ing, the Passover time) in A.D. 58; this last may have been a
visit arranged on purpose (in Lightfoot's words: _Philippians_, p. 60)
"that he might keep the Paschal feast with his beloved converts." No
doubt, besides these personal visits, Philippi was kept in contact with
its Missionary between A.D. 52 and A.D. 61 by messages and by the
occasional visits of the Apostle's faithful helpers. But on the whole
the Church would seem in a very large degree to have been left to its
own charge. And what do we find as the issue when we come to the
Epistle? A community large enough to need a _staff_ of Christian
ministers, "bishops and deacons," "overseers and working-helpers"
(_episkopoi kai diakonoi_); full of love and good works; affectionately
mindful of St Paul in the way of practical assistance; and apparently
shewing, as their almost only visible defect or danger, a tendency to
separate somewhat into sections or cliques--a trouble which in itself
indicates a considerable society. If we may (as we may, looking at the
ordinary facts of human nature) at all estimate the calibre of
Philippian Christianity by the tone in which the Apostle addresses the
Philippians, we gather that on the whole it was a high tone, at once
decided and tender, affectionate and mature. The converts were capable
of responding to a deep doctrinal teaching, and also to the simplest
appeals of love. Such was the triumph of the mysterious Gospel over
place, and circumstance, and character; the lily flowered at its
fairest among the thorns; grace shone and triumphed in the immediate
presence of its "adversaries."

But the evil we indicated just above was present in the otherwise happy
scene. When Epaphroditus crossed the mountains and the sea to carry a
generous gift of money to St Paul, risking his life (ii. 27) somehow by
dangerous sickness in the effort, he had to carry also news of
differences and heart-burnings, which could not but cloud the Apostle's
loving joy. The envoy found it needful to speak also of the emissaries
of error who at Philippi, as everywhere, were troubling the faith and
hope of the believers; "turning the grace of God into lasciviousness";
professing a lofty spirituality, and worshipping their appetites all
the while. And side by side with them, apparently, might be found
Pharisaic disputants of an older type (iii. 3, 18, etc.).

Such was the report with which Epaphroditus found his way from
Macedonia to Rome. Where, i