Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-11-18
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE
LESSON.
Reflections of an Eievating Character
Wholesome Food for Thought
Studying the scripturaI Lesson In
telligeutIy and Probably.
Lesson for Nov. 81.

Golden Textile strong in the Lord,
and in the power Of his might. "-Eph.
@: 10.
The Christian Armor Is the theme upon
which this weeks lesson il based. The
subject matter is found in Eph. o. 1920.
During Pauls Imprisonment n report
reached him from the Colossian Epaphass
which caused him to write a letter to the
COLOSSEUM church warning il against some
dangers and expressing his love and anx-
iety for even those Christians whom he
had never seen 'in the flesh" The same
message was needed by the church in La
odicea, not far from Colosse, and Paul
accordingly directed that after reading
it, the Colossians should send it to their
sister church, receiving in return 1.-The
epistles from Laodicea" Col. 4: 100. Now
we have no epistle entitled $50 the La
odiceans," but we have an epistle which
many careful scholars think is the one re-
ferred to--namely, what is usually called
the epistle to the Ephesians. In that
epistle the name of Ephcsus appears but
once, in the first verse-"to the saints
which are at Ephesus, and the faithful
in Christ Jesus" In the margin of the
revised version appears the note, Some
very ancient authorities omit at Ephe-
sus. This does not give fair idea of
the many arguments which tend to prove
that this epistle was not written to the
Ephesians. Not only are the words lat
Ephesus' wanting in some of our eldest
and best manuscripts. but we read in the
works of Basil. Jerome, Epiphanius and
Tertullian that the words were omitted
in the manuscripts known to them-dat-
ing far back of those now extant. Mar
cion the hereto speaks of this epistle rs
the epistle to the LaOdiceans.
Reasons equally strong for rejecting
the present title are thus stated by Cony-
heare and Howson: I'D 1t would be in
applicable that St. Paul, when he wrote
to the Ephesians, amongst whom he had
spent so long time, and TO whom he was
bound by ties of such close affection,
should not have single message Of per-
sonal greeting to send. Yet none such
are found in this epistle. % He could
not have described the Ephesians as Il
church whose conversion he knew only
by report q: 10. 90 He could not speak
to them ms only knowing himself to be an
apostle by hearsay (3: -. a. He could
not describe the Ephesians as. so exclu-
sively Gentiles -: Il; i: IL and so re-
Gently converted %: 3; 1: Is; ,: 80" For
these and other reasons il seems fairly
well settled that this epis;lc was not writ
ten to the Ephesans but was a sort Of
circular letter to several of the newer
churches in the ncighborhoOd Of Laod-
icea, in the province of Asia; in each
copy the name Of one of these churches
being inserted, such as Iaodicia, Philadel-
phia, Hicrapolis. In these churches Paul
had few personal acquaintance, and this
accounts for the absence of personal mes
sages. 1t also accounts for the general
nature of the epistle. This theory is of
course only theory, but it is well sup
ported.
This letter, which we may call circu-
lar letter to some churches in Asia, was
taken by the same bearers who carried
the epistle to the Colossians and that to
PhilemOn--Tychicus and the eX-slave
Onesimus. It's general theme seems to
be the unity of the churcl--in the broader
sense of that word, including all true be-
levers, which is found but seldom in the
New Testament. but undoubtedly does
not occur in Eph. /: %. This unity is
first expounded, in the first three chap
tiers, and then the means OF realizing il
through the Chrstlike conduct of disci-
pies who form the church, is set forth in
practical exhortations, chapters four to
six.