Ver. 5.-The hypocrite's garb. "Having R form of ii;odliness, but denying the power thereof." There may be consc•ous and unconscious hypocrisy. Either way godliness is "feigned." There is no 1,ulsing heart of life in it. lt8 appearance is only like phosphorus on the face of the dead; its activity is only the galvanized motion of a corpse. I. WE MAY DISCOVER THE SIGNS OP 11:ERE FORIIIALISIIL What are they? Seevers. '.!, 3, and 4, in which men who are " covetous, and lovers of their own ■elves," are asso- ciated with blasphemers and false accusers, unthankful and unholy. All alike find their hypocrisy is detected by the Divine insight. We may well search and examine ourselves; for do not n,en think lightly sometimes of covetousness and selfishness, or of being unthankfnl or high-mind, d? Often, indeed, we look to great vices only as our destro,,ers, and we forget that hypocri~y may be seen in masked ingratitude. Yet here it is discovered, not under the cloak which bides evil enormiti .. s, but under the veil " hicb hides from our eyes the presence of the more respectable sins. II. WE JUY STUDY THE SECRET OF THIS FOBIULISlliL 1. Prayerless habit which leaves the spirit unsupplied with the nutriment of communion with God. 2. Con- sciousness of the fact that in the world appearances are enough, and that religion is so respecred and so respectable that it will not do to live without its appearance. 3. Fellowship with the wo, ld, which denudes ua of all earnest endeavours after the Divine life.-W. M. S.
Ver. 8.-0on,1,ption within. "Men of corrupt minds.'' It Ill here that evil begins, though it does not end here. "AB a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." But be does not show in himself the development of evil at once. The-hour of revelation, however, will surely come; for " tbey that be otherwise [than good] cannot be hid." L Tm:v RESIST THE TRUTH. For tl,iii reason the truth will not let them alone. It is an active searching JIO" er. It is "a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart," and men resent the intrusion of this all-discovering, all-judging power. Im- purity hates purity. Falsebuod bates truth. Worldly minds n·sist the claim of God's \V ord 1,o supremacy over their hearts and lives. '1.'hey resist its right to reign, and its daim to dominate thought and action too. II. THEY BECOME REPROBATE. Reprobation is no hard decree of God's; it i11 man's own act and deed, and it is the result of the "corrupt mind." This breeding cor- ruption ~preads. The ,;ceds of evil are scattered here and there till the soul is like a wilderness, and the mind which was made to be a garden of holinesiJ becomes a grave- yard of ~in. Moral death ensues, and with death always comes corruption. Ill 'J HEY BECOME REVEALED. 'Their folly shall be made manifest" (ver. 9), The secret sill bt-comes a public shame. The thought incarnates itself in deed, and retri- bution takes tLe furu1 of disgrace.- W. M. B. Vera. 1-17.-GrievoU/l timu. "But know this, that in the last days grievous times sba 11 c, ,me." Tl,ey were in the first clays of the Christian era; the times foretold were to be in the ]&St days of that era. There ia an intended indefiniteneBII about the days; nothing is sa.u about their commencement, or about the period over which they are to CR, DI, 1-17,) 'fHE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. Gl