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the sufferings of humanity, through the art and skill of the physician. It is beautiful to see men of science and culture showing themselves impressed with religious feeling and devoted to the service of Christ. The medical profession generally has not been famed for its religiousness. Sir Thomas More, in his Religio Medici, says that to have "no religion was the general scandal of his profession." But there have been many eminent exceptions, and the exceptions happily are on the increase.

Demas is a case very different from that of Luke. In the epistle to Philemon this person is named by St. Paul as a fellow-labourer. Subsequently the Apostle says, "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.” (2 Tim. iv. 10.) Here he adds no eulogistic terms to his name. Perhaps he was beginning to suspect him, to mark worldliness creeping over his spirit, and to see indifference to Divine things beginning to appear in him. How many a fair Christian profession is blighted by the love of the world! Often is piety choked in the soul by the cares of this life, and frequently does the bright promise of piety and usefulness go off, like a deceitful blossom, by contact and intercourse with the spirit of the world. While the Apostle had to be thankful for a Luke, and rejoice in his stedfastness, he had to mourn over a Demas. The experience of St. Paul in such cases was that which the Christian pastor often finds. Some are a ground of joy and thanksgiving, while others are a cause of anxiety and sadness. Some continue faithful unto the end in the Christian race; others, who begin and run well for a time, by-and-by are hindered. Some grow in grace and usefulness as they advance in years, while others, full of ardour and zeal at the outset, soon get chilled and deadened by the influence of the world. The property and pleasures of this world are as attractive and ensnaring now as ever they were; and the perils of the spiritual life and of

vital godliness in our present state, with such secular surroundings, are very great. It should never be forgotten that the love of the world is incompatible with the love of God, and "the friendship of the world is enmity" with Him. "Ye did run well; who did hinder you?" is a question which might be asked of many within the pale of the Christian Church. Sad and unmanly as was the conduct of Demas, there is no just reason for ascribing to him utter apostacy. He left the Apostle in his trials, because he loved safety, ease, and pleasure, and had not the Christian fortitude to share his dangers, or the love to stay by him in his prospective martyrdom. Luke continued with him, faithful, sympathising, and helpful to the end. It is possible to have a religious profession long after the vigour and warmth of piety have disappeared, and to have a place in the visible Church of Christ long after the heart has become clogged with the cares of the world. We should earnestly beware lest the Master have to say of us, as He said of the Church in Sardis, "I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead."

XLIV.

Closing Words.

"Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house. And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it. The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen."-COLOSSIANS iv. 15-18.

E come to the closing words of this epistle.

Unim

WE portant as they may at first sight appear, they inci

dentally touch on some points not previously referred to, and are full of interest and instruction.

I. We have here, first, a glimpse of the constitution of the early Christian Churches. They were composed of brethren. St. Paul sends his salutations to the Laodicæans through the Colossians, and salutes them as brethren. They had made an individual confession of faith in Christ. Whether they had been Jews or Gentiles, they had surrendered their Judaism or their paganism, professed their acceptance of the gospel of Christ, and been received into the Church of God, so as to be recognized as brethren. In connexion with any friendly, scientific, or artistic society, a distinct and voluntary act is required for admission to membership; so in these Christian Churches men first accepted Christ as their

Saviour and Lord, and then gave themselves to His people, before they could be recognized as Christians or addressed as brethren. Nor is it less necessary or proper now that churches should be composed of "faithful men," brethren in Christ, who believe in Him and follow Him. Christianity is not a matter of birth, or country, or external baptism, but of personal faith, individual conviction, and spiritual life. There must be trust, with unity of heart and hope, in the same crucified and risen Lord.

A great change seems to have taken place, in the course of a generation, in this Church at Laodicea. In the epistle addressed to it as one of the seven churches of Asia, in the third chapter of the Revelation of St. John, the Saviour says, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, I will spue thee out of my mouth." (Rev. iii. 15, 16.) These words were written about thirty years later than the epistle to the Colossians, and show how soon a Christian Church, in a comparatively healthful spiritual condition, may degenerate into indifference, lukewarmness, and sterility. This, alas! has been the case in the history of many Christian Churches. Hence the importance of holding fast our profession, and of continuing "stedfast and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord."

Another truth appears here: a separate congregation of brethren constituted a Christian Church. "Salute Nymphas and the church which is in his house." In two other places of the New Testament similar phraseology occurs-in Rom. xvi. 5, and in Philemon 2. Hence it seems that the existence of a Christian Church was recognised wherever there was a congregation of worshippers meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus. Nymphas was evidently a man of piety, position, and influence, who gave up some part of his dwelling for the assembly of believers. Those who did so

assemble, whether they were few or many, were recognised and saluted by St. Paul as a church-not to be identified with that called in more generic terms the Church in Laodicæa, the Church of the Laodiceans, nor to be regarded as comprehending all the Christians in the city. Some portion of the believers there, for what reasons we know not, met for worship and edification in the house of Nymphas, and they are called a church. Little is said in the New Testament about church polity, and none of the existing systems -Episcopalian, Presbyterian, or Independent has any exclusive claim to be of Divine right. The first churches were exceedingly simple in form-the free and equal fellowship of regenerate men, called brethren in Christ, and the whole of them in a city, as Ephesus or Corinth, or a few of them meeting in a private house, alike constituted a church.

II. We have some insight as to the means of the edification of the early churches. We see at least one of the means by which their spiritual strength and growth were promoted and secured. It was by reading in their assemblies the inspired letters of the Apostle, what we may appropriately call the public reading of Scripture. "When this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea." This means, "the letter coming to you from Laodicæa;" not the letter written from Laodicæa, but the letter written to Laodicea, and coming to you from Laodicea. Some think the epistle here referred to was St. Paul's epistle to the Ephesians; but more probably it was "an actual epistle to the Laodiceans, which, possibly from its close similarity to its sister-epistle, it has not pleased God to preserve to us."* If many of the inspired oral

Bp. Ellicott, Crit. and Gram. Comment. on St. Paul's Epistles in loc.

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