SERMON XXVII.

CHRISTIAN FRIENDSHIP.

COLOSSIANS IV. 11.

These only are my fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God, who have been a comfort unto me.

THE persons of whom this is said were three. One was Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, who had travelled over Asia Minor with Paul; had been with him at Ephesus; had gone up with him to Jerusalem; and had been sent with him from Palestine to Rome, where he was now his fellow-prisoner. Another was Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, the very man who had formerly been the cause of the contention between Paul and Barnabas, when Paul, thinking him deficient in zeal, had refused to take him with him as his companion on his journeys. Now, however, Paul gives him a very different character, calling him, as we have heard, one of the few who were a

comfort to him, and who were his fellowworkers unto the kingdom of God. The third was Jesus, who was called Justus, that is, whose Jewish name was Jesus, but who was known among the Greeks by the name of Justus; just as the Apostle himself was called by the Roman name Paul, when he was living amongst the Gentiles, although his own proper name was Saul. Of this Jesus, or Justus, nothing is known, unless he was the person spoken of in the eighteenth chapter of the Acts, as receiving Paul into his house at Corinth. But these three men, Aristarchus, Marcus, and Jesus or Justus, were, at this time, Paul's only cordial fellow-workers to the kingdom of God, and his only comforts in his imprisonment.

The Epistle to the Colossians was written from Rome, and it is not in this Epistle only that St. Paul speaks of himself as being very generally unsupported by his fellow-Christians during his captivity in that city. In his second Epistle to Timothy, written from Rome only a short time before his death, he says, "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me." Even Demas, who was with him when he wrote the Epistle to the Colossians, had been tempted away from him

before he wrote the Epistle to Timothy; and, through love of this present world, had left him, and departed to Thessalonica. And even in the Epistle to the Philippians, although he says that there were some who entirely sympathized with him, yet he also complains that "others preached Christ not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to his bonds:" that is, we may suppose, they taught that the true followers of Christ ought to keep the law of Moses, and that Paul was deservedly to be blamed for teaching the contrary; that therefore he was not suffering for the sake of Christ, but for his own errors; having justly provoked the hatred of the Jews against him, by attacking the law and the customs which God had given them. Thus, from one cause or another; from want of zeal in some, and from a superstitious zeal in others; Paul found that after all his labours, they who were turned away from him were many more than they who heartily laboured with him, and were a comfort to him.

There is much in this part of the Apostle's life which, as it seems to me, may be useful to us. In what is said of Marcus in this passage, compared with what we read of him in the Acts of the Apostles, there is an example of individual character which, I believe,

is far from uncommon. It is impossible to say with what feelings Marcus originally accompanied Barnabas and Paul, when they went from Antioch to Cyprus, to preach the word of God. It may have been merely to go with his relation Barnabas; or, as Barnabas, we are told, was himself a native of Cyprus, he may have had other relations in the island, whom Marcus was glad to visit. For it appears that when they crossed over from Cyprus, to the main land of Asia, Marcus, instead of going on with them on their journey, returned directly to his own home at Jerusalem. He had not as yet embarked himself thoroughly in the service of God; but the very fact of his having once taken part in it, worked its fruit in him gradually. He was thrown with those who were deeply interested in the work :- his friends and relations were engaged in it; it was presented continually to his mind more and more, and so drew him more and more to devote himself to it. And this, I believe, is what often happens with those who enter at first into the Christian ministry, not certainly in hypocrisy, but without a full sense of the great charge which they are undertaking. They find, ere long, that necessity

is laid upon them, that woe is unto them if they preach not the Gospel. What they before had thought of generally, and at a distance, now opens upon them daily more and more. A minister, ordained under such circumstances, is called in to attend the sick: perhaps at first he goes as a matter of duty, or out of a feeling of kindness, but with little experience or understanding of what it is to guide and strengthen souls in their extremity. But the air which he breathes is holy; he learns himself, in these first visits, more than he teaches others; he finds that what he is engaged in must be a savour of life unto life, or a savour of death unto death. It is no small thing on which he has engaged himself. True it is, that if there was hypocrisy in his purpose when he entered the ministry; if the work was not at all in his thoughts, but the hire, or the comforts of the situation were every thing; then, indeed, he has played a dangerous game, and the forfeit paid is fearful. It does then happen not unfrequently that he cannot engage in the more private and personal parts of his ministry; he cannot visit the sick, or comfort the weak-hearted, or counsel the ignorant, for these are things which he has