shoulders, and, bearing him from sakes only, not for the good of their the burning city, thus saved his life. children only, but on wider-on The spirit of that beautiful story patriotic-grounds. The child of tohas been embodied since in ten day will be the man or the woman thousand similar histories; and, of the future; the boys and girls of wherever known, has been admired 1876 will be the England of 1896. and loved. History, indeed, is full And is it not so that all the virtues of examples, and full of the praises of citizenship, obedience to the law, of those children who have shown reverence for constituted authority, a pure and deep affection for their loyalty to the sovereign, are built aged parents, and a respect and up, as on a foundation, upon the reverence for old age. I do not say early habits of parental control and that this spirit has died out of the of filial obedience? Nay, we may world. God forbid that it should! go further. The disobedient and unBut I do say that the children of ruly son bears as impatiently the this century and the children of the yoke of his heavenly as of his past differ very widely, and not for earthly father, and the parent who the better. In reading the biogra- allows its child to grow up unruled phies of the last three centuries, and untamed is not only sowing we continually come upon little misery for himself and his offspring touches which illustrate the point on earth, but is doing his best to we have in hand. We read of make him a child of the devil, a children who always stood in the rebel against God, a bad parent presence of a father; who were ac- himself by-and-by, and the wicked customed to sit in perfect silence at progenitor of a wicked race. My the dinner-table; who addressed a young readers should themselves father as "sir," a mother as try to see these things to be so, "madam," and subscribed them- and for their own sakes they should selves in letters as "dutiful and never permit themselves in the use obedient;" who regarded an aged of those ugly words, "I can't and I person as one who had a natural won't," to their parents or elders. claim upon their reverence and Every one in this world is under helpful aid, and a travelled stranger rule and order. Your parents are as one whose experience they should admire and whose observations they should treasure up.

Perhaps the domestic discipline of those days was too severe, but at any rate the swing of the pendulum seems in these to have gone too far in the opposite direction. Now we everywhere see in the young a fast forwardness and conceit, an impatience of control, an overweening confidence in their own judgment, a contempt of the experience and observation of age, and too frequently rude tones, sulky obstinacy, flat contradiction, or impudent refusal in speech with parents.

It is the tendency and one of the outcomes of the age, we shall be told. It is so. But parents should strive against it, not for their own

so. Are you children then to be free? Can you not believe, can you not prove to yourselves that the rules and restraints you are called on to submit to are for your own benefit and happiness? Is it reasonable to suppose that you at fourteen or sixteen years of age can judge as wisely as those who have had the experience of forty or fifty years who will be your best companions, where you should go, or what places or pleasures avoid? Will you not in your generation expect to be obeyed, and your wishes consulted? Why then should you not give now the obedience and the deference to others which you will hereafter claim for yourselves? And remember again that this law of obedience to narents is not of human institu

tion, though indeed the light of nature and the practice of all nations and of all ages enforce it; but it is, as St. Paul tells us, "the first commandment with a promise, that it may be well with thee." As if the Divine Lawgiver set a special value and importance on this command, as He doubtless does, for while on the one hand He would win the young, as it were, by appeals to their self-interest, He warns them by threats of evil that shall follow the disobedient.

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Another word, too, I must say on the girl's speech. "I can't and I won't" are words we have all of us heard before; but too often they would bear the translation-I can't because I won't. A boy "cannot" master his Latin repetition; it is because in an unhappy moment, perhaps almost unconsciously, he has said, "I will not learn it." A man can't" find time to do this bit of work, or that errand of kindness and mercy. It is because he will not make the time, or has no taste for the good deed. It is a good old proverb that says, "Where there's a will there's a way," and were the will not less often in our hearts the cannot would be more seldom on our lips.

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The

But, said the girl, "And there's an end of it!" No! dear young friend, not an end. She was mistaken. No evil deed, no evil word was ever yet done or spoken and there ended. The consequences of our lightest words are far-reaching. They have some effect on those who speak, more on those to whom they are spoken, most perchance on those who hear and may imitate. philosophers tell us that sound is produced by the vibration of the air, and that each sound passes on, on, still on, in undulations and movement of atmosphere through space and into infinity. It certainly is so with our words and actions in the moral world. A single sentence converted Saul the persecutor, and eventuated in the conversion of the Gentile world. Its effect is on the pen that writes these words.

Let me entreat you to dwell upon these things. Let them sober and solemnise you. We none of us know or feel our responsibilities as we ought. Let us beware of hasty speech, of hard thoughts, of disobedient action; and let us be well assured that little but evil is found in that phrase, too often heard, "I can't and I won't!" C. C. P.

NEWS OF THE CHURCHES.

THE memorial stone of a new for the ministry of the Rev. E. chapel, for the ministry of the Rev. Edwards.-A new chapel has been J. Clifford, M.A., LL.B., has been opened at Bournemouth, Hants, laid in Westbourne Park Place, for the ministry of the Rev. H. C. Westbourne Park, London.-The Leonard, M.A.-The foundation memorial stone of a new chapel has stone has been laid of new schoolbeen laid at Llandridnod, Wells. rooms, in connection with the The chapel at Lifton, Devon, under church at Aylsham, Norfolk.-The the care of the Rev. J. Parker, has memorial stone of a new chapel been reopened after alteration.- has been laid at Mold.-The buildThe foundation stone of a new ing of a new chapel, for the ministry chapel, for the ministry of the Rev. of Mr. G. Sparks, has been comJ. Jefferson, has been laid at menced at Cowes, Isle of Wight.Rawstenstall, Lancashire. The A new chapel has been opened at memorial stone of a new chapel Gilfach Goch, South Wales, for the has been laid at Redruth, Cornwall, ministry of the Rev. J. T. Jones.—

A new chapel has been opened at Wrexham, Denbigh, for the pastorate of the Rev. S. D. Thomas.A new chapel has been opened at Bingley, Yorkshire, for the ministry of the Rev. E. Copey.-The foundation stone of a new chapel has been laid at Nantwich, Cheshire. The foundation stone of a new chapel has been laid at Conway, N. W., for the pastorate of the Rev. J. S. James.

the Rev. G. P. Gould, M.A., eldest son of the Rev. G. Gould, of Norwich, to Bournemouth and Boscombe, to be co-pastor with the Rev. H. C. Leonard, M.A.; the Rev. J. Hanson, late of Huddersfield, to North Bradley, Wilts; the Rev. E. George, of the Metropolitan Tabernacle College, to Burwell, Cambridgeshire; the Rev. J. Tucker, of Glascoed, Monmouthshire, to Griffith's Town; the Rev. W. E. Winks, of Wisbech, to The Rev. W. W. Robinson has Bethany, Cardiff; the Rev. S. A. been recognised as the pastor of Swaine, of Wantage, to Great the church in Claremont Street, Victoria Street, Belfast; the Rev. Shrewsbury; the Rev. F. Forbes, H. M. Barnett, B.A., late of the of the church at Lochgilpead, N.B.; Episcopal Free Church, Southampthe Rev. J. Dixon, of the church at ton,to South Parade, Tenby. The Rev. Tamworth; the Rev. J. Jenkins, J. Williams, B.A., has resigned his late of Welshpool, of the church at Dolaw; the Rev. H. Hughes, of the church at Countesthorpe, Leicester; the Rev. W. Williams, of the church at Kirkdale, Liverpool; the Rev. J. Cave, of the church at Kingsbridge, Devon.

pastorate at Frogmore Street, Abergavenny.

The Rev. G. E. Ireland has resigned his charge at Mildenhall, Suffolk. The Rev. A. Smith has relinquished his pastorate at Monkwearmouth, Sunderland. The Rev. G. Alway has resigned the pastorate of the church at Lower Trosnant, Pontypool, Monmouthshire. The Rev. J. Manning has resigned his pastorate at St. George's Street, Ipswich. The Rev. J. Work, B.A., has resigned his pastorate at Wick. The Rev. J. H. Wait has resigned his pastorate at Aston-on-Chin. The Rev. S. Peacock has resigned his pastorate at Caerwent, Monmouthshire.

The following reports of MINISTERIAL CHANGES have reached us since our last issue:-The Rev. J. Hart, of Stantonbury, to Potter's Bar, London ;the Rev. A. Braine, of Winchester, to Holyrood Street, Chard, Somerset; the Rev. J. H. Blake, of Bow, to Park Street, Luton; the Rev. A. F. Mills, of Neath, Glamorganshire, to North Frederick Street, Glasgow; the Rev. A. Knell, of Bildeston, to Ridgmount, Beds; the Rev. D. Davies, ofMochdref,to Maesyrhelem, Radnorshire; the Rev. E. Morley, of Redditch, to Halstead, Essex; the Rev. S. Murch to Hay Hill, Bath; the Rev. J. Smalley to the pastorate of the church at Lay's Hill, Herefordshire, still retaining also his pastorate of the church in Broad Street, Ross; the Rev. W. H. Payne, of Bugbrook, Northamptonshire, to Lyndhurst, Hants; seventy-five.

We regret to announce the death of the Rev. W. W. Evans, formerly Secretary of the Bible Translation Society, at the age of seventy-four; also of the Rev. W. Leng, for upwards of forty-six years the pastor of the church at Stocktonon-Tees,at the age of seventy-seven; also of the Rev. J. Lea, of Long Crendon, Bucks; also of the Rev. J.Woods, late of Great Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire, at the age of

OCTOBER, 1876.

ON SOME OF THE SUBORDINATE CHARACTERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

BY THE REV. WILLIAM BROCK.

X.-TIMOTHEUS.

THE first of Paul's missionary journeys reached its furthest limit at Lystra, a town of Lycaonia, high up in the interior of Asia Minor. The place was one of the most uncivilised he ever visited; the people were heathens of the ruder sort, fickle, headstrong, and intensely superstitious. They began by offering divine honours to the missionaries, and they ended by stoning Paul, as they supposed, to death. Even in Lystra, however, he left a band of converts, duly formed into a Church of Christ. And when, after a year or two, he came that way a second time, he found the little Church standing steadfast, and among its members he found a youth who bore the now famous name of Timothy. "Then came he to Derbe and Lystra; and behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus." *

The historian, having thus introduced him to our notice, proceeds at once to his parentage, which was a remarkable one. On the mother's side, Timothy was born a Jew. Both mother and grandmother appear to have been devout students of the Hebrew Scriptures, earnest and sincere in their religion. They had been among the early converts at Lystra. They had trained the child of their love in the learning of their people, and in the fear of their God. It is the more surprising to be told that his father was a Greek," and probably a heathen. Mixed marriages were held in horror by orthodox Jews. At Lystra, however, Jews of any kind were few, and the rigour of custom must have been relaxed. Timothy himself, when Paul met with him, had never been circumcised. But what might escape remark in Lycaonia, would prove a scandal to the stricter Jews elsewhere; and it is to be noted, as an instance of his practical judgment, that Paul, in order to avoid the scandal, "took and circumcised him" before he led him forth to work.

The spiritual ancestry of Timothy seems to be almost as clearly marked as the natural. He must have been prepared for the willing reception of the gospel by the godly education of his childhood, and was perhaps among those who are "sanctified from the womb." If, however, we rightly appreciate the force of the expression used by Paul," my own son in the faith," we must attribute to the influence of the Apostle's first visit his decision to follow Christ. In the

*Refer to Acts xiv. 6-23, xvi. 1-3; and for what follows see Acts xvi. xvii. and xviii. 1-11; 1 Corinth. iv. 17, xvi. 10-11; 1 Thess. iii. 1-6; Heb. xiii. 23; and especially Phil. ii. 19-23, and the Epistles to Timothy.

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interval between that visit and the second, he had advanced to a character of marked ability and promise. The brethren, not at Lystra only, but Iconium, spoke well of him. Some did not hesitate to predict for him a foremost place among the soldiers of the Cross. Paul, always on the watch for helpers, examined the grounds of that opinion, and confirmed it. He saw the materials lying ready for a noble missionary life, worthy to be reduced to order under his own eye. "Him would Paul have to go forth with him." And with this period we connect the numerous allusions in the two Epistles which bring up to Timothy's recollection what we should call his ordination service. The church appears gathered in solemn assembly. There are the mother and the grandmother of the young probationer. There are some of the heathen comrades with whom he has played as a boy and studied as a man. He makes his declaration of faith and purpose, a good profession before many witnesses." Then the Apostle, speaking as a veteran speaks to a recruit, explains the labours and the risks of the Christian warfare, and charges his "son to be brave, patient, and believing. The laying on of hands succeeds; Paul's hands are placed on Timothy's head, and the hands of all the elders; and the united prayer of all present rises to heaven on his behalf. Nor does it rise in vain; for to that moment is referred the special anointing of the Spirit which fitted the young man for his future ministry. "The gift of God" came with the laying on of hands; and, amid smiles and tears, we see him going forth into the great world, in the footsteps of the Captain who had chosen him to be a soldier. Well for the Christian minister, who, through the vicissi tudes of his life, can look back on some impressive service of that kind, when he too was separated to his work, and commended, in brotherly affection, to the Spirit's all-sufficient grace. Priestly power of consecration we heartily disavow; but we may prize and we may practise, none the less, every ordinance which tends to deepen our feeling of ministerial responsibility, and to bind us to our Master's side.

The work which Timothy found cast upon him constantly widened in range and in importance. He was very young when he went out with Paul; and it was fitting that he should at first remain in the background, a witness of Paul's achievements, a minister to his wants, and a diligent learner from his example. From the outset there was much for him to witness, to learn, and to emulate. The Acts of the Apostles, from the sixteenth chapter to the nineteenth, record the very noblest exploits of the Apostle's ministry; and Timothy was with him at Philippi, at Thessalonica, at Corinth, and at Ephesus. He did not appear prominent in the preaching; he was passed over in the persecutions. But, from references in the Epistles, we discover how usefully and industriously he was em ployed. From Corinth he is sent to the suffering Thessalonians, "to establish and comfort them in their faith." From Ephesus he is sent to the contentious Corinthians "to bring them into remem