TIMOTHY.
THERE was once a little boy whose name was Timothy, who lived in a far-distant land. The name of his country was Asia Minor, and we think he was born at Derbe, a city of Laodicea.
Get your maps, little folks, and see if you can find the place. Run your eyes along the Mediterranean Sea till you find the Island of Cyprus.
Then look north of that, among the hills of Turkey in Asia, and just southwest of a small lake is Derbe. That was Timothy's home.
There he learned to read when he was a little boy. I think that his mother taught him, and that, too, from a curious book, not a bit like yours. It rolled up like a map, only it was not so wide, and was made of a very fine, smooth skin, with the words written on it with a pen.
When he learned his letters, instead of saying "A, B, C," as you do, he said "Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta." These were the letters of the Greek alphabet. If you look at ALPHA-BET, you will see that it is made from the names of the first two letters in the Greek. Timothy's father was a Greek; his mother was a Jewess. His grand-mother and mother had both heard the gospel, and were good Christians. As soon as Timothy could read, he was taught to know the Holy Scriptures.
They made him "wise unto salvation." That is, when he had learned what they taught, and had come to have a knowledge of his duty, he did what God told him to do, that he might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. After a while Timothy became a preacher. He saw that there were a great many people in the cities and country around him who had not heard of Jesus, and the way to be saved.
He wanted to tell them. He loved Jesus so much that he wanted everybody else to love him too, so he went along with his Uncle Paul to Ephesus, was sent to Philippi, to Thessalonica, and to Corinth; was made bishop of the Ephesians, and followed Paul to Rome, taking with him a cloak that had been left at Troas, and some books and parchments that belonged to Paul.
Paul told him that he had "professed a good profession" when he had stood up and said that he believed in Jesus. Now he says, "Flee away from all wrong things. Don't try to get rich; if you have something to eat and clothes to wear, be contented. Keep on fighting the good fight; follow after things that are right; try to be like God; hold fast to the faith; love people; be patient with them; don't be proud."
I think Timothy paid good heed to all the lessons that were taught him, for he had a good reputation at Lystra, Iconium, and other places.
But some of the people to whom he preached, instead of being glad, and thanking him for having brought them the good news of salvation, got angry, and had him put into a dark and lonely prison.
There they kept him for a long time, but at last he was set at liberty to tell again the good news of Jesus and the coming kingdom; and when his course was finished, to die, like Paul, with a crown laid up, to be received, when Jesus comes. Who among my little readers will try to be like Timothy? Who will try to overcome all the evil that is in them, that they too "may save themselves," and may help others to get into the narrow path where they can please God?
Youth's Examiner.