Amen." _The thought. of the ric_h ~ glorifying his people, coincident with the close of the Epistle, calls forth ~n IU!Cnpt1on of glor:y:. It is an aBCription of glory to him &s our Goo and Father, the uod of whom the brightest feature is his fatherhood and to wh0_m we "1:6 brought into the closest relation by adoption. 'l.'he glory w~u\d be asrn bed to him for the ages and ages that would roll on after his people were glorified. -R.F.
Vers. 21-23.-&lutatioll and 'benediction. I. BALUTATION, 1. Paul. "Salute <'very Mint in Christ Jesus." He salutes the Philippians individually. With n know- ledge of many of them, he was interested in every one of them as contributin" to the ~trength of the cause of Christ at Philippi. Besides this general salutation by letter to be read before the assembled congregation, there would be special salutations1 to b~ delivered pfr,·ately by Epaphroditus. 2. Personal companions. "The brethren whioh are with me salute you." These companions are not mentioned by name. Timothy was the only available companion for Philippi. Some might be told off for other work. Others, although they showed selfishness, were not debarred from sendin"0 fraternar greetings. 3. <Jhru;tians resident in Rome. "All the saints salute you." Althoun-h· not acquainted with the Philippian Christians, they belonged to the same Christi;n brotherhood, were interested in the common cause, looked forward to the common home; and therefore they too sent their greetings. 4. Of Roman Oltristians one class singled out. "Especially they that are of Ciesar's household." "Nero (the Caisar here referred to) was a prince that as far surpassed others in infamy as Augustus did in royalty; a man who, if every soul beside himself in his household had been n saint concentrated inhumanity and pollution enough in his person to have darkened. all thek ,;rtue by the blackness of his unnatural crimes; a man that expended more ingenuity in contriving new modes of dishonouring humanity than most Christians have in sen·ing it, and who earned the reputation of introducing into history as facts crimes so enormous and combinations of wickedness so revolting that but for him they would have been held too fabuloUB for the wildest fancy; a man that hunted up and down his ,•ast domains to find some fresh species of murder, with exquisite and aggravated. accompaniments to season it to his monstrous appetite, with the same eagerness that gluttons search out a fresh delicacy for a sated palate; a man that tried three different ways of butchering his own mother, and at last despatched her by a vulgar execution, in a petulant rage at being baffled so often; a!ld who added the tyrant's caprice to the incendiary's, by undertaking at once to throw off the sW1picion of his own agency in the diabolic conflagration of his capital, and to comfort his bloodthirsty temper by imputing the fire to the innocent Christians; who tortured his Christian subjects by unheard~f torments, dressing them in the skins of wild animals to provoke dogs to tear them to pieces, or wrapping their bodies in clothing smeared with pitch and then setting them on fire to light up the Roman night with their burning; a man, in short, that wrought so awful an impression of his attributes of superhuman atrocity on the ruiocis of the believers of that e.ge that a common rumour went abroad among them, after Lis horrible dtath, that he would return again alive to vex the world anew, and tc, Le tht antichrist of prophecy." In the household of Nero, including the highest 'uuctionaries a1,ci lo"·est menials, were found saints. Their eaint.liness shone out all foe more against the neighbouring blackness.. And, with such blackness in t~eir 11cighbourhood, there were sure to be seen bum10g around them fires of persecution. 'Ic. te saints, then, in Cmsar's household required c~traordinary courage and modesty, iudependence and constancy. "This saintliness is possible and is much wanted also wherever an adverse influence frowns on Christian purity or hinders Christian fidelity. Fur that bad influence may proceed from things not held in much suspicion-from a false sucial staudard, from a set of surrounding associations hostile to holiness, from a <lumiuant worldliness in a nation, or a city, or a college, or a literal household. Our Nen, is self-love. The senses are the Cresars of all ages. The reigning temper of the wurl<l is the imperishable persecutor and tyraut of the faithful soul. And so in every ~ome aud st~eet, seminary and dwelling, there are chances for the reappearing of saints lil Cesar's household. Wherever a fearless man deems any bribe to do wrong a.n insult tu his clean heart; wherever an incorruptible merchant refuses to conform to popular deceptwns; wherever a righteous mechanic refuses to let down his performance to the o~. IV, 1-23.] THE lPIS'11LE TO THE l>HILIPPTAN9.