titne when in the Acts the method of bis ministerial agency begins to be more clearly portrayed to us, we perceive him, first, brought into ministerial activity at Antioch by Barne.bas, who himself had been deputed from Jerusalem to visit the Gentile converts in that city e.nd he.d gone across from that place to Tarsus for the purpose of enlisting his co-operation in tbe.t field of labour ; then, delegated from Antioch with Barnabas, whose name stands the foremost of the two in the hiRtory (" Barnabas and Saul," in this order) both now and for some way onwards, to convey to Jerusalem e. contribution for the poor of the brethren in J udrea; then, delegated from Antioch, in conjunction again with Barnabas, to go forth upon a far-extended evangelistic journey; then, deputed once more from Antioch with Barnabas (" Paul and Barnabas" now) and others to go to Jerusalem to consult the apostles and elders on the question of circumcising Gentile believers; then, returning from Jerusalem in company with other delegates, to convey to the Churches of Syria and Cilicia. the Jerusalem rescript on tbe.t subject, at which time the high attestation of the apostles and leading brethren at Jernsalem had been accorded to bis own ministerial work as well as to that of Barnabas; and, lastly, embarking upon another extendep. evangelistic expedition which brought him at length into Europe, where, in an Epistle to the Tbessalonians, he designated himself and Silas e.nd Timotheus in conjunction as "apostles of Christ." These facts betoken that hitherto, neither in the Church was St. Paul regarded as invested with the like supreme form of apostleship as that which attached to the twelve, nor was he himself wont to insist upon the assertion that he was so invested. But when we come to the group of four letters which, after an interval of some five years or more since the date of the two addressed to the Thessilonians, St. Paul in the latter part of the last-named journey despatched to the Galatians, to the Corinthians, and to the Romans, we have to note in these a new tone in speaking of bis apostleship ; au intense, solemn assertion of a peculiar kind of spiritual dignity ; evidently an antagonistic assertion, one ea.lied forth by the new form, or at least by the new vehemence, of the opposition by which be found himself confronted. In respect to this last-mentioned point, we observe that, in those two earlier letters of his, addressed to the Thessa.lonians, be had spoken of bitter hostility and of thence accruing persecution. But these 'had come upon him ma.inly from outside the Christian body, from unbelieving Gen.tiles and yet more from unbelieving Jews. There is in these letters .only one reference to difficulties thrown in his path from within-a reference by no means explicit, yet with what we know otherwise not bard to explain. The "absurd and bad men." from whom in 2 Tbess. ill. 2 he asks the Thessalonia.ns to pray that he may be delivered, were in all probability Christians; for the clause which he adds, "for all have not faith," would seem a pointless truism unless written of a class of persons among whom men would be entitled to expect to find faith. Already, then, in those days St. Paul had' found himself hampered in his work, and even perhaps personally imperilled, by "sham brethren," who really were "bad" men as well as "absurd;" that is to say, men still unwea.ned from their sins (cf. Phil. iii. 18), and moreover possessed with sentiments and predilections altogether "incongruous with their position" as Christian believers. We may safely identify in the persons thus described professed Christians of a kindred character with those whom, not long before he thus wrote, he bad had to contend with at Antioch and at Jerusalem (eh. ii. 4). At. that time, however, the evil bad not grown to the formidable dimensions which it afterwards assumed. But now, in the four letters of this later era, St. Paul is seen in the very thickest of the conflict with such false brethren. The reactionary party in the Church, which sought to neutralize the properly evangelical element of the gospel and to bring Christia.ns b11ck t.o the bondage more or less of J uda.ical ceremonie.lism, was Ilvi THE EPISTLE TO ,'l'JIE GALATIANS.
raising it.s head in every direction. And those who formed it, finding in St. Paul their most effectual and most uncompromising opponent, set themselves to undermine hla influence in every possible way. They calumniated his moral cha.raoter, personal and ministerial, and they decried his apostolioal authority. This latt.er point is that with which we are now principally concerned. By this juncture of circumstances, St. Paul was compelled, acting no doubt under tho direction of his Master, to openly proclaim, and in the strongest possible mnnner, maintain, his properly apostolical oommission; that is, to proclaim and to insist upon the fact that he held a commission, received independently of any human agency from the ascended Lord, himself appearing to him in personal presence and conferrlng it upon him-a oommission which put him upon a level with the reverenced band of the twelve; while he had it also to affirm-and this was a point of even greater moment, than the other, one to which that other owed, in fact, all its own importance-that the gospel which he was sent to preach was likewise, as well as his commission, recei ved,.not , from men, but by direct communication from heaven. , But this is a subject the importanoe of whiob calls for a more specific discussion to be devoted to u.