Epaphroditus, and Euodia, and Syntyche, and Clement, and
the saints of Caesar's household, have so long beheld the Lord. In
that land of light we, who have believed, shall rest with them. We
shall know them. In the long leisure of endless life we shall enjoy
their company, amidst the multitudinous congregation of the just made
perfect. There we shall understand how, under the infinite differences
of our earthly conditions, the one Hand led them and led us along the
one way of salvation to the one end of everlasting life. Above all, we
there, with them, shall know JESUS CHRIST, even as we are known. There
we, with them, shall realize how to Him, and to Him alone, from all His
servants, from Hebrew, and Roman, and Philippian, and Englishman, and
African, from ancients and moderns, wise and ignorant, of all kinds and
times, was due the whole praise of their whole salvation.

'Conflicts and trials done
His glory they behold,
Where JESUS and His flock are one,
One Shepherd and one fold.'"

[1] _Anethalete to huper emou phronein_. Literally, "_you shot forth_
(as a branch) _thought in my behalf_." (The English perfect best
represents this aorist.) The phrase is unmistakably pictorial,
poetical. If I read it aright, it is touched with _a smile_ of gentle
pleasantry; the warm heart comes out in a not undesigned quaintness of
expression.

[2] _tapeinousthai_ is used in classical Greek of the falling of a
river in drought. Perhaps such an image is present in the language
here.

[3] _Memuemai_: the verb whose root is that of _mysterion_,
_mysterium_, "mystery." In the Greek world "mysteries" were systems of
religious belief and practice derived, perhaps, from pre-Hellenic
times, and jealously guarded from common knowledge by their votaries.
Admission into their secrets, as into those of Freemasonry now, was
sought by people of all kinds, from Roman consuls and emperors
downwards; with the special hope of freedom from evil in this life and
the next. St Paul's use of this phenomenon to supply language for
Christian experience is beautifully suggestive. The knowledge of the
peace of God is indeed an _open_ secret, open to "whosoever will"
"learn of Him." But it is a secret, a mystery, none the less.

[4] The word _Christo_ should be omitted from the reading, though
perfectly right as a note or explanation.--The _iochus_ is the
forth-putting of the _dunamis_--the _action_ of the _faculty_. He