EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPl'lANS. 143 



ye sent once and again unto my necessity." Now with this 

 exposition of the passage compare 2 Cor. 11 :8, 9: "[ 

 robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you ser- 

 vice. And when I was present with you, and wanted, I 

 was chargeable to no man ; for that which was lacking to 

 me the brethren which came from Macedonia suppHed." 



It, appears from St. Paul's history, as related in the Acts 

 of the Apostles, that upon leaving Macedonia, he passed, 

 after a very short stay at Athens, into Achaia. It appears, 

 secondly, from the quotation out of the epistle to the Corin- 

 thians, that in Achaia he accepted no pecuniary assistance 

 from the converts of that country ; but that he drew a sup- 

 ply for liis wants from the Macedonian Christians. Agree- 

 ably whereunto it appears, in the third place, from the text 

 which is the subject of the present number, that the breth- 

 ren in Philippi, a city of Macedonia, had followed him with 

 their munificence, ore i^yjldw drro 'M.aKEdoviag, when he was 

 departed from Macedonia, that is, when he was come into 

 Achaia. 



The passage under consideration affords another cir- 

 fjumstance of agreement deserving of our notice. The gift 

 alluded to in the epistle to the Philippians is stated to have 

 been made " in the beginning of the gospel." This phrase 

 is most naturally explained to signify the first preaching of 

 the gospel in these parts ; namely, on that side of the ^gean 

 sea. The succors referred to in the epistle to the Corinthi- 

 ans, as received from Macedonia, are stated to have been 

 received by him upon his first visit to the peninsula of 

 Greece. The dates therefore assigned to the donation in 

 the two epistles agree ; yet is the date in one ascertained 

 very incidentally, namely, by tht considerations which fix 

 tlie date of the epistle itself; and in the other, by an ex- 

 pression — " the beginning of the gospel" — much too general 

 to have been used if the text had been penned with any 

 view to the correspondency we are remarking. 



Further, the phrase, "in the beginning cf the gospe!/' 



