preachers, who had no real zeal for his glory, instrumental in converting sinners and edifying his people. But these are abnormal cases. The rule is, that he who would persuade others to a life of holiness, must first have persuaded himself; that he who would set the hearts of other men on fire, must first have felt the flame of divine love burning in his own breast. And if we could see things. according to truth, and would judge of success by the true standard, without being dazzled by the glare of genius, wit, subtilty, eloquence, we should discover, that whatever good may have been done incidentally by persons who were themselves uninfluenced by religion, the really effective preachers in all ages have been men of simple, unaffected, earnest piety, who could say, in St. John's words, when they spoke of the Saviour, "That which we have heard and seen declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ." d I John i. 3. Καθάπερ ἐπὶ τῶν ζωγράφων ἐνετυπωσάμην, φησὶν, εἰκόνα σοι τῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ τῶν τῷ Θεῷ δοκούντων ἁπάντων, ὥσπερ τινὰ κανόνα καὶ ἀρχέτυπον καὶ ὅρους καταβαλὼν εἰς τὴν σὴν ψυχήν. Ταῦτα οὖν ἔχει κἂν περὶ πίστεως, κἂν περὶ ἀγάπης, καν περὶ σωφρονισμού δέῃ τι βουλεύσασθαι, ἐκεῖθεν λάμβανε τὰ παραδείγματα. Οὐ δεήσει σοι παρ' ἑτέρων εἰκόνα ζητεῖν, πάντων ἐκεῖ κατακειμένων. S. Chry sostom in 2 Tim. Hom. 3. 2 TIM. i. 13. Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus". EARNESTNESS is eminently a characteristic of all St. Paul's Epistles, but preeminently so of that one in which these words occur. The endeared relationship borne by Timothy to the Apostle, as his beloved son in the faith, Timothy's continued attachment to him at a time when persecution, with its wintry wind, was stripping off false friends, the office which Timothy held as the bishop of a Church which the Apostle had himself founded, which he had all along regarded with the most lively interest, yet for whose soundness in the faith he had too great reason to be apprehensive, the circumstances moreover under which the Epistle was written, the Apostle being now, as he believed, on the point of being offered, and having his departure in immediate prospect, all combined to deepen, even beyond its ordinary intensity, that earnestness of tone which pervades his writings generally. The Epistle abounds in exhortations, often abruptly introduced, as might well be the case a Preached on Sunday, October 30, 1853. |
