could make any approach; a mystery as practical as it is profound; to which we owe, not only our hospitals and other charitable institutions, which had no existence before the Gospel, and still have none, or next to none, apart from the knowledge and the faith of Christ, but also every missionary enterprise which has been undertaken for the conversion of the heathen world. These, then, my brethren, are a few of the considerations which may assist us to realise, however imperfectly, some notion of the benefits which our admission, through baptism, into the Church of Christ has conferred upon us. And now, in conclusion, I would simply ask, Can there be any doubt as to the course we have to take if we would comply with the entreaty made to us by S. Paul out of his Roman prison-house; that is, if we would seek to 'walk worthy' of this high and heavenly 'vocation wherewith we have been called'? Should not the superior knowledge we have gained of God —of His attributes, and especially of His love to man-induce us to love and serve Him with duty and devotion, love and thankfulness, such as a revelation so consolatory and so ennobling is calculated to inspire? Again: Should not the superior knowledge we have gained of ourselves-of our own natures, fallen indeed, but yet risen again- induce us to reverence these souls, yes, and these bodies of ours, made so wonderfully, and redeemed at so great a price-reverence them, I say, as heirs of a hope full of immortality, and meanwhile preserve them blameless, so far as we may, through the grace of the indwelling Spirit, from all taint of those evil deeds which even the conscience of a heathen would not suffer him to commit without the accusation of self-reproach? And once more: Should not the knowledge we have gained of our relations to each other-whereby we have been made, under Christ our Head, 'every one members one of another '-oblige us on the one hand to abstain from all unbrotherly behaviour both of word and deed, and on the other hand to abound in tokens of mutual lovingkindness, such as of old provoked the heathen to exclaim with amazement at the sight of charity and benevolence so superior to their own : 6 See how these Christians love one another'? Witness of S. Luke Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you. COULD we carry our thoughts back to the time and place at which these words were written; could we represent to our mind's eye the circumstances under which they were first committed to ink and paper, and became a part of the inspired and everlasting Word of God, we should call up a scene little, if at all, inferior in moral interest to any which even Rome itself, in its proudest days of imperial glory, had ever witnessed. We should see, in a small hired house' of that great city, the Apostle S. Paul, now a prisoner for the truth's sake, dictating a letter, to the conclusion of which he was about to affix the ordinary salutation with his own hand. We should see him and Timothy surrounded by a few friends and fellow-ministers of the Gospel-one holding the pen as ready to write 1 Acts xxviii. 30. from the Apostle's mouth; two others, Onesimus and Tychicus, about to set off for Colossæ as bearers of the Epistle which was written; and the rest desiring to unite with S. Paul and Timothy in friendly greetings to the brethren of that distant Church in Asia Minor to which it was addressed. We should see, probably, Luke and Demas standing by, and the scribe, according to their request and the dictation of the great Apostle, taking down the words, Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.' Could we look again into the same place within a very short time, perhaps on the very same day, again we should witness the same scene. We should behold S. Paul and Timothy dictating a second letter, designed to go, with the former Epistle, to the same place, viz., Colossæ, and addressed to a single member of the Colossian Church, viz. Philemon; and again we might see the same disciples standing round, and desiring to send, as before, their respective greetings to their common friend, and again the scribe obeying the dictation as it ran thus: There salute thee Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner in Christ Jesus; Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow-labourers' (Philem. 23, 24). Once more, could we look into that Roman lodging-house a few years later, when the great Apostle was now ready to be offered,' being for the second time a prisoner at Rome, we should behold him again employed in the same way: dictating an Epistle to the friend who had formerly been with him, and had joined him in subscribing the other two, viz. Timothy, his dearly-beloved son in the faith, now gone far away to discharge the duties of the pastoral office in which S. Paul had placed him, as the first Bishop of the Church at Ephesus. We should see the little band of faithful followers and companions in prison, no longer what it was before, but reduced to one only, who, it may be, was now acting as the Apostle's scribe. Others, indeed, there were in the great city who send their salutation-Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, and Claudia; but of the rest it is written, 'Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me.' There is something in the juxtaposition of these two names Luke and Demas, on these three several occasions, which can hardly fail to strike and affect us, more especially when we consider the termination to which it comes. For a season they |