"MY CLOAK AND MY BOOKS"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22546, 13 April 1935, Page 27

"MY CLOAK AND MY BOOKS"

Written for the Otago Daily Times, By the Rev. D. Gardner Miller.

" I want my warm winter cloak and my books." So wrote the Apostle Paul long ago, when he was in prison and winter was approaching. There is a humorous touch about the request that makes the great apostle more likeable and lovable than we usually credit him with being. And there is something lying at the heart of this request, something so natural and courageous that I covet it for myself and long that others should have it also. But we will have to take a round-about journey to get to it, for, like all things worth while, it is not isolated, but is woven into experience. When Paul made his request he was in prison at Rome for the second time. Five vears previously he had been acquitted and banished from Rome. The banishment was never lifted, and yet here we find him again in the Imperial City and in prison. What is the matter with the man? Could he not leave well alone? No, he couldn't! A fire burned in his bones and he was determined to kindle gospel fires in the city of the On liis way back to Rome he stayed for a little at the city of Troas. What happened there no one really knows. But something must have happened, for he left his cloak and hie books with a Christian friend named Crispus. Had he been suddenly arrested by the authorities' Did his r-ligious enemies make things so hot for him that he deemed it wise, for the sake of the local Christians, to make such a hurried retreat that he had not time to snatch up his cloak and his books? We don't know. But his friend Crispus has had the honour of having his name written in the world's greatest book. Little did Crispus think that tor thousands of years afterwards people would read and know of his kindness to his old teacher and friend. There is not the slightest sign of a hint anywhere that I know of to give us any information about that man Crispus other than that he kept Paul's cloak and books until such times as they were again needed. Little did he think that the next time would be in prison—and it was the last time also. It would take the Apostle some considerable time to get to Rome from Troas, but when he finally got there he was clapped into prison, from which he emerged to meet his death. But, while in prison, he wrote and talked and argued. Possibly the last letter he wrote was the second epistle to Timothy—that timid young minister whom Paul loved as though he were his son —and if it is his last letter it has a significance and a courage and a certainty that are infectious. Winter is coming on and Paul, who, having by this time become aware that there was no likelihood of acquittal, was anxious to make the most of the short winter days, asks his friend Timothy to call in at Troas and get from Crispus his warm winter cloak and his books and bring them to his prison cell.

All the scholars in the world would give a great deal to know the titles and the authors of these books of Paul's. But such knowledge is now beyond human ken. No doubt they were Greek and Roman works written on papyrus, the common writing material of that day. Paul was a learned man, and, while waiting for brother Death to call for him, he would see to it that his body was kept warm (hence the request for his cloak) against the coldness and discomforts of winter in a prison cell. Also he would keep his mind occupied with the friendly intercourse of the great minds of his own day—hence the request for his books. Every lover of books will side with Paul. No outer circumstances can quite master you when you stay your mind on the high matters of literature. In an earlier letter to Timothy, Paul had counselled him to pay attention to reading. No doubt it had a reference to the public reading of scripture, but it would also be a reminder to the young minister that a full mind is the surest preventive of an empty mouth. But I have kept something back. If you turn up the request 2 Timothy 4 and 13) you will notice that he asked for more than his cloak and his books. He asked for his parchments. Those precious parchments were the rolls of the Old Testament written on vellum and were, no doubt, the most prized of all the Apostle's possessions. The cloak for his body, the books for his mind, the parchments for his soul! To pore over those great Old Testament passages that spoke of his Lord would turn, for the aged Apostle, the gloom of the cell into the radiance of a garden. There is no darkness where the Word of Gocl is loved and read. " Bring me my warm winter cloak and my books—and especially my Bible."

Now we have reached that point in our round-about journey when we can ask ourselves what lay at the heart of his request. Surely you can see it now. Is it not just this, that here is a man with death knocking at the door and he is absolutely unafraid. He had peace of mind because his mind was stayed upon God. No panic gripped him because he knew that nobody could pluck him out of God's hands. He believed the verdict of the Roman Court would go against him, but he knew the gates would open for him on the other side.

It is a great thing to be sure of your God. Paul was. Listen to this: " I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me that day." It is that sureness, that certainty, that courage, that absence of panic that I covet for myself—and long that you too should possess—when the darkness comes and death is waiting in the shadows. God grant that our faith fail not!