2 Timothy 4:5 But watch you in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry. In the charge of the aged Paul to the young disciple Timothy, there seems to be an appeal which, though unexpressed, is perpetually addressed from the elder generation to the younger. What the one old man said to the single young one, all Christ's servants, whose work is nearly done, seem to say to all those whose work is just beginning. "Fulfil thy ministry, for I am now ready to be offered." Choose what time in the world's history you like, you will always find those two classes well represented; for it is always true that "one generation passeth away, and another cometh." And while the old are always passing to their rest, and the young rising to do their parts, the great aims for which Christian men strive and pray, and the great institution of the Church, through which they further them, lives on; and it is, or should be, the concern of each generation to hand it down invigorated and enlarged, to their successors. But if that is to be done, these successors must be ready to take up these toils and aims; to adapt them to the needs of the coming time, and engage in them with a spirit at least as devoted as that which their fathers showed. So they seem to hear from their father, "Fulfil thy ministry, for I am now ready to be offered." Now if we take our own time, and apply to it these considerations, which hold good of every time, what shall we say? New, as ever, there is a passing and a rising generation. And the great Church and kingdom of Christ, which has been in the hands of the fathers, will soon be in the hands of the children. That glorious institution will live, though the hands which now sustain it decay. But young hands must receive it from the failing hold of the elders, and by their efforts it must he upheld. Are they ready to take it? Are they prepared to "fulfil their ministry," because their predecessors will soon leave the task in their hands? (T. M. Herbert, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. |
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