outpouring of the apostle's feelings towards a Church whose hearty reception of the Gospel was to him a matter of constant gratitude to God (i. 2-6), from which he had been reluctantly separated (ii. 17; iii. 1, 2), whose reputation had already spread far and wide (i. 7-10), and of whose patience and constancy he had received a gratifying report from Timothy (iii. 6-9). It contains also a vindication of his own character from the aspersions of the Jews, who seem to have put a bad construction on his sudden departure from the city. In refutation of these calumnies Paul appeals to the experience his converts had of his life and conduct while he was with them, and to the salutary effects of his preaching (ii.) He prays that God would grant him a fulfilment of the desire, which he feels intensely, to revisit them for the perfecting of their faith, and that meanwhile their spiritual life may be developed and strengthened (ii. 10-13). With this view he exhorts them (iv.) to the cultivation of certain virtues-purity (vv. 1-8), brotherly love (vv. 9-10), industry (vv. 11-12)—which they were in danger of neglecting.

The characteristic feature of this epistle, however, as of that which follows, is the prominence it gives to Christ's Second Coming. This had been a main theme of Paul's preaching when he was in Thessalonica (i. 10; ii. 12; cf. Acts xvii. 7), and it had so taken possession of his hearers that the bereavements they had suffered by the death of relatives since the apostle left them, were chiefly mourned because they thought the departed friends would have no share in the glory of the Saviour's Advent. The comfort which Paul administers (iv. 1318) when he assures his converts that their fears in this matter are groundless, gives one the idea that he expected Christ to come in his own lifetime. In this respect the language of this epistle differs widely from the allusions to his approaching death in his later epistles (2 Cor. v. I; Phil. i. 21-24; 2 Tim. iv. 6). That the apostle should have been left to his own impressions in this matter is in striking harmony with our Lord's

statement, "But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only" (Matt. xxiv. 36, cf. Acts i. 7). That it would come suddenly and called for constant watchful. ness was a truth often dwelt upon by Christ, which the apostle could safely enforce, as he does in this epistle (v. 1-11).

"THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS

Who wrote it. We have the same external evidence for the genuineness of the second epistle as of the first. Internally it bears evidence of being a sequel to the other, being written, like it, in the name of Paul and Silas and Timothy (i. 1), and containing a direct allusion to the previous epistle (ii. 15). As might have been expected, it contains fewer and more distant allusions to the apostle's sojourn in Thessalonica.

The prophetic passage in chapter ii. 1-12 has been a stumbling-block to many critics, who have imagined it to bear the stamp of a later period. In reality, however, it is quite consistent with the teaching of the first epistle, which nowhere implies that the coming of Christ was to be immediate, although it was to be sudden and was apparently to take place in the apostle's lifetime. Predictions of a similar kind had been uttered by our Lord Himself (Matt. xxiv.), and were also to be found in the books of Daniel and Ezekiel.

To whom written.-See page 53.

Where and when written.-Like the first epistle, it is written in the name of Paul, Silas, and Timothy. The three were together at Corinth, and apparently, so far as the Book of Acts informs us, nowhere else. This leads to the inference that this epistle, like the first, was written from that city-probably a few months later. In the interval the excitement and disorder consequent upon the expectation of Christ's coming, in the midst of

the persecution to which the converts were exposed, had grown even more serious (i. 5; ii. 6; iii. 6-11).

Its Character and Contents.-Along with an expression of satisfaction with their continued faith and steadfastness in the midst of their persecutions and afflictions (i. 1-4), Paul assures the Thessalonians that Christ will infallibly come to vindicate their cause, "rendering vengeance" to His and their enemies, and at the same time "to be glorified in his saints" (i. 5-12). But he warns them against being carried away with the idea -due in some measure to a misconstruction of his own teaching (ii. 1-2)—that Christ's coming was immediately to take place. He mentions that certain great events must first come to pass (ii. 3-12), and exhorts them to the exercise of continued patience in the strength of divine grace (ii. 13-17), bidding them lead a quiet, honest, and industrious life, such as he had given an example of while he was yet with them (iii. 6-16). The characteristic passage is ii. 1-12. Its meaning has been the subject of endless controversy, owing to the attempts which have been made to identify the "man of sin,” and the "one that restraineth now," with historical dynasties or persons. For the former there have been suggested Nero, Mahomet, the Pope, Luther, Napoleon; for the latter the Roman Empire, the German Empire, Claudius, and even Paul himself. But the truer inter

pretation seems to be to regard those expressions as referring to two great tendencies-the one antichristian, in the form of secular unbelief, and the other political, in the form of the civil power. The breakdown of the latter before the aggressive march of Socialistic unbelief, under the leadership perhaps of some one realising on a gigantic scale the antichristian feeling and ambition of the age, may be the signal for the Advent of the true Christ in His heavenly power and glory.

CHAPTER X

"THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE
TO THE CORINTHIANS

WHO wrote it.-As already mentioned, the

Pauline authorship of this epistle is admitted with practical unanimity. The external evidence is abundant, from the end of the first century onward. In particular we find in the first epistle of Clement of Rome to the Church of Corinth (95 A.D.) the following unmistakable reference: "Take up the epistle of the blessed Paul the apostle. What was it that he first wrote to you in the beginning of the gospel? Of a truth it was under the influence of the Spirit that he wrote to you in his epistle concerning himself and Cephas and Apollos, because then as well as now you had formed partialities" (cf. I Cor. i. 12).

But the internal evidence would of itself be decisive. For this epistle—and still more 2 Corinthians-bears very distinct traces of the opposition which Paul had to encounter before his apostolic authority was firmly established; and we know that such opposition had been vanquished long before his death. It is full of minute references to the state of the Corinthian Church. - being to a large extent the apostle's reply to a letter of inquiry from that Church (vii. 1). But it also deals with a number of evils and disorders in the Church which had come to the apostle's knowledge through other channels (i. II; v. 1; xi. 18). This last circumstance,

as Paley points out in his Hora Paulina (iii. 1), is a token of reality, as it was not to be expected that the Corinthians should deliberately expose their own faults. At the same time their acknowledgment and preservation of the epistle, notwithstanding the aspersions which it casts on their early character as a Church, is a proof of its apostolic claims to their regard. It is worthy of remark, too, that it contains numerous references to Paul's movements, which would scarcely have been ventured on by an impostor; and a comparison of the epistle with the Book of Acts and other parts of the New Testament brings out many striking coincidences, which can best be accounted for on the supposition of its genuineness.1

Along with Paul Sosthenes is associated (possibly the converted ruler of the synagogue, Acts xviii. 17),—who may have acted as the apostle's amanuensis.

To whom written. "Unto the church of God which is at Corinth (i. 2). In the apostle's time Corinth was practically the capital of Greece. It had attained pre-eminence at a much earlier period, owing to its commercial advantages, but had been destroyed by the Roman conqueror about two hundred years before Paul's visit. After lying in ruins for a century, it was rebuilt by Julius Cæsar 46 B.C., and peopled by a Roman colony. This may account for the Roman names mentioned in the epistle (i. 14; xvi. 17). We have an allusion to the effects produced by the ravages of the conqueror on the various kinds of buildings (iii. 12-13), and also to the gladiatorial exhibitions (iv. 9).

Situated at the foot of a great rock called Acrocorinthus about 2000 feet high on the Isthmus (famous for its games, ix. 24-27) which connected the Peloponnesus with the mainland, and lying in the direct route between Ephesus and Rome, Corinth rapidly regained its former prosperity and became the chief emporium of Europe,

1 Cf. iii. 6 and Acts xviii. 24, xix. 1; xvi. 10-11, Acts xix. 2122 and 1 Tim. iv. 12; i. 14-17, xvi. 15, Acts xviii. 8 and Rom. xvi. 23.