does inspired Scripture seek to impress the mind of man!

What is said as to the real nature of spiritual conflict (6:10-13) should be especially remarked. Much of the peril of humanity in The closing words of the Epistle (6: 21-24), as the moral issues of its destiny arises out of a so often in these writings of Paul, reveal to deluding misapprehension as to what these us the tender, sympathetic, and loyal heart, issues imply. It is one thing to wrestle with whose interest in the welfare of those addressed 'flesh and blood,' quite another with princi- has dictated all that went before. From his palities, with powers, with world rulers of the Roman captivity he looks forth upon the fields moral darkness, with spiritual hosts of wicked- of former labor, and for each one of those ness in the very heavenly places themselves. whom he has seen brought to saving knowlIt is this startling truth which men are so edge of the truth under his ministry,—speunwilling to face, or to deal with it honestly cially, now, all such in the city where three and truly. Evil, not merely as a possibility, eventful years of that ministry were spent,nor merely as a fact; but evil as an organized, he is mindful and thoughtful and prayerful. actual, and, so far as human experience is His Christian sympathy, indeed, embraces 'all concerned, omnipresent force; evil in spir- them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in uncoritual embodiment, with order, administra-ruptness.' He closes his letter with a benetion, with malignant purpose and intelligent diction upon all such, of whatever race, or method. Of the reality of this, how earnestly nation, or age.

ON THE

EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS.

BY

J. B. GOUGH PIDGE, D. D.

PHILADELPHIA:

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY,

1420 CHESTNUT STREET.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, by the

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY,

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

INTRODUCTION TO THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS.

It was a decisive moment in the missionary career of the Apostle Paul, when, summoned by the vision of a man of Macedonia, he sailed from Troas, and crossing the Ægean Sea, set foot for the first time upon the soil of Europe. Immediately before him as he landed lay the important city of Philippi, which in earlier times had been called Crenides, or fountains, on account of its numerous springs, but was afterward named Philippi in honor of the great Macedonian conqueror who had enlarged and fortified it. From its vicinity to the field of the battle which ended the Roman republic, between Octavius and Antony on the one side, and Brutus and Cassius on the other, it had become a famous historical landmark, and as a Roman colony with the so-called jus Italicum, or privilege of Roman citizenship, it outranked all the other cities of Macedonia. But its highest glory was conferred upon it when Paul entered its gates bearing the message of salvation, and it became the first city of Europe to listen to the gospel from the lips of an apostle.

Paul's first stay in Philippi was very brief, owing to the treatment he received at the hands of the Roman magistrates (Acts 16: 16-40), but he left behind a most important result of his short visit in a little band of converts who formed the nucleus of a most remarkable church. On at least two subsequent occasions Paul revisited the place (Acts 20: 2, 6), most likely making somewhat longer visits than on the first occasion, and possibly he made still another visit after his release from his first Roman imprisonment. The members of the church which he founded there must have consisted chiefly of heathen converts, since there appears to have been but a small number of Jews residing in Philippi. At the time of his first visit we find mostly women, meeting for prayer by the river side (Acts 16 : 13), the fact that they possessed no synagogue showing how few in numbers and how poor they were. Between this Philippian Church and the great apostle the most friendly and cordial relations existed from first to last. It was the only church under his charge that never gave him occasion for rebuke or reproof. Its members were never seduced from their steadfast loyalty to him and to his teachings, nor did they ever fall into any such terrible sins as appeared elsewhere, or give heed to doctrinal errors, as even the neighboring church of Thessalonica seems to have done. In the letter before us Paul declares that he had never had occasion for anything but joy and gratitude in all his remembrance of them. From the first day they had maintained with him and with each other the closest kind of fellowship. A slight ripple had indeed been excited in the otherwise calm current of their spiritual life by the dissensions of two women of influence, but beyond this nothing had occurred to give the apostle the least anxiety in regard to their unity and harmony. Of course, the same dangers threatened them, that threatened the other apostolic churches,-dangers from persecuting heathen, from false Jewish teachers, and from the pernicious example of worldly Christians. Against all these threatening perils the apostle urges them to stand fast in a spirit of loving, unselfish harmony, and of careful observance both of his teachings and life. While Paul himself declares