"We shall see hereafter that these labours of the imprisoned Confessor were not fruitless; in his own words, he 'begot many children in his chains.' Meanwhile, he had a wider sphere of action than even the metropolis of the world. Not only 'the crowd which pressed upon him daily,' but also 'the care of all the churches' demanded his constant vigilance and exertion.... To enable him to maintain this superintendence, he manifestly needed many faithful messengers; men who (as he says of one of them) 'rendered him profitable service'; and by some of whom he seems to have been constantly accompanied, wheresoever he went. Accordingly we find him, during this Roman imprisonment, surrounded by many of his oldest and most valued attendants. Luke, his fellow-traveller, remained with him during his bondage; Timotheus, his beloved son in the faith, ministered to him at Rome, as he had done in Asia, in Macedonia, and in Achaia. Tychicus, who had formerly borne him company from Corinth to Ephesus, is now at hand to carry his letters to the shores which they had visited together. But there are two names amongst his Roman companions which excite a peculiar interest, though from opposite reasons,--the names of Demas and of Mark. The latter, when last we heard of him, was the unhappy cause of the separation of Barnabas and Paul. He was rejected by Paul, as unworthy to attend him, because he had previously abandoned the work of the Gospel out of timidity or indolence. It is delightful to find him now ministering obediently to the very Apostle who had then repudiated his services; still more to know that he persevered in this fidelity even to the end, and was sent for by St. Paul to cheer his dying hours. Demas, on the other hand, is now a faithful 'fellow-labourer' of the Apostle but in a few years we shall find that he had 'forsaken' him, having 'loved this present world.' "Amongst the rest of St. Paul's companions at this time, there were two whom he distinguishes by the honourable title of his 'fellow-prisoners.' One of these is Aristarchus, the other Epaphras. With regard to the former, we know that he was a Macedonian of Thessalonica, one of 'Paul's companions in travel,' whose life was endangered by the mob at Ephesus, and who embarked with St. Paul at Cæsarea when he set sail for Rome. The other, Epaphras, was a Colossian, who must not be identified with the Philippian Epaphroditus, another of St. Paul's fellow-labourers during this time. It is not easy to say in what exact sense these two disciples were peculiarly _fellow-prisoners_ of St. Paul. Perhaps it only implies that they dwelt in his house, which was also his prison.