He reminds Timothy of his special vocation 'whereunto thou art called.' He animates him with the quickening recollection of the glorious profession he had made; and that, not in the retirement of devotion, but before many witnesses,' intimating how much the honour of the Gospel is concerned in the proficiency, the steadfastness, the perseverance to the end, of all its professors, especially of its appointed teachers. He not only reminds him of his profession at his baptism, and consecration to the ministry, but, in order to elevate his mind to the highest pitch, he adjures him in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and could raise him to immortal glory; and, as if he would fill his mind with every grand and awful image, reminds him of the 'good confession made by the Divine Confessor before Pontius Pilate,' exhorting him from all these lofty motives, to keep this commandment spotless and unreproachable until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ!' In so doing, men could not rebuke him, religion would not be wounded by him, and his Saviour would finally receive him with the plaudit he has promised, and the crown he has purchased.

The sublime doxology which follows; the ascription to God, of all power, praise, and dominion, glory and immortality; the fervour of his mind, rapt as it seems to be with the present view of the blessed and only Potentate, King of kings, Lord of lords, immortal, invisible, unapproachable, and surrounded with visions of glory,-do not make the apostle forget to revert to the main object of his charge, the danger of riches; or rather, the anticipation of future bliss had fired his soul with more intense zeal against that sin which he thought most likely to

shut out his beloved converts from the enjoyment of it; 'Charge them that are rich in this world, that they trust not in uncertain riches.'

Having thus shown the nature of riches, uncertain' in every thing but their danger, he soon despatches the concluding and most pleasant part of his office, by showing how the Christian use of riches may convert a snare into a blessing; an instrument of ruin into an evidence of faith. He proposes a scheme of moral usury, shows that there is a species of avarice which he not only allows, but enjoins, that they who are rich in this world increase the interest of their money by laying it out in good works; that they lay up in store against the time to come; against a remoter period than that for which the covetous provide. This is beating the miser at his own weapons; this is indeed giving perpetuity to riches; what they lay out for the poor they lay up for themselves, by lending unto the Lord. This is a legitimate love of money, this is a covetousness worthy of a Christian. This is indeed lodging their treasure beyond the reach of moth, rust or thieves.

He cautions them against the love of riches from their uncertainty; an argument likely to weigh with those who are blind to higher considerations; an argument more illustrated to us by actual instances in the late frenzy of revolution, than in any other period of history. He then contrasts what is uncertain with what is solid and durable. That confidence which is not to be placed in 'uncertain riches,' he directs to be transferred to the living God,' the foundation of all substantial opulence, the giver of all the good that is enjoyed; the giver of all the power to get wealth,' and of the heart to use it to his glory. This readiness to distribute,' this wi

lingness to communicate,' these unequivocal fruits of faith, obedience, and love, not the purchase of heaven, but the evidences of faith in him who died to purchase it for them, will not be rejected by real Christians, after HIS declaration, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me.'

When we consider the contradiction which the lives of some authors, on religious subjects, form with their writings, may they not be said somewhat to resemble the workmen employed in building the ark? These infatuated men spent years in preparing an asylum from the deluge, without practically believing that it would ever take place. While they were mechanically employed in working for the sal vation of others, their labour made no provision for their own safety. The sweeping flood descends; but the builders are excluded from the very refuge which they have assisted in providing!

How different was the conduct of our apostle? His exhortation in this, as in all other instances, derive great additional weight from the consistency of his conduct with his writings. The philosopher Seneca, composed his excellent book of Ethics, in the same city, and nearly at the same time in which this Epistle to Timothy was written. He suffered also a violent death under the same Roman emperor with Saint Paul. In the writings of the philosopher are many beautiful passages directed against the vice we have been considering, and no one ever inveighed more pointedly against the luxurious indulgencies to which riches are applied. Yet Seneca, first the disciple of the abstinent school of Pythagoras, and afterwards of the self-denying sect of the Stoics, made himself, by his inordinate desire of

amassing wealth, the richest man in Rome, and by his passion for splendour the most magnificent.

This inconsistency of profession with practice, at once illustrates the exact difference between speculation and conviction, conceit and truth; and serves, without any other arguments, which, however, are not wanting to demonstrate the real character of Seneca. Though acquainted probably with the religion of Jesus Christ, and not improbably with our apostle himself, from his near connection with Gallio, one of Paul's judges; yet he can never be considered as its convert; and trying them by the testimony of their lives, we are obliged to conclude of these two martyred moralists, that Paul lived a Christian, and Seneca died a Heathen.

CHAP. XV.

ON THE GENIUS OF CHRISTIANITY, AS SEEN IN SAINT PAUL.

HAD a sinful human being, ignorant of Christianity, labouring under the convictions of a troubled conscience, and dreading the retribution which that conscience told him his offences merited,-had such a being, so circumstanced, been called upon to devise the means of pardon and acceptance from an offended Creator, how eagerly, in the hope of relieving his tormented spirit, would he have put his imagination to the stretch! How busily would he have sharpened his invention, to suggest something difficult, something terrible, something impossible;

something that should have exhausted all human means, that should put nature to the rack,—penances, tortures, sacrifices-all Lebanon for a burntoffering, thousands of rams for an atonement, rivers of oil for an oblation,-still concluding that he must perform the act with his own hands, still expecting that himself must be the agent of his own deliver

ance.

· But when a full offer of peace, of pardon, of reconciliation, comes from the offended party, comes voluntarily, comes gratuitously, comes, not with the thunders of the burning mount, but in the still small voice of benignity and love,-free love, benignity as unsought as unmerited;-when the trembling penitent is assured, in the cheering words of our apostle, that he shall be justified freely, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,'-when he is assured that all that is demanded on his part of the compact is, to accept the propitiation made for his sins, through the forbearance and tender mercy of God; when he hears, that to him, and not to him only, but to all who will accept it on the offered terms, of faith and repentance, this previously inconceivable proposal is made;-who would doubt that, overwhelmed with joy and gratitude at the report of a world redeemed, he would eagerly fly to lay hold on an offer, not only beyond his hope or expectation, but beyond his possibility of conception?

Yet is not the fact too often directly the reverse? His pride had suggested to him, that if some difficult thing were to be done, he should have done it himself, if something were to be suffered in the way of hardship and austerity, or something achieved in the way of glorious enterprise; something that