Ver. 15.-Mental absorption. "Meditate upon these things." They need and will bear meditation. Divine truths a.re too awful and august in their deep significance to be exhausted by superficial notice. They need to be focused to the eye, and studied in s.11 their central depth e.nd beauty. L FoB MEDITATION 18 THE VERY ATMOSPHERE OF RELIGION. It requires the silent study that we may enjoy "the harvest of a quiet eye," and see deeply into the" wondrous things" of the Divine Law. Meditate; for thus only will you understand your real self, and so know better the adaptation of the gospel to your need e.nd your sin. II. FoB IN MEDITATION WE A.BE STUDYING Goo's THOUGHTS j these require on our part time and insight. This is the fault of our e.ge-it docs not meditate. It is superficially critice.l; apt to fly off at some tangent of mental difficulty; and is so impatient with the key that it injures the lock. We cannot think well in a hurry, any more than we can work well in e. hurry. Many of the worst human mistakes of life we should avoid if we meditated more. "Eril is wrought by want of thought, As well as want of hee.rt." Our prayel'I! would be wider in scope and richer in feeling If we meditated more ; ;and our judgment would not be so hard about the dealings of God with us if we meditated on "the we.y the fathers trod," and the Divine revelation of our need of discipline. Meditate, and then the cross will stand out in its august significance; the heart will feel tlie.t it needs a Saviour as well as a 'feacher; and instead of feeling that you know all about the.t wondrous mystery of Divine provision, you will pray that you, like Paul, way "know tlie love of Christ," which passeth knowledge. "Meditate on these things." They are pluralized; for they are many. The gospel facts and the gospel doctrines constitute a wide range of subjects affecting a.like our temporal e.nd eternal intere6t.-W. M. S.
Ver. 15.-0baervatum of others. "That thy profiting may appear to all." The Christian teachings are not like Eleusinie.n Mysteries; they are revelations to he lived UH, IV. 1 -16.] THE FIRST EP1STLE TO TIMOTHY. 87
out In the broad daylight of history. A religion that ends in meditation makes the mystio a religion that confines itself to solitudes-makes the ascetic, who shuts himself out from the world. I. THE PROFITING 1B NOT TO BE A HATTER OF MERE FEELING; or, in other words, is no mere emotionalism that may coexist with lax character and feeble morality. Too often this has been the case, and the Church has been apt to palliate the sins of the fraudulent trader or the bankrupt trustee, if, though he ha~ wronged others an<l brought whole families to beggary and ruin, he has still preserved his spiritual emotions, his seraphic rhapsodies of expression, and his fervent interest in missionary agencies. II. THE PROFITING MUST APPEAR IN THF. CHARACTER. It must come to the touch- stone of action and character. It must energize the conscience, quicken the passive virtues of humility and submission, and brace the will for the stem obedience of the l!Oldier and the faithful obligations of the steward.- W. M. S. Ver. 16.-A du,a,J, heed. "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine." These two God bath joined together, and let no man put them asunder. Let not self-hood become a self-righteousness, which ignores the doctrine that we need Christ as our Strength and our Saviour, and the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier. Tulr:ing heed, to ourselves must not make us daringly self-confident. Some superficial men think that they can go this warfare on their own charges. The whole armour of God is needful, and not the mere equipment of personal judgment and unaided strength. But taking heed to the doctrine, let us remember that it is not a dead dogma, but that the Christian verities are spirit and life. We must not be hearers for others or critics of others, judging one another, and measuring our own virtue by the shock produced in us at the inconsistencies and failings of others, I. TAKING HEED TO OURSELVES AS HAVING STILL THE WEAK FLESH TO DEAL WITH. Knowing what war there still is in our members. Knowing that this same gospel says, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Remembering that the richest lives have made shipwreck, and the loftiest monuments been the first to be shattered by the storm. We must remember that the teacher elevated by honour may be the first to fall. II. TAKING HEED TO OURSELVES, BE0AUSE NONE CAN DO THIS FOB us. We know more of ourselves than any other can know. Our tastes, our tendencies, our secret desires, our constitutional weaknesses. We see how the ''.needle" trembles in the presence of certain loadstones of evil, and we must therefore look within, and be watchful. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."-W. M. S. Ver. 16.-The life-endurance. "Continue in them." There must be perseverance or pressing forward. And this is the great point. "Ye did run well" applies to many who were first in the Atala.nta race. "That your fruit may remain," said Christ. Permanence. This is bo..autiful. How many actual blossoms never come to fruit at all I and how much fruit becomes the subject of blight and withering I Young life, like Timothy's, is lovely in its enthusiasm; but- I. WHAT A WORLD IS BEFORE HIH ! How little he knows yet of the perils of the way I Churches may become corrupt like Ephesus, or divided like Corinth. Demas may desert; Hymenmus and Philetus may make shipwreck. Opposition may increase. Enemies may multiply. The work may grow harder; and the atmosphere in which it is done grow colder. Continue in them- 11. BEOAUSE THIS IS THE TEST OF ALL TRUE HEROISM. The vessel with her freshly painted hull, her gay bunting, her trim sails, her beautiful lines, may float swan-like in the harbour, and then skim the waters like a thing of life. But she is nobler when, with battered sides, and gaping bulwarks, and rent sails, and dismantled rigging, she reaches her destined haven. " Continue in them." The sword may not be so bright with the silvery sheen of newness ; the helmet may not be 110 undinted; the apparel may not be so unstained; but the hero has won the war, fought the good fight, and finished his course.-W. M. S. Ver. 16,-Saving others. "For in doing t.his thou she.It both 811,VS thyself, and them that hear thee." Not, of course, as providing the salvation or applying it; the first is f!fl THE FIRST EPIS'l'LE TO TIMOTHY. [oH. IV, 1-16,