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Epistles, there is no instance of the rejection of that before us on the part of those who have accepted the other two. So far indeed as these doubts are worth considering at all, the argument is more in favour of this (the Epistle to Titus) than of either of the others. Tatian accepted the Epistle to Titus and rejected the other two. Origen mentions some who excluded 2 Tim. but kept 1 Tim. with Titus. Schleiermacher and Neander invert this process of doubt in regard to the letters addressed to Timothy, but believe that St. Paul wrote the present letter to Titus. Credner, too, believes it to be genuine, though he pronounces 1 Tim. to be a forgery and 2 Tim. a compound of two epistles." (Howson in "Dict. of the Bible.")

LIFE OF TITUS.

Abundant mention is made of Titus in the Epistles of St. Paul, but none whatsoever in the Acts of the Apostles. Some have made a difficulty of this even to the extent of supposing that he is one of the stated companions of St. Paul (as Timothy) under another name. But such difficulty could only have arisen from forgetting the extremely fragmentary nature of the narrative in the Acts of the Apostle; for eight at least of the Apostles are not mentioned after the first chapter. St. John is not mentioned after the third chapter; nearly twenty years of the life of St. Peter are dismissed with a single notice in chap. xv., and years of the life of St. Paul-three particularly in Ephesus-have not a single word respecting them.

The first notice of him is in Gal. ii. 1-3, and from this we gather that he was wholly of Gentile extraction, and not, like Timothy, Jewish in regard of one of his parents. So that St. Paul resisted the Judaizers who insisted on his circumcision.

The other notices are in 2 Corinthians, and indicate a confidence in him and a personal affection towards him, not inferior to that which St. Paul entertained towards Timothy. It appears that fearing the effect of the severe tone of his first Epistle on the Corinthians, he had sent him to Corinth to bring him word as to how they took his censures, and his anxiety respecting this was such that he forsook for the time a most promising work at Troas (2 Cor. ii. 12), and went forward to Macedonia to meet Titus and receive his report. He did meet him and was more than comforted;

THE EPISTLE TO TITUS.

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he rejoiced exceedingly at the account which Titus gave him of the obedience, "the fear and trembling" with which he was received (vii. 13-15).

But besides this Titus was entrusted with another mission of a different character. He was to further the collection for the poor saints of Judæa which lay so near to St. Paul's heart. He "desired Titus that as he had begun so he would finish in them the same grace," viii. 6. From this we gather that he had initiated the matter, and he carried it out with an earnestness which left nothing to be desired on the Apostle's part. "Thanks be to God which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. For indeed he accepted the exhortation, but being more forward, of his own accord he went unto you" (viii. 17, 18). And at the conclusion of the chapter he describes Titus as his partner and fellow-helper. Next, then, to Timothy, of all his companions and fellow-soldiers, Titus was the one in whom he had the most confidence. And lastly, when he is indignantly repudiating the slightest attempt of self-seeking in this matter of the collection, he associates Titus with himself as being both of them imbued with the same unselfish spirit. "Did I make a gain of you?... I desired Titus and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps? (2 Cor. xii. 17, 18).

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his own

Then comes the present Epistle, addressed to Titus as son after the common faith," and leaving him in Crete with the same commission as he had given to Timothy, to act as bishop or overseer, to ordain elders or bishops, to teach the various classes, aged men, aged women, young women, young men, servants or slaves.

Towards the conclusion there is another slight historical notice, that Titus on the arrival of Artemas or Tychicus should join the Apostle at Nicopolis (iii. 12), and the last allusion to this companion of St. Paul is to be found in his last letter, a little before his martyrdom, viz., that he had been sent on some mission to Dalmatia. 2 Tim. iv. 10.

The pastoral directions in the Epistle are, in an abbreviated form, the same as those in the first Epistle to Timothy. There are, however, in the second and third chapters respectively, two doctrinal statements of the first importance, that in ii. 13 of the Divine Glory of our Lord, "The glorious Epiphany of the great

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God and Saviour of us, Jesus Christ," and in the third there is a short epitome of the whole work of salvation. There is our natural depravity, “We ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived." Then there is the manifestation of the grace of God," After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour... not by works of righteousness which we had done, but by His mercy he saved us." Then there is the instrumentality of the Sacramental system, "by the font of New Birth," then the "renewing by the Holy Ghost," then our justification by grace and heirship, and then the necessity of good works to crown all.

Much, then, of what is both ecclesiastical, doctrinal, and practical is compressed into the few verses of this short Epistle. It is the summing up of St. Paul's rule and teaching, and loving regard for his fellow workers. In it, as in all he wrote, shines forth his faith, his hope, his charity.

INTRODUCTION TO THE EPISTLE TO

THE

PHILEMON.

HE Epistle to Philemon is reckoned amongst St. Paul's in the Muratorian fragment, "Verum ad Philemonem unam, et ad Titum unam," &c. It is also mentioned by Tertullian as being allowed as genuine by Marcion. Eusebius also reckons it amongst the Epistles of St. Paul when he speaks of their number as fourteen, (including, of course, to make up this number, the Epistle to the Hebrews), and is quoted twice by Origen.

Indeed, it is impossible to conceive on what ground an Epistle not containing a single dogmatic statement, and entirely occupied with a private personal matter, can be supposed to have been forged.

The Epistle tells its own story. Philemon was a man of wealth and consideration, at Colosse. He was converted to Christianity by the ministration of the Apostle, for in pleading for Onesimus Paul reminds Philemon how he owed to him even "his own self.”

Philemon had a slave, Onesimus, who ran away from him, and it is not improbable, took some of his master's goods with him in his flight. This slave came in contact with the Apostle as he preached whilst he was a prisoner in Rome, and was converted, and became a Christian and a member of the Church. He appears to have been a man of talent or aptitude, for he was valuable to the Apostle as ministering to St. Paul in the bonds of the Gospel so well that in the view of the Apostle his services would have been equivalent to those of Philemon, no doubt an educated, as well as a zealous man. What this diaconia consisted in we cannot exactly say, but it cannot have well been private or domestic service, for it would hardly have been expected that Philemon would have rendered that to the Apostle; it must have been Church service, read

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ing, looking up converts, preparing them for Baptism and the reception of the Eucharist, and such things.

But St. Paul distinctly recognized that Onesimus, though a member of the Church, and so of Christ, was yet, according to human laws, the property of his master, and so he would do nothing in this matter without the full approbation of Philemon. He sends the runaway back to his master with a letter permeated with the tenderest feeling towards the offender, and the most loving courtesy to him who had rights of life and death over him, and yet without the slightest assertion of Apostolic authority, though he reminds him that he might have properly exercised such. But even in this he pleads for what is to Philemon's benefit, "without thy mind I would do nothing that thy benefit (kindness) should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly." It would scarcely be thought that Philemon should require pecuniary compensation for any loss which he had sustained, but to meet even that case St. Paul signs, as Lewin expresses it, a promissory note for the amount, whatever it might be: "If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account; I, Paul, have written it with mine own hand, I will repay thee." Hitherto he had asked for Onesimus' pardon, but he gently insinuates what he would not directly ask, that Philemon should give him his freedom; for the following words cannot but imply this:-'I know that thou will also do more than I say.' (Lewin's "Life of St. Paul.")

The Epistle to Philemon is a private letter, and it may be asked, indeed, it has been asked, why a letter on such a subject should have been admitted into the Sacred Canon. We answer, because of the extreme importance of the subject. It had to do with the most delicate and difficult, and we may add the most dangerous, of all the relationship that the Church for some centuries had to face, the relations of slaves to their masters. If the relations of Christian slaves to their Christian masters required to be approached with such delicacy, what care must have been required in keeping a modus vivendi in the case of heathen families.

Now this Epistle would teach that whilst the rights of property, however harsh, were to be respected, yet that the Christian slave was to be considered and treated as a member of Christ, just as much as the Bishop himself; and if he was deprived of the enjoy. ment of the means of grace, that the Christian community should subscribe to the utmost of their power to purchase his freedom.