no vocation that demands a higher combination of intellectual and moral powers or that puts a greater strain upon a man's best qualities. It may briug and often d~e~ bring, the physician into a sympathy with the mind and with the m'ission of Christ closer and more real in some respects than auy other work can do. Its best services aro beyond all material and earthly re,vard. Exercised by a wise and faithful Christian· man 1 it bec?~es a_ministry of u~speakable blessing t-0 soul as well as body, reaching, :is did Christ s miracles of healmg, the soul oftentimes through the body. Medical men Christ, "the good Physician," claims above other men for his followers and fellow-workers. 8. Demas, the ba,ckslider. (Ver. 14; 2 Tim. iv. 9, 10.) This man must have been valued greatly by the apostle, to be mentioned in such company, In his second imprisonment he urgently requires Timothy's presence, "because Demas l1ad forsaken him." He appears to have depended hitherto upon Demas and to have' prized his aid. Demas had chosen his lot with the persecuted apostle, and for some 'time served him steadily and well; and then at the last, when the need was greatest, he deserted him, not through fear of danger, it appears, but for the sake ofworlclly gain- " having lo'"ed this present world." Whether he was ever restored to Christian fidelity or not, we cannot tell. His case is so much worse than Mark's, in that the latter gave way to fear under sudden impulse, and in the unexpected hardships and dangers of his first probation; while Demas seems to have forsaken the apostle deliberately and heart- lessly, and when he was no mere novice in the service of Christ. He is an example of' those in whom the good seed takes root and grows through the frosts of spring to a fair summer promise, and then "the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful" (Mark iv. 19). • II. THE MESSAGE TO LAODICEA. (Vers. 15-17.) This passage assumes a peculiar interest in connection with the after history of the Laodicean Church, and the terrible rebuke addressed to it by Christ in Rev. iii. 14--22. It is the only instance in "hich the apostle salutes one Church in writing to another. If the letter received from· him by the Laodiceans was our (so-called) Epistle to the Ephesians, inasmuch as there is no particular greeting to any Church appended to it, we can understand why be should add this kindly salutation here. The Churches of the Lycus valley were so closely linked together tbat the state of one was to a large extent the state of all. We are not surprised, therefore, that the contagion of the Colossian evil spread to Laodicea. Jn that wealthy and luxurious city it bore disastrous fruit, in the corruption that Christ himself through St. John afterwards denounced in his Apocalyptic message. (1) The Colossians and Laodiceans are bidden to exchange Epistles (ver. 16), as they. share the apostle's greetings and alike excited his anxiety (eh. ii. 1). Their similar condition and co=on dangers called for the same warnings and instructions, and the two Epistles largely explain and supplement each other. And indeed, wherever lo~al circumstances permit, as in the freedom and ease of communication amongst ourselves it is so largely possible, Christian intercourse should be promoted, co~certed measures should be taken, the forces of the Church should be combined in resistance to the spread of error and the contagion of vice. "Union is strength." (2) Nympha (01· Nymph<is) is greeted by name (ver. 15), according to the apostle's custom, who loves to single out for honour those who serve the Church by the readiness by which they place their house and means at her service (1 Cor. xvi. 15, 16; Rom. xvi. 3-5, 23). (3) The most oignificant sentence of this passage is the warning addressed to Archippus (ver. 17), whom we suppose to have held an office of trust in the Church at Laodicea. He is the Hon of St. Paul's honoured friend Philemon, and had been on 8ome former occasion (probably at Ephesus) so closely associated with the apostle in circumstances of labour and danger that, ~ writing to his father, he calls him "my fellow-soldier." And yet symptoms of negligence have appeared in his conduct of affairs at Laodicea, tb!lt call forth the gentle yet serious admonition, "Take heed to the ministry that thou rcceivedst in the Lord, that thou fulfil it." How grave his responsibility if this warn- i,,n- failed to take effect, and if the all but apostate state of the Laodicean Church some ye~rn afterwards was in any degree due to the unfaithfulness of its first pastor I III. 'l'HE APOSTLE'S FAREWELL. (Ver. 18.) These brief, affecting word a proceed from 1he autlior's own hand, the lar;;e and difficult characters themselves a reminder of his affi;ctiuns in the [;Ospel. 1. He bids the Culo~sians remember his bonds (comp. Philcm. CH. IV. 1-18.] THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 223
10, 13; Phil, i. 7, 17; Epb. iii. I, 13; vi. 20; 2 Tim. ii. 9, 10; see homiletics, sect. 3, I. 4) -so sore a trial to him, so great an advantage and glory to them, callin,,. for their tender and prayerful sympathy, and for their most regardful heed to all that he had written. 2. He wishes them grace--grace first and last (comp. eh. i. 2, and homiletics); the grace they had received already (eh. i. 6, 12, 21, 27 ; ii. 6; iii. 12, 13 ; Eph. i. 3) being the pleiige and the earnest of all the fulne~s of tha.t "supernboun,ling grace" which reigns" through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. v. 20, 21; 2 Uor. iL 8; Eph. i. 3; John i. 16).