was a call to Timothy, who `knew' the truth, to `acknowledge' it, or, in the sense adopted in this series, to `recognize' its

claims. The call comes with equal force to us to-day, when `knowledge' has increased, but when `the godly man

ceaseth', and the acknowledgment of the truth, at times, costs dear.

We have seen that the doctrine of demons, is in reality a doctrine of a mediation other than the Mediation of

Christ, and that it is in complete harmony with the purpose of the apostle that in 1 Timothy 2 he should stress the

fact that `there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus', because in Chapter four,

under the heading `The doctrine of demons', he was going to warn against the many `gods' and the many `mediators'

who were `spirits' and not `men', whose evil teachings were to percolate into the doctrine of the church and so start

the movement which was to end with the advent of the Man of Sin.

Just as the conflict of the Bible is a conflict between the Truth and the Lie, between Light and Darkness, between

the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent, so the conflict is headed up in two Mysteries, the Mystery of

Godliness, where Christ is all and in all, and the Mystery of Iniquity, where Satan ascends the throne and the Son of

Perdition sits in the place that none but Christ should occupy. The awful climax however is not reached by one

great step, nor is it reached by immediate blasphemy or evident iniquity. Indeed it is all the other way. Those who

give heed to the opening words of these seducing spirits will for the time appear to live upon a higher plane than

their more grossly minded fellows. They will not marry, they will abstain from meats, no one can accuse such of

self indulgence.

These prohibitions, like those of the second chapter of Colossians, lead to a mere negative sanctity `touch not,

taste not, handle not'. Such self imposed self denial while having the appearance of extreme humility, can be the

product of unholy conceit, a false modesty that conceals an overwhelming pride. It may not immediately appear

how celibacy or a restricted diet can possibly lend themselves to an apostasy from the truth, but should such

practices minister to a false superiority, there we shall have a fruitful seedplot for the sowing of heresy. A

comparison of the warning of Colossians 2 with those of 1 Timothy 4, will illuminate the danger. Let us ponder

these things with the aid of Scripture lest hearing the Serpent say `Ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil', we

too should fall and fail of our high calling.

`Forbidding to marry'. The three Synoptic Gospels record the saying of the Lord that in the resurrection there is

neither marrying nor giving in marriage, a condition which makes them `like unto the angels', Luke adding the

observation that it is the children of this world that marry and are given in marriage. Marriage therefore is a

relationship that pertains to this world, and which is foreign both to the resurrection life and to those spirits called

angels. It would be an easy step therefore in the conduct of an argument to show that the believer in Christ who is

reckoned to have died and risen again in Him, and whose position in glory is even above that of angels and

principalities, to conclude that a walk that is worthy of such a calling would lead to avoidance of so carnal a bond.

By the time John came to write his gospel, however, incipient Gnosticism had made its voice heard, and John

omits the references to marrying already referred to, and instead emphasizes the fact that the Lord's opening miracle

was at `a marriage' at Cana of Galilee. If Christ could thus grace with His presence the nuptials of two villagers, it

becomes evident that to `forbid' to marry contains the seeds of anti-christian teaching. In intentional contrast with

the demonic doctrine of celibacy the apostle enjoins even a second marriage upon young widows, associating the

abstinence from such marrying with waxing wanton against Christ, having damnation, and having cast off their first

faith ( 1 Tim. 5:11,12) this `first faith' being placed in intentional opposition to the tenets of 1 Timothy 4:1-3.

Moreover, in the third chapter of this same epistle and associated with the Mystery of Godliness, the apostle speaks

of the offices of both bishops and deacons and stresses that both should be married and have children, not even

permitting marriage and the avoidance of children, and associating these homely and familiar conditions with

`holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience', with evident anticipation of the reference to the forbidding of

marriage and the seared consciences of first Timothy, chapter four. It evidently became necessary for the apostle to

write to the Hebrews that `marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled' (Heb. 13:4). Marriage, like meats, is

a part of the conditions of life while in this `body of our humiliation' and the intricate ceremonial of the Levitical