"As wholly unable to meet you in person, I send you my proxy, in a paper of hints on your most important question. Should any brother undertake to form a paper for publication from the whole result of the discussion, he is perfectly at liberty to use my hints for that purpose: but, if this be not determined on, I shall be glad to receive them back again; as probably I may make some use of them hereafter and I shall also gladly receive any of the remarks which my brethren make on them, or on the general subject. "I hope I shall not forget to pray for a large blessing on the company and the congregations; for my heart will be with you, and I trust you will be particular, both when together and when separate, in praying for me; not for my life, or health, or even ease, so much as that I may be upheld, and enabled to act consistently in my closing scene, and may finish my course with joy, &c.: for I feel myself a poor, weak, and sinful creature, in constant danger of falling or fainting, unless upheld by the power and grace of the Lord Jesus. With my kind remembrances to Mrs. Knight; and prayers for a blessing on you and your family; and Christian love to all the assembled brethren, "I remain, "Your faithful and affectionate brother, "Thoughts on the words of St. Paul to Timothy, GIVE THYSELF WHOLLY TO THEM, (v Touros io,) considered as an instruction to all ministers of Christianity, in every age and nation. "THE context of this expressive clause should be considered with peculiar attention, in explaining the words made use of. Let no man despise thy youth: but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee-by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things, GIVE THYSELF WHOLLY TO THEM; that thy profiting may appear unto all. Take heed to thyself, and to the doctrine: continue in them: for in so doing thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. (1 Tim. iv, 12—14.) Each expression, when closely examined, is as it were a sermon; and the whole comprises such a mass of appropriate instruction, warning, and encouragement to ministers, as can rarely be found in so few words. Let us then meditate on these things continually. "Two particulars seem especially to call for our notice in the clause more immediately under consideration: 1. The things which the apostle intended: and 2. What it is to give ourselves wholly to them. "I. The things intended.-The apostle doubtless referred to those exhortations, which he had just before given to his beloved son Timothy, respecting his personal conduct and example; his ministerial office, as a talent entrusted to him; the exercise of this ministry; the preparation for that exercise; and the ends to be proposed in the whole -Continue in them for in so doing thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee; that is, who so hear thee as to believe and obey the doctrine taught by thee. "A few hints may then be here dropped on some of the particulars relating to our important ministry-for we cannot too much magnify our office, and should have high and honorable thoughts of it; as the best of all good works; the most beneficial service which man can perform to man; and the most immediately connected with the glory of God our Saviour; yet attended with the most awful responsibility. It is a gift conferred on us, when set apart to that service. To us it is GIVEN to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. It is a talent entrusted to our stewardship, which demands faithful improvement. It opens the way to the cultivation of the mind for purposes peculiar to the minister; to purposes of the highest importance; and in which, if he do not neglect it, his profiting may appear unto all men; not only when he sets out as a young and inexperienced minister, but even if he had attained to Timothy's competency, nay to that of Paul the aged himself—except as inspiration and miraculous powers are concerned; and from these the gift here spoken of, at least in applying it to us, should be considered as entirely distinct. He that would be apt to teach must be apt to learn, and always learning to the end of life: else (as is, alas, too often the case,) he will be like those who spend much and gain little, and are always in penury.-In this general office and stewardship, the apostle would probably, if he spake to us in modern language, and according to our situation as pastors, point out the public exercise of our ministry, statedly or occasionally, instant ευκαίρως ακαίρως; with many things concerning our doctrine, our motives, our spirit, &c.-He would advert to the more private exercise of our ministry from house to house, according to the various openings which are afforded us of privately warning, instructing, conselling, and comforting, the healthy and the sick, and those around the sick; or in teaching children, and in various other ways. He would note those things which should be attended to by us in the study, by reading and writing, and preparing for our public ministry, or aiming at accessional usefulness by our studies and publications. The fisherman, when not fishing, is employed in washing or mending his nets, repairing his boat, &c., that he may be ready for the next expected opportunity; or to seize on one that he did not expect.-Especially, the apostle would point out what is to be done in the closet, by our earnest and constant prayers and applications. (Compare Col. ii, 1; iv, 12.)— He would go with us into our families; and lead us to consider the importance of so commanding our children and our households, (Gen. xviii, 19,) and so governing them, that every thing, as far as we possibly can, may bear the holy stamp of our sacred office. Here a large field opens before us, of family instruction and worship; of educating our children; of our conversation before them, and our domestics, and friends, &c. ; in order by every means to fix the impression, that we deeply mean all which we deliver from the pulpit: for alas, too often, the conduct and conversation of the dining and drawing room renders this at least very doubtful, to those who more narrowly inspect our conduct. The apostle would even attend us on our visits, our journeys, our seasons of relaxation, &c. and remind us, that we must never forget, not only our Christian but our ministerial character. All must be stamped with its holiness; all must be a part of a system, strictly adhered to, of being constantly learning, and waiting the opportunity of imparting what we have learned, in the things of God. "I might go into all our needful intercouse with those without, and our concerns in the world as they relate to temporal things, or to any employments in which it may be expedient to engage, in connexion with our ministry: in short, to our whole example; an example not only to the world, but to believers. But these hints must suffice. "II. The import of the words rendered, Give thyself wholly to them.—I remember that Demosthenes somewhere uses the same or an entirely similar expression concerning himself, and his application to public affairs: he was always the statesman: his time, his talents, his heart, his all, were swallowed up, as it were, in this one object. And in fact no man ever became very eminent in any line, when this was not his plan. It is noted by some writer concerning Bonaparte, that he never went to any town or city, or country new to him, but immediately he was examining and considering where would be the best place for a castle or a camp, for an ambushment or an attack, for the means of defence or annoyance. He thus, in his line, entered into the spirit of the clause ¿v roúrois ïodí; always the general. Our Lord says of himself, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work: and his whole time and soul were engaged in it. The apostles say, We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word: we will not suffer even things good in themselves (as serving tables,) to take us off from these grand and essential employments. Much less would they have left them, for secular interests or trivial pursuits. They entered into the spirit of the clause under consider ation. "Let these things then have our whole time: let even recreation and animal refreshment be so regulated, moderated, and subordinated, that they may not interfere with our grand employment, or unfit us for it; but rather recruit and prepare us for it, that they may all become subservient to our main object.-Prudent men of the world know how to do this, in respect of their object: and will neither let meals, nor sleep, nor visits, nor diversions interfere with it; but endeavor in all these to promote it by means of them. They enter into the spirit of the clause, and of the words used elsewhere, Redeeming the time. "Let these things have our whole mind, or capacity, natural ability, genius, learning: whatever we have or are, or can attain to, let these things have the whole. Wherever the bees collect the honey, they bring it all to the hive. Let us give all our powers and talents to our highly important service; and not for a moment admit an idea of employing genius or learning to other purposes, foreign to our ministry. The vows of God are upon us: at least I feel this to be my case; for, almost forty years since, I solemnly vowed before God not to engage in any literary pursuit or publication, however creditable or lucrative it might be, which had not the religious instruction of mankind for its immediate* object. "All our reading ought to be subservient to this. We may read any books, ancient or modern, sacred or profane, infidel, heretical, or what not; but always as ministers :† to note such things as may the better enable us to defend, and plead for, the truth as it is in Jesus; never merely for amusement, or curiosity, or love of learning, simply for its own sake, or for the credit or advantages derived from it. "Let these things have our whole heart. We shall never fall in with the apostle's counsel, unless our ministry and its employments be our pleasure and delight; unless our warmest affections are excited by it, and our sweetest gratifications derived from it.-Connected with this, however, our keenest sorrows and regrets will also thus be stirred. -But our whole soul and heart must be in it. We must count it both our work and our wages; our business and our pleasure; our interest and our honor; and, in connexion with saving ourselves along with those that hear us, OUR ALL. -Nothing moved the apostle, in his various pursuits; he did not think even his life dear to himself, so that he might finish his course with joy, and the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of + Sce above, p. 149. * Life p. 78. |