with the index-words found in the side-column. The first branch of the subject will begin close to the side of the page. When the apostle leads his readers into another division of his subject, the words will begin a little further into the page. Another division will be still further indented; and so on.

To prevent confusion, the index-words will be given only to point out main branches of the subject; but lesser divisions are occasionally shewn by indentations of the sentences, without any specified head in the side-column : the mind may thus be led to observe the variety in the subject matter more minutely.

Various branches of the subject will of course occasion various degrees of indentation, so that the sentences will stand at several different distances from the side of the page; but the same branch of the subject wherever it occurs, will always have the same indentation; and thus great assistance will be derived from tracing in the page, easily and at once, all the passages which bear upon the same branch of the subject. In following a deep and difficult argument, this help will be of much importance; and will suggest many beauties in the connexion of various passages not commonly perceived. This similarity of indentations will be limited to the passages placed between two short lines a little way into the page, which are put in order to give room for beginning another series of indentations.

In order to direct the mind to similar subjects or arguments occurring in some part of the same Epistle, which happens not to be included between the lines that separate a particular division of the same indentations, the verses to which reference may be made will be inserted between brackets, thus [4], at the end of the passage in reading.

One simple key for opening to the mind the force and scope of a whole passage of Scripture is, to give due prominence to those connecting words, by which the several parts of the argument are linked together; such as WHEREFORE, THEREFORE, FOR, THEN, &c. It is a good rule in reading difficult passages to pause at every such word, and to put an appropriate question, in order to gather an answer from the context. As when THEREFORE comes, to ask wherefore? and in reply, to find out why Therefore is used. If WHErefore, or for, to ask what? If THEN, to ask when? In order to suggest to the reader the occasions on which these inquiries would be advantageously made, all such connecting words in the text are printed in capital letters.

The object to be attained by the arrangement of these Helps" is, that the reader's mind should be induced to exercise itself, so as to gather a clear notion of the scope of the passage. Thus prepared, the explanation that follows will be read with more interest, and become doubly useful.

Some persons however may not feel the advantage of these "Helps;" and many will not require them. In either case the manner of printing the Scripture will be no hindrance, as every word is printed consecutively as in the authorized version; and the whole is properly punctuated, so that the text may be read without reference to the sidecolumn, or the indentations. While on the other hand, the arrangement may be an important assistance to those who really need it, and who will take the trouble, once for all, to acquaint themselves with the advantages to be obtained by making use of these "HELPS IN READING THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL."

A GUIDE TO THE EPISTLES.

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.

WRITTEN AT CORINTH, A.D. 50.

INTRODUCTION.

THIS letter was written by the Apostle Paul, from Corinth, to the christians at Thessalonica in Macedonia. In order properly to understand the purport of the letter, it will be necessary to call to mind the circumstances of Paul's connection with that church. They took place in the year 49, and are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles xvii. 1— 10. The explanation given of that passage in the "Guide to the Acts of the Apostles" (page 220) is in the following words :

"From Philippi Paul, with Silas and Timothy, proceeded to Amphipolis; but it is supposed that Luke remained for the present at Philippi. Amphipolis was the capital city of one part of Macedonia; but we hear of nothing which occurred there, or at the next city called Apollonia; though that was also a very populous place, and the missionaries seem to have travelled some distance out of their direct way, in order to pass through it. From Apollonia they went to Thessalonica, a very important seaport town, where a great deal of commerce was carried on; and where there were a large number of Jews, and of course a synagogue. Paul never failed to address himself first to the Jews, wherever he found any of that people in the places he visited: accordingly he went into the

synagogue at Thessalonica, and there instructed the Jews, by explaining the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and proving that the Messiah, whom they expected in his glory to restore the kingdom to Israel, must necessarily, according to the same Scriptures, have died in the first place, and risen again from the dead; and then he declared that Jesus, whom he preached to them, was the very Messiah promised in the Old Testament. He continued to teach in this manner for three successive sabbath days; and some of his Jewish hearers received the preaching of Paul in faith, and joined themselves to the missionaries; besides these, a great number of proselytes (who not being Jews by birth had become such by admission) believed the gospel and followed the apostle, together with many of their wives and other respectable women who attended the synagogue.

This great movement in favour of the gospel greatly exasperated the Jews who resisted the preaching of Paul. They were jealous of the influence he had thus obtained, and they employed some of the worst and lowest of the people to gather a mob, and raise a riotous disturbance against the missionaries, who lodged at the house of a person named Jason. The mob assembled before Jason's house with shouts and cries, desiring to have Paul and Silas given up to them. They were not however to be found in the house; and so the mob seized upon Jason and some of the newly converted christians who were with him, and hurried them away to the magistrates. The cry against them was, that some of the christians, who were said to turn the world upside down, had come to Thessalonica, where Jason harboured them-that they were all persons dangerous to the government of the country, acting contrary to the laws of the Roman emperor, and setting up the authority of another person, one Jesus, as king. This accusation excited the crowd, and alarmed the magistrates, who however contented themselves by taking security of Jason and his companion for the maintenance of the public peace; after which they dismissed them. Paul and Silas had not been found by the mob, and the christians would not allow them to expose themselves to danger from their violence; but constrained them to leave

the city in the night time, taking the road to a place not far off, called Berea.

From the circumstances recorded in this portion, the missionaries could have remained at Thessalonica very little more than three weeks or a month. During that time, though the success of the gospel was very great, yet they determined not to be burthensome for their support upon the new converts; and in order to avoid this Paul supported himself by labouring with his own hands, probably at the occupation of tentmaking, (as he afterwards. did at Corinth, Acts xviii. 3.) He refers to this in both the letters which he afterwards wrote to the church in Thessalonica. (1 Thess. ii. 9. 2 Thess. iii. 8.) It might seem perhaps that the expence of their living could have been but a small burthen; but we learn from history, that during this very year there was a great scarcity, almost amounting to a famine, all over that part of the Roman empire in which Paul was travelling; so much so that the price of corn rose to six times as much as in an ordinary season. This not only tends to explain the apostle's anxiety not to cause any additional expence, both to the christians in Thessalonica, and afterwards at Corinth in this same year; but it also accounts for the promptness of the newlyplanted church at Philippi in sending supplies of money after their beloved Paul, to secure him from the want he was so likely to have felt. Twice during the course of the few weeks the apostle remained at Thessalonica, the christians at Philippi thus ministered to his necessities. He mentions this with thankful approbation in the letter he afterwards wrote to the Philippians. (Phil. iv. 15, 16.)”

This first Epistle to the Thessalonians was written a few months afterwards from Corinth, and the occasion of it was explained in the Guide to the Acts of the Apostles (page 231) thus :

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Upon Paul's arrival at Athens, he felt great anxiety, lest the manner in which he had been treated should have the effect of unsettling the minds of the recently converted christians at Thessalonica. He feared lest they should have been tempted to imagine, that the gospel could not have come from God, since when the preacher of it was so left to the cruel persecutions of those who oppose it; and