of the Old Testament delivered divine oracles to the people; the apostles of the New Testament
wrote letters to the brethren, who shared with them the same faith and hope as members of Christ.
The readers are supposed to be already "in Christ," saved and sanctified "in Christ," and
holding all their social and domestic relations and discharging their duties "in Christ." They are
"grown together"^1121 with Christ, sharing in his death, burial, and resurrection, and destined to reign
and rule with him in glory forever. On the basis of this new relation, constituted by a creative act
of divine grace, and sealed by baptism, they are warned against every sin and exhorted to every
virtue. Every departure from their profession and calling implies double guilt and double danger
of final ruin.
Occasions and calls for correspondence were abundant, and increased with the spread of
Christianity over the Roman empire. The apostles could not be omnipresent and had to send
messengers and letters to distant churches. They probably wrote many more letters than we possess,
although we have good reason to suppose that the most important and permanently valuable are
preserved. A former letter of Paul to the Corinthians is implied in 1 Cor. 5:9: "I wrote to you in my
epistle;"^1122 and traces of further correspondence are found in 1 Cor. 16:3; 2 Cor. 10:9; Eph. 3:3.
The letter "from Laodicea," referred to in Col. 4:16, is probably the encyclical Epistle to the
Ephesians.
The Epistles of the New Testament are without a parallel in ancient literature, and yield in
importance only to the Gospels, which stand higher, as Christ himself rises above the apostles.
They are pastoral letters to congregations or individuals, beginning with an inscription and salutation,
consisting of doctrinal expositions and practical exhortations and consolations, and concluding
with personal intelligence, greetings, and benediction. They presuppose throughout the Gospel
history, and often allude to the death and resurrection of Christ as the foundation of the church and
the Christian hope. They were composed amidst incessant missionary labors and cares, under trial
and persecution, some of them from prison, and yet they abound in joy and thanksgiving. They
were mostly called forth by special emergencies, yet they suit all occasions. Tracts for the times,
they are tracts for all times. Children of the fleeting moment, they contain truths of infinite moment.
They compress more ideas in fewer words than any other writings, human or divine, excepting the
Gospels. They discuss the highest themes which can challenge an immortal mind—God, Christ,
and the Spirit, sin and redemption, incarnation, atonement, regeneration, repentance, faith and good
works, holy living and dying, the conversion of the world, the general judgment, eternal glory and
bliss. And all this before humble little societies of poor, uncultured artisans, freedmen and slaves!
And yet they are of more real and general value to the church than all the systems of theology from
Origen to Schleiermacher—yea, than all the confessions of faith. For eighteen hundred years they
have nourished the faith of Christendom, and will continue to do so to the end of time. This is the
best evidence of their divine inspiration.
The Epistles are divided into two groups, Catholic and Pauline. The first is more general; the
second bears the strong imprint of the intense personality of the Apostle of the Gentiles.(^1121) σύμφυτοι, Rom. 6:5; not "planted together" (as in the A. V. and the Vulgate); the word being derived from φύω to cause
to grow, not from φυτευω, to plant.
(^1122) The so-called Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul and his answer, preserved in Armenian, are spurious and worthless.
A.D. 1-100.