This exhortation is dependent upon the previous counsel.

I. THE MINISTER OF GOD MUST NOT BE ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL. "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, nor of me his prisoner."

1. The testimony of the Lord is that borne concerning his doctrine, sufferings, and death; in a word, the gospel itself.

2. No Christian can be ashamed of a gospel of such power, so true, so gracious, so useful.

3. No Christian can be ashamed of its confessors. The apostle was a prisoner at Rome for its sake, not for crime of any sort. The gospel then laboured under an immense load of pagan prejudice, and Timothy needed to be reminded of his obligations to sympathize with its greatest expounder.

II. THE MINISTER OF GOD MUST SHARE IN THE AFFLICTIONS OF THE GOSPEL. "But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God."

1. Though it is a gospel of peace, it brings a sword wherever it goes, and involves its preachers in tribulations arising out of the perverseness of men who thwart and despise it.

2. We ought to suffer hardship for the gospel, by the consideration that the God who has saved us with such a strong hand is able to succour us under all our afflictions. - T.C.

It was natural and right that an old warrior whose armour was worn with use should charge the young soldier to bear himself bravely in the war. Cowardice is bad always, whether in the physical heroisms of the battle-field, or the moral heroisms of common duty. We are cautioned against being ashamed! And shame is the child of doubt as well as the child of fear!

I. WE SHOULD NOT BE ASHAMED OF A TESTIMONY FOR CHRIST, BECAUSE CHRISTIANITY GIVES THE TRUE READING OF OUR MORAL NATURE. What are we? Apart from Christ, the world is just as much divided in its philosophical schools on this question as ever it was. The Utilitarian moralists enthrone the selfish instinct, and make the foundation of morals mere utility, or the greatest happiness principle; they test the morality of actions by their consequences, as if it were possible to trace them through all their sequences to their ultimate results, as if a man could thus judge, unless all the future ages were before him. But in setting up this standard, with one sharp and almost contemptuous sweep, they cut away the entire moral nature of man. Conscience has no place in their creed. "My own belief," says Mr. Mill, "is that the moral feelings are not innate, but acquired." Surely a fearful reading of human nature! "Let us make man in our image" becomes only a morbid dream of some early dramatist of creation! How this theory of human nature would, if adopted, ultimately affect society may perhaps best be understood by another sentence of Stuart Mill — "The proper limit to self-indulgence is that one shall neither hurt himself nor hurt others." Imagine this, a man is not to consult conscience, or the sense of right and wrong, he is neither to be cheered by conscience nor to be scourged by remorse, but is suffered to take his stand amongst his fellow-beings, as a mere conscience-less, calculating machine, weighing not the moral wrong, but the outward harmfulness of self. indulgence. If I turn from the school of Buckle and Mill to the modern scientific school, if captivated by the discoveries of modern science, I sit as a disciple at the feet of Huxley or Darwin, my power to realise any lofty conception even of this present life is gone! I feel like a man who has saved his purse and lost his gold, or who has kept safely the golden frame but lost the portrait it contained. Let us look at their position! We are declared to be the last and noblest form of a long series of developments; we trace these back to the elementary types of life. It may constitute a theory of physical nature, it cannot constitute a theory of human nature. It has no explanation whatever of the past of our race. Yes, the gospel makes us feel the grandeur of life as life; its rewards here are moral, its punishments the same. Instead of bidding us to think alone on consequences, it reminds us that God searcheth the heart. Its garland of victory is the well done of conscience, its scourge of woe is the agony of remorse.

II. WE SHOULD NOT BE ASHAMED OF CHRISTIANITY, BECAUSE IT GIVES THE TRUE READING OF MAN'S RELIGIOUS NATURE. Man must worship. We all admit that. History proves it. A nation without its altars is as undiscoverable as a firmament without its stars! But what says Paul to Timothy? — "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," "This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy." Yes! Yes! this was the message! Christ the Saviour of men! This it is that comes home to the heart and conscience of humanity everywhere. This is the great message we preach in the face of all modern endeavours to give the gospel only a place in the religions of the world. Yes! how that meets the soul-needs of man! Conscience is at rest beneath that cross where Christ the Lamb of God taketh away the sins of the world. Pardon, virtue, self-denial, sacrifice, peace, hope, joy, love, these are the growths of the Christian life — these blossom on no other tree but the Tree of Life.

III. WE SHOULD NOT DE ASHAMED OF CHRISTIANITY, BECAUSE IT GIVES THE TRUE READING OF MAN'S HUMAN LIFE. Whatever the old theologies may have said, human life is divine. I mean by that, that the world into which we are born finds place and play for all our varied human faculties. It is manifest that man's nature is a mistake, and the world a mistake, if a man is to move on in a region of Asceticism, or a transcendental region of Mysticism. Take this life! I say this is a beautiful world to live in. It is a world of colour! It is a world of sound! It is a world of mystery! It is a world of enterprise! It is a world of motion! It is a world of taste! It is a world, in fact, full of manifestations of adaptation to the being to be placed upon it by God. Now, if it were worldliness to touch all these things, then we are tempted to worldliness every hour, every moment, and the world is a cruel enchantress, that meets us at every step. Surely you know well that this is not worldliness, that Christ did not teach us it was worldliness. Man's nature too would be a mistake. He has not only eyes to lift to heaven and knees to bend to earth, he has hands to toil with, a home to care for, a country to serve, and a whole round of earthly duties to discharge. Still it is a charge brought against Christianity that it is indifferent to human culture and affection. Now, I do admit this, that a man's personal relation to God is the first question which the gospel of Christ deals with: he is to be brought nigh by the blood of Christ, to be a temple of the Holy Ghost, to rejoice in a spiritual sonship. But it is also true that all other duties and relationships are lifted into higher spheres, and ruled by higher motives. Christianity is not responsible for the perversion of ascetics, nor is it responsible for the abuse of worldlings. The Christians of Apostolic times must keep themselves unspotted from the world, not by avoiding the very possibility of its stains, but by a life in God which preserves them from the power of evil. And so must we: the difficulties of the case are the difficulties of moral life. Christianity consecrates the life of the family, the life of the city, the life of the state.

IV. WE SHOULD NOT BE ASHAMED OF A TESTIMONY FOR CHRIST, FOR CHRISTIANITY GIVES A TRUE READING OF LIFE, IN CHRIST HIMSELF. Christ is not only a Teacher; Christ is not only a Saviour; though He is both these. Christ is Christian life! He is His own religion alive and in action! When we study Christianity, we not only study the Evangels and the Epistles; we study Christ, Christ's life is the ideal of all Christian life! As such I ask you to mark its practical side; its human side; its relation to all the interests, physical, social, and divine of the world Christ came to ransom and to save. Christ's hours of prayer occupied much of His earthly life, but He was not one-sided in His life. How active He was — "He went about doing good." How reasonable He was — He reasoned with the Jews out of their Scriptures. How home-loving He was — He abode at the house of Martha, and her sister Mary. How life's cheerful pleasures found Him a sharer in them — His first miracle was wrought at the marriage feast of Cana in Galilee. How social He was — He dined at the house of the Pharisee. How actively compassionate He was — "He healed all their sick." How wonderfully He carried the golden thread of the heavenly through the warp and woof of the earthly life. Oh! it is something beautiful indeed to possess that life. In all your experiences of emotion, awe, reverence, tenderness, it is not enough to feel the thrill of mere sensation. As Christ was consecrated to His Father, so must we be to Him!

V. WE SHOULD NOT BE ASHAMED OF THE TESTIMONY OF CHRIST, FOR CHRISTIANITY NEGLECTED WRONGS OUR NATURE. All truth neglected wrongs our nature! I mean scientific truth, as well as religious truth. If I believe the world goes round, and if to propitiate priests, or to' provide for some supposed protection of the Church's creed, I say the world does not go round, I wrong my mind. If I reject religious truth, I wrong my mind in the worst sense; I wrong my conscience and my heart. That man is to be pitied who bears about with him the murdered body of truth! There are such men, they know the gospel, they need no further commendations of it to the conscience and the heart. I say Divine demonstration has been made to the faculty of judgment, and to the faculty of feeling. And yet as the apostle says, "They know not the truth." They perpetuate that hideous immorality of bartering their souls for ease, pleasure, and sin! "Verily he that knew his Lord's will and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes."

VI. WE SHOULD NOT BE ASHAMED OF A TESTIMONY FOR CHRIST, BECAUSE CHRISTIANITY IN ALL THESE SCENES STANDS ALONE. Its position is unique! This one thing we know, that a Saviour such as I have been speaking of, is none other but Christ. If there is, and we are to be confronted with some new Saviour, it is time that the criticisms of the day gave us a new Christ. We exhaust other subjects, but we never exhaust Christi With admiring and adoring homage we take our stand behind the Cross, and say to a world that wants a Saviour — "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." "Produce your cause," says the Most High to all who would now declare His Anointed One! "Beside Me, there is no Saviour!"

(W. M. Statham, M. A.)

Mr. Blackwood was the means of my conversion twenty-four years ago. And what was it that laid hold of me? I was then as worldly a young man as any in London, but I went to hear him speak at Streatham, having given a promise to do so to the young lady who was afterwards my wife, and is now in heaven. The sermon did not produce much impression upon me, but afterwards Mr. Blackwood walked up to me, and put his hand on my shoulder, and in his own loving way said: "Dear friend, I do not think that I have seen you at this meeting before. Are you a Christian? I know Christ; I have proved Him; do you know Him?" I had to say, "No, I do not." What the sermon did not do that testimony did, and I had no peace until I found the Saviour two days afterwards. Twenty-four years have passed since then; eighteen of them I have spent amongst the poor of the East of London, and I am more persuaded than ever that what the Church of Jesus Christ needs is not mere oratory, mere eloquence, mere wealth, but men who not only bear Christ's name, but come right out for Him, so that no one in their senses can doubt their being children of God.

(A. G. Brown.)

Thirty years ago, more or less, there was a boy in Scotland who would go to sea. His name was James, and his father was a respected citizen of a good town six miles from the sea. On James's first voyage to Calcutta he kept up the habit of praying in the forecastle before turning in to his hammock, for he had been accustomed to do so regularly at home. Nobody said anything to him on the matter, but Bob Shearer, an able seamen, watched him. In Calcutta some of the seamen left the ship, and others were engaged in their place to work the ship home. One of these was a "rough," whose name was Robert. Hence he was called English Bob, and Shearer was called Scotch Bob. One night, soon after the homeward voyage began, James was on his knees, when the eye of English Bob happened to fall on him. "I declare," he cried, with an oath, "here's a younker praying. Did you ever?" And thereupon he flung a heavy shoe at his head with excellent aim. Before James had time to rise Scotch Bob had the coward by the throat and told him to come upstairs and settle with him at once. The result was that English Bob got soundly and wholesomely thrashed. That night James went into his hammock without praying. But he had not time to fall asleep before Scotch Bob came and pitched him out. "What do you mean, you young coward? Say your prayers like a man! Do you think I'm going to fight for you and be disgraced in this way?" And so James never again failed to kneel before he slept, and feels to this day that his being ashamed of his Father in heaven and of the Saviour who died for him was well rebuked by the friendly courage of Bob Shearer. Long after, when his name had a title before it, and he was at the head of his profession, James had pleasure in finding Bob Sbearer's mother, and bringing her to visit the mother who had taught him to pray. This story is related by James himself.

Let me ask you a question. "What would you take for the greatest proof of downright friendship a man could show you?" "That is too hard a question to answer all at once." "Well, I may be wrong, but the deepest outcome of friendship seems to me, on the part of the superior at least, the permission, or better still, the call, to share in his sufferings."

(Geo. Macdonald.)

What is a friend but one whom I can trust; one who, in sorrow's hour, will mingle his tears with mine; one on whose support I can reckon when my back is at the wall!

(T. Guthrie, D. D.)

What power of God? has been asked. Not according to the power we get from God, but according to the power which God has displayed towards us in our calling and in our marvellous salvation. In other words, God with great power has succoured us; surely we may be confident that He will never leave us, never desert us; but in the hours of our sorest trouble incurred for Him will keep us and will bring us safely through it.Christians, Eunice, Hermogenes, Lois, Onesiphorus, Paul, Phygellus, Timotheus, TimothyAsia, Ephesus, RomeAfflictions, Along, Ashamed, Bear, Endure, Evil, Feeling, Glad, Gospel, Hardship, Join, Mayest, Measure, News, Partaker, Power, Prisoner, Rather, Service, Shame, Share, Strengthened, Suffer, Suffering, Testify, Testifying, Testimony, Tidings, Undergo, Witness1. Paul's love to Timothy, and unfeigned confidence in Timothy himself, his mother, and grandmother.
6. He is exhorted to stir up the gift of God which was in him;
8. to be steadfast and patient in persecution;
13. and to persist in the form and truth of that doctrine which he had learned of him.
15. Phygellus and Hermogenes, and such like, are noted, and Onesiphorus is highly commended.

2 Timothy 1:8

     2224   Christ, the Lord
     2369   Christ, responses to
     5565   suffering, of believers
     5624   witnesses, to Christ
     6214   participation, in Christ
     8495   witnessing
     8496   witnessing, importance
     8498   witnessing, and Holy Spirit

2 Timothy 1:6-8

     7758   preachers, call
     8359   weakness, spiritual

2 Timothy 1:7-8

     1105   God, power of
     5454   power, God's saving

2 Timothy 1:8-9

     8426   evangelism, motivation
     8449   imitating

2 Timothy 1:8-10

     6668   grace, and Christ

The Form of Sound Words
The Apostle most earnestly admonished Timothy to "hold fast the form of sound words which he had heard of him in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." I do not suppose that by this it is intended that Paul ever wrote out for Timothy a list of doctrines; or that he gave him a small abstract of divinity, to which he desired him to subscribe his name, as the articles of the church over which he was made a pastor. If so, doubtless the document would have been preserved and enrolled in the canons …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856

Christianity
WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? WHAT is Christianity? The question seems a belated one. It never was more pertinent than now. Its pertinency rests upon two facts. First: the modern drift in Christianity and its absolute failure. Second: the phenomenal triumph of primitive Christianity. The modern drift is antagonistic to doctrine and repudiates the miraculous. It sets aside the virgin birth, has no toleration for atonement by sacrificial death, and positively refuses to accept the bodily resurrection of our …
I. M. Haldeman—Christ, Christianity and the Bible

The Seventh Word from the Cross
While all the words of dying persons are full of interest, there is special importance attached to the last of them. This is the Last Word of Jesus; and both for this reason and for others it claims particular attention. A noted Englishman is recorded to have said, when on his deathbed, to a nephew, "Come near and see how a Christian can die." Whether or not that was a wise saying, certainly to learn how to die is one of the most indispensable acquirements of mortals; and nowhere can it be learnt …
James Stalker—The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ

In Death and after Death
A sadder picture could scarcely be drawn than that of the dying Rabbi Jochanan ben Saccai, that "light of Israel" immediately before and after the destruction of the Temple, and for two years the president of the Sanhedrim. We read in the Talmud (Ber. 28 b) that, when his disciples came to see him on his death-bed, he burst into tears. To their astonished inquiry why he, "the light of Israel, the right pillar of the Temple, and its mighty hammer," betrayed such signs of fear, he replied: "If I were …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Abaelard had Defined Faith as an Opinion or Estimate: Bernard Refutes This.
Abaelard had defined faith as an opinion or estimate: Bernard refutes this. 9. It is no wonder if a man who is careless of what he says should, when rushing into the mysteries of the Faith, so irreverently assail and tear asunder the hidden treasures of godliness, since he has neither piety nor faith in his notions about the piety of faith. For instance, on the very threshold of his theology (I should rather say his stultology) he defines faith as private judgment; as though in these mysteries it …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Perseverance Proved.
2. I REMARK, that God is able to preserve and keep the true saints from apostacy, in consistency with their liberty: 2 Tim. i. 12: "For the which cause I also suffer these things; nevertheless, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Here the apostle expresses the fullest confidence in the ability of Christ to keep him: and indeed, as has been said, it is most manifest that the apostles expected …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

Elucidations.
(Dinocrates, cap. ii. p. 701.) The avidity with which the Latin controversial writers seize upon this fanciful passage, (which, in fact, is subversive of their whole doctrine about Purgatory, as is the text from the Maccabees) makes emphatic the utter absence from the early Fathers of any reference to such a dogma; which, had it existed, must have appeared in every reference to the State of the Dead, and in every account of the discipline of penitents. Arbp. Usher [9011] ingeniously turns the tables …
Tertullian—The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas

Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity Paul's Care and Prayer for the Church.
Text: Ephesians 3, 13-21. 13. Wherefore I ask that ye may not faint at my tribulations for you, which are your glory. 14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 and that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be strong …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

"And this is his Commandment, that we Should Believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ, and Love one Another. "
1 John iii. 23.--"And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another." It is a common doctrine often declared unto you, that the most part of those who hear the gospel do run, in their pretended course to heaven, either upon a rock of dashing discouragement, or the sands of sinking presumption. These are in all men's mouths; and no question they are very dangerous, so hazardous, as many fools make shipwreck either of the faith, or a good …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Discerning Prayer.
INTRODUCTORY. BY D.W. WHITTLE. To recognize God's existence is to necessitate prayer to Him, by all intelligent creatures, or, a consciously living in sin and under condemnation of conscience, because they do not pray to Him. It would be horrible to admit the existence of a Supreme Being, with power and wisdom to create, and believe that the creatures he thought of consequence and importance enough to bring into existence, are not of enough consequence for him to pay any attention to in the troubles …
Various—The Wonders of Prayer

Assurance
Q-xxxvi: WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS WHICH FLOW FROM SANCTIFICATION? A: Assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end. The first benefit flowing from sanctification is assurance of God's love. 'Give diligence to make your calling and election sure.' 2 Pet 1:10. Sanctification is the seed, assurance is the flower which grows out of it: assurance is a consequent of sanctification. The saints of old had it. We know that we know …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Communion of Saints.
"The Saints on earth, and those above, But one communion make; Joined to their Lord in bonds of love, All of His grace partake." The history of the extension of the Church of Christ from one land to another, and of the successive victories won by the Cross over heathen races from age to age, gives by itself a very imperfect idea of the meaning of the words "The Holy Catholic Church." Because, with the outward extension of the Church, its influence upon the inner man needs always to be considered. …
Edward Burbidge—The Kingdom of Heaven; What is it?

Concerning God's Purpose
1. God's purpose is the cause of salvation. THE third and last thing in the text, which I shall but briefly glance at, is the ground and origin of our effectual calling, in these words, "according to his purpose" (Eph. i. 11). Anselm renders it, According to his good will. Peter Martyr reads it, According to His decree. This purpose, or decree of God, is the fountainhead of our spiritual blessings. It is the impulsive cause of our vocation, justification, glorification. It is the highest link in …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

The Secret Walk with God (I. ).
Pastor, for the round of toil See the toiling soul is fed; Shut the chamber, light the oil, Break and eat the Spirit's bread; Life to others would'st thou bring? Live thyself upon thy King. Let me explain in this first sentence that when in these pages I address "my Younger Brethren," I mean brethren in the Christian Ministry in the Church of England. Let me limit my reference still further, by premising that very much of what I say will be said as to brethren who have lately taken holy Orders, …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren

Predestination and Calling
Eternal Father, who shall look Into thy secret will? None but the Lamb shall take the book, And open every seal. None but he shall ever unroll that sacred record and read it to the assembled world. How then am I to know whether I am predestinated by God unto eternal life or not? It is a question in which my eternal interests are involved; am I among that unhappy number who shall be left to live in sin and reap the due reward of their iniquity; or do I belong to that goodly company, who albeit that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

Twelfth Day for the Spirit to Convince the World of Sin
WHAT TO PRAY.--For the Spirit to convince the World of Sin "I will send the Comforter to you. And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin."--JOHN xvi. 7, 8. God's one desire, the one object of Christ's being manifested, is to take away sin. The first work of the Spirit on the world is conviction of sin. Without that, no deep or abiding revival, no powerful conversion. Pray for it, that the gospel may be preached in such power of the Spirit, that men may see that they have …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

Pastor in Parish (I. ).
Master, to the flock I speed, In Thy presence, in Thy name; Show me how to guide, to feed, How aright to cheer and blame; With me knock at every door; Enter with me, I implore. We have talked together about the young Clergyman's secret life, and private life, and his life in (so to speak) non-clerical intercourse with others, and now lastly of his life as it stands related to his immediate leader in the Ministry. In this latter topic we have already touched the great matter which comes now at …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren

"That which was from the Beginning, which we have Heard, which we have Seen with Our Eyes, which we have Looked Upon, and Our Hands Have
1 John i. 1.--"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life." It is the great qualification of a disciple, or hearer, to be attentive and docile, to be capable of teaching, and to apply the mind seriously to it. It is much to get the ear of a man. If his ear be gotten, his mind is the more easily gained. Therefore, those who professed eloquence, and studied to persuade men to any …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"Now the End of the Commandment," &C.
1 Tim. i. 5.--"Now the end of the commandment," &c. We come now, as was proposed, to observe, Thirdly,(474) That faith unfeigned is the only thing which gives the answer of a good conscience towards God. Conscience, in general, is nothing else but a practical knowledge of the rule a man should walk by, and of himself in reference to that rule. It is the laying down a man's state, and condition, and actions beside the rule of God's word, or the principles of nature's light. It is the chief piece …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Prefatory Scripture Passages.
To the Law and to the Testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them.-- Isa. viii. 20. Thus saith the Lord; Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.--Jer. vi. 16. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

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