orger, living after
the apostle's death, would not be at all likely to represent his hero
as falling into such a mistake.

[Sidenote: To whom written.]

Thessalonica, the modern Saloniki, was the capital of part of
Macedonia, situated in the middle of the bend of the Thermaic Gulf, and
not far from Mount Olympus, the snow-clad home of the gods of Greece.
It was a busy mercantile town, and in ready communication with Italy,
as the great road called _Via Egnatia_ passed through its walls. It
contained then, as now, a considerable number of Jews among its
inhabitants. In Christian times it became a great ecclesiastical
centre, and was influential in the conversion of the Slavs and
Bulgarians. It is still famous for its splendid Byzantine churches,
though the finest have long since been converted into mosques by the
Turks.

The Church was planted there by St. Paul on his second missionary
journey, in A.D. 50 (Acts xvii.). He preached first to the Jews, and
after his third visit to the synagogue he was rejected by the Jews, and
he turned to the Gentiles. Some of these Thracian Gentiles were
converts to Judaism, but they were people whose character could be
trusted. In the mean time his Philippian converts twice sent aid to
him (Phil. iv. 16). Previous to this the apostle had been earning his
own bread, no doubt by tent-making. St. Paul was forced to leave
Thessalonica in consequence of a riot stirred up by the Jews. He
visited it again before his last journey to Jerusalem in A.D. 56.

1 Thess. i. 9 shows that the majority of the Christians had {127} been
Gentile idolaters, though there were a few of Jewish blood. It was
among the sturdy people of Macedonia that St. Paul won his steadiest
recruits for Christ. Here, as in the letter to Philippi, we find that
he uses words of more than ordinary affection. These converts are to
St. Paul his "joy and crown" (1 Thess. ii. 19; Phil. iv. 1). He
compares his relation with them to that of a nurse with her own
children (1 Thess. ii. 7). When he wrote to the Corinthians he
displayed his Macedonians as brilliant examples of Christian liberality
and Christian loyalty (2 Cor. viii. 1-5). In this passage he alludes
to their poverty, and these Epistles show that they had to work for
their bread. They were exposed to bitter and continuous persecution
from Jews, who were capable of inciting the roughs of the town to set
on St. Paul (Acts xvii. 5).

[Sidenote: Where and w