cause, always with reference more or less direct to his enemies.  With these personal notices of himself are interwoven exalted views of the dignity of the ministerial office, and the true spirit and manner in which its weighty duties are to be performed.  See chaps. 2:14-7:16; chaps. 10-13.  The prominence which the apostle is thus forced to give to his own person and labor constitutes the most remarkable feature of the present epistle.  To the same cause are due the peculiarities of its diction, and its rapid transitions from one theme and tone to another.  “Consolation and rebuke, gentleness and severity, earnestness and irony, succeed one another at very short intervals and without notice.”  Alford, Introduction to this Epistle.  All this came about by the wisdom of God, who placed his servant in such circumstances that fidelity to the cause of truth compelled him unwillingly to set forth in himself the character of a true minister of the gospel in bright contrast with that of those vain-glorious and selfish men, who under a show of great worldly wisdom, seek to create parties in the church of Christ for their own private honor and emolument.  The particular occasion which called forth this epistle soon passed away; but the epistle itself remains a rich treasure for all believers, especially for all Christian teachers.

III.  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.

16. Galatia is the Greek word answering to the Roman Gallia, that is, Gaul.  It was one of the central provinces of Asia Minor, and received its name from the circumstance of its being inhabited by a people of Gallic origin who came by the way of Byzantium and the Hellespont in the third century before Christ.  Two visits of the apostle to Galatia are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles; the first, during his second missionary journey (Acts 16:6); and the second, at the beginning of his third journey (Acts 18:23).  After which of these visits the present epistle was written is a question that has been much discussed, and answered in different ways.  The most natural interpretation, however, of chapter 4:13-16 leads to the conclusion that it was after his second visit.  The course of the events seems to have been as follows:  He was suffering from an infirmity of the flesh when he preached the gospel to the Galatians “at the first,” that is, upon the first visit (verse 13).  Then they received him “as an angel of God, even as Jesus Christ,” and were filled with holy joy through simple faith in Christ’s name (verses 14, 15).  Upon his second visit he found it necessary to warn them in very plain terms against the seductions of false teachers, who were seeking to draw them away from the simplicity of the gospel to faith in a system of works.  But after his departure these false teachers had great success; and the result was that the affections of the Galatians were alienated from Paul, who was their spiritual