[5] Philippesioi: the Greek form represents a Latin Philippenses, by which the residents in the Roman "colony" would call themselves. So Corinthiensis means not a born Corinthian but a settler at Corinth.—Greek tends to represent a Latin syllable -ens by -es: so Klemes, Clemens.
[6] See Acts xvii. 1-15.
[7] On the Egnatian road. He made three stages of the distance; Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessalonica.
[8] Ton karpon ton pleonazonta eis logon hymon. I venture to render these words as above, as a monetary phrase, relating to principal and interest. It is true that karpos is not found used in the sense of interest, for which the regular word is tokos. But it would easily fit into the language of the money-market. And St Chrysostom's comment here seems to show that he, a Greek, understood it thus: horas hoti ekeinois ho karpos tiktetai (tokos).
[9] For osme euodias see Eph. v. 2. The phrase is common in the Septuagint to render the Hebrew "savour of rest," the fume of the altar pictorially represented as smelt by the Deity.
[10] This reference of doxa seems better than that which would connect it only with the eternal future, the glory of heaven, and make the sentence mean that He would hereafter requite them there. He would indeed do so. But the phrase pleroun pasan chreian hardly suggests that thought here.
[11] "Bishop Lightfoot . . . (Philippians, pp. 171-178) has shewn with great fulness of proof that 'the household of Caesar' was a term embracing a vast number of persons, not only in Rome but in the provinces, all of whom were either actual or former slaves of the Emperor, filling every possible description of office more or less domestic. The Bishop illustrates his statements from the . . . burial inscriptions of members of the 'Household' found . . . near Rome. . . . These inscriptions afford a curiously large number of coincidences with the list in Rom. xvi. . . . Amplias, Urbanus, Apelles, Tryphaena, Tryphosa, Patrobas, Philologus. . . . Bishop Lightfoot infers from this whole evidence the great probability that the 'saints' greeted in Rom. xvi. were, on the whole, the same 'saints' who here send greeting from Rome. . . . Their associations and functions, not only in the age of Nero but in the precincts of his court, and probably (for many of them) within the chambers of his palace, give a noble view in passing of the power of grace to triumph over circumstances, and to transfigure life where it seems most impossible" (Note in The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges). See also the writer's commentary on the Ep. to the Romans (Expositor's Bible), pp. 423-425.
[12] Read meta tou pneumatos huon, not m. panton humon.
THE PRAETORIAN AND THE APOSTLE
ACTS xxviii. 16, 31
"Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. . . . preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ."
(THE SOLDIER loquitur.)
Father, the dawn is near! the shield
Of Luna sinks remote and pale
O'er Tiber and the Martial field;
The breeze awakes; the cressets fail:
This livelong night from set of sun
Here have we talk'd: thy task is done.
But yesterday I smil'd or frown'd
To watch thy audience, soon and late,
With scroll and style embattl'd round
In barbarous accents ply debate;
While this would chide, and that would start
Sudden, as sword-struck in the heart.
I laugh'd aside, or, tir'd, withdrew
From the strange sound in waking dreams
To Umbrian hills—the home I knew—
The cottage by Mevania's streams:
'Twas hush'd at length: the guests were flown,
And thou wast left and I alone.
Thou hast forgiven (I know thee now)
The insults of this heathen tongue;
The taunting questions why and how;
The songs (oh madness!) that I sung:
Thou hast forgiv'n the hateful strain
Of dull defiance and disdain.
Thy gaze, thy silence, they compell'd
My own responsive: aw'd I stood
Before thee; soften'd, search'd, and quell'd;
The evil captive to the good:
Half conscious, half entranc'd, I heard
(While the stars mov'd) thy conquering word.
These ears were dull to Grecian speech,
This heart more dull to aught but sin;
Yet the great Spirit bade thee reach,
Wake, change, exalt, the soul within:
I've heard; I know; thy Lord, ev'n He,
JESUS, hath look'd from heaven on me.
Thou saw'st me shake, and (spite of pride)
Weep on thy hand: so stern thy truth:
I own'd the terrors that abide
Dread sequel to a rebel's youth:
But soon I pour'd a happier shower
To learn thy Saviour's dying power.
Ah, speechless, rapt, I bent, to know
Each wonder of that fateful day
When midst thy zeal's terrific glow
He met thee on the Syrian way:
I saw, I felt, the scene: my soul
Drank the new bliss, the new control.
Father, the dawn is risen! the hour
Is near, too near, when from this hand
Thy chain must fall—from yonder tower
Another guard must take my stand:
The City stirs: I go, to meet
The foe, the world, in camp and street;
A Christian—yes, for ever now
A Christian: so our Leader keep
My faltering heart: to Him I bow,
His, whether now I wake or sleep:
In peace, in battle, His:—the day
Breaks in the east: oh, once more pray!
1869.