THE PERSONAL LIFE of the bishop. Very close is the connexion between the two lives. ‘Holding faith and a good conscience, which some having thrust away made shipwreck concerning the faith.’ (1 Tim. i. 19.) ‘Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.’ (1 Tim. iii. 9.) ‘Take heed unto thyself.’ It is a condensed enforcement of the counsels of verse 12, ‘Be thou an example of the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.’ It is needless to dwell upon the truth that a holy life is the best recommendation of holy doctrine, and that what gives force to the utterances of the Christian minister is the hidden fire of the spiritual life which burns within. And if this be true of the humblest of God’s servants, it is pre-eminently true of those who occupy high stations in the Church. If in one sense a bishop’s life is a protected life, a life guarded and shielded from many forms of temptation, it probably has its special and peculiar trials; and it only becomes a safe life, when it is lived as in the very presence of God. And this brings us to the last of the three counsels of the text. * * * * * THE CONSECRATED LIFE. ‘Continue in them.’ The words sound like an echo of those in the preceding verse: ‘Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them’ (ver. 15). They are the ‘things’ of the official and personal life, the ministry of the word, and the cultivation of the life within. ‘In them continue;’ in them be wholly occupied and absorbed. ‘The longer I live,’ writes a layman, who did good service in his day, ‘the more I am certain that the great difference between men, between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant, is energy, invincible determination of purpose once fixed, and then death or victory.’ (Sir T. Fowell Buxton.) And here I would claim for the clergy some consideration at the hands of others—some time for thought, for study, for meditation, for prayer. When the Apostles declared with an emphasis, which after a lapse of eighteen centuries preserves all its freshness, ‘We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word’ (Acts, vi 4), they revealed to us the secret of their success. But how hard is it to follow their steps. Living as we do in the midst of an advanced civilisation, surrounded by a network of activities which touches us on every side, it is difficult to resist the pressure of secular duties, and to vindicate the spiritual claims of the office which we hold. But whilst it is easy to protest against the secularisation of the Christian ministry, it is not so easy to point out the remedy. Each one must work out a deliverance for himself. Each one must map out his own life, and pursue his purpose stedfastly to the end.