Excerpt from The Captivity and the Pastoral Epistles: With Introduction and Notes With many differences of detail there is a marked similarity of style in the four Epistles of the Roman Imprisonment. They are less fiery and impetuous than those of the earlier groups. They breathe a more tranquil spirit. Their logic is not so remorseless. They are more tender and meditative. They are pervaded by a more cheerful optimism, a more serene and joyful confidence. If the epistles of the first and second groups re semble the flush of dawn and the fervour of midday, those of the third group suggest the mellow loveliness of afternoon, and those of the fourth the peace of evening. The change in style reflects the change in the writer's outward conditions. Paul the restless traveller and missionary is forced at last to sit still. For four or five years he seems to be doomed to a life of tedious inaction. And Paul the prisoner already begins to feel that he is Paul the aged. But how wise was the providence which gave the man of enterprise a season of quiet reflection! There were two long pauses in Paul's strenuous life as a Christian, the one at the beginning, the other at the end of his career, and the world owes more than it knows to the Arabian desert and the Roman prison. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.