i.34 HOR^ PAU LUS^:. 



fathers with pure conscieiice, that without ceasing I havt> 

 remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day." 2 Tim 

 1:3. In these quotations, it is usually his remembrance, 

 jind never his hearing of them, which he makes the subject 

 of his thankfulness to God. 



As great difficulties stand in the way of supposing the 

 epistle before us to have been written to the churcli oi 

 Ephesus, so I think it probable that it is actually the epistle 

 to the Laodiceans referred to in. the fourth chapter of the 

 epistle to the Colossians. The text which contains that ref- 

 erence is this : " When this epistle is read among you, cause 

 that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and 

 that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea." Ver. 16. 

 The " epistle /rom Laodicea," was an epistle sent by St. Paul 

 to that church, and by them transmitted to Colosse The 

 two churches were mutually to communicate the epistles 

 they had received. This is the way in which the direction 

 is explained by the greater part of commentators, and is the 

 most probable sense that can be given to it. It is also prob- 

 able that the epistle alluded to was an epistle which had 

 been received by the church of Laodicea lately. It appears 

 then, with a considerable degree of evidence, that there exist- 

 ed an epistle of St. Paul's nearly of the same date with the 

 epistle to the Colossians, and an epistle directed to a churca — 

 for such the church of Laodicea was — in wdiich St. Paul 

 had never been. What has been observed concerning the 

 epistle before us, shows that it answers perfectly to that 

 character. 



Nor does the mistake seem very difficult to account for. 

 Whoever inspects the map of Asia Minor will see, that a 

 person proceeding from E-ome to Laodicea would probably 

 land at Ephesus, as the nearest frequented seaport in that 

 direction. Might not Tychicus then, in passing through 

 Ephesus, communicate to the Christians of that place the 

 letter with wdiich he was charged ? And might not copies 

 of that letter be multiplied and preserved a1^ Eohesus ? 



