y his "bonds
in Christ" (i. 13, 14) goes well with the hypothesis of his recent
arrival as a prisoner for Christ's sake, but not with that of his
having been long present on the scene. The other is that the great
doctrinal passage (iii. 4-9), where he repudiates "his own
righteousness" and commits himself to "the righteousness which is of
God by faith," is evidently akin to the group of Epistles to which
Romans belongs; and that it seems more likely that the divine Inspirer,
in His order of revelation, led His servant so to write while the
occasion for the writing of Romans was still comparatively recent, than
long after, when the different (though kindred) sides of saving truth
dealt with in Ephesians and Colossians had become prominent in his
teaching. With reason, I think, Lightfoot "cannot attach any weight"
to the argument from Epaphroditus' visit, which may well have been
planned at Philippi before St Paul actually reached Rome, and planned
thus early on purpose, so as to reach him promptly there with the
collected gifts of love. Nor are the allusions to a probable impending
crisis in the trial before the Emperor important for the date; for
quite early in the imprisonment it may well have seemed likely that the
case would be soon decided. As for the comparatively advanced state of
Roman Christianity, the Epistle to the Romans is evidence enough that a
vigorous and extensive mission-church, however it was founded, existed
at Rome some years before St Paul arrived.

I will venture then to take it for granted that it was some time in
A.D. 61, or at latest early in A.D. 62, that Epaphroditus came, with
his collection and his reports, and struggled through his illness, and
then prepared to return to Macedonia, carrying this precious Letter
with him. We seem to see the scene as he converses day by day with St
Paul, and as at length he takes his leave, in charge of this Message of
"faith and love." We see a large chamber in one of those huge piles of
building, storey over storey, of which imperial Rome was full. The
window looks perhaps north-westward, up the stream of the Tiber,
towards the distant hills of which Soracte is the most prominent. The
sentinel, perhaps himself a convert to the Lord, sits motionless at a
little distance, chained to the Apostle. The saints pray, converse,
and embrace; and then Epaphroditus descends to set out for Ostia, or
for Puteoli, on his way home to Philippi.

"The grass wit