II.HE SHOULD BE HIMSELF. "Thou."

III.HE SHOULD BE A STUDENT. "Sound doctrine."

IV.HE SHOULD BE PRACTICAL. "The things which become."

(F. Wagstaff.)

1. To desire only this wholesome food that their souls may be well liking, laying aside their itching ears, which hunt after novelties, for the ministry is not appointed to beat the ear as music, but to sink into the soul as the food and medicine of it, by becoming the means and rule of life. Athenian hearing is the cause of Athenian preaching, and the diseases running upon such hearers showeth the curse of God on them, who with contempt of the manna from heaven, with the onions, garlic, and flesh of Egypt; these things they have upon their desire, and with them more than they desire, for they rot even between their teeth.

2. To receive the wholesome doctrine, as for the body we receive wholesome food what soever it be, or from whomsoever; let it be bitter sometimes, or seem too salt, yet if it be wholesome hunger findeth it savoury; no man but will strive to receive a bitter potion to restore his body out of any weakness to soundness; and yet who is it that will suffer a wholesome reproof to the recovery of soundness to the soul? and others stand so much upon toothsomeness of their meat, and must know their cooks so well, that before they can be resolved in these two, the plausibleness of the doctrine and the friendliness of the person, their souls are well nigh starved to death. Hence is it that we hear so many complaints. Oh, saith one, be seeketh not the goodwill of his hearers, nor casteth to please them; he is of a tart and bitter spirit; he seeketh to wound and gall, but he healeth nor suppleth not. But what preacheth he, whether any errors or the pure doctrine of God? No, say they, we cannot except against his doctrine. True, for they never trouble themselves so far as to examine it by the Word or themselves by it. But then, say I, is it the Word of God thou hearest, and the truth by thine own confession? Why dost thou then not tremble at that Word?

3. Hearers must hold wholesome doctrine when they have received it (2 Timothy 3:14). Continue in the things thou hast received; buy the truth, but sell it not, and bind it fast upon their hearts. And good reason, for if the meat be never so wholesome, if the stomach of the soul keep it not, but it slip the memory, and is not by meditation digested, the soul is as surely diseased as is the body when no sustenance will stay to strengthen it.

4. Hearers must so desire, receive, and hold this wholesome food, as they may grow by it, showing by their thriving in grace that they have wholesome meat (Psalm 109:4), for as in the body, if meat, when it is digested, send not virtue whereby the operation of it appeareth in all the parts, the body is diseased, some obstruction or opilation hindereth the work of it, so is the soul obstructed with the itching ear, covetous thoughts, hardness of heart, formal worship, all which keep the soul barren and empty of grace, yea, lean and ill-looking in the eyes of God. Seeing, therefore, the Lord hath spread His table for us, and liberally furnished it with store of this wholesome food, let it appear in our souls, by our strength to labour in Christian duties to which we are called, to overcome the temptations unto sin, to carry our victory in our strife against our own lusts.

(T. Taylor, D. D.)

1. Age.

2. Sex.

3. Relationship.

II. Genuine morality REACHES TO THE SPRINGS OF THE HEART.

III. GENUINE MORALITY IS THE GRAND PURPOSE OF GOSPEL TEACHING.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

I. IT IS THE HEALTHY MIND ALONE THAT CAN IMPART HEALTHY TEACHING. A healthy mind is a free and untrammeled mind; a mind that plays freely around all questions, and forms its own unbiassed conclusions. A mind that has the clear vision of health, a mind that has the keen appetite of health, a mind that has the unvitiated palate of health, a mind that has the hardy courage of health, a mind that takes the world as it finds it. An independent mind, a mind that makes its own observations, draws its own inferences, is not a mere servile echo of other minds.

II. HEALTHY TEACHING IS THAT WHICH IS HEALTHFUL IN ITS EFFECTS. Bad food cannot build up a robust frame. I will imagine that a mother has a puling, pining infant to rear. There is a question between divers kinds of diet. One authority says: "You ought to use mine, because it has the correct label on it, and is done up in the proper regulation tins." But the mother says: "I have tried it, and the child starved upon it." "But it has all the requisite chemical constituents in their due proportions. It must have been the native perversity of the child which prevented its thriving. It is the recognised thing, endorsed and recommended by the entire faculty." "I cannot help that," says the mother; "labels or no labels, tins or no tins, faculty or no faculty, all I know is that I have tried that food, and that if I had gone on with it, my child would have been dead by this time." And then she is induced, by some old wife, perhaps, to try another preparation, natural and simple, nobody's patent, with no label or endorsement whatever. But, lo, and behold! the child grows fat and plump, the hue of health comes gradually to its cheeks, and it weighs heavier every day! "But this is not an accredited compound. The great authorities on diet have not prescribed it. It cannot be wholesome." Once more the mother retorts: "No matter. My child is alive and well." Now, that is the true test to apply to religious teaching. What sort of men and women does it make? "Sound doctrine" is that which produces a healthy, spiritual life, which builds up character.

(J. Halsey.)

1. As first, the faithfulness of a wise steward herein appeareth, namely, in distributing to every one of his master's family their own portion of meat in due season (Luke 12:42).

2. To this purpose is the Word fitted, to make every man ready and absolute to every good work; and thus the wisdom of God is made to shine to all eyes, who can behold such a perfect rule of direction in faith and manners.

3. Well knew our apostle, with the other men of God, that general doctrines (though never so wholesome) little prevail, are but cold, and touch not men to the quick, without particular application to their several necessities; till Peter come to say, "You have crucified the Lord of glory," we read of no pricking of their hearts.

(T. Taylor, D. D.)

1. Indulgence in wine.

2. Irreverence.

3. Folly, "Temperate" here is really prudent, sound minded.

II. VIRTUES TO BE CHERISHED.

1. Stability.

2. Love.

3. Patience.

(F. Wagstaff.)

1. First, in regard of example, for their presidence prevaileth much, and would be a great inducement to the younger, who need all encouragements in the ways of God, which example not being generally given by oar elder men, besides that they entangle themselves in the sins of the younger, we cannot marvel at the licentiousness of our youth.

2. The honour of their age, yea, the ornament and crown of their years, is to be sound in the ways of righteousness, that is, in a life led holily and justly, which two can never be found but in a heart submitted to the Word of God, the rule of both.

3. Whereas old men are delighted with relations of idle antiquities, and things formerly passed as long as they can recall, the Holy Ghost recalleth them from such unfruitful spending of their time, and showeth them that Christ and His doctrine, both of them being from the beginning, are most ancient, and consequently the knowledge and remembrance of Him is a matter best beseeming them; to have their senses and tongues exercised herein should be the delight of their age; to be conversant in the holy exercises which witness of Him should be their chief business, as old Hannah went not out of the Temple, and old Simeon waited there to see his salvation.

4. Their time by the course of nature cannot be long to fit themselves to heaven, and therefore they had not need slack any opportunity which might hasten them thither.

(T. Taylor, D. D.)

Age should fly concourse, cover in retreat

Defects of judgment, and the will subdue;

Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore

Of the vast ocean it must sail so soon.Healthy, or sound, must they be "in respect to their faith, love, and patient endurance." The apostle, in his earliest Epistle (1 Thessalonians 1:3), congratulated that Church on "work" of theirs which originated in "faith," on "labour unto weariness" which was dictated by "love," and on "patient endurance" which was born of Christian "hope." In writing to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13:13), he says, "Now abideth faith, hope, love." The Lord, from His throne of glory, addressed the Ephesian Church (Revelation 2:2) thus: "I know thy works, thy labour unto weariness, and thy patient endurance." The passages throw light upon each other. Occasionally "hope," the child of faith, the source of patience, the secret of peace, and the wellspring of joy, is substituted by the apostle for one or other of the emotions with which it is so closely associated, either as antecedent or consequent. But, making allowance for this characteristic touch, it is profoundly interesting to trace in this — one of the latest of the Pauline Epistles — the vibration of a note struck by him in his earliest; an argument of no small weight in determining the authenticity of the Pastoral Epistles. Paul would have Titus cultivate among the aged men of Crete the root principles out of which all holy living proceeds. The peculiarity of the Pastoral Epistles — reference, i.e., to the being "sound" or "healthy" in these respects — suggests the possibility that "faith" may be under mined or perverted; that "love" may become irregular, sentimental, partisan, or hysterical; and that "patience" may degenerate into listlessness, obstinacy, or stoicism, if it be not fed at the fountains of Christian "hope." Does not the reference here to the causes and sources of holy living, rather than to those effects of them on which he had enlarged when writing to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 1:3), suggest to us that the longer St. Paul lived, he more and more acquired the habit of putting confidence in Christian principles and "sound" motives?

(H. R. Reynolds, D. D.)

(W. Attersoll.)

(J. Halsey.)

(T. Adams.)

(J. O. Dykes, D. D.)

II. WOMEN HAVE DUTIES PECULIAR TO THEIR AGE. The younger have duties of obedience; the middle-aged have the cares of home life; the aged have the instruction of the younger.

(F. Wagstaff)

II. TRUE RELIGION IS THE SECRET OF DOMESTIC PROSPERITY.

III. TRUE RELIGION AT HOME CAN ALONE INSURE THE ESTEEM AND RESPECT OF THOSE ABROAD.

(F. Wagstaff)

(H. R. Reynolds, D. D.)

(Great Thoughts.)

2. Beware of envy, which is still hatching and inventing evil: the saying is true, "Malice never spake well," but is suspicious, and depraving the best persons and practices, and is one of the greatest enemies of truth, in which God's image chiefly consisteth.

3. Learn to esteem the good name of thy brother, the next thing to his life, considering the truth of that homely speech, that he that wanteth a good name is half hanged; and there is great reason that those who would have their names tendered by others should tender the good name of others, doing as they would be done unto, which is the golden rule of all equity.

4. In receiving reports excuse parties absent as far as well we can, as also facts done, so far as they may be well interpreted; and where we cannot do so to advise the reporter to look well unto and consider himself.

(T. Taylor, D. D.)

(E. L. Magoon.)

1. That the young woman be sober, wise, of a sound mind, prudent and discreet members of the Church of Christ. The first element, then, in the education of your daughters is wisdom or prudence; and if you begin anywhere else with them, you begin at the wrong end. This wisdom or prudence is not easily defined, but it will appear in the entire character and conduct of their future life; it will enable them to avoid the snares which the ungodly lay for them, and conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the name and the religion of their Redeemer. This prudence is opposed to rashness, enthusiasm, and impulsive resolutions, to which the young mind, and especially the young female mind, is naturally inclined.

2. Then secondly, they are to love their husbands, for without this the house will become a pandemonium, and profligacy and impurity fill the land. Their love to their husbands should be ardent and unchangeable, yielding neither to the seduction of strangers nor to the husband's coldness and neglect at home.

3. To love their children. It may be asked, Is not this love natural? and if so, where is the necessity for teaching it? I answer, bad habits in society can eradicate many of the principles of our nature, and make us more degraded and unfeeling than the brutes. Edmund Burke relates that J.J. Rousseau would not keep his children in his house, but sent them to be brought up in an hospital; and then remarks, "that bears love their young, and lick them into shape, but bears are not philosophers." In India the natural love of our offspring was conquered by the tyranny of a terrible custom, and millions of female infants were destroyed in infancy by the mother's hands! Is the murder of infants altogether unheard of among us? Are there no Foundling hospitals within the bounds of Christendom? Then remember that the Isle of Crete was one of the wickedest places in the world, and the inhabitants mere heathen, and you shall see the force of the exhortation to "love their children." It is an awful fact, which I first heard of in Hamburgh, that in the continental cities there is a class of old wives, real old devils, who are called "child murderesses," and whose office it is to save the mother and destroy the child! In this way myriads of innocent infants are sacrificed, and no eye but the eye of God, the mother, and the murderess, ever knows anything about it!

4. They are to be discreet, which is the same as sober, mentioned in the fourth verse; chaste, viz., placing all their happiness in their husbands and families alone; keepers at home, that they may attend to the affairs of the household, and be an example to their children. It is not the duty of a married woman with a family to engage much in public business, even though it should be of the most important kind. Her place is the family circle, and her duty is to stay at home. We may say the same of much visiting. It is impossible to gad about and take care of the family at the same time; and as to the mother handing over her children to the care of servants, and then giving herself little or no concern about them, I say with Edmund Burke that such conduct would be a slander on the instinct of the brutes!

5. Good; they are to be good wives, faithful and diligent in their household duties. Good is a very expressive word, and is used to denote the highest excellence (Acts 11:24). Good (from which our word God comes, the Good One) I take in its most general acceptation to signify the disposition to bless; it is the fountain of kindness within, from which love, mercy, and all gentle and kind actions flow; "obedient to their own husbands, that the Word of God be not blasphemed." The great duty of the wife is obedience, and in this she is a type of the Church's obedience and submission to Christ. Love is common to both, though the natural order is that his should go before and hers follow after, as in the case of Christ and the Church; then obedience is her special duty, even as protection and defence are his. The command, probably, has a special reference to wives who were united to unbelieving or heathen husbands, and teaches that grace never delivers us from the obligations of nature — they are, though believing, to be obedient to their husbands though unbelieving, and the husband, though unbelieving, is bound to love, support, and protect his wife, though she is a believer in the gospel.

(W. Graham, D. D.)

(J. O. Dykes, D. D.)

(G. W. McCree.)

(D. Webster.)

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

(J. G. Pilkington.)

(T. Taylor, D. D.)

1. As a Christian, the public duties of piety and God's worship; as also more private duties of love, and works of mercy in visiting and helping the sick and poor.

2. As a wife, both with her husband when he shall require her, and without him for the necessary provision of the household — and such like. But the thing here condemned is the affection of gadding at any or all hours, with disposition of hearing or telling news, or affecting merriments, company, expense or excess, accounting the house rather a prison than a home, and so easily forsaking it without all just occasion.And justly is this course condemned, for —

1. This is a forsaking and flying for the time out of the calling wherein they ought to abide, for their calling is commonly within doors to keep the household in good order, and therefore for them to wander from their own place, is as if a bird should wander from her own nest.

2. This were the highway to become busybodies, for what other more weighty matters call them out of their calling, but to prattle of persons and actions which concern them not? Whence the apostle (1 Timothy 5:13) coupleth these two together, they are idle, and busybodies; which if any wonder how they can be reconciled, thus they are easily: those that are idle in their own duties are busybodies in other men's; and these busybodies have two special marks to be known by to themselves and others, namely, their open ears and their loose tongues.

3. The Holy Ghost maketh this a note of an whorish woman, she is everywhere but where she should be, sometimes gadding in the streets with Thamar, sometimes in the fields with Dinah, sometimes without at her door, sometimes at her stall, but her feet cannot abide in her house: and if against her will her body be within doors, her heart and senses will be without. Jezebel must be gazing out of the window: whereas if the angel ask where Sarah is, answer will be made, she is in her tent; and the daughters of Sarah will be in their tents, not in the taverns, nor straggling so far abroad but that their husbands can readily answer where they be.

4. What desperate and unavoidable evils do they (and justly) lay themselves open unto, who make no bones of violating the commandment of God? how doth Satan watch all advantages to take them when they are out of their ways? and how easily doth he prevail against them when they have plucked themselves from under God's protection? Dinah was no sooner assaulted than overcome in her wandering; and Eve no sooner absent from Adam than set upon, and no sooner set upon, than vanquished.

(T. Taylor, D. D.)

(Christian Age.)

(Dean Church.)

II. LET IT BE MANIFEST THAT HOME HAS THE PRECEDENCE IN YOUR THOUGHTS AND AFFECTIONS. Hume tells us, in his history, that in the reign of Henry VIII a proclamation was issued forbidding women to meet together for babble and talk, and directing husbands to keep their wives in their houses. Such a proclamation gives us a sorry insight into the domestic life of our ancestors. Society has improved since then. Still, there are now not wanting very strong temptations to gadding about. Never were there more numerous or more attractive exhibitions on view, never were there more frequent or more important public meetings for benevolent and religious purposes, and never were there greater facilities for transition from spot to spot. And, alas! there are some young wives who seem to feel it incumbent on them to be present and assist at every gathering designed to promote some useful enterprise. The result is that home is often neglected, the children run riot, the domestics grow careless, and the husband returns, after a day's activities and annoyances, to find, what should be a quiet refuge from the world's turmoil, a deserted, disorderly, cheerless spot. I ask you to remember, young woman, that a wife's true orbit is home. In ancient Rome a high compliment was paid a queen by the epitaph, "She staid at home and spun." The ancient Greeks suggested the same feminine duty by carving Venus on a tortoise. In ancient Boeotia, when a bride was conveyed to her husband's house the wheels of the vehicle in which she travelled thither were burned at the doors, as an intimation that they would not be needed again. So today in Turkey, in India, in Spanish America, and elsewhere seclusion is the true sign of respectability. To be high bred is to be invisible. Whilst, in our own land, though women enjoy freedom to think, and act, and speak, and are denied no rights of real and enduring value, yet they are most trusted and loved by their husbands and families who are good keepers of home, who make their first and foremost study the temporal and spiritual welfare of those nearest at hand and dearest at heart. There is something quaint, however questionable, in the observation of a clergyman who ventured to preach upon the subject of women's sphere. He chose for his text "Where is thy wife? Behold, she is in the tent." He started his discourse by the remark: "There she ought to be, and the less she is heard outside the better." I would qualify that preacher's words and say: "By all means let her be heard and seen outside the tent if she have fully and faithfully discharged her duty inside the tent. But if to be seen and heard outside she must neglect her own household, then let her keep at home,"

III. DO YOUR UTMOST TO RETAIN THE CONFIDENCE AND AFFECTION OF YOUR HUSBAND. As you examine the magnificent monument in Hyde Park, erected in memory of the late Prince Consort, you observe that the only figure that is represented twice is that of the celebrated Michael Angelo. Among the painters he leans upon the chair of Raphael. Among architects and sculptors, he is the middle of a far-famed group. And justly is he thus honoured, for his genius was exceptionally great. But far above his fresco in the Sistine Chapel, far above his "Last Judgment," far above his cupola of St. Peter's, far above his "Sleeping Cupid," which Raphael pronounced worthy of Phidias or Praxiteles, stands the sonnet to his wife. Angelo profoundly loved and adored Vittoria Colonna. When she died he lingered by her corpse, and kissed affectionately the clay-cold hand; his only regret afterwards being that he had not kissed her cheeks. And why such deep and enduring affection? Because the wife elicited it, and by constant care retained it. She impressed him with the preciousness of virtue. She elevated his thought and inspired him to write: —

"For oh! how good, how beautiful, must be

The God that made so good a thing as thee."Macaulay describes the painful scene at the death of Mary, wife of William of Orange. The king's agony was intense. Amid scalding tears he testified to the excellency of the departed Queen, saying to Bishop Burnet, "I was the happiest man on earth, and I am the most miserable. She had no fault — none; you knew her well but you could not know, nobody but myself could know, her goodness." Not unworthy of notice is the homely advice given by an old lady to her newly-married daughter, "Never worry your husband. A man is like an egg, kept in hot water a little while he may boil soft, but keep him there too long and he hardens."

IV. BE GOVERNED IN ALL YOUR RELATIONSHIPS BY TRUE RELIGION. Let the sound, safe, significant principles of godliness guide you. Let the love of Christ constrain you in all your household and family engagements. Do what you are called to do heartily as unto the Lord. Remember that there is One greater, better, wiser, and more loving and loveable than your earthly husband — One who claims and deserves all the affection of your heart, all the homage of your mind, all the service of your life. "Thy Maker is thy husband." The Lord Jesus is the bridegroom of your soul. As a wife renounces old familiar scenes, customary engagements, and long-known associates for her husband, so you are asked to be ready to renounce all for Jesus. As a wife surrenders all her time, influence, and possessions to her husband, so you are asked to make a voluntary and joyful surrender of yourself and all your belongings to Christ. As a wife consents to share with her husband in all vicissitudes, in adversity as well as prosperity, so you are asked to follow the Lord whithersoever He may lead, through evil and through good report, counting it an honour to be partaker of His sufferings. As a good wife cultivates love for her husband so that every day augments the volume of her affection, so you are asked to foster and evince love for Christ. We have read in history how, when Edward I was wounded by a poisoned dagger, his wife Eleanor, from the deep love she bare her husband, sucked the poisoned wound, and so ventured her own life to save his. Such love you are asked to cultivate for Christ. If He be wounded by the poisonous tongues of the ungodly, by reproaches, blasphemies, and persecutions, do you learn to say, "Let the reproach of Christ fall upon me" — "Let me suffer rather than Jesus and His truth!"

(J. H. Hitchens, D. D.)

(H. R. Reynolds, D. D.)

1. You must be considerate and thoughtful, not rash and heedless. Take time to think; learn to think freely — to think for yourselves, of yourselves.

2. You must be cautious and prudent, not wilful and heady. Fix rules of wisdom. Use reason and conscience. Be diffident of your own judgment. Study Scripture.

3. You must be humble and modest, not proud and conceited. Be not above your business, above reproof, above religion.

4. You must be temperate and self-denying, not indulgent of your appetites.

5. You must be mild and gentle, not indulgent of your passions.

6. You must be chaste and reserved, not wanton or impure.

7. You must be staid and composed, not giddy and unsettled.

8. You must be content and easy, not ambitious and aspiring.

9. You must be grave and serious, not vain and frothy.

II. CONSIDERATIONS TO ENFORCE THIS EXHORTATION.

1. You are reasonable creatures.

2. You are sinners before God.

3. You are setting out in a world of sorrows and snares.

4. Multitudes of the young are ruined for want of this sobriety of mind.

5. You are here upon trial for heaven.

6. You must shortly go to judgment.

III. APPLICATION:

1. Examine yourselves.

2. Exhort one another.

3. Contemplate the advantages of sober mindedness. You will —

(1)Escape vanity of childhood and youth;

(2)Recommend yourselves to the favour of God and all wise men;

(3)Prepare for a useful and comfortable life, and a happy death.

4. Directions to make you sober minded.

(1)Espouse sober principles.

(2)Meditate on serious things.

(3)Choose sober companions.

(4)Read sober books.

(5)Abound in sober work.

(Matthew Henry, D. D.)

1. This exhortation is opposed to undue self-esteem (see Romans 11:20; Romans 12:3-6; Philippians 2:3). There ought to be a certain amount of self-esteem or self-respect. Where that is wholly wanting, there will be little or no force of character. Where there is no self-respect, one of the strongest arguments against evil will be lost. If we do not respect ourselves, we shall not act so as to gain the respect of others. But the excess of this self-respect is as injurious as its want; and it is to this excess that youth is naturally prone. When we enter upon life it is with an exalted idea of our own attainments and importance. We are soon led to smart in consequence of this; we soon find our own level. But O! how much pain, how much humiliation should we be spared, if we did but learn at the onset to esteem others better than ourselves! And O! young men, when we look into our own hearts, how much there is there to humble us.

2. This exhortation is opposed to all rash speculations upon spiritual things. The forms of pride are very various; but in whatever form pride presents itself, it is still an evil against which we should be on our guard. There are some forms of pride which are simply despicable and ridiculous. For instance, the pride of dress, the pride of personal appearance, the pride of life, or the pride of birth. But there is another form of pride which does not appear so offensive as these — I mean, the pride of intellect of those faculties which God has given us, by which we are distinguished above the lower orders of creation, and by which when cultivated we are raised in the social scale. But still, this form of pride, like every other form is inexcusable. Why should we boast of those faculties which have been given us by God, and of which at any moment He could deprive us? And if under no circumstances it is excusable, it is more especially offensive if it lead us to cavil at the statements of this holy book, respecting the character, and the will, and the dealings of the Most High.

3. This exhortation is opposed to all ambitious efforts to amass wealth, and to rise unduly in the social scale. Do not suppose that I would object to any amount of progress, either intellectually or socially. To the young I would say, Do all the good you can, get all the good you can, and enjoy to the utmost all those good things which God has placed within your reach. But, at the same time, remember this, that anything, however good it may be in itself, ceases to be good as soon as it is used in excess, or when it interferes with your highest interests. Now, keeping that statement in view, just consider the result of the ceaseless striving of men in the present day, not only to accumulate wealth, but to imitate the habits, the customs, and the dress of the station above them. Shun — shun as a plague all those books which would render you dissatisfied with the position in which God has placed you. Rest assured that that position is the best possible position for you. Remember that this is but the first stage of your existence. Learn to look upon this as a training school — as a state of discipline in which you must bear much that you do not like, in which you must do much that you would rather not do, but in daring to do which you will be enabled to conform to God's will and to rise to a higher state of being.

4. This exhortation is opposed to all impatience and unwillingness to listen to the counsels and cautions of those who are older than ourselves. You know that one of our poets has observed: —

"At thirty man suspects himself a fool —

Knows it at forty — and reforms his plan."And oh! how much misery would be saved, if when we were young we were content to receive the experience of others, rather than gain that experience for ourselves by a very painful process.

II. SOME CONSIDERATIONS BY WHICH THIS EXHORTATION CAN BE ENFORCED. Be sober minded, and this will elevate your character. "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Be sober minded, and this will greatly increase your influence for good here below. Be sober minded, and you will escape many a snare in which others have fallen, and been destroyed. There is a passage which I would commend to the attention of young men; describing the death bed of an ungodly youth — "Lest thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed" — the flesh of thy body consumed by indulgence in evil practices - "and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despiseth reproof; and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly." That is the result of the spirit and conduct opposed to sobriety of mind. Cultivate this in the last place, because it will prove that your religion is a reality, and not a name.

(R. C. Pritchett.)

1. There is the excitement of intemperance and of all approaches to it, of sensuality in all its forms; an excitement so strong, and for the moment so pleasurable, that he who has once yielded to it soon forms the habit of such indulgence, and he who has once formed the habit, almost always persists in it till his sin is his ruin; no persuasions and no convictions, no experience of misery and no resolutions of amendment, are of any avail; the man who has allowed the body to become his master is in this sense, as in all others, indeed a slave, that he cannot escape from his bondage, he must live on in it, and die in it too. The word intemperance may be too strong to express anything which you are at present in danger of, or anything indeed which the present fashions of society make perilous (speaking generally) for any one in your rank of life: but none the less would I caution you with the most anxious earnestness, against bodily excitement of a sinful kind: no change in national customs will ever make the body cease to be the chief enemy of the soul: other enemies come and go, temptations from companions, from occupations, from circumstances of life: this one alone is always with us, an enemy in the very camp, and able too to mask his assaults under the show of friendliness and good will.

2. As sinful excitement, so excessive excitement, even in forms not sinful, is here plainly forbidden. God has established a certain order and gradation amongst the parts of our nature. He bids us think of this intricate framework of human life as composed of three parts, which to our present comprehension we may best explain under the names of body, mind, and soul. Every one of these is most important: in each one a great work has to be done within a limited time: each one is destined to immortality, and has to be prepared for it by us. But, though each of these three parts is valuable, each immortal, each worthy of thought and care and culture, each the object (for our sakes) of God's special regard; yet they are not equally valuable: the soul stands first, far first, in this respect: that part of us which is capable of knowing and loving God, of resembling Him, of being His own dwelling place, ought always to be the first also in our own regard: we ought to think far more seriously of its hunger, or its disease, than we all do of that of the body: we ought to be far more vexed when our soul loses one of its meals, which are opportunities of prayer, public and private, opportunities of reading or hearing God's Word, or of joining in the Holy Communion, than when we are debarred by accident or want of appetite from a bodily meal: all these things are necessary consequences of the most elementary faith in God, and Christ, and eternity. Next to it comes the mind; that part of man which understands and judges, thinks and knows; that part which has to be stored and practised in youth, for the service of God and our generation in mature life. Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. Bid them, if you be a faithful minister of Christ, bid them, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, but with all earnestness of entreaty that they will listen, to think first of their souls, and next of their minds, and last of that which is bodily: tell them that, though God wills that their bodies should be active, hardy, and skilful, He does not will that every other part of them should be backward, awkward and stunted; that, because He loves them, because He desires their happiness, because He desires to bless them and to do them good, because He would have them with Him hereafter, and in order to do this must first fit them for His presence, therefore He exhorts them to be not excited but sober minded in things which are transitory and temporal; bids them set Him before them even in their amusements; bids them ask His blessing every day, as before they work, so also before they play; bids them accept their bodily pleasures, like all other, from Him, remember Him in them, moderate them for His sake, and above all use for His glory alone, in self-control, in temperance, in purity, those bodies upon which they bestow so much labour.

3. To be sober minded is, in other words, to have a sound mind; a mind neither trifling, nor giddy, nor inconstant, nor morbid; a mind just in its views, wise in its aims, moderate in its expectations, inflexible in its principles, authoritative in its self-control, right with God. It implies that we have a just view of life; that we not only profess but feel its true object, as a preparation for eternity, as an opportunity of doing the will of God and promoting His purposes towards us and towards all men. It implies that we neither expect to be able, nor feel it to be desirable, in all things to please ourselves, or to have our own way. It implies that we are thankful for whatever God gives, and patient under His withholding, controlling and even chastening hand. That we are willing to be what He would have us to be, even when our own inclination might point to a very different lot. All this it is, but more also. A sound mind, in the highest sense of the word, cannot be where the Holy Spirit is not; where God Himself is not present in the soul, through Jesus Christ, by His Spirit, as the Guide and Lord and Comforter, wisdom and quietness and strength, the life of our life and the hope of glory. Little can they who have not this be depended upon: natural cleverness and good sense may do much for us; it may cover up many faults, it may enable us to originate many good counsels; but it breaks down in the time of trial, when it is most of all important to be right, most of all fatal to be wrong. A sound mind, a sober mind, in the true sense, can only be where the soul of man has been changed (to use the Scriptural figure) into the spirit of man by the indwelling of the holy and blessed Spirit of God.

(Dean Vaughan.)

1. Thoughtful and considerate, in opposition to giddiness and levity of disposition.

2. Humble and diffident in opposition to an assuming and self-sufficient spirit.

3. Temperate and self-denied, in opposition to the unrestrained indulgence of the passions.

4. To give an habitual preference to eternal over temporal things.

5. That we never put off to a future period that which ought to be done now.

II. REASONS FOR URGING TO SOBER MINDEDNESS.

1. You are reasonable creatures, and it is the office of reason to govern the passions, etc.

2. You are guilty creatures, but the means of salvation are placed within your reach.

3. You are dying and accountable creatures, but the means of eternal happiness are enjoyed only in this world.

(W. Peddle.)

1. It will be acknowledged that it is impossible for a person, with any constant tenor, to act well that does not think wisely, or to think wisely that does not think soberly. But what is of constant necessity in every stage of life must be of special importance in that upon which the rest depend; and, by consequence, he that sets out with this advantage, is in the most probable method to go on and prosper.

2. The morning of our life, our early and flourishing years, ought especially to be armed with this precaution, because it is then we are exposed to the greatest dangers; when the passions are the strongest, and so the most apt to transport us with their violence; when the pleasures and entertainments of sense have their full taste and relish, and are therefore the more capable of betraying us into excess; when we are the most easy, credulous, and complying, and so the most open to the attempts of others, the likeliest to be insalted and overborne by the confident, or ensnared by the designing, or perverted by those that go astray. Wherefore, experience coming so late should, if possible, be supplied by more early consideration, and reason should invite us before affliction constrains us to be serious.

3. As most ornaments, whether of mind or body, sit best upon the young, flourish in the spring of life, and look with peculiar gracefulness in the bloom and beauty of Nature, so this excellent temper of which we speak, which is the chief attire of the soul, and to which most other good qualities that it can put on are but appendages, is then in the exactest manner fit and becoming; and if it be real and not counterfeit, natural and not affected, easy and not precise, it has indeed the finest lustre, and renders those who wear it the most amiable and charming.

4. As youth has many natural gifts and endowments that speak in its behalf, and entitle it to favour, so it has one natural disadvantage, in respect of time, which it would be glad, if possible, to balance or compensate. In this regard it has been excellently well observed of birth or quality, that it gives a person at eighteen or twenty the same esteem and deference which another of inferior rank acquires at fifty; so that the former has thirty years gained at once. Now, the privilege which custom and civility allow to the noble, reason and justice demand, and generally obtain, for the sober and discreet; and they are the happiest who possess it by a double title.

II. This may the better suffice as to the offering some reasons why sobriety of mind should particularly be recommended to youth; since, by representing THE BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES it then specially affords, we are to show the effect of those reasons, and of that particular application.

1. Sobriety of mind confirms and settles the principles of religion. Great has been the happiness of your birth, and the advantage of your education, but that either of these should be lasting and effectual depends upon yourselves. What admonitions and advices you have heard, what cautions you have received from parents or friends, books or conversation, are a ready stock committed to your management and improvement: a treasure in which you cannot make too much haste to be rich, an inheritance which indeed renders them the happiest to whom it comes the soonest. You are left to make your first steps in the world, which being so rough and uneven ground, and so plentiful in occasions of falling, it imports you the more to have regard to Solomon's rule (Proverbs 4:15, 16). To which you will give me leave to add that great and excellent lesson which he received from his father, and which some of you, I presume, have received from yours (1 Chronicles 23:9).

2. As sobriety of mind has such a power in keeping the principles of religion firm and stable, it has no less in rendering the practice of religion easy. We say all things are easy to a willing mind; but a sober mind is as willing as it is wise. For that which brings in most of the difficulties of a good life is our too late consideration, when having gone so far without thought, we cannot retire without pain.

3. It is a strong defence against temptations. "I have written to you young men because ye are strong," says St. John; "Or what imports the same," says an eloquent divine, "because you are vigorous; that is, you are now in such a state of body and soul and affections as is most subservient to piety — most quick and governable, and most successfully applied to the offices of duty. Govern, therefore, your appetites before the evil days come. Now you may gird them, and carry them whither you will, but if you neglect the season, they will hereafter gird you, and carry you whither you would not."

4. It affords the greater opportunities of eminent piety and virtue. For he that is thus armed is, we see, the fittest and most expedite not for defence only but for action; so that when occasions present themselves, he is ready to meet them with delight, and improve them to advantage.

(B. Kennet, D. D.)

I. AS THUS UNDERSTOOD, SOBRIETY OF MIND IS TO BE DISTINGUISHED FROM. A NATIVE SLUGGISHNESS OR CAUTIOUSNESS WHICH MAY CONSPIRE WITH IT TO PREVENT EXCESS. If a man, for instance, can never become angry, he may be saved from many foolish and sinful acts, but it is many times better to have a power of subduing anger, which you have acquired by exertions which have cost you something, than to be a stone. Moreover, if such native sobriety of mind exists, it is rare. There is generally some weak spot, where passion can with success approach men who seem like icicles. What class of persons is more thoroughly worldly than many who are proof against the allurements of vice, but speculate with the gambler's intense excitement, or burn with a devouring lust for power. Perhaps the greatest insobriety of mind belongs to those who, in most respects, have an entire mastery over themselves — who view the world on many of its sides as it is, but concentrate all their forces on one object, with an untiring restless fever of soul which the votary of pleasure seldom knows.

II. THE APOSTLE'S SOBER MINDEDNESS IS NOT TO BE CONFOUNDED WITH THAT SELF CONTROL WHICH SPRINGS FROM WORLDLY PRUDENCE AND SHREWD CALCULATIONS OF SUCCESS IN LIFE. There are men who live exclusively for earthly enjoyment, who yet have attained to a mastery over their own lusts. They know what the laws of health will allow, what the body will bear, how far they may go in pleasure consistently with prudence and economy, what degree of restraint is demanded to preserve their reputation. They will, therefore, keep themselves sober while their less discreet, and perhaps less corrupt, companions are intoxicated at their side; they live a long healthy life, while others die of the effects of vicious indulgence, and retain their good name while others ruin themselves in the opinion of society. Verily, they have their reward; but their sober mindedness is certainly no such virtue that even a philosopher could commend it.

III. SOBRIETY OF MIND, BEING SOMETHING MORE THAN A TEMPERAMENT AVERSE TO EXCESS, SOMETHING MORE THAN SELF-CONTROL ON SELFISH PRINCIPLES MAY BE LOOKED AT AS A PHILOSOPHICAL, OR AS A CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. In both cases, it is a subordination of the desires and passions to the higher principles of the soul; in both, it is a spontaneous self-government according to the rules of right living, not according to calculations of temporal advancement. When we speak of Christian sobriety of mind, we mean nothing generically different from the notion which philosophy had already formed. But we mean sobriety of mind sustained by Christian principles, enforced by Christian motives, and dwelling amid other manifestations of a Christian or purified character. Let us consider it when thus broadly understood, in some of its most prominent characteristics.

1. It involves an estimate of earthly pleasure and good formed under the power of faith. With Christ's advent into the world, a new idea of life began, and the victory of the spirit over the flesh is rendered possible.

2. But it is not enough to have a standard of character; the young man, if he would be sober minded, must have rules of living calculated beforehand to resist the allurements of the world when they arise It is the part of Christian ethics to make known what rules are needed for our moral guidance, and to enforce them by the appropriate motives. In this place, no such thing can be attempted, and yet I cannot pass on without calling your attention to one or two parts of conduct, where it is peculiarly important to have well settled principles of action.(1) In regard to the bodily appetites, Christian sobriety begins to be lost as soon as they are made ends in themselves, without regard to something higher.(2) In regard to amusements and diversions, sobriety consists in keeping them in their place, as recreations after bodily and mental toil. They must not then usurp the rights of labour, unless we are resolved to destroy the earnestness and seriousness of character, which grows out of a conviction that life is full of meaning.

3. Need I add that rules must be followed by a settled purpose, by a resolution formed in the view of spiritual and divine truth to adopt such a course of life as sobriety of mind requires.

(T. D. Woolsey.)

1. The ignorance and inexperience of youth.

2. Those constitutional inclinations which predominate in some more than in others.

3. The temptations by which youth is surrounded.

4. The vast importance of commencing well a course of life.

II. THE CHARACTER OF THAT SOBER MINDEDNESS WHICH THE TEXT RECOMMENDS.

1. Its basis. Reverence for God, contrition for sin, etc.

2. Its contrasts. Pride, rashness, obstinacy, petulance, sullenness, presumption, etc.

3. Its objects. It should make you moderate in all things, etc.

III. THE ADVANTAGES WHICH RESULT FROM THE POSSESSION AND DISPLAY OF THIS SOBER MINDEDNESS.

1. It will qualify you for your relations to society.

2. It will greatly contribute to your usefulness wherever you are placed.

3. It will greatly increase your comfort.

(J. Clayton.)

I. AS THE CULTIVATION OF THE MENTAL AND MORAL POWERS WITH WHICH GOD HAS ENDOWED THEM.

II. AS THE FULFILMENT OF THE DESTINY WHICH THEY ARE TO FULFIL IN LIFE.

III. AS THE FITTING PREPARATION FOR A HIGHER LIFE HEREAFTER.

(F. Wagstaff.)

1. A habit of moral thoughtfulness.

2. Practical prudence and circumspection.

3. A modest and humble deportment.

II. SOME PARTICULARS IN WHICH THIS GRACE OF CHARACTER SHOULD BE DISPLAYED.

1. In all your plans and schemes for worldly happiness.

2. In all parts of your social intercourse — dress, discourse, Choice of recreations, etc.

III. A VALUABLE AGENCY BY WHICH THIS SOBER MINDEDNESS MAY BE PROMOTED.

(D. Moore, M. A.)

(J. Foster.)

2. That the means to redress it is the study of the Scriptures, unto the rules whereof they must have regard, and not to the example of men.

3. That if they will needs be given to imitation, then must they imitate not the most, but the best of that age; such as was young Daniel, who in tender years was able to utter knowledge (Daniel 1:4); young Samuel, who so soon as he is weaned, must stand before the Lord (1 Samuel 1); young Josiah, who at eight years old walked uprightly (2 Kings 2); young Timothy, who knew the Scriptures of a child; yea, of Christ Himself, who increased in wisdom as in stature, so as at twelve years old He was able to confound the doctors and great rabbis of the Jews.

4. That against all the discouragements they shall meet withal from men, as that they are too forward, soon ripe, and young saints, etc., they must oppose the Lord's good pleasure, who requireth firstlings, first fruits, firstborn of man and beast; the first month, yea, the first day of that month, for the celebrating of the passover; and delighteth in whole and fat offerings, not in the lame, lean, and blind sacrifices which His soul abhorreth:. for of all the sons of men, the Lord never took such pleasure as in such who were sanctified even from the womb. Some of the learned call men to the timely service of God, from the allusion of Moses's rod (Exodus 3), and Isaiah's vision (chap. Isaiah 9), both of the almond tree, because of all trees that soonest putteth forth her blossoms. How sound that collection is, I will not stand to inquire; only this is true, that such as would be trees of righteousness, and known to be of the Lord's planting, laden (especially in their age) with the fruits of the Spirit, must with the almond tree timely bud, and blossom, and bear, that their whole lives may be a fruitful course, whereby God may be glorified, and themselves receive in the end a more full consolation.

(T. Taylor, D. D.)

1. A precept.

2. An enforcement of it.

I. THE PRECEPT IS, That Titus show himself an example to others. For as all the persons formerly taught, so more especially the last sort, namely, young men, for the slipperiness of their age need the benefit of good example as well as good doctrines and counsel. And this exhortation is enlarged by setting down wherein Titus must become an example, which is done, first, more generally, "in all things," we read it, "above all things"; others, "above all men," which readings may be true, and grounds of good instruction, but I take the first aptest to the place. Secondly, by a more particular enumeration of shining virtues, as —

1. Uncorrupt doctrine.

2. Good life fruitful in good works; and these not one or two, or now and then in good moods, but there must be a constant trading in them throughout a grave and pare conversation.

3. There must be joined gracious speeches and words, for I take it fitliest interpreted of private communication, described by two necessary adjuncts.

1. It must be wholesome.

2. Unblameable, or not liable to reproof.

II. THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE PRECEPT IS TAKEN FROM THE END OR FRUIT OF IT, which is twofold.

1. Shame.

2. Silence to the withstanders and opposers.And thus the general scope of the verses is as if he had more largely said, "That this thy doctrine, O Titus, thus aptly applied to all sorts of men, may carry more weight and authority with it, see thou that (considering thou art set in a more eminent place, and clearer sun, and hast all eyes beholding and prying into thee) thou show thyself a pattern and express type wherein men may behold all these graces shining in thy own life: let them look in thy glass, and see the lively image of a grave and pure conversation, which may allure them to the love of the doctrine which thou teachest: let them hear from thy mouth in thy private conferences and speech nothing but what may work them to soundness; at the least, keep thou such a watch over thy tongue, as that nothing pass thee which may be reprehended, and hence will it come to pass that although thou hast many maliciously minded men, seeking by all means to oppose thy doctrine and life, and to destroy the one by the other, these shall either be put to silence and have nothing to say, or if they take boldness to speak anything, it being unjust, the shame shall be removed from thee and fall justly upon themselves; and all the reproach shall return home to their own doors."

(T. Taylor, D. D.)

II. THESE THAT OPPOSE THEMSELVES TO GOOD MINISTERS AND MEN ARE EVER SPEAKING EVIL, AND OPENING THEIR MOUTHS WITH REPROACHES AGAINST THEM AND THEIR GODLY COURSES. Moses was charged, and that not in corners, but to his face, that he took too much upon him, whereas he was unwilling to undertake all that the Lord laid upon him. It went current in court and country that Elias troubled all Israel. Amaziah accuseth Amos to the king, that the land is not able to bear all his words. Diotrephes not only withstood the apostle John, but prattled against him. But what is the reason of all this, have they any cause given them? The reason is partly positive in themselves, and partly negative in the other.

1. In themselves.(1) The malice of their heart is such as cannot but continually out of the abundance thereof set their tongues at work: the fire within sendeth out such smoke abroad.(2) With this malice is joined exceeding pride and swelling, which moveth them to seek the raising of themselves, although with the fall of others, and make the reproach of others as a ladder for themselves to climb by.(3) With this malice and pride is joined exceeding subtlety and policy in their generation. Well know they that they have gotten ever more conquests by the strokes of their tongues than of their hands, and seldom have they failed of their purposes.

2. Now the negative reason in good men themselves, why their withstanders speak evil of them, is set down (1 Peter 4:4).

III. EVERY GODLY MAN'S ENDEAVOUR MUST BE TO STOP THE MOUTHS OF SUCH ADVERSARIES, AND SO MAKE THEM ASHAMED. But it is an impossible thing they will have always something to say. Yet so live thou as thou mayst boldly appeal unto God. Let thine own conscience be able to answer for thy uprightness, and so thou openest not their mouths; if now they open them against thee, it is their sin and not thine, and thus this precept is expounded (1 Timothy 5:14). Give no occasion to the adversaries to speak evil. And is enforced with special reason (1 Peter 2:12, 15). This is the will of God, by well doing to silence the ignorance of foolish men. If any shall say, "Why I care not what they say on me, they are dogs and wicked men," and what are we to regard them? The apostle telleth us that yet for God's commandment sake we must not open their mouths, but perform all duties of piety and humanity unto them.

2. Because they watch occasions to traduce, we must watch to cut off such occasions (Luke 6:7). The Scribes and Pharisees watched Christ whether He would heal on the Sabbath, to find an accusation against Him. Christ did the good work, but by His question to them cut off so far as be could the matter of their malice; by clearing the lawfulness of it. So out of their malice we shall draw our own good, and thus it shall be true which the heathen said, that the enemy often hurteth less and profiteth more than many friends.

3. What a glory is it for a Christian thus to slaughter envy itself? To keep shut that mouth that would fain open itself against him? To make him be clothed with his own shame, who sought to bring shame upon him and his profession? When a wretch cannot so put off his forehead as to accuse him whom he abhorreth, no more than he can the sun of darkness when it shineth; yea, when the Prince of the world cometh to sift such a member of Christ, yet He findeth nothing justly to upbraid him withal.

(T. Taylor, D. D.)

(Prof. Graham.)

(Major Mathers.)

1. Obedience.

2. Acceptableness of service. The idea is really, approbation based upon virtuous actions.

3. Respectfulness of manner.

4. Honesty.

5. Fidelity.

II. MOTIVES OF DUTY. That the religion of Christ might be honoured in the consistency of its professors.

(F. Wagstaff.)

1. In an inward reverencing in heart the image of God in His superiority. This reverent subjection of the heart the Lord in His own example requireth in all His servants, "If I be a master, where is My fear?" (Malachi 1:6), and is the first duty of that commandment, "Honour thy father and mother." The apostle (Ephesians 6:5) calleth for fear and trembling from servants toward their masters.

2. In the outward testimony of this inward reverence, both in speech and gesture before his master, and behind his back; but especially in the free obedience of all his lawful, yea, and unequal commandments, so as they be not unlawful (Colossians 3:22).

3. In patient enduring without resistance, rebukes and corrections, although bitter, yea, and unjust (1 Peter 2:18, 19).

II. The second virtue required of servants towards their masters is, that they PLEASE THEM IN ALL THINGS. How will this precept stand with that in Ephesians 6:6, where servants are forbidden to be men pleasers? To serve only as men pleasers, as having the eye cast only on man is hypocrisy, and the sin of many servants, pleasing man for man's sake, and that is condemned by our apostle; but to please men in God and for God is a duty in servants next unto the first; who, to show themselves well pleasing to their masters, must carry in their hearts and endeavour a care to be accepted of them, even in the things which, for the indignity and burdensomeness of them, are much against their own minds. For this is the privilege of a master to have his servant devoted unto his pleasure and will, for the attempting of any business, the continuance in it, and the unbending of him from it; and when the servant hath done all he can, it was but debt and duty, and no thanks are due to him from his master (Matthew 8:9). But wherein must I please my master or mistress? In all things, that is, in all outward things which are in different and lawful. I say in outward things, so Ephesians 6:5, servants obey your masters according to the flesh; wherein the apostle implieth two things.

1. That the masters are according and over the flesh and outward man; not over the spirit and inward man, over which we have all one Master in heaven.

2. That accordingly they are to obey in outward things, for if the dominion of the one be bounded so also must needs be the subjection of the other. Again, these outward things must be lawful or indifferent; for they must not obey against the Lord, but in the Lord.

III. Servants are in the third place PROHIBITED CROSSLY AND STUBBORNLY TO REASON, AND DISPUTE MATTERS WITH THEIR MASTERS; but in silence and subjection to sit down with the worse, even when they suffer wrong; for as they are to carry a reverent esteem of them in their hearts so must they bewray reverence, love, and lowliness in all their words and gestures; neither are they here coped from all manner of speech, for when just occasion of speech is offered, as by questions asked, they must make respective answers and not in sullenness say nothing, for Solomon condemneth it as a vice and great sin in servants, when they understand, not to answer (Proverbs 29:19).

IV. "NOT PURLOINING." By the former, servants were taught to bridle their tongues; by this precept, their hands. The word properly noteth the setting somewhat apart to one's private use, which is not his, and is used (Acts 5:6). Ananias kept away and craftily conveyed to his private use that which should have gone another way. So that servants are forbidden to pilfer the least part of their master's goods to dispose to their own or other's use without the acquaintance of their masters. And herein, under this principle, all manner of unfaithfulness is inclusively condemned, as the opposition in the next words showeth.

V. "BUT SHOWING ALL GOOD FIDELITY."

1. In his master's commands, readily and diligently to perform them of conscience, and not for eye service, but whether his master's eye be upon him or no. Wherein Abraham's servant giveth a notable precedent.

2. In his counsels and secrets, never disclosing any of his infirmities or weaknesses, but by all lawful and good means covering and biding them. Contrary hereunto is that wickedness of many servants, who may, indeed, rather be accounted so many spies in the house, whose common practice is, where they may be heard, to blaze abroad whatsoever may tend to their master or mistress's reproach, having at once cast off both the religious fear of God, as also the reverent respect of God's image in the persons of their superiors.

3. In his messages abroad, both in the speedy execution and dispatch of them, as also in his expenses about them; husbanding his master's money, cutting off idle charges, and bringing home a just account; hereby acknowledging that the eye of his own conscience watcheth him when his master's eye cannot.

4. Unto his master's wife, children, servants, wisely with Joseph distinguishing the things which are committed unto him from them that are excepted.

5. Lastly, in all his actions and carriage, so also in every word, shunning all lying, dissembling, untruths, whether for his master's, his own, or other men's advantage; in the practice of which duties he becometh faithful in all his master's house.

(T. Taylor, D. D.)

II. THE EXCEEDING SINFULNESS OF THIS SIN. There are many excuses which are brought forward in extenuation of this offence.

1. The change of its name. There is a wonderful imposition in words; and many purloiners quiet their consciences by changing the name. Because it is not commonly called stealing, they think it does not involve the guilt of stealing.

2. Another plea is, that however great the amount may be in the course of months or years, you are pleased to make the depredations small in detail. It is a petty affair of every day, and so very little as not to be worth thinking about. It does not say, "Thou shalt not steal much!" but, "Thou shalt not steal!"

3. The next plea is, that the master is rich and will not miss it, and so it will do no harm. This law does not merely forbid them to steal from the poor, leaving them at liberty to steal from the rich.

III. THE MOTIVES WHICH ENFORCE THE OPPOSITE CONDUCT. The servants whom Titus was to exhort were those of his own congregation. They formed a Christian community; and however the title may be applied now, it was then given to these who had renounced Paganism. The admonition was to men who had embraced not only the profession of faith, but the faith itself. It is right that, for every kind of unrighteousness, men should be reproved; for "the wrath of God is revealed," etc. The more they are burdened with a sense of sin, the more will they feel the importance of repentance.

(T. Chalmers, D. D.)

1. Because He is the argument and subject of it.

2. Because He is the first and chief messenger and publisher of it.

3. Whosoever have been the teachers and publishers of this doctrine from the beginning, either by word or writing (not excepting prophets or apostles themselves) or shall be unto the end. They all do it by commandment from Him, yea, Himself preacheth in them and in us.

4. As it proceedeth from Him so it tendeth wholly unto Him, and leadeth believers to see and partake both of His grace and glory shining in the same.

II. Christ is called GOD OUR SAVIOUR.

1. To prove His own deity, not only in express terms being called God, but also by the epithet agreeing only to a Divine nature, our Saviour.

2. To imply our own misery, whose infinite wretchedness only God could remove, and whose infinite good none but God could restore.

3. And especially in regard of this doctrine.(1) To confirm the divinity of the same, it being a doctrine of God and a doctrine of salvation proceeding from our Saviour.(2) To enforce the duty towards it, namely, that seeing the author of it is God, the matter Divine, the effect salvation, meet it is that such a saving doctrine a doctrine of such tidings, should be beautified and adorned.

III. THIS DOCTRINE IS ADORNED WHEN IT IS MADE BEAUTIFUL AND LOVELY UNTO MEN, and this by two things in the professors of it.

1. By an honest and unblamable conversation, for carnal men commonly esteem of the doctrine by the life, and the profession by the practice of the professor.

2. By God's blessing which is promised and is attending such walking, whereby even strangers to the Church are forced to begin to like of the profession: for God's blessing upon His people is not only profitable to themselves, but turneth to the salvation of many others. So we read that when Licinius was overcome by Constantine, and the persecutions ceased, which had almost for three hundred years together wasted the Church, how innumerable of them, who before had worshipped their idols, were contented to be received into the Church. On the contrary, the gospel is dishonoured when the Lord is forced to judge and correct the abuse of His name in the professors of it (Ezekiel 36:20).

IV. Servants adorn the gospel, when professing it, they, by performing all faithful service to their masters in and for God, SEEK AND OBTAIN THE BLESSING OF GOD IN THE CONDITION OF LIFE WHEREIN HE HATH PLACED THEM.

(T. Taylor, D. D.)

1. By "the doctrine of God our Saviour" the apostle means the Christian religion, or that institution of faith and manners which Jesus taught and published when here on earth.

2. To "adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour" is to advance the credit and reputation of Christian religion in the world. It is so to govern and demean ourselves that we may reconcile its enemies to a good opinion of it; that we may procure and even force regard and veneration towards it.

3. By the "they" in the text, the persons upon whom this duty is incumbent, we may fairly understand the whole body of Christians.

II. THE NATURE, ACTS, AND EXERCISES OF DUTY. How a man may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour —

1. As it is a rule of faith, or an institution of religion, which we believe and own as of Divine authority. By manifesting, beyond any reasonable exception, that we unfeignedly assent unto it, that we firmly believe it to be, what we pretend, of Divine original. And this will be evident to all —(1) If our faith be perfect and entire. If we receive our religion as it is in itself, in all its parts, in every article, and in their plainest sense.(2) If we are steady, firm, and constant in the profession of it.(3) If we express an affection, a prudent zeal in the profession of it.

2. As it is a rule of life and manners. To this purpose it is absolutely necessary —(1) That our obedience be entire and universal.(2) That our obedience be free and cheerful,(3) If in cases doubtful we determine our practice on the side of the law, and of our duty.(4) By an eminent practice of some particular virtues, as of mercy and charity. Wherever these are expressed to the life — habitually, bountifully, freely — all that observe it will esteem the religion from whence such a spirit flows.

III. THE REASONS WHICH OBLIGE US, AND THE ENCOURAGEMENTS WHICH MAY PERSUADE US, TO THE PRACTICE OF IT.

1. To adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour by such a faith and practice as I have now described is the most infallible assurance, both to ourselves and others, that our principle is sincere and perfect.

2. To live such a life as shall cause our religion to be esteemed and honoured in the world, is the greatest blessing, as well to ourselves as to others, that we can either imagine or desire.

3. Another encouragement to such a profession and practice of our religion as shall adorn it are the particular promises which are made to those who shall attain unto it.

4. The particular peace and satisfaction which will arise from such a faith and life.

(J. Lambe.)

(A. Plummer, D. D.)

II. THE SOLEMN ALTERNATIVE. If you look at the context you will see that a set of exhortations preceding these to the slaves, which are addressed to the wives, end with urging as the great motive to the conduct enjoined, "that the Word of God be not blasphemed." That is the other side of the same thought as is in my text. The issues of the conduct of professing Christians are the one or other of these two, either to add beauty to the gospel or to cause the Word of God to be blasphemed. If you do not the one you will be doing the other. There are no worse enemies of the gospel than its inconsistent friends. Who is it that thwarts missionary work in India? Englishmen! Who is it that, wherever they go with their ships, put a taunt into the lips of the enemy which the Christian workers find it hard to meet? English sailors! The notorious dissipation and immorality amongst the representatives of English commerce in the various Eastern eentres of trade puts a taunt into the mouth of the abstemious Hindu and of the Chinaman. "These are your Christians, are they?" England, that sends out missionaries in the cabin, and Bibles and men side by side amongst the cargo, has to listen, and her people have to take to themselves the awful words with which the ancient Jewish inconsistencies were rebuked: "Through you the name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles." And in less solemn manner perhaps, but just as truly, here, in a so-called Christian land, the inconsistencies, the selfishness, the worldliness of professing Christian people, the absolute absence of all apparent difference between them and the most godless man that is in the same circumstances, are the things which perhaps more than anything else counteract the evangelistic efforts of the Christian Church.

III. THE SORT OF LIFE THAT WILL COMMEND AND ADORN THE GOSPEL.

1. It must be a life conspicuously and uniformly under the influence of Christian principles. I put emphasis upon these two words "conspicuously" and "uniformly." It will be of very little use if your Christian principle is so buried in your life, embedded beneath a mass of selfishness and worldliness and indifference as that it takes a microscope and a week's looking for to find it. And it will be of very little use, either, if your life is by fits and starts under the influence of Christian principle; a minute guided by that and ten minutes guided by the other thing — if here and there, sprinkled thinly over the rotting mass, there be a handful of the saving salt.

2. Remember, too, as the context teaches us, that the lives which commend and adorn the doctrine must be such as manifest Christian principle in the smallest details. What is it Paul tells these Cretan slaves to do that they may "adorn the doctrine"? Obedience, keeping a civil tongue in their heads in the midst of provocation, not indulging in petty pilfering, being true to the trust that was given to them. "That is no great thing," you may say, but in these little things they were to adorn the great doctrine of God their Saviour. Ay! The smallest duties are in some sense the largest sphere for the operation of great principles. For it is the little duties which by their minuteness tempt men to think that they can do them without calling in the great principles of conduct, that give the colour to every life after all. The little banks of mud in the wheel tracks in the road are shaped upon the same slopes, and moulded by the same law that carves the mountains and lifts the precipices of the Himalayas. And a handful of snow in the hedge in the winter time will fall into the same curves, and be obedient to the same great physical laws which shape the glaciers that lie on the sides of the Alps. You do not want big things in order, largely and nobly, to manifest big principles. The smallest duties, distinctly done for Christ's sake, wilt adorn the doctrine.

3. And then again, I may say that the manner of life which commends the gospel will be one conspicuously above the level of the morality of the class to which you belong. These slaves were warned not to fall into the vices that were proper to their class, in order that by not falling into them, and so being unlike their fellows, they might glorify the gospel. For the things that Paul warns them not to do are the faults which all history and experience tell us are exactly the vices of the slave — petty pilfering, a rank tongue blossoming into insolent speech, a disregard of the master's interests, sulky disobedience or sly evasion of the command. These are the kind of things that the devilish institution of slavery makes almost necessary on the part of the slave, unless some higher motive and loftier principle come in to counteract the effects. And in like manner all of us have, in the class to which we belong, and the sort of life which we have to live, certain evils natural to our position; and unless you are unlike the non-Christian men of your own profession and the people that are under the same worldly influence as you are — unless you are unlike them in that your righteousness exceeds their righteousness, "Ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven."

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

II. THE RHYTHM OF LIFE. Not only wear a flower in your breast, but let there be the beauty of truth and the perfume of kindliness in your looks, words, and actions. Let me tell you of a famous soldier who went to the palace one day to have an audience of the king of England. Having to wait a little, he paced up and down the antechamber impatiently, and as he walked, his sword dragged and rattled behind him. The king opening the door, said to a courtier loud enough for all the others to hear, "Dear me, what a nuisance that man's sword is!" The veteran exclaimed, "So your Majesty's enemies think." That was the "retort courteous," wasn't it? Of course the sword was powerful, and while the hand that wielded it was strong and the heart of the soldier true and brave, still I think he might have carried his sword quietly; though it was terrible in the battle, need he to make it a nuisance in the palace? Therefore, be thoughtful of the feelings of others. More unpleasantness is caused by want of thought than by want of feeling. Make your life as musical and poetical as possible, agreeable in passing and pleasant in remembrance.

III. THE GLORY OF USEFULNESS. In being useful you are adorning the religion of Christ; pluck up your heart, and seek out opportunities to do good. Be a true Christian minister; and remember that though you are a slave to circumstances, you may adorn religion more than a cathedral can do. When you thus live, prompted by love to God and love to man, life shall be a blessing, and your heaven shall be begun below.

(W. Birch.)

1. Think of the vastness of the gospel. We feel in it the infinitude of God. We are redeemed before the foundation of the world; the redemption disclosed is that of a race; it is worked out through the ages; its issues are in the great eternity beyond.

2. Think of the purity of the gospel. There is a strange purity in revelation. The Old Testament stretches like a stainless sky above the wild, sensual, corrupt nations of antiquity; the New Testament bears the same relation to the life of modern nations. As we look into the pure blue of the firmament far beyond our smoky atmosphere, so do we look up to the righteousness revealed in Christ as the body of heaven for clearness.

3. Think of the love of the gospel — comprehending men of all nations, languages, tribes, and tongues.

4. Think of the power of the gospel. We feel in revelation the energy of suns, the force of winds, the sound of many seas. There is a majestic moral power in the gospel that we do not find in the sublimest philosophies of men, that is also painfully missing in the noblest sacred literature of the heathen (Romans 1:16).

5. Think of the permanence of revelation. Science says, "Persistence is the sign of reality." How divinely real, then, is the gospel of God in Jesus Christ! It is the only thing on the face of the earth that does persist. Every now and then when a new heresy starts up there is a panic, as if the authority of revelation had come to an end; but if you wait awhile it is the heresy and the panic which come to an end. A gentleman told me that he was walking in his garden one day when his little child was by; suddenly the little one burst into tears and cried out in terror, "Oh! father, the house is falling." The child saw the clouds drifting over the house, and mistook the movement of the clouds for the movement of the house — the house was right enough, it is standing now. So sometimes we think that revelation is falling and coming to nought, but it is soon clear that the movement is elsewhere. Nations, dynasties, philosophies, fashions, pass like fleeting vapours and shadows, but the gospel stands like a rock. Ah! and will stand when rolling years shall cease to move.

II. THE SUPREME DEMONSTRATION OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE IS FOUND IN CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. "That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." The gospel is not a mere speculation, a superb philosophy, a grand ideal; it is intensely practical; it is to prove itself the doctrine of God by making all who believe in it like God.

1. "Adorn the doctrine." That is, reveal, display, make conspicuous and impressive the splendid contents of your faith. The doctrine of God is in the Testaments in suppressed magnificence, and the saints are to give it expression, embodiment: they are to flash out the unrevealed glory in their spirit and language and conduct. The vastness, the depth, the tenderness, the beauty of their creed is to be made tangible. Our creed must transfigure our life; our life must demonstrate the divinity of our creed. As the stars adorn astronomy, as the roses of June adorn botany, as the rainbow adorns optics, so our conduct must flash out the hidden virtue and glory of the doctrine of God.

2. Adorn the doctrine "in all things." The saints are to illustrate the doctrine of God in all its fulness — to do it justice at all points. And so we have much to do. Every system of morality outside the Christian Church: Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic, Epicurean, Utilitarian, Positivist; every system concerns itself with some pet virtue, or with some special class of virtues; but Christianity is most comprehensive — it concerns itself with whatever is just, true, lovely, or of good report; everything virtuous and praiseworthy is made an object of aspiration. We must do justice to the doctrine of God throughout our whole personality. At one end of our complex nature are the grand faculties of intelligence, conscience, will, imagination, linking us with the upper universe; at the other end of our being are basal instincts and affinities establishing a kinship between us and the world below our feet. We must see to it that our faith hallows our whole personality, that our splendid faculties are sacred to their lofty uses, that our inferior instincts are duly chastened, that we live sanctified in body, soul, and spirit. The ethics of Christianity comprehend the whole grammar of ornament. The faith of Christ is a salvation from all sin, a salvation into all holiness. As everybody knows, Shakespeare was a great lover of the old English flowers, frequently making them to spring forth in his poems with the freshness of nature itself, and so some years ago, when his admirers restored the cottage in which the dramatist was born, they resolved to plant in its grounds all the sweet things of summer found on the bard's immortal page: rosemary, ox-lip, wild thyme, pansies, peony, lily, love-in-idleness, cuckoo-buds, lady-smocks, freckled cowslip, daisies pied, eglantine, woodbine, nodding violets, musk roses, red roses — all were carefully planted out in the sun. What a catalogue of virtues could we compile from revelation! What a multitude of graces are here, and fine differentiations of sublime qualities and principles of moral life! Now all these we are to realise in actual life as season and opportunity may permit, until the whole range of our character and action is filled with beauty and fragrance as the garden of the Lord. In adorning the doctrine of God in all things we render that doctrine the most valuable service any may render it. The world is not persuaded by logic, by learning, by literature, but by life; the multitude believes in what it can see — in the eloquence of conduct, the logic of facts, the feeling and power of deeds. We may see this very clearly illustrated in another direction. Why do we all believe in astronomy? Why have we such a positive faith in a science which professes to give the true account of the distant mysterious firmament; which assumes to weigh suns, to analyse stars, to calculate the movements of endless orbs and comets? Do we believe in all this because we have read Sir Isaac Newton, mastered his reasonings, verified his calculations and conclusions? Not for a moment. The faith of the million rests on what it can see. Our common faith in astronomy is derived not immediately from Newton's Principia, but indirectly through the penny almanac. At the beginning of the year we learn that an eclipse of the sun or moon is predicted, and on the palpable fulfilment of that prediction rests the firmest faith of modern times — faith in astronomy. On the day or night of an eclipse myriads of people look into the sky who never look into it at any other time, and the exact fulfilment of the prediction brings conviction to their mind touching all the large assumptions of celestial science. People believe in what they see; the popular faith is based entirely on the darkened orb. So the faith of men generally in Christianity does not rest on theology, criticism, logic, but on Christianity as it finds expression in the spirit and life of its disciples. Once more men believe in what they see, only this time they are not called to look upon a darkened orb, but on a Church bright as the sun shedding on men and nations moral splendours like the light of seven days.

(W. L. Watkinson.)

II. SHOW WHAT IS MEANT BY ADORNING IT. Here is an allusion to the ornaments of dress. Dress may be fit or unfit for us, suitable or unsuitable: our temper and conduct must be suitable to the gospel. Instance, in the doctrine of our fall and its consequences. Does the gospel teach that we are fallen, depraved, etc.? then all high thoughts of ourselves, all self-confidence, and impenitence are unsuitable to this doctrine; humility, self-abasement, and godly sorrow, are suitable thereto. In the doctrine of our redemption; unbelief, diffidence, despondency, are unsuitable; faith, confidence in God, and peace of mind, are suitable thereto.

2. Another end for which dress is used is to represent and exhibit the persons who wear it in their true character and proper loveliness. Just so, our temper and conduct should be calculated to set forth the doctrine of the gospel in the most correct and clear point of view.

3. A third end, which some have in view in adopting various kinds of dress, is to add to their comeliness and beauty, and make themselves appear more agreeable than they really are. We cannot possibly give greater beauty to the gospel than it has, but there are certain graces and virtues which are more calculated to set forth its beauty and amiableness, and to show it to advantage. Such are the graces and virtues recommended (Romans 12:9-18; 1 Corinthians 13:4-7; Colossians 3:12-17); and in the verses preceding the text, as truth, uprightness, justice, mercy, charity, meekness, gentleness, benevolence, sobriety, industry, frugality, liberality, cheerfulness, gratitude.

III. HOW THIS MUST BE DONE "IN ALL THINGS." In all persons, old and young, rich and poor, high and low. In all conditions and states, as married or single, parents or children, masters or servants. In all places: at home, abroad, alone, in company, in the church or market, with our friends or enemies, the righteous or wicked. In all employments: in religious, civil, and natural actions. At all times: on the Lord's days; on other days; at morning, noon and night; in childhood, youth, manhood, middle age, old age.

(J. Benson.)

I. SAVING FAITH, A HEARTY FAITH. A doctrine in logic or metaphysics appeals only to my head: it has little or nothing to do with the heart; but "the doctrine" must win the assent of the mind and the consent of the heart. The gospel plants all its artillery before the heart till the everlasting gates are lifted up that the King of glory may enter and reign without a rival. And you must obey Him; for, being God as well as Saviour, when He commands you must obey. You are like the wounded soldier on the battlefield, to whom healing is offered by the doctor, who has all the authority of the kingdom at his back. The sick man has no right to refuse, he must accept healing that he may be fitted for the Queen's service. The offers of mercy, so gentle, have behind them all the authority of heaven. Christ as Saviour wins the heart, and as God He claims obedience.

II. TRUE CONFESSION. Christ comes from heaven, and gives His testimony about God and yourself, about sin and salvation. You in your turn take up and repeat His testimony. You receive His record, and set to your seal that He is true. Your confession is to be as a true trademark, declaring the maker and quality of what is within. The foot, or the hand, or the eye must not contradict the lip. And you are to put away all mean shame; for no one ever adorned a doctrine of which he was ashamed before men.

III. DAILY DUTY, A HEAVENLY MORALITY. Some make much of duty, but think that they can get on well enough without doctrine. Were the captain of a steamer to say, "I want steam, but don't bother me with coals — dirty, dull, heavy lumps; steam, but no coal for me," you should think him a very foolish man. Now he is as foolish whose motto is, "Not doctrine, but life. The apostle, you see, unites the two. He makes one thing of doctrine and piety, and one thing of piety and morality. To him duty is the adorning of the doctrine.

(James Wells.)

I. This exhortation applies first TO ALL WHO, IN ANY SENSE OR SPHERE, ARE TEACHING CHRISTIAN TRUTHS.

1. It is largely violated in two opposite directions.(1) On the one hand, we find the doctrines of grace set forth as bold, ugly, and repulsive dogmata.(2) On the other hand, we find men attempting to render the gospel attractive to the carnal heart by simply leaving all its strong doctrines out of it.

2. Between these extremes, and equally opposed to both, lies the true method of teaching. It is not the work of a costumer, arranging either a harlequin for farce or a gibbering ghost for tragedy; but it is a blessed imitation of Christ, beautifying the whole heavenly body of truth by "adorning its doctrines."

II. This exhortation APPLIES EQUALLY TO ALL CHRISTIANS, bidding them make all these doctrines beautiful by the power of their daily lives. Let us only live as if the gospel we profess, instead of making us gloomy fanatics or self-righteous pharisees, made us rather kind and gentle, and lovely and joyous; never taking from us a single truly good thing on earth, but only adding to each a new charm and power. Thereby we shall wonderfully adorn that gospel. The humblest man in our midst, if he live imitating his Master, his life pervaded with the principles of his faith, truly glorifies the gospel. Behold these humble children of suffering and toil — that faithful-hearted woman, plying her needle into the waning night that she may earn scanty bread for her fatherless children, amid all temptations and trials keeping Christian faith and love unstained; and as she fashions that coarse garment she is working as well a lustrous robe for God's glorious gospel! See that weary toiler in shop or field, amid all antagonisms to good and solicitations to evil making exhibition of all that is honest and lovely and of good report; and while he plies the hammer, or holds the plough, he is making Divine truth beautiful, as with gems and fine gold fashioning a diadem for the gospel of Christ. Oh, what a beauty and glory it casts over this low world and this common life, just to feel that amid all weary labour and perplexing cares we are at work not merely for ourselves and our beloved ones, or for the higher good of our day and generation, but verily and directly as well for the infinite God and His glory; that there is not one of us so ignorant or obscure that he may not, in his own sphere and lot, be reflecting splendour on every Divine attribute, bringing forth nobler regalia for the coronation of Christ!

(C. Wadsworth, D. D.)

1. It sets forth its greatness: "doctrine of God."

(1)Our fall, ruin, sin, and punishment were great.

(2)Our salvation and redemption are great.

(3)Our safety, happiness, and hopes are great.

2. It sets forth its certainty. It is "of God."

(1)It comes by revelation of God.

(2)It is guaranteed by the fidelity of God.

(3)It is as immutable as God Himself.

3. It sets forth its relation to Christ Jesus: "of God our Saviour."

(1)He is the author of it.

(2)He is the substance of it.

(3)He is the proclaimer of it.

(4)He is the object of it. The gospel glorifies Jesus.

4. It sets forth its authority.

(1)The whole system of revealed truth is of God.

(2)The Saviour Himself is God, and hence He must be accepted.

(3)The gospel itself is Divine. God's mind is embodied in the doctrine of the Lord Jesus, and to reject it is to reject God.

II. A METHOD OF ADORNMENT FOR THE GOSPEL.

1. The persons who are to adorn the gospel. In Paul's day, bond servants or slaves; in our day, poor servants of the humblest order. Strange that these should be set to such a task! Yet the women slaves adorned their mistresses, and both men and women of the poorest class were quite ready to adorn themselves. From none does the gospel receive more honour than from the poor.

2. The way in which these persons could specially adorn the gospel.

(1)By obedience to their masters (ver. 9).

(2)By endeavours to please them: "please them well."

(3)By restraining their tongues: "not answering again."

(4)By scrupulous honesty: "not purloining" (ver. 10).

(5)By trustworthy character: "showing all good fidelity."

3. The way of adornment of the doctrine in general.(1) Adornment, if really so, is suitable to beauty. Holiness, mercifulness, cheerfulness, etc., are congruous with the gospel.(2) Adornment is often a tribute to beauty. Such is a godly conversation: it honours the gospel.(3) Adornment is an advertisement of beauty. Holiness calls attention to the natural beauty of the gospel.(4) Adornment is an enhancement of beauty. Godliness gives emphasis to the excellence of doctrine.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

2. It may also be likened to a letter from a loved one. A month or two ago, I received a loving letter from Southport, from one of our orphan children who is now dangerously ill; and in her letter, she enclosed two or three beautiful flowers which she had begged from somebody's garden. The letter was not elegantly expressed or beautifully written, but those flowers spoke to my heart; they made the letter beautiful. Let us adorn the epistles of our lives with the beautiful flowers of peace and gentleness. Your life may be but humble and poor — some people may even call you vulgar; but still you may adorn yourself with the perfume of love, and your life shall lead men to God.

3. I think, too, that Christianity may be likened to a shelter in the wilderness of a prodigal's life. See him yonder, afar off, half naked, hungry, broken hearted, looking for home, and while he looks and longs for home, his father runs, and falls on his neck, and kisses him, and orders a feast to welcome him. But soon after, his elder brother drew nigh to the house, and hearing music and dancing, he cried, "What means this?" When he was told that it was done to welcome his younger brother, he was angry and would not go in. The elder brother did not adorn, but blurred the doctrine of God our Saviour. The father adorned the doctrine that God loves the penitent sinner; and you should copy his spirit into your life. When you forgive men, do it kindly and thoroughly. A man or a woman — it may be your workmate, or your brother, or child — having been sorely tempted, the weak one has fallen, and comes to your door hungry, naked, friendless, and penniless. Take her in, of course, with a kindly welcome; and thus, adorn the doctrine that God freely and cheerfully pardons His human children.

4. The Christ life may be further likened to seed — it is a thing of growth, and generally of slow growth, as is the case with things that are to be lasting. While character cannot be wholly transferred, the seeds of love and purity can be planted in us. The seeds of truth are planted in the receptive soil of our heart, which has to be prepared for it, and kept watered by prayer and faith, and continually weeded of those wild inclinations which always choke the plant. Like a divine graft, the Christ-life of purity and self-sacrifice is joined to us, and becomes our life, our love, our delight. When His Spirit dwells within us, we grow like Him in our character, and our fruit is after His kind.

5. When we receive the truths of Jesus and practise them from day to day, our lives shall exhibit and adorn His doctrine of sacred charity. We need more charity; the charity which covereth a multitude of sins, and holds on to the erring ones to the very end, copying from Christ, who never forsook His wayward disciples. Let us show our charity when men need it most. If a man have plenty of friends fawning upon him, you need not bestow your friendship; but when he is hungry, naked, or sick, or in grief, then be to him the adornment of the doctrine of charity. Show men that you believe in Christ by carrying out His teaching in the friendship and charity of your life. It is said that Francis the Second, of Prussia, took as his motto these words: "The king of Prussia shall be the first servant of his people." If you would be great in God's sight; if you would be a power not only in this world but in the next, be a servant to your fellow men, especially in their sore distress. One day, when Napoleon was walking in the streets of Paris, a man came along bearing a heavy burden on his shoulder. Napoleon at once stepped from the footpath into the carriage road, and allowed the man to pass. Some of his officers were very much surprised, saying, "Sire, why did you give way to that wretched man?" Napoleon replied, "Should I not respect his burden?" So, let us respect the misfortunes of our fellow men. Let the men, women, and children in your street, through your noble life, be led to praise God; and let your light so shine that all men may see the goodness of the Lord through you and be drawn unto Him.

(W. Birch.)

(H. W. Beecher.)

(W. Ewen, B. D.)

1. The gift.

2. Its objects.

3. Its purpose.

II. THE UNIVERSALITY OF ITS APPEARANCE.

1. Adapted for all.

2. Revealed for all.

3. To be proclaimed to all.

III. THE INESTIMABLE BOON WHICH IT BESTOWS. "Salvation."

1. From the condemning power of sin.

2. From the defilement of sin.

3. From the love of sin.

4. From the power of sin.

5. From the punishment of sin.

IV. ITS PRACTICAL INFLUENCE. "Teaching us," etc. The way of salvation is the highway of holiness and of purity; the unclean may not pass over it; and within the gates of the celestial City "there shall enter nothing that defileth, that worketh abomination, or that maketh a lie." Wherever this gospel hath come, "in demonstration of the Spirit and with power," it hath swept away the obscure and execrable rites, the foul abominations, the detestable practices of paganism. Wherever this gospel hath come "in demonstration of the Spirit and with power," it hath purified the polluted, it hath made the dishonest honest, the intemperate sober, the licentious chaste. It has converted the monster of depravity into the humble, correct, consistent, temperate disciple of Christ. The abandoned woman it has purified and refined; and he who was at once the disgrace, the dishonour, of his family, of society, and of his country, renewed, reformed, sanctified, made holy, it has placed at the feet of the Redeemer, like the recovered maniac, "clothed and in his right mind."

(T. Raffles, D. D.)

I. Our thoughts are directed, first, to THE SOURCE OF THE GOSPEL, and that source is the grace of God. The proper signification of the word "grace" is favour — unmerited goodness and mercy in a superior conferring benefit upon others. The grace spoken of in the text is the revelation of the Divine will set forth in the gospel, which, in the strictest sense, may be termed "the grace of God"; it being a revelation to which man had no title, setting forth promises of which man was utterly unworthy, unfolding a plan of redemption which man had no reason to expect. This grace "bringeth salvation." Herein consists its importance. "What shall I do to be saved?" "What good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life?" "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?" These are vitally important questions — questions which will frequently present themselves even to the most careless, and they can be satisfactorily answered in the gospel alone. The gospel bringeth salvation, for it points out to man the means of his recovery from guilt and degradation. This salvation is complete and infinite, including all the blessings of the everlasting covenant — that covenant which displays to us the mercy and love of God the Father; the benefits of the incarnation, life, crucifixion, ascension, and intercession of God the Son; and all the enlightening, enlivening, and sanctifying influences of God the Holy Ghost. In the possession of these consists our salvation. The gospel directs man to a Saviour who has promised, and is able and willing, to bestow any blessing upon those who believe in Him: it promises pardon, reconciliation, peace; it unfolds the glories of the eternal world; and it invites and stimulates the sinner to strive, through grace, to become meet for the heavenly inheritance.

II. Now consider THE PERSONS for whose benefit this grace of God hath appeared. The apostle says, "The grace of God, that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men"; or, according to the translation in the margin of our Bibles, "The grace of God, which bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared"; and this rendering I conceive to be the more correct. The gospel, then, is described as bringing salvation to all men; that is, as offering to all who accept it free and full remission of sin, through the blood of the Lord Jesus; as opening to all believers the gate of the kingdom of heaven. The gospel is precisely suited for all the wants of a fallen sinner; it meets him in the hour of difficulty; and, consequently, its offers of mercy are addressed to every sinner. In the manifestation of Jesus to the wise men, who came from the east to worship Him; in the prophetic declaration of the aged Simeon, that the Child whom he took up in his arms should be a light to lighten the Gentiles; in the rending of the veil of the temple, when Jesus had given up the ghost; in the unlimited commission "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature"; and in their qualification for this important work, by the miraculous gift of tongues, we discover that the new dispensation was designed for the spiritual and eternal benefit of the whole human race. The rich dispensation of mercy revealed in the gospel beautifully illustrates the gracious character of our heavenly Father. It is calculated to remove all erroneous views of His attributes, His mercy, His compassion, His tenderness towards the works of His hands. Why that gospel should not have been clearly manifested for so many ages after the fall of man — why eighteen centuries should have elapsed, and millions of our fellow creatures should still be immersed in the gross darkness of heathen superstition — is one of those secret things which belong to the Lord our God. It is not our province to sit in judgment on the wisdom of Jehovah's plans to weigh the wisdom of Jehovah's counsels; neither are we to seek to pry into the mysterious dealings of His providence. We are, rather, thankfully to acknowledge the blessings bestowed upon ourselves, and earnestly seek to improve them to the uttermost; recollecting that responsibility is commensurate with privilege.

(T. Bissland, M. A.)

1. Survey all the blessings of the covenant, and from first to last you will see grace doth all. Election, vocation, justification, sanctification, glorification, all is from grace.

2. To limit the point. Though it is of grace, yet not to exclude Christ, not to exclude the means of salvation.

3. My next work shall be to give you some reasons why it must be so that grace is the original cause of all the bless. ings we receive from God; because it is most for the glory of God, and most for the comfort of the creature.(1) It is most convenient for the glory of God to keep up the respects of the creature to Him in a way suitable to His majesty.(2) It is most for the comfort of the creature. Grace is the original cause of all the good we expect and receive from God, that we may seek the favour of God with hope and retain it with certainty.

II. GRACE IN THE DISCOVERIES OF THE GOSPEL HATH SHINED OUT IN A GREATER BRIGHTNESS THAN EVER IT DID BEFORE.

1. What a darkness there was before the eternal gospel was brought out of the bosom of God. There was a darkness both among Jews and Gentiles. In the greatest part of the world there was utter darkness as to the knowledge of grace, and in the Church nothing but shadows and figures.

2. What and how much of grace is now discovered? I answer —

(1)The wisdom of grace. The gospel is a mere riddle to carnal reason, a great mystery (1 Timothy 3:16).

(2)The freeness of grace both in giving and accepting.

(3)The efficacy and power of grace.

(4)The largeness and bounty of grace.

(5)The sureness of grace.

III. THE GRACE OF GOD REVEALED IN THE GOSPEL IS THE GREAT MEANS OF SALVATION, OR A GRACE THAT TENDS TO SALVATION.

1. It hath a moral tendency that way; for there is the history of salvation what God hath done on His part; there are the counsels of salvation what we must do on our part; and there are excellent enforcements to encourage us to embrace this salvation.

2. Because it hath the promise of the Spirit's assistance (Romans 1:16). The gospel is said to be "the power of God unto salvation," not only because it is a powerful instrument which God hath appropriated to this work, but this is the honour God puts upon the gospel that He will join and associate the operation of His Spirit with no other doctrine but this.

IV. THIS SALVATION WHICH THE GRACE OF GOD BRINGETH IS FREE FOR ALL THAT WILL ACCEPT IT. God excludes none but those that exclude themselves. It is said to appear to all men —

1. Because it is published to all sorts of men; they all have a like favour in the general offer (John 6:37).

2. All that accept have a like privilege; therefore this grace is said to appear to all men. There is no difference of nations, nor of conditions of life, nor of lesser opinions in religion, nor of degrees of grace. See all summed up by the apostle (Colossians 3:11).

(T. Manton, D. D.)

I. ALL TRUE AND EVANGELICAL RELIGION MUST HAVE ITS COMMENCEMENT IN THE APPREHENSION OF DIVINE GRACE, AND THEREFORE IT IS OF NO SMALL IMPORTANCE THAT WE SHOULD ENDEAVOUR CLEARLY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS DENOTED BY THE WORD. Divine grace, we may say, is the child of love and the parent of mercy. The essential love of the great Father's heart takes definite form, and accommodates itself to our need; reveals itself in facts, and presents itself for our acceptance; and then we call it grace. That grace received rescues from the disastrous effects of sin; heals our inward diseases, and comforts our sorrows; and then we call it mercy. But grace does not exhaust itself in the production of mercy any more than love exhausts itself in the production of grace. The child leads us back to the parent; the experience of mercy leads us back to that "grace wherein we stand"; and the enjoyment of grace prepares us for the life of love, and for that wondrous reciprocity of affection in which the heavenly Bridegroom and His Bride are to be bound together forever. Thus of the three mercy ever reaches the heart first; and it is through accepted mercy that we apprehend revealed grace; similarly it is through the revelations of grace that we learn the secret of eternal love. And as with the individual so with mankind at large. Mercy, swift-winged mercy, was the first celestial messenger that reached a sin-stricken world; and in former dispensations it was with mercy that men had most to do. But if former dispensations were dispensations of mercy, the present is preeminently the dispensation of grace, in which it is our privilege not only to receive mercy, but to apprehend the attitude of God towards us from which the mercy flows. But let us remember that though specially revealed to us now, the grace of God towards humanity has existed from the very first. The Lamb was slain in the Divine foreknowledge before the foundation of the world. But the grace of God has in it a further and higher object than the mere provision of a remedy for human sin — than what is merely remedial. God has purposed in His own free favour towards mankind to raise man to a position of moral exaltation and glory, the very highest, so far as we know, that can be occupied or aspired to by a created intelligence. Such is the destiny of humanity. This is the singular favour which God designs for the sons of men. God's favour flows forth to other intelligences also, but not to the same degree, and it is not manifested after the same fashion. This eternal purpose of God, however, which has run through the long ages, was not fully revealed to the sons of men until the fulness of time arrived. It was revealed only in parts and in fragments, so to speak. From Adam to John the Baptist every man that ever went to heaven went there by the grace of God. The grace of God has constantly been in operation, but it was operating in a concealed fashion. Even those who were the subjects of Divine grace seem scarcely to have known how it reached them, or in what manner they were to be affected by any provision that it might make to meet their human sins. Before the full favour of God could be revealed to mankind it would seem to have been necessary first of all that man should be put under a disciplinary training, which should induce within him a conviction of the necessity for the intervention of that favour, and dispose him to value it when it came. Grace, we have already said, is the child of love and the parent of mercy. We discover now that the love of God is not a passive, inert possibility, but a living power that takes to itself definite form, and hastens to meet and overcome the forces of evil to which we owe our ruin.

II. But further, the apostle not only calls our attention to Divine grace, but he proceeds to state with great emphasis THAT IT HAS APPEARED OR BEEN MADE MANIFEST. We are no longer left in doubt as to its existence, or permitted to enjoy its benefits without knowing whence they flow. In order to be manifested, the grace of God needed not only to be affirmed, but to be illustrated, I may say demonstrated, and then only was man called upon to believe in it. It might have been written large enough for all the world to see, that God was love. It might have been blazoned upon the starry heavens so that every eye might have read the wondrous sentence, and yet I apprehend we should have been slow to grasp the truth which the words contain, had they not been brought within reach of our finite apprehension in concrete form in the personal history, in the life, in the action, in the sorrow, in the death of God's own Son. When I turn my gaze towards the person of Christ I am at liberty to doubt God's favour towards me no longer. I read it in every action, I discover it in every word. Here is the first thought that brings rest to the heart of man. It has been demonstrated by the Incarnation and by the Atonement, that God's attitude on His side towards us is already one of free favour — favour toward all, however far we may have fallen, and however undeserving we may be in ourselves. You often hear people talking about making their peace with God. Well, the phrase may be used to indicate what is perfectly correct, but the expression in itself is most incorrect, for peace with God is already made. God's attitude towards us is already an assured thing. We have no occasion to go about to ask ourselves, "How shall we win God's favour?" It is possible for a person to be full of friendly intentions to me, and yet for me to retain an attitude of animosity and enmity towards him. That does not alter his character towards me, or his attitude towards me; but it does prevent me from reaping any benefit from that attitude. And so, I repeat, the only point of uncertainty lies in our attitude towards God, not in His attitude towards us.

III. Thus the apostle affirms that THIS GRACE OF GOD ''BRINGETH SALVATION TO EVERY MAN." Yes, God's free favour, manifested in the person of His own blessed Son, is designed to produce saving effects upon all. God makes no exception, excludes none. All are not saved. But why not? Not because the grace of God does not bring salvation to every man, but because all men do not receive the gift which the grace of God has brought to them. There are necessarily two parties to such a transaction. Before any benefit can accrue from a gift there must be a willingness on the one side to give, and a willingness on the other side to receive, and unless there be both of these conditions realised no satisfactory result can ensue. Here then is a question for us all: What has the grace of God, which is designed to have a saving effect upon all men, done for us? Has it saved us, or only enhanced our condemnation? Now we maintain that the enjoyment of the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins is needed before our experience can assume a definitely Christian form. The first thing that grace does is to bring salvation to me; and until I accept this I am not in a position to accept her other gifts. Grace cannot teach until I am in a position to learn, and I am not in a position to learn until I am relieved from anxiety and fear as to my spiritual condition. Go into yonder prison, and set that wretched felon in the condemned cell to undertake some literary work, if he is a literary man. Put the pen into his hand, place the ink and the paper before him. He flings down the pen in disgust. How can he set to work to write a history or to compose a romance, however talented or gifted he may be by nature, so long as the hangman's rope is over his head and the prospect of a coming execution staring him in the face? Obviously the man's thoughts are all in another direction — the question of his own personal safety preoccupies his mind. Give him that pen and paper to write letters which he thinks may influence persons in high quarters with a view to obtaining a reprieve, and his pen will move quickly enough. I can understand his filling up reams of paper on that subject, but not on any other. Is it likely that a God who has shown His favour towards us by the gift of His own Son should desire to keep us in uncertainty as to the effects of that grace upon our own case? Does not the very fact, that it is grace that has brought salvation to us, render it certain that it must be in the mind of God that we should have the full enjoyment of it? Let us rather ask, how can we obtain this knowledge of salvation, this inward conviction that all is well? The answer is a very simple one. Grace brings salvation within our reach as something designed for us. Not to tantalize us by exciting desires destined never to be realised, but in order that we may have the full benefit of it — the free favour of God has brought salvation within our reach to the very doors of our hearts. Surely we dishonour God when we for a moment suppose that He does not intend us to enjoy the blessing which His grace brings to us. All the deep and precious lessons that grace has to teach are, we may say, simply so many deductions from the first great object lesson — Calvary. It is through the Cross of Christ that the grace of God hath reached a sinful world; it is on the Cross that grace is revealed and by that Cross that its reality is demonstrated. But we may also add that it is in the Cross that grace lies hidden. Yes, it is all there; but faith has to search the storehouse and examine the hidden treasure, and find out more and more of the completeness of that great salvation which the grace of God has brought within our reach; nor shall we ever know fully all that has thus been brought within our reach until we find ourselves saved at last with an everlasting salvation — saved from all approach of evil or danger into that kingdom of glory which grace has opened to all believers.

(W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)

1. Man did not deserve it.

2. It was unsolicited.

3. It was entirely the result of Divine grace.The grace of God —(1) Made all the arrangements necessary for salvation. Devised the astounding plan. Fixed upon the means, time, etc. The grace of God —(2) Brought the author of salvation. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," etc. (2 Corinthians 8:9).(3) It brought the message of salvation. Gospel is emphatically the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24).(4) It brings the application of salvation to the soul. We are called by His grace — justified freely by His grace — sanctified by His grace — kept and preserved by tits grace — and the topstone is brought on amid ascriptions of Grace, grace unto it."

II. THE EXTENT OF SALVATION. The grace of God bringeth salvation —

1. To all classes and degrees of men. To the rich and the poor; noble and ignoble; monarch and the peasant; the ruler and the slave.

2. To men of all grades of moral guilt. It includes the moralist, and excludes not the profane.

3. To men of all ages.

III. THE INFLUENCE OF SALVATION ON THE MORAL CHARACTER OF MAN. It teaches and enforces the necessity of —

1. The abandonment of ungodliness and worldly lusts.

2. Sobriety of conduct.

3. Righteousness of life.

4. Godliness of heart.Application:

1. How we should rejoice in the riches and fulness of Divine grace.

2. How necessary that we cordially receive the invaluable boon it presents.

3. And how important that we practically exemplify the moral lessons it communicates.

(J. Burns, D. D.)

2. The joyful message which the gospel brings, and that is salvation; the gospel makes a gracious tender of salvation, and that universally to lost and undone sinners.

3. The clear light and evidence that it does hold forth this message in and by; it has appeared or shined forth like the day star or the rising sun.

4. The extent of its glorious beams, how far they reach. It is tendered to all without restriction or limitation.

(1)As to nations, Jew or Gentile.

(2)As to persons, rich or poor, bond or free.

(3)Without restriction in reference to the degree of their graces.

5. The great lesson which the gospel teaches, negative and positive.(a) Negative, to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts; where, by ungodliness, understand all sins committed against the first table; by worldly lusts, all sins committed against the second table; called worldly lusts because the object of them is worldly things, and because they are the lusts of worldly men.(b) Positive, to live:(1) Soberly: he begins with our duty to ourselves, then to our neighbour, and last of all to God, and so proceeds from the easier to the harder duties: and observe the connection, soberly and righteously and godly, not disjunctively; as if to live soberly, righteously, or in pretence godly, were sufficient. A sobriety in speech, in behaviour, in apparel, in eating and drinking, in recreations, and in the enjoyment of lawful satisfactions.(2) Righteously, exercising justice and charity towards our neighbour; he that is uncharitable is unjust and unrighteous, and the unrighteous shall no more enter into the kingdom of God than the unholy; and all a person's pretences to godliness are but hypocrisy without righteousness toward our neighbour.(3) Godly, godliness has an internal and external part; the internal and inward part of godliness consists in a right knowledge of Him, in a fervent love unto Him, in an entire trust and confidence in Him, in an holy fear to offend Him, in subjecting our wills entirely to Him, in holy longings for the fruition and enjoyment of Him. The external and outward part of godliness consists in adoration and bodily worship; this is due to God from us; He was the Creator of the body as well as of the soul, and will glorify the body as well as the soul; therefore we are to glorify God with our bodies, and with our spirits, which are the Lord's.

6. The time when and the place where this lesson is to be learned, in this present world. Here is the place, and now is the time when this duty of living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world is to be performed by us. Learn, that a sober, righteous, and godly life in this present world is absolutely necessary in order to our obtaining the happiness and glory of the world to come.

(W. Burkitt, M. A.)

1. Of the author, who is God;

2. Substance and matter, which is perfect righteousness required in both;

3. Scope and end to the justification of a sinner before God; yet are there diverse accidental differences between them which, that we may the better understand both the offices and the benefits by Christ, are meet to be known.Some of them we shall note out of these words as we shall come unto them.(1) The first difference is in that the gospel is called grace, which word the law acknowledgeth not; nay, these two are opposed, to be under the law and to be under grace. To be under the law is not to be under it as a rule of life, for so all believers on earth, yea the saints and angels in heaven, are under it; but to be under the yoke of it, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. For to omit the least part of the yoke, standing in the observation of —

1. Many,

2. Costly,

3. Laborious,

4. Burdensome ceremonies,what a killing letter is the law which commandeth inward and perfect righteousness, for nature and actions, and that in our own persons? which promiseth life upon no other condition but of works, "Do this, and live"; and these must be such as must be framed according to that perfect light and holiness of nature in which we are created, which wrappeth us under the curse of sin. Now to be under grace is to be freed from all this bondage; not only from those elements and rudiments of the world, but especially —

1. When the yoke of personal obedience to justification is by grace translated from believers to the person of Christ our surety, so that He doing the law we might live by it.

2. When duties are not urged according to our perfect estate of creation, but according to the present measure of grace received; not according to full and perfect righteousness, but according to the sincerity and truth of the heart, although from weak and imperfect faith and love: not as meriting anything, but only as testifying the truth of our conversion, in all which the Lord of His grace accepteth the will for the deed done.

3. When the most heavy curse of the law is removed from our weak shoulders and laid upon the back of Jesus Christ, even as His obedience is translated unto us, and thus there is no condemnation to those that are in Him.

4. When the strength of the law is abated so as believers may send it to Christ for performance, for it cannot vex us as before the ministry of grace it could; which is another law, namely of faith, to which we are bound, the which not only can command us as the former, but also give grace and power to obey and perform in some acceptable sort the commandment. And this is the doctrine of grace which we are made partakers of.

(T. Taylor, D. D.)

1. How ancient the purpose of this grace.

2. How great and glorious its nature.

3. How benignant its design.

4. How unrestricted its manifestation.

II. A VIEW OF THOSE WORKS WHICH ACCOMPANY SALVATION.

1. Vigilant self-denial.

2. The right governance of the moral relations of life.

III. MOTIVES BY WHICH COMBINED FAITH AND OBEDIENCE MAY BE SUSTAINED AND ENFORCED.

1. The temporary nature of the discipline.

2. The self-sacrifice of Christ.

3. The future manifestation of Christ.

(Jas. Foster, B. A.)

1. It is the love of God.

2. The love of God to save.

3. The love of God revealed to all.

II. THE PROCESS OF TRUE SOUL CULTURE.

1. The renunciation of a wrong course.

2. The adoption of a right course.

3. The fixing of the heart upon a glorious future.

III. THE END OF TRUE SOUL CULTURE.

1. Moral redemption.

2. Spiritual restoration to Christ.

3. Complete devotedness to holy labour.

4. The self-sacrifice of Christ. His gift teaches the enormity of moral evil.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

II. NOTICE THE UNIVERSAL SWEEP OF THIS GRACE. The words should be read, "The grace of God, that bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared." It brings salvation to all men. It does not follow from that, that all men take the salvation which it brings. Notice the underlying theory of a universal need that lies in these words. The grace brings salvation to all men, because all men need that more than any thing else. In the notion of salvation there lies the two ideas of danger and of disease. It is healing and it is safety; therefore, if it be offered to all, it is because all men are sick of a sore disease, and stand in imminent and deadly peril. That is the only theory of men's deepest need which is true to the facts of human existence.

III. NOTICE THE GREAT WORK OF THIS GRACE MADE VISIBLE. It seems to be a wonderful descent from "the grace of God which bringeth salvation to all hath appeared" to "teaching us." Is that all? Is that worth much? If by "teaching" we mean merely a reiteration in words, addressed to the understanding or the heart, of the great principles of morality and conduct, it is a very poor thing, and a tremendous come down from the apostle's previous words. Such an office is not what the world wants. To try to cure the world's evils by teaching, in that narrow sense of the expression, is something like trying to put a fire out by reading the Riot Act to the flames. You want fire engines, and not paper proclamations, in order to stay their devouring course. But it is to be noticed that the expression here, in the original, means a great deal more than that kind of teaching. It means correcting, or chastening. Our Physician has in His great medicine chest balm and bandages for all wounds. But He has also a terrible array of gleaming blades with sharp edges, and of materials for cauterising and burning away proud flesh. And if ever we are to be made good and pure, as God wants to make us, it must be through a discipline that will often be agony, and will often be pain, and against the grain. For the one thing that God wants to do with men is to bring their wills into entire harmony with His. And we cannot have that done without much treatment which will inflict in love beneficent pain. No man can live beside that Lord without being rebuked moment by moment, and put to wholesome shame day by day, when he contrasts himself with that serene and radiant pattern and embodiment of all perfection. And no man can receive into his heart the powers of the world to come, the might of an indwelling Spirit, without that Spirit exercising as its first function that which Christ Himself told us it would perform (John 16:8).

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

I. IRRESPECTIVE OF THEIR VARYING MORAL CONDITIONS. Though "all have sinned," yet all are not sinners in the same degree, or after the same fashion. Sinners are of many kinds — young, old, beginners in offences, hardened in crime, sinners through ignorance, against light, etc.

II. BECAUSE ALL MEN NEED IT. God recognises degrees of guilt and punishes "according to transgression." There are "few stripes" and "many stripes"; yet all need salvation, and all men may have it.

III. BECAUSE GOD LOVES ALL. He is no respecter of persons, and has no delight in the death of him that dieth. "God so loved the world," etc.

IV. BECAUSE CHRIST DIED FOR ALL.

(F. Wagstaff.)

(T. Taylor, D. D.)

I. BUT IN WHAT RESPECTS DOES THE GRACE OF GOD BRING SALVATION? Here we remark generally, that it brought it forward in the decree from everlasting. Again, the grace of God brought salvation forward another stage, by publishing the promise of it to man after his ruinous fall. This promise was to be the ground of man's faith and hope in God; and these graces were necessary for giving sinners an interest in the Divine salvation. The grace of God advanced salvation work still further when it brought the First-begotten into the world. It was on this occasion that it was purchased. To gain it, Christ had to sustain the rejections of men, the malice and wrath of evil spirits, and the wrath of His heavenly Father. No less conspicuous is the grace of God in applying to the soul the benefits of purchased redemption. It is not when persons have ceased from the love and commission of sin, that the Holy Spirit comes with power to call them effectually, and to unite them to the Lord Jesus Christ. No; He addresses Himself to His work when sinners are dead in trespasses and in sins — alienated from the life of God — without God and without hope in the world. But there is still another stage of the grace of God that bringeth salvation, and it is the time when Christ will raise His people from the dead, and make them sit visibly as they now sit representatively in heavenly places with Himself.

II. We shall now turn your attention to THE NATURE OF THE SALVATION WHICH THE GRACE OF GOD THUS BRINGS TO SINNERS. And here you will notice in general that the term salvation implies a state of danger, or of actual immersion in suffering; and denotes the averting of the danger, or the deliverance from the suffering. We say of a man who has been delivered from a house on fire, that he has been saved. We also assert of him who has been drawn from a shipwreck and brought in life to land, that he has been saved, And in like manner, we affirm in regard to the man who has been set free from transgression and its train of consequences, that he has obtained salvation. More particularly, you will observe —

1. That it is a salvation from the guilt of sin.

2. It includes deliverance from the defilement of sin.

3. Deliverance from the power of sin.

4. Deliverance from the very being of sin.

5. Liberation from the curse of God.

6. Freedom from the wrath of God.

III. We have thus given you an outline of the salvation spoken of in the text, WE SHALL NOW INQUIRE IN WHAT RESPECTS IT APPEARS TO ALL MEN. There is one class of persons to whom salvation does more than appear; for they shall enjoy it in all its length and breadth. The chosen of God shall be set free from the guilt, the power, and being of sin, and redeemed from the wrath and curse of God. But there are some respects in which the salvation which they enjoy, presents itself to the view of others, who trover come to the actual enjoyment of its precious blessings.

1. The grace that bringeth salvation appears to all, because time and space are given them for seeking and obtaining it.

2. The grace of salvation appears to all in the inspired Word and appointed ordinances.

3. The grace of salvation appears to all, inasmuch as mercy is offered to them with out distinction.

4. The grace that bringeth salvation appears to all, in the common operations of the Holy Spirit. From our subject see —(1) Ground for accepting the salvation of the gospel.(2) Learn reason to fear lest we should not enter the heavenly rest through unbelief.(3) Ground of gratitude on the part of the people of God. They are distinguished above the rest of mankind. While salvation appears to others, it is possessed and enjoyed by them. We now propose —

IV. TO INQUIRE INTO WHAT IS MEANT BY THE TERMS "ALL MEN." As to the import of the terms "all men," you will observe —

1. That they cannot mean every individual of our race. It is matter of fact that many, both in the days of the apostles were, and in our own time are, wholly unenlightened by the good news of salvation.

2. The grace of God appears to men of all countries. This is no contradiction of what we formerly said; for although salvation has not yet been shown to all the individuals of our race, yet some of almost every kingdom under heaven have been made acquainted with the gospel of God's Son; and it is matter of promise that all the ends of the earth shall yet see the salvation of our God.

3. The grace of God appears to all kinds of men. None are excluded from it who do not exclude them selves. It is presented to persons of all ages and all ranks, to men of every kind of culture and attainment. Nor does the gospel inquire into a man's character, in order to discover whether he is entitled to salvation. Grace is offered to the moral and immoral — to the virtuous and the vicious.

V. WE ARE NOW TO INVESTIGATE THE RESPECTS IN WHICH THE GRACE OF GOD APPEARS TO MEN IN GENERAL. Our text does not assert that the grace of God is enjoyed by all, but only that it appears to them. They behold in somewhat the same manner as Balaam said he would see the star that was to arise out of Judah: "I shall see Him, but not now; I shall behold Him, but not nigh." It is but a distant sight that the unregenerate obtain of the grace of salvation. It appears to them as a beauteous and glowing star in the remote horizon, which they may admire, but do not reach.

1. Time and space are given them for accepting salvation.

2. The grace of God appears to men in general in their enjoyment of Divine ordinances. Ordinances are the appointed means of salvation. They are not effectual of themselves to the communication of saving benefit; but they are the medium through which spiritual blessings are im parted.

3. The grace of God appears to all in the offer of salvation to every individual.

4. The grace of God appears to men in general in the common operations of the Spirit.

5. The grace of God appears to men in general in the impressions of Divine truth upon the heart.

(1)What a great privilege is possessed by the hearers of the gospel.

(2)Reason for great anxiety. Look after the evidences of your real Christianity.

(A. Ross, M. A.)

1. She teaches better than law, first, because she delivers to us a fuller and more distinct exhibition of the mind and will of God as regards human conduct, based upon a more complete manifestation of the Divine character. Grace, as she takes possession of our heart, makes us acquainted with the mind and will of God in a manner in which we should never have become acquainted with these by the mere influence and teaching of law. If you reflect for a moment, you will see that the object of law is not to reveal the mind and the will of the Lawgiver, but to lay down certain positive precepts for the direction of those to whom the legislation is given, or for whom the legislation is designed. If an Act of Parliament is passed by the British Legislature, by both Houses of Parliament, and a person were to ask, "What is the object of this Act?" nobody would reply, "To reveal to the British public what is the mind and will of the members of our Legislature." Nothing of the kind. The object of the Act is to meet some specific political need, or to give some specific political direction to those who are subject to its authority. Even so the law delivered from Sinai was not primarily designed to reveal the mind and will of God. The law contained only a very partial revelation of the mind and will of God. The law consisted of certain positive precepts, which were given in the infancy of the human race for the direction and guidance of mankind. The rules and precepts which are laid down in the nursery are not designed to exhibit the mind and will of the parent, although they are in accordance with that mind and will. They are laid down for the convenience and for the benefit of those for whom the rules were made. A child knows something of the mind and will of the parent from personal contact with that parent, but not from the rules, or only to a very slender degree from the rules, which are laid down for its guidance. But when we turn from law to grace, then we see at once that we now are dealing with a revelation of the mind and the will of Him from whom the grace proceeds. Each act of favour which a parent bestows upon his child, or which a sovereign bestows upon his subject, is a revelation, so far as it goes, of the mind and will of the parent towards that particular child, or of the sovereign towards that particular subject, as the case may be. And even so every act of grace which we receive from God is a revelation, as far as it goes, of the mind and will of God towards us who are affected by the act.

2. Not only is the teaching of grace in itself fuller and more complete, but we are still more impressed by the superiority of the mode in which the teaching is given — the form in which this new doctrine is communicated. In the decalogue you are met with, "Thou shalt," or, "Thou shalt not" — and you observe at once that the command addresses itself directly to your will. Children are not appealed to so far as their understandings are concerned. They are told to act in a certain particular way, or not to act in a certain particular way; and if a child stops to reason with its parents, an appeal is at once made to parental authority. "Your duty, my child, is to obey, not to understand." Or, once again, the decalogue makes no appeal to the affections of those to whom it was delivered; it deals not with our moral states, or with the motives from which actions proceed; it simply concerns itself with those actions, and speaks to the will which is responsible for them. But when we turn from the decalogue to the sermon on the mount we find that all is changed. It does not begin with a direct appeal to the will, and yet the will is touched by a stronger influence, and moved to action by a more mighty force, than ever operated upon the will of the Israelites at Sinai. Grace is our teacher; and we observe that the first word that she utters in this lesson is a blessing. The law had summed up its all of teaching with a curse "Cursed is he that continueth not in all things that are written in this book to do them."

2. She does not say, "Ye shall be blessed if ye will become poor in spirit." Grace drives no bargains; but she explains to us that a state of experience from which most of us would naturally shrink is a state of actual blessedness. Here you will observe that she appeals to our enlightened understanding, indicating to us a new and a higher view of self-interest, showing that God's will, so far from being opposed to our truest well-being, is in complete and full harmony with it; for He is our Father, and He loves us, and therefore desires to see us supremely happy like Himself. Does she not teach better than law? Once again. Not only does she teach by giving us a fuller and a deeper revelation of the mind and will of God, and exhibiting these to us in such a way as that she appeals not merely to our own will, demanding action, but to our understanding, and, through our understanding, to our feelings, kindling holy desires, and so setting the will at work almost before it is aware that it is working; but she does more than all this.

3. Grace teaches us by setting before our eyes the noblest and the most striking of all exemplars. Grace speaks to us through human lips; grace reveals herself to us in a human life. Now we all know how much more we learn from a personal teacher than from mere abstract directions. To watch a painter, and to see how he uses his brush, and carefully and minutely notice the little touches that give so much character and power to the product of his genius, does far more for us in the way of making us painters than any amount of mere abstract study of the art itself. This in itself may suffice to show the superiority of grace as a teacher. While the thunder sounded from Sinai and the fiery law was given, God still remained concealed. When the yell was taken away, and God was made flesh in the person of Christ, human eyes were allowed to look at Him, and human ears heard the sound of His voice. Perfection stood before us at last in concrete form. When grace teaches us, she always teaches us by leading up to Christ — by exhibiting fresh views of His perfection, drawing out our heart in admiration towards Him. Happy they who thus set themselves to learn Christ as their life lesson, not as a mere duty — that is legality — but because they have fallen in love with Christ! Happy they who learn Christ just as the astronomer learns astronomy! Why does he study astronomy? Would a Newton tell you that he has spent all those hours in the careful examination of the phenomena of nature, or absorbed in profound mathematical calculations, because he thought it his duty to do it? And even so those who are under the teaching of grace learn Christ, not because they are under a legal obligation to learn Him, but because they are mastered by an enthusiastic admiration for the Divine object. There is a beauty in Christ which wins the heart. But grace does more than even this.

4. She not only sets before us the highest of all exemplars, but she establishes the closest possible relationship between that Exemplar and ourselves. Grace is not content with merely setting an example before us; she takes us by the hand and introduces us to the Exemplar, tells us not only that this Exemplar is content to be our friend, but, more wonderful still, that He is content to be one with us, uniting Himself to us, that His strength may be made perfect in our weakness. "Know ye not," says grace, "that Christ is in you?" In you; not merely outside you as a source of power, not merely beside you as a faithful companion on life's journey, but in you. "Christ is your life," says grace. Do you prefer to be under the law? Do you really elect to be bondslaves? You say your prayers in the morning; it is your duty to do it. You do not feel comfortable if you do not say them. You go to church; but it is not because you love to go and cannot stay away, or because you want to know more and more of God, or delight in His worship. "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord." You go because it is your habit. May God save us from such bondage as this! Let us remember that all the while that we are thus trifling there is within our reach, if we would but have it, the glorious liberty of the children of God.

(W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)

1. But love fulfils the law, not by a conscious effort to fulfil it, but because it is the voluntary response of the soul to the Person from whom the law has emanated. Love fulfils the law, not by commanding me to conform my conduct to a certain outward and objective standard, but by awakening within me a spiritual passion of devotion for the Person of Him whose will is law to those who love Him. Love knows nothing about mere restriction and repression — love seeks to please, not to abstain from displeasing; and so love fulfils, not merely abstains from breaking, the law. Thus we see that love takes us up to an altogether higher level than law. I cannot illustrate this point better than by referring for a moment to our earthly relationships to each other. There are certain laws which are applicable to these relationships. For instance, there are certain laws of our land, and there are certain laws contained in the Bible, which apply to the natural relationships of the father and of the husband. It is obviously the duty of the father and the husband to care for his wife and his children, to protect them, to provide for them, to endeavour to secure their well-being so far as in him lies. A man who occupies that relationship is bound to do not less than this. But does a really affectionate husband and father perform those various offices because the law constrains him to do so, because it is his legal duty to do them? Does he perform acts of tenderness towards his wife and towards his child because the law demands them of him? Even so the man whom grace has taught finds a new law within his nature, the law of love, in surrendering himself to which he fulfils indeed the outward and objective law, not because he makes an effort to fulfil it, but because he is true to his new nature. So that I may say, to put the thing concisely, grace is not opposed to law, but is superior to law; and the man who lives in grace lives not "under the law," because he is above the law. We imprison the wife beater. Why? Because he has fallen from the level of love altogether, and thus he has come down to the level of the law, and is within the reach of the law. Even so here the only persons who are not under law are the persons who are above law. Is the law written within our hearts, or is it only revealed from without? In our attempt to do what is right, do we simply do, or endeavour to do, what is right because we have recognised a certain external standard of duty, and are endeavouring to conform our conduct to it? Or do we do what is right because we are living in happy, holy intercourse with an indwelling God in whose love we find our law, and in surrendering ourselves to the influence of whose love, our highest enjoyment? Herein lies the test of the difference between legal experience and evangelical experience.

2. But here let me point out that grace, whilst she teaches us gently and tenderly, and in a very different way from law, has nevertheless sanctions of her own. They are the rewards and punishments which are congruous to the life of love, whereas the rewards and punishments of legal experience are such as are congruous to the life of legal servitude. We shall detect in a moment what these sanctions are if we reflect upon the nature of our relation to Him who has now become to us our law of life. It is the glory of the life of love that we have something to love. Our love is not merely an empty abstraction, nor is it merely a wasted energy that wanders in infinity; it is attracted towards a living Person. In the enjoyment of His society, which to the real Christian is not a matter of sentiment, but a matter of practical experience, the soul finds its highest privilege. Ah! grace disciplines as well as teaches. She does not spoil her children. She is not like some fond and indulgent mother, who fancies that she is benefiting her children when she is really injuring them more cruelly than in any other way she possibly could, by always giving them their own way. Grace does not teach us to be negligent, thoughtless, heedless, careless. Grace does not whisper in our ears, "Now that you are saved once you are saved forever. Go on, and never mind what happens to you." But grace teaches us very delicately. "I will guide thee," says grace, "with my eye." Grace teaches us. She brings out the scales of the sanctuary, and into the one she puts our worldly idol — our love of popularity, our self-seeking, our slothfulness, our self-indulgence, our pride of heart, all those little and great things which we are so apt to set against the society of Jesus, or rather which we are so apt to allow to come in between us and the society of Jesus. Yes, grace has her sanctions. And I am afraid that there are only too many Christians who have often to feel the force of those dread sanctions. Their whole life has come to be a clouded, unsatisfactory, melancholy, woebegone life. How many Christians are there of whom it cannot be said that the joy of the Lord is their strength! And why? They are under the discipline of grace. Yes, God does not forsake them altogether. He has not left them to their own waywardness, but He has visited their offences with the rod and their sin with scourges. They cannot be happy in the world since they have tasted something better in Christ. Nor can they be happy in Christ while they cast longing looks towards the world. But grace has also her rewards, and I love to think of them. What are they? The eye, perhaps, wanders on towards the future, and we think of the glories that are to be revealed. In this present world, amidst all the trials to which the Christian may be exposed, the school of grace has its prizes. Grace has her prizes. "The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace." Grace teaches indeed, but she teaches by first of all correcting, nay, by regenerating, the secret springs of our actions. Unless these are set right, how can our actions be right? How can you love God unless the love of God has conquered your heart?

(W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)

1. Ungodliness consists, first of all, in the repudiation of God as the final cause of our being; that is to say, the end for which we live. A man is ungodly when he lives not for God. I do not care what outward complexion it wears. It may be the life of a zealous ritualist devoted to his party, or of an earnest churchman, or of a staunch protestant, or of a decided evangelical, or of a stout nonconformist; it makes no difference. Whatever complexion our outward life may wear, the man that is not consciously living for the glory of God is leading an ungodly life. He has fallen from the original position which belongs to man in relation to God.

2. The second characteristic of ungodliness will be exhibited in an indisposition on man's part to take God as the efficient cause of all that he is or wishes to be. Ungodliness begins when we decline to live for God; ungodliness is developed in an incapacity or an indisposition to live by God. The apostle was describing a godly experience when he said, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." "Man shall not live by bread alone." He needs that. "As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that He have mercy upon us." Is that the kind of life of dependence that we are leading, drawing all our strength for action from Him, receiving all our guidance in action through Him? Happy they who live thus.

3. The next characteristic of the life of ungodliness is that as, in the first place, man does not live for God; and as, in the second place, he does not live by God, so, in the third place, he does not live with God. He knows not what it is to enjoy the Divine society. The man that knows what it is to be godly — to "live godly in Christ Jesus" — finds that he cannot do without God at home any more than he can do without God at church; he cannot do without God in the place of business any more than he can do without God in his closet. He needs God. God has become a kind of necessity to him. Jesus always near, always dear, is more than life to those of us who really know Him. The godly live with God.

4. Once more, the ungodly life will not only be a life which is not lived for God, and not only a life which is not lived with God; but it will also be a life which is not lived in God, and a life in which God lives not in us. There is something more blessed even than living in the company of Jesus; and that is to know by faith that we live in Him, and to realise in our inmost experience the still more wonderful fact that He lives in us. But how does grace provide for this complete separation between us and this root sin, which seems to have become hereditary in the family of man? how does the denial of ungodliness take place? We seek an answer by referring to two remarkable expressions which fell from our blessed Master's lips, shortly before His own passion. On that memorable occasion on which a supernatural voice responded to His prayer, "Father, glorify Thy name," He proceeds to state, "Now is the judgment of this world; now is the prince of this world cast out," Elsewhere He supplements these words by another similar statement. "When the Holy Ghost is come," He says, "He will convict the world concerning judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." Most mysterious though these utterances may seem they will be found to throw a good deal of light upon this particular subject. How is ungodliness to be denied? It is to be denied by recognising God's judgment against it. The prince of this world is the very representative, as he is the author, of the world's ungodliness. Satan succeeds in obtaining the worship of humanity in a thousand different forms. But, however we may serve him, he is judged. If we ask how and when, only one reply seems possible. Strange and paradoxical though it may seem, he is judged and condemned on Calvary, in the Person of Him who exhibited more than any other filial piety and true godliness. The ungodliness of the world, the revolt of human independence against Divine authority, is represented by the world victim upon the cross of Calvary, and meets in Christ with its proper doom. Against that world sin, against that ungodliness which is the root and source of every kind of iniquity, all the wrath of God has been already revealed. I discover it as I witness the dying agonies of Emmanuel. A godless world will not have God; by and by it shall not have Him. It turns its back upon God; God must needs turn His back upon it. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Surely this is the true explanation of that bitter cry that was wrung from the breaking heart of Emmanuel. There we see the judgment of the world passed upon the representative of the world's sin, and it is because that judgment has expended itself on Him that there is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Him. But, observe, it is only as our faith sees our ungodliness crucified there that we are in a position to enjoy this immunity from condemnation. We thus judge that He died for all, that we who live should not henceforth live to ourselves, but to Him who died for us and rose again.

(W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)