II. TeE GROUNDS or ms CERTAINTY AND AABUBANOE. "Knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a. ha.be thou hast known the Holy Scriptnree, which are able to make thee wiee to salvation through fa.ith which le in ChriRt Jesns." 1. He had been taught sownd doctrine by Lou aAd Euniu. His, therefore, proper for parents to instruct children in doctrine from their earliest days. 2. He had been trained from his very infancy in the Iloly ScripturetJ. It was, therefore, a. right thing for him to he instructed in the Old Testament, since it was all the Scripture he could ha.ve had in his childhood. 3. The Scripture he studied was sufficient to lead him to Christ. "Through faith which is in Christ Jesus." (1) This marks the mea.ns by which the salvation can be attained; for Christ is " the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom. x. 4). (2) The effect of the salvation is not merely to instruct, but to make wise in the highest sense-giving spiritual wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of God's will; for men are naturally without spiritual discernment. (3) The salvation cannot be enjoyed without faith, resting upon the person of the Redeemer. -T.C. Vers. 16, 17.-The authority and utility of the Scriptwres. The apostle ill led tc emphasize the value of the Scriptures generally for the purposes of spiritual life. I. THE AUTHORITY OF SoRIPTtJRE. "Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable." 1. This doe8 not signify that there may be Scripture not divinely inspired, but merely asserts that the Scripture being thus inspired is rrofitable. 2. The words "inspired by God" point to the entire agency of God in pro,lucing that Divine element which makes the Bible differ from every other book. The inspired person was the organ of God in what he said, so that his words were the words of God. 3. Scripture aays nothing concerning the mode of inspiration. The proce.,s is supernatural, and it cannot be explained. It is not with the mode but with the result we are concerned. 4. Inspi- ration differs from revelati"n-this being that through which apostles and prophets came into possession of Divine information, inspiration being that through which they were able infallibly to c,,mmunicate it to others. 5. There is nothing in the doctrine of inspiraeion inconsistent with the idea that the inspired penmen wed their own peculiarities of verbal expre8sion or personal idiosyncrasie8. 6. The inspiration extend.• to words as u·ell as thoughts-to the form as well as the substance of Scripture. So far as the record is inspired at all, infallible thought must be definite thought, and definite thought implies word1. '1.'he apostle claimed that the Holy Spirit guaranteed his words as well as his thoughts (1 Cor. ii. 13, "Not in the didactic words of man's wisdom, but in the didactic wor<ls of the Holy Ghost"). Besides, Christ and the apostles argue from the very words of Scripture (Matt. xxii. 45; Gal. iii. 16). 7. The term "every Scrip- ture" in the text seems to include the Old Te8tament and the Nf/W Te8tament so far as it had been written; else there would have been no necessity for a diJferent term from that used in the fifteenth verse, " Holy Scriptures." II. TeE UTILITY OP THE SoBlPl"OBB "Is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correotion, for discipline in righteousness. n 1. It is useful for teac/&iftfrU a medium for communicating instruction, that we may know and believe what is neces- sary to BBlvation. 2. It ill usefvlfor reproof-for the refutation of error, for convinc- ing a man of his error. 3. It ill usefvlfor correction-as to what ill practically wrong in life. 4. It is useful for "discipline in righteousness "-righteousness being the element in which this discipline is to take effect, through the agency of Scripture. IIL TBE RESULT 0B DESIGN OF THE ScIUPTuBE. " '!'hat the man of God may be oomplete, furnished completely unto every good work." 1. The design is the perfeetion of tAe beliewr in life and BM'11i~. The description supplies the man of God with all due appliances for this end. They help to make us perfect in knowledge, faith, and holiness, as well as to furnish U!I with wisdom and guidance in all holy service. 2. Inferm.ctJ to be dra'IJ)'II, from the de8ign of Scripture. It is a perfect, a plaiR, a sufficient rule of faith and life, in answer to Homan Catholic1. If it can make wise to salvation, perfeot the man of God, and furnish him for all holy work, the& there ill no need for tradition to 111pplement its imaginary defects.-'!'. 0.
Ver. "--TIie loue of pleasure. "Lovera of pleasure more than !oven of God." '" PleBIDNI" ii a word used in Scriptue to denote, not lawful ud wiae enjoymenl, D, TJIIOTJIT, ■ tiO THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. [en. m. 1-17,
but II carnal sensuousn~11s which often le&de to sensuality. We 1ee what an ahllorhlng ro:wer pleasu~e is, and how by degrees it destroye the sense of duty and ignores the vo1C'.e of conscience. I. HERE 111 A 0REAT FORCE. "Lovers I" Love will surely be exercised In some form, Sin is perversion. We are so constitutecl as to love something. There i, an enthusiasm of evil. Men delight in sin; and so the forces of the soul run to weeds. II. HERE 1s A WRONG OBJECT. Pleasure-instead of God. What a contrast I We 6nd that there is sometimes an IBSthetic sensuousness that finds pleasure in immoral "art "-where Goii is not, where there ta no reverence, no righteousness, no purity, no goodness. And men worship before the ~hrine of ple:umre till they become idolaterH, worshipping worldly applause, fleshly satisfaction, and carnal joy. There ia a pleasure that 1s lawful and healthful; without it brain and body, min,l and heart, suffer; but it must ever be subordinatecl to an earnest lif,, ancl a godly devotion, or we become "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God."-W. M. S.