FIUST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 175 



I also myself shall come shortly." To Philemon, who was a 

 Colossian, he gives this direction : " But withal prepare me 

 also a lodging : for I trust that througli your prayers 1 shall 

 be given unto you." An inspection of the map will show 

 us that Colosse was a city of the Lesser Asia, lying eastward 

 and at no great distance from Ephesus. Philippi was on 

 ihe other, that is, the western side of the yEgean sea. If 

 the apostle executed his purpose — if, in pursuance of the 

 intention expressed in his letter to Philemon, he came to 

 Colosse soon after he was set at liberty at Rome, it is very 

 improbable that he would omit to visit Ephesus, which lay 

 so near to it, and w^iere he had spent three years of his min- 

 istry. As he was also under a promise to the church of 

 Philippi to see them "shortly," if he passed from Colosse to 

 Philippi, or from Philippi to Colosse, he could hardly avoid 

 taking Ephesus in his way. 



11'. Chap. 5:9: "Let not a widow be taken into the 

 number under threescore years old " 



This accords with the account delivered in the sixth 

 chapter of the Acts : "And in those days, when the number 

 of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring ol 

 the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widowit 

 ivere neglected in the daily ministration.'''' It appears thai 

 from the first formation of the Christian church, provision 

 was made out of the public funds of the society for the indi- 

 gent widoivs who belonged to it. The history, we have 

 seen, distinctly records the existence of such an institution 

 at Jerusalem a few years after our Lord's ascension, and is 

 led to the mention of it very incidentally ; namely, by a dis 

 pute of wdiich it was the occasion, and w^hich produced im. 

 portant consequences to the Christian community The 

 epistle, without being suspected of borrowing from the his 

 tory, refers, briefly indeed, but decisively, to a similar estab- 

 lishment subsisting some years afterwards at Ephesus. This 

 agreement indicates that both writings were founded upon 

 teal circumstances 



