Thus it still happens. The leaders are removed one by one; and younger men, who once acted under them, come to the front. God never wants instruments. He raises up men to take the place of those who are removed; the followers become leaders; fresh labourers are sent into the harvest; God cares for His own work.

We may be sure that ever since Silas first went among them with Paul, he had never ceased to care for the converts in those parts; and it is not unlikely that he had been settled among them for a time. For St. Peter writes thus of him: "By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly." Such was Peter's opinion of him; he reckoned, or considered, him faithful; for that is the meaning of "as I suppose:" and even if (as is likely) the words "unto you" belong to the "I have written," and not to the "faithful," still Silas was "a faithful brother," not only generally, but also to those Christians in particular, and as such Peter commended him to them.

We do not meet with his name again. Scripture lives are not so much biographies as sketches; for men are mentioned there, only as they enter into the history of God's government upon earth, and are concerned in the spread of the kingdom of Christ; appearing on the scene as God was pleased to put them forward in His service, and then passing out of sight. But our parting view of Silas is a happy He is called in inspired words "a faithful brother;" he has not forgotten his first love; he

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still cares for those among whom he had ministered many years ago; his former zeal in the Gospel did not spring from a mere personal affection for Paul; now that Paul is with him no longer, we see him setting out on a fresh journey in the same cause; and so he passes from our view.

TIMOTHY.

IMOTHY, like Silas, was one of St. Paul's companions and helpers, and yet more

closely and constantly connected with him. He was much younger than Paul, and was his pupil or disciple in the Gospel, and there was a strong affection between them.

When first we read of Paul meeting with him, he was living at Lystra in Lycaonia, a province of Asia Minor, of which place he was probably a native. His mother was a Jewess by birth, but a Christian convert; his father was a Greekwhether a Jewish proselyte, or whether a Christian, we know not; or whether still living, when Paul met with Timothy. It was in the course of his second missionary journey, made with Silas as his companion, that St. Paul thus found Timothy at Lystra. But he was then already a disciple: how had he become so? Most likely through the teaching of Paul in his former journey through those parts; for he had preached the Gospel four or five years before at that very place. 2 He would not 2 Ibid. xiv. 6, 7.

1 Acts xvi. I.

have called Timothy his own son in the faith, if he had been converted by means of any one else.

We may believe therefore that when Paul found Timothy at Lystra, that was not his first acquaintance with him. But Timothy meanwhile had grown in grace. He had now been a believer several years, and was well established in the faith, and had won the esteem of all the Christians in the neighbourhood. This Paul learnt when he came to Lystra in his second journey.

The Apostle Paul however was not Timothy's first teacher. Long before his acquaintance with Paul, his own mother had taught him. It seems likely that his mother herself, and his grandmother too, were converted by the preaching of Paul at the same time as Timothy himself; but, from his very earliest years, Eunice, a pious Jewess, had trained her son in the knowledge of the Scriptures of the Old Testament. When therefore the Gospel was brought to him, he was in a state to receive it. Already well acquainted with the promise of a Messiah, and with the types and sacrifices of the Jewish religion, he now learnt that Jesus, whom. Paul preached, was the Messiah, and that all the types were fulfilled in Him.

No words can describe the blessing of an early training in the Scriptures; and Timothy is but one instance, out of countless more, of the lasting value of a mother's teaching. Even should a mother herself be but partially enlightened in the things 8 2 Tim. iii. 14, 15.

of God, yet let her diligently teach her child all she knows the seed of the word will not be lost; it may spring up long after; and perhaps both mother and child together may receive that further light which is from God alone by the teaching of His Holy Spirit.

Such then was Timothy, when Paul met with him at Lystra-a Christian young man, early trained in the Scriptures, and now well-spoken of by all. He was well-fitted for missionary work, not only by his knowledge of the Scriptures, and his clear Gospel light, but also by his mixed parentage; for the Gentiles would receive him as having had a Greek father, while the Jews could not object to him inasmuch as his mother was a Jewess. "Him therefore would Paul have to go forth with him."4 And so he added him to his party, and Timothy left his home.

But not till one thing had been done. Owing to his father being a Greek, Timothy had never been circumcised. Yet, as born of a Jewish mother, he was himself a Jew, and so it was but right that he should undergo circumcision. In order therefore to do away with all possible prejudice against him in the minds of the Jews, before setting out Paul had him circumcised. In this he acted on his own principle of becoming as a Jew unto the Jews, that he might gain the Jews; and Timothy, whose consent was necessary, acted probably in the same spirit.

✦ Acts xvi. 3.

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I Cor. ix. 20.

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