Vera. 1, 2.-The Divine benedwtion. "Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord." '!'his is a trinity of blessing. 'l'he gospel is to be preached as a new life. This contrasts with vain jangling in the sixth verse. Some had swerued, or literally turned aside, as an arrow that misses the mark. Paul speaks of "questions, rather than godly edifying: which is in faith." And there are questions mysterious, questions curious, which unregenerated hearts may discuss to the hindrance of true religion. This salutation of the young apostle begins, therefore, with a high 8piritual tone: "Grace, mercy, peace." L \VHo THE GIFTS WERE FROM. "God our Father and Jesu.< Christ our Lord." But in the first verse Paul speaks of God aB our &1,viour. Notice this; it is peculiar, and may keep us from confining ideas of pitv and tenderness to ChriHt alone. God is the Autuor of salvation. Be ient his Son to be the Saviour of the world. Here, then, we come to the Fountain-head of the river of grace. Paul cannot give grace, mercy, and pea;:;e; they are from "God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord." Paul was the amba;;sador of tlie gospel, not the author of it; a preacher, not a priest. The priest never dies, because proud human nature never dies. Men like to ~ay, "through us." In after years, when Paul wa.~ dead, there might have come some temptation to Timothy w say, "I derived my apostolate from, I stood next to, him." But a salutation is not a consecration. IL WHAT ARE TBE GIFTS THEMSELVES? Emphatically Christian gifts. The R<>mM, motto would have been, "Courage, skill. force." The .Athenian motto would have been, "Pleai!ure, beauty, philosophy." 1. Grace. God's favour. The beautiful Divine nature revealing itself vn the crolll! as forgiveness, and in a life of tenderness, pity, and holiness to OIL L 1-~.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY 17
which the Chri_stian !s to be conformed. Grace forgives and gr&ce renews. It is a large word. It carnes at its heart all that we mean by moral loveliness and gracefulneu. J t is the fulfilment of the ancient prayer, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." 2. Mercy. What a picture of cruelty we see in the Roman age, with its amphi- theatres, its gladiators, its horrors on a Roman holiday, and its slave quarters I N 0 hospitals for the sick, no BBylums for the poor and needy. "Mercy." The cro88 meant mercy. The parables meant mercy. The prayer was fulfilled, "Lord, show ua the Father." 8. Peace. The Jews had their disputations about eatings and drinkings and genealogies. 'l'heir Church was alive, only with vigorous disputation. The gospel meant true peace--peace, not of condition, but of conscience. Ever must it be so. Pe&ce with G~I Peace with our bret~ren I Peace within o~rselves I So the Saviour's legacy was reahzed: "Peace I leave with you, my pe&ce I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unkl you,"-W. M. S. ' Ver. 6.-'l'he vlt.u er.d of religion. "Now the end of the co=andment is charity." When we know the Divine end or purpose, we get light .on all that leads to that end. Charity, or love that is like God's own love, is the end of all Religious principle in its root and stem is to blossom into the beauty of Christ-like character. Christianity is a truth, that it may be a life. It is not to be mere doctrine, or mere ritual We may be fiery disputants without being faithful soldiers. We may even be workers in the vineyard, without the faith which worketh by love. Ecclesiasticism is not necessarily religion. There may be Church uniformity, Church harmony, and 1BSthetic ceremonial, and yet, so far as Divine life hi concerned, there may be "no breath at all in the midst of it." Let us confine ourselves to the first word. •I. CHARITY IB HIGHER THAN UNIFORMITY. With Constantine Christianity meant unifonnity, with Hildebrand it meant supremacy. But in its spirituality and simplicity the gospel remains the same in all ages. We are to live Christ; and to live Christ is to live in love, as Christ also loved us, and gave himself for us. Ecclesiasticism is often a system of aevere outward drill, an obedience to outward rite and cult. So the Romish Church in Spain, centuries ago, forcibly converted the Moors by dashing holy water in their faces, and so admitted them into the communion of the Church. The gospel cannot be spread by a rough-and-ready "multitudinism " like that. It must begin in personal faith, and work in the spirit of love. II. CHARITY FINDS ITS DIAGE IN GoD. We need not ask what this love is. For we have seen it incarnated in the words and deeds of the Christ, and in his sufferings .for "our sakes" upon the cross. 1. It is not the selfish love which gives affection where.it receives affection, and turns even a gift into barter o.nd exchange. 2. It is not the.costless love which will be an almoner of bounty where there is no personal self-denial and suffering; but it gives itself. 3. It is not the love of a passing mood, which ministers in affectionate ways in times of high-wrought emotion; but a love which is full of forbear- ance with our faults, and is triumphant over our faithlessness. So the end of the com- mandment is worthy of the God who gives the commandment. Like himself, it ii charity. And we have reached the highest vision-point in Revelation, when we see in its sublime teacbinO's, not mere co=andments which may be arbitrary, but an unfolding of the nature ~f God.-W. M. S. Ver. 6.-Li/e's infle'I' ,prings.. ~Out of~ fure heart.~ This is the soil in which the hoJ&veuly grlk.'8 grows, and tb.is soil Ill e1111cnr.1ru to the punty and beauty of the grace. It is not enough to plant the seed; we must till and nourish the soil. I. THE HEART IS THE TESTING-PLACE OF WHAT WE LIKE. Here I would give emphasis to the fact that " the good man out of the good treasure of bis heart brings forth good things." There must be passion in all true life. As Mr. Rusk.in truly says, "The entire object of true education is to make people not merely do the right things, but enjoy the right things; not merely industrious, but to love industry; not merely \earned but to love learn in er; not merely pure, but to love purity; not merely just, but to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Taste is"not only a part and index of morality ; it is the only morality. The first and lo.stand closest trial-question to any living crea- ture ir-What do you like? Tell me what you like, and I'll tell you what you are." E~ly I So aya the ppel. "Out of the heart are the issue■ of life; " " All a mau Q L9IIO'l'KY, 18 TB& FIRST EPIS1'LE TO TIMOTHY. [oil. L 1-20.