or joy at all, if all your sorrows and bereav~ments kept their clear details before your mind? No; their harrowing spectacles would. deaden all the springs of life, and crush the heart. If those past griers preserved their fulness life would be unendurable. There is a beautiful side, therefore, even to for,.:etfulness. Memory may slumber, but it does not die. It may be awakened and quickened for high and noble ends. Thus all Christians need to be "put in remembrance," that they may hold fast the Word of life. II. REMEMBRANCE IS OOMPREBENSIVE. There are many springs to be touched. We become pl'oud, and need to remember, as the Hebrews did, that we" were slaves." We become self-depenrlent, and need to be reminded that "without Christ we can do nothing." We become so interested in life that we try to make "home" here,and forget that we are pilgrims and strangers. We become negligent, and forget that responsibility is great and time is short.-W. M. S. Ver. 6.-Stirring the fire. "Stir up the gift that is in thee." Literally," stir up (ba(o,,rup•iv) the fire!" There may be fuel-even of God's Word-but all fires die out unless from time to time they are stirred up. I. THE FIRE WAB THERE. His heart's altar fire had been lighted. It had descended as a Divine fie.me from on high. But in the best of men there is danger of absence of we.tchfulne111, for, like the light on the Jewish altar, the fire is not to die out night nor day, 14 THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. [oR. I, 1-18.
TI. THF:RK WERE MANY ENBMIEB WHO WOULD QUENOR Trra :rm■. The Judalzlng t.,,,.cli<'rs would have put out the true gospel light, by turning the gospel into a merely n•fined Judaism. The world would quench it, as it did the faith of Demas. An<l 1lwr<' is in us all the danger of spiritual slumber, which leaves the fire to die out by indol<'11ce "nd sloth. Therefore by meditation, by prayer, and by earnest endeavour by admiration and emulation of heroic lives, we must" stir up the fire" that i1 l~ us.-W. M. S.