indles.

'For my sake they laid down their own necks.' We do not know to what
Paul is referring: perhaps to that tumult in Ephesus, where he
certainly was in danger. But the language seems rather more emphatic
than such danger would warrant. Probably it was at some perilous
juncture of which we know nothing (for we know very little, after
all, of the details of the Apostle's life), in which Aquila and
Priscilla had said, 'Take us and let him go. He can do a great deal
more for God than we can do. We will put our heads on the block, if
he may still live.' That magnanimous self-surrender was a wonderful
token of the passionate admiration and love which the Apostle
inspired, but its deepest motive was love to Christ and not to Paul
only.

Faith in Christ and love to Him ought to turn cowards into heroes, to
destroy thoughts of self, and to make the utmost self-sacrifice
natural, blessed, and easy. We are not called upon to exercise
heroism like Priscilla's and Aquila's, but there is as much heroism
needed for persistently Christian life, in our prosaic daily
circumstances, as has carried many a martyr to the block, and many a
tremulous woman to the pyre. We can all be heroes; and if the love of
Christ is in us, as it should be, we shall all be ready to 'yield
ourselves living sacrifices, which is our reasonable service.'

Long years after, the Apostle, on the further edge of life, looked
back over it all; and, whilst much had become dim, and some trusted
friends had dropped away, like Demas, he saw these two, and waved
them his last greeting before he turned to the executioner--'Salute
Prisca and Aquila.' Paul's Master is not less mindful of His friends'
love, or less eloquent in the praise of their faithfulness, or less
sure to reward them with the crown of glory. 'Whoso confesseth Me
before men, him will I also confess before the angels in heaven.'

TWO HOUSEHOLDS

'... Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household.
11. ... Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus,
which are in the Lord.'--ROMANS xvi. 10, 11.

There does not seem much to be got out of these two sets of
salutations to two households in Rome; but if we look at them with
eyes in our heads, and some sympathy in our hearts, I think we shall
get lessons worth the treasuring.

In the first place, here are two sets of people, members of two
different households, and that means mainly, if not exclusively,
slaves. In the next p