mine account; I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it." Did own father ever plead more earnestly for an only son?

O Paul, thou who didst wear the chains in thy dungeon and carry the burden of all the churches upon thy heart, yet hadst thou time to plead the bondman's cause. What a friendship was this! How rich, O Onesimus, thy lot. How paltry Nero's heritage in comparison with thine own.

CHAPTER XIV

Philemon-A Slaveholder Whom Paul Dared Appeal to in the Name of Friendship

Our entire knowledge of Philemon is confined to Paul's single brief letter to him.

W

E have just seen Paul's intense love for a slave, we now turn to consider his equally beautiful and tender affection for a slaveholder. In Paul's friendship as well as in his theology and gospel, there was neither bond nor free, a man was a man and a friend a friend regardless of social distinctions or financial status.

Already we have made the acquaintance of two of his Colossian friends, Onesimus and Epaphras: let us now make the closer acquaintance of a third -Philemon. I say "closer acquaintance" for we already have a bowing acquaintance with him having been introduced when we studied the career of Onesimus.

However let us ignore all that we have previously learned, not only about Philemon but also about Onesimus, in order that our study of Paul's friend

ship with the former may be complete in itself. Onesimus, it will be recalled, is named and highly commended in Paul's letter to the Colossian church; but our knowledge of Philemon is confined exclusively to Paul's brief letter to him, and in this also we derive the larger part of our information concerning Onesimus. From this short letter alone we could easily draw a portrait of each of the three men whose interrelations are the subject of its contents:-Paul's, Onesimus's, and Philemon's.

I

We Make the Acquaintance of Philemon

Philemon was, as has already been stated, a citizen of Colossae, a city situated in the province of Phrygia, Asia Minor. His worldly circumstances were more than comfortable, in short, he was a wealthy man, probably the only one in the entire circle of Paul's close friends. The evidence of his wealth is plentiful, but not obtrusive; rather it is only indirectly and unintentionally revealed. He appears in Paul's letter as the owner of slaves; as one having a house of sufficient size as easily to serve as a place for church gatherings and worship, in fact, as the headquarters of the church itself. These facts which incidentally come out in Paul's letter all imply that he was a man of ample substance.

But Philemon's wealth was the thing of least significance about him. He had an ideal Christian home. Paul's letter is not only addressed to him

but also to Apphia and Archippus, who are supposed to have been his wife and son, the latter being a minister as we learn from the Colossian epistle, and the only man save Epaphroditus whom Paul ever referred to as a "fellow soldier.' Such was this united Christian household with a church in their own home.

All these things however are but outward facts concerning Philemon: what of his real character, was he bearing the fruits of Christian discipleship? Paul's words leave us no misgivings on this point, his testimony concerning this friend is unsurpassed. He thanks God for what he heard of Philemon's "love and faith toward the Lord Jesus." Two sources of information were open to Paul to learn these things and we may be sure he availed himself of both. He was visited in Rome by Philemon's slave and by his pastor, Onesimus and Epaphras. Their testimony must have concurred, and no stronger evidence could there be of the genuineness and beauty of a man's character. Their testimony was that Philemon was a man of faith and love toward Christ. But that was not all they had to say of him. They told of the attitude of this rich man toward his less fortunate Christian brethren His character could stand this crucial test. They spoke of his love "toward all saints," and how this love found practical expression in a door ever open in its boundless hospitality. Surely here was a Christian layman who might well serve as the world's model for all time.

And yet he was a slaveholder, and Paul was writing him a letter of intense earnestness and solicitude wherein his anxieties for Onesimus and his confidence in his correspondent seemed to be struggling for the mastery in every line, and throb in every syllable. Was there then some lurking defect in Philemon's character, some fatal blemish in his Christian profession? No, not that, it was Paul's yearning paternal love for his newly "begotten son" Onesimus, and his earnest desire that Philemon should voluntarily rise to the loftiest hights of Christian altruism which made Paul's letter palpitate with such seemingly antagonistic emotions of fear and certitude.

II

Paul's Direct Appeal to Philemon

What, then, was the occasion of Paul's writing to Philemon, and what request had he to make about which he was in such dead earnest?

Before answering these questions, let us have the entire situation clearly before us. Paul, as we have seen, was a prisoner in Rome at the time he wrote this letter. Onesimus, Philemon's slave, had escaped from Colossae, and either by chance or because of previous acquaintance with Paul or knowledge of his whereabouts, joined him in Rome and speedily became his almost indispensable attendant, ministering unto Paul's needs in his bonds. Onesimus was soon converted and then, much as Paul needed his ministrations, he yet felt it his bounden duty not