5. _Colossae and its Church:_ "Colossae was situated in southwestern Phrygia, but within the proconsular province of Asia. It lay on the south bank of the river Lycus, and on the main road from Ephesus to the great plateau of Asia Minor. In the fifth century B. C., it was known as a great and prosperous city, but the still more advantageous position of its neighbor Laodicea, a few miles down the river, gradually told on Colossae; and in the time of St. Paul, although a large number of Jews had been introduced into it, and although the city had become rather Greek than Phrygian, it yet had somewhat fallen from its former grandeur and importance. Since the twelfth century, only the ruins of the great church of St. Michael have marked its site. So completely was Colossae forgotten, that the idea arose that the Colossians to whom St. Paul wrote his epistle were Rhodians, so called from their famous Colossus." (Bible Treasury, p. 143.) 6. _Authorship of Hebrews:_ "The origin and history of the Epistle to the Hebrews was a subject of controversy even in the second century. There is no portion of the New Testament whose authorship is so disputed, nor any of which the inspiration is more indisputable. The early Church could not determine whether it was writen by Barnabas, by Luke, by Clement, or by Paul. Since the Reformation, still greater diversity of opinion has prevailed. Luther assigned it to Apollos, Calvin to a disciple of the Apostles. The Church of Rome now maintains by its infallibility the Pauline authorship of the Epistle, which in the second, third, and fourth centuries, the same Church, with the same infallibility, denied. But notwithstanding these doubts concerning the origin of this canonical book, its inspired authority is beyond all doubt. It is certain, from internal evidence, that it was written by a contemporary of the Apostles, and before the destruction of Jerusalem; that its writer was the friend of Timotheus; and that he was the teacher of one of the Apostolic churches. Moreover, the Epistle was received by the Oriental church as canonical from the first. Every sound reasoner must agree with St. Jerome, that it matters nothing whether it were written by Luke, by Barnabas, or by Paul, since it is allowed to be the production of the Apostolic age, and has been read in the public service of the Church from the earliest times. Those, therefore, who conclude with Calvin, that it was not written by St. Paul, must also join with him in thinking the question of its authorship a question of little moment, and in 'embracing it without controversy as one of the Apostolical Epistles." (Life and Epistles of St. Paul, Conybeare and Howson, p. 848.) 7. _Summary Respecting Hebrews:_ The sum of all the controversy respecting the Epistles to the Hebrews, I think is well set forth in the following quotation from the Oxford Bible notes on the New Testament: