PaUL: As body and soul are Rome and my doctrine, for I go thither to reconcile the factious, but preach a religion that will make the empire the world. Aquila and Priscilla, I bid you to Corinth to combat vices that are not so much as named among Pagans, and Apollos, I confide to thee the writing of an Epistle addressed to the Hebrews—thine excellent Greek will obtain for it a fair hearing in Alexandria; and I will only bid thee not to show Jesus too much in time and too little in eternity. And thou, Eunice, wilt return to Lystra to defend my Gospel against false teachers; and thou, Timothy, shalt return with thy mother and await my letters from Rome. There are many others, whose faces rise up dimly, for I am weary beyond any weariness I have known before. There is Phoebe, servant of the Church at Cenchrea, who has laboured much for us, Onesimus and Philemon, Lucius, Jason, Gaius, Erastus, Stephanus, Fortunatus, and many others whose names I cannot speak. But ye know them all, and when ye meet on the roads stop a little while to tell them that I went commending them all unto God's grace, and though your ways may not be the same, go a little way together talking of me. (The company crowd round him, but he puts them aside.) I go alone. (As he reaches the door, sailors are heard singing. He turns.) I would speak alone with Eunice, and do ye others go to tell them on board that I will be with them anon.
(Exeunt Priscilla, Aquila, Apollos, and Timothy.)
Not with the words of parting friends can I part with thee, Eunice, nor with the words that I would address to my son, Timothy. Our bonds are different and the stronger for that we ourselves have willed them and accepted our lives as fated and dedicate to the Lord Jesus from the first day in Lystra. . . . But I see tears on thine eyelids; one has dropped from thy chin into thy bosom; tears of thankfulness I would believe them to be for the fulfilment of things. My heart breaks. . . . Make not this parting harder for me, but try to remember that each has his work, thou in Lystra, I in Rome, and that each will be rewarded according to his doing of it. We are always alone in this world and should not seek a oneness that life has not for giving. Now it's I who am weeping. I know not whence these tears come nor whether their source is joy or grief.
