of givi~g better currency to their lies. Their assumed sanctity would throw the unwary off their guard, and lead to the confounding of truth with error. The lies they taught were that holiness was to be attained through abstinence from marriage and particular kinds of food. 2. They were essentially corrupt, for their conscience had become so seared through transgression that they had lost the true distinctions between right and wrong, error and truth. They were incapable of relishing the "mystery of godliness," and therefore devoted themselves to the arts of religious seduction in the interests of an easentially unepiritual asceticism.-T. C. Vere. 3-5.-The practicalfeatwres of the apostaey. The apostle does not enumerate the doctrinal errors of the apostates, but touches upon two practical characteristics which would fall under gen"eral observation. I. THERE WAS A PROHIBITION OR RESTRAINT UPON JIU.BBIAGE. "Forbidding to marry." 1. This was an ascetic tendency already manifested in the East, especially among the Essenee of Palestine and the Therapeutre of Egypt. 2. It may have already influenced Christian opinion in the Corinthian Church; for the apostle is obliged to solve spiri- tualistic doubts regarding marriage (1 Cor. vii.). 3. The tendency developed in less than a century into a Gnostic contempt for marriage. 4. It entered patristic theol-Ogy in the form of an exaggerated admiration for virginity, to the disparagement of married life. 5. It developed inside the Latin and Greek Churches into the celibacy of the clergy and the religious orders. 6. It was a tendency wholly opposed to Scripture teaching. (1) It forbade what Scripture allowed: "Marriage is honourable in all" (Heb. xiii. 2). (2) It forbade the marriage of ministers, while Old Testament priests and New Testa- ment ministers were to be "husbands of one wife" (eh. iii. 2). "Have we not power to lead about a wife, a sister?" (1 Cor. ix. 5). Several of the apostles made use of this power: "As well as other apostles, . . . and Cephas." (3) The reason why the apostle says so little here concerning the rest.riction on marriage, and so much on that respect- ing meats, is probably because the one was so manifestly opposed to the whole plan of creation, that the co=on sense of men would reject it a.s unnatural and wrong. Per• haps, also, the one tendency had not assumed so definite a form as the other. The very liberty allowed under the gospel to abstain from marriage was not grounded on the idea of the superior holiness of celibacy or virginity, but on its affording in special circum- stances greater opportunities and freedom for spiritual work (1 Cor. vii. 32-37). II. THERE WAS A PROHIDITION OR RESTRAINT UPON THE USE OF CERTAIN KINDS OF FOOD. "And commanding to abstain from meats, which God bath created to be received with thanksgiving by them who believe and know the truth." Probably the restriction was as to the use of flesh. The Essenes and the Therapeutre abstained from particular kinds of food. 'l'he Gnostic schools developed the tendency stiU more, and in due time it was stereotyped into the penitential usages of Romanism. The apostle argues strenuously against this abuse. 1. It was contrary to God's design in creation. (1) All food was from the hand of the Maker; nothing was therefore to be accounted common or unclean under the gospel. (2) All food was good. " For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused." It was not, therefore, for man to place restric- tions upon what God had given with such a liberal hand for his use. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." 2. The conditions under which the true design of God in creation is fulfilled. (1) The food was for all creatures; but "believers and those who have known the truth" had a covenant right to it, and the true end of crea- tion was only fully satisfied in them. (2) 'l'h1, right manner of receiving the food pro- vided. "If it be received with thanksgiving;" for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. This implies (a) that food is to be gratefully received as God's gift; (b) that our thanksgiving is presented on the objective side by the Word of God, and on the subjective side by prayer. 'l'hus the custom of grace before an<l after meet is grounded in a Divine command.-'!'. C. Vere. 6, 7.-The due equipment and duties of a minister of Christ. I. THE MINISTER MUST BE ALWAYS TEAOHING. "By setting forth these things to the brethren, thou ehalt be o. goo<l minister of Jesus Christ." It w11s the <luty of Timothy to counsel tha brethren o.t Ephesus concerning the present signs of the coming apostasy, a.nd to instruct them how they should counteract its mischiefs. It i.a »robable that some at Ephe&\18 76 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. LOR, IV, 1-16.
had already been betrayed by ascetic seductions into an unhealthy mode of life. Timothy WRB to be mindful of the present truth and the present error. II. T:HE MINISTER MUST BE ALWAYS LEARNING. "Nourishing thyself up in the words of the faith and of the good instruction which thou hast diligently followed." 1. The-re must be a continuous and permanent process of self-instruction as the tense of the participle signifies. The minister must never cease to learn, beca~se he bas -to set the truth in new li~hts, and to counteract error out of the large storehouse of Divine truth. 2. The mini.ster'., armoury,:_. the Word of faith and good insti-uction thorouqhly maslered. (1) Nothing b_ut God's Word recei~ed hy fa!th will enable Timothy to fight the battle of tri1th. He 1s not to overcome m the wisdom of men, but in the power nf God. (2) He is to adhere fairhfully to the truth already attained. Progress in knowledge does not imply a constant changing of opinions.~ III. THE MINISTER MUST BE ALWAYS WORKING TOWARD A PROFITABLE RESULT. "But the profane and old wives' fables avoid, and rather exercise thyself unto godliness." I. Negatively, the minister is to avoid foolish and uuprofitable studies. The apostle referred to fables familiarily known, Jewish in origin, perhaps with a mixture of Gentile theosophy, which were morally unfruitful, but practically dangerous as preparing the 1rny for the apostasy of the future. The minister must himself stand free from all sympathy with such injurious formalism as was embodied in the rabbinical studies, as leading to the neglect of the weightier matters of the Law. 2. Positively, the minis~ is to exercise himsdf unto godliness. (1) This implies that godliness is a pursuit that rlemands the strenuous application of all our ener~ics of mind, body, and spirit. (2) It implies that godliness must be the chief business of a winister as well as the chief aim of his life to promote it among the members of his flock. (a) It has its inner seat in the heart. (b) It works 011tward into the life. (c) It is a progressive state. (d) It was the one chief concern of the apostle himself. "One thing I do."-T. C.