all affectation and appearance of service, which is not true and real at the bottom. The second thing laid down in the text in the duty of a servant, is, that he do his duty, 'not with eyeservice as menpleasers, but as the servants of Christ.' Eyeservice is the service of him who works only under the eye of his master, only while he is seen and observed by him; who is good according as he is watched, diligent so long as he is well looked after. This sort of service is condemned in the text, and for a very plain reason; if pleasing man, if pleasing his master, was the whole and sole object of a servant's view, this might do; but it can never do with God; it can never, therefore, satisfy him who looks to God and not to man for the final recompense of his labors; it can never be his part who conducts himself, not as a manpleaser, but according to St Paul's direction, as the servant of Christ; it can never be his part who considers himself, whilst he is working for his master, as doing that business, that task of life, which God Almighty has appointed him, and looks, as St Paul speaks, to receive of the Lord for his service. Such a one knows, that whether his earthly master be absent or present, be negligent or careful, be skilful or ignorant, be difficult to impose upon or easy to impose upon, He who is to be the ultimate rewarder of him can never be deceived, is watching him when no one else is, seeth in secret, rewards that fidelity and that diligence which is not to be corrupted by opportunity of negligence or dishonesty, or which forgets itself when out of sight.

Having thus stated what I take to be the mind and meaning of the apostle, as to the duty and condition of servants, I will add, as a concluding consideration, some of the various intimations given us in scripture, how greatly our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ esteemed the character of a good servant. And this appears from hence, that when he would set forth the merit and acceptance of a virtuous disciple, he generally does it by comparing his with that of a good servant; 'Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord has made ruler over his household, to give them their meat in due season; blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. I say unto you he will make him ruler over all his house.'

Here you see the reception which a true Christian may expect from God, as compared with that which a faithful servant shall meet with from his master.

'The kingdom of heaven is as man travelling into a far country, who called his servants and delivered unto them his

goods; and unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one. After a long time the lord of these servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And he that had received five talents came in and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents, behold I have gained besides them five talents more; and the lord said unto him, Thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord.' We know that this is but a parable or similitude, and that in truth Christ is representing how God will applaud and recompense those who have improved and best used the abilities and opportunities put into their power; but what I argue is this; that Christ conveys this representation under the comparison of a just, orderly, and faithful servant, and that he would never have used this comparison, if the character of such a servant had not been what he approved, and what those who had heard him were presumed to approve also. It may be observed also, what were the circumstances of this servant whom our Saviour here describes. They were circumstances, in the first place, of great trust. The master had delivered to the servant certain goods; the behaviour of the servant was the more praiseworthy, the trial of his fidelity the greater, inasmuch as he had exerted himself so diligently and so successfully when his master was absent, 'afar off on a journey,' and absent for a long time; this increases the virtue and merit of such conduct, and is mentioned by our Lord because it did increase it.

These parables admit of two applications; a good Christian sees his duty and his reward described by the fidelity and recompense of a good servant. A good servant sees how highly that character is prized and valued by Christ, when he finds that Christ makes choice of it as the type and similitude by which he delineates the qualities and virtues which he wishes to find in his disciples, and how those virtues will be accepted at the coming of their heavenly master.

XXXII.

A STUDIOUS LIFE RECOMMENDED TO THE

CLERGY.

[Preached at Durham, at the Visitation of the Right Reverend Shute, Lord Bishop of Durham.]

1 TIMOTHY IV. 13.

Till I come give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

NEXT to the lessons which proceed from our Lord himself, I know nothing that can well be imagined more interesting to a believer in Christianity, than letters of advice and instruction from an original missionary of the religion, to one whom he had associated with himself in the office; especially from the most active and zealous of its teachers, to a disciple and colleague favored with his highest confidence; from the chiefest of the apostles to the most beloved of his converts.

It might be expected that the apostolic character would flow in pages, which were dictated by christian zeal united with personal affection. They came from a mind filled at all times with the momentous truths of the religion it had embraced, but now in particular excited by sentiments of the warmest friendship for the person whom he addressed, by a sense, as it should seem, of responsibility for his conduct, and by the mos ardent desire for the success of his ministry. Still more important would this correspondence become, if any of the letters should appear to have been written under circumstances the most trying to human sincerity of any in which mankind can be placed, the view of impending death; because we should presume, that under such circumstances we were reading the mind of the author without reserve or disguise, the thoughts which most constantly dwelt in it, and with which it was most powerfully impressed, without the admixture of any thing futile

or extraneous.

The account which we have given, does nothing more than describe the epistles of St Paul to Timothy, and the last part of the account belongs to the second of these epistles. 'I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for

me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day.' In this situation of mind, and under the solemnity of these impressions, the apostle sat down to exhort his friend and his disciple. And what is there which can come with more weight to the votaries of Christianity, and above all, to the teachers of that religion, in every age of its duration, than admonitions so delivered, and from such authority? Nor do the admonitions themselves fall short of the occasion; Watch thou in all things; endure afflictions; do the work of an evangelist; make full proof of thy ministry; preach the word; be instant in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine.' These are the lessons of a master in Christianity; every word is ponderous and significant.

The peculiar circumstances under which these two epistles were written, partaking of the qualities of a private correspondence, displaying those strong emotions of mind which the author's interest in the subject, the native earnestness of his temper, and the pressing dangers of his situation, conspired to produce; these circumstances, I say, give to them a character

in

some measure distinguishable from the rest of St Paul's writings. They are, more than any of his epistles, methodical. They embrace three objects; they have three parts; they are doctrinal, economical, personal. But these parts, whilst each exhibits sentiments and precepts which can nowhere be excelled, are intermixed, not to say confounded, with one another. The writer is at one moment impressing upon the mind of his disciple the important propositions which constitute the religion that he taught; in the next, is called away perhaps from his train of reflection by some circumstance of local urgency, which the then state of the new society, or, it might be, of that particular church, forced upon his attention. He passes from both these topics to rules of personal conduct, adapted to the office which Timothy sustained; and the delivery of these rules formed perhaps the proper and immediate occasion of his letter.

This description accords with what might be expected in private letters between real parties, on real business. The subjects which possess the mind of the writer are seen in his letter; but seldom with the same degree of order and division as when a writing is prepared for public inspection. If this difference be observable even at present, when the advantages of method and order are understood, and when method and order themselves are become so habitual as to have pervaded

every species of composition, the observation will hold still more true of the writings, of an age and country in which much of this sort was unknown, and of an author, the energy of whose thought was not wont to be confined by rules of art, and whose subject overpowered all the lesser considerations and attentions which a colder mind, on an occasion more indifferent, would have employed in the composition of his epistle. If we perceive, therefore, unexpected and unnoticed transitions from one topic to another, frequent recurrences to those which were left, and a consequent mixture and discontinuance of thought; what do we perceive but the effusions of a mind intent, not upon one, but upon several great subjects, occasionally possessed by each, and set loose from the restraints of method by the liberty natural to an affectionate and confidential correspondence? But I hasten from these observations on the general character of the two epistles, to the single subject which I have selected for my present discourse.

In what we have called the personal part of the epistle, St Paul gives to Timothy directions, as well for discharging the occasional offices of his ministry, as for the habitual regulation of his private conduct; and amongst these, as indeed it was of the first importance to do, for the fit employment of his time. The apostle expected, it appears, ere long to visit the church in which Timothy was placed. When he should do so, he might require, it was possible, from his disciple more active. services in the mission in which they were both engaged. in the mean time, in an interval, as it should seem, of comparative repose, he fails not to point out to the Ephesian bishop, beside the extraordinary or critical exertions to which he might be called by the demands of his station, the objects which ought to engage his regular and constant attention.

But

How then was the man and minister of God to divide his time? Between study, you hear, and teaching; Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.' Exhortation and doctrine are both put down as being, as indeed they are, different things. The first relates to practice, the second to belief. The first is to urge upon our hearers the duties of Christianity, the second to communicate the knowledge of those articles. which compose its faith. But both are parts of public instruction; and what could be spared from these was to be bestowed upon reading. From this advice, therefore, and from this example, we collect the recommendations of a studious life and to set forth some of the advantages and some of the satis

;