Subject: CHRistian TrusteESHIP. "I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, the Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see; to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen."-1 Tim. vi. 13-16. Analysis of Homily the Eight Hundred and Seventy-first. S these verses immediately follow those discussed in a Finger Post" in this number, reference to the context is not necessary. The text is a solemn charge addressed to Timothy as one invested with a trust of unspeakable importance. What is the trust? It is here called a commandment. "That thou keep this commandment." Paul undoubtedly refers to the Gospel. It has all the attributes of a law. It is authoritative. it is published, it is universally binding. It is called "the law of righteousness," the "law of liberty," the "law of love," "the law of life." This Gospel had been entrusted to Timothy, and Paul solemnly charges him here to take proper care of it. In the discharge of the trust we have to consider the mode and the motive. I. THE MODE. First: Faultlessly. He was to " "keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable." This may mean one of two things. Either that he was not to tamper with the Gospel, not to treat it in such a way as to make it appear in the eyes of men a spotted and rebukable thing; or that he was so to keep it that his own moral character might be spotless and irreproachable. Or the two things may be included. (1.) The Gospel can be made a reproachable thing. Some men have attached to it such notions and such rites as to make it appear odious to the common intellect and conscience of mankind. (2.) Men can make themselves reproachable by their treatment of the Gospel. Some of the most hideous characters in the history of our world have been bigoted theologians and intolerant ecclesiastics. Secondly: Perseveringly. "Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." When would Christ appear to him? Certainly at death perhaps before. : It is clear that Paul regarded the final advent of Christ as just at hand—an event that might occur even before the death of himself and his contemporaries. On this point he was not inspired. Christ himself declared that they had no revelation of the times. (Acts i. 7.) Indeed, Paul here as good as says that he did not know that "which in his times he shall show." God has seasons for doing things, and there is a season for the final advent of Christ. Up to His advent, whenever it came, Timothy was to act as a faithful steward. In the discharge of this trust we have to consider. II. The MOTIVE. The motive here is drawn from the presence of God. First: As the original quickener of all life. "Who quickeneth all things." He endueth all things with life. All life is from Him-vegetable, animal, rational, moral. "In Him all things live." He is here represented, Secondly: As the incarnate exemplifier of faithfulness. "I charge thee in the sight of God who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus." He reminds Timothy that Christ himself was there. His eye was on him. And his example before him. "Before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession." He brings Timothy into the presence of one of the grandest facts of Christ's earthly life. (John xviii. 36, 37.) What a motive this the discharge of our stewardship that the eye and example of Christ are before us! "I give thee charge in the sight of God," &c. What wonderful things are said of the Great God here! He is here represented, Thirdly: As the supreme Disposer of all futurity. "Which in his times He shall show." All times and seasons are in His hand. "I am the Lord, I change not, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things which are not yet done." The infinite future lies open to His eye, and He has arranged all its events, and they break on the horizon of His creatures in His own time. Fourthly: As the blessed King of all kings. "The blessed and only Potentate the King of kings and Lord of lords." Not only "by him do human kings reign and human princes decree justice," but by Him the highest authorities in the universe are governed. What an empire is His, and He is happy in the VOL. XXVI. D exercise of his vast authority. "The blessed." Human kings are seldom happy. They have often moral misgivings as to their right to rule, and suspicions as to their power to meet all the emergencies that may arise in their kingdom. Happiness is on the throne of the universe. Fifthly: As the exclusive Possessor of immortality. "Who only hath immortality." No creaturein the universe can be essentially immortal. Essential immortality belongs to God and God only. The immortality of others depends upon His will. "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed," &c. Sixthly: As the Resident of ineffable splendour. "Dwelling in the light," &c. The light He dwells in is so refulgent that it is unapproachable. "Which no man can approach unto," &c. Thou "coverest Thyself with light as with a garment." Nay, Thou art light itself. "God is light: the Father of lights." There are beings that dwell in unutterable darkness; there are beings that dwell in borrowed light; some partial and some perfect; none but God dwells in His own light. He is the Great Central Light of all the lights in the universe-material, intellectual, spiritual. "Fountain of light, thyself invisible Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt'st MILTON. Seventhly: As the supremely Adored of all holy souls. "To whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen." Some suppose this to be the fragment of an ancient Church hymn. It is the language, however, of all holy souls in the world. "We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting. To thee all angels. cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein," &c. The Pith of Benowned Sermons. No. I.-JOHN HOWE. Subject: THE VANITY OF MAN AS A MORTAL. "Remember how short my time is; wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?"—Psa. lxxxix. 47, 48. W E have in the words before us this ground of discourse! That the short time of man on earth, limited by a certain, unavoidable death, if we consider it abstractly, by itself, without respect to a future state, carries that appearance and aspect with it, as if God had made all men in vain. That is said to be vain, according to the import of the word here used, which is either false, a fiction, a shadow; or which is useless, unprofitable; or which is purposeless, at least, having no valuable purpose. The life of man, supposing there is no future state, is— I. SHADOWY. There is an appearance of somewhat; but search a little, and it is found a lie, a piece of falsehood, as if he did but feign have being, and were not. What hovering shadows, what uncertain entities are men! In a moment they are, and are not. I know not when to say I have seen a man. It seems to me as if there were some such things before my eyes; but instantly my own sense is ready to give my own sense the lie. They are on a sudden dwindled away, and force me almost to acknowledge a delusion. This is so because of, first, the minuteness, the small proportion and degree of being, which this mortal part of man hath in it. It is truly said of all created things, "their non esse is more than their esse "—they have more no-being than being. How much more may this be said of the material and mortal part, of the outside of man. There is this shadowiness because of, secondly, the instability and fluidness of the mortal part of man. While he is, he hastens away, and * The sermons of some of the greatest preachers of England are lost to modern men through their voluminousness; it is the intention, under this section, to glean from time to time their pith and spirit. within a little is not. The true maxim of an ancient says, all things flow, nothing stays, after the manner of a river. The life of man, supposing there is no future state, is— II. USELESS. We shall see that if man were only mortal, he is made in vain, if we take some view of his nature. And in this First: Of his intellective powers. Hereby he frames notions even of such things as are above the sphere of sense. Secondly: His power of determining himself, of choosing and refusing. Thirdly: His capacity for an immortal state. What need is there for such a nature as this, for the mere mortal man? The life of man, supposing there is no future state, is III. PURPOSELESS. Here we must consider the ends for which upon that supposition, we must suppose him made. Here we have a double agent to be accommodated with a suitable endman now made, and God who made him. First The end of man himself. Man is a creature, capable of propounding to himself an end, and of acting with a design towards it. And we can think of no ends which men either do or ought to propound to themselves but by one of three principles. (a) Sense. Who can think the satisfying of sense the commensurate end of man? What! That he should come into the world with such powers and endowments for this! It were a like case as if one should be clad in scarlet to go to plough, or curiously instructed in arts and sciences to tend hogs. (B) Reason. Suppose that under its influence he seeks the acquisition of much knowledge, the furnishing his mind with a store of choice notions that he may please himself in being, or in having men think him, a learned wight. Death robs away all his gain. It is said by those that survive, "There lies learned dust." If the world be not looked upon as an attiring room to dress one's self in for an appearance on the eternal stage, but only as a great charnel house, where they undress and put off themselves to sleep in everlasting darkness, how can we think it worth a thought, or to be the subject of any rational design or care? How little doth it signify, and how flat and low a thing it would seem, if this hour I should think a few admiring thoughts of God, while I feel myself liable to lose my very thinking |