bitter to him. And when we consider that these agitators gained admission to the Pauline churches by the use of Peter's name and by means of letters of recommendation which they had undoubtedly brought with them from Jerusalem, it is difficult to suppose that the original apostles were in no way concerned in their agitation. Of the ill reception which Paul met with when he brought up the collection to Jerusalem, and of the at least coldly reserved attitude of the whole church there, mention has already been made. Finally it is to be remembered that a hundred years later the uncompromising Judaic Christianity represented by the Clementine Homilies had not forgotten the controversy at Antioch, but directed the bitterest reproaches against Paul on account of his conduct towards Peter on that occasion-in fact, caricatured him, with the traits of Simon Magus, as Antichrist. But the very intensity of this fanatical hatred is a testimony to the unique greatness of the apostle of the Gentiles-who could say of himself with justice, “I have laboured more than they all."

THE WRITINGS OF PAUL

CHAPTER VII

THE LETTERS TO THE THESSALONIANS

THE foundation of the church at Thessalonica is described in Acts xvii. 1–9. It consisted essentially of Greeks, especially of Greek women, who had probably been previously connected with the synagogue, and who had been converted by Paul's preaching to faith in Christ. In comparison with the "great multitude" of these the few converted Jews need hardly be considered. This success of Paul's preaching among the Greeks aroused the jealousy of the Jews of Thessalonica to such an extent that they incited the populace to mob the house where the missionaries were lodging, and the latter were in consequence turned out of the city. Anxious about the condition of the young converts from whom he had been obliged to separate himself so hastily, Paul had sent back Timothy from Athens to Thessalonica. Timothy brought to him at Corinth a report of the church at Thessalonica, which, indeed, reassured and rejoiced him so far as concerned their firmness in the faith and their loyalty to himself in spite of the suspicions cast upon him by his opponents, but from which also he judged it advisable to combat, in a

letter, the dangers that threatened them. It was of the first importance to confirm his converts in their loyalty by repelling the suspicions cast upon his motives, and by reminding them of their first enthusiasm of faith, and also by pointing out to them the universality of this enmity against Christianity among the Jews, who were thereby only filling up the measure of their guilt. But it was also important to warn the Church against moral aberrations, due in part to the influence of their former heathen habits, but in part also to their new faith, the product of their enthusiastic hope of the Second Coming of Christ. Then, too, the occurrence of some deaths among the members of the church had given rise to anxieties and doubts, which needed to be calmed by teaching, as to the "last things." In general, the life of the young community, still swaying between excessive enthusiasm and timid depression in a very unstable fashion, needed to be reined in and guided by rebuke and regulation. These are the ends aimed at in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, which first treats (chaps. i.-iii.) of the personal relations of the apostle to the church both at and after its foundation, and then (chaps. iv. and v.) deals with the ethical and dogmatical points suggested by the situation, in both cases without fixed order, and quite in the unconstrained fashion of a letter called forth by the occasion. The apostle testifies in the first place that his thoughts constantly dwell with thankfulness and joy on the Christian standing of the Thessalonians, on their faithful activity in serviceable love and patient hope. Yea, he had from the beginning been assured of their election to be beloved children of God from

the fact that at the very first preaching of the Gospel among them, teachers and hearers alike had felt themselves laid hold of by the power of the Holy Spirit and by joyful confidence. The success of his preaching among them had been so remarkable that it was reported throughout Macedonia and Achaia how the Thessalonians had "turned from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come." (It should be noticed that the apostle here gives a summary of that which obviously formed the subject of his first preaching in the heathen city and of the faith of the newly converted: Belief in the one true God and in the Second Coming of the risen Jesus, who guarantees to His people deliverance from the imminent catastrophe of the judgment of the world. How this deliverance was effected, what significance the death of Christ had therein, in relation especially to the old legal covenant, are questions of a secondary order which do not appear from this summary to have belonged to the elementary doctrines of the faith which Paul was accustomed to make the first subject of his preaching on heathen soil.)

After recalling the lofty experiences of his readers in the glorious beginning of their faith, the apostle goes on to remind them of his own conduct as the ambassador of the Gospel which was committed to him by God, and which he therefore taught in such a way as to please, not man, but God who trieth the heart. He calls God to witness that his motives in preaching the Gospel were not, as his adversaries calumniously alleged, of an impure and treacherous

character, not the desire to gain favour by flattery, not coveteousness, nor vain ambition, but the impulse of a love as tender as it was deep, which was ready to offer not only the Gospel but his own life for the salvation of his beloved converts. He had spared neither toil nor suffering, but laboured day and night in order that he might make his service in the Gospel a (pecuniary) burden to no one. While he had himself conscientiously practised an upright and blameless walk, he had with fatherly insistence charged each one "to walk worthy of God who had called them to his kingdom." And they, on their part, had received his words in the same spirit in which he spoke them, not as the word of man, but as from God, whose power showed itself effectually working in the believers, especially in enabling them to endure the persecutions which the Thessalonians now experienced at the hands of their fellow-countrymen; just as earlier, the churches of Judæa had been subjected to them by the Jews. These latter now evinced their hatred of Christ and their spirit of enmity against God and men, by endeavouring to hinder the preaching of salvation to the Gentiles, and were thereby filling up the measure of their sins and calling down upon themselves the final judgment of reprobation.

This charge against the Jews of being the instigators of all the persecutions of Christians-even those carried out by the heathen in heathen districts-certainly suits the situation of the church at Thessalonica according to Acts xvii. 5 ff., while it is no longer suitable to the circumstances of a later time. But the "final consummation of the wrath of