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oft, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, in journeyings oft, in prisons frequent, in deaths oft-none of these things moved him to desist a moment from the arduous and perilous contest, neither did he count his life dear unto himself, that he might advance the conquests of the cross. But out of all these hardships and dangers the Lord had delivered him. Now his warfare was accomplished, and he was waiting for the moment when he should be released from his arduous service, and enter upon triumphant joys, in the realms of eternal peace.

"I have fought," says he, “a good fight." I have finished my course. This latter expression is an allusion to the race practised at the Grecian games. In this race, the competitors put forth every exertion to outstrip each other in their course, while at the goal stood the judges, with crowns of garlands of leaves, with which to crown the victor. This bore so strong a resemblance to the christian race of holiness, that the apostle frequently alludes to it, especially in his letters to Grecian churches. "Know ye not that they who run in a race,run all, but one obtaineth the prize? "So run," says he, "that ye may obtain." He would teach us by this comparison, that to fulfil the christian course, calls for continual and unwearied exertion. We are never to relapse into indolence, but to make every effort, as much as if the event continued uncertain, till, by reaching the goal, we become sure of the prize. For such great and continual exertion, we need to be temperate in all things-to keep under our body, and to lay aside every weight that might clog and retard us in our course. We need also the grace of our ascended Lord-we need to look for encouragement, to his own bright example, and for hope, to the crown of rejoicing which he will give to all who come off conquerors in the race, and to be animated by the example of all those who have gone

before us. "Wherefore," says he, "seeing we are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God." And every man that striveth for the mastery, is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown-a fading, withering crown of leaves— but we, an incorruptible, even a crown of glory, that fadeth not away. "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly." The apostle did not run in such a languid desultory manuer as to leave it uncertain whether he should obtain the prize. "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away." Every part of his own life, as recorded, agrees with this account of his race of holiness. It was a life of unceas ing and vigorous activity. The close of one action was the beginning of another. The passage from preaching the gospel in one place, was immediately to preaching it in the next

-the completion of one missionary tour, was but a preparation for a second, in which he should take a wider range. When he could not travel, he was preaching-when he could not preach, being confined in prison, he was writing. Had he been impelled, by some secret influence, to incessant activity, he could not, apparently, have done more in the service of his master. But his race was now run. He was closing the last epistle, as it is supposed, that he ever wrote he had reached the goal at his grave. "I have finished my course," says he, "henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day."

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." He did not reckon it among the least of his consolations, when ready to be offered, that he had kept the faith. His penetrating eye distinctly saw the connexion between the doctrines of faith, and all that is experimental and practical in religion. Men are justified and saved by belief of the truth, not by belief of error; and the Holy Spirit regenerates and sanctifies through the instrumentality of truth, and not falsehood. Men feel their need of a Savior, because they believe and know that they are themselves sinful and condemned. They trust in his righteousness, when they see that they have none of their own, because they believe that he has made atonement, and is able to save to the uttermost, them that come unto God by him; and Christ thus received into the heart by faith, is the source of holy life and actions. The apostle well knew, that the future character and success of christianity would depend entirely upon the doctrines men received by faith. He therefore, in all his preaching and writings, contended earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. He defended and kept the faith, by every weapon of his holy warfare. He established many points, by reason and facts in human nature, when addressing philosophers and heathen. He established them by quotations from the Old Testament, when addressing the Jews, who received it as the word of God. He declared them with authority, as an apostle of the Lord Jesus, who had commissioned him to preach the gospel, and had inspired him with the Holy Spirit to declare the truth, and to work miracles in its confirmation. He removed objections, he soothed by softness, he reproved with severity; he yielded in things indifferent, where truth was not properly concerned at all, that he might gain ground, on which to contend for the important doctrines of grace. He VOL.VI.-No. 2.

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became all things to all men, that by
At
all means he might save sonie.
the same time, he watched with holy
solicitude for the least deviation from
the simplicity and purity of the gos-
pel system. He opposed equally,
self-righteousness on the one hand,
and a faith unproductive of works on
the other. Not permitting even the
appearance of deviation, he gave
place-no not for an hour, to the
very chiefest of the apostles, who
had been the companions of Christ,
but with his constitutional intrepidi-
ty and ardor, withstood even Peter,
to his face, because he was to be
blamed for seeming to favor the su
perstitious attachment of the Jews to
the ceremonies of the law. He kept
the faith, and it will not be thought
too much to say, that the faith bas
been kept in the Christian church to
this day, principally through the in-
strumentality of his writings, when it
is remembered that nearly half the
New Testament, and almost the
whole of the doctrinal part of it, was
written by this great apostle.

The warfare he bad accomplished, the race he had run, the faith he had preserved, was the ground of his glorious hope of immortality-a hope that shed a lustre over his closing hours, and lifted him, with triumph, above the fear of death. "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearing."

This expression of the feelings of the apostle, in view of his approaching departure, is full of instruction, and should be deeply considered by every follower of Jesus, and espe cially by every christian minister. It shows us, truly, "with what composure a christian can die." It exhibits the consolations, the triumphant joys which support him, when about to part with every earthly object

of his love, and to give up his account to the Judge of all. It may be well contrasted with the dying words of any man that ever left this world without the hopes of the gospel; and should stimulate all to imitate the glorious life of this eminent servant of God, that they also may die the death of the righteous, and that their last end may be like his. It should arouse us all to fight the good fight of faith to finish our course with joy -to keep the faith,-that there may be laid up for us also, a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge will give to all, that love his appearing. Indeed, this is the very effect which the apostle intended this expression of his feelings should have upon his dearly beloved son in the faith. Fearing that Timothy might be discouraged by the sufferings to which bis spiritual Father was called, and which might one day come upon himself, he wished to brace up his soul to endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ, and to fight mantully the good fight of faith. He therefore gave him this, his dying testimony to the truth and power of that religion which he had professed and taught. He told him that, having coolly reviewed all which he himself had done and suffered for the cause of Christ, as well as considered the death which was now before him, he could assure him that he had nothing to regret, but every thing to animate and support him. He knew in whom he had believed. He was confident that his Savior was able to keep that which he had committed to him, against that day. He had not a doubt of receiving the crown of rejoicing which the Lord would give to all them that love his appearing. He spoke from experience and knowledge. He had not followed cunningly devised fables. He had not imposed on others fictitious stories, which he did not believe bimself. On the contrary, he knew them to be true. He was willing to venture his eternal all upon heir truth. Nay, he wished, as the last

proof of his affection to one whom he most tenderly loved, that he should, in a like manner, suffer the loss of all things in this world, that he might win Christ, and venture the welfare of his immortal soul on the ability of his Savior, to keep that which he should thus commit to him, against that day.

My friends! what more can we ask to confirm our faith, and animate our obedience? The apostle certainly knew whether the things he had taught were true or falsewhether those things to which he had testified were cunningly devised fables, or real facts, which he had himself witnessed. He certainly would not thus cheerfully and joyfully have suffered the loss of all, and patiently endured, unto his dying hour, if he had had a doubt of the goodness of his cause, or of the recompense of reward; nor would he have recommended a similar course to his own son in the faith. Let us, therefore, animated by his dying testimony, go and do likewise. Let us undertake similar labours, make the same sacrifices, endure, if called to it, like sufferings, that we may have the same triumphant hopes in death, and enter the same realins of eternal blessedness.

Before leaving the subject, I wish to call the attention of my readers to some particular circumstances, which give a shading to the picture we have just contemplated. Although the closing of this great apostle's course was so triumphaut; although he had nothing to regret, of all that he had done or suffered in the cause of Christ, and was joyful in the prospect that his trials and sufferings would soon be over, and glory, honour and immortality, awaited him in the immediate presence of his Redeemer, yet there is something mel-. ancholy in the circumstances, in which this faithful servant of Christ dictated his last farewell, which has also infused a pensive feeling into the language of this whole epistle. Take the following passages as an exam.

ple. "This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me-of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes." "Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me, for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me." "And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. The cloak that I left at Troas, with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee." "Do thy diligence to come before winter." If, as is generally supposed, the apostle needed the cloak, to defend him against the cold of the approaching winter, his sending so far for it, is a proof of his extreme necessity, in prison.-The fervency of his gratitude, for the supply of his temporal wants, expressed in the following passage, strongly suggests the same necessity-"The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me-and was not ashamed of my bond, but when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant unto him, that he may find mercy of the Lord, in that day."

believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day." The very earnestness, with which he here expresses his confidence in Jesus, suggests to my mind the necessity there was, that he should flee to this confidence as a refuge from the evils which oppressed him. Again, "at my first answer, no man stood with me, but all forsook me—I pray God, it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Here indeed is consolation-there is more than consolation-there is triumphant faith and hope and joy. It is consolation, which strongly reminds us of the sufferings to which it came as a relief. It is the triumph of a hero, whose heart swells with exultation at the thought that he has delivered his country, and himself,— but is softened by the thoughts of the sufferings she has received in the conflict, the brave men who had fallen, the treachery of those who have deserted her cause, and the future evils, to which she will be exposed. The mingled emotions expressed by the apostle, remind us of the setting sun, whose parting beams, though bright, are softened by the gloom of the landscape over which they are thrown

When we reflect on the character, of this great apostle, and what numbers, even whole churches owed their own selves, their everlasting salvation to his disinterested labours-now aged, destitute, in prison, forsaken of all, about to be offered, with a prophetic foresight of the perilous times that should come upon the church after his death, can we wonder, if even his joys should be ting--and the clouds gathered around ed a little with the sadness of surrounding objects, and the expression of his hopes, softened by an infusion of melancholy. Such seems to me the following, "But be not thou ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner-but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel." Then having alluded to his own sufferings for the gospel, he adds "Nevertheless. I am not ashamed, for I know in whom I have

him only seem more fully to show the glory of his departing beams. This picture should teach us the nature of christian faith and hope, and what we are to expect on this side the grave. Christ came to heal the sick, to cure the broken-hearted, to bind up the wounds of the bruised, to seek and to save that which was lost. He is a refuge to which the afflicted flee; a covert and a hiding place, from the storms of sorrow. Every

part of his religion and the comforts it brings, at least in this world, bear a relation to sin and suffering. Even the joy which it brings, is of the nature of support, of comfort, of consolation and hope. Through Christ we are happy, in a refuge from the evils with which this world abounds.We are happy in comfort and consolation under affliction and sorrow. We are happy, in the exercise of faith in a Saviour, who has delivered us from sin and its dreadful punishment, to which we were exposed, and happy in the hope of a termination of our present troubles and of our future introduction to perfect and unclouded joy.

Benevolence is happy, though it weeps over the sin and misery with which it is here in so close a contact. Love to God and delight in his government, is a source of constant joy, yet often tinged with sorrow, for the dishonour which we are obliged to see cast upon his name, the violation of his laws, rebellion against his government, while the good, which he will cause from them to abound to his glory, is not seen, but only believed by faith.

We may, indeed, concieve of faith so strong, as to yield unmingled joy in surveying the actual state of things, and the government of God, knowing that he will cause all to promote his own glory. But such heavenly views of the government of God, are rarely given to us, in this world of misery and sin; and no degree of religion can be conceived, which shall prevent the body from feeling pain, disease and want, or the soul from being wounded, when the tenderest relations in this life, are torn asunder. The fact is, God knew that his children would not be perfectly freed from sin in this world, and therefore saw good to continue them in circumstances not entirely free from suffering. This world, to the christian, is a place of discipline. His life to the very close, is a warfare with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Our whole course in this world is a race,

which we are to run with all dili" gence, that we may make our calling and election sure; and we must not expect to reach the goal, but in the grave. If we so run as to obtain, our path shall be like the rising light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The shades of sin and sorrow, shall gradually pass away, and the light of Eternity break in upon our souls. Although on our departing step, we may cast a sad and pitying glance on the world we are about to leave, and heave a sigh on the sin and misery we could not cure, yet, blessed be God, it will be the last throb of sorrow, that shall ever agitate our bosoms.

When I have safely reached my home;
My God, my heaven, my all,-
There shall I bathe my weary soul
In seas of heavenly rest,

And not a wave of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast.

For the Christian Spectator.

Lay Presbyters, No. V.

No alteration appears in the offices of the church during the second century, unless with the change of president, goεolws, for exisxoros bishop, presbyters began to act by his appointment, or in his presence. Though not in writers hitherto examined, some traces of it are in the two assigned to this number; who lived in both centuries.

Titus Flavius Clemens is called Atheniensis because educated at Athens, Alexandrinus, because instructed in the catechetical school of Pantænus, and a presbyter of the church at Alexandria. The preceptor of Origin, Alexander of Jerusalem, and others, he lived till the reign of Alexander Severus. He wrote an Admonition to the Greeks, The Pedagogue, Stromata, and “What rich man can be saved ?" He had a leaning to Gentile ethics, and the merit of works. On future punishments he is erroneous.

Church officers are mentioned in

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