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nature and necessity of regeneration, of repentance, of faith, of love, of prayer, of the hope and expectation of heaven; the perpetual obligation of the moral law; public worship and administration of God's word and sacraments; the doctrines of a future judgment, and an eternity of happiness or misery in heaven or in hell.

The chief Precepts are also obvious to such a student. The two great commandments of the law are, The love of God with all the heart and mind and soul and strength; and of our neighbour as ourselves. From these the whole course of our obedience to God flows. Hence the mortification of sin, patience under afflictions, separation from. the evils of the world, forgiveness of injuries, submission to the powers placed over us in church and state, meekness, humility, contentment, resignation, joy-every thing, in short, which is comprehended in our denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. These are the precepts which, being performed from love to God and gratitude to Him for his mercies, and being united with a humble trust in the alone merits of our Redeemer, are "pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith; insomuch that by them a

lively faith may be as evidently known, as a tree discerned by the fruit'."

But we proceed to consider THE PERIOD

OF LIFE WHEN THIS KNOWLEDGE IS TO BE COM

MUNICATED from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures.

The expression imports, that from an infant, from his earliest childhood

so soon as the opening powers began to make him capable of receiving instruction-he was gradually imbued with a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.

Timothy had been blessed, as it appears from the Sacred History, with pious parents. He was a native of Lystra, a city of Lycaonia in the Lesser Asia. His father was a Greek, and had probably died before the Apostle visited that place. His mother, whose name was Eunice, was a Jewess, and believed. His grandmother Lois also appears to have been a woman of excellent piety. He was himself converted to the Christian faith probably when he was about fifteen or sixteen years of age, during the first visit of St. Paul to Lystra. When St. Paul returned to those parts, after an interval of four or five years, he found him so established in the faith, that he took him with him as his companion in travel, and ordained him to the office of a bishop. Twenty

1 Art. XII.

years had elapsed since Timothy's conversion, when the aged Apostle, during his second imprisonment at Rome, addressed him, in this Epistle, in these tender and affectionate terms, When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also.-Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that FROM A CHILD thou hast known the Holy Scriptures.

From these brief but important notices we discover how great had been the pious care of these eminent women, who are only known to the Church by this one circumstance-a circumstance beyond measure interesting and instructive-they had nurtured him in the doctrine of Holy Scripture; they had trained him as an Israelite indeed. We may figure to ourselves with what interest Lois and Eunice had taught him the facts and doctrines and prophecies and precepts of the Old Testament. The histories of the Creation and the Fall, of Abraham, of Joseph, of the finding of Moses, of the deliverance from Egypt, of Joshua and Ruth and Samuel, of the Widow's cruse replenished and the Shunamite's son raised, must

22 Tim. i. 5. iii. 14, 15.

have been familiar to his infant mind. The different characters of the kings of Israel and Judah, with the captivities of Assyria and Babylon would be explained to him. Nor would the ceremonial institutions of the law be wholly unknown, in their prophetic import, to the child of these daughters of Abraham. Doubtless Timothy learned from them, at an early age, the more remarkable passages of Isaiah's predictions, and lisped in his first devotions the Psalms of David, and treasured up, as he advanced in years, the divine maxims of Solomon. The holy family, if I may so call them, though far from the city of Jerusalem and the Temple worship, yet cherished the faith of the patriarchs; and therefore welcomed, when St. Paul approached their city, the tidings of the Gospel.

Little, probably, did these devout women suspect how eminent a character they were rearing, and how materially the pious education they were giving him would contribute to his labours and success. Least of all did they foresee that the careful knowledge of the Holy Scriptures which they communicated, was to lie at the foundation of his future excellence, and to be the topic of an Apostle's commendation. Happy women, singled out and distinguished by the Christian Church in every age as the patterns of domestic piety, the bright

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examples of faith in the Sacred Word, and the early instructors of the son and brother of the Apostle of the Gentiles? Surely we may without presumption add, Wheresoever the Gospel is preached throughout the whole world, this thing which you have done shall be told for a memorial of you!

I need scarcely stop to remark what an encouragement this narrative affords for the education of the young in the knowledge of the Sacred Volume. The age of childhood is the age for learning; and why should it not be taught what it never can learn so easily or with so much hope of permanent benefit? First impressions often remain through life. The tender plant receives the direction which the forming hand communicates to it. And indeed, if it were only to exclude the mischiefs of bad and injurious books, and to obstruct the entrance to vice, the duty of education would be imperative. But if, besides that, children are capable of knowing the Holy Scriptures and understanding the principal doctrines and precepts of them; and if the blessing and grace of God may be expected to rest on this knowledge, in answer to the prayers and endeavours of pious instructors, what further encouragement can be required?

But, in addition to this, we are to remember that there is no book whatever so well adapted

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