May 30

And I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him, against that day. - 2 Timothy 1:12.

THE believer’s satisfaction commences here; and we cannot help remarking how frequently this is peculiarly experienced and expressed in the dying hours of believers. At this season they need this assurance, and there is much then to encourage it,- much more, we mean, than even before. “Well,” says the Christian, “he has performed already much of his trusteeship, and with regard to the future I can now rely upon him with more confidence. I have often said, ‘I shall one day perish,’ but, ‘having obtained help of God, I continue unto this day.’ Oh, how much has he done already in the discharge of the office which he undertook! and now I cannot doubt with regard to the remainder of it. I can now venture, or rather it is no venture now, for ‘I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.’”

We may consider this as the language of Paul’s dying experience. For he was now a prisoner, and he had every reason to expect death soon. His situation was so contemptible, and so perilous, that many of his former friends were ashamed to own him. Some censured him for his obstinacy in persevering; some were ready to say, “What profit is there in this melancholy life of yours that you are leading, and that must soon terminate in an ignominious end? Where, Paul, is the blessedness you speak of?” “Oh, as to my blessedness, that is secure: I am now a suffering man, and shall soon be a dead one; nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” I am satisfied as to the past, and I look with confidence to the future. What though my wrists are injured by the chains which fasten me to the soldiers; what though my enemies are going to put me to death: let them kill the body; it is all that they can do. They cannot touch the immortal soul,-that is in safe hands; and as to this poor flesh, it will “rest in hope,” and be safe in glory. Let my adversaries reproach me with whatever bitterness they please: their faces will gather shame when I shall be able to lift up my head, and when we shall meet, not at the bar of a Nero, but at the judgment-seat of Christ, for whom I now suffer, and with whom I shall then reign.

Oh, let us listen to this child of faith: how he sings, how he shouts, how he welcomes the executioner that is to bring him home! “l am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing.”