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Show 200 LIBERTY AND SLA \·ERY. send Onesimus back to his master unless he chose to go." This is very true. But still Onesimus may have chosen to go, just because St. Pa~l, his greatest benefactor and friend, had told him it was his duty to do so. He may have chosen to go, just because the apostle had told him it is the duty of servants not to run away from their masters, but to obey them, and count them worthy of all honor. It is also true, that "there is not the slightest evidence that he compelled him, or even urged him, to go." It is on the other hand, equally true, that there is' not the sHghtest evidence that any thing more than a bare expression of the apostle"s opinion, or a reiteration of his well-known sentiments, was necessary to induce him to return. "The language is just as would have been used," says our author, "on the suppo~ition, either that he requested him to go and bear a letter to Colosse, or that Oncsimus desired to go, and that Paul sent him agreeably to his r~ quest. Compare Phil. ii. 25: 'Yet I suppose 1t necessary to send Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labor,' &c.; Col. iv. 7, 8: '.A.ll my estate shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful mi- ARGUMENT FROM TilE SCRIPTURES. 201 nister and fellow-servant in the Lord: whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate.' But Epaphroditus and Tychicus were not sent against their own will,-nor is there any more reason to think that Onesimus was." Now there is not the least evidence that either Epaphroditus or Tychicus requested the apostle to send them as he did; and, so far as appears from his statements, tho whole thing originated with himself. It is simply said that he sent them. It is true, they were "not sent against their own will,'' for they were ready and wimng to obey his directions. We have good reason, as we have seen, to believe that precisely the same thing was true in regard to the sending of Onesimus. But there is another case of sending which Mr. Barnes has overlooked. It is recorded in the same chapter of the same epistle which speaks of the sencling of Epaphroditus. We shall adduce it, for it is a case directly in point. "But ye know the proof of him, (i.e. of Timothy,) that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel. Him, therefore, I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me.'' Now, here the apostle |
