CHAPTER VI
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THERE were Christians in Rome before the Apostle of the Gentiles brought the Cross to Europe in the autumn of 50 AD, but this was the first great Christian campaign on European soil. The story of the modest soul whose pleading induced St. Paul to cross the Aegean for the first time, ought to have an abiding interest for us. And it is to it we now would turn.
Some miles inland from the northern shore of the Aegean Sea, there was, at the time of which we speak, a town occupying a commanding site on the rocky slopes of a steep hill. To the West lay a broad plain called Drama, through which ran a many-tributaried river. On the East lay a pass through the mountains, leading towards the shores of the Hellespont. Through the town passed a famous Roman road the Via Egnatia which connected Dyrrachium on the Adriatic with the Hellespont. It was probably the greatest artery of travel and commerce in the Roman Empire - this busy thoroughfare which linked the East with the West. The ancient name of the town was Krenides, the place of the streams or fountains. Philip of Macedon, in whose territory it lay, had made it a flourishing place and given it his own name. And in its subsequent history it was Philippi - Philip's town.
When the young Roman Emperor Augustus defeated the revolutionaries Brutus and Cassius on the plains of Drama near by, in the year 42 BC, he settled a number of discharged Italian soldiers here in Philippi, and gave the place the special privileges of a colonia. It seems likely that these discharged army men got certain rights to property and soil. It was now ninety-two years after the battle. The Italian colonists had settled down and some of the families had grown prosperous. There is a strong presumption that the two brothers round whom our story centres were descended from one of these colonists from Italy, and that their family had achieved a comfortable position in the place.
One of the marked features of the life of this town was its interest in religion. The rocks near the ancient site of Philippi are strewn with ruins and relics of religious worship. There are traces of a temple of a Roman god Silvanus - the god of the frontiers - one of the most popular deities of the Roman Imperialistic party. These colonist soldiers of the Emperor probably built it. There are traces of the worship of an Eastern deity - Men. But the chief religion of the district was the worship of Dionysus. In the neighbouring mountains was " the most revered of his sanctuaries." It is a fact full of infinite pathos that the main feature of that religion was a festival in which was enshrined a story or myth of the god dying and rising again from the dead. As it appeared in the mystery religions, the initiates who took part in the rites were supposed to enter into communion with the god and share his dying and resurrection. All over the heathen world in that day the great religious longing was the longing for redemption from the futility and corruption, the essential evil of life. In this as in similar myths of the mystery-faiths, we see the great world stirring in its sleep of paganism, and dreaming uneasy dreams dreams born of its deep desire for a Redeemer. It should awaken no fear in us for the truth of our faith, to be reminded of these. On the contrary. "If," says G. K. Chesterton, "the Christian God really made the human race, would not the human race tend to rumours and perversions of the Christian God? If the centre of our life is a certain fact, would not people far from the centre have a muddled version of that fact? If we are so made that a Son of God must deliver us, is it odd that (pagans) should dream of a Son of God?" Nothing is clearer than their dreaming of His drawing near, and their sense of the need of Him. The poet Aratos, who was educated at Tarsus, the home of St. Paul, lived some generations before this time. It was at the instigation of a Macedonian king that he wrote his great poem. And in it occur these touching lines, from which Paul once quoted a fragment:
Top"All the ways are full of God, All the gathering-places of men, the sea, and harbours, And at every turn we are all in need of God, For we are all of kin to him."
A cult that flourished in Thessaly, the neigbouring province, has a special interest for our story - the worship of Asklepios, the god of healing, the saviour god who called all men to himself. For one of the two brothers round whom our story centres the one we are most interested in - was a man whose heart was full of a deep pity for the multitudes of diseased and broken folk of whom the world around him was so full.
As these two brothers lived and moved in the streets of Philippi, they too must have been filled with all the vague but deep and irrepressible dreams and longings of the human soul which were the special mark of the time. By-and-by their family left the city, and seems, as we shall find reason for thinking, to have settled in a city on the borders between Phrygia and Pisidia. It was a fateful change for them, for soon a new faith was to spread like fire through all the valleys of Phrygia and Asia. Here they met Paul and his companions, and the new faith to which they listened - not a myth, but a great living fact - of One who was indeed a Healer and Saviour, One who died on a Cross and rose again, One who called God His Father, and revealed Him as a God of compassion and pity, longing to rescue all broken and blinded and sin-bound souls - was so exactly the answer to all their hitherto unsatisfied yearnings and questionings, that they were straightway won for Christ. It seems to have been on St. Paul's first missionary journey that all this took place, and indeed they must have been among his earliest converts; for the tour of the island of Cyprus, save for the winning of Sergius Paulus, yielded but a meagre harvest, and this town, well inland on the mainland, was really the first place where the Gentile missionaries halted.
It was not till the second great journey, however, that St. Paul came down to Troas on the Asiatic coast of the Aegean, and gazed out over the island-Strewn waters, towards Europe and towards the country, which was the home of these two men Macedonia. All along the way, as it seems to us, they had been prompting and suggesting that he should think of Europe as a field for his missionary zeal. But here in Troas, it would appear, one of the brothers plucked up courage and, in an interview with St. Paul, pleaded with all the passion of his pitiful heart that he would cross the sea and carry the Cross to his old home.
"And see," he would say, "our city stands on the great Roman highway which leads west and west through this mighty Empire towards the Adriatic, and towards Rome, the centre of the world. What an opportunity opens out before you there. Can you resist the call? And we need you - oh, we need your message bitterly. There are men and women in this city of ours praying to God, lifting up hands blindly to the God they know not, longing for the light. I have seen them, little groups of them a group of women especially, who, I think, must have some acquaintance with your own old Jewish faith, the faith that drew me first when I came to Asia - meeting for prayer in a quiet spot down by the banks of one of the streams, which flows close by the town. Will you not come? Come! Come over and help us!"
And Paul listened, and his heart was stirred. He wondered, ... but could not immediately make up his mind. And then in the night time he had a dream. He saw again the man from Macedonia standing on that distant shore, which seemed to have drawn nearer in his dream, and on his face a look of wistful appeal, his hands outstretched in pleading. He saw the lips move, and he heard him say, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." We can see the friends meet next morning. "Have you made up your mind?" asks the man from Macedonia. And Paul answers smilingly in the affirmative, "Yes, I am coming. I had a dream last night. I saw you stand, and I heard you call. It is the leading of the Spirit of God. I am ready to answer and obey."
And so the momentous decision was made which has meant so much to Europe and to us today. For of all the personalities who have carved their names deepest on the soil of European history, St. Paul ranks higher than Napoleon or even the great Caesar. The short voyage was made across Paul's Rubicon, from Troas to Nicopolis, and then the journey up country to Philippi. And on the day of the Jewish Sabbath the two brothers led the great missionary beyond the town and down by the banks of the stream. And there they found it even as they had said. A little band of women were praying. There were not many Jews in Philippi, and probably no synagogue. But, prompted by some irresistible desire they had been meeting there, praying humbly, yearningly that God would send some one to enlighten them. The scene starts vividly into view: these women engaged in earnest talk and prayer in this secluded place by the stream; and the little band of men approaching, one of them stirred deeply by the sight. And there, by the stream, in the open air, the Cross was uplifted and magnified on European soil by the great missionary of the Gentiles. We can see these women intently listening. We can watch the growing excitement on their faces. We can hear them breaking out at length into exclamations of rapture and joy. And when Paul tells them the story of his dream in Troas, we can hear one of them exclaiming, "It is an answer - an answer to our prayers." And after Paul has finished his address, we can see the leader of that band of women introducing herself to Paul: "I am not a native of Philippi. I am Lydia from Thyatira, in the land where you have been telling the great news. I am not a Jewess; but I used to attend the synagogue in my native town, for I am a seeker after God, and of all the religions, that of the Jews drew me most; for it seemed to be a worship of the one true God. But my heart was never fully satisfied. And now you come, out of the heart of that faith, bearing the very message that all men are yearning for here concerning the Redeemer who died and rose again. Will you not stay with us for a while. I am able to lodge you. I am a trader in the purple cloths for which my city of Thyatira is famed, and I often have the merchants staying with me when they come with their bales. And I employ many of those women whom you see here. Stay, and tell your Good News to this needy town."
And Paul and his friends stayed. And soon the crowds began to draw in to Lydia's house to hear him. And in this house was probably formed the first Christian congregation on European soil. We recall the commotion the new religion made in the town. A woman who was something like a spiritualistic medium of our day - prompted by the men who made money by the messages which she professed to give from the other world, urged on, because this Paul was drawing away the poor, deluded people who were vainly seeking light in this direction - created a scene in the streets, a breach of the peace. And Paul and his fellow-missionary Silas were thrown into prison. And, as they sang praise to God among the criminals in the night-time, the gaoler, who was also a seeker for Redemption, heard them; and there was a commotion, and the doors were flung open; and the gaoler came trembling and cried, "What must I do to be saved?"
It is a wonderfully exciting story, the story of the beginning of Paul's Gospel campaign in Europe. That spot by the riverbank ought to be a sacred spot to us. And it ought to be a sacred house in Christian history, that house of Lydia the purple-seller from Thyatira. From this house, when he came back to it six or seven years later, Paul wrote one if not two of his letters to Corinth. And to this house - or to the church which began in this house - Paul wrote from his prison in Rome, some years later still, that beautiful letter to Philippi. It reads almost like a love-letter, so full is it of affection, and pride, and chivalry, and tender interest, and joy.
This aspect of the romantic story is too well known to call for details. But what about the mystery in which it began - the mystery of the two brothers through whose instrumentality the Cross was brought to Europe?
We turn to the chapter in the book of Acts where the story is told (xvi). We see Paul wandering through Phrygia and Galatia, wondering if he should go next to the province of Asia; but the Spirit said "No." What does that mean? How did the Spirit speak to him? Was it not through human voices urging him to go elsewhere? Then north through Mysia nearer and nearer to the coast that faces Europe. Then he wonders if he should turn away east into Bithynia; but again the Spirit said "No." Was it not the dream of Europe already beginning to take hold of Paul? Then further north he goes into the Troad, and down at last into the seaport of Troas. Then come the words describing his dream. Let us observe them closely. "A man was (there), a certain Macedonian, standing and beckoning him, and saying: 'Cross into Macedonia: succour us.' "
"A man - a certain Macedonian." Vague certainly the words are, but not wholly indefinite, not "a man who seemed from his appearance to be a Macedonian"; not just "a man, an unknown man," but "a certain particular man, a Macedonian." Even if he had stood on the shore and gazed longingly across the waters, he could hardly have seen the coast of Macedonia. And in any case the longing was there to be accounted for, before he had seen the distant world of his dreams. Doubtless he had seen the Macedonian dress on the streets of Troas, but it was not so distinctive that only Macedonians would wear it. No, it was the image of someone Paul had met in waking life. Paul had recognised the figure in his dream. And the writer of the book in using those words indicates that he knew him too, and could name him if he cared. But he did not choose to. Why?
"Now when he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to set out for Macedonia, mutually confirming each other (that is what the word translated. "assuredly gathering" in our Bibles means) that the Lord had called us to preach the Gospel to them."
"We endeavoured to make voyage WE." The word occurs frequently in the book of Acts after this; but this is the first time it meets us unambiguously. The writer of this book is now evidently in the company of Paul. Where had he joined him? We turn back a few pages to the account of Paul's first journey, and there we find that when he was returning home he passed through Antioch, the town on the borders between Pisidia and Phrygia, and he confirmed the souls of the disciples, and exhorted them to continue in the faith, "and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God." (Acts xiv.22). This "we" is not so clearly the sign-mark of the writer of the book; it might be just a bit of Paul's speech reported directly. But surely it is only a hearer who would so report the words. Was it here in Pisidian Antioch that the writer, Luke, first met Paul? Let us go a little further back to the account of Paul's first visit to this city (Acts i.14-52). It is the fullest account of Paul's doings in any of the cities of this journey, and the language is very circumstantial. The writer describes Paul going to the synagogue on the Sabbath and sitting among the audience (.14). We see the rulers sending down the synagogue to where they were sitting, with a message for the strangers (i.15). And we see Paul standing up, contrary to the usual Jewish mode, and beckoning with his hand - a frequently recorded gesture of his - before he began to speak (i.16). The details of the address are full, and many of them are fresh. We are told of the seven nations whom God destroyed in Canaan (i.19), that the period of the judges was 450 years (i.20), and that King Saul reigned forty years over Israel, a fact nowhere recorded in the Old Testament (i.21). But, more important still, many of the phrases have the authentic Pauline ring about them - "repentance," "salvation," "glad tidings," "the promise fulfilled." He tells also of God raising Jesus from the dead, and that "He was seen many days." And finally comes this typically Pauline verse:
"Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses" (38).
This is no address composed by the writer and put into the lips of Paul. It is obviously compiled from actual recollections of what the Apostle said.
But there is one carefully noted feature of the address, which seems to bring us into contact with the reporter himself. We are told that Paul addressed not merely the "men of Israel," but the "God-fearers" (i.16, 26) - the seeking souls among the pagans who had become adherents of the synagogue. And we are informed that Paul said, "to them also was this word of salvation sent." Further, that it was the Gentiles who besought him to stay and speak to them again (i.42). And that when the congregation was broken up, it was not only Jews but many of the "God-fearers" who followed Paul. And we are told of the joy of the Gentiles when Paul finally turned to them.
"They were glad and glorified the word of the LORD; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed" (i.46, 48).
Is not the writer among those rejoicing ones? Is not he among those who believed? Does not that word "as many as were ordained to eternal life" reflect the feelings of this pagan whom the hound of heaven had tracked out in this barbarous land? Like every soul profoundly moved at the time of God's finding of him, he is convinced that it was part of the eternal Purpose of God for him. May it not-be to this town Eusebius refers when he says that "in respect of race, Luke was one of the group of Antiocheans." It was here he was won, though all his subsequent Christian activity lay in other fields.
One other circumstance makes this reading of the story extremely probable. When Paul first reached Antioch he was wretchedly ill, as he tells us himself (Gal.iv.13-15), so ill that outside aid had to be called in. Surely it is this chance, which was no chance but the providential ordering of God for him, that Luke refers to when he speaks of being ordained to eternal life? He was the medical man who was called in to treat the great Apostle, and in his contact with him was strangely stirred by the man's faith. Truly this sickness of Paul's turned out to the glory of God. And if Luke and his brother were won in Antioch of Pisidia, it would be from this point that they became companions of Paul, when he returned on his second great journey that led eventually to Europe. Were they not the men through whom the Spirit spoke, when the evident hand of God guided Paul to Troas?
Back to that point our story has carried us once more. The dream had shown Paul "a man, a certain Macedonian"; and thereafter Luke slips himself in unobtrusively as a member of the party. Let us follow the record of the narrative.
"Setting out then from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the next day to Neapolis, and thence to Philippi."
The swift course of the narrative convinces us that this was their predetermined journey's end for the meantime. Why Philippi? Let the historian himself give his own reason. "... Philippi," he calls the place, "which is the first city of the province of Macedonia, a (Roman) colonia." Now there is no other town in all his writings that the writer troubles to tell us 80 much about. Later, he displays an astonishing accuracy as to the titles by which the Roman guardians of the law styled themselves in this town. And it is not as if he were writing long after the glory of Philippi had passed. He was writing for his own day of a city that every one knew of without any advertisement on his part. Why does he trouble to tell all this about Philippi? "The first city of the district," he calls it, and in that very word the reason begins to be apparent. For we know from other sources, that it was not regarded by everybody as the first town of the district. There was quite a rivalry between Thessalonica, Amphipolis, and Philippi for the pre-eminence. Each was a little jealous of the other. The writer in fact is clearly taking a side in the matter here. He is a partisan. But who would trouble to show his predilection in an unessential matter of this kind except a citizen, jealous for his city's status? The modest Luke, in short, here gives himself away. He was a native of Philippi - he was a Macedonian. And why does he trouble to tell us it was a Roman colony? There are three or four other towns mentioned in the Acts which shared the same dignity Corinth, Lystra, Ptolemais, yes, even Antioch in Pisidia. Yet this is the only one that Luke is careful to remind us about. He was proud of the special privilege of his native city. Luke further betrays himself. Does it not seem as if he himself belonged to a family of Roman origin? The only region indeed in which we find a name like "Lukas" indigenous is the South of Italy; "Lukas" being the shortened Greek form of "Lucanus."
But we are still not at the end of our discoveries. "And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city by a river side, where it was thought there was a place of prayer," the historian goes on. "It was thought." Who thought it? One MS. reads "we thought." Evidently Paul was led out there by these Macedonian friends. Luke had observed this meeting for prayer in by-gone days. Nor is this proof of local familiarity the only one. For when he tells of Paul and Silas being led before the magistrate, he adds in a kind of parenthesis, that the city magistrates were known as the strategoi, that is to say in Latin terms, the praetors, the military town-majors appointed there by Rome. And archaeological investigation has proved his minute accuracy in this as in other details of the life of the town. It all goes to corroborate the view that he was a native of the place.
But still the full tale is not told. The next chapter of his book begins: "Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia they came to Thessalonica." And the sentence betrays the fact that the writer of the book was left behind in Philippi when Paul passed on to visit the other cities of Greece. And we have to turn over a good many pages of the history before we find Luke saying "we" again. Instead of crossing direct from Attica to Asia, Paul had to come back through Macedonia to escape from the toils of malevolent Jews who had intended to make away with him on the voyage. He passed through Philippi; and the writer then carries on the narrative as a companion: "We sailed away from Philippi." This was some five to seven years after Paul's first arrival in the town. So Luke, having won his heart's desire, stayed all that time to confirm the work of Paul in his native city.
Without penetrating further into the evidence afforded by the writer's own narrative, we turn elsewhere to pick up another line of evidence. But we must note first the touching fact that from this time on (56 AD) Luke practically never, except for one short interval, leaves his hero's side. He accompanies him to Jerusalem, keeps watch over his interests during his arrest and imprisonment; follows him to Caesarea, when he is removed there for greater safety; sails with him to Rome; and is his constant companion during nearly all the time of his imprisonment there. The one interval of absence was apparently shortly after their arrival in Rome. For when Paul writes his letter to Philippi, Luke is not mentioned at the end. But when he writes a little later to Colossae, and to his friend Philemon, Luke's greetings are sent as well as his own. Where had Luke gone? Polycarp seems to be aware of more than one letter to Philippi (Polyc. Phil. III.). Is it not likely that Luke conveyed one? When Aristarchus and he left Paul, Aristarchus would have gone to Thessalonica, his native town. It is natural to suppose that Luke went to his. Moreover, Paul had heard of the doings of the Church in Philippi before he wrote. Epaphroditus brought him word. Is it not likely that Luke would have sent a letter by his hands? He came bearing a money gift, which the Philippian Church had sent in concern for his needs. Who would have told them of Paul's needs unless one of the two who had accompanied him to Rome? Then is there no hint in the letter to Philippi of Luke's being amongst them? Whom does Paul call his "true yokefellow"? Luther suggested that it must be the chief presbyter. Certainly he would be the one to receive the letter first. But Luke had been the chief presbyter when the Church was founded, and for a few years thereafter. If he had returned to Philippi would he not just resume his old place? And to whom would Paul appeal to heal the strife, if not to one who had not been a party to the dissension? The probabilities all point to Luke having returned to Philippi. And again the view that Luke belonged to the place is confirmed (Phil.iv.3).
But to build on an argument from silence would be flimsy building if that were all, and so we turn to pursue the other lines of evidence.
Thrice only is Luke named in the New Testament, and never by himself, only by Paul. The latest is probably that reference in the end of the second epistle to Timothy (2 Tim.iv.11) where we have certainly a bit of a genuine letter of Paul's. He is bidding Timothy come to see him as soon as he can, for all his friends have left him. "Only Luke is with me." It is a beautiful testimony - all the sweeter because it is bare statement of factto the character of the man, his constancy, his devotion, his self-effacing loyalty to his hero and friend. Paul's other references to Luke by name are in the letter to Colossae, and the private letter written at the same time to Philemon, one of the leading Christians of that Church in Colossae. "Lucas sends greetings to thee," he writes to Philemon, and in the letter to Colossae he writes: "the doctor Lucas, the (my) well-beloved, greets you." It may only be because Luke was present with him that he adds his greeting, though Luke may have been acquainted with the Church and with Philemon. But it is a noble description to have earned from the great Apostle's lips. It gives us a tender glimpse of the man's kindly and compassionate heart (Philem.24; Col.iv.14).
But this word "doctor" forms the starting-point for our next line of evidence. It is the ground of the conjecture that it was Luke who had been called in, when the Apostle fell ill in Pisidian Antioch. In which case there doubtless mingles the memory of Luke's devoted attentions, in that word which Paul wrote to the Galatians: "I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me" (Gal.iv.15).
Luke was more than a mere professional medical man. He has become such out of sheer love of the calling. The blessed ministry of healing had appealed to the man's noble and pitiful heart. We spoke of the cult of Asklepios, when we began this story, a cult that was well known in the regions of Macedonia and Thessaly - the worship, namely, of the god who was Healer and Saviour. We fancied it must have appealed to this man in his pagan days. Surely we can find an echo of it in the New Testament phrase which, there is reason for believing, is used by Luke alone, "God the Saviour," or "our Saviour God"; and is applied even to Christ. In the Magnificat, Mary says "My spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour " (Luke i.47). And in the pastoral epistles where the phrase recurs, it seems always to be in quotations from a manual, "The Discipline of our Saviour God" (Tit.ii.10), which was probably written by Luke, as a linguistic examination suggests (1 Tim.iv.10; Tit.ii.0,13,iii.4).
In this title "doctor," we begin to see reason for believing Luke to be, not a Jew but a Greek, or a Greco-Roman. For medicine was a profession practised almost exclusively by the Greeks in those days. It is not impossible indeed that Luke had visited the schools of Tarsus, for medicine was studied there. At any rate the Materia Medica of Dioscorides, who had studied at Tarsus, and was a perhaps younger contemporary of Luke, seems to have been read by Luke. The preface to his Gospel has every appearance of being modelled on the preface to Dioscorides' book. The medical language employed by Luke has been abundantly demonstrated in recent years. But we have only to think of his Gospel, and of the special interest he shows in all the cures effected by Jesus, to realise that this was one feature of the Saviour's work on earth which drew him with a special tenderness. His Saviour was indeed the Healer, the Divine Physician of the bodies as well as the souls of men, There is clear evidence too in Luke's writings not only of his medical training, but of his general Greek culture as well. There is no finer or more literary Greek in all the New Testament. He seems indeed to have been somewhat of a poet, for probably those Hymns in the beginning of his Gospel - the Benedictus, the Magnificat the Nunc Dimittis, as well as other quoted fragments from his manual of Discipline (1 Tim.iii.16; 2 Tim.ii.11f.) are compositions of his. Renan thinks that the Gospel, not only in its literary style, but in the special emphasis it lays on Christ's vocation to the poor, the suffering, the outcasts, the aliens from society, is the most beautiful book in the world.
This evidence that he was a Greek would, of itself alone, be inconclusive. But it is clinched by Paul's reference to Luke in the letter to Colossae. When Paul sends greetings (iv.10), he adds at the end of the first group of names, "men of the circumcision." It is only after he has done so that Luke is mentioned. He was a Gentile; and in the reverence for Jewish Law and usage, which can be seen in his writings, we seem to see proof that he was one of the Greek-speaking pagan adherents of the synagogue "the God-fearers."
We now reach the last stage of the evidence which clears up the mystery of the two brothers, with which our story began. Paul's third, or as it is sometimes called, his intermediate letter to the Corinthians, has this interesting piece of information to give us: "I enlisted Titus and deputed a brother (our Bible translation says) to accompany him." Literally it is " the brother"; and the phrase can mean nothing else than "his brother" (2 Cor..18).
And then, ill at ease till he heard the result of this agitated mission to the recalcitrant Church, he went to Macedonia to meet the returning deputies halfway. The news when it came was reassuring, and he wrote, apparently from Philippi, a fourth letter, in which these interesting references occur. Just one thing remained to be donethe making of the collection in Corinth for the poor Christians in Jerusalem. And he intimates to the Corinthians that he is sending Titus to help in that.
"And we are sending along with him the brother, whose praise in the Gospel is in all the churches, and who moreover has been elected by the churches as our fellow-traveller in connection with this grace which is being ministered by us."
Why does Paul not mention the name of this brother? Is it that in his courtesy he is respecting the modesty of the man to whom he is referring? And then that phrase "the brother "it has lost its real significance for us, through our habit of taking it as a term of Christian fellowship. It is often used thus no doubt. But the words here almost certainly mean, as in the previous letter, "his brother," the brother, namely, of Titus. "His praise in the Gospel," Paul refers to. The phrase does not justify us in saying with some that this man was famous among the churches because he had written a Gospel. But does it not mean that the man's knowledge of the Gospel story was beginning to be acknowledged all over the churches, at least in Greece and Macedonia? Here is a man who is already beginning to collect all the details of the great story of redeeming Love that he can lay his hands on; and he has made it his task to go round the Greek churches, teaching them the great facts of the Divine Life, into fellowship with which they had been called. We can at least say this, that if this man had any skill with the pen at all, and if he ever had the leisure to do so, it would be his plain duty to write down the amazing story in some form which would become the permanent possession of the churches (2 Cor.viii.18).
So, when later on in the same letter (ix.3) Paul writes: "I am sending the brothers," and again (ix.5) : "I have thought it necessary to urge the brothers that they would go before unto you," he is referring to the men as brothers by blood. There is a note at the end of our second letter to Corinth that says, "written from Philippi of Macedonia by Titus and Lucas." Whether it refers to the third or fourth letter to Corinth matters not. The note is significant and its authority is not lightly to be set aside. When we turn back to Luke's history of this time, we find words, which corroborate our identification of this modest "brother," who does not like his name mentioned, as Luke. After the letters, Paul went himself by-and-by to Corinth. That he was unaccompanied by Luke is apparent from the historian's language: " When he had gone over those parts (that is, Macedonia) ... he came to Greece." But that Luke accompanied him from Corinth again, when he set out on his journey overland to Jerusalem, is equally apparent from what follows. After mentioning that the other friends had been sent by sea Luke writes; " They went on and waited for us at Troas." The natural inference is that Luke had been sent to Corinth, before the Apostle had proceeded thither.
When we remember all that we now know of the character of the man who wrote the third Gospel and the Acts, one other remarkable fact which we here add, seems to confirm our reading of the story. Luke, who never mentions his own name in the Acts, never once mentions the name of Titus either. Surely the only satisfactory explanation is that Titus was his brother by blood, and that Luke is equally reticent, equally unwilling to thrust even his brother's name into the great story. And yet Titus had played a great and worthy part in the drama. He was among the first Gentile leaders of the Church; was known in Galatia (Gal.ii.1); a familiar figure in Corinth (2 Cor.ii.13, vii.5-7, viii.6.16-19); and he, too, was among Paul's earliest converts (Gal.ii.1, 3; Tit.i.4).
These then were the two brothers who hailed originally from Philippi. And Luke is the modest Macedonian to whose pleading we owe the fact that Paul was induced to cross to European soil, and plant the Cross amid the old spent gods of Greek paganism. To the end of the chapter Luke went on effacing himself. He never married, tradition tells us. He gladly and willingly gave up all public honour in the Church to become the guardian and medical attendant of the old, worn, and physically enfeebled Apostle Paul. His heart seems to have been broken when Paul met his martyr death. It seems likely from the way the book of Acts ends that he meant to write a third volume carrying the story further. But it was never accomplished. Perhaps he never could bring himself to set down the tragedy in cold black and white.
Still, in the leisure time which this devotion of his life to the offices of friendship gave him, he has enriched the world, he has made the Church to all time immeasurably his debtor, by writing the history of these great days of the beginning; and, above all, by writing the sweet and winsome Gospel which bears his name. It contains much that the world would have been infinitely the poorer to have missed. It alone contains the story of the Prodigal Son. Benighted Europe was "the far country" for Luke; and he induced the missionary to the Gentiles to come, bringing the story of the Good Shepherd to that continent.