When we pass from the Gospels to the passages enumerated at the beginning of this article there are only two tliat need even a brief comment. The 'friends' at Sidon whom St. Paul was per- mitted to visit probably mean Christians in that city; the more usual term would be 'brethren' (dSeX^oi). In 3 Jn " the word may have the same force, but there is probably behind it an allusion to a more intimate and personal relationship. But ' friends' {ol (piXoi) did not become a technical name for Christians in these early days. As Harnack ])Uts it (Mission mid Expansion of Christianity", lilOS, i. 421 ), ' the term ol (f>l\oi did not gain currency in tiie catliolic church owing to the fact that ol doe\<poi was preferred as being still more inward and warm.' The Gnostics of the 2nd cent., on the other hand, were more addicted to its use, and Valentinus wrote a homily 'On Friends,' while P>pil>hanius, the son of Carpocrates, founded a gild of friends on the Pythagorean model. Among the first generation of Christians the glow of love was cast over all the old relationships of life, and family and friendly associations alike were sublimated in the sense of belonging to the household of God. The bond that held the soul to Christ held also all who were thus bound ; and that which had hitherto been called friendship was so enriched and quick- ened that the old term was felt to be inadequate for its newly reinforced content. Thus instead
of ' friends ' and ' friendship ' we read much of 'brothers' and 'fellowship' (Koivwvia).
As has been said, the reality was there — the kinship of spirit, the association in service, the giving and taking, the mutual self-sacrifice, the oneness of aim and purpose, the reciprocal opening of the heart — all that we associate with true friend- ship. The greatest of that generation might in- deed have said of himself, as Myers has said of him in his St. Patil :
' Paul has no honour and no friend but Christ,*
and that :
' Lone on the land and homeless on the water Pass I in patience till the work be done.' But he would be quick to add :
' Yet not in solitude if Christ anear me Waketh him workers for the great employ, Oh not in solitude, if souls that hear me Catch from my joyaunce the surprise of joy. Hearts I have won of sister or of brother Quick on the earth or hidden in the sod, Lo every heart awaiteth me, another Friend in the blameless family of God.'
We have only to think of the travelling comrades of the Apostle — of Barnabas and Silas, of Timothy and Mark, of Luke and Titus, of Priscilla and Aquila — to realize that, so far from being friendless, he enjoyed the richest resources of that relationship that were to be had in that age. So far as we know, he never laboured alone, except in Athens. In his letters he nearly always associates with himself one or more of his colleagues as joint authors, and those who have been named above were the ablest Christian thinkers and workers of the time. And when he speaks of others, like Urban, Epaphroditus, Clement, and Philemon, as his fellow- workers, or, like Andronicus, Junias, and Aristarchus, as his fellow-jDrisoners, or, like Archippus, as his fellow-soldiers, it would be very puerile criticism to say that because he does not term them technically his friends there was no friendship between him and them. In the vicissi- tudes of travel, in the new campaigns that were undertaken, in the different pi'oblems that each province and city presented, in the failures and successes that attended his mission, there must have been that close-knit sympathy and entire fellow- ship that mark the intercourse of friends. Nor can we hesitate to apply the word to the intimacy that existed between the Apostle and those v.ho became responsible for the work of Christ and the guidance of the Church in every place where it was established. Wherever he worked there were those who delighted to be known as the friends of St. Paul and whom he was well pleased to call his friends.
In the churches themselves the term ' brethren ' would be held to include all that was involved in friendship. Despite the shadows of the Apostolic Age and the imperfections of a nascent infantile Christianity, it is not hard to discern the signs of trne friendship. The records of the 2nd cent, con- tinue the tale, and the affectionate loyalty of Christians to each other in times of peril deeply impressed their enemies and persecutors. In some cases, as in earlier days with Peter and John, Andi'ew and Philip, the friendship preceded and was sanctified by the Christian tie, in others it grew out of that bond. A. J. Grieve.
FRUIT.— 1. The word in its literal sense.—
Before ('onsidering the use of this term in sjiiritual metaphor it will be convenient to enumerate those passages in the apostolic writings where it is em- ployed in its natural sense, (a) General. — These are Ja 5^- '^^ (in illustration of })atience and prayer), Ac 14''' ((tOiI's gift of rain and fruitful seasons), 1 Co 9^ (in support of the apostles' right to sustenance;