Eternal City for Christ. Although Paul has been imprisoned there, and has been in danger of martyrdom there, he still cannot rest until he gets back to Rome; he will dash himself during his last hours against that stone wall of Imperial Rome, with the assurance that Christ is able to strike that wall until it falls; and so in Rome he writes his last letter, the Second Epistle to Timothy.

Paul tells us in this Epistle that what we have ourselves received we must commit to faithful men, that they may be able to teach others also. In other words, every one of us has a responsibility for the extension and continuance of the preaching of Christ's truth after we are dead. It is our business to see that the gospel is preached and published to the generations that are yet to come.

THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON

PHILEMON was perhaps a native, and certainly a resident, of the city of Colosse, one of the Colossian Christians, therefore, to whom the Epistle to the Colossians was written. Colosse was a city in the southwest of Asia Minor, upon the banks of the river Lycus.

Philemon apparently was a convert of the apostle Paul, though Paul had never made a visit to Colosse. It would almost seem as if, led by trade, he had visited Ephesus, perhaps with Epaphras, and there come under the influence of the apostle's preaching during Paul's two or three years' stay in that great city. Being converted to Christ, he seconded the efforts of Epaphras to preach the gospel to his fellow townsmen; and being a man of wealth and hospitable instincts, he seems to have opened his house for the meetings of the church. So the apostle, in the Epistle, sends his salutations to the church that is in that house.

Some have thought, from a word that is used in the Epistle, namely, the word "partner," that the relations between Paul and Philemon were partly relations of business; and there is a curious use of commercial or business terms in the Epistle. A noted English interpreter, by the name of Plumptre, has actually written an essay upon the apostle Paul as a man of business, and has put together a number of allusions in the Acts of the Apostles and in Paul's various Epistles, which seem to show that the apostle was not at all

ignorant of business life. He thinks that, during those two or three years in Ephesus, when the apostle Paul was dependent, as he ordinarily was, upon the labor of his hands, he possibly made a sort of business connection with Philemon; that they had business transactions together; and that when Paul writes to him as his partner, he is using that term in a business sense. All this is somewhat precarious, and we may better conIclude that the relation between Paul and Philemon was that of partnership in the Christian faith rather than of partnership in commercial enterprises. At any rate, it seems that Philemon was a fellow helper or fellow laborer of the apostle's, for Paul applies this term to him in the Epistle. Philemon was evidently engaged in the spreading of the gospel, and did everything he could to advance the cause of Christ.

In the salutations of the Epistle to Philemon, two other persons are mentioned. One of them is Apphia; and Apphia was without question, I think, the wife of Philemon. The third who is mentioned is Archippus; and since both these names are mentioned before the church is mentioned that worshiped in their house, it seems altogether possible that Archippus was their son. So we have three members of this Christian family brought to our attention: Philemon, Apphia his wife, and Archippus their son.

Archippus seems to have held some sort of official position in one of the churches of the neighborhood, probably the church of Laodicea, which was in walking distance of Colosse; and in the Epistle to the Colossians we have exhortations to Archippus that he take heed with regard to the office which he held, to fulfil

it. It is possible that Archippus was the elder, or presbyter, or pastor, of the neighboring church of Laodicea, although he may not have resided there. Since

he was the son of Philemon and Apphia, and salutations of the apostle were extended to him in this letter to Philemon, it would seem that he still lived with his parents at Colosse.

There was another member of this family whom I have not yet mentioned. With these three, Philemon, his wife Apphia, and their son Archippus, that household included also a man of the lowest social stratum— the slave Onesimus. Onesimus was not only a slave; he was also a thief and a runaway. Apparently finding that the burdens and responsibilities of his position as slave were irksome to him, he fled from Colosse and from this relation of servitude; and in order to provide the means of his journeying he robbed his master, and so made his way to Rome. It may seem strange that a slave like Onesimus should have gone so far from his master and from his town; but we must remember that a city like Rome, where all nations congregated, furnished the very best hiding-place for a criminal. Rome was the easiest place to get at; for, as the old proverb reads, "All roads lead to Rome"; and at Rome he might most easily find employment. Rome, moreover, there was the most to see and the largest experience of the world to be gained, so that there were many reasons why this runaway slave should have made his way as quickly as possible to the Imperial City.

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But he made his way to the Imperial City only to be apprehended by the Lord Jesus, and to be made

the Lord's freedman. How it was that, in the city of Rome, he was brought into contact with the apostle Paul we do not know. The story is not told us. Perhaps hunger drove him to Paul for help. Perhaps conscience drove him to Paul for consolation. Perhaps Epaphras of Colosse, who was visiting Rome as a helper of the apostle Paul, met him in the street and persuaded Onesimus to accompany him to the house where the apostle was in surveillance, chained to a Roman soldier. Some way or other, Onesimus, the runaway slave, was brought into the presence of the apostle Paul; and Paul did not disdain to preach to him the gospel, just as he preached it to the low and the high, people of all ranks and all conditions; and the result of it seems to have been very quickly that Onesimus became a convert to the gospel of Christ, that his heart was changed and his whole temper and spirit and purpose were altered. Now he desired nothing so much as to make recompense for the past and to begin an entirely new Christian life. Paul seems to have been testing the reality of his conversion for a little while, for he declares in this very Epistle that Onesimus has been very helpful to him.

There were many services that Onesimus could render, and Paul commends him for those services; declares that he is loath to part with him; he would much prefer to keep him. But there were many reasons why Onesimus should not remain in Rome. Roman slavery was an awe-inspiring institution, and many a slave was crucified for smaller offenses than that which Onesimus had committed. Paul evidently thought that, for Onesimus' sake, and for the gospel's sake, it was desirable