a perpetual spur to heroic
service and priestly purity. Till then, the word which we would plead
with you to listen to and accept is that great answer of our Lord's to
those who came to Him for a rule of conduct, instead of for the gift of
life: 'This is the work of God, that ye should believe on Him whom He
hath sent.'

SMALL DUTIES AND THE GREAT HOPE

'But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that
I write unto you; for ye yourselves are taught of
God to love one another. 10. And indeed ye do it
toward all the brethren which are in all
Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye
increase more and more; 11. And that ye study to
be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work
with your own hands, as we commanded you; 12. That
ye may walk honestly toward them that are without,
and that ye may have lack of nothing. 13. But I
would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow
not, even as others which have no hope. 14. For if
we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even
so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring
with Him. 15. For this we say unto you by the word
of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent
them which are asleep. 16. For the Lord Himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:
and the dead in Christ shall rise first; 17. Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord
in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18. Wherefore comfort one another with these
words.'--1 THESS. iv. 9-18.

'But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye
have no need that I write unto you. 2. For
yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the
Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.'--1 THESS.
v. 1-2.

This letter was written immediately on the arrival of Silas and Timothy
in Corinth (1 Thess. iii. 6, 'even now'), and is all flushed with the
gladness of relieved anxiety, and throbs with love. It gains in pathetic
interest when we remember that, while writing it, the Ap