[7] F. R. Havergal.
[8] Cowper, Conversation.
THE APOSTLE'S POSITION AND CIRCUMSTANCES
"Yield to the Lord, with simple heart,
All that thou hast and all thou art,
Renounce all strength but strength divine,
And peace shall be for ever thine."
MME DE LA MOTHE GUYON, translated by COWPER.
CHAPTER III
THE APOSTLE'S POSITION AND CIRCUMSTANCES
PHILIPPIANS i. 12-20
Disloyal "brethren"—Interest of the paragraph—The victory of patience—The Praetorian sentinel—Separatism, and how it was met—St Paul's secret—His "earnest expectation"—"Christ magnified"—"In my body"
St Paul has spoken his affectionate greeting to the Philippians, and has opened to them the warm depths of his friendship with them in the Lord. What he feels towards them "in the heart of Christ Jesus," what he prays for them in regard of the growth and fruit of their new life, all has been expressed. It is time now to meet their loving anxieties with some account of his own position, and the circumstances of the mission in the City. Through this passage let us follow him now; we shall find that the quiet picture, full of strong human interest in its details, is suffused all over with the glory of the presence and the peace of Christ.
Ver. 12. +Now I wish you to know, brethren, that my position and circumstances+ (ta kat eme, "the things related to me") +have come out+, have resulted, +rather for the progress of the Gospel+ message and enter-