remark, that whether or no the suggestion be entertained as a possible, even as a probable thought, the fact of "inspiration"—the fact of the New Testament writings referred to being "the word of God"—is not in the slightest degree affected. For it is the substance of the divine message, not the "colour" or "material" of the clothing of the message, which is of such paramount importance.
The question of the "colour" and "material" of the message's clothing, the consideration in what it is clothed, is deeply interesting; but, after all, is nothing more.
The "message" which we believe to be from God remains the same—be it enclosed in a "pamphlet," in a "treatise," in a "study" (étude), or in a "letter" form.
Nothing like an analysis of the New Testament Epistles, some of which will be briefly referred to in the course of this study, will be attempted. Such an analysis would not, of course, enter into the scheme of the present work.
We would first indicate some at least of the New Testament Letters which certainly seem to be more than letters in the ordinary sense of the word—which, indeed, are "settings" to short theological treatises containing statements of the highest doctrinal import.
These "Letters" were evidently intended for a far more extended circle of readers than the congregations immediately addressed.
We have already in a previous section quoted the three Epistles of S. Paul written during his first imprisonment,[1] A.D. 61-3 (viz. the Epistles to the Colossians, Philippians, and Ephesians), as embodying some of the more weighty and important doctrinal teachings of the great apostle put out during the period in which S. Paul preached to the Christians of the capital, and thus and then earned his well-known and acknowledged claim to be one of the two "founders" of the Church of Rome—S. Peter being the other.
One of the reasons, no doubt, of the vast and long-enduring
- ↑ The Epistles of Paul to the Romans and to the Galatians are not quoted, but they are conspicuous examples of great doctrinal teaching embodied in the letter form. In a lesser degree the same remark is applicable to the two Letters to the Thessalonians and the First Epistle to the Corinthians.
