February 2

contrary to every kind and degree of just expectation—yet the bleeding heart here only says, “I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.” Imbibe the same spirit, and follow his example. In provocations and complaints dwell not upon the enhancing, but upon the extenuating. Be not implacable, but tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, hath forgiven you. It is the glory of a man to pass by a transgression. It is the noblest of all victories—Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. So the suffering Stephen, under a shower of stones, cried, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Thus Jesus, as they were nailing him to the cross, prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

FEBRUARY 2.—“Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully know, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.”—2 Timothy 4:17.

At his first answer before Caesar he had been deserted of all those whose duty it was to have appeared for him. But to the loss of his friends he opposes the grace of the Saviour—“notwithstanding the Lord stood by me.” He was not visible to the assembly; nor did Paul himself perceive him by the eye of sense. His presence was real, but spiritual; and he was with his servant not as a mere witness, but as a helper—He “strengthened me.” He confirmed his courage, and gave him self-possession, and freedom of thought and expression. This was no more than he had reason to expect, from his own promise: “Lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” “Ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.”

See how He differs from others! They forsake us when we are in distress: He is a present help in trouble. When human dependence fails, he is sure to hold forth his own arm, and to say, “Trust, and be not afraid.” Thus he was with Joseph when sold into Egypt, with Jeremiah in the dungeon, with the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, and with Paul when abandoned of all before Nero!

And what a substitute was he for Paul’s friends! They would have been nothing without him; but he was every thing without them. If we walked through the valley of the shadow of death with him, we need fear no evil. He is all in all.

What was the design of this interposition? “That by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear.” The preaching intends the Gospel; and the meaning is, that in this trial he had an opportunity to publish it most advantageously and extensively. What he delivered would spread through the palace and the city; and pervade much further. For at this time Rome was the metropolis of the world; so that what his auditors heard would be reported to others, and extended through all the provinces. How true is it, that though his servants may suffer as evildoers even unto bonds, yet the word of God is not bound. It can no more be restrained than the flowing of the sea, or the rising of the sun. Yea, the very efforts designed to injure it, have been over-