ness of supplying different parts of Asia Minor with small silver models of the celebrated temple of Diana, had perceived that Paul's success materially diminished the sale of these articles. He called together all who were engaged in the same business, and with their aid, instigated the people to seize Paul, as a blasphemer of their great goddess Diana. All rushed madly through the streets of the city; some of Paul's companions in travel were violently assailed, and all the people cried, about the space of two hours: "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." It was only with great difficulty, and after exercising much discretion that one of the city officers could appease the excited multitude. Paul, who had been withdrawn from the tumult by his friends, immediately departed on his proposed journey to Macedonia.

OBS. During Paul's residence in Ephesus, which continued nearly three years, he wrote several of the Epistles.-I. The Epistle to the Galatians. He had established a number of congregations in Galatia during his second missionary journey, and visited and confirmed them in the faith during the third journey. Soon afterwards, certain Judaizing and false teachers entered these congregations, who questioned the apostolic character of Paul, taught that Justification before God was founded on the observance of the entire ritual law, and really succeeded in persuading several Gentile Christians to receive circumcision. While the apostle abode in Ephesus he received these sad tidings, in consequence of which he wrote this Epistle; he expresses the most tender interest in their welfare, as well as the deep sorrow which he felt, and earnestly labors to replace the misguided believers on the true foundation of salvation. He appeals to the cordial approbation of his principles expressed by the apostles in Jerusalem, and shows that while the law was a schoolmaster that brings to Christ, our Justification before God is obtained solely by faith in Christ.-II. The First Epistle to Timothy (the first of the "Pastoral Epistles," by which appellation the two epistles, addressed to Timothy, and the epistle to Titus, are known). While Paul resided in Ephesus, he probably made a rapid journey, which did not consume much time and is not mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, to Macedonia (1 Tim. 1: 3), Achaia and Crete (Candia), in which island Titus remained by his directions. (Tit. 1: 5.) Before he left Macedonia he wrote the First Epistle to Timothy, directed to Ephesus, and containing exhortations and instructions relative to the pastoral duties of the latter. After his return to Ephesus, he wrote

-III, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (an earlier letter which he had written to them, 1 Cor. 5 : 9, has not been preserved). — The establishment of the congregation in Corinth is noticed in ? 174. 1. — Apollos labored as a teacher in the city; certain false and Judaizing teachers now also appeared, who professed to hold Peter's doctrines. Thus three parties were formed in the congregation, each earnestly opposing the others, and named respectively after Paul, Apollos and Peter. The adherents of the first party abused their evangelical liberty and gave offence to their weaker brethren; those of the second, attempted to convert the foolishness of the cross of Christ (1 Cor. 1: 18-25) into the wisdom of the world, through the introduction of pagan philosophy; those of the third, taught that the observance of the ritual law was necessary to salvation. A fourth party was then formed, the founders of which, in their arrogance and pride, adopted the name of Christ as a party-name; they formed a Gospel of their own, which, as they alleged, constituted the pure doctrine of Christ, but which robbed the fundamental doctrines of Christianity of their weight, and, among other errors, they doubtless denied the doctrine of the resurrection of the body also. Amid these contests, church discipline ceased to be exercised; one of the members even committed incest with impunity, disturbances occurred at the religious assemblies, pride banished love, &c. The painful tidings of these things reached Paul in Ephesus, and the mission of Timothy to Europe (1 Cor. 4: 17; 16: 10), was doubtless connected with them. Paul was, however, impelled by the circumstances to address the congregation in writing also. His epistle bears noble testimony to his eminent wisdom, his knowledge of the human heart, his tenderness of feeling and his uncompromising fidelity to his duty; it censures the party-spirit which the Corinthian Christians had displayed, as well as their spiritual pride; it urges them to excommunicate the incestuous person, rebukes them for instituting legal proceedings before unbelieving judges, and warns them against licentiousness. It, further, presents the Christian view of marriage and kindred topics, as well as of meats offered to idols; it proceeds to examine the abuses which had occurred in the religious assemblies of the Corinthians, introduces the subject of the Lord's Supper, and, while referring to the gifts of the Spirit, exposes the undue importance that had been ascribed to the gift of tongues, and explains that charity or Christian love is more precious than all other gifts. After a lucid and impressive exhibition of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, the epistle concludes with directions respecting a collection for the benefit of the poor brethren in Palestine. - Before Paul

departed from Ephesus, it is probable that he also wrote— IV, the Epistle to Titus, directed to Crete, in which he furnishes the latter with special instructions respecting the discharge of the duties of his office.

176. Continuation. ·Paul's Labors in Europe, and his Return to Jerusalem.—(The Epistles - to the Corinthians (the Second); and-to the Romans).

1. Acts 20: 1, &c. Paul now visited the congregations in Macedonia, advanced as far as Illyricum (Rom. 15 : 19), abode, afterwards, three months in Greece, specially visiting Corinth, and then travelled through Macedonia to Asia Minor.

OBS. As Timothy's return with tidings concerning Corinth was delayed, Paul sent Titus to that city (2 Cor. 7: 13, &c.). The latter rejoined him in Macedonia, and conveyed to him the information for which he had long waited. The account which Titus gave was, in general, very favorable, and induced him to write the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. He advises them to restore the offender, who had repented after his excommunication, explains his reasons for writing with severity in his former epistle, and defends himself and his apostolic office against the various malicious accusations of his Judaizing opponents, whose bitterness of feeling had been increased by that epistle. He did not immediately proceed to Corinth, but, while he waited for information respecting the effect which the second epistle produced, travelled to Illyricum. He then passed three months in Corinth, during which time he wrote the Epistle to the Romans, which was conveyed to them by Phebe, a deaconess of the congregation in Cenchrea, who was travelling, to Rome (Rom. 16:1). The congregation in Rome had been previously established, probably without the personal agency of an apostle, in consequence of the active intercourse maintained between the provinces and the chief city of the empire (Acts 2: 10; Rom. 16: 3, 7). It consisted both of Jewish and of Gentile Christians. Paul was induced to write to this congregation, to which he was personally unknown, by their urgent want of thorough apostolical instructions, by the important fact that it was a congregation founded in the capital city itself, and by his apprehensions that disputes would arise there, as elsewhere, between the Jewish and Gentile members. These considerations naturally led the apostle to begin at the foundation and erect with special care the whole structure of Christian knowledge. Thus the Christian

Church has acquired in this epistle, through the provision which the Holy Spirit mercifully made, an unspeakably precious treasure of the deepest and richest religious knowledge, and an eternally immovable foundation of doctrine. Luther says, in his admirable Preface to it: "This Epistle constitutes the most eminent portion of the New Testament; it is the Gospel in its most perfect purity. It well deserves that every Christian should not only commit it word for word to memory, but also daily resort to it as the daily bread of the soul. For it can never be read too often, never become too frequently the subject of our meditations; the more faithfully it is studied, the more precious and delightful it is found to be." The Epistle consists of two parts: the didactic (embracing doctrinal instructions, ch. 1-11) and the parenetic (embracing exhortations founded on the former, ch. 12, 13). The theme of the former, is the great fundamental truth of the Gospel, by which the world is overcome, namely: the Justification of the sinner before God by faith in Jesus Christ. The apostle shows that the Gentiles could not become righteous before God by their natural light, which they had turned into darkness, nor the Jews by the Law, which could only give a painful knowledge of sin. Since the fall of Adam, all men, Jews as well as Gentiles, are under sin, and subject to death, which is the wages of sin. But God, through free grace, provided an eternal redemption, and manifested it in his Son, Christ Jesus, the second Adam. The atoning and justifying power of this redemption is found in the sacrificial death of Christ, and its sanctifying and renewing power in his resurrection; this redemption is appropriated to man in faith, and thereby he becomes righteous without any merit or worthiness of his own, and is made a new creature, a child of God, an heir of eternal life and a joint-heir with Christ. The people of Israel, as a nation, had cast away this salvation, and can ascribe their own rejection, which will undergo a change only at a later period, to none but themselves; the Gentiles accepted it, but are exhorted not to indulge presumptuous feelings on account of the grace of God manifested to them.

2. Acts 20: 4, &c. - Paul remained seven days in Troas, where several of his companions had waited for him; in that city he restored a young man, named Eutychus, to life, who had fallen, while he was asleep, from the window of an upper chamber in which Paul was delivering a farewell address at night, and had been taken up dead. He next visited several islands of the Archipelago, namely, Lesbos, Chios, and Samos. After reaching

Miletus, he sent for the elders of the church in Ephesus, and addressed them in the most impressive and affecting manner; well aware that bonds and afflictions awaited him in Jerusalem, he kneeled down and prayed with them for the last time, and then took leave of his weeping friends. They accompanied him to the ship which waited to convey him and his companions to Cesarea. In this place, a certain prophet from Judea, named Agabus (§ 169. 1), informed him, by the symbolically significant act of binding his own hands and feet with Paul's girdle, that he would, as he had himself informed the Ephesian elders, be imprisoned in Jerusalem. The brethren in vain besought him to abandon his purpose of proceeding to that city. "What mean ye to weep," ," he said, "and to break my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Then they ceased to importune him, and said: "The will of the Lord be done !"

§ 177. The Seizure and Confinement of Paul in Jerusalem.

1. Acts 21: 15, &c. -It was one of the purposes of Paul's journey to Jerusalem to convey thither the money intended for the poor, which, according to his promise (Gal. 2: 10), he had collected in the more wealthy congregations in Asia Minor and Greece (Rom. 15: 25; Acts 20:35). Immediately after his arrival in Jerusalem, he gave a detailed account to James and the assembled elders of all that God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. When they heard it, they glorified the Lord; they did not, however, conceal from him the fact that the zealous Jewish Christians of the city entertained sentiments unfavorable to himself, and advised him to obviate any violent expression of feeling on their part, by associating himself with four poor Jewish Christians who were at that time under a Nazaritic vow (§ 52. A.), and defraying for them the expenses attending their offerings. Paul readily assented to the proposal, as he by no means considered the ritual law to be an empty unmeaning form, and observed it himself as far as the nature of his office, as the apostle of the Gentiles, allowed.

2. Acts 21: 27, &c.—The seven days of the vow were nearly