What time he now spent amongst the brethren of proconsular Asia is not known, but it is not altogether improbable that in the year A.D. 64 he carried out his long-intended visit to Spain (Rom. xv. 24, 28), and spent two years in planting churches amongst the numerous Jewish proselytes in all the towns along the Spanish coast from Gades to Tarraco[1170]. Thence we may believe he returned about A.D. 66 to Ephesus, and found to his great sorrow that what he had long ago predicted to the presbyters of that city, when they bade him farewell on the sea-shore of Miletus (Acts xx. 28–31), had been too truly fulfilled. Grievous wolves had indeed entered in amongst them, not sparing the flock; nay, from the very bosom of the Church itself men had arisen, _speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them_ (Acts xx. 30). Leaders of rival sects, Hymenæeus, Philetus, Alexander (1 Tim. i. 20; 2 Tim. ii. 17, iv. 14, 15), had appeared, perverting the minds of the disciples from the simplicity of the faith, and blending with it the subtilties of Greek philosophy, Jewish superstition, and wild Oriental speculation. Other duties, indeed, prevented the continuance of the Apostle’s personal supervision of the Asiatic churches, and leaving Timothy at Ephesus, he returned to Macedonia (1 Tim. i. 3). There, however, he appears to have feared he might be detained longer than he had anticipated (1 Tim. iii. 14, 15), and, well acquainted with the peculiar difficulties connected with the position of his beloved disciple, he addressed to him what is known as “the first Epistle to Timothy.” The main objects of this Epistle were two-fold, first, to encourage him in the superintendence of the Ephesian church, and to aid him in his struggle with the heretical teachers spoken of above (1 Tim. i. 3–20). The second was to give him various personal directions respecting the government of the Church itself, such as the manner of conducting public worship (1 Tim. ii. 1–8); the dress and behaviour of women (1 Tim. ii. 9–15); the qualifications of bishops and deacons (1 Tim. iii.); the selection of widows to receive the charity of the Church (1 Tim. v. 3–16); the punishment of offenders (1 Tim. v. 20, 21); and his own life and conversation (1 Tim. vi. 11–19).