"The Lord will reward him according to his works . . . May it not be laid to their charge" (2 Tim. 4:14-16)

(Reprinted from December, 1907)

What moral lessons are found in the marked differences made in Scripture concerning the conduct of individuals. And if Scripture is already the throne of judgment set up among God's professing people, how solemn are those lessons!

The passage above quoted furnishes one of them:"Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil:the Lord [will] reward him according to his works:of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words."

Here was a man, whether a professing Christian or not, who sought to hinder the truth itself-that by which God reveals what He is, and blesses men. The messenger of that truth had been withstood by him. What is there that grieves and wounds the heart of the messenger of truth like meeting men who seek to hinder and oppose it, in whole or in part? For the servant of Christ, going forth in the spirit of love, with the divine motives which belong to the truth, what can make him suffer like seeing the way of truth thus assailed? It is as if one would break the pitcher of water in the hands of him who carries it to the needy! Accordingly, the inspired apostle expresses God's righteous judgment upon Alexander:"The Lord [will] reward him according to his works." How different the feeling toward those who, not in self-will, like Alexander, but in the weakness and cowardice which, alas, is so easily found among God's people, flee in the hour of difficulty and danger:"At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all forsook me." This noble champion of the truth of God was now in the lion's den for the truth's sake. Everywhere, at all times, that grand, glorious purpose of God in Christ Jesus filled his vision and guided his feet. He preached the truth; he lived it; he concerned not himself with the consequences. Was he free? He owed himself to God's elect, and endured all things to reach them. Was he bound, and before king's courts for judgment? He turned the court into an audience before which to present the precious treasure committed to him. Blessed, thrice-blessed man! He can pity and pray for his poor, weak brethren who are afraid of the lion:"May it not be laid to their charge," he prays, in the power of the same Spirit by which he had just pronounced judgment upon the coppersmith. If the touches of nature are delicate, how much more those of Scripture! P. J. L.