(for we hurry on to the scene with which we are now concerned) returning through Antioch, and the central countries of Asia Minor, again to Ephesus. There he made the longest stay of any recorded during his missionary journeys; no less than three whole years, as he himself describes it. During this time a visit to Corinth took place, which has not been recorded in the Acts. In 2 Cor. xii. 14, xiii. 1, he tells them that he was coming to them the third time, which would of course imply that he had visited them twice before. But only one previous visit has been related, viz., that first one, during which he wrote the Epistles to the Thessalonians. Before his next recorded visit, viz., that mentioned in Acts xx. 1, 2, both the Epistles to the Corinthians had been written. He wrote the first from Ephesus, at a time when he intended to stay there till Pentecost, 1 Cor. xvi. 8: he wrote the second from Macedonia, at a time when he had recently left Asia, 2 Cor. ix. 1—4; i. 8; ii. 12-after being there in danger of his life. All this agrees with the history of his sojourn in Ephesus related in Acts xix., and with his journey through Macedonia, related Acts xx. I, 2. We infer then that he must have gone over

from Ephesus to Corinth at some time early in those three years of his Ephesian visit. Nor need we be in the least degree surprised that this journey is not recorded in the Acts. For this is the case with numerous travels and adventures of the Apostle. Long and important journeys are dismissed in a few words (see ch. xv. 41, xvi. 6, xviii. 23, xix. I, XX. 2, 3), or even altogether omitted, as that to Arabia, mentioned Gal. i. 17, and that in Syria and Cilicia, Gal. i. 21. Of the long catalogue of perils given by him in 2 Cor. xi. 24-26, very few can be identified in the history. Ephesus and Corinth were the usual points of transit to and from Asia and Europe,* and a journey across and back might present very little for the sacred historian to dwell upon.

The nature of this visit is important for those who would understand these Epistles aright. It is alluded to in 2 Cor. ii. 1, as having been made ' in heaviness,'-for some reason which gave him sorrow of heart; evidently, the unworthy behaviour of some among the Corinthians: for he tells them (2 Cor. xiii. 2, rightly rendered) that during it, he warned them that if he came again 'he

* Dean Howson compares them to Liverpool and New York; and the time of transit, eleven days, also corresponded.

would not spare" (the sinners); and there is a hint (2 Cor. xii. 21) that during it, God had 'humbled him among them.'

But we may gather more notices of the state of the Corinthian church at this second visit. In 2 Cor. xii. 21, these words occur: 'Lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed. These were the besetting sins of the place; and the same great peril had set in here which so generally accompanied the infancy of the primitive churches, that of converts, while their convictions and professions were with the church, neglecting to reform their impure heathenish practices. I have said elsewhere-'It was a visit unpleasant in the process and in recollection : perhaps very short, and as sad as short: in which he seems merely to have thrown out solemn warnings of the consequences of a future visit of apostolic severity if the abuses were persisted in,-and possibly to have received insult from some among them on account of such warning.' *

* "New Testament for English Readers," Introduction to 1 Cor.

This unrecorded visit was followed up, on the Apostle's return to Ephesus, by an Epistle, now lost to us. We might have inferred from hints given in the first Epistle, that such had been the case.* But we are put out of doubt by the assertion of ch. v. 9: I wrote to you in an (properly, in my) Epistle, not to keep company with fornicators.' No such command occurs in the earlier part of 1 Cor., to which alone, if not to another Epistle, reference could be made.

An objection has been raised to the idea of such a lost Epistle having existed, of which I can only say, that it is childish and ridiculous, and can hardly be mentioned with too severe reprobation. It proceeds on the assumption that no apostolic writing can ever have been lost. I have before observed (p. 9) that the same absurd assumption would require that all apostolic sayings should have been preserved to us; for surely these were as precious, and as much inspired by God, as the others. But this whole class of à priori objections and assumptions is beneath, as it is beyond,

*See ch. xvi. 1, whence it would appear that injunctions to make a collection for the saints had at some time been given by the Apostle. As further instructions were needed now to carry these out, they can hardly have been given vivá voce.

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refutation. There are no more mischievous obstructors of truth among us, than the maintainers of a system in which God's duties, and not ours, are the starting point. Judging from the actual phenomena of our existing Epistles, it is highly probable that not one only, but many others, have been lost. Are we to suppose, for instance, that the Epistle to Philemon was the only 'personal' letter St. Paul ever wrote ? And what has become of the Epistle which the Colossians were to get from Laodicea and read in their assembly (Col. iv. 16)? And when we find St. Paul proposing to give commendatory letters to the messengers of the churches (the right rendering of 1 Cor. xvi. 3), are we not to suppose that this was his usual practice?

Believing then that an Epistle, now lost to us, followed on this unhappy second visit to Corinth, we can easily trace its temper and contents. He

had in it given them a command 'not to keep company with fornicators' (1 Cor. v. 9). It contained an account of his plan of visiting them on his way to Macedonia, and again on his return from Macedonia (2 Cor. i. 15, 16): a plan which he afterwards changed in consequence of the bad