CALL AND ORDINATION OF TIMOTHY
Timothy True to Faith.
From the brethren at Iconium and Lystra, Paul learned that these good women and their noble young son Timothy had been true to the faith. He already knew that Timothy had been instructed from childhood to repeat the scripture and to live a pure life. Timothy had been one who had stood by him when the mob dragged him from the city and left him for dead, and now he finds still in the young man's heart the "unfeigned faith which first dwelt in his grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice." No wonder Paul said to the women "I desire Timothy to go forth with me."
Timothy Ordained.
The mother consented, and Timothy accepted the call, though scarcely twenty years of age. Accordingly, a meeting was held, and Paul ordained Timothy by "the laying on of hands" to be a missionary and servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul afterwards called this young man his "own son in the Faith."[[2]] This instance tends to confirm the truth of the Article of Faith which declares the belief of the Latter-day Saints that "a man must be called of God, by prophecy and by the laying on of hands, by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof."
Towards Galatia.
After baptizing many more converts and establishing the churches in the faith, and undoubtedly visiting Antioch in Pisidia and other towns on the mainland where he and Barnabas had organized branches of the Church, Paul, Silas, and Timothy went in a northerly direction through "the region of Galatia."
Paul III.
While passing through here Paul was taken sick. What kind of sickness, whether it was "the thorn in the flesh" he mentions in one of his epistles, or some other bodily ailment, is not stated. Paul calls it an "infirmity of the flesh."[[3]] But he was very sick, and was detained in Galatia seemingly against his will. In spite of sickness, however, he preached the Gospel to the people and many believed. How he loved the friends he made at that time, and appreciated their tender care, can be partly understood from a letter he wrote to them in which he said in effect, "When I was sick in your midst, ye despised me not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. What was then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me."[[4]] In that same letter he calls them his "little children,"[[5]] and expresses a desire to be with them again to strengthen them in the Gospel.
Branches Established.
Before the missionaries left Galatia, even though Paul suffered in sickness, several new branches of the Church had been organized, and Paul's letter to these churches now forms part of the New Testament.
Westward.
Leaving Galatia, the three travelers continued westward toward the Aegean Sea, and "passing by Mysia came to Troas," the full name of which was Alexandria Troas.
Paul had his face turned toward Europe and from this place could look across the Aegean and see the "distant prospect of the Macedonian hills."
A Vision.
One evening he went to bed, perhaps wondering about the people who lived on the other side of the water and inspired with the feeling that the Lord desired him to go to them. There appeared to him, that night, a vision, in which "There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying,
"Come over into Macedonia, and help us."
Luke.
But before he took boat across, he and his companions had been joined by another faithful convert to whom you must now be introduced. It may be that Paul met him when Paul was sick, for the man was a physician, and could be of great service to him in his affliction. This new companion kept notes and afterwards wrote the "Acts of the Apostles" in which we learn most of the things we are telling you about. His name was Luke, called by Paul the "beloved Physician."
Over to Macedonia.
Paul told his vision to his brethren, and "immediately" Luke says, "we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the Gospel unto them."
They sailed from Troas "with a straight course" across to Samothracia and "the next day to Neapolis; and from thence to Philippi, the chief city of that part of Macedonia."