The life and work of St. Paul

THK END. 685
that the Spirit which God gave was one not of fear, but of power, and of love,
and of a sound mind.
"
Bear, then, afflictions with me. Be strong in the
grace of Jesus Christ. Fan np the flame in those whitening embers of zeal
and courage. Be a good soldier, a true athlete, a diligent toiler. Do you
think of my chains and of my hardships ? They are nothing, not worth a
word or a thought. Be brave. Be not ashamed. We are weak, and may be
defeated; but nevertheless God's foundation-stone stands sure with the
double legend upon it one of comfort, one of exhortation. Be thou strong
and faithful, my sou Timothy, even unto death." So does he hand to the
dear but timid racer the torch of truth which in his own grasp, through the
long torch-race of his life, no cowardice had hidden, no carelessness had
"
dimmed, no storm had quenched. Glorious Apostle ! would that every
leader's voice could burst, as he falls, into such a trumpet-sound, thrilling
the young hearts that pant in the good fight, and must never despair of final
victory." 1
Yes, even so :
" Hopes have precarious life ;
They are oft blighted, withered, snapped sheer off
In vigorous youth, and turned to rottenness ;
ut faithfulness can feed on suffering t
And knows no disappointment" s
CHAPTER LVIL
THE END.
" Bonum agonem subituri estis, in quo agonothetee Deus vivus eat, xystarchea
Spiritus Sanctus, corona aeternitatis, bravium angelicae substantiae, politia in coelis,
1
gloria in saecula saeculorum.'
"
Qui desiderat dissolvi et
TEKT. ad Mart. 3.
ease cum Christo, patienter vivit et deleotabiliter
moritur." AUG. " Lieblich wie der Iris Farbenfeuer
Auf der Donnerwolke duft'gem Thau
Schimmert durch der Wehmuth diistern Schleier
Hier der Euhe heitres Blau." SCHJXLEH.
DID Paul ever get that cloak, and the papyri and the vellum rolls P Did
Timothy ever reach him p 3 None can tell us. With the last verse of the
Second Epistle to Timothy we have heaud Paul's last word. In some Roman
basilica, perhaps before Helius, the Emperor's freedman, in the presence of
some dense, curious, hostile crowd of Jews and Pagans, he must have been
heard once more, in his second defence, or on the second count of the indictment
against him ; and on this occasion the majority of the assessors must
have dropped the tablet the tablet of condemnation into the voting urn,
and the presiding judge must have pronounced sentence of decapitation on
i
Martinean, Hours of Thought, p. 89.
*
"Spanish Gypsy."
3 That he did is a reasonable and it not
conjecture, improbably led to that imprisonment
the liberation from whioh is mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews (xiii. 23)