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 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. 1 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. 11; 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. 21. 22 and 1 Tim. iv. 12; i. 14-17, xvi. 15, Acts xviii. 8 and Rom. xvi. 23. with a population of more than half a million, drawn from many lands. It was so notorious for its profligacy— encouraged by its very worship-that a "Corinthian life " was synonymous with luxury and licentiousness. At the same time its inhabitants made such pretensions to philosophy and literary culture that "Corinthian words" was a phrase meaning polished and cultivated speech. In this great and busy centre Paul spent a year and a half or more (Acts xviii.) in his second missionary journey-being the longest time he had ever yet laboured continuously in any city. He found a home in the house of Aquila and Priscilla, a Jewish couple who had recently come from Rome in consequence of the decree of Claudius (xvi. 19), eminent for their generosity and devotion (Rom. xvi. 4-5), with whom he wrought at his trade of tent-making (Acts xviii. 2, 3; xx. 34, 35; I Cor. iv. 11-12). Beginning his ministry in the synagogue as usual, he was soon compelled by the opposition of the Jews to seek another place of meeting, which he found in the house of Justus, a converted proselyte. There he preached the Gospel, encouraged by a message from God in a vision, and continued to do so with no small success notwithstanding an attempt of the Jews to invoke the civil power against him (Acts xviii. 4-18). His converts appear to have been chiefly drawn from the lower classes (i. 26-29), but they were not free from the prevailing tendency to intellectual pride (i. 17-ii. 1 f.; viii. I), accompanied with a proneness to sensual sin, equally characteristic of their city (v. 1-11; vi. 15-18; xi. 21). The apostle speaks (ii. 3) of having been with them "in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling”—possibly the result of his recent apparent failure at Athens. Where and when written.-It can be proved with tolerable certainty that the epistle was written from Ephesus about the spring of 57 or 58 A.D. From iv. 17-19 and xvi. 5 we learn that it was 1 The note at the end of the epistle in the A.V. is due to a misapprehension of xvi. 5. written on the eve of a second visit to Corinth, which the apostle was about to pay after passing through Macedonia,―having already sent Timothy in advance as his representative (xvi. 10). When we turn to the Book of Acts we find that such a visit to Greece was paid by the apostle at the close of a sojourn of about three years at Ephesus (Acts xix. 8-10; xx. 1-3, 31), and it appears from xix. 21-23 that almost immediately before he left Ephesus he sent Timothy before him to Macedonia. Moreover, several expressions in the epistle plainly point to Ephesus as the place from which it emanated (xvi. 810, cf. Acts xix. 20-26; xvi. 19, cf. Acts xviii. 18-26; xv. 32). As the apostle appears to have travelled for about a year after leaving Corinth on the first occasion (54 A.D.), previous to settling at Ephesus, his stay in the latter city may have extended to the beginning of 58 A.D. Several allusions to the seasons which occur in the epistle (v. 7-8; xvi. 6, 8) lead us to place its composition in the spring of 58 A.D. or of the preceding year. Its Character and Contents. Of this epistle it has been fitly said that it is "a fragment which has no parallel in ecclesiastical history." It deals with a section of early Church history which exhibits the most marked and varied features. It sets the apostle vividly before us as a teacher and governor, confronted with the dangers and perplexities, the errors and corruptions to which the Corinthian Church was liable, planted as it was in the midst of the rankest heathenism. In the words of Dean Stanley, "we are here allowed to witness the earliest conflict of Christianity with the culture and the vices of the ancient classical world; here we have an insight into the principles which regulated the apostle's choice or rejection of the customs of that vast fabric of heathen society which was then emphatically called 'the world'; here we trace the mode in which he combated the false pride, the false knowledge, the false liberality, the false freedom, the false display, the false |