with the business matters of the community. They would have to obtain rooms for the religious assemblies of the faithful. They would have to provide the bread and wine, and to set out the Holy Table, and assist the presbyter in the distribution of the Sacred Elements. They would be responsible for the distribution of alms to the sick and poor. They would keep both the general roll of church members, and the roll of the widows who were supported by the offerings of the community.

With regard to the presbyters, their chief work was naturally teaching and preaching, conducting the public services of the Church, and celebrating the Holy Communion.

Accordingly we find the Apostle directing Titus to give such directions as these to the presbyters or bishops of the Cretan Churches. The presbyter was to hold

Tit. i. 9: To the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in the sound doctrine and to convict the gainsayers.

And then, having spoken more at large of the evils wrought in the Church by these gainsayers, these deceivers and unruly men, the Apostle continues :

Ch. ii. 1: But speak thou the things which befit the sound doctrine.

This sound or healthy doctrine related to such matters as the duties of aged men and women, the duties of young men, the special duties of Christian slaves. These last he exhorts to adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things. Then he continues:—

Ch. ii. 11: For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, and righteously, and godly in this present world...

Ch. iii. 4: [For] when the kindness of God our Saviour and His love toward man appeared, not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing (or laver) of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that, being justified by His grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

There is an expression in this passage which is peculiar to these Pastoral Epistles, which I must on no account omit to notice.

Frequently in these Epistles we come across the expression," God our Saviour," where the reference is not to the Son, but to the Father.

If our attention has not been specially called to this, it comes upon us as a sort of surprise, that by God our Saviour is meant, not our Lord Jesus Christ, but our Father in Heaven.

The Father is as much our Saviour as Jesus is. If we had this well in our minds, we could never harbour such a notion as that Jesus saves us from the Father.

It really amounts to this, that not this Person in the Godhead, or that Person, exclusively is our Saviour, but that God in His Divine completeness— Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-is our only Saviour.

So in this very passage, we have put before us the kindness and the "philanthropy" of the Father, the renewing of the Holy Ghost, and the gift of the Spirit through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whose free grace we are justified, or renewed to righteousness.

This is also a most important passage, as showing what is the real doctrine of grace.

In some quarters we hear a great deal about the doctrines of grace; as these doctrines are sometimes stated, they appear to teach that a man who is once

in a state of grace, may live as he will; and that the grace of God is most signally displayed in the salvation of a handful of souls out of a reprobate and perishing race.

But widely different is what S. Paul means by the doctrine of grace. According to him, the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men. According to him, salvation is not the liberty to live as we will, but the power to live as the children of God.

Salvation, S. Paul teaches, is of free, unmerited grace; "according to His mercy He saved us."

But the Apostle tells us also how this salvation is made ours, how it is brought home to us. "According to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost."

God saves us, then, by bringing us, by baptism, into a state of salvation; as S. Peter also teaches that "Baptism doth also now save us."

Without any merit on our part, entirely irrespective of good works which we have done, or may do, God brings us into a state of salvation, a state of God's favour and of forgiveness of sins.

This is S. Paul's teaching on salvation by grace. With a few directions to Titus to meet him at Nicopolis, and to speed on other travellers on their way, the Apostle thus concludes:—

Ch. iii. 15: All that are with me salute thee. Salute them that love us in faith.

Grace be with you all.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.

E come now to the last of the Epistles of S. Paul. We are about to read the last message of the great Apostle of the Gentiles

to the Church, the last warning, the last consolation spoken by one who was not only an inspired Apostle, but was now on the confines of the eternal world, and whose crown of martyrdom was near.

Since he wrote his letter to Titus, the whole aspect of his life was altered.

Then he was free, settling his plans for the coming winter; now he is once more a prisoner.

Whether at Nicopolis, or elsewhere, he had been apprehended and sent to Rome, probably on the capital charge of being concerned in the burning of the imperial city.

As I have pointed out in the tenth Chapter of this book, his second imprisonment was very different from his first. Then he was allowed to live in his own lodging with the soldier who guarded him: now he was consigned to a dark and probably filthy dungeon. Then he was regarded as the victim of unreasoning malice, now he was regarded as a dangerous criminal.

It was in this dark dungeon that S. Paul dictated,

no doubt to S. Luke, for "only Luke was with him,” this second letter to Timothy.

Whether the Apostle's main object was to entreat his child in the faith to come to him with all speed, or whether his first thought was that Timothy required some special help and encouragement, it is hard to say.

It is possible that Timothy may have written to his father in the faith, and poured out his difficulties and discouragements; or it may have been that some hint had been given to the imprisoned Apostle that Timothy was not taking such a resolute line as the circumstances of the case demanded, and was not holding the reins of government with a sufficiently firm hand.

However this may be, there are certainly indications, in the opening sentences of the Epistle, that there had been great discouragement in the mind of Timothy, and something perhaps of the timidity which is the natural result of discouragement.

After expressing his earnest and affectionate care for him, and his remembrances of the unfeigned faith which he had shown, a faith which was almost an hereditary faith, S. Paul goes on to warn him, that neither his early zeal, nor the lessons that he had received from others, could enable him to sustain his position at Ephesus.

He reminds him of the gift of God which was in him, with which he had been endowed at his ordination; he would have Timothy remember that the Spirit which he had received was not a spirit of cowardice, but of power, love, and a sound mind.

Ch. i. 1 Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus.... to Timothy, my beloved child; Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I thank God.... how unceasing is my remembrance