r to 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. Paul, 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 slightest 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 supposition, either that he requested him to go and bear a letter to
Colosse, or that Onesimus desired to go, and that Paul sent him
agreeably to his request. Compare Phil. ii. 25: 'Yet I suppose it
necessary _to send_ Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labor,'
etc.; Col. iv. 7, 8: 'All my estate shall Tychicus declare unto you, who
is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister 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, the 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 willing 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 sending 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 proposes to send Timothy, not
so soon as Timothy shoul