The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Timothy — Section 99

done by the Saviour, the second by the Holy Spirit ; but in working out the BRlvation -in mitking use of all Divine means and instrumentalities. I. PERSONAL SALVATION. "Save thyself;" for in the heaven-voyage the captain !B not to ~ lost while th_e company and the. crew are saved. _1';1 this war the enemy 1s not to pick off the sent-mels and the captams alone. No; D1vme grace is sufficient for pastor as well as for people ; but it would be a terrible thing-alas! not an unknown thing-that the minister who has taught others, himself should be a castaway. Next follows- 11. THE SALVATION OF OTHERS. "Them that hear thee." "A simple word, "hear." The pulpit must not be the place for the airing of personal crotchets, or the use or arrows itnd shafts of mere wit, or the discussion of mere critical themes. "The things that ye have heard" are such as the Hpostle defines-august and real, vital and eternal realities. To hear may seem a light thing, and so it is if the message be light. But the true minister does not tremble before his audience, any more than Paul did before Felix. If the congregation be his patron, he may plea.se them to secure his living ; if they are his Sanhedri,m, he may be heard before them in test of his judgments; if they are his ~uests, and not the Master's, he may cater for a banquet suited to their tastes; but if he is the minister of God to them for good, if woe is his if he preach not the gospel, if he has the sacred responsibility of one who is put in trust with the gospel,-then hearing is a solemn thing. On that may hang character, influence, destiny. He is not there as lord over God's heritage. He is not there to have dominion over their faith. He appeals to reason, to conscience, and all that we mean by heart and soul. But he d9es not create a gospel or propound some new philosophy-he is to preach (eh. ii. 5, 6) "one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus," and yet Christ Jesw; the Lord; the God who was "manifest iu the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (eh. iii. 16). "And them that hear thee." Ours is a solemn relationship; but it may be a sweet and sublime one too. In the far-away land we may greet each other as victors in the same war, winners of the same race, companions on the same pilgrimage. Sa-,,ed with the ancient swords stored in the heavealy :mnoury. Saved, with the great sea behind us and Canaan in possession, with sweeter grapes than those of Eshcol, and more triumphant strains of victory than those of Miriam. I say it may be so with us, and with some who have heard and whispered the sacred words to themselves as on the last pillow they went home to God. The very sentence, "them that hear thee," has in it all the pathos of the past, as well as all the ree.lism of the present. The lips that speak are only those of man, but the message is the Word of him who "would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowle<lge of the truth." Is it true of us, 88 we face each other, that we shall see one another again-yea, years to come--and that these words may rise up against preacher, and bearers, or both? Is it true that waiting angels will bear back the message, "This and that man [woman, child] was born there"? The living Church of God is holy ground. Then truly we need no meretricious aids to make our ministry pleasant, or to make the Church harmonize with the age. Eternity will reverse many of the verdicts of time. Much of our judgment now is touched and tarnished with the worldly ideal. The hour is coming when he who said, "Go, ... and speak in the temple . . . all the words of this life," will ce.ll us a.II alike into his prenence ; and then it will be seen and know~ before God and the holy angels whether we have both e.aved ourselves and them that heard us.-W. M. S. Vera. 1-5.-Timothy wurned. L APOSTASY. "But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith." This waH to be properly an apoetasy, or movement away from Christ from within the Church. Some who were profel!lled believers were to fall away from the faith. They were unworthily to use their Christian position, Christian enlightenment and reputation, against Christ. This was to t&ke place in " later times," not in the times before the completion or the kingdom of God, but simply in times subsequent to the time that then was, not all in one time but, 88 pointing to more than one anti-Christian development, in times. This was explicitly ioretold, tLe propl:ecy being traced, not to the consciousness of the apostle, but to the inflatus of the Sririt. The prophecy had already been made known, but we may under- 11tand that it was still already witnessed in the conscioW1nes11 of the apostle. If the OB. ff. 1-16.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 89