It is therefore clear from the usage of the word that while "from" may sometimes refer

to source, yet its primary meaning is severance, "away from".  We, accordingly,

understand the Apostle to say, that although he now worshipped and served God away

from his parents and all their traditions, and even though such worship was called by his

own people "heresy", he nevertheless had a pure conscience in so doing.

It is possible that Timothy had sometimes bemoaned the fact, that whereas Paul knew

the exact spot of earth where he passed from death unto life, he, Timothy, could never

remember the time when he did not believe the gospel of grace. If this were so, the

Apostle would seek to rob these so-called "experiences" of their usurpation.  We

remember reading, some years ago, a booklet by Ada Habershon entitled "How a river

ought to flow". It was written to break down this very idea that one person's experience

is either superior to, or is to be envied above, another's. In this booklet the rivers were

supposed to have convened a meeting in order to settle once and for ever the question,

"How ought a river to flow?" The first speaker was the Nile, who maintained that no

river could be said to be fulfilling its obligation unless it deposited annually a good thick

layer of mud on the country along its banks. At this the river Thames rose to object,

saying that whenever he had done such a thing there had arisen great protest from the

inhabitants of the adjacent land. The Rhine then arose with the air of an aristocrat and

put it to the meeting that no river was worthy of the name that did not arise in a glacier.

Eventually the meeting came to the conclusion that each river must flow as the great

Creator planned, and no river could set up itself as being necessarily ideal or better in its

characteristics than another.

The editor of this magazine had no such upbringing as that of Timothy. His early days

were lived in ignorance of either God or His Word. In his mind's eye he can still see the

exact spot in the Strand, London, where he passed from death unto life. In all this he can

most surely see the hand of the Lord, for while he lost all the gracious influences of a

Christian home from childhood, and experienced something of the rough ways of the

world, yet he was spared the bondage of traditional orthodoxy, and was therefore perhaps

more ready than many to "search and see" when the appointed time arrived. Whichever

way a believer has come, he may depend upon it that it is one that can be of great service

to him in his after life and work. Said Paul, I had to be wrenched away from all my past,

but you, Timothy, had no such drastic treatment. You have just grown up in the truth,

and, in the same way, as I have a pure conscience in these matters, so you have an

unfeigned faith. Let us pray that both conscience and faith may be kept pure and

unfeigned, for the time is at hand, Timothy, when I, Paul, will have to pass through the

severest of tests, and you, Timothy, will be called upon to follow in the footsteps of a

despised and hated servant of the Lord.

Then comes the human touch that so characterizes the Apostle's writings (see the

series "The self-drawn portrait of the Apostle Paul").  He assures Timothy of his

unceasing "remembrance". He "remembers" his faith. He puts him in "remembrance" of

the gift he had received. He was greatly desirous of seeing Timothy once more before

the end, and twice urges him to be diligent in his endeavour to reach Rome before he lays