The life and work of St. Paul

622 THE LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PAUL.
the Churches of the Lycus. The followers of Baur in Germany, ana
of Renan in France, have tried to represent that St. Paul's teaching in Asia
was followed by a reaction in which his name was calumniated and his
doctrines ignored. The theory is very dubious. The doctrines and the
warnings of -St. John to the Seven Churches are closely analogous to,
sometimes almost verbally identical with, those of St. Paul ; and the essence
of the teaching of both Apostles on all the most important aspects of
Christianity is almost exactly the same. An untenable inference has been
drawn from the supposed silence of Papias about St. Paul, so far as wo can
judgs from the references of Eusebius. It was the object of Papias to collect
traditional testimonies from various Apostles and disciples, and of these St.
Paul could not have been one. Papias was Bishop of Eierapolis, in which
St. Paul may never have set his foot. Even if he did, his visit was brief, and
had taken place long before Papias wrote, whereas after the destruction
of Jerusalem St. John resided for many years at Ephcsus, and there were
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gathered around him Andrev/, Philip, Aristion, and others who had known the
Lord. These were the authorities to which Papias referred for his somewhat
loose and credulous traditions, and he may have quoted St. Paul, just
as Polycarp does, without its at all occurring to Eusebius to mention the fact.
Not only is there no proof of a general apostasy from Pauline principles, but
in the decrees of the Council held at Laodicea about the middle of the fourth
century, we read the very same warnings against angelolatry, Judaism, and
Oriental speculation, which find a place in these Epistles of the Captivity.
Colossae itself liable as it was to constant earthquakes, which were rendered
more ruinous by the peculiarities of the Lycus with its petrifying waters
was gradually deserted, and the churches of Asia finally perished
under the withering blight of Islam with its cruelties, its degradation,
and its neglect.
CHAPTER L.
ST. PAUL AND ONESIMTJS.
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Quasi vero curent divina de servis ! MACROS. Sat. i. 11.
" In servos superbissiini, crudelissimi, contumeliosissimi sumus." SEN. Up. xlvii.
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Aequalitas naturae et fidoi potior est quam differentia statuum." BENGEL.
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Through the vista of history we see slavery and its Pagan theory of two
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races fall before the holy word of Jesus, All men are the children of God.'
MAZZINI, Works, vi. 99.
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The story is too rare to be true.' Christian faith has answered that.
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It ifl
too suggestive to be true.' Christian science has answered that." LAN GE, Apostol.
Zeitalt. i. 134.
IN tho Epistle to the Colossians St. Paul had sent no greeting to Philemon
who was a prominent member of that Church because he purposed to write
liiiu a separata letter. A man like St. Paul, whose large and loving heart had