HOMILY IX.] HOMILIES ON PHILIPPIANS. 225 own, or, perhaps, that is your Teacher. 1 Again he adds many things concerning his love, in saying, Ver. 26, 27. "Since he longed after you all, and was sore troubled, because ye had heard that he was sick. For indeed he was sick nigh unto death : but God had mercy on him ; and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow." Here he aims at a farther point, making it manifest, that Epaphroditus too was well aware, how he was beloved of them. And this is no light thing toward loving. You know how he was sick, he says ; and he grieved that on his recovery he did not see you, and free you from the grief ye had by reason of his sickness. Here too he gives another reason for sending so late to them, not from any remissness, but he kept Timothy because he had no one else, (for, as he had written, he had "no one likeminded,") and Epaphroditus because of his sickness. He then shows that this was a long sickness, and had consumed much time, by adding, " for he was sick nigh unto death." You see how anx ious Paul is to cut off from his disciples all occasion of slighting or contempt, and every suspicion that his not coming was because he despised them. For nothing will have such power to draw a disciple toward one, as the per suasion that his superior cares for him, and that he is full of heaviness on his account, for this is the part of exceeding love. Because " ye have heard," he says, " that he was sick ; for he was sick nigh unto death." And that I am not making an excuse, hear what follows. " But God had mercy on him." What sayest thou, O heretic? Here it is written, that God s mercy retained and brought back again him who was on the point of departure. And yet if the world is evil, it is no mercy to leave a man in the evil. Our answer to the heretic is easy, but what shall we say to the Christian? for he perchance will question, and say, " if to depart and to be with Christ is far better," how saith he that he hath obtained mercy? I would ask why the same Apostle says, that "it is more needful to abide with you "? 2 For as it was needful for him, so too for this man, who would hereafter depart to God with more exceeding riches, and greater boldness. Hereafter that would take place, even if it did not now, but the winning souls is at an end for those who have once departed thither. In many places too, Paul speaks according to the common habits of his hearers, and not every where in accordance with his own heavenly wis- 1 Referring to the word translated " Messenger," which is "Apos tle," and may mean " Bishop," as Theodoret clearly takes it here. In 2 Cor. viii. 23, St. Chrys. understands it " messengers " or " dep uties." - [So Field, with most documents. The altered text has " for u," "on your account," as in Phil. i. 24. J. A. B.]yo dom : for he had to speak to men of the world who still feared death. Then he shows how he esteemed Epaphroditus, and thence he gets for him respect, by saying, that his preservation was so useful to himself, that the mercy which had been shown to Epaphroditus reached him also. Moreover, without this the present life is a good ; were it not so, why does Paul rank with punishment untimely deaths? as when he says, " For this cause many are weak and sickly among -you, and not a few sleep" (i Cor. xi. 30) ; for the future life is not (merely) better than an evil state, since (then) it were not good, but better than a good state. " Lest I should have," he says, " sorrow upon sorrow " ; sorrow from his death in addition to that which sprung from his sickness. By this he shows how much he prized Epaphroditus. Ver. 28. " I have sent him therefore the more diligently." What means "more diligently"? It is, without procrastination, without delay, with much speed, having bidden him lay all aside, and to go to you, that he might be freed from heaviness ; for we rejoice not on hearing of the health of those we love, so much as when we see them, and chiefly so when this hap pens contrary to hope, as it was in the case of Epaphroditus. " I have sent him therefore the more dili gently, that when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful." How " less sorrowful " ? Because if ye rejoice, I too rejoice, and he too joys at a pleasure of such sort, and I shall be " less sorrowful." He said not sorrowless, but " less sorrowful," to show that his soul never was free from sorrow : for he who said, " Who is weak, and I am not weak? who ismade to stumble, and I burn not? " (2 Cor. xi. 29), when could such an one be free from sorrow? That is, this despondency I now cast off. Ver. 29. " Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy." " In the Lord " either means spiritually and with much zeal, or rather " in the Lord " means God willing. Receive him in a manner worthy of saints, as saints should be received with all joy. All this he does for their sakes, not for that of his messengers, for greater gain has the doer than the receiver of a good deed. " And such hold in honor," that is, receive him in a manner worthy of saints. Ver. 30. " Because for the work of Christ he came nigh unto death, hazarding his life, to supply that which was lacking in your service towards me." This man had been publicly sent by the city of the Philippians, who had come as minister to Paul, and perchance bringing him some contri-