It is Shakespeare, greatest of dramatists, who says: "Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him Shall we rise with Timothy to this summit of power, with the crown of self-conquest on our brow, and the great poet's laudation sounding inspiringly in our ears? Do you ask what came of such a life as this of the true and trusty Timothy? What were its results on earth, its rewards here, and beyond? Ah, who can measure or recite them? To be associated with the greatest of earth's great men in the founding and up-building of the early Church of Christ; to share in the toils and trials, in the confidence and love, of one so pre-eminent as the apostle Paul; to have his name handed down through all future time, honorably coupled with the master-spirit of the ages; to have lived a life so pure and true that myriads of youths in the succeeding generations of men shall study it as an example and rise to life's sublimities while they study and imitate-this surely is a fruitof life which Gabriel might covet, and the King of Heaven himself counted as highest good. age Let us cherish the memory of this devout and noble youth. I can never forget one sunny afternoon in May, when passing out the Ostian gate in Rome, and visiting the Church of Tre Fontane, the traditional site of St. Paul's martyrdom, and returning with saddened heart and pensive mind, burdened with the memories awakened by so many tender and precious associations, I entered the great basilica of St. Paul's, erected over the spot where his body is supposed, not without reasonable grounds, to rest. I wandered thoughtfully among its lofty Corinthian columns of polished granite. I gazed, half-bewildered, upon its gorgeous baldacchino supported on four pillars of red alabaster, with their gilded capitals and Gothic canopy, and stood as one in a delicious delirium, half-dreaming, half-waking, before the tomb of that great man of God, St. Paul. A hallowed feeling took possession of the heart at the thought that I was presumably in the very presence of such sacred dust. "Ah, to have seen him as he was in those days of his earthly struggle, to have shared in his labors and friendship," I said, "what a privilege to mortal! To see him hereafter and strike hands with him, as I hope to do, brightens the prospect of heaven and kindles desire to be there." And then, turning, my eye rested on another shrine, close by the tomb of St. Paul, less pretentious, but full of tender interest, bearing only this one word, which suggests a whole history in itself—" Timothei." Here, then, most fittingly, tradition places, side by side, the remains of these two distinguished men, the apostle Paul and his own loved son in the Gospel, the faithful Timothy. United in life, knit together by most tender and sacred ties, well may they sleep together in death, rise together in the resurrection, shine together through the unending years of heaven. O, illustrious heroes, standing now with that countless throng of valiant victors who have nobly "fought the fight" and bravely "kept the faith!" May we be counted worthy to take our places by their sides! "They climbed the steep ascent of heaven, Mid peril, toil, and pain; O God, to us may grace be given To follow in their train!" "But none of these things move me, 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, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God."-PAUL. "The man I speak of cannot in the world "His life's a hymn The seraphim Might hark to hear or help to sing; The boundless whole Its bounty all doth daily bring."- WASSON. |