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hundred human beings, of every age and of both sexes, had been led to slaughter, in spite of the indubitable innocence of the vast majority.

There is a fearful story told of a wretch named Vedius Pollio, who fed the lampreys in his fish-ponds with the flesh of his slaves.

It has been objected against Christianity that neither Christ nor His Apostles denounced slavery, but acquiesced in it with all its abominations.

Such objectors ought to remember what would. have been the consequence if the Christian Church had denounced slavery, and the Apostles had preached a crusade against it. The consequence would have been a rising of the slaves, which, though it would probably have been put down by the gigantic power of Rome, would have yet deluged the Empire with blood, and with it might have perished the Christian Church, itself.

S. Paul, following the leading of the Spirit of God, did not denounce slavery, or agitate for the political rights of man: for he knew that the Gospel, which declared God's love for every man and commanded all men to love one another, a Gospel which was based upon the fact that Christ had taken the nature of all men and had tasted death for every man, would sooner or later work its way, and accomplish the abolition of slavery.

In this episode of Onesimus we have a type of the influence of Christianity upon slavery. Onesimus was sent back to his master; but sent back not as a slave, but as a brother in Christ.

The emancipation of the slaves in our West Indian Colonies; the emancipation of the serfs by the late Emperor of Russia; the abolition of slavery, after a long and bloody war, in the United States of America, were brought about by the gradual working

out of the principles of Christianity, in the Spirit of Christ.

We may be very thankful for the conversion of Onesimus, not only for his own sake, but that his return to his master was the occasion of the writing this letter, which is not only valuable for its practical illustration of the working of Christianity, but also for the light that it throws upon the character of S. Paul.

But it is time that we should turn to the letter itself.

Philemon i. 1: Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved, and fellowworker, and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow-soldier, and to the Church in thy house: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God always, making mention of thee in my prayers, hearing of thy love, and of the faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints ... For I had much joy and comfort in thy love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through thee, brother.

Wherefore, though I have all boldness in Christ to enjoin thee that which is befitting, yet for love's sake I rather beseech, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now a prisoner also of Christ Jesus: I beseech thee for my child Onesimus, who was aforetime unprofitable to thee, but now is profitable to thee and to me: whom I have sent back to thee in his own person, that is, my very heart whom I would fain have kept with me, that in thy behalf he might minister unto me in the bonds of the Gospel: but without thy mind I would do nothing; that thy goodness should not be as of necessity, but of free will. For perhaps he was therefore parted from thee for a season, that thou shouldest have him for ever; no longer as a servant, but more than a servant, a brother

beloved, specially to me, but how much rather to thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

Nothing can be more beautiful, more refined, more touching, than this letter. Nothing can be more admirable than the skill, and all the more from its being so utterly unconscious, with which he introduces the subject of his letter. How delicately he pleads his own age, and his sufferings in the cause of Christ. In what a tender fashion he speaks of this run-a-way slave; he calls him his child, the child of his old age, the child of his imprisonment! With gracious pleasantry he plays upon the name Onesimus, which means "helpful," and speaks of him as once unprofitable, but now profitable, a true Onesimus. S. Paul takes for granted also, that Philemon will receive him, no longer as a slave, but as a brother beloved; he feels confident also that he would do even more than he was asked.

Then, as Onesimus had robbed his master, and had no opportunity of earning anything to repay it, the Apostle undertakes to make good any loss that Philemon had sustained by his servant's dishonesty, so he continues :

Ch. i. 17: If then thou countest me a partner, receive him as myself. But if he hath wronged thee at all, or oweth thee aught, put that to mine account; I Paul write it with mine own hand, I will repay it: that I say not unto thee (lest I should be driven to remind thee) how that thou owest to me even thine own self besides.

Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my heart in Christ. Having confidence in thine obedience I write unto thee, knowing that thou wilt do even beyond what I say. But withal prepare me also a lodging: for I hope that through your prayers I shall be granted unto you. Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner in Christ

Jesus, saluteth thee; and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow-workers.

The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Thus concludes this most beautiful specimen of the private letter of a Christian Apostle.

We have no means of knowing how it was received, and how Onesimus himself was received; but we cannot doubt that the Apostle's request concerning him was fulfilled, and more than fulfilled ; that the former slave was received as a brother beloved.

Nor can we doubt that when, after his liberation, S. Paul fulfilled his intention of visiting Colossæ, and was received, as he doubtless was, under the hospitable roof of Philemon and Apphia, he would find his child Onesimus in some position of trust in the household, and holding an honourable and honoured place in the Christian community of Colossæ,

CHAPTER XXX.

THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.

E come now to the Epistle to the Ephesians, the last and greatest of the group of S. Paul's Epistles, which are usually called the Epistles of the first imprisonment.

Why S. Paul should have written this most important Epistle at this particular time, and why he addressed it to the Church at Ephesus, it is not hard to discover.

Epaphras had brought him a sad account of the inroads of various false teachers into the Churches of Colossæ and its sister cities. If this teaching had not yet reached Ephesus and the other Churches of Asia, it might very soon appear there; and so having written the Epistle to the Colossians, in which he declared those special truths, which he considered most needful to meet the errors which had been introduced among them, S. Paul would very naturally think that the same truths, stated in a somewhat less controversial manner and in a more general form, would arm the Christians of Ephesus and of the other Churches of Asia against the same dangers, and build them up in their most holy faith.

You will remember that S. Paul lived and laboured in Ephesus for more than two years, and with such

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