xiii. 13), and toils with strenuous endeavour; whilst hope--a faculty

flighty enough with some--here patiently endures, "pressing on and _bearing up._"

Ver. 4. +Your election.+--God is said to pick out, not for any inherent qualities, certain persons for purposes of His own. The same idea is in the word "saints," as those whom God has separated from a godless world and made them dear to Himself.

Ver. 5. +Our gospel.+--The good news which we proclaimed; so when St. Paul in Rom. ii. 16 calls it "_my_ gospel." +In word . . . in power.+--The antithesis is sometimes between the word or declaration and the reality; here perhaps we have an advance on that. Not only was it a word the contents of which were really truth, but efficacious too. +In much assurance.+--R.V. margin, "in much fulness." "The _power_ is in the Gospel preached, the _fulfilment_ in the hearers, and the _Holy Spirit_ above and within them inspires both" (_Findlay_).

Ver. 6. +Followers of us and of the Lord.+--R.V. "imitators." St. Paul begs his Corinthian readers to imitate him, _even as_ he imitates Christ. The same thought is implied here: We are walking after Christ; walk after us, and you will follow Him. +With joy of the Holy Ghost.+--Not only was the word preached "in the Holy Ghost" (ver. 5), but it was eagerly welcomed by hearts made ready by the Holy Ghost--as St. Paul said to the Corinthians, "So we preach, so ye believed."

Ver. 7. +So that ye were ensamples.+--R.V. follows the singular. The original word is that from which we get our "type." The image left on a coin by stamping is a type. Children are said to be types of their parents. So these Thessalonians were clearly stamped as children of God.

Ver. 8. +For from you sounded out the word of the Lord.+--The Word did not originate amongst the Thessalonians. They had but taken up the sound and sent it ringing on to others in the regions farther removed. They had echoed out the Word, says St. Paul. +In every place.+--Or as we may say, "Everybody is talking about the matter."

Ver. 9. +What manner of entering in.+--In Acts xvii. we have an account of how the Jews instigated men ever ready for a brawl to bring a charge of high treason--the most likely way of giving the quietus to the disturbers of ancient traditions, Paul and Silas. +To serve the living and true God.+--The Thessalonians had not been delivered from the bondage of fear that they might lead lives irresponsible. "Get a new master," then "be a new man."

Ver. 10. +And to wait for His Son.+--The compound word for wait is only found here in the New Testament. The idea may be compared with our Lord's figure of the bondservants waiting with lights and ready for service on their lord's return (Luke xii. 35-40). +Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.+--R.V. "delivereth." The wrath to come "revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Rom. i. 18) is the penalty threatened against sin persisted in.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 1.

_Phases of Apostolic Greeting._

There is an interest about this epistle as the first in the magnificent series of inspired writings which bear the name of Paul. This was "the beginning of his strength, the excellency of dignity and power." The labours of the apostle and his co-helpers in the enterprising and populous city of Thessalonica, notwithstanding the angriest opposition, were crowned with success. The stern prejudice of the Jew was assailed and conquered, the subtle philosophising of the Grecian tracked and exposed. The truth was eagerly embraced; and as sunbeams streaming through mist render it transparent, so did the light of the Gospel bring out in clearness and beauty the character of the Thessalonian citizens, which had been hitherto shrouded in the dark shadows of superstition.

+I. This greeting is harmonious in its outflow.+--Paul, though the only apostle of the three, did not in this instance assume the title or display any superiority either of office or power. Silvanus and Timotheus had been owned of God, equally with himself, in planting the Thessalonian Church, and were held in high esteem among the converts. Each man had his distinctive individuality, varied talents, and special mode of working; but there was an emphatic unity of purpose in bringing about results. They rejoiced together in witnessing the inception, confirmation, and prosperity of the Church, and when absent united in sending a fervent, harmonious greeting. This harmony of feeling is traceable throughout both epistles in the prevalent use of the first-person plural. The association of Silvanus and Timotheus with the apostle in this greeting also indicated their perfect accord with him in the Divine character of the doctrines he declared. As men dowered with the miraculous faculty of spiritual discernment, they could testify that everything contained in the epistle was dictated by the Spirit of God and worthy of universal evidence. Not that the personal peculiarities of any man give additional value to the doctrine. Truth is vaster than the individual, whatever gifts he possesses or lacks. The water of life is as sweet and refreshing whether sipped from the rudest earthen vessel or from the goblet of richly embossed gold. What a suggestive lesson of confidence and unity was taught the Thessalonians by the harmonious example of their teachers!

+II. This greeting recognises the Church's sublime origin.+--It is addressed "unto the Church which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ."

1. _The Church is Divinely founded._--The preposition "in" denotes the most intimate union with God, and is of similar significance as in the comprehensive prayer of Jesus: "As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one _in_ Us" (John xvii. 21). The Church rests, not on any sacerdotal authority or human organisation, though many have laboured thus to narrow its limits and define its character; it depends for its origin, life, and perpetuity on union with the Deity. It is based on the Divine love, fostered by the Divine Spirit, shielded by Omnipotence, and illumined and adorned by the Divine glory. It exists for purely spiritual purposes, is the depositary of he revealed Word, the channel of Divine communication to man, the sanctuary of salvation.

2. _The Church is Divinely sustained._--Founded in God, it is every moment sustained by Him. Thus the Church survives the mightiest opposition, the fret and wear of perpetual change. It is not wedded to any locality under heaven. Places once famous for the simplicity and power of their Church-life have become notoriously vile or sunk into utter obscurity. Bethel, once bearing the hallowed name House of God, under the idolatrous rule of Jeroboam became corrupted into Bethhaven, House of Iniquity. Jerusalem, the praise of the whole earth, was once the chosen habitation of Jehovah; now it is a heap of ruins, its temple and worship destroyed, and its people scattered, without king, prophet, or leader. The light that shown so full and clear from the seven celebrated Asiatic Churches grew dim and went out, and that region is now wrapped in the darkness of idolatry. And Thessalonica, renowned as a pattern of Christian purity and zeal, now languishes under its modern name of Saloniki, a victim of Turkish despotism, and professing a spurious religion the first founders of the Church there, could they revisit the spot, would certainly repudiate. But the true Church lives, grows, and triumphs.

+III. This greeting supplicates the bestowal of the highest blessings.+--1. _Grace._ The source of all temporal good--life, health, sustenance, prosperity, enjoyment; and of all spiritual benefits--pardon for the guilty, rest for the troubled spirit, guidance for the doubting and perplexed, strength for the feeble, deliverance for the tempted, purity for the polluted, victory and felicity for the faithful. The generosity of God knows no stint. A certain monarch once threw open his parks and gardens to the public during the summer months. The royal gardener finding it troublesome, complained to his Majesty that the visitors plucked the flowers. "What," said the king-hearted king, "are my people fond of flowers? Then plant some more!" So, our heavenly King with lavish hand scatters on our daily path the flowers of blessing, and as fast as we can gather them, in spite of the grudging, churlish world, more are supplied.

2. _Peace._--A blessing inclusive of all the happiness resulting from a participation in the Divine favour. _Peace with God,_ with whom sin has placed us in antagonism, and to whom we are reconciled in Christ Jesus, who hath "abolished in His flesh the enmity, so making peace" (Eph. ii. 15). _Peace of conscience,_ a personal blessing conferred on him who believes in Jesus. _Peace one with another_--peace in the Church. In the concluding counsels of this epistle the writer impressively insists, "Be at peace among yourselves." The value of this blessing to any Christian community cannot be exaggerated. A single false semitone converts the most exquisite music into discord.

3. _The source of all the blessings desired._--"From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." The Jew in his most generous greeting could only say, "God be gracious unto you, and remember His covenant"; but the Christian "honours the Son even as he honours the Father." The Father's love and the Son's work are the sole source and cause of every Christian blessing.

+Lessons.+--1. _Learn the freeness and fulness of the Gospel._ It contains and offers all the blessings that can enrich and ennoble man. It needs but the willing heart to make them his own. He may gather wisdom from the Eastern proverb, and in a higher sense than first intended, "Hold all the skirts of thy mantle extended when heaven is raining gold."

2. _Learn the spirit we should cultivate towards others._--A spirit of genuine Christian benevolence and sympathy. We can supplicate for others no higher good than grace and peace.

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._

_Apostolic Introduction to the Epistle._

+I. The persons sending are mentioned.+--"Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus." 1. _Paul is not here called an apostle, because his apostleship was granted._ 2. _Silvanus and Timotheus had assisted in planting and watering this Church._

+II. The persons addressed are introduced and described.+--1. _The epistle was addressed to believers._ 2. _The Church is presented in an interesting point of view_ (John xvii. 20). The Father and the Mediator are one in redemption; into this union the Church is received. 1. _The blessings desired are grace and peace._ Sovereign mercy and favour and reconciliation. 2. _These are mentioned in their proper order of time, of cause and effect._ 3. _These are traced to their proper source._ The Father--the Godhead; the Son--all fulness.--_Stewart._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 2-4.

_Ministerial Thanksgiving._

Gratitude for the healthy, flourishing state of the Thessalonian Church is a marked feature in both epistles and is frequently expressed. The apostle left the young converts in a critical condition, and when he heard from Timothy a favourable account of their steadfastness and growth in grace, like a true minister of Christ he gave God thanks.

+I. Ministerial thanksgiving is expansive in its character.+--"We give thanks always for you all" (ver. 2). It is our duty, and acceptable to God, to be grateful for personal benefits; but it displays a broader, nobler generosity when we express thanksgiving on behalf of others. It is Christ-like: _He_ thanked God the Father for revealing the things of His kingdom unto babes. The apostle thanked God:--

1. _Because of their work of faith._--"Remembering without ceasing your work of faith" (ver. 3). _Faith is itself a work._ It is the eye and hand of the soul, by which the sinner sees, and lays hold on Christ for salvation. Man meets with opposition in its exercise; he has to fight against the faith-stifling power of sin in himself and in the world. _Faith is also the cause of work._ It is the propelling and sustaining motive in all Christian toil. "Faith without works is dead" (James ii. 26).

2. _Because of their labour of love._--The strength of love is tested by its labour; we show our love to Christ by what we do for Him. Love intensifies every faculty, moves to benevolent exertion, and makes even drudgery an enjoyment. Love leads us to attempt work from which we would once have shrunk in dismay.

3. _Because of their patient hope._--Their hope of salvation in Christ was severely tried by affliction, persecutions, and numberless temptations, but was not quenched. It is hard to hope on in the midst of discouragement. It was so with Joseph is prison, with David in the mountains of Judah, with the Jews in Chaldea. But the grace of _patience_ gives constancy and perseverance to our hope. The apostle rejoiced in the marked _sincerity_ of their faith, love, and hope, which he acknowledged to be "in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father." These virtues are derived alone from Christ, and their exercise God witnesses and approves. Things are in reality what they are in God's sight. His estimate is infallible.

4. _Because assured of their election._--"Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election" (ver. 4). St. Paul here means only to show how he, from the way in which the Spirit operated in him at a certain place, drew a conclusion as to the disposition of the persons there. Where it manifested itself powerfully, argued he, there must be elect; where the contrary was the case, he concluded the contrary (_Olshausen_). Election is the judgment of Divine grace, exempting in Christ from the common destruction of men those who accept their calling by faith. Every one who is called is elected from the first moment of his faith, and so long as he continues in his calling and faith he continues to be elected; if at any time he loses calling and faith he ceases to be elected (_Bengel_). Observe the _constancy_ of this thanksgiving spirit--"We give thanks _always_ for you all." As they remembered without ceasing the genuine evidences of their conversion, so did they assiduously thank God. There is always something to thank God for if we will but see it.

+II. Ministerial thanksgiving evokes a spirit of practical devotion.+--"Making mention of you in our prayers" (ver. 2). The interest in his converts of the successful worker is keenly aroused; he is anxious the work should be permanent, and resorts to prayer as the effectual means. Prayer for others benefits the suppliant. When the Church prayed, not only was Peter liberated from prison, but the faith of the members was emboldened. Gratitude is ever a powerful incentive to prayer. It penetrates the soul with a conscious dependence on God and prompts the cry for necessary help. There is no true prayer without thanksgiving.

+III. Ministerial thanksgiving is rendered to the great Giver of all good.+--"We give thanks to God" (ver. 2). God is the Author of true success. In vain we labour where His blessing is withheld. Paul was not equally successful in other places as in Thessalonica. In Damascus, where he first bore testimony for Christ, the governor under King Aretas planned his capture, and he but narrowly escaped. At Lystra the apostle was violently stoned and dragged out of the town as one dead. But at Thessalonica, notwithstanding opposition, the Gospel laid firm hold of the hearts of men, and believers were multiplied. The highest kind of success in spiritual work must ever come from above. Like Paul, we should be careful constantly to acknowledge and thank God as the active source of all prosperity.

+Lessons.+--1. _There is much in the work of the minister to test his patience and faith._ 2. _The true minister gratefully traces all success directly to God._ 3. _A thankful spirit prompts the minister to increased Christian enterprise._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 2. _Thanksgiving and Prayer._

+I. The apostle had the burden of all the Churches and their individual members.+

+II. The effect of the remembrance on himself.+--1. _He gives thanks._ They were the seals of his ministry, the recipients of the grace of God, the earnest of a more abundant harvest.

2. _He prays._--They had not fully attained. They were in danger. None trusts less to human means than the most richly qualified.--_Stewart._

Ver. 3. _Grace and Good Works._

+I. All inward graces ought to bloom into active goodness.+--1. _Faith is to work._ 2. _Love is to labour._ 3. _Hope is to endure._

+II. All active goodness must be rooted in some inward grace.+--1. _The root of work is faith._ 2. _The spring of labour is in love._ 3. _We need to refresh ourselves by a perpetual onward glance, a confident anticipation of the coming triumph.--Local Preacher's Treasury._

Ver. 4. _Election of God._

+I. There is an eternal election.+

+II. Which comes out in the election made in time.+

+III. Let us rejoice in it, for apart from it none would be saved.+--_Stewart._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 5.

_The Gospel in Word and in Power._

You have passed through a bleak, barren moorland, where the soil seemed sown with stones and disfigured with stumps of trees, the only signs of vegetable life were scattered patches of heather and flowerless lichen. After a while, you have again traversed the same region, and observed fields of grain ripening for the harvest, and budding saplings giving promise of the future forest. Whence the transformation? The cultivator has been at work. Not less apparent was the change effected in Thessalonica by the diligent toil and faithful preaching of the apostles. We have here two prominent features in the successful declaration of the Gospel.

+I. The Gospel in word.+--"Our gospel came unto you in word." In the history of the introduction of the Gospel into Thessalonica (Acts xvii.) we learn the leading themes of apostolic preaching. "Paul . . . reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ" (vers. 2, 3). It is worthy of note that the inspired apostle grounded his discourse on the Holy Scriptures. Even _he_ did not feel himself free from their sacred bonds. The apostle's preaching embraced three leading topics:--

1. _He demonstrates that the preached Messiah was to be a suffering Messiah._--The mind of the Jewish people was so dazed with the splendid prophecies of the regal magnificence and dominion of Jesus, that they overlooked the painful steps by which alone He was to climb to this imperial greatness: the steps of suffering that bore melancholy evidence of the load of anguish under which the world's Redeemer staggered--steps crimsoned with the blood of the sacred Victim. Out of their Scriptures he proved that the only Messiah referred to there was to be a "Man of sorrows" (Isa. liii. 3).

2. _He demonstrates that the Messiah who was thus to suffer and die was to rise again._--This declared the Divine dignity of His person, and was the pledge of the future success and eternal stability of His redeeming work.

3. _He insisted that the Jesus who thus suffered, died, and rose again was none other than the identical Messiah promised in their Scriptures._--The grand topic of apostolic preaching must be the staple theme of the pulpit to-day--JESUS CHRIST: Christ suffering, Christ crucified, Christ risen, Christ regnant and triumphant. When John Huss was in prison at Constance for the Gospel's sake, he dreamt that his chapel at Prague was broken into and all the pictures of Christ on the walls destroyed. But immediately he beheld several painters in the chapel, who drew a greater number of pictures, and more exquisitely beautiful than those that had perished. While gazing on these with rapture, the sanctuary suddenly filled with his beloved congregation, and the painters, addressing them, said, "Now, let the bishops and priests come and destroy _these_ pictures!" The people shouted for joy. Huss heartily joined them, and amid the acclamation awoke. So modern unbelievers may try to expunge the pictures of Christ familiar to the mind for generations, and to some extent they may succeed. But the Divine Artist, with graving-tool of Gospel Word, will trace on the tablet of the soul an image more beautiful and enduring than that which has been destroyed; and by-and-by a universe of worshippers shall rejoice with thundering acclaim, while recognising in each other the reproduction of the image of Him whose visage was once marred more than any man's, but whose face now gleams with celestial beauty and is radiant with the lustre of many crowns.

+II. The Gospel in power.+--"Not in word only, but also in power."

1. _In the exercise of miraculous power._--The apostles were specially invested with this power, and used it in substantiating the great facts of the Gospel.

2. _In the Holy Ghost._--Not only in His miraculous manifestations necessary in that age, but in the ordinary exercise of His power, as continued down to the present day--enlightening, convincing, renewing.

3. _With much assurance._--Literally, with full assurance, and much of it. Πληροφοία--full conviction--is from a word that means to _fill up,_ and is used to denote the hurrying ship on her career, with all her sails spread and filled with the wind. So the soul, filled with the full conviction of truth, is urged to a course of conduct in harmony with that conviction.

4. _An assurance enforced by high integrity of character._--"As ye know what manner of men we were among you, for your sake." Their earnest labours and upright lives showed they were men moved by profound conviction--a blending of evidence that is not less potent in these days.

+Lessons.+--1. _To receive the Gospel in word only is disastrous._--In a certain mountainous region under the tropics the stillness of night is sometimes broken by a loud, sharp report, like the crack of a rifle. What causes this strange, alarming sound? It is the splitting of rocks charged with the intense heat of the tropical sun. Day by day the sun throws down its red-hot rays of fire, and bit by bit the rock, as it cools, is riven and crumbles into ruin. So is it with the mere hearer of the Word. The Gospel pours upon him its light and heat, and his heart, hardened with long and repeated resistance, becomes damaged by that which is intended to better it.

2. _The Gospel must be received in power._--What is wanted is strong, deep faith-compelling conviction--conviction of the awful truth and saving power of the Gospel. To be a mighty force, man must have clear, solid, all-powerful convictions.

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._

Ver. 5. _The Manner in which the Gospel comes to the Believing Soul._

+I. The first is negative.+--"The Gospel came not in word only." This description embraces various classes of persons. 1. _Such as hear the Gospel habitually without understanding it._ 2. _Such as partially understand the Gospel without feeling its sanctifying influence._ 3. _Such as are affected by it only for a limited time._

+II. In contradistinction to such, the Gospel came to the believing Thessalonians in power.+--1. _Power over the understanding._ 2. _Power over the conscience._ 3. _Power over the heart._ 4. _Power over the life._

+III. In the Holy Ghost.+--Explains the former. 1. _The message was that of the Spirit._ 2. _The apostles were filled with the Spirit._ 3. _Signs and miraculous proofs were furnished by the Spirit._ 4. _An entrance for the Word was procured by the Spirit._

+IV. In much assurance.+--1. _Fulness of apprehension._ 2. _Fulness of belief_--the result. 3. _Fulness of consequent hope.--Stewart._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6-8.

_The Practical Result of a True Reception of the Gospel._

Christianity transforms man, fills the mind with pure and lofty thoughts, turns the current of his feelings into the right channel, makes the soul luminous with ever-brightening hopes, and transfigures his sin-stricken nature into a semblance of the dignity, beauty, and perfection of the Divine. Observe its influence on the mixed population of Thessalonica.

+I. The true reception of the Gospel.+--"Having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost" (ver. 6). The Word may fall on the ear like a sweet strain of music, and charm the soul with temporary rapture, may enter the understanding as a clearly apprehended truth, may captivate the affections, and travel through the whole sphere of emotion on a thrill of ecstasy; but unless it be embraced by the heart and conscience, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, it is powerless in spiritual reformation. Two opposite, but often strangely blended, emotions--sorrow and joy--were exercised in the reception of the Gospel by the Thessalonians.

1. _They received the Word in sorrow._--"In much affliction." Amid the tumult and persecution of the citizens (Acts xvii. 5-9). Principally, sorrow on account of sin, and because of their prolonged rejection of Christ and obstinate disobedience.

2. _They received the Word with joy._--"With joy of the Holy Ghost." They realised the joy of _conscious forgiveness and acceptance with God._ The sinless angels, placed beyond the necessity of pardon, are incapable of experiencing this joy. It belongs exclusively to the believing penitent. _The joy of suffering for the truth._ Cyprian, who suffered for the Gospel, used to say, "It is not the pain but the cause that makes the martyr." That cause is the cause of truth. Suffering is limited, life itself is limited, but truth is eternal. To suffer for that truth is a privilege and a joy. _The joy of triumph,_ over error, sin, Satan, persecution. This joy is the special product of the Holy Ghost. These twin feelings--sorrow and joy--are typical of the ever-alternating experience of the believer throughout his earthly career.

+II. The practical result of the true reception of the Gospel.+--1. _They became imitators of the highest patterns of excellence._ "Ye became followers of us and of the Lord" (ver. 6). The example of Christ is the absolute, all-perfect standard of moral excellence. But this does not supersede the use of inferior models. The planets have their season to guide and instruct us, as well as the sun, and we can better bear the moderated light of their borrowed splendour. The bravery of the common soldier, as well as the capacity and heroism of the most gifted officer, may stimulate a regiment to deeds of valour. So the apostles, in their patient endurance of suffering, their enterprising zeal and blameless integrity of life, became examples for their converts to imitate, while they pointed to the great infallible Pattern after which the noblest life must ever be moulded.

2. _They became examples to others._--"So that ye were ensamples to all that believe" (ver. 7). _In the reality and power of their faith._ They eagerly embraced the Word preached, believing it to be not the word of men but of God. This gave a profound reality to their conceptions of the Gospel and a strong impulse to their active religious life. _In their zealous propagation of the truth._ "For from you sounded out the word of the Lord" (ver. 8). Wherever they travelled they proclaimed the Gospel. They imparted that which had enriched themselves, and which, in giving, left them still the richer. _The influence of their example was extensive in its range._ "Not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak anything" (ver. 8). Macedonia and Achaia were two Roman provinces that comprised the territory known as ancient Greece. Thessalonica. the metropolis of Macedonia, was the chief station on the great Roman road--the Via Egnatia--which connected Rome with the whole region north of the Ægean Sea and was an important centre both for commerce and the spread of intelligence. Wherever the trade of the merchant city extended, there the fame of the newly founded Church penetrated. Great was the renown of their own Alexander, the Macedonian monarch, and brilliant his victories; but the reputation of the Thessalonian Christians was of a higher order, and their achievements more enduring.

+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel that brings sorrow to the heart brings also joy._ 2. _A genuine reception of the truth changes the man and creates unquenchable aspirations after the highest good._ 3. _A living example is more potent than the most elaborate code of precepts._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 6, 7. _The Evidences and Effects of Revival._

+I. Receivers.+--With faith, with joy, not without trial.

+II. Followers.+--Apostolic piety. Christ-like spirit. Multiplication of Christ-like men.

+III. Ensamples.+--Centres of Christian influence.

+IV. Dispensers.+--Induced to diffuse the Gospel by their gratitude for the special grace which had brought it to them with saving power, by their supreme attachment to its vital truths and their experience of the suitableness of these truths to their wants as sinners, by their commiseration for those who were yet in a state of nature, by their love to the Lord Jesus, by the express command of God, by the hope of reward.--_G. Brooks._

Ver. 8. _The Power of Example_--

+I. In a faithful declaration of the Gospel.+

+II. In its far-reaching influence on others.+

+III. Speaks for itself, rendering explanation unnecessary.+

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9, 10.

_Conversion and its Evidence._

A good work cannot be hid. Sooner or later it will manifest itself and become the general topic of a wide region. The successful worker meets with the fruit of his labours at times and places unexpected. Wherever the apostles went, the reputation of the newly founded Church had preceded them, and the varied features of the great change that had passed over the Thessalonians were eagerly discussed. We have here a description of conversion and its evidence.

+I. The conversion of the Thessalonians.+--"For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols" (ver. 9). You have watched a vessel lying at anchor in a tidal river with her bowsprit pointing seaward. After a brief interval you have observed the force of the incoming tide swing the vessel completely round, so that her head points in an exactly opposite direction. Not less apparent was the change among the Thessalonians when the flood-tide of Gospel blessing entered the city. Conversion is a turning about--a change from sin to holiness, from unbelief to faith, from darkness to light, from Satan to God.

1. _They turned from idols._--For generations the majority of the members of this Church, with their forefathers, had been idolaters, "walking as other Gentiles walked in the vanity of their mind," etc. (Eph. iv. 17, 18, ii. 12). _Any creature, real or imaginary, invested with Divine properties is an idol._ An angel, a saint, wealth, an idea, or any object to which we ascribe the omnipotence that belongs to God, becomes to us an idol--a false deity. _An idol is also the true God falsely conceived._ The Pantheist, mistaking the effect for the cause, regards the vast fabric of created things as God, and Nature, with her grand, silent motions, is the object of his idolatry. The sensualist, reluctant to believe in punishment for sin, exalts the boundlessness of Divine mercy, and ignores the other perfections, without which there could be no true God. Idolatry is a sin against which the most faithful warnings have been uttered in all ages, and on account of which the most terrible judgments have been inflicted, yet it is the worship to which man is most prone.

2. _They turned to God._--The _one_ God whom Paul preached as "the God that made the world and all things therein"; the living God, having life in Himself, and "giving to all life and breath and all things"; the _true_ God, having in Himself the truth and substance of essential Deity, in extreme contrast with an "idol, which is nothing in the world." With shame and confusion of face as they thought of the past, with penitential sorrow, with confidence and hope, they turned to God from idols.

+II. The evidence of their conversion.+--Seen: 1. _In the object of their service._ They "serve the living and true God," serve Him in faithful obedience to every command, serve Him in the face of opposition and persecution--with every faculty of soul, body, and estate--in life, in suffering, in death. _This is a free, loving service._ The idolater is enslaved by his own passions and the iron bands of custom. His worship is mechanical, without heart and without intelligence. The service acceptable to God is the full, spontaneous, pure outflow of a loving and believing heart. _It is an ennobling service._ Man becomes like what he worships; and as the object of his worship is often the creation of his own depraved mind, he is debased to the level of his own gross, polluted ideas. Idolatry is the corrupt human heart feeding upon and propagating its own ever-growing corruptions. The service of God lifts man to the loftiest moral pinnacle and transfigures him with the resplendent qualities of the Being he adores and serves. _It is a rewardable service._ It brings rest to the world-troubled spirit, fills with abiding happiness in the present life, and provides endless felicity in the future--results idolatry can never produce.

2. _Seen in the subject of their hope._--"And to wait for His Son" (ver. 10). (1) Their hope was fixed on _Christ as a Saviour._ "Even Jesus, who delivereth us from the coming wrath." Terrible will be the revelation of that wrath to the impenitent and unbelieving. As soon as one wave of vengeance breaks another will follow, and behind that another and another interminably, so that it will ever be _the wrath to come!_ From this Jesus delivers even now. (2) Their hope was fixed on _Christ as risen._ "Whom He raised from the dead." They waited for and trusted in no dead Saviour, but One who, by His resurrection from the dead, was powerfully declared to be indeed the Son of God. (3) Their hope was fixed on _Christ as coming again._ "To wait for His Son from heaven." There is a confusing variety of opinions as to the _character_ of Christ's second advent; as to the _certainty_ of it nothing is more plainly revealed. The exact period of the second coming is veiled in obscurity and uncertainty; but it is an evidence of conversion to be ever waiting for and preparing for that coming as if there were a perpetual possibility of an immediate manifestation. The uncertainty of the time has its use in fostering a spirit of earnest and reverential inquiry, of watchfulness, of hope, of fidelity.

+Lessons.+--1. _Conversion is a radical change._ 2. _Conversion is a change conscious to the individual and evident to others._ 3. _The Gospel is the Divinely appointed agency in conversion._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 9, 10. _The Change effected by the Gospel_--

+I. In religious belief.+

+II. In corresponding conduct.+

+III. In the hope cherished.+--1. _Of the second coming of Christ._ 2. _Proved by His resurrection from the dead._ 3. _The object of His second coming to deliver from wrath._ 4. _The spirit of earnest but patient waiting induced._

Ver. 10. _The Christian waiting for his Deliverer_--

+I. Implies a firm belief in Christ's second coming.+

+II. Habitually endeavouring to be prepared for His second coming.+

+III. Earnestly desiring it.+

+IV. Patiently waiting for it.+--_Bradley._

_The Wrath to come._

+I. It is Divine wrath.+

+II. Unmingled wrath.+--Judgment without mercy; justice without the least mixture of goodness.

+III. Provoked wrath.+

+IV. Accumulated wrath.+--A wrath we have inflamed and increased by every act of sin we have committed.

+V. Future wrath.+--The wrath to come; lasting as the holiness of the Being who inflicts and the guilt of the sinners who endure it.

+VI. Deliverance from wrath.+--1. _Undeserved._ 2. _Complete._ 3. _Eternal.--Ibid._

* * * * * * * *

+CHAPTER II.+

_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._

Ver. 1. +Our entrance in . . . was not in vain.+--The word for "vain" here is the same as that in the first half of "ceno-taph." The entrance into Thessalonica, we might say colloquially, "had something in it."

Ver. 2. +Suffered before.+--Previously, that is, to our entrance to Thessalonica. +And were shamefully entreated.+--The acute sense of suffering in mind shows how far St. Paul was from Stoicism. It is this same exquisite sensibility which makes possible the beautiful courtesy with which, in his letters, we are so familiar. +With much contention.+--All the watchfulness required by one in the arena and all the danger incident to a false movement characterised St. Paul's work.

Ver. 3. +For our exhortation.+--The word reminds us of Christ's word, "I will send you another Advocate"--"Paraclete." Our advocacy of the Gospel of Christ was not born of error. +Was not of deceit, nor uncleanness, nor guile.+--Perhaps we might paraphrase thus: We were not ourselves mistaken as to the subject-matter of our preaching, we used no "dirty tricks" in the way of its publication, we baited no hooks for unwilling souls.

Ver. 4. +As we were allowed of God.+--The original word means "to approve after testing"--or, as God knows without testing, as it is applied to Him it simply means--"we were approved of God." +To be put in trust.+--R.V. "to be intrusted." "'To be put in trust with the Gospel' is the highest conceivable responsibility; the sense of it is enough to exclude every base motive and deceitful practice" (_Findlay_). +Not as pleasing men.+--The vice condemned in slaves is equally reprehensible if it should appear in the minister of the Gospel. +But God, which trieth the hearts.+--"Alloweth" and "trieth" are different forms of the same verb. Like an assayer whose methods are perfect, God makes manifest what is in man's heart.

Ver. 5. +For neither at any time used we flattering words.+--"His friends well knew that he was not one to--

"'Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee Where thrift may follow fawning'" (_Ibid._).

+Nor a cloke of covetousness.+--The same thing perhaps as a mode of flattering speech. Fulsome flattering is either the mark of a mind hopelessly abject or the craft of a designing mind. Much fair speech and the flattering of the lips still lead fools by the nose (Prov. vii. 21) to where "covetousness" dwells.

Ver. 6. +Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others.+--"The motive of ambition--'that last infirmity of noble minds'--rises above the selfishness just disclaimed; but it is just as warmly repudiated, for it is equally inconsistent with the single-mindedness of men devoted to the glory of God. Our Lord finds in superiority to human praise the mark of a sincere faith (John v. 44)" (_Ibid._). +When we might have been burdensome.+--A.V. margin, "used authority." R.V. margin, "claimed honour"--literally in weight--an ambiguous phrase whose sense is interpreted by ver. 9 (_Ibid._).

Ver. 7. +But we were gentle.+--R.V. margin says, "Most ancient authorities read babes." Origen and Augustine interpret this to mean, "Like a nurse amongst her children, talking in baby language to the babes" (_Ibid._). +As a nurse cherisheth her children.+--The A.V. has omitted a necessary word of the original which R.V. supplies--"her _own_ children." The word for "cherisheth" is used in Deut. xxii. 5 (LXX.) of the mother-bird brooding over her nestlings (a figure made memorable by our Lord's mournful words over Jerusalem). The word occurs again only in Eph. v. 29.

Ver. 8. + Being affectionately desirous.+--The one Greek word corresponding to these three "implies the fondness of a mother's love--yearning over you" (_Ibid._). +We were willing.+--R.V. "well-pleased." Like Him of whom it is said, "He gives liberally," without stint. +Our own souls.+--"Our very selves," for the saving of which, says our Master, a man may well let the world slip. The apostle keeps up the maternal figure.

Ver. 9. +Labour and travail.+--The same words occur together at 2 Cor. xi. 27. The former is used some twenty times, the latter only three in the New Testament. One marks the fatigue of the work, "the lassitude or weariness which follows on this straining of all his powers to the utmost" (_Trench_). The other gives prominence to the hardship or difficulty of the task. +That we might not burden any of you+ (see ver. 6).--Any support that could have been given would have been a trifle indeed (1 Cor. ix. 11) as compared with the self-sacrifice of the apostolic toilers.

Ver. 10. +Ye are witnesses, and God also.+--A solemn reiteration (see ver. 5). +Holily and justly and unblameably.+--"The holy man has regard to the sanctities, the righteous man to the duties of life; but duty is sacred and piety is duty. They cover the whole field of conduct regarded in turn from the religious and moral standpoint, while unblameably affixes the seal of approval both by God and man" (_Findlay_).

Ver. 11. +Exhorted and comforted.+--As the former points to the stimulation in the apostolic addresses, so the latter to the soothing element. The noun related to the latter verb is found in Phil. ii. 1, and is translated by R.V. _"consolation."_ +As a father with his own children.+--The maternal tenderness is united with the discipline of a true father.

Ver. 12. +Walk worthy of God.+--St. Paul's _"Noblesse oblige."_

Ver. 13. +The word of God which ye heard of us.+--R.V. "The word of the message, even the word of God." The preposition "_from_ us" is "properly used in relation to objects which come from the _neighbourhood_ of a person--out of his _sphere_" (_Winer_); but the Word originates, not with Paul, but in God. +Which effectually worketh also.+--There is no original word corresponding to "effectually" here; but the word "worketh" of itself, unemphasised, is too weak. We might almost say "becomes energetic."

Ver. 14. +Became followers.+--R.V. "imitators." The usual meaning of imitators hardly seems to obtain in full strength here. We cannot think the Thessalonians consciously copied the Judean Christians, to do which they would have had the superfluous task of raising up opposition. The words seem to mean no more than, "Ye came to resemble." +Of your own countrymen.+--Lit, "fellow-tribesmen." One is reminded of Shylock's words--

"Sufferance is the badge of all our _tribe._"

Ver. 15. +Who both killed.+--The New Testament form of the verb is always compound--as we should say, "killed off." A tragic contrast to what might have been expected is set forth in our Lord's parable. "It may be they will _reverence_ My Son. . . . They cast Him out and _killed Him off_" (Luke xx. 13-15). +Have persecuted us.+--A.V. margin, "chased us out." R.V. text, "drave." How deeply humbling was the thought to St. Paul, that he had at one time taken part in this hounding! The A.V. margin gives us a most vivid picture. +They please not God.+--This expression is thought by some to be a _meiosis,_ a softening down of the hard reality by the negative form of the language. Is not the best comment found in John xvi. 2, "Whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service unto God"? The sophistry that makes "killing no murder" and sanctions an _auto da fé_ is something quite other than pleasing to God. +Are contrary to all men.+--"The sense of God's displeasure often shows itself in sourness and ill temper towards one's fellows. Unbelief and cynicism go together. The rancour of the Jews against other nations at this time was notorious. . . . The quarrel between Judaism and the world, alas, still continues, as the _Judenhasse_ of Germany and Russia testifies" (_Findlay_).

Ver. 16. +Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles.+--The very spirit of the dog in the manger! They would not even have left the "uncovenanted mercies" to the Gentiles. +To fill up their sins alway.+--The phrase signifies ripeness for judgment, and is used in Gen. xv. 16 of the Amorites in Abraham's time--an ominous parallel (_Ibid._). +For the wrath.+--R.V., "_but_ the wrath." As though he said, "But the end comes at last; they have always been sowing this harvest, now it has to be reaped" (_Ibid._).

Ver. 17. +Being taken from you.+--R.V. "bereaved of you." St. Paul, absent from Thessalonica, feels like a parent who has lost a child, and regards them as children who feel the loss of a parent (See John xiv. 18).

Ver. 18. +But Satan hindered us.+--Lit. "beat us in." The figure is a military one and indicates the obstruction of an enemy's progress by breaking up the road (destroying bridges, etc.).

Ver. 19. +Crown of rejoicing.+--R.V. "glorying." The victor's wreath. St. Paul regards his steadfast converts as the proof of his successful efforts.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1, 2.

_Essential Elements of Success in Preaching. I. Boldness._

Outsiders testified of the success of the Gospel, and the apostles could confidently appeal to the converts in confirmation of the report. "For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you that it was not in vain" (ver. 1). In the first twelve verses of this chapter Paul is describing the special features of their ministry, the manner and spirit of their preaching; and what he denies is, not so much that their labours had been vain, fruitless, and without result, as he denies that those labours were in themselves vain, frivolous, empty of all human earnestness, and of Divine truth and force. We trace in their ministerial endeavours four essential elements that are ever found in all successful preaching--boldness, sincerity, gentleness, moral consistency. Consider, first, their _boldness._

+I. This boldness manifested in the earnest declaration of the truth.+--"We were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention" (ver. 2). Bold in their conception of the Divine origin and vast scope of the Gospel, and its wondrous adaptation to the wants of universal man, they were not less bold in its faithful proclamation. Their deep conviction of the supreme spirit in Paul on other occasions, when his fearless words roused the ire of Festus, shook the conscience of the thoughtless Felix, or swayed the heart of Agrippa towards a wise decision. We see it in Elijah as he rebuked the sins of the wicked Ahab with withering invectives or threw the baffled priests of Baal into maddening hysteria--himself the while unmoved and confident. We see it conspicuously in _Him,_ who came in the spirit and power of Elias, whose burning words assailed every form of wrong, and who did not scruple to denounce the deluded leaders of a corrupt Church in the most scathing terms--"Ye serpents! ye generation of vipers! How can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matt. xxiii. 33). _"With much contention"_--amid much conflict and danger. This kind of preaching provoked opposition and involved them in great inward struggles. The faithful messenger of God fears not the mote violent assault from without; but the thought of the fatal issues to those who obstinately reject and fight against the Gospel fills him with agonising concern.

+II. This boldness no suffering could daunt.+--"Even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi" (ver. 2). They had come fresh from a city where they had been cruelly outraged. Though Roman citizens, they had been publicly scourged and, to add to their degradation, were thrust into the inner prison, and their feet made fast in the stocks--treatment reserved for the vilest felons. But so far from being dismayed, their sufferings only deepened their love for the Gospel and inflamed the passion to make it known. A German professor has lately made experiments with chalcedony and other quartzose minerals, and he has demonstrated that when such stones are ground on large and rapidly revolving wheels they exhibit a brilliant phosphorescent glow throughout their entire mass. So is it with the resolute worker. The more he is ground under the strong wheel of suffering and persecution, the more intensely will his entire character glow with the radiance of an unquenchable bravery.

+III. This boldness was Divinely inspired.+--"We were bold _in_ our God" (ver. 2). It was not the froth of a senseless presumption, not the wild, aimless effort of a reckless bravado; but the calm, grand heroism of a profound faith in the Divine. They fell back completely upon God and drew their deepest inspiration and mightiest strength from Him. The prophet Jeremiah, in a moment of despondency, decided to "speak no more in the name of the Lord"; but when he could say, "The Lord is with me as a mighty, terrible One," his courage returned, and he obeyed implicitly the Divine mandate, "Thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak" (Jer. xx. 9-11; Jer. i. 7). Similarly commissioned, Paul once exclaimed, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phil. iv. 13). Endowed with the like spirit, Luther uttered his noble protest at the Diet of Worms--"Here I stand: I cannot do otherwise: God help me!"

+Lessons.+--1. _Boldness is absolutely indispensable in attacking, not simply in the mass, but in detail, the crying evils of the age._ 2. _Boldness is acquired only by studious and prayerful familiarity with God's message and with God._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 1, 2. _The Preaching of the Gospel not in Vain._

+I. It is not in vain as respects the end and object of the Gospel itself.+--1. _Conversion._ 2. _Sanctification or edification._ 3. _Condemnation._

+II. It was not in vain as respected the objects of the apostle.+--1. _His commission was to preach the Gospel._ He did it. 2. _To gather in souls._ He did so. 3. _His reward was the approbation of Christ and seals to his ministry._ He had both.

+III. It was not in vain as respected the Thessalonians.+--They were turned from idolatry; their hearts glowed with new feelings; their characters shone with new graces.--_Stewart._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3-6.

_Essential Elements of Success in Preaching. II. Sincerity._

The devout Richard Baxter once said: "The ministerial work must be managed purely for God and the salvation of the people, and not for any private ends of our own. This is our sincerity in it. A wrong end makes all the work bad from us, however good in itself." In order to success, it is necessary not only to display a fearless courage, but also a spirit of unmistakable ingenuousness and sincerity. As the mountain tarn reflects the clear, chaste light of the stars as they kindle in the heavens, so the preacher reflects in his outward conduct the pure and lofty motives by which he is animated and sustained. We observe, in connection with the preaching of the Gospel at Thessalonica, sincerity in motive, in speech, in aim.

+I. Sincerity in motive.+--"For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile" (ver. 3). The apostle disclaims the harbouring of evil intentions in relation to God, himself, and others.

1. _In relation to God._--"Not of deceit"--not in error. Having received the truth from God and about God, he transmits it in all its integrity, without error or imposture.

2. _In relation to himself._--"Nor of uncleanness." Pure in his own affection and purpose, he preached a Gospel that was pure in itself, in its tendency, and in its experienced results.

3. _In relation to others._--"Not in guile." He sought not to propagate the Gospel by any fraudulent wiles or false representations. He descended not to hypocrisy to catch men. "Hypocrites," says St. Bernard, "desire to seem not to be good; not to seem, but to be evil: they care not to follow or practise virtue, but to colour vice by putting upon it the painted complexion of virtue." The life of the man whose motives are thus sincere will be transparent as the light. A certain king of Castile, who had been only too familiar with the duplicity of mankind, once somewhat arrogantly said, "When God made man He left one capital defect: He ought to have set a window in his breast." The sincere man opens a window in his own breast by the whole tenor of His words and actions, so that his innermost thoughts are apparent.

+II. Sincerity in speech.+--1. _The preacher speaks under a solemn sense of responsibility._ "But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak" (ver. 4). To their charge, as men tested and approved of God, was committed the precious treasure of the Gospel; and keenly conscious of the unutterable riches with which they were entrusted, they were deeply solicitous to distribute the same in all faithfulness and sincerity. Every gift we receive from Heaven has its corresponding responsibility.

2. _The preacher seeks chiefly the Divine approval._--"Not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts" (ver. 4). There is much in the Gospel distasteful to the natural man--its humiliating exposure of our depravity and helplessness, its holiness, its mysteries, the unbending severity of its law, and the absolute character of its claims. The temptation is sometimes great to temper and modify the truth to carnal prejudice, and sacrifice faithfulness to popularity. But the apostles risked everything so that they secured the Divine approval. "As of sincerity, as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ" (2 Cor. ii. 17).

3. _The preacher must practise neither adulation nor deception._--"For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness, God is witness" (ver. 5). "Flattery," says Plutarch, "has been the ruin of many states." But alas! who can tell the souls it has for ever undone? Truth is too sedate and solid to indulge in meaningless flattery. It is only the vain and self-conceited who can be deceived by adulation.

+III. Sincerity in aim.+--"Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ" (ver. 6). The sincere aim of the apostles was seen:--

1. _In the generous suppression of the authority with which they were invested._--"When we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ." Whether we understand this authority as exercised in foregoing for the time being their legitimate claim of maintenance by the Church, or as restraining the exhibition of the dignity and power of their apostleship--which latter view is generally admitted to be the true exegesis--it was equally honourable to the pure and disinterested character of their highest aim.

2. _In the absence of all selfish ambition._--"Nor of men sought we glory." They could conscientiously aver, "We seek not yours, but you." "I love a serious preacher," says Fénélon, "who speaks for my sake and not for his own; who seeks my salvation and not his own glory." It is said of one of the ancient fathers that he wept at the applause frequently given to his discourses. "Would to God," said he, "they had rather gone away silent and thoughtful!" It is a sorry and painfully disappointing end to preach for mere ephemeral human praise. Such a man may sink into the grave with the touching lament of Grotius, "Alas! I have lost my life in doing nothing with great labour!"--though in his case it was an unduly despondent estimate of his life-work. When Christ is to be exalted, the preacher must be willing to be unnoticed.

+Lessons.+--1. _Sincerity in proclaiming the truth can be acquired only by personal experience of its power._ 2. _Sincerity is deepened by a conscious Divine commission._ 3. _Sincerity is unmistakably evidenced in word and deed._ 4. _Sincerity is satisfied only in aiming at the highest results in preaching._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 3-6. _Apostolic Preaching characterised by Transparent Truth._

+I. The doctrine was opposed to every form of impurity+ (ver. 3).--1. _It was itself pure._ 2. _It received no tinge of impurity from the apostle's mind._ 3. _Its results were pure._

+II. The preaching was free from insincerity and selfishness+ (ver. 4).--1. _They avoided flattery._ Love of favour (ver. 5). 2. _They avoided covetousness._ Aggrandisement (ver. 5). 3. _They avoided vainglory._ Love of applause (ver. 6). Three rocks on which thousands have been shipwrecked.--_Stewart._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 7, 8.

_Essential Elements of Success in Preaching. III. Gentleness._

There is a power in gentleness to subdue the wildest, mightiest opposition, and to triumph over the most gigantic difficulties. The gentle rays of the sun melt the ponderous iceberg more speedily than the rolling billows of an angry ocean; the silent action of the atmosphere wastes the rock which remains immovable under the strokes of the heaviest weapon; a look from Moses vanquished the calf-idolatry of the Israelites which the fluent eloquence of Aaron had been powerless to resist; a calm, quiet word from Jesus paralysed with fear the band of soldiers who came to arrest Him in Gethsemane. True gentleness is never weak. It is the tough, indestructible material out of which is formed the hero and the martyr. This quality was conspicuous in the preachers at Thessalonica.

+I. It was the gentleness of patient endurance.+--1. _It enabled them to bear the insult and outrage of their enemies._ Their preaching roused violent opposition. They retaliated by praying for their persecutors. Against physical force they fought with moral weapons; and this attitude and policy had a powerful influence on their enraged adversaries. The modern preacher can adopt no better method. The offence of the cross has not yet ceased. It stirs up all the enmity of the carnal mind. "And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves" (2 Tim. ii. 24, 25). The power of a man is seen, not so much in what he can do, as in what he can endure. It is only the Christian spirit that unites the utmost gentleness with the utmost strength.

2. _It enabled them to bear with the weakness and imperfections of their converts._--"As a nurse cherisheth her children" (ver. 7).--as a nursing mother cherisheth her own children. They watched over them with the tenderest assiduity, instructed them with the most disinterested solicitude, accommodated and assimilated themselves to their infant standpoint with all the devotion of a fond, painstaking parent. In order to successful teaching, in spiritual as in secular subjects, we must study the child-nature--take into account the influence of environment, early prejudices, differing capacities and temperaments, and the direction of characteristic tendencies. See this illustrated in the Divine treatment of the Israelites under Moses and the great Jewish leaders, and in the training of the twelve by the great Teacher.

+II. It was the gentleness of self-sacrificing love.+--"So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us" (ver. 8).

1. _This gentleness arose from a genuine love of human souls._--"Because ye were dear unto us." Love is the great master-power of the preacher. After this he strives and toils with ever-increasing earnestness as the years speed on; and it is the grace that comes latest and slowest into the soul. No amount of scholastic attainment, of able and profound exposition, of brilliant and stirring eloquence, can atone for the absence of a deep, impassioned, sympathetic love of human souls. The fables of the ancients tell us of Amphion, who, with the music of his lyre, drew after him the huge stones with which to build the walls of Thebes, and of Orpheus, who, by his skill on the harp, could stay the course of rivers and tame the wildest animals. These are but exaggerated examples of the wondrous charm of the soul-compelling music of love. "I have always been afraid," said a devoted young minister, now no more, "of driving my people away from the Saviour. I would rather err on the side of drawing them." The seraphic John Fletcher once said, "Love, continual, universal ardent love, is the soul of all the labour of a minister."

2. _The intensity of their love awoke a spirit of voluntary self-sacrifice._--"So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls." To accomplish the salvation of their hearers they were willing to surrender life itself. This was the temper of the Divine Preacher who "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life" (Matt. xx. 28; Mark x. 45). A similar spirit imbued the apostle when he assured the weeping elders of Ephesus in that pathetic interview on the lonely shore--"Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus" (Acts xx. 24). The love of science nerves the adventurous voyager to brave the appalling dangers of the arctic ice, amid which so many have found a crystal tomb; but a nobler love inspires the breast of the humble worker, who cheerfully sacrifices all the world holds dear to rescue men from woe.

+Lessons.+--1. _That gentleness is a power not only in patient endurance, but also in enterprising action._ 2. _That gentleness is indispensable to effectiveness, either in warning or reproof. It succeeds where a rigid austerity fails._ 3. _That gentleness is fostered and regulated by a deep, self-sacrificing love._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 7, 8. _Dealing with New Converts._

+I. Divine principles have to unfold themselves in unfavourable circumstances.+--1. _Moral influence from without._ 2. _Jewish misrepresentation._ 3. _Persecution._

+II. Must be treated with gentleness.+--1. _In the adaptation of teaching to suit their state._ 2. _In the manner and spirit of the instruction given._

+III. Must be treated with affectionate self-sacrificingness+ (ver. 8).

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9-12.

_Essential Elements of Success in Preaching. IV. Moral Consistency._

The writer, in dwelling on the manner and spirit of preaching, has shown the necessity of boldness, sincerity, and gentleness as powerful instrumentalities in achieving success. In these verses he insists on the moral consistency of the individual life and conduct. As the time indicated on the dial answers to the perfect mechanism of the watch, so the personal example of the preacher must answer to the words he utters. The most accomplished elocution, the most impassioned and captivating utterance will be fruitless unless backed with the strength of a complete, well-rounded, all-beautiful spiritual character. Paul and his co-helpers could fearlessly appeal to their hearers, and in all humility to God, in attestation of the moral consistency of their private and public action.

+I. Their moral consistency seem in the unselfish principle that governed them in their work.+--"For ye remember, brethren, our labours and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable to any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God" (ver. 9). The apostle invariably asserted the obligation of ministerial maintenance by the Church. In another place he emphatically affirms that, not merely naked equity and the spirit of the Mosaic law, but also a positive ordinance of Christ requires that just as "they which ministered about holy things lived of the things of the temple, and they which waited at the altar were partakers with the altar, even so they which preach the gospel shall live of the gospel" (1 Cor. ix. 13, 14). In the special circumstances and early stage of the work at Thessalonica, the apostle waived this righteous claim. It might be on account of the poverty of the majority of the converts, or more probably on account of the charge of covetousness their enemies had diligently circulated. To crush all suspicion of interested motives and self-seeking, those noble missionaries refused "to be chargeable unto any one of them," depending for their support upon the occasional remittances of the liberal Philippians, and on their own manual labour. Thus did they evidence their supreme desire to be, not mercenary gain, but the proclamation of the Gospel of God--an example which has its counterpart in the brave, devoted, self-denying labours of many a modern missionary.

+II. Their moral consistency seen in the maintenance of a blameless deportment.+--"Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe" (ver. 10). A Roman prince of the celebrated house of Colonna, whose virtues had sustained him alike in prosperous and adverse times, was once driven into exile, and when reduced to extremity was asked, "Where is now your fortress?" He laid his hand upon his heart, and answered, "Here!" A conscious sense of integrity threw a strength and majesty around him in the midst of poverty and suffering. It was an inward consciousness of purity that prompted these Christian workers to appeal to those who were best acquainted with their walk and conversation. They behaved holily toward God, justly toward men, and unblameably in all things. "Among them that believe." Believers could best understand the secret of their whole life, its aims and motives, its tendencies and issues, and on them it would have an irresistible impression. It is often the fate of the public teacher, while blameless, to be unmercifully blamed by those who are outside the circle of his work. The world retains all its historic enmity to the truth and is as venomous as ever in its expression.

"No might, nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape: back-wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes."

+III. Their moral consistency seen in their persistent endeavours to stimulate their converts to the highest attainments.+--1. _This is evident in the lofty standard set up._ "That ye walk worthy of God" (ver. 12). How sublime and dignified the Christian character may become--to walk worthily of God!--in harmony with His nature, His law, with our profession of attachment to Him. To the production of this grand result all their efforts were bent. "As a father doth his children," so they "exhorted" with all earnestness, "comforted" with all loving sympathy, and "charged" with all fidelity and authority. The preacher must be master of every art necessary to success.

2. _This is evident in the sublime motive that should animate us in reaching the standard._--The Divine, heavenly calling. "Who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory" (ver. 12)--His own glorious kingdom. We are invited to enter this kingdom on earth and participate in its blessings; but the full splendours of that kingdom are reserved for the heavenly world. How brief and insignificant will the sufferings and sorrows of the present appear, contrasted with the ineffable bliss of the future state! "Do you want anything?" eagerly asked the loved ones who surrounded the dying couch of Melancthon. "Nothing but heaven," was the gentle response, and he went smiling on his way.

+Lessons.+--1. _In order to success in preaching moral consistency of life must accompany and sustain the faithful declaration of the truth._ 2. _That the greatest success is achieved when the highest experience of the Christian life is constantly enforced by both precept and example._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 9-12. _The High Moral Feeling that should influence the Preacher._--Illustrated by Paul's work and conduct.

+I. In preaching the Gospel.+

+II. In labouring for his own support.+

+III. In his behaviour.+--1. _Towards God._ "Holily." 2. _Towards others._ "Justly." 3. _Unblameable._ Prudent and inoffensive. He could appeal to man and God.--_Stewart._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 13.

_The Correct Estimate of Gospel Truth._

We have before stated that the population of Thessalonica consisted of two diverse classes, Greek and Jew--the one representing the philosophy of paganism, the other being the custodian of the sacred truths of Revelation. Among the Hebrews Moses was recognised as the central human figure and head of their legal system, and his words were profoundly venerated; and the Gentiles were not less devout and ardent in their admiration of Plato and his far-seeing wisdom. The influence of these two systems was all-potent with the Thessalonians; it supplied thought, moulded character and life, and filled up the widest circle of their hopes. The Gospel impinged upon these ancient and revered institutions, and they reeled beneath the shock. The bigoted followers of Moses and Plato were compelled to admit the higher authority of the apostolic message. They formed a correct estimate of Gospel truth when they "received it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God."

+I. The Gospel is superior to all human wisdom.+--It is "not the word of men." 1. _Human wisdom is limited in its range._ The greatest mind is restricted in its knowledge, and imperfect in using what it knows. A celebrated Roman scholar once exclaimed with petulance and disgust: "The human mind wanders in a diseased delirium, and it is therefore not surprising that there is no possible folly which philosophers, at one time or another, have not propounded as a lesson of wisdom."

2. _Human wisdom is changeable._--Aristotle, the great father of natural philosophy, summed up his impressions on this subject with his usual hard, unyielding logic when ye said: "There is no difference between what men call knowledge and mere opinion; therefore, as all opinion is uncertain, there can be no certainty in human knowledge."

3. _Human wisdom is unsatisfying._--It is with a sigh of bitter disappointment that one of the most profound thinkers of antiquity concluded his long and deep inquiry into human affairs, and summed up the result with these sad, melancholy words: "Nothing can be known; nothing therefore can be learned; nothing can be certain; the senses are limited and delusive; intellect is weak; life is short!"

+II. The Gospel is essentially Divine.+--1. _It is authoritative._ There is an old proverb, "When the lion roars, the beasts of the forest tremble." So when the Gospel speaks, unbelievers may well be filled with fear. Milton thus describes Adam in his innocency advancing to meet his celestial Visitor: He--

"walks forth without more train Accompanied than with His own complete Perfections: in Himself was all His state."

In like manner God's Word comes to us clothed with the majesty and authority of its own innate power. It bends the ear to attention, the mind to faith, the heart to reverence, the will and conscience to obedience.

2. _It is immutable._--It is "the word of the Lord that liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Peter i. 23). (1) Its promises are sure; (2) its threatenings will certainly be executed.

3. _It is complete._--There is nothing to add, nothing to subtract. It contains the fullest revelation of God, of man, of eternal issues--such as can never be found elsewhere.

4. _It is worthy of universal credence._--"If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater." It is to the everlasting commendation of the Thessalonians, and of millions since their day, that when they heard the Word of God they "received it, not at the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God."

This next paragraph includes the word "niggardly," which is a fine word, meaning "stingy," "grasping," or "parsimonious;" but to someone who is not familiar with the word or not paying complete attention, it can sound like a racial slur. When teaching this material, please strongly consider substituting a synonym.

+III. The Gospel is efficacious in transforming character.+--"Which effectually worketh also in you that believe." As the planet receiving the light of the sun is transformed into an imitation sun, so the believing soul receiving the light of the Word is changed into the image of that Word. Whatever the Divine Word prescribes, _that_ it works in us. Does it prescribe repentance?--it works repentance; faith?--it works faith; obedience?--it works obedience; knowledge?--it enlightens to know. Its transforming power, is continually demonstrated. It makes the niggardly generous, the profane holy, the drunkard sober, the profligate chaste. Faith is the vital force that connects the soul with this converting power.

+IV. The correct estimate of Gospel truth is matter of ceaseless thanksgiving to the preacher.+--"For this cause also thank we God without ceasing." No disappointment is keener to the anxious preacher than that of unproductive labour. Some of the choicest ministers of God have to mourn over comparative failure. Think of the anguish of the sympathetic Jeremiah when the Word of the Lord which he declared was turned into daily reproach and derision; and to Ezekiel, when he wept over rebellious Israel! But the joy of success is irrepressible, and the full heart pours out its thanks to God. "They joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil" (Isa. ix. 3).

+Lessons.+--1. _The word of man, while it may charm the understanding, is powerless to change the heart._ 2. _The correct estimate of Gospel truth is to regard it as the Word of God._ 3. _The Word of God is efficacious to the individual only as it is received believingly._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._

_The Efficacy of the Word of God and the Way of receiving it._

+I. The description given of the Word.+--1. _The Word not of men, but of God._ 2. _Known by its effects._ (1) Producing conviction of sin. (2) Binding up the broken heart.

+II. In what manner it should be received.+--1. _With attention and reverence._ 2. _With humility and teachableness._ 3. _As the instrument for conversion and edification.--E. Cooper._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 14.

_Suffering: the Test of Conversion._

It often happens that suffering reveals new features of individual character and awakens powers that were before dormant. It takes a great deal to thoroughly rouse some people. We are told that Agrippa had a dormouse that slumbered so profoundly that it would never wake till cast into a cauldron of boiling lead. So, there are some natures which put forth all their powers only when in suffering and extremity. The piety of God's people has been most severely tested in the midst of persecution and affliction. The faith of thousands has failed in the hour of trial, while those who have borne the strain have gained an accession of moral nerve and bravery. The Thessalonians imitated the Churches in Judea in boldly facing the storm of malignant opposition, and standing under it with calm, unconquerable firmness.

+I. The suffering of the Thessalonians had a common origin.+--"For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews." Just as the Jews who embraced Christianity met with the maddest violence from their own unbelieving countrymen, so the Gentiles found their fiercest foes among their fellow-countrymen, who blindly clung to the worship of the gods. It is the unkindest cut of all that comes from the sword of our own people--people with whom we have lived in amity and concord, but from whom conscience compels us to differ. Who can fathom the deep anguish of the Psalmist sounding in that sharp, bitter cry of startled surprise, "For it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it; but it was thou, a man, mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance"! (Ps. lv. 12, 13). It was a horrible discovery of nature engaged in a terrible suicidal war with itself! Nature grown monstrously unnatural and savagely retaliating on its own; natural love turned into unnatural enmity! What a revelation, too, is this of the desperate nature of all persecution! Its insensate malice rudely sunders all bonds of fatherland, friendship, and kindred. The close affinity between Cain and Abel does not arrest the murderer's hand; the tender ties between Saul and David, woven with much reciprocal kindness and affection, avail not to curb the mad cruelty of the infuriate king. Ah! how deep and changeless is the truth, "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. iii. 12). The suffering that tests is still from the same source, "A man's foes are they of his own household" (Matt. x. 36).

+II. The suffering of the Thessalonians was borne with exemplary Christian fortitude.+--"For ye, brethren, became followers of the Churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus." The same thought is expressed in the first chapter, where the apostle says, "Ye became followers of us and of the Lord." For at the head of the long line is Jesus, the Captain of salvation; and all whom He leads to glory walk in His steps, imitate His example, and so become followers one of another. It is not, however, suffering in itself that purifies and exalts Christian character, so much as the spirit in which it is borne. The hardest point of obedience is to obey in suffering. It was enough to cool the fiery ambition of the aspiring disciples when Jesus said, "Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?" (Matt. xx. 22). And yet the following of Christ in suffering is the true test of discipleship. "He that taketh not his cross and followeth me is not worthy of Me" (Matt. x. 38). It is a grand proof of the supernatural efficacy of Gospel truth that it inspires so intense a love of it as to make us willing to endure the most exquisite suffering for its sake. The love of truth becomes supreme. John Huss, lamenting the rupture of an old and valued friendship, said: "Paletz is my friend; truth is my friend; and both being my friends, it is my sacred duty to give the first honour to truth." The soul, penetrated with this sublime devotion to truth, will pass unscathed the fiery test of suffering. On the destruction by fire of the London Alexandra Palace a few years ago, it was found that, while many specimens of old English porcelain exhibited there were reduced to a black, shapeless mass, the true porcelain of Bristol, though broken into fragments, still retained its whiteness, and even its most delicate shades of colour, uninjured by the fire. So the truly good, though wounded and maimed, shall survive the fiercest trial, and retain intact all that specially distinguishes and beautifies the Christian character.

+Lessons.+--1. _Our love of the Gospel is tested by what we suffer for it._ 2. _The similarity of experience in all times and places is a strong evidence of the truth of the Christian religion._ 3. _Suffering does not destroy, but builds up and perfects._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 15, 16.

_The Fury of the Old Religion against the New._

It is the natural order of things that the old must give place to the new. The inexorable operation of the law of progress is seen in a thousand different forms. In the world of vegetation, the old life is continually yielding supremacy to the new. The leaves, buds, and blossoms of the tree, as they force their way to the light, fling their shadows on the grave where their predecessors lie decayed and buried--life blooming amid the ghastly emblems of death. And, in the world of religious thought and opinion, while Divine truth remains in its essence unchangeably the same, old forms and old definitions are ever giving place to the new. The transition from the old to a new order of things in the progress of religion is not always accomplished without opposition. Age is naturally and increasingly tenacious; and the old religion looks on the new with suspicion, with jealousy, with fear, with anger. The Jews had resisted the attempts of their own Divinely commissioned prophets to rouse the nation to a purer faith and more vigorous religious life; but their fury reached its climax in their blind, unreasonable, and fiendish opposition to Christianity. The text describes the fury of the old religion against the new.

+I. The fury of the Jews is seen in their inhuman treatment of the great leaders of religious thought.+--"Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us" (ver. 15).

1. _They plotted against the life of the world's Redeemer;_ and in spite of insufficient evidence to convict, and the endeavours of the Roman procurator to release, they clamoured for the immediate crucifixion of their innocent Victim, exclaiming in the wild intoxication of malignant passion, "His blood be on us and on our children" (Matt. xxvii. 25)--a self-invoked imprecation that fell on them with terrible and desolating vengeance.

2. _The sin of murder already darkly stained their race._--The best and noblest of their prophets were unoffending victims: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Zechariah, met with violent deaths. The charge of the proto-martyr Stephen was unanswerable (Acts vii. 52).

3. _The apostles were subjected to similar treatment._--"And have persecuted us"--have chased and driven us out. They drove them out of Thessalonica, afterwards out of Berœa, and were at that moment engaged in instigating an insurrection to drive the apostle out of Corinth. The spirit of persecution is unchanged. Wherever the attempt is made to raise the Church from the grave of spiritual death and reanimate her creed and ritual with intenser reality and life, it is met with a jealous, angry opposition. What a wretched, short-sighted policy does persecution reveal! It is the idolised weapon of the tyrant and the coward, the sport of the brutal, the sanguinary carnival of demons!

+II. The fury of the Jews was displeasing to God.+--"They please not God" (ver. 15). They fondly imagined they were the favourites of heaven, and that all others were excluded from the Divine complacency. They had the words of the law carefully committed to memory and could quote them with the utmost facility to serve their own purpose. They would support their proud assumption of superiority and exclusiveness by quoting Deut. xiv. 2, wilfully shutting their eyes to the vital difference between the holy intention of Jehovah and their miserably defective realisation of that intention. In their opposition to Christianity they thought they were doing God service; yet all the time they were displeasing to Him. How fatally blinding is sin, goading the soul to the commission of the most horrible crimes under the sacred guise of virtue!

+III. The fury of the Jews was hostile to man.+--1. _Their hostility was directed against the world of mankind._ "Are contrary to all men" (ver. 15). The Jews of that period delighted in hatching all kinds of "sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion." They were adversaries of all, the despisers of all. Tacitus, the Roman historian, brands them as "the enemies of all men:" and Apion, the Egyptian, according to the admission of Josephus, calls them "atheists and misanthropes--in fact, the most witless and dullest of barbarians."

2. _Their hostility was embittered by a despicable religious jealousy._--"Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved" (ver. 16). Here the fury of the old religion against the new reached its climax. It is the perfection of bigotry and cruelty to deny to our fellow-men the only means of salvation. Into what monsters of barbarity will persecution turn men! Pharaoh persisted to such a degree of unreasonableness as to chastise the Hebrews for not accomplishing impossibilities! Julian, the apostate from Christianity, carried his vengeful spirit to his deathbed, and died cursing the Nazarene!

+IV. The fury of the Jews hurried them into irretrievable ruin.+--1. _Their wickedness was wilfully persistent._ "To fill up their sins alway" (ver. 16)--at all times, now as much as ever. So much so, the time is now come when the cup of their iniquity is filled to the brim, and nothing can prevent the consequent punishment. The desire to sin grows with its commission. "Sinners," says St. Gregory, "would live for ever that they might sin for ever"--a powerful argument for the endlessness of future punishment. The desire to sin is endless.

2. _Their punishment was inevitable and complete._--"For the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost" (ver. 16)--is even now upon them. The process has begun; their fury to destroy others will accelerate their own destruction. Punishment fell upon the wicked, unbelieving, and resisting Jews, and utter destruction upon their national status and religious supremacy (_vide_ Josephus, _Wars,_ Books v., vi.).

+Lessons.+--1. _There is a fearful possibility of sinking into a lifeless formality, and blind, infatuate opposition to the good._ 2. _The rage of man against the truth defeats its own ends, and recoils in vengeance on himself._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 15, 16. _The Persecuting Jews_--

+I. Often misled by professed zeal for truth.+

+II. Tortured and murdered the noblest men of their own race.+

+III. Opposed the Gospel with violent and unreasoning severity.+

+IV. Have themselves been persecuted by all the nations among whom they sojourned.+

+V. Furnish an unanswerable argument for the truth of Christianity.+

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 17-20.

_The Power of Satan, Great but Restricted._

St. Paul had a profound, unhesitating belief in the reality and personal activity of Satan. An examination of the apostle's own writings and discourses places this beyond doubt. We need refer to but a few passages. Satan is "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (Eph.