The life and work of St. Paul

660 THE LIPB AND WOKK OF 8!f. PAVt.
From Crete, St. Paul may have returned by Ephesns and Troas to Mace-
donia, and thence to Dalmatia and Illyriciun; 1 and we learn from the Epistle
to Titus that he was accompanied by several friends, for whom he found the
amplest employment in missions to various Churches. He intended to spend
the winter at Nicopolis, which, beyond all question, must be the well-known
and flourishing city of Epirus, built by Augustus to commemorate his victory
at Actium. When he wrote the Epistle to Titus, he was about to send
Arfcemas or Tychicus to him in Crete, to continue the work of organisation
there, while Titus is directed to join the Apostle at Nicopolis before the winter
conies on.
How little we really know about Titus will be best seen by the theories
which attempt to identify him with Titus (or, Titius) Justus (Acts xviii. 7),
he is not mentioned in the Acts
with Silas, and even with Timothy ! Though
probably because he never happened to be a companion of the Apostle at
the same time that Luke was with him he seems to have been one of the
trustiest and most beloved members of the noble little band of St. Paul's
friends and disciples. As he was a Greek by birth, St. Paul, whose convert
he was, had chosen to take him to Jerusalem on that memorable visit, which
ended in the recognition of Gentile emancipation from the yoke of Mosaism. 2
If we were right in the conjecture that the generous self-sacrifice of Titus on
this occasion rescued Paul from a grievous struggle, if not from an immense
peril, we may imagine how close would have been the personal bond between
them. He had special connexions with Corinth, to which he had three times
been sent by the Apostle during the troubles of that distracted Church. 3
The warm terms hi which St. Paul always speaks of him as his brother,
and associate, and fellow-labourer, and the yearning anxiety which made him
utterly miserable when he failed to meet him in Troas, show that he was no
ordinary man ; and the absence from this Epistle of the personal warnings
and exhortations which are found in those to Timothy, lead us to believe that
Titus was the more deeply respected, even if Timothy were the more tenderly
beloved. The last notice of him is his visit to Dalmatia during the second
imprisonment, and we may feel the strongest confidence that this was undertaken
as a special duty, and that he did not voluntarily desert his friend and
teacher whom he had so long and faithfully served. The Epistle which St.
Paul addresses to him goes over much the same ground as that to Timothy,
but with additional particulars, and in a perfectly independent manner. It
excited the warm admiration of Luther, who says of
"
it : This is a short
Epistle, but yet such a quintessence of Christian doctrine, and composed in
such a masterly manner, that it contains all that is needful for Christian
knowledge and lifo." The subjects are touched upon in the same easy and
natural order as in the other Pastoral Epistles, and the incidental mention of
people so entirely unknown in the circle of the Apostle's friends as Artomas
and Zcnas, the lawyer, together with the marked variations in the initial and
Bom. xv. 19.
2 CW.il. 3; Tit. 1.4. 2 Cor. vii., Tfii