shipper of
Apollo. Her Christian associations were with the Church at Cenchrea,
the port of Corinth, of which little Christian community nothing
further is known. But if we take into account the hideous
immoralities of Corinth, we shall deem it probable that the port,
with its shifting maritime population, was, like most seaports, a
soil in which goodness was hard put to it to grow, and a church had
much against which to struggle. To be a Christian at Cenchrea can
have been no light task. Travellers in Egypt are told that Port Said
is the wickedest place on the face of the earth; and in Phoebe's home
there would be a like drift of disreputables of both sexes and of all
nationalities. It was fitting that one good woman should be recorded
as redeeming womanhood there. We learn of her that she was a
'servant,' or, as the margin preferably reads, a 'deaconess of the
Church which is at Cenchrea'; and in that capacity, by gentle
ministrations and the exhibition of purity and patient love, as well
as by the gracious administration of material help, had been a
'succourer of many.' There is a whole world of unmentioned kindnesses
and a life of self-devotion hidden away under these few words.
Possibly the succour which she administered was her own gift. She may
have been rich and influential, or perhaps she but distributed the
Church's bounty; but in any case the gift was sweetened by the
giver's hand, and the succour was the impartation of a woman's
sympathy more than the bestowment of a donor's gift. Sometime or
other, and somehow or other, she had had the honour and joy of
helping Paul, and no doubt that opportunity would be to her a crown
of service. She was now on the point of taking the long journey to
Rome on her own business, and the Apostle bespeaks for her help from
the Roman Church 'in whatsoever matter she may have need of you,' as
if she had some difficult affair on hand, and had no other friends in
the city. Possibly then she was a widow, and perhaps had had some
lawsuit or business with government authorities, with whom a word
from some of her brethren in Rome might stand her in good stead.
Apparently she was the bearer of this epistle, which would give her a
standing at once in the Roman Church, and she came among them with a
halo round her from the whole-hearted commendation of the Apostle.

Mark the lessons from this little picture.

We note first the remarkable illustration here given of the power of
the new