XV. 58 xvi. thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; knowing that your labor is not in vain, in the Lord. concerning for the Juda an Chris 1 Concerning the collection for the saints [at Jerusalem] I Directions would have you do as I have enjoined upon the churches of the collection 2 Galatia. Upon the first day of the week, let each of you set tians. apart whatever his gains may enable him to spare; that there may be 8 no collections when I come. And when I am with you, whomsoever you shall judge to be fitted for the trust I will furnish with letters, 4 and send them to carry your benevolence to Jerusalem; or if there shall seem sufficient reason for me also to go thither, they shall 5 go with me. But I will visit you after I have passed through 6 Macedonia (for through Macedonia I shall pass), and perhaps I shall remain with you, or even winter with you, that you may forward me on 7 my farther journey, whithersoever I go. For I do not wish to see you now for a passing visit; since I hope to stay some time with you, if the 8 Lord permit. But I shall remain at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a door 9 is opened to me both great and effectual; and there are many adversaries, 10 [against whom I must contend]. If Timotheus come to you, Timotheus. 1 St. Paul's fature plans. be careful to give him no cause of fear in your intercourse with him, for 11 he is laboring, as I am, in the Lord's work. Therefore, let no man despise him, but forward him on his way in peace, that he may come hither to me; for I expect him, and the brethren with him. 12 As regards the brother Apollos, I urged him much to visit Apollos. you with the brethren, [who bear this letter]; nevertheless, he was resolved not to come to you at this time, but he will visit you at a more convenient season. 1 i. e. St. Paul had altered his original intention, which was to go from Ephesus by sea to Corinth, and thence to Macedonia. For this change of purpose he was reproached by the Judaizing party at Corinth, who insinuated that he was afraid to come, and that he dared not support the loftiness of his pretensions by corresponding deeds (see 2 Cor. i. 17 and x. 1-12). He explains his reason for postponing his visit in 2 Cor. i. 23. It was an anxiety to give the Corinthians time for repentance, that he might not be forced to use severity with them. 2 The youth of Timotheus accounts for this request. Compare 1 Tim. iv. 12. * See notes, pp. 403 and 460. xvi. Exhortatio IR. Be watchful, stand firm in faith, be manful and stout- 13 hearted.' Let all you do be done in love. Stephanas, 14 You know, brethren, that the house of Stephanas' were the 15 and Achaicus. first-fruits of Achaia, and that they have taken on themselves the task of ministering to the saints. I exhort you, therefore, on your 16 part, to show submission towards men like these, and towards all who work laboriously with them. I rejoice in the coming of Stephanas and 17 Fortunatus, and Achaicus, because they have supplied all which you needed; for they have lightened my spirit and yours. To such render 18 due acknowledgment. Salutations Province of 3 The Churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla send 19 their loving salutation in the Lord, together with the Church which assembles at their house. All the brethren here salute you. 20 Salute one another with the kiss of holiness." Autograph Let him 21,22 The salutation of me, Paul, with my own hand. Conclusion. who loves not the Lord Jesus Christ be accursed. The Lord cometh.® The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you 23,24 all in Christ Jesus." In the concluding part of this Apostle's plans for the future. through Macedonia (xvi. 5), to 2-7), and after this he thinks it (ib. 3, 4). In the Acts of the 1 i. e. under persecution. 2 See p. 349. " letter we have some indication of the He is looking forward to a journey be succeeded by a visit to Corinth (ib. probable he may proceed to Jerusalem Apostles the same intentions are ex 3 Compare 2 Cor. xi. 9, and Phil. ii. 30. It cannot well be taken objectively, as my want of you;" not only because "my" would have been added, but also because the expression is used in eight passages by St. Paul, and in one by St. Luke, and the genitive connected with the word for "want" is subjectively used in seven out of these nine cases without question, and ought, therefore, also to be so taken in the remaining two cases, where the context is not equally decisive. ✦ Viz. by supplying the means of our inter5 See note on 1 Thess. v. 25. course. • Maran-Atha means "The Lord cometh," and is used apparently by St. Paul as a kind of motto: compare "the Lord is nigh" (Phil. 8 iv. 5). Billroth thinks that he wrote it in 7 The "Amen" is not found in the best • The important application made in the pressed, with a stronger purpose of going to Jerusalem (xvi. 21), and with the additional conviction that after passing through Macedonia and Achaia, and visiting Palestine, he "must also see Rome" (ib.). He had won many of the inhabitants of Asia Minor and Ephesus to the faith: and now, after the prospect of completing his charitable exertions for the poor Christians of Judæa, his spirit turns towards the accomplishment of remoter conquests. Far from being content with his past achievements, or resting from his incessant labors, he felt that he was under a debt of perpetual obligation to all the Gentile world. Thus he expresses himself, soon after this time, in the Epistle to the Roman Christians, whom he had long ago desired to see (Rom. i. 10-15), and whom he hopes at length to visit, now that he is on his way to Jerusalem, and is looking forward to a still more distant and hazardous journey to Spain (ib. xv. 22-29). The path thus dimly traced before him, as he thought of the future at Ephesus, and made more clearly visible, when he wrote the letter at Corinth, was made still more evident as he proceeded on his course. Yet not without forebodings of evil,' and much discouragement, and mysterious delays,' did the Apostle advance on his courageous career. But we are anticipating many subjects which will give a touching interest to subsequent passages of this history. Important events still detain us in Ephesus. Though St. Paul's companions had been sent before in the direction of his contemplated journey (Acts xix. 22), he still resolved to stay till Pentecost (1 Cor. xvi. 8). A great door" was open to him, and there were many "adversaries," against whom he had yet to contend. 66 Hora Paulina of these coincidences between the Acts and Corinthians, and again of those referred to below between the Acts and Romans, need only be alluded to. 1 "I am a debtor both to Greeks and Barbarians." Rom. i. 14. 2 By the vision at Jerusalem (Acts xxiii. 11), and on board the ship (xxvii. 23, 24). 8 Compare what he wrote to the Romans (Rom. xv. 30, 31) with what he said at Miletus (Acts xx. 22, 23), and with the scene at Ptolemais (ib. xxi. 10-14). The arrest at Jerusalem. The two-years' imprisonment at Cæsarea, and the shipwreck. See p. 404. We have mentioned there, in Maran-Atha.1 a note, the probability that Titus was one of CHAPTER XVI - Description of Ephesus. - Temple of Diana. — Her Image and Worship. - Political Constitu tion of Ephesus.-The Asiarchs. - Demetrius and the Silversmiths.— Tumult in the Theatre. Speech of the Town-Clerk. - St. Paul's Departure. THE HE boundaries of the province of Asia,' and the position of its chief city Ephesus, have already been placed before the reader. It is now time that we should give some description of the city itself, with a notice of its characteristic religious institutions, and its political arrangements under the Empire. -- No cities were ever more favorably placed for prosperity and growth than those of the colonial Greeks in Asia Minor. They had the advantage of a coast-line full of convenient harbors, and of a sea which was favorable to the navigation of that day; and, through the long approaches formed by the plains of the great western rivers, they had access to the inland trade of the East. Two of these rivers have been more than once alluded to, the Hermus and the Mæander. The valley of the first was bounded on the south by the ridge of Tmolus; that of the second was bounded on the north by Messogis. In the interval between these two mountain-ranges was the shorter course of the river Cayster. A few miles from the sea a narrow gorge is formed by Mount Pactyas on the south, which is the western termination of Messogis, and by the precipices of Gallesus on the north, the pine-clad summits of which are more remotely connected with the heights of Tmolus. This gorge separates the Upper"Caystrian meadows" from a small alluvial plain by the * See above, pp. 405, 410. p. 410. 4 See p. 410. 5 "Our road lay at the foot of Gallesus, beneath precipices of a stupendous height, abrupt and inaccessible. In the rock are many holes inhabited by eagles; of which several were soaring high in the air, with crows clamoring about them, so far above us as hardly to be discernible."- Chandler, p. 111. Of another journey he says: 66 We rode among the roots of Gallesus, or the Aleman, through pleasant thickets abounding with goldfinches. The aerial summits of this immense mountain towered above us, clad with pines. 7 Steep succeeded steep, as we advanced, and the path became more narrow, slippery, and uneven . . the known sureness of foot of our horses being our confidence and security by fearful precipices and giddy heights." — p. 103. For the Cayster and the site of Ephesus, see p. 107. The approach from Sardis, by which St. Paul is supposed to have come (see above, p. 405), was on this side: and part of the pavement of the road still remains. 6 For the "Asian meadow," see above, p. 205. 7 The plain is said by Mr. Arundell to be about five miles long; and the morass has sea. Partly on the long ridge of Coressus, which is the southern boundary of this plain, partly on the detached circular eminence of Mount Prion, and partly on the plain itself, near the windings of the Cayster, and about the edge of the harbor, were the buildings of the city. Ephesus was not so distinguished in early times as several of her Ionian sisters; and some of them outlived her glory. But, though Phocæa and Miletus sent out more colonies, and Smyrna has ever remained a flourishing city, yet Ephesus had great natural advantages, which were duly developed in the age of which we are writing. Having easy access through the defiles of Mount Tmolus to Sardis, and thence up the valley of the Hermus far into Phrygia, and again, by a similar pass through Messogis to the Mæander, being connected with the great road through Iconium to the Euphrates,-it became the metropolis of the province of Asia under the Romans, and the chief emporium of trade on the nearer side of Taurus. The city built by Androclus and his Athenian followers was on the slope of Coressus; but gradually it descended into the plain, in the direction of the Temple of Diana. The Alexandrian age produced a marked alteration in Ephesus, as in most of the great towns in the East; and Lysimachus extended his new city over the summit of Prion as well as the heights of Coressus. The Roman age saw, doubtless, a still further increase both of the size and magnificence of the place. To attempt to reconstruct it from the materials which remain would be a difficult task,ʻ - far more difficult than in the case of Athens, or even Antioch; but some of the more interesting sites are easily identified. Those who walk over the desolate site of the Asiatic metropolis see piles of ruined edifices on the rocky sides and among the thickets of Mount Prion: they look out from its summit over the confused morass which once was the harbor, where Aquila and Priscilla landed; and they visit advanced considerably into the sea since the flourishing times of Ephesus. 1 The Ephesian Diana, however, was the patroness of the Phocean navigators, even when the city of Ephesus was unimportant. 2 In this direction we imagine St. Paul to have travelled. See above, p. 405. 8 We have frequently had occasion to mention this great road. See pp. 231-234, 405. It was the principal line of communication with the eastern provinces; but we have conjectured that St. Paul did not travel by it, because it seems probable that he never was at Colossa. See p. 405. A description of the route by Colossæ and Laodicea will be found in Arundell's Asia Minor. The view he gives of the cliffs of Coloss should be noticed. Though St. Paul may never have seen them, they are interesting as connected with Epaphras and his other converts. A plan of the entire city, with a descriptive memoir, has been prepared by E. Falkener, Esq., architect, but remains unpublished. Hamilton's Researches in Asia Minor, p. 23. Compare Chandler. "Even the sea has retired from the scene of desolation, and a pestilential morass, cov ered with mud and rushes, has succeeded to the waters which brought up the ships laden with merchandise from every country."-Arundell's Seven Churches, p. 27. Another occa sion will occur for mentioning the harbor, which was very indifferent. Some attempts to improve it were made about this time |