wise he would have been dealt with by the local authorities.

On this last sad journey he had but few friends to cheer him, but the faithful Luke, at any rate, was with him. No Christian brethren came to meet him as he neared Rome. He was a marked man, and was treated as a malefactor (2 Tim. ii. 9). His imprisonment was far more severe than before. He was no longer permitted to live in his own hired lodging. It was difficult and dangerous to visit him in prison (2 Tim. i. 16): so perilous to show any sympathy with him, that no one ventured to stand by his side in his last trial (2 Tim. iv. 16).

It would certainly seem that he was brought before the Emperor, in person, from his saying, that he was delivered "out of the mouth of the lion." Though S. Clement of Rome says that "he suffered martyrdom under the prefects."

S. Paul alludes to his trial in his Second Epistle to Timothy. We may imagine a lofty spacious basilica, consisting of a nave and two aisles divided by rows of pillars. At the far end of the nave was a raised platform called the tribunal, in the centre of which was placed the ivory chair of the presiding magistrate, with other chairs for the assessors, and seats for other distinguished persons along its sides. Fronting the presiding magistrate stood the prisoner, with his accusers and advocates. The public were admitted into the remainder of the aisles and nave. There were also galleries along the whole length of the aisles, on one side for men and on the other for women.-(Conybeare and Howson.)

Before such a tribunal and such an audience S. Paul was called upon to make his defence, to plead his own and his Master's cause. He stood friendless and alone.

G

2 Tim. iv. 16 At my first defence no one took my part, but all forsook me: may it not be laid to their account. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me; that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

He was not acquitted, but he was not condemned. The verdict probably amounted to "Not proven." He was thus delivered from the immediate peril, and saved from an ignominious and painful death, which might have been his fate if convicted on the charge of incendiarism.

He was remanded to prison, there to wait till his cause should be brought on again. It was then that he wrote his Second Epistle to Timothy, which is so doubly precious as telling us how he thought and felt while he was waiting for his crown.

2 Tim. iv. 7: I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day, and not only to me, but also to all them that have loved His appearing.

S. Luke, the ever-faithful friend, was with him, and remained with him to the last, but none of his other friends. Demas had forsaken him. Crescens had been sent, we may conclude, on a mission to Galatia, Titus on another mission to Dalmatia. There was one friend, however, whom the Apostle had a yearning desire to see; this was Timothy, his child in the faith. To him, therefore, he writes an urgent appeal to come to him:

2 Tim. iv. 10, 21: Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. Do thy diligence to come before winter.

We cannot tell for certain whether Timothy reached Rome in time to see his beloved father in the faith before he suffered. It might seem from an allusion in the Epistle to the Hebrews that he did come, and shared his master's imprisonment, but was afterwards released. The writer of that Epistle announces to the Hebrew Christians that their brother Timothy had been set at liberty (Heb. xiii. 23).

At last the fatal day came. Again S. Paul stood before the tribunal of the Emperor. This time he was brought in guilty, and sentence was pronounced against him.

His Roman citizenship saved him from torture and an ignominious death. He was led out to execution beyond the city walls, on the road to Ostia; and there the sword of the executioner closed the carthly life of one of the greatest and noblest of

men.

"So passed his strong heroic soul away."

"His weeping friends took up his corpse, and carried it for burial to those subterranean labyrinths in which the persecuted Church found a refuge for its living members, and sepulchres for its dead." Near the spot where S. Paul was martyred, on the road to Ostia, outside the walls of Rome, now stands a noble Basilica, on the site of one built by the Emperor Constantine, and dedicated to his memory.

But the great Apostle needs no monument to recount his worth, or to describe his work. The constitution of the Catholic Church, the theology of the Catholic faith, this is the monument of S. Paul! Who would not wish to visit the place where this great Apostle won the martyr's crown?

But there is one thing which we can do better than

making offerings at his tomb, and that is to imitate his life, to follow at however great a distance his noble devotion, his glorious hopefulness, his dauntless courage, his sublime endurance; for across the gulf of eighteen centuries comes to us an echo of the voice of the great Apostle, the voice of his dying message to us:—

"Be ye imitators of me, even as I was of Christ."

CHAPTER XI.

THE EPISTLES OF S. PAUL TO THE

THESSALONIANS.

HE subject for our readings, you remember, was not only the life of S. Paul, but also his letters.

In this chapter and in the remaining portion of the book I propose to choose out for our consideration the most characteristic and distinctive portions of each Epistle, such portions as contain the main drift of the Apostle's argument. I hope by this means, when you have grasped the main issue of the Apostle's argument in each Epistle, you will be able, with more profit and greater intelligence, to read the Epistles as a whole.

We have now the great advantage of being able to read S. Paul's Epistles in the Revised Version, which more than any other portions of the New Testament have gained in force and clearness by the new translation.

Now of all the Epistles which S. Paul wrote, or at least of all which have come down to us, the two Epistles to the Thessalonians are the earliest. Indeed they are probably the oldest books of the New Testament. Before, however, we begin to consider the Epistle, it will be necessary to recall the circumstances of S. Paul's visit to Thessalonica, and also the circumstances under which this Epistle was written.

It was on S. Paul's second missionary journey that