St Paul's Special Salutations from the Saints in Caesar's Household

“All the Saints salute you, chiefly they that are of oesar’s household.” — phil. iv. 22.

(Preached at the Porta del Popolo, March 26, 1871.)

Phil. iv. 22.

a All the Saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Csesar’s

household.”

TAST Sabbath, in prosecuting the theme of -■ — ’ these discourses — the associations of St Paul with the place of our present sojourn — we selected an interesting example from the case of one in the lowest strata of society, who had become a convert of the great Apostle during his residence in ROME. The text of to-day invites our attention to a remarkable counterpart and contrast to this. It discloses to us individuals, who had been welcomed by him as members of the infant Church of this city, not from among the outcast and the poor, but from among those who occupied the highest social position in the proud capital; whether among the Praetorian Guards, or the civil officers and retainers of the Imperial household.*

The words which I have selected as the subject of discourse, are taken from the closing salutation to his beloved family of believers at Philippi. That city was invested with peculiar interest to St Paul. It was the first in Europe where he had preached the Gospel and planted a Christian Church. Twelve years had now rolled by since the memorable morning, when, outside its gates, he had bent his knee by the river side, and mingled his prayers with

“Among these, the Roman martyrology mentions Torpes, an officer of high rank in Nero’s palace, and afterwards a martyr for the faith. Chrysostom adds the name of Nero’s cup-bearer. — See Cave’s “Lives of the Apostles.” St Paul himself, as we have already observed, among other individuals of note and nobility, mentions Clemens, and Pudens, and Claudia, and the households of Narcissus and Aristobulus. Though not in one sense of “Nero’s household,” yet among the “not many mighty” who were called, it is interesting to think even of the possibility, according to tradition, of including the name of Nero’s cultured tutor, Seneca. There seems, at all events, strong ground for the surmise, that by means of their mutual friend Burrhus, the great Philosopher and the great Apostle held intercourse with one another in the world’s capital. Letters, though of doubtful genuineness, still remain, which are said to have passed between them, those of Lydia and the other lowly worshippers. They were twelve years bright with mercy. Many were the localities where formerly the rites and impurities of Paganism reigned triumphant, which were now studded with Churches of Christ, and could number hundreds who had received the truth as it is in Jesus. But, just in the midst of his usefulness,’ — when busied gathering his spiritual trophies, the Apostle had been hurried, as wre have seen, a prisoner to Rome. The Philippians hear of it. The long-intervening period has not effaced their affectionate remembrance. St Paul languishes in confinement in the world’s capital! They must send a messenger to know his state, relieve his necessities, and assure him of continued sympathy — unabated love. Epaphroditus, one of their own pastors, is selected for the embassy. We can imagine the meeting. The Apostle is seated in his hired house when a stranger enters. Brother embraces brother; or rather, the aged father embraces another son in the faith. The object of the visit is told; mutual tears reveal mutual love; the spirit of the captive revives. Day

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by day, and night by night, that solitary chamber is cheered by the Philippian believer. They mourn, they rejoice, they pray, by turns, over themselves, their flocks, the Churches of their common Lord! But, the time for the return of Epaphroditus has come. Back he must go to the scene of his own labours. Ere he take a reluctant farewell, St Paul must make him the bearer of some messages of love to his distant friends. On the last night they are together, the Apostle dictates his burning words of consolation and gratitude. It is this very Epistle from which our text is taken! We may still further picture the scene, as the l£tjle band of converts in Philippi, wait, in anxious expectation, to hear the tidings of their pastor’s mission and the exhortations he bears. They have assembled in their own sanctuary; and from one lip after another, question after question is put with eager haste: — “Is he well?” — “How stands his faith? “~ “Are his bonds and imprisonment likely soon to terminate?” — “Is he firm as ever in his God?” — “Are we ever to see his face again in the flesh?” The parchment sheet is unfolded; Epaphroditus reads it to the arrested audience: their tears flow; their hearts rejoice. And as he is drawing to a conclusion, it is to them not the least interesting portion of the letter, to hear the loving salutations and benedictions from the family of the Saints scattered in the Roman capital. In the present instance, however, the Apostle evidently has had little time for the lengthened enumeration of names which marks some of his other Epistles. But if there be room and time for no other, there must be one exception; — one household must be singled out and mentioned, as warmest in their greetings. And what is that? Is it the home of some lowly spirit, similar to the first convert among themselves, whose heart (opened by the Lord) was gushing forth with the full tide of Christian love to all His people? No; strange selection! The last house in all Rome, or in all Europe, from which they might have expected a kindly word of Christian salutation, is that specially noted. The infamous despot who now swayed the sceptre of the world, was, as we have repeatedly noted, the impersonation of all that was monstrous in iniquity and crime. Amid the thousand edifices within his capital, surely, at least, in these halls of impurity — that palace of riot, there can ascend no prayer, and be found no Christian! What is impossible with man is possible with God. With God all things are possible. In traversing Rome, you may find representatives of every rank and station, who, having enrolled themselves among the family of believers, have gladdened St Paul’s lonesome lodging with their visits, and had kindly messages to send to distant Christian friends. But if you would wish to know, who among them all were stanchest in their faith and deepest in their sympathies, you must seek it amid the dependents (it may be courtiers) of Nerds Palace. Yes! we may imagine with what strange feelings these assembled Philippians must have listened to the startling assurance, that while “all the Saints” of Rome saluted them, it was “CHIEFLY they that are of Cczsar’s household”

From this apparently unimportant clause at

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the close of one of St Paul’s letters, we maydraw, with the Divine aid, many important lessons and reflections. It is to a few of these that I purpose nowT soliciting your attention,

I. The text illustrates the doctrine of the Divine sovereignty in election. The Bible furnishes us with an emphatic commentary on God’s dealings writh believers: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.” In regenerating the heart of man, He would show us that from first to last the operation is His: “Elect of God:” — that He stands alone in it; that “it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God who showeth mercy;” — His the prerogative, His the glory. St Paul’s confession must be that of every believer, from the hour he is brought to his knees in the prayerful agony of conviction on earth, to the hour he is brought, with the palm of victory in his hand, before the throne — “By the grace of God I am what I am.”

It is true, this great Author as well as Finisher

R of the faith, puts signal honour on appointed means; and His general instrumentalities are the ordinances of His own institution. The Ethiopian treasurer gets comfort and spiritual joy, when he is in the act of seeking God by reading his Bible: Lydia at her prayer-meeting: Nicodemus in his nightly visits of anxious inquiry. But there are times also when He would show that He works how, and when, and where He pleases; — bringing water out of the flinty rock ;■ — and, as we found in the case of Onesimus, from the rudest and most unpromising material, polishing stones for His spiritual temple. Not to dwell on manifold familiar examples, what have we in the text, but another similar and singular illustration of God’s sovereign grace, entering the palace gates of ROME, and that, too, in the reign of her most abandoned Emperor, and during the lawlessness of her most licentious court; — “Caesars household” furnishing the main pillars in the Christian Church there; — those whose eyes must have been painfully habituated to sights and scenes all adverse to the reception

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of the truth; yet, while other eyes were closed, and other Roman hearts hardened, God’s saving power overcomes every obstacle, and brings many in these regal halls to own a mightier sceptre and more enduring diadem!

How, or where they were converted, we are not informed. Whether it was by the words of St Paul himself, as they gathered around him in his own hired house; or whether those outside the Palace, who had welcomed the glorious message, communicated it to those within, we cannot tell. All we know is, that there were Saints there; that the Gospel had been proclaimed; the Spirit had striven; the iron heart of the Roman had been melted; souls were saved. While, then, we believe what was said of the Saviours ministry is the grand characteristic still, “The common people heard him gladly;” while, as in the case of the converted slave of Colosse, it is “to the poor the Gospel is preached,” and by the poor the Gospel mainly is received; oh! never let us limit the operation of God’s grace and mercy, when we read of that grace entering the Palace of Nero; and that, amid the saintly salutations sent by Roman Christians to the Philippian Church, were included “chiefly they that are of Caesars household.”

II. The text illustrates the doctrine of the Perseverance of the saints. The words would lead us to infer, that He who had so marvellously begun the good work, was as marvellously carrying it on; and, in the language the Apostle addressed to the Romans in his great Letter, making these illustrious converts not only conquerors, but “more than conquerors/7 The depth and tenderness of one Christian affection here specially noted (their love for their distant brethren), would fairly indicate the more than ordinary strength of all the rest. In other words, we are led to conclude, that so far from the graces of their new nature being gradually chilled when brought into unholy contact with the antagonistic influences around them, they grew, in spite of these, with more than ordinary rapidity. Amid the pollutions of that tainted atmosphere; amid the frowns of haughty cour-FROM THE SAINTS IN C^SAR’s HOUSEHOLD. 26 1

tiers, and the scoffs and ridicule of a crowd of debased and debasing, corrupt and corrupting sycophants, they maintained their lofty bearing and carried their consistent cross, — rendering unto Caesar the things that were Caesar’s, but all this subordinate, to rendering unto God the things that were God’s.

If we hold, therefore, that the “calling “of those of Caesar’s household is a fine attestation of the sovereignty of divine grace, there is perhaps a more remarkable testimony still, in their case, borne to the power of God’s sanctifying, sustaining, and quickening grace; in the fact, that, despite of all hostile, counteracting influences, they were able, in the emphatic terms used by another Apostle, to” add to their faith, constancy!’* It is easy for us, in an age of fashionable profession, to espouse a Gospel-creed, bear the Christian name, and be carried down the smooth, unopposing stream; but here, it was breasting an impetuous torrent. It was the lamb venturing in the midst of wolves; it was

* In our authorised version rendered virtue (2 Pet. i. 5).

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proclaiming Christ to be King of kings, in the midst of those whose fawning creed was, “We have no king but Csesar.” Csesar’s household! To them the horrors of the Vatican gardens and amphitheatre, and the rush and rage of their lions, could not be unfamiliar. Too well they knew, that for the Emperor’s unnatural and barbarous pastime, it was the hated Christians, the guileless and guiltless Nazarenes, who were the selected victims. And yet, bold as these lions were the hearts in his Palace, which had the fear of God and no other fear. The new-born faith they had espoused, which had imparted to their once grovelling souls a strange, mysterious peace (after years, it may be, of unrest and misery, degradation and impurity), was with them no evanescent conviction, obliterated like the sand rippled by the rising tide. They were advancing believers; growing in faith, and love, and holiness: and though clothed in the livery of Caesar, they were fearless to declare, in a higher sense, “We have no King but Jesus.” The very fact of their thus openly sending a message to their brethren at

Philippi, evidenced that they neither wished to conceal their sentiments nor dreaded to avow their creed.

And how was this? How came the Christians in Nero’s Palace to have braced themselves with such boldness and spiritual fortitude? How is it that their graces should expand in the very spot, where one would have expected them rather to wither and die?

This leads me to observe: —

III. The text illustrates yet another Scripture doctrine — that God proportions grace to trial. “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” The history of all His saints attests this truth. When the storm rages loudest, the everlasting arms are most firmly round about: when the battle is hottest, there is new armour provided and new strength vouchsafed: when the taper burns with a fitful and sickly glow in the tainted atmosphere, more oil is given. On what other supposition can we explain the moral miracle of Daniel’s intrepidity in his den; or the Hebrew worthies walking fearless in the burning flames; or the heroism of the noble army of martyrs chronicled in after ages, at the record of which we stand at times amazed and confounded? They have all one reply — one explanation- — u Yet not I; but the grace of God which was with me.” Yes! the thorn in the flesh is endured; the dungeon-vault is transformed into a sanctuary of praise; the fire and the faggot fail to draw a tear or extract a groan; — for He is faithful that promised “My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness,” We may cease to wonder, then, at what otherwise would be all marvel and mystery, — how the believers in the Imperial residence of Nero could remain so “strong in faith, giving glory to God:” — “He giveth more grace” And it illustrates God’s dealings with His people still. The hour of trial comes, and grace to bear comes along with it. That cutting sorrow or lacerating bereavement, if it had been contemplated beforehand, — the anticipation, the dark possibility — would have utterly crushed. But the blow has come; and when it does come, how wondrously supported! The storm-blast has swept down, perchance, the choicest earthly blessings, and left the solitary pilgrim to tread alone life’s dreary highway; — but strength is vouchsafed; the path is trodden; the heart is upheld: “God, our Maker, giveth songs in the night!”

So, in the higher and more difficult spiritual walk. One has become a Christian. It is in a “Csesar’s household;” all around him threatens to damp his spiritual ardour, and mar his fair hopes, and overturn his resolutions. How can he stand out against the cold indifference, and cruel sneer, and open ridicule, and subtle argument? With Jacob he has to say, “All these things are against me.” But the God of Jacob interposes: “Fear not, for I am with thee.” ‘He tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, “He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.... They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles.” Yes! your Christian graces will rise out of these very trials: this stern discipline will make the hardier pilgrim, the better soldier; you will be driven from the creature to the Creator; from the shivered reed to the living Rock. “Cease ye from man,” will lead you to the better alternative, “Trust in the Lord for ever!” If, then, you are at any time tempted, from any peculiarity of external circumstance or condition, to doubt the possibility of remaining faithful to your God when all are unfaithful around, think of this subject and this text; how while St Paul made honourable and memorable mention of all the Saints in ROME, it was “CHIEFLY they that were of Caesar’s household.”

IV. A fourth reflection we may draw from the text is — The harmony which subsists among the whole family of believers. The converts in Caesar’s household, as we have already observed, were, many of them probably, from among the humbler dependents. But we know also,* that they numbered some of nobler blood, and more illustrious pedigree. Be this as it may, even a

* See Introduction, p. 45, et seq.

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servant in the Palace of the Sovereign of the world! there was enough in the very thought and name to engender a spirit of haughty and supercilious pride, which, in common circumstances, would have scorned at acknowledging friendly relations with poor strangers. But here, we have those in Nero’s Palace not hesitating to send a friendly message to the lowly Christians at Philippi — nay, telling St Paul to give assurance, that of all Saints in ROME, they felt most kindly and greeted “chiefly.”

How delightful the holy fellowship the Gosgel establishes between believer and believer! It does not level human distinctions — far from it: — it honours rank and office as ordinances of God. But, in another sense, it does annihilate these; for the exalted Christian recognises the lowliest as a member of the one great family, of which Christ is the living Head. True, this is a fellowship little understood and recognised in degenerate days, when the love, alike of individuals and of Churches, is waxing cold; when that glorious article, “I believe ... in the communion of saints,” has become with many an effete thing, left to slumber a dead dogma in our creeds. But it was a fellowship unmistakably cherished and practically illustrated in the annals of the early Church. In sending now this salutation to the handful of Philippian believers, Nero’s Christian Senator was not ashamed to own the converted gaoler there as a brother; the Christian matron remembered humble Lydia as a sister in the faith. In social position they were different; in spirit, they were one in Christ Jesus. The electric spark of divine love, struck in the lodging of the Apostle, passes to the Palace of the world’s metropolis; thence it traverses through intervening countries to the lanes of Philippi, and circulates and gladdens wherever a Christian Church is planted and a Christian name is known. Nay, it would seem from the text, that so far from the rank of those wrho send these special greetings detracting from their strength and cordiality, the new principles of this spiritual life, where vigorously planted, lead rather to a triumph over all arbitrary and conventional distinctions, — conquering pride, — bringing each to see in his brother nothing but a fellow mortal, a dying creature, a companion pilgrim, a joint-heir! The lofty looks of man are abased; and in lowliness of mind, each esteems other better than themselves. We can well imagine, therefore, it was with no feigned lips or spurious humility, that the converts who had just come forth from Caesar’s presence and the splendour of Caesar’s home, when they learned that St Paul was writing to the humble, lowly followers of Jesus at Philippi, should entrust him to send from them special salutations.

But may we not go further still, and add, as the true cause why the salutation of Caesar’s household was the chief, and their love for their distant brethren in Christ strongest, because their love for Christ Himself was strongest? Like the radii of a circle, the nearer believers approach their Lord as their great centre, the nearer they are to one another. Where the stone falls heaviest, the circles in the quiet lake or pool extend the widest. It was so at Route. Love to God fell deepest on hearts in the halls of Caesar; and the circles of Christian kindness spread from that as a centre. They embraced the brotherhood of Philippi, and if Saints had been there, they would have made their circumference the world! Where the love of Christ is not, or where the pulse of love beats languidly, there is ever the likelihood of distance and estrangement; of individual Christians crossing and recrossing one another in life’s path; of Christian Churches entertaining and reciprocating mutual jealousy and distrust. What can cause the sundered elements of religious society to coalesce, but the magnetising influence of that same divine Love attracting all hearts, and welding together all Christian organisations, in a spirit, at least, of unity and co-operation, if incorporation be found undesirable or impossible. These Churches of a now divided Christendom, have been too faithfully likened to the separate pools of water on the rocky beach, each standing apart and alone. Bitty let the Love of their common Lord rise to its paramount place; like a mighty wave, let it sweep over them all in a new spring-tide of

Pentecostal power and blessing; — then would the weary, and apparently unsuccoured cry for brotherhood — uttered in secret by many a desponding heart — find at last its response: then would the Redeemer’s Own prayer be gloriously fulfilled — “that they all may be one” (John xvii. 21).

V. A fifth reflection we may draw from the text is — The sympathy of suffering Saints. This is another reason why, in offering the friendly and heartfelt salutations of the Roman Church, St Paul adds “chiefly they.” The power of Christian love may have done much; that of sympathy in suffering did more.

There is nothing that so sacredly binds together Christian with Christian as trial. Those who before had comparatively little intercourse, have lost, at the same time, a beloved child; or hold in common some other similar sad anniversary. It has established between them a new and holy link. Even where distance forbids acquaintance altogether, when the mother, who has had one of her flock taken away, accidentally reads in the obituary of some other heart similarly broken, what outflowings of tender compassion she has for the far-off stranger, which she never felt before, and never could have felt, unless she had herself been in the furnace! It was so (though from a different cause) with the Saints in Nero’s Palace. They had heard, through Epaphroditus, of the trials experienced by the Philippian believers at the hands of their pagan brethren. The cause was their own. They were themselves bearing this, daily cross; and how can they fail to forward the tribute of their heartfelt sympathy to their fellow-sufferers: to salute them as such; and to remind them that the Christian’s motto and watchword is the same in all ages and in all ranks, in the palace and in the cottage, in Rome and in Philippi — “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

Oh, beautiful feature, also, in true Christianity! the pulsations of a living, loving compassion; taking their rise in the heart of Jesus Himself (the Great — the Greatest of sufferers), on whose bosom of love are inscribed the words of dear-bought experience — “I know your sorrows:” — these sending their sentient thrill throughout the whole mystical body; so that “if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; and if one member rejoice, all the members rejoice.” Are any among us afflicted? or has the voice of weeping and lamentation been heard in the dwellings of our poorer brethren? Let us imitate the example of the Christians at Rome, by delighting to minister to others “the same consolations wherewith we ourselves have been comforted of God.” May the result of all our trials be like theirs; to bind us closer to one another in sympathy, by binding us closer to HIM; — leading us to feel how light our heaviest chastisements are, in comparison with those contained in the touching challenge — a Was there ever any sorrow like unto my sorrow? “and to regard these trials in the noble and exalted light in which St Paul speaks in this very letter; — Christ honouring His people by thus appointing them to pass through the ordeal of suffering —” Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ,

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not only to believe, but also to suffer for His sake.”

VI. Finally, let us learn from the text, the universal adaptation of Christianity to the family* of man, and to every condition of life. Whatever be the diversity of circumstance or situation, there is no rank in the graduating scale of society, and no position in the varying phases of human relationship, which forbids us to be followers of Jesus. Daniel the prime minister of all Babylon, and Onesimus the runaway slave; David the minstrel king of Judah, and blind Bartimeus on the wayside begging; Anna the prophetess in the Temple, and Lydia the seller of purple; St Paul amid polished philosophers at Athens, St Paul amid rude sailors buffeting a wintry sea; “Paul the aged” and Timothy the child; the household of the Philipplan gaoler, and the household of Imperial Caesar; all, in these diverse paths, can take up their cross and serve their God.

Nay, more; the text would seem to confirm and illustrate a great and important principle,

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that when God meets His people, and visits them with His grace, He generally does so while they are prosecuting their ordinary engagements. He does not first call them out of the world (as if godliness and secular duties were incompatible), but He reveals Himself to them while faithfully occupying the sphere, whatever it may be, where His providence has placed them; as if to certify, that while diligent in their wonted business, they may at the same time be “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” Matthew is sitting at his receipt of custom gathering his tribute, he is called there. The fishermen of Galilee are mending their nets on Tiberias’ shore, they are called there. Souls within the precincts of Csesar’s Palace are to be saved, they are saved there. Divine sovereign grace finds them occupying their varied posts in the Halls of the Palatine; and they would exhibit on the most difficult scale that was ever tried, how it is possible for the Christian to be in the world, and yet not of the world; to remain in Csesar’s household, and yet to maintain intact and uncompromised his allegiance to the

Prince of the kings of the earth. This is confessedly indeed a question of great difficulty and delicacy, and on which it becomes us to speak with extreme caution. For, on the other hand, the duty is equally plain and equally imperative, in choosing the different paths of life, carefully to avoid all doubtful or debatable ground. Wherever we know temptation to be, — wherever we dread that our spiritual interests are in risk of being endangered, — the command is distinct, the duty is paramount — “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing:” — If ye cannot be in Caesar’s household without being partaker in Caesar’s sins, then i( come out,” that ye be not partakers in his plagues. But, at the same time, our text would seem to tell us, that it is the highest achievement of the Christian, when a man (strong in the grace of God and resolute in the maintenance of principle), can with moral intrepidity bear his religion along with him in the daily walk, where he knows that religion is slighted: and whether it be the Artisan among his scoffing fellow-workmen, or the Servant among irreligious domestics, or the Ruler among ungodly senators, or the Courtier in a dissolute Palace, — to appropriate the high motto of the Christian, which formed the theme of our opening discourse — “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.” If thus enabled, as the Apostle expresses.it, “to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand;” — to stand in the hottest of the battle, faithful to our colours, true to our God; — how great may be the power we wield, whether in the little or the great world of influence; in rebuking that world’s atheism and defiant unbelief; its open hostility; its cold indifference; its covert scepticism; — causing it to take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus, for “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

Yes! and possible it is. God would seem to put a type in material nature, to tell how the warmth of Christian grace, and the fire of Christian love, can burn and glow in the midst of all that is cold, and cheerless, and repelling. I speak not of the type I saw, but the other day, in the burning mountain which keeps perpetual vigil over the beautiful bay of Naples; for that very coronal of flame, and the fiery tresses of lava as then seen streaming from its brow, appeared almost in harmony with the glow of sunshine by day, the halo of serene moonlight by night, and the tints of early spring already flushing the wealth of vegetation at its base. But I speak of a different emblem. Strange and startling is the spectacle which arrests the shivering mariner in the northern seas; — Mount Hecla, with its frigid slopes wreathed with snow and pendant with icicles; and yet, the living fire bursting from its volcano, pouring down in molten streams, melting the ice-bound sides, and the burning torrents reddening the ocean with their glare! So may the Christian be, like that volcano, in the midst of a cold and frigid mass of worldliness; — all around, the winter of spiritual desolation and death. But the volcanic fire of grace has been at work; down pours the lava-stream of burning love, fervid piety, consistent principle; and at the sight of this glowing believer — a light in a darkened world — many a reckless mariner on that world’s ocean is arrested; sees and owns the power of vital godliness, believes and lives I Such was Daniel, amid the chilling and cheerless atmosphere of the court of Babylon. He might have enjoyed more spiritual tranquillity by abandoning his presidency, and (joining his captive countrymen, as they were seated by the willowed streams), by musing in secret and seclusion over Jerusalem lost, and longing for Jerusalem restored. But duty forbade him to leave the Courtier s place; he felt that his God might there be more glorified, — the cause of truth advanced. Nobly was he enabled to fulfil his high commission, to speak the Divine Word before kings, and not be moved. The same Almighty arm which supported Daniel in Darius’, as it afterwards did the Saints in Caesar’s household, will support us. Let us “be strong and of a good courage;” and “though troubles rise, and terrors frown, and days of darkness fall,” we can do all things through Christ strengthening us. Whatever be our condition or position in the world, our lot is ordered, not by us, but for us. Let us not venture to plead some

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peculiarity or hardship of our allotment in life, as an apology or extenuation for compromising principle and not following God. But remembering, that, even in Caesar’s household, grace was given and religion maintained; be it ours to serve Him, whether amid the world’s smiles or the world’s frowns: in the palace or in the hut: in the mansion of the great or the cottages of the poor; in the hum of the city’s busy industry, or in the seclusion of private life; and we shall find that in our case will be made true the closing benediction which St Paul sent by Epaphroditus to the Philippian Church — “My God will supply all your need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”