A widow indeed' (that is, by the husband's death) the apostle justly and emphatically describes as desolate,' as trusting in God and continuing in supplications and prayers night and day ; and such he commands to be honoured.' Concerning widows' (that is, by the husband's divorce) he gives sundry instructions, which, when carefully and critically considered, will be found coincident with widowhood by divorce, and in contradistinc tion to widowhood by death. Our chief concern at present for explaining the apostle's distinction of widowhood, and to account for its prevalence, is with the 16th verse : If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged ; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.' What is meant by a believing man or woman having widows, so as to be under obligation to relieve them, while tbe re lief of widows indeed,' but not of widows,' pro perly devolves on the church ? We found the answer to this question in the position and conduct of a converted polygamist in Jamaica, who, on his conversion, repudiated all his wives but one, and provided for the divorced ones according to his What are all those cottages for ?' was asked, pointing to a number that encircled the owner's dwelling. These,' said our informant, who knew the man and the neighbourhood well, are the dwellings which the proprietor has given to his divorced wives.' This was a flash of light on the apostle's words, and a revival of what must have often occurred, in substance at least, in apo stolic times. Here was a believing man that had widows, whom he relieved according to his ability, that the church should not be charged, and that the church's funds might be expended on widows indeed.' Tbe pure spirit of Christianity prohibited Ins plurality of wives ; and its equitable and bene volent spirit would not allow him to consign to want and misery the persons with whom he had contracted a life-long relationship, or to charge their maintenance on others, and take away the support of the truly desolate and necessitous.
When such a man died, the obligation to relieve the surviving widows' descended with his pro perty, agreeably to the maxim that :property has its duties as well as its rights.' If his wife (now a widow indeed') inherited, she immediately an swered the apostle's description : If any woman that believeth have widows.' Or, if a believing daughter inherited, she also answered to this de scription. If a believing son inherited, he, like his father, in the matter of obligation stood forth as a believing man that had widows. And thus the whole question of providing for the divorced wives, the widows by divorce, among Christian men, was ruled and settled. They must not be neglected ; they must not burden the church ; they must not touch the maintenance of widows indeed ; they must be provided for by the man that had under taken to maintain them, and whose engagement for maintenance was not to be cancelled by the godly rule of one wife, or by his heirs.
In the settlement of the question of divorced wornen's support is involved the previous question of continued polygamy. One wife' is the law of the house. Polygamy was not in the beginning,'
and cannot be tolerated by Christ's perfect law.' What was winked at' in the times of ignorance' must not be practised or permitted in the times of light. Missionaries to the heathen should insist on the repudiation of every wife but one by a con verted polygamist, and on the complementary pro cess of maintaining the divorced, so long as these abstain frona a second marriage and need support, and so far as the man's ability to support them extends.
` But what of divorced women in the church (lor such there might be), without any- such claim on a man or woman that believeth ? The men who divorced them might be unconverted and utterly regardless of equitable claims. In this case the apostle says : If they are threescore years old, and of good repute, let them be taken into the number or list of the church's recognised widows, for main tenance or employment, or both ; if younger, let them marry.
. 'No qualification of age appears to be required for the admission of a widow indeed' into the number.' She was desolate and devout, and was entitled to honour,' including churcb maintenance, if she needed it. But if she belonged to a Chris tian family, she was entitled to her maintenance in it ; for if any provide not for his own, and spe cially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.' It is not necessary for the purpose of this expo sition to consider the position and employment of recognised or registered widows in the early churches. Macknight thinks they were teachers of the young.' They might also be the Appointed dispensers of the church's hospitality, in an age when public places of entertainment were unknown, and when flight from persecution demanded the special sympathy and hospitality of believers. The apostle's statement of the qualifications of regis tered widows coincides with both these functions : Let not a widow be taken into the number under sixty years old, having been the wife of one hus band [that is, not a divorced woman remarried] : borne witness to for good works ; that she hath brought up children, that she hath lodged strangers, that she hath washed the saints' feet [as a part of hospitality], that she hath relieved the afflicted [and expressed her fitness to show kindness to Christians in their flights or journeys], that she hath diligently followed every good•worlc.' The unfitness of younger widows for such work is also apparent. But the younger widows reject : for when they cannot endure Christ's rein [when they cannot endure that restraint to which they have subjected themselves for Christ's sake] they will marry ; incurring condemnation because they have put away their first fidelity. And at the same time also they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house ; and not only idle but tattlers also, and meddlers, speaking things which tbey ought not. I command therefore young widows to marry, to bear children, to govern the house, to give no oc casion to the adversary for reproach. For already some are turned aside after Satan ' (Mackniglit's Translation of I Tim. v. 9-15).—J. G. M.'