er, if we did not let our hand slip out
of His, and break our communion with Him.

So, dear brethren, 'in the world ye shall have tribulation, in Me ye
shall have peace.' Keep inside the fortress and nothing will disturb.
'He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty.' The only place where that hungry,
passion-ridden heart of yours, conscious of alienation from God, can
find rest, is close by Jesus Christ. 'The Lord be with us all,' and then
the peace of that Lord shall clothe and fill our hearts in Christ
Jesus.

I. TIMOTHY

THE END OF THE COMMANDMENT

'Now, the end of the commandment is love, out of a
pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith
unfeigned.'--1 TIM. 1. 6.

The Apostle has just said that he left Timothy in Ephesus, in order to
check some tendencies there which were giving anxiety. Certain teachers
had appeared, the effect of whose activity was to create parties, to
foster useless speculations, and to turn the minds of the Ephesian
Christians away from the practical and moral side of Christianity. In
opposition to these, the Apostle here lays down the broad principle that
God has spoken, not in order to make acute theologians, or to provide
materials for controversy, but in order to help us to love. The whole of
these latest letters of the Apostle breathe the mellow wisdom of old
age, which has learned to rate brilliant intellectualism, agility,
incontroversial fence and the like, far lower than homely goodness. And
so, says Paul, 'the end of the commandment is love.'

Now he here states, not only the purpose of the divine revelation, but
gives us a summary, but yet sufficient, outline of the method by which
God works towards that purpose. The commandment is the beginning, love
is the end or aim. And between these two there are inserted three
things, a 'pure heart,' a 'good conscience,' 'faith unfeigned.' Now of
these three the two former are closely connected, and the third is the
cause, or condition, of both of them. It is, therefore, properly named
last as being first in order, and therefore last reached in analysis.
When you track a stream from its mouth to its source, the fountain-head
is the last thing that you come to. And here we have, as in these great
lakes in Central Africa--out of which finally the Nile issues--the
stages of the flow. There are the twin lakes, a 'good conscience' and