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Sketches from the Life of Paul
the burdens of the faithful workers, and at the same time separate
themselves from God, and forfeit the reward they might have won.
All who will work earnestly and disinterestedly, in his love and fear,
God will make co-laborers with himself. Christ has hired them at the
price of his own blood, the pledge of an eternal weight of glory. Of
every one of his followers he requires efforts that shall in some degree
correspond with the price paid and the infinite reward offered.
Among the disciples who ministered to Paul at Rome was Ones-
imus, a fugitive slave from the city of Colosse. He belonged to a
Christian named Philemon, a member of the Colossian church. But
he had robbed his master and fled to Rome. Here this pagan slave,
profligate and unprincipled, was reached by the truths of the gospel.
He had seen and heard Paul at Ephesus, and now, in the providence of
God, he met him again in Rome. In the kindness of his heart, the apos-
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tle sought to relieve the poverty and distress of the wretched fugitive,
and then endeavored to shed the light of truth into his darkened mind.
Onesimus listened attentively to the words of life which he had once
despised, and was converted to the faith of Christ. He now confessed
his sin against his master, and gratefully accepted the counsel of the
apostle.
He had endeared himself to Paul by his piety, meekness, and sin-
cerity, no less than by his tender care for the apostle’s comfort and
his zeal to promote the work of the gospel. Paul saw in him traits of
character that would render him a useful helper in missionary labor,
and he would gladly have kept him at Rome. But he would not do
this without the full consent of Philemon. He therefore decided that
Onesimus should at once return to his master, and promised to hold
himself responsible for the sum of which Philemon had been robbed.
Being about to despatch Tychicus with letters to various churches of
Asia Minor, he sent Onesimus in his company and under his care.
It was a severe test for this servant to thus deliver himself up to the
master he had wronged; but he had been truly converted, and, painful
as it was, he did not shrink from this duty.
Paul made Onesimus the bearer of a letter to Philemon, in which
he with great delicacy and kindness pleaded the cause of the repentant
slave, and intimated his own wishes concerning him. The letter began
with an affectionate greeting to Philemon as a friend and fellow-
laborer:—