This view of the mountain, which forms so remarkable a feature in the scenery among which Timotheus passed his childhood, is due to the kindness of the Rev. G. F. Weston, who crossed Lycaonia in 1845. It represents the appearance of the Kara-Dagh as seen from the approach from Iconium.

heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein," was recognised only by a few. The temple of the Lystrian Jupiter still stood before the gate, and the priest still offered the people's sacrifices to the imaginary protector of the city.' Heathenism was invaded, but not yet destroyed. Some votaries had been withdrawn from that polytheistic religion, which wrote and sculptured in stone its dim ideas of " present deities;"2 crowding its thoroughfares with statues and altars3, ascribing to the King of the gods the attributes of beneficent protection and the government of atmospheric changes 4, and vaguely recognising Mercury as the dispenser of fruitful seasons and the patron of public happiness." But many years of difficulty and persecution were yet to elapse before Greeks and Barbarians fully learnt, that the God whom St. Paul preached was a Father everywhere present to His children, and the One Author of every "good and perfect gift."

—and

Lystra, however, contributed one of the principal agents in the accomplishment of this result. We have seen how the seeds of Gospel truth were sown in the heart of Timotheus. The instruction received in childhood, the sight of St. Paul's sufferings, the hearing of his words, the example of the "unfeigned faith, which first dwelt in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice,”7— whatever other influences the Holy Spirit had used for his soul's good, had resulted in the full conviction that Jesus was the Messiah. And if we may draw an obvious inference from the various passages of Scripture, which describe the subsequent relation of Paul and Timothy, we may assert that natural qualities of an engaging character were combined with the Christian faith of this young disciple. The Apostle's heart seems to have been drawn towards him with peculiar tenderness. He singled him out from the other disciples. "Him would Paul have to go forth with him."8 This feeling is in

New emphasis is given to the Apostle's words, if we remember what Strabo says of the absence of water in the pastures of Lycaonia. Mr. Weston found that water was dearer than milk at Bin-bir-Kilisseh, and that there was only one spring, high up the KaraDagh.

Some think that a statue, not a temple, of Jupiter is meant.

2 See note in the larger editions. See the remarks on Tarsus above, p. 235, and the note.

Jupiter was often spoken of to this effect in poetry and inscriptions. Com

harmony with all that we read, in the Acts and the Epistles, of St. Paul's affectionate and confiding disposition. He had no relative ties which were of service in his apostolic work; his companions were few and changing; and though Silas may well be supposed to have supplied the place of Barnabas, it was no weakness to yearn for the society of one who might become, what Mark had once appeared to be, a son in the Gospel. Yet how could he consistently take an untried youth on so difficult an enterprise? How could he receive Timothy into "the glorious company of Apostles," when he had rejected Mark? Such questions might be raised, if we were not distinctly told that the highest testimony was given to Timothy's Christian character, not only at Lystra, but at Iconium also.2 We infer from this, that diligent inquiry was made concerning his fitness for the work to which he was willing to devote himself. To omit, at present, all notice of the prophetic intimations which sanctioned the appointment of Timothy, we have the best proof that he united in himself those outward and inward qualifications which a careful prudence would require. One other point must be alluded to, which was of the utmost moment at that particular crisis of the Church. The meeting of the Council at Jerusalem had lately taken place. And, though it had been decided that the Gentiles were not to be forced into Judaism on embracing Christianity, and though St. Paul carried with him the decree, to be delivered" to all the churches,"

yet still he was in a delicate and difficult position. The Jewish Christians had naturally a great jealousy on the subject of their ancient divine Law; and in dealing with the two parties the Apostle had need of the utmost caution and discretion. We see, then, that in choosing a fellow-worker for his future labours, there was a peculiar fitness in selecting one, "whose mother was a Jewess, while his father was a Greek."

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We may be permitted here to take a short retrospect of the childhood and education of St. Paul's new associate. The hand of the Apostle himself has drawn for us the picture of his early years.6 That picture represents to us a mother and a grandmother, full of tenderness and faith, piously instructing the young Timotheus in

the ancient Scriptures, making his memory familiar with that "cloud of witnesses" which encompassed all the history of the chosen people, and training his hopes to expect the Messiah of Israel. It is not allowed to us to trace the previous history of these godly women of the dispersion. It is highly probable that they may have been connected with those Babylonian Jews whom Antiochus settled in Phrygia three centuries before2: or they may have been conducted into Lycaonia by some of those mercantile and other changes which affected the movements of so many families at the epoch we are writing of; such, for instance, as those which brought the household of the Corinthian Chloe into relations with Ephesus3, and caused the proselyte Lydia to remove from Thyatira to Philippi.4 There is one difficulty which, at first sight, seems considerable; viz. the fact that a religious Jewess, like Eunice, should have been married to a Greek. Such a marriage was scarcely in harmony with the stricter spirit of early Judaism, and in Palestine itself it could hardly have taken place. But among the Jews of the dispersion, and especially in remote districts, where but few of the scattered people were established, the case was rather different. Mixed marriages, under such circumstances, were doubtless very frequent. We are at liberty to suppose that in this case the husband was a proselyte. We hear of no objections raised to the circumcision of Timothy, and we may reasonably conclude that the father was himself inclined to Judaism: if, indeed, he were not already deceased, and Eunice a widow. This very circumstance, however, of his mixed origin gave to Timothy an intimate connection with both the Jewish and Gentile worlds. Though far removed from the larger colonies of Israelitish families, he was brought up in a thoroughly Jewish atmosphere: his heart was at Jerusalem while his footsteps were in the level fields near Lystra, or on the volcanic crags of the Black Mount: and his mind was stored with the Hebrew or Greek7 words of inspired men of old

If it is allowable to allude to an actual picture of a scene of this kind, we may mention the drawing of "Jewish women reading the Scriptures," in Wilkie's Oriental Sketches.

2 See Ch. II. p. 37, also Ch. I. pp. 16, 17. The authority for the statement made there is Joseph. Ant. xii. 3, 4.

1 Cor. i. 11. 4 Acts xvi. 14.

5 Learned men (Selden and Michaelis for instance) take different views of the lawfulness of such mar

riages. The cases of Esther and of various members of the Herodian family obviously occur to us.

The expression in the original (xvi. 3) means," he was a born Greek." The most natural inference is, that his father was living, and most probably not a proselyte of righteousness, if a proselyte at all.

"We cannot tell how far this family is to be reckoned Hellenistic or Aramaic (see Ch. II.). But the Hellenistic element would be likely to predominate. In reference to this subject, Mr. Grin