AQUILA AND PRISCILLA.

A. D. 52.

THE Church in its very infancy presents us with a melancholy instance of a married pair abusing that intimate union of mind which the holy bond of wedlock ought ever to effect, and combining in an endeavour to elude the Holy Spirit. The punishment of Ananias and Sapphira is equally memorable and awful. But there is also exhibited, in complete contrast to this, the beautiful example of Aquila and Priscilla, whose praise is in the Gospel, as pure and faithful vessels of that blessed Spirit. They were also of one mind, but that mind was bent upon the truth, and the maintenance of God's honour and glory. Their hands, which had been joined by outward rites, were also joined by inward and spiritual affection, and laboured together, as the hands of one man, in the work of the Lord. If the former pair was denounced to destruction, by the chief of the Apostles, this had the thankful blessing of Him who was not a whit behind the very chiefest Apostles.

Aquila was a Jew, of the dispersion, and his family belonged to that numerous division of it which was settled in Pontus, a remote province, whether its distance were estimated from Rome, the capital of the Heathen, or Jerusalem, the capital of the Christian world. It was not, however, so remote as to be

beyond the reach of the Gospel of Christ. The first Epistle of St. Peter is addressed to the Churches of this province among others. But as it could not

have received it before the nearer provinces of Phrygia, Galatia, and Mysia, in which St. Paul planted the first Churches in the course of the same tour, in which he first met with Aquila, he could not have become acquainted with Christianity there. As the scriptural account, not noticing any conversion by St. Paul, seems to imply that he was already a Christian on their first meeting, he must have made his profession at Rome, where the continual conflux from the provinces would establish one of the earliest Churches. Here he was residing with his wife, Priscilla, when Claudius, irritated by the continual tumults of the Jews, expelled the whole body from Rome. It was a great hardship to the Jewish Christians, who were guiltless of the excesses of their countrymen, to be involved in their punishment, but had their distinction been ascertained, their misfortune would have been much more serious, and Nero would not have been the first shedder of Christian blood. Having suffered the losses which a speedy and compulsory removal from the spot of their occupation always occasions to persons engaged in trade, they arrived at Corinth, at the very time that St. Paul was preaching, during his first visit to Greece. On coming here he fell in with them. They had once more settled themselves, and were exercising their trade of tent-making, which was neither so necessarily connected with war as our customs lead us to imagine, nor a mark of inferior rank in society, since every Jew was commanded to

exercise some trade. This readily introduced them to St. Paul, who had himself been brought up to that trade. He took up his abode, and worked together with them. They were thus unconsciously rendering an important service to his ministry, enabling him to earn his livelihood with his own hands, of which, in after times, he found it useful to remind the Corinthians.

So much did they recommend themselves to the Apostle by the zeal and diligence with which they shared in his heavenly work no less than in his earthly, that when, after the stay of a year and a half, he removed thence to Ephesus, he took them with him, as useful to the ministry. Nor did they disappoint his expectations. There is left on record an instance of the efficiency of their labours. While he was absent on a tour through Syria, Galatia, and Phrygia, an Alexandrine Jew, named Apollos, a man of great eloquence, and well-read in Jewish Scripture, arrived at Ephesus. He preached with great effect in the synagogue, and announced with equal fervour and accuracy, the tidings of the kingdom of Heaven, as far as his knowledge went. But this was only so much as he had received from John the Baptist, or his disciples, of whom he had been a follower. Aquila and Priscilla undertook to instruct him in the full knowledge of the Gospel, and so well did they teach, and so well did he repay their labour, that he obtained the confidence of the brethren, who, on his departure for Corinth, recommended him to that Church. There his ministry was discharged with great energy and success. St. Luke and St. Paul bear ample testimony to it.

The measure of Claudius was too severe to be lasting, and Rome was again open to the Jews. Among those who took advantage of this occasion were Aquila and Priscilla, who returned to the Church there, recommended not only by the memory of their former conduct there, but also by the praises of the Churches of Corinth and Ephesus, and above all, by the express praises of Paul. Their banishment had been the means of spreading the Word of God, and the loss of their temporal home, had been the gain of a spiritual home to very many among the Heathen. Thus they brought with them a great increase of influence and esteem. This, added to the great convenience afforded by the large chamber in their residence, which the nature of their manufacture required, caused the Church to assemble at their house as its acknowledged place of meeting. For similar reasons they had enjoyed the same high privilege at Ephesus. Truly blessed was such a house, where the Temple of God, not reared with hands, was fixed holy, indeed, their home, where the infant Church of Rome, as yet pure, meek, and gentle as the babe, set up her dwelling-place. In that city where now the proud dome of St. Peter's covers a splendid and princely train, gives effect to a gorgeous ceremonial, and echoes to strains of studied harmony, the naked rafters of the upper chamber of the house of Aquila and Priscilla rose over a congregation as poor and simple as it was sincere and godly, and vibrated with a hymn of the plain melody of the heart. For such a congregation, alas! we may now in vain search not Rome only, but the whole Christian world. For it was brought together

not only by no worldly motive, but in opposition to all worldly motive: not to ensure peace with man, but to obtain peace with God: not in acquiescence with established customs, but in hazardous violation of them. Every prayer had either its prompting or its answer in the heart, and its hymns were as much nearer to the song of the Angelic host, heard by the shepherds, in resemblance of heavenly-minded sincerity, as they were in point of time, compared with later divine songs.

Amid this pure and spiritual enjoyment they must have often turned back a look of affectionate remembrance on St. Paul, whom they had left at Ephesus, and have longed to show him the prosperous course of the Word of God in the capital. With what delight, therefore, would they hear his Epistle to their Church, in which he announced his determination of shortly visiting it; and with what deep satisfaction. and thankfulness of love would their hearts overflow, when they found their own names placed at the very head of the list of persons to whom he sent his salutations. "Greet (are his words) Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Jesus Christ: (who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the Churches of the Gentiles). Likewise greet the Church that is in their house." What a vast hoard of praise is contained within that short parenthetic sentence. The married state is one in which man and woman are least able to undergo persecution. The one party would readily undergo alone what it shrinks from witness

1 Rom. xvi. 3, 4, 5.