St. Paul's Companions in Rome, V

ST. PAUL'S COMPANIONS IN ROME, BY COL. R. M. BRYCE-THOMAS. V.— ONESSIMUS. Of all the fellowships of the great Apostle, in Rome, that we read of, the strongest perhaps is the one which was formed between him and the runaway slave Onessimus. In order to understand the depth of degradation in which persons of the latter's condition lived, in those early days, one must realize something of their social status. Slavery was an established fact among pagan nations, and it is believed that such was more especially the case in Phrygia, a country in which it is said the slaves were of the worst sort. Aristotle tells us that a slave was merely "a live chattel," and Seneca wrote that any act was lawful towards a slave. We know that slaves were entirely their masters' property, and that the latter could do with them and their families just what they chose, even to punishing them with death. Dr. Parrar, in describing a slave, says that he was "a thing which had no rights, and towards which there were no duties;" and Mr. Anthony C. Deane in his Friends and Fellow-laborers of St. Paul writes as follows: "Cruelty of the most repulsive kind was viewed as the merely normal and ordinary treatment of a slave, while the precepts of the Rabbis on this point scarcely differed from the laws of paganism." Mr. Deane does not tell us what those precepts were, but one of them was probably that which Dr. Farrar quotes as a teaching of the Rabbis on this point: "It is forbidden to teach a slave the law." Onessimus stood in this position to Philemon who resided at Colossae, the capital of Phrygia. He may not have had such a

296 IMPRoYEMKSr ERA. heavy yoke to bear as many another slave had, for doubtless some masters were more humane than others. We know that there were many cases in which masters had freed their slaves from the degradation of such servitude, and had raised them to positions of considerable trust and confidence; and one cannot suppose that a man like Philemon, who had exhibited the good that was in him by so readily accepting the gospel which Paul preached, would have been otherwise than a kind and considerate master, even while he was still a Pagan and knew nothing of the humanizing influences of Christianity. But notwithstanding this, Onessimus robbed him, and ran away. It was to the city of Rome that he fled, in order the better to conceal himself, and to spend his illgotten gains in some low abyss of infamy. In those days the worst criminals and the scum of many cities and towns found their way, it is said, to Imperial Rome, just as they now do to London or to one of the large modern cities of Europe and of America. It was the place where they could best remain undiscovered, and at the same time find opportunities of enjoying, in their own way, and with a certain amount of impunity, the vicious lives to which they were addicted. It is not pleasant to think of what might have been the fate of Onessimus had his master been a pagan, and he himself caught and returned to that master. Mr. Deane says that quite a normal punishment would have been crucifixion, but that in any case the slave would be put to torture and branded as a run-away with a red hot iron. These two extremes — if I may so term Paul and Onessimus — met in some unknown way in Rome, or to put it in Dr. Macduff's words, "the pure and noble minded Paul confronted the debased Onessimus." I may here note, in digression, that this fugitive slave of Philemon possessed a most inappropriate name, Onessimus meaning "beneficial."' He was quite the reverse of that, at the time that he committed the crime which deserved a felon's punishment, although after .vards St. Paul spoke of him in his letter to Philemon as now being "profitable to them both" (verse2). Several reasons have been put forward to account for the meeting of Paul and this slave. We know that the Apostle while at Coloss;e had onverted Philemon, the master; may it not have been thatOnessi-

ST. PAUL'S COMPANIONS IN ROME. 297 mus had there seen Paul and perhaps heard something of the good news that he then preached, and that subsequently, at Rome, either on account of want or through qualms of conscience, he went to the Apostle and made a full confession of his crime? Or may it not have been that Onessimus was met and recognized in Rome by one of Paul's friends who were with him at Colossas, and subsequently induced to go and hear the great preacher in the latter's own hired house near the Ghetto? Dr. Farrar suggests that he might have been met by Epaphras, as Presbyter of Colossi, who would very likely have known him as Philemon's slave, or that perhaps Onessimus himself had been present at some of those daily addresses by Paul in the school of Tyrannus, and had there been touched in his heart. But whatever may have been the cause that brought thes° two men face to face, we are quite sure that Onessimus' conhuence in the sympathy and mercy of Paul were in no way misplaced. Paul met him kindly, spoke to him of the great truths of the gospel, taught him what musi have been a new revelation to him; namely, that God was the Father of all men and no respecter of persons, that in his sight the slave was as acceptable as the master, and that consequently he (the slave), although guilty of a heinous offense, need in no way despair, as there was a salvation for him as well as for all others through the atoning work of Jesus Christ, if he would but believe, repent, and obey the laws of the gospel. The result was that Onessimus was converted and baptized, and became to the Apostle "a son whom he had begotten in his bonds," (Philem. 10), "a brother beloved," (Philem. 16) and one who was "profitable to him" (Philem. 11). Here we find an instance of the power of the gospel, not only in reclaiming one who formerly was depraved and worthless, but also in linking together and establishing in the bonds of true fellowship and love two such opposite characters as the intelligent, high minded, and conscientious Apostle, and the degraded and criminal slave. AH that was best in Onessimus came uppermost when he was brought into contact with Paul and his teachings, and thus he became not only a reformed character, but also a fellow-laborer with the great Apostle himself. In this letter to Philemon we can see the beauty of Paul's nature, his perfect unselfishness, and his deference to the rights

298 IMPROVEMENT ERA. of others. Notwithstanding that he could ill spare this son newly begotten in his bonds, he yet realized that Onessimus belonged to Philemon entirely, and more than this, that Onessimus was his master's debtor to the extent of the amount of which he had robbed him, and so he decided not to retain him any longer with him at Rome, but to send him back to his master at Colossae at once. Mr. Deane thinks that Christian as he was, Philemon might perhaps have punished his dishonest slave with severity, for he might well have doubted the sincerity of his professed conversion, so Paul, in order to prevent any such result, wrote him that wonderful letter of his, in "his own hand" (Philem. 19), in which he begged him to receive back Onessimus "not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved" (Philem. 16). Much has been written in respect to this letter, in which St. Paul undertook.to intercede for this reclaimed outcast, and it has not unfrequently been compared in its elegance and grace with a similar letter written by the younger Pliny to his friend Sabinarius, on behalf of an offending freed man. The two letters are on an identical subject, and writers have drawn various comparisons between them, among which those of Dr. Farrar appear to me to be very much to the point. A translation of Pliny's letter will be found in Excursus 5 in Vol. 2 of Farrar's Life and Works of St. Paul. How Onessimus fared when he met his master Philemon we have no means of knowing, but doubtless St. Paul was fully persuaded that the latter, of whose "love and faith towards the Lord Jesus and towards all Saints" he had heard so much, (Philem. 5) would, on receiving his letter, pardon his erring but penitent slave? and extend towards him every Christian kindness and clemency. We have no further exact knowledge of the subsequent life of Onessimus, nor of his death, but in Dr. Smith's Bible Dictionary, we find as follows: "In the epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians, A. D. 107, he commends Onessimus, their Bishop, for his singular charity. But it seems doubtful if this overseer of the church of Ephesuscan be identified with St. Paul's convert and fellow-laborer- Other traditions speak of him as ordained bishop of Bersea, in Macedonia, others of his having suffered martyrdom in Rome." I do not here propose to enter into any lengthy dissertation on the subject of slavery. Its horrors are beyond description, and

ST. PAUL'S COMPANIONS IN ROME. 299 the lot of a slave must have been the most unenviable one in the whole world. From Dr. Brewer's Guide to Roman History I have culled the following facts regarding slaves. They were (1) captives of war, (2) many criminals by way of punishment, (3) children of slaves. They were employed on all domestic work, and also as mechanics, artizans, laborers, and even sometimes as teachers and clerks, etc. The master could kill, or sell, or flog his slaves at his will. Slaves could never legally marry, nor acquire property that did not belong to their master. No wages were allowed to them, but the Roman law enjoined every master to allow his slave one pound of wheat or of some other grain per day, and a little oil or salt. On certain festivals they were to have a small quantity of fruit and a little wine. Under the old Roman kings, slaves could not acquire property in Rome, but after they were employed in offices of trust their, masters often allowed them as an act of grace a portion of their gains. This allowance was termed the slaves peculium, with which many subsequently purchased their freedom. In the days of Paul the system of slavery was probably at its worst, and it has been a diffculty with some persons to reconcile the face of Paul being a great Christian teacher, with that of his sending Onessimus back to his condition of slavery, nor do they understand how a Christian man like Philemon, for whose love and faith the Apostle thanked God, (Philem. 4: 5) could countenance such a system at all. We must not forget that Christianity, unlike Mohammedanism, was not in its nature a revolutionary institution. No doubt slavery was entirely opposed to the law of brotherhood, so strongly advocated both by our Lord and his disciples, but we find neither him nor them at any time leading any direct attack upon, nor antagonizing themselves against, social institutions and the established order of things as thev found them. The elevating and reforming influences of Christianity had to work from within, and even then very gradually. A crusade against slavery would have inflamed the mind of the populace, raised the opposition of the authorities and of the upper classes, and brought on a servile war with its train of horrors worse than those of slavery itself. But Paul had no such purpose in view; he knew that in God's own time the light of Christianity would illumine the darkness then

300 IMPROVEMENT ERA. pervading the earth, and that although the accomplishing of this work might take a very long time, it would eventually bring about that great law of brotherhood which Christ himself proclaimed. So we find him writing to the Corinthians: "Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant? (slave,) care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather" (I Cor. 7: 20, 21). See also his instructions to servants (slaves) and masters in Ephesians 7: 5-9; Colossians 3: 22; I Timothy 6:1; and Titus 11: 9. St. Peter also taught the duty of subjection of servants (slaves) to masters (I Peter 2: 18). Mr. Deane, in lifting up a warning voice to social reformers of today, calls upon them to remember that the great work of Christianity was to change character, so that in response to the demands of the new inner character, outward institutions would be altered. He adds: "But the only outward reform of any value is that which follows the inward change of character; in other words, our business is to make men more truly the disciples of Christ, and then, not as the result of strife and revolution, but swept upon us silently and irresistibly by a great wave of Christian love, the social reforms will come." History informs us that after some years the benevolent and accomplished Hadrian, the successor of Trajan as Emperor of Rome in A. D. 117, made a humane law forbidding masters to kill their slaves, and also forbidding the carrying out of the ruthless law that all the slaves of a master should be tortured and put to death when the master himself was found killed in his own house. Dr. Farrar quotes a terrible instance of this law being carried out less than two years before Paul wrote his letter to Philemon. A Prefect of Rome named Pedanius Secundus had been murdered by a slave under circumstances of great infamy that characterized that age, and in spite of the pity of the people, the senate carried out the old barbarous law re-established by the Silanian decree under Augustus, and the entire "familia" of slaves composed of four hundred human beings of every age and of both sexes were slaughtered. Subsequently, Constantine the Great (A. D. 306-336)? who shortly before his death had been baptized as a Christian by Eusebius, forbade the crucifixion of slaves altogether, because he would not so dishonor the Cross.

ST. PAUL'S COMPANIONS IN ROME. 301 And thus, as Christianity spread itself, it overthrew among other evils the abhorrent system of slavery without any great sudden social upheaval, and the preaching of Christ and of his gospel has brought about its own victory, for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Truly, as summed up by Dr. Farrar, "The religion of Christ is the Magna Charta of humanity." Pas de Calais, France. [to be continued. J