24. Mark. Probably John Mark the evangelist. He appears as the companion of Paul, Acts xii. 25; Col. iv. 10; 2 Tim. ivedik:
Aristarchus. A Thessalonian. Alluded to Acts xix. 29; xx. 4; xxvil. 2. He was Paul’s companion for a part of the way on the journey to Rome.
Demas. See Col. iv. 14; 2 Tim. iv. 10.
Luke. The physician and evangelist. See Introduction to Luke’s Gospel.
25. Grace—with your spirit. As in Gal. vi. 18, with the omission here of brother. See on 2 Cor. xiii. 14.
Out of many private letters which must have been written by Paul, this alone has been preserved. Its place in the New Test- ament canon is vindicated, so far as its internal character is con- cerned, by its picture of Paul as a christian gentleman, and by its exhibition of Paul’s method of dealing with a great social evil.
Paul’s dealing with the institution of slavery displayed the profoundest christian sagacity. To have attacked the institu- tion as such would have been worse than useless. To one who reads between the lines, Paul’s silence means more than any amount of denunciation; for with his silence goes his faith in the power of christian sentiment to settle finally the whole ques- tion. He knows that to bring slavery into contact with living Christianity is to kill slavery. He accepts the social condition as a fact, and even asa law. He sends Onesimus back to his legal owner. He does not bid Philemon emancipate him, but he puts the christian slave on his true footing of a christian brother beside his master. As to the institution, he knows that the recognition of the slave as free in Christ will carry with it, ultimately, the recognition of his civil freedom.
History vindicated him in the Roman empire itself. Under Constantine the effects of christian sentiment began to appear in the Church and in legislation concerning slaves. Official freeing of slaves became common as an act of pious gratitnde, and burial tablets often represent masters standing before the