IT may perhaps serve to call attention to the individuality of the Epistles if I endeavour to point out how some of them may be roughly characterised by leading words or conceptions.
I.TheEschatologicalGroup
1 THESSALONIANS.—This Epistle is marked by the extreme sweetness of its tone. Its key–note is Hope. Its leading words, παρουσία, θλίψις. Its main theme is Consolation from the near hope of the Second Advent, 4:17, 18, ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες ἁρπαγήσομεθα, κ. τ. λ. παρακαλεῖτε ἀλλήλους ἐν το͂ις λόγοις τούτοις.1
2 THESSALONIANS.—The key–note is 2:1, 2, μὴ τάχεως σαλευθῆναι … ὡς ὄτι ἐνέστηκεν ἡ ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου. Peculiar doctrinal section on the Man of Sin.
II.TheAnti–JudaicGroup
1 CORINTHIANS.—Love and unity amid divergent opinions. Little details decided by great principles. Life inthe world, but not ofit.
2 CORINTHIANS.—The Apostle’s Apologia pro vitâ suâ. The leading words of 1–6. “tribulation” and “consolation.” In 8.—end, the leading conception “boasting not on merits but in infirmities.”
GALATIANS.—The Apostle’s independent authority. Christian liberty from the yoke of the Law. Circumcision nothing, and uncircumcision nothing, but—
ROMANS.—The Universality of sin, and the Universality of grace (πᾶς a leading word). Justification by faith. This Epistle is the sum of St. Paul’s theology, and Rom. 1:16, 17 is the sum of the Epistle.
III.TheChristologicalorAnti–GnosticGroup
PHILIPPIANS.—Joy in sorrow. “Summa Epistolæ, gaudeo, gaudete” (Bengel).
COLOSSIANS.—Christ all in all. The Pleroma. Leading conception, 2:6, ἐν αὐτῷ περιπατεῖτε. “Hic epistolae scopus est” (Bengel).
PHILEMON.—Can a Christian master treat a brother as a slave? Leading conception, 12, προσλαβοῦ αὐτόν.
EPHESIANS.—Christ in His Church. The Epistle of the Ascension. The leading words are χάρις, τὰ ἐπόυρανια, ἐν Χριστῷ.
IV.ThePastoralGroup
1 { Manuals of the Christian pastor’s TIMOTHY dealing with the faithful and with false
teachers. Leading conceptions, sobriety T of conduct, soundnessof faith.
2 — Last words. Be brave and faithful, as I TIMOTHY have tried to be. Come quickly, come
before winter; come before I die. 4:6,
ἐγὼ γὰρ ἤδη σπένδομαι.