current literature: as doctrines or counsels imparted by an authoritative teacher at a time when religious authority was centered not in a book nor in church decrees, but in a person. They represent the pioneer work of Christian teaching. Some of the earlier written ones, as to the Thessalonians, the Galatians, and the Corinthians, concern themselves more particularly with the situations or problems of the individual church, making these a peg, as it were, on which to hang truths of permanent and universal import. Others of the letters, however, were intended as circular letters (cf. Col. iv, 16), to be copied and distributed to several churches, addressing themselves thus to the common Christian situation. With the efficient postal system in use in the Roman Empire such epistolary communication had become the most prevalent means of publication. Facility of travel also promoted the custom of using private messengers or church helpers and delegates in the service. The Familiar As we reach this latest stage in the Biblical literature it is well to note the difference, in tone and style, between the New Testament and the Old. The difference corresponds to the difference of relation between author and audience. The Old Testament, made up of history, prophecy, poetry, law, wisdom, brings its truth to nations and communities; and in its sublime forms and style there is a certain remoteness of relation, a lack of mutualness and sympathy. In the New Testament the form has become epistolary, the most personal and familiar of literary forms, as of persons known individually to each other. It is friendly and conversational. There is an absence of formality and an intimacy of assumed relation which promote good will, courtesy, mutual understanding. On the part of the writer there is no posing as lawgiver, prophet, or sage. Although from an apostle it is like brother to brother and friend to friend, on a footing of mutual respect and equality. Such is the Christian relation with which the literary sentiment of the Bible culminates. Its letters may indeed rise to heights of poetic beauty or emotional fervor; may contain profound and weighty thought; but the intimate personal tone keeps them from being academic or having the air of a labored literary effort. The gospels, too, embodying the conversational talks and parables of Jesus, are of the same natural feeling and fiber. Thus it is of noteworthy significance that the Bible, which begins with the lofty and didactic, ends with the personal and familiar. NOTE. The Epistolary Form and Style. On the epistolary form and style, as these figure in the life of the early churches, Sir William M. Ramsay (" Letters to the Seven Churches," p. 208) remarks: 'A philosophic exposition of truth was apt to become abstract and unreal; the dialogue form, which the Greeks loved and some of the Christian writers adopted, was apt to degenerate into looseness and mere literary display; but the letter, as already elaborated by great thinkers and artists who were his predecessors, was determined for [the Christian teacher] as the best medium of expression. In this form . . . literature, statesmanship, ethics, and religion met, and placed the simple letter on the highest level of practical power. Due regard to the practical needs of the congregation which he addressed prevented the writer of a letter from losing hold on the hard facts and serious realities of life. The spirit of the lawgiver raised him above all danger of sinking into the commonplace and the trivial. Great principles must be expressed in the Christian letter. And finally it must have literary form as a permanent monument of teaching and legislation." Written with reference to the oracular epistles to the churches of Asia in Revelation ii and iii, the most formal letters in the New Testament. II. SAINT PAUL AS ORATOR AND LETTER WRITER In tracing the literature of fact as an eventual outgrowth of the early apostolic preaching, we have gone beyond the dates of the earlier New Testament writings. We have seen what the story of Jesus' life and ministry became when a generation had passed, after the scattered reminiscences of eyewitnesses were in, and time had been given for the facts to have been sifted, ordered, and systematized. We must now return to an earlier period. The first New Testament works to be written in finished form were not the synoptic gospels and the Acts, but the main body of the epistles. And of these the earliest, unless we except the Epistle of James, were the great epistles of St. Paul. I Saint Paul the Man. It is important that we take account of this note of time and precedence. Of all the writers represented in the New Testament literature St. Paul was by far the most vigorous, scholarly, and creative. When we consider what he really accomplished to make the Jewish body of truth universal, to make the ideal for which Jesus lived and died a force vital and powerful throughout the lands and the ages- we must put him in the forefront of the world's great thinkers. Not only in his own personal utterances is this true, but during the period while the gospel record itself was inchoate his shaping mind did much, through writing and personal evangelism, to set his creative stamp upon it. To him it fell preeminently to make the Christian truth reveal itself among Jews and Gentiles in its true value, meaning, and proportion. Though St. Luke's account of St. Paul's missionary activities in the Acts has no design of being biographical, nor is St. Paul himself in his epistles concerned with the personal events of his life-touching upon these, indeed, when he has to do so, reluctantly (cf. 2 Cor. xi, 21 ff.) — yet there is no other personality of Scripture, aside from that of Jesus, whom we know so well. His writings are the perfect reflection of that Christian character which became to him the supreme principle of his life. Besides St. Luke's biographical details there are a few very valuable autobiographic touches in his utterances and writings: notably his twicegiven account of his early life and conversion, in his speech before his own nation in Jerusalem (Acts xxii, 3-21), and in his address before King Agrippa and the procurator Festus (Acts xxvi, 1-23); his account of the beginning of his apostleship, as written to the Galatians who had doubted its genuineness (Gal. i, 11-ii, 14); his review of his reasons alike for pride and humility, as recounted to the Corinthians (2 Cor. xi, 16-xii, 10; cf. Phil. iii, 4-7); and his analysis of his experience with his own sinful nature, as written for the instruction of the Roman Christians (Rom. vii). All these show with what depth and intensity his Christian ideas, which had come upon his convictions in one illuminative moment, had wrought themselves into his life. His Native and Of St. Paul's early life we get enough from his own words to show what providential fitness he had both by birth and education for his great mission. A native of Endowments, Tarsus in Cilicia (Acts xxi, 39), which city was a center of the liberal learning of his time, he was of pure Jewish blood (Phil. iii, 5), and proud both of his race and of his tribe; was in religion of the most strict and orthodox Jewish sect, that of the Pharisees (Acts xxvi, 5), and extremely zealous for their customs and traditions; was educated from early youth under Gamaliel, "the most learned rabbi of the age," in the capital city Jerusalem (Acts xxii, 3). Being so expert in all that the Jews deemed most valuable in thought, he was thus fitted to deal with Jews on their own ground; and living from birth in the atmosphere of Greek ideas, he was correspondingly fitted to adapt his teachings to the Gentile range and color of thought. Add to this that he had from birth the rights and freedom of a Roman citizen (Acts xxii, 28), which fact gave him the privileges and immunities that he needed in traversing any part of the Empire. Of this advantage he availed himself at several crucial points of his career (Acts xvi, 37-40; xxii, 25; xxv, 11). His zeal before his conversion in persecuting the Christians, for which he never ceased to blame himself, was after all a sign of his sincerity of purpose and so, though mistaken, was quite consistent with a good conscience (Acts xxiii, 1), and, as well-directed energy, would prove an invaluable trait in the arduous work of a Christian apostle. Thus all the elements of his personality, outer and inner, were most fortunately mixed to fit him for the distinctive career to which he was commissioned. His Life's The conversion of Saul of Tarsus from Judaism to Christianity is justly regarded as one of the most far-reaching events of history. The story of it is narrated no fewer than three times (Acts ix, xxii, xxvi): once in St. Luke's own historical style, and twice in St. Luke's reports of St. Paul's speeches. The three accounts agree in essentials, the slight differences being due to dif ferent occasions and purposes of the recounting. The occasion of Saul's sudden conversion resolves itself virtually into the simple fact that he saw the Christ as he is and identified him with Jesus of Nazareth. This occurred in a vision that he had on the way to Damascus, while he was on a fanatical errand of persecution; and the Being he saw was the glorified Jesus, appearing several years after his resurrection and identifying himself as the One whom Saul was persecuting. The apostle never doubted that this was as real and veritable an interview as if Jesus were still in the flesh; and all his life thereafter was spent in simple obedience to the direction he then obtained. To him it was a truly objective experience, like that of the other apostles. Yet not all objective. In spite of Saul's mistaken opposition up to that time, there was in him a subjective readiness to respond to Christ when he saw him in the true light. His own interpretation of the event was that at the fitting time God was pleased to reveal His Son in him (Gal. i, 16). From that time forth his ideal was to realize in word and work the same spirit of life that had actuated Jesus in his ministry, and especially in his sacrificial death as the way to resurrection (Phil. iii, 10, 11). The sense of this relation |