Helpers in Christ
’Salute Urbane, our helper IN Christ.” — Rom. xvi. 9. “Greet Aquila and Priscilla, my helpers IN CHRIST Jesus.” — Rom. xvi. 3.
WE have made frequent reference, in previous
pages, to the inscription (the name of this
Volume) found, often rudely carved, in the
Catacombs; — a touching and significant epitaph!
In the 1 6th chapter of Romans, from which our motto-verses are taken, we may be said to walk among monuments: not monuments of the departed, but of the living friends, companions, contemporaries of the Great Apostle. And it is remarkable the frequency with which the same familiar formula or inscription greets us. In Ciiristo, is thus beautifully associated alike with “the quick and the dead.”
Phoebe, the deaconess of the church at Cenchrea (the port of Corinth, on the Saronic gulph of the -^gean), was either the bearer of the letter, or else sent at the same time on some confidential mission to the Roman Christians. She carried with her Paul’s commendation: “Receive her in the Lord’’ (vers, i, 2). Aquila and Priscilla — with whom he had hallowed associations, alike in Corinth and at Ephesus, but whose house in Rome seems now to have been a rendezvous for the Christian converts in that city — are greeted, as they well might be, with pre-eminent warmth and affection; specially so, owing to the imminent peril they had encountered in rescuing the Apostle from the mob by which he had been assailed in the city of Diana, “my helpers in Christ Jesus” (vers. 3, 4).^
His two kinsmen, Andronicus and Junia, names of note, too, in the little brotherhood of the Boman saints, and who, at one time or other, unspecified, had shared his experience of captivity (doubtless one of the “prisons frequent” referred to in 2 Cor. xi. 23), are saluted, not only as “in Christ” but with the remarkable distinctive epithet of elder-born saints — “which were IN Cheist before me” (ver. 7). This may refer, not only to the honour and privilege of priority in conversion,* but possibly, too, may contain grateful
^” It seems to have been the practice of Aquila ard Priscilla (i Cor. xvi. ic) and some other Christians (Col. iv. 15), to hold assemblies for worship in their houses, which were saluted; and in return sent salutations as ‘ONE BODY in the Lord.’^ See Alford’s Greek Test, in loc.y with interesting reference to Justin Martyr’s experience.
2 “The earlier the new birth, the weightier will be the glory in the kingdom of God. Young ones regenerated shall have their brows set with more jewels. They shall have an abundant entrance. The more violent the storms they encounter, the greater will be their glory. If there be any sorrow in heaven, it is because thoy were not sooner born that they might have glorified God more on earth, who bestowed such honour upon them in heaven.” — Charnock.
allusion to what, as members of the early Church in Jerusalem, they had been and done to Paul himself before his great change. May we not gather from this indirect evidence, that when yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, the prayers of these relatives may have had their own potent share in the demolition of that fortress of bigotry and unbelief, and in reclaiming its treasures for the service of the Christ so long resisted?
Amplias, a contraction of Ampliatus, an unknown private Christian, but whose name suggested some specially sacred memory of a personal character, is hailed “my beloved in the Lord “(ver. 8). Urbane (or Urbanus) is identified with some wider and more general service to the faithful; for he is saluted as” our fellow-helper IN Christ “^ (ver. 9). Apelles, probably a Jewish convert, but otherwise all unknown, has the favoured designation” ’ approved ’ IN Christ “(ver. I o). The converted members (some of them possibly the slaves) of the household of Narcissus, supposed to be a Roman patrician, are saluted in the Lord” (ver. ii).3
These two names have been found, among many others, in inscriptions on sepulchral monuments connected with the imperial household. “On an inscription a.d. 115, Urbanus and Ampliatus occur next to each other in a list of imperial freedmen connected with the mint.” (See Lightfoot on Phil., p. 174.)
““Approved, by trial.” — Alford.
3 There is an inscription extant which is supposed to refer to one of St. Paul’s “household “: ti.claudio.sp.f.nakcissiano (Lightfoot on Phil., p. 175).
Tryphena and Tryphosa, probably two sister deaconesses still engaged in Christian work, are hailed as labouring ‘’in the Lord” (ver. 12), while the past unremitting and singular services of “the beloved Persis “(for she had” laboured much in the Lord,”) are correspondingly acknowledged (ver. 12). Eufus, probably the son of Simon the Cyrenian, the cross-bearer of the gospels (Mark xv. 21, Luke xxiii. 26), is saluted as *’ elect in the Lord “(ver. 13), while his mother, with a beautiful and tender touch of courteous gratitude for kindnesses received at her hand, is figuratively saluted, also IN Christ, as “his mother and mine” (ver. 13). “One whom his mother comforteth!” (Isa. lxvi. 13).
When the Apostle has finished the dictation of his letter, concluding with this enumeration of greetings we have just glanced at, Tertius, the amanuensis (probably himself a Roman, though now at Corinth) takes up the stylus on his own account; and even he significantly adopts the well-known words in the singular person — “1, Tertius, who wrote this Epistle, salute you in the Lord” (ver. 22).
It cannot escape the observation of the reader, how it was that St. Paul, who at the time of writing this Epistle had never personally visited Rome, could have been able to include so many names in his salutations. It is to be noted, first of all, that several of the names
Both these names are seen in Columbaria (“dove-cotes”), founl at or near the Appian “Way.
are in Greek; probably a number of those whom he had converted to the faith of Christ in Corinth or Ephesus, and who had left their native cities to settle in the great Metropolis for commercial purposes. It has moreover been suggested, among other explanations, that some of these may have been among “the strangers cf Rome” spoken of in Acts, who were in the habit periodically of visiting Jerusalem at Pentecost, and whom Paul may have either met there, or in the course of their journey thither. (See Howson and Conyhearet p. 1 5 8). The occurrence of the names of Aquila and Priscilla may be accounted for thus; — that they most probably had returned to Ptome when the decree of Claudius for the expulsion of the Jews from the city had been repealed.
These salutations, contained in one chapter of one Epistle, are only in harmony with other kindred messages of the same Apostle at other times. As he writes to the Corinthians from Philippi, sending the letter by the hands of Timothy, what are the best credentials he can give of this youthful servant of the Church? “I have sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ “( i Cor. iv. 17). At the close of the same, he again couples with his own greeting the names of the faithful Aquila and Priscilla. In their case the salutation is one of special emphasis:” Aquila and Priscilla salute you much IN THE Lord, with the church that is in their house “( I Cor. xvi. 1 9). Take the concluding chapter of his Epistle to his favourite converts, — those who had cost him least anxiety, and had filled him with greatest comfort and consolation. Within the first four verses his monogram is three times mingled with loving exhortations:” Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved, I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true yoke-fellow, help those women which laboured with me in the Gospel, with Clement also, and other my fellow-labourers, whose names are written in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice “(Phil. iv. 1-4). Does he speak of the self-sacrificing mission of Epaphroditus, and all the efforts of that cherished companion and fellow-labourer and soldier in ministering to his wants? He adjures them that on his return to their midst from a perilous mission, they” receive him with all gladness in the Lord “(ii. 25, 29). While in the closing sentence, when he would embrace them in one comprehensive greeting, it is still in the old stereotyped phrase, so natural to his thoughts,” Salute every saint in Christ Jesus” (Phil. iv. 21). It is the same, whether it be a message to an ordained Pastor, “Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord’’ (Col. iv. 17): or an appeal to what we would designate a layman, as in the incomparable Epistle to Philemon (that specimen of Christian courtesy, which gives, more than all else the Apostle has written, a glimpse of his affectionate heart). Hear his wonted expression, as he warmly commends the runaway slave to the consideration and generous forgiveness of a gracious Master (ver. 16), “Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord;” — closing with the loving personal challenge to one who had won so large a place in his Christian esteem — “Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord” (ver. 20).
“What do these salutations of this heroic man, with their peculiar and almost invariable adjunct, suggest? Salutations to those so diverse in age and rank and occupation, from the slave of the household to the head of the family; from the humble deaconess to the laborious pastor and teacher? — Is it not the value he placed alike on loving sympathy, and active co-operation? How different it would have been to him had he been left in lonely isolation, to encounter the good fight single-handed; instead of being able, as he is, to pour his warm benedictions on his “helpers in Christ!” It was in later years, with a doleful heart-break, he uttered the wail from his lonely, unbefriended cell — “All men forsook me” (2 Tim. iv. 16). True, on that very account, he clung with all the fonder reverence and trust to THE One who would never forsake; — “Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me” (2 Tim. iv. 17). But who can read the whole touching story of Paul’s life, from the day already spoken of, when led a blinded traveller in the Syrian city, till the hour when “ready to be offered, and the time of his departure was at hand,” — but must see how sensitively he clung to the support of Christian friends; friendships and fellowships prized and valued, we believe, mainly through realizing the mystical union with a living Lord ?j What he said of one devoted adherent, ’ faithful among the faithless,’ he felt, and desired, and prayed for all; — “The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain” (2 Tim. i. 1 6). See with what imploring and anxious importunity, again and again, he beseeches his dearest son in the faith to hasten across the intervening ocean and gladden the last hours of his waning life with his presence and words! (2 Tim. iv. 21).
Happy are they who, in life’s retrospect, can claim such fellowships: — in some cases, possibly, golden friendships, whose memory now is all that remains; but recalling those who, at the time, were like the ministering spirits in Jacob’s night-dream —
“Angels to beckon me,
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!” —
those inciting either to noble deeds, or, more generally, directing to modest pathways of usefulness; giving the strong arm to some faithful or tardy runner in the race; evoking slumbering sympathies; chafing the benumbed hand, kindling the smouldering heart- fires and hearth-fires, infusing the glow of a new and better life. Above all, those whose lives have been the true pulpit and sermon of the age; who, by consistent character, simple faith, patient endurance, unselfish generosity, have glorified God and taught and stimulated others to glorify Him; thus earning for themselves, though they knew it not, a title to that noblest designation, “helpers IN Christ Jesus;” exercising in some cases, and perhaps unconsciously, a wider influence, and like Phoebe, the humble Cenchrean deaconess, becoming “a succourer of many” (Rom. xvi. I, 2).
Nor is “the helper in Christ Jesus” the monopoly of any Church, or Church system, or Church teaching, This list in the 1 6th of Romans is emphatically a list of laymen; private members of the Roman brotherhood. Paul, with his breadth and catholicity of soul, would have been the first to repudiate and condemn any arrogated prerogative of churchly caste, or of Christian work. There is a niche in the Temple, — a vocation in the sacred courts for all. There is room for ’ the hewer of wood, and the drawer of water,’ as well as for the ministering Levite. When will the Churches of Christ, in these modern days, be taught to make religious worship and religious life not all passive and receptive? Their members will only rise to the dignity of their chartered privileges as “Priests unto God” (Rev. i. 6), when they recognise the duty of co-operation and sympathy, — of active and willing service. The command laid upon each by the Great Bishop of souls is — “Go, work in My vineyard!” Go; and be thou like one of the brethren or sisters in the Apostolic age, “a helper m Christ.”