nature and person of Our Lord, so even in Apostolic times the heresies which sprang up concerning him, and to which we have constant references in the later books, rendered it necessary to make this Creed more exact and formal. So I should infer from 2 Tim. i. 13.

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.

TIMOTHY was an Asiatic Greek, probably of Derbe (Acts xvi. 1). He was the son of a Greek father and a Jewish mother, and through the latter had enjoyed the advantage of a training in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures (2 Tim. i. 5; iii. 15). He was converted by St. Paul (who calls him his "own son in the faith" 1 Tim. i. 2), probably at his first visit to Lystra and Derbe (Acts xiv. 6, 7). Induced by the good testimonials which the young disciple received from the brethren, the Apostle chose him to share his toils and dangers (Acts xvi. 2, 3), and Timothy became his faithful and efficient coadjutor (1 Cor. iv. 17; Rom. xvi. 21; 2 Cor. i. 1). From the Epistle to the Hebrews we learn that he was at one time a prisoner (ch. xiii. 23).

When St. Paul bade the elders of Ephesus farewell, he did not expect to see them again (Acts xx. 25). He was, however, permitted by God to do so; for he left Timothy at Ephesus, while he went into Macedonia (1 Tim. i. 3). And even once more after this, he appears to have visited Miletus (see p. 29). We are left in complete uncertainty as to the course taken by the Apostle in his journey. On his way either to or from Ephesus, he visited Crete, and left Titus there. For the rest we have only Clement's statement, already referred

to, to guide us.

The object of the Epistle may be gathered from its opening words. St. Paul had left Timothy in charge of the Ephesian Church, and now writes to enjoin him to the faithful discharge of his duties. The post, under any circumstances, would have been one of solemn responsibility. But heavy difficulties and dangers had arisen to increase it, for the Apostle's sad prediction (Acts xx. 29) was now fulfilled. The grievous wolves had broken into the fold, and were scattering the flock. We have heard the warning note sounded in the Epistle to the Colossians; in the few years which had elapsed since, the mischief had grown more formidable.

Ephesus was a city, so to speak, where the East and West met. Although belonging strictly to the Western or Greek world, it had long been famous for its addiction to Eastern wisdom, the mysteries of Persia, India, &c., which had travelled westward after Alexander's conquests. The Ephesian letters-forms of incantation by which men professed to exercise dominion over evil spiritswere famous in antiquity (cf. Acts xix. 13-19). For a while all this became mingled with Judaism, as is shown by the passage just referred to. A general scepticism had taken possession of the minds of men; the belief in the Greek divinities had disappeared, or was only mentioned to be mocked at by the frivolous. Pilate's question, "What is truth?" was the sad expression of the thoughts of the majority of educated men. Yet there were some, more earnest

and good, to whom this dreary void, this absence of hope, and of an object of worship, was intolerable. They turned, some to these Oriental traditions and fancies, some to the One God of the Jews; some mingled belief in the two together. Thus it was that the world was filled with soothsayers, prophets, magicians. Men almost desperate, caught at the hope that Truth might exist among some of them. In vain the soothsayers were expelled by edict from Rome; they returned again and again, and procured access even to the palace of the Emperor. The case of the devout Sergius Paulus and the sorcerer Elymas is doubtless but one of a thousand (Acts xiii. 6, 7). No wonder that these men found willing ears everywhere, for an age of infidelity is always an age of superstition.

The Church was in danger from these deadly superstitions: not from their opposition, but from their blending themselves with the faith, and so corrupting it. They had, as we have said, a Jewish form as yet. Later, they had more in common with the philosophy of the East. This is what is called Gnosticism. It was the greatest peril which the Church had yet met: hence the unsparing denunciations of it in the later writings of the New Testament. It is hard for us to conceive how serious the conflict was, as we look upon the exploded errors, the seemingly outrageous absurdities, of the different Gnostic teachers. They professed to investigate the nature of God; to show the genealogies of angels and archangels; the numbers of each heavenly order, the work of each in the many created worlds. To us it is all a confused labyrinth. But it is not difficult to conceive that each new system must have had attractions for them; that the way of the Cross must have seemed humble and despicable beside it. It was flattering to the pride of men to be taught that the origin of evil was not the perverted will of the Creature, but was in Creation itself; that it consisted in the "union of matter with spirit." Instead of seeking to obey a lowly Saviour, taking up His cross, and following the Lamb whithersoever He went, they amused themselves with discussing Him; arranging according to their own poor, unhappy fancies, the relations of Jesus to the Christ, of His material body to His spiritual nature. The terrible results of their speculations upon their practice is shown in the Epistle before us, and yet more strongly in the Epistle of Jude and the early part of the Revelation.

Well then might St. Paul feel deep solicitude as he laid his charge on Timothy to oppose this mystery of iniquity which was now beginning to work; to bring down the pampered pride of men, by teaching them the doctrine of Him who was manifest in the flesh to save sinners; to show them that nothing was created common or unclean (as they said that everything material was), but that though sin had made it unclean, God had now restored it by the Atonement of His Blessed Son; to lead them away from their hierarchies of angels and Eons, through which they madly hoped to climb up to an inaccessible God, to submit themselves to a Father who had redeemed them by His Son, and evermore gave them His Spirit. Such is the main object, apparently, of this Epistle, as well as that of giving the youthful bishop many practical directions of detail for his guidance.

THE EPISTLE TO TITUS.

OUR knowledge of Titus is wholly drawn from St. Paul's Epistles, for he is not mentioned in the Acts. He was a Gentile (Gal. ii. 3) whom St. Paul converted (Titus i. 4). When the Council of Jerusalem was convened to settle the disputed question concerning the obligation of the Gentiles to keep the Law of Moses (Acts xv.), Titus accompanied Paul and Barnabas thither, and afforded a practical proof of the liberty claimed by St. Paul for the Gentiles: the Apostle would not allow him to be circumcised, though the Judaizers strongly urged it (Gal. ii. 3). The next recorded work of Titus is the mission on which St. Paul sent him from Ephesus, as his valued “partner and fellow-helper” (2 Cor. xii. 18), to bear the first Epistle to the Corinthians. The circumstances have already been recorded (p. 12). On this occasion he had discharged his duty with much discretion, and had followed his master's system of being chargeable to none of them (2 Cor. xii. 18). St. Paul next employed him to make the collection for the poor of Judæa; and, while engaged in this, he was also the bearer of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (2 Cor. viii. 16, 17, 23). It is ten years after, that he next appears. St. Paul, in the course of the same journey in which he left Timothy at Ephesus (see page 25), left Titus to organize the Church of Crete.* The Epistle before us is written for his guidance. The last mention of him is in the Second Epistle to Timothy, in which St. Paul writes that he has sent him to Dalmatia (2 Tim. iv. 10).

Crete is a beautiful island at the entrance of the Egean Sea, one hundred and sixty miles long, and varying in breadth from six to thirty-six miles. Since B. C. 69 it had belonged to the Romans, and, with Cyrene, formed a province. It was prosperous and wealthy, possessing great advantages both of position (for it was nearly equidistant from Asia, Africa, and Europe) and of soil. It is now called Candia, and is still of much importance. Nicholas I. of Russia offered it to us, when he projected the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire. But whilst its natural advantages were great, it had nothing to boast of in its inhabitants: they were a byeword on account of their vices. Several proverbs testify the contempt in which they were held: e. g., "to cretize" meant to lie; "When you are trying a dangerous experiment, have a Cretan;' ""three abominable C's-Crete, Cappadocia, and Cilicia." And we have the words of the Cretan poet, Epimenides, quoted in this Epistle: "The Cretians are alway liars, brutes, slow-bellies" (i. e., which take a long time to fill). Such were the people whom Titus had to reduce to order, and to form into a branch of Christ's Holy Church. St. Paul faced the difficulties fully, without underrating them, and also without fear. There are few Epistles which speak so confidently of the "laver of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit as this. The Apostle's hope rests not on what he or what Titus can do, but on what Christ has done.

* Some suppose that Titus was left at Crete during the journey mentioned in Acts xviii, 18, and that the Epistle was written next to Galatians. But there is very much against this. The style of the Epistle is so like those of the Epistles to Timothy (which are unanimously placed at the end of St. Paul's ministry), and so unlike St. Paul's early Epistles, as to be conclusive on this point.

He begins by directing Titus to "set in order the things that are wanting, and to ordain presbyters in every city. He then bids him keep in check the false teachers, "specially they of the circumcision." There seems to have been little of the Gentile Gnosticism, but much of Judaizing mischief (cf. Acts ii. 11). Titus was to counteract it by "speaking wholesome doctrine" (ii. 1), namely, soberness, gravity, patience, faith, in the aged men and women,-faithful discharge of the duties of husband, wife, and child,-justice in masters, obedience in servants. And to the end that this sound doctrine may come home to them, Titus is earnestly exhorted to "follow it himself." And the foundation of this doctrine, its origin, and purpose, is stated to be the sovereign grace of God which has appeared unto all men, teaching them to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world, expecting the second coming of Christ our God and Saviour (ii. 11-14). Finally, he adds, as if rejoicing in a hope which cannot fail, that he was once at least as bad as these Cretans; but the same God who loved them loved him, and had been manifested towards him (iii. 3). This is his introduction to the passage which forms the second lesson for Christmas-day, and shows us how the incarnation of Christ is the salvation of men (iii. 4-8).

This short letter is a manual full of matter for confidence and joy to a Christian missionary. We who dwell in this great city, and have daily to witness thousands of our fellow-creatures sunk in misery and the lowest death, may yet take heart as we see the aged Apostle's confidence. The Cretans were almost beyond hope; but not quite. Worldly philosophers might give them up, and declare them past recovery; but there was One who loved them with an everlasting love, and who was infinite in power. He is faithful; He cannot deny Himself. It was belief in Him that sent forth the Christian missionary then, as it sends him now, to fight against sin in the sure confidence of victory.

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.

THE end is now very near. The warfare of the faithful soldier of Christ is all but complete: the vision of the Celestial City rises bright and clear before him.

The winter which followed the writing of the Epistle to Titus was apparently spent at Nicopolis. Leaving this, St. Paul came to Corinth once more, and left Erastus there (2 Tim. iv. 20); then he went on to Miletus in fulfilment of the promise which he had before made to Timothy (1 Tim. iii. 14), that he would shortly visit him. We learn nothing more of him until he is again a prisoner at Rome. The circumstances are untold,* but conjectures have been made as follows. We know that in the tenth year of Nero's reign (July 19, A.D. 64), the city of Rome was almost destroyed by fire. The Emperor was suspected, though as it seems unjustly, of having caused it. To divert the suspicion, he spread a report that the Christians were the authors of the

* Wordsworth's Greek Testament, vol. iii. p. 435. Paley's 'Hora Pauline' with additions, by Rev. T. R. Birks (Rel. Tract Society), p. 306.

fire, and a persecution was begun the first which emanated from Rome. The cruelties with which it was marked are recorded by Tacitus, who, though he was a heathen, can hardly conceal his pity for the sufferers. It does not seem that the persecution extended beyond Rome, though, doubtless, the Emperor's opinions might subject the Christians to dislike, and even ill-treatment, in some provinces.

It is probable, then, that St. Paul was apprehended as being a well-known preacher of the faith, who had before been imprisoned at Rome on account of it. It is also probable that he was seized at Miletus, and that Timothy's grief (see 2 Tim. i. 4) is thus to be accounted for. Be this as it may, he is now before us again—no longer with the licence which he enjoyed at his first imprisonment, but in close confinement. Tradition states that he was confined in the Mamertine dungeon. Here he wrote his Second Epistle to Timothy. The Apostle seems to be cheering Timothy under some great discouragement, and the fears arising out of it (see i. 4-14). He reminds him of the good lessons he had learned of his mother and his grandmother, and of the early promise he had himself given. But he has a better ground of hope than these even the belief that the gift of God is his; that his consecration as bishop was a pledge of the continual presence within him of a Friend and Helper mightier than man. "I, too," says the Apostle, " have had my trials and disappointments; I, too, have been weak. Yet I know in Whom I have believed. I have committed myself to Him. He will not fail me in the day of trial." The short, heart-moving sentences of the following chapter all seem to breathe a loving farewell. He adjures the youthful bishop, as a soldier of Christ, as a wrestler in the circus, as a husbandman, to be earnest, patient, faithful. Each parable was well calculated to sink into his soul. He exhorts him to abstain from word-fighting; to study to be a good workman. (It would seem from St. Paul's urgency on this point that a fondness for controversy was one of Timothy's dangers). Let him not judge others, for that was Christ's office. "The Lord knoweth them that are His" (ii. 19). Let him rather look to himself: "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity" (Ib.). He would need every help from God,-bad, terrible times were at hand. The Apostle's warning waxes louder and more earnest. The last days were at the very door (iii.). He repeats his charge once more most solemnly "before God and the Lord Jesus Christ" (iv. 1-5). He knows that his own work is nearly done; the fight ended; the course run. Yet he would fain see his son Timothy once more ere his departure. He is very lonely, as far as earthly sympathy goes.

It has often been remarked that the more rapturous the state of the Apostle's mind, the firmer seems his tread upon the earth; none can ever say that he is unpractical. It is a very touching exemplification of the fact, that here he remembers the property which he left at Troas. It has been sug

gested, and there is much that is probable in it, that he wanted his cloak as a protection against the cold and damp of his dungeon. Perhaps too he desired to give remembrances to his friends.

It seems likely that " Alexander the coppersmith" is the same person that is mentioned in Acts xix. He may have been the cause of St. Paul's second arrest, by informing against him. The Apostle feels solemnly that both himself and his accuser must stand before the same judgment seat, there to be