t Jerusalem, so he must bear witness also at
Rome[31]. The confidence of this divine purpose mingles with and
reinforces the confidence of the Roman citizen in his appeal to Caesar.
The sense of the divine hand upon him to take him to Rome is
strengthened by another vision amid the terrors of the sea voyage[32].
At his first contact with the Roman {32} brethren 'he thanked God and
took courage[33].' This sense of thankfulness and encouragement
pervades the whole of the first captivity so far as it is represented
in his letters. He had reached the goal of his labours and a fresh
starting-point for a wide-spreading activity.

Certainly no one can mistake the glow of enthusiasm which pervades the
epistles of the first captivity generally, but especially the Epistle
to the Ephesians. It is conspicuously, and beyond all the other
epistles, rapturous and uplifted. And this is not due--as is the
cheerful thankfulness of the Epistle to the Philippians, at least in
part--to the specially intimate relations of St. Paul to the
congregations he was addressing, or to the specially satisfactory
character of their Christian life. On the contrary, St. Paul perceived
that the Asiatic churches, and especially Ephesus, were threatened by
very ominous perils. 'Very grievous wolves were entering in, not
sparing the flock; and among themselves men were arising, speaking
perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them[34].' St.
Paul's rapturous tone must be accounted for by causes independent of
the Ephesian or Asiatic Christians in particular. {33} Among these
causes, as we have just seen, must be reckoned the fact, the
significance of which we have been dwelling upon, that St. Paul had now
reached Rome, the centre of the Gentile world. But it must also be
remembered that St. Paul had seen a great conflict fought out and won
for the catholicity of Christianity, and that now for the first time
there was a pause and freedom to take advantage of it.

A great conflict had been fought and won. The backbone of the earlier
Jewish opposition to the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles on
equal terms had been broken. They had in fact swept into the Church in
increasing numbers. Their rights were recognized and their position
uncontested. There is now, in the comparative quiet of the 'hired
house' where St. Paul was confined, a period of pause in which he can
fitly sum up the results which have been won, and let the full meani