Page "First Epistle to the Corinthians" Paragraph 37

shows the powerful self-control of the apostle in spite of his physical weakness, his distressed circumstances, his incessant troubles, and his emotional nature.

It was written, he tells us, in bitter anguish, " out of much affliction and pressure of heart ... and with streaming eyes " ( 2 Cor 2: 4 ); yet he restrained the expression of his feelings, and wrote with a dignity and holy calm which he thought most calculated to win back his erring children.

It gives a vivid picture of the early church ...

It entirely dissipates the dream that the apostolic church was in an exceptional condition of holiness of life or purity of doctrine.