ist unless it
was derived through the Twelve, and they showed "letters of
commendation" (Gal. ii. 12; 2 Cor. iii. 1), to the effect that they
represented the first apostles and came to supply the defects of St.
Paul's teaching. With these opponents he was in conflict during his
third missionary journey, which began about August, A.D. 52. On this
journey he revisited Galatia and Phrygia, made a long stay at Ephesus,
and went to Macedonia and Greece. During this third missionary journey
he wrote 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans. It is hard to
determine the exact order in which they were written, as Galatians may
have been written before 1 Corinthians. These Epistles are the noblest
work of St. Paul. The persistent efforts of his opponents compel him
to defend both his principles and his character. Amid the perplexity
of the time, his clear and clarifying mind formulated Christian
doctrine so perfectly that he compels his readers to see what he sees.
This group of Epistles is mainly devoted to _soteriology_, or the
method by which God saves man. It contains abundant teaching about
God's purpose of saving us, the use of the Jewish law, the struggle
between our flesh and our spirit, the work of Jesus Christ in dying and
rising for us, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the morals and worship
of the Church. St. Paul's arguments are mainly addressed to believing
Christians, whom he wishes to preserve from Jewish or heathen error.
They are marked by the strongest light and shade. Nowhere does sin
appear more awful, and the love of God to undeserving man appear more
generous. At one moment the apostle writes as a logician, at another
as a mystic. Now he is stern, and now he is pathetic. In compass, in
variety, in depth, these four Epistles are great works of art, and all
the greater {123} because the writer esteems his intellectual powers as
nothing in comparison with the story of the Cross.

In May, A.D. 56, St. Paul was arrested at Jerusalem, after which he was
detained by the Roman procurator Felix for two years at Caesarea, and
then sent to Rome because he appealed to have his case tried by the
emperor. He arrived at Rome early in A.D. 59, and was imprisoned for
two years in his own hired house before his trial. During this
imprisonment he wrote the Epistles to the Colossians, Ephesians, and
Philippians, and the exquisite private letter to Philemon. In
Philippians there is a strong reprimand of the in