August 22

I Paul have written it with mine own hand. — Phlm 1:19

This is one of Paul’s prison epistles.

A prison is not an ideal place for usefulness. Yet no years of the apostle’s life were more fruitful of good than when he was a prisoner. He wrote letters to the churches he could not visit, and to individuals he wished to help, and these letters not only carried blessings to those to whom they were first written, but they have been carrying blessings ever since to countless lives.

This letter was written in behalf of a slave, a runaway, who had come under Paul’s influence at Rome and had been converted. The slave was going back to his old master, and the apostle wrote a letter to bespeak the man’s kindly interest in his slave.

We may write letters of congratulations when one has had some happiness; some new honor conferred, or has won some new success. We may be write letters of sympathy to the sorrowing, or cheer to the discouraged, of thanks for kindness.

It is good to have a pen with a golden nib, and to use it for the Master.