he meeting. He was evidently a man of
distinction in that community, as we infer from the large number of
persons in his household, (ver. 2,) his liberality to poor Christians,
(ver. 5, 7,) and from the marked respect and deference paid to him by
the Apostle. He also had received a letter from the Apostle, and he asks
leave to read it.

"He then tells them that Onesimus is present; that he has been sent back
by the Apostle Paul, and with the full, cordial consent of Onesimus
himself. He would ask permission for Onesimus to say a few words.

"'Come hither,' says the pastor, 'and tell us what the Lord hath done
for thee, and how he hath had mercy on thee.'

"'Let me wash the saints' feet,' says Onesimus, 'but I am not worthy to
teach in the church.'

"He proceeds to tell them, in full, of his escape from his master, after
robbing him; of his meeting the Apostle at Rome; of his conversion; of
his voluntary return to spend his days, if such be the will of God, as
the servant of Philemon.

"The account of these proceedings reaches Laodicea, not far distant, to
which place Paul had also sent a letter, and the Colossians, agreeably
to the Apostle's charge, exchange letters, and no doubt the letter to
Philemon is also read to the Church which is at Laodicea.

"Whereupon, we will suppose, a controversy at once springs up. There had
already appeared in this region of Phrygia, as we infer from the Epistle
to the Colossians, serious errors, among them a kind of angel worship
and asceticism, or abstinence from things lawful, and a state of things
called Gnosis, (Eng. knowledge,) or Gnosticism, a pervading spirit of
worldly wisdom, science, philosophy, which treated the simplicity which
was in Christ as too rudimental and plain for the human mind, and
therefore sought to furnish it with speculations and mysticism, to
gratify its desires for a more extensive spiritual knowledge than it
seemed to many of them was provided for by Christianity.

"Among the speculations and theories of those days, we will suppose that
the idea began to prevail that Christianity was inconsistent with
holding a fellow-being in bondage. A motion is made in the Laodicean
Church that a committee be appointed to confer with the Colossian Church
on the return of Onesimus into slavery. Such a motion would have found
ready advocates in the Church at Laodicea, if, as at a later day, they
were 'neither cold nor hot' in religion; in which case any collateral