The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Timothy — Section 146

hopefully nnder hi1 leadership. It 11 • fight int.o which the man of God can throw his undivided energies, his warmest ent.husiasm. Many a fight which receives the plaudit~ o~ men hH, in the Ftrict review, only a seeming or superficial goodness. But the fight mto which the man of God throws himself can stand the severest tests ol goodneS!!; Be it thine, then, 0 me.n of God, to fight the good fight of the faith. III. 1 HE PRICELUS PRIZE. "Lay hold on the life eternal, whereunto thou wast ea.lied, and didst confess the good confession in the sight of m11ny witnesses." The prize for which the gladiator fought was not all unsubstantial. It was life. It meant the enjoyment of liberty, return to his rude hut, his young be.rbe.rie.ns and their "Dacie.n mother." Still that life he.d in it elements of unse.tisfactoriness' and decay. ~t was savage life, bel?w the level of civilized life.. Such e.s i_t was in its rude delights, 1t wu not beyond accident and death. But the prize for which the Christian gladiator fights, is life et.emal. This is not to be confounded with perpetuity of e:i:istenoe, which may be felt to be an intolerable burden. The importance of existence lies in its joyons elements, experience of healthful activity, and of communion with those we love. So the life, which is here presented as the prize, is that kind of existence in which there is a free, unrestrained play of our powers, and in which we have communion with the Father of our spirits and with the spirits of the just. And the life has such a principle in it, such subsistence in the living God, as to be placed above the reach of death, as only to be brought forth into all its joyousness by death. The counsel of the apoatle is to lay hold on this priceless prize. 0 man of God, do not let it escape thee. Stretch forward to it with a feeling of its BUpreme desirabkneu. It is worthy of all the strain to which thou canst put thyself. The counsel of the apostle is supported by a reference to • marked period in the past-apparently entrance on the Christian life, or that which was expressive of it to Timothy, viz. his baptism. It was a period in which Divine action and human action met. It was God calling him to life eternal. It was at the same time Timothy confessing a good confession-apparently se.ying that life eternal was hill aim. Come persecution, come death, life eternal be would seek to gain. This confession be made in the sight of many witnesses, present on the occasion of his baptism, who could speak to the earnestness of spirit with which he entered on his Christian career. 0 ma.n of God, fight, remembering thy Divlne calling and thy solemn engagemen ta. IV. Tm: WITNESSES. "I charge thee in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and of Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession; that thou keep the commandment, without spot, without reproach." The many wimu,es just mentioned call up 1111ch a scene as was to be witnessed in the Colosseum. There was an assemblage of eighty-seven thoU88Dd people, tier above tier all round. As the gladiator stepped into the arena, he might well be awed by· so vast and unwanted a crowd. But this would quickly give way to the feeling of what depended on the way in which he quitted himsell And there would not be absent from his mind the thought of the applause which would reward a victory. 0 man of God, thou art now in the arena, and there are many onlookers. They are watching how thou art quitting thyself in the fight of the faith-whether thou art realizing the seriousneBB of thy position, thy splendid opportunity. Their approval is worthy of being considered, worthy of Leing coveted by thee, and should help to nerve thet1 to the fight. But there w1111 one pre-eminent personage who wu expected to grace a Roman gladiatorial festival, viz. the emperor. Al the gladiator entered. his eye would rest on the emperor and his attendants. And he would have a peculiar feeling in being called upon to fidit under the eye of the august Ciesar, to whom he would look up as to a very god. So, 0 man of God. there is one great Personage who is looking down on the arena in which thou art, and under whose eye thou art called upon to fight. It is not a C1Bsar--a man born and upheld and mortal like other men; but it is God, who quickeneth all things-the Substratum of a.ll created existence, the almighty Upholder of men, the almighty Upholder of the universe with a.11 its forms of life. There is another Personage,and yet not another. This is Ohrist Juu~, who before Pootius Pi/ate witneuetl the good cunfession. "Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a King then? Jesua anawered, Thou eayeet that I am a King. To this end wu I born, and for thi1 cauae came I into '1le world, that I 1hould bear witness of the truth. Every one that ii of the truth b.-ret.h my 'Hioe.• "In th- worda we aee the majeaty and fearleu expNure ol J•u■. CR, TI. 1-21.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.