The life and work of St. Paul

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which was continued to him at Borne, 1 and to which he alludes with a
gratitude all the more heartfelt^ because very shortly afterwards Onesiphoms
seems to have died.
From the trial at Ephesus, where his cause might have suffered from
local prejudices, he may once more have found it necessary to appeal to
Csesar. Barea Soranns, the then Proconsul, may have been glad, as Pliny
afterwards was in Bithynia, to refer the case to thefhighest tribunal. Timothy
would naturally desire to accompany him, but at that time the Apostle still
sanguine, still accompanied by other friends, still inclined to believe that his
life, which had long been valueless to himself, might be saved from human
violence, however near might be its natural close thought it necessary to
leave his friend at Ephesus to brave the dangers, and fulfil the duties of
that chief pastorate, respecting which he had recently received such
earnest instructions. It was natural that they should part with deep emotion
at a time so perilous and under circumstances so depressing. St. Paul,
sitting in his dreary and desolate confinement at Borne, recalls with gratitude
the streaming tears of that farewell, which proved how deeply his affection
was requited by the son of his heart. In all his wanderings, in all his
sickness, in all his persecutions, in all his imprisonments, in all his many and
bitter disappointment*, the one spot invariably bright, the one permanent
consolation, the one touch of earthly happiness, had been the gentle com-
panionship, the faithful attendance, the clinging affection of this Lycaonian
youth. For St. Paul's sake, for the Gospel's sake, he had left his mother, and
his home, and his father's friends, and had cheerfully accepted the trying life
of a despised and hunted missionary. By birth a Greek, he had thrown in
his lot by circumcision with the Jew, by faith with the Christian ; and his
high reward on earth had been, not the shadow of an immortal honour, but the
substance of lofty service in the cause of the truth which was to subdue the
world. The affection between him and the Apostle began in the spiritual
sonship of conversion, and was cemented by community of hopes and perila
until it had become one of the strongest ties in life. For troubled years they
had cheered each other's sorrows in the midst of painful toils. The very
difference in their age, the very dissimilarity of their characters, had but
made their lore for each other more sacred and more deep. The ardent,
impetuous, dominant character and intense purpose of the one, found its
complement and its repose in the timid, yielding, retiring, character of the
other. What Melancthon was to Luther, whom Luther felt that he could not
spare, and for whose life when all hope seemed over ho stormed heaven with
passionate and victorious supplication, 1 that and more than that was the
comparatively youthful Timothy to the more tried and lonely Paul.
1 2 Tim. i. 18, ova- if '^t