sions sent pecuniary aid; they had repeated the liberal act when Epaphroditus went to Rome. (2 Cor. 11: 9; Phil. 4: 15-18.) The latter fell sick, after reaching that city, and was in danger of death; as great anxiety respecting his case prevailed among the Philippian Christians, the apostle sent him back as soon as he was sufficiently restored, and placed this Epistle in his hands, addressed to the congregation; in it he exhorts the members to remain faithful to Christ, and warns them against the increasing corruption introduced by the false doctrines of Judaizing teachers.

§ 180. Continuation.—(The Epistles-to Timothy (the Second); and-to the Hebrews.)

The situation of the apostle became more distressing, after the second year of his imprisonment had expired, in consequence, perhaps, of the arrival of his Jewish accusers, or of a change in the emperor's feelings respecting the Christians in general, which may have, in the mean time, occurred. Many, who had hitherto been his friends, withdrew from him, like Demas, &c. (2 Tim. 4: 10, 14, 16.) When he was heard in his own defence on the first public occasion, in the presence of the emperor Nero (2 Tim. 4:16, 17), all men forsook him; the final sentence was not, however, pronounced at that time. He soon afterwards wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy, in which he distinctly states his expectation of soon suffering the death of a martyr, and repeatedly urges the latter to visit him speedily in Rome. (4 : 6–9, 21.) It was probably at the beginning of the next year, A. D. 64, that the sentence of death was pronounced, and that he was beheaded. Soon afterwards, the horrible Neronian persecution of the Christians commenced in Rome, during the continuance of which Peter also was put to death.

OBS. 1.—The opinion that Paul was released from prison after his confinement in Rome, that he then engaged in a fourth Missionary Journey, and proceeded as far as Spain (Rom. 15: 24), that, at a later period, he was imprisoned a second time and then finally executed in the year 67, seems to be founded on erroneous views.

OBS. 2.-A great diversity of opinions has always prevailed respecting the name of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Oriental Christians, to whom the epistle had been originally directed,

always regarded it unanimously as a production of the apostle Paul, while, on the contrary, those of the West, from which region it had proceeded, doubted the correctness of this opinion. While the extraordinary depth of the thoughts and the lofty views of Judaism occurring in this epistle (which may, however, be termed a hortatory address rather than an epistle), seem to indicate the great apostle of the Gentiles as the author, this composition is obviously distinguished from the other Pauline writings by the beautiful vesture of its pure Greek style, and the finished structure of its periods, which are not interrupted by the bold and rapid transitions of thought occurring in those. It was probably written by a disciple of the apostle Paul -perhaps by Apollos or Barnabas. It is addressed to Jewish Christians in Palestine or Asia Minor, who were exposed to the danger, in consequence of the pomp of the temple service which was still maintained, of apostatizing from Christianity and returning to Judaism. To these the writer shows that the Son of God, the brightness of the divine glory, and the Creator of the world, is eternally exalted above the angels, as well as above the mediator of the old covenant (Moses); he explains that the worship of the Old Testament had merely a typical meaning; and that its fulfilment through Christ, the eternal high-priest, after the manner of Melchisedec (? 25. 2, Obs.), occurred once only, because it possessed eternal validity.

§ 181. The later Labors of the other Apostles.-Peter.

No reliable accounts of the later labors of the other apostles of the Lord are extant; a few detached notices of the three most important disciples, Peter, John and James, are all that have been preserved. — Ancient traditions unanimously relate that Peter suffered martyrdom in Rome during the reign of Nero, by being crucified, as the Lord had announced to him. (John 21: 18, 19 — a. D. 64.) Of his labors during the interval between the apostolic Conncil (§ 171) and his death, with the exception of his visit to Antioch (Gal. 2: 12, &c. § 174. 2), we have no certain information. But as his apostolic efforts extended over the whole of Palestine and Syria at the beginning already, we may confidently assume that his field of labor was continually enlarged. It appears from his first Epistle (5: 13), that he labored during a certain period in Babylon. After the arrangement was made with Paul, to which there is a reference in Gal. 2: 9,

Peter probably went to the East, in order that he might not enter Paul's field of labor, and chose Babylon as the central point of his apostolic efforts. But when Paul's imprisonment deprived the congregations of Asia Minor of his services, Peter regarded it as a duty to direct an apostolic Epistle to the latter. According to an ancient and credible account which has been preserved, he also visited Corinth during this period. Thence he proceeded to Rome. But the statement that he founded the Roman congregation, and (during 25 years) was its first Bishop, is merely a fable; he could not possibly have reached Rome before the year 63.

OBS. The First Epistle of Peter was written at Babylon, according to 5: 13, and transmitted to the Pauline congregations in Asia Minor, after they had been bereft of their spiritual father by his imprisonment in Rome. It is a letter missive, full of that Spirit and that power which he exhibited after the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. He had a two-fold purpose in preparing it; he designed, on the one hand, to exhort these congregations, amid the persecutions which threatened them, to suffer with patience and firmness, and to strive to grow in holiness; and, on the other, he designed, in view of the efforts of false and Judaizing teachers, to give the congregations an assurance, as an apostle of the Jews himself, of the truth of the doctrine proclaimed by the apostle of the Gentiles; hence frequent allusions to the Pauline Epistles occur.-The Second Epistle is directed to the same congregations, and was occasioned by the increased influence which these false teachers had acquired. It is a peculiarity of this Epistle that it teaches the doctrine of the changes which the heavens and the earth will undergo through fire at the coming of the day of the Lord.

After the congregations of Asia Minor had lost their founder and guide, John established himself in Ephesus. Soon after his arrival, however, and probably in the reign of Domitian (or, according to others, during the Neronian persecution in which Paul and Peter were put to death) he was banished to Patmos, one of the islands of the Greek Archipelago, where he received the Revelation which he soon afterwards committed to writing (Rev.

1:9). After his liberation, he returned to Ephesus, where he continued (about thirty years) to labor with paternal zeal for the welfare of the congregations of Asia Minor, until he died in the reign of the emperor Trajan. To the circumstance that he composed his Gospel and Epistles at a late period of life, the comparatively purer Greek style which he employs in these writings, may be ascribed. Several touching illustrations, belonging to this period, of his pastoral fidelity and zeal, have been recorded. He had entrusted a certain young man to the care of a bishop; the youth was afterwards led astray by evil companions, and he finally became the terror of the whole region after having been chosen by a band of robbers as their captain. The aged apostle resolved to rescue him from destruction, went alone to the wild haunts of the robber, and persevered until he had restored him. In his extreme old age, when he no longer retained sufficient strength to preach, he directed himself to be carried to the religious assemblies of the believers, and simply said, with a feeble voice: "Little children, love one another!" He also consistently exhibited in his conduct the earnestness and fidelity to truth which appear in his Epistles. He encountered the dangerous false teacher Cerinthus, on one occasion, at a bath; he instantly withdrew, unwilling to hold even such external fellowship with him (1 Cor. 5: 11).

OBS. The Revelation of John (the Apocalypse) constitutes the great stream of Prophecy, which is formed by the meeting of the various prophetic streams of the Old Testament, and which ultimately disembogues into the ocean of eternity. An ardent desire for the coming of the Lord, when all things will be perfected, is the key-note of the book. It sketches in lofty terms the development of the kingdom of God until its final and most glorious consummation in eternal life occurs, and employs a sacred and symbolical imagery, which, without impairing its edifying power in the Christian Church, retains many obscurities that nothing but the actual fulfilment can remove. (For the Gospel of John, which probably belongs to a somewhat earlier date than his Epistles, see ? 184.) The First Epistle of John, may have been a pastoral letter addressed to his congregations in Asia Minor; it opposes false teachers similar to those to whom Paul refers in his epistle to the Colossians and in the

Pastoral Epistles. This production of John combines, in an extraordinary manner, a gentleness, a tenderness, and a depth of love that cannot be exceeded, with the utmost decision and earnestness, and an unbending severity of judgment. A perfect and entire communion with God in Christ, which finds obedience to be easy, and the commission of sin impossible, is the standard which he applies to the Christian life. - The Second Epistle is addressed to a matron named Cyria [translated “lady”], to whom the apostle expresses the joy which the holy walk of her sons gave him, and speaks of an intended visit to her. - The Third Epistle, to an eminent Christian, named Gaius, is probably a letter of recommendation given to certain travelling brethren.

§ 183. Continuation. - James and Jude.

James the Just, the brother of the Lord (§ 171. OBS.), who occupied a very prominent position at the apostolic Council, and presided over the congregation in Jerusalem (and whom Paul, Gal. 2 : 9, designates as a pillar of the Church, like Peter and John), is the author of the Epistle which bears his name. He is the true representative of the Judaico-Christian tendency of the church seen in its evangelical purity. By his conscientiousness in the discharge of the duties of his office, as well as by his strict observance of the ritual law, he acquired the surname of the Just, and hence possessed the esteem of the Jews who revered the Law. But both his Epistle and his conduct testify alike to the essential unity of spirit in his own and in the Pauline tendency, although its external expression might assume in each case a different form. He had plainly perceived that his duty required him to devote himself to the work of extending and strengthening the Church among the people of the covenant, and he had accordingly chosen the ancient holy city as the permanent central point of his efforts. He, too, suffered martyrdom, and his own people inflicted it. The fanatical Jews, whose passions had been excited on the occasion of Paul's last visit to Jerusalem, demanded that he should stand on the pinnacle of the temple at the Passover and curse Christ; instead of complying, he confessed his faith with boldness and energy, in consequence of