WHAT WANT I WITH THE WORLD? WHAT want I with the world And all its treasures? In Thee alone, Lord Jesus, What want I with the world? The world is as a smoke What want I with the world? The world seeks its renown Is Jesu's love alone; To see Him on His throne. What want I with the world? The world seeks worldly wealth; On which my heart reclines; What want I with the world? The world is sorely tried, My peace to do His will! What want I with the world? The world so high esteems Would barter heaven away; What want I with the world? What want I with the world? All earthly creatures fade: Jesus sustains; my heart Is by his love repaid. What want 1 with the world? What want I with the world? Therefore do I repeat, What want I with the world? -From the German. No. III. REMARKS ON 2 TIMOTHY. A FEW remarks on the second epistle to Timothy, may, I think, not be without their use at the present moment. I will embrace in them, as throwing great light on the second, a short comparison with the first, as to its general character. We get, in both epistles, what is evidently of the deepest interest, the confidential communications of the Apostle to one to whom, above all, he could open out all his heart, and express himself freely. But their characters are very different, and the rather as he could express all his personal feelings. Besides the interest of this, moreover, the general instruction of the Spirit in them is full of import. The first, as is soon perceived, bears in general the stamp of the quietness which characterises a peaceful development of what was subsisting, in the main as it had been first established. The second is thrown into individual duties and earnestness, because that which had been established had departed from all consistency with its original standing. The first just guards the truth which was possessed, but is little occupied with it. Individuals were to be hindered teaching any other doctrine. Some few, hankering after the law, had already turned aside and gone into vain janglings. But, in the main, the Apostle could speak of the Church as being that which is always true as to the responsibility of the position it is in, without its suggesting a painful sense of the discordance between fact and responsibility; namely, that it was the pillar and ground of the truth. Individuals had fallen into gnostic judaism. The assembly was still practically, as it always is in responsible position, the pillar and ground of the truth. It had not falsified its character. The Church, and the Church alone, until VOL. XIII. PT. II. 10 judicially rejected of God, sustains the truth before the world, though grace sustains the Church; men may minister it, but the Church, by its profession, sustains it. This thought brings no present distress to the Apostle's mind. It gives occasion to the prophetic declaration, that in the latter days some would depart from the faith. Timothy was to put the brethren in remembrance, so that they might be on their guard when that came,—but the body of the epistle supposes the Church, in the main, untroubled in this respect, though there were dangers seen in the horizon, as in Acts xx., and it is occupied, assuming the truth to be maintained, with the order and comeliness of the house of God-how Timothy ought to behave himself in the Church, which was the pillar and ground of the truth. It arranges the order of the house, in the various practical details of its administration on earth, from the elders who should rule in it, to the care of widows, and the Church's duty in respect of them, keeping in view family ties and the obligations flowing from them. It is the whole order of the Church upon earth, and the due administration of it. The Church is looked at as in this world, not as the body of Christ. It is the house of the living God, an assembly here on the earth, the vessel and maintainer of the truth in it. The Apostle looked to exercise still his administrative care himself; but instructed Timothy, meanwhile, how to behave himself, having his attention fixed on divine things, and exhorts him to fight the good fight of faith, in view of the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. In a word, it is the due administration of the Church upon earth, awaiting the Lord's appearing as the term of responsibility. As a whole, the Church is seen as that to which the mystery of godliness was confided, and it was the maintainer of it on the earth. The danger of running into law and gnostic asceticism is warned against; but as yet the Church, as such, maintains the truth, and has only to be rightly administered. It will be remembered, that Timothy was left at Ephesus to guard against any preaching of any other doctrine (1 Tim. i. 3), though instructed in the administrative order of the assembly; and this runs through the epistles, applying that truth withal to practical purposes, shewing it as the truth as it is in Jesus. In the second epistle, the assembly is still there; but it is viewed as a great house, in which vessels to dishonour are to be found. Here the truth, as with John, takes a prominent place-that is the maintenance of the truth; individual faithfulness to the truth, and individual piety. He looks for devotedness and courage in the individual, in the man of God. Church privileges are not before his mind, he can dwell on the Jewish faith (the truth in their day) of Timothy's mother and grandmother (and the mother had married a Greek), and that of Timothy, as all running in the same divine channel, and flowing from the same divine source. We have two characters of the assembly. It is like a great house, it has vessels to dishonour as well as to honour, and it would have, in the perilous times, the form of piety but deny its force. As to the facts which gave occasion to this train of thought, they are evident. The Apostle had been deserted by the Saints, and was looking soon to leave the assembly, and he knew what would come in after his departure, and warns of it. "All in Asia had turned away" from him, he was glad to have one that cared for him in his prison! The Lord had, indeed, none. The brethren, some from worldly motives, some doubtless for service, but at any rate all but Luke, had left him. They had not in their hearts to stand by him in his witness. They had not left Christ as to the faith, but they could not hold fast in such an exposed place as Paul's, so at his first answer on his trial, "no man stood by him," "all men forsook him." "but he knows whom he has believed." It was to Christ he had committed his happiness, and He would keep it safe for him. A crown of righteousness was laid up for him. He had fought the good fight, he had kept the faith. Thus, strong individual personal faith, with the sense that the assembly had failed and not held on to the ground on which his soul walked, is that which gives the character and key-note to this epistle. Still, unclouded personal courage is that which he looks for. But the state of the assembly on the earth may first occupy us, |